Privacy policy

This website is owned and controlled by Wigan Council. We regard your privacy as important and any personal information you give to us will only be used in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018. We do not store personal information about people who visit this site unless they provide contact information or use one of our online services.

If you provide any personal information in order to use a service on this website, it will only be used for the reasons given in our privacy notice. It will not be shared with any third party without your consent, unless required by law or in order to comply with duties to prevent and detect crime or to protect public funds.

Legal basis

Any personal information you give us, whether sent to us via online forms, the app or through other means, is held securely and will only be used for council purposes relating to our public tasks and functions or with your consent (where you have agreed to us communicating with you about different offers and services).

Cookies

We use cookies so that you do not need to enter information again if you return to some pages. We do not use information gathered by cookies for any other reason.

Web Chat

Web Chat is available for a number of services on the Wigan Council website.

It allows you to speak to council officers using 'web chat' functionality. Data from each 'chat' will be held for 12 months and may be used when looking into your enquiry and for quality purposes.

You may be asked to complete a short survey on completion of your web chat. All answers for the survey are anonymised and will be used for service improvement.

MyAccount

MyAccount is provided by a third party supplier. This supplier is under contract and has to keep your details safe and secure, and use them only to provide and maintain the service. MyAccount is your online customer account and, if you register, your details will be processed for the following purposes.

Purposes of processing your data

In general, we will hold your personal data for the purpose of maintaining and operating your account or registration and will use your personal information:

  • For the purpose you provided the information for and to carry out our statutory duties
  • To verify your entitlement to access the services you have requested e.g verification of your residence in the borough
  • To communicate with you and provide information about services appropriate to your needs
  • For planning purposes to improve how we deliver our services to you in the future.

Sharing

We may pass your personal data onto the people who provide the service you have requested and to other council services to ensure your data is accurate and kept up to date. We will never sell your information or share it with other organisations for marketing, market research or commercial purposes.

Retention

We will hold the personal data used to create your account until you delete your account. However, the personal data associated with the services you receive may be retained in connection with the Council’s statutory duties. We will retain your information for the period necessary to fulfil the relevant purpose for which it is held and we will also retain any external verification so long as it remains accurate based on the information you provide to use. This will allow us to reuse that information when you register for additional services.

Further information

For more information about how we use your personal data and your individual privacy rights, you can view the Council’s Data Primary Privacy Notice.

Independent advice

If you have any questions about the use of your personal information or wish to raise a concern, you will need to firstly contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer. The Information Commissioner is the independent regulator for both Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

© Wigan Council