Protecting information

We are committed to ensuring that your personal data is secure, whether it is a paper record or held electronically. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place appropriate technical, physical and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect from you.

We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Examples of how we keep our information secure include:

  • Encryption, meaning that information is hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password). This is done with a secret code or what’s called a ‘cypher’. The hidden information is said to then be ‘encrypted’.
  • Pseudonymisation, this is where we use a different name so we can hide parts of your personal information from view.
  • Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it.
  • Annual training for all our staff to ensure they are aware how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong.
  • Regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches).

Most our information is stored systems in the UK. There are some occasions where your information may leave the UK either in order to get to another organisation or if it’s stored in a system outside of the EU. We have additional protections on your information if it leaves the UK ranging from secure ways of transferring data to ensuring we have a robust contract in place with that third party.

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identify theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by MH Government and leading businesses.