Introduction

This Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, use and store your personal information (this means any information that identifies or could identify you).

Please read this policy carefully; by providing us with your personal information, you consent to the collection and use of any information you provide in accordance with this policy.  Occasionally, we may make changes to this policy so do remember to check back at regular intervals.

Policy Statement

The wïsh centre is committed to protecting your personal information and making every effort to ensure that your personal information is processed in a fair, open and transparent manner.

How we collect information about you

Primarily we collect information via referrals to our services.  This information is used to help us support you efficiently and to make sure our interactions with you are timely, relevant and tailored for you.

Information may also be collected in other ways to support and enhance our services generally, be it through visiting our website or receiving emails, post or phone calls.

We may collect information from you in the following ways:

When you interact with us directly: This could be if you ask us about or refer to our services, register with us for training or an event, make a donation to us, apply for a job or volunteering opportunity or otherwise provide us with your personal information. This includes when you phone us, visit our website, or get in touch through the post, or in person.

When you interact with us through third parties: This could be if you engage with us on social media and messaging services like Facebook, WhatsApp or Twitter. Or if you provide a donation through a third party, such as BT Mydonate or one of the other third parties that we work with, and you provide your consent for your personal information to be shared with us.

When you visit our website: We may gather general information which might include which pages you visit most often and which services, events or information is of most interest to you. We also use “cookies” to help our site run effectively.

We use this information to make improvements and to ensure we provide the best service and experience for you.

From other information that is available to the public: In order to tailor our communications with you to your background and interests we may collect information about you from publicly available sources.

Information we collect and why we use it

Personal Information

Personal information we collect includes details such as your name, date of birth, email address, postal address, telephone number as well as information you provide in any communications between us.  You will have given us this information whilst making a referral, registering for a service or event, making a donation, requesting information or any of the other ways to interact with us.

We will mainly use this information:

  • To provide the services or information that you have requested.
  • To process your donations or other payments, to claim Gift Aid on your donations and verify any financial transactions.
  • For administrative purposes, for example to contact you with a query or where you have contacted us.
  • To keep a record of your communications with us.
  • To administer a volunteering arrangement or job application.

If you do not provide this information, we will not be able to process your donation, sign you up for a particular event or provide services you have requested.

We may also use your personal information:

  • To analyse and improve our website, services, products or information.
  • To invite you to participate in surveys or research.

Sensitive Personal Information

If you share your personal experience or the experiences of a friend or relative, we may also collect this health information.  If you provide us with any Sensitive Personal Information by telephone, email or by other means, we will treat that information with extra care and confidentiality and always in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

You can of course decide if you want to remain anonymous, if you are happy to share your personal details with staff members or if you would like us to share your story with the media or other parties as part of our work telling people’s personal stories about self harm (for example, on our website).

Data Protection Law recognises that some categories of personal information are more sensitive. Sensitive Personal Information can include information about a person’s health, race, ethnic origin, political opinions, sex life, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.

We will only use this information:

  • For the purposes of providing the service you have requested, training, and quality monitoring or evaluating the services we provide.
  • We will not pass on your details to anyone else without your express consent except in exceptional circumstances. Examples of this might include anyone reporting serious harm to themselves or posing a threat to others or where there is a statutory or legal justification.
  • Where you have given us your express consent or otherwise clearly indicated to us that you are happy for us to share your story.
  • Legal basis for using your information

In some cases, we will only use your personal information where we have your consent or because we need to use it in order to fulfil a contract with you.

However, there are other lawful reasons that allow us to process your personal information and one of those is called ‘legitimate interests’.

Whenever we process your Personal Information under the ‘legitimate interest’ lawful basis we make sure that we take into account your rights and interests and will not process your personal information if we feel that there is an imbalance.

Some examples of where we have a legitimate interest to process your Personal Information are where we use your personal information for data analytics, conducting research, improving our services, for our legal purposes (for example, dealing with complaints and claims), or for complying with guidance from the Charity Commission.

Sharing your Information

The personal information we collect about you will mainly be used by our staff (and volunteers) at the wïsh centre so that they can support you.

We will never sell or share your personal information with organisations so that they can contact you for any marketing activities. Nor do we sell any information about your web browsing activity.

The wïsh centre may however share your information with our trusted partners who work with us on or on our behalf to deliver our services, but processing of this information is always carried out under our instruction. We make sure that they store the data securely, delete it when they no longer need it and never use it for any other purposes.

We enter into contracts with these service providers that require them to comply with Data Protection Laws and ensure that they have appropriate controls in place to secure your information.

Legal disclosure

We may disclose your information if required to do so by law; for example, to comply with applicable laws, regulations and codes of practice or in response to a valid request from a competent authority.

Keeping your information safe

We take looking after your information very seriously. We’ve implemented appropriate physical, technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information we have under our control, both on and off-line, from improper access, use, alteration, destruction and loss.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information using the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information sent to us this way, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to us, and you do so at your own risk.

We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites, even if you access them using links from our website and recommend that you check the policy of each site you visit.

How long we hold your information for

We only keep your personal information for as it as long as is reasonable and necessary for the relevant activity and to meet any legal or regulatory requirement.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation 2018, you have various rights in respect of the personal information we hold about you – these are set out in more detail below.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights or make a complaint, please contact the wïsh centre by email at info@thewishcentre.org.uk (marked for the attention of the Data Controller) or by phone on 020 8416 7277.  You can also make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office, https://ico.org.uk/

  • Access to your personal information: You have the right to request access to a copy of the personal information that we hold about you, along with information on what personal information we use, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it for and whether it has been used for any automated decision making. Requests for access can be made verbally or in writing, you may be asked to provide us with approved proof of your identity. We will respond to access requests within one month of receipt.
  • Right to object: You can object to our processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
  • Consent: If you have given us your consent to use personal information you can withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Rectification: You can ask us to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal information held about you.
  • Erasure: You can ask us to delete your personal information where it is no longer necessary for us to use it, you have withdrawn consent, or where we have no lawful basis for keeping it.
  • Portability: You can ask us to provide you or a third party with some of the personal information that we hold about you in a structured, commonly used, machine readable format, so it can be easily transferred.
  • Restriction: You can ask us to restrict the personal information we use about you where you have asked for it to be erased or where you have objected to our use of it.
  • No automated-decision making: Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention.  You have the right not to be subject to automated decisions that will create legal effects or have a similar significant impact on you, unless you have given us your consent, it is necessary for a contract between you and us or is otherwise permitted by law.  You also have certain rights to challenge decisions made about you.  We do not currently carry out any automated decision-making.

Please note, some of these rights only apply in certain circumstances and we may not be able to fulfil every request.

How we use cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device to help us give you a better experience of using our website. A cookie, by itself, can’t be used to identify you.

Cookies do lots of different things, such as helping us to:

  • Estimate the number of visitors to our site, including the source and patterns relating to this traffic.
  • Understand how visitors use the site, and how we can enhance this experience.

You are able to set your devices to accept all cookies, to notify you when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time, although please be aware this means that you’ll miss out on some personalised services. You should read the information that came with your browser software to see how you can do this.

You can also find out more about cookies at www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu/.

To find out more about this policy and how we look after your personal information, contact info@thewishcentre.org.uk or 020 8416 7277.