1. INTRODUCTION.
This privacy notice details how we collect and process your personal data through your use of our site bencoopercounselling.co.uk
By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 18 years of age.
Ben Cooper is the data controller and we are responsible for your personal data.
Contact Details
Full name of legal entity: Ben Cooper
Email address: bencoopercounselling@outlook.com
Postal address: Unit 18a, Meridian House, Winsford Industrial Estate, Cheshire, CW7 3QG
It is very important that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let
us know if at any time your personal information changes by emailing bencoopercounselling@outlook.com
Please read carefully and ask any questions on our first session or via email.
2. WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU, FOR WHAT PURPOSE AND ON WHAT GROUND WE PROCESS IT.
Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual. It does not include anonymised data.
This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data I collect from you, or that you provide to me, will be processed by me. Please read the following carefully to understand my views and practices regarding your personal data. By visiting www.bencoopercounselling.co.uk you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.
We may process the following categories of personal data about you:
- User Data - When contact is made through bencoopercounselling.co.uk, the only data collected from you is through the contact form – which is SSL protected and fully encrypted, as is the rest of my website. If you do decide to come to therapy with me, then I will also hold your personal data in the form of a Confidential Information form attached to our Counselling Agreement, as an agreement of the terms and conditions of the therapeutic relationship.
- Communication Data - Any communication that you send, whether that be through the contact form on our website, through email, text, social media messaging, social media posting or any other communication that you send. This data will be processed for the purposes of communicating with you, for record keeping and for the establishment, pursuance or defence of legal claims. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to reply to communications sent to us, to keep records and to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.
- Technical Data - That includes data about your use of our website, page views and navigation paths, details about the number of times you use our website. The source of this data is from google business. We process this data to analyse your use of our website. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business and to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.
- Secure Storage - Your details will be stored and kept securely and confidentially in a safe filing system (in a locked filing cabinet) and will be destroyed at the end of our work together. For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act) (soon to be General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679)) the data controller is Ben Cooper (address available on request).
- Sensitive Data - We do not collect any Sensitive Data about you. Sensitive data refers to data that includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. We do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.
Where we are required to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of the contract between us and you do not provide us with that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract (for example, to deliver goods or services to you). If you don’t provide us with the requested data, we may have to cancel a product or service you have ordered but if we do, we will notify you at the time.
We will only use your personal data for a purpose it was collected for or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. In case we need to use your details for an unrelated new purpose we will let you know and explain the legal grounds for processing.
We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
We do not carry out automated decision making or any type of automated profiling.
3. GODADDY WEBSITE HOSTING.
NOTE: My website is hosted by GoDaddy, and they have informed me that my website won’t collect any other data from you apart from the data found on my contact form.
However, GoDaddy have other information detailed in their privacy policy. They state that this is the type of information they might collect:
- Technical Information - Including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
Information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); products you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.
- Information we receive from other sources - We may receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. We are also working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, credit reference agencies) and may receive information about you from them.
4. HOW GATHERED INFORMATION IS USED.
This section details the uses made of the information. I use the information held about you in the following ways. (Information you provide and the information I collect about you)
- This information will be used to carry out my professional and contractual obligations during our work together.
- Contracting and ensuring the terms found in the contract are upheld by both parties.
- In case of emergencies or where disclosure might be necessary, I will contact your GP or next of kin, with your knowledge and consent UNLESS it is a case of safeguarding, terrorism, drugs trafficking or money laundering, which by law I must report without the need for consent.
- If data is received from other sources, which may be when referred by EAP’s or other third parties, then the data with be handled and stored securely as mentioned previously.
5. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA.
We require all third parties to whom we transfer your data to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only allow such third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
I will not share your personal information with anyone else, unless there is a duty to disclose in order to comply with any legal obligation, such as the following;
- Risk of serious harm — If I believe you or someone else is at immediate risk of serious harm, I may need to contact emergency services or other appropriate authorities.
- Safeguarding concerns — If I become aware of concerns about a child or vulnerable adult being harmed or at risk of harm, I have a legal and ethical duty to report this to the relevant authorities.
- Court order — If a court orders me to disclose information, I am legally required to comply.
- Serious Crime — Any terrorism related activities, money laundering, drug trafficking or child trafficking activity, would again require me by legal and ethical duty to report this to the relevant authorities.
- The only other person involved in your case will be my supervisor, who is held by the same privacy, data protection and confidentiality clauses as described here and in my contract. In this case only first names will be known, or if you choose to be anonymised further, initials or aliases can be used.
Wherever possible, I will discuss any disclosure with you first, unless doing so would itself put someone at risk. I will only share the minimum information necessary and will document my reasons for any disclosure.
6. DATA RETENTION.
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
- When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for we look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the processing purposes, if these can be achieved by other means and legal requirements.
- For tax purposes the law requires us to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they stop being customers.
- In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Type of record, Retention period, Reason
-Therapy records (including session notes, assessments, and correspondence)
-7 years after our last session
-In line with the Limitation Act 1980 and standard professional indemnity insurance requirements
-Financial records (invoices, payment records)
-6 years
-Legal requirement under HMRC rules
-Website enquiries (where you did not become a client)
-12 months
-To respond to your enquiry and follow up if needed
7. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.
Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.
You can see more about these rights at:
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/
- If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at
bencoopercounselling@outlook.com.
- 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.
- We try to respond to all legitimate requests within 30 days. Occasionally it may 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.
8. COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
Data protection complaints — your right under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
You have the right to make a data protection complaint directly to me. I take all complaints seriously and will investigate promptly.
To submit a complaint:
- Visit https://bencoopercounselling.co.uk/ and use the “CONTACT” feature to start communication, or contact directly by email at bencoopercounselling@outlook.com
- I will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and aim to resolve it within 28 days.
- If you are not satisfied with my response, you may escalate your complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):
-Website: ico.org.uk
-Telephone: 0303 123 1113
-Address: ICO, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF
9. THIRD-PARTY LINKS.
This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
10. COOKIES.
I do not hold any data in regard to cookies, but GoDaddy, host of “bencoopercounselling.co.uk” website, might still collect them without my direct knowledge. GoDaddy has assured me that my website does not collect any data apart from the encrypted contact form. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.