Privacy statement

The citizensinformation.ie website is maintained by the Citizens Information Board, a statutory agency based at George’s Quay House, Townsend Street, Dublin 2.

We provide or support the provision of information, advice, money advice and advocacy services. We fund a range of organisations, including Citizens Information Services, Money Advice and Budgeting Services (MABS), the Citizens Information Phone Service, the National Advocacy Service for people with disabilities (NAS) and the Sign Language Interpreting Service (SLIS).

This statement describes how we will process any data we collect from you through this website.

We have a separate Cookie notice, which gives you information about the cookies on our website so you can make an informed decision as to whether you accept or reject such cookies.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Acts 1988-2018, the data controller is the Citizens Information Board.

This statement relates only to our privacy practices in connection with this website.

You can find out more about data protection in the Citizens Information Board, and in the companies we fund, in the Data Protection Notices on citizensinformationboard.ie.

The Citizens Information Board also manages a range of corporate social media channels and you can access our policies on citizensinformationboard.ie.

When you visit citizensinformation.ie, a range of information is collected, including:

• IP address – this is the identifying address for your computer in Internet Protocol (IP) code, for example, 137.191.332.82
• Web browser and version
• Pages visited and the time of those visits
• Operating system
• Device or device type
• Search terms used
• The previous website address from which you reached us, including any search terms used
• External website addresses which you reach by clicking links on citizensinformation.ie

If you use our call back form to request a call back from a Citizens Information Service, we collect your email address and your telephone number along with information about the topic of your query.

What we use the information for

We use this information for statistical and reporting purposes, to improve the website and to enable a call back if you have requested it.

Third-party services on citizensinformation.ie

The citizensinformation.ie website uses Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Maps and Matomo.

This website uses Google Analytics to collect information about how visitors to citizensinformation.ie use the website. We have set up the Google Analytics service with advanced privacy protections so that Google will not retain your full IP address and does not have permission to share any data collected. There is more information on Google Analytics in our 'Cookies policy'. We will ask for your consent before we set Google Analytics cookies and we do not capture information about your visit via Google Analytics if you do not grant this consent.

We use Google Tag Manager to customise some of the data that is sent to Google Analytics. We use Google Tag Manager to track how far users scroll down a page. We do this to see whether the content is meeting user needs.

When you look for a Citizens Information Centre on centres.citizensinformation.ie, many of the pages include an option to load a map generated by Google. If you choose to load a map generated by Google, Google may gather information in rendering the map, including your IP address, web browser version, operating system and similar.

Google may store data on servers outside the European Union or European Economic Area. We have ensured appropriate safeguards are in place to protect the privacy and integrity of this data.

You can find Google's Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

We also use software called Matomo to collect information about how visitors to citizensinformation.ie use the website. Matomo is hosted on a Citizens Information Board server.

Links on citizensinformation.ie

If you click buttons or links to third party sites or services when you are on the citizensinformation.ie website, you will be redirected to an external site, which has its own cookie and privacy policies over which we have no control.

Hosting

Citizensinformation.ie is hosted on servers maintained by the Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (OGCIO). The centres.citizensinformation.ie domain is hosted on a Citizens Information Board server.

Citizensinformation.ie uses cookies that are necessary to make the website work. You can also choose to set optional cookies. These cookies help us understand how visitors use the website and improve the use and functionality of the website.

You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking the 'Manage Cookie Preferences' link in the footer of every page on this website. We provide detailed information in our Cookie notice about the cookies we use and their purpose.

If you are concerned about how your personal data is processed via this website, please do not hesitate to bring such concerns to our Data Protection Officer’s attention:

Telephone: 0818 07 9000

Email: dataprotection:@ciboard.ie

Web browser

The piece of software you use to read web pages. Examples are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera.

IP address

The identifying details for your computer (or your internet company’s computer), expressed in internet protocol code (for example 192.168.72.34). Every computer connected to the web has a unique IP address, although the address may not be the same every time a connection is made.