The BBC Privacy and Cookies Policy – BBC

Page updated: April 2024
 
Version 3.3
This policy is for when you’re in the UK (view policy for when you’re outside the UK). It tells you:
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This policy covers the services that are offered by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
And sometimes it covers services offered by parts of our organisation that operate as separate companies. Such as:
BBC World Service, BBC Studios, BBC Studioworks, BBC Global News, BBC Media Applications Technology, BBC World Service Trading and TV Licensing and BBC charities.
But only when those services link to this policy or tell you it applies.
It’s up to you to decide how much detail you want to know. We have just-in-time explanations that appear when we ask you to input your personal information. As well as what’s in this Policy, a service might have a short privacy notice. In that privacy notice you can find key information on what we do with your personal information when you use that service. And if you’re after more detail have a look at these topics.
Our services sometimes link to services run by other companies’ services, like opening a track from BBC Sounds on another music service such as Spotify. Those companies have their own privacy and cookies policies, so remember that the information you give them will follow their rules and not ours.
Sometimes you can access our services from other places, like a BBC Radio 1 YouTube page or the BBC iPlayer app on your connected TV. Make sure to check their privacy policy so you know how they will use your information.
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We’re strongly committed to keeping you and your family’s information safe. And to do this we design our services with your safety in mind. We also have dedicated teams to look after your information security and privacy.
At the same time, no service can be completely secure – if you have any concerns that your BBC account or personal information has been put at risk, for example if someone could have found out your password, please get in touch straight away.
Some companies that provide services to us run their services from outside the UK and the European Economic Area. We only let that happen if we are satisfied with their levels of security. Keep in mind that when you give us personal information it could be being transferred, stored or processed in a location outside the UK and the EEA.
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We’ll give you details about why we need your personal information and how we’ll use it before you begin, unless it’s obvious.
We might ask for your name and contact details, your date of birth or financial details, depending on what you’re doing. If you apply to take part in a programme on politics, for example, we might ask you about your political opinions. Information you give us might include information in a creation you share with us, such as people’s names that appear in the creation.
When you register for a BBC account, or update your details or settings we ask for some personal information, like your email address and age.
Devices are lots of things like:
We automatically collect some technical information from these devices and web browsers even when you’re not signed into to a BBC account. This might include:
We collect information about your location when you use our products and services. This helps us to determine whether you’re somewhere where are services are available, helps us to ensure we are fulfilling our Charter obligations and to offer additional features whilst using our products and services, such as a weather forecast for your location.
Your location can be determined at a town or city level by:
What type of location data (for example Country, Region, City or Town) is collected depends on the product or service your using, the device you’re using (for example Apple or Android) and your devices settings (whether permissions are enabled or disabled). You can change your permissions on or off any time in your device’s settings. You can read more about how our apps capture your data on our explainers.
Like if you’ve mentioned us in a Twitter post, we’ll collect your Twitter handle.
Like the articles you read and the programmes you watch.
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When you give us any personal information we’ll let you know how long we’ll hold it for. And always stick to these principles:
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We have to have a valid reason to use your personal information. It’s called the “lawful basis for processing”. Sometimes we might ask your permission to do things, like when you subscribe to an email. Other times, when you’d reasonably expect us to use your personal information, we don’t ask your permission, but only when:
We use your information for these types of things:
Your BBC account lets you personalise your BBC online experience. To do that, “Allow Personalisation” is set to on when you create an account. If you’re under 13 and create an account your personalisation is set to off. Information about how you use our online services is then connected with other information you give us to personalise your experience.
If you don’t want us to do this, you can always turn personalisation off in your account settings. If you’re under 13 you don’t need to do anything.
Will I be contacted for marketing purposes?
And sometimes how you might share things with other people
What does recommended for you mean?
Some of this advertising might be tailored to you.
You’re not a guinea-pig here, but knowing how you use our services could lead to the next big technology breakthrough.
When will the BBC use my information to contact me?
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We might use your information to contact you about different things, like:
We’ll only contact you when we need to or when you’ve given us permission.
We’ll never contact you to ask for your BBC account password.
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We’ll only send you marketing emails or contact you about BBC programmes, services and your views on issues about the BBC if you’ve agreed to this.
Keep in mind, even if you unsubscribe, we may still contact you.
If you have a BBC account we might use information that we hold about you to show you relevant and targeted advertising for BBC services through other companies’ sites, like Facebook, Google, Snapchat or Twitter for example. This could be showing you a BBC sponsored message where we know you have a BBC account and have used BBC services.
Where we do this, we will share your data in a hashed format with these providers so that, where you have an account on the same platform, you will see adverts from the BBC. In these scenarios, we are joint controllers with these companies because we jointly determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data.
We also assess certain characteristics of our audience members in order to find others who are similar to them to provide advertising to those individuals. 
If you don’t want to see our targeted advertising, you can set ad preferences in your social media companies’ settings. Also, you can visit your BBC account and turn this off.
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We’ll never sell your personal information. We do share it with others in these ways:
Like post a comment which the public can see.
In order for us to give you quality experiences and to understand how you’re using our services we often use other companies to process your personal information on our behalf. For example, sending you emails about things we think might interest you, to ask you what you think about our services, or to analyse data on how people use our digital services so we can improve them.
We make sure that your personal information is looked after as if we were handling it directly. We carefully select these companies, only share with them what they need to do the work and we make sure they keep your information secure.
What does this policy cover?
You can access our services through a voice-enabled device, like Amazon Alexa, or a connected TV. You’ll need to sign in to your BBC account to use BBC services on your connected TV. When you do this we’ll share an identifier for your BBC account with the company who runs the service you are using. Make sure to check that company’s privacy policy so you know how it will use your information. The BBC isn’t responsible when you access a BBC service through another company’s services. It’s up to you if you want to access the BBC in this way.
We do research activities and sometimes collaborate with research partners. Every now and then we share our content and data with them. This might include information we’ve collected about you. But we’re careful about what we share and what our research partners can do with it.
We share some personal information with TV Licensing, to check if you’re using BBC iPlayer and to keep the licensing database accurate and up to date.
We might also share your information if we have to by law, or when we need to protect you or other people from harm.
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The BBC has services that are kid-friendly and for teens.
Here’s what happens when you use them.
We keep information about you so that we can
We’ll explain why and how we use it and for how long. It’s called a “privacy notice”. And if we need your parent or guardian’s permission we’ll give you clear details about what’s needed at the time.
How can the BBC use my personal information?
The main rule is we will never sell your personal information to anyone.
When does the BBC share my personal information with others?
To make sure you use the parts of the BBC that are suitable for you. For example:
You’ll see a notification. We might also ask for some details from them, so that we can contact them. Other times we may contact your parent or guardian:
For example, if you enter one of our competitions, we might contact your parent.
Sometimes we need to get in touch with you but we’ll always follow these rules.
It’s our job to keep your personal information safe and secure. That’s why we design our services with your safety in mind. And we’re always looking for the best ways to improve this.
There are also things that you can do to keep safe, like thinking about what information you share and how to keep your devices secure.
How is my information being used to make decisions?
If you’re outside the UK you might not be able to access some services. Like CBBC and CBeebies.
And you may not be able to get a BBC account. Sorry about that.
Cookies are small text files that transfer onto your device when you use a service.
We use cookies and tracking to get information about what type of device you’re using to access our services and we record things like what sites you visit, your IP address (a unique number your device creates every time you connect to the internet) and to make things easier for you, like remembering where you got to in a game or what emoji you selected.
You can switch off some cookies and similar tracking technologies. Or your parent or guardian can do this if you’re under 13.
But other cookies can’t be turned off.
When you share your creation with us we’ll try to tell you exactly what we’re going to do with it.
You can:
If you’re 13 or older, you can do this yourself, but not always. Sometimes we’ll be asking for your parent or guardian to do that.
If you’re under 13 your parent or guardian probably has to do it for you.
What are my rights?
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This depends on what information you’re talking about.
You can delete your account. Your account information is immediately deleted. Keep in mind:
We might have collected other personal information that you might ask to be deleted that has nothing to do with BBC account.
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Remember, you’re in control of your personal information.
You have the right to:
Bear in mind, sometimes we might not be able to help. Like if the law tells us we can’t or it forms part of our journalistic output.
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Cookies are small text files which are transferred to your computer or mobile when you visit a website or app.
There are also similar pieces of tracking information we collect.
To do a few different things:
Some cookies are always on when you visit us, and you can’t turn them off unless you change your browser settings. We call these “strictly necessary cookies”. We use them to make sure our digital services work correctly and are meeting audience needs and interests.
We also use functional, performance and advertising cookies to make your experience more enjoyable. You can switch these on or off at any time and you can always change your mind. We’ll only use them if you’ve agreed.
Bear in mind there are some other cookies out there from other companies. These “third-party cookies” might track how you use different websites, including ours. For example, you might get a social media company’s cookie when you see the option to share something. You can turn them off, but not through us.
Some are erased when you close the browser on your website or app. Others stay longer, sometimes forever, and are saved onto your device so that they’re there when you come back.
Strictly necessary cookies are always on when you visit us. On your first visit to us, we’ll tell you about our other types of cookies and ask you to choose which cookies we can use. You can always change your mind by going to your settings.
Stopping all cookies might mean you can’t access some BBC services, or that some of them might not work properly for you.
Another way to control some tracking is in the settings on your device.
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We update this policy sometimes. If we make important changes, like how we use your personal information, we’ll let you know. It might be a notice, an email or a message in your app.
If you don’t agree to the changes, then you can always stop using our services, delete your account and stop giving us any more personal information. We’d be sorry to see you go.
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Find out more and contact us about your rights.
For any other questions or comments about this policy speak to our Data Protection Officer.
If you’re outside the UK please contact the BBC Studios Data Protection Officer:
We’re regulated by the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can also contact them for advice and support.
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