Privacy Policy
At mad.co.uk we collect information about our users for two main reasons:- To help us continually improve the service we offer.
- To use the details of our users to sell appropriate advertising space on the site. We don't want our advertisers to be putting their message in front of the wrong people and we don't want our users to be confronted with irrelevant adverts.
Our principles
We are absolutely committed to protecting your privacy. Our policy can be summarised in one sentence: we will not share your information with other companies outside of Centaur Communications without your prior consent. We have also established the following three principles:
We will continue to invest in the best quality security available and do our utmost to protect user privacy.
We will not pass on any individual user details (including your e-mail address) unless we have your prior consent.
Otherwise, we will only share aggregate statistics about our users, sales and traffic patterns with our advertisers.
What information do we collect?
We collect some basic information from all of our registered users. This includes your name, e-mail address, and post-code. We also ask some further questions so we can gain a clearer understanding of our users. They also enable us to personalise services for our users. We collect data listing which of our pages are most frequently visited and by which types of users.
Use your data and Disclosure of Personal Information
We use your Data for purposes which may include:- providing our users with a personalised service
- processing orders, registrations and enquiries
- conducting market research surveys
- running competitions
- providing you with information about products and services we offer (see Email Policy for more details)
- sharing your Data with third party organisations who offer products or services which we feel may be of interest to you (as stated above, providing you agree to receive such information)
- to build up marketing profiles
- to aid strategic development
- to manage our relationship with advertisers
- to audit usage of the site
Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Devices
We use cookies to help personalise your use of our sites. A cookie is a small piece of information which is sent to your computer's hard drive by the web server so that the website can remember who you are. This information may include information relating to your use of mad.co.uk, information about your computer such as the computer's IP address and browser type, demographic data and, if you arrived at our site via a link from third party site, the URL of the linking page. If you are a registered user this may include your name and email address for verification purposes.
We use information from cookies for purposes which may include:- identifying returning users, registrants and subscribers and to allow subscribers to be presented with a personalised version of the site
- enabling you to move more easily around our site
- tracking your use of our site to better develop our sites in accordance with your requirements
- building up a demographic profile
You can delete cookies from your hard drive at any time however this will mean that any settings such as your stored username and password will have to be reset. You can set your internet browser so that it will not allow cookies to be stored on your computer. This may reduce functionality of the site, prevent access to subscriber-only areas of the site and mean that certain features or content will not be available to you.
From time to time we may permit 3rd party companies to set cookies on mad.co.uk for purposes which may include market research, serving advertisements, revenue tracking or to improve functionality of the site.
Security Policy
Centaur Communications (Centaur) have appropriate measures in place to ensure that our users' Data is protected against unauthorised access or use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction and accidental loss. User Data may be transferred outside of Centaur to data processors such as fulfilment houses but they will act only on our instructions to provide the services required.
Transfer of Data
The Internet is a global environment. Using the Internet to collect and process personal data necessarily involves the transmission of data on an international basis. Therefore, by browsing the mad.co.uk and communicating electronically with us you acknowledge and agree to our processing of personal data in this way. By agreeing to our transfer of your Data to third party organisations for them to send you details of products and services offered (as detailed above) you are deemed to provide your consent to any transfer of your Data to organisations based outside the European Economic Area.
User Access and Control of Data
If you wish to amend any of the Data which we hold about you, or update your marketing preferences, please contact customerservices@mad.co.uk or see the 'Contact Us' section of our website.
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, you may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you by contacting the Customer Services Team at customerservices@mad.co.uk or writing to:
Customer Services
mad.co.uk
50 Poland Street
London W1F 7AX
United Kingdom
We may charge the statutory allowable fee for provision of this information.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
This policy is effective 18th August 2005. From time to time we may make changes to this privacy policy statement to reflect any changes to our privacy practices in accordance with changes to legislation, best practice or website enhancements.
Any changes to our policy will be posted here.
