Make a Complaint

You have the right to submit a formal complaint if:

You believe your data protection rights have been breached.
The issue could not be resolved through direct contact with the organisation.
You believe the concern cannot be resolved through our Amicable Resolution process or our general advice has not been able to help address the problem.

However, it’s important to understand that this is the most formal of the three options and may take longer to resolve due to legal requirements we must follow due to the steps and legal timeframes set out in the Data Protection Authority (Jersey) Law 2018.

Before you make a formal complaint:

If your complaint relates to a specific right (such as access to your data or having it erased), we will usually ask that you first try to resolve the issue directly with the organisation through their own complaints process.
If your concern involves unlawful data use (such as processing your information without consent), it may still be helpful to contact the organisation first - but you may also choose to bring the matter directly to us.
It is important to note that:
- We are not required to investigate every complaint. We may decline to open a formal investigation if a complaint is clearly unfounded, excessive, repetitive, or vexatious (i.e. made in bad faith). This means that if you submit a formal complaint, we will review it and decide whether it is something we are formally obliged to investigate. If we decide not to investigate, we will write to you and let you know why.
- If we do investigate, we will notify the organisation involved and request a formal response from them. You will be kept informed of the investigation’s progress and our decision.
- In most cases, we are unable to investigate complaints anonymously, as the organisation must understand the nature of the concern in order to respond to the complaint and so we can properly investigate.
- We may impose sanctions, including administrative fines (although we cannot fine Government of Jersey departments). We do not keep any fines collected - these are paid to the Government - not to the complainant or to our office. We cannot award compensation or ask an organisation to pay compensation to you.

Further information

For an easy overview of what we can/cannot do, please see our infographic here. To understand how we deal with complaints, please click here.

Verification

Before considering any complaint we expect you to have raised this with the controller first and you must provide us with evidence.

Have you contacted the organisation to address your concerns?

Yes

Contact Details

First name *

Last name *

Email address *

Secondary contact email address

Phone number *

Complaint Data

Name of organisation *

Contact email *

Phone number *

Original date the issue was raised with the organisation *

What is the date of the most recent contact with the organisation (received or sent)? *

Issue Raised With *

Issue Outcome *

If you have not raised your concern with the controller, please provide an explanation why not?

Relationship with organisation *

Complaint type *

Complaint details - Please explain why you wish to make a complaint to JOIC. If your complaint relates to one of your individual rights provide details regarding the specific issue and why you are raising it with JOIC *

Attach additional relevant documentation here. Each file must be one of the following types: .txt, .doc, .docx, .pdf, .xls, .xlsx, .jpg, .jpeg or .png and under 30MB.

Please note that we will share your information (including your name) and any details you have provided with the organisation involved so that they can respond to the concerns you have raised and so that we can progress your complaint. In certain circumstances, we may, at our discretion, decide not to share all of the information provided by you with the organisation e.g. where it contains the personal data of another person, or where you have expressly indicated that you consider certain information you have included to be sensitive and/or confidential and that it should not be shared. Please note that this will occur in exceptional circumstances only, where we consider that such information is not material to the concern which has been raised by you and will not hamper our complaint/investigation process.

I understand and wish to proceed with my Complaint. *

Declaration

I have included all the necessary supporting evidence with my complaint at the time of submission.

The information I have provided is accurate to the best of my knowledge.