communityadvice.scot Privacy Notice – Advice Direct Scotland

Introduction

Advice Direct Scotland (ICO Registration Z9035412) (“ADS”) takes your privacy very seriously. This Privacy Notice is intended to set out your rights and answer any queries you may have about your personal data.

How do we collect information from you?

We obtain information about you via our website when you complete the contact form and through cookies. Customer information is obtained over the course of the enquiry with us. This can be done by phone, email, livechat or contact form.

What type of information do we collect from you via our website?

The following types of personal information are collected through the contact form:

Name
Address
Email address
IP address

Cookies

Our website uses cookies. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information stored on your computer which allows websites to recognise you when you visit. These cookies will not identify you as an individual but will collect statistical data concerning your browsing patterns and actions online. We use cookies to understand more about how our site is being used by visitors.

Cookies help us track various aspects of user visitations to our website. This includes the length of a user visit, their geographic location, and patterns of user navigation on our site.

You can switch off cookies on your computer, although this may result in a loss of functionality when accessing our website.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site.

The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited.

For more information on Google Analytics’ privacy policy visit here.

Google Maps

These are Google Maps third-party cookies, which are unique identifiers to allow traffic analysis to Google Maps.

For more information on Google Maps’ privacy policy visit here.

Other websites

The communityadvice.scot website may contain links to websites which are controlled by external organisations. This privacy policy only covers this website. Therefore, we strongly advise that you read the privacy notices of other sites, even if they are accessed using links from our website.

Additionally, we are not responsible for the privacy policies and security practices of third-party sites. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of these sites.

What information do we collect from our customers?

We collect this information directly from you and our partners.

We collect and process personal data about you when you interact with our advisers or automated services. The personal data we process includes:

Name
Address
Contact telephone number
Email address
Energy services used
Meter type
Energy supplier
Energy account number
Anyone over 66 years of age
Children in household
Age of children in household
Number of family members in household
Average bill costs
Disability within household (requires statement of proof)
Ill health within household (requires statement of proof)
Current fuel debt
Next estimated fuel bill

Under the situation where ADS is acting as the referral partner for your application, we will also require and collect evidence of your circumstances. Where your referral partner is a third-party, the third-party will collect and store your evidence, and ADS will not store it.

We collect this information directly from you and our personnel.

How do we use this information and what is the legal basis for this use?

We process the data listed above for the following purposes:

Purpose	Lawful Basis
To assist you in your enquiry to provide relevant and applicable guidance, advice and information	Legitimate Interests (GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)) – We need to process your data to provide you with our services
To administer your application	Consent (GDPR, Article 6(1)(a)) – The data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes.
Protecting ADS’s legitimate business interests and legal rights, including but not limited to, use in connection with legal claims, compliance, regulatory and investigative purposes (including disclosure of such information in connection with legal process or litigation)	Legitimate Interests (GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)) – We may need to process your data to protect our organisation
To monitor use of our websites and online services	Legitimate Interests (GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)) – We may use your information to help us check, improve and protect our products, content, services and websites, both online and offline
To monitor any customer account to prevent, investigate and/or report fraud, terrorism, misrepresentation, security incidents or crime	Legitimate Interests (GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)) and Legal Obligation (GDPR, Article 6(1)(c)) – We are legally obliged to process data for this purpose
To provide our funders with anonymous statistics on service use	Legitimate Interests (GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)) – These reports will never include any personally identifiable information, meaning no-one will be able to discern who you are from the information provided
To comply with applicable law and legislation	Legal Obligation (GDPR, Article 6(1)(c)) – We are legally obliged to process data for this purpose
To ensure that the vital interests of customers.	Vital Interests (GDPR, Article 6(1)(d)) – Processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or other natural person.

With whom and where will we share your personal data?

Personal data may be shared with government authorities and/or law enforcement officials if required for the purposes above, if mandated by law or if needed for the legal protection of our legitimate interests in compliance with applicable laws.

How long do we keep your personal data?

Service	Retention Period	Data Type
communityadvice.scot	Three months	Call recordings
	Six Months	Rest of the data if application is unsuccessful
	Two years after the fund closes (31/3/23)	Two years after the fund closes First East Lothian Community Power Fund iteration-31/3/23 Second East Lothian Community power fund iteration and the First Dalry fund iternation-31/3/24

We will not keep your personal information for any purpose for longer than is necessary and will only retain the personal information that is necessary in relation to the purpose. We are also required to retain certain information as required by law or for as long as is reasonably necessary to meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce our terms and conditions.

We will retain your data for a short time beyond the specified retention period, to allow for information to be reviewed and any deletion to take place. In some instances, laws may require ADS to hold certain information for specific periods other than those listed above.

What are your rights in relation to your personal data?

Under data protection law, you have the following rights:

Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you in most cases.

Please contact us at DPO@advice.scot if you wish to make a request.

Where can you find more information about ADS’s handling of your data?

If you have any outstanding questions or requests regarding this policy or our privacy practices in general, you can contact us by email through DPO@advice.scot.

Complaints

If you are not happy with our response or require further information regarding data processing rules and regulations, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office: https://ico.org.uk/.