Privacy Policy & Cookies
1. Introduction and General Terms
BBC Worldwide Limited ('BBCW') is committed to protecting your
personal information when you are using BBCW services. We want our
services to be safe and enjoyable environments for you to use. This
Privacy Policy relates to our use of any personal information you
provide to us.
In order to provide you with the full range of BBCW services, we
are sometimes required to collect information about you.
This privacy policy explains the following:
- what information BBCW may collect about you;
- how BBCW will use information we collect about you;
- whether BBCW will disclose your details to anyone else;
- when BBCW may use your details to contact you;
- your choices regarding the personal information you have
provided to us;
- the use of cookies on BBCW websites and how you can reject
these cookies.
As set out above, BBCW is committed to safeguarding your
personal information. Whenever you provide such information, we are
legally obliged to use your information in line with all laws
concerning the protection of personal information, including the
Data Protection Act 1998 (these laws are referred to collectively
in this Privacy Policy as the "data protection laws").
Our websites may contain hyperlinks to websites owned and
operated by third parties. These third party websites have their
own privacy policies, including cookies, and we urge you to review
them. They will govern the use of personal information which you
submit or which is collected by cookies whilst visiting these
websites. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the
privacy practices of such third party websites and your use of such
websites is at your own risk.
2. What information will BBCW collect about me?
When you sign up to participate in or receive a service from
BBCW, such as newsletters, competitions, magazine subscriptions,
ordering products, readers' offers, live chats, message boards,
surveys or online registration we may ask for personal information
about you. This can consist of information such as your name,
e-mail address, postal address, telephone or mobile number or date
of birth. Different services or webpages may ask for different
personal information.
By entering your details in the fields requested, you enable
BBCW and its service providers to provide you with the services you
select.
Please note that sometimes on particular services (e.g. chat
forums) you may be asked to provide or you may volunteer additional
personal information and sometimes sensitive personal information
(e.g. your political opinions, religious beliefs, sex life or
health).
We may also use your IP address for some of our website services
(see section 3: How will BBCW use the information they
collect about me? and section 12: Cookies Policy
below).
3. How will BBCW use the information they collect about
me?
BBCW will use your personal information for a number of purposes
including the following:
- for service administration purposes, which means that BBCW may
contact you for reasons related to the service you have signed up
for, as set out in section 5: When will BBCW contact
me? below (e.g. to provide you with password reminders or
to notify you that a particular service has been suspended for
maintenance);
- to notify you of changes to our service;
- to contact you about a submission you have made to our websites
or magazines, including any content you provide (follow the link to
our Code of Conduct at the bottom of the main pages of our websites
for more details about making online submissions);
- to personalise or improve the way BBCW content and advertising
is presented to you online:
- BBCW may collect your IP address (an IP address is a number
that can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network
device on the internet) and place cookies (see section 12:
Cookies Policy below) for the purpose of improving our
sites and enhancing your user experience, sometimes including the
display of selected ads which are appropriate to your browsing
pattern. This information is not used to develop a personal profile
of you;
- IP addresses may also be used to identify the location of
users, the number of visits from different countries and also to
block disruptive use;
- to analyse and improve the services offered by a BBCW website,
e.g. to provide you with the most user-friendly navigation
experience;
-
See section 12: Cookies Policy below for
further details of this activity by BBCW.
- to manage our competitions and contact the winners;
- to meet product orders or requests for services or information;
to process payments; and to keep our records up to date;
- where you have specifically consented to be contacted for these
purposes, to send you direct marketing by telephone, post or email
about special offers and current or new products that you may be
interested in;
- to enable other people or businesses to carry out work on our
behalf; and
- where you have given us your permission, to pass your
information to carefully selected organisations to allow them to
tell you about their special offers or products and services that
may be of interest to you.
-
Where BBCW proposes using your personal information for any
other uses we will ensure that we notify you first. You will also
be given the opportunity to withhold or withdraw your consent for
your use other than as listed above.
4. Will BBCW share my personal information with anyone
else?
Generally, we will only use your information within the BBC
Worldwide Group of companies (including BBC Worldwide Group
companies which are situated outside the European Economic Area
("EEA"), such as Lonely Planet, which is based in Australia) in
order to provide the service/product you have requested. We will
not pass your information to other members of the BBC Worldwide
Group for marketing purposes unless you have consented to this.
We will only disclose your data to third party data processors
with your consent or where we need to do so in order to provide a
service. The data processors to whom we may pass your data will be
BBC Worldwide Group companies and appropriately contracted third
parties. Otherwise, we will keep your information confidential
except where disclosure is required or permitted by law (for
example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies) or as
described in section 7: Offensive or inappropriate content
on BBCW's websites below.
BBCW will require all third party data processors to whom your
information is disclosed to comply strictly with its instructions
and BBCW will require that they do not use your personal
information for their own business purposes.
Where we share your information with BBC Worldwide Group and
third party companies which are situated outside the EEA we will
ensure they treat your information with the same protection we
do.
5. When will BBCW contact me?
BBCW may contact you:
- in relation to the functioning of any service you have signed
up for in order to ensure that BBCW can deliver the services to
you;
- in relation to any contribution you have made to any BBCW
website, message board or other service;
- where you have opted to receive newsletters or other
correspondence;
- to invite you to participate in surveys about BBCW services
(participation is always voluntary);
- to carry out obligations arising from any contracts entered
into between you and BBCW; and
- for marketing purposes where you have specifically agreed to
this (see section 6: Will I be contacted for marketing
purposes? below).
Our magazines or websites will give you detailed information
about how BBCW will contact you in relation to specific
services.
6. Will I be contacted for marketing purposes?
BBCW won't contact you for marketing purposes, or promote new
services to you unless you agree to be contacted for these
purposes.
7. Offensive or inappropriate content on BBCW's websites
If you post or send offensive, inappropriate or objectionable
content anywhere on a BBCW website, or otherwise engage in any
disruptive behaviour, BBCW may use your personal information to
stop such behaviour.
Where BBCW reasonably believes that you are or may be in breach
of the law (e.g. because content you have posted may be
defamatory), BBCW may use your personal information to inform
relevant third parties such as your employer, school
e-mail/Internet provider or law enforcement agencies about the
content and your behaviour.
8. What if I am a user aged 16 or under?
If you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent/guardian's
permission before you provide personal information to BBCW. Users
without this consent are not allowed to provide us with personal
information.
9. How long will BBCW keep my personal information?
We will hold your personal information on our systems for as
long as is necessary for the relevant service, or as long as is set
out in any relevant contract you hold with BBCW or BBCW's corporate
retention schedule. If you wish to cancel your registration with
any of BBCW's websites, you may do so by following the
"unsubscribe" instructions on the relevant website. If you change
your profile to opt-out of receiving communications, your record
may stay on the system so we can ensure that we do not contact you
in the future.
Where you contribute to a BBCW service or website, BBCW will
generally only keep your content for as long as is reasonably
required for the purpose(s) for which it was submitted.
10. Can I find out what personal information BBCW holds about
me?
Under the Data Protection Act you have the right to request a
copy of the personal information BBCW holds about you and to have
any inaccuracies corrected. (We charge £10 for information requests
and will require you to prove your identity with 2 pieces of
approved photographic identification.) We will use reasonable
efforts to supply, correct or delete personal information about you
on our files.
If you have any requests or questions about this or any other
question about this Privacy Policy please see section 13:
Contacting BBCW about this Privacy Policy at the bottom of
this document.
11. Changes to BBCW's Privacy Policy
This privacy policy may be updated from time to time so you may
wish to check it each time you submit personal information to any
BBCW service. The date of the most recent revisions will appear at
the bottom of this page.
12. Cookies Policy
a. What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes a
unique identifier that is sent to your computer or mobile phone
(referred to here as a "device") browser from a website's computer
and is stored on your device's hard drive. Each website or third
party service provider used by the website can send its own cookie
to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to
protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website or third
party service provider to access the cookies it has already sent to
you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites or other third
party service providers.
Cookies record information about your online preferences and
allow us to tailor the websites to your interests. Users have the
opportunity to set their devices to accept all cookies, to notify
them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any
time. The last of these means that certain personalised services
cannot then be provided to that user and accordingly you may not be
able to take full advantage of all of the BBCW features. Each
browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to
learn how to change your cookie preferences.
b. How does BBCW use cookies?
Information supplied by cookies can help us to analyse your
profile when you visit and help us to provide you with a better
user experience. For example: if on a previous visit to
gardenersworld.com you requested the weather report for your area,
then the next time you visited our cookie could enable us to
recognise your machine and offer you the latest weather for your
area without you having to re-enter your details.
BBCW also uses a number of independent measurement, advertising
and research companies. They gather information regarding the
visitors to BBCW sites on our behalf using cookies, log file data
and code which is embedded on our website. BBCW uses this type of
information to help improve the services it provides to its users.
BBCW strictly requires that third parties do not use any of this
type of information for their own business or other purposes (see
section 4: Will BBCW share my personal information with
anyone else? above). Certain other areas of BBCW websites
may use cookies for a specific reason - for example, to help an
online game work effectively on your device. If this is the case,
the local terms for that area of the website will make this clear
and you should refer to those local terms for additional
information.
c. BBCW cookies and how to reject cookies?
A list of the main cookies that BBCW sets (and what each is used
for) together with ways to minimise the number of cookies you
receive can be found at:
http://www.bbcworldwide.com/bbcworldwideandmagswebsites-cookieslist.aspx
13. Contacting BBCW about this Privacy Policy
If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy
please contact:
The Company Secretary
MC2 A6
BBC Worldwide Limited
Media Centre
201 Wood Lane
London
W12 7TQ
United Kingdom
Email: dataprotection@bbc.com
Last updated: 19th March 2009