Privacy and security
Be My Parent take security of information seriously
Introduction
Protecting the privacy of children
Protecting your privacy
If you have any questions
Links
Introduction
We are aware that profiling children on the Internet is a sensitive area. We take the issue of security very seriously and employ a range of measures to ensure a consistent and high level of protection, both for the children featured, and for users of the website.
Prior to launch, the website was fully tested for security vulnerabilities by web experts, also known as ‘white hat’ or ‘friendly’ hackers. Additional security testing take place at regular intervals and any potential vulnerabilities we discover will be dealt with fully and promptly.
Anyone using the Be My Parent website must ensure they read, understand, and agree to our terms and conditions. We also recommend that you read our privacy policy.
Protecting the privacy of children
While we will need to provide enough information about the children featured for potential adopters or foster carers to make enquiries, the profiles are edited to remove identifying information, such as full names or addresses, to ensure anonymity. All photographs, audio, and video clips are checked for suitability and appropriateness, and do not reveal identifying information.
Sometimes, children’s details are particularly sensitive; for example, when the situation of the child coming into care is extreme, e.g. a death of a parent in criminal circumstances, or a very hostile reaction from a birth family to a child's removal. In such instances, and when their social worker specifies, the child’s profile will only be viewable by those Be My Parent subscribers who are approved to adopt or foster, or who are waiting to be approved but have been Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checked by their agency. Be My Parent will contact the relevant adoption or fostering agencies to confirm this. In addition, all Be My Parent staff, as well as website developers and support staff, have been CRB-checked to an enhanced level.
The Be My Parent web pages are served over a secure connection (SSL) and when the children’s details are transferred from the referring agency to the Be My Parent online system, they are encrypted, stored and transmitted using the latest security features. This means that anyone intercepting the information will be unable to decrypt - and therefore understand - it. The information can only be decoded and understood once it reaches Be My Parent.
The video clips of children included in Be My Parent profiles are secure. They are not cached, i.e. they are not stored or saved anywhere automatically when viewed. In addition, it's not possible to, for instance, right click on the video clip to save it. The video is also downloaded gradually while it is being played, which makes copying or editing it impossible without sophisticated software.
In order to view the full details of the children, including extra photographs and video or audio clips, and make enquiries, users must subscribe to Be My Parent online. Every subscriber’s details are authenticated against their credit card account, which must be registered in the UK. All user activity is logged to detect and report any suspicious behaviour.
Protecting your privacy
In some areas of this website we ask you to send us data that needs to be transmitted securely, namely credit card payments for subscribing to Be My Parent.
The security of credit card transactions will be managed by Pay Point, the UK’s largest processor of secure payments online, and we do not store your credit card details on our servers.
The page that requests your credit card details should come to you through our secure server. You can check this by looking in your browser's address bar - the address should start https://www.bemyparent.org.uk. If you are using Netscape or Internet Explorer, these browsers show a padlock icon in their status bar.
Our server logs collect data about the pages you visit on our website. We use these logs to monitor the performance of the website and to make improvements. Apart from these data, the only places we collect data from are any forms you choose to fill in on the website, including subscription pages. We will not pass your details on to any third party and will only use details for the purpose for which they were provided.
If you have any questions
Be My Parent is part of the British Association for Adoption & Fostering, who operate this website.
If you have any questions or concerns about security or privacy, please contact the Be My Parent team.
Links
Criminal Records Bureau
Pay Point
Last updated: 31 July 09
