List of active policies

Protecting Your Privacy

LGBT Youth Scotland is responsible for keeping your personal information safe and secure and deciding how we use that information. We’re a ‘data controller’ and a ‘data processer’ rolled into one. This page talks about how we handle your personal information.

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information which could identify you in some way, so a simple example would be your name or address.

How we use your information

We use your information in a number of different ways — what we do depends on the information you give us and this notice explains everything to you in more detail.

How long do you hold my information?

We’ll only keep your information for as long as is necessary and for the reasons we asked for it. Once that time’s up then we’ll securely destroy it.

If you contact us or access our services

When you go along to one of our youth groups, call our offices, fill in a form or use our services in any other way, we may collect your:

·       contact details

·       date of birth

·       emergency contact information

·       other agencies you’re involved with

·       records of our conversations or meetings with you

To help us provide the best services possible, we may also collect sensitive personal data such as information about your:

·       racial or ethnic origin

·       religious or philosophical beliefs

·       physical or mental health

·       sexual orientation

·       gender identity

·       disability information

·       medical information

·       actual or alleged criminal offences

We will let you know before collecting information whether you need to give it to us. Some of the information we may need in order to provide our services to you and some of the information we may need to keep you safe. 

If you take part in any of our events or campaigns we sometimes take photographs or videos to use on our website, social media accounts, YouTube channel or on printed publications. We will always make you aware if we’re taking photos or videos and we’ll always ask for your consent – it’s up to you if you want to be involved.

Information we collect from other sources

We may receive your personal information from an organisation which has your permission to share your information with others. We may also receive information from other people such as a friend, relative, professional or member of the public if they are concerned about you.

Confidentiality

We know that for some young people, just making that first contact with us can be a big deal – whether that’s chatting online, on the phone or with a youth worker at one of our youth groups. When you talk to us it’s confidential so you can feel safe talking to us, knowing that no one else will find out.

Sometimes though we might need to tell someone:

·       If you ask us to

·       You tell us something that makes us very worried for your safety

·       You tell us something that makes us very worried for someone else’s safety

Normally we will talk to you about whether other people need to know but if we think you or someone else is in immediate danger than we may have to tell someone to get help. If you’re using our online service we might use your phone number or IP address (a number used by your internet provider) to get help to you. We’ll always try and talk to you first before passing this information on.

How do you use my information?

 Depending on what we’re using your information for, we may use it:

·       with your consent

·       in order for you to join the services or for us to provide a service to you

·       to get help if there is an immediate risk of significant harm to you or others

·       for our legitimate interests

·       to meet our legal or social protection obligations

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

·       to provide you with the LGBT Youth Scotland services you have requested

·       to respond to your enquiries

·       to further our charitable aims

·       for administration purposes

·       as required by law

·       to help you with further education or training

·       to carry out risk assessments

·       to contact other professionals

·       to get help if there is an immediate risk of significant harm to you or others

·       to use your case study in our communication with others (only with your explicit consent)

We may also anonymise and pull together personal information to improve our services or for research and evaluation. We’ll make sure you can’t be personally identified from such data.

How do you protect my information?

We’ve set up systems and processes to ensure that we keep your information accurate and up to date. We sometimes use online platforms so we can collect, store and process your information and when we do, we make sure that they meet certain legal standards to keep your data secure.

Here are the secure online platforms we use to help us provide our services to you:

Here are the secure online platforms we use to help us provide our services:

·       We use Ninchat for our LiveChat service

·       We use MailChimp to send out information

·       We use Wufoo to collect, store and process information

·       We use WordPress for our websites

·       We use Stripe to process any payments

·       We use Donorfy to collect, store and process donor, volunteer and contact information

·       We use Eventbrite to collect, store and process information for events

·       We use Moodle and Microsoft 365 for our LGBT Charter

If you use LGBT Youth Scotland’s websites

We’ll collect the information you give us when you browse our site, including your IP address (a number that identifies each device using the internet), device type and, if you choose to share it with us, your location data, as well as how you use our website. We use something called Google Analytics. We collect the information through cookies which are a very small text file that is placed on your device when accessing information. We only use this information to improve our website and the services we provide so we can give you the best experience and the information you need.

For more detailed information on the cookies we collect, please see the "Cookies" information tab below.

You can set your browser to refuse and delete cookies and this handy site explains how you can do that: http://www.aboutcookies.org. It’s important to note that some of this website may not work if you change your settings.

If you subscribe to our mailing list

We ask for your name and contact details so we can keep you up to date with all the amazing things the charity and wider community we work with are doing to make Scotland the best place for LGBTI young people to grow up. We’ll also tell you about exciting events, news and other opportunities for you to engage with us.

We promise not to share or sell your contact details and we absolutely won't spam you. We also ask if you are over or under 18 so we can make sure that you are receiving content which is relevant to your age range.

We’ll also ask what parts of our work you’re interested in so we can make sure your receiving something you actually want to read!

If you don’t want to be on our mailing list anymore all you need to do is hit the ‘unsubscribe’ button at the bottom of any of the e-mails and you’ll be taken off the list. If you have any problems then just e-mail info@lgbtyouth.org.uk and ask for your e-mail address to be removed and we’ll make it happen.

If you e-mail us

When you e-mail us, your e-mail and any personal information you share in it, will be kept securely until we no longer have a use for it or you ask us to remove it.

If you use our LiveChat service

When you use our live chat service to talk to one of our youth workers, we ask for a name - you don’t have to use your real name if you don’t want to.

Each time we have a chat we keep a note of the conversation. If you let us know that you have spoken to us on LiveChat before, we can read through the last conversation so we don't have to start from the beginning again each time we chat.

We promise to keep this information safe and not share it with anyone unless someone really needs to know because someone is in significant risk of harm.

If you use our Info Text service

When you use our text service to talk to one of our your workers we store your mobile number so we can contact you back. Each time you text us we keep the text.

We promise to keep this information safe and not share it with anyone unless someone really needs to know because they are in danger.

If you make a donation using our website

We ask for your contact details so we can contact you if there are any problems with the payment. We also ask if you want to join our mailing list (see above) – but that’s up to you!

We ask for your payment information - don’t worry, we don’t keep this information. We use a certified third party platform called Stripe to safely and securely process your payments. Any payment information you submit is encrypted. We need this information if you want to make a donation to us and to prevent and detect fraud against either you or us.

We use a secure third party platform called Donorfy to keep your contact information safe.

What rights do I have around information about me?

You have a lot of rights relating to your personal information:

·       The right to be told how your personal information is being used

·       The right to ask for the personal information we hold about you

·       The right to ask for information held about you to be fixed if it’s wrong

·       The right to ask for your information to be deleted or for someone to stop using it

·       The right to ask that we move some or all of your data either to you or another service provider

·       The right to complain to the team that make sure people are following the rules around data protection —the Information Commissioner’s Office

If you want to exercise any of your rights then just speak to your local youth worker if you regularly use our services or e-mail us at info@lgbtyouth.org.uk to tell us what you need or want to happen. We’ll then guide you through the process.

To find our mote about your digital rights visit https://5rightsframework.com/.

Information sent outside of the European Economic Area

We may sometimes use online platforms to collect, store and process data that are outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This could be for financial or technical reasons. If we do though, don’t worry, we’ll make sure they meet the EU data protection rules. When you do enter personal information online though, whether on our website or from secure links we’ve sent you, you need to know that you are automatically agreeing to the transfer, storage and processing of your information outside of the EEA.

Using other websites

When we use other websites like Discord, Facebook or Instagram, your data may be treated differently because these websites have their own privacy policies and security settings. Here are some tips from another charity to help you stay safe online: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/young-people.   

Changes to this document

From time to time, we may change this notice. The most up to date version will always be held on our website so you can view it. We won’t tell you that we’ve made any changes unless they are really significant or we think they will affect you, so if you’re interested in keeping up to date with how we handle and use your information then see our website.

How to make a complaint

If you have a complaint about the way we process your information then please tell your youth worker or e-mail info@lgbtyouth.org.uk and we’ll aim to address any concerns.

However, if you would like to, please direct your complaint directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office: Information Commissioner's Office, 45 Melville Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7HL.