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Privacy Policy

County Water, registered in England. Company Registration Number 08529143. Registered Office Heyford Park House, Bicester, Oxfordshire, OX25 5HD respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it. We provide this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policy and practices and of the choices you can make about the way your information is collected when you visit our website, www.countywater.co.uk (the "Site").

Any personal data collected through the Site will be treated as confidential in line with the principles of the UK data protection legislation (the Data Protection Act 1998 as amended). The Company is notified as a data controller with the UK Information and should you have any queries regarding data protection please visit the UK Information Commissioner's website www.ico.gov.uk or contact us at www.countywater.co.uk

1. Information Collected by the Company

a) The Company collects information when you read or download information from the Site (IP Addresses and Cookies).

We will collect information generated by your visit to the web site. This may include your IP Address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Internet); the type of browser and operating system used to access the Site; the date and time you access the Site; the pages you visit; and if you visited the Site from another website, the address of that website.

Some of this information may be stored on your computer in the form of a cookie. This information helps the web server track such things as your preferences and any data you submit while browsing the Site.

2. How do we use your Information?

Generally, County Water may appoint suppliers, sub-contractors or agents in order to provide you with the service that you have requested and The Company may pass your information on to group companies or to any of County Water approved suppliers, sub-contractors or agents for this purpose. Examples of this service include following up on enquiries or provide further information on County Water products (including by phone, email, SMS, post or fax) and agents engaged to show you around County Water properties. These third parties have access to your personal information in order to perform the functions but may not use it for any other purpose.

We may share your information with group companies.

Your personal data may be processed by any of the following parties: 

  • Market Operator Services Limited, (company number 09276929) whose registered office is at White Building, 1-4 Cumberland Place, Southampton, England, SO15 2NP ("MOSL”). MOSL is owned by all the water companies, both wholesalers and retailers, who trade in the competitive market; https://mosl.co.uk/privacy-policies/website-privacy-policy
  • Third Party data processors, these being other organisations that process data on behalf of the County Water Ltd or any of the other parties, or with whom data is shared, as outlined in this privacy notice.

If you ask us to, we will also use your details to send you information about products and services which may be of interest to you. More specifically County Water will use your personal information as follows:

a) When you read or download information from the Site (IP Addresses and Cookies)

We may collect and store information collected from cookies for statistical purposes. We may use this information to provide you with a more personal service and assist analysing Site traffic and usage. However, this information does not identify you personally and will not be used by County Water, unless you register with us.

b) When you send County Water an enquiry or email

We may store this information supplied by you in order to respond to your request or otherwise reply to the subject of the enquiry or email only. Remember that email is not necessarily secure against interception. If your communication is very sensitive you might want to send it by postal mail instead.

c) When you register on the Site

The personal details collected from you are stored electronically and can be accessed by County Water. You are not obliged to give us any personal information in order to use the Site, but access will be limited to the general information section of the Site if you choose not to register.

d) When you telephone us using the number displayed on the Site We use Bespoke Numbers tracking so that when you call us to request information we are able to return your call. By calling us you are agreeing to be contacted by telephone on the number you have called us from.

When you register your details on the Site you are agreeing to be contacted by SMS, telephone, email and post. We will provide you with information on properties and/or development which you are interested in, and other products, services, future developments, special offers which match the criteria that you have provided or which may be of interest to you.

3. Who Is Your Personal Data Shared With

We will share personal data with third parties, to help manage our business and deliver services, as outlined below:

  • Service providers who help manage our IT and back-office systems;
  • Other water retailers, wholesalers and MOSL;
  • Our regulators, including Ofwat, as well as law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom and EU where applicable,
  • solicitors and other professional services firms (including our auditors);
  • Service providers who enable us to communicate important information regarding the services across the non-household water retail market;
  • Third parties, such as brokers, for the purposes of their provision of services to customers;
  • Third-party data processors, such as consultancies, technology companies, and other data providers who can provide analytics and data enrichment across our datasets; and
  • Other third parties, where authorised by law, such for the prevention of fraud, or with law enforcement or taxation authorities;
  • debt collection agencies;

Where is your personal data stored?

All the personal data we process is processed by our staff, and/or by selected third-party service providers, such as for the provision of IT services. As such it will be stored on our systems and in some cases at our premises, including those of our third-party service/data providers. Personal data may be stored using cloud-based services.

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal data is processed securely. Where data is shared with third parties a data processing or data-sharing agreement will be agreed upon between us and the third party.  We will not share personal data outside the EEA unless (a) it is a transfer to a country or organisation which is recognised by Data Protection Legislation as providing an adequate level of legal protection for your information, or (b) we have put in place appropriate contractual arrangements with the organisation with whom we are sharing your information on terms recognised under Data Protection Legislation as offering an adequate level of protection for your information. In those cases, you will have the right to ask us for more information about the safeguards we have put in place as mentioned above (e.g. to request a copy where the safeguard is documented, which may be redacted to ensure confidentiality).

4. Data Retention

If you submit your details for the purposes of enquiring about a property and/or a development the personal information collected by the Company on the Site will be held for the period of time that the development which you enquired about is on sale, plus an additional month thereafter (the "Time Period"). If you ask for your details to be applied to a new development the Time Period will begin again.

If you submit your details for any other reason then your personal information may be held for a different period of time. Please see the online form for the length of time that your data will be retained.

5. Communications and Announcements from the Site

a) Promotional updates

County Water may contact registered users who have chosen to be contacted by us and provide information on properties and developments selected by you and on products, services, future developments, special offers which match the criteria specified by you on registration or which may be of interest to you.

b) Service announcements

It may be necessary for the Company to send a service announcement email to users of the Site if for example the service is temporarily suspended for maintenance. These communications will be sent to all users of the Site, but will not be promotional in nature.

6. Your Rights

a) Access to your personal data

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information held by us in our records. You also have the right to require us to correct any inaccuracies in your information. Please contact us for details.

b) Unsubscribe

You have the right to remove your personal information from our mailing lists or can choose not to receive further information about specific properties or developments. This can be done by following the unsubscribe option attached to every email sent from the Company to your personal email address or via your County Water Exclusive account.

7. Improvements to the Site

County Water are committed to providing the best service and information possible to you. We are therefore continually seeking ways of improving and upgrading the Site, and reserve the right to make changes to the Site and the way we process information collected from it. County Water is nevertheless committed to continue to respect the privacy and preferences of all users of this Site.

8. Changes to Privacy Policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. You should check this page regularly in order to be aware of these changes, as they may affect you.

9. Hyperlinks

In our commitment to providing the best service and information to you, we may provide links to third party websites. If you access those links, you will leave the Site. County Water does not control those websites or their privacy practices, which may differ from County Water. County Water does not endorse or make any representations about third party websites. The County Water Privacy Policy does not cover the personal information that you choose to give to unrelated third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any company or other entity operating a website before submitting your personal information. Some third party companies may choose to share their personal information with County Water; that sharing is governed by the third party company's privacy policy. 

9. Scope of this Notice

This notice applies to the treatment of any information that could be used to identify an individual and which is collected by the County Water Ltd, via direct interactions with you and through use of market information maintained MOSL.

The protection of personal data is very important to us, and we understand our responsibilities to handle personal data with care, to keep it secure and to comply with legal requirements.

This notice is not intended to override the terms of any contract that any customer may have with a County Water Ltd company (or any rights they might have available under applicable data protection laws).

10. Security

In accordance with Data Protection Act 1998, County Water follows strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of information that you have given us. County Water has implemented security polices, rules and technical measures to protect the personal information that we have under our control. The security measures are designed to prevent unauthorised access, improper use and disclosure, unauthorised modification and unlawful destruction or accidental loss.