The following statement explains our policy regarding the personal information we collect about you.
By entering your details in the fields requested, you enable us and its service providers to provide you with the services you select. Whenever you provide such personal information, we will treat that information in accordance with this policy. Our services are designed to give you the information that you want to receive. We will act in accordance with current legislation and aim to meet current Internet best practice.
When you supply any personal information to us we have legal obligations towards you in the way we deal with that data. We must collect the information fairly, that is, we must explain how we will use it (see the notices on particular webpages that let you know why we are requesting the information) and tell you if we want to pass the information on to anyone else. In general, any information you provide to us will only be used by us and by its service providers. It will never be supplied to anyone outside our services without first obtaining your consent, unless we are obliged or permitted by law to disclose it. Also, if you post or send offensive or inappropriate content anywhere on or to our services or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour, and we considers such behaviour to be serious and/or repeated, we can use whatever information that is available to it about you to stop such behaviour. This may include informing relevant third parties such as your employer, school or e-mail provider about the content and your behaviour.
We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as you use the service you have requested, and remove it in the event that the purpose has been met, or, in the case of our membership you no longer wish to continue your registration as a site member. For safety reasons, however, we may store messaging transcript data (including message content, member names, times and dates) arising from the use of our services for a period of six months. Where personal information is held for people who are not yet registered but have taken part in other services (eg competitions), that information will be held only as long as necessary to ensure that the service is run smoothly. We will ensure that all personal information supplied is held securely, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
If you are notified on our site that your information may be used to allow us to contact you for "service administration purposes", this means that we may contact you for a number of purposes related to the service you have signed up for. For example, we may wish to provide you with password reminders or notify you that the particular service has been suspended for maintenance. We will not contact you for promotional purposes, such as notifying you of improvements to the service unless you specifically agree to be contacted for such purposes at the time you submit your information on the site, or at a later time if you sign up specifically to receive such promotional information.