Copyright & Privacy

Sawbridgeworth Town Council declares its copyright on this site.

Sawbridgeworth Town Council respects your privacy. The information that you provide us with, or that is gathered automatically, helps us to monitor our services and provide to you the services that you are entitled to as a local resident or visitor to our website.

Our Commitment to Privacy
Is my visit to this web site anonymous? Yes! Your visit to our site is anonymous (no personal information about you is recorded or gathered) unless you contribute to it or fill in a form requesting information. Each time you visit our web site, our system automatically recognises your domain name, but not your specific email address.
What's a domain name? Your email address might look like john.smith@gmail.com, our system only recognises the part 'gmail.com'. If you have specifically provided us with your email, postal address or telephone number and do not want us to contact you in the future, please write to us (contact details are on each screen). We will then ensure that we do not process your contact information for purposes not connected with your initial enquiry. However, once you have submitted items to the site or completed a form we may need to contact you for administrative or verification purposes in relation to your contribution, or in relation to particular projects. See 'Your Rights' below.
What are Traffic Logs? We use traffic logs to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our Website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes.

Links Our website contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices within any of these other sites. We encourage you to be aware of this when you leave our site and to read the privacy statements on other websites you visit which collect personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected on our website.

Your Rights - The Data Protection Act
Under the Data Protection Act we have a legal duty to protect any personal information we collect from you. We do not pass on your details to any third party or government department unless you give us permission to do so or the law requires/permits it. We are committed to respecting your privacy. We have structured our website so that, in general, you can visit it without identifying yourself or revealing any personal information. Once you choose to provide us with any information by which you can be identified, then you can be assured that it will only be used for the purpose for which it was originally collected or compatible purposes. Please be advised that any information, unless stated otherwise, will be sent to us via the open internet and is therefore not secure during transmission to us. This is because your information may pass from your contact pc to an internet service provider and then via other providers to us, much in the same way as most email correspondence.

The Information Commissioner
The Information Commissioner enforces and oversees the Data Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act. We have to notify the Information Commissioner of the types of personal data we process and for what purpose we use it for and whom we share it with.
The Data Protection Act provides you with rights in relation to the personal data we may hold about you, namely:
• be provided with a copy of your personal data that we process and information concerning the processing.
• prevent processing likely to cause damage or distress.
• prevent processing for the purposes of direct marketing.
• rights in relation to automated decision taking.
• take action for compensation from the Council if damage results from any breach of the Act by the Council.
• take action to rectify, block, erase or destroy inaccurate data.

With regard to your rights to be provided with a copy of your personal data, you are entitled to this within 40 days of making the request, providing the request is in writing. Requests must contain the information required to satisfy the council as to the identity of the person making the request (we may require proof of your identity). Requests must contain the information required to enable the council to locate the information which is being sought. We will assist you where possible. We may charge up to £10 for this data.

Further information about the Data Protection Act can be obtained from:Information Commissioner.
Notification of Changes to Policy If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post details of any changes in this section on this website. This will help ensure that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we share it with other parties. If you have any concerns, questions or comments please email the council.