Privacy & Cookies

STG is a local authority partnership between Canterbury City Council, Gravesham Borough Council, Medway Council and Swale Borough Council, hosted by Medway Council which provides services relating to the Building Regulations.

When processing personal data in relation to Medway Council, STG (Medway Council) is the data controller.  When processing personal data in relation to the other Councils, STG (Medway Council) is a data processor.

This privacy policy sets out how STG Building Control uses and protects any information that you give STG Building Control when you use this website.

STG Building Control is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy notice

STG Building Control may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

When we use your personal data, STG Building Control is what we call the data controller.

As the data controller, we must:

• only keep your data that we need to provide services and do what the law says we must
• keep your records safe and accurate
• only keep your data as long as we have to
• collect, store and use your data in a way that does not break any data protection laws.

Things you can do to help us:

• tell us when any of your details change; and
• tell us if any of the information we hold on you is wrong

What is personal data?

Personal data is information about a living person that means we can work out who they are such as name, address, telephone number, etc. This can include written letters, emails, photographs, audio recordings and video recordings.

Some data is called special category data which is more sensitive, and we have to look after it more carefully. This includes details of ethnic origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, trade union membership, health data, and biometric (e.g. fingerprints, facial recognition) and genetic (e.g. DNA) data. 

What we collect

For our service, we need to use your personal data so we can get in touch, or provide the service.  We can use your personal data under many different laws.  The main ones for our service are:

• The Building Act 1984
• The Building Regulations 2010 (as amended)
• The Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 2010
• Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976

We may collect the following information:

• name and job title
• contact information including email address
• demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests
• other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers

What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

• Internal record keeping.
• We may use the information to improve our products and services.
• We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.
• From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone or mail. We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

As we are hosted by Medway Council we follow all their policies and full details of the council's privacy notice can be found at https://www.medway.gov.uk/info/200146/about_the_website/467/how_we_use_your_data/1 

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

• whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes
• if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

You may request to see what data we hold about you and ask to be sent a copy.  This is called a Subject Access Request.  To submit a subject access request please contact STG.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.