Our Privacy Policy

Carers of West Lothian is committed to respecting the privacy rights of all visitors to our website.

We comply with data protection laws at all times and have set out this Privacy Notice to explain what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we protect it, and to explain your rights.

Personal data we collect

We collect the following data about you:

  • your name, e-mail address, contact details and communication preferences when you complete forms on our website;

  • your online browsing activities, your IP address (computer internet address) and your approximate location (as determined by your IP address) in conjunction with Google Analytics (more details below)

Some of our services support young carers and young people. Where our website or online services are likely to be used by children, we will take their needs and privacy rights into account and use clear, age-appropriate language where possible. If we collect personal information from or about a child, we will handle it in line with data protection law and our safeguarding responsibilities.

How we protect your data

We are committed to keeping your data secure. We use encryption for web traffic to and from our website and we store any data provided through our website in secure computer systems that only authorised staff and volunteers have access to. Our data is backed up and we have secure systems in place to prevent hackers, viruses and similar from accessing our systems and data. We also have a range of policies and procedures for our staff and volunteers, with ongoing training, to ensure your data is kept safe and only used in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

How we use your data

We use your data for four reasons:

  • to provide information, support and services to you;

  • to manage customer service interactions with you;

  • to subscribe you to our mailing list and send you relevant information by e-mail;

  • to analyse how our website is used, so that we can improve it and report anonymised visitor numbers and analysis for performance reporting and to funders.

At present, we rely on consent for electronic marketing. If we decide to use the charitable purposes soft opt-in in future, we will update this notice and our collection forms accordingly.

When and how we might share your data

We will never sell your personal data. We share limited data for limited purposes. There are three different sets of data sharing involving personal data collected through our website:

Cookie/visitor behaviour – we share this information with Google Analytics (see further details below);

Contact information you provide for our mailing list – we share this information with MailChimp, the third party mailing list software we use.

Contact information you provide to seek help/support/information/provide feedback/make a complaint – we store this in computer systems provided by third parties for processing, storage and archive purposes. We use [third-party company] to provide technical support. The agreement we have in place with them prevents them from using or sharing your personal data for any purpose.

How long we keep your data

We only keep your data for as long as we need to. More specifically:

  • website visitor data (Google Analytics) – we will retain your data for 26 months;

  • mailing list subscription – we will retain this data until you unsubscribe from our mailing list (every mailing list e-mail you receive from us will have a link allowing you to easily unsubscribe);

  • customer enquiry information – we will retain this information in keeping with our data retention policy and transparency statement and consent form.

Transferring data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA)

Some of the third-party services we use to help us operate our website and communications may process personal information outside the UK. Where this happens, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place as required by UK data protection law, for example by relying on an adequacy decision, approved contractual safeguards, or another lawful transfer mechanism.

If you would like more information about any international transfers relating to your personal information, please contact us.

Legal basis for using your data

We generally rely on your consent to use your personal data in relation to monitoring website usage and sending you direct e-mails through our mailing list, or providing customer care, information or support should you choose to contact us directly through our website.

We also process your data because it is in our legitimate interests that we do so, namely:

  • promoting, marketing and advertising our services;

  • sending information to you by e-mail or text message about our or services;

  • collating website usage figures and analysis (which are entirely anonymised) for performance reporting and reporting to our funders;

  • understanding the behaviour of visitors to our website so that we can improve our website and/or the services we provide;

  • protecting the Organisation, our employees, volunteers, funders, partners and clients/customers/service users by taking appropriate legal action against third parties who have committed criminal acts;

  • fulfilling our duties to our customers/clients/service users.

Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies on our website to make the site work, understand how it is used, and improve the service we provide. Some cookies are strictly necessary for the website to function.

Where analytics or similar technologies require consent, we will ask for this through our cookie controls before they are used. Where we rely on an exemption permitted by PECR, we will explain this clearly and provide a simple way for you to object where required.

Click here for full details on Google’s Privacy Policy.

Your legal rights

You have the following rights:

Your rights include:

  • the right to ask for access to the personal information we hold about you;

  • the right to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information;

  • the right to ask us to erase your personal information in some circumstances;

  • the right to object to certain processing, including some direct marketing;

  • the right to withdraw consent where we rely on consent; and

  • the right to complain directly to us about how we use your personal information, and to the ICO.

To exercise any of the above rights please contact:

CoWL (Carers of West Lothian),
Sycamore House,
Quarrywood Court,
Livingston
EH54 6AX

Tel: 01506 448000
Email: office@carers-westlothian.com

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (the supervising authority for data protection in the UK). To do that please visit their website at ICO Make a Complaint

Reviewing and changing how we use data

This Privacy Notice was last reviewed on 17th June 2025.

We regularly review our use of personal data to ensure that what we do continues to be fair, transparent, safe and legal. The Organisation sometimes change software or technologies, or how we work, and this may result in us changing what data we collect and/or how we use it. We will only use your data for the purposes set out above. If we want to use your data for any other purpose we will contact you and seek your express permission before we conduct any such processing.

We will always seek to minimise the amount of data we collect and use, and to only keep it for as long as we need to.

Whenever any change is made to how we collect or use personal data we will update this Privacy Notice and any other relevant policies.

How to find out more or to make a data protection complaint

If you are unhappy with how we have collected, used, stored or shared your personal information, you can complain directly to CoWL.

You can raise a complaint by email, post, telephone or through our website contact form. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 30 days and investigate it without undue delay. We will keep you informed of progress where appropriate and will write to you with the outcome.

CoWL (Carers of West Lothian),
Sycamore House,
Quarrywood Court,
Livingston
EH54 6AX

Tel: 01506 448000
Email: office@carers-westlothian.com

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection ICO Make a Complaint. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve your concern.