If you switch BT Webwise on, your data will be held in line with this privacy policy. By participating in the BT Webwise trial you accept this change in the BT Total Broadband and BT Total Broadband Anywhere service terms.
We have developed this policy because we want you to feel confident about the privacy and security of your personal information
BT Group plc is the holding company for an integrated group of businesses that provides voice and data services in the UK and overseas. British Telecommunications plc is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and holds virtually all businesses and assets of the BT group.
BT has four customer-focused lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach. BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach operate mainly within the UK, where BT is the largest communications services provider to the residential and business markets, supplying a wide range of communications products and services, including voice, data, internet and multimedia services, and offering a comprehensive range of managed and packaged communications solutions.
BT Global Services provides a range of products and services, including communications, networked IT and consultancy services to address the needs of major corporations, governments and multi-site global organisations. In April 2007, we announced a new structure, which includes two new business units; BT Design will be responsible for the design and development of the platforms, systems and processes which will support our services; BT Operate will be responsible for their deployment and operation.
When we refer to "we" or "our" or "BT" we are referring to BT Group plc (which includes British Telecommunications plc) and its subsidiaries, or any of them, as the context requires.
We have developed this policy because we want you to feel confident about the privacy and security of your personal information. BT is registered under the data protection laws in the United Kingdom and takes all reasonable care to prevent any unauthorised access to your personal information.
When we refer to "personal information" in this privacy policy, we mean information, which identifies you as an individual, or is capable of doing so. Accordingly, we may hold and use data about you in your capacity as a consumer, a business customer, as an individual acting on behalf of a business customer, as a shareholder, or in any other capacity, for example, when you visit our websites.
Please read this privacy policy carefully. If you are visiting any of our websites or using any our services, by continuing to do so, you indicate your agreement to our use of your personal information as set out in this privacy policy.
This privacy policy only applies to how BT deals with your personal information. It does not apply to any other company or to any other company's websites even if you access them through BT. If you disclose your personal information to other companies your information will be dealt with according to their privacy practices.
We may ask you for information to enable us to provide a service to you and we collect this information by telephone, written correspondence or via a website. We may ask you for information including your name, private/business address, contact telephone numbers and email address. We may also ask you for other information that relates to the service you are using or ordering. For example, we may need your credit card number to charge you for certain services.
We may provide the BT WebWise service as an option on our broadband services. In order to manage the BT Webwise service we will divert your requests for web pages for a very short time, as well as undertake the operations described at www.bt.com/webwise that are necessary to provide you with relevant advertising. These may include the automatic scanning of web pages and web requests. The BT WebWise service analyses certain websites that you visit using your BT broadband service and matches information from those sites against certain pre-defined categories of interest. A cookie with a unique ID number will be automatically placed in your browser and the BT WebWise service will use this cookie to recognise you and remember the categories which are of interest to you. The BT WebWise service uses this information to help ensure that the advertisements on participating sites that you visit using your BT broadband service are more relevant to you.
You can choose to switch the BT WebWise service on or off at any time by visiting www.bt.com/webwise and following the instructions set out on that site. Please note that you will need to switch off the BT WebWise service separately on each browser and on each machine that you use to access the internet. If you are a broadband customer and have switched the BT WebWise service on or off, then by removing your cookies you will effectively be removing your preference. In that event we will ask you to switch BT Webwise service on or off again the next time you open your browser.
You are responsible for making sure that all other users of your BT broadband service know about the BT WebWise service and how to switch it off. For more information about the BT WebWise service, please visit www.bt.com/webwise.
As a normal part of our business we share with other communications companies information for connecting and charging for calls over each others networks.
We sometimes use other companies to provide services to you or to provide services to us. To enable them to do this, we may need to share your personal information with them. When we do so, these companies are required to act in accordance with the instructions we give them and they must meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act to keep the information secure.
We may share your personal information with other parts of BT to enable them to conduct their own businesses and to market their products and services to you. We provide this information in accordance with our code of practice on the disclosure of customer information. This code limits BT's ability to share information in this manner and is intended to prevent BT gaining unfair competitive advantage over its competitors.
We may share your personal information with other companies so that they can contact you with details of other products or services you may be interested in. We will only do this if you have agreed to this and where the companies agree to use your personal information for that purpose only. If you have agreed to receive information about products and services from another company and later decide not to you will need to contact that company yourself to let them know. You can of course ask us not to continue to provide your personal information to any more companies in future.
We may provide information, in response to properly made requests, for the purposes of the prevention and detection of crime, and the apprehension or prosecution of offenders. We may also provide information for the purpose of safeguarding national security. In either case we do so in accordance with the Data Protection Act. We also provide information when required to do so by law, for example under a court order, or in response to properly made demands, under powers contained in legislation.
If there is a change (or prospective change) in the ownership of BT or any of its assets, we may disclose personal information to the new (or prospective) owner. If we do so, we will require them to keep it confidential.
If you believe the personal information we hold on your is incorrect you may amend it by following the procedure set out below in "How can I change the personal information BT holds about me?"
The time period for which we keep information varies according to what the information is used for. In some cases, there are legal requirements to keep data for a minimum period. Unless there is a specific legal requirement for us to keep the information, we will retain it for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data was collected or for which it is to be further processed.
Countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) are required to have a similar standard of protection of personal data but this is not always the case in countries outside of the EEA. We do sometimes transfer data outside the EEA but before doing so take steps to ensure that your data will be given adequate protection as required by the Data Protection Act.
If you want specific information please tell us and give us any relevant information to enable us to locate the information about you because this will speed up our reply. We may be able to provide the specific information you want without you having to make a formal request.
You can make a formal request if you want to know what personal information
BT holds about you. In this case, please put your request in writing and
send it to us enclosing a cheque for the administration fee of £10
made payable to British Telecommunications plc. The address is:
Data Protection Manager, Box 17, BT Centre, 81 Newgate Street, London. EC1A
7AJ
If the information we hold about you is inaccurate, please let us know and we will make the necessary amendments and confirm that these have been made.
You may choose not to receive marketing information from BT and, if you are already receiving such information from us, you can ask us to stop at any time. If you would like BT not to call or mail you with details of products, services and special offers, please call 0800 800 150 (residential customers) or 0800 400 400 (business customers) or contact your Account Manager.
If you would like to stop unsolicited telemarketing calls from companies (including BT), please contact the Telephone Preference Service on 0845 0700707 or do this online at www.tpsonline.org.uk and register your telephone number(s). Direct marketing calls should stop after 28 days.
If you would like to stop unsolicited direct marketing mailings companies (including BT), please contact the Mail Preference Service on 0845 7034599 or do this online at www.mpsonline.org.uk. Direct marketing mailers should stop or significantly reduce after 3 months. (Remember to re-register if you change your address).
As explained above, we may provide the BT WebWise service as an option on our broadband services. The BT WebWise service helps to ensure that the advertisements on participating websites that you visit using your BT broadband service are more relevant to you. You can choose to switch the BT WebWise service on or off at any time by visiting www.bt.com/webwise and following the instructions set out on that site. Switching off the BT WebWise service will not stop you from seeing advertisements. Websites will still serve advertisements to you even if the BT WebWise service is switched off, but we will no longer be able to match these advertisements to your interests.
We are serious about guarding the security of your personal information and the details of any transactions made. We take appropriate organisational and technical security measures to protect your data against unauthorised disclosure or processing. We use a secure server to store the information you give us when you register or make an order (including your credit card details and your password). Any personal data you send us on-line is securely encrypted.
Please note that your billing account number is a sensitive piece of information, which can be used with your telephone number to find out information about your use of BT's services. Please be sure to keep this information safe, and do not share it with others. For access to information such as itemised billing and some business account and ordering services, extra proof of identity and authorisation may be needed.
We may change our privacy policy from time to time. New policies will be published on our web sites.
BT's privacy policy also applies to information collected when you use any of our websites. You do not have to register to access most of our websites. However, if you provide information via the "contact us" or any of the other interactive features, you indicate your consent to our use of your personal data in the manner described in this privacy policy.
If you have registered for any of the services available through our websites you may choose to cancel that registration at any time. You can do this in one of two ways:
Please ensure you inform us of the service which you wish to cancel. If you do either of these, your personal details will be deleted from our website database.
If you have registered you have direct control over information in your personal profile on our website. You can access and change this information at any time by using the "Update your profile" link.
Over and above what BT does to safeguard your privacy and security on-line, there are a number of things you can do to protect yourself from Internet fraud:
We do not use this information to:
A "cookie" is a text file which is allocated by our servers to your personal computer (PC) when you visit areas of our website or use certain features of our services. If you want to know more about cookies please go to www.allaboutcookies.org which explains how cookies work and how you can manage their use. We use "cookies" to collect information from visitors to our websites and registered customers.
Our website servers use two different types of cookies. The first type is known as a "session-based" cookie and is allocated to your PC only for the duration of your visit to our website. It helps you to move around the website faster. This cookie automatically expires when you close down your browser.
The second type of cookie known as a "persistent" cookie is allocated to your PC only if you agree by selecting the "Remember me" function. This cookie, if chosen, will remain on your PC for a period of time.
This cookie allows us to:
Apart from these two types of cookies, we also use cookies to provide the BT WebWise service to our broadband customers. If we are providing the BT WebWise service to you then, as explained above, a cookie with a unique ID number will be automatically placed in your browser. A copy of this cookie will also be appended to each domain that you visit using your BT broadband service.
If you decide to switch off the BT WebWise service, then an "opt
out" cookie will be automatically placed in your browser. We will
use this cookie in order to identify you as someone who has decided to
switch off the BT WebWise service. You will need to switch off the BT
WebWise service separately on each browser on each machine that you use
to access the internet. This is because a separate "opt out"
cookie needs to be placed in each browser.
We do not store information regarding your telephone number, account or
payment details in our cookies, and this information cannot be accessed
using those cookies.
Please note that as the cookie is based on your PC, we will not find it if you visit our websites using a different PC to the one you registered on.
All types of cookies can be removed from your PC but there may be some deterioration in the service you receive (for example, you may receive many pop up boxes containing the same advertisements or you may not be able to access a page you earlier personalised). Also, if you are a broadband customer and have switched the BT WebWise service on or off, then by removing your cookies you will effectively be removing your preference. In that event we will ask you to switch the BT Webwise service on or off again the next time you open your browser.
Your browser lets you choose whether to accept, not to accept or to be warned before accepting cookies. These settings can be found in the advanced preferences
In Internet Explorer 6 select: Tools menu / Internet options / Privacy
In Netscape 7.1 select: Edit menu / Preferences / Privacy and Security /
Cookies
In Firefox select: Tools menu / Options / Privacy / Cookies
For removing the "Remember me" cookie, just unpick the box when
you sign in.
Third party Internet sites that you can link to from BT's websites are not covered by our privacy policy, so we urge you to be careful when you enter any personal information online. BT accepts no responsibility or liability for these sites.
Other companies which advertise or offer their products or services on
our website may also allocate cookies to your PC. The types of cookies they
use and how they use the information generated by them will be governed
by their own privacy policies and not ours.