Privacy Policy

This website is operated by Bureau Veritas on behalf of DEFRA.

When needed we may change this privacy notice. You should check this page from time to time to ensure you are happy with any changes.

Who collects your personal data?

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the controller for the personal data we collect:

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Seacole Building

2 Marsham Street

London

SW1P 4DF

If you need further information about how Defra uses your personal data and your associated rights you can contact the Defra data protection manager at [email protected] or at the above address.

The data protection officer for Defra is responsible for checking that Defra complies with legislation. You can contact them at [email protected] or at the above address.

What information do we collect?

We will collect the following information:

Name and job title
Contact information including email address

Why do we collect your information?

We need your information:

To provide you access to and use of this knowledge hub
To understand your needs and provide you with a better service
For internal record keeping
To improve our products and services
To customise the website according to your interests.
To maintain user accounts so that users can use the site
To control who has access to certain parts of the site
To deliver essential system notifications to user email addresses

We will:

Only ask you for the information that is necessary
Protect it and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn’t

We ask that you:

Give us accurate information
Tell us as soon as possible of any changes

What is our legal basis for using your information?

We will use your information because you are asking us to do something on your behalf (e.g. provide access to the Hub) or where we need to, we will have asked for your explicit and informed consent. We will only use your information for the purposes described and as set out in this privacy notice.

Sharing and Reporting

We may use your information to create reports and statistics that are anonymous and cannot be linked back to you (e.g. aggregated user data per page or by local authority), to be shared with the project sponsors Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Public Health England (PHE).

We may be required or permitted, under data protection legislation, to disclose your information without your explicit consent, e.g. if we have a legal obligation to do so, such as law enforcement, regulation and licensing, criminal prosecutions and court proceedings.

We have an agreement in place with Castlegate IT Limited to provide this Hub. You can find out more about them at castlegateit.co.uk.

We share user data with a small number of cloud applications that we administer, but which are owned and controlled by third parties:

Campaign Monitor
Google Analytics
Monster Insights

Campaign Monitor is an email delivery tool – we share name and email contact information with a Campaign Monitor account that we control, via an API, in order to be able to distribute the correct newsletters to the correct users based on the subscription preferences that users set themselves in the Air Quality Hub.

Campaign Monitor provides the ability to see which of the intended recipients have received and opened a particular email, or not, and whether any of those recipients who opened the email have clicked any links in the email. It also shows which recipients have marked the email as spam, and whether it has been shared to Facebook or via email. This information is all collected for the purpose of understanding how successful the email newsletter has been.

Information on how campaign monitor ensures end user data privacy can be found at campaignmonitor.com.

Google Analytics is a website usage analytics tool, and Monster Insights is a WordPress plugin that allows easy presentation of Google Analytics information within a WordPress website admin system, in the form of a dashboard.

We share user digital identifiers in order to be able to track their usage of the Air Quality Hub and to understand which areas of the site are of most interest, for the purpose of improving the service. The information we gather and analyse may include:

User Sessions (visits to the site)
Number of pageviews, and which pages viewed
Session duration
Bounce rate
Whether a visit is a new or a returning visitor
What device type (desktop, tablet, mobile) is used to access the site
What country the visit is being made from (based on IP address)
What referral location, if any, the visit originated from

None of this information is viewed or analysed on an individual basis, but aggregated anonymously (i.e. without identifying specific individuals).

Google Analytics can provide a wide range of other analytical information such as age group, other interests, but we do not access this information.

For further information on privacy controls provided by Google in relation to information Google collects, please visit policies.google.com.

For information regarding Monster Insights privacy policy can be found at monsterinsights.com.

We will not sell or lease your personal information to third parties under any circumstances.

Cookies

A “cookie” is a string of information which assigns you a unique identifier that we store on your computer. Your browser then provides that unique identifier to use each time you submit a query to the site. We use cookies on this website to, among other things, keep track of services you have used, record registration information, record your user preferences, keep you logged into the website, and track the pages you visit. Cookies help us understand how the site is being used and improve your user experience. To understand more about Cookies and how we use them, please read our Cookie Policy.

Links to other websites

This Hub may contain links to easily enable you to visit other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave the Hub, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information that you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy notice. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy notice applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

You may amend your personal information at any time by submitting changes within the user management area of the Air Quality Hub. You may request full deletion of your account by emailing [email protected]

If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for the purposes of receiving newsletters and other marketing or promotional communications, you may change your mind at any time by amending your newsletter settings in the account, using the unsubscribe options on the newsletters themselves, or writing to us at [email protected]

Storage

We will keep your information securely on the Air Quality Hub database hosted by Castlegate IT Limited on our behalf. The database is protected with appropriate server security.

Email addresses are also stored within our Campaign Monitor account, only for users who have specifically opted in to receiving email newsletters, and solely for the purposes of distributing those newsletters.

How long will we keep your personal data for?

We will only keep your personal data for as long as is necessary and then when we no longer have a need for it, we will securely and confidentially destroy it from site backups. This will be six months after you no longer want an account for the Hub.

Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing, if we start to use your personal data for a purpose not mentioned in either this Privacy Notice

Your rights

To find out about your rights under Data Protection law, you can go to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, want to exercise your rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, you can contact Defra’s Data Protection officer [email protected] or write to:

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Seacole Building

2 Marsham Street

London

SW1P 4DF

Last updated: 07/05/2024