How We Keep Your Data Secure
When you become a member we encourage you to record your story for inclusion in the locked members area. This is a separate web site which only people who know the username and password can access.
It is secured using SSL encryption, so the URL is
https://member.cavernoma.org.uk
Note the "s" after the "http". What that means is that all the data sent over the Internet between our server and your PC is encrypted and can't be read in transit. Your browser should show you, via a padlock image or similar, that this is in operation. It is the same security method the banks use. It's very secure.
The server on which all the data is held is owned by The Hug, a company owned by Paul Oldham, who is a member (and has a cavernoma in his pons) and his wife. It is housed in a very secure data centre in London Docklands. Only Paul and his wife are able to access it directly or update the web site. In fact even Ian, our co-ordinator, can't update it!
The only thing stored on the web site is name, email address and the member's story about their condition in their own words. So this is the information which other members, who have the user name and password can read. We are trusting them to keep it confidential and at the bottom of every member's story is the following text to remind them of that:
Ian holds all the other information about members on his PC down in Dorset, that's the information you fill in when you sign up: age, location of cavernoma, address etc. The information Ian holds is not available via the Internet.
Finally it's worth mentioning that all the data we hold, on the web site, the backups of the site (which are held at The Hug's offices), and on Ian's PC are all covered by the Data Protection Act and we are very aware of the legal implications of that and as a charity we are registered under the Data Protection Act as a Data Controller, registration number Z9714921.