Privacy and Cookies

Privacy and Cookies

Royal Berkshire Archives Privacy Policy

We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold about you.

Using personal information allows us to develop a better understanding of our customers and in turn to provide you with relevant and timely information about the work that we do.

The purpose of this policy is to give you a clear explanation about how we collect and use the information we collect from you directly and from third parties.

We use your information in accordance with all applicable laws concerning the protection of personal information. This policy explains:

  • What information we may collect about you
  • How we may use that information
  • In what situations we may disclose your details to third parties
  • Our use of cookies to improve your use of our website
  • Information about how we keep your personal information secure, how we maintain it for and your rights to be able to access it.

If you have any queries about this policy, please contact Reading Borough Council via email at GDPR@reading.gov.uk.

Who we are

Royal Berkshire Archives is administered by Reading Borough Council, Civic Offices, Bridge St, Reading RG1 2LU.

Information collection

We collect various types of information and in a number of ways:

Information you give us

For example when you register on our website we’ll store personal information you give us such as your name, email address, postal address and telephone number.

Information about your interactions with us

For example, when you visit our website, we collect information about how you interact with our content. When we send you a mailing we store a record of this, and in the case of emails we keep a record of which ones you have opened and which links you have clicked on.

Sensitive personal data

Data Protection law recognises that certain categories of personal information are more sensitive such as health information, race, religious beliefs and political opinions. We do not collect this type of information about you.

Legal basis

There are three bases under which we may process your data:

Contract purposes

When you make a purchase from us you are entering into a contract with us. In order to perform this contract we need to process and store your data. For example we may need to contact you by email or telephone in the case of cancellation of an event, or in the case of problems with your payment.

Legitimate business interests

In certain situations we collect and process your personal information for purposes that are in our legitimate organisational interests. However we only do this if there is no overriding prejudice to you by using your personal information in this way. We describe below all situations where we may use this basis for processing.

With your explicit consent

For any situations where the two bases above are not appropriate, we will instead ask for your explicit consent before using your personal information in that specific situation.

Marketing communications

If you consent to receiving marketing communications, we aim to contact you in ways that you find relevant, timely and respectful. To do this we use data that we have stored about you, such as what events you have booked for in the past, as well as any preferences you may have told us about.

If you wish to opt out of receiving marketing communications, please use the contact details at the end of this policy to let us know.

Other processing activities

In addition to marketing communications, we also process personal information in the following ways that are within our legitimate organisational interests:

We may analyse data we hold about you to ensure that the content and timing of communications that we send you are as relevant to you as possible. We may analyse data we hold about you in order to identify and prevent fraud.

In order to improve our website we may analyse information about how you use it and the content that you interact with.

Third parties

We may disclose your personal information to Dotdigital (formerly Dotmailer), our mailing system provider, or where we are under a duty to disclose your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies).

Cookies

We use cookies and similar tools across our website to improve your experience and our website's performance.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files which a website may put on your computer or mobile device when you first visit a site or page. The cookie will help the website to recognise your device the next time you visit. Cookies do many things. For example, they can help us to analyse how well our website is performing, or even allow us to recommend content we believe will be most relevant to you.

Certain cookies contain personal information. For example, if you click to "remember me" when logging in, a cookie will store your username. Most cookies won't collect information that identifies you. Instead, cookies will collect more general information such as how users arrive at and use our website, or a user's general location.

What cookies do we use?

We may use five types of cookie and similar tools across our website to improve its performance and enhance your user experience.

  • First party cookies
  • We set these cookies and they can only be read by us.
  • Persistent cookies
  • We use persistent cookies which will be saved on your computer for a fixed period. They won't be deleted when the browser is closed. We use persistent cookies to recognise your device for more than one browsing session.
  • Session cookies
  • We use session cookies which are only stored temporarily during a browsing session and will be deleted from your device when the browser is closed.
  • Third party cookies
  • We may use third party suppliers who may also set cookies on our website in order to deliver the services that they are providing. These cookies are known as third party cookies.
  • Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting

We use Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting cookies in order to evaluate your use of the website and compile reports for us on activity on the website. You can learn about Google Analytics cookies by visiting this site: Google Analytics.

Can you block our cookies?

Cookies help you to get the most from our website, so please remember that if you do choose to disable cookies, you may find that certain sections of our website do not work properly.

How do I disable cookies?

All recent versions of popular browsers give you a level of control over cookies. You can find out how to control cookies in your browser by visiting this site: Disable Cookies.

More information

If you'd like to know more about how organisations use cookies visit the All About Cookies website.

Maintaining your personal information

We store your personal information indefinitely such that for any subsequent purchases you make we are able to link them back to a single unique record that we hold for you on our system. If there are aspects of your record that are inaccurate or that you would like to remove, please use the contact details at the end of this policy to let us know. Any objections you make to any processing of your data will be stored against your record on our system so that we can comply with your requests.

Security of your personal information

We will put in place appropriate safeguards (both in terms of our procedures and the technology we use) to keep your personal information as secure as possible. We will ensure that any third parties we use for processing your personal information do the same. We will not transfer, process or store your data anywhere that is outside of the European Economic Area.

Retention periods

We will only retain information for as long as necessary. Records are maintained in line with our retention schedule which determines the length of time records should be kept.

We will ask you to check and update your contact preferences periodically so that we know our database is up to date. You can withdraw your consent, or make changes to your contact preferences at any time.

Your Rights

You have the right to request a copy of personal information held about you by visiting Reading Borough Council Data Protection.

You have the right to withdraw consent at any time.

You have the ‘right to be forgotten’ so you can ask for your personal information to be deleted where:

  • It is no longer needed for the reason why it was collected in the first place
  • You have removed your consent for us to use your information and we do not have to keep your information for legal reasons.

We may not be able to delete your personal data if it is needed for legal reasons, for reasons of public health, public interest or for medical purposes.

You have the right to request that inaccuracies be corrected.

You have the right to request us to stop processing your personal data.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Officer.

Contact details and further information

Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about any aspect of this privacy policy, and in particular if you would like to object to any processing of your personal information that we carry out for our legitimate organisational interests.

The Royal Berkshire Archives
9 Coley Avenue
Reading
Berkshire
RG1 6AF

Email: Contact Us