Security and Privacy Policy
We know that your privacy is very important to you. We make
it our business for it to be as important to us.
We aim to be as clear as possible about how and why we use
information about you on this website. If your questions are
not fully answered by the information below, please contact
us. We'll be happy to help.
In order to make this information easier to read, we have
organised it into a series of headings. Simply click on a
subject to go straight to it or scroll through the page for
full details
Our guiding privacy principles
Why we collect information about
you
How we collect information about
you
Who sees your information?
Maintaining the information
we hold about you
A note about opt outs
Keeping your information secure
How you can help keep your
information secure
How we use cookies
Links to other sites
What this privacy policy does not
cover
Data Protection Act
Changes to this privacy policy
Our guiding privacy principles
Compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 underlies all
of our personal information privacy practices. We also have
a set of guiding principles which govern how we use the information
that we collect about you on this website. These principles
are:
· We aim to continuously improve our website for you.
· We use information about you to help us to do this.
· We give you control over the information that we
hold about you, who is allowed to see it and how it is used.
· We will not use your information for any other reason
unless you specifically allow us to by choosing not to select
the opt out boxes on our registration form.
· We take all reasonable care to safeguard your information
through security policies and secure business processes.
back to the top
Why we collect information
about you
To provide you with online services. We need to know information
about you to be able to provide certain services, for example
we need your name and address to deliver products bought in
our online shop.
To enhance or improve your experience on our website. When
you indicate your preferences through our registration forms
or through your use of our site, we will use this information
to personalise the site to better meet your needs.
To ensure our transactions with you are legally compliant.
We're required to keep records of certain transactions for
legal reasons.
To provide you with information about products and services
that we, or third parties which we have carefully selected,
believe will be of interest to you. We will only do this with
your consent. You give us your consent by choosing not to
opt out on your registration form. You can change your mind
and remove or add your consent at any time through the Edit
your profile page.
To keep your information secure. To minimise the risk of unauthorised
access to your information, we use some of your information
to authenticate you when using the website and our customer
service helpdesk.
To analyse our commercial performance. We use aggregated customer
information to help us understand how our website is performing
commercially and what we can do to improve that performance.
back to the top
How we collect information
about you
We collect information from you in three ways:
- Directly from you. Sometimes we'll ask you for information
about yourself, for example in our registration form or
when you make a purchase in the Shop.
- From third parties. We may ask for information about you
from third parties, for example when we get authorisation
for a payment you make using a credit or debit card.
- We also gather information about what you do on our site.
This can show us for example which products you use most
and least. We can use this information to make our site
more relevant for you.
We'll collect, store and use your information as described
in this privacy policy and the customer terms and conditions
for the services you use. Each service has different information
requirements. Therefore the information we need, and what
it is needed for, can differ. For full details please refer
to the terms and conditions for each service.
Telephone calls
If you call any of the customer service telephone numbers
quoted on this website, or use any of our 'Phone me' services,
we may record your call. These recordings are used for training
and quality control to ensure that we continuously monitor
and improve our customer service standards.
If you call any of our customer service telephone numbers
and give your personal details we may record and store them
for a period of time to help answer any future questions you
may have more quickly and effectively.
back to the top
Who sees your information?
The information that we collect through our website will
be used within the Royal Mail group of companies. Exactly
who sees your information depends on what you have consented
we can use your information for. You give us your consent
by choosing not to opt out on your registration form. You
can change your mind and remove or add your consent at any
time through the Edit your profile page.
Sometimes we'll share your information with carefully selected
third parties outside of the Royal Mail group. We will do
this for the following reasons:
- To provide you with a service. Some of our services are
provided in conjunction with our business partners, and
we'll need to disclose your information to them to provide
you with the services. We make it clear in the terms and
conditions for each service whether information will be
passed to third parties or not.
- To provide you with information about special promotions
and offers. If you have given your consent by choosing not
to opt out, we may share some of your information with carefully
selected third parties so that they can provide you with
information about products and services that may be of interest
to you.
- To protect Royal Mail Group plc or others. We may share
your information with third parties when we believe it is
necessary to comply with the law or protect the rights,
property, or safety of the Royal Mail Group, our customers,
or others. This includes exchanging information with third
parties to protect against fraud and reduce payment risks.
We will only deal with third parties that we trust to act
in our customers' best interests and who treat our customers'
information with the same stringent controls that we apply
ourselves.
We may also provide aggregated information such as sales
figures and usage trends to other companies. This information
will NOT include personal details that can be used to identify
individuals.
back to the top
Maintaining the information
we hold about you
We aim to give you control over the information that we hold
about you. You can see the information that you have provided
to us through the website by accessing the Edit your profile
page.
You can also use this page to change or delete this information
including the consents you have given us through the opt out
process.
You can be deleted from this website's databases by sending
an email to our website operations team at web.ops@royalmail.com.
Please type delete in the subject box.
This will not delete information held about you on other Royal
Mail databases that was not provided through this website,
or on third party databases.
Please note however, we can only delete information about
you that we don't need to hold for legal reasons. For example,
we need to keep records of financial transactions for a certain
period of time.
You can request details of all the information that Royal
Mail holds about you, including on this website's databases,
by contacting the Data Protection Act Services Team at Royal
Mail . They will send you an application form , which you
should complete and return. The charge for this service is
£10 for each request.
You can contact the Data Protection Act Services Team by writing
to the Data Protection Act Services Team, Royal Mail, Concept
House, 250 Farnborough Rd, Farnborough, Hants, GU14 7LU.
back to the top
A note about opt outs
You can allow us to provide you with information about products
and services that we, or third parties which we have carefully
selected, believe will be of interest to you. We will only
do this with your consent. You give us your consent by choosing
not to opt out on your registration form. You can change your
mind and remove or add your consent at any time through the
Edit your profile page.
Please note:
Selecting the opt out boxes on this website will not prevent
you from receiving information about specific services that
you have expressed an interest in. For example, if you opt
out through registration or the 'Edit your profile' page,
and you use the Shop diary function, you will continue to
receive event reminders via email.
When you choose to opt out through this website, this opt
out will only apply to the information stored about you on
this website's databases. If you have provided information
to Royal Mail Group plc and other businesses in its group
through another channel, the use of that information will
not be affected by the opt outs you select on this website.
There are some opt outs on this website that are specific
to individual services. These are independent of the registration
opt out and currently cannot be changed through the 'Edit
your page'. We are actively investigating the integration
of these opt outs for your convenience.
back to the top
Keeping your information secure
We know that your privacy is very important to you and that
you take the security of your information seriously.
We've implemented technology and security policies, rules
and measures to protect the personal information we have under
our control, both on and off-line, from improper access, use,
alteration, destruction and loss.
Here are some of the ways we protect your information:
Access to our online services is protected by something called
SSL 128 bit session encryption. Encryption is the process
through which sensitive information is scrambled before it
is transmitted so that it remains private even if it is intercepted.
128-bit encryption is the strongest encryption currently used
commercially. However, unless your Internet browser supports
128-bit encryption you will not be able to take advantage
of this level of security. You can check to see if your browser
supports 128-bit encryption by reading How you can keep your
information secure.
Off-line, your information is kept securely in our databases
and offices. We only allow our employees and trusted contractors
access to your information, and then only if they need it
for a specific authorised task. The computers on which we
store your information are kept in a secure environment.
we do not store payment card details from this website.
We will take all reasonable steps to protect your information,
but data can never be guaranteed 100% secure. Please note
that we will not be liable for any breach of security unless
we have been negligent.
back to the top
How you can help keep
your information secure
As you would expect of us, we will take all reasonable measures
to ensure that the information you provide through our website
is held and managed securely. However, there is a lot that
you can do to help keep your information safe - not just on
our website, but whenever you provide information online.
Here are some simple ways you can improve the security of
your information:
Use a strong password
Read our advice on choosing a strong password. This will help
you choose a password that will be difficult for other people
to guess but easy for you to remember.
Use a secure password hint
Do not make your password hint the same as your password!
Your password hint should not give away your password to someone
you know well, for example 'my road' or 'my dog's name'.
Keep your password private and secure
Your password is a key to your personal information and online
identity. Don't tell anyone your password or write it down.
If you are concerned that somebody else knows your password,
you can change it on our website by going to the Edit your
profile page. We recommend that you change your password from
time to time.
Use a secure browser
Encryption is the process through which sensitive information
is scrambled before it is transmitted so that it remains private
even if it is intercepted. 128-bit encryption is the strongest
encryption currently available, but not all browser versions
support it.
Two popular browsers that support 128-bit encryption are:
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.5 and later versions
Netscape Navigator version 6 and later versions
Security upgrades for some older browser versions are available.
We recommend that you contact your preferred browser provider
for further information.
back to the top
How we use cookies
We use cookies on this website. Cookies are small files of
information that are stored by a browser on your computer's
hard drive and are a feature common to many websites. They
are mainly used to improve your site experience with features
such as remembering your shopping baskets, personalising areas
to make them more relevant for you and to monitor the number
of people using the website.
If you register for this website, a cookie containing an
ID number will be saved on your computer. The ID number is
linked to your user name (email address) on our database.
The cookie is used to track which services you use and which
pages you go to on the website. We may use this information
to make changes to the website, for example to make it easier
to use or to personalise the advertisements you see during
your visits. We may also use this information to provide you
with targeted information about goods and services available
from us and others, unless you have told us that we should
not use your information in this way by opting out.
If you check the 'Remember me' box when you register or from
the 'Edit your profile' page, another cookie will be saved
on your computer containing your greeting name. This will
display a personal greeting each time you log on.
Because these cookies contain or refer to some personal information
(your greeting and user name) we recommend you do not register
for this website from a publicly available computer.
Some of our services (such as Postcode Finder) use a cookie
to keep track of how many times you have used the service.
This is to guard against these services being used repeatedly
for commercial reasons. These cookies do not contain any personal
information.
Finally, if you have viewed or clicked on one of our advertisements
on another website, a cookie may have been saved on your hard
drive to indicate that you have viewed or clicked on the advertisement.
This cookie is also used to record some of your activities
on this website, such as whether you look at certain pages
or enter into certain transactions. We use this information
to assess the effectiveness of our advertisements on different
websites. These cookies do not contain any personal information.
You can choose to disable cookies at any time through your
browser, but this may prevent some of our services from working
and, depending on your browser version, may make your information
less secure. If you want to know how to do this please look
at the help menu on your browser.
back to the top
Links to other sites
This website includes links to other sites. We make every
effort to provide links to high quality, reputable sites but
we're not responsible for their privacy practices, site content
or the services they offer.
back to the top
What this privacy policy does
not cover
This policy does not apply to the practices of companies
Royal Mail Group plc does not own or control, or to people
Royal Mail Group plc does not employ or manage.
back to the top
Data Protection Act
Royal Mail Group plc complies with the Data Protection Act
1998. This privacy policy meets the standards and guidelines
contained in the Act.
For further information about Royal Mail and the Data Protection
Act contact the Data Protection Act Services Team at Royal
Mail Group plc, by writing to the Data Protection Act Services
Team, Royal Mail, Concept House, 250 Farnborough Rd, Farnborough,
Hants, GU14 7LU.
back to the top
Changes to this privacy policy
We may amend this privacy policy from time to time. If we
make any changes we'll post an announcement on this website.
This privacy policy was last updated on 04 November 2002.
back to the top
|
