Privacy Policy and Consent to Use of Data

IMPORTANT:  BY SUBMITTING DATA TO US AND/OR USING OUR WEB SITE YOU GIVE YOUR CONSENT THAT ALL PERSONAL DATA THAT YOU SUBMIT MAY BE PROCESSED BY US IN THE MANNER AND FOR THE PURPOSES DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING PRIVACY POLICY.

Privacy Policy  

This Privacy Policy describes Advocate current policies and practices with regard to Personal Data collected by us manually or through www.weareadvocate.org.uk ("Website"). The term "Personal Data" refers to personally identifiable information about you, such as your name, birth date, telephone number, e-mail address or mailing address.

Notification of changes to this Policy

We are continually improving and adding new functionality and features to this Website and improving and adding to our existing services. Because of these ongoing changes, changes in the law and the changing nature of technology, our data practices will change from time to time. If and when our data practices change, we will (as soon as practicable) post the changes on our Website to notify you of the changes. We encourage you to check this page frequently.

Collection of Personal Data including e-mail addresses

We will collect and store the information you give us. You may use this Website to register to receive additional information or services from us. When you register, we ask you for contact information like your name, postal address and e-mail address. 

We sometimes supplement the information that you provide with information that is received from third parties. For instance, if inaccurate postal or zip codes are received, we may use third-party software to fix them.

Use of Personal Data

The purposes for which we process Personal Data include the following:

• We may contact you occasionally to inform you of new services we will be providing, or events or articles we think will be of interest to you.
• We will use your Personal Data to provide our charitable services.
• We may use your Personal Data to contact you regarding fundraising, support and friendship to our charity.
• We may use your Personal Data internally to help us improve our services and to help resolve any problems.

Opt-out choice

If you do not wish to receive information from us and want to be removed from our mailing list, please e-mail us at enquiries@weareadvocate.org.uk.

Anonymous data collected through this Website

In addition to the information we collect as described above, we use technology to collect anonymous information about the use of our Website. For example, we use technology to track which pages of our Website our visitors view. We also use technology to determine which Web browsers our visitors use. This technology does not identify you personally, it simply enables us to compile statistics about our visitors and their use of our Website.

Our Website contains hyperlinks to other pages on our Website. We use technology to track how often these links are used and which pages on our Website our visitors choose to view. Again this technology does not identify you personally, it simply enables us to compile statistics about the use of these hyperlinks.

We use this anonymous data to improve the content and functionality of this Website and our e-mail updates, to better understand our clients and markets, and to improve our services.

Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of text stored as a file on the computer's hard drive. They are not computer programs. They only contain and transfer to the web server as much information as the users themselves have disclosed to a certain website.

Cookies are used by your browser and by most websites to help personalise or improve your experience using the world wide web. If you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our website, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. Restricting cookies may affect some of the functionality of this website, such as the ability to log in to password-protected areas, but most of the site will still be accessible to you.

The Help menu on the menu bar of most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie and how to disable cookies altogether.

You can find more information about deleting and controlling cookies from the AboutCookies.org website.

Advocate will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. However, in order to provide services to you within this site's extranet (members' area), it is necessary to gather information that will enable the website to personalize, improve and to operate such services. In connection with certain aspects of the Services, we may request, collect and/or display some of your Personal Information.

The table below explains the cookies we use and why.

Use of Google Analytics

Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc.

Google Analytics uses a set of cookies to collect information and report site usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google. ‘_ga’, the main cookie used by Google Analytics, enables a service to distinguish one visitor from another. Any site that implements Google Analytics, including Google services, uses the ‘_ga’ cookie. Each ‘_ga’ cookie is unique to the specific property, so it cannot be used to track a given user or browser across unrelated websites.

Learn more about how Google Analytics uses cookies

Disclosure of your Personal Data 

We do not share, sell or distribute your Personal Data with unrelated third parties, except under these limited circumstances:-

• Personal Data may occasionally be transferred to third parties who act for us for further processing in accordance with the purposes for which the data was originally collected or for purposes to which you have subsequently consented.
• We may share or transfer the information in our databases to comply with a legal requirement, for the administration of justice, to protect your vital interests, to protect the security or integrity of our databases or this Web Site, to take precautions against legal liability, or in the event of a sale, merger, reorganisation, dissolution or similar event.
• We may share or transfer the information in our databases with and to our volunteers, advisers and also external law firms in order to service your needs who may have their own privacy policy to which you may then be subject.
  
  

Where appropriate, before disclosing Personal Data to a third party, we contractually require the third party to take adequate precautions to protect that data and maintain confidentiality.

Data integrity and security

We strive to maintain the reliability, accuracy, completeness and currency of Personal Data in our databases and to protect the privacy and security of our databases. We keep your Personal Data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or to comply with any applicable legal or ethical reporting or document retention requirements. 

Our employees and counsellors who have access to Personal Data have been trained to handle such data properly and in accordance with our security protocols and strict standards of confidentiality. Although we cannot guarantee against any loss, misuse, unauthorised disclosure, alteration or destruction of data, we try to prevent such unfortunate occurrences.

Data access and corrections

Upon receipt of your written request and enough information to permit us to identify your Personal Data, we will disclose to you the Personal Data we hold about you. We will also correct, amend or delete any Personal Data that is inaccurate and notify any third-party recipients of the necessary changes. 

If you wish to access or correct your Personal Data, please write to us at Advocate, 2nd Floor Lincoln House, 296-302 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7JH, or e-mail us at enquiries@weareadvocate.org.uk. We do not charge for complying with a correction request, however, for all other requests, we charge a fee of £10.00 to cover its costs. Requests to delete Personal Data are subject to any applicable legal and ethical reporting or document retention obligations imposed on us.

Link to other websites

This Web Site contains hyperlinks to websites that are not operated by us. These hyperlinks are provided for your reference and convenience only and do not imply any endorsement of the activities of these third-party websites or any association with their operators. We do not control these websites and are not responsible for their data or privacy practices. We urge you to review any privacy policy posted on any site you visit before using the site or providing any Personal Data about yourself.

Transfer of data abroad

We do not intentionally transfer Personal Data outside the UK.

Of course, the Internet is made up of a large number of international connections. If you are visiting this Web Site from a country other than the country in which our server is located (currently the UK), the various communications will necessarily result in the transfer of information across international boundaries. By visiting this Web Site and communicating electronically with us, you consent to these transfers.

Questions 

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or concerns about the way we process your Personal Data, please contact us by emailing us at enquiries@weareadvocate.org.uk.