HSfB Privacy Policy test
Reader-facing candidate v2.5 — updated 17 October 2026. For review, not publication. Effective date to be agreed. Read alongside Publication-checks-v2.5.
Privacy at a glance
HSfB uses personal information to run the community, provide accounts and conversations, respond to enquiries and protect the site against misuse.
- Public contributions are public. Guests can read public posts and see information displayed alongside them. Think carefully before sharing personal or confidential details about yourself or others.
- Private messages are not routinely inspected. Recipients may share messages or report concerns, and the team may review information supplied with a report.
- Some service providers receive information. These include our hosting, email, security and registration-protection providers. External spam reports can include account identifiers and the reported post.
- Accounts do not expire simply because you are away. We welcome members returning after years. You can ask to delete your account, your posts or particular personal information.
- Contact John about privacy. You do not need an account or special wording to use the administrator contact form.
The sections below explain these points, retention arrangements and your rights in more detail.
Who we are
Health and Safety for Beginners (HSfB) is a community for anyone interested in workplace health and safety, including employees, students, apprentices and experienced practitioners. This policy covers our website, discussion forums and Resource Hub at healthandsafetytips.co.uk.
John Johnston, known on the forums as Jack Kane, is responsible for deciding how HSfB uses personal information.
Use our administrator contact form for enquiries or privacy requests. You do not need an account or any special wording. Members can also contact Jack Kane through his profile.
Information we use
Accounts and activity. We use your username, email address, authentication information, preferences, registration and activity records to run your account. Forum activity, security and moderation records can include IP addresses. Real names, employers, job titles and birthdays are optional.
Posts, profiles and files. We store the contributions and profile information you provide. Public posts and details displayed alongside them—including usernames, avatars, signatures and any supplied location, job title or company link—can be seen by guests and copied or indexed by others. Birthday listings may also show your username and age publicly if you supply birthday information, and homepage blocks can display other profile-derived details. Full profiles require login. Account email addresses are not ordinarily displayed to other members.
Uploaded forum attachments are available to registered members with the relevant permissions; guest downloading is blocked. This cannot prevent recipients sharing copies. Images hosted on other websites are separate and may load from those websites. Forum attachments may be up to 2 MB and appear before moderator review.
Private messages and reports. Messages are stored to provide private member-to-member conversations. We do not routinely inspect unreported private messages. A recipient may report a concern or provide a copy of a message to the administrator or moderators. The team may then review the information supplied to understand and address that concern. Recipients can also retain or share their copies. Private-message attachments are disabled, but external images may be displayed. Messages have capacity limits rather than routine age-based expiry.
Moderation records. Where a concern needs discussion, we use a restricted moderator forum to record relevant information, findings and decisions. This can include reported content, account details and relevant correspondence. Enquiries sent directly to John are not routinely forwarded to the team; where input is needed, relevant information may be paraphrased. We aim to keep only the detail needed to resolve and review the case.
If a public post contains too much personal information, moderators may edit it or temporarily move the topic out of public view while considering what to do. We may contact the author with an explanation or ask them to revise it before it is restored. General moderator conversations are separate from case records and do not automatically follow the case-deletion schedule.
Enquiries. The contact form sends the name you enter, email address, subject, message and IP address. You need not enter your legal name. Enquiries go directly to John’s primary Gmail account, accessed through new Outlook. Emails are not forwarded to others; where moderator input is needed, relevant information may be paraphrased in a restricted case topic. Resolved HSfB correspondence is kept in a dedicated folder within an account also used personally.
Resource Hub. Search and feedback records include search terms, filters, result counts, comments and dates. These particular records do not deliberately add names, email addresses, forum IDs or IP addresses, but free text may identify people and separate hosting logs may contain IP addresses. Feedback is optional. The records are not displayed publicly.
We normally handle enquiries without needing identifiable health information. Please describe your question without including unnecessary medical details or identifying other people. If sensitive details are included, we aim to limit their use and retention to what is necessary. Where we genuinely need to retain or use them, we will assess the applicable legal requirements and explain any additional permission we need.
Donated resources. Files can contain names, document properties, comments, tracked changes and information about other people. We use contributor correspondence to assess resources and clarify permissions. Agreed credits may appear publicly. Please remove unnecessary identifying or confidential information before submitting a file.
Hosting and security. Our services may process IP addresses, requested pages, referring pages, browser/device information, timestamps and security events to deliver and protect the site and understand usage.
Information may also come from people who report or mention you, contributors and security services. Where required, we provide information about this indirect collection.
Why we use information
The following is the proposed allocation of lawful bases for this review candidate; the accompanying review document identifies unresolved assessments.
| Purpose | Basis proposed for the final policy |
|---|---|
| Provide requested accounts, notifications and private messaging | Performance of an agreement where a valid agreement exists and the processing is necessary. Younger-user arrangements still require assessment. |
| Run discussions, respond to enquiries, maintain resources and improve the Hub | Legitimate interests in providing a useful community and responding to its users, subject to necessity and balancing assessments. |
| Protect the site, investigate misuse and moderate concerns | Legitimate interests in protecting members and the service. External spam reporting is assessed separately. |
| Fulfil statutory privacy requests and retain legally required financial records | Compliance with legal obligations. |
| Establish, exercise or defend legal claims | Legitimate interests, together with any additional legal condition required for sensitive information. |
Legitimate interests is not unrestricted permission to use information. You can object to processing on this basis. Where consent is relied on, you can withdraw it without affecting earlier lawful processing. Required account information is needed to provide an account; optional profile fields are not required to browse public pages.
Please avoid unnecessary health details or other sensitive information about yourself or others. Workplace questions can usually be discussed without identifying individuals. Moderators may edit or temporarily remove oversharing, contact the author or ask for a revised post. Restricted case records should contain only the sensitive detail necessary to resolve the issue. An additional legal condition is required where sensitive information is processed; this remains an assessment item for the final policy.
Who may receive information
Administrators and moderators access information needed for their duties. Other members and visitors see contributions according to the relevant permissions. We may disclose information where necessary and lawful to meet legal requirements, obtain advice or protect people and rights.
Our services include:
- Krystal: hosting, website storage and recovery backups.
- Cloudflare: website delivery and security.
- Google: Gmail for enquiries and reCAPTCHA for registration protection. These are separate from paused Google Analytics.
- Microsoft: new Outlook and associated email processing, including its documented cloud-sync arrangements.
- Gravatar/Automattic: external avatars where used. Avatar requests use an email-derived identifier; this should not be treated as anonymous. Loading an external avatar can also involve connection information.
- Stop Forum Spam: checks involving usernames, email addresses and IP addresses, and external reports of spam activity.
- Facebook and Twitter/X: social sign-in options remain configured and existing account-link records are retained. These links associate a forum account with an account at the external provider. Current operation, permissions and the full information exchanged have not yet been verified.
Members can also link to external websites or display externally hosted images. Those services handle requests under their own arrangements.
Manual Stop Forum Spam submissions contain username, email address and IP address, without evidence text. Reports made using the forum extension may also include the content of the reported post as evidence. External reports require a recorded, reasonable basis for identifying spam activity. Suspicious wording alone prompts further checking. Automated checks can also impose restrictions, separately from manually reviewed reports.
If you believe a restriction or report is mistaken, contact John. We review concerns, lift mistaken local bans and withdraw our own mistaken Stop Forum Spam submissions. We cannot remove submissions made by other sites.
The newsletter has stopped and we do not send promotional emails. An old subscriber list remains with a separate mailing service pending cleanup. Historical competition records and possible winner pages also await review. A former accounting firm received relevant records to prepare the operator’s tax returns.
Processing outside the UK
Krystal has confirmed that our hosting server is in the UK. This does not mean every service processes information only in the UK: email, security, avatar and other external services may involve overseas processing.
Google, Microsoft and Cloudflare publish information about international-transfer mechanisms, including the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where applicable. Automattic describes approved contractual arrangements. These mechanisms apply only where the relevant entity, service and transfer are covered.
See Google, Microsoft, Cloudflare, Automattic and Krystal’s processing agreement. Applicable social-login and Stop Forum Spam transfer arrangements remain unresolved in this candidate. You can contact us about safeguards, but this draft does not claim that every transfer has been verified.
Cookies, browser storage and external content
We use cookies and other browser storage to support forum sessions, login features and protection against automated abuse.
| Cookie | Purpose | Browser expiry observed |
|---|---|---|
| HSfB_2026_u | Identifies the forum user or guest. | Approximately one year. |
| HSfB_2026_sid | Connects page requests to a forum session. | Approximately one year. |
| HSfB_2026_k | Supports the Remember me login option; it can be empty for guests. | Approximately one year. |
| cf_clearance | Records Cloudflare security-check results. | Approximately one year; it may be refreshed. |
These expiry periods were observed on 16 October 2026. They describe browser storage, not how long a login remains valid or how long related server records are retained. Cookies can be renewed or removed earlier.
Registration protection. We use Google reCAPTCHA to help prevent automated spam and abuse. Opening the registration form connects your browser to Google services before you submit it. The check can use cookies and other browser storage. Browser-storage entries were observed during our check, although no Google cookies were listed in that particular private-browsing session. If the check prevents you from registering, use our administrator contact form.
External content. Loading Gravatar avatars or images hosted on other websites can connect your browser to those providers. Following an external link takes you to a service with its own privacy arrangements.
Measurement. Google Analytics is paused, and Cloudflare Real User Measurements was disabled on 16 October 2026. Previously collected information may remain with those providers. Cloudflare security checks are separate and have not been switched off as part of disabling measurement.
Your browser choices. You can manage cookies and site storage through your browser. Blocking or clearing them can affect login and security functions. The existing cookie acknowledgement does not provide an accept/reject choice for optional tracking.
Review status: this section remains a draft. Advertising delivery, remaining storage details and any required visitor controls must be resolved before it is treated as a complete notice. Disabling two measurement services does not establish that every page is free of optional tracking.
Retention and deletion
We have scheduled a quarterly privacy review, starting in January 2027. Historical cleanup is still incomplete in some areas; the table distinguishes those records from completed changes.
| Records | Retention approach |
|---|---|
| Accounts | No automatic expiry for inactivity: members may return years later. Accounts can be deleted on request, subject to necessary checks. |
| Public posts and resources | Normally kept for continuing community value. Useful posts generally remain after account deletion; if you ask for your posts to be deleted, we will handle that request. Identifying content, quotations and copies need separate consideration. |
| Private messages | No routine time-based deletion; members manage messages within capacity limits. Deletion from one account should not be assumed to remove another recipient’s copy. |
| Resolved enquiries, moderation cases and closed reports | Quarterly review and deletion more than 12 months after resolution or the last substantive exchange, as applicable—potentially approaching 15 months. Historical backlogs remain. General moderator chat is separate from case records. |
| Spam records | Historical shared-thread cleanup remains pending. Quarterly threads are planned for future records, with deletion once the newest resolved entry is over 12 months old unless a continuing need exists. |
| Admin, moderator and user logs | Initial cleanup completed in October 2026; quarterly removal of entries over 12 months old, potentially approaching 15 months. Specifically needed evidence follows its case retention. |
| Spam bans | Retained while needed to prevent repeat abuse, with mistakes corrected and continuing necessity reviewed. Case/log deletion does not itself remove a ban. |
| Hub searches and feedback | Quarterly deletion over 12 months old is planned, potentially approaching 15 months; implementation remains outstanding. |
| AWStats history | Historical cleanup completed; quarterly removal of monthly history older than 12 months, potentially approaching 15 months. Raw-access archiving is off and no archives were present when checked. Other provider logs have separate, unconfirmed retention. |
| Old newsletter and competition records | Identified for review/deletion; cleanup is deferred and copies remain. |
| Financial records | Required sole-trader records are retained at least five years after the relevant 31 January filing deadline, then reviewed quarterly unless a specific longer requirement applies. Historical review remains pending. |
| Local hosting backups | Newest and previous full-account copies are held on the PC. Quarterly deletion of copies over three months old is agreed, potentially approaching six months; initial expiry review remains pending. Necessary rollback exceptions are documented and reviewed. These backups do not automatically include the Gmail inbox. |
| Hosting backups | About 30 days of restore points were observed in October 2026; this is not a guarantee of ongoing retention. Krystal separately states 30 days after account termination. |
Where a specific unresolved matter or legal requirement justifies longer retention, we record and review that need. Deleting active records does not necessarily erase every backup immediately. Relevant deletions and restrictions need to be reapplied following restoration. Exact account-deletion and recipient-copy behaviour remains a verification item; we do not promise that account deletion removes every reference to a person.
Closing your account and removing posts
If you want to leave HSfB, contact John through the administrator contact form to request account deletion. Please tell us whether you also want your posts removed. We may need to confirm that the account is yours.
We normally retain useful posts after an account is deleted so that discussions remain understandable and advice remains available to others. If you ask us to delete all your posts, we will act on that request, subject to any specific lawful reason that requires us to retain particular information. We will explain any such limitation.
Deleting an account does not automatically remove personal information written inside posts, quotations in other replies, private-message copies held by recipients or copies made outside HSfB. Tell us about any particular identifying information you want addressed so we can review it. You can also ask us to review or remove personal information without closing your account.
Backup copies may remain until they are replaced or expire under our backup arrangements. Relevant deletions and restrictions need to be reapplied if a backup is restored.
Security and younger users
We use access controls, separate administrator accounts and restricted moderation areas. Two-factor authentication is enabled for the operator’s hosting and relevant Google accounts. Recovery backups support restoration. We assess personal-data incidents and notify people or authorities where legally required. These measures do not mean every record is encrypted or that risks are eliminated.
HSfB welcomes all ages. We do not routinely verify age, and birthdays are optional. Public contributions can be seen by visitors. Members can manage incoming email-contact and private-message preferences; administrators and moderators may still contact them through forum functions. Use the contact form to raise concerns about unwanted contact or personal information.
Our assessment of younger-user protections remains open. No known under-18 members does not establish that children do not use the service. This candidate makes no claim that age-specific safeguards or future reporting guidance are already implemented.
Your rights and complaints
Depending on the circumstances, you can ask to access, correct or delete information, restrict its use, receive a portable copy, or object to processing. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it.
John handles privacy requests personally through the contact routes above. We may make proportionate identity checks but do not routinely require identity documents. We respond without undue delay, normally within one calendar month, subject to applicable legal rules. We explain any permitted extension or identity/clarification requirement affecting the deadline. Requests are normally free.
If we cannot fulfil a request fully, we explain why. You can raise concerns with us and complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Changes
The published policy will show its effective date. We will explain significant changes and new uses, obtaining consent where required. Updating this notice does not itself authorise unrelated processing.