Visit Harrogate is part of the new Harrogate Destination Management Organisation, owned and operated by Harrogate Borough Council.

Harrogate Borough Council complies with Data Protection Legislation and is a registered ‘Data Controller’ with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) - reference Z6341522.

Our privacy promise

We promise:

  • to keep your personal information safe and private
  • not to sell your personal information
  • to give you ways to manage and review your marketing choices, if applicable at any time

How we collect your personal data

We collect information about you in order to provide destination marketing services to you, fulfil booking or ticketing services, and understand the interests and requirements of visitors to the Harrogate district. We may collect information on paper or online forms, by telephone, email or a member of our staff may collect information from you in person.

Information about you may be collected on our behalf by one of our partners.

We may need to pass your information to other people and organisations that provide a service on our behalf, or on whose behalf we have provided booking or ticketing services. These providers are obliged to keep your details securely, and use them only to provide the service to you in accordance with our instructions or as needed to fulfil the booking.

Your information will be used to

  • Fulfil requests for marketing information made by you
  • Fulfil bookings and reservations made by you
  • Complete other requests for information or competition entries made by you

Personal Information you give to us:

You give us your personal information

  • when you sign up to our digital newsletters
  • when you book accommodation on our website
  • when you use our online booking services
  • when you contact our Visitor Services team
  • when you request printed material be posted to you

How we share your information

We may be required or permitted, under Data Protection Legislation, to disclose your personal information without your explicit consent, for example, if we have a legal obligation and/or basis to do so, namely:

  • law enforcement
  • regulation
  • licensing
  • criminal prosecutions
  • court proceedings
  • legitimate interest
  • public task

Telephone

We may monitor and record your phone conversations with us for a number of reasons, for example, for staff training, We will inform you if your call is being recorded or monitored.

Emails

Emails that we send to you or you send to us, may be retained as a record of contact and your email address stored for future use in accordance with our record retention schedules.

Using our website

The visitharrogate.co.uk website is solely owned by us. We do not store or capture personal information about you when you use our website unless you decide to provide it to:

  • subscribe to or buy services that require personal information
  • contact us for whatever reason and provide us with your contact details so that we can respond to you

You can read more on how visitharrogate.co.uk uses cookies.

Online payments

When you book accommodation, buy attraction/event tickets or order items from our online shop, our order form asks you to give us information specific to that order, including your billing address, shipping address, credit card information and email address. The information that you provide is processed for the purpose of supplying the purchased goods and services and keeping proper records of those transactions. We also use the information to contact you if there is a problem with your order. We will ensure that it is not used for any other purpose and is not disclosed to a third party, in other words, other companies or individuals unless required to do so by law for the prevention of crime and the detection of fraud. We will hold your personal information securely and only for as long as is needed. It will then be deleted in line with our Retention and Disposal Policy and Procedure.

All of our transactions automatically take place on a secure server. All of your personal information is encrypted before it is transmitted over the Internet.

Visitor Profiling & Statistics

When you buy from us online, our system automatically gathers purchase data, and we also record information about purchases made through our other marketing operations.

We use this information in two ways: We review what kinds of products and services appeal most to our visitors as a group. This statistical information helps us improve our offerings in the same way that other companies change their catalogue based on what sells best. We use information such as the number of purchases visitors make and the categories of goods and services they buy to make offers to them we believe will be of interest. We do not give out any information about you, as an individual, to anyone, except to complete your transactions, or to comply with valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena or court order.

The legal basis for this processing is legitimate interest.

How we use your information to make automated decisions

Visit Harrogate will not use your information to make automated decisions about you based on personal information we hold about you.

Marketing

The personal information we have for you is made up of what you tell us, and data we collect when you use our services, or from third parties we work with.

We can only use your personal information to send you marketing messages if we have either your consent or there is a 'legitimate interest' to do so. At times, we may have a business or commercial reason to use your personal information. If we process your personal information on this basis, we will ensure that it does not unfairly go against what is right and best for you.

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at dataprotection@harrogate.gov.uk

If you give your consent, we may process information that you provide to us for the purpose of visitor registration, brochure requests, e-newsletters subscriptions and competition entry. This data may be processed for the purposes of sending you the relevant notifications and media.

  • E-newsletters - by completing our e-newsletter signup page you are agreeing to receive email marketing communications. These can be unsubscribed from at any time, simply by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.
  • Brochure requests - by completing our Brochure Request form you are agreeing to receive a single package of brochures from us.
  • Competitions - please check the individual terms and conditions associated with each competition. By entering our competitions and completing our entry forms you are agreeing to be contacted in relation to the outcome of the competition, and to the use of any selected imagery by Harrogate Borough Council for promotional purposes, which may include providing to other parties.

The legal basis for this processing is consent.

User Generated Content

Social Media

If you use any of our social network pages or applications or you use one of our products or services that allow interaction with social networks, we may receive information relating to your social network accounts. For instance:

  • If you click on a ‘like’, ‘+1’ or ‘tweet’ or similar button in one of our websites or services, we may record the fact that you have done so. In addition, the content that you are viewing may be posted to your social network profile or feed. We may receive information about further interactions with this posted content (for example, if your contacts click on a link in the posted content), which we may associate with the details that we store about you
  • If you ‘like’, ‘+1’ or similar one of our pages on a social network site, we may receive information about your social network profile, depending on your social network account privacy settings.

For more information and for details about how you can control access to your social network profile, you should view the privacy policy and other guidance available on your social network’s website.

Reviews, comments and content

Where you have uploaded product reviews, comments or content to our websites or services and made them publicly visible, we may link to, publish or publicise these materials elsewhere including in our own advertisements.

The legal basis for processing user generated content is legitimate interest.

Sending data outside of the EEA

We will only send your data outside of the European Economic Area (‘EEA’):

  • if you instruct us to do so
  • to comply with a legal obligation
  • if we work with our suppliers, agents , partners and advisers who we use to help run your accounts and our services

If we do transfer information to our suppliers, agents, partners or advisers outside of the EEA, we will make sure that it is protected in the same way as if it was being used in the EEA. We'll use one of these safeguards:

  • transfer it to a non-EEA country with privacy laws that give the same protection as the EEA
  • put in place a contract with the recipient that means they must protect it to the same standards as the EEA
  • transfer it to organisations that are part of the Privacy Shield. This is a framework that sets privacy standards for data sent between countries that are not part of the EU and EU countries. It makes sure those standards are similar to what is used within the EEA

If you choose not to give personal information

If you choose not to give us this personal information, it may delay or prevent us from meeting our obligations to you. It may also mean that we cannot perform services needed to run your accounts or the services provided to you.

We may need to collect personal information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you. Any information collected by us from you which is optional will be made clear at the point of collection.

Consent and how we record consent

Why is consent important?

Consent is one lawful basis for processing, and explicit consent can also legitimise use of special category data. Consent may also be relevant were you have exercised your right to restriction, and explicit consent can legitimise automated decision-making and overseas transfers of data.

Recording consent

  • we keep a record of when and how we obtained your consent
  • we keep a record of exactly what you were told at the time

Managing the consent you give to us

  • we regularly review the consent you have provided to check that our relationship with you, the reasons for processing your personal information and the purposes have not changed
  • we have implemented processes to refresh consent at appropriate intervals.
  • we make it easy for you to withdraw your consent at any time, and publicise on our website how to do so
  • we act on withdrawals of consent as soon as we can
  • we will not penalise you if you withdraw your consent

How long we keep your personal information

Personal information will not be kept longer than is necessary for its purpose. This means that data will be destroyed or erased from our systems when it is no longer required. Please contact the data protection officer at the address below for further information on data retention periods. You also have the right to request that your personal information is erased in certain circumstances.

How to get a copy of your personal information

A request for information that we hold about you should be made in writing but requests made verbally depending on the circumstances are also accepted (as long as you can prove your identity).

Under the Right of Access, we will provide a copy of your information free of charge. However, we can charge a 'reasonable fee' when a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, particularly if it is repetitive. We may also charge a reasonable fee to comply with requests for further copies of the same information. This does not mean that we can charge for all subsequent access requests.

Once you have requested your information, we will provide you with your personal information within 30 days. We may need to extend this period by a further two months where necessary taking in to account the complexity and number of requests. If we have to extend the period, we will notify you within 30 days of receipt of the request.

You can use the subject access request form or use the contact details below:

Subject access request form

Subject access request
Data Protection Officer
Harrogate Borough Council
PO BOX 787
Harrogate
HG1 9RW

Letting us know if your personal information is incorrect

You have the right to question any personal information we have about you that you think is wrong or incomplete (Right of Rectification).

Please contact our Data Protection Officer whose details are set out below if you want to do this.

If you do, we will take steps to check its accuracy and correct it.

What if you want us to stop using your personal information?

You have the right to ask us to stop processing your personal information if it is likely to cause unwarranted substantial damage or distress to you or anyone else (Right to Restricted Processing).

You have the right to object to our use of your personal information, or to ask us to delete, remove, or stop using your personal information if there is no need for us to keep it. (Right to Object and Right to Erasure) There may be legal or other official reasons why we need to keep or use your data. But please tell us if you think that we should stop using it.

We may sometimes be able to restrict the use of your information. This means that it can only be used for certain things, such as legal claims or to exercise legal rights. In this situation, we would not use or share your information in other ways while it is restricted.

You can ask us to restrict the use of your personal information if:

  • it is not accurate
  • it has been used unlawfully but you don't want us to delete it
  • it not relevant any more, but you want us to keep it for use in legal claims
  • you have already asked us to stop using your data but you are waiting for us to tell you if we are allowed to keep on using it

If you want to object to how we use your data, or ask us to delete it or restrict how we use it or, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

How to request your personal information for your own purposes

You have the right to obtain and reuse your personal information for your own purposes from us (Right to Data Portability).

How to withdraw your consent

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Please contact us at dataprotection@harrogate.gov.uk if you want to do so.

If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. If this is so, we will tell you.

How to complain

Please let us know if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal information. You can contact us using our secure online contact form.

Contact us form

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. Find out on their website how to report a concern

If you have any queries regarding your personal information, your rights and this privacy notice you can contact our Data Protection Officer by email at dataprotection@harrogate.gov.uk, on 01423 558606 or by writing to Data Protection Officer, Harrogate Borough Council, PO BOX 787, Harrogate, HG1 9RW.