What is consent?

Consent means “permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.”

What happens when I give my counsellor my details?

Your counsellor will ALWAYS seek your consent (permission) to collect and keep your personal details on file.

You do not have to consent OR give them your personal details.

If you do decide to give your counsellor your PII - This means that when you come to Kooth you are no longer ‘anonymous’ to us. We know who you are and (usually) where you are. As a ‘duty of care’ if you tell us anything worrying, we have to act in your best interests to keep you safe and/or to protect you.

Where possible, we will always work with you to ensure that you are safe and informed and involved in any decisions we make with regard your health and well-being.

What data do we hold at Kooth?

Your data held on Kooth consists of:

• Your registration profile information
• Your case notes
• PII that you have chosen to share with us (this may include details of other agencies that you are working with)
• Your posts and responses to other users, via our magazine, forum, live forums and Ask Kooth.

How long is my data stored?

In order to keep the Kooth site looking fresh and up to date, we archive old posts and magazine articles on an annual basis. This may include some of your posts, articles or comments.

All information held by Kooth will be stored in an archive for a period of twenty years in line with the NHS – Nice guidelines. This archive will not be generally accessible to the Kooth team, but can be accessed if requested for a legal process.

Can I see my counsellor case notes?

Children and young people have the same rights as adults to see what data is kept about them. If you want to request to view your records, your request should be sent to Judy Happe who is our Data Protection Officer.

The contact email address is DPO@mindzonegroup.com

We can only show you your data if we know who you are and you can provide proof of your ID.

Because your data is sensitive and may be triggering we don’t post out data to children and young people, but will invite you into our office in Manchester or London, so that a trained counsellor can provide support to you while you view your data.

Can I ask for my account to be deleted?

Children have the same rights as adults over their personal data. These include the rights to access their personal data; request rectification; object to processing and have their personal data erased.

You can ask for any of the above if we have enough information to identify you.

You will need to make this request in writing via email to the Data Protection Officer (DPO) DPO@mindzonegroup.com

Can you trace or find me from my IP address?

At Kooth, we do not keep or store full IP addresses of our users. We only collate the first half of the IP address which may inform us of the general region/area that a user is accessing the site. It cannot be used to trace users to a specific address.