Keeping your personal details private
We want to keep your personal details private. Google and other search engines index our site, so if you don’t want your profile to appear when you search for your name, use just your first name or a nickname for your display name. You can update your display name at any time.
Your CV and work history are never available to the general public. They will only be revealed to an organisation when you have made an application to that organisation. We do not share your email address, or number with organisations, unless you have decided to do so by applying for a role they have posted.
We also give you the option to hide the “About me” and/or the “What I am looking for” sections of your profile from the general public by setting them from “Public view” to “Application view”. If set to “Application view” they will only be displayed to charities where you have applied. Of course, this means you are less likely to be contacted by charities as they don’t have a profile to see.
Lastly, if you don’t want to create a profile, you can still apply for a volunteering opportunity on our site by applying as a guest. As a guest you can apply for up to 5 volunteering roles within 30 days of your initial registration, and you can upgrade your account by creating a full volunteer profile at any time.
Removing your profile from Google
If you’ve used your full name, and it is appearing in Google results already, the best thing to do is change your display name. Google reindexes the site every few days and will notice the change and update its results accordingly.
If, however, you choose to take your profile down while it is still part of Google’s search results, either by setting your status to “Not available” or by closing down your account, Google will continue to keep a cached version of your profile with your full name. In this case, you will need to request its removal from Google.
Protecting your information
We know how important it is to protect your personal data, so we have several safeguards in place to protect your data against loss, damage and unauthorised access. We are working with an independent GDPR specialist to ensure we have best practice in place. Below are some of the measures we have taken to ensure our GDPR compliance. More details can be found in our Privacy Policy.
We use SSL certificates to encrypt your data when it is transferred online. We use computer safeguards such as firewalls and data encryption, and we enforce physical access controls to our office and files to keep the data we store safe. We routinely delete personal information when it is no longer needed for us to perform our service.
We use a number of trusted data processors in order to deliver our services. All third parties are carefully selected and are bound by data-sharing agreements to ensure that they treat your data with the same care and respect as we do.
