Privacy Policy

West Midlands History Limited (History West Midlands)

Privacy policy

West Midlands History Limited (“History West Midlands” or “the Company”) understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used. We respect and value the privacy of all of our users and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a way that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.

Please read this privacy notice carefully as it sets out how History West Midlands uses your personal information. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or do not agree with it, please contact us at web@historywm.com before using this website. Our website terms of use explain the terms on which you are allowed to use our website www.historywm.com and our sister site www.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk, which provides a gateway to our products and services, as well as lots of other useful information. History West Midlands is a service offering access to online video, audio, text and images relating to history and other factual content.

You may visit this website anonymously as often as you like without providing any personally identifying information (such as your name, address or email address). We do not collect personal or identifying information from you except when you specifically provide it. With your consent we may gather personally identifying information from you when you voluntarily submit information to us by filling out a form on our website, subscribing to our mailing lists, entering prize promotions or giveaways or in connection with other activities, services and features we make available on our site.

By submitting personal data to www.historywm.com you consent to the collection, storage, use and disclosure of such personal data in accordance with the provisions in this privacy policy.

Who we are

This website www.historywm.com and our sister site www.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk are run by West Midlands History Limited (‘History West Midlands’, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 05833453. For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), other data protection laws applicable in member states of the European Union and other provisions related to data protection, the data controller is:

West Midlands History Limited,

Minerva Mill Innovation Centre

Station Road

Alcester

B49 5ET

Email: web@historywm.com

Phone: 01789 766098

Information we may collect from you

We may collect and process the following information about you:

Information you give us:

You may give us information by filling out forms on our website, signing up to our mailing lists or by corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise. We will only use that information as we specifically state when you provide that information, or as set out in this policy.

We may collect your information when you:

Interact or correspond with us in letters, by phone, email or via our website;
Attend events we hold or interact with us in person;
Speak at an event;
Subscribe to our mailing lists;
Complete a survey;
Submit proposals to us via email or post;
Enter into a contract with us;
Enter a competition, prize draw or giveaway;
Submit an application to a job vacancy;
Provide us with biographical information about you (e.g. by completing an author questionnaire)
Become an employee.

Personally identifying information you may give us:

Name;
Contact information including email address and postal address;
Demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests;
Other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers.

Non-personal identification information:

We will also collect certain information about how you use our website and the devices that you use to access it in order to assist in the improvement and optimisation of our site. This includes your IP address, geographical location, device information (such as your hardware model, mobile network information), browser type, referral source, length of visit to the website, number of page views, search queries you make on the website and similar information. This information is collected by Google Analytics and search engine providers on our behalf using cookies. For more information about cookies and how we use them please refer to the How we use cookies section below.

Information we receive from third parties:

In certain circumstances we will receive information about you from third parties. For example:

If you are a job applicant we may contact your referees to provide information about you;
If you are the co-author of a manuscript, your co-author may be required to provide us with information about you;
If you have a literary agent making submissions on your behalf, your agent will provide us with information about you.

We do not store your billing address, billing country or any payment information – this is held securely by the payment processor who is fully PCI compliant.

We may also ask for payment information, i.e. the details of the payment card you are using to pay for any products/services. This type of information is processed strictly in accordance with relevant payment card industry standards.

Where a purchase is made via in app purchase, this will use in the app purchase mechanisms via Apple, Google and Amazon.

What we do with the information we gather

We require the information we gather to understand your needs and provide you with a better service.

We use your information lawfully and do not sell your information to third parties. However, where you have given your express consent we may share your information with carefully selected third parties as set out in the section When we share your information. The details of how we use your information and the legal bases for our use are set out below.

Consent

When we have your consent to contact you, we may use your information:

To send periodic emails;

We may use the email address provided to keep in contact with you, respond to inquiries, questions and other requests. You may wish to contact us by sending us letters or emails or by filling out the contact form on our website - we will only use this information to respond to your query or suggestion. However, if you decide to opt-in to our mailing list you will receive emails that may include marketing communications and promotional emails about new products, events, books, authors, special offers, company news, partner offers or other information which we think you may find interesting. If you would like to subscribe to one or more of our newsletters we will require you to give us your email address so we can send the newsletter to you. We may also ask you to provide further information about yourself, such as your name, location and subject interests so we can personalise and tailor the information your receive. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include unsubscribe options within each email or you may email us or contact us via our site to request removal from our mailing list.

To tell you about new website features or services or notify you of changes to our website
For internal record keeping;
To customise the website according to your interests;

We may use the information users provide in the aggregate to understand how our users as a group use the services and resources provided on our site.

To improve our products and services;

Information you provide helps us respond to your customer service requests, suggestions and support needs more efficiently.

To contact you for market research purposes;

We may approach you (ourselves or via a third party) to ask you questions to help us improve the goods and services we offer and our website (e.g. by asking you to participate in a survey conducted by us or trusted partners). We will always let you know before you participate in any survey how any information you provide will be used and you do not have to respond to them

To allow you to enter competitions, prize promotions or giveaways.

Periodically, we run competitions, prize draws and giveaways. In addition to answer entries we may require you to send us certain information, such as your name, email address or postal address so that we can contact you in the event that you win. We will only use this information to administer the promotion and for any other purpose to which you consent when you enter.

Legitimate interests

Sometimes we will use your information on the basis of our ‘legitimate business interests’ (legitimate interests). This means our legitimate interests in conducting and managing our business and our relationship with you.

If you are an author we will use your information to carry out our contract with you. This will include receipt, review, editing, production and marketing of your manuscript and payment of your royalties.

Where we use your information for our legitimate interests, we make sure that we take into account any potential impact that such use may have on you. Our legitimate interests do not automatically override yours and we will not use your information if we believe your interests should override ours unless we have other grounds to do so (such as your consent or a legal obligation). If you have any concerns about our processing you have rights and choices which include the right to object (please see the section headed Your Rights and Choices).

We may use your information for the purposes listed below on the basis of our legitimate interests:

To operate a safe and lawful business or where we have a legal obligation;
To enable us to comply with our policies and procedures and enforce our legal rights, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our employees;
To carry out a contract we have with you;
Where we have a business relationship with you;
To contact you about submissions you made or content you provided to us;
To respond to your queries or correspondence;
To deal with any job applications you submit to us;
To deal with enquiries or complaints about the website as necessary to provide customer support in providing the correct products and services to our website users;
To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and your computer;
To analyse your use of our websites, social channels and email marketing and your responses to our communications;
To measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising;
To deliver relevant advertising and make relevant recommendations and suggestions to you about our products and services;
To personalise, enhance, modify or otherwise improve the services and/or communications that we provide to you;
To carry out aggregated and anonymised research about general engagement with our website in providing the right kinds of products and services to our website users;
To detect and prevent fraud and unauthorised access or illegal activity;
To improve security and optimisation of our network sites and services including trouble shooting, testing and software development and support.

Who can see your information

Your information may be processed by our staff or by the staff of third parties we work with to deliver our business. Processing can mean any activity that involves the use of information about someone that can identify them. All uses, for example, obtaining, recording, storing, disclosing, organising, retrieving, deleting and destroying are types of data processing. We take measures to ensure that third parties processing your information on our behalf are acting lawfully in accordance with our instructions and are subject to appropriate confidentiality requirements. We also have adequate technical and organisational safeguards in place in our company and with third party processors to protect your information. Third party processors of your information include:

Our website hosts and operators, IT support providers, database operators, site analytics providers and software developers;
Our marketing or publicity services providers e.g. email marketing software provider, advertising services;
Our editorial and production service providers, peer-reviewers, third-party manuscript readers;
Our financial services and payment service providers;
Our delivery service providers;
Our auditors, technical consultants and legal advisors.

When we share your information

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. If you opt-in to receive our newsletter we may occasionally use your personal information to send you information about third parties which we think you may find interesting, but in this event we never pass on your details and administer and process such promotions on behalf of our marketing partner.

Where we share your information to a third party outside our organisation you will be required to consent to us sharing your information and if you choose to give your permission any interaction you have with a third party is governed by their privacy terms. The third party becomes a joint data controller of your information with us. This means that the third party can make decisions about how to use your information. Before we share your information we require third parties to enter into a data sharing agreement which stipulates that they must maintain appropriate security to protect your information from unauthorised access, processing or use.

We may share your personal information with the following third parties:

Any prospective seller or buyer of businesses or assets, only in the event that we decide to acquire, transfer or sell any business or assets;
Any other third parties (including legal or other advisors, regulatory authorities, courts and government agencies) where necessary to enable us to enforce our legal rights, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our employees or where such disclosure may be permitted or required by law or where we have a legal obligation to do so.

We may also disclose your personal information to third parties to the extent necessary to enable us to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure and look for opportunities to minimise the amount of personal data we hold about you. Where appropriate we anonymise your information. In order to prevent unauthorised access, unlawful use or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, technological and operational procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online, such as:

Ensuring the physical security of our offices;
Ensuring the physical and digital security of our equipment and devices by using appropriate password protection and encryption;
Maintaining a data protection policy for, and delivering data protection training to, our employees;
Limiting access to your personal information to those in our company who need to use it in the course of their work.

How long we keep your information for

We will retain your information for as long as is necessary to provide you with the services that you have requested from us or for as long as we reasonably require to retain the information for our legitimate interests, such as for the purposes of exercising our legal rights or where we are permitted to do so for purposes of academic, literary expression and research purposes. We operate a data retention policy and look to find ways to reduce the amount of information we hold about you and the length of time that we need to keep it.

Where we store your data

Our company is located in the UK, but the data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers or data processors. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy and, to the extent that such transfer is within our control, with the relevant protections required by law in place.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data white it is in transit; any data you send is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to affiliates, plug-ins and, from time to time, other websites of interest. By clicking on these links to leave our site or by enabling these connections you may allow third parties to collect or share information about you. If you leave our site you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible or liable for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this Privacy Policy. You should exercise caution and look at the Privacy Policy applicable to the website in question.

Your rights and choices

Your right to object

You have the right to object to our using your information for direct marketing and on the basis of our legitimate interests.

Your right to withdraw consent

You have the right to withdraw your consent for our use of your information in reliance of your consent.

Your other rights and choices

You also have other choices and rights in respect of the information that we hold about you, including:

The right to request access to the information that we hold about you to check that we are acting lawfully;
The right to receive a copy of any information we hold about you in a structured, commonly-used, machine readable format or in another format of your choice;
The right to request that we transfer your information to another service provider in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format;
The right to ask us to correct information we hold about you if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
The right to ask us, in certain circumstances, to delete information we hold about you;
The right to ask us, in certain circumstances, to restrict processing of your information.

You may exercise your rights and choices by contacting us using the details above in Who we are.

Your Right to Complain

Please contact us if you have any questions or are unhappy about the way your information is used. We hope we will be able to resolve any problems or issues you may encounter.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint about us and our use of your information to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk/) or the relevant authority in your country of work or residence.

Changes to this privacy notice

From time to time we may make changes to this Privacy Policy. We will post any changes to our site and, where appropriate, notify you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

This Privacy Policy was updated on 25^th May 2018.

Contact

Any data subject may, at any time, contact us directly with any questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Policy:

Mrs Alison Davies

West Midlands History Limited ‘History West Midlands’

Minerva Mill Innovation Centre

Station Road

Alcester

B49 5ET

Email: web@historywm.com

Phone: 01789 766098

May 2018

History West Midlands

Privacy Policy

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