Confidentiality & Privacy Policies

Confidentiality & Privacy

Turn2us's services (including this website and our helpline) are governed by the following confidentiality and privacy policies.

Turn2us Confidentiality Policy

Website Privacy Policy

Turn2us Confidentiality Policy

Turn2us is bound by the UK’s Data Protection Act which implements the European Union (EU) Data Protection Directive. This protects personal data and places restrictions on Turn2us’s ability to disclose personal data within the UK and overseas.

Personal data is information relating to an individual from which they can be identified, e.g. name, address, tax details or national insurance number.

Turn2us staff will often be entrusted with personal information given to them in confidence by users of Turn2us services. Anyone working for Turn2us has a duty to treat that information with respect. They also have a duty under the Data Protection Act 1998 to protect the confidentiality of personal information and to process that information fairly.

Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act regulates when and how an individual’s ‘personal data’ may be obtained, held, used, disclosed and generally processed. It applies to computerised processing of personal data and certain paper-based files and records.

To comply with the law, information must be collected and used fairly, stored securely and not disclosed to any other person unlawfully.

To do this, Turn2us staff must comply with the Data Protection Principles, which are set out in the Data Protection Act. In summary, these state that personal data shall be:

processed fairly and lawfully and shall not be processed unless certain conditions are met
obtained for specified and lawful purposes and not further processed in a manner which is incompatible with that purpose
adequate, relevant and not excessive
accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
kept for no longer than is necessary
processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights
protected by appropriate security
not transferred to a country outside the European Economic Area (EEA), unless that country has equivalent levels of protection for personal data.
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Requests by data subjects for access to data held

If a user wishes to see any personal information about them held by Turn2us, this can be shown to him or her and a copy made if one is requested. If a third party is acting on behalf of the user, proof of identity and the user's authority to disclose their information to their representative, must be obtained in writing.

All requests must be responded to within 20 working days.

Breaking confidentiality

Confidentiality may be broken in the following circumstances:

Where the person from whom the information was obtained, and (if different) the person to whom it relates, consents
Where the information is already available to the public from other sources
Where the information is in the form of a summary or collection of information so framed that it is not possible to ascertain from it information relating to any particular person
When there is a serious risk of harm to the individual, as in a threatened suicide
To protect others. For example, information about possible child abuse should be disclosed to the appropriate agency
To prevent a serious criminal act, especially where others may be endangered, for example an act of terrorism.
There is no obligation in general to pass on knowledge of a crime. However, it is a criminal offence to:

- Deliberately mislead the police.
- To receive a reward of any kind in return for not notifying the police about a criminal act.
- Not to notify the police about an act that could be construed as an act of terrorism.
- Not to notify the police about an act that could be construed as drug trafficking.

If a member of Turn2us staff has to break confidentiality then the person whose personal information it is must be told that this is going to happen in writing. The member of staff should only do so after all attempts to persuade the individual to disclose the information voluntarily have failed. The Turn2us Head of Services should be consulted before disclosure. They will be responsible for making the final decision about breaching confidentiality and ensuring that the correct action is taken.

Scope of this Policy

This confidentiality policy applies to all Turn2us staff.

Publication of this Policy

This policy will be published on the Turn2us website, http://www.turn2us.org.uk/

Contact Details

Concerns relating to any aspect of this policy should be addressed to Head of Services, Turn2us, 1 Derry Street, London W8 5HY. Telephone: 020 7396 6690.

Website Privacy Policy

This is www.turn2us.org.uk a website operated by Turn2us, a charity registered in the UK with Charity Registration Number 1120672 and Company registered in the UK with Company Number 6136422. Registered address: 1 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY

General

Turn2us is responsible for the www.turn2us.org.uk website and is committed to protecting your privacy and security.

From time to time we may invite you to supply personal information in order for us to authenticate your identity or to provide you with services.

In order to deliver such services, we will need to process and store your personal information and may need to transfer it to the relevant partner(s), to Turn2us for processing both inside and outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

By submitting your personal information, you consent to such processing and transfers in connection with such orders, offers or services and for any other purposes to which you consent at the time you provide the information or as provided in this privacy policy.

Data Protection

Turn2us will seek registration in accordance with and seeks to comply with the UK Data Protection Act 1998.

We follow appropriate security procedures in the storage and disclosure of personal information so as to prevent unauthorised access by third parties. We also require those parties to whom we transfer personal information to comply with the same.

However, the Internet is not a totally secure medium and you acknowledge and agree that Turn2us shall not be responsible for any unauthorised use, distribution, damage or destruction of personal data, except to the extent we are required to accept such responsibility by the Data Protection Act 1998.

Scope of this policy

This Policy only applies to the use that we make of data provided to us via the Internet and email. Other uses may be made of data provided to Turn2us in correspondence, by telephone or by other means not detailed in this Policy. These terms apply in addition to Terms & Conditions Of Use for the website.

Why we need to collect information from you

We will notify you as to the types of information we are collecting about you as well as the uses we intend to make of that information. We may use the information we collect about you to notify you from time to time about important new features and changes to our online services or special offers, competitions or promotions we think you'll find of interest.

Subject to what we say below, we will not pass on your personal details to any third party, including site sponsors or advertisers, without your consent. In order to provide goods and services to you we may need to provide your data to our agents and service providers.

We may provide aggregate statistics about our users, sales, traffic patterns and related site information to our third-party partners (if any), but these statistics will not contain any information about you from which you could be identified.

Subscription and fulfilment agents

We may need to provide your data to our subscription and other fulfilment agents in order to provide goods or services to you.

Content Posted by You

Of course, if you post any personal information to any bulletin boards or forums we may have, this information will immediately be made available to other users throughout the world who may use it to send you unsolicited communications.

Furthermore, in some circumstances we may display some of your personal information (name data) when you post material to the website to allow users to identify each other.

Also, if you post any content in breach of our Terms & Conditions Of Use we may inform any relevant third parties such as your employer, school e-mail/Internet provider and law enforcement agencies about the content and your behaviour.

Security and possibility of international transfer

Please note that countries outside the EEA may not have the same level of protection as countries within the EEA, but we always demand that those parties to whom we transfer data adhere to the same security procedures that we follow ourselves.

The Use Of 'Cookies'

In order to enable us to provide you with a personalised browsing experience, this site uses 'cookie' information collection technology.

"Cookies" are small pieces of information that are issued to your computer when you enter a website. Cookies are stored by your browser on your computer's hard drive, and they can be used for a wide range of purposes, such as identifying your computer's previous visits to this website, and to ascertain the most popular features of this website.

Like many other websites, this website uses cookies as they enable us to identify your computer when you visit this website. For example, cookies can make it possible for us to identify and automatically log in registered users of certain services on this website without the need for us to ask users for their registration details and password each time they visit.

We also use cookies to develop a clearer picture of which parts of this website are the most popular to its visitors, and your preferences. You are not obliged to accept cookies and you may amend your browser's settings to prevent it from accepting cookies.

Please be aware that if you do disable cookies, certain services on this website may not be available to you and your enjoyment of this website may be impaired.

Links and Third Party Advertising

Any links on the website may take you to third party sites over which we have no control. Similarly, advertisements appearing on this website may be posted by third parties who may use their own cookies and have their own privacy policies. When linking to another website you should read the privacy policy stated on that website.

This privacy policy covers the use made of cookies and personal data by Turn2us and does not cover the use made of cookies and personal data by any third parties.

Feedback, Comments & Suggestions

If you have any queries about our Privacy Policy or any queries about the protection of personal information We hold about you, please do not hesitate to contact us: Our address is Turn2us, 1 Derry Street, London W8 5HY. Telephone 020 7396 6700

If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy you should not submit your personal information on this website.

Updated: 28 April 2009

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