Confidentiality, Security and Privacy

Confidentiality

  • Confidentiality means not telling anyone else you’ve contacted us, or telling them what you’ve said. We always want to keep your contact with Safeline confidential, which means you can feel safe talking to us. We won’t give out any information about you without asking you, unless you want us to. The only reason we may not be able to keep things confidential is if we believe you or someone else is at serious risk of harm or if a court requests any information as evidence. If we have to tell someone else, we’ll always try to discuss it with you first.
  • In order for us to let somebody outside Safeline know what may be happening you would need to give us your contact details. Once we have your details we would have to pass these on to an appropriate service, social services or the police.

How can I keep my conversations private?

If you are using our helpline or online services you can help to ensure conversations are kept private by following these tips:

  • Contact us from somewhere safe, where others can’t see your screen.
  • Choose a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted or overheard.
  • As soon as you’ve finished your conversation with a member of the helpline and online service team you can delete your call log, delete your texts or if you are using our chat option, you can delete your browsing history and close down your web browser.

Need local support?

  • Sometimes you may feel you need extra help near to where you live. Safeline is able to refer you to local services that may be better to provide the support you need
  • In order to do this we would need to have your contact details so we can make a referral.

Blogs

Please be aware that if you submit any blogs to Safeline and we are concerned about what you have written, because you or someone else is at risk of harm, we may have to share this with others. We would always try to discuss this with you first.

Consent

We collect certain information about the people who use our service to help us with funding and to make sure we are providing the best service that we can. This means at the end of our chat together we may ask questions about, for example, your age, location and how you heard about our service. Please be assured it is your choice whether you choose to answer any questions or not and all answers remain anonymous. If you have any concerns about this please let us know.

Storing information

Information you give us will be stored securely for a minimum of 7 years including anonymous information and contact details that you give us.