Privacy notices

My Account is your online customer account. It's a faster, safer and more flexible way to access council services. If you register, your information will be used to deliver the service you have requested and for planning purposes to improve how these services are delivered to you in the future.

Using My Account you will be able to apply for services such as bins and boxes, pay for services such as council tax, report services such as bin collections and view transactions you’ve made.  

By registering for an online account you are agreeing to these terms and conditions.

Key principles

• London Borough of Croydon (LBC) is a data controller registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office; We comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018
• your data is securely stored within the European Union (EU); however where there will be transfer of data outside of the EU, LBC will adhere to strict security protocols and regulations to protect data
• LBC will require your consent in order you to use My Account.; when you register you will be asked to confirm your consent by emailing us; you can withdraw consent any time by emailing us at ContactCouncil@croydon.gov.uk
• your data will only be retained and used for as long as is necessary; where data is no longer required, it will be destroyed in line with the relevant destruction, retention and disposal policies and processes available within the council
• LBC will take all reasonable measures to ensure that any data you provide will be protected against loss, misuse or hijack
• by agreeing to register and request a service using My Account this is considered as consent and forms a legally binding agreement between the customer and LBC
• you agree to LBC periodically contacting them to update about services being provided and to also verify information provided and to ensure that this information remains up to date; this agreement can be amended via the Settings page in the My Profile section of My Account

How to register for my online account

You can register at www.croydon.gov.uk/myaccount .

Simply provide your details in the online form and confirm you have read and accepted the council’s corporate privacy notice at www.croydon.gov.uk/privacy.

Upon successful completion of the registration you will receive a confirmation email. Usually, the confirmation email should be in your inbox immediately, but remember to check your spam or clutter folder if you can’t find it.

Using your personal information

The council will require your explicit consent to set-up and use our My Account services. As we will be relying on your permission to process your personal information, you have a right to withdraw your consent at any time. We will always make it clear where we need your permission to undertake specific processing activities. Confirmation of your consent will be provided by email as part of our registration process.

If you wish to withdraw your consent, please contact us by emailing ContactCouncil@croydon.gov.uk or by calling us on 020 8726 6000. This will only affect the way we use personal information when our reason for doing so is that we require your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. If this is the case, we will tell you. See our corporate privacy notice for more information on withdrawing consent. 

Why the council collects and stores personal data

For some of our services, we need to collect personal data so we can get in touch, or provide the service. For example, we can’t collect your rubbish if we don't know your address. We always try to make sure the information we collect is correct and isn't an invasion of your privacy.

We may pass your personal data onto the people who provide the service. These providers are obliged to keep your details securely, and use them only to fulfil your request. Once your request has been dealt with or the case has been closed, we will ensure your data is securely disposed of. If we wish to pass your sensitive personal data onto a third party, we will only do so once we have obtained your consent, unless we are legally required to do so.

Any personal information you give us – sent in online via eforms, the app or through other means – is held securely and will be used only for council purposes. We will use information collected for your My Account primarily for that purpose; however, in some cases, we may use the information for other purposes as may be permitted by the law. Please see our corporate privacy notice at www.croydon.gov.uk/privacy for more information.

Using your information via My Account helps us to:

• deliver services that can be tailored to your needs
• confirm your identity to provide some services
• inform you of other relevant services and benefits and ask your opinion about our services
• update your central customer record

We will not share your information with third parties for commercial or marketing purposes.

We may share your personal information with other agencies (eg law enforcement agencies) where the law requires us to or where it is appropriate to support our duty to protect public funds and/or detect and prevent fraud or other criminal activity.

The GDPR 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018 give you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how it is used by us. For more information about how we use your personal data and your individual privacy rights, please see the Council’s corporate privacy notice at www.croydon.gov.uk/privacy.

The information we hold about you is confidential. Any records we hold about you can only be seen by authorised staff and others with a right to know, including you.

By using My Account you agree:

• to keep your username and password secure
• not to share your username or password with anyone else
• to change your password at regular intervals
• to tell us if any of the information we hold about you or the address at which you pay Council Tax is incorrect or incomplete
• Croydon council is not liable for any loss suffered by you as a result of you sharing or losing your username or password
• data held in respect of your accounts is held in accordance with the GDPR 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018; by creating an account you agree to the terms of use outlined in the Council’s corporate privacy notice
• if you suspect your account has been compromised, you should close it immediately and apply for a new one
• although we take steps to ensure our websites and links are virus-free, you are advised to ensure that you have adequate anti-virus protection on your computer
• access to the service may sometimes be unavailable due to maintenance, and can also be affected by your service provider, your network connection, and your computer; if you experience connection difficulties you should retry accessing the service
• payments made through the council’s online payment service will normally be credited to your account up to two business days after they are made; please bear this in mind, and also check you are paying the right amount
• any deliberate attempt to gain access to information you are not authorised to see may contravene the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and/or the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, and may incur criminal penalties
• accounts that contravene these terms and conditions may be closed without notice
• we check and close inactive accounts routinely; we will inform you before your account is closed
• if you close your account, we will endeavour to remove your personal information from our systems subject to our retention process

Using your My Account details on other council sites (My Account single sign on) 

• the council may enable you to use you username and password for other online services provided by the council; when this occurs, only your name and email address is shared with the authorised website
• your name and address may be saved by the authorised site, and may be displayed by the site, or used to pre-populate form fields on the site
• websites which make use of My Account single sign on are:

www.croydon.gov.uk  

https://my.croydon.gov.uk  

Email newsletters 

• the council may use online services outside of the EU in order to prepare, send and analyse usage of email newsletters
• where this occurs, the council will adhere to strict security protocols and regulations to protect data and maintain compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation, and relevant guidance from the ICO

How the council uses social media 

• the council may monitor public social media accounts relevant to the council or its work within the borough, which may involve saving messages that were posted publicly, or sent privately addressed to an account managed by the council.  
• if the council is contacted publicly or privately through social media it may respond via the same social media platform; it may also share information sent by social media, including private messages, with necessary staff and partner organisations in order to provide the requested information or service

Requesting access to your personal data

Under GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to request access to information that we hold about you. To make a request for your personal information, please contact the council’s Information Management Team at SAR@croydon.gov.uk.

Further information

If you have any questions or concerns about the way we collect, store or use your personal information, please contact in the first instance ContactCouncil@croydon.gov.uk.

Additional information what personal information we collect about you, how and why we use it, who we disclose it to, and how we protect it can also be found on the Council’s corporate privacy notice at www.croydon.gov.uk/privacy.

For independent advice about data protection issues, contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk.

We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice at any time and will keep it under review. If we do make any changes, we will post the current version to our website at this address.

Last updated: May 2018