Privacy 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
- 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.
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Coronavirus: Test and Trace if you get advice in person
If you get advice in person we’ll ask for your:
We’ll keep this information in our secure case management system.
We might be asked to share your name, contact details and the date of your visit with Test and Trace or local public health organisations. This is to help track cases of coronavirus. They might contact you if they think you’re at risk after your visit. For example because someone getting advice at the same time has tested positive for coronavirus. You can find out more about Test and Trace in England on GOV.UK or Test and Trace in Wales on GOV.WALES.
We’ll never share information about the reason for your visit.
If you can’t give contact details, for example if it’s not safe for you to do so, we’ll still be able to give you advice in person.
Unlike most situations, we won’t ask for your consent before we share your contact details. If you don’t want us to share this information you can tell your local office you want to opt out.
We’re doing this to help keep you and the public safe, this is a ‘legitimate interest’ of Citizens Advice.
We won’t share your contact details with anyone other than Test and Trace or a local public health organisation.
If we share your information, we’ll let you know, and offer further support.
If you want to know more about changes to our face to face services or how your information will be used, please . |
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’
- 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 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 IW collects your data
We will need your permission to collect some of your information or we will explain what legal basis we’re using . If we need your consent this can be verbal but where possible we will seek written authority from you for example, by getting your permission by signing our
What Citizens Advice IW ask for
‘To find out what information we ask for,
How Citizens Advice IW use your information
To find out how we use your information, ’
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.
As an example, we regularly work with the Council, Age UK IW, People Matter IW, Footprint Trust IW, Southern Housing, Sovereign Housing and Vectis Housing. We will only share your details with your authority
How Citizens Advice IW share your information
Financial transactions relating to our website and services are handled by our payment services providers, Stripe & Go Cardless. We will share transaction data with our payment services providers only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing your payments, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds. You can find information about the payment services providers’ privacy policies and practices at https://stripe.com/gb/privacy and https://gocardless.com/privacy/.
RIT Note: Providers:
– Stripe ( https://stripe.com/gb/privacy)
– GoCardless ( https://gocardless.com/legal/privacy/)
Contact Citizens Advice IW about your information
If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact our office.