Citizens Advice East Suffolk
Privacy and Confidentiality Policy
At Citizens Advice 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 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 and
- Do not sell it to anyone.
Our llegal basis for collecting, using and holding the details you give us are:
- establishment, excercise or defence of legal claims
- substantial public interest – statutory basis
- substantial public interest – provision of confidential counselling, advice or support
We collect and use the details you give us so that 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 will always explain how we use your information.
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 client 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 carry out a contract we have with you – for example, if you’re an employee we might need to store your bank details so we can pay you. This is called ‘contract’ and
- to defend our legal rights – for example, sharing information with our legal advisers 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.
This page covers how we, as your local charity, handle your information locally in our offices.
How Citizens Advice East Suffolk collects your data
To find out how we collect information, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.
What Citizens Advice East Suffolk ask for
To find out what information we ask for, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.
How Citizens Advice East Suffolk use your information
To find out how we use your information, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.
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 that third party.
How Citizens Advice East Suffolk stores your information
Microsoft 365
Locked cabinets
Webform Submissions – Once information has been successfully downloaded, this data is deleted from the website.
How Citizens Advice East Suffolk shares your information
Information may be shared in different formats, this can include:
- SIP – this is a secure referral process
- Phone call
- Letter
We only share your information with organisations you give us permission to refer you to.
Contact Citizens Advice East Suffolk about your information
If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact our office on info@caes.org.uk or by viting our offices. Opening hours are available on our website www.caes.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 and
- ask us to stop using your information.
Who’s responsible for looking after your personal information
The national Citizens Advice charity and your local Citizens Advice operate a system called Casebook to keep your personal information safe. This means they’re a ‘joint data controller’ for your personal information that’s stored in our Casebook system.
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 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 and 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 usung 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.
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.
You can find out more about your rights on the Information Commissioner’s website.