Scotlands Commissioner for Children and Young People

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Privacy (Keeping your Information Safe)

How We Keep Your Personal Info Safe

If we ask you to type in any of your personal details anywhere on the SCCYP website - e.g. your name, your address, your e-mail address - we will make sure that those details are kept safely and not shared with anyone outside of SCCYP. 

When We Might Collect Your Personal Details

Some examples of when we ask you to give us some information about yourself on the SCCYP website are:
. when you're posting a message on the Message Board 
. when you're sending us something through the Confidential Inbox (we might ask for an e-mail address so we can send you a personal reply) 
. when you're contacting us with another question about SCCYP (again where we'd want to get back in touch to provide you with an answer) 

The Data Protection Act 1998

The Data Protection Act 1998 is the law that tells organisations what they must do to keep people's personal details safe & secure. 

Organisations have a responsibility to make sure that your private information doesn't fall into the wrong hands or get used in a way that you're not happy with (e.g. that you sign up for a newsletter for one organisation, but then end up receiving lots of spam from a completely different organisation). 

Seeing Your Information

You have the right to see any of the information that SCCYP holds about you. You find out more about how to do this by e-mailing us, writing to us or phoning us (see the "Finding Out More" section for details). 

If you find that any of the information we've got is wrong, then please tell us and we'll do our best to put it right as soon as possible. (There are a very few times when the law says we don't have to provide you with absolutely all the information we have - e.g. if providing you with that information means that we'd have to reveal personal information about another person). If we can't release all your information, though, we will tell you why. 

It's Your Choice

You don't have to provide us with any of your personal details if you don't want to. You are free to say "no" at any time.

If you don't want to provide us with your real name, you might decide to use a nickname instead. 

For your safety, we won't publish your full name or e-mail address on the SCCYP website. 

What We Do With Your Info

If we ever ask you to tell us any of your personal details, we'll usually tell you:
. why we're asking for it
. what it will be used for

If you're not sure about what this means, please feel free to ask us about this at any time.

We will also keep our firewall and security systems up to date to make sure that your details are kept safe at all times. 

Sharing Your Info

We will normally only share your info with someone outside of SCCYP when we've asked your permission to do this. 

However, if we are worried about your safety - or the safety of someone close to you - we might have to pass your info on without your permission (although we would normally let you know we were doing this and why). 

Depending on the circumstances, this might involve us contacting the Children's Reporter, the local Social Work office or the Police.

Steering Clear of Spam

If you provide us with your contact details, we won't send you lots of extra info about SCCYP that you don't want. 

We'll only send you regular updates on SCCYP's work if you've actually asked us for it e.g. you've signed up to our monthly E-zine. 

No Thanks!

If you sign up for something - e.g. the E-zine - and then decide you don't want it any more, just let us know and we'll take your details off our database. 

Please Delete

If, for any reason, you'd rather your details were removed from our database, please just let us know. We can arrange for these to be deleted. 

Finding Out More

If you have any questions about how we look after your personal information, you can contact us in a number of ways.

By phone: Young Persons Freephone - 0800 019 1179

By e-mail: 

By post: SCCYP 85 Holyrood Road EDINBURGH EH8 8AU