DigiClare – Digital and Broadband Department, Clare County Council
Clare County Council is responsible for the provision of many important services in the administrative area of County Clare. These services include provision and development of a network of digital hubs under the DigiClare brand, managed by the Digital and Broadband Department.
Clare County Council, whose principal place of business is at Áras Contae an Chláir
New Road, Ennis, County Clare V95 DXP2 (also referred to as “Authority,” “we,” “our,” “us”) is the Data Controller when you provide your personal data to us.
Digiclare is an initiative of Clare County Council as part of its Rural Development Strategy to support rural communities by providing flexible, affordable and local office facilities and high-speed broadband connectivity in rural locations in County Clare.
Clare County Council fully respects your right to privacy. Clare County Council is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected, and we wish to be transparent in how we process your data. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we treat it.
Summary
This Privacy Statement relates to the personal data collected by us in respect to the services we provide– that is providing an online booking system and managing occupancy in our digital hubs.
It defines how we collect, share, store, our legal basis, how long we keep your data, and explain your rights. Any information that we process about you will be held in accordance with legislation.
Legal Basis relied upon for collection, use and processing of personal data:
The legal basis relied upon is that processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. Clare County Council may process personal data for the purpose of its functions under Section 63(1)(d), Section 66(4)(e) and Section 67(1) of the Local Government Act 2001 (as amended and updated by the Local Government Reform Act 2014) and to deliver on the targeted actions of various plans (e.g. the County Clare Tourism Strategy 2030, the Clare Rural Development Strategy, Clare Local and Economic and Community Plan, Clare County Development Plan 2017-2023 (as amended). Such functions may include (but are not exhaustive to): providing a network of digital hubs in County Clare to support rural communities.
What type of personal data do we process?
Data includes an individual’s name, contact details (address, telephone number, email address), financial data such as bank account details will be processed to enable payments.
Why do we collect this personal data?
Personal data will be collected and processed by the Digital and Broadband Department of Clare County Council for the following purposes
- To facilitate online booking of and process payment for occupancy of DigiClare’s digital hubs.
- To manage bookings and occupancy of the hub, such as cancelling bookings, moving bookings to alternative dates and communicating code changes and any issues that arise.
- We collect email addresses for the purpose of marketing our digital hubs to our users.
- DigiClare’s website collects specific information automatically and stores it in log files. The information may include Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, the region or general location where your computer or device is accessing the internet, browser type, operating system and other usage information about the use of DigiClare’s website, including a history of the pages you view. We use this information to help us design our site to suit our users’ needs better. We may also use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our websites, analyses trends, track visitor movements, and gather broad demographic information that assists us in identifying visitor preferences.
- DigiClare’s website URL is www.digiclare.ie.
- Additionally, if you submit Personal Data relating to other people (e.g. online bookings on their behalf) – such as your friends, family, colleagues and others for the purpose of securing a space in our digital hubs – you are also deemed to be representing that you have the authority to do so and permit us to use their Personal Data for the purposes described in this Privacy Statement.
What we don’t do
- Link an IP address to anything personally identifiable.
- Share the information we track on our website(s), in any form with advertisers or other parties.
Retaining your data
We will only store personal data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was obtained. The criteria used to determine our retention periods include:
(i) The length of time we have an ongoing relationship and/or provide our services
(ii) Whether there is a legal requirement to which we are subject and
(iii) Whether the retention is advisable in light of our legal position (such as in regard to applicable statutes of limitations, litigation or regulatory investigations).
The Council subscribes to the national records retention policy for local authorities. We will keep personal data contained in grant application files in line with our Retention Schedule. It will be retained in a secure environment in the Tourism Department and access to it be restricted to Tourism staff.
Upon request, we will remove any subscriber (and his or her personal information) from our subscriber’s lists. Any such request should be directed tourism@clarecoco.ie
Sharing your data
To provide our services and to comply with legal obligations imposed on us, it may be necessary from time to time for us to disclose personal data to third parties, who help us administer and audit our services:
- Finance Section (supplier setup information including name, address, bank details, VAT number and Tax number to facilitate identification for tax purposes and payment).
Where we need to share your personal information, we will do so in line with this Statement and our legal obligations, including ensuring that the third party we are sharing it with has appropriate technical and organisational measures and processes in place to keep your personal information secure, and that they only use it in accordance with our instructions.
Your rights
- Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.
- Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Right of erasure – in certain circumstances, you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records.
- Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply to have a right to restrict the processing.
- Right to portability – subject to certain restrictions, you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation where we hold it in electronic form.
- Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as, direct marketing.
Further information about exercising your data rights is available at the following link: Data protection | How we manage information | Council | Clare County Council (clarecoco.ie)
How do we protect your information?
Clare County Council will take appropriate legal, organisational and technical measures to protect your personal information. Clare County Council takes every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and have several layers of security measures in place, including:
- SSL;
- Restricted Access;
- IT Authentication;
- Firewalls; &
- Anti-Virus/Malware
Where the data subject does not provide their personal data
If we cannot collect or process certain personal data, you will not be able to avail of a space in our digital hubs. If you have any queries in respect of the consequences of not providing information, please contact us (see the section Complaints, Questions and Assistance).
Changes to our privacy statement
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Statement at any time.
If we change our privacy policy, we will post the changes on this webpage and may place notices on other pages of the website so that you may be aware of the information we collect and how we use it at all times. Continued use of the service would signify that you agree to any such changes.
This privacy statement was last updated in April 2025.
Complaints, questions and assistance
If you have any comments, concerns or complaints about our use of your personal data, we ask that you contact us first to try and resolve the matter.
You are encouraged to raise any issues with our Data Protection Officer:
Post:
Data Protection Officer, Finance and Support Services Directorate,
Clare County Council, Áras Contae an Chláir, New Road, Ennis, Co. Clare V95 DXP2, Telephone number: (065) 6846405 or (065) 6846200, E-mail: dpa@clarecoco.ie
Or
Clare County Council’s Digital & Broadband Department
Contact details: Clare County Council, Áras an Contae and Chláir, New Road, Ennis, Co Clare V95 DXP2, telephone number: +353 65 682 1616, E-mail: hubs@clarecoco.ie
