Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole
At Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole, we collect and use your personal information to help solve your problems, improve our services and tackle wider issues in society that affect people’s lives.
This privacy policy explains how we use your information and what your rights are. We handle and store your personal information in line with data protection law and our confidentiality policy. The following pages tell you more about how we use your information in more detail.
Our network
Citizens Advice is a membership organisation made up of the national Citizens Advice charity and many local offices across England and Wales, including Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole. Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole is an independent charity and a member of the national Citizens Advice charity.
All members of the Citizens Advice network are responsible for keeping your personal information safe and making sure data protection law is followed.
Members of the network also run some jointly designed services and use some of the same systems to process your personal data. In these instances, we are joint data controllers for these activities.
Jointly controlled data
All offices in the Citizens Advice network use some joint systems to carry out our activities. These include joint case management systems, telephony platforms and more.
Staff from a different local Citizens Advice can only access your personal information in a joint system if they have a good reason. For example when:
- you go to a different office to seek advice
- more than one office is working together in partnership
- they need to investigate a complaint or incident
We have rules and controls in place to stop people accessing or using your information when they shouldn’t.
Tell an adviser if you’re worried about your details being on a national system. We’ll work with you to take extra steps to protect your information – for example by recording your problem without using your name.
National Citizens Advice has a privacy notice available on their website that covers general advice and nationally managed systems, including our case management systems. This policy covers the processing we carry out in our office.
How we use your data for advice
This section covers how we use your data to provide you with advice.
For general advice and nationally funded advice programmes please see the national Citizens Advice privacy notice.
How Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole collect your data
To find out how we collect your data, see our national Citizens Advice policy: privacy notice
If you have been referred to us from another agency (such as the Witness Support Service, another local Citizens Advice, a local authority or a Housing Association), we would only handle that referral if the referring body had obtained your permission to allow us to contact you, and to record information about you.
What Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole ask for
To find out what information we ask for, see our national Citizens Advice policy: privacy notice
How Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole use your information
To find out how we use your information, see our national Citizens Advice policy: privacy notice
Working on your behalf
When you give us authority to act on your behalf, for example to help you with a Universal Credit claim, we’ll need to share information with that third party.
We would only do this with your permission and this could be with the local authority such as BCP Council, your landlord or housing association, or the Jobcentre.
How Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole store your information
Whether you get advice face to face, over the phone, by email or webchat, our adviser will log all your information, correspondence, and notes about your problem into our secure case management system.
Some of your information might also be kept within our secure email and IT systems.
We keep your information for 6 years. If your case has been subject to a serious complaint, insurance claim or other dispute we keep the data for 16 years.
How Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole share your information
With your permission, we will share your information with other organisations and funders to help solve your problem or to monitor the quality of our services.
Organisations we share your data with must store and use your data in line with data protection law.
Sharing information to solve your problem
If you ask us to act on your behalf we might need to share some of your information with other organisations – we’ll always tell you when we do this. For example, if we contact your creditors about your debts, we might need to share your name, address and financial details with them.
If we refer you to another organisation for more advice, we might share information about your problem with them so they can help you more quickly.
Our confidentiality policy
At Citizens Advice we have a confidentiality policy which states that anything you tell us as part of advice will not be shared outside of the Citizens Advice network unless you provide your permission for us to do so.
There are some exceptions to this such as needing to share:
- to prevent an immediate risk of harm to an individual
- In select circumstances if it is in the best interests of the client
- where we are compelled to do so by law (e.g. a court order or meeting statutory disclosures)
- where there is an overriding public interest such as to prevent harm against someone or to investigate a crime
- to defend against a complaint or legal claim
- to protect our name and reputation for example to provide our side of a story reported in the press
Your data protection rights
You have rights in relation to your personal data that we hold. Your rights include being able to request:
- Access to copies of your data
- Corrections are made to inaccurate data
- Deletion of your personal data
- Object to how we use your personal data
These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every circumstance. For more information about your rights you can visit the ICO website.
To make a data protection rights request you can do so by emailing Admin@citizensadvicebcp.org.uk.
Raising a concern about how we use your information
If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us at Admin@citizensadvicebcp.org.uk .
You can also contact the national charity if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal data or wish to raise a concern about how a local office has handled your personal data. To do so you can email us at DPO@citizensadvice.org.uk
Contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
You can also raise your concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office which regulates data protection law in the UK. if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal information. They will normally expect you to have made a complaint to us directly in the first instance.
- Visit the ICO website.
- Address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
- Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
Security
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
Cookie Policy
As of 1st July 2012, we only store a single, temporary cookie on your computer which is essential for the website and navigation to work correctly. This cookie does not hold any personal or trackable information and is deleted automatically when your browser is closed.
You can also choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may however prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.
Controlling your personal information
We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.
Disclaimer
Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole has tried to ensure that the information on this website is accurate. However, Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole will not accept liability for any loss, damage or inconvenience arising as a consequence of any use of or the inability to use any information on this website. Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole endeavours to provide a service of the highest quality. However, we cannot guarantee that our service will be uninterrupted or error-free. We are not responsible for claims brought by third parties arising from your use of this website.
Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole assumes no responsibility for the contents of linked websites. The inclusion of any link should not be taken as endorsement of any kind by Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole, of the linked website or any association with its operators. Further, we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.
Copyright
Material on this website, including text and images, is protected by copyright. It may not be copied, reproduced, republished, downloaded, posted, broadcast or transmitted in any way except for your own personal, non-commercial use. Prior written consent of the copyright holder must be obtained for any other use of material. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole and other copyright owner(s) as specified. No part of this site may be distributed or copied for any commercial purpose