Citizens Advice Eastbourne  

Privacy Policy

1.    Scope

At Citizens Advice Eastbourne 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 will 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.

2.    Our role

Citizens Advice Eastbourne is a data controller and registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Registration: Z4985834. Our designated data protection contact is the Chief Officer who can be contacted by telephone on 03444 111 444 or email on manager@eastbournecab.cabnet.org.uk. For detailed data controller information for the main Citizens Advice, please review the main policy here: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/about-us1/citizens-advice-privacy-policy/your-information/ .

3.    How we use your data

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 have to 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 team member 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 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 main Citizens Advice policy for how we handle most of your personal information here: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/citizens-advice-privacy-policy/your-information/

This policy covers how we, as your local charity, handle your information locally. 

 

4.    How we collect your data

We collect your personal data in the following ways:

•  Directly from you by asking questions and recording the answers. We may ask you to fill in a form, we may complete a form or ask you a series of questions and then type the answers directly into Casebook, our record management system, provided by Citizens Advice. This may happen face to face in our office, on the telephone when speaking to an adviser or by email.
   

• Via our online enquiry system
   

• From another agency who refer you to us for advice such as Eastbourne Borough Council, BHT Eastbourne Advice, Foodbank, etc. They should always ask for your permission to send your information to us.

When we ask for your information, we ask for your permission to store it. Where possible we ask you to sign a form which shows that you have agreed to us storing your data. 

We do not collect data about you from other sources, however we may receive information from other agencies such as the DWP, the Council, HMRC etc. We need a legal basis to process your data and, in most cases, this is by getting your consent to do so. We sometimes need to store data about third parties and we do this under the lawful basis of legitimate interests

5.    What data we ask for

To find out what information Citizens Advice Eastbourne asks for, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy www.citizensadvice.org.uk/privacy-policy/

6.    How we use your information

To find out how Citizens Advice Eastbourne uses your information, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy at www.citizensadvice.org.uk/privacy-policy/

7.    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 third parties.  Depending on circumstances this may include:

 

●        Eastbourne Borough Council

●        Department of Works and Pensions

●        Brighton Housing Trust

●        Eastbourne Job Centre

●        Homeworks

●        HARC

●        Steps

●        Adult Social Care

●        Eastbourne Foodbank 

●        and more, depending on your circumstances

8.    How we store your information

We may store your data on our server which is based in our office in St Leonards Road or on secure cloud-based server solutions. More detailed technical information on our technical solutions is available upon request.  We store paper records in our offices securely.

We store all client records in Casebook which is described below. Wherever possible we scan your paper documents.

Casebook

The national Citizens Advice charity and Citizens Advice Eastbourne operate a client management system called Casebook to keep your personal information safe. This means the two organisations are ‘joint data controllers’ for personal information that’s stored in our Casebook system.

Each local Citizens Advice 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.

9.    How we share your data

If we share your data with organisations other than Citizens Advice, we may use the following methods:

●        In writing – as a letter or referral form

●        By email using encryption

●        By telephone

We do not share your information with funders unless we have your specific permission to do this.

 

10.     How to contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about how your information is collected or used, you can contact our office.

Unit 6 Highlight House
8 St Leonard’s Road
Eastbourne
BN21 3UH

●        Telephone 03444 111 444

●        Email: manager@eastbournecab.cabnet.org.uk

 

 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 to stop using your information

Should you not be entirely satisfied with how we have used your data, please contact us directly. We endeavour to resolve your query as quickly as possible. Should your query not be resolved to your full satisfaction you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at the following address:

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF

●        Helpline: 0303 123 1113 (Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 4.30pm)

●        Email: icocasework@ico.org.uk

●        Website: www.ico.org.uk

11.    Who’s responsible for looking after your personal information

The national Citizens Advice charity and Citizens Advice Eastbourne operate a system called Casebook to keep your personal information safe.  This means that we are ‘joint data controllers’ for your personal information that is stored in that system. 

Citizens Advice Eastbourne 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 laws. 

You can find out more about your data rights on the Information Commissioner’s website.

 

12. Cookie Policy

You can read about our cookie policy here: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/citizens-advice-privacy-policy/how-we-use-cookies/