ISWAN respects the privacy of those who may be identified by the personal data it processes and wants to protect any personal information that you give to us.
This statement is made in order to comply with the provisions of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation (PECR) (‘UK data protection law’), as well as any other legislation according to the jurisdiction applicable to your location. For the purposes of the processing and our policy, ISWAN is a data controller.
How we collect information:
We collect personal information about you when you contact us to ask for assistance or information or if you give us personal information in any other way. This may include but is not limited to:
What information we collect:
The types of personal information we might ask for depend upon the purpose we have identified to process your data. If you use our helplines services, this may include special category data.
How we use your information:
Any information we collect, will be stored securely and treated in accordance with UK Data Protection Law.
We will use the information that you give to us to find the best way to communicate with you if you have opted-in to the e-news.
The lawful grounds for processing your personal data
In order for us to lawfully process your data we must establish the lawful grounds for such activities. We typically use three of theses which include:
Third parties
ISWAN will not pass your personal details to other people or organisations without your consent unless there is a safeguarding or legal obligation to do so. Where data is shared, ISWAN will ensure that it has a suitable data sharing agreement or it has established a lawful grounds for sharing the data.
Confidentiality
Our helpline services are confidential; your situation will not be discussed or shared with anyone, outside of the helpline team, without getting your agreement first. However, if a client advises that they or someone else is at serious risk of harm, we will share appropriate information where it is necessary in the best interests of those individuals. In such circumstances we will ensure an appropriate lawful ground for processing is maintained.
Where we are required by organisations that subscribe to our services to report the frequency of use of such services and other statistical information, we will in most cases anonymise the identity of the individuals concerned who may have used the helpline. We have no control of the way such organisations may process the reported information other than to state that such reports do not include personal data.
The ISWAN for Seafarers App
We provide access to our helpline services in different ways. To ensure you can reach the helpline from anywhere in the world, we also provide a native app, ISWAN for Seafarers, which can be downloaded on to any mobile device. The personal data processed when you use the app is processed in the same way as other data that may identify you. We use a third party to host the app and have appropriate safeguards in place to ensure they keep your data secure. The third-party provider may store your data in a third country. Where this is the case, we ensure that appropriate measures are taken to uphold your rights in accordance with the applicable nation’s laws.
Our use of cookies
Cookies are small text markers stored on your computer that enable us to understand how people use our website. No personally identifiable information is stored on the cookies. In common with many similar websites, we use them to help remember preferences and for anonymous statistical measurements – for example so we know how many ‘hits’ a page has had.
We use cookies to:
You can control and delete cookies
Even though ISWAN does not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you, you might still want to restrict or block cookies. You can do this through your internet browser (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, etc). However, if you restrict cookies for the SeafarerHelp website then there is a risk the website will not work fully.
What cookies do we use?
These are the main reasons we use cookies on the www.seafarerswelfare.org website:
Google Analytics: This is a service we use from Google that collects information about how people use our website. We use this to make sure we are providing the best service we can to our web visitors.
Using cookies, Google Analytics stores information about:
Although we collect this information we do not collect any personal information – so we don’t know what your name is or where you live. And the information we collect cannot be used to identify you. Also this information is for ISWAN’s use only and we don’t allow Google to share it.
Content Management System
In a similar way to Google Analytics, the CMS also collects information about how many times a page has been visited and how many times a file is downloaded (things like the PDFs of our research reports and briefings).
Cookies that are set by other websites
Occasionally we embed things like video, audio and pictures from other websites such as such as YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr or SoundCloud. This means it looks like one of our webpages but the video is being fed through from another site (e.g. YouTube). This means that every time you visit one of our pages with this sort of embedded content, those other sites may use their own cookies to record that you watched or viewed the content. ISWAN has no control over these cookies so you should check the relevant website for more information.
How do we protect personal information?
We will make sure that any personal information that you give to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date using appropriate safeguards. We will only use your personal information for the purposes in which you have agreed for us to use it.
Data subjects’ rights
ISWAN is committed to upholding the data subject rights in accordance with UK Data Protection Law or any other applicable legislation. These rights include:
You have the right to ask for a copy of the information that we have about you. Also, if any information that we have about you is wrong, you can ask us to correct it for you.
Changes and Deletions
If your personal details change, please help us to keep those details up to date by telling us about any changes. If you want to see what information we have about you, need to tell us about any changes to the information that you have given to us, or wish to delete the information, then please contact:
The Data Protection Officer, The International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN), Suffolk House, George Street, Croydon, CR0 1PE
Email: [email protected]
You may complain to the regulator who is responsible for information rights in the UK
Please go to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website for further details:
We may change this Privacy Statement at any time. Please regularly visit our site to view any amendments.