Child friendly privacy notice
This page is our Privacy Notice. A Privacy Notice tells you how we use your personal data, so you know what happens with it when people give it to us.
Sometimes there are links to other pages. You might want to ask an adult to help with these because it can be confusing.
Who are we?
We are Lancashire County Council and we offer lots of services to people who live in Lancashire.
We provide care for people who need it, we help your local school to function, and we make sure you have a local library service.
Personal data? What’s that?
Anything that can identify you is your personal data. You might know this could be things like your name or a photo of you, but it is also things like your email address or your online gamertag.
There are some types of data we have to be extra careful with. These are known as special category data. This could be something like an illness you have, or what religion you are.Sometimes we have to use data about crimes and breaking the law.
The Council uses a lot of personal data. If you want to read a long list, it’s on our main Privacy Notice.
Why do you need my personal data?
The main reason we need to use your personal data is to know who you are.
If you have been in care, or if you are at school, it makes sure that we give you the help you need from us.
We could also use it because of an event you have taken part in, or competition that we organised, to make sure if you win you get your prize.
If we don’t have your personal data it could mean you miss out on the things we can do for you.
Sometimes we need to tell you more about what we’re doing with your personal data. You can see some of these on this page.
So, can you use my personal data for anything?
Just because we have your personal data, it doesn’t mean we can do what we want with it, we have to follow some rules.
Sometimes we have to ask you if we can use it, and if you say no then we can’t.
The Council does a lot of work, so there are times that there are more rules that say we have to use your personal data to do our work, and we can do this without asking you first.
There are different rules for personal data and special category data. If we are using any of your data, we make sure we are following all the rules, which are on our main Privacy Notice.
Can anyone else see my personal data?
Sometimes in order to do our work we have to share your personal data, or other people might share it with us. We’re very careful about how we do this, meaning there are even more rules.
We might need to share your data with your school, doctor or family if they are helping you, or with the police or fire service.
We keep a lot of data on secure systems. There are times we let other people, like care providers or the NHS, access our systems to make sharing easier, but we always make sure that they know all our rules first, so only people who are helping you will look at your data.
There are too many people to list here, but there is a longer list of who we could share with on our main Privacy Notice.
There are times we might need to ask for help doing our work, and someone else will use your data for us. This could mean your personal data might go around the world, but don’t worry – we’ll make sure it’s safe.
Do you keep my personal data forever?
We only keep your personal data for as long as we need it and sometimes this might be for years.
There are times we have to follow rules about how long we can keep your personal data, and we have a special page that tells you how long we keep it. It’s really long, because we do a lot of work.
Do I have a say in what happens to my personal data?
Yes you do. You have what we call 'rights' when we use your data. One of these is the right to know what we do with it. That’s what this page is for.
You can ask us to tell you what personal data we have about you, or if we will stop using it or delete it. If your personal data is wrong, you can tell us and we will fix it.
The rights you have depend on what we use your data for, and there is more information on our main Privacy Notice.
Who makes sure you follow all the rules?
We have someone in the Council called our Data Protection Officer, and their job is to protect your data. This means they make sure we are following all the rules, and your data is safe. If they see something wrong, they tell us how we can fix it.
Because of how important it is to keep your data safe, and to follow all the rules, you can email or write a letter to our Data Protection Officer if you are worried about what we do:
Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
PO Box 78
County Hall
Preston
PR1 8XJ
Email: dpo@lancashire.gov.uk
There is a business whose job it is to make sure we follow the rules, and can tell us off if we do things wrong.
You can also email or write to them:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF or look online at www.ico.org.uk