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TeenMatters Privacy Policy

Please read this policy carefully. If you do not accept these terms, you are advised not to use the website.

This Privacy Policy is subject to regular review in order to ensure we remain compliant with data protection guidance and applicable legislation. You are encouraged to refer to this page on each visit to the website to ensure that you are up-to-date with our policies and practices in relation to the handling of personal data. 

This Privacy Policy is effective from 1st September 2023.

Policy Acceptance

This Privacy Policy applies to the website https://www.teenmatters.co.uk (“website”) operated by TeenMatters Limited and shall include all personal data processed by us through direct mail, telephone or social media channels. Any reference to “you” or “your” means you, the user. 

Your acceptance of this Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of the website.

Policy Statement

TeenMatters recognises the trust you place in us when you share personal data with us. We are committed to being open, honest and transparent with our use of personal data.

This Privacy Policy provides you with details of the personal data we collect when we engage with you, how we will use and look after your personal data, your privacy rights and how the law protects you. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal data is safeguarded and kept in accordance with applicable data protection law. 

About Us

TeenMatters is registered in England and Wales under company registration number 14096026. Our registered office address is TeenMatters Ltd, 11 Ailsa Road, Twickenham, London TW1 1QT.

Where we manage personal data, we identify as a Data Controller and recognise and act on our obligations under applicable data protection law, including but not limited to the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. 

You can contact us in relation to data protection matters by email to hello@teenmatters.co.uk

The Type of Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following information:

(a) Identity Data – title, first name, last name, date of birth or similar identifiers. If you interact with us through social media, this may include your social media username; 

(b) Contact Data – billing address, email address and telephone numbers; 

(c) Financial Data – bank account and payment card details; 

(d) Transaction Data – details about services we have provided to you; 

(e) Technical Data – includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access the website; 

(f) Profile Data – your username and password, your preferences, feedback and survey responses; 

(g) Geographical Data – information setting out your primary address to control the use of location services in most mobile devices and desktop settings; 

(h) Usage Data – information about how you use our website and services; 

(i) Marketing and Communications Data – includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences. 

How We Get the Personal Information and Why We Have it

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you through:

  • Using ‘Contact Us’ on the website 
  • Registration
    • We collect details of a user’s name, email and phone number as well as subject and content of any message when using our online contact form to get in touch. This information enables us to communicate with our clients, suppliers and third parties and facilitates our service provision. We may process personal data on the basis of being legitimate to our business or in order to fulfil a contractual obligation in relation to our services. 
  • Emails
    • We retain copies of emails sent to us and any personal data will be held in accordance with this Privacy Policy on the basis of being legitimate to our business interests. 
  • Telephone Calls
    • Personal data will be held on the basis of being for our legitimate business needs or in order to fulfil our contractual obligations if you are a client of ours. 
  • Other direct interactions
    • You may give us your data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us face-to-face, by post, when attending any events, training, talks or workshops we hold, or through our social media channels. This includes personal data you provide when you: register to receive our services; make enquiries or request information be sent to you; use our services; ask for information to be sent to you; engage with us on social media; contact us directly; or leave comments or reviews on our services. 
  • Social Media
    • We use social media to engage with users and link to our Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter pages. We do not keep any specific data that identifies you as an individual user but hold details of our followers on these platforms. You should refer to the Privacy Policy of these channels to understand how they treat your data in relation to linking to our site. 
    • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation Instagram: https://wellbeing.instagram.com/safety LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy Twitter: https://twitter.com/en/privacy 
    • If you send us a direct message via social media, the details may be retained by us only as relevant to any ongoing contract or to further our legitimate business interests or as required for legal purposes. The third-party provider may also retain details in accordance with their Privacy Policy. 
  • Visits to our website
    • When you visit our website, we do not attempt to identify you as an individual user, and we will not collect personal data about you unless you specifically provide this to us. 
    • As you interact with our website, technical data may be automatically processed through the use of cookies. Users can disable cookies through their browser settings if they choose.

Special Categories of Data

We collect some special category data that is relevant to the issues you present in the course of our counselling services. Examples of some of the sensitive information our therapists may gather is: 

  • Gender, ethnicity and marital status; 
  • Religious or other cultural beliefs; 
  • Physical or mental health or condition; 
  • Sexual orientation and or data related to your sex life. 

We will ask you some personal details about yourself or your child – reasons for seeking TeenMatters’ support, whether you have a medical diagnosis, if you are currently on medication, previous mental health support, family history and whether you have had any suicidal thoughts in the last 6 months. These notes enable us to provide a safe and informed space for you with the therapist that you choose. It also ensures that some basic information about you can be made available to other therapists should you decide to change your therapist. Such information is only provided on a need to know basis. 

Children

We do not market this website at those under 18 years old. Consistent with the GDPR we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 years old. We will take appropriate steps to delete any personal data of individuals less than 18 years of age that has been collected on our website upon learning of the existence of such data. 

Information We Get From Other Sources

From time to time, we may need to obtain information from third parties about you. This will only apply where it is necessary to provide our services and as permitted by law. 

We may receive personal data relating to your identity and contact data from data partners and data from any third parties who are permitted by law or have your permission to share your personal data with us, such as via social media. 

How We Use Your Data

UK data protection law requires us to have a “legal basis” for processing personal data. The legal bases we rely on are: 

  • Performance of a contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you; 
  • Compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation; 
  • Carrying out activities that are legitimate to our business interests; 
  • Consent. However, generally, we shall not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than where the law requires it. Where our legal basis is consent, you have the right to withdraw consent any time. 

Sharing Information

Disclosure 

We don’t share, sell, or distribute your data to third parties, except as contractually agreed with you or as explained in this Privacy Policy. We may disclose your personal data if we are required to do so by law, in connection with any legal proceedings, and in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights, or if otherwise legally permitted. 

We may need to use your information and personal data to contact your GP or emergency contact. This will be in exceptional circumstances such as when we have a duty of care or are required by law to provide information about you. 

Counselling Notes and use of Zoom

Therapists may keep brief notes of the counselling sessions for their own records and must ensure that measures are taken to protect the confidentiality of clients at all times. Notes should not identify any individual client. 

Records must comply with the Regulations and Codes of Practice determined by a counsellor’s accreditation body. 

No recordings are kept of sessions conducted by Zoom but you are recommended to refer to the Privacy Policy or the relevant platform provider for details of how this third party use data. 

Supervisions

Therapists are required to have regular supervision with another professional therapist as part of their professional accreditation. Therapists do not disclose any personally identifying information about clients within supervision. 

Data Processors 

We use Data Processors who act on our instruction in relation to the management of your personal data and where this applies, all data processors are required to confirm that they adhere to data protection law and regulations. We will ensure that any Data Processors used only operate on our written instructions and comply with their obligations under the GDPR.

Google Drives

TeenMatters use password protected google docs and other cloud based google products for day to day document storage.  Google are a third party Data Processor.

Marketing

We may carry out direct marketing by email, phone or post. We will ask for your consent to receiving marketing communications (including newsletters) when you register on the website and you have the option not to give consent and to withdraw consent given at any time. You may withdraw your consent for us to contact you by email to hello@teenmatters.co.uk. We may continue to contact you for non-marketing purposes if there is another lawful basis to do so. Non-personally identifiable information may be provided to other third parties for marketing, advertising or other uses. 

External Links

Users of the website are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking on any external web links. Clicking an external link will take the user away from our website. Once you leave our website or are redirected to a third-party website, plug-in or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or our website’s terms and conditions. We cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website and users click on external links at their own risk. TeenMatters and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages, or the consequences of visiting any external links. 

Social Media Platforms

Communication, engagement and actions taken through external social media platforms that this website and its owners participate on are subject to our terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform respectively. 

Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate and/or engage with them with due care and caution in regard to their own privacy and personal details. This website nor its owners will not ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms and encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact them through primary communication channels such as by telephone or email. TeenMatters uses social sharing buttons which help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform in question. Users are advised that before using such social sharing buttons, that they do so at their own discretion, and should consider that the social media platform may track and save requests to share a web page, through the users’ social media platform account. 

Reviews/Evaluation of our service

We may ask for a review of our services and these may be published on our website or social media, if you give your consent for us to do so. You may withdraw your consent at any time.

Data Retention

We keep your personal data in accordance with our Data Retention Policy which reflects our needs to provide services to you as contracted and also as required to meet legal, statutory and regulatory obligations. The need to hold information is regularly reviewed and data will be disposed of when no longer required. 

Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, personal data is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems and are required to keep the information confidential. We take appropriate steps to ensure a safe processing of personal data, however, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted through our website or by email. Any such transmission is at the sender’s own risk. 

Rights of Data Subjects

TeenMatters recognises a data subject’s rights and will uphold these in accordance with data protection law. In relation to certain rights, we may ask you for information to confirm your identity and, where applicable, to help us to search for your personal information. Except in rare cases, we will respond to you within one month from either (i) the date that we have confirmed your identity or (ii) where we do not need to do this because we already have this information, from the date we received your request. 

You should note that the following rights may not be absolute and may not be upheld where there is valid justification not to do so. 

Subject access requests

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information that we hold about you by email to hello@teenmatters.co.uk. We may not provide you with a copy of your personal information if this concerns other individuals or we have another lawful reason to withhold that information. In limited circumstances a fee may apply. 

Right to rectification

Data subjects have the right to request that personal data is amended or changed if it is inaccurate or incorrect. We act on any such request without delay. 

Right to erasure

Data subjects have the right to ask us to delete personal data from our systems without giving any reason and at any time. We act on any such request without delay. 

Right to restrict processing 

Data subjects have the right to rectification or erasure of personal data in the following circumstances: 

Personal data is not accurate; – The processing of data is unlawful; – Data is required to exercise legal rights or defend legal claims; – Data is unlawful, although there may be lawful grounds for processing, which override this right. 

Right to data portability

Data subjects have the right to obtain and request the transfer of their data to a different service provider. 

Right to object 

Data subjects have the right to object to the processing of personal data at any time based on their circumstances. This includes objecting to profiling unless it is in the ‘public interest’ or exercised lawfully by an official authority. We will only process personal data upon a legal basis. 

Right not to be subject to decisions based on automated processing 

TeenMatters do not use any automated processing that results in any automated decision based on personal data. 

Exercising your rights

If you wish to invoke any of your rights as a data subject, you should contact us by email to hello@teenmatters.co.uk. 

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. We may refuse to comply with your request in limited circumstances. 

Data Breaches

We will report any unlawful breach of data as required by the GDPR within 72 hours of the breach occurring, if it is considered that data within our control including the control of our data processors, has been compromised, or potentially compromised. If the breach is classified as ‘high risk’ we will notify all data subjects concerned using an appropriate means of communication. We will report relevant breaches as required to the ICO, see below. 

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time and users are recommended to review it frequently. Changes will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. You will be deemed to have accepted any changes to the terms of the privacy policy on your next visit of the website following the amendment. 

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at hello@teenmatters.co.uk.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:            

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk