Privacy Policy
Overview
St John’s Cathedral Counselling Service strives to protect the confidentiality and privacy of our clients and the users of this website. We are committed to full compliance with the data protection principles and all relevant provisions of Hong Kong’s Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (“the Ordinance”). You may wish to visit the official website of the Office of the Privacy Commission (http://www.pcpd.org.hk) for more information about the Ordinance. By visiting this website, you accept and consent to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
Disclosure of your information to third parties
St John’s Cathedral Counselling Service will not disclose, rent or sell any of your personal information to third parties without your express consent, except as required by law. We will ensure that all staff involved in the handling of personal data comply with the appropriate standards of security and confidentiality.
Privacy and confidentiality of service users
Your personal information, including details relating to your presence at our counselling service, will not be disclosed to a third party without your consent. However, there are some situations in which counsellors may have to pass on personal information when there is a serious concern of danger or harm, or when required by law to disclose.
As counsellors, we may ask you to provide certain personal data (including health and employment) or obtain from an appropriate third party such as your medical, healthcare, employment and/or academic history solely for your counselling needs. Counsellors are not medical doctors and therefore are not registered with the Medical Council of Hong Kong. Hence, there are no medical records on file except for the counsellor’s notes that are private and confidential. Therefore, the counsellor’s notes will not be released to any third party except when they are subpoenaed by the Court. It is a primary duty to ensure our clients feel safe and that their counselling needs are being provided in a confidential, safe, highly professional, effective and caring manner.
In the event of exceptional cases such as foreseeable harm to self, others and/or a child, St. John’s Cathedral Counselling Service, legally and ethically by way of Article 14 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance and the professional code of ethics from the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy and the American Psychiatric Association, may disclose certain information to an appropriate health/legal/government party.
Child Protection
At St. John’s Cathedral Counselling Service, our Duty of Care Policy requires us to report child abuse cases to the Social Welfare Department to ensure the safety and well-being of children and their families. All counsellors employed by St John’s Cathedral Counselling Service are required to obtain a Sexual Conviction Record (SCR) from the HK Police Force department to ensure safety to our clients and that no sexual offence has been committed by our counsellors.
Your information
Information from users may be collected automatically by browsing this website such as the browser you use, your operating system, the IP address of the website which linked direct to this site and the pages you viewed. Other information may be collected from you if you use any of our online forms, email us your details, contact us in any manner or if you become one of our clients. Information voluntarily submitted by you will be retained by us for our records. We also use the information you provide us with for such purposes as responding to your requests and communicating with you.
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of information that a website can place on your computer’s hard drive for record-keeping. This website does not currently use cookies but they may be used at websites accessible through links on this website.
Other websites
This website contains links to other websites which are outside of our control and are not covered by this Privacy Policy.
Your rights
In accordance with the Ordinance, you are entitled to request access to and correction of personal data we hold regarding you. Such requests should be made in writing and directed to info@sjcshk.com. You have the right to change your preference regarding how we deal with your personal data at any time. We will update this Privacy Policy if we change the manner in which personal information is used or retained.
This page is last updated on 14 September, 2021