SWCE Privacy Policy

Data handling is covered by some quite formal regulation, and rightly so. This page gives an overview of our privacy policies, but please get in touch if you have any concerns.

Website Privacy Policy

Saffron Walden Community Energy Ltd is a community benefit society and is the ‘data controller’ under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR).

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect and store data through our website www.swce.co.uk. It outlines the rights and choices you have in relation to the personal data we hold and process. What personal data we collect and why we collect it.

How we collect data

When you send an email to us through our website or via our email address, we collect the information you give us such as your name, address and email address. We may also collect information during events, meetings and face-to-face contact. We store our information through third-party internet service providers.

When you browse our website, we also automatically receive your computer’s internet protocol (IP) address in order to provide us with information that helps us learn about your browser and operating system.

Consent to use your data and opt-out

When you provide information through our website, emails or other business interactions, we assume that you consent to our holding your contact data to communicate with you. You can opt out of this on every email you receive or by emailing info@swce.co.uk.

How do we use personal information?

We may use your data for the following purposes:

• Provision and promotion of Saffron Walden Community Energy projects.
• Maintaining accounts and records for our operations and projects.
• To notify you that we have received communications from you.
• To administer payments, accounting, auditing, billing and collection or support services in connection with the Communiheat project.
• Complying with our legal and regulatory obligations (such as record keeping obligations) and for insurance purposes.
• Communicating with you about our latest developments, news, events, products and services.

When do we share personal data?

We may disclose your personal information if we are required to do so by law or in the case of the need to defend our legal rights. We may also disclose details to our employees, insurers and subcontractors if required to do so to fulfil the services or products that you have requested from us. Beyond this, we never share your details with a third party without your consent.

How long will we keep your information for?

We keep your information as long as it is deemed useful for business purposes or until you request we no longer store it.

How do we secure your information?

We take steps to protect data against accidental loss to prevent unauthorised access, use, destruction or disclosure including use of password protection on any of our electronic systems or online data storage systems.

We use a third party provider to store our emails who operate under a GDPR compliant Privacy Policy.

What rights do you have?

You have the following rights under the GDPR:

• Right to be informed.
• Right of access.
• Right to rectification.
• Right to erasure.
• Right to restriction of processing.
• Right to data portability.
• Right to object.
• Rights concerning automated decision-making and profiling. You have a right to see the information we hold about you.
• To access this you need to provide a request by email to info@swce.co.uk, together with proof of identity.
• We will usually process your request free of charge and within 30 days however we reserve the right to charge a reasonable administration fee and to extend the period of time by a further two months if the request is obviously unfounded and/or is very complex.

Right to erasure

• You have a right to ask us to erase your personal data in certain cases (details may be found in Article 17 of the GDPR).
• We will deal with your request free of charge and within 30 days but reserve the right to refuse to erase information that we are required to retain by law or regulation.
• To exercise your right to erasure please contact us by email to info@swce.oc.uk together with proof of identity.

Project Data Privacy Policy

Saffron Walden Community Energy (SWCE) may from time to time undertake project work, collecting data in both paper and electronic form. Data collection may be using questionnaires, surveys or other mechanisms.

Your privacy

SWCE is committed to maintaining the trust of members of the public involved in any projects. We are not in the business of selling, renting or trading email lists with other companies and third parties for marketing purposes and we never will be, except as stated below.

Personal information

Personal information refers to any information that may be used to identify you, such as; your name, address, email address or phone number.

We will share this information with the companies and individuals who are undertaking the surveys, or who are also involved in the particular project.

This information will be stored securely for 6 years.

Energy Data and Surveys

For certain projects, we may need to collect data on household energy use and costs. Occasionally, this data may need to be passed to third parties for expert analysis, but it will only be done so an anonymised form unless otherwise agreed.

If the data is used in reports, presentations or other formats for public viewing, it will only be done so in aggregated form so that no individual property is identifiable, unless otherwise agreed.

Consent

By agreeing to have your house surveyed and monitoring equipment installed, you consent to the collection and use of the information you provide to us as outlined in this Privacy Policy. We may change this Privacy Policy in future without notice, so please check back occasionally. If we change our Privacy Policy, we will publish the changes on this page.

For any questions or concerns, you can email us at info@swce.co.uk or visit our Contact page.

Your rights under the data protection legislation

You have the following rights in respect of the information we process about you:

• The right to access information held about you by making a subject access request in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation. We may charge a reasonable fee when a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
• The right to request us to rectify personal information concerning you which is inaccurate or incomplete.
• The right to request us to erase personal information concerning you (in certain conditions as set out in the Data Protection Legislation).
• The right to object to the processing of your information by us as well as the right to request us to restrict the extent to which we process your personal information (both in certain conditions as set out in the Data Protection Legislation).
• The right to data portability (in certain conditions out in the Data Protection Legislation).
• The right to ask us not to process your personal information for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (at the time of collecting information) if we intend to use your information for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your information or at any time by contacting us.
• The right to know about any automated decision-making or profiling.
• Where you have provided your consent to us for us to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent by informing us.
• The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK.

The above rights may be exercised in accordance with data protection law.

Access to information

You have the right to request a copy of personal information that we hold about you under the Data Protection Legislation.

To do this, simply contact us at info@swce.co.uk.

Should we be prevented from disclosing your personal information, reasons will be given for the refusal. We may also request that you provide further information and identification to enable your request to be processed.

If you believe that any information we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us at info@swce.co.uk. We will thereafter correct any information found to be incorrect. You can find detailed information about your rights under the Data Protection legislation on the UK Information Commissioner’s website: http://www.ico.org.uk.