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Privacy Statement, LongfordTextAlert.ie

Effective: Nov. 25th 2021

Summary of Privacy Statement

This policy covers how LongfordTextAlert.ie treats Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) that LongfordTextAlert.ie collects, stores and processes through the service. LongfordTextAlert.ie is used to send news alerts to subscribers from Co. Longford. Alerts are issued by a combination of SMS, Email and app/push notifications on behalf of local text alert groups. Alerts are also focused meaning the subscriber will only receive alerts relevant to their local area of Longford. At all times the subscriber is in control of what information they receive, the relevance of alerts, the channels used to contact them, as well as an ability to quickly unsubscribe from the service in a few easy ways. This privacy statement sets out how LongfordTextAlert.ie and Pin Point Alerts Ltd (the company that operates the service on behalf of Longford County Council and local text alert groups) processes subscriber personal data, secures this personal data, and the various company policies that adheres to General Data Protection Regulation.

Data Controllers & Data Processors

LongfordTextAlert.ie is provided by Pin Point Alerts Ltd. on behalf of all local text alert groups in Co. Longford. The follow data protection roles are in place:

  • Data Controller: The local text alert group. If a subscriber joins the Abbeylara Text Alert group, then this group is the data controller. The same applies to all other groups operating in the county. If a subscriber wishes to contact their data controller directly, then please contact Pin Point Alerts Ltd by emailing privacy.longfordtextalert@pinpointalerts.com with your name, mobile and local text alert group name and your query will be forwarded to the data controller who will liaise with you directly. Each Community Text Alert manager will have access to the subscriber personal information for their area of administration only. For people who don’t have an email address or the means to subscribe online, the Community Text Alert manager can subscribe for people directly into the Longford Text Alert user database using a mobile number, name and location (i.e. group name) provided to the manager offline. The manager will provide the subscriber with a suitable data processor agreement for the subscriber to sign. A copy of this signed consent will be held by the text alert group.
  • Data Processor: Pin Point Alerts Ltd is the service provider and sole data processor for the LongfordTextAlert.ie service. Our staff includes a certified data protection practitioner, and a signed data processing agreement is in place between Pin Point Alerts Ltd and each Longford text alert group. Operationally, Pin Point Alerts Ltd. will use subscriber PII details for the purpose of identifying if who should receive a text/email/app notification and, subsequently, to correctly deliver the alerts.

Role of Longford County Council

Longford County Council procured the LongfordTextAlert.ie service during 2021 after a competitive tendering process. The Council will never be able to access user details or subscriber information (PII) stored in the Longford Text Alert system at any time. However, a local authority staff member will be able to log in and generate an alert, but they will not be able to identify the recipients at any time. For the avoidance of doubt, Longford County Council will never be able to access user or subscribers details stored in the Longford Text Alert user database. At no time is the Longford Text Alert subscriber database made available to external 3rd parties including Longford County Council, nor is it foreseen to engage with external companies that can access the subscriber database at any time. If this policy changes then all subscribers will be notified in writing. If Longford Text Alert engages 3rd party agencies for any IT development work then it will take place on a cloned version of Longford Text Alert with an empty subscriber database.

The following Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) is gathered from registered users (“subscribers”):

1. Irish Mobile Number
LongfordTextAlert.ie is provided exclusively to Irish phone holders. This information is used for issuing SMS text alerts as well as registration and password reminder messages.

2. Password
You need to authenticate with LongfordTextAlert.ie to access your account. Passwords are created at registration and they are salted/hashed on the LongfordTextAlert.ie server – passwords are never stored in plain text.

3.Email Address
LongfordTextAlert.ie uses your email address to send you email alerts. The email address is a unique entity in the LongfordTextAlert.ie database and it is also used to reset your account password, if you forget it. In extremely rare cases your email address is used to send out service updates, policy changes and changes to the LongfordTextAlert.ie terms and conditions if further consent is required.

4.Name of the Subscriber's Local Text Alert Group
By linking themselves to a local text alert group from a dropdown list, LongfordTextAlert.ie will only deliver local alerts to subscribers. Eircode and map coordinates are not used to identify subscribers at any time.

5. IP address
An Internet protocol (“IP”) address is the unique number assigned to your Internet communicator device or Internet Service Provider (“ISP”). LongfordTextAlert.ie may track such IP addresses for system administration, site tracking, to prevent our servers from being abused and for other uses described in this Privacy Policy.

Summary of how we use the information we gather:

We use the above information to allow you to manage your unique account and receive the correct service. We require your contact details to correctly send you notifications, and we require a unique username (email address) for you to create an account. Your password is used to access your LongfordTextAlert.ie account. In the case of poor behaviour on our site, we may use your IP Address to identify any potential threats or insulting behaviour.

The security measures we have in place to protect your personal information:

We have put in place reasonable and appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to help safeguard information we collect through LongfordTextAlert.ie. However, you should know that no company, including the LongfordTextAlert.ie service or Pin Point Alerts Ltd, can fully eliminate security risks associated with Personally Identifiable Information (PII). To help protect yourself, please use a strong password, do not use the same passwords to access your LongfordTextAlert.ie account that you use with other accounts or services, and protect your usernames and passwords to help prevent others from accessing your accounts and services.

A subscriber can choose to delete their account at any time and they will be instantly removed from the live LongfordTextAlert.ie subscriber database. However, PII we collect will be contained in secure encrypted backups for a maximum of 14 days after a subscriber has unsubscribed from the system. The 14-day period is part of Pin Point Alerts Ltd’s corporate backup strategy and is within a reasonable time to remove the subscriber. However, if a subscriber unsubscribes from LongfordTextAlert.ie then they shouldn’t receive any further alerts from the service within 3-4 hours (the live subscriber database is cached throughout the day at a maximum of 4-hour intervals for performance reasons).

What Choices Do We Give You and How Can You Correct or Review Your Personal Information?

i. Unsubscribe Feature on LongfordTextAlert.ie Website & App
LongfordTextAlert.ie offers a dedicated feature to Unsubscribe from the service. By logging into the website or app, the subscriber can follow a "Close My Account" link. This one-step action instantly deletes the subscriber account from the live database.

ii. Unsubscribe by Contacting the Local Text Alert Administrator
LongfordTextAlert.ie provides access to each local text alert group administrator (i.e., data controller) to manage their subscriber list. If a subscriber is unable to log in and delete themselves then they can request deletion by their text alert group manager. When a text alert group manager deletes a subscriber from their list it means the subscriber's app account will be automatically removed. This is in order to maintain a link between each subscriber and a group and stay within the constraints of GDPR (ie, each subscriber needs to be linked to a group because they are the Data Controller). In this situation, an email will be automatically sent to the subscriber letting them know they have been removed, and they will be advised to delete the app at that time.

Our use of cookies:

The LongfordTextAlert.ie website makes use of cookies which are small digital files that are stored in your web browser that enable us to track your return visits to our website. We use first party cookies to ensure an improved user experience. The purpose of cookies on www.LongfordTextAlert.ie is also used to speed up the load time for web pages on subsequent visits to the website. Your browser settings may allow you to block these cookies, which is fine and the service will continue to operate, but we recommend you have them enabled to help us personalise your experience of the LongfordTextAlert.ie website. There are no 3rd party cookies used on LongfordTextAlert.ie, so no cookie pop up will be displayed.

Where does the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) database and backups reside?

All aspects of LongfordTextAlert.ie including databases and websites are hosted within the European Union. At no stage is PII transferred to a 3rd country outside of the European Union. Backups are fully encrypted and stored securely in Ireland for a maximum period of 14 days before self-deleting. We are happy to share further information on our storage and security practices with our clients and subscribers at any time.

Questions and Complaints

If you believe LongfordTextAlert.ie maintains your personal data (PII) incorrectly then you may direct any inquiries or complaints concerning our Data Protection and GDPR compliance to privacy.longfordtextalert@pinpointalerts.com. We will respond within a maximum of 3 working days. If you want us to forcibly remove you from the LongfordTextAlert.ie system (i.e. you are not able to use the LongfordTextAlert.ie Unsubscribe service listed above) then it will take up to 7 working days. If we fail to respond within that time, or if our response does not address your concern, then please contact Pin Point Alerts Ltd directly at 01 2544363. It may be a case that your email did not arrive or it bypassed our inboxes, and we want to ensure we deal with your query as soon as possible.

How We May Update Our Privacy Policy

From time to time, we may collect and use Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in ways not previously disclosed in our Privacy Policy. For example, if new alert channels come on board that require LongfordTextAlert.ie to store further PII then we will advise you about this. Another example is if a new distinct “alert category” is used by Councils then we may update our Privacy Statement to add to the six categories listed in the service summary above. Therefore, if our information practices change we will post any adjustments to our policy on this website and change the “Last Updated” date above. Unless additional notice or further consent is explicitly required by applicable laws, this will serve as your notification of these changes. You will not be “auto-consented” into any new parts of LongfordTextAlert.ie that require additional PII. If you are concerned about how your information is used, bookmark this page on your web browser and check back periodically.