The Times Privacy Policy

Times Newspapers Limited takes the privacy of all its users and customers very seriously, and takes great care with user and customer information. This Privacy Statement outlines how your personal information is treated and forms part of the Terms and Conditions of this site. We may occasionally modify our Privacy Statement, and when this happens, we will notify you via our homepage.

In order to provide our users and customers with an individually tailored range of services, we may collect certain specific personal information from our websites, from telephone responses, or from written information sent to us. We may, for example, keep a record of your name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, gender, and preferences. We may also use such data to communicate with you, for record keeping purposes, and in aggregate (and therefore anonymously) for market research purposes, to track activity on our web sites, to publish trends or to improve usefulness and content.

Any personal data relating to you will only be used and recorded by us in accordance with current data protection legislation and this Privacy Statement.

Unless you have voluntarily given us the information, or we have legally permitted reasons for processing it without your consent, we will always ask for your explicit consent if we need to process any data categorised as "sensitive" by the Data Protection Act, 1998.

ie. "Information defined under the Data protection Act, 1998 as "Sensitive Personal Data" is as follows:

• Information as to the racial or ethnic origin of the data subject;
• Their religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature;
• Their political opinions;
• Whether they are a member of a Trade Union;
• Their physical or mental health or condition;
• Their sexual life;
• The commission or alleged commission by them of any offence, or
• Any proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by them, the disposal of such proceedings or the sentence of any court in such proceedings."

Sharing Information

We do not presently sell, rent or trade your personal information, but reserve the right to do so in the future. We share such information with associated companies whose products or services may be of interest to you. Associated companies include the following: News International plc, Times Newspapers Ltd, News Group newspapers ltd, news network ltd, news promotions ltd, tsl education ltd, ni syndication ltd, news omnimedia ltd, ni syndication ltd, news international advertisements ltd, homeground marketing ltd.

In addition, we may from time to time work together with carefully selected third party companies in order to provide a wider range of offerings than would otherwise be possible.

Because the Internet is an international medium, these companies may be both inside and outside the European Economic area. We will endeavour to ensure there is adequate and appropriate protection for any personal data transferred outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic area. In the unlikely event that this website and the customer data relating to it are sold to another data controller, we will endeavour to ensure that your rights and freedoms in respect of the processing of your personal data are adequately and appropriately protected.

We reserve the right to pass on your personal information to any law enforcement agencies requesting it in connection with the commission of any offence, once we are reasonably satisfied as to the circumstances surrounding the request.

Security

We take every precaution to protect your personal information. When we ask you to submit sensitive personal financial information, such as your credit card number, we use industry standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology, making these pages secure. In addition, we have strict security protocols in place to protect our customer database, and only allow access to it when absolutely necessary, and then under strict guidelines as to what use may be made of such details.

Our websites may contain links to other websites, and you should be aware that we are clearly not responsible for the privacy practices on other sites. We recommend that you individually check the privacy statements of each and every other website that you visit.

Surveys and User Groups

We always aim to improve the services we offer. As a result we occasionally canvass our customers using surveys. Participation in surveys is voluntary, and you are under no obligation to reply to any survey you might receive from us. Should you choose to do so, we will treat the information you provide with the same high standard of care as all other customer information.

From time to time, we ask customers whether they wish to participate in User Groups, often to assist us in the development of new features, services or sites. Participation in User Groups is voluntary, and you are under no obligation to join any User Group. Should you choose to join a User Group, however, we will treat the information you provide with the same high standard of care as all other customer information.

Contests

Your participation on our sites may mean that we occasionally contact you with the opportunity to enter competitions. Entry to competitions is voluntary, and you are under no obligation to take up an invitation from us to enter. Should you choose to enter a competition, we will treat the information you provide with the same high standard of care as all other customer information, and use the information provided strictly within the entry terms of the competition and this Privacy Statement.

Email a Friend

We may from time to time operate a "Tell a friend" service. This is a referral service, designed to make it easy for customers to recommend our websites or offers to a friend, and is a two-step process. First, a customer sends us the friend's name and email address, and secondly, we contact the friend, telling them who we are, and inviting them to take advantage of a particular offer, or to visit our website. When we contact your friend, we always advise them of the name and email address of the friend who made the original referral and tell them what uses we propose to make of the information.

Cookies

When you first visit one of our websites, upon entering your name and address, we may send you a cookie. A cookie is a small file that can be placed on your computer's hard disc for record keeping purposes, and we may use them to do a number of things:

• Cookies help us to recognise you when you next visit one of our websites and note the advertisements displayed to you. This allows us to tailor the service we provide to your preferences;
• Cookies may be used to compile anonymous statistics related to the take up or use of services, or to patterns of browsing. When used in this manner, you are not individually identified, and data collected in this manner is only used in aggregate.

You are not obliged to accept a cookie from us, or any other web site, and may modify your browser so that it will not accept cookies at your discretion. Here are instructions on how to do this for Netscape and Internet Explorer browsers, and to download the current version of Netscape or Internet Explorer:

Internet Explorer:

Here is how you turn off cookies for Internet Explorer 5.0: First, on your top menu, click on "Tools", and then click on "Internet Options". This will bring up the "Internet Options" Dialogue Box. On the top of the dialogue box, click on "Security", then "Custom Level" or "Customize" This will bring up the "Security Settings" box. Scroll down using the scroll bar on the right hand side of the box, until you come to the section carrying the title "allow cookies to be stored on your computer". Of the options available, click on "Disable", and then click the "OK" button on the bottom of the menu box. Following these instructions will stop your computer from accepting cookies in future. You may reconfigure your computer to accept cookies again by following these instructions, but by selecting "Enable", and clicking on the "OK" button on the bottom of the menu box."

" To download the current version of Internet Explorer, go to http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/ie5/"

Netscape Navigator:

Here is how you turn cookies off for Netscape Communicator 4.7: First, on your top menu, click on "Edit", and then click on "Preferences". This will bring up the "Preferences" menu box. From the options on the left hand side, select "Advanced" which will bring up another menu. Half way down, you will see a section on cookies, and if you wish to turn cookies off, you should select "Disable", and then click the "OK" button on the bottom of the menu box. You may reconfigure your computer to accept cookies again by following these instructions, but by selecting "Accept All Cookies," and then clicking the "OK" button on the bottom of the menu box.

"To download a current version of Netscape Navigator, go to:

http://home.netscape.com/computing/download/index.html"

Some of our associated companies may themselves use cookies on their own websites. We have no access to, or control of these cookies, should this occur.

Unsubscribe

We hope that you will be delighted with the range of services you are offered. However, you may request that we cease contacting you at any time, by having your data removed from our database. This is called unsubscribing, and may be achieved by any of the following methods:

Email us at unsubscribe@newsint.co.uk, or Telephone us between 9.00am and 5.00pm (UK time) seven days per week on: +44 020 7860 1133

Or write to us at: Unsubscribe, The Customer Liaison Department, 1, Virginia Street, London, E98 1RL. Please allow forty days for the unsubscribe process to be completed .