Last updated: May 2026

Help Close By is a charity registered in England and Wales (Registered Charity Number 1190642). This policy explains how we collect, use and protect personal data when you use our website or our app, whether you are someone asking for help or someone offering it as a volunteer.

Contents

• Who we are and who is in charge of your data

• What data we collect

• How we collect your data

• How we use your data, including sharing with vetted volunteers

• The lawful bases we rely on

• Special category data (dietary, health, belief)

• Children’s data

• How we store and protect your data

• Data breaches

• Volunteers — your data

• Safeguarding

• Marketing

• Your data protection rights

• Cookies

• Other organisations we share data with

• Changes to this policy

• How to contact us

• How to contact the regulator

Who we are and who is in charge of your data

Help Close By (“HCB”, “we”, “us”) is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.

Day-to-day data protection queries are handled by our Data Protection Lead. You can reach them at dpo@helpcloseby.org or by writing to Data Protection Lead, Help Close By, 20 Tennal Road, Birmingham, B32 2JE.

What data we collect

We collect only what we need to act on your request. That usually means:

• Your name, address, phone number(s) and email address.

• The information needed to fulfil your specific request — for example, the number of people a food parcel is for and any dietary requirements or allergies.

• Where it is needed to match you with the right help, an age band (for example, over 18, over 50, over 75).

• Any other personal detail you choose to provide for a particular request, kept to the minimum necessary.

Our ethos is data minimisation: if we do not need it to help you, we do not ask for it.

How we collect your data

We only collect data you give us directly — when you register with the app, when you make a request through the app, or when you complete the “Contact Us” form on www.helpcloseby.org. We do not buy data, scrape it from other sources, or collect it from third parties.

How we use your data, including sharing with vetted volunteers

Help Close By is an integrator. You make a request, our app identifies a not-for-profit or charitable partner organisation that can meet it, and a volunteer registered with that organisation delivers the help.

Sharing with partner organisations. When you submit a request, the information needed to fulfil it (your contact details, the nature of the request, and any relevant special requirements) is shared with the partner organisation best placed to help. If the first organisation cannot help, the app may pass the same information to another partner.

Sharing with vetted volunteers. Once a partner organisation accepts your request, a volunteer registered with that organisation will receive the information needed to deliver the help - typically your name, address, phone number, and the details of the request itself. Volunteers only see your details on their version of the app for as long as it takes to complete the request, after which the information disappears from their device.

Every volunteer who can receive your data must, before being given access:

• Verify their identity with the partner organisation.

• Pass a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check where the role involves contact with vulnerable adults or children, or where the partner organisation’s safeguarding policy requires one.

• Provide references that the partner organisation has checked.

• Complete training in data protection and safeguarding.

• Sign a confidentiality agreement and our Volunteering Code of Conduct.

Volunteers are instructed never to copy, save, photograph, share or otherwise retain your information outside the app. Any breach of this is treated as a serious matter and may end their involvement with HCB and the partner organisation.

A record of the transaction (but not the live contact details on the volunteer’s device) is kept on our secure database so that we can answer queries, respond to complaints, and improve the service.

The lawful bases we rely on

Under UK GDPR we need a lawful basis for everything we do with your data. We rely on the following:

• Consent - when you create an account, submit a request, or sign up to receive a newsletter, you are giving consent for us to use your data for that purpose. You can withdraw consent at any time.

• Legitimate interests - for routine running of the charity, such as keeping a record of completed requests so we can demonstrate impact to funders and improve the service. We have considered your interests and rights and believe these uses are reasonable and expected.

• Legal obligation - where we are required to keep certain records (for example for safeguarding or financial reporting).

• Explicit consent (Article 9) - where you give us special category data such as dietary, health or religious information, we rely on your explicit consent given at the point of the request.

Special category data (dietary, health, belief)

Some of the details you may share - for example a medical allergy, a dietary requirement linked to a health condition, or a food preference connected to your religion or belief — are treated as “special category data” under UK GDPR and given extra protection. We only collect them when it is necessary to fulfil your request, we only share them with the partner organisation and volunteer who needs them to help you, and we delete them on the same timetable as the rest of your data.

Children’s data

HCB’s services are designed for adults to make requests, including requests that benefit children in their household (for example, a food parcel for a family). We do not knowingly collect data directly from anyone under 18. If a request involves children, we collect only the minimum information needed (such as the number of children and any dietary needs) and treat it with the same protections as adult data. If you believe a child has provided data directly to us, please contact us and we will remove it.

How we store and protect your data

Data you provide through the app is stored in a secure database on a server located in the United Kingdom.

Contact details collected through the “Contact Us” form on www.helpcloseby.org are held on our website and email servers. These may sit outside the United Kingdom but only in jurisdictions whose data protection arrangements are recognised as adequate under UK GDPR, or under appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

Our internal GDPR policy forbids anyone employed by or volunteering for HCB from recording personally identifiable information about service users or volunteers anywhere outside the www.helpcloseby.org domain and the servers used by the app.

If you have used the app but not for six months, we will try to contact you through the app and by email to ask whether you want us to keep your record. If you do not reply within 14 days, we delete your data. If you ask us to keep it, the six-month clock starts again. Any use of the app also resets the clock.

Data breaches

If something does go wrong and your data is compromised, we will assess the risk straight away. Where required, we will report the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office within 72 hours of becoming aware of it, and we will tell you directly if there is a high risk to your rights and freedoms.

Volunteers - your data

If you volunteer with Help Close By or one of our partner organisations, we hold:

• Your name, contact details, and the area you are available to cover.

• A record that you have completed our checks (identity, DBS where relevant, references, training, and signed agreements). We hold the fact you have passed; the underlying DBS certificate stays with the partner organisation that ran the check.

• A log of the requests you have completed through the app.

We use this information to match you with appropriate requests, to keep service users safe, and to recognise and support your contribution. We rely on consent and legitimate interests as our lawful bases. We keep your volunteer record for as long as you are active with us and for two years after your last activity, after which we delete or anonymise it unless we are required by law to keep it longer.

Safeguarding

Protecting the people who ask for our help, and the volunteers who provide it, comes first. If we ever need to share information to prevent or respond to a safeguarding concern — for example with the police, social services or another statutory body — we will do so even if you have not specifically consented, in line with our Safeguarding Policy and the law.

Marketing

Help Close By does no marketing. Your data will never be shared with any third-party organisation without your explicit permission. You will not be contacted by HCB unless you have specifically asked us to be in touch, and every contact will include a way to unsubscribe.

Your data protection rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Access - ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

• Rectification - ask us to correct anything inaccurate or complete anything incomplete.

• Erasure - ask us to delete your data, in certain circumstances.

• Restrict processing - ask us to limit how we use your data, in certain circumstances.

• Object - object to particular uses of your data, in certain circumstances.

• Data portability - ask us to send your data to you or to another organisation in a portable format, in certain circumstances.

• Withdraw consent - at any time, where consent is the basis on which we hold your data.

• Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (contact details below).

We will respond within one month. To exercise any of these rights, email contact@helpcloseby.org or write to Help Close By, 20 Tennal Road, Birmingham, B32 2JE.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files placed on your device to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour. We only use cookies that are functionally necessary to make the website work - we do not use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies. You can set your browser to refuse cookies; allaboutcookies.org has guidance on how.

Other organisations we share data with

Beyond the partner charities and vetted volunteers who deliver your request, we share data only:

• With our hosting and database providers, who process data strictly on our instructions under written contract.

• Where we are required by law, or to protect someone’s vital interests in a safeguarding situation.

We do not sell or rent personal data to anyone, ever.

Changes to this policy

We review this policy regularly and post any updates here and in the app. This version was published in May 2026 and replaces the August 2020 version.

How to contact us

If you have questions about this policy, the data we hold about you, or you want to exercise one of your rights:

• Email: contact@helpcloseby.org

• Data Protection Lead: dpo@helpcloseby.org

• Post: Help Close By, 20 Tennal Road, Birmingham, B32 2JE

How to contact the regulator

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data and we have not resolved it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

• Email: casework@ico.org.uk

• Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

• Web: ico.org.uk