Data Protection and GDPR

Self injury Support has created this statement to show our commitment to privacy. The purpose of this statement is to explain how Self injury Support processes your data, whether you are using our services, interested in volunteering or browsing our website.

Self injury Support takes appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep your data safe.  If you have any questions about this privacy statement please contact us at Self injury Support, PO Box 3240, Bristol BS2 2EF.

Using our website: What information do we collect?

We may collect, store and use these kinds of data: Information about your computer and about your visits and use of this website.

You may email us, or use forms on this site to send us personal information such as name and email address. We may use your personal information to: Help run the website, deal with enquiries you have made, send you other communications if you request these. 

We will not give your personal information to third parties without your permission, unless we are required to do so by law.

We may use cookies on the website to keep track of you whilst you navigate the website.

We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of this website. Google may use cookies to store this information. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information. (See here for Google’s privacy policy.)

Data given to us via web forms on this site may be stored on servers outside the UK, but in Europe.

This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control.

This site contains links to other sites. Self injury Support is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.

If you subscribe to our ebulletin: What information do we have?

You can subscribe to our bulletin via the link on our website homepage.

You will need to give us your name and email address. You will then be sent a confirmation email and registration for the newsletter will not be completed until you confirm.

Your contact data is stored with our third party email service provider, MailChimp (see here for Mailchimp privacy policy.)

MailChimp is a web based email service provider that does not use cookies to track our subscribers. Links and images are used to track the opens and clicks for each ebulletin.

Should you wish to stop receiving emails from us, you can unsubscribe directly through the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the ebulletin. By clicking this link, you will be automatically unsubscribed from all future emails.

If you order our publications. What information do we have?

If you order via our online form you can request for us to keep you informed about our organisation by ticking the consent box ‘I would like to be kept informed of any new information and events from Self Injury Support’ We will add you to our electronic databases held by Mailchimp (see above) and you have the opportunity to unsubscribe at any time. If you do not opt-in for us to keep you informed we will hold your details to process your order. We then will then only keep a record of your postcode to comply with statutory requirements and to help to improve the service we provide.

If you contact us about volunteering with Self injury Support: What information do we have?

Applying to be a volunteer or enquiring about volunteering involves you giving us your personal details.  We will use this information to assist you with any queries you might have regarding your volunteering application and to keep track of volunteering applications and enquiries. 

As part of your volunteering application we ask for information about age, disability, gender, sexuality and ethnicity to help us with equal opportunities monitoring.  You are not required to give us this information, but by choosing to do so you consent to the processing of this information by us. 

If you decide to apply to volunteer with Self injury Support’s helpline or text and email service, we will also ask for information from your referees and the Disclosure and Barring Service. Volunteers for our heritage project, Women Listening to Women, do not need to apply for a DBS certificate. 

Self injury Support will keep your personal information confidential, unless we are required to disclose it in connection with a police investigation and/or we have reason to believe that you may present a risk of immediate harm to yourself or others. 

At your request we will provide a reference after a designated period, to be agreed at the start of your volunteering with us. 

Using our support services: What data do we have?

Self injury Support supports women and girls in distress through its support services.  The services are available by telephone, SMS, email and Webchat.

Helpline:

Our service is designed so that volunteers can’t see your telephone number when you contact us. We cannot trace calls however some information is available on our central systems. This can be accessed by staff to ensure that telephone operating systems are working, to record the number of calls received and to help monitor and improve our helpline provision.

Text and email:

On the TESS system we cannot see and don’t have access to any of your personal information. Instead your messages are given a unique number so that if you contact us again we can see the previous dialogue you’ve had with us. You do not need to tell us any identifying information and we will not ask for it, but if you give us information about you, our safeguarding responsibilities mean it will be kept on file. Information is kept on our central systems and can be accessed by staff to ensure that text and email operating systems are working, to record the number of messages received and to help monitor and improve our text and email provision. To comply with our statutory obligations this data is kept for a specified period of time.

Webchat:

On Webchat we do not have any information about you other than what you tell us. Each conversation that you have with us is given a code. If you want to, you can use that code to continue the conversation on a different day. You do not need to tell us any identifying information and we will not ask for it, but if you give us information about you, our safeguarding responsibilities mean it will be kept on file. Information is kept on our central systems and can be accessed by staff to ensure our operating systems are working, to record the number of messages received and to help monitor and improve our service. To comply with our statutory obligations this data is kept for a specified period of time. As new volunteers come onto the service, part of their training is to shadow calls, texts or emails to learn from experienced volunteers. If you think this is happening when you contact us and you don’t want it to continue please just ask and we can stop it straight away.

Privacy on all our support services:

We do not ask any personal information about you and we would never expect you to give it. If you have told us your name and/or your location or we have your name and/or location on record, and we feel that you are in immediate danger of harm from yourself or another individual, we would have to contact emergency services for you. It is always your choice about whether you tell us your details and we will not ask for them.

If you have told us who and where you are and/or you gave us details of someone who is abusing you or someone else, we would have to pass that onto the authorities. We would let you know that we would have to do this. It is always your choice about whether you tell us your details or those of someone else and we will not ask for them.

If you do give us personal information, and we are concerned about you, we may keep information you’ve given us to help us know it’s you when you contact us again. We share this information within Self injury Support across all services to provide you with the best possible support.  

We’ll never pass any of this information on to any other organisation, except in the following situations:

• We call the police if during the course of a contact you have told us your name and /or where you are and that you intend to harm yourselves or others right away.
• You threaten the safety of our volunteers or you compromise the delivery of our service, for example by making it difficult for other people to get through, or by misusing the phone lines or other technology.
• You provide information that identifies someone who has caused harm or says they are going to cause harm to a child or vulnerable adult.
• We receive a call about acts of terrorism or bomb warnings.
• We receive a court order requiring us to share information.

If we believe you are misusing our services or are abusive towards the volunteers we may use our system to block your calls or messages from getting through or limit your access to our services. If this happens, a member of Self injury Support’s staff will contact you to explain the reason why we have restricted your access.

If you wish to appeal a decision please contact Self injury Support, PO Box 3240, Bristol BS2 2EF [email protected].