Privacy Policy

The Data Protection Act

Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998, we have a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you. We keep strict security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to it. It will not be disclosed to any other government department or any other organisations unless you give explicit permission, or there is a legal obligation to do so.

What Information We Collect

Depending on which site facilities you use, we collect several different types of information:

• Information that you provide for specific purposes eg email addresses, mailing address, and contact information.
• Stored information - that you provide to enable you to logon and reuse site facilities such as subscription to email alerts and the private forums.

Website Usuage Information

We collect website usage information to help us:

• Assess the effectiveness of marketing campaigns
• Improve the usage of the website
• Improve the design of the website and make it more usable for you

We collect website usage from a number of sources:

• Our web server
• URLs passed to us when you enter our site
• Some data entered by you on forms on the website, but none in a form that can be traced back to an individual
• A selection of Internet Service Providers
• A selection of Search Engine Companies

In all cases, website usage information excludes any information that can be traced back to you, so is non-personal in the meaning of the Data Protection Act.

IP Addresses

We use IP addresses to analyse trends, track users` movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information..

Cookies

Cookies are small files that are often created when you visit a website, and which are stored in the cookie directory of your computer. A cookie often includes an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies do not damage your computer. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser`s preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites. You can decide if you want to accept cookies by changing the settings on your browser to either accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set.

There are two types of cookie. Persistent cookies remain on your computer for a specified time, like six or 12 months. We use persistent cookies to collect website usage information for use as described above. These cookies contain no personal information and cannot be used to identify you.

Session-specific cookies are deleted when you leave the website. We use session cookies for the following purposes:

• To hold the information given while using an interactive tool on the website
• To hold your details when you are logged into the site
• Some data entered by you on forms on the website, but none in a form that can be traced back to an individual
• To hold your search criteria while you are doing a search of the website
• To collect website usage information for use as described above - website usage
• Information cookies contain no personal information and cannot be used to identify you