Privacy Policy

Web Privacy & Data Protection

Our Commitment to Data Protection

Alcohol Concern recognises and acknowledges the responsibility and duty of trust that we have to maintain the privacy of Personal Data shared with us through the web or any other source. Individuals may at times be asked to supply personal information. Personal information is anything that enables us to identify you in some way, such as your name and address or an email address. Any Personal Data that we collect, record or use in any way, whether it is held on paper, on computer or any other media will have appropriate safeguards applied to it to ensure that we comply with the Data Protection Act 1998.

Principles of Data Protection

We fully endorse and adhere to the eight principles of Data Protection as set out in the 1998 Act. These principles state that personal data must be:

1. Fairly and lawfully processed
2. Processed for limited purposes and not in any other way that would be incompatible with those purposes
3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive
4. Accurate and kept up to date
5. Not kept for longer than is necessary
6. Processed in line with the data subject's rights
7. Kept secure
8. Not transferred to a country that does not have adequate data protection laws.

How we apply the Data Protection principles

In order to meet the requirements of the principles, we will

• Observe the conditions regarding the fair collection and use of personal data
• Meet our obligations to specify the purposes for which personal data is used
• Collect and process appropriate personal data only to the extent that it is needed to fulfil operational needs or to comply with any legal requirements
• Ensure the quality of personal data used
• Apply strict checks to determine the length of time personal data is held
• Ensure that the rights of individuals about whom the personal data is held can be fully exercised under the Act
• Take appropriate security measures to safeguard personal data
• Ensure that personal data is not transferred abroad without suitable safeguards

When we collect any personal data from you we will inform you why we are collecting your data and what we intend to use it for.

We will not share your data with a third party unless we specifically ask your approval, the only exception to this being in response to a court order or other legal obligation. Alcohol Concern does not rent or sell any mailing details to any third party.

When we collect any sensitive data, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that we have explicit consent to hold, use and retain this information. Sensitive data is personal data about an individual's racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health, sexual life and civil or criminal offences.

We may collect and record information in order for us to understand more about how our website is used and in turn to make sure that the website reflects your needs. In order to do this we may send cookies to your PC. A cookie will contain information that allows us to recognise that you have used the site before, but will not contain any other personal data. You can disable this function within your browser but it may affect your navigation around the site.

Under the Data Protection Act, an individual may write to Alcohol Concern and request a copy of the personal information that we hold about them. It will help us to locate your records more easily if you can tell us something about the nature of your contact with Alcohol Concern. We reserve the right to charge the maximum fee payable in terms of the Data Protection Act for providing this information.