MCA social media privacy notice
Updated 4 May 2023
© Crown copyright 2023
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maritime-and-coastguard-agency-privacy-notices/mca-social-media-privacy-notice
1. About social media
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) uses social media to communicate with you, promote coastal safety, search and rescue activity carried out by HM Coastguard, and information regarding maritime regulation.
MCA is an executive agency of the Department for Transport (DfT)
You can find more information about our social media use on GOV.UK.
The data controller for MCA is DfT - a data controller determines the reasons and how personal data is processed.
For more information see the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Data Protection Public Register.
DfT’s registration number is Z7122992.
2. What data we need
The personal data we collect from you may include:
- name
- email address
- location
- any personal data you provide us such as your photo, videos, opinions
- any special category data you provide us
- nature of your query
- social media handles
The legal basis for processing this data is consent where it’s been generated by you on our social media site or sites. This consent is for a specific purpose and your media will not be used for any other purpose. Should we wish to use it for a different purpose we will contact you directly and ask for your consent for the new purpose.
Where we post personal data relating to government activity, we are doing so as it’s necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller.
2.1 Children’s privacy protection
We understand the importance of protecting children’s privacy online. Our filming, photography and audio recordings consent form is not designed for children under the age of 13 years.
We will not ask for data as part of this policy that relates to children under the age of 13 years unless we have the explicit consent of the appropriate adult.
3. Why we need it
We need the personal data we collect from you to:
- Promote MCA policy, coastal safety and maritime regulation
- respond to any praise you make about any of our services
- provide you with updates about MCA in the media and links to our coverage and interview requests
- promote any event or activity you’re doing and there’s a connection with your work and ours
- manage services that we provide you
- respond to any comments you make
- carry out customer satisfaction
- help investigate and respond to any complaints or enquiries you raise which may involve processing your data in our correspondence handling systems
- enforce our social media moderation policy and terms of use rules
- ask you to direct your query or complaint elsewhere if it’s not appropriate to handle through social media or not for us to address
4. What we do with it
The MCA only collect, use and store the data you give us for the reasons set out in this policy, we do not use any third-party software to monitor or analyse social media usage.
5. How long we will retain your information
We will retain your personal data, image, words and/or voice for no longer on out IT systems for no more than five years or for as long as we are legally required to do so and in line with our retention schedule or where you have provided us with your consent.
The security of your personal information is important to us. This is why we follow a range of security policies and procedures to control and safeguard access to and use of your personal information:
- controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it
- training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong
- regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates.
6. Who will we share your information with?
In addition to processing this data in accordance with your consent, there may be other circumstances in which we may lawfully share your data with third parties where, for example, we are required to do so by law, by court order, or to prevent fraud or other crimes. Where we shall do so in accordance with applicable data protection laws and where required to do so we shall notify you of this further processing.
7. We will not:
- sell or rent your data to third parties
- share your data with third parties for marketing purposes
The MCA cannot be held responsible for the data and privacy policies and/or practices of the social media platforms we may upload content that features your image, words and/or voice.
You can find more information about these platforms’ privacy policies on the respective websites:
8. How to contact us:
As your personal data is processed on the basis of consent, you have the right to:
- withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data at any time
- ask the MCA to cease publication of your image, words and/or voice on its social media channels. If you do so, the MCA will not publish any further social media posts featuring this content, but it is not obligated to remove or delete existing posts
If you wish to contact us to make a request to exercise one of these rights email:
9. Protection your data and your rights
To find out more about how the MCA looks after personal data and your rights, please see the MCA Personal information charter.