Cancer Chat is a public forum. However, when you join Cancer Chat you can remain completely anonymous. 

All posts to the forum are anonymous but are likely to contain sensitive information.  For this reason we advise users to be careful not to post information which would allow them to be identified. Remember that Cancer Chat is a public forum, so please choose a username which does not identify you or compromise your anonymity. You must not post any personal details on Cancer Chat. You must not post phone numbers or a third party's personal details. You must not use your full name as your username nor post your full name anywhere on the forum. These rules are to help protect you and others from intrusive contact from third parties you may not know.

When you register we only collect your anonymous username, email address, password (encrypted) and IP address. Your Geo-IP address is logged by us so that we can prevent any spam, fraud or abuse of our Site. Cancer Chat asks you to provide your email address so that we may contact you about administrative issues and changes to the forum.  With your consent, we may also use your email address to send you information about our work.

You can choose to opt-out of receiving notifications from Cancer Chat at any time by logging in to your account and going to your 'Account Settings' where you can manage your notification preferences. You can opt in or out of receiving our newsletter by going to your profile and clicking 'edit'

Cancer Research UK will only share your details in exceptional circumstances to comply with the nurses’ code of professional conduct or where legally required, for example where a child reports abuse, or someone reports serious self-harm or a serious intention of harming someone else.

For more information on how we are protecting your data, you can read Cancer Research UK's privacy policy in full