Conditions of Use

Email privacy notice

We (City of Wolverhampton Council) use GovDelivery as our email marketing provider. All data is processed in accordance with the UK Data Protection Laws (The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act 2018). This means that we are the licensee and owner of the personal data processed by GovDelivery on our behalf. Personal data is stored securely by GovDelivery on servers located in the USA and all parties ensure that the personal data is adequately protected in accordance with Article 25 of the EU Directive 95/46/EC and UK Data Protection Laws. We take your privacy and the security of your information very seriously.

What we collect

We collect the following information from you:

• Full name
• Email
• Postcode
• Company name
• School
• Ward

What we do with the information we gather

We use this information to provide a service that allows us to engage with customers via email. Our promotional or marketing messages can benefit you by giving you information about our own services and those provided by approved third parties (such as companies or groups we work with).

Representative examples of the promotional or marketing messages which we may send you include but are not limited to:

• information about activities and events we and other organisations provide
• information on new services and features within services of interest
• opportunities to do more business with the council online
• promoting services that may interest you, including supporting families with young people, employment or training
• giving you information on energy, heating or water saving services
• telling you how you can get advice on setting up your own business or business growth
• inviting you to take part in surveys
• access to work programs or employment training or employment opportunities
• activities to help bring communities together

Telling us about changes to your email information

You have the right to have inaccurate/outdated information amended, deleted or destroyed. If any of your email details change please tell us by emailing webmaster@wolverhampton.gov.uk or log in to your GovDelivery account and make the changes yourself.

How to opt out

You can opt out of receiving emails from us at any time by logging in to your GovDelivery account.  From here you can also manage your subscriber preferences.

The opportunity to opt out is also offered to you in each individual email campaign we organise via GovDelivery.

How to access your information

We will be as open as possible with you about the personal information we hold about you, and if something is wrong we want to work with you to put it right. You can use the contact details on this page to get in touch.

Finding out about the personal information we hold about you

UK Data Protection Law gives you a number of rights in relation to your personal information. Find out more at: Your data matters on the ICO website.

You can ask us whether we are keeping personal information about you by using the details on this page to get in touch.

What we collect

We may collect the following information:

• name and job title
• contact information including e-mail address
• demographic information such as postcode
• preferences and interests
• other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers

What we do with the information we gather

We will use the information you have provided us with to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

• internal record keeping
• we may use the information to improve our products and services
• we may periodically send promotional e-mails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the e-mail address which you have provided
• from time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes
• we may contact you by e-mail, phone, fax or mail
• we may use the information to customise the website according to your interests

Remember you can manage your preferences or opt out of receiving emails from us at any time by logging in to your GovDelivery account.

Security

City of Wolverhampton Council is committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

Cookies

The City of Wolverhampton Council currently uses Google Analytics to monitor traffic to and around our website. Google Analytics uses cookies to help the website analyse how users use the site. Find out more about our use of cookies.

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, your computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

We use the following cookies:

• _ga, _gat, and _gid - is used for Google Analytics tracking.
• _hjIncludedInSample - is used for Hotjar tracking - a service that can analyse how users are using a specific page - where they click, where they hover and how far they scroll down on the page.
• bbd_emergency_notice_dismiss and bbd_emergency_notice_id - track if a user has seen and dismissed the emergency pop up.
• contrast and zoom - track a user's accessibility tool preferences.
• cookie-agreed - tracks a user's cookie consent.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Google Analytics

City of Wolverhampton Council currently uses Google Analytics to monitor traffic to and around our website. This helps us to provide the best possible user experience and encourages customers to use more cost-effective channels for accessing information on City of Wolverhampton Council services. Analytics also help us to identify if our digital channels are offering value for money.

How we audited these cookies

1. Clear all existing cookies from the browser.
2. Browse through navigation and pages within the website.
3. Revisit the cookies tab in the browser to discover cookies that are used on the site.
4. Use definitions of cookies provided by the analytics supplier.

Google Analytics uses the following cookies on our website:

• pref: This cookie expires after 2 years and is considered as minimally intrusive. It is used to remember your language preferences if you choose to translate any pages. If you block this cookie - the language will default to English and the site will work normally. However, if you want to use the translate feature on more than one page at a time - you will need to enable the cookie.
• __utma: This cookie expires after 2 years and is considered as minimally intrusive. Each unique browser that visits a page on the site is provided with a unique ID via the __utma cookie. In this way, subsequent visits to the website via the same browser are recorded as belonging to the same (unique) visitor. Thus, if a person interacted with the website using different browsers, the Analytics reports would track this activity under two unique visitors. Similarly if the same browser were used by two different visitors, but with a separate computer account for each, the activity would be recorded under two unique visitor IDs. On the other hand, if the browser happens to be used by two different people sharing the same computer account, one unique visitor ID is recorded, even though two unique individuals accessed the site.
• __utmb expires after 30 minutes and __utmc expires at the end of your session: These cookies are considered as minimally intrusive.  Google Analytics uses these two cookies to establish a session. If either of these two cookies is absent, further activity by the user initiates the start of a new session.
• _utmz: This cookie expires after 6 months and is considered as minimally intrusive. When visitors reach the site via a search engine result, a direct link, or an ad that links to the page, Google Analytics stores the type of referral information in a cookie. The parameters in the cookie value string are parsed and sent in the GIF Request (in the utmcc variable). The expiration date for the cookie is set as 6 months into the future.  This cookie gets updated with each subsequent page view to the site; thus it is used to determine visitor navigation within the site.

Google Analytics uses cookies to help the website analyse how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.

Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf.

Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you in the manner and for the purposes set out in this information.

*Minimally intrusive - limited to first party websites with a low level of intrusiveness and risk of harm to individuals.

How will we keep our cookies policy up to date

City of Wolverhampton Council will aim to review what cookies are used on our site every 6 months. We will conduct the same audit process as outlined above and update this policy accordingly.