Privacy Statement

Overview

This statement explains what personal information we collect from you and how we use, store, share and process it.

We have procedures to collect, store and process your information safely and securely.

We follow the legal requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation.

How we collect your information

This statement applies to Gentoo Group and its activities. This includes information we collect from:

• gentoogroup.com
• My Gentoo
• Mutual Exchange
• Your Gentoo Voice
• HomeHunt
• our housing register
• recruitment portal, including application forms, CVs, assessments, interviews, references, background checks, and any other information you give when you apply
• any identification you give us, including when you apply to join our housing register, bid for a property or apply for a job
• website forms
• application forms
• telephone calls, which we may record for training and to check quality
• CCTV in our offices, buildings and neighbourhoods
• website statistics
• surveys
• emails and letters
• social media, like Facebook and Twitter
• third party providers, like Capita who supply our online payment system

When you leave our website or online services, we have no control over the information another website may collect. Check their policy or statement before using their website or services.

What information we collect from you

Personal information

This includes:

• your name and any other names you may have had
• date of birth
• sex and sexual orientation
• nationality and information about your right to rent in England
• National Insurance
• contact details, including telephone numbers, email address, current and previous addresses

We also collect information about your:

• marital status
• ethnic group
• religion
• physical and mental health conditions
• health and mobility needs
• criminal history

When you apply for a job, we also collect information about your:

• skills, experience and qualifications
• employment history
• current pay and benefits
• right to work in the UK

Tenancy information

This includes information about:

• rent payments
• repairs
• when you contact us
• surveys you have completed

Exceptional situations

We may collect information in an exceptional situation, like COVID-19 or severe weather. This could be information to keep you, your family and our staff safe.

To help manage the situation, we will collect information recommended by:

• the government
• health professionals
• the Information Commissioner's Office
• other relevant organisations, depending on the situation

Website statistics

We use cookies to collect information about your computer and how you use the site. This includes:

• device information
• what people search for
• most viewed pages

You can choose to not accept analytics cookies. If you choose to not accept necessary cookies, the website or online service may not work correctly.

Find out more about how we use cookies.

Where we store your information

Communicating online by email is not 100% secure. But all the information we collect, we store on secure servers in the UK. We encrypt all payments.

We store physical documents in our offices and buildings, and with an offsite storage provider.

How long we keep your information for

We will keep your information for as long as we need it. This means we may keep it after you stop using our services.

Read our data retention and disposal schedule.

How we use your information

The main reason we collect your information is to provide you with services as part of your tenancy agreement. This could be to:

• confirm your identity and right to rent in England
• let you a property
• accept your rent
• repair your home

Other services include:

• help managing your money
• energy advice
• wellbeing support
• health and mobility assessments
• employment advice
• support for people aged 16 to 25

We also use your information to:

• tell you about changes to our services
• contact you to find out ways to improve our services
• prevent crime
• detect fraud
• protect people

We ask for your permission to use photography and images you are in. We store them for 2 years from the date they were taken, and you can withdraw your consent at any time.

We also collect and process your information when you apply to work for us. This includes:

• confirming you have the right to work in the UK
• managing the recruitment process and deciding who to offer a job to
• responding to illegal claims
• tracking recruitment statistics
• equal opportunities information that we keep but remove any details that would identify you
• completing background and criminal record checks

If we do not offer you a job, we will ask you for your permission to keep your information for 12 months. This is for our records and for future job roles.

Who we may share your information with

We will never sell your personal information.

We share your information with third parties when we have your permission, like if we offer you a job and need to check references and complete background checks.

There are some situations where we do not need your permission. When this is the case, we will only share your information if:

• third party suppliers need the information to complete their work for us
• legally required, like to prevent crime, detect fraud or protect people

The National Fraud Initiative compares data between public and private bodies to prevent and detect fraud. We do not need your permission to share your information as part of this initiative. Read more about the National Fraud Initiative.

Your rights

Right to be informed

You have the right to be informed about:

• how we use your information
• why we collect your information
• how long we keep your information for
• who we will share your information with

We must provide you with this type of information when we collect your details from you.

Right of access

You have the right to access the information we hold about you.

You can access some of your information through our online services like My Gentoo and our recruitment portal when you apply for a job.

Access to information is free. If the information you request is excessive, we may charge you for that information. A request may be excessive if it:

• repeats earlier requests and a reasonable amount of time has not passed
• overlaps with other requests we have yet to respond to

When you request your information, we will send you the information within 30 days. This is called a ‘subject access request’ or ‘SAR’.

Right to rectification

You have the right to have your personal information updated when it is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to erasure or right to be forgotten

You have the right to get us to delete your personal information.

But we cannot delete your personal information if we need it for legal or relevant reasons, like you are a current tenant or owe us money.

Right to restrict processing

You have the right to ask us to restrict processing your information. This would mean the only thing we could do with your information is store it unless we have your permission or need to process it:

• for a legal claim
• to protect the rights of someone else
• because it is important to the public interest

Right to data portability

You have the right to get your personal information from us in a reusable format for you to reuse in whatever way you need to.

Right to object

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain situations. This includes stopping us from using your information for direct marketing.

Rights related to automated decision making

You have the right to request that decisions about you involve a human. This includes using your information to profile you.

Our recruitment process always involves people and is never based solely on automated decision making.

How to complain

You can:

• use our internal complaints process
• contact the Information Commissioner's Office if you are not satisfied with how we have dealt with your request or complaint

Contact details

The company responsible for your personal information, or the data controller, is Gentoo Group. If you have any questions about this statement, send them to:

Data Protection Officer
Gentoo Group
Emperor House
2 Emperor Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland
SR3 3XR
Telephone: 0191 525 5000
Email: dataprotectionofficer@
gentoogroup.com

Gentoo Group Limited is a charitable community benefit society. Our registration number is 7302.

All Gentoo companies are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Officer and our references are:

• ZA198299 for Gentoo Group
• Z8485125 for Gentoo Homes
• Z2888075 for Gentoo Genie