Customer Contact Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice outlines how your personal data is processed by us, Boston Borough Council (BBC), and our partner, Public Sector Partnership Services (PSPS), when you contact our customer contact channels.

For all contact made through our customer contact teams, we are the Data Controller responsible for the personal information you may provide. Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) can be contacted via email Data.Protection@boston.gov.uk, by phone on 01205 314200, or by writing to us at information Management, Boston Borough Council, Municipal Buildings, West Street, Boston, PE21 8QR.

Your data will initially be processed by PSPS, a company which is owned by East Lindsey, South Holland District Councils and Boston Borough Council, before it is passed onto any relevant Council departments for processing. PSPS' Data Protection Officer can be contacted via email: Data.Protection@pspsl.co.uk, by phone on 01507 613303, or in writing to Data Protection Officer, Public Sector Partnership Services, The Hub, Mareham Road, Horncastle, Lincolnshire, LN9 6PH.

What we mean by Customer Contact

Any time you call the Council by phoning (01205 314200), by emailing a central email address, by submitting a web form, using webchat or by speaking with an advisor face-to-face, you are engaging with our customer contact team.

Their role is to answer any queries they can directly, and/or to pass your query on to relevant specialists when appropriate or necessary to do so.

Types of information processed by Customer Contact

Our Customer Contact team can be the main or first point of contact for any service provided by the Council. For example, this may include but not be limited to services relating to: Council Tax, Benefits, Business Rates, Housing Advice and Support, Environmental Protection, Planning, Waste Services and Licensing.

The type of information retained is usually high level information regarding your contact, such as when you contacted us, by what method, what you contacted us about and any other information taken at the time such as contact information.

Contact recording

When contacting us, all calls are recorded and held on the system for no longer than 30 days, unless there is a legitimate reason to do so. When a call is recorded, the telephone number of both parties (internal and external) and a digital recording of the telephone conversation, these are retained securely and confidentially.

From June 2024, a new webchat channel will be implemented on our website for customers to interact with us in a digital way. All web chat messages are recorded and will be held on the system for no longer than 2 years, unless there is a legitimate reason to do so. The recording will include a full transcript of the conversation on webchat and the customer's name, email address and postcode that is provided at the start of an interaction.

Contact recordings will be used to assist in the quality monitoring of staff performance, to investigate and resolve complaints and to identify training needs.

The data controller for contact recordings is PSPS.

Assisted Services Case Management

Assisted Services is a solution commonly used in Customer Contact environments for recording customer information. PSPSL operates Assisted Services on behalf of the Council as part of the customer contact service provided, and this is used with the intention of providing a more efficient and effective service to customers when they contact the Council. Information relating to when you contacted the Council, what you contacted the Council for and any associated contact information provided at the time are recorded and then used to save you from repeating all of this again in any subsequent engagement. We will check contact details for accuracy when you contact us.

PSPSL and The Council receive no benefit from holding this information. The sole purpose is to allow the customer experience to be a more efficient and satisfactory one.

Your rights

You have a number of rights outlined in data protection law, and these include the right to access information we hold about you, the right to insist on rectification where the data we hold is inaccurate, the right to insist we delete your information where you feel that processing is unlawful and/or unnecessary. You can contact our DPO as outlined above if you wish to exercise any of these rights or if you have any other queries relating to the processing of your personal data. If you are dissatisfied with how we have dealt with your queries or complaints, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner. Details of how to do this can be found on their website:  https://ico.org.uk/