Privacy Statement
www.met.ie
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is the Government Department responsible for housing and water, for physical and spatial planning, for local government, for weather forecasting and for built and natural heritage. The Department is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy statement explains how The Department, as the Data Controller, will process the personal data provided to it in respect of www.met.ie ; how that information will be used, and what rights you may exercise in relation to your personal data.
Categories of personal data
The Department processes the following personal data in respect of www.met.ie :
- The data subject’s device GPS location
- Statistical information
- Market Research Survey (placed on www.met.ie – annual or biennial. Participation is optional)
Purposes of the processing
Device GPS location
The Department and its data processor – Fusio Ltd. – for www.met.ie, use the data subject’s device GPS location to give a geo-located weather forecast.
Statistical information
Statistical information is used to analyse the usage patterns of the website and performance in order to improve the website’s effectiveness via Google Analytics. The information is collected via cookies and it is intended to enable our website work properly, record your cookie preference, enable you to watch videos and analyse your visit to our website. The Department and the data processor will neither make attempts to identify individual visitors, nor associate the technical details listed above with any individual, further details are below.
Market Research Survey
The purpose of collecting the personal data is to conduct surveys of and generate statistics on various conditions or preferences of using www.met.ie on the behalf of The Department. Also optionally for the purpose of contacting a winning competition entrant and/or invite the data subject to set up an account to partake in further market research surveys conducted by Userneeds A/S, who are not connected to The Department. The Department will not process your personal data for any purpose other than that for which it is collected.
Profiling
The Department will not use any personal data collected from you in respect of www.met.ie for automated decision-making, or for profiling purposes.
Lawfulness of processing
This processing of your personal data is lawful under Article 6 (1) (a) which states that you have given consent to the processing of your personal data for the specific purpose of this processing activity.
Security of your personal data
The Department implements appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information from unauthorised access. However, despite these efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse. In the event that your personal data is compromised as a result of a breach of security, the Department’s Breach Management policy and procedures will be implemented.
Recipients of the data
Geo-located weather forecasts
An external third party processor (Fusio Ltd.) is used by the Department for the purposes of the provision of our services to you, and to help us improve our services. www.met.ie has an optional feature whereby the data subject can choose to allow the website permission to send their devices’ (PC/smartphone/tablet) internet browser location information to the data processor, via a cookie(s), to generate a localised weather forecast for that location. Accepting this feature will store a location cookie on the browser for that location and up to 3 previously searched locations, which remain on the homepage until you chose other locations.
The GPS co-ordinates are sent over an SSL encrypted connection to the web server which is hosted by our web developers Fusio Ltd. The server does a “lookup” on the MySQL database to convert the co-ordinates into latitude and longitude format. Fusio Ltd. call an API with this location data to retrieve a weather forecast for the data subject’s location and return it to their device browser. This location data is never stored on the web servers. The data is not sent to the Department, it is processed by Fusio Ltd who host the website on the Department’s behalf. This feature is intended for the data subject’s convenience during subsequent visits to www.met.ie. Permission is optional and can also be disabled via the browser’s Internet settings. Further details on the cookies used (first party cookies) is available here.
Statistical Information
The Department uses Google Analytics to assist us in the functioning of this website. This service helps us to provide relevant information in an easily accessible format. IP Anonymization in Google Analytics is enabled on www.met.ie. A small number of Met Éireann staff and Fusio Ltd., as our website hosts, have access to view aggregated reports for www.met.ie on analytics.google.com.
Personal data is not shared with/disclosed to recipients outside of the Department. Data is retained by Google.
Google Analytics obtains statistical information via cookies including IP address (anonymised), cookie browser data, device data, log data, location data (country and county of access only), analytical data, preference data. In some cases your IP address may be collected by Twitter.com which they delete after 30 days. Further details on the cookies use (third party cookies) are available here.
Market Research Survey
Userneeds A/S. The Department will receive anonymised survey answers and breakdown of device types used to complete survey. The Department will not share your personal data with any other recipients.
Cross-border Data Transfers
The Department will not transfer personal data collected in respect of www.met.ie to any country or international organisation outside the EU/EEA.
How long will your data be kept?
The Department will only retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and processed. Statistical information is stored, since www.met.ie relaunch in April 2018, on analytics.google.com, solely for statistical purposes.
Userneeds A/S store personal data received from survey questionnaires for up to 5 years.
Your rights
The Department’s Data Protection Policy, which sets out how we will use your personal data, as well as providing information regarding your rights as a data subject (including details regarding right of access, right to rectification, right to erasure, right to restriction of processing, right to object), is available on our website. The policy is also available in hard copy upon request.
If you consider that your rights have been infringed, you have the right to complain to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (www.dataprotection.ie), and you have the right to seek a judicial remedy.
Contacting Us
If you require further information, or wish to access your personal data, please contact the Department’s Data Protection Officer, details below:
Data Protection Officer,
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage,
Newtown Road,
Wexford
Email: data.protection@housing.gov.ie
Last updated on 14/06/2021