Online Mediation - Our Privacy Policy

Our commitment

We commit to treating the information you provide us with the upmost care, keeping it private and secure, in accordance with your wishes. We hold personal information for the purpose of delivering a mediation service. We will never sell your information. We will be fully transparent on how we operate; if you have any questions or need clarification please contact us.

The type of personal information we collect

We collect and process personal identifiers and characteristics (for example, name, date of birth and contact details), and information about the matter in dispute (for example, children’s names and dates of birth, or your financial details) to enable us to deliver of our service. We will only collect the personal information that we need.

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. We may also receive information from family/former family members and from referrers such as lawyers.

We use the information that you have given us in order to deliver our mediation service. If you complain, we may share information with those investigating your complaint, such as the Family Mediation Standards Board (FMSB).

With your consent, as part of our service we may share information with external professionals such as lawyers and financial experts.

Under certain circumstances the law says we must share your information externally (for example government authorities), and this may be without your consent. We may also share information where we assess there is a serious risk of harm to someone.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

Your consent. Where you are contacting us and providing information, you are consenting to our retaining the information you have provided. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by emailing us and we will respond within one month: office@onlinemediation.org.uk
We have a legitimate interest to facilitate access to the mediation information and assessment process introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014, section 10.

Marketing communications

We may offer you the choice to opt-in to marketing information from us. We’ll only send this information to you if you agree to receive it and we will never share or sell your information externally when you opt-in. You may opt out at any time by contacting us.

How we store your personal information

Your information is securely stored on a password protected electronic system. We will take reasonable measures to prevent the loss and misuse of your personal information.

We retain information for up to 6 years after closing your file. We will then securely delete your case information.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us if you wish to make a request.

Amendments

We may amend or update this policy periodically by publishing a new version on our website.

Website cookies

Cookies are information packets sent by web servers to web browsers, and stored by the web browsers. This enables a web server to identify and track web browsers. We may store cookies on your web browser when you visit pages of our site. If you block cookies you may not be able to use all the features of our website.

Third Party Websites

Our website and communications may provide links to external websites for convenience and general information purposes. Online Mediation are not responsible for websites outside of our control and ownership.

Liability

In no event will Online Mediation be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, special or other consequential damages for any use of our web site, or for any other linked web site, including (without limitation) any lost profits, business interruption, loss of programs or other data on your information handling system or otherwise, even if we are expressly advised of the possibility of such damages.

Complaints

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, please contact us as promptly as you can. If you make a formal complaint, we will acknowledge your complaint within one week, and respond fully within one month.

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