Internet Service Standards

Web Policies -  Disclaimer and Copyright, Privacy Statement and Cookies

Thanet District Council websites covered by these policies include, but may not be limited to:

• http://www.thanet.gov.uk
• http://www.portoframsgate.co.uk
• http://www.thanetcoast.org.uk
• http://www.thanetcommunitysafety.org.uk
• http://www.kentinnovation.com
• http://www.eastkenthousing.org.uk 

Copyright

The content on these websites, including images, data and design, is provided for information purposes and for personal, non-commercial use only.

The use of and access to the information is regulated by intellectual property rights (copyright). No part of these sites may be copied or adapted without written permission from Thanet District Council.

Disclaimer

All information contained within our websites is, to the best of our knowledge, correct at the time of inclusion. The websites are regularly checked and updated but Thanet District Council cannot accept responsibility or liability for any loss, damage or inconvenience which may arise from the use of the information provided.

Links are provided to external third party sites that Thanet District Council considers may be of additional benefit and interest to site visitors. The Council does not however endorse the information, products or services offered by these sites and the businesses operating them. Similarly, the Council does not carry out ongoing quality control of these sites and cannot accept responsibility for any actions arising from their use or for the content of further links leading from them.

We are not responsible for the content of websites linked to or from our websites.

Privacy Notice

How we use your information

Thanet District Council does not require you to submit any personal information to visit this or any other of its websites (as detailed above). We will only ask for information which is relevant or required for the provision of our online service. No information you have given us will be passed on to third parties for commercial purposes. If, to provide a service, we need to share your information with a third party, we will tell you. We will only hold your information for as long as necessary for these purposes and for any retention period that we are legally required to meet.

Use of Cookies by Thanet District Council

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files, placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. They aren’t used to identify you personally and you can delete any cookies that your browser has stored. You can find more information on how to manage cookies at aboutcookies.org

We are not responsible for the content of websites linked to or from our websites.

The cookies we use and why?

We use cookies in several places – we’ve listed each of them below with more details about why we use them and how long they will last.

Storing your accessibility options
Our websites provides accessibility options that you can switch on or off as you need. If you switch them on, we store the settings in a cookie so that they apply to each page you look at. If you select the option to remember the settings, we store the settings in cookies for 1 year to make sure you get the same accessibility settings each time you visit us.

Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)
We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use this site. We do this to make sure it’s meeting its users’ needs and to understand how we could do it better.

Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. We do not collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are.

The following cookies are set by Google Analytics:

You can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, simply download this tool from Google. (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout )

Session cookies
These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around certain parts of the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies services you have asked for, like online forms or online payments, cannot be provided.

For more information on how session cookies work, please visit allaboutcookies.org.

YouTube
We embed videos from our official YouTube channel using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode. To find out more please visit YouTube’s embedding videos information page.

Local View Fusion (Mapping)
We use Local View Fusion for mapping and it sets a cookie in order that it remembers the last location you viewed.

This data is used for no other purpose. For use of online mapping please see Thanet District Council Online Mapping – Terms and Conditions

Social Websites

AddThis
We use AddThis to enhance visitor interaction on some of our websites. AddThis and the social websites such as Facebook and Twitter, displayed in the AddThis area may set cookies on your computer when you click on the links. To find out more, please refer to the AddThis privacy policy at http://www.addthis.com/privacy/privacy-policy. AddThis also offer an opt-out policy.

Security

All web systems used by Thanet District Council which require the transfer of sensitive personal data such as payment card details have been placed in a secure area. Payment card details are entered directly onto the bank’s website and are not stored by Thanet District Council. This facility is provided by an authorised third party supplier whose site operates full commercially accepted security procedures to protect your transaction.

Any dealings with Thanet District Council will be in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 in relation to the processing of personal data.

You should be aware however that there are currently no encryption facilities within Thanet District Council's e-mail server. For confidential issues, Thanet District Council recommends that you correspond with the relevant Officer or Department, by sealed letter, marked if appropriate 'Private and Confidential'.

Use of RSS Feeds

Thanet District Council provides a number of RSS feeds which you may view using RSS reader software. If you run your own website, you can display the latest headlines from other websites on your own site using RSS.

We encourage the use of Thanet District Council News feeds as part of a website, however, we do require that the proper format and attribution is used when Thanet District Council content appears. The attribution text should read "Thanet District Council News" or "thanet.gov.uk/news" as appropriate. You may not use any TDC logo.

Thanet District Council reserves the right to prevent the distribution of TDC News content and the council does not accept any liability for its feeds.

You:

• may use the council RSS Feed in order to display the council content on your website, blog or other product or service.
• must display the council RSS Feeds that you subscribe to in full and accurately on your website, blog or other product or service.
• may not directly or indirectly change, edit, add to or produce summaries of any TDC content or any other content available at thanet.gov.uk or place any TDC content in an HTML frame-set.
• do not have the right to use any TDC content or mark/logo on your website, blog or other product or service or elsewhere except as provided in the TDC RSS Feed itself.

Thanet District Council reserves the right to withdraw this RSS service at any time.

Use of Online Mapping

• Thanet District Council Online Mapping – Terms and Conditions

Further Information

We review these policies on a regular basis in order that we comply with current legislation. These policies were last updated 04 May 2012.

We are currently reviewing our Data Protection Act policies and procedures, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and the accompanying ICO guidance. We will comment on any proposed actions in the coming months.

If you require any further information on any of our website policies, please: email web.editor@thanet.gov.uk

For detailed guidance on how your information may be used by organisations, contact http://www.ico.gov.uk