Security and privacy

At Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile (which together we will refer to as Virgin Media Group), 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 Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile collects, uses and looks after the information you provide to each of us 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 the type of information 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.
• 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.

We may supplement the information that you provide to us with information that we receive from third parties, for example, collected from other members of your household.

Please also note that our policy is not to ask you for sensitive personal data - that is, data relating to: race or ethnic origin; political opinion; religious or other similar beliefs; trade union membership; physical or mental health; sexual orientation; criminal records. We recommend that you do not provide such information to us. If you choose to do so for any reason (for example, if you tell us you are blind or hard of hearing and ask us to provide you with billing information in Braille/ large print or you ask us to provide you with Typetalk services), this will mean that you have given (and we accept) your explicit consent for us to use that information for the reasons described in this policy, or as explained to you at the time you provide the information to us.

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 access to privileged areas of the website.
•  To administer competitions and other promotional activity and personalise your visit to our site.
• To enable us to review, develop and improve the products, services and special offers online.
• To occasionally carry out market research.
•  To send you details of products, services and special offers 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.

When you apply for or use Virgin Media's products and services, you agree to Virgin Media's Terms and Conditions. Similarly, when you apply for or use Virgin Mobile's products and services, you agree to Virgin Mobile's Terms and Conditions. Our Terms and Conditions set out the purposes for which each Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile may use your personal information, and to whom it may be disclosed. Please refer to the Terms and Conditions for full details (Pay As You Go or Pay Monthly).

Disclosing your information

Here's when we may provide information about you:

• To our employees and agents to deal with any accounts, products and services provided to you by us now or in the future.
• With your agreement, to Virgin Media group companies and other Virgin companies (e.g. Virgin Atlantic), whose products and services may be of interest to you.
• In order to help us with fraud prevention, debt collection, credit management and emergency services and crime prevention purposes, we may disclose information about you and the conduct of your account to credit reference agencies, debt collection agencies, fraud prevention agencies, security agencies, financial institutions, emergency services and crime prevention agencies, and other phone companies.
• To suppliers we engage to process data on our behalf.
• 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 thirdparties 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 may collect ourselves and disclose personal information you have provided to persons or companies that we retain to carry out promotions and other activities for which you have registered or in which you have otherwise asked to participate.

It may be necessary to transfer your personal information to third parties located in countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). This may happen where our suppliers and service providers are based outside of the EEA. For example, Virgin Mobile has a third party outsourced call centre in South Africa and Virgin Media has a third party outsourced call centre in India.

Where the data protection laws of these countries do not provide the same level of data protection as in the UK, we will take the steps to ensure that your privacy rights are at least compliant with UK law. We will:

• Define the security measures that we require from them to protect our personal information
• Require them to sign a contract guaranteeing to comply with those security requirements.
• During the lifetime of the contract we will monitor for ongoing compliance with the defined security measures.

Finally, if our business enters into a joint venture with or is sold to or merged with another business entity, your information may be disclosed to our new business partners or owners.
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 Group cannot guarantee the safety of any personal information you transmit to Virgin Media online and to Virgin Mobile online.

We will not ask you for your 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

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, bill payments or when your services are about to come to an end.

Marketing consent: We may also, subject to your consent, use your personal information to contact you with information about special offers and rewards (this may include special offers of other carefully selected companies). We and other Virgin companies (e.g. Virgin Atlantic) may also, subject to your consent, use your personal information to contact you with information about their products and services including special offers from them, and we may disclose your personal information to other Virgin companies and sub-contractors and agents for these purposes. But don't worry, we won't share your details with companies outside the Virgin group for marketing purposes without your consent.

How we can contact you: If you have given us the consent referred to above, then from time to time, we and other Virgin companies 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 Virgin products and services (including discounts and special offers).

How you can give or withdraw marketing consent: If you wish to receive marketing or promotional information from us and other Virgin companies selected by us, and you have not previously given us your consent or alternatively you no longer want to receive this information from us, you'll need to let us know. 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.

If you've already given marketing consent: Don't worry, you don't need to do anything. We'll assume that you're happy to continue receiving information about our products, services and special offers unless we hear from you.

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 group 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.

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