General summary
Our employees adhere to the professional ethical values of the British Psychological Society. Our non-research survey work adheres to the policies of the Market Research Society. Storage of data adheres to the UK Data Protection act.
The raw data resulting from QoWL surveys may be used to further our research and benchmarking data and may be published in an anonymised and summary form. At no point are data from individuals reported, with reports from data analyses being limited to groups of a minimum of 10 people.
If you would like to know more about our privacy policy, please contact us.
Details
POLICIES AND PROCEDURES RELATED TO THE CONFIDENTIALITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We are aware of the various issues raised related to the disclosure of personal information on staff attitude questionnaires. We will respect at all times your right to confidentiality when you complete a staff attitude questionnaire. The key principles behind our confidentiality policy are:
- Justifiable purposes for all data flows.
- All staff must understand their responsibilities.
- All staff must understand and comply with the law.
- Breaches of confidentiality will be treated as a serious matter.
- The Confidentiality Policy will be given to staff, service users and providers on request.
- The existence of a confidentiality policy will be referred to in information.
- The Confidentiality Policy will be reviewed at least annually.
You will find below the main policies and procedures which QoWL agrees to abide by with regard to the confidentiality of personal information contained within staff attitude surveys.
CONSENT
When we ask you for personal information, you are always given either an express or an implied notice. You are also informed that the information will be processed, i.e. the processing related to the collection, registration, preparation, change, storage or destruction of said personal information.
You always have the choice of refusing this request by not returning the questionnaire.
LIMITATION OF THE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION
We only collect personal information required to meet the objective for which said personal information is collected.
LIMITATION OF USE, DISCLOSURE AND STORAGE USE
We only use personal information for the purposes for which a user has given his or her consent, unless its use has been authorised by law (see in this regard the section dealing with Legal Compliance).
Disclosure
Without your express prior consent, the personal information collected by us remains strictly intended for its use and is not accessible to any of our customers, partners, advertisers or other outside parties, subject to the Statistical Analyses and Targeted Advertising and Legal Compliance sections. In addition, we will not disclose any personal information about you as an individual to a third party, subject to the circumstances described in the Legal Compliance section.
Legal Compliance
We may disclose personal information about a user if we are legally required to do so, or if we believe, in good faith, that such a disclosure is necessary to 1. comply with any law or regulation in force or a legal proceeding; 2. protect and defend our rights and interests or those of our users; 3. prevent any unauthorized use of our Internet sites; or 4. protect the personal security or the interests of our users or the public in general.
Storage of Information
We only store personal information for a period which is reasonably necessary to meet the purposes for which it was collected. Then, we erase or make anonymous any personal information which is no longer required for a specific purpose.
Statistical analysis
Our staff attitude services only provide aggregate data to our commissioning clients.
No officer or employee of our organisation may use such information other than in the development or reporting of aggregate data in a manner such that the identify of the person who supplied such information is not discernable nor disclose such information to the public unless such information has been transformed into a statistical or aggregate form that does not allow the identification of the person who supplied particular information.
Specifically when dealing with subsets of data no officer or employee of our organisation nor any other person may use aggregate information containing data from less than 10 individuals, nor use aggregate data in which any one individual contributes more that 10% of the data.
ACCESS AND ACCURACY OF INFORMATION
Upon request, QoWL will provide you with access insofar as possible to any personal information you have given us. This information may only be referred to by the user related to a specific profile.
Also, upon request, QoWL will (a) destroy or make anonymous personal information about you that it keeps in its databanks; (b) correct any personal information that you state is erroneous; and (c) allow you to withdraw from mailing lists of future emails (except for notices of major changes in the service) while allowing you to continue to access its Internet site(s). To request a change or a correction, refer to your profile or send us an email at the contact address below.
SECURITY MEASURES
To prevent any unauthorized access, maintain the accuracy of information and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have implemented the appropriate physical, electronic and administrative procedures to protect all personal information collected on line.
COMPLAINTS
If you believe that our organisation has not abided by its policies and procedures related to the confidentiality of personal information, please contact us at the address below. We will analyse any problem you draw to our attention and make reasonable efforts to correct it, if necessary. In addition, we will keep you informed of all the steps we take in this regard.
DISCLAIMER
Every effort is made to ensure that the information provided on this site is accurate and up to date, but no legal responsibility is accepted for any errors, omissions or misleading statements. We are not responsible for, and cannot guarantee the accuracy of, information on sites we link to but do not manage, and the inclusion of a hyperlink should not be taken to mean endorsement by us of the site to which it points.
HOW TO CONTACT US
The purpose of this brief summary is to inform you of the policies and procedures followed by QoWL related to the confidentiality of personal information. Should you have any questions or comments about the content hereof, please contact us at:
Dr Darren Van Laar, QoWL Research Group, Department of Psychology, Univeristy of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO1 2DY, UK. Tel: 02392 846306 Email: darren.van.laar@port.ac.uk
Last Update
12th June, 2019
