Security
How we protect the information care homes keep in ParityBoard, and what is not in place yet.
Each care home's records are kept apart by the database
Separation is enforced by the database itself (PostgreSQL row-level security, switched on and enforced for every table), not just by our application code. A mistake in a query still cannot show one home another home's records.
Access
- Each person sees only what their role allows. Someone with no active role can do nothing, and roles can be set to expire.
- Passwords are stored using scrypt, a slow one-way hash, never as text. Repeated wrong passwords lock the account.
- Sickness reasons, which are health information, are visible only to manager and HR roles and are removed from exports.
Records that show if they have been changed
Signed checks and approvals are written to an append-only record in which each entry is linked to the one before it by a cryptographic hash, so a later change is detectable.
Nothing loaded from anyone else
Our pages load no third-party scripts, fonts, analytics or tracking. AI features are off unless a care home switches them on, and names and other identifying details are removed before anything is sent.
Hosting and backups
ParityBoard runs on a server in a UK data centre operated by OVHcloud. All connections are encrypted (HTTPS).
The database is backed up every night. Backups are encrypted, and we keep 30 daily and 12 weekly copies.
Not in place yet
We would rather you heard this from us. We do not yet have:
- Cyber Essentials Plus certification
- a completed NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit
- an independent penetration test
Report a security problem
If you think you have found a security problem, tell us at our contact form. Please do not test against a live care home's account.