Privacy notice

Here at Wakefield Council, we take your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information for the purpose(s) listed in section 2 below.  This notice provides details of how the Council collects and uses information (data) about you. 

We will keep your information (data) secure at all times.

1.  Who we are.

a)  The Controller for the information we hold is Wakefield Council. 

Contact details:

Telephone:  01924 306112

Email: dataprotection@wakefield.gov.uk

b)  The Council’s Data Protection Officer is the Corporate Information Governance Team Manager. 

Contact details:

Telephone: 01924 306112

Email:  dpo@wakefield.gov.uk

2. How we use your data:

The Planning policy and Environment service needs to collect the following information about you: IP address

The Planning policy and Environment service has obtained your personal data from Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google AdWords to provide their service with:

  • Data on website user interactions

  • Website user device information

  • Website user traffic sources

  • Website user key event data including, webpage views, clicks, scrolls and user engagement information

  • Website user custom event data

  • Website user demographics information including, approximate location, and browser to provide a holistic view of the users’ website journey.

We use this information to:

  • Website and App Improvement: 

The main purpose of collecting data is to understand how users interact with our website https://districtdesigncode.wakefield.gov.uk. This insight helps us identify areas for improvement in design, content, and functionality to provide a better user experience.

  • Performance Monitoring and Optimisation: 

GA4 data helps us track key performance metrics such as page load times, engagement rates, and conversion rates. This allows you to identify technical issues or bottlenecks and optimise our website's performance.

  • Understanding User Behaviour:

The event-based model of GA4 helps us gain a deeper understanding of user journeys - from acquisition to retention. This includes which pages visitors view, what events they trigger (e.g., video plays, links clicked), and how they navigate our site.

  • Analysing Traffic Sources: 

We use traffic source data to determine where our visitors are coming from (e.g., organic search, social media, paid ads). This information is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns that may have led people to our website.

  • Business Insights and Data-Driven Decisions: 

    GA4 provides reports and predictive metrics that enable us to make informed, data-driven business decisions. This can help in developing marketing strategies, optimising ad spend and forecasting future behaviour.

  • Audience Building for Targeted Marketing (with explicit consent): With proper user consent and configuration (like Google Signals), we use the data to build specific audience segments for more relevant and targeted advertising campaigns on platforms like Google Ads.

To enable us to provide our service to you we will share your information with Google Analytics 4 and Google AdWords.

In addition, your data may be accessed by Internal Audit and the Counter-Fraud Team as they are required to hold, or have access to, information from systems and processes across the Council so that we can:

  • Fulfil legal (Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, and Local Government Act 1972) and mandatory professional requirements (Public Sector Internal Audit Standards) to provide an internal audit function.

  • Investigate referrals made under the Council’s Counter-Fraud Framework, including the Whistleblowing Policy.

  • Participate in national and local counter-fraud schemes, such as the National Fraud Initiative, to help protect the public purse.

  • Maintain the central register of applications for RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000)

  • Ensure the effectiveness of the Council’s governance, risk management, and control processes.  This forms part of the Head of Internal Audit Annual Assurance Opinion, which is incorporated into the Annual Governance Statement.

  • Facilitate the prevention, deterrence and detection of bribery, corruption, fraud and money-laundering committed against the Council.

Should you decide not to provide any of the information we request from you

  • We will not be able to measure website performance or improve user experience through analytics.

  • You may see less relevant advertising.

You can still access and use the website without providing this information.

3.  What authority does the Council have to collect and use this information?

The law says that we cannot process your personal data unless we comply with at least one condition in Article 6 of the UK GDPR.  The Article 6 lawful basis we rely upon for processing your information is:

Article 6 1

(a)  Your consent. You are able to withdraw your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting internet@wakefield.gov.uk . Consent can also be withdrawn on our website by opting out of the Cookie consent options.

4. How long will we keep your data?

We will keep your personal information collected for the purpose(s) detailed in section 2 for a period of 1 year, 1 month and 4 days after which time it will be deleted from our systems.  The reason for keeping information for this period of time is chosen by Google to balance the need for meaningful historical analysis, such as year-over-year comparisons, with evolving global data privacy regulations like the GDPR. 

5. Your rights and your personal data

Under the GDPR you have the following rights:

Right of Access

You have a right of access to the personal information that the Council holds about you, and/or the right to be given a copy of the data undergoing processing.

Right to Rectification

You have the right to request that the Council corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

Right to Erasure

In certain circumstances, you may have the right to request your personal data is erased.

Right to Restriction of Processing

You have the right, where there is a dispute in relation to accuracy or lawfulness of processing of your personal data, to request that a restriction is placed on further processing.

Right to Portability

You have the right to request the Council provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller.  However, this only applies to data that you have provided to us and not to all the information that the Council holds about you.

Right of Complaint

You have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner, please find contact details below.

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

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number.

To exercise any of your rights, you should contact the Data Controller’s representative as shown in section 1b.

6.  Transfer of data outside the UK

Google stores its data in a global network of massive data centres, which are distributed across the world for availability and redundancy. A specific location cannot be provided.

7. Automated decision making

Google Ads and Automated Decision Making

Google Ads uses automated decision-making in numerous areas to optimise advertising campaigns in real-time.

  • Automated Bidding (Smart Bidding): 

This is a core example. Advertisers set a goal (e.g., maximize conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS), and Google's AI automatically adjusts bids for each individual ad auction based on a vast array of signals like device, location, time of day, and search query, to achieve that goal.

  • Performance Max Campaigns: 

In these campaigns, advertisers provide creative assets (headlines, images, videos) and audience signals, and Google's AI automatically generates and delivers ads across all Google properties (Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, etc.) to find incremental conversions, with little control for the user over ad placement or asset combination.

  • Responsive Search Ads (RSAs):

Advertisers input multiple headlines and descriptions, and Google automatically tests different combinations to determine which versions perform best for specific user searches.

  • Automated Rules:

Users can set specific criteria (e.g., "pause low-performing ads") that automatically trigger actions without manual input.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Automated Decision Making

GA4 uses machine learning to process and interpret data, particularly in a cookie-less world where it needs to "fill in the gaps" in data due to privacy controls.

  • Predictive Metrics:

GA4 uses machine learning to predict future user behaviour, event probability, churn probability, and predicted revenue.

  • Predictive Audiences:

Based on these metrics, GA4 can automatically create audience segments (e.g., "likely 7-day events or custom events" or "likely 7-day churning users") that are automatically shared with linked advertising accounts like Google Ads for targeting.

  • Automated Insights:

Analytics Intelligence, a set of AI features, automatically detects significant trends, anomalies, or unusual changes in data and presents them to the user, eliminating the need for manual data crunching.

  • Conversion Modelling: 

To address data gaps where user consent for tracking is not given, AI is used to model and estimate conversions that cannot be directly observed. 

8.  Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new Privacy Notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions.

9.  Changes to this Notice

We will review this notice regularly, and no later than every 2 years, to ensure it remains accurate and relevant, unless legislative changes require this sooner. 

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