Privacy Policy

Magenta Living and the General Data Protection Regulation

Magenta Living is a Housing Association registered with the Information Commissioners Officer as a Data Controller. 

Our registration number is Z9137302

Data Controller: WIRRAL PARTNERSHIP HOMES

Address:
Partnership Building
Hamilton Street
Birkenhead
CH41 5AA
 

Wirral Partnership Homes Limited trading as Magenta Living (“Magenta Living”) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We believe it is extremely important to keep any personal information we have about our customers secure and confidential.

Legislation applies to Magenta Living’s use of anyone’s personal information and everyone has rights regarding how their personal information is handled.

The General Data Protection Regulation 2016 came into force on 25th May 2018 and Magenta Living adhere to the regulation at all times.

We have published this statement to tell you:

  • How we store your personal information
  • What we use your personal information for
  • What information we may collect about you
  • Who (if anyone) we pass it on to and how they use it. 
  • Your rights 


How we store your personal information

This Privacy Statement tells you what to expect when Magenta Living collects and stores personal and sensitive personal information.  It applies to information we collect about tenants, service users, leaseholders, contractors, suppliers, partners, agents, board members and staff.

If we can store your personal information solely on computers we will, however there may be cases where we have paper copies instead of or as well.

It is held securely and we have security measures in place to protect it. Further information on why we collect information and how we store it can be found by clicking on the links below.

Magenta Living’s computer data centre is held at our head office Partnership Building.  Where we use computers outside of our offices, including laptops and iPads, they are secure and protected.

We may also use computers which are owned or managed by our suppliers, these computers are also secure and protected.


What we use your personal information for:

Tenants, service users and leaseholders

During your tenancy we may collect and process information about you and members of your household. The lawful basis for this processing in most cases is contractual. We do this to:

  • Manage your tenancy and the Magenta Living property you live in
  • Monitor compliance with the terms of your tenancy or service agreements
  • Deliver support for special needs to you or a member of your household.
  • Conduct surveys in order to monitor and improve services
  • Monitor equality and diversity (the information provided is anonymised and used only for statistical monitoring purposes which helps us make improvements)
  • Provide information about our performance and services
  • Provide information about additional services we offer, including opportunities to get involved, training and events
  • Processing and responding to complaints and enquiries, MP and Councillor enquires, tenant representative enquiries (with written permission) and subject access enquiries

Personal information is stored on our computer systems and/or a file.

Unless we advise you otherwise we will only collect and process personal information to carry out these functions.

Contractors, suppliers, partners and agents

We will collect relevant information from you in accordance with our contracts or information sharing agreements.  This may include names and qualification information relating to your staff.  The purpose is to enable you to provide services to our tenants on behalf of Magenta Living.

Information will be held centrally by our Procurement Team on our computer system and by the relevant team/department where necessary.

Board members

Throughout your appointment as a Board and/or Committee member we may collect and process personal information about you. The lawful basis for this processing in most cases is contractual. We do this to:

  • Contact you in relation to your role as a Board or Committee Member
  • Deliver tailored training and support
  • Monitor Equality and Diversity (the information provided is anonymised and used only for statistical monitoring purposes which help us make improvements)
  • Register you as a Board Director at Companies House

Information is held centrally by our Governance Team on our computer system and relevant contact information is held by individual teams.

Staff

We collect personal and sensitive personal information relating to our workforce. The lawful basis for this processing in most cases is in relation to managing the employment relationship through relevant legislation.  We do this for:

  • The purpose of complying with the obligations of a contract of employment, legal and industry standards e.g. verifying eligibility to work in the UK, to deduct tax, to comply with legislation relating to annual leave, rest periods, health & safety and DBS checks.
  • Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions may need to be processed to carry out employment law obligations e.g. in relation to employees with disabilities and for health and safety purposes.
  • Administration purposes (e.g. to operate payroll, pensions, benefits,  etc)
  • Offer any necessary support requirements for your role  relating to performance or training
  • Monitor Equality and Diversity (the information provided is used only for statistical monitoring purposes which help us make improvements

Information is held centrally by our HR Team on our computer system.  Individuals and line managers can access certain personal information through a request to HR.  Note – some of this is available by a self service HR system, i.e. HR21.


Fraud detection

We may use data disclosed to us for the purpose of preventing and detecting fraud. The lawful basis for this processing in most cases is legitimate interest.

Any personal data disclosed may be used for the purpose of preventing and detecting fraud.  This includes information provided on the Magenta Living website, on the Customer Portal area, or in any other way provided to us online or not

The data collected may be used for the purpose of data matching and for further investigations.  This involves comparing the data we hold on you with that held by third parties solely for the purpose of detecting and preventing fraud.  We might also use your data to further investigate fraud that we think might have been committed. 

This involves checking with various third parties, such as the Land Registry, banks, schools and utility companies.  


Information we may collect from you

We may collect the following personal information about you when you first come to us. The lawful basis for this processing in most cases is contractual.

  • Your name, address  and contact details for use across Magenta Living and by our suppliers and partners
  • Sensitive personal information such as age, sex, date of birth, ethnicity, disability and vulnerability and whether you have any particular preferences, so that we can understand our customers and their needs better.

For Housing Management purposes:

  • Your housing needs, so we can ensure your home is suitable for you
  • You bank details and Direct Debit information for payment of rent or service charges (we only exchange the details with the account holder and the third party who manages our Direct Debits)

NB - if you pay us using your credit and debit card, we do not store the details, and we only exchange this information with the card holder

  • Benefit and council tax information, to verify your circumstances
  • Details relating to the repair and maintenance of your home
  • Information that you provide to your usual Magenta Living contact
  • Feedback from our contractors, about their appointments with you
  • Voice and video recordings for safety, crime reduction and quality management


Who we might share your personal information with

Normally, only Magenta Living will be able to access your personal information. However, we may need to share your information with third parties.  We do this to achieve the purposes as set out in the information above.

We also share information with:

  • For providing an Out of Hours Contact Centre service
  • For carrying out health, safety and compliance checks (e.g. gas servicing, lifts, asbestos and legionella).
  • Our suppliers, who enable us to provide our services to you, or who provide services on our behalf
  • Information may be sent onto NHS Occupational Therapists for assessments to be carried out and to WBC Supported Housing Adaptations Team for Disabled Facilities Grant referrals.
  • Housing contractors e.g. to undertake repairs, maintenance or improvements to your home
  • IT providers who own or manage the computers, phones or systems we use
  • Our contractors, who handle your out-of-hours service calls 
  • Banks, e.g. to carry out payments through a secure system
  • Companies that assist us in mailing out our leaflets / newsletters
  • Additional staff resources, such as consultants or agency staff
  • Our professional advisors and providers of financial services
  • Training providers or learning institutions
  • Other housing providers
  • External agencies where you have agreed to our support. To assistance with money problems or support for domestic abuse
  • The Police, Fire Service or health professionals who provide services for you
  • Utility companies
  • For crime prevention or detection, risk assessment, resolution of complaints
  • Local Authorities, Safeguarding Boards, regulators, government departments and other public bodies
  • Magenta staff and Tenant Complaint Panel 
  • MPs, Councillors and the Ombudsman

We will only share the minimum information necessary for the department, contractor or agency to carry out their services on behalf of Magenta Living. 

We share limited personal information of our tenants with external contractors.  Such as name, address and telephone number.  

We do not share your personal information with anyone who claims to represent you, unless we are satisfied that you have appointed them or they act in some recognised official capacity.  There may be a delay in dealing with requests while we confirm the caller’s identity or check that we have your approval to deal with them.

We do not give anyone else access to your information in return for payment for their marketing or commercial purposes.

We may sometimes be obliged to disclose your personal data by law, such as by a regulator with appropriate power (e.g. the Regulator of Social Housing), or court order. Information held by public bodies can be subject to Freedom of Information.

Unless you pay your bills using Direct Debit, we will not usually retain your payment details.  Whoever pays your bills will have to give us the payment card details each time they make a payment.

We will not share your personal information with anyone who claims to represent you, unless we are satisfied that you have appointed them, or they act in some recognised official capacity.  There may be a delay in dealing with requests while we confirm the caller’s identity, or check that we have your approval to deal with them.


To enhance your experience with Magenta Living, you can:

  • Give details of your friends, relatives or neighbours who you trust to contact us on your behalf, e.g. to arrange one of our services for you
  • Give details of anyone to whom you have given a Power of Attorney to contact us on your behalf
  • Provide your name and contact details for Customer Satisfaction surveys, newsletters and service information
  • Give your consent for your name, image, video or story for brochures, advertising, press releases, social media or for use by the media
  • Provide details about any complaints about our service or other individuals, or accidents or incidents involving you or your home
  • Provide your comments about the services you have received from us or our suppliers.


How long we keep information for:

We have a document retention schedule which sets out how long we keep different types of information for. We follow legal requirements and best practice.

We record all telephone calls received through our Contact Centre for 12 months.

Please contact us if you would like a copy of the schedule.


Your rights – Accessing the information we have about you

You have a legal right to access the information we hold on you. This is called a Subject Access Request.

 By law we have a maximum of one calendar month to deliver the information from the point your completed request (form) has been verified.

We have a Subject Access Request form and will help you to submit your request.

To access the form you can email us at contactus@magentaliving.org.uk, telephone us on 0808 100 9596 or call into the Magenta Living Birkenhead office.

Your right to certain information may be restricted. For example, information relating to a third party or information relating to a Police investigation.

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal information. However, we may be unable to provide our services to you if we are unable to record and process certain details.

Your rights – Withdrawal of consent

We make it easy for individuals to withdraw their consent to us processing their personal data and publicise how to do so by:

  • Providing a copy of the Request to Withdraw Consent to you at the time consent is given.
  • A regular article in Magenta Living’s Tenant’s Newsletter

Requests to withdraw should be sent to the organisation’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) for recording and processing. The DPO will consult with the relevant service, who originally requested consent to establish the implications. The DPO will notify the individual of the outcome. We act on individual requests to withdraw consent as soon as possible

Withdrawing consent does not retrospectively render processing unlawful.

Your rights – Right to rectification

You have the right to rectify in accurate personal data concerning you. Taking into account the purposes of the processing, you have the right to have incomplete personal data completed by providing a supplementary statement.

Your rights – Right to erasure (right to be forgotten)

You have the right, (under certain circumstances, but not all) to oblige to erase personal data concerning you.

Your rights – Right to restriction of processing

You have the right (under certain circumstances, but not all) to restrict processing of your personal data.  For example, you may request this if you are contesting the accuracy of personal data held about you.

Your rights – Right to data portability

You have the right (under certain circumstances, but not all) to be provided with the personal data about you, which you have provided, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

You also have the right to ask for it to be transmitted to another controller.

Your rights – Right to object to direct marketing

Where your personal data is processed for direct marketing purposes, you have the right to object at any time o processing of your personal data for marketing, which includes profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing.

Your rights – Right to relation to automated decision making and profiling

Magenta Living does not perform any automated decision-making based on personal data that produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects you.


Data Augmentation

Magenta Living uses augmentation services to satisfy its legal obligation to ensure the accuracy of personal data being processed by using, for example:

Royal Mail Postal Address File (PAF) to update redirected addresses and to ensure address accuracy and completeness.

BT Operator Services Information System (OSIS) to ensure telephone number accuracy and completeness.

Visitors to our website

We collect the following information from visitors to our website and Customer Portal (MyMagenta). The lawful basis for this processing in most cases is legitimate interest.

  • Details collected through forms, including web chat, filled in when you contact us online 
  • Surveys and polls about the website
  • Site usage information from session cookies and log files.

Use of cookies

This site uses cookies, which are small text files placed on your computer by the websites you visit.  They are used to help make websites work more efficiently and provide analytical information to us to help improve the user experience.

We use cookies for Google Analytics, to monitor website use and the type of browser that is accessing the website.  We also use Google Translate, to remember a visitor’s language preferences.  

You can control or delete cookies through the settings on your web browser.

Site usage information

You can read more about how we use cookies and log files, here.

Links to other websites

This privacy statement doesn’t cover links within our website to other websites.  We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

Social Media

We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of any Magenta Living policy.  The responses described in this privacy statement are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

Where you make a contribution to our social media, we may also take the following actions in addition to any other actions described above:

  • Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our social media
  • Immediate, temporary or permanent removal or editing of any posting or material uploaded by you to our social media.


Changes to this Privacy Notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review.  We will update it if we undertake any new or amended processing. This privacy notice was last updated on 28th May 2018.

We will display the new Statement in all places where it can usually be found.

Subsidiary Companies

Magenta Living has subsidiary organisations who are also registered as Data Controllers with the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

  • Hilbre Homes
  • Wirral Partnership Homes Developments


Further Information

This privacy statement does not provide detail on all aspects of Magenta Living’s collection and use of personal information.  We’re happy to provide any further information or explanation needed.  

Please contact us using the information below.


How to contact us

If you want to get in touch you can do so online or by phoning our Contact Centre on 0808 100 9596 or writing to us at our Head Office:

Data Controller
Magenta Living
Hamilton Street
Birkenhead
Wirral
CH41 5AA


Complaints

Magenta Living tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. We take any complaints we receive seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading, inaccurate or inappropriate.

We do compile and publish statistics showing information, like the number of complaints we receive, but not in a form that identifies anyone.

You can make a complaint by calling our Contact Centre on 0808100 9596 or by writing to our Data Protection Officer at the above address.

If you remain unhappy with our response you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office by writing to:

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

Cookies Policy

What Are Cookies

As is common practice with almost all professional websites this site uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This page describes what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored however this may affect your experience.

For more general information on cookies, visit cookiesandyou.com

How We Use Cookies

We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately, in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.

Disabling Cookies

You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of the this site. Therefore it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.

The Cookies We Set

If you create an account with us then we will use cookies for the management of the signup process and general administration. These cookies will usually be deleted when you log out however in some cases they may remain afterwards to remember your site preferences when logged out.

We use cookies when you are logged in so that we can remember this fact. This prevents you from having to log in every single time you visit a new page. These cookies are typically removed or cleared when you log out to ensure that you can only access restricted features and areas when logged in.

When you submit data to through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence.

This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.

For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.

More Information

If you have any questions about our cookies policy, please Contact Us.