Gloucestershire Archives Privacy Notice

You can download a Word version of this notice here.

Gloucestershire Archives gathers, keeps and shares historic archive collections relating to Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire - and local and family history resources relating to Gloucestershire.  As a Gloucestershire County Council service, the Council is the data controller for the personal information we collect from you. 

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when Gloucestershire Archives collects your personal information.   It applies to information we collect when you:

• Visit our research room.
• Contact us by email, letter, phone or website feedback/contact form.
• Visit our websites.
• Use our social media channels – X (formerlyTwitter), Facebook, and WordPress [blog].
• Take part in surveys and evaluation exercises on site and online.
• Sign up to receive the Heritage Hub newsletter, events and news updates, and/or Heritage Schools e-newsletter.

We collect this information to deliver an archives service as part of our responsibilities under s1 Local Government (Records) Act 1962. Without your personal details we cannot give access to the unique and irreplaceable archives in our research room. For some purposes, such as contacting you by email, we will rely on your consent to use your information.

This privacy notice covers the following websites:

• https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives
• https://www.heritagehub.org.uk
• https://catalogue.gloucestershire.gov.uk/
• https://ww3.gloucestershire.gov.uk/genealogy/Search.aspx
• https://ww3.gloucestershire.gov.uk/GROTithe/TitheSearch.aspx
• https://www.bartonandtredworth.org.uk/
• https://www.fieldingandplatthistory.org.uk/
• https://www.dowtyheritage.org.uk/

The information we collect about you:

Gloucestershire County Council will collect only the personal information we need to deliver our archives service.

• We will collect your contact information to respond to your requests for information or one of our services. 
• If you are visiting the research room we will collect:  your name, address, postcode, telephone number and/or email address.  We also ask you to verify your identity before we allow access to the original archives and rare books to ensure this unique and irreplaceable material is available now and in the future.  We do this by asking you to sign up to the Archives and Records Association’s (ARA) Archives Card scheme. https://www.archivescard.com/.
  ARA is the data controller for this scheme. You can find details of their privacy notice online.
• If you are using our website or social media we use Google Analytics to report on usage of the site to help develop the future service.   We use a third party, WordPress.com, for our blog service and Orlo to manage our social medial interactions on Twitter and Facebook.  We also use Google Analytics to evaluate use of our websites, and those of our community partners (https://gloucestershirepolicearchives.org.uk/, https://www.gloucesterrugbyheritage.org.uk/). 
• If you give us your postcode, we may use it to analyse the take-up of our service so that we can develop and improve it. 
• If you sign up to receive our Heritage Hub newsletter, we use a third party, TaylorFitch, to distribute them.  Information is stored on a secure server in Northampton, is not shared with any other third parties, and you can unsubscribe from the service at any time.
• If you take part in one of our surveys you can either do so anonymously or provide personal details.  Once a year we also collect equalities data to fulfil our Public Sector Equalities Duty, but we never link this with your personal details.
• We will also use your data to better understand the services we provide and to help us build those services for the future.  We may also use your data to identify if our services are fulfilling our legal obligations.
• For those visiting our site, we have CCTV cameras in operation both externally and internally for the security of our unique and irreplaceable documents and to deter or detect criminal activity or anti-social behaviour.  

How long we keep your information for:

When you contact us by email, letter, phone or web form:

• We retain details of the business transaction usually for no longer than 7 years. 
• We retain details of donors and depositors of archives permanently.  

When you visit our research room and order documents

• We retain details of documents you have consulted for 10 years for security, copyright and data protection reasons.

When you sign up to receive our newsletters:

• We retain your details until you unsubscribe from the service.

When you take part in our surveys or help us with our evaluation.

• We will use your details for the purposes you have given them to us (e.g. to provide more detailed feedback) but not usually for more than 2 years. Qualitative feedback and quotes are sometimes retained longer but associated personal details are deleted.

When you visit our site, we retain CCTV images for 30 days before they are overwritten.

Who we share your information with:

If you visit the Archives in person and sign up for an Archives Card, your information will be provided directly to the Archives and Records Association and their third party supplier. 

If you sign up to the Heritage Hub Newsletter, your email and your name (if supplied) is available to us and to Taylor Fitch (our third party supplier) in order to deliver the newsletter. It is never shared with any other third party.

Your personal data may also be shared with regulatory and statutory bodies who assess council performance and financial spend, as well as where required by law, such as to prevent and detect crime or fraudulent activity.

Your rights:

Right to withdraw consent:

You have the right to withdraw your consent to the council processing your information.  To do this, please email or write to us at the contact details given on page four below.  Please be aware that there may be some situations where we are still allowed to keep and use your information, even when you have withdrawn consent.

Access to your information:

You have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you.  If you would like a copy of some or all your personal information, please visit our website using the link below:

https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/access-to-information/pupil-information-regulations/how-do-i-make-a-subject-access-request/

Correction of inaccurate information:

You have the right to request that the council correct information that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete. You may not always be able to change the information. However, we will correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the records.

The right to be forgotten (erasure):

You have the right to request that the council delete your information when there is no compelling reason for us to continue using it.  Please be aware that in certain situations we are still allowed to keep and use your information, even when you request that it should be erased.

The right to object:

You have the right to object to us using your information if you feel we have used it outside the remit of our public tasks or when you have received marketing from us. 

Please be aware that in certain situations we are allowed to still use your information if there are compelling legitimate grounds to do so. 

If you wish to use any of these rights, please contact us:

How to contact us:

• By email: archives@gloucestershire.gov.uk
  
  
• In writing:

County Archivist, 
Gloucestershire Archives,
Gloucestershire Heritage Hub,
Clarence Row,
Alvin Street,
Gloucester GL1 3DW

• By telephone: 01452 425295

You can contact the council’s Data Protection Officer, via the Information Management Service, by emailing dpo@gloucestershire.gov.uk or by calling 01452 32 4000.

Making a complaint to the Information Commissioner

If you wish to make a complaint about how we use your personal data to the Information Commissioner’s Office, you can contact them by visiting their website at https://ico.org.uk/ or by calling 0303 123 1113.

Date of next revision: 2026 or sooner if circumstances change.