Privacy policy

The Conversation is committed to protecting the personal information of both our contributors and readers. We want our website to be a safe and enjoyable environment. Here we aim to help you to understand what information we might collect about you and how we use it. In this Privacy Policy, “personal information” means information or an opinion about a person whose identity is apparent, or can be reasonably ascertained, from the information or opinion.

The Conversation complies with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. The eight principles relating to the processing of personal information are:

1. Fairly and lawfully processed
2. Processed for a limited time
3. Adequate, relevant & not excessive
4. Accurate
5. Not kept longer than necessary
6. Processed in accordance with your rights
7. Secure
8. Not transferred to countries without adequate protection

We will always follow these principles and ask you how you would like us to communicate with you.

The Conversation will, from time to time, collect and use personal information. The types of personal information collected and the purposes for which that personal information will be used will depend on the circumstances. For example, The Conversation may collect personal information when you:

• Sign up as a contributor to or create a profile on The Conversation
• Join a conversation or comment on someone else's article or contribution to The Conversation
• Participate in a survey or provide feedback to The Conversation

If you sign up as a contributor to The Conversation, we will publish your contributor profile, which may include personal information, on The Conversation. If you would like to delete your user contributor profile please email us at [email protected].

If you join a conversation or comment on someone else's article or contribution, The Conversation will publish your post, which may include personal information, on The Conversation, such as your name and position. Other than these situations, The Conversation will not disclose your personal information to third parties except:

• To third parties which assist the operation of The Conversation (in which case we require these contractors to keep that personal information confidential and not to use or disclose it for any purpose other than the purpose of performing those services)
• In exceptional circumstances, The Conversation may be required or authorized by law to disclose personal information, for example to law enforcement authorities or to prevent a serious threat to public safety
• With your consent

The Conversation will take all reasonable steps to protect all personal information held by it from misuse and loss and from unauthorized access, modification and disclosure.

Any person may seek access to personal information, which The Conversation holds about that person and we will provide access to that information upon request. There are certain exemptions, which may apply to the provision of that information. We may require that the person requesting access provide suitable identification and we may charge an administration fee for granting access to information. Requests to access personal information held by The Conversation should be addressed to [email protected].

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. If you wish to exercise any of these rights set out below, please contact [email protected]. No fee is usually required, but we may charge a reasonable fee for your request, or refuse to comply, if it is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

You have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
• Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request for erasure for specific reasons, of which you will be notified if applicable at the time of your request.
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information that override your rights and freedoms.
• Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.