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.

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 General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

You can check national Citizens Advice policy 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.

What we do with your information

How we handle your personal information depends on how you interact with us.

When you get advice from an adviser >

Using our website >

Sending us an email >

Using our Debt Relief Order (DRO) service >

Using our Debt Management Service >

Applying for a job or to be a volunteer >

If you’ve been contacted to help with research, campaigns or news >

When you make a complaint about our service >

When you contact us about a post office >

When you make a donation to our service >

Using Help to Claim >

Using the Healthier & Wealthier Helpline >

Using CACD Social Media and digital media >

Using Survey Monkey – Surveys by CACD >

You can find out more about your data rights on the Information Commissioner’s website.

 

Contact Citizens Advice County Durham about your information

If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact Citizen Advice County Durham.

Call us on 0300 323 1000 (press option 1), we may not be able to answer your call but you can leave a voicemail. or email enquires@citizensadvicecd.org.uk

You can contact us to:

  • Find out what personal information we hold about you
  • Correct your information if it’s wrong , out of date of incomplete
  • Request we delete your information
  • ask us to limit what we do with your data – for example, ask us not to share it if you haven’t asked us already
  • ask us to give you a copy of the data we hold in a format you can use to transfer it to another service
  • ask us to stop using your information

 

Who’s responsible for looking after your personal information

The National Citizens Advice charity and your local Citizens Advice (Citizens Advice County Durham) operate a system called casebook to keep your personal information safe. This means they’re ‘joint data controller’ for your personal information that’s stored in our Casebook system.

Each local Citizens Advice is an independent charity, and a member of the national Citizens Advice charity. The Citizens Advice membership agreement also requires that the use of your information complies with data protection law.

You can find out more about your data rights on the Information Commissioner’s website.

 

If you want to make a complaint

If you’re not happy with how we’ve handled your data, you can make a complaint.