Privacy Policy

We shall look after any personal information you share with us. We will never share your information with anyone unless there is a safeguarding emergency or a legal duty to share information.

We want everyone who comes to us for support, as well as our supporters, to feel confident about how any personal information they share will be used.

It is usually very helpful to receive confidential information about your situation as an Omega client so that we can understand the issues you are facing. Please only provide us with the information you feel comfortable sharing. If you receive help from one of our confidential programmes, we encourage you to use only your given name i.e. your first name (not your surname). When you need to contact us, you might find it helpful to give the name of the programme you use e.g. Chatterbox or Letterbox.

Never be afraid to ask for clarification of the reason we need information and ask us to delete information we already hold at any time. We will in future need to get your permission before we send certain information to you and ask for your permission if we need to pass it on to another organisation to enable them to help you. We will, therefore, ask you about your communication preferences. We have a small, part-time admin team who respond to routine enquiries. We welcome your good ideas to help us keep your information safe.

• We only use personal information you provide to help us manage our relationship with you efficiently.

• We will keep you up to date with our work and tell you about events and activities organised by others which are likely to be of interest to you. We will also tell you about new activities, how we are improving services and we may tell you about fundraising initiatives too.

• We will never release your information to any other organisation without your permission.

• We will only use your personal information to do this if you have previously told us that it is OK (you can withdraw consent at any time).

• We will make it easy for you to tell us how you want us to communicate with you, including how to opt out from future communications. Please tell us if we don’t get this right first time.

• We will be especially careful and sensitive when working with clients at risk.

• We take all reasonable care to safeguard your personal information through security policies and secure business processes.

• We will always provide easy ways for you to contact us, and we are happy to answer any queries you have. We know that your privacy is very important to you. We promise that it is also very important to us.

How we collect personal information about you

We may collect personal information from you when you contact us, attend one of our events or during outreach activity. For example, this could happen if you enquire about our activities, register with us, make a donation, ask a question about a confidential problem you have, buy something, apply for a paid job or a volunteering opportunity, or if you choose to provide some feedback.

What information do we collect?

The personal information we collect might include your contact details such as name, date of birth, email address, postal address, telephone number and credit/debit card/bank account details (if you are making a donation or buying something), as well as information you provide in any correspondence.

We may also collect health information or details about your caring relationship.

We gather general statistical information about the use of our website, such as which pages users visit most often and which services, events or facilities are of most interest. We may also track which pages users visit when they click on links in our email. We may use this information to personalise the way our website is presented, to make improvements and to ensure we provide the best service for users. Wherever possible we use aggregated or anonymous information which does not identify individual visitors to our websites.

How do we use personal information?

We may use your personal information to:

• Provide you with the important advice and support you’ve asked for;

• Provide or administer activities relating to all our services: updating you with important administrative messages, to help us identify you when you contact us, and help us to properly maintain our records;

• Improve your experience with us. We may use your information to enhance the service that our staff provide, to fulfil your orders and gift aid declarations, to improve our information and communications, or to personalise the website to better suit your needs;

• Provide you with information about our plans. This may be letting you know about new or enhanced services that we hope will be useful and interesting to you, and may include fundraising updates; of course, we will only do this either with your consent, where we need to fulfil a contract or service with you, or where we believe you will expect to be updated and contacted by us. You can of course ask us at any time to change how we contact you.

• Analyse the personal information we collect about you so that we can better understand our clients and supporters, their preferences and needs, and important trends. This may mean looking at all the interactions you have with us so we can aim to offer you the right information at the right time (including financial interactions so we can ensure we ask you for an appropriate level of support). It may also mean using external sources of information about you, the area where you live, or people like you, so we can better inform how we talk to you about our work. We believe this enables us to offer you more appropriate offers and communications, but you can opt out of this activity at any time. Just contact us and let us know. If emailing, please use the subject line ‘Please stop analysis of my data’.

• We may need to disclose your information if required to do so by law (for example, to comply with the law, regulations and codes of practice or in response to a valid request from a competent authority), or in order to enforce our conditions of sale and other agreements.

To do some of this we may need to share your information with a trusted partner or a supplier, but if this is necessary at all it will always be carried out with your express permission and under our instruction and will never be used for third party marketing purposes.

Your choices

We’d like to keep valued supporters up to date with our progress. We will thank you in writing for all donations over £5 and update you on what we’re doing. We might ask whether you’d be able to support us with particular aspects of work. Where we are able to, we’d like to keep in touch with you (by post, phone, email, text and other electronic means).

Please remember that you can change your mind and remove or add your consent at any time by contacting us using one of the methods below.

In cases where we may need to transfer and process your personal information outside the European Economic Area, we will comply fully with our legal obligations as a data controller and take all steps necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with legislation.

Who sees your personal information?

The personal information we collect about you will be used by Omega colleagues to support you; (with your permission) by organisations working with us or on our behalf to deliver services; and possibly by legal and regulatory authorities if required by law.

We will never sell or share your personal information with organisations so that they can contact you for any marketing activities. Nor do we sell any information about your web browsing activity.

Your information security

We’ve implemented appropriate physical, technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information we have under our control, both on and off-line, from improper access, use, alteration, destruction and loss.

We keep information for as long as is reasonable and necessary, which may be to fulfil statutory obligations (for example, the collection of Gift Aid).

• Your personal information is kept securely in our databases and offices.

• Our website may contain links to other sites. We monitor the links we have. We are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites. Please be aware that advertisers or websites that have links on our site may collect personally identifiable information about you. This privacy statement does not cover the information practices of those websites or advertisers. If you identify a site at the end of a link found on the Omega website which causes you concern, please report your concern to us.

• Any debit or credit card details which we receive on our website are passed securely to our payment processing partner, according to the Payment Card Industry Security Standards.

Your communication with us

Your communications with our colleagues (including by telephone or email) may be monitored and/or recorded for training, quality control and compliance purposes to ensure that we continuously improve our customer service standards. We sometimes use a hands-free facility.

How to update or access your personal information

You may ask us at any time to update your details, or correct or remove information you think is inaccurate by:

• Writing to Omega, London House, Town Walls, Shrewsbury, SY1 1TX

• Emailing info@omega.uk.net (please type the words ‘Urgent Personal Data Action Needed’ in the subject field)

• Calling 01743 245 088