Privacy notices

Live chat

This privacy notice applies to anyone who is using Lichfield District Council's live chat on the website

Background

Lichfield District Council uses the live chat to allow web users to interact with a customer services team member online.

The personal data we collect from you to facilitate this will vary and will always include the customer's name. Depending on the nature of the customer's query, it may also include contact details, council tax or benefit reference numbers, or national insurance numbers.

We will never ask for full bank account details across live chat - we may ask for the last four digits of your bank account number to verify who you are. 

Please do not reveal special category data over live chat and call us on 01543 308000 if you need to discuss the following:

  • personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin
  • personal data revealing political opinions
  • personal data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs
  • personal data revealing trade union membership
  • genetic data
  • biometric data (where used for identification purposes)
  • data concerning health
  • data concerning a person’s sex life
  • data concerning a person’s sexual orientation

Why we need your data

We require your data in order to enable our customer services advisors to locate your details and provide a service to you. 

What we do with your data

We store live chats for three months within our secure telephony system, after which they are automatically deleted from the system. We will not:

  • sell or rent your data to third parties.
  • share your data with third parties for marketing purposes. 

Whilst we delete live chats after three months, we may store data gathered from the conversations into back office systems for longer - for example if you speak to us about council tax, details from the conversation may be added to your council tax account, similarly for benefits, housing, planning, environmental health, waste, elections, licensing, and other services (please see our service specific privacy notices).

We will only share your data if we are required to do so by law. 

How we protect your data and keep it secure

We are committed to doing all that we can to keep your data secure. We set up systems and processes to prevent unauthorised access to or disclosure of the data we collect about you. 

Your rights

You have the right to request: 

  • information about how your personal data is processed 
  • that anything inaccurate in your personal data is corrected immediately 
  • request a copy of your live chat or historic chat*
  • raise an objection about how your personal data is processed 
  • request that your personal data is erased, if there is no longer a justification for it 
  • ask that we only process your data in certain circumstances 

If you have any of these requests, get in contact with our Data Protection Officer - you can find their contact details below.

If you gave your consent for us to collect and process your data, you have the right to:

  • withdraw your consent - this can be done at any time
  • request a copy of your personal data - this copy will be provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format

The data controller is Lichfield District Council – a data controller determines how and why personal data can be processed. Read the Lichfield District Council’s entry in the Data Protection Public Register for more information.

*If you have a complaint or query in relation to a live chat or historic chat you can request, we review the transcript. In order to locate the transcript, we will require the date and time of the contact. Without the date or time, it may not be possible for us to locate the transcript. 

Changes to this notice

Contact the Data Protection Officer if you either:

  • have any questions about anything in this document
  • think that your personal data has been misused or mishandled
  • want to make a subject access request (SARS)

Email: dpo@lichfielddc.gov.uk

Data Protection Officer, District Council House, Frog Lane, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 6YU

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator.

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Contact form 

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Textphone: 01625 545860