Privacy
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We take your privacy seriously. Here we explain how and why we use your personal information taken from our website, our social media, and any other websites we use to collect information. Personal information is anything which identifies you.
Use of your personal information
We will not keep information about you for longer than is necessary and will keep your information secure. We will ask you to ‘opt-in’ to communications from us and you can unsubscribe at any time. We will never sell your personal data and will only share it with organisations where necessary by law (for example about the care of the people we support).
Any questions about our privacy policy?
Please contact our Data Protection Officer, Belinda Wabwire Moosbauer, by emailing: dataprotection@choicesupport.org.uk or write to: The Data Protection Officer, Choice Support, Compass House, 84 Holland Road, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1UT
Any questions about communications from us?
You can contact our communications team by emailing: choicesupport.communications@choicesupport.org.uk or write to Communications at Choice Support, Compass House, 84 Holland Road, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1UT
1. About us
We will collect and use your personal information for Choice Support (Society number 9045). We will also collect and use your personal information from our services that operate with a different name (including Tuck by Truck, Growing Concern and Jigsaw Project).
2. What information do we collect?
We collect and use the information you provide to us. This includes signing up to receive a newsletter, applying for a job, registering your interest to volunteer, sending an enquiry, donating or applying for one of our services. The personal information we collect may include:
- your name, address, email address, telephone number
- your date of birth
- your qualifications and employment history
- details of your interests or preferences, such as whether you are interested in information about mental health or learning disability services or those for autistic people
- national insurance number, declarations of previous convictions
- equal opportunities monitoring information such as your ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation and religion or belief, if you choose to share that with us
- details of a disability you may have if you wish to share this information
- details of referees for job applications.
We also collect details of your visits to our website, for example your location data, what type of device you use and what pages you visit. We cannot identify you with this information, however we can find out your IP address (the location of the computer on the internet). To find out more about cookies, see section 7 below.
We use photos, films, stories, and blogs to help us to promote our work. We use these on a variety of different media, such as on our website, social media, and external websites. We would ask your consent before we use your photo, film, story, or blog. We have a consent form, but we can also accept consent by email and verbally. At events, where there are large groups of people, we do our best to get consent from people. This is often done verbally.
3. How we collect information about you
We collect information about you, from the details you give us. You may have emailed us, filled in an online form, or donated to us. We will ask you to ‘opt-in’ for most communications. This includes surveys, newsletters, annual reviews, and other corporate communications.
This means you can choose how to receive these communications and be able to select how you want to receive them (for example by post or email).
We also collect information about you…
- to process your request to never be contacted.
- to manage your complaint, compliment, or comment.
- when you visit our website, we can find out more information from you, such as your IP address, what browser you are using and what computer operating system is being used.
- where it is required or authorised by law.
Using third parties
Third parties are organisations we work with that help our work. For example, a software company like MailChimp that we use to send out newsletters. They store your personal information on their systems. Read the privacy notices of our third-party partners below:
- Mailchimp (newsletter)
- Access Social care (legal information chatbot)
4. How we use information about you
Marketing communications
We may send you communications so that you can find out more about our work. We do this once you have given your consent. You may have signed up on our website to receive these communications. We make it clear when you sign up, that your information will only be used for that purpose.
Administration
We use personal information to carry out administrative tasks, like:
- receiving donations (on the phone, by post or gift-aid instructions)
- maintaining databases of job applicants, our staff, volunteers, or supporters
- processing your Disclosure and Barring Service check on a third-party site
- fulfilling event ticketing information (whether placed online, over the phone or in person)
- helping us respect your choices and preferences (if you ask not to receive marketing material, we will keep a record of this).
Volunteer applications
We get your name and email address from you when you apply to be a volunteer. We use this information to contact you about your volunteer enquiry. We will only keep your information for as long as is necessary.
Job applications
We collect equality and diversity information about you when you apply for a job. This will be kept securely and not made available to anyone before or during shortlisting. It will not be used in deciding whether to shortlist you for interview or offer you employment. The information will only be used to monitor our practices. We will not share your personal information, except as part of an overall equal opportunities statistical report which will not identify individuals. We will only keep your information for as long as is necessary.
5. Sharing your personal information
We will never sell your personal information to another organisation.
We will use your personal information with your consent and for the reasons you have given your consent. However, we may need to use your personal information in other ways, for example:
- to enter into, or perform, a contract with you (for example if we must transfer a service to a different provider under contract)
- for legal reasons (for example carrying out DBS checks on job applicants)
- to protect you from harm (for example if you are in crisis)
- for our own (or a third parties) lawful interests, provided your rights do not override these.
6. Young people
Parental permission: If your child is under 18, then we will need permission from you as their parent or guardian, to use their personal information.
Information for parents
It’s important to us to protect and respect the rights of young people and their personal information. If your child is under 18, we will only use your child’s personal information with your consent. This means that, for example, if your child wants to have their name or picture featured on our website or to volunteer with us, we will need a parent/guardian to confirm they are happy for us to do so.
If your child would like to take part in an event, donate or get involved with us, we need your permission before giving us their personal information. We will not send communications to young people asking them to donate.
7. Cookies and links to other sites
What are cookies?
Cookies are simple ’text files’ containing two pieces of information: a site name and unique user ID. When you use this website for the first time, a cookie is downloaded to your PC or mobile/tablet.
When you use this website again, we will ‘know’ that you have been here before. For example, you may not need to re-type in passwords every time you visit our website, as it stores this information for you.
Cookies cannot be used to identify you by name. You can change how cookies are stored on your device by clicking the ‘tools’ menu on your internet browser.
Cookies for improving how you use our website
Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and what pages people are visiting. This helps us to design a website that helps you get the information you want easily.
This site does not collect any information about you except that required for system administration of the website.
Cookies are stored in the cookie directory of your hard drive and do not expire at the end of your session. Although your browser may be set up to allow the creation of cookies, you can specify that you be prompted before a site puts a cookie on your hard disk. This is so that you can decide whether to allow or disallow the cookie. Alternatively, you can set your computer not to accept any cookies.
This site uses Google Analytics code to gather statistical information. For more information on how Google Analytics processes this information, visit www.google.com/analytics.
Cookies on this website from other companies & social networking websites
During your visit to the site, you may notice some cookies that are not related to this website. This happens when you visit a page with content embedded from a third party (for example YouTube videos or our job application software) or use some of the links to social networking sites. These websites may place cookies on your computer.
This website does not control how a third-party uses their cookies. You should check these third-party websites’ privacy policies for more information about their cookies if you are concerned about this.
Log files
Log files allow us to record visitors’ use of the site. This site's administrative team puts together log file information from all our visitors which we use to make improvements to the layout and information on the site. These logs are based on the way that visitors move around it. Log files do not contain any personal information about you.
If you receive the HTML-formatted version of a newsletter, we know when you open the newsletter and what links you click. This helps us to improve our newsletters to you.
Links to other sites
Our website contains hyperlinks to many other websites. We are not responsible for the content or functionality of any of those external websites (but please contact us to let us know if a link is not working).
If an external website requests personal information from you, the information you provide will not be covered by our privacy notice. Please read section 5 (above) on sharing your personal information.
8. Storing your information
We will only use and store information for so long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for. How long information will be stored for depends on the information and its purpose. For example, if you ask us not to send you marketing emails, we will stop storing your emails for marketing purposes (though we will keep a record of your preference not to be emailed).
We never store payment card information. We may need to retain some records to meet our legal obligations – these would include records about money.
Electronic data and databases are stored on secure computer systems, and we control who has access to information. Our staff receive data protection training, and we have detailed data protection policies and procedures.
We are based in the UK, and we transfer some personal data to and from the EU, in the form of accessing data in an EU data centre. We minimise the transfer of personal data outside of the EU. Where this is the case, we make sure data is not transferred without a valid condition for processing and appropriate safeguards for the rights and freedoms of the data subjects.
Of course, we cannot guarantee the security of your home computer or the internet, and any online communications are at the user’s own risk.
We continually review the information we hold and delete what is no longer required.
9. Accessing, updating, or changing your information
We want to make sure that you remain in control of your personal data. Part of this is making sure you understand your legal rights, which are as follows:
- to be informed about what we do with your personal data
- to access your information by contacting our Data Protection Officer
- to be able to change your personal data if it is inaccurate
- to be erased from our systems unless it is necessary for us to hold it. For example, if you ask us not to send you marketing emails, we will stop storing your data for marketing purposes (though we will keep a record of your preference not to be emailed).
- to object to us holding your personal data
- to ask to take your personal data with you
- to restrict us from processing all your data
- in automated decision-making – which we do not do.
- If you would no longer like to receive communications from us, you can tell us at any time.
10. National data opt-out statement
Read our data opt-out statement.
11. Complaints
Contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing: dataprotection@choicesupport.org.uk or write to: The Data Protection Officer, Choice Support, Compass House, 84 Holland Road, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1UT
If you believe that we have not respected your data protection or privacy rights, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Officer: www.ico.org.uk
12. Changes to this policy
We will update this privacy policy to make sure it stays up-to-date and accurate. This policy was last updated in February 2024.
