We keep the Democratic Services Privacy Notice under review. It was last reviewed and updated in December 2022.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice contact the council’s Data Protection Officer.
View the privacy and transparency information for all of the City of York Council (CYC).
- personal data
- collecting personal data
- our legal basis for using personal data
- sharing personal data
- retaining personal data
- transferring personal data abroad
- further processing of personal data
- your rights relating to personal data
Personal data
The amount and type of personal data Democratic Services collects from members of the public and Councillors, will depend on why and how you're contacting or interacting with us.
This may simply mean providing your name and address but for some things we may need to ask you for more details and sometimes sensitive personal data or special categories of personal data.
See further details about how we define personal data and non-personal data.
Collecting personal data
When Democratic Services collects your personal data we'll:
- ensure you know why we need it
- only ask for what is necessary for the service we're providing to you or to provide the information you're requesting
- protect it and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn’t
- keep it secure and ensure that the privacy of individuals is protected
- ensure you know if you have a choice about giving us personal data
- make sure we don’t keep it for longer than is necessary
Records of council meetings
We publish a record of all council decisions and meetings, as well as any background information and reports that inform discussion.
In order to provide this service, we'll need to process some or all of the following categories of personal data about members of the public, consultants and elected Members:
- name
- contact details
- date of birth
- gender
- school preferences
- councillor information
The majority of council meetings are transacted in public. Agendas and reports for all council and committee meetings are made available to the public 5 days in advance of meetings, in accordance with statutory requirements.
Petitions
The council welcomes petitions as a valuable tool for people to let us know their concerns about the local community. In order to review and respond to a petition submitted to us, we'll need to process some of the personal data of the people who have signed it.
We provide a platform for people to create epetitions on our website.
In order to provide this service, we'll need to process some or all of the following categories of personal data:
- name
- contact details
Webcasting
Our webcasting service is part of a range of tools that we use to increase transparency and encourage greater participation in how local decisions are made. We hope it will keep you better informed about the work of the council and the decisions being made, on your behalf, by councillors and how they're representing your views and interests.
Videos of meetings are made available for all to view live and on-demand via our website and directly via the City of York Council YouTube channel where the videos are stored. View YouTube’s Privacy Policy.
Videos are made available to view on-demand for a period of 6 years following the meeting after which time they will be permanently deleted from our YouTube channel and will no longer be available to view.
Reports on webcast viewing figures are provided to Councillors on an ad-hoc basis upon request but no personal data is stored or included in the reports.
Our legal basis for using personal data
Under data protection legislation, we have a statutory duty to provide and make publicly available records of Council meetings and decisions taken.
We're permitted to use your information regarding petitions because it is a task carried out in the public interest.
Sharing personal data
Minutes and details of decisions are published on our website once available. If you ask a question, or participate in a discussion, some information about you and what you say will be included in minutes of meetings.
Petitions and our response will be published on our website. We'll only publish the name of the person who submitted the petition.
Sharing data under Data Protection legislation
We may be required or permitted, under data protection legislation, to disclose your personal data without your explicit consent, for example if we have a legal obligation to do so, such as for:
- law enforcement
- fraud investigations
- regulation and licensing
- criminal prosecutions
- court proceedings
We must protect public funds and may use personal data and data-matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, collect taxes and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. To do this, your information may be shared with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, including the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs, the Police and other local authorities.
Retaining personal data
Videos are made available to view on-demand for a period of 6 years following the meeting (consistent with the statutory timescales for retaining other records relating to public meetings, such as minutes and reports). After 6 years they will be permanently deleted from our YouTube channel and will no longer be available to view.
At the end of the retention period, we may pass any relevant information to the City Archives where it is required or appropriate to do so.
Transferring personal data abroad
As a rule, we do not transfer your personal data to third party processors outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
We may use Zoom Pro or Business version of Zoom (version 5) to host some public facing meetings, training sessions etc across different services in the council. Where these meetings are recorded, recordings will be kept locally on our server and will not be retained by Zoom.
Some personal data will be stored securely on Zoom’s system in the USA (that is, outside the EEA) in compliance with the EU, USA Privacy Shield Framework. This data may include a user's:
- name
- email address
- telephone number where applicable
- IP address
- MAC address
- other device ID (UDID)
- device type
- operating system type and version
- client version
- type of camera, microphone or speakers
- connection type
Zoom does not sell personal data to third parties; collects only the personal data required to provide Zoom services; and retains that data only for so long as is necessary for the provision of those services.
Further processing of personal data
If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we'll provide you with a new notice.
The new notice will:
- explain this new use before we start the processing
- set out the relevant purposes and processing conditions
Where and whenever necessary, we'll seek your consent to the new processing, if we start to use your personal data for a purpose not mentioned in this Privacy Notice.
Your rights relating to personal data
When we collect your personal data we'll tell you how we are going to use it. Where we process your personal data, you have a number of rights under data protection law.
See further details of your rights relating to personal data.