1. Registration

By registering as a user of adoptionuk.org you consent to Adoption UK using your personal data we may collect from you. If you do not agree to this use of your personal information please do not register as a user of the adoptionuk.org website. Your consent to adoptionuk.org's use of your personal information may be withdrawn at any time by cancelling your registration on adoptionuk.org.

2. Data Protection

It is necessary for Adoption UK to input and store information about its members, online users and those who sign up for news and information newsletters, on a computerised record system. Our policy is to store only the minimum amount of information necessary for us to fully support your membership type and status and to respond to your enquiries. The information you supply will be under the general control of the Trustees of Adoption UK, and specifically the Chief Executive, who can be contacted at our head office. You retain the right, at any time, to have information that we hold about you permanently removed from our records. All members of staff are bound by a confidentiality agreement. No information will be passed on to a third party without your consent. At any time you may apply to see a copy of the records we hold about you and there is no charge if you ask for this information. To obtain a copy of the personal information Adoption UK holds about you please write to us at Adoption UK, Bloxham Mill, Barford Road, Bloxham, Oxfordshire, OX15 4FF.

3. Collection of information

Adoption UK collects the details provided by you on registration together with the information we learn about you through your use of the service. We may collect additional information through your participation in any promotions and competitions offered by us. When you log on to the Adoption UK Online Community we will automatically collect your IP address, a unique identifier for your computer or other access device. When an Online Community Member has committed a persistent or serious breach of the Terms and Conditions or the Message Board Rules of Use we will use this information to block their IP address, preventing them from logging on to the site and repeating the offence. We will not use your IP address to identify you in any way.

4. How we use the information you provide

We use the information we collect to supply our services to you. We may also use your contact details to communicate with you by email, post or telephone.

Message boards are available for registered website users/members' personal use and wherever possible, people using the forums are left alone to discuss whatever topics interest them at their leisure. However, where the Online Community Team feels that there are grounds for further input from Adoption UK staff, they will pass a message to the relevant person to ask for them to respond. You may therefore occasionally receive a message from one of Adoption UK's staff. Grounds for intervention include:

• Where they feel a person or child may be at risk
• Where a person may benefit from additional support, such as other services from Adoption UK, for example our helpline
• Where a response is required from the director or other staff member concerning any of our services or events

5. Sensitive Information

We are required by law to advise you that occasionally the selections you make when using our services may indicate information about you that you may regard as sensitive such as the state of your health. As with all of the personal information you provide to us, you can be assured that any sensitive information you choose to supply to us will only be used in accordance with our privacy policy and data protection policy.

6. Disclosure of your information

Your information will not be passed on to anyone outside of Adoption UK without your express permission, except where an allegation of child or vulnerable adult abuse, or suspected child or vulnerable adult abuse (whether current or historical), is made to Adoption UK. This will, in all circumstances and irrespective of the apparent credibility of the allegation, be referred immediately by the relevant manager in writing to the Child Protection Officer (or Vulnerable Adult Protection Officer) of the Social Services Department (in England and Wales), or the Relevant Social Services Area Service Team (in Scotland), or the Relevant Health and Social Services Trust (in Northern Ireland) in whose area the child, young person or vulnerable adult lives (or to the relevant agency responsible for the welfare of the child, young person or vulnerable adult). In exceptional cases it may be necessary to telephone the relevant agency and to follow this up with a letter. Where no allegation of child or vulnerable adult abuse has been made, but where the information received is serious, gives cause for a child protection or vulnerable adult protection concern, and appears to be reasonably well-founded it will be reported immediately to one of these appropriate agencies.

7. Message boards

Please note that our message boards are open to the public and if you choose to disclose personal information in these areas you are consenting to its unrestricted distribution throughout adoptionuk.org

8. Cookies

Cookies are used to track and store information about you. A "cookie" is a software application that enables us to track your use of our website and services. You can find out more about the way cookies work on and you can select to disallow cookies from being stored on your computer. We use cookies to help us tailor adoptionuk.org for our members, subscribers and visitors.

9. Other websites

Where we provide links to third party websites which are not affiliated with Adoption UK, even if Adoption UK branding appears on these sites, such sites are out of our control and are not covered by this Privacy Policy. If you access these sites by using the links provided, the operators of these sites may collect information from you which will be used by them in accordance with their privacy policy.

10. Children

We do not allow persons who we know to be 18 or younger to become registered users of adoptionuk.org or members of Adoption UK, and do not therefore knowingly solicit personal information from persons aged 18 or younger. We discourage users under the age of 18 from using the message boards.

11. Your Data

Your data may also be available to our website provider to enable us and them to deliver their service to us, carry out analysis and research on demographics, interests and behavior of our users and supporters to help us gain a better understanding of them to enable us to improve our services. This may include connecting data we receive from you on the website to data available from other sources. Your personally identifiable data will only be used where it is necessary for the analysis required, and where your interests for privacy are not deemed to outweigh their legitimate interests in developing new services for us.  In the case of this activity the following will apply:

1. Your data will be made available to our website provider
2. The data that may be available to them include any of the data we collect as described in [section 3] above.
3. Our website provider will not transfer your data to any other third party, or transfer your data outside of the EEA.
4. They will store your data for a maximum of [7] years.
5. This processing does not affect your rights under [sections 2 or 6] of this privacy policy

12. General

We may change this privacy policy from time to time and any changes will take effect once the revised privacy policy is made available on the adoptionuk.org website.

Adoption UK’s full Privacy Policy is available here