Ephemeral anonymous
No retained identity, no research reuse, and working material removed from HCPC&Me-controlled storage under the displayed policy.
Privacy · choice · control
Confidentiality must be designed in, not promised afterwards.
Regulatory material can contain highly sensitive professional, health, employment and third-party information.
Three privacy modes
Research anonymous
Only genuinely anonymised structured features retained for separately consented aggregate research.
Confidential support
Identifiable information kept in a restricted environment for people who choose ongoing support.
Design commitments
Identity, verification, community discussion, research datasets and confidential case files should be logically separated. Access should be role-limited and logged. Pseudonymised data should not be called anonymous unless re-identification risk is sufficiently remote.
Sensitive processing should undergo a DPIA before launch, with clear processor disclosures, retention schedules, deletion rules and incident-response procedures.
General contact enquiries
Messages sent through the Contact Us form are transmitted to a protected server endpoint and stored with the name, email, subject and message encrypted in a private database. A one-way hashed network identifier is used only for rate limiting. The general contact form is not intended for case files or highly sensitive health, employment or regulatory documents.
Membership verification applications
Founding membership applications collect a real name, email address, HCPC registration number, profession and requested pseudonym. Identity, email, registration number and any optional joining note are encrypted before storage. A one-way keyed fingerprint of the registration number is retained to prevent duplicate active applications without exposing the number itself. The requested pseudonym and profession are stored separately for the verification workflow.
Research contact consent is optional and separate from membership. Submitting an application does not grant community access: applications remain pending until professional eligibility is verified.