Privacy policy

At Citizens Advice Hertsmere, 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, Hertsmere Citizens Advice 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 we collect your information

We collect data by asking you to complete our Client Registration Form. If you contact us via our website, we will ask you to complete a contact form. If you call us we will take your details over the phone.

What information we collect

We will collect your personal information including name, address, contact details and DOB.

We might also ask you for special category data such as health, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, religion or trade membership. We will only collect this data if it is relevant to your enquiry.

What we use your information for

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.

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.

Who we share your information with

We might share your information with partner organisations such as the Local Authority, DWP or Housing Association only in the interest of helping you with your enquiry. We will ask you for your permission before we do this.

Our lawful basis for using your information

• 'explicit consent’ - for example, using your special category data for the purpose of giving advice.

• 'legitimate interests’ - to carry out your legitimate aims and goals as a charity (for example, to create statistics for national research).

How we use your data for research, feedback and statistics

This section covers how we use your data to carry out our research, feedback and statistical work.

National Citizens Advice covers their use of data for this purpose - check the National Citizens Advice privacy notice.

How we collect your information

We might ask you to complete a Feedback form.

What information we collect

We might use local Feedback forms to collect details of your enquiry and your feedback about our service.

What we use your information for

We use this information to help us to improve our services.

Who we share your information with

Our feedback forms are anonymous and your personal details are not shared outside of our service.

Our lawful basis for using your information

• explicit consent’ - for example, using their special category data for the purpose of giving advice.

• legitimate interests’ - to carry out your legitimate aims and goals as a charity (for example, to create statistics for national research).

How we use your data when applying to work or volunteer

How we collect your information

We collect data via internal application forms or via our website ‘contact us’ form.

What information we collect

We collect your personal data such as name, address, contact details.

We may also ask you for details of your health, sexual orientation and disability.

We will collect information from previous employers, for example, references.

What we use your information for

We use the information that we collect to help us with our selection process.

Who we share your information with

We do not share this information outside of our organisation.

References are shared with future, potential employers. References contain minimal information and are only given on your request.

Our lawful basis for using your information

• We have checked that the processing in necessary for the relevant purpose, and are satisfied that there is no other reasonable and less intrusive way to achieve that purpose

• We have documented our decision on which lawful basis applies to help us demonstrate compliance

• We have included information about both the purposes of the processing and the lawful basis for the processing in our privacy notice

• Where we process special category data, we have also identified a condition for processing special category data and have documented this

• Where we process criminal offence data, we have also identified a condition for processing this data, and have documented this

How we use your data when using our website

What information we collect

We collect your personal information such as name, address, contact details. We might also collect special category data such as Ethnicity, health, religions, sexual orientation and trade membership.

How we collect your information

We collect your information by asking you to complete an online form.

What we use your information for

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.

Who we share your information with

We might share your information with other organisations such as the Local Authority, Housing Association or DWP if it is necessary to help you with your enquiry.

Our lawful basis for using your information

• explicit consent’ - for example, using your special category data for the purpose of giving advice.

• legitimate interests’ - to carry out your legitimate aims and goals as a charity (for example, to create statistics for national research).

How we use cookies on our website

When you use our website, we add cookies to your device to:

• make sure the website works well for you - for example, remembering whether you want to see content for England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

• find out how you're using our website so we can improve it.

• help us run fundraising campaigns effectively.

By using our website, we assume you agree to us adding cookies to your device. If you want to disable, block or remove cookies, you can do this at any time.

How long we keep your data for

National Citizens Advice is responsible for managing any data in joint client case records. For more information, please see the National Citizens Advice privacy notice.

Third party processors

Third party processors are other organisations that carry out data processing on our behalf. Third party processors don’t use data for their own purposes and we have agreements in line with data protection law.

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 debbiereynolds@hertsmerecab.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 debbiereynolds@hertsmerecab.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.

You can visit the ICO website.

Address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113