Privacy Policy

Important information and who we are

Purpose of this privacy policy

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how MyHelp collects and processes your personal data through your use of the platform, including any data you may provide through the platform when you create an account, or engage in a support service.

This platform is not intended for use by unaccompanied children and any data provided relating to children is anonymised.

It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them.

Controller

Your Practitioner is the controller of your personal data and will have their own privacy policy. Please ask your Practitioner for a copy of their privacy policy before starting your therapy to make sure you understand their information practices as this privacy policy does not cover the interactions between you and your Practitioner.

Contact details

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact our data privacy manager in the following ways:

Full name of legal entity: MyHelp Ltd, Email address: support@myhelp.co.uk, Postal address: 25 Eyebrook Road, Bowdon, Cheshire, WA14 3LH.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

We will inform you of any changes made to the privacy policy and request your acceptance of such changes prior to utilising our platform.

Usage of MyHelp Web platform / App

The MyHelp platform and app is primarily to be used by adults and only with suitable consent by a parent or guardian before use by a child. If you become aware of a child utilising the MyHelp platform or app without parent or guardian consent then please email contactus@myhelp.co.uk

The data we collect about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

• Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
• Contact Data includes billing address, email address and telephone numbers.
• Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
• Practitioner Data includes mental health professional’s name, e-mail address, and phone number, address, date of birth, gender, education and job history, qualifications and professional registrations and professional registration numbers.
• Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of services you have purchased from us.
• Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this platform.
• Profile Data includes your username and password, the services you have used on our platform, your interests, preferences, and feedback and such information about your health as you provide us.
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our platform and services.
• Session Data includes information in relation to sessions scheduled by you, when a counselling session began and ended, whether a counselling session was cancelled or re-scheduled and content of discussions undertaken within the Session.
• Communications Data includes your communication preferences.

How is your personal data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

• Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, email, use of our platform or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
• Register to use our platform or services, or to receive general, market or commercial information.
• Create or sign up to an account on our platform.
• Subscribe to our service or publications; or
• Give us feedback or contact us.
• Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our platform, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies.
• Third parties or publicly available sources. We will receive personal data about you from various third parties as set out below:

Technical Data from the following parties:

(a) Analytics providers such as Google:

(b) Search information providers:

• Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services and app stores.
• Identity and Contact Data from your mental health professional and/or the NHS.
• Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources such as the Electoral Register based inside the UK.
• Session, Practitioner and Support Data from your mental health professional and/or the NHS.
• Special Category Data from your mental health professional and/or the NHS.

How is your personal data collected?

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Where we need to perform the contract, we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data although we will get your consent before sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground, we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

For Individuals

For Practitioners

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Disclosures of your personal data

We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table above.

• External Third Parties;
• Specific third parties such as the NHS or your Practitioner.
• Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

International transfers

We do not transfer your personal data outside the UK.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Your data is securely stored by AWS (Amazon Web Servers) in the UK and is encrypted end to end between yourself and AWS when data is transmitted. We also utilise a “Secure Socket Layer” (SSL Certificate) using RSA encryption.

Data retention

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, or other requirements.

By law we must keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.

We retain your clinical record by reference to the IGA Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care guidance for managing health records https://digital.nhs.uk/information-governance-alliance and to support our legal obligations to be accountable for your care.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data. In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out below, please contact us.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Glossary

LAWFUL BASIS

Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Practitioner means any therapist, counsellor or mental health professional.

THIRD PARTIES

• Service providers acting as processors who provide IT and system administration services.
• Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the UK who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
• HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

• If you want us to establish the data's accuracy.
• Where our use of the data is unlawful, but you do not want us to erase it.
• Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
• You have objected to our use of your data, but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

CLINICAL TERMS

PHQ 9 - "Patient Health Questionnaire - is a self report diagnosis tool which evaluates the severity of depressive symptoms."

GAD 7 - "General Anxiety Disorder - is a mental health evaluation model aimed at anxiety severity."