BDFM Publishers: Privacy Policy

We are committed to protecting your privacy. We promise to use your personal information only in ways that are compatible with this privacy policy, which is in effect for the web pages, newsletters, applications and opt-in announcement lists owned and operated by the BDFM network, which includes Business Day, BDlive, Financial Mail and Business Day TV.

What information do you collect and how are you collecting it?

Every computer connected to the internet is given a domain name and a set of numbers that serve as its IP address. When you visit a page on any website within our network, our web servers recognise your domain name and IP address. We use this information to examine our traffic in aggregate, but do not collect and evaluate the data for individuals. Our servers do not record your email address.

What are cookies?

From time to time, BDFM or its advertisers may send a "cookie" to your computer. A cookie is a small piece of data sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. It cannot read data from your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Cookies do not damage your system. We use them to identify which areas of BDFM’s network of websites you have visited or customised, so the next time you visit, those pages are easily accessible.

Our advertisers may also use cookies to ascertain how many times you've seen an advertisement. We and our advertisers may use this information to personalise the content, banners and promotions that you see on our sites. You can choose whether to accept cookies by changing the settings of your browser. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies, or allow your browser to show you when a cookie is being sent. If you choose not to accept these cookies, your experience at our site and other websites may be diminished and some features may not work as intended.

What other information do you request?

We may request your email or postal address or phone number for the purpose of conducting a survey or to provide additional services (for example, subscriptions to email newsletters and SMS alerts after you have registered as a user of BDlive). Whenever we request your identity, we will indicate the purpose of the enquiry before the information is requested.

We maintain a strict "no-spam" policy – we will not give your email address to a third party without your consent. In addition, we will not send you email that you have not agreed to receive, although we may from time to time send you an email announcing new products and services.

If you choose to supply your postal address in an online form, you may receive mailings from other reputable, third-party companies. If you choose to purchase something online, we need to know your name, email address, mailing address, credit card number and credit card expiry date. This allows us to process and fulfil your order and to notify you of your order status. This information may also be used by us to notify you of related products and services, but will not be shared with or sold to third parties.

When you enter a contest or other promotion, we may ask for your name, address and email address so we can administer the contest and notify winners.

Wherever we collects information, we make an effort to include a link to this privacy policy on that page.

Will you disclose the information you collect to third parties?

We will disclose personal information when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to:

  1. conform to the edicts of the law or comply with a legal process served on BDFM;
  2. protect and defend the rights or property of the BDFM network of sites;
  3. identify people who may be violating the law, a legal notice or the rights of third parties; and
  4. co-operate with the investigation of purported unlawful activities.

We use reasonable precautions to keep the information disclosed to us secure. Furthermore, we are not responsible for any breach of security or the actions of any third parties that receive the information. BDFM also links to a variety of other sites and contains advertisements of third parties. We are not responsible for their privacy policies or how they treat information about their users.

What else should I know about my privacy when online?

We do not share with any of the sites to which we link any of the individual information you provide to us, although we may share aggregate data with such websites, such as data on how many people use our site. Please check with those sites to determine their privacy policies.

Keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online, that information can be collected and used by others. In short, if you post personal information that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return. Ultimately, you are the one responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your personal information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you're online.

Your consent to this agreement

By using our websites, you consent to the collection and use of information by BDFM as specified above. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we disclose it.