Clients

In order to provide help and support to women and children affected by domestic abuse, we collect your name and contact details, and information about the situation, and what help and support may be needed so we can provide our services. We also ask for feedback on our services so we can ensure they are meeting our aims and helping those who need it.

We process your information on the legal basis of our legitimate interests of being able to provide support in the most appropriate way, and understand how effective our services are.

If you apply for a space in one of our refuges, we will process your information on the legal basis that it is necessary for entering into a contract with you (a Licence Agreement).

Where we need consent for processing certain information we will make that clear at the time we gather that information.

We will always be careful about how we contact you, and keep your information strictly confidential, sharing details only with the people involved in your care, unless we fear for your or someone else’s imminent safety and believe the help of another agency is needed, such as the police or the NHS.

Clients’ Contacts

When we interact with our clients, they often tell us about the other people in their lives, which means we are collecting some personal information about people we have little or no direct contact with.  We process that data only as far as is necessary for us to provide services, and we process it on the legal basis that it is necessary for the substantial public interest task of providing our support services. It is not appropriate or possible to obtain consent from the people whose data we collect in this way, due to the nature of the service; to attempt to obtain consent would seriously undermine our ability to provide our services.  

Donors

To process donations we collect and process your name, contact details, and information about the donation and any Gift Aid. This is on the legal basis of pursuing our legitimate interests of receiving donations to support our work. If you would like to receive updates about our work and fundraising appeals we will use your contact details to communicate with you, in the format that you choose. This processing and contact is based on your consent, and you can unsubscribe from electronic communications at any time. We want to improve how we talk to you and the information we provide.

To process all online donations we use a third party – PayPal,  view their privacy policy here.

Colleagues

When you apply to work for us, we collect information as part of the application and recruitment procedure including your name, contact details, and experience, and we ask for references and criminal information.

When you work with us we will continue to process your personal data in order to manage our relationship with you. This processing is on the legal basis of it being necessary for your employment contract and for ensuring we meet our legal obligations under employment law, and under the laws that protect the public and anyone else affected by our work.

Security and Governance

To prevent unauthorised access, disclosure or loss of your personal data, we have suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect and hold. Our website uses cookies; please see our cookie policy below for more information on the cookies we use. Records are held both electronically and on hard copy.

We will not sell, distribute, lease or otherwise share your personal information with third parties, apart from the ways we have explained above, unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.

Website & Cookies

Strong precautions are taken to protect the information of the users of our site. Your information is encrypted and is protected utilising the industry standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption software. While on a secure page, most web browsers will indicate the encrypted nature of your data in some readily identifiable fashion (e.g., the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becoming locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when you are just ‘surfing’).

Cookies are routinely used. We use ‘persistent’ and ‘non-persistent’ cookies on our Site to provide you with the best presentation of the information currently available. ‘Persistent’ cookies store text, which is available to us when you return to our Site. ‘Non-persistent’ cookies are temporary information, which is eliminated once you close your Internet browser and/or shut down your computer. Only our Site has access to the information in our cookies. This information about the user enables us to track and personalise the Site to enhance your experience.

These cookies can in no way be used by us or anyone else to get data from your hard drive, obtain your e-mail address or access sensitive information about you as an individual.

Cookies must meet strict specifications to ensure that they are not used to compromise security. If a user rejects the cookie, the user may still use our Site although we will be unable to provide the user with the personalised experience we can offer using the cookie data.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, Women’s Aid in Luton cannot warrant or ensure the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we make commercially reasonable efforts to ensure its security on our systems.

Our Site contains links to other sites. While we enforce our privacy policy with respect to information gathered on our Site, we are not responsible for any information you provide to other websites you may access through links on our Site.

Your rights

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please contact us in your preferred way.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please let us know as soon as possible. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect. If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by contacting us. If we are relying on your consent to process your data, you can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. You have a right to object to, or restrict, the way we process your personal information in some circumstances, or to ask for your information to be erased.

To make a request about any of these rights, please contact us in your preferred way. You have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about the way in which we process your personal information. You can make a complaint through the ICO’s website https://ico.org.uk/

If you have questions or concerns regarding this notice or our processing of personal data, please contact Women’s Aid Luton: info@womensaidinluton.org or telephone us at 01582 876636.