This section explains to you the different ways in which we will collect the personal data that you provide to us.
Direct interactions:
We collect personal data about you if you fill in forms on the Website or correspond with us by telephone, email or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you:
- register to set up an account with us using the My Account portal on our Website;
- provide us with meter readings or report damage to infrastructure (such as a leak);
- engage with us through water efficiency promotions;
- enter a competition or survey; or
- report a problem with our Website or give us feedback.
We may also ask you to share your personal data with us if it is necessary for us to provide our services to you – for example, we may ask if you require priority services.
We may process personal data that you manifestly choose to make public, including via social media (e.g. we may collect information from your social media profile(s), to the extent that you choose to make your profile visible). If you send us a private or direct message via social media, the message will be stored outside of the application but in accordance with this privacy notice.
Automated technologies or interactions:
If you use our Website, we automatically collect the following information:
- web usage information (e.g. IP address), your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, operating system and platform; and
- information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time); time on page, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs).
Where we collect information about you in the ways described above, we do so on the basis that it is in our legitimate interests to collect and process this data. In most situations this will be anonymised but we collect and process this data to ensure that our site is functioning properly and that our customer experience is to the standard that you and we expect.
The Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of third parties. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
We also use cookies on our Website. Please see this section for more information.
We may use your information to ensure that you receive information that is relevant to you or to your circumstances. For example, to ensure you are on the correct tariffs, whether you would be entitled to benefit from a government payment scheme or whether you would benefit from having a water meter. The information we may use to create such a profile may include your water consumption, payment history, demographics or information provided by third parties such as credit reference agencies.
Information we receive from other sources:
We may receive information about you from third parties who provide it to us (e.g. the previous occupants or, if you are renting a home, your landlord may provide details to us).
In addition, we are also working closely with third parties, (including, for example, our regulators; companies that provide sewerage services in our area of supply; the Benefits Agency for our WaterSure Scheme; sub-contractors in technical, and payment services; analytics providers; and credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies or the Electoral Roll (for example where it has not been possible to identify the person responsible for payment of water services charges)) and may receive information about you from them.
When we receive information from other sources, we rely on them having the appropriate provisions in place telling you how they collect data and who they may share it with. We carefully check our sources to ensure that we only receive your information when it is lawful for us to do so.