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Data Protection Privacy Statement for Leitrim Alerts

Last Updated: Jan 20th 2023

Why do we have a privacy statement?

Leitrim County Council has created this privacy statement to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy and to assure you that in all your dealings with Leitrim County Council that we will ensure the security of the data you provide to us. Leitrim County Council creates, collects, and processes a significant amount of personal data in various multiple formats on a daily basis. Leitrim County Council’s commitment is that the personal data you may be required to supply to us is:
  • Obtained lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner
  • Obtained for only specified, explicit and legitimate purposes
  • Adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary for purpose for which if it obtained
  • Recorded, stored accurately and securely and where necessary kept up to date
  • Kept only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was obtained
  • Kept in a form which permits identification of the data subject
  • Processed only in a manner that ensures the appropriate security of the personal data including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing

Data Protection Policy

Leitrim County Council has a detailed Data Protection Policy which outlines how we as a public body are committed to ensuring the security of any personal data you provide to us. This can be accessed at: http://www.leitrimcoco.ie/eng/your-council/data_protection_foi/privacy/leitrim-county-council-privacy-policy.html.

Purposes and legal basis for the processing

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

1. Irish Mobile Number
Leitrim Alerts is provided exclusively to Irish phone holders. For that reason, you must have a unique login to Leitrim Alert and your mobile number is used to create and access your account. Your mobile number will also be used to send you SMS Text Alerts from Leitrim County Council and An Garda Síochána.

2. Password
You need to authenticate with Leitrim Alerts to access your account. Passwords are created at registration and they are anonymised on the Leitrim Alerts server – passwords are never stored in plain text.

3. Up to two stored map locations, by way of coarse map coordinates
Leitrim Alerts offers focused alerts from Leitrim County Council that are locally relevant to recipients. To make this happen Leitrim Alerts allows you to add up to two locations for which you want to receive alerts. These are branded as “Home” and “Work” locations and we also generate a route between the two locations. A minimum of one location is required while the second location is optional. It is up to the subscriber to map their location on the system and to provide the level of accuracy they are satisfied with. It is not necessary to map exactly to a home location – the centre of a town or townland is usually sufficient to ensure you get the alerts that impact you. Leitrim Alerts stores coordinates statically in a database after they are updated by the subscriber and Leitrim Alerts does not track your location at any time. Coordinates are stored as a Latitude Longitude pair. If you provide a location at registration that is outside of County Leitrim and within the Republic of Ireland you will receive alerts from Pin Point Alerts Ltd for that location. Locations inside of County Leitrim will receive alerts from Leitrim Alerts.

4. Email Address
Leitrim Alerts uses your email address to send you email alerts from Leitrim County Council. An individual’s email address is a unique entity in the Leitrim Alerts 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 Leitrim Alerts terms and conditions if further consent is required.

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

Our use of Cookies
Leitrim Alerts 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 cookies to ensure an improved user experience. The purpose of cookies on Leitrim Alerts 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 Leitrim alerts.

Data Controllers & Data Processors

Leitrimalerts.ie is provided by Pin Point Alerts Ltd. on behalf of Leitrim County Council and all local text alert groups in Co. Leitrim. The following data protection roles are in place:
  • Data Controller: The Data Controller of Leitrim Alerts is Leitrim County Council, Aras an Chontae, St George's Terrace, Townparks, Carrick-On-Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
  • Data Processor: The Data Processor is Pin Point Alerts Ltd, Burrell Hall, St. Kieran’s College, College Road, Co. Kilkenny.

Role of Leitrim County Council

The Council will never be able to access user details or subscriber information (PII) stored in the Leitrim 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, Leitrim County Council will never be able to access user or subscribers details stored in the Leitrim Text Alert user database. At no time is the Leitrim Text Alert subscriber database made available to external 3rd parties including Leitrim 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 Leitrim Text Alert engages 3rd party agencies for any IT development work then it will take place on a cloned version of Leitrim Text Alert with an empty subscriber database.

Your Rights

You have the right to request access to personal data held about you, obtain confirmation as to whether data concerning you exists, be informed of the content and source of data and check its accuracy. In addition, if the data held by us is found to be inaccurate you have the right to change, remove, block, or object to the use of, personal data held by Leitrim County Council. You also have the right to data portability. In certain circumstances blocking access to data may delay or remove access to a service where the data is required by law or for essential purposes related to delivery of a service to you. To exercise these rights, you should contact Leitrim County Council (Data Protection Officer) using either of the below contact methods: email: dpo@leitrimcoco.ie or by calling 071-9620005

Right of Complaint to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the response you received from Leitrim County Council in relation to your request, then you are entitled to make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner who may investigate the matter for you. The Data Protection Commissioner’s website is www.dataprotection.ie or you can contact their office at:
Lo Call Number: 1890 252 231
E-mail: info@dataprotection.ie
Postal Address:
Data Protection Commissioner
Canal House,
Station Road,
Portarlington.
Co. Laois. R32 AP23