The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a new, tool to help small organisations in the charity and voluntary sector create a bespoke privacy notice and protect people’s information rights.

Under data protection law, every organisation that holds people’s information needs to explain why it holds it and what it does with it. This is so their customers and suppliers, including beneficiaries and donors, as well as staff and volunteers, know what will happen to it.

Organisations can provide this information through a privacy notice, which is displayed on its website or included in other communications, to ensure they’re compliant.

In just a few simple steps, the new privacy notice generator can create tailored privacy notices relevant to small organisations in all sectors of the economy.

For example, there are sections of the tool specific to organisations in the charity and voluntary sector. They often have people’s information, such as names, contact and payment details, or more sensitive information including medical conditions and counselling sessions.

By using the privacy notice generator, they can create an up-to-date privacy notice to let
people know what they do with their information.

The tool offers two different types of privacy notice. One for customer and supplier information, which organisations can display on their website or external communications. And another for staff and volunteer information, for inclusion in welcome packs, policy libraries or other internal channels accessible to staff and volunteers.

The ICO is also encouraging those organisations that already have a privacy notice to use the generator to check it’s up to date.

You can find the privacy notice generator on the ICO’s website for small organisations here: ico.org.uk/create-your-own-privacy-notice.

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