Privacy Notice
Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that you personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me. I adhere to current data protection legislation, including the Central data protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
This privacy notice tells you what I will do with you personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended, including:
- Why I am able to process your information and what purpose I am processing it for
- Whether you have to provide it to me
- How long I store it for
- Whether there are other recipients of your personal information
- Whether I intend to transfer it to another country
- Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling and
- Your data protection rights
I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via email.
‘Data Controller’ is the term used to describe the person or organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is me.
I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and my reference is ZB655636.
My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.
The GDPR states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data. I have explained these below:
If you have had therapy with me and it has now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information. If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract. The GDPR also makes sure that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).
How I use your information
Initial contact
When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services, I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your first name, phone number and email address details. If you decide not to proceed, I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 24 hours. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.
While you are accessing counselling
Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if you disclose specific and present safeguarding issues (see counselling agreement for further information). I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless doing so would put you or others at immediate risk.
I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely within the BACPAC system that is GDPR compliant and password protected.
I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept within the BACPAC system which is GDPR compliant.
For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 7 days. If there is relevant information contained in a text message, I will move the information to the BACPAC system. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted within 7 if it is not important. If necessary, I will transfer this information the BACPAC system.
After counselling has ended
Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 5 years as per my insurance contracting. At this point records will be destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.
Third party recipients of personal data
I may sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks. In such cases I will carefully selected which partners I work with. I ensure that I have a contract with the third party that states what they are allowed to do with the data I share with them. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.
Your rights
I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. You have a right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information. You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. You can read more about your rights at ico.org.uk/your-data-matters.
If I do hold information about you I will:
• give you a description of it and where it came from.
• tell you why I am holding its, tell you how long I will store your data and how I made this decision.
• tell you who it could be disclosed to.
• let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.
You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you.
To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to nscounsellingservice@outlook.com.
If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing to the contact details given above. I would welcome any suggestions for improving my data protection procedures. If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information you can contact the ICO which is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. For more information go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
Data security
I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. All of your personal details and notes are help on a system call BACPAC who are GDPR compliant and secure. The system is both password and security code protected and each access requires a new security code.
Visitors to my website
When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, webhealer, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow webhealer to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website. I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website. I use webhealer so that I can continually improve my service to you, You can read their privacy notice here Privacy Policy - WebHealer | Therapist Websites. 20 Years Experience .