Guidance

Home Office social media: privacy notice

Published 6 August 2019

What data we process and why

The Home Office is the lead UK government department for immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime, fire, counter-terrorism and police. We process personal data for the purposes of performing our duties as a ministerial department.

The Home Office is the controller (within the meaning of Article 4 of the General Data Protection Regulation) of the personal data you provide to us through our filming, photography and audio recordings consent form.

We will ensure that we will treat all personal information in accordance with the current data protection legislation.

Children’s privacy protection

We understand the importance of protecting children’s privacy online. Our filming, photography and audio recordings consent form is not designed for children under the age of 13 years.

We will not ask for data as part of this policy that relates to children under the age of 13 years unless we have the explicit consent of the appropriate adult.

Legal basis for processing data

The Home Office processes your personal data in relation to filming, photography and/or audio recordings as a social media on the basis of your consent. This consent is for a specific purpose and your media will not be used for any other purpose. Should we wish to use it for a different purpose we will contact you direct and ask for your consent for the new purpose.

What we do with it

In addition to processing this data in accordance with your consent, there may be other circumstances in which we may lawfully share your data with third parties where, for example, we are required to do so by law, by court order, or to prevent fraud or other crimes. Where we share data, however, we shall do so in accordance with applicable data protection laws and where required to do so we shall notify you of this further processing.

By signing the filming, photography and audio recordings consent form, you are agreeing that we can record, process and publish your image, words and/or voice in both printed and digital form as applicable, for the creation of internal and external promotional and follow-up communications material. This includes content that will be posted across some or all of our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube).

The Home Office cannot be held responsible for the data and privacy policies and/or practices of the social media platforms we may upload content to that features your image, words and/or voice. You can find more information about these platforms’ privacy and data policies on the respective Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube websites.

How long we keep your data

We will retain your personal data, image, words and/or voice for no longer than five years or for as long as we are legally required to do so and in line with our retention schedule.

The security of your personal information is important to us. This is why we follow a range of security policies and procedures to control and safeguard access to and use of your personal information:

• controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it
• training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong
• regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates

Your rights

In certain circumstances you have the right to:

• object – request that your data is not processed for certain purposes
• erasure – request that your personal data is erased where one of the statutory grounds applies
• restrict processing – request that the processing of your personal data is restricted in certain circumstances – for example, where accuracy is contested
• rectification – request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay. Request that any incomplete personal data is completed, including by means of a supplementary statement
• access – request information about how your personal data is processed and to request a copy of that personal data

As your personal data is processed on the basis of consent, you have the right to:

• withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data at any time
• ask the Home Office to cease publication of your image, words and/or voice on its social media channels. If you do so, the Home Office will not publish further social media posts featuring this content, but it is not obligated to remove or delete existing posts

Further information on rights and the ways in which your data may be used are contained in the filming, photography and audio recordings consent form.

If you wish to contact us to make a request to exercise one of these rights email: SocialMediaTeam@homeoffice.gov.uk

How to contact us

General enquiries

If you have any questions about anything in this notice, contact SocialMediaTeam@homeoffice.gov.uk

Complaints

If you consider your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you can contact the Data Protection Officer.

The Home Office Data Protection officer is an independent role appointed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

The Home Office Data Protection Officer can be contacted by:

• Email: dpo@homeoffice.gov.uk
• Telephone: 020 7035 6999

Or write to:

Office of the DPO
Home Office
Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

You may also make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

• Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
• Fax: 01625 524510

You can also visit the Information Commissioner’s Office website.