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.

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 take all reasonable care to safeguard your information through security policies and secure business processes.

Why we collect information about you
To provide you with online services. Each service has different information requirements. Therefore the information we need, and what it is needed for, can differ. For example, we will keep records of the licenses that you have agreed to in relation to various data sets within the Data Prospects service in order to provide you with appropriate data. For full details please refer to the terms and conditions for each service. To enhance or improve your experience on our website. We will use information concerning your use of the site to personalise the site to better meet your needs. 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.

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 use a service. We also hold details of the licences that you have agreed to on the website, and a history of the services you have used 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 From what you do on our site. This can show us for example which products you use most and least. We may use this information to personalise the site to better meet your needs

Who sees your information?
The information we collect through our website will be used within the Royal Mail group of companies (which includes Royal Mail Limited, Post Office Limited and Parcelforce Worldwide). Exactly who sees your information depends on the context in which you provided it. In general, the information that you provide will be used by Royal Mail staff that monitor and verify the services that you may use through the website, your purchase of services, and the correct functioning of the website.
We will also share your information with carefully selected third parties outside the Royal Mail group. We may 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 protect the Royal Mail group or others. We may share your information with third parties when we believe it is necessary to comply with the law or protect our or another person's rights, property, or safety. This includes exchanging information with third parties to protect against fraud and reduce payment risks. Your information may be processed outside the European Economic Area (EEA) where privacy laws may not provide protection to the same level as in England, but if so, we ensure that the processing is carried out to standards equivalent to our own.
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.

How long do we keep your information?
How long we keep your information collected through our website depends on the context in which you provided it. In particular:
We will also share your information with carefully selected third parties outside the Royal Mail group. We may do this for the following reasons:
We will keep your information that's necessary for us to provide you with a service you have requested or purchased through this website for as long as it takes us to provide that service We will keep records of any transactions you enter into on this website for up to six years. This is so that we can respond to any complaints or disputes that arise in that period We will keep other information about you if it is necessary for us to do so to comply with the law

Maintaining the information we hold for you
How long we keep your information collected through our website depends on the context in which you provided it. In particular:
We aim to give you control over the information we hold about you. You can see the information you have provided to us through the website by accessing the "My Account" page. You can also use this page to change or delete this information. You can be deleted from this website's databases by contacting our customer service team. 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, we can only delete information about you that we don't need to hold for legal reasons. (i.e. the type of information described in the last two bullet points under "How long do we keep your information?"). You can request details of all the information 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 team" by writing to: Royal Mail Group Ltd, PO Box 341, ALDERSHOT, GU11 1WW You can of course request at any time that we correct any information we hold about you.

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 128 bit SSL3 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. However, unless your Internet browser supports 128-bit encryption you will not be able to take advantage of this level of security. (See the "How you can help keep your information secure" section below). 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 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.

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 Consider using numbers and capital letters in your password. This will help to protect against other people guessing your password. 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 Modern browsers are more secure than older versions, so always keep your browser up to date. If you browse with Internet Explorer, set Windows to update itself automatically to keep your private data safe.

Links to other sites
This website may include 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 or, site content, or the services they offer.

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.