1. Important information and who we are

Purpose of this privacy policy

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how the Torus Group collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you enquire about our services.

It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them.

Controller

This privacy policy is issued on behalf of the Torus Group so when we mention Torus Group, “we“, “us” or “our” in this privacy policy, we are referring to the relevant company in the Torus Group responsible for processing your data.

We will let you know which entity will be the controller for your data when you purchase a product or service with us. Torus Homes is the controller and responsible for this website.

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the details set out below.

Who is the Torus Group and how to get in touch

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact our DPO in the following ways:

Torus (trading as Torus Landlord and Torus Homes)

Torus trades under the names Torus Landlord and Torus Homes.

• Torus Landlord provides social and other types of housing, including property and grounds maintenance and repair; housing, tenancy or lease management and account as your landlord; and additional optional services such as organising and assisting community events; offering opportunities to be involved (co-regulation); providing welfare, benefits and debt advice; adaptations made to the properties we manage; and selling properties.
• Torus Homes sells affordable homes.

Full name of legal entity: Torus62 Limited, a registered society in England and Wales (Company No. RS007826)

Email address: dpo@torus.co.uk

Postal address: 4 Corporation Street, Helena Central, St. Helens, Merseyside, WA9 1LD, United Kingdom

Torus Developments

Torus Developments is one of the biggest developers in the North West and delivers new homes for rent, affordable home ownership and to meet the needs of the aging population.

Full name of legal entity: Torus Developments Limited, a private limited company in England and Wales (Company No. 09687200)

Email address: dpo@torus.co.uk

Postal address: 4 Corporation Street, Helena Central, St. Helens, Merseyside, WA9 1LD, United Kingdom

Torus Foundation

Torus Foundation is a Registered Charity regulated by the Charities Commission which provides advice and assistance to adults and children in relation to employment, health and wellbeing, digital inclusion and financial inclusion; sports and activities; and grant funding to build the capacity of other charitable and community organisations.

Full name of legal entity: Torus Foundation, a private limited company by guarantee in England and Wales (Company No. 08444912) and a registered charity with the charity commission (Registration No. 1152903)

Email address: dpo@torus.co.uk

Postal address: 4 Corporation Street, Helena Central, St. Helens, Merseyside, WA9 1LD, United Kingdom

HMS

HMS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Torus and undertakes property maintenance and repair to both domestic and commercial premises; general construction activities including new build developments; planned maintenance and property Improvement programme works; facilities maintenance including, grounds maintenance, cleaning and caretaking; installation, servicing and maintenance to gas appliances; installation, testing and maintenance of electrical systems; and independent living adaptations to properties.

HMS also provides additional optional services including organising and assisting community events; and apprentice training opportunities.

Full name of legal entity: Housing Maintenance Solutions Limited, a private limited company in England and Wales (Company No. 07237932)

Email address: dpo@torus.co.uk

Postal address: 4 Corporation Street, Helena Central, St. Helens, Merseyside, WA9 1LD, United Kingdom

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk) and/or to the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS), the UK supervisory authority for housing organisations registered with them (http://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO and HOS so please contact us and our customer service teams in the first instance.

Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated in May 2021. Historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

2. The data we collect about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

• in respect of the Torus Group:
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our website and services, for example inputting details of your transactions to utilise features on the site; and
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences;
• in respect of suppliers of the Torus Group:
  • Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, accreditations, qualifications;
  • Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers;
  • Financial Data includes VAT numbers, bank account and insurance details; and
  • Technical Data includes the type of device you have used to access the site (including the make, model, operating system, internet protocol (IP) address and browser type, your login data and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions;
• in respect of potential home buyers from Torus Homes:
  • Identity Data includes proof of your identity / photo ID, first name, maiden name, last name, title, date of birth, gender, marital status, status (first time buyer or current home owner) and details of anyone that will be living with you and landlord references;
  • Profile Data includes your interests, preferences (including details of the developments you are interested in and locations), feedback and survey responses;
  • Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers, details of professional advisors (name of independent financial advisors and solicitors);
  • Financial Data includes bank details, savings, proof of deposit, bank statements, lender details, mortgage offer, maximum amount of money you are able to borrow (as confirmed by your independent financial advisors); and
  • Technical Data includes the type of device you have used to access the site (including the make, model, operating system, internet protocol (IP) address and browser type, your login data and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions;
• in respect of customers of Torus Landlord:
  • Identity Data includes proof of your identity / photo ID, first name, maiden name, last name, details of anyone acting on your behalf, title, date of birth, gender, marital status, National Insurance number (your unique identifier), proof of address details, proof of housing eligibility, any interest or equity in other property, medical details (allergies, health conditions, disabilities, or vulnerabilities), of all household residents;
  • Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers;
  • Financial Data includes VAT numbers, bank account, insurance, payment card details, payslips, income details and bank statements and financial information to provide assistance and advice on financial matters; and
  • Technical Data includes the type of device you have used to access the site (including the make, model, operating system, internet protocol (IP) address and browser type, your login data and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions;
• in respect of beneficiaries, the tenant(s), leaseholder(s) or member(s) of Torus Foundation:
  • Identity Data includes proof of your identity / photo ID, first name, maiden name, last name, details of anyone acting on your behalf, title, date of birth, gender, medical details (allergies, health conditions, disabilities, or vulnerabilities) of all household residents;
  • Contact Data includes emergency contacts, billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers;
  • Financial Data includes financial information to provide assistance and advice on financial matters;
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us (although card details are not stored); and
• in respect of HMS:
  • Identity Data includes proof of your identity / photo ID, first name, maiden name, last name, details of anyone acting on your behalf, title, date of birth, gender of all household residents;
  • Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers; and
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us (although card details are not stored).

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing interested in particular services. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

Torus and Torus Foundation are the only entities which will collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data).

Torus may also collect further personal data that will vary on a case by case basis to help us resolve breach of tenancy, alleged anti-social behaviour or fraud whilst Torus Foundation may also collect other personal information that will vary on a case by case basis to help us resolve behavioural issues (including any information about criminal convictions and offences).

Children’s personal data

Unless otherwise set out in this privacy policy, only Torus Foundation usually processes data relating to children and all other website(s) are not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children on these website(s). Torus Foundation processes data collected from children in respect of the following activities:

• FireFit Hub memberships;
• Health bursaries;
• School holiday camps;
• Engagement in health and wellbeing activities; and
• Incidents / accidents and safeguarding concerns.

Torus does not normally process children’s information as part of a tenancy, as all tenants are adults. However, we record children’s basic information if they are resident in one of our properties, including their name and date of birth. This is required for checking the property is not overcrowded and to assess other tenancy management issues where all householders and ages are required to be known.

We may receive children’s information if we are involved in the housing and tenancy aspects of a welfare case as part of a multi-agency working solution.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

3. How is your personal data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

• Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity and Contact Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
  • apply for our housing, products or services;
  • create an account on our website;
  • subscribe to our services or publications;
  • request marketing to be sent to you;
  • enter a promotion or survey; or
  • give us feedback or contact us.
• Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.
• Third parties or publicly available sources. We will receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
  • Technical Data from the following parties:
    • analytics providers;
    • advertising networks based; and
    • search information providers.
  • Identity and Contact Data from data brokers or aggregators and publicly available sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the EU.

4. How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you;
• where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests;
• where we need to comply with a legal obligation;
• if you are a new supplier:
  • where it is necessary to add you to our system to enable purchase orders and payments to be made;
  • where you are providing information as part of a new supplier procurement process this information is part of the selection process;
  • where we need to ensure that your business is financially viable, we may conduct checks via Experian.

If you choose to send us an email via the website, we simply collect your name, email address and the nature of your enquiry. This allows us to respond to your query quickly and efficiently. Once we have responded, assuming your query is dealt with, we delete this data.

Please go to the Glossary to find out more about the types of lawful basis that we will rely on to process your personal data.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data although we will get your consent before sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We have established the following personal data control mechanisms:

• Promotional offers from us

  We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

  You will only receive marketing communications from us if you have opted-in to receive direct marketing. You may remove your consent to receive direct marketing or object about direct marketing by contacting the relevant Torus Group entity by the contact information above.

• Third-party marketing

  We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.

• Opting out

  You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time.

  Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a service purchase, warranty registration, service experience or other transactions.

  Torus Foundation customers receive our newsletter electronically with information about what is going on within the organisation. You may opt-out of receiving this by contacting info@torusfoundation.org.uk.

• Cookies

  You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see https://www.torus.co.uk/cookie-policy/.

• Change of purpose

  We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

  If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

  Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law. Photographs may be taken and used for general marketing providing individuals give consent for business related purposes.

5. Disclosures of your personal data

We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table above:

• Internal Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
• External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
• Specific third parties such as:
  • Alcumus Group Limited t/a SafeContractor – for the provision of health and safety accreditations;
  • The Rocket Science Group LLC t/a Mailchimp – for the provision of communication and marketing services (including SNAP surveys) for the benefit of Torus;
  • WhatsApp LLC – some teams in the Torus Group utilise WhatsApp as a method of communication. This is end-to-end encrypted and is the chosen form of communication to ensure your personal data is secure at all times;
  • Microsoft – for use of Microsoft Teams to communicate internally within the Torus Group; and
  • Google Analytics.
• Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

We will not sell your personal data on to third parties.

Contractors

Our contractors are required to comply with the law and our own data processing agreement to ensure data is managed appropriately and for specified purposes, including to complete responsive or planned property repairs.

6. International transfers

Each member of the Torus Group is based in the United Kingdom (UK) and data is predominantly held on servers within the UK and we do not usually transfer or store your personal data outside the UK.

In the event that we, or some of our External Third Parties, transfer or store personal data on servers outside of the UK we take additional steps to ensure that your information is protected to at least an equivalent level, as required by applicable data protection laws.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

• we will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data;
• where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved for use in the UK which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK;
• we ensure your personal data is protected by requiring all our group companies to follow the same rules when processing your personal data. These rules are called “binding corporate rules”.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

7. Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8. Data retention

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see your legal rights below for further information.

In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Our Customer Service Centre phone calls are recorded for training and monitoring purposes and our recordings are held for a period of three months.

We operate a continuous CCTV system at all our office premises for the detection and prevention of crime and recordings are held for 30 days. CCTV / sound recordings and / or use photography may be used to capture evidence of breach of tenancy, alleged anti-social behaviour or crime.

Torus Foundation will store your information for a period of 3 years as standard. However if you are involved in an incident or safeguarding concern we will retain your information for a period of 7 years as per NSCCP guidance.

If you would like to find out more information in relation to our retention and disposal policy, please see

9. Property Information

These paragraphs relate to HMS and Torus in respect of our work in relation to properties.

Much of the data we use relates to our properties and their maintenance and repair. We do not consider property information used in conjunction with the property address to be your personal information.

We are usually happy to provide you with answers to questions you may have about the property you are living in and work done to it.

As soon as your Identity or Contact Data is used in conjunction with property information, such as to complete a property repair visit, then this is treated as personal information.

Repair services can be accesses via digital platforms (online) to allow convenient access such as ‘My Account’ – the company’s secure online self-service portal for Torus tenants.

If you use the ‘My Account’ service it is important that you keep your account & password secure and do not share your ‘My Account’ details with any other person.

10. Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please click on the links below to find out more about these rights:

• Request access to your personal data;
• Request correction of your personal data;
• Request erasure of your personal data;
• Object to processing of your personal data;
• Request restriction of processing your personal data;
• Request transfer of your personal data; and
• Right to withdraw consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

11. Glossary

LAWFUL BASIS

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.

THIRD PARTIES

Internal Third Parties

Other companies in the Torus Group acting as joint controllers or processors and who are based in the United Kingdom and looking for appropriate suppliers, consultants and contractors or otherwise.

External Third Parties

• Service providers, suppliers, business partners and sub-contractors acting as processors based in the United Kingdom and the European Union who provide IT and system administration services;
• Professional advisers acting as processors including lawyers, agents, mortgage brokers, financial advisors, court agents, surveyors, valuers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the United Kingdom who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services;
• HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances;
• Website designers and marketing agents acting as processors based in the United Kingdom who provide their services which may require access to personal data;
• Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website;
• language translation service providers if it is necessary to translate any information into or from a foreign language for you;
• contractors who are carrying out services on our behalf; and
• IT and software providers who supply us with our IT infrastructure for the provision of our services and administering our business (including our internal and external communications) and who also help us manage our customer and contact databases, customer relationships and marketing.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

• If you want us to establish the data’s accuracy.
• Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
• Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
• You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.