Privacy policy

We have produced this privacy policy to demonstrate our continuing commitment to high standards, and the privacy of any personal information you may submit to us through our website.

Accessing our website

We do not capture or store any personal information about individuals when you browse our website. You may however, be required to submit personal information should you contact us via email or through our on-line forms to enquire or apply for some of our services. Information collected in this way will be retained only for as long as is required to provide this service.

Contact us

Should you have any comments or questions relating to our privacy policy, you can use the "Contact us" link above to get in touch with us. If you have any technical problems with the site please email us at webmaster@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

Cookies

Our site uses 'cookies' within the Freedom of Information (FoI) request form but these are not used to store sensitive data. They are session cookies which means that they exist only while your web browser is active. Session cookies are also used within the Geographical Information System and like the FoI request form, these cookies are not used to store sensitive data and only exist whilst your browser is active.

Improving the site

Whenever you visit our site, we automatically collect the:

• date and time of access
• originating IP address
  The IP address is a unique number assigned to your computer. It does not allow us to identify you, only the computer from which you are accessing our site. This IP address ensures the server is able to send the required information to the requesting computer.
• type of web browser being used
• URL of the referring page
  This is information on how you accessed our site. For example, you may have found us indirectly using a search engine.
• page requested
  This is how our site is used in terms of which pages or sections are visited.

This information allows us to evaluate how visitors use our site on a combined basis, such as number of visitors, how often they visit and for how long. We cannot, and will not, use it to identify you personally.

Links to external sites

Our site contains links to external sites where we believe that these links are relevant and to add to the information on our own site. They are provided in good faith, and whilst we monitor them on a regular basis we are not responsible for the content or security of any external site, or if the the location (URL) of the information should change.

Online payments

Online payments can be made using our site by our chosen external supplier, Capita. They have satisfied us that the payments are secure

Use of personal data - fair processing notice

You may submit personal data to us, for example, by filling in an on-line form. We will safeguard your information in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

We will use this personal data for the purpose for which it was originally submitted. This purpose will always be stated at the point of collection. We will only share your personal data with a third party if we are required to do so by law. For example the police, Department of Works and Pensions and the Audit Commission for the National Fraud Intitiative data matching exercise, or if we have an arrangement with a third party to provide the service you requested. In this case they will only use your data for the purpose of providing that service.

Additionally, in some cases, we would like to use the information for additional purposes, such as improving services or offering services to customers. In these cases we will always let you decide whether or not to permit this additional use.