Privacy policy

Privacy Notice: The Story

This Privacy Notice tells you about what information we collect about you, how we use that information and who we share it with. 

1. Who we are and what we do

The Story brings together important heritage collections, alongside the county’s registration service, at Mount Oswald. This includes bringing the collections together digitally.

The Story has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund Grant and as part of the conditions of the grant, we are encouraging a wide range of people to be engaged with and be involved with volunteering for The Story. Upon email sign-up, The Story may gather information about the protected characteristics of mailing list members and volunteers to enable us to monitor our performance with the conditions of the grant and to achieve funding outcomes.

The Durham County Record Office, Culture and Sport and Archaeology have and will have volunteers with The Story. For the purposes of Data Protection, Durham County Council is the Data Controller.

2. What type of personal information do we collect and how do we collect it?

The Story may collect data on some of the areas covered by the Equality Act, also referred to as protected characteristics:

  • Age group
  • Locality
  • Whether you are currently in Further/Higher education
  • We may also collect the following special category data:
  • Whether you have a disability
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Sexual orientation

In some instances, for example if you have a Microsoft account, we will also collect your name and email address. If this happens, we will remove it from our records in order to keep your data anonymised. 

As part of a separate process, we may collect information on the number of volunteer hours you have provided for The Story. As part of this we will ask for your name. The two forms are not linked so your personal data will remain anonymous.

We may ask volunteers for their views on their experience of working with The Story. We collect your personal data:

  • When you register with The Story as a volunteer
  • On The Story feedback forms
  • When signing up to our mailing list

As part of our consultations and engagement activities, we may ask if people would be interested in applying to be part of a focus group to further discuss The Story. If people are interested, they will be asked to provide their email address at the end of survey.

3. What is our lawful basis to obtain and use your personal information? 

We will use the following legal basis to obtain and process your personal data:

  • the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specified purposes

For special category data, which is more sensitive information, we rely on the following:

  • the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes

4. What is your personal information used for?

As a large part of The Story is being funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund we will use your Personal Data:

  • To demonstrate to the National Lottery Heritage Fund that a wide range of volunteers have been involved in a project that they have grant funded

We will also use your Personal Data:

  • To support our ongoing aim of attracting a wide range of volunteers and audiences
  • For assessment and analysis purposes to help improve the operation of our services

As part of our consultations and engagement activities, email addresses provided will be used to contact people about focus groups, upcoming events or similar activities.

5. Will your personal information be shared?

Anonymised aggregated information will be shared with the National Lottery Heritage Fund. You will not be identifiable from the data which is shared. As part of our consultations and engagement activities we may work with an external partner who will arrange the focus groups. Therefore, we will share any email addresses provided with this external partner but they will not share the email addresses any further.

6. How do we keep your information secure?

The security of your personal information is important to us. The records we keep about you are stored securely with only The Story management staff able to access them.

The information we share with the National Lottery Heritage Fund is anonymised. They are also legally bound to only use the information for the purposes agreed and keep the information secure and confidential.

7. How long will we keep your personal information?

We will keep your information as a business record for the duration of The Story and for up to three years after the project ends.

8. Personal information processed outside of the European Union (EU)

We do not process your personal data outside of the EU.

9. Marketing

At no time will your information be used or passed to others for marketing or sales purposes, or for any commercial use without your express consent. 

10. What are your information rights?

Your Information Rights are set out in the law. Subject to some legal exceptions, you have the right to:

  • request a copy of the personal information the council/The Story holds about you
  • have any inaccuracies corrected;
  • have your personal data erased;
  • place a restriction on our processing of your data;
  • object to processing;

To exercise your rights, you can apply online or download an application form from the DCC website or you can contact the data protection team at inforights@durham.gov.uk

To learn more about these rights please see the ICO website.

11. Further Information

Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) provides help and guidance to make sure we apply the best standards to protecting your personal information. If something goes wrong with your personal information, or you have questions about how we process your data, please contact our Data Protection Officer at DPO@durham.gov.uk or write to:

DPO
Floor 4 Room 143-148,
Durham County Council
County Hall,
Durham County Council
DH1 5UF

If we have not been able to deal with your query, you can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745