Website Privacy Policy

This privacy policy tells you what to expect when Housing for Women collects personal information about you online via the organisation’s websites at:

https://hfw.org.uk/
http://www.gdva.org.uk/

It applies to information we collect about:

Visitors to our websites and the use of cookies
Visitors to our websites and use of transactional elements (e.g. using our online forms for submitting information such as complaints, repair requests, pay rent, update details etc.) and compliance with data protection laws
Users who use the Housing for Women online recruitment tool available via the public website.

When someone visits our website:

We collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. We collect this information in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting. When turned on InPrivate Browsing helps prevent Internet Explorer from storing data about your browsing session. This includes cookies, temporary Internet files, history, and other data. Toolbars and extensions are disabled by default

We will not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifying information from any source. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

What personal information about website users does Housing for Women collect?

The information we have about our website users helps us improve our service to you. Here are the types of information we gather.

Information you give us: You have the ability to make a complaint, give compliments, pay your rent and report repairs through the Housing for Women website amongst other general comment /feedback options facilitated by online forms.

The information for both primary areas of the website referred above notifies H4W via email and is passed to and processed by the relevant staff accordingly, whereas we store the Comment or Complaints details submitted on our tenant portal only if they are required. This information is not given or sold to any third party vendor.

Does Housing for Women share the information it receives?

Information about our site users is an important part of our business, and we do not sell it to others. We share website user information only within The Housing for Women Organisation to ensure the relevant people are dealing with specific issue(s) raised.

With your consent – Other than as set out above, you will receive notice when information about you might go to third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information.

Cookies

A cookie is a small chunk of data that is sent from the website’s server to the user’s browser and stored on their individual hard drive. The Housing for Women website uses cookies to remember user preferences and to store data within a session. The data stored within a session is lost once the browser is closed. Limiting cookies will affect the functionality of the Housing for Women website.

In compliance with the updated Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (in response to the EU Privacy directive) we present details of the cookies we use and options for not allowing cookies during your online navigational activities at:

https://hfw.org.uk/
http://www.gdva.org.uk/

On using the Housing for Women sites, the landing page you initially arrive at will have a bottom coloured bar which will ask your permission to allow cookies to be used. If you do not allow cookies and continue to navigate around the site then selected functions of the site may not work.

Functional Cookies - The cookies listed below cannot be disabled, as each of them is needed for the functionality of the Housing for women website.

 

Cookie Name	Cookie Information
1. _ga         Google Analytics,	Used to distinguish users, expires after 2 years
2. _gid       Google Analytics	Used to distinguish users, expires after 24 hours
3. _gat       Google Analytics,	Used to throttle request rate. If Google Analytics Is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie Will be named _dc_gtm_<property-id>, expires After 1 minute.
4. Cookiemessagehide	This sets a Boolean value to hide/show the cookie   Message, expires after 24 hours.
5. Browserprivacyhide	This sets a Boolean value to hide/show the browser.
6. XSRF-TOKEN	Privacy popup window expires after 30 days. This cookie is written to help with site security in Preventing Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks, and is deleted whenever the browser is closed.
7.       XSRF-V	This cookie is written to help with site security in Deleted whenever the browser is closed.
8.     CONSENT	Google uses this domain to off-loaded static content in (JavaScript code, images and CSS) to a different and Domain name an effort to reduce bandwidth usage       Increase network performance for the end user
9. ASP.Net Sessions	ASP.NET sessions store information within a cookie for the functionality of the website. For example when completing the job application form, Housing for Women uses a session to store the information from one step to the next. Sessions are deleted when the browser is Closed. This cookie does not share any information with any Third party.

 

Browsers

Many browsers are set to automatically accept cookies. If you are using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari you should be able to configure your browser to restrict or block cookies, or you may wish to delete them, by going to your browsers settings. Below are short instructions for how to do this in the four most popular browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Click the ‘Tools’ icon in the top right hand corner and select ‘Internet options’. In the pop up window select the ‘Privacy’ tab. From here you can adjust your cookie settings.

Google Chrome

Click the spanner in the top right hand corner and select ‘Settings’. From here select ‘Under the hood’ and change the settings under ‘Privacy’.

Mozilla Firefox

From the drop down menu in the top left hand corner select ‘Options’. In the pop up window select the ‘Privacy’ tab. From here you can adjust your cookie settings.

Safari

From the settings drop down menu in the top right hand corner select ‘Preferences’. Select the ‘Security’ tab and from here you can adjust your cookie settings.

Further information

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org

People who make a complaint to us

When we receive a complaint online from a person we make up a file on an internal database containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We do compile and publish statistics showing information like the number of complaints we receive, but not in a form which identifies anyone.

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with national retention guidance issued by the National Housing Federation which is included in our retention and disposal policy.

Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.

Data protection legislation requires that we inform you of our legal basis for processing your information. In relation to customer complaints this legal basis is that it is necessary for the operation of your tenancy or the contract we have with you. In relation to a complaint from someone who is not a Housing for Women tenant, the legal basis will be that resolving the complaint is in both our legitimate interests and that this does not outweigh your rights and freedoms or those of the person/persons you are complaining about.

People who want to know more about us

The Housing for women websites offers various services to the public. Details (names, addresses, emails etc) of our tenants are maintained on a central database. Individual requests submitted through the website containing information which require any changes to the database will be dealt with in accordance with the Data Protection legislation and other relevant regulations. This may include complaints, requests to not receive newsletters, etc.

We have to hold the details of the people who have requested the service in order to provide it. However, we only use these details to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes. For example, we might use information about people who have requested a publication to carry out a survey to find out if they are happy with the level of service they received. The legal basis for processing this information is that it is necessary in order to perform the services or to take steps necessary to give the service to you.

Housing for Women customers can find out more about their information is used by reading our privacy notice.

Privacy Notice - General Needs Housing

Privacy Notice - Supported Housing and Existing Service Users

Job applicants, current and former Housing for Women employees

When individuals apply to work at Housing for Women, we will only use the information they supply to us to process their application. Where we want to disclose information to a third party, for example where we want to take up a reference or obtain a ‘disclosure’ from the DBS we will not do so without informing them beforehand unless the disclosure is required by law.

Personal information about unsuccessful candidates will be held for 6 months after the recruitment exercise has been completed, it will then be destroyed or deleted. We retain de-personalised statistical information about applicants to help inform our recruitment activities, but no individuals are identifiable from that data.

Our legal basis for processing this information is that it is required to assess your application and may be required to take steps to enter into a contract of employment with you.

Once a person has taken up employment with Housing for Women we will provide them with privacy information relating to employees.

Your Rights

The links below are to guidance given by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Our processing of your information should be fair and lawful.

We should obtain your personal information only for specified purposes and each purpose should have a lawful basis. We won’t use it for a purpose that is incompatible with the original purpose, unless we have your agreement or the law requires it.

The information should be relevant and adequate and no more than is needed. When we can we will modify it so it doesn’t identify you. However, in most cases it will only serve a purpose if it is clear that it is about you.

It should be accurate and up-to-date.

We won’t retain it for longer than we need to. And it must be safe and secure. We will employ measures to ensure security compliance by working towards a framework to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability of your data. We have security policies in place and will apply a risk based approach to the protection of personal data using appropriate technology, robust procedural controls and continual assessment of the effectiveness of these controls.

You also have the right of access to your information and for it to be rectified as appropriate.

You have the right to portability so that your information can be used in different settings.

In certain circumstances, you have the right to object to processing, for processing to be restricted, and even for the information itself to be erased.

How to Contact Us

Our Data Protection Officer is Susan Croft who can be contacted on 0207 501 6146, or 0793 272 502. Her email address is susan.croft@h4w.co.uk

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your data in a manner that is not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to ask them to review the matter. The ICO can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF