Citizens Advice Calderdale Privacy Policy
At Citizens Advice 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.
We only ask for the information we need. We always let you decide what you’re comfortable telling us, explain why we need it and treat it as confidential.
hen we record and use your personal information, we:
- only access it when we have a good reason
- only share what is necessary and relevant
- don’t sell it to anyone
We collect and use the details you give us so we can help you. We have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do this under data protection law. This means it lets us carry out our aims and goals as an organisation. We’ll always explain how we use your information.
Coronavirus: Test and Trace if you get advice in person
If you get advice in person, we’ll ask for your:
- name
- email address or telephone number
We’ll keep this information in our secure case management system.
We might be asked to share your name, contact details and the date of your visit with Test and Trace or local public health organisations. This is to help track cases of coronavirus. They might contact you if they think you’re at risk after your visit. For example because someone getting advice at the same time has tested positive for coronavirus. You can find out more about Test and Trace in England on GOV.UK.
We’ll never share information about the reason for your visit.
Privacy policy ST 25 01 22 If you can’t give contact details, for example if it’s not safe for you to do so, we’ll still be able to give you advice in person.
Unlike most situations, we won’t ask for your consent before we share your contact details. If you don’t want us to share this information you can tell your local office, you want to opt out.
We’re doing this to help keep you and the public safe, this is a ‘legitimate interest’ of Citizens Advice.
We won’t share your contact details with anyone other than Test and Trace or a local public health organisation.
If we share your information, we’ll let you know, and offer further support.
If you want to know more about changes to our face-to-face services or how your information will be used, please contact Citizens Advice Calderdale on 0808 278 7879.
At times we might use or share your information without your permission. If we do, we’ll always make sure there’s a legal basis for it. This could include situations where we must use or share your information:
- to comply with the law – for example, if a court orders us to share information. This is called ‘legal obligation’
- to protect someone’s life – for example, sharing information with a paramedic if a client was unwell at our office. This is called ‘vital interests’
- to carry out our legitimate aims and goals as a charity – for example, to create statistics for our national research. This is called ‘legitimate interests’
- for us to carry out a task where we’re meeting the aims of a public body in the public interest – for example, delivering a government or local authority service. This is called ‘public task’
- to carry out a contract we have with you – for example, if you’re an employee we might need to store your bank details so we can pay you. This is called ‘contract’
- to defend our legal rights – for example, sharing information with our legal advisors if there was a complaint that we gave the wrong advice
We handle and store your personal information in line with the law – including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
You can check our Citizens Advice Policy for how we handle most of your personal information
This page covers how we, as your local charity, handle your information locally in our offices.
How Citizens Advice Calderdale collect your data
We collect your information and ask for permission to hold it in the following ways:
- verbally when you ring us on the telephone
- in writing on our email form
- verbally and in writing in a face-to-face appointment
What Citizens Advice Calderdale ask for
To find out what information we ask for see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.
How Citizens Advice Calderdale store your information
Most of our client information is stored on our national database which has two level authentication.
We hold limited paper files for ongoing vulnerable benefit and debt clients, where court papers have been in paper format.
These are stored at our office at 37 Harrison Road, HX1 2AF.
Contact Citizens Advice Calderdale about your information
If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact our office.
Telephone 0808 278 7879
Monday to Friday 9.30 until 1pm, and Tuesday 4-5.30pm.
Emails
All emails are dealt read and dealt with in five working days. They are stored for two weeks after first contact to ensure that all issues are resolved. Then they are deleted.
You can contact us to:
- find out what personal information we hold about you
- correct your information if it’s wrong, out of date or incomplete
- request we delete your information
- ask us to limit what we do with your data – for example, ask us not to share it if you haven’t asked us already
- ask us to give you a copy of the data we hold in a format you can use to transfer it to another service
- ask us stop using your information
Who’s responsible for looking after your personal information
The national Citizens Advice charity and Citizens Advice Calderdale operate a system called Casebook to keep your personal information safe. This means they’re a ‘joint data controller’ for your personal information that’s stored in our Casebook system.
Each local Citizens Advice is an independent charity, and a member of the national Citizens Advice charity. The Citizens Advice membership agreement also requires that the use of your information complies with data protection law.
You can find out more about your data rights on the Information Commissioner’s website.