Customer Services - privacy notice

Customer Services provide a range of services across the council and can be contacted by telephone, online, face to face in our 2 service centres, via live chat and our Facebook and Twitter channels. We know that you care how your information is used and we appreciate your trust to handle your data with care. We'll ensure that all the appropriate agreements and safeguards are in place. Along with our privacy policy, this web page details what information we collect from you, what we do with it and who it might be shared with.

It's necessary for us to gather, collect, store and process personal information to help supply our services. We put measures in place to protect the privacy of the individuals throughout this process. If you contact us with an enquiry, complaint, compliment or suggestion we may keep a record of that enquiry, such as a recording of a telephone call or a transcript from your web chat sessions. If you don't want your conversation to be recorded you can contact us via our online forms, by visiting one of our offices in person or by sending an email.  We may gather personal information such as:

• your name
• your address 
• you email address
• your phone number

Where it's necessary for the service we may collect more information such as financial, employment or health information.

Data protection legislation sets out the lawful basis for processing personal data. We, as a public authority, gather and process information necessary to allow us to undertake our legal duties in line with our public task and statutory functions. Some of the services we provide have more information within their own privacy notices:

• Sports development classes - we undertake the processing of this information to facilitate bookings on behalf of East Renfrewshire Cultural and Leisure Trust (ERCLT). Read the ERCLT data protection and privacy policy. (opens new window).
• Blue Badge privacy notice 
• National Entitlement Card privacy notice - we process young person's national entitlement cards on behalf of Young Scot. Read the National Entitlement Card privacy notice (opens new window).
• Requests for information under Freedom of Information
• Housing Services
• Taxi, civic and alcohol licensing

We need your accurate information in order to provide a service to you. We may also need your information to verify who you are to ensure we are giving you the correct information. We'll only ask you for the personal data that is necessary to provide you with the service you are contacting us about. If you don't give the personal data requested we may not be able to:

• give you the information you need
• make the application for a service you need
• notify a service that your circumstances have changed
• report the problem you want to tell us about
• book the service or make an appointment for the service you need
• make a payment

The amount and type of personal data Customer Services collects from you when you contact us will depend on why, how and the service you need. We collect the information you give to us when you do the following:

• Complete a form on our website
• Talk to us on live chat
• Send us an email
• Contact us via social media. You can also view our social media house rules.
• Phone us
• Come to see us at our contact centres

We'll not keep your information for any longer than it's needed, and will dispose of paper and electronic information in a secure way.

The length of time we need to keep information will depend on the purpose for which it's collected. Your information will be kept in accordance with our retention schedule. The time applied to each enquiry is as follows: 

• Requests for service and complaints: 2 years, then anonymised and kept for a further 3 years
• Emails: 13 months
• Live chat: 13 months
• Social media:  No retention period, stays in place
• Recording of your phone call to us - 13 months

retention schedule (PDF) [2MB] (opens new window) .

To provide you with services, we'll sometimes share your personal information between teams within the council, and with external partners and agencies involved in delivering services on our behalf, or alongside us. Such organisations may include:

• East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Trust
• NHS
• Police Scotland
• other public bodies

Our service specific privacy notices give more information about the organisations with whom we may share personal information. We may also give personal information to third parties, but only where it's necessary to comply with the law or where it is allowed by data protection law.

We don't send or process information outside the UK.

Depending on why we need to process your information you'll have rights to how your information is used. More information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, can be found within our main privacy policy.

If you've concerns about the processing of your personal data by us, you can contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk.

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing, visit the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website (opens new window).

Please contact us if you need this information in an alternative format.