cocking.org

Privacy & Data Protection Policy

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Use and storage of your personal information
3. Access to your personal information
4. Users aged 16 years and under
5. Cookies
6. Use of Cookies for Advertising
7. How to find and control your cookies
8. How do you know which sites use cookies?
9. How to see your cookie code
10. Data Protection Act Notification

[Main Policy Statement]

1. Introduction

1. The following statement explains our policy regarding the personal information we may collect about you.
2. We believe our privacy policy is compliant with the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act, 1998.
3. This policy covers The Publisher's use of personal information that The Publisher collects when you use cocking.org (which includes cocking.org.uk).
4. The policy also gives you information about cookies; The Publisher and third parties' use of cookies; and how you may reject such cookies if you wish.
5. You can access our web sites and browse our web pages without providing any personal information.
6. You are under no obligation to provide any personal information in order to continue to access and browse the information on cocking.org. We simply may not be able to offer some additional services to you if you do not provide some basic details.
7. We do not automatically log personal data nor do we link information automatically logged by other means with personal data about specific individuals
8. We may collect the personal data that you may volunteer while using our websites or services, therefore from time to time, you may be asked to submit personal information about yourself (e.g. name and email address) in order to become and remain a member of cocking.org and receive or use services on our website. Such services include newsletters, competitions, live chats and message boards.
9. By entering your details in the fields requested or submitting them by electronic mail, you enable the The Publisher to provide you with membership of cocking.org and for The Publisher and its service providers to provide you with the services you select. Whenever you provide such personal information, we will treat that information in accordance with this policy. When using your personal information the The Publisher will act in accordance with current legislation such as the Data Protection Act, 1998 and aim to meet current Internet best practice.
10. We do not collect information about our visitors from other sources, such as public records or bodies, or private organisations.

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2. Use and storage of your personal information

1. When you supply any personal information to cocking.org (e.g. for competitions, cocking.org community services or cocking.org membership) we have legal obligations towards you in the way we use those data. We must collect the information fairly, that is, we must explain how we will use it (see the notices on particular web pages that let you know why we are requesting the information) and tell you if we want to pass the information on to anyone else.
2. In general, any information you provide to The Publisher will only be used by The Publisher and by his agents and service providers for membership or another stated purpose. Your information will be disclosed where we are obliged or permitted by law. Also, if you post or send offensive, inappropriate or objectionable content anywhere on or to cocking.org or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour on cocking.org, the The Publisher can use whatever information that is available to it about you to stop such behaviour. This may involve informing relevant third parties such as your employer, school e-mail/Internet provider and law enforcement agencies about the content and your behaviour.
3. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as you use the service you have requested, and remove it in the event that the purpose has been met, or, in the case of cocking.org membership when you tell us you no longer wish to continue your registration as a cocking.org member. For safety reasons, however, the The Publisher may store messaging transcript data (including message content, member names, times and dates) arising from the use of cocking.org for a period of six months. Where personal information is held for people who are not yet registered, but have taken part in other cocking.org services (e.g. competitions), that information will be held as long as is necessary to ensure that the service is run smoothly. We will ensure that all personal information supplied is held securely, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
4. If you are notified on a cocking.org site that your information may be used to allow the The Publisher or other persons to contact you for "service administration purposes", this means that the The Publisher or other persons may contact you for a number of purposes related to the service you have signed up for. For example, we may wish to provide you with password reminders or notify you that the particular service has been suspended for maintenance. We will not contact you for promotional purposes, such as notifying you of improvements to the service or new services on cocking.org unless you specifically agree to be contacted for such purposes at the time you submit your information on the site, or at a later time if you sign up specifically to receive such promotional information.
5. If you are notified on a cocking.org site that your information may be used to allow the The Publisher to contact you for "membership purposes", this means that in addition to contacting you for service administration purposes The Publisher may contact you for a number of purposes related to the service you have signed up for. For example, we may wish to contact you for promotional purposes, such as notifying you of improvements to the service or new services on cocking.org and in relation to the groups and communities represented on this site.
6. We will not contact you in relation to third party services and groups or services and groups not represented on this site unless unless you specifically agree to be contacted for such purposes at the time you submit your information on the site, or at a later time if you sign up specifically to receive such promotional information.
7. We will not pass on your personal information to any third parties unless you specifically agree to such transfers or agree to be contacted for such purposes at the time you submit your information on the site, or at a later time if you sign up specifically to receive such promotional information.
8. Cancellation of membership, for which there is no fee, will mean that the The Publisher will remove all records of your personal information unless obliged to retain them for statutory reasons.

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3. Access to your personal information

1. You have the right to request a readable copy of the personal information The Publisher holds about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected.
2. The Publisher reserves the right, at his sole discretion, to charge £10 for information requests.
3. Please address requests to the Data Protection Officer, 2 Lamberts Yard, Cocking, West Sussex GU29 0EU (Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).
4. The Publisher will endeavour to provide a copy of your personal information within 21 days.
5. The Freedom of Information Act, 2000 does not apply to cocking.org and requests made purporting to be made under that Act will not be responded to.

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4. Users aged 16 years and under

1. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.
2. We make reasonable efforts to ensure that a parent has authorised the collection of the child's personal data and use of the child's personal data for the disclosure to third parties.
3. We give parents the option to consent to the collection and use of the child's personal data for our internal use and use of the child's personal data for the disclosure to third parties.
4. So, if you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide personal information to the The Publisher's website. Users without this consent are not allowed to provide us with personal information.

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5. Cookies

1. During the course of any visit to cocking.org, the pages you see are downloaded to your computer. In addition we may download a short text file called a 'cookie'. Many websites do this, because cookies enable website publishers to do useful things like find out whether the computer (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.
2. Information supplied by cookies can help us to provide you with a better online user experience and assist us to analyse the profile of our visitors. For example: if on a previous visit you went to our local history pages, we might find this out from your cookie and highlight local history information on your subsequent visits.
3. A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier that is sent to your browser from a website's computer and stored on your computer's hard drive. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a web site to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.
4. Many sites do this whenever a user visits their website in order to track online traffic flows.  We do not.
5. Cookies record information about your online preferences. Users have the opportunity to set their computers to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. The last of these, of course, means that certain personalised services cannot then be provided to that user user and accordingly you may not be able to take full advantage of all of the cocking.org features. Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.
6. For further information on cookies please visit www.aboutcookies.org.
7. In the UK, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations are changing on 26 May 2011. From that date users of websites have to be given the option to agree to accept the use of cookies.  For cocking.org. this is normally achieved through the user's internet browser settings and by making it clear in this policy that cookies are used, giving visitors the opportunity change their internet browser settings, or even avoid this site if they don't want to have its cookies stored on their computers.

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6. Use of Cookies for Advertising

1. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on users' prior visits to websites, including this one.
2. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit/s to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
3. You may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the advertising opt-out page or you can opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.)

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7. How to find and control your cookies

If you are using Mozilla Firefox :
On your Menu Bar, click:

1. Tools, then
2. Options
3. Click on Privacy

If you are using Google Chrome :
On your Menu Bar, click:

1. Tools Icon, then
2. Options
3. Under the Hood tab
4. Scroll down to the Cookie Settings: section

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 :
On your Menu Bar, click:

1. Tools, then
2. Internet Options
3. Privacy Tab
4. 'Advanced' button
5. Check the 'override automatic cookie handing' box and select Accept, Block or Prompt for action as appropriate.

If you are using Internet Explorer 6.0 or 7.0 :
On your Menu Bar, click:

1. Tools, then
2. Internet Options
3. Privacy Tab
4. Custom Level
5. 'Advanced' button
6. Check the 'override automatic cookie handing' box and select Accept, Block or Prompt for action as appropriate.

If you are using Apple Safari :
On your Menu Bar, click:

1. Edit, then
2. Preferences
3. Click in the Security Tab of the pop-up window

Other browsers my have similar options for controlling cookies, but if you are using a product without such facilities we suggest that you switch to one that does.

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8. How do you know which of the sites you've visited use cookies?

If you are using Mozilla Firefox :
On your Menu Bar, click:

1. Tools, then
2. Options
3. Privacy
4. Cookie

If you are using Google Chrome :
On your Menu Bar, click:

1. Tools Icon
2. Options
3. Under the Hood tab
4. Scroll down to the Cookie Settings: section
5. Show cookies button

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 :

1. Tools, then
2. Internet Options
3. General tab
4. In the Browsing Options section click the Settings button
5. View Files button

If you are using Internet Explorer 5.0 or 6.0  or 7.0 :
On your Menu Bar, click:

1. Tools, then
2. Internet Options
3. General tab
4. Settings
5. View Files

If you are using Apple Safari :
On your Menu Bar, click:

1. Edit, then
2. Preferences
3. The Security Tab of the pop-up window
4. The Show cookies button

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9. How to see your cookie code

Just click on a cookie to open it. You'll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie.

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10. Data Protection Act Notification

Acting on advice and guidance published by the Information Commissioner and the results of a self assessment, The Publisher has not lodged a Data Protection Act, 1998 notification for cocking.org on the grounds that it is exempt because

1. cocking.org is a 'not for profit' organisation
2. It is only processing personal data for the purposes of:
   
   • establishing or maintaining membership;
   • supporting a not-for-profit body or association; or
   • providing or administering activities for either the members or those who have regular contact with it.

Further information is available at the Information Commissioner's web site - www.ico.gov.uk

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[Main Policy Statement]

N J Birch © 2005-2011, Publisher and Data Controller