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At Virgin Media, we look after your details carefully. We adhere strictly to the requirements of the UK Data Protection Act 1998 and we're also registered on the public register of data controllers which is looked after by the Information Commissioner.

This policy describes how we collect, use and look after the information you provide us with when you use our online services and when we provide you with our products and services. Please take a moment to read our Privacy Policy so you know what choices you have about the information we may ask you for. This policy may change from time to time so it's a good idea to come back and read through it again, from time to time.

Information we collect

This is what we normally collect about you to help us provide you with our services, and improve them even more, where we can:

• Name, address, email, telephone number, payment details and service details;
• Information on how you use our website to help us develop and improve our website, including details of your domain name and Internet Protocol (IP) address, operating system, browser version, cookie details, how long you stayed on a page, the route you took to navigate through the pages and the website that you visited prior to accessing our site;
• Information about your use of Virgin Media services, including processing call, usage, billing, viewing and interactive data;
  
• Other data, from time to time, to help us provide you with improved products and services, for example now and again we might ask you to fill in a questionnaire, just so you can let us know how we're doing.

For our TiVo TV service:

Information about your usage and viewing, for example:

• The types of programmes you watch;
  
• How you use the television services, e.g. pausing, fast-forwarding or rewinding programmes;
• Whether you save programmes to watch later;
• Whether you tend to skip the adverts, watch programmes on demand and your purchasing preferences for example, responding to advertisements or promotions.

We may supplement the information that we collect from you and about your use of the services with information that we receive from third parties.  This may include, for example, data we collect from other members of your household or information we receive from content providers (for example, information about your use of BBC iPlayer  via our TiVo service so that we can personalise your TiVo service and recommend programmes you might like).

Using your information

Collecting this information helps us better understand what you need from us. We use it to offer you products and services that we think will suit you down to the ground and attempt to improve your browsing and shopping experience with us. The main uses of your data are:

• To help provide your services;
• To provide you with service information and updates;
  
• To provide access to privileged areas of the website;
  
• To administer contests and competitions and personalise your visit to our site;
  
• To enable us to review, develop and improve the products, services and special offers;
  
• To occasionally carry out market research;
  
• To profile your usage and viewing;
• Personalising your experience of the TiVo service based on your usage and viewing profile for example, recommending programmes you might enjoy, or tailoring advertising contained within the services so that it corresponds with your likely interests. We will not use information about your use of BBC iPlayer on our TiVo service to personalise or tailor advertising;
  
• To send you details of products, services, special offers and rewards that we think will be of interest to you. However, we hate junk mail as much as you do so it's up to you to decide whether or not you want to receive this information;
  
• To improve and develop the services.

When you apply for or use Virgin Media's products and services, you agree to Virgin Media's Terms and Conditions. Our Terms and Conditions set out the purposes for which Virgin Media may use your personal information, and to whom it may be disclosed. Please refer to our Terms and Conditions for full details.

Where you use Virgin Media's Online Movie Service, which is provided by FilmFlex Movies Limited on our behalf, you agree to FilmFlex's terms and conditions which set out the purposes for which Virgin Media and FilmFlex may use your personal information. Please refer to FilmFlex's Terms and Conditions.

Disclosing your information

Here's when we may provide information about you:

• To employees and agents of Virgin Media to deal with any accounts, products and services provided to you by Virgin Media or our group companies now or in the future.With your agreement, to other Virgin companies (e.g. Virgin Atlantic), whose products and services may be of interest to you.
• To search the files of a credit reference agency, which will keep a record of that search, when you apply for service. Additionally, details of how you conduct your account may also be disclosed to the agency. This information may be used by other organisations in assessing applications from you and members of your household.
• We may use aggregate information and statistics for the purposes of monitoring web site usage in order to help us develop the web site and our service and may provide such aggregate information to third parties for example content partners and advertisers. These statistics will not include information that can be used to identify any individual for example, '10,000 people clicked on an advertisement yesterday'.

We will not pass on your personal information to third parties except in accordance with this policy and our Terms and Conditions or where we are required by law to disclose that information.

Protecting your information

Any information sent to us is encrypted (scrambled) using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. This is industry standard encryption technology that protects your data whilst being sent over the internet from being intercepted and misused by third parties. When it reaches us, we then store it on a secure server so that it can only be read by authorised personnel. Although we make every effort to create a secure environment for your personal information, Virgin Media cannot guarantee the safety of any personal information you transmit to Virgin Media online.

We will not ask you for your Virgin Media identification and authentication passwords or PIN numbers in an unsolicited phone call or unsolicited email. You are responsible for keeping your password and PIN secure and you should not disclose them to anyone (unless you wish to authorise them to access your account and incur charges on your account).

Accessing your information

You're welcome to ask us what information we have about you, any time you like. If you need us to send it to you, it'll cost £10 - that covers the cost of our administration. If any of the details are incorrect, let us know and we'll amend them right away. If you'd like us to send your information, you can write to our team at the address on the back of your bill, enclosing a cheque or postal order for £10 made payable to Virgin Media Payments Limited.

Marketing our products and services

We will automatically contact you with regard to your services, for example, with updates to your services, service disruption messages or bill payments.

We may also, subject to your consent, use your personal information to contact you with information about special offers and rewards. Additionally, we may, subject to your consent, disclose your personal information to other Virgin companies so that they can contact you with information about their products and services. But don't worry, your details won't be shared with companies outside the Virgin group for marketing purposes without your consent.

If you have given us the consent referred to above, then from time to time, we may contact you by mail, telephone, email, other electronic messaging services (such as text, voice, sound or image messages including using automated calling systems) or fax with information about our products and services (including discounts and special offers).

If you wish to receive information and offers from us and you have not previously given us your consent, let us know by calling Customer Care or writing to us at PO Box 333, Virgin Media, Matrix Court, Swansea, SA7 9BB

If you're already receiving information about special offers and rewards from us then don't worry, you don't need to do anything. We'll assume that you're happy to continue receiving information unless we hear from you.

However if you no longer wish to receive such information from us, please let us know by calling Customer Care or writing to us at PO Box 333, Virgin Media, Matrix Court, Swansea, SA7 9BB. Remember that if you say you do not wish to receive any promotional material from us, this will preclude you from receiving any of our special offers or promotions which may be of interest to you and we will not share your information with other Virgin companies for them to market to you. You can opt-out of receiving marketing information from other Virgin companies at any time by contacting them directly.

Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of information stored by your internet browser on to your computer's hard drive. Like most website providers, Virgin Media uses cookies to enable us to make a link between you and the information you have provided to our website and therefore provide you with personalised content so that we can give you a better experience when you return. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, although you can choose not to. To ensure you get the best from our websites, we advise that users keep cookies active on their machine whilst visiting our website. You can manually disable and enable cookies on your PC. The process will depend on your browser and is usually part of your 'Security Settings'. However, if you disable cookies from your browser you will not be able to create a shopping basket or place an order on this site.

For further information about managing and disabling cookies, you can refer to your browser's help section or user guide. Alternatively, the Interactive Advertising Bureau has produced a series of web pages (see www.allaboutcookies.org) which explain to users how cookies work and can be managed.

Online advertising

Virgin Media uses Google’s DoubleClick technology solution for the serving of ads across it’s digital properties, including but not limited to virginmedia.com.  We will ensure that our usage of the DoubleClick service is in compliance with all applicable privacy laws, rules and regulations.

The DoubleClick service may place and read cookies on end users’ browsers, collecting information for the purpose of serving a relevant advertisement to a relevant end user.  The information collected is totally anonymous so does not contain any of your personal details like your name, address, telephone number, or email address. To manage the usage of your cookies, please see the 'Cookies' section above.  For more information about Google’s ad-serving technologies, please visit: www.google.com/doubleclick.

Virgin Media uses Audience Science's behavioural targeting technology to reduce irrelevant advertising on its website.This involves swapping standard advertisements and promotions for ones that are likely to be more relevant to you. For behavioural advertising, Virgin Media chooses adverts based on the content you view on virginmedia.com (for example, if you regularly view the Movies channel, you are more likely to see adverts relating to movie releases on virginmedia.com). Customers won't see any more adverts than they do currently, however using Audience Science, they will be more relevant.

Audience Science's cookie enables more relevant advertising. Audience Science uses the cookie to place your device in certain advertising segments (e.g. sports segment) based on the content you consume on virginmedia.com. This cookie is then recognised when you visit virginmedia.com, and enables relevant advertising to be served according to the segments your device is in (This information is anonymous in that it does not include your name, street address, e-mail address or telephone number). The information that the Audience Science system collects expires after three months, ensuring that audience segmentation for advertising purposes is kept as relevant as possible.

If you do not wish to receive such behavioural advertising then please refer to the privacy policy of Audience Science.

You can opt-out of this system easily by following these instructions. Audience Science will send an "opt-out cookie" to your device: please note that if you subsequently delete all of your cookies, you will also delete the Audience Science opt-out cookie.

The Audience Science technology does not apply to Virgin Media customers' connections and additionally, the customer account area at myvirginmedia.com does not use the Audience Science system.

More information about behavioural advertising

Links from this site to other sites

Please be aware that our site may provide access to other web sites by linking to them. We are not responsible for the data policies (including data protection and cookies), content or security of these linked web sites.

Contacting us

If you have any comments or queries concerning the website, please contact us. For queries regarding Virgin Media's services, please call our team on 0845 454 1111 or dial 150 from a Virgin Media phone line.

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information you should write to Virgin Media's Group Compliance department at the address below:

Group Compliance
Virgin Media
Bartley Wood Business Park
Hook
Hampshire
RG27 9UP