Privacy & your information

Only what you type into the report form: your name, date of birth, address or area, phone, email, how you prefer to be contacted, what you are struggling with, how urgent it is, and anything you add in your own words. If you are under 18 we also ask for a parent or guardian's name, relationship and contact details.

You do not need an account, and we do not sell, advertise with, or profile anyone's information. Browsing the resource and support-group lists collects nothing about you.

Your report is only ever sent to the teams that can act on it:

• The BEHIND EVERY MASK safeguarding team.
• Harmony Harbour UK, our partner crisis team, where the report involves suicidal thoughts or self-harm.
• Specialist child and teen services (such as Childline and the NSPCC) where the person is under 18.
• The emergency services, if there is an immediate risk to someone's life.

If the person is under 18, the report is referred immediately to specialist child and teen safeguarding services. Nothing else is sent to BEHIND EVERY MASK or Harmony Harbour UK unless a parent or guardian's name, relationship and contact details are given and guardian consent is ticked — the one exception being where there is a risk to someone's life or safety, when both teams are told so that emergency services can be called on the person's behalf. Every time consent is given, changed or removed we record it with a timestamp, so there is always a clear record of what was agreed.

If someone chooses to send their live location, the exact coordinates and a map link are included in the report so responders can reach them quickly. This is always optional and is never collected in the background.

Reports are deleted automatically. How long we hold one depends on how serious it is:

• 12 months — immediate danger, or suicidal thoughts and self-harm, where follow-up support may continue for some time.
• 9 months — someone who needed help that day.
• 6 months — someone who needed help soon.
• 3 months — information requests and lower-risk reports.

When that period is up, the report and its consent record are permanently deleted from our systems — this happens on a schedule, not by hand, so nothing is kept longer than it should be.

Reports are held in an encrypted database with no public access whatsoever. They cannot be read from the app, from a browser, or by anyone visiting the site — there is simply no route to them. Only our trusted server-side safeguarding process can read a report, and only in order to send it to the teams above.

Emails are sent from our own verified domain over an encrypted connection, one recipient at a time, so no recipient can see anyone else's details. Access to the safeguarding inbox is limited to the crisis team.

You can ask us at any time to send you a copy of your report, correct something in it, stop contacting you, or delete it completely — including before the automatic deletion date. You do not have to give a reason.

Email b.e.m.crisis.referral@gmail.com with the name and, if you can, the rough date you sent the report so we can find the right one. We will reply within 30 days. A parent or guardian can make the request for a child.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.