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Check local air quality privacy notice

This privacy notice explains how the Check local air quality service processes and shares your personal data. If you have any queries about the content of this privacy notice, please email data.protection@defra.gov.uk.

Who collects your personal data

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the controller for the personal data we collect:

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

If you need further information about how Defra uses your personal data and your associated rights you can contact the Defra data protection manager at data.protection@defra.gov.uk or at the above address.

The data protection officer for Defra is responsible for checking that Defra complies with legislation. You can contact them at DefraGroupDataProtectionOfficer@defra.gov.uk or at the above address.

What personal data we collect and how it is used

For the service to be functional, we collect the postcode or placename that you search for as this is essential data for the service to give relevant data.

If you accept the Google analytical cookies, then we will collect:

  • your IP address so that we can collect location information of users to our service. This will help us see what geographical locations are using our service.
  • your device and operating system to enable us to improve our service
  • the search term you used to find 'Check air quality' to enable us to improve our service
  • the pages you interact with in 'Check air quality' to enable us to improve our service

You can opt in and out of cookie acceptance.

Lawful basis for processing your personal data

The legal basis for processing your personal data to conduct research on the effectiveness of the service is consent. You do not have to provide your consent and you can withdraw your consent at any time.

Consent to process your personal data

The processing of your personal data is based on consent. We do not collect any information that could be personally linked to an individual; however, the IP address will be recorded for functionality of the service.

If you have consented to accepting cookies, any information that we collect during this process cannot be removed as we will be unable to identify that information to a specific individual.

Who we share your personal data with

We do not share the personal data collected under this privacy notice with other organisations.

We respect your personal privacy when responding to access to information requests. We only share information when necessary to meet the statutory requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

How long we hold personal data

We will keep your personal data for 7 years in line with legislative requirements which is 7 years.

What happens if you do not provide the personal data

If you do not provide the personal data of the postcode or location that you are searching for, then you will not be able to use our service as we will not be able to provide you any data.

The other personal data is optional and only required for service improvement.

Use of automated decision-making or profiling

The personal data you provide is not used for:

  • automated decision making (making a decision by automated means without any human involvement)
  • profiling (automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain things about an individual)

Transfer of your personal data outside of the UK

We will only transfer your personal data to another country that is deemed adequate for data protection purposes.

Your rights

Based on the lawful processing above, your individual rights are:

  • Consent
  • The right to be informed
  • The right of access
  • The right to rectification
  • The right to erasure
  • The right to restrict processing
  • The right to data portability
  • Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

More information about your individual rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), can be found at the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Complaints

You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office at any time.

Persona information charter

Our personal information charter explains more about your rights over your personal data.