Privacy policy
This website is run by Rochdale Borough Council.
This page contains details about how we deal with information
from users of this website. This includes information obtained from
forms, email and website log files, how it is used, and under
what circumstances we will share it.
This privacy policy applies only to the Rochdale Borough Council
websites at rochdale.gov.uk and its
subdomains. This policy does not apply to any other site,
including:
- Other websites operated by or with our
partner organisations
- Any site that is linked from one of our pages
Information collected by this website
Information that this website routinely collects falls into two
categories, forms and website log files.
Forms
The website provides forms that allow you to:
- Give general feedback about the site
- Make complaints, comments of compliments about council
services
- Access council services
- Make payments to us and invoice us
The information collected will be stored and used by
us mainly so we can deliver a service, deal with the enquiry
or process a payment.
We will not share any personal information that we receive about
individuals with other organisations for commercial purposes, or
use it for any marketing purposes that we have not told you about
either on the form or in this privacy policy.
We may use non-personal information for business, research
and marketing purposes. In these cases reusing the information will
not identify the individual who provided it and will not contain
any contact information relating to them or their company.
For example, possible reuses of non-personal information may
include (but are not limited to):
- A report made publicly available on the site listing all the
complaints and queries made in a given period
- An internal report produced for our own staff listing any
technical problems that have arisen with the website and steps
taken to remedy them
- Marketing literature using quotes drawn from feedback given
about the council
In some cases, the information you provide on a form is optional
but omitting important information may make it difficult to deal
with an enquiry. You can send complaints, compliments and comments
without having to provide your name or email address. However,
contact details may be given if you would like to receive a
reply.
Other forms only make sense if certain information is included;
for example, a missed bin collection report is only
useful if a contact name and address are provided. On electronic
forms the required fields are clearly marked.
Information we collect from forms is not stored on the website,
but is instead sent to computer systems accessible only
by authorised staff. With the exception of our online payments
system, forms are not intended for the transmission of confidential
or security-related material and you should not use them for
this.
Website log files
All websites produce log files that record the activity on that
site. Log files record which pages on the site have been accessed
and how many times. From this information it is possible to produce
statistics such as how busy the website is, which pages are the
most popular and whether there are any broken links.
Log files typically record the IP address or hostname of all
users accessing the website. This allows us to distinguish between
different users and therefore estimate the number of unique
visitors to the website. IP addresses and hostnames are not linked
to your personally identifiable information.
We will not make specific IP addresses and hostnames publicly
available. They will only be used by website log file software to
compile overall summary statistical reports on the performance of
the website. (For more information about IP addresses and
hostnames, see 'Additional information' below.)
Website log files are stored securely on the website using
industry best practice methods for safeguarding information and
server functions.
Additional information
This section provides background information regarding
terminology and legislation referenced in the writing of this
privacy policy statement.
Web browser
A web browser or browser for short is the software application
used to find and display web pages. The two most popular ones are
Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Cookies
Depending on your browser's security settings, websites may be
allowed to create and store small files called 'cookies' in a
specific directory on your computer to help with the functionality
of the site. Cookies cannot harm your computer in any way. Only the
website that created the cookie can subsequently reuse it.
There are two types of cookies:
- A persistent cookie remains on your computer for a period of
time to allow a website to recognise you when you return and
present you with the appropriate customised pages and count you
as one unique visitor.
- Session-specific cookies are deleted when you shut down your
browser.
We use both types of cookie but the site can still be used if
the use of cookies is disabled by your browser.
IP addresses and hostnames
An
IP
address is the
numeric address of a computer. The
IP
address recorded on website log files
is the address provided by your internet service provider's
equipment and not your own personal computer's address.
Hostnames are similar in appearance to the domain names you see
in website addresses or
URL
s and email addresses.
The hostnames recorded on website log files are those of the
internet service provider's equipment that you are using to access
the internet, and not your own computer's name or location.
Your internet service provider will keep records of which
customer is using any
IP
address or hostname at any given time, and so it is theoretically
possible to trace back activity shown on any website log file to a
specific individual. In practice, this can only be done with the
explicit involvement of the internet service provider, and such a
trace would therefore only take place in the event of serious
criminal misuse of the internet and would be carried out by the
police.
We will not attempt to associate
IP
addresses and hostnames with
individuals. In the event of serious criminal misuse of the
website, the matter would be referred to the police for
investigation.
The Data Protection Act 1998
The Data Protection Act requires us to protect any information
we collect from you. We do this by ensuring:
- Information collected from feedback forms is not stored on the
website, but is instead sent to computer systems only accessible
only by authorised staff
- Website log files are stored securely on the website using
industry best practice methods for safeguarding information and
server functions