1 – Privacy Policy & Cookie policy

This privacy policy tells you about the information we (“Għajnsielem Local Council”) collect from you when you use our website. In collecting this information, we are acting as a data controller and, by law, we are required to provide you with information about us, about why and how we use your data, and about the rights you have over your data.

We are committed to protecting our visitors’ and/or user’s privacy and we will not collect any personal information about you as a visitor unless you provide it voluntarily.

Pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (Cap 586), we have a legal duty to respect and protect any personal information we collect from you and we will abide by such duty. We take all safeguards necessary to prevent unauthorised access and we do not pass on your details collected from you as a visitor and/or user, to any third party unless you give us your consent to do so or as authorised by law.

The policy can be easily accessible via a link at the bottom of each web page.

This Policy represents the entire agreement between You and the Għajnsielem Local Council in relation to its subject matter and supersedes and voids all prior agreements between such parties relating to such subject matter.

1.1      Who are we?

The Għajnsielem Local Council

Our address is J.F. de Chambray Street, Għajnsielem, GSM 1051, Gozo, Malta

You can contact us by post at the above address, by email at ghajnsielem.lc@gov.mt or by telephone on (+356) 21561515

Our Data Protection Officer may be contacted on: dpo@m2co.ltd

or

Data Protection Officer
The Għajnsielem Local Council
J.F. de Chambray Street, Għajnsielem,
GSM 1051, Gozo, Malta

2 – How do we process personal data?

2.1      When you use our website

Cookies are small pieces of data that the site transfers to the user’s computer hard drive when the user visits the website. Thus, a cookie is a small piece of data that a website asks your browser to store as text strings on your computer’s hard-disk. All cookies are set with expiry dates which determine how long they reside on your browser.  Generally, cookies can be removed automatically after the lapse of the expiry date or else can be deleted manually by the user. However, this website may make limited use of the following cookies:-

2.1.1      How can you delete or disable cookies that this website may make use of?

If your browser is NOT configured, by default, to block all or certain cookies, you may manually configure your browser to either reject all cookies or control which cookies are set on your device through this website. You may find all the necessary information on how to make the necessary configuration settings by visiting the following site: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/

Disabling the cookies of this website will not affect your browsing experience.

2.2      When you submit an enquiry via our website

We may collect personal information in the process of submission of forms through the website. Thus, when you submit an enquiry via our website, we ask you for your name, address, contact telephone number and email address.

In such cases, the website is used as a User Interface and the information contained through ‘contact us’ form is submitted for processing to the Local Council, the relevant retention period would apply. All information provided in the Contact Us/Feedback form will be processed following your provision of consent. Sending information over the internet is generally not completely secure, and we can’t guarantee the security of your data while it’s in transit. Any data you send is at your own risk. We have procedures and security features in place to keep your data secure once we receive it.

The Għajnsielem Local Council may store such information and use your personal data only to:

1. enable the Local Council to carry out investigations into your comments (where applicable);
2. provide a response;
3. learn from the experience to inform change in policy and/or process.

The data we collect on this site can be viewed by authorised people in the Għajnsielem Local Council as well as our suppliers (where applicable), to:

1. improve the site by monitoring how you use it;
2. gather feedback to improve our services;
3. respond to any feedback you send us, if you’ve asked us to;
4. allow you to access council services; and
5. provide you with information about local services if you want it.

2.3      Storing Your Website Data

We store your data on secure servers internally. We have procedures and security features in place to keep your data secure once we receive it.
Your enquiry will be processed and may be stored both electronically and/or in hard-copy. We have a data retention policy that sets out how long we keep your information (unless otherwise outlined in this policy). This policy is based on the type of information, the purpose of collection, and the system within our digital platforms in which the information is held. As a general rule, we keep your personal information for as long as we need to in order to carry out those purposes for which your data has been collected.

2.4      Automated decision-making/profiling

Personal Data is not object of automated decision-making or profiling, as we do not use the information you may provide us to make any automated decisions that might affect you.

2.5      Links to other websites

Our website [http:// www.ghajnsielemlc.com] contains links to other websites. This privacy statement only applies to this website [http:// www.ghajnsielemlc.com] and doesn’t cover other third party owned or managed websites that we link to. These services will have their own terms and conditions and privacy policies. If you go to another website from this one, read the privacy policy on that website to find out what it does with your information.

2.6      Website Traffic Information

The web server may and You hereby provide Your explicit consent to such collection keep limited logs about IP addresses or the location of your computer on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes.  We seek not to collect logs about IP Address. However, if we do keep such logs, we do not use IP address logs to track your session or your behaviour on our site. This information will only be used to manage the load on servers, so as to improve services and Your experience generally.

Please note that this information is strictly for the sole use of the Għajnsielem Local Council and it is not shared, leased, or sold in any manner to any other organisation.

2.7      Your rights as a data subject

As an individual you may exercise your right to access the data held about you, therefore if you have any queries in relation to this data, if any, held by us please contact us by submitting your request to the Għajnsielem Local Council (data controller) contact details may be found further above, thereafter the Data Controller will pass on your request to our Data Protection Officer:-

1. know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
2. ask to see what information we hold about you (known as a Subject Access Request)
3. ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
4. object to direct marketing
5. make a complaint to Information and Data Protection Commissioner
6. where we process information based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

1. ask us to delete information we hold about you
2. have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
3. object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
4. object to how we are using your information
5. stop us using your information in certain ways

We will always seek to comply with your request, however, we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties or unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interests, rights and freedoms of the data subject or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. Please note, your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

Although all reasonable efforts will be made to keep your information updated, you are kindly requested to inform us of any change referring to the personal data held by the Għajnsielem Local Council. In any case if you consider that certain information about you is inaccurate, you may request rectification of such data. You also have the right to request the blocking or erasure of data.

If you would like to exercise a right, please contact us [Għajnsielem Local Council] and the Data Protection Officer, please use the contact information provided above in the Who Are We section of this policy.

2.8      Your right to complain

If you have a complaint about our use of your information, we would prefer you to contact us directly in the first instance so that we can address your complaint. However, in case you are not satisfied with the outcome of your access request, you may refer a complaint to the Information and Data Protection Commissioner, visit www.idpc.gov.mt for contact details.

2.9      Updates to this privacy policy

We regularly review and, if appropriate, update this privacy policy from time to time, and as our services and use of personal data evolves. If there are any changes to this privacy policy, we will replace this page with an updated version. It is therefore in your own interest to check the “Privacy Policy” page any time you access our web site so as to be aware of any changes which may occur from time to time.