Privacy policy
for The Hertfordshire Observatory: Hertfordshire's Local Information System.
Introduction
The Hertfordshire Observatory has been developed to provide you with a convenient and secure online service and is committed to the online privacy of all of its users.
This privacy statement applies solely to information on this website.
It has been written to give you a clear explanation of our data processing practices to safeguard you and your personal information.
The use of the term "partners", denotes businesses and other authorities who work closely with The Hertfordshire Observatory to provide a service to the public.
If you have any questions or concerns relating to this policy, copyright, and data protection please select the link entitled Contact us, from the site menu.
By using this website you are accepting the terms and conditions of use contained within this policy. If this policy is not acceptable to you, please do not use The Hertfordshire Observatory website.
Security of personal information
Access to all our user information is restricted. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to identifiable personal information.
The servers on which we store identifiable personal information are kept in a secure environment which is continually monitored and tested.
If you have any questions about the security on our website, you can send an email to hertsobservatory@hertscc.gov.uk
Copyright
All information on The Hertfordshire Observatory website is compiled from a variety of given and published sources all of which are subject to Copyright or Crown Copyright restrictions. None of the information found on this website is to be used for commercial purposes. Anyone wishing to use information from this website other than for private study will require written permission from The Hertfordshire Observatory or author/ owner of the information.
Information Collected
The Hertfordshire Observatory is the sole owner of the information on this site. We will not sell, share or rent any information on the website to third parties in any way, unless:
- it is stated on the web page at the point of collecting information from you, or
- it is outlined in this policy statement, or
- it is required by law.
We automatically receive and record information on server logs from your browser. The Hertfordshire Observatory only monitors the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of visitors to collect statistical data about usage patterns on our website. This information does not relate to any personal detail of an individual so all visitors to our site remain anonymous.
Users have several opportunities to provide online views and comments about The Hertfordshire Observatory and its services from the website. The information provided by users via this service will be acted upon according to the content of the communication. The Hertfordshire Observatory may contact users in order to reply to the issues raised. This contact will be via email, unless an alternative is specified.
The Hertfordshire Observatory will retain all communications received in order to produce statistical analysis reports on the comments received. All personal information collected on the website will be used for the purpose of delivering the service for which the information was supplied.
Notification of changes
From time to time it will be necessary to update this Privacy Policy. This is in order to ensure our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users; our preferred method is by email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy in force at the time the information was collected.
Cookies
A cookie is a means for your web page browser to hold a small amount of information either in memory or on your hard disk, for use during your website visit. It is important to stress that cookies do not damage your computer, since they cannot look into your computer and find out information about you or read any personal material kept on your hard-drive.
There are two types of cookies:- session and persistent cookies. Session cookies disappear after you close your browser, whereas persistent cookies are stored for a length of time on your hard disk after which they automatically "expire".
Like most other major websites, The Hertfordshire Observatory uses cookies, both session and persistent, but our cookies only persist for a maximum of one hour. We use them only with our interactive pages, such as form-filling pages, the A-Z indexes, and some of our digital TV pages, when it is necessary to maintain a unique id on your browser whilst you use those pages.
Any Hertfordshire Observatory cookies that are used or that remain on your PC do not contain any record of the information you may enter, nor any other personal information, and are only used so that interactive sessions function correctly. No other website can read the id we store in our cookies and we do not read any information from other websites.
Most browsers will allow you to refuse cookies on your machine but you will not be able to use our interactive pages if you do this.
If you follow any links from the Hertfordshire Observatory to visit an external website, you may encounter the use of cookies on those sites which, of course, is beyond the control of the Hertfordshire Observatory.
If you would like more information about what cookies can do, and how you can manage or refuse them, we recommend you look at www.allaboutcookies.org. These web pages are produced by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) who develop standards and guidelines to support online business processes.