This is the main privacy policy for theguardian.com and for certain services provided through these and other Guardian websites and applications (“our sites”) by Guardian News & Media Limited, and Guardian News & Media LLC (“GNM”).
At GNM we collect different types of information about our users for four main reasons:
1. To provide personalised services unique to individual users.
2. To help us to monitor and improve the services we offer.
3. To sell advertising space on the site. This helps us to keep the site free for people who visit it.
4. If we have permission from the user, to market services to them.
There may be other privacy policies that apply to certain services we provide. Please read these when you register or subscribe for these services on these sites.
Please follow the links below for further information.
- Our principles
- How we use your information
- Updating your personal information
- Use of Cookies
- About our advertising
- Changes to the privacy policy
Our principles
1 We do our very best to protect your privacy by using security technology appropriately. This means:
• we make sure that we have appropriate security measures to protect your information; and
• we make sure that when we ask another organisation to provide a service for us, they have appropriate security measures.
2 We will respect your privacy. You should receive marketing emails only from us and, if you agree, from other organisations we have carefully chosen. We will make sure it is clear when you can make these choices, for example, we have boxes you need to tick if you want to receive marketing. However, we may email you occasionally with information or questions about your registration, your subscription account or postings, for example, with reminders, warnings or copyright requests.
3. We will collect and use individual user details only if we have your permission or we have sensible business reasons for doing so, such as collecting enough information to manage subscriptions.
4 We will be clear in our dealings with you as to what information about you we will collect and how we will use it.
5 We will use personal information only for the purposes for which it was originally collected and we will make sure we delete it securely.
6 Our site is accessible via the internet. This means that people around the world who access our website can see anything you post on the website, for example, comments about an article.
7 If we or our service providers transfer any information out of the European Economic Area (EEA), it will only be done with the relevant protection (stated under UK law) being in place.
How we use your information
What information do we collect?
We collect information on you:
• when you register or become a member of the Guardian
• when you use the website
• through cookies
• if you choose to reveal information in postings, and
• when you enter sales promotions and competitions.
Certain services that we provide may involve us collecting extra information (Membership, for example), such as where you are, so the service can be provided as designed. This may also apply to certain apps that you download, or which we provide.
Registration
The minimum information we need to register you is your name, email address and a password. We will ask you more questions for different services, including sales promotions. Unless we say otherwise, you have to answer all the registration questions.
We may also ask some other, voluntary questions during registration for certain services (for example, professional networks) so we can gain a clearer understanding of who you are. This also allows us to personalise services for you.
To assist us in our marketing, in addition to the data that you provide to us if you register, we may also obtain data from trusted third parties to help us understand what you might be interested in. This ‘profiling’ information is produced from a variety of sources, including publicly available data (such as the electoral roll) or from sources such as surveys and polls where you have given your permission for your data to be shared. You can choose not to have such data shared with the Guardian from these sources by logging into your account and changing the settings in the privacy section.
After you have registered, and with your permission, we may send you emails we think may interest you. Newsletters may be personalised based on what you have been reading on theguardian.com. At any time you can decide not to receive these emails and will be able to ‘unsubscribe’.
Logging in using social networking credentials
If you log-in to our sites using a Facebook log-in, you are granting permission to Facebook to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth and location which will then be used to form a Guardian identity. You can also use your picture from Facebook as part of your profile. This will also allow us and Facebook to share your, networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Facebook account settings. If you remove the Guardian app from your Facebook settings, we will no longer have access to this information.
If you log-in to our sites using a Google log-in, you grant permission to Google to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth, sex and location which we will then use to form a Guardian identity. You may use your picture from Google as part of your profile. This also allows us to share your networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Google account settings. If you remove the Guardian from your Google settings, we will no longer have access to this information.
If you log-in to our sites using a twitter log-in, we receive your avatar (the small picture that appears next to your tweets) and twitter username.
Use of children’s data
Except for young critics competition and Guardian students, we do not knowingly collect or store any personal information about children under the age of 16. ‘The ‘Young critics competition’ is a competition for children. However, they need parental permission to join. We do not display personal information about children on the site, and we read through all submissions before they are published. For any questions about the young critics competition, please contact: Young Critics Competition, Guardian News and Media, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU or email childrensfictionprize@theguardian.com.
Updating your personal information
We offer a ‘My details’ page (also known as Dashboard), where you can update your personal information at any time, and change your marketing preferences. 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.
Who we share data with
Depending on where you live, your personal information may be shared with the Guardian group of companies that are based in the UK, USA or Australia. For example, if you book an event held in Australia, your data may initially be held on our systems in the United Kingdom and then shared with the Guardian in Australia for event administration purposes.
We will not share your personal information with others for marketing purposes unless you have given us your permission. If we have your permission, we will share your information only with other organisations we have chosen carefully.
If you are a Guardian Member and attend an event organised by an event partner, data may be shared for event administration purposes.
We may make other organisations’ services available, through our sites, although we are not necessarily operating these sites. We process any information which we collect when you access a service provided by another organisation under this privacy policy. Information these other organisations collect is governed by their own privacy policies.
We can access and release personal information to keep to relevant laws and government requests, to operate our systems properly and to protect both us and our users.
Any other organisations who access your information in the course of providing services on our behalf will be governed by strict contractual restrictions to make sure that they protect your information and keep to data-protection and privacy laws which apply. We may also independently audit these service providers to make sure that they meet our standards. We may use service providers to help us run these sites (or services available on the sites), some of whom may be based outside the EEA.
Some of our webpages use plug-ins from other organisations (such as the ‘Facebook Recommend’ function). These other organisations may use information about your visit to our websites on their pages. If you browse these pages while still also logged in to your account with us, information they collect may be connected to your account on their site. For more information on how these organisations use information, please read their privacy policies.
Use of Cookies
We use cookies for a number of reasons.
1 For statistical purposes to track how many users we have and how often they visit our websites. We collect information listing which of our pages are most frequently visited, and by which types of users and from which countries.
2 We use other organisations to collect anonymous user information, sometimes through cookies and web beacons,(information embedded in images which allow them to analyse how the website is being used and the number of visitors). Click here to learn more about how we use these services to collect and use information on theguardian.com, guardiannews.com and m.theguardian.com.
3 We and other advertisers may use statistical cookies to track who has seen an advert and clicked on it. You can find more information on this in the online behavioural advertising section of this privacy policy.
4 Placing cookies on your computer means we can show you adverts that you might be interested in, and allows us to control the number of times you see them and measure how effective the ad campaign has been. Advertising helps us to keep the site free for you to use. You can find more information on this in the Online Behavioural Advertising section of this privacy policy, including how you can ‘opt out’.
5 We may use ‘Flash’ cookies to store your preferences for your media player (for example, volume and so on). If we don’t use them, you may not be able to watch some video content.
You can turn cookies off but if you do this, you may not be able to use all services on our websites and you might see more pop-ups and other advertising. This is because we won’t be able to limit what you see by using cookies. However, you will still be able to see our editorial content.
6 We or other companies may use cookies to suggest and deliver content which we believe may interest you.
For more information about cookies and managing them, including how to turn them off, please visit our page on Cookies.
By using the sites you are agreeing to the use of cookies as described.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics on our sites for anonymous reporting of site usage and for advertising on the site. If you would like to opt-out of Google Analytics monitoring your behaviour on our sites please use this link (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/)
About our advertising
In late 2005 we launched a new advertising service called online behavioural advertising (OBA). OBA allows us to deliver targeted advertising to people who visit our website. It works by showing you adverts that are based on your browsing patterns and the way you have interacted with our site. It then shows you adverts which we believe may interest you.
As you browse our sites, some of the cookies we place on your computer will be advertising cookies, so we can understand what sort of pages you are interested in We can then display advertising on your browser that is based on these perceived interests. For instance if you have been reading a lot of food and drink articles, you may be shown more adverts for food and drink.
It is important to remember that none of the OBA techniques we use will collect information such as your name, email address, postal address or phone number.
We may also share anonymised behavioural data with advertising partners. This may mean that when you are on other websites, you will be shown advertising based on your behaviour on theguardian.com. We may also show you advertising on our site based on your behaviour on other sites.
Behavioural retargeting is another form of OBA that allows us and some of our advertising partners to show you ads based on your browsing patterns and interactions with a site away from our sites. For example, if you have visited the website of an online clothes shop, you may start seeing ads from that same shopping site displaying special offers or showing you the products that you were browsing. This allows companies to advertise to you if you leave their website without making a purchase. The privacy policy of criteo, one of the partners that we work with for behavioural retargeting is shown here. criteo.com/en/privacy-policy.
If you want to opt out of receiving online behavioural advertising, this does not mean that you will no longer receive advertising when you are using our sites. It just means that the advertising you see will not be customised for you.
If you would like more information about OBA and how to opt out of it, please visit youronlinechoices.com ornetworkadvertising.org (if accessing from the US.)
Please visit audiencescience.com/privacy.asp and krux.com/privacy/ for the privacy policy of our online behavioural targeting technology providers.
Advertising on mobile devices may require the collection and sharing of the unique device ID with companies who purchase advertising space on the mobile application.
Other Advertising
Our sites contain links to other websites from which we may earn revenue. Our articles are never influenced by advertisers or affiliates, nor are they written for the purpose of promoting a product, except when clearly branded as a ‘sponsored by’, ‘brought to you by’ or ‘supported by’ to represent sponsored content, advertisement features and foundation funded features respectively.
Click here for further information.
Legal information and how to contact us
Under the UK Data Protection Act 1998 we have to say who the ‘data controller’ is for theguardian.com and services provided through our websites. The data controller is the organisation responsible for protecting information and, in our case, is Guardian News & Media Limited, King’s Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU.
If you would like access to or a copy of the personal information we hold about you, to request a correction, or have any questions about how we may use it or to make a complaint, please contact the Data Protection Manager at the address shown above. Or, email dataprotection@theguardian.com.
Complaints will be dealt with by the Data Protection Manager, and will be responded to within 30 days at the latest.
If you are not satisfied with the way your complaint was handled, you may
be able to refer your complaint to your local data protection regulator. For example, in the United Kingdom this is the Information Commissioner’s Office, and in Australia is the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
Changes to the privacy policy
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. Where required by law, will we obtain your consent to make these changes.
Changes to this policy by date
November 2004: cookie information moved to separate page; Data Protection Commissioner changed to Information Commissioner; legal information under the Data Protection Act added.
May 2008: principles updated to provide more detail on protections and limits on data usage and confirmation about the use of data processors; contact details updated.
August 2009: contact details updated, useful links updated, some headings added and a new section headed “advertising and affiliate links” added.
July 2011: Principles updated to include further information on marketing preferences, contact details, further information provided about online behavioural advertising, cookies, and the ‘Who we share data with’ section has been updated.
September 2011: Websites covered expanded to include guardiannews.com, information on use of children’s data added.
October 2011: Information on plugins and dispute resolution for Guardian News & Media LLC added.
February 2012: Additional provision included in ‘How we use your information’ to address certain data that we may collect, especially in the context of certain Apps and geographical location data.
April 2012: Information on logging onto our sites using social networking log-ins as a means of authentication.
February 2013: Applicability of policy to other websites and applications added.
May 2013: Information on mobile device advertising added.
July 2013: References to guardian.co.uk and guardiannews.com replaced with references to theguardian.com.
August 2013: Policy reviewed by the Plain English Campaign and awarded Crystal Mark.
September 2014: Policy amended to include references to Guardian Membership, name added as a mandatory field for registration.
February 2015: Policy amended to include information on data sharing between Guardian group companies in the UK, USA and Australia.
July 2015: Amendment for the personalisation of newsletters based on browsing history on theguardian.com
October 2015: Removal of references to Safe Harbor Privacy Framework.
January 2016: Policy amended to include information on profiling and how to opt-out of profiling data being shared with Guardian News & Media.
December 2016: Information on Google Analytics added, removal of children’s books information and replaced with Young Critics’ information.
