Housing Ombudsman Service

The Housing Ombudsman Service provide a range of online learning modules which are hosted by our learning provider; Titus Learning.

Titus act as a data processor on behalf of the Housing Ombudsman but also collect your personal data directly for their own purposes. More details about how Titus uses personal data is available in their privacy policy on their website via this link: Privacy Policy - Titus Learning

What personal information do the Housing Ombudsman Service collect through the e-learning hub?

Personal data means any information that can be used either solely or with other pieces of information to directly or indirectly identify a living person.

When you access our training through Titus, the following information about you may be provided to us:

• your name – this is the name you provide when you register for a Titus account
• your email address – this is the email you provide when you register for a Titus account
• the Organisation you work for
• information about how you interact with the platform for example, which modules you access, which reports you download etc
• any specific comments you have provided when undertaking customer feedback surveys or polls

Special category data

Special category data refers to data that includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data.

The Housing Ombudsman Service do not collect any special category data about you through your interactions with the e-learning portal unless you choose to share this with us through your feedback comments.

We also do not collect any information about criminal convictions or offences.

Why we process personal data

By registering an account with Titus and accessing our learning modules you are consenting to Titus’ terms and conditions as outlined in their privacy policy. Titus may also collect other data for their own legitimate interests. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting Titus directly. You can find the contact details in their Privacy Notice.

The Housing Ombudsman receives personal data about you through your interactions with the e-learning portal. The Housing Ombudsman has a public duty to work with the Housing Sector to promote and support effective dispute resolution through training, website tools and promotion of shared learning. We therefore collect this information under the public task lawful basis.  Additionally, only information which you choose to provide to us is received with your consent.

Sharing your information

We may share your information as below:

• internal departments to understand engagement and interaction with our e-learning packages
• external agencies such as the Police or legal representatives in line with specific disclosure exemptions in the Data Protection Act

Keeping your data secure

We have put in place security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorisation. We also allow access to your personal data only to those employees and partners who have a business need to know such data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they must keep it confidential.

We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach if we are legally required to.

Data retention

The data that we gather from user activity such as training course completion and evaluation feedback is retained for a maximum of 2 years.

Your legal rights

Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to the processing of your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.

You can see more about these rights on the ICO's website.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Protection Team at DPO@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain independently to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk . However, the ICO can choose not to progress your complaint if you have not first contacted us to attempt to resolve the issue.