Privacy Policy
Privacy Notice
When you choose to get involved with community conversations or one of The City of Edinburgh Council’s Community Engagement events, and register to use our Consul Community Engagement Tool, we will need to collect some personal data from you. This Privacy Notice explains what personal data we need, how we will use and share it and your data rights.
Your personal data – what is it?
Personal data is information relating to a living person who can be identified from that data. Identification can be based on the information alone or in conjunction with any other information. The processing of personal data is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018.
What personal data will we collect from you?
When you choose to engage using Consul, we will need to collect some personal information from you. There are different options for registering with Consul, these are identified below.
My Account
This personal information is shared with the Council from your registered myaccount, which is hosted by the Scottish Improvement Service. The information we will collect will be your:
- User-name;
- Email address; and
- Local authority code (which identifies which Council area your home postcode is located in. It does not identify your address).
Further information on your data rights when you sign up to myaccount is available at myaccount for Scotland | Smart. Simple. Secure | mygovscot
The information we will collect will be your:
- User-name;
- Email address;
The information we will collect will be your:
- User-name;
- Email address;
Local Log-In
The information we will collect will be your:
- User-name;
- Email address;
- Local authority code (which identifies which Council area your home postcode is located in. It does not identify your address).
How will we use your information?
When you make a comment through the Consul Community Engagement Tool, it will be attributed to your username for everyone to view online i.e. it will be in the public domain. Your email address, local authority code and username may be used by the Council to contact you to follow up on any comment you may make, and/or to relay feedback about a topic you have expressed an opinion about.
What is the legal basis for using/sharing your information?
The Council has an obligation to engage with the public and collect views for the provision of consultation, research, openness and transparency. As such, the processing of personal information is carried out under the terms of Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the Data Protection Act 2018 for the performance of a public task carried out in the public interest. The legislation underpinning the provision of this service is within Part 10 ‘Participation in Public Decision-Making – Participation in decisions of certain persons exercising public functions of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2015/6/part/10/enacted).
Who will we share your information with?
We will not share your information with any third parties. However, when you make a comment through the Consul Community Engagement Tool, it will be attributed to your username for everyone to view online i.e. it will be in the public domain.
How long do we keep hold of your information?
We keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary. When the engagement exercise is finalised, we retain our records for between 1-5 years. Comments made by you as part of the engagement may be used in other reports and published online. However, your actual membership to Consul will carry on until we are advised otherwise by yourself or by persons with appropriate authority that you no longer wish to be a registered member, or you move out of the area. You can delete your Consul membership at any point.
My Account
Your MyAccount membership would expect to continue so you retain the benefits of MyAccount from elsewhere in Scotland.
You can revoke Consul’s access to your Google account at any point.
You can revoke Consul’s access to your Facebook account at any point.
Local Log-In
You can delete your Consul account at any point.
What are your rights?
The lawful basis for processing/using your personal data directly impacts which rights are available to you. You can ask us to:
- correct your personal data if it is inaccurate;
- complete your personal data if it is incomplete;
- restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances; and
- erase your personal data in certain circumstances.
You may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information.
What are the consequences of failing to provide personal data?
You will not be able to actively add to the content and engage with the Council using the Consul Engagement Tool until you register using one of the options identified above. You will however be able to view comments made by others as they are hosted online in the public domain.
What about Automated Decision-making?
At this stage the Council’s community engagement platform does not use profiling or automated decision-making. However, be aware, that to provide a better, more focussed engagement service for the wider community and for more localised communities, there is the possibility that future development phases of this Consul platform may request sharing of additional personal data to enable intuitive processing to ensure that a fair representation is being expressed by e.g. all age groups and that some are not being unintentionally left out.
Do you require this statement in a different format?
Please contact us if you require this information in an alternative format.
How can you get in touch with us?
If you wish to obtain any records held by the Council relating to you, or if you have any general data protection queries, please contact the Council’s Data Protection Service at:
Data Protection Officer, City of Edinburgh Council, 4 East Market Street, EDINBURGH, EH8 8BG
Email: information.compliance@edinburgh.gov
Telephone: 0131 200 2340
Are you dissatisfied with the way your personal information has been handled?
If you are unhappy with the way we have dealt with your personal information, you can complain to the Council’s Data Protection Officer using the contact details noted above.
If you remain dissatisfied after contacting us, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner (https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/)
Information Commissioner’s Office – Scotland, 45 Melville Street, EDINBURGH, EH3 7HL
Email: Scotland@ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1115