GCC Privacy Policy

Last updated 05, October 2021

Welcome to GCC Open Data API!

Glasgow City Council is a local authority established under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Its head office is located at City Chambers, George Square, Glasgow G2 1DU, United Kingdom. You can contact our Data Protection Officer by Post at this address, by Email, or by Phone on 0141 287 1055.

Why might we ask for your personal information and what do we do with it?

You will be asked for limited personal information to grant you a subscription to the services provided by the API hub. We use your personal information to verify your identity and grant you a subscription to the API services. We will retain this information only for the purposes of maintaining these subscriptions. We will not contact you by email or use this information, for any purpose other than in relation to your API subscription. You can ask for your subscription to be revoked and your personal details to be deleted at any time by contacting us at data@glasgow.gov.uk.

Legal basis for using your information

We provide these services to you as part of our statutory function as your local authority. You can find more details of our role and the many statutory functions we are responsible for by clicking on here.

The precise legal basis for us using your personal information will vary depending on which service we are providing to you.  However, in most cases this will be because it is necessary for us to use your personal information to perform a task carried out in the public interest by us.  If we are using your personal information on a different basis to this, this will be explained in the specific privacy statements relating to those functions.

If we are using your information because:

  • it is required for us to have a contract with you

  • or you have consented to give it

then if you do not provide us with the information we have asked for,  we will not be able to provide that service to you.

Sensitive information

For some activities, we also need to process more sensitive personal information about you for reasons of substantial public interest as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018. It is necessary for us to process this more sensitive information for a number of reasons, these include:

  • to carry out key functions as set out in law

  • in order to meet our legal obligations in relation to employment, social security and social protection law

  • in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of others in circumstances where we will not be able to seek your consent

  • where this is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims

  • for purposes of the provision of social care and the management of health and social care systems and services where this is necessary in the public interest in the area of public health

  • for archiving, research and statistical purposes.

Who do we share your information with?

We are legally obliged to safeguard public funds so we are required to verify and check your details internally and across the council family to prevent fraud - and we may share this information with other public bodies for the same purpose. In the event of an emergency or civil incident we may share your information with other organisations in order to provide services to you.

We are also legally obliged to share certain data with other public bodies, such as HMRC and will do so where the law requires this.  In general, we will also comply with requests for specific information from other regulatory and law enforcement bodies where this is necessary and appropriate. 

Your information is also analysed internally to help us improve our services.  This data sharing is in accordance with our Data and Privacy Policies which can be viewed on our Open Data Hub.

Your rights under Data Protection Law

Access to your information

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

Correcting your information

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date. Therefore, you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.

Deleting your information 

You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:

  • you think that we no longer need to hold the information for the purposes for which it was originally obtained

  • we are using that information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent - see the 'withdrawing consent to using your information' section below.  Please note that in general we do not rely on consent as the legal basis for processing your personal information

  • you have a genuine objection to our use of your personal information - see 'objecting to how we may use your information' below

  • our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations.

Objecting to how we may use your information

You have the right at any time to tell us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes. 

Restricting how we may use your information 

In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information.  This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information that we hold about you or we are assessing the objection you have made to our use of your information. 

This right might also apply if we no longer have a basis for using your personal information  - but you don't want us to delete the data.  Where this right is realistically applied will mean that we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.

Withdrawing consent to use your information 

Where we use your personal information with your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purpose(s) for which consent was given.

Please contact us as stated above if you wish to carry out any of these rights.

Complaints

We aim to directly resolve all complaints about how we handle personal information. If your complaint is about how we have handled your personal information, you can contact the Council's Data Protection Officer by Email or by Phone on 0141 287 1055.

However, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office, who can be contacted by post at: 

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 or visit their: website

Please note if your complaint is not about a data protection matter or concerns the handling of personal information please contact us using the complaints procedures in place.

Cookies

Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website. This hub uses cookies to store information about how you use the data.glasgow.gov.uk site, such as the pages you visit, to help us improve the functionality or content of the Hub. 

Google Analytics

This site uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google. These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone, including the number of visitors to the website, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited. 

We have not enabled Google Analytics Advertising Features.

Read Google's overview of privacy and safeguarding data.