Using Your Personal Information

The Data Protection Act 1998 is legislation to ensure that peoples’ personal information is not misused. Two of the most important principles of the Data Protection 1998 Act are:

• We must tell you how we are using your information

• We must give you access to the information we are holding (known as a Subject Access Request).

How do we use your personal information?

Personal data that we collect and hold about you and your household will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

When you applied for housing, we collected and processed information about you and members of your household to process your application.

During your tenancy we will collect and process information about you and members of your household for the following purposes:

• To manage your tenancy and the Stoke on Trent Housing Society property it relates to
• To monitor compliance with the terms of your tenancy agreement and to offer/signpost to support and services
• To conduct surveys in order to monitor and improve our services.

Unless we specifically advise you otherwise, we will only collect and process personal information that we need in order to carry out these functions. This personal information may be stored on our computer systems and/or a tenancy file.  It is held securely and we have security measures in place to prevent it from being accessed by any unauthorised person.

How can I access the data you hold about me?

If you want to see your personal information held in our files you need to let us know via email or letter.

• • To help us respond, please be as specific as you can be about the information you would like to see.
  • You will need to supply two pieces of identification to clarify your identity and address
  • We will charge £10 to provide this information
  • Under the legislation, we have up to 40 days from the date you request the information to provide it to you.
  • You have the right to ask us to delete or change any inaccurate information held on our files. We consider all requests and will change or delete information that we agree is inaccurate.
  • Because we also need to respect the rights of others, we cannot make the following information available to you:
  • Information relating to, or identifying a third party, unless that person has given their written permission.
  • Information from other agencies such as Social Services, doctors or lawyers which could reasonably be expected to be treated as confidential.
  • Information that could cause physical or mental harm.