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.
When 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.
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 will obtain your permission to collect your data by asking you to either:
- Sign a paper client permission & consent form.
- Tick a box online
- Provide agreement over the phone if you call our Telephone Advice Line.
- Read and agree to the consent information provided within our email advice.
Where contact is made by e-mail
- When you contact us by e-mail, we store the initial copy of your e-mail and subsequent replies in our local e-mail system.
- Copies of these mails are retained for a period of one month, so that if you contact us again, we can refer back to the correspondence. After one month, all your e mails and associated replies are deleted.
Where we provide advice by a video platform
- We will obtain consent in line with Telephone Advice unless you are in our premises where we will seek to obtain written consent.
- We will not record any part of the advice session.
- We will adhere to our policies in relation to data protection and where appropriate home working so that your data is secure.
- We will record your information in Casebook which is a secure case management system.
What Citizens Advice Calderdale ask for
To find out what information we ask for see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.
If you don’t want to give us certain information, you don’t have to. For example, if you want to stay anonymous, we’ll only record information about your problem and make sure you’re not identified.
How Citizens Advice Calderdale use your information
The main reason we ask for your information is to help solve your problem.
We only access your information for other reasons if we really need to – for example:
- for training and quality purposes
- to investigate complaints
- to get feedback from you about our services
- to help us improve our services.
All advisers and staff accessing data have had data protection training to make sure your information is handled sensitively and securely.
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 such as Department of Work and Pensions.
Organisations we share your data with must store and use your data in line with data protection law.
Understanding people’s problems
We use some information to create statistics about who we’re helping and what problems are the most common. This information is always anonymised – you can’t be identified.
We share these with funders, regulators, government departments and publicly on our blogs, reports, social media and press releases.
The statistics also inform our policy research, campaigns, or media work.
How Citizens Advice Calderdale store your information
Whether you get advice face to face, over the phone or by e-mail, our adviser will log all your information, correspondence, and notes about your problem into our secure case management systems.
When using WhatsApp to send information to us, our policy is to minimize all data collected and we aim to transfer all personal information to casebook during the course of your case
WhatsApp is a third-party service and Citizens Advice Calderdale cannot accept liability for data held by WhatsApp or breaches of that data. Security of data cannot be guaranteed in messages you send to us through WhatsApp, and we do not control and are not responsible for the use of your data by this third-party service.
When using our “Contact Us” form our policy is to minimise all data collected and if we need to store your information, we aim to transfer all personal information to casebook during the course of your case.
Some of your information might also be kept within our secure e-mail and IT systems.
We keep your information for 6 years and then it is deleted unless your case has been subject to a serious complaint, insurance claim or other dispute. In such circumstances, the data will be held for 16 years, after which time it will be deleted.
Our case management systems are hosted within the European Economic Area and wherever possible the UK.
Where we have control over your data, such as deciding how we use the messages you send us to meet your advice needs, we will make sure that we comply with GDPR and keep your data safe. For example, making sure only the right staff and volunteers can see the messages.
How Citizens Advice Calderdale share your information
We will always tell you when we share your information. 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. We will always ask for your permission to do this.
Organisations we share your data with must store and use your data in line with data protection law.
With your permission, we’ll share your contact details with our trusted research partner so they can contact you for feedback on your experience with us. We use different research partners depending on how you accessed our services.
Where you got advice | Research partner |
a local Citizens Advice | Maru/edr |
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, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9.30 until 1pm.
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.
Citizens Advice Calderdale 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.
If you want to make a complaint
If you’re not happy with how we’ve handled your data, you can make a complaint.