nidirect web service privacy notice

Department of Finance privacy information

The nidirect website is edited by the nidirect Central Editorial Team, itself a part of Digital Shared Services (DSS). DSS is a Directorate of Enterprise Shared Services (ESS) within the Department of Finance. It is responsible for the provision of IT infrastructure services for the NI Civil Service and some wider public sector organisations.

In order to carry out its functions, DSS processes a range of personal information. This Privacy Information Statement relates to the nidirect Web Service. The type of data held and the reasons DSS are required to process it are set out below.  The Department of Finance is the data controller of the information and is committed to protecting your privacy at all times when using your personal data.

Data Protection Officer

The Data Protection Officer for DOF can be contacted at:

• Email: DataProtectionOfficer@finance-ni.gov.uk

nidirect Data Controller

If you need to contact the Data Controller for the nidirect website, you can do so at the following address:

• Email: feedback.nidirect@finance-ni.gov.uk

Purpose for processing

Your information is collected for the purposes of:

• identifying web errors, broken links or technical problems
• obtaining feedback from our customers to help improve our services
• responding to customer queries

Types of personal data

The nidirect Web Service collects two kinds of personal information from visitors to the website:

• customer feedback (through visitors voluntarily sending us personal information)
• email address (if the visitor wishes a response to their feedback)

Use of cookies

The nidirect Web Service, and some of the tools and services to which we link, use cookies. The nidirect Web Service does not collect any personal information via cookies or online surveys.  You can find more information on these cookies on the following pages:

• Cookies
• How we use cookies

Lawful basis for processing

Any personal information sent via the nidirect feedback service is processed on the basis of a Public Task: the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or the exercise of official authority vested in the controller

How your personal information is obtained

Your personal information is obtained by using a contact form on the nidirect website.

Who will your information be shared with

DSS will not share your personal information with third parties, except in the instance where DSS receives information via the nidirect feedback service that relates to another Department and indicates you are in significant distress, in which case we will pass your details to the relevant branch of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and ask that they contact you directly. Using your information in this way is considered a vital interest.

How will it be used

Your information is used to contact you regarding feedback we have received on our website. The only personal information we receive is that which is voluntarily sent to us via our Feedback facility.

If you indicate you require a response, you are asked to provide your email address. If you choose to provide any further personal information, this will be used only to the extent that it is necessary to respond to your query.

How long will we keep it

Your information will be stored until we have responded to your query and then it will be deleted. We aim to respond to all feedback within ten working days though in exceptional circumstances, it may take us longer than this to resolve your query.

Online services linked to from the nidirect website

There are a variety of online services that are linked to from the nidirect website. Some of these will gather personal information. As this data does not go to the nidirect Central Editorial Team, this Privacy Notice does not cover these services. Links to the privacy notices for these services can be found on the page below:

• Privacy notices for government services

This privacy notice also does not cover any data submitted to the GP online services for making appointments or ordering repeat prescriptions. For these services, you should refer to the privacy notice of the relevant GP practice.

Your rights

Under data protection legislation, you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information the Department of Finance hold about you. The Department tries to be as open as possible in terms of giving you access to your personal data. You can find out if the Department hold any information by making a subject access request. If the Department does hold information about you, it will:

• give you a description of it
• tell you why the Department is holding it;
• tell you who it could be disclosed to
• let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form

To make a request for any personal information the Department may hold, or to raise an objection about the processing it carry outs, you should put the request in writing and email it to DataProtectionOfficer@finance-ni.gov.uk.

Alternatively, you can write to:

If, at any point, you believe the information the Department processes on you is incorrect, you can ask to have this information corrected.

If you wish to raise a complaint about how the Department has handled your data, you can contact the Department’s Data Protection Officer who will investigate the matter.

If you are not satisfied with the Data Protection Officer’s response or believe the Department is not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner at:

• casework@ico.org.uk

or:

Changes to this Privacy Notice

This privacy notice is kept under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated in May 2018.

How to contact the Data Protection Officer

If you want to request information about this privacy notice or the Department of Finance’s data protection policy, you can email us at DataProtectionOfficer@finance-ni.gov.uk or write to:

• Telephone: to be confirmed

More useful links

• Social media 'house rules'