Here at Virgin.com Limited ("Virgin.com", "we" or "us"), we take your privacy seriously. We're committed to protecting the privacy of all the personal information you give us. We will comply with the UK's Data Protection Act 1998 and any other applicable data protection legislation. We are registered on the public register of data controllers maintained by the Information Commissioner in the UK.
We have a philosophy here about the way we use your consent to be contacted (if you give us that consent). If you hear from us, we will always aim to be respectful, relevant and appropriate. If at any time you don't feel we've lived up to our philosophy, please let us know straight away by getting in touch with us.
Please take the time to read this privacy policy, which is part of our terms of use. By using the Virgin.com site, you are agreeing to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.
This policy explains how we collect, use and store the personal information you provide to us. 'Personal information' is information which identifies you or another person or is capable of doing so.
This policy may change from time to time and, if it does, the up-to-date version will always be available on the Virgin.com site. By continuing to use the Virgin.com site you are agreeing to any updated versions.
What information do we collect when you sign up for our email list?
When you subscribe to our deals and offers and updates emails, we'll ask you for your email address and to confirm you are over 18 and don't mind receiving emails from the Virgin Group.
Will we use your information for marketing?
When you register, we'll clearly state that we may like to get in touch with you by email about offers, promotions, products or services which we think will interest you. By giving us your details on signup, you'll be agreeing to this.
How else will we use your information?
We may also use your information for the following purposes:
- Where reasonably necessary, to help provide services to you
- To send you specific information, if you've requested it or to carry out your other specific requests
- To carry out surveys occasionally and to analyse our user base — ultimately we want to ensure that www.virgin.com provides everything that you — our audience — is looking for
- To check whether you are eligible for a competition and to contact you if you win
- To comply with the law
- As we feel is necessary to prevent illegal activity or to protect our interests
And we won't keep hold of your personal information for longer than is reasonably necessary or required by law.
Will we share your information with anyone else?
Only if…
- You specifically request this, such as when you submit information to enquire about jobs or submit a job application through www.virgin.com
- We are required to do so to comply with the law and with the directions of the courts or other authorities
- We feel it is reasonably necessary to prevent illegal activity or to protect our interests
- Other Virgin companies products and services may interest you
- It helps our trusted third party service providers to provide and improve our service to you or to carry out surveys and user analysis to understand your needs and preferences. We'd require these service providers who are processing your personal information to keep it safe and secure (e.g. make them sign up to a contract and employ reasonable technical and organisational controls to keep your personal information secure.) These trusted third parties would only be permitted to use your personal information for the purposes we specify.
We may share some broader statistics and customer profiling information with third parties and other Virgin companies - but we'll keep it anonymous, so you won't be identifiable from that data.
We won't rent or sell our user's details to any other organisation or individual.
What if you post information on our site?
This site contains an open forum for users to post their content ("User Content"). It is information in the public domain, so it may be accessed by any person using the web in any part of the world and can be found using independent search engines. So, if you choose to post information to the interactive parts of our site, we have to state that you do so at your own risk. This is the case whether the User Content is uploaded directly onto www.virgin.com or through a connected site.
This means your User Content:
- Won't have its usage and circulation limited as described in the sections of this policy above headed 'Will we use your information for marketing?', 'How else will we use your information?' and 'Will we share your information with anyone else?'
- Won't be protected as described in the section of this policy below headed 'Will we be transferring any personal information outside the EU?'
- Won't be held securely as described in the section of this policy below headed 'Keeping your information safe'
We are obliged by our legal eagles to state that neither Virgin.com nor any other Virgin company will be liable to you or to any third party for any loss or damage resulting from any User Content posted on the Virgin.com site.
However, if you upload User Content to our site using the Facebook Connect function, we will protect your privacy consistently with your Facebook privacy settings.
Please read our Terms and Conditions for more information about posting User Content. If you register on the site, you'll need to comply with our Terms and Conditions.
If you have any concerns about User Content appearing on this site, please Contact Us.
What information do we collect if you register as an employee?
When you sign up with us as a registered Virgin employee on www.virgin.com, we'll collect some details from you. By registering or signing up with us, you'll be agreeing that your personal information can be used and disclosed as set out in this policy.
When you register, we'll ask you for your:
- Password
- Email address
- First name
- Last name
- Date of birth
- Department
- Phone Number
Our main purpose for collecting this data is to provide you with a better user experience and a more relevant and more useful service from www.virgin.com.
How will we make sure our site is secure?
We follow strict security procedures as to how your personal information is stored and used, and who sees it, to help stop any unauthorised person getting hold of it. All personal information you register on this site will be scrambled using 128-bit encryption. We take security extremely seriously but as no system is 100% secure, we can't completely guarantee the protection of your personal information, any more than any other organisation can. So we can't accept any liability for the loss, theft or misuse of the personal information which you've registered on this website if there is a security breach.
Will we be transferring any personal information outside the EU?
Countries outside the European Union may have a lower standard of protection for personal information than that required by EU data protection laws. If we need to transfer your data to a company based outside the EU (e.g. if our hosting company is based in the US), we'll take steps to make sure your personal data is handled in line with EU law.
What about personal information relating to minors?
Protecting the online privacy of children is especially important. If you are under 18 years old, please do not attempt to register with www.virgin.com and do not provide us with your name, contact details or any other information about yourself. If we reasonably believe a user to be under 18, we may need to remove their details and all User Content provided by them from our site and our records. To find out more, please read our Terms and Conditions.
What are cookies?
We use "cookies" to store and collect information regarding your use of our site. Cookies are small pieces of information stored by the browser on your computer's hard drive. They send information stored on them back to our web server when you access our site. These cookies do not contain any personally identifying information, but they do enable us to put in place personal settings and load your personal preferences. This makes it a better experience for you. You can find out more about cookies at www.allaboutcookies.org, and more about the cookies we use on our help & cookies page.
Are you protected by this policy outside www.virgin.com?
Our site contains links to other websites. Obviously, we don't have any control over them and take no responsibility for any information you give them. Other sites have different privacy and security policies, which we advise you to read.
How you can access your information
Obviously you can change your profile and your registration details on www.virgin.com anytime. You can also request, at any time, access to the personal information we hold about you. You can write to us at the following address requesting access to your personal information.
The Webmaster
Virgin.com Limited
c/o Virgin Management Limited
The School House
50 Brook Green
London W6 7RR
UK
You are entitled to be told by us whether we or someone else on your behalf is processing your personal information; what personal information we hold; details of the purposes for the processing of your personal information; and details of any third party with whom your personal information has been shared. (We may charge a small admin fee for providing this information). You can also request that we correct any personal information which we hold about you where it is inaccurate. In addition, you may request that we delete any registration details which you have provided to us — and we'll comply with that request.
Sometimes you may be asked to provide proof of identity before we show you your personal information - that's so we can prevent unauthorised access.
Talk to us
If you have any queries, comments or complaints regarding this privacy policy, just get in touch. You can contact us through the Contact Us section of this site or write to us at the address set out above. Alternatively, call us. From the UK, dial 020 7313 2000 and from countries outside of the UK, dial +44 207 313 2000. Please ask to speak to the Webmaster of Virgin.com. It's not 24-7 so leave a message if needs be and we'll get back to you, ideally within 48 hours.
This policy was last updated on 2 April 2009.
