Privacy and Cookies Policy

This Privacy and Cookies Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use the Live Well Havering website (www.livewellhavering.org.uk).

We are committed to safeguarding your personal information and ensuring transparency about how your data is used.

Original effective date: 14th October 2025

Who we are

Live Well Havering is a service provided by the London Borough of Havering in partnership with local health and community organisations.

For the purposes of data protection law, the Data Controller is:

London Borough of Havering
Town Hall, Main Road, Romford RM1 3BB
Tel: 01708 434343

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO) who can be contacted at:
📧 dpo@havering.gov.uk

Lawful basis for processing

We process your personal data under the following lawful bases (as defined by the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018):

Consent – when you sign up for newsletters, updates, or request services.
Public task – when providing wellbeing services in the public interest.
Legitimate interests – for basic analytics and site performance monitoring.
Explicit consent – where we process any special category (e.g., health-related) information you provide voluntarily.

The information we collect

You do not need to provide any personal information to browse this website. However, we may collect personal information when you:

Subscribe to services (e.g., newsletters).
Contact us for support or enquiries.
Use interactive tools such as the Live Well Havering chatbot.

In addition, we may collect technical information such as your browser type, operating system, IP address, internet service provider, and details of pages you visit.

Google Analytics measurements can also include selected support-option labels, event type and time, referral and campaign information, site-search terms and consent signals. When analytics cookies are allowed, pseudonymous visitor and session identifiers help distinguish visits. The Google Analytics section below explains the two integrations, enabled capabilities and measurements without analytics cookies.

Chatbot use

If you use the Live Well Havering chatbot, any information you provide will be used solely for the purpose of providing assistance to you during your interaction.

Information you provide will not be shared, sold, or reused for any other purpose.
Chatbot conversation data is only stored temporarily (for the duration of your session) to enable us to respond to your queries.
No chatbot data will be used for marketing, profiling, or unrelated data processing.

How your information is used

We use your information to:

Provide the services and resources you have requested.
Respond to your enquiries effectively.
Personalise your experience on our site.
Analyse aggregate usage to improve our website and services.

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected.

Sharing your information

We will never sell your personal data.

We may share information with trusted partners or service providers where necessary to deliver a service you have requested. Data sharing agreements and safeguards apply to those services. We also send website measurements to Google for the analytics, campaign and enabled advertising capabilities described below, and use the separate Council Advertising Network on eligible Healthy Money pages after Marketing Cookies is accepted.

Our website is hosted in the United Kingdom. Information sent to Google may be processed outside the UK, including in the United States and other countries where Google or its service providers operate. Google's standard data protection terms and transfer information describe the protections and transfer mechanisms applicable to its services, including recognised transfer frameworks and contractual safeguards where applicable. See the linked Google processing terms, controller terms where applicable, and international-transfer information below.

Data security

We take your privacy seriously and have implemented appropriate measures to keep your data safe, including:

Encryption of data in transit and at rest.
Website hosting in the United Kingdom. Google measurements may be processed overseas as described in this policy.
Strict access controls and staff confidentiality training.

Retention of data

Newsletter sign-ups: retained until you unsubscribe.
Enquiries: retained for up to 12 months for follow-up.
Chatbot interactions: stored only for the duration of your session.
Special category (health) data: retained only as long as necessary for the specific service requested.

Analytics cookies and retention

CookieControl remembers your cookie choices for 90 days.

The first-party _ga cookie helps distinguish visitors. The first-party _ga_V9MRQKNK2J and _ga_9WT3TY4Z8V cookies retain session information for the two Google Analytics streams. Google's published default lifetime for these analytics cookies is two years. Under the default renewal behaviour, later visits can refresh expiry, so continued visits can maintain continuity for longer than two years in total. Browser restrictions or earlier deletion can shorten their lifetime.

Cookie lifetime is different from retention of information already collected. Our Google Analytics property's event and user data retention setting is 14 months, with the user-data retention period renewed when that user is active again. This setting does not impose a single 14-month lifetime on every aggregate report or information held by linked Google services. Those services may have different retention rules, as described in Google's retention and privacy information. Withdrawing a cookie choice does not erase information already collected.

Use of cookies

When you visit our site, we may store small text files called "cookies" on your device. These help us improve site performance and tailor content to your needs.

We use:

Strictly necessary cookies – required for the site to function.
Analytics cookies (Google Analytics) – used to distinguish visits and retain session information. Reports can be aggregated, while collected identifiers are pseudonymous; see the Google Analytics disclosure below.
Third-party cookies – set by embedded services (e.g., YouTube, Twitter, Facebook).

We will only set non-essential cookies if you give your consent through our cookie banner.

You can manage or delete cookies through your browser settings. More information can be found at All About Cookies.

Embedded videos

Some pages on our site include embedded videos hosted on YouTube (a service provided by Google).
These videos are loaded in a privacy-friendly way — no cookies are set until you click “Play”.
By choosing to play a video, you consent to YouTube setting cookies that may be used for analytics, performance, or personalisation.
For more information, see YouTube’s cookie policy.

Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager

We use Google Analytics to understand how people use this website, improve its services and measure our campaigns. This includes measuring engagement with Healthy Money support links and which support options visitors select. Two integrations send measurements to Google: the existing Site Kit integration (G-V9MRQKNK2J) and the additional Google Tag Manager integration (G-9WT3TY4Z8V, loaded through GTM-KQ8RR5ZP).

The Tag Manager integration measures page views across the website when it is enabled. It also records selected support-link clicks and sends the selected link label, such as Community hubs. Its matching link-label rule is not restricted to the Healthy Money page, so an identical qualifying label elsewhere can also be measured. The configured automatic measurements can include scrolling, outgoing links, site searches, video activity, file downloads, page changes and interactions with forms.

Measurements can include the page viewed, the selected support-option label, event type and time, referral and campaign information, search terms used on the site, browser/device information and consent signals. When analytics cookies are allowed, visitor and session identifiers help distinguish visits and maintain session information. Reports may combine information from many visitors, but collection using these identifiers is pseudonymous rather than necessarily anonymous. Measurements sent without analytics cookies should not be understood as a promise that no information is sent to Google.

Advertising features and account sharing

Google signals and our linked Google Ads account can support demographic and interest insights, understanding eligible users across browsers and devices, campaign attribution and modelling, audience building and sharing with linked advertising services, remarketing, personalised advertising and campaign optimisation. These capabilities depend on the relevant configuration, eligibility, consent and Google user settings.

Enabled account-sharing options can allow Google to provide technical support, account recommendations and optimisation advice, and use combined data for benchmarking, modelling contributions and business insights. Google also uses information as needed to provide, maintain and protect its services. Google explains how its products process information in its privacy information and applicable service terms.

Your independent Analytics and Marketing choices

Marketing Cookies controls whether the Google Tag Manager integration loads. Analytics Cookies separately controls storage of Google Analytics cookies. If you accept Marketing Cookies but decline Analytics Cookies, the Tag Manager integration can still send page-view and qualifying link-click measurements without analytics cookies. Accepting Analytics Cookies alone does not load Tag Manager.

If you reject optional choices, Tag Manager and the additional stream remain blocked. The separate existing Site Kit integration can still send measurements without analytics cookies before you make a choice and after optional choices are rejected. Rejecting cookies therefore does not mean that every request or measurement sent to Google stops.

Council Advertising Network is a separate service used on Healthy Money pages for campaign measurement and audience advertising after Marketing Cookies is accepted. Its existing provider disclosure and restriction to eligible Healthy Money pages continue to apply.

Changing or withdrawing your choices

You can change or withdraw Analytics and Marketing choices independently using Cookie Settings at the lower left of the website. Withdrawing Marketing reloads the page and prevents subsequent site-triggered Tag Manager and eligible Council advertising activity. Withdrawing Analytics denies analytics cookie storage and removes site-controlled Google Analytics cookies where supported, but measurements without analytics cookies may continue. Withdrawing one category does not automatically withdraw the other. Activity as a page closes may already be in progress. These controls do not erase earlier measurements or guarantee deletion of cookies on a provider's own domain; use that provider's controls or your browser settings for those cookies.

Useful information

Council Advertising Network (Marketing Cookies)

On Healthy Money content only, accepting Marketing Cookies enables the existing Council Advertising Network integration for campaign measurement and audience advertising. It can send data to its configured providers: Google Ads, Meta Pixel, Microsoft Advertising, Snapchat, Reddit, Nextdoor, Quantcast and ID Ward/Anonymised.

Google Ads: _gcl_au lasts up to 90 days; test_cookie lasts about 30 minutes.
Meta Pixel: _fbp and _fbc last up to 90 days when created.
Microsoft Advertising: _uetsid lasts 1 day; _uetvid and MUID last about 13 months.
Snapchat: _scid and _scid_r last about 13 months; X-AB lasts 1 day.
Reddit: _rdt_uuid lasts 90 days.
Nextdoor: ndp_session_id lasts about 31 days.
Quantcast: __qca and mc last about 13 months.
ID Ward/Anonymised: no additional site cookie was observed in the 5 October 2026 audit.

You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the Cookie Settings control at the lower-left of each page. Withdrawing removes site-readable marketing identifiers where technically supported and reloads the page to stop further site-triggered marketing activity. Some third-party cookies, including MUID, mc, test_cookie and X-AB, are controlled on provider domains and cannot be deleted directly by this site.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

Access the information we hold about you.
Request correction of inaccurate data.
Request erasure of your data (“right to be forgotten”).
Restrict how we process your data.
Object to certain types of processing (including marketing).
Request portability of your data to another service provider.
Withdraw your consent at any time (where processing is based on consent).
Lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with how your data has been handled: www.ico.org.uk.

Children and vulnerable users

This website is designed for adults. If you are under 13, you should seek permission from a parent or guardian before providing any personal information.

We take safeguarding seriously and will handle any sensitive or vulnerable-user data with the highest care.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to external websites. Please note that this policy applies only to Live Well Havering. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites.

Withdrawing consent

You may withdraw your consent for Live Well Havering to process your personal information at any time by contacting us at:

📧 dpo@havering.gov.uk

Last updated: 23/10/2026