Site Privacy Policy and Conditions of Use

1. What does our Privacy Policy cover?
   • Protecting the privacy and personal data of individuals is an important aspect of the way our company, Aberdeen Journals Limited (“AJL” or “us”), organises and implements its activities both on-line and off-line.
   • This Privacy Policy covers all of AJL's web sites. The privacy statement does not cover other web sites linked to the company's web sites or which may be accessed from those sites. We are unable to offer any information or reassurance about the level of privacy protection offered from or by those sites which are linked to our sites but which are not controlled by us. We would suggest that you look at the privacy statements displayed on any third party sites you visit.
2. What information do we gather?
   • We collect the personal data that you volunteer on forms you submit to us (including but not limited to registration, order, survey, and competition forms), and in emails you send to us. If you are under 16 years of age you require to obtain your parent/guardian’s permission whenever you provide personal information. Users without such permission are not allowed to, and shall not, provide us with personal information.
   • The personal data we collect (as described above) is used to allow us to develop our sites in a way that will enhance the online experience of the greatest number of users.
   • Our web sites enable you to communicate with other visitors or to post information to be accessed by others. When you use these services, other visitors could collect your data. We have no control over this and accept no liability for any consequences of this.
   • Users posting comments via the Story Comments facility on our sites will have their submitted details stored along with their IP address. Your IP address will not be disclosed to anyone except in cases of the story comments facility being abused or unless we are required to do so by law. As a condition of using any of AJL’s web sites, users agree to indemnify AJL from and against any claims, losses, liabilities, damages and expenses (including legal fees) which may arise out of use of, or by virtue of having access to, any of AJL’s web sites.
   • If you post or send offensive, inappropriate or objectionable content anywhere on or to any of AJL’s web sites or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour on any of AJL’s web sites, we shall use whatever information that is available to us about you to stop such behaviour. This may involve informing relevant third parties such as your employer, e-mail/Internet provider and law enforcement agencies about the content and your behaviour. Further, should any comments be posted on any of AJL’s web sites which AJL regard as being actually or potentially defamatory, AJL reserve the right to remove such comments and prohibit any user from having access to all of AJL’s web sites. Should any defamatory comments be posted on any of AJL’s web sites they will not reflect the views of AJL, and AJL shall not accept liability or responsibility for such comments or any offence caused thereby.
3. Is it possible to access and browse the company's web sites without disclosing personal data?
   • Yes, you can access our web site's homepage and browse our sites without disclosing personal data.
4. Does the company use cookies?
   • During the course of any visit to any ajl website the pages you see, along with a short text file called a 'cookie', are downloaded to your computer. Many websites do this, because cookies enable website publishers to do useful things like find out whether the computer (and probably its user) has visited the website before. This is done on a repeat visit by checking to see, and finding, the cookie left there on the last visit.
   • Information supplied by cookies can help us to provide you with a better online user experience and assist us to analyse the profile of our visitors. For example: if on a previous visit you went to our Reader Travel pages, we might find this out from your cookie and highlight Reader Travel holiday information on your second and subsequent visits.
   • We use cookies to hold session information, ensure effective advertising tailored to the users' needs and save an individual user's password, once entered, so that it does not have to be re-keyed during the session. We do not use persistent cookies which means that the site will not remember who users are when they visit again later.
   • We do not associate the information stored in a user's cookie with any other personal data about that user.
5. Do we disclose users' personal data to third parties?
   • We will ensure that your personal data will not be disclosed except insofar as you have consented to such disclosure or we are required to do so by law.
   • Your personal data may be disclosed to other companies within the AJL group of companies.
   • You may choose to give your consent to us disclosing your personal data and to receiving promotional or marketing information from other third parties selected by AJL by ticking the relevant boxes at the points where our sites collect personal data. Leaving the relevant boxes unchecked indicates to us that you would prefer your personal data not to be disclosed and that you would prefer not to receive such material.
6. Can I access the personal data you are holding about me?
   • By sending an email or by contacting us by any of the other means available by clicking the "contact us" link in "About us" on the site, you may request that we confirm whether or not we are holding personal data about you which will be provided free of charge.You may also request a copy of any such data which we do hold, in which case a £10 fee is payable for dealing with this request (as permitted under the Data Protection Act 1998).
   • Upon receipt of such a request from you, we will endeavour to meet your request within 40 days of our receiving all the information which we require in order to deal with the request. Insofar as the law permits, however, we reserve the right to refuse to provide you with information. In the event of our refusing to provide you with information we will provide you with the reasons behind the refusal.
   • Save as set out above, all information that we provide to you as a result of a request will be provided free of charge.
7. Can I request that any data that you are holding about me is amended or removed?
   • You may request that we amend any personal data that we are holding about you which is factually inaccurate, free of charge.
   • If you have agreed to the disclosure of personal information and to receiving marketing and promotional information, but no longer wish to do so, then please contact us. AJL 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 that you no longer wish to continue your registration on any of AJL’s web sites. For safety reasons, AJL may store message transcript data for a period of six months. AJL will ensure that all personal information supplied is held securely, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
8. What steps have been taken and what security is in place to keep my personal data secure?
   • All of our employees and data processors who have access to your personal data and/or are associated with the processing of that data are contractually obliged to respect the confidentiality of your personal data.
   • To protect the integrity and security of your personal data we will take steps to verify your identity before granting access to your data or making corrections to it.
   • We have put in place appropriate technology measures and security policies and procedures to protect the personal data that we have under our control from unauthorised access, improper use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction or accidental loss.