Privacy policy

  • Updated

The following paragraphs explain how your personal data will be treated. This policy may be updated from time to time.

 Your privacy is very important to us. We are constantly making efforts to safeguard and protect your privacy. This section is intended to inform you of our policies, procedures and practices regarding the collection, use and disclosure of any information that you provide through the Online Counselling platform.

 

Confidentiality

  1. Protecting your personal information is a top priority for us. We will not provide your personal information to other healthcare professionals and/or organisations without your consent, except when required by the law, or if it is assessed that you are at serious risk of harming yourself or someone else, if you are in danger, or if there is a clear child protection issue. In such situations, we are duty bound and compelled by law to inform the appropriate authorities and relevant persons who can best provide the support to prevent such injury or harm.
  2. It is possible that, at any time, we may be requested by these authorities to provide them with access to documents held by us, or to attend interviews with them in connection with the work we have done for you. In the unlikely event that such a situation arises, we shall comply with the request only to the extent that we are bound by law to do so and, insofar as it is practicable or permitted under the relevant law, shall notify you of the request or the sharing of information. As part of our service to you, we will do our best to protect your interests in those circumstances.
  3. Where you provide us with any personal data of third parties, you confirm that you have obtained all necessary consents to do so, and that we may collect, use and disclose such personal data for the purposes set out above, in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 or its subsequent equivalent legislation.
  4. By providing your personal data to us, you hereby consent to the collection, use, storage, and disclosure of personal data belonging to you, or that may relate to a third-party individual that is provided by you, during your use of Online Counselling.

You also consent that we may, where appropriate, share such personal data with the Ministry of Social and Family Development and with the Strengthening Families Programme@Family Service Centres (FAM@FSCs), for the following purposes:

(a) To provide you with online counselling services;

(b) To improve the delivery and ensure continuity in the provision of online counselling services;

(c) To serve you in the most efficient and effective way; and

(d) For data analysis, evaluation, and policy-making relating to online counselling services
unless such sharing is prohibited by law.

  1. We reserve the right to disclose any information to our professional indemnity insurers or advisers.
  2. To ensure quality counselling services, our counsellors receive regular clinical supervision. We may keep transcripts and recordings of our online chat, phone and video sessions for supervision and training purposes. We will not disclose your identity in those transcripts to protect your identity.

What information will we collect:

  1. We have the ethical duty to protect the safety and wellbeing of our clients. In order for us to meet your needs on the Online Counselling platform and to ensure your safety, we may have to collect personal identifiable information such as, but not limited to, your name, phone number, your email address, your address, your next-of-kin’s name and contact number and log data (your computer Internet Protocol address “IP”) when we deem that your safety is at risk.
  2. For the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of our services, we will collect some personal information about you such as your demographic details, your feedback about this service, information on pages that you visit on our platform, duration that you spend talking to us on the platform, the number of exchanges (e.g. live chats, emails) between you and your counsellor, and any information that you share with us over the platform. However, you will not be identifiable in any of our data reporting and evaluation process.
  3. You have the right to terminate our service at any time. However, we reserve the right to retain the information you have provided for us during the course of your counselling with us. The privacy policy will still apply even if you terminate your counselling with us.

How your information will be stored:

To safeguard your personal data, all electronic storage and transmission of personal data are secured with appropriate security technologies and comply with ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 27018:2014 data protection standards.

How long will we keep the information about you:

Any of the information that we hold about you described above, will be held for up to three (3) years from the initial point of contact, regardless of whether you proceed to use our services.

Complaints

If you are unsatisfied with Online Counselling, you may write to https://www.cphonlinecounselling.sg/hc/en-us/requests/new. Our team will look into the complaint and get back to you within 3 working days.