Privacy Information

Privacy and Cookies Policy

Our policy in full
Last updated: May 2017
Version: 2.0

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Contents

1. Introduction & General 11. How long will the BBC

Terms keep my personal
information?
2. Who are we?
12. Can I delete my data?
3. What information will
the BBC collect about 13. Can I find out what
me? personal information
the BBC holds about
4. How will the BBC use me?
the information it
collects about me? 14. What if I am accessing
BBC websites outside
5. Your BBC Account the UK?

6. When will the BBC 15. Web browser cookies

contact me?
16. Do Not Track (DNT)
7. Will I be contacted for browser setting
marketing purposes?
17. Apps, Devices and TVs
8. Will the BBC share my
personal information 18. Changes to BBC’s
with anyone else? Privacy and Cookies
Policy
9. Offensive or
inappropriate content 19. Other BBC Operations
on BBC websites e.g. TV Licensing

10. What if I am a user aged 20. Contacting the BBC

under 18? about this Privacy and
Cookies Policy

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1. Introduction & General Terms

The BBC is committed to protecting your and your family's personal

information when you are using BBC services. We want our services
to be safe and enjoyable environments for our audience. This Privacy
and Cookies Policy relates to our use of any personal information we
collect from you via the following online services:
• any BBC website that links to this Privacy and Cookies Policy;
• social media or official BBC content on other websites;
• mobile device and TV Applications (“Apps”);
• the Red Button or Red Button+ service.

It also relates to our use of any personal information you provide to us

by phone, SMS, email, in letters and other correspondence and in
person.

In order to provide you with the full range of BBC services, we

sometimes need to collect information about you.

This Privacy and Cookies Policy explains the following:

• what information the BBC may collect about you;

• how the BBC will use information we collect about you;
• when the BBC may use your details to contact you;
• whether the BBC will disclose your details to anyone else;
• your choices regarding the personal information you provide to us;
• the use of cookies on BBC websites and how you can reject
cookies.

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The BBC is committed to safeguarding your personal information.
Whenever you provide such information, we are legally obliged to use
your information in line with all applicable laws concerning the
protection of personal information, including the Data Protection Act
1998 (these laws are referred to collectively in this Privacy and
Cookies Policy as the "data protection laws"). No website can be
completely secure; if you have any concerns that your BBC account
could have been compromised e.g. someone could have discovered
your password, please get in touch straight away.

BBC websites contain hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by

third parties. These third party websites have their own privacy
policies, and are also likely to use cookies, and we therefore urge you
to review them. They will govern the use of personal information you
submit when visiting these websites, which may also be collected by
cookies. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy
practices of such third party websites and your use of such websites
is at your own risk.

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2. Who are we?

The British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) is the largest

broadcasting organisation in the world. We are a public service
broadcaster, established by a Royal Charter and primarily funded by
the licence fee that is paid by UK households. The BBC includes the
BBC World Service, which broadcasts to the world on radio, on TV and
online, providing news and information in 32 languages.

The licence fee is supplemented by income from the commercial

exploitation of licence fee funded content and infrastructure through
commercial subsidiaries – BBC Worldwide Ltd, BBC Global News Ltd,
BBC Studios and BBC Studioworks.

Our online services

The UK website, bbc.co.uk, and many BBC apps in the UK are run by
the BBC. Some pages of the BBC website (on the bbc.co.uk domain)
are also made available to users outside the UK.

The international version of the BBC website, BBC.com, and mobile

Apps are run by BBC Global News and the local language versions by
the BBC World Service (part of the BBC public service); see
www.bbc.co.uk/ws/languages.

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These international services are funded through advertising that is
delivered by BBC Worldwide.

BBC Worldwide also publishes the BBC Earth website,

www.bbc.com/earth, which is available in the UK on a non-commercial
basis (i.e. the adverts have been removed). BBC Worldwide’s activities
are only covered by this Privacy and Cookies Policy in relation to its
use of data collected via bbc.com. To find out more about BBC
Worldwide, its commercial operations and how it will use data
collected when you use its other international and UK services,
including BBC Store, please see its corporate website and the BBC
Worldwide Privacy Policy.

Other companies might run BBC-branded services under licence.

These companies must operate to BBC standards but please make
sure you always check the privacy policy of the websites you use so
you know who runs the website and how they will use your data.

When we refer to ‘’we’’ or ‘’our’’ or ‘’the BBC’’ we are referring to the

BBC, the BBC World Service, BBC Global News and BBC Worldwide
(but only in relation to BBC Worldwide’s use of information collected
via bbc.com).

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3. What information will the BBC collect
about me?

When you participate in, access or sign up to any of the BBC’s

services, activities or online content, such as newsletters,
competitions, live chats, message boards, web and mobile
notifications, telephone or text the BBC, vote, donate money to a BBC
charity appeal, book tickets for a BBC event or create an account using
the BBC’s online registration system we may receive personal
information about you. This can consist of information such as your
name, email address, postal address, telephone or mobile number,
gender or date of birth, as well as information collected about your use
of BBC services (such as what you read or watch on BBC Online and
items you have “added” when signed in to your BBC account).

Please note that sometimes we will require you to provide additional

personal information, and sometimes sensitive personal information
(e.g. if you're sending in an application to be a contributor on a political
programme we may need to know your political leanings). When we do
this we will provide further information about why we are collecting
your information and how we will use it.

Where we provide personalised services, we may ask your permission

to review third party data about you, for example, your Twitter or
Facebook feeds, to get to know you better and to provide more

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effective personalisation. Some of our services enable you to sign-in
via a third party service, such as Facebook. If you choose to sign-in via
a third party app, you will be presented with a dialog box which will ask
your permission to allow the BBC to access your personal information
(e.g. your full name, date of birth, email address and any other
information you have made publicly accessible). Please note that any
information that is not required by the particular service you have opted
to use will not be retained by the BBC.

The BBC collects information about how you use BBC mobile or TV
Apps, BBC websites or other BBC content online, and the device(s)
you use to access the services. This includes collecting unique online
identifiers such as IP addresses, which are numbers that can uniquely
identify a specific computer or other network device on the internet.
For more information, please see section 15 of this policy, on the
BBC’s use of cookies and similar technologies, and section 17, on
information collected by the BBC when you use BBC Apps on your TV
or mobile device.

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4. How will the BBC use the information
it collects about me?

The BBC will use your personal information for a number of purposes
including the following:

• to provide our services, activities or online content, to provide you

with information about them and to deal with your requests and
enquiries;
• to provide you with the most user-friendly online navigation
experience;
• for "service administration purposes", which means that the BBC
may contact you for reasons related to the service, activity or online
content you have signed up for, as set out in section 5 below (e.g. to
provide you with password reminders, to notify you that a particular
service, activity or online content has been suspended for
maintenance, to notify you of updates to our Privacy and Cookies
Policy or Terms of Use, to let you know if your BBC account has
become dormant and to ask if you would like to use it again before
we close it);
• we share some personal data with TV Licensing, to check if you are
using BBC iPlayer and to keep the licensing database accurate and
up to date;
• where we provide personalised services, we may analyse the
information you supply, as well as your activity on our (and other)

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 services, so that we can offer a more relevant, tailored service. For
instance, we could use your viewing history on iPlayer to provide
personalised recommendations or, if the first thing you look at every
day on BBC Online is the weather for Luton, we could present this
information or a link to it on your homepage. If you are signed-in or
subscribed to email newsletters, you will receive a personalised
service. If you don’t want to receive these services you can
unsubscribe from email newsletters, or disable personalisation.
Please visit Your Account in Using the BBC to find out more;
• we may also show you relevant advertising on third party sites, as
set out in section 7;
• to contact you about a submission you have made, including any
content you provide. For additional information, please see the
Terms of Use;
• to use IP addresses and device identifiers to identify the location of
users, to block disruptive use, to establish the number of visits from
different countries, and to determine whether you are accessing the
services from the UK or not. If you are accessing services from
outside the UK, you may be re-directed to the international version
of the BBC website (bbc.com);
• for analysis and research purposes so that we may improve the
services offered by the BBC;
• we may also use and disclose information in aggregate (so that no
individuals are identified) for marketing and strategic development
purposes; and
• when you access a BBC website from outside the UK, you will see
the international version, bbc.com, which features advertising. A
certain amount of this advertising is tailored to the individual, a
common practice known as online behavioural advertising. Find out
more in the What is Online Behavioural Advertising? section of

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 Using the BBC. It is important to remember that you will only see
this advertising, and receive online behavioural advertising, if
you are visiting bbc.com from outside the UK.

Where the BBC proposes using your personal information for any other
uses we will ensure that we notify you first. Please see section 18
below for details.

5. Your BBC Account

If you have registered for a BBC account this will also allow you to
login to the BBC website for your location and some other BBC
websites and apps. These services might be run by the BBC or they
could be run by BBC Worldwide (e.g. BBC Store) or BBC Global News
(e.g. the international BBC News app), or a combination of all three. To
provide you with a seamless experience, it may be necessary to share
your personal information between the three organisations. We will only
share what we need to in order to provide the service you are using –
we will never routinely share all of the data we each hold about you.

You might be asked to use your BBC account on other BBC services
to enable you to sign in and seamlessly enjoy BBC services. For
example, you need a BBC account to be able to create and use an
account with BBC Store, which is run by BBC Worldwide. This gives
you a better experience by enabling you to watch your purchased
programmes in BBC iPlayer.

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To enable this functionality, some information needs to be shared
between the different parts of the BBC that are providing you with a
service. So, if you have a BBC Store account, your registration details
will be shared between the BBC’s public service (who run your BBC
account) and BBC Worldwide (who run BBC Store). Also, BBC Store
will share what you have purchased with BBC iPlayer so that you can
watch your programmes. And, BBC iPlayer will share back to BBC
Store that you have watched a purchased programme (so that BBC
Worldwide can assist you with any queries or refund requests).

Your BBC account will always be covered by the policies of this

website. But, please be aware that additional policies may apply if your
BBC account is linked to another account. For example, if you have a
BBC Store account, that account is subject to the BBC Worldwide
Privacy Policy.

6. When will the BBC contact me?

The BBC may contact you:

• in relation to any service, activity or online content you have signed
up for in order to ensure that the BBC can deliver the services to
you, e.g. to verify your email when you sign up for a BBC account,
or to help you reset your password or to check if you still want to
use the service (if your account is dormant);

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• in relation to any correspondence we receive from you or any
comment or complaint you make about BBC products or services;
• in relation to any personalised services you are using;
• in relation to any contribution you have submitted to the BBC, e.g.
on the BBC message boards or via text or voicemail message;
• to invite you to participate in surveys about the BBC services
(participation is always voluntary);
• to update you on any material changes to the BBC’s policies and
practices; and
• for marketing purposes, as set out in section 7.

Local pages will give you detailed information about how the BBC will
contact you in relation to specific services, activities or online content.

We will never contact you to ask for your BBC account password, or
other login information. Please be cautious if you receive any emails or
calls from people asking for this information and claiming to be from
the BBC.

7. Will I be contacted for marketing

purposes?

The BBC will only send you marketing emails or contact you on BBC
platforms where you have agreed to this. We may personalise the
message content based upon any information you have provided to us
and your use of BBC platforms.

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We may use information which we hold about you to show you relevant
advertising on third party sites (e.g. Facebook, Google, Instagram,
Snapchat and Twitter). This could involve showing you an advertising
message where we know you have a BBC account and have used BBC
products and services. If you don’t want to be shown targeted
advertising messages from the BBC, some third party sites allow you
to request not to see messages from specific advertisers on that site in
future. If you want to stop all personalised services from the BBC,
including targeted advertising messages on third party sites you can
visit Your Account in Using the BBC and disable personalisation there.

8. Will the BBC share my personal

information with anyone else?

We will keep your information within the BBC except where disclosure
is required or permitted by law (for example to government bodies and
law enforcement agencies, including for child protection reasons) or as
described in this section and section 9.

We may share your information across the public service and its
commercial subsidiaries, such as BBC Worldwide, where this is
necessary to provide you with a service you have requested, for
example, when you register outside the UK or where you register to
purchase content from BBC Store.

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Generally, we will use your information within the BBC and will only
share it outside the BBC where you have requested it or given your
consent. However, we may share with third party sites (e.g. Facebook,
Google, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter) some data, with appropriate
security measures, to show you relevant advertising on third party
sites, as set out in section 7. Sometimes the BBC uses third parties to
process your information on our behalf, for example to provide services
or analysis. The BBC requires these third parties to comply strictly with
its instructions and the BBC requires that they do not use your
personal information for their own business purposes, unless you have
explicitly consented to the use of your personal information in this way.

We may share your personal information internally (i.e. with other BBC
divisions), for example, we share some personal data with TV
Licensing, to check if you are using BBC iPlayer and to keep the
licensing database accurate and up to date. Please see section 4
above for more details.

9. Offensive or inappropriate content on

BBC websites

If you post or send offensive, inappropriate or objectionable content

anywhere on or to BBC websites or otherwise engage in any disruptive
behaviour on any BBC service, the BBC may use your personal
information to stop such behaviour.

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Where the BBC reasonably believes that you are or may be in breach
of any applicable laws (e.g. because content you have posted may be
defamatory), the BBC may use your personal information to inform
relevant third parties such as your employer, school email/internet
provider or law enforcement agencies about the content and your
behaviour.

10. What if I am a user aged under 18?

If you are aged 18 or under, please get your parent/guardian's

permission before you provide any personal information to the BBC.
If you are under 18 and want to register for a BBC account then you
will need to provide your date of birth to make sure you can use the
parts of BBC Online that are meant for you and for younger visitors. If
you are under 13 then we will need consent from your parent/guardian
before you can use some of our services. Please click here for more
information about registering for a BBC account..
Outside the UK a BBC account will not provide access to the child
specific content available in the UK. Please do not create a BBC
account if you are outside the UK and under 18 as your account may
be removed.

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11. How long will the BBC keep my
personal information?

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is

necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any
relevant contract you hold with the BBC. If you delete your BBC
account then your personal information is deleted immediately, and the
remaining information is anonymised for analytical purposes. For
further information about deleting your BBC account, please see
section 12 below.

Where you contribute content together with your personal information

(User Generated Content or UGC) please refer to our Terms of Use for
further information about how long we may store such material.

If you have not used your BBC account in the last two years then your
account may be classed as dormant or may even have been deleted in
line with our privacy policy. We will email to remind you before deletion
so please check your inbox regularly to see if we have sent you any
emails about this. If you have made a purchase on BBC Store then
your account will be considered to be active because it is required to
continue to access that content.

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12. Can I delete my data?

You can always delete your BBC account. Find out how to delete your
account here.
As explained in section 11 above, deleting your BBC account will erase
any personal information in your account that we have about you and it
will mean any data we hold about how you have used the BBC will be
made anonymous.

Deleting your BBC account will not delete the data you shared with the
BBC for reasons that are not connected with your BBC account. For
example, if you apply for BBC Shows, Tours & Take Part, we will keep
your data so that we can manage that service and tell you about future
shows you might like (if you have asked to be kept updated).

Important: if you delete your BBC account then you will be unable
to access any BBC Store account that is associated with it, as they
share the same technology. So you may lose anything you have
bought with your BBC Store account.

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13. Can I find out what personal
information the BBC holds about me?

Under the Data Protection Act you have the right to request a copy of
the personal information the BBC holds about you and to have any
inaccuracies corrected. (We charge £10 for information requests and
require you to prove your identity with 2 pieces of approved
identification). We will use reasonable efforts consistent with our legal
duty to supply, correct or delete personal information about you on our
files. If you are within the UK, please address requests and questions
about this or any other question about this Privacy and Cookies Policy
to the Data Protection Officer, BC2 A4 Broadcast Centre, 201 Wood
Lane, London W12 7TP (Email: [email protected]).

From outside the UK, please email [email protected] or write to

The Privacy Team, BBC Worldwide, 4A Television Centre, 101 Wood
Lane, London W12 7FA.
We will need two copies of forms of identification, which can be:
Passport
Driving licence
Birth certificate
Utility bill (from last 3 months)
Current vehicle registration document
Bank statement (from last 3 months)
Rent book (from last 3 months).

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14. What if I am accessing BBC websites
outside the UK?

The BBC website is published in the UK by the BBC as bbc.co.uk. The

international version of the website, bbc.com, is made available to
international users accessing the website from outside the UK by the
BBC's commercial subsidiaries, BBC Worldwide and BBC Global
News, on a commercial basis (i.e. some of the pages you access from
outside the UK will have advertising on them) under licence from the
BBC. Please note that some pages of the BBC website are made
available to users outside the UK on a non-commercial basis (for
example, the front page for the BBC World Service’s foreign language
sites, e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/index.shtml). All personal
information submitted by users outside the UK will be processed in
accordance with this Privacy and Cookies Policy (and any local terms
that apply to certain areas of the site). Where there is a conflict, the
local terms will apply.

You may notice that some sections of bbc.com are available within the
UK, for example bbc.com/earth. These are made available by BBC
Worldwide to UK users on a non-commercial basis (i.e. the adverts
have been removed).

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15. Web browser cookies

a. What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes a unique

identifier that is sent to your computer, tablet or mobile phone (all
referred to here as a "device") web browser from a website's computer
and is stored on your device's hard drive. Each website can send its
own cookie to your web browser if your browser's preferences allow it.
Many websites do this whenever a user visits their website in order to
track online traffic flows. Similar technologies are also often used within
emails to understand whether the email has been read or if any links
have been clicked. If you continue without changing your settings, we’ll
assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the BBC website.
However, you can change your cookie settings at any time.

On BBC websites, cookies record information about your online

preferences and allow us to tailor our websites to your interests.

During the course of any visit to a BBC website, the pages you see,
along with a cookie, are downloaded to your device. Many websites do
this, because cookies enable website publishers to do useful things like
find out whether the device (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.

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b. How does the BBC use cookies?

Information supplied by cookies can help us to understand the profile

of our visitors and help us to provide you with a better user experience.
It also helps us recognise when you are signed in to your BBC account
and to provide a more personalised experience. For example, if on a
previous visit you went to our education pages, we might find this out
from your cookie and highlight educational information on your second
and subsequent visits. The BBC uses this type of information to help
improve the services it provides to its users. Certain areas of BBC
websites may use cookies for a specific reason - for example, to help
an online game work effectively on your device.

Additionally, BBC Worldwide uses cookies to serve some targeted

advertising on bbc.com to non-UK users. Further information, including
how to opt-out of receiving these cookies, can be found in the “What is
Online Behavioural Advertising?” section of Using the BBC.

c. Third Party Cookies in embedded content on BBC

pages

Please note that during your visits to BBC websites you may notice
some cookies that are not related to the BBC or the BBC’s contractors.

To support our journalism, we sometimes embed content from social

media and other third party websites. These may include YouTube,
Twitter, Facebook, SoundCloud, Vine, Instagram, Pinterest and Flickr.
As a result, when you visit a page containing such content, you may be
presented with cookies from these websites and these third party

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cookies may track your use of the BBC website. The BBC does not
control the dissemination of these cookies and you should check the
relevant third party's website for more information. If you continue
without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to
receive all cookies on the BBC website. However, you can find out
about changing your cookie settings here.

Where the BBC embeds content from social media and other third
party websites, some websites may use Google Analytics to collect
data about user behaviour for their own purposes. The BBC does not
control this. For more information, see the Google webpage “How
Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps”.

BBC Sharing Tools

You will also see embedded ‘share’ buttons on BBC web pages; these
enable users to easily share content with their friends through a
number of popular social networks. When you click on one of these
buttons, a cookie may be set by the service you have chosen to share
content through. Again, the BBC does not control the dissemination of
these cookies. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll
assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the BBC website.
However, you can change your cookie settings at any time

d. BBC cookies and how to reject cookies

Full information about how the BBC uses cookies, and how to control
what cookies are set on your device through the BBC website, can be
found on Using the BBC .

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It is important to note that if you change your settings and block certain
cookies, you will not be able to take full advantage of some features of
BBC services, and we might not be able to provide some features you
have previously chosen to receive.

e. Other information collected from web browsers

Your web browser may also provide the BBC with information about
your device, such as an IP address and details about the browser that
you are using. Where requesting local news or weather, it may be
possible for you to choose to provide the BBC with access to your
device’s location through the web-browser. We use information
provided by your browser or by the link that you have clicked to
understand the webpage that directed you to BBC Online and this may
be captured by performance cookies.

If you have any concerns about the way that we use cookies or respect
your settings, then please contact us at [email protected].

16. Do Not Track (DNT) browser setting

DNT is a feature offered by some browsers which, when enabled,

sends a signal to websites to request that your browsing is not tracked,
such as by third party ad networks, social networks and analytic
companies. This website does not currently respond to DNT requests.

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17. Apps, Devices and TVs

When you download or use BBC apps on your mobile device or TV,
information may be accessed from or stored to your device. Most often
this is used in a similar way to a web browser cookie, such as by
enabling the app to ‘remember’ you or provide you with the content
you have requested.

Your web browser or device may also provide the BBC with
information about your device, such as a device identifier or IP
address. Device identifiers may be collected automatically, such as the
device ID, IP address, MAC address, IMEI number and app ID (a
unique identifier relating to the particular copy of the app you are
running).

If you have any concerns about the information which might be

accessed from or stored on your device by the BBC, you may wish to
only access BBC content through a web browser and review your web
browser settings. Visit Using the BBC (“How can I stop my internet
browser tracking my info?”) for more information.

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18. Changes to BBC’s Privacy and
Cookies Policy

This Privacy and Cookies Policy may be updated from time to time so
you may wish to check it each time you submit personal information to
the BBC. The date of the most recent revisions will appear on this
page. If you do not agree to these changes, please do not continue to
use BBC websites to submit personal information to the BBC. You can
also delete your BBC account at any time – please see section 12 for
details. If material changes are made to the Privacy and Cookies
Policy, for instance affecting how we would like to use your personal
information, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for
certain services, email notification of Privacy Policy changes).

19. Other BBC Operations e.g. TV

Licensing

Some areas, such as TV Licensing and BBC charity appeals have their
own privacy and cookies policies which you should also read before
submitting your personal information.

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We share some personal data with TV Licensing, to check if you are
using BBC iPlayer and to keep the licensing database accurate and up
to date. Please see the TV Licensing Privacy Policy to learn more about
how the BBC uses your personal information for TV Licensing
purposes.

In relation to BBC Worldwide, this Privacy and Cookies Policy only

applies to its use of data collected via the international version of the
BBC website, bbc.com, which is accessed by users from outside the
UK. For details of how BBC Worldwide uses personal information
collected via its other international and UK services please see BBC
Worldwide’s Privacy Policy

20. Contacting the BBC about this

Privacy and Cookies Policy

If you any questions or comments about this Privacy and Cookies

Policy please contact: The Data Protection Officer
BC2 A4, Broadcast Centre 201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TP
(Email: [email protected])

If you are viewing the international version of this website, bbc.com,

and you have any questions or comments about the Privacy Policy,
please contact BBC Worldwide via email: [email protected].

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