Privacy Statement

MERTHYR TYDFIL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

PRIVACY POLICY FOR TENANTS ON DATA PROTECTION

Welcome to Merthyr Tydfil Housing Association’s Privacy Policy for Tenants on Data Protection. This Privacy Policy is intended to supplement the Summary Information on Data Protection that all tenants will have received from us and provides further details on the areas covered in that summary document.

1. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT?

Merthyr Tydfil Housing Association respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect and use personal information about you before, during and after your relationship as a tenant with us, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Merthyr Tydfil Housing Association is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this Privacy Policy.

This notice applies to current, prospective and former tenants. We may update this Privacy Policy at any time but if we do so, we will provide you with information about the policy as soon as reasonably practical.

It is important that you read this Privacy Policy, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information and what your rights are under the data protection legislation.

2. THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection, such as information about a person’s health or sexual orientation.

We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

• Identity Data includes proof of identity (copy of your photo-card driving licence/passport) first name, maiden name, last name, title, gender, date of birth, marital status and dependents and CCTV footage.
• Contact Data includes addresses, telephone numbers and email address, next of kin and emergency contact information.
• Financial Data includes National Insurance number, bank account details (if you pay your rent by direct debit), benefit details.
• Housing Data includes proof of housing eligibility.
• Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information but we only collect this type of information about you to the extent that there is a clear reason for us to so or where you make it public or volunteer it to us:

• Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, sex life and political opinions.
• Information about your health, including any medical condition or disability.
• Information about criminal convictions and offences.

3. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED?

We collect personal information about our current and prospective tenants initially through the application process, in the majority of cases directly from you as the tenant (or applicant) but sometimes from a referring agency or other background check provider. This information will be collated on various forms, tenancy agreements and contracts and through our ongoing contact with you including over the phone and email. We may sometimes collect additional information from third parties including former landlords, credit reference agencies or other background check agencies, DWP – Universal Credit, Police, Housing Benefit, Social Services and other support agencies. In some cases we will also collect CCTV images.

As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect technical data about your browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. We use cookies on our website. Please refer to our Director of Corporate Services if you would like more information on our use of cookies. We will treat your continued access to the website as consent, for the purposes of the GDPR and any other relevant legislation, to our use of cookies. We encourage you to read the privacy policies on other websites that you visit as this Privacy Policy will not cover those external sites.

We will collect additional personal information in the normal course of landlord/tenant activities throughout the period that you rent with us.

4. HOW WE WILL USE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances: 1. Where you have given us consent to do so. 2. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you. 3. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation. 4. Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests). 5. Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes. 6. Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in some situations involving sending direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time.

Purposes for which we will use your personal information

We need all the categories of information in the list above (see paragraph 2) primarily to allow us to perform our contract with you and to enable us to comply with legal obligations. In some cases we may use your personal information where it is in the public interest (or for our official purposes) for us to do so or to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. In more rare situations, we may need to use your personal information to protect your interests or someone else’s interests.

We have set out below in a table format a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate. Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.

Purpose/Activity	Type of data	Lawful basis for processing
To process your tenancy application	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Housing	(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to provide suitable housing) (c) Necessary in the public interest
Administering the tenancy agreement you hold with us including monitoring compliance and dealing with its termination	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Housing	(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to provide suitable housing)
Managing your account charges and payments, including payment of any arrears which you may owe.	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial	(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us) (c) Necessary in the public interest
Managing the repairs, maintenance and adaptions of our properties (including the property you are allocated)	(a) Identity (b) Contact	(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to provide suitable housing) (d) Necessary in the public interest
Offering and brokering help with debts and benefits	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to assist with helping our tenants achieve financial health) (b) Necessary in the public interest
Dealing with legal disputes involving you or other tenants.	(a) Identity (b) Contact	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (in resolving disputes or defending our legal rights) (b) Necessary for a legal obligation (c) Necessary in the public interest
Complying with health and safety obligations.	(a) Identity (b) Contact	(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to provide safe housing and community spaces) (d) Necessary in the public interest
To promote a safe and positive living environment for the community	(a) Identity (b) Contact	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to provide safe housing and community spaces) (b) Necessary in the public interest
To prevent and detect crime or unlawful acts, including nuisance and fraud.	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial	(a) Necessary for a legal obligation (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (in preventing or detecting crime) (c) Necessary in the public interest
To provide you with services, products or information you asked for	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Marketing and communications	(a) Consent (b) Performance of a contract with you (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests
To undertake equal opportunities monitoring	(a) Identity (b) Contact	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interest (to ensure that our housing activities are fair) (b) Necessary in the public interest
To better understand how we can improve our services, products or information by conducting analysis and market research	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to ensure we are a fit for purpose organisation)
To send you correspondence and communicate with you, including updating your contact details	(a) Identity (b) Contact	(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (in managing your tenancy)
To otherwise carry out the day-to-day operations of our organisation efficiently including managing our financial position, capability, planning, communications, corporate governance and audit	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Housing	(a) Necessary for a legal obligation (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (in managing our organisation) (c) Necessary in the public interest

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.

IES/Smart Meter Devices

Where you live in a property which has been fitted with an IES Device and Smart Meter (or needs to be fitted with an IES Device/ Smart Meter), in order to comply with our obligations to Welsh Government, we will share your key contact details with Welsh Government service providers as part of their initiatives (such as the optimised retrofit programme) in order to achieve ‘net zero’. The data collected by the IES device is about the property and will not be linked back to your personal data. The data will only be used to provide statistical information to Welsh Government.

You may be offered the option of having a smart meter activated by a service or utility provider, there are additional services available which can provide you with feedback on how to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs – this is up to you if you agree to have your utility/usage data analysed.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to provide all our services to you and you may not be able to hold a tenancy or lease with us, or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to ensure the health and safety of our tenants).

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

5. HOW WE USE PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION

“Special categories” of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We have in place an appropriate policy document and safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing such data. We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances: 1. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent. 2. Where it is needed in the substantial public interest. 3. Where it is needed in relation to legal claims. 4. Where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent. 5. Where you have already made the information public.

Our obligations as a landlord

We will use your particularly sensitive personal information in the following ways:

• We will use information about your physical or mental health, or disability status to ensure that we provide suitable (maintained and adapted) accommodation for disabled persons or those with problems around substance abuse.
• When resolving neighbourhood disputes involving alleged criminal activity.
• When helping someone to access care services.
• When preventing or detecting crime or unlawful acts (including protecting the public against fraud or dishonesty).
• When monitoring equality of opportunity or treatment.
• When safeguarding children and vulnerable individuals.
• We will use information about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.

Do we need your consent?

We do not need your consent if we use special categories of your personal information in accordance with our written policy to carry out our legal obligations, carry out tasks in the public interest or protect vital interests. In limited circumstances, we may approach you for your written consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent.

6. INFORMATION ABOUT CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS

We may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so. This will usually be where such processing is necessary in the public interest and provided we do so in line with our data protection policy. Such situations may include where we need to use the information to prevent or detect crime or unlawful acts (including protecting the public against fraud or dishonesty), to monitor equality of opportunity or treatment and for the purposes of safeguarding children and vulnerable individuals. We may also use information relating to criminal convictions where it is necessary in relation to legal claims, where it is necessary to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

We envisage that we may hold information about criminal convictions.

We will use information about criminal convictions and offences when dealing with safeguarding issues.

We are allowed to use your personal information in this way because it is in the public interest for us to do so. We have in place an appropriate policy and safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing such data.

7. AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING

Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. We are allowed to use automated decision-making in the following circumstances: 1. Where we have notified you of the decision and given you 21 days to request a reconsideration. 2. Where it is necessary to perform the contract with you and appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights. 3. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent and where appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights. If we make an automated decision on the basis of any particularly sensitive personal information, we must have either your explicit written consent or it must be justified in the public interest, and we must also put in place appropriate measures to safeguard your rights.

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.

We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means, however we will notify you in writing if this position changes.

8. DATA SHARING

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers. We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not transfer your personal information outside the EU. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

Why might you share my personal information with third parties?

We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the tenancy relationship with you or where we have a public interest in doing so or another legitimate interest in doing so.

Which third-party service providers process my personal information?

“Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents). The following activities are carried out by third-party service providers:

• administration
• IT services
• maintenance

The following third party service providers process personal data about you for this purpose:

• Contractors for maintenance work including Alan Hill Window systems; Albert & Flaherty; ATEC Drainage Systems; Bush Healthcare; Busy Bees Cleaning Services; Celtic Cleaning Ltd; CKM Minibuses Ltd; D J Rees decorating; DRP Glass and Glazing Ltd; David Cooper; Dizzy Heights Access; Emlyn Brown; GKR Maintenance amp; Building Co; Gas Assessment & Training Centre (Wales) Ltd; Gavin Weale Electrical Services; Graft Heating; HeatForce (wales ltd); I G Doors Ltd; J B Painting & Decorating Ltd; J L F Haymer & Sons Ltd; Jamar Building & Roofing Contractors; Karl Jones Plumbing & Heating; Kaykel Communications Ltd; Kelray Building Maint.Ltd; Brian/Kevin Hamer Carpets; Landcraft Projects Ltd; LCB Construction; Lightning Solutions Electrical Services; Llamau; M Delacey & sons (holdings) Ltd; Medd Roofing Ltd; Merthyr Flooring Centre; Millennium Building Contr. LLP; New Tredegar Skip Hire; Otis Ltd; P & P Pest Control Ltd; Penydarren Electricals (Jeff Evans); Peter Trotman; PHH Environmental (UK) Ltd; Plexus; Residential Sprinkler Protection Ltd; Roger Jones & Sons; S & R Carpentry & Building Ltd; S R Building Solutions Ltd; SitexOrbis Limited; Skar Scaffolding; Smith of Derby; Sparkles Cleaning Services; Stannah Lift Services Ltd; Steddy Ltd; Steve’s Domestics Ltd; Steve’s Glass; Systems Electrical Engineering; The Colour House Ltd; Total Doors (UK) Ltd; Vision Products.
• Utility providers including British Gas, Liberty Gas, Dŵr Cymru (Welsh Water)
• Local Authority/Council Tax department
• IT service providers

How secure is my information with third-party service providers and other entities in our group?

All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

When might you share my personal information with other third parties?

We will share your personal information with other third parties, in the context of maintaining your property, for system maintenance support and hosting of data, grant monitoring and delivery including with:

• Contractors for maintenance work (see above list)
• Utility providers including British Gas, Liberty Gas, Dŵr Cymru (Welsh Water)
• Local Authority/Council Tax department
• IT service providers

What about other third parties?

We may need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law. This may include HMRC or the housing regulator or making disclosures to social services or to the police or where we share information with our professional advisors.

Transferring information outside the EU

We do not transfer information about you outside the EU.

9. DATA SECURITY

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available upon request. Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

10. DATA RETENTION

How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of our retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are available from Samantha Taylor, Director of Corporate Services (Tel: 01685 352800; 11/12 Lower High Street, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8EB). To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer a tenant of ours we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy.

11. RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide the full range of tenant services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact Samantha Taylor, Director of Corporate Services in writing at 11/12 Lower High Street, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8EB.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

12. RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact Samantha Taylor, Director of Corporate Services (Tel: 01685 352800; 11/12 Lower High Street, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8EB). Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

13. DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

We have appointed the Director of Corporate Services as a data privacy manager to oversee compliance with this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact the Director of Corporate Services. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

14. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact Heather Beynon, Director of Corporate Services (Tel: 01685 352800; 11/12 Lower High Street, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8EB).