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Just wondering....

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 687 Incredible Poster
in Help Desk
What is The Mix confidentiality policy?

Comments

  • TheMixTheMix Posts: 3,113 Boards Guru
    Hey @Jess101

    You can have a read of The Mix's confidentiality policy over on the website here. I've also pasted it below:
    Confidentiality Policy

    We believe your right to confidentiality when using our services is very important. This means that only in very unusual circumstances would it be necessary for us to contact police or other agencies about any message we have received.

    Legal requirements related to confidentiality

    Under UK law, The Mix cannot legally provide confidentiality under the following circumstances:
    • A message sent to or through The Mix (including our discussion board posts) contains specific information about a terrorist suspect or terrorist activity that will take place or has taken place in the world. This information must immediately be disclosed to the police.
    • The Mix is forced through legal action to disclose specific confidential information; this can include legal action taken through the Data Protection Act and during criminal investigations.



    Our choice to break confidentiality

    Under the Data Protection Act we can choose to break confidentiality if we feel that doing so would be in the public interest or that not doing so would hinder a criminal investigation. Under very rare, extreme circumstances, we may choose to break confidentiality.

    These are:
    If we believe a user is in immediate and great danger. Or a user is about to place another person in immediate and great danger.

    And

    That a user has provided enough personal information for us to believe there is an opportunity to intervene.

    We wouldn’t even think of trying to intervene if the circumstances were not extreme.

    Let me know if you have any questions about anything :)

    All the best,

    - Aife
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 52 Boards Initiate
    Hi aife tonight you broke confidentially when I disclosed some info. I understand you thought you were doing the right thing but having 2 gorgeous police officers at my door at 3am when all i was wearing was a towel was rather embarrassing. Can I suggest that maybe the mix give members a chance to talk through the situation before contacting the police. Unless obviously the person is in immediate harm. Plus it was also a good few hours before they got to me. If I had spoken to you I could have given more info on my whereabouts so the officers could have found me sooner. Again I thank you for your help but maybe it can be approached in a different way next time. 
  • SienaSiena Posts: 15,681 Skive's The Limit
    edited March 2019
    littlegemz said:
    Hi aife tonight you broke confidentially when I disclosed some info. I understand you thought you were doing the right thing but having 2 gorgeous police officers at my door at 3am when all i was wearing was a towel was rather embarrassing. Can I suggest that maybe the mix give members a chance to talk through the situation before contacting the police. Unless obviously the person is in immediate harm. Plus it was also a good few hours before they got to me. If I had spoken to you I could have given more info on my whereabouts so the officers could have found me sooner. Again I thank you for your help but maybe it can be approached in a different way next time. 
    Yeah i agree if that happened.  ive had this done & was so annoying, when didnt speak with me about it before doing it. (not on here - the crisis messanger) & then was so embarrasing that police was there for no reason. 
    The mix confidenality went to hardly ever breaking confidenality to randomly doing it a lot more ah

    hope youre okay
    Post edited by Siena on
    “And when they look at you, they won't see everything you've been through. They won't see the **** that turned to scars that began to fade with time. They won't see the heartbreaking things that shook up and changed your entire world. They won't know how many tears you cried or even what it was you were crying about. They won't see how strong you had to be because you had no other choice. What they will see though is how compassionate you are because you experienced pain. What they will see is how kind you are because you experienced how cruel the world is. What they will see is how good you are because you've seen how bad things or people can be. The difference between you and your experiences are who you choose to be, despite everything that could have turned you cold and unkind.You are the good the world needs and the best of us.” ~ Kirsten Corley
  • TheMixTheMix Posts: 3,113 Boards Guru
    edited September 18
    Hey @Past User

    Thanks for the feedback on your experience, and also the thoughts around how we could do things better. We are always reviewing our processes to make sure that when we take these decisions, the outcome is the most helpful it can be for the person involved. 

    It's always a tricky balance for us in terms of breaking confidentiality without finding out more details. This is partly because the circumstances when we do this (this thread is a little old, so we have an updated policy if you follow the link) are often likely to be at points when time is critical e.g. someone's life is at risk. Because the boards aren't live (as in we can't have a direct chat in real time), it's not always possible to get further information at the time. 

    That all being said, we will definitely take all the feedback on board. We always review our responses in these situations, and will adapt our processes if we feel it better meets our goal of ensuring that everyone seeking support on here is kept safe. 

    Thanks again for sharing this, hope you are doing okay, it sounded like a worrying time for you over the weekend. You did the right thing in reaching out for support, and we are all here for you if you want to talk things through further.

    Take care,

    Ed and the team
    Post edited by TheMix on
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