Website Privacy and Cookie Policy
(updated 18/05/2018)
Your privacy
This page explains the Office of the Police Ombudsman’s privacy policy and how it will use and protect any information about you that you give when you visit this website.
The Data Protection Act
Under the Data Protection Act, the Office has a legal duty to protect any information collected from you. This website uses leading technologies and encryption software to safeguard your data, and keeps strict security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to it.
What information does this website collect?
The department collects three kinds of information from visitors to the website:
- feedback (through visitors emailing us)
- complaints submitted through the online form
- site usage information, using cookies and page tagging techniques including JavaScript
Feedback
If you email us from this website we will keep a record of your message for a maximum of three months after the conclusion of correspondence, for reference and audit purposes, after which it will be deleted.
Complaints
If you submit a complaint to us via the website, we will forward it to the Complaint’s Team. No data will be retained on our website servers.
Site usage information
Cookies
This website and some of the tools and services we link to use cookies. You can find more information on these cookies on the following pages:
What happens when I link to another site?
This website does not pass on to any other site any personal information you have given.
This website contains links to other websites, both of government departments and of other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to this site, so you should always be aware when you are moving to another site and read the privacy statement of any other site(s) which may collect personal information about you.
This website does not pass on to any other site any personal information you have given.
What happens when I come to this website site from another site?
Where you are directed to this site from another site (whether a third party site or a government site) we may receive personal information relating to you from the other site(s). You should read the privacy policies for these sites as these will govern the use of any personal information that you provide and which is then provided to this website.
Access to your information and contacting the Office of the Police Ombudsman
If you wish to see this website's records of any email correspondence with you, within the last three months, or if you have a query or complaint about this privacy policy or about the site, you can contact us.
Changes to this privacy policy
If this privacy policy changes in any way, an updated version will be placed on this page.
Cookies
Visitors to our website
When someone visits our website we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. We collect this information in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting any part of 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. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and we will explain what we intend to do with it.
When we provide services, such as the ability to submit a complaint via the website, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your computer, mobile phone or tablet. These are known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.
What are cookies?
Cookies are used to improve services for you by:
- enabling a service to recognise your computer so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task
- recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested
- measuring how many people are using services, so that popular services can be made easier and faster to use
- analysing anonymous data to help us understand how people interact with government services so we can make them better.
What do cookies look like?
If you click on a cookie you'll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the website server that gave you the cookie.
How we use cookies
This website uses a variety of cookies. How we use cookies provides more details about why we use them and how long they will last.
How to manage your cookies
We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by us, or any other website, you can do this through your browser settings.
Your browser is the way you access the internet for example Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome. The ‘Help’ function within your browser should tell you how you can restrict or block cookies.
For information on how to restrict or block cookies on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.
Alternatively, you will also find details on how to restrict or delete cookies on a wide variety of browsers, as well as more general information about cookies, on the ‘About Cookies’ website.
Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the way our website works for you.
Cookies on social networking websites
We have links to social networking websites (for example Twitter, Facebook and YouTube). These websites may place cookies on your computer.
The social networking sites that this website links to are third party sites and this website does not have any control over the way that these sites use your data. You should read their respective privacy policies carefully to find out what happens to any data that is collected when you use these services and to consider whether you want to opt out.
Twitter is a social networking service. Users send short updates, or mini-blogs (known as tweets), that are no more than 140 characters long. You can collect followers and follow other users. You can also tag words and search tags to find out what other people are talking about.
- Read the Twitter privacy policy
Facebook is a social networking website that has millions of users worldwide. You register and create a profile. You can then add friends to your profile and exchange information with friends. Facebook also allows people to start groups and fan pages as well as bookmarking other web pages.
- Read the Facebook privacy policy
YouTube
YouTube is a video hosting and distribution platform owned by Google.
- Read the Google privacy policy
How we use Cookies
This website site and some of the tools and services it links to use a number of cookies. These cookies are listed below with more details about why we use them and how long they will last.
Measuring website usage
We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use our website. We do this to make sure it’s meeting people's needs and to understand how we could meet those needs better.
Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. We do not collect or store your personal details such as your name or address. We cannot identify who you are.
We do not allow Google to use or share any information we collect with other third parties.
You can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Online notification form cookie
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ASP.NET SessionID: Session cookie sent to the web browser. Used when you open the browser and then go to a website that implements ASP.NET session state. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser.
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CMSPreferredCulture: Cookie used to determine website users browser language, expires 24 hours after the site is first accessed.
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CMSCurrentTheme: Cookie used to determine website visitor preference of colour scheme, expires 24 hours after the site is first accessed.
Performance Cookies
Google Analytics:
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Used to track visitors. Collect information about how visitors use our website. We use this information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.
Targeting Cookies or Advertising Cookies
- Double Click (DoubleClick DART): This cookie is used by Google in the ads served on the websites of its partners, such as websites displaying AdSense ads or participating in Google certified ad networks. This is part of Google Custom Search Functionality.
- comScore: Collects information about how visitors use our site. The information is used to compile reports and to help improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. This is part of Google Custom Search Functionality.
Third Party Cookies
- Facebook: Features for sharing via Facebook. Does not set a cookie by itself, but if one is present it will read it.
- ShareThis, __uset__stid: ShareThis cookies to help to share site content on social media sites.
- YouTube: Features for sharing videos via YouTube, and remembering what videos you've seen.
- Google Maps: provides visual geo-location information
- AddToAny: social bookmarking tool to enable social sharing icons for Facebook and Twitter