This privacy policy was amended May 2023.

 

1. Introduction

Visit Southport (part of Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council) is strongly committed to safeguarding your privacy.  This Privacy Policy explains our policy for the collection and use of information about you and your transactions with us.

We reserve the right to make changes to this policy at any time. Your continued use of our products, applications, services and websites that are subject to this Policy will signify your acceptance of any and all changes to this policy made by us from time to time.

Visit Southport is the data controller in connection with any personal information collected or received by us arising from your use of any of our products, services, applications, websites and customer support communications.

 

2. How we use your personal data

In this section we have set out:

  • the general categories of personal data that we may process
  • the purposes for which we may process personal data; and
  • the legal basis for the processing

We will process your personal data in accordance with the United Kingdom's Data Protection Legislation. We maintain strict security standards and procedures with a view to preventing unauthorised access to your data by anyone, including our staff. We use leading technologies such as (but not limited to) data encryption, fire walls and server authentication to protect the security of your data. For all Visit Southport companies, all of our staff and whenever we hire third parties to provide support services, we will require them to observe our privacy standards and to allow us to audit them for compliance.

2.1 Online Purchases/Bookings

2.1.1. ACCOMMODATION BOOKINGS

WHEN YOU BOOK ACCOMMODATION ON OUR WEBSITE WE COLLECT FINANCIAL AND PERSONAL DATA. THIS DATA IS TRANSFERRED TO THE LIVERPOOL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIP. THEY PROCESS AND RETAIN DATA UNDER TERMS DESCRIBED HERE AND A PRIVACY POLICY DESCRIBED HERE.

WE KEEP YOUR DATA FOR 12 MONTHS FROM BOOKING OF THE ACCOMMODATION, AS GUIDED BY THE PINK BOOK OF LEGISLATION WHICH CAN BE VIEWED HERE.

YOUR DATA IS ALSO PASSED TO THE ACCOMMODATION PROVIDER WHO WILL USE THIS TO CONTACT YOU REGARDING YOUR BOOKING.  THEY BECOME THE DATA CONTROLLER AND MUST KEEP A REGISTRATION OF ALL GUESTS TO COMPLY WITH THE IMMIGRATION (HOTEL RECORDS) ORDER 1972.

THE LEGAL BASIS FOR THIS PROCESSING IS CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS.

2.1.2. Event Tickets

When you purchase tickets to the Southport Air Show or the British Musical Fireworks Championship events you are purchasing via a third party SeeTickets.com

See Tickets are acting as a processor for data on behalf of Visit Southport and process and retain data under terms and privacy policy described here.

We may also use your data to contact you to inform you of changes to the event such as cancellation and other required information to fulfil our obligation to you, such as dietary needs.

The legal basis for this processing is contractual obligations.

2.2 Marketing

We may process information that you provide to us for the purpose of visitor registration, brochure requests, e-newsletters subscriptions and ticket agents.  This data may be processed for the purposes of sending you the relevant notifications and media.

  • Newsletters - by completing our newsletter signup page you are agreeing to receive email or direct marketing or targeted online advertising communications from Visit Southport – we DO NOT pass this data onto a third party.  These can be unsubscribed from at any time, simply by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.
  • Ticket purchases – when you purchase a Sefton Council event ticket you have the option to give us consent to send you event specific marketing communications. These can be unsubscribed from at any time, simply by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.

The legal basis for this processing is consent.

2.3 Visitor Profiling & Statistics

  • When you agree to receiving marketing communications we will use your anonymised data such as postcode or gender or age for visitor profiling and statistics.
  • When you purchase an event ticket Visit Southport will use your postcode or gender or age to help us identify the audience for each event.

We use this information in two ways:

  • We review what kinds of products and services appeal most to our visitors as a group. This statistical information helps us improve our offerings in the same way that other companies change their catalogue based on what sells best. We use information such as the age range of our audience, the areas our audience are travelling from.
  • At times this data is processed by our third party research partner, Liverpool Enterprise Partnership. We do not give them any personal information about you, as an individual. They process the data under the terms and privacy policy as detailed here.

2.4 User Generated Content

2.4.1 Social Media

If you use any of our social network pages or applications or you use one of our products or services that allow interaction with social networks, we may receive information relating to your social network accounts. For instance:

  • If you ‘like’, ‘+1’ or similar one of our pages on a social network site, we may receive information about your social network profile, depending on your social network account privacy settings.

For more information and for details about how you can control access to your social network profile, you should view the privacy policy and other guidance available on your social network’s website.

2.4.2  Reviews, comments and content

Where you have uploaded product reviews, comments or content to our websites or services and made them publicly visible, we may link to, publish or publicise these materials elsewhere including in our own advertisements.

 

3.  Providing your personal data to others

We may use other third party service providers to provide certain data processing services for us (acting as our authorised data processors). Examples of authorised data processors could include billing and fulfilment partners, IT solution providers, data analytics providers who process information on our behalf for the purposes outlined above. For example, we may use the services of third parties to personalise content, fulfil orders, deliver packages, send postal mail and emails, send text messages (SMS), provide marketing assistance, process credit card payments, provide fraud checking services and provide customer services.

In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data set out in this section, we may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

 

4.  International transfers of your personal data

We store your data on our secure servers in the United Kingdom and retain it for a reasonable period or as long as the law requires. However, your data may be transferred to, stored at, and processed at a destination inside or outside the European Economic Area by our partners or service providers. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

 

5.  Links to third party sites

Some of our websites may contain links to other third party websites, including ticket agents that are not operated by us. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content, security or privacy practices of those third party websites. We strongly encourage you to view the privacy and cookie policies displayed on those third party websites to find out how your personal information may be used.

 

6.  Amendments

  • We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.
  • You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.
  • We may notify you of changes to this policy by email or through private messaging system or via our website.

 

7.  Your Rights

In this Section we have summarised the rights that you have under data protection law. Some of the rights are complex, and not all of the details have been included in our summaries.  Accordingly, you should read the relevant laws and guidance from the regulatory authorities for a full explanation of these rights.

Your principal rights under data protection law are:

(a)        the right to access;

(b)       the right to rectification;

(c)        the right to erasure;

(d)       the right to restrict processing;

(e)       the right to object to processing;

(f)        the right to data portability;

(g)        the right to complain to a supervisory authority; and

(h)       the right to withdraw consent.

You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you; provision of such information will be subject to the supply of appropriate evidence of your identity. For this purpose, we will usually accept a certified photocopy of your passport plus an original copy of a utility bill showing your current address.

In practice, you will usually either expressly agree (opt in) in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes. Your personal data will be retained for marketing purposes unless you no longer wish us to do so. 

If you wish us to remove your data you are exercising your individual right to be forgotten. Please email us tourism@sefton.gov.uk, write to us at Southport Town Hall, Lord Street, Southport, PR8 1DA.

To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.

 

8.  Cookies

By using our website and agreeing to this policy, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy.

8.1 About Cookies

A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on a user’s computer (or mobile device) that is created when a user visits a website using a program called a browser (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari).

A cookie isn't a program itself and doesn't actively do anything on a user's computer. A cookie cannot be used to identify a user personally but they do contribute to improving a user's experience of a website.

A cookie simply allows the website to read the contents of the cookie text file. The text file itself simply contains a unique identifier code; the site name and some digits and numbers.

8.2 Why are Cookies used?

Most websites will use cookies in order to improve the user experience by enabling the website to ‘remember’ the user, either for the duration of the visit or for repeat visits.

Cookies do lots of different jobs, such as:

  • remembering what items a user may have added to a shopping basket or an itinerary as the user moves between pages on a website
  • saving a user's preferences to allow them to customise a website
  • measuring what users do on a website to ascertain which parts of a website are popular, how long they spend on a website, how often users return, where they come from etc

8.3 What Cookies are used by this site?

Cookies are set by this website (first party cookies) but may also be set by other websites (e.g. You Tube) that run content on the website’s pages (third party cookies).

Cookies can be set to remember a visitor for the duration of their visit (session cookies) or to remember a visitor for repeat visits (persistent cookies).

 

9. About Us

The website is owned and managed by Visit Southport, part of Sefton Council.

Our registered office is Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council, Bootle Town Hall, Oriel Road, Bootle, Merseyside, L20 7AE

Our principle place of business is Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council, Southport Town Hall, Lord Street, Southport, PR8 1DA

To remove your consent, as detailed in section 7, please email us tourism@sefton.gov.uk, write to us at Southport Town Hall, Lord Street, Southport, PR8 1DA.

Sefton Council's Data Protection Officer can be found here.