Privacy & Cookies

Grand Union Homes is part of Grand Union Housing Group (GUHG). GUHG is committed to treating your information securely and safeguarding your rights to confidentiality. We will ensure your personal information is processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), to promote accountability and transparency.

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when GUHG processes your personal information. It applies to information about housing applicants, residents and other service users. This is the main privacy notice for GUHG.

Personal data shall be;

• Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner
• Collected for a specified and legitimate purpose
• Adequate, relevant and limited
• Accurate
• Kept no longer than is necessary
• Processed in line with your rights
• Secure
• Not transferred to countries outside the European Union

For further information you can contact our Data Protection Officer at:

Data Protection Officer
Grand Union Housing Group
K2
Timbold Drive
Kents Hill
Milton Keynes
MK7 6BZ

Or email dataprotection@guhg.co.uk

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. Details can be found on their website

https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/ or contact them on 0303 123 1113

What Information we collect

We will only collect personal information when we need to. The type of information may vary depending on the service(s) you receive.

Most information we hold will be collected from you but we may obtain this from third parties such as the local authority, a previous landlord or other relevant community partners. We may also obtain information from third parties to validate, or where appropriate, enhance the information we hold.

The information we may collect includes, but is not restricted to, the following:

• Name
• Address, including previous and forwarding addresses
• Contact information including email address
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Photographic ID
• National insurance number
• Bank details
• Employment details
• Religion
• Sexual orientation
• Income
• Any state benefits
• Marital status and members of your household
• Health and care issues
• Disabilities
• Ethnicity, culture or religion
• Criminal activities including anti-social behaviour
• CCTV footage
• Call recordings from phone calls to our organisation

When you provide information about household members we assume that you do so with their full knowledge and consent. This information is requested as part of a contractual requirement and is in our legitimate interest to know who will be living in our premises. For example we would need to know household details to assess eligibility for housing and the type of accommodation required.

We may hold other information about you for specific purposes for services we provide. We try to ensure information is accurate, up to date and not kept for longer than necessary.

To assist with personal security and crime prevention we may capture your image on our CCTV systems if you visit an office, estate or communal area which is covered by this facility.

Special categories of personal data

Special categories of data include:

• Racial or ethnic origin
• Sexual orientation
• Health information
• Religious or philosophical beliefs

Special category data is used to monitor equality, diversity and inclusion and to ensure services are delivered appropriately.

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:

• Manage applications made by you
• Manage your tenancy, lease or other services you may engage with
• Fulfil our legal obligations
• Meet your needs in our service delivery
• Plan, develop and  improve our products and services
• Prevent fraud
• To contact you in regard to your request
• We may contact you for market research purposes and customer satisfaction  surveys to help monitor performance and improve our services
• Information may be used for market/customer research, analysis and developing statistics and we may supply data to third party contractors to deliver services on our behalf for this purpose.

To understand how we are performing we undertake call recording in some of our service areas for training and quality monitoring purposes. We also hold records of any contact we have with you and any contact from third parties representing you.

The organisation does not use any system based automated decision process for any significant processes. You will always be able to query decisions with staff.

Accuracy of your information

We endeavour to keep our records up to date. However, if any of your personal details change (e.g. contact details, household composition) please let us know.

Who we share your information with

Information will be used across the organisation to ensure you are receiving all services you have requested.

We will not provide your information to any unauthorised third parties or share information except where we are required to by law or where your consent has been given.

Information sharing in our legitimate business interest may include:

• Warranty providers such as NHBC or Premier in relation to the 10 or 12 year warranty provided on all new homes
• Developers, contractors and their subcontractors in relation to defects and any works required to your property
• GUHG appointed contractors in relation to defects and any works required
• Local authority teams such as social services, benefit agencies, council tax and  environmental health
• Utility companies
• Third party services acting on our behalf i.e. a mailing company distributing rent statements or a debt collection agency pursuing former tenant arrears
• Police and other relevant statutory agencies i.e. HM Revenue and Customs, Department of Work & Pensions
• The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) as part of the regulatory requirements of CORE (Continuous Recording of social housing lettings and sales) used for research and statistical purposes. DLUHC have their own Privacy Notice which can be found here and where you can find more information about the process and who to contact if you have any concerns.

We may also share information when required by law or to protect the legitimate interest of an individual.

Security

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

To help ensure confidentiality we will ask you, or any person authorised to act on your behalf, security questions to confirm your identity when contact is made. We will not discuss your personal information with anyone other than you unless you have given prior written authorisation (or historically verbal instruction)

How long we keep your data

GUHG retains personal information during the period of our relationship and for a set period afterwards to allow us to meet legal obligations.

We document retention schedules against different types of information. This is based on legal requirements, best practice and the National Housing Federation guidance.

If you would like further information please contact our Data Protection Officer dataprotection@guhg.co.uk

Your rights

GUHG is committed to upholding your rights in respect of your personal data

The law provides the following rights for individuals:

1.    Right to be informed

2.    The right of access

3.    The right to rectification

4.    The right to erase

5.    The right to restrict processing

6.    The right to data portability

7.    The right to object

8.    Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

Further information can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/

Access to personal information

You have the right to request access to personal information we may hold about you by making a Subject Access Request application. If you would like to do this you can complete the subject access request form or make a written request to our Data Protection Officer at the address provided above.

Right to be forgotten

You have the right to request access to personal information we may hold about you by making a Subject Access Request application. If you would like to do this you can complete the subject access request form or make a written request to our Data Protection Officer at the address provided above. If you would like your details completely removed from our systems please visit https://www.grandunionhousing.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/privacy-policy/subject-access-request-form/ Subject Access Request form and choose Right to be forgotten.

Visitors to our websites

When someone visits our websites we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make  any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest or for third party applications. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on the device you are viewing the website with. Cookies can help analyse web traffic or let you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We, as an organisation, use traffic log cookies 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 and then the data is removed from the system. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not.

A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website. Please view the help section of your individual browser to see how you can change your settings.

Cookies and plug-ins we use

Google Analytics uses a cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. Cookies can help analyse web traffic or let you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual such as language choice. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising use cookies to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay to improve and market our services. Website usage data is captured using first and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of services and online activity. Additionally, we use this information for site optimisation, fraud and security purposes. For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement

Cookie file	Name	Purpose	Information
NID __cfduid _ga _gat _gid	Google Analytics	Google Analytics cookies help us understand how our visitors engage with their properties. We may use a set of cookies to collect information and report website usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google.	Most Google users will have a preferences cookie called ‘NID’ in their browsers. A browser sends this cookie with requests to Google’s sites. The NID cookie contains a unique ID Google uses to remember your preferences and other information.
googtrans	Google Translate	To save the language choice you choose to display the website in.
cookie-notice	Cookie Notice	To acknowledge you have clicked to state you have understood the cookie notice.
_clck	Microsoft Clarity	Persists the Clarity User ID and preferences, unique to that site is attributed to the same user ID.
_clsk	Microsoft Clarity	Connects multiple page views by a user into a single Clarity session recording.
CLID	Microsoft Clarity	Identifies the first-time Clarity saw this user on any site using Clarity.
ANONCHK	Microsoft Clarity	Indicates whether MUID is transferred to ANID, a cookie used for advertising. Clarity doesn’t use ANID and so this is always set to 0.
MR	Microsoft Clarity	Indicates whether to refresh MUID.
MUID	Microsoft Clarity	Identifies unique web browsers visiting Microsoft sites. These cookies are used for advertising, site analytics, and other operational purposes.
MUID	Microsoft Clarity	Used in synchronizing the MUID across Microsoft domains.

How do I change my cookie settings?

You can use the Manage consent link to edit your cookie settings for this website. 

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics cookies help us understand how our visitors engage with their properties. We may use a set of cookies to collect information and report website usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google.

Most Google users will have a preferences cookie called ‘NID’ in their browsers. A browser sends this cookie with requests to Google’s sites. The NID cookie contains a unique ID Google uses to remember your preferences and other information.

To acknowledge you have clicked to state you have understood the cookie notice.