This privacy policy sets out how Loveashford and its employees uses and protects any information that you give Loveashford, during and after using this website.

In collecting this information, we are acting as a data controller and by law are required to provide you with information about us, about why and how we are using your data and about the rights you have over your data.

Loveashford is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

Loveashford may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page to ensure that you are happy with any changes made.

If we want to make use of your personal data in a way that we haven’t previously identified, we will contact you to provide information about this and, if necessary, to ask for your consent.

Who we are
We are Loveashford, a brand owned by Ashford Borough Council. Our registered address is Economic Development, Civic Centre, Tannery Lane, Ashford, Kent, TN23 1PL. You can contact the Data Controller by writing to us at this address, or via email at loveashford@ashford.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact us by telephone on 01233 330321.

Personal Data
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) defines personal data as “Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ('data subject'); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person”.

What we collect, where we store it and how long we keep it for
When you complete one of our submission forms or sign up to our newsletter, we may ask you for certain information, referred to as “personal information,” which includes information that pertains to your identity. We ask for your consent to do this and providing us with your personal data is optional and we endeavour to only collect data that is relevant to your request.

We may collect the following information:

Your name
Your contact information including email address, phone number, business name & business address
Demographic information such as your postcode, preferences and interests
Other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers
General information, including cookies may be collected from you whenever you access or use the website.

Cookies
Cookies are small data files which are sent from the website and stored on your computer by your website browser. The cookies used on this website are either to:

Enable you to navigate the website and find the information you are looking for, or
To give us general information about website activity, e.g. how many people visit the website, which pages they look at, what devices they use (PC's mobile phones etc). The information stored does not include any personal data.
We use Google Analytics so that we can find out how many people visit various parts of the website. This information helps us to find out how effectively our website is working and how to improve it. We do not identify anyone, and we do not allow Google Analytics to identify anyone visiting our website.

What we do with the information we gather.
We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

Internal record keeping
To respond to your query, including providing you with any requested information about our products and services
We may use the information we collect to improve our products and services
We may periodically send promotional email about town centre events, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided us
From time to time, we may also use your email address information to contact you for market research purposes
We may use the information we collect to customize our website according to your interests
We do not share your information with any third party partners for marketing or promotional purposes
We will never sell your information
We will keep your information for five years unless you request to have your information removed from our database before then
If you are a business submitting your information to Loveashford your information may be held on our Town Centre Business list so we can provide you with news and updates that may be relevant to your business.
Your enquiry is stored and processed as an email which is hosted by Microsoft within the European Economic Area (EEA).

We do not use the information you provide to make any automated decisions that might affect you.

We keep enquiry emails and submissions via loveashford.com for up to 7 years, after which they are deleted from our server.

When you sign up to our newsletters.
When you sign up to receive our newsletter, we ask for your name and your email address.

We will ask for your consent to use your name and email address to email you our newsletter which contains information about our products and other information which we feel might be of interest to you.

You can withdraw your consent at any time and we will stop sending you the newsletter.

Your name and email address are shared with MailChimp which is based in the USA and is certified to the EU-US Privacy Shield (which requires effective safeguards for your information).

We do not use the information you provide to make any automated decisions that might affect you.

We keep your personal data for as long as we produce and distribute our newsletter. If you withdraw your consent, we will mark your details so that they are not used and delete them after two years.

Access to your information and correction.
Loveashford representatives are employees of Ashford Borough Council’s Economic Development team. When you opt-in to the Loveashford newsletter, only Loveashford representatives at Ashford Borough Council will have access to your information.

If you are submitting information through the Loveashford website using loveashford.com/submit, your information may be made visible to our website providers, Mutual. You can view Mutual’s own privacy policy at madebymutual.com.

Subject to certain limitations, you have the right to:-

Request access to your personal information

Request correction or erasure of your information

Request the restriction of processing of your personal information

Object to the processing of your information

If you would like to request access, correction, erasure, restriction or object to the processing of your data please write to the Data Controller at Civic Centre, Tannery Lane, Ashford, Kent TN23 1PL or by email at loveashford@ashford.gov.uk.

You can also withdraw your consent for us to send you newsletters at any time, either by clicking the unsubscribe link at the end of any newsletter, or by writing or emailing us using the contact details above.

Complaints.
You have the right to make a complaint about our use of your information by either contacting the Data Controller at Ashford Borough Council, Civic Centre, Tannery Lane, Ashford, Kent, TN23 1PL, or the UK Data Protection Supervisory Authority whose contact details are:

UK Supervisory Authority (ICO)

Address:
Customer Contact
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Website: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Security.
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

You may request to view, update or delete your information from our data collection at any time by emailing loveashford@ashford.gov.uk.