Privacy policy
Thursday November 18, 2004
At Guardian Unlimited we collect different types of information about our users for three main reasons:
- To help us to improve the services we offer.
- To provide personalised services unique to individual users.
- To use anonymous details about our users to sell appropriate advertising space on the site. This might mean showing an advertiser how many users we have on the site; it does not mean sharing an individual's details with an advertiser. Where we collect registration information from an individual, we will never share that individual's information with a third party, including an advertiser, without that user's explicit permission.
Our principles
We are absolutely committed to protecting your privacy. Our policy can be summarised in one sentence: we will not share your information with others without your prior consent. We have also established the following four principles:
- We will continue to invest in high-quality security and do our utmost to protect user privacy through the appropriate use of the latest security technology.
- We will respect your email privacy. You will not receive unsolicited mail from the Guardian and/or from third parties screened by Guardian Newspapers Limited unless you have agreed to this. We will, however, mail you occasionally with information about your registration and/or your subscription account.
- We will not pass on any individual user details (including your email address) unless we have your prior consent.
- Otherwise, we will only share anonymous aggregate statistics about our users, sales and traffic patterns with our advertisers.
Should we elect to change our privacy policy we will post the changes here. Where the changes are significant, we may also choose to email all our registered users with the new details.
We also offer a 'My details' page, where you can update your personal information at any time. You can get to this page from most pages on the site - simply click on the 'My details' link at the top of the screen when you are signed in.
What information do we collect?
We collect information on our users in two ways: through cookies, and through registration. For more information about cookies, please see our special page all about cookies and how to use them.
The minimum information we need to register a user is an email address, a password and a country. UK and US users will also need to provide a postcode/zipcode. We will ask further questions for different services, including competitions. Unless stated, all registration questions are compulsory. We also ask some further, voluntary questions so we can gain a clearer understanding of our users. Your responses help us to sell appropriate advertising space and so keep the site free. They also enable us to personalise services for our users. We do not share this information with third parties unless you have specifically consented to this.
We also collect data listing which of our pages are most frequently visited and by which types of users.
How does Guardian Unlimited protect customer information?
We invest in high-quality security and do our utmost to protect user privacy. UK Data Protection Legislation means we follow strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of information which you have given us, to prevent unauthorised access.
Will Guardian Unlimited disclose the information it collects to outside parties?
Guardian Unlimited will not sell, trade or rent your personal information to others unless you have given us your permission. With your permission we will only share the information with carefully chosen, reputable and trustworthy third parties. Also, Guardian Unlimited may provide aggregate statistics about our customers, sales, traffic patterns and related site information to reputable third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information.
Guardian Unlimited follows the relevant legal requirements and uses all reasonable precautions to ensure only responsible third parties see the information, however we are not responsible for any breach of security or any actions of any third parties who receive the information.
Please note that we reserve the right to access and disclose individually identifiable information to comply with applicable laws and lawful government requests, to operate our systems properly and to protect both ourselves and our users.
Legal information under the Data Protection Act
For the purposes of the Data Protection Act of 1998, the Data Controller for Guardian Unlimited is Guardian Newspapers Limited, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER. Any queries regarding GNL's user of data and data policies should be addressed to the Head of Customer Relationship Management.
Significant data processors for Guardian Unlimited include SageMetrics, which provides our statistical tools and hosts webserver log files to allow us to view statistics about our site.
Changes to this policy:
November 2004: cookie information moved to separate page; Data Protection Commissioner changed to Information Commissioner; legal information under the Data Protection Act added
Some useful links for further reading