Privacy policy
Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC) website privacy policy
We are committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most accessible and safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy governs data collection and usage. By using this website, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.
This page explains how we use any information you give to us, and the way we protect your privacy. Protecting the privacy and personal data of the visitors to our site is of the utmost importance to us.
Changes to the statement
If the privacy statement changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page.
Data Protection Act
In accordance with the Data Protection Act, we have a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you. We will only use your information for the purpose as described at the time, (for example an FAQ enquiry) and we do not pass on your details to any other government department or third party unless you have given us permission to do so. You have a right to access your personal data and rectify any inaccuracies.
How we handle your data
Protecting your personal information is extremely important to us and we take our duty to protect and safeguard your personal information and confidentiality very seriously.
Personal data is information that relates to an identified or identifiable living individual. Additionally, special category data (such as health data, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc.) and criminal convictions and offence data is also personal data that needs more protection and security because of its sensitivity. We are committed to taking all reasonable measures to ensure the confidentiality and security of all personal data for which we are responsible, whatever format and medium it is held in, at all times.
The key people who hold the responsibility for ensuring the systems and processes are in place for protecting the data held on the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC) platform are the M-RIC Director of Digital and Data, the M-RIC Chief Technology Officer and the Managing Director of Informatics Merseyside.
The current Data Protection law – the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) – were originally introduced back in May 2018. The new legislation strengthened the previous legislation that had been in place for 20 years and brought it in line with modern society and technology. It aimed to achieve a balance between the rights of individuals and the interests of those with legitimate reasons for using personal information. The law applies to all types of personal information, whether held on a computer system, other electronic media or paper records, and includes both facts and opinions about the individual.
The legislation places legal obligations on those who collect, store and share information (data controllers), and gives rights to those who are the subject of that information (data subjects).
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a data controller (Registration Number Z6634416). Find out more about how Mersey Care handles data and our data protection principles at www.merseycare.nhs.uk/about-us/privacy.
The University of Liverpool is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a data controller (Registration Number Z6390975.). Find out more about how the University of Liverpool handles data and our data protection principles at https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/legal/freedom-of-information/privacy-notice/.
To learn more about the legislation, please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office’s website. The full Data Protection Act 2018 is available on the Government’s legislation website.
How we use cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
You have the choice to reject these cookies by clicking “Reject” on the pop up. This will disable any cookies, such as google analytics. However, some features on the site may not work as expected.
In order to help us to improve the content, format and structure of this website we record and analyse how visitors use the website. For this purpose, we use Google Analytics.
“This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyse how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.”
We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. We will not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifying information from any source. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this and we will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.
For more information on enabling and disabling cookies please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Privacy statement coverage
This privacy statement only covers this website, it does not cover links within this site to other websites.
Site security measures
This site has security measures in place to protect the loss and alteration of information under our control.
Site usage
We do not use cookies for collecting user information. Log files allow us to record visitor’s use of the site to enable us to enhance the future layout of the site. The data we gather in this way does not contain any personal information or information about which other sites you have visited. If you provide feedback on our website we will only use it to develop and improve the site.