Privacy and confidentiality

Basic points - what is necessary? what is possible?

To participate in the message boards you must have a valid email address. You will be given a user rname and password for signing in.

• Your email address will be known to the message boards staff (moderators) but need not be shared with other members.
• Your email address will never be shared with the public.
• You may choose the name to show on your messages. This can be anything you like - it need not be your real name.

It is therefore possible to use the message boards and keep your email private (except from form staff) and not reveal your name or any other personal information.

Hazards of the web - the screen, not logging out

Information from the message boards is displayed on the screen via a web browser:

• If you step away from the screen, someone else may look at the webpage you are viewing.
• If you don't log out, someone may come along and be able to view UK CAB webpages which you have viewed or contributed to.

For complete confidentiality, always log out and always close your browser.

Hazards of the message boards - posts and personal messages

It is easy to get comfortable and post something a bit too personal. If you have done this and want to remove the information, get in touch.

Remember, messages can be printed.

Note: You get an hour to edit posts.

Personal message sare completely private (not even message boards staff can see them) but like other message boards content, they can be printed. For complete privacy, be cautious about sharing personal information - especially date of birth, email addresses and name - in personal messages.

Like emails, once sent, personal messages cannot be retracted.

Personal information

For complete privacy and confidentiality, leave all the optional personal information blank.

Personal text, titles and signature can be used to personalise your posts - these will be displayed on every post to logged-in members.