Privacy & Cookie 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
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 our main 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.
How Cambridge & District Citizens Advice collects your data
When you contact us for advice or information, we ask for your consent to collect your personal data.
How you contact us will determine how we collect your consent:
- Face to face – Completing and signing our consent form
- Phone – Express verbal consent
- Email – Electronically tick a box to give consent
- Webchat – Electronically tick a box to give consent
We may collect data about you from a partner organisation if they refer you to us. This should only be done with your consent and our partners will have their own policies on how they collect your consent.
What Cambridge & District Citizens Advice ask for
To find out what information we ask for, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy
How Cambridge & District Citizens Advice use your information
To find out how we use your information, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy
How Cambridge & District Citizens Advice store your information
The national Citizens Advice charity and Cambridge & District Citizens Advice operate a system called Casebook to keep your personal information safe. This means we are both ‘joint data controllers’ for your personal information that’s stored in our Casebook system.
Cambridge & District Citizens Advice uses Microsoft 365 as its productivity suite and your data may be stored within the Microsoft 365 cloud while your case is active. We aim to minimise all data collected and transfer this data to Casebook as soon as possible.
When using Sign In Solutions (Sign In Scheduling for appointments and Sign In App for visitor management), our policy is to minimise all data collected and we aim to transfer all personal information to Casebook during the course of your case. Sign In Solutions store your information in accordance with their Privacy Policy. Sign In Scheduling will send email and/or text reminders for your appointment but they will only do this if we have your consent.
When using the LiveChat Webchat Advice Service our policy is to minimise all data collected and transfer your personal information to Casebook during the course of your case. The transcript will be stored in an online system run by LiveChat. LiveChat will delete all the data after 13 months.
We use TextAnywhere to send SMS text messages such as reminders relating to upcoming appointments or updates on your case. When using TextAnyhwere, our policy is to minimise all data collected and transfer your personal information to Casebook during the course of your case. TextAnywhere stores your data in accordance with their Privacy Notice. We always ensure that we have your consent before contacting you via TextAnywhere.
When using WhatsApp our policy is to minimise all data collected and we aim to transfer all personal information to casebook during the course of your case. Facebook will also store your data in accordance with the Terms of Service of your WhatsApp account. WhatsApp is a third-party service and Cambridge & District Citizens Advice cannot accept liability for data held by WhatsApp or breaches of that data. Security of data cannot be guaranteed in messages you send to us through WhatsApp and we do not control and are not responsible for the use of your data by this third-party service.
Where we hold your information on paper, we keep this locked in secure storage cabinets and do not keep it for longer than is necessary to assist you. Our policy is to upload copies of your documents to Casebook to reduce the need for paper-based storage.
Where we have control over your data, such as deciding how we use the messages you send us to meet your advice needs, we will make sure that we comply with GDPR and Data Protection laws to keep your data safe. For example, making sure only the right staff and volunteers can see the messages.
How Cambridge & District Citizens Advice share your information
When we share your information with third parties, such as solicitors or other organisations we have referred you to, we transmit this information by secure, encrypted and password-protected email.
Working on your behalf
When you give us authority to act on your behalf, for example to help you with a Universal Credit claim, we’ll need to share information with that third party such as Cambridge City Council. We will only share information with your agreement.
Contact Cambridge & District Citizens Advice about your information
If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact our office.
Write to: Cambridge & District Citizens Advice, 66 Devonshire Road, Cambridge, CB1 2BL
Email: caba@cambridgecab.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 or 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 operate a system called Casebook to keep your personal information safe. This means they’re a ‘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.
Cookies
We use cookies* on this website to:
- track aspects of user visits, including the length of a user’s visit, their browser, geographic location and the use of the search facility on this website
- remember users selected contrast and/or text resizing style preferences for this website
- record a user’s video preferences for our YouTube videos viewed on this website.
Cookie name, purpose and expiry details
Cookie name |
Purpose |
Expires |
|---|---|---|
| __utma | Used to determine unique visitors to this site and it is updated with each page view. Additionally, this cookie is provided with a unique ID that Google Analytics uses to ensure both the validity and accessibility of the cookie as an extra security measure.† | 2 years from set/update |
| __utmb | Used to establish and continue a user session with this site.† | 30 minutes from set/update |
| __utmc | Used to determine whether or not to establish a new session for the user.† | At end of session |
| __utmz | Stores the type of referral used by a visitor to reach this site, whether via a direct method, a referring link, a website search, or a campaign such as an ad or an email link. It is used to calculate search engine traffic, ad campaigns and page navigation within this site. The cookie is updated with each page view to this site.† | 6 months from set/update |
| citaContrast | Stores user’s colour scheme preference. | 1 year |
| citaStyleJS | Stores user’s text size preference. | 1 year |
| eprivacy | Stops the banner message about cookies showing on every page. It is only shown on the first three pages visited, or until it is closed. | 1 year |
| NID | Google cookie typically written to the browser upon the loading of Google Plus One social media buttons. | At end of session |
| PREF | Google cookie typically written to the browser upon the loading of Google Plus One social media buttons. | At end of session |
| testSessionCookie | Stores user’s login session | 1 year |
*cookie – a bit of information kept on a user’s computer.
† For more information: http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/concepts/gaConceptsCookies.html
For more on how cookies work and can be managed: www.allaboutcookies.org