All of our SocietyWorks services including FixMyStreet and FixMyStreetPro adhere to strong protocols when it comes to users’ privacy and data protection.
You can see our Privacy Policy here.
Each service we provide uses our secure hosting solution, so all data — including users’ names, email addresses and other information — is stored on our servers. Our internal storage policies ensure that this data is never accessed unless required for a specific administration task, and then only by trained staff and only for the period of time required to complete that task.
mySociety, the charity behind SocietyWorks and FixMyStreet, is registered with the ICO as a data handler, and all staff adhere to their guidelines relating to the Data Protection Act.
Security
mySociety is Cyber Essentials certified, as a verification that we guard against the most common cyber threats and to demonstrate our commitment to cyber security.
Using FixMyStreet report data
FixMyStreet data can be extremely useful to researchers and others seeking to understand the dispersal, frequency, type, etc of street problems over time and across the UK.
We therefore occasionally provide report data on request. Our Data Release policy ensures that any non-public personal information (ie details such as users’ email addresses, which are not published on the website) is not released.
Additionally, in order to minimise the sharing of personal information, the data we release does not contain free-text fields such as report titles, updates or descriptions. Report IDs are hashed to break any connection between the released data and the reports online.
In other words, the data released under such circumstances can only be used to see the geographic positions, timings and categories of reports.
Very occasionally, FixMyStreet data is required for legal reasons, such as in the process of a crime investigation. Under such circumstances we will only release non-public personal data if required by law.
If you have any questions or concerns about privacy and data handling, please do drop us a line.