Welcome to Experience France

Privacy Policy / Data Protection

Introduction

Any reference to "we", "us" and "our" is to Experiencefrance.co.uk, except where the relevant service is provided by another EXPERIENCEFRANCE.CO.UK group company, in which case references to we, us or our shall, in respect of those services, be references to that Experiencefrance.co.uk company. Please see below for our contact details. Any reference to "you" or "your", means you as user of our services (which may include online social media and/or interactive applications, audio visual content, text, photographs, forums, advertising and other services) which we may offer at or via the website at www.experiencefrance.co.uk including all its sub-domains (the "Website") and/or other websites or media platforms which, for example, may enable you to view our content over a mobile or wifi network or our 'on-demand' content on your television (the "Services").

We are committed to protecting your privacy. This page sets out our privacy policy and explains how your personal information (meaning any information about you which is personally identifiable like your name, address, telephone number or email address, generally referred to throughout this policy as "personal information") will be used.

This privacy policy only applies to the collection and use of your personal information by us and those whom we authorise. It does not cover practices of companies, services or applications that we do not own or control, or to people that we do not employ or manage including without limitation third party websites or applications/widgets (eg from "social media" platforms such as Facebook or Twitter) to which we provide links, which are incorporated into our Website or via which we offer our Services, nor does it cover advertisers. These third parties may have their own privacy policies and/or terms and conditions of use which we recommend you read before using any such services. Also, please note that certain pages and services provided on our Website or via our Services are hosted, managed and operated by a third party. These third parties are companies wholly independent of us and are solely responsible for all aspects of any transaction you may make using such services. These third parties have their own privacy policies and terms and conditions of use which we recommend you read before using any such services. For the contact details of the applicable third party see the terms and conditions on the relevant page of our Website or Services.

By accessing and continuing to use the Services, you accept the terms of this privacy policy. Please note that we may update and amend this privacy policy from time to time and any changes will be posted on the Website. If you do not agree with any of the terms of this privacy policy then you should not use the Services.

What information do we hold about you and how is it collected?

When you register for Services or when you otherwise update your registration details, personal information is collected by us and certain third parties authorised by us (such as our suppliers and sub-contractors). You may also be asked to provide personal information when buying or subscribing for content from us.

In addition, in common with many other online services, we and certain authorised third parties may use "cookies" and/or other devices to store and sometimes track information about you (see section entitled "Cookies" below).

We and certain authorised third parties may also collect personal information in the following circumstances:

• when you make a complaint or enquiry or provide other feedback to us;
• when you participate in interactivity, for example, when you submit an entry to a competition or prize draw;
• when you request to be sent communications such as updates or newsletters;
• in monitoring your communications sent via and use of the Services;
• to ensure and check compliance with the Terms of Use and/or otherwise as required by law;
• when you disclose your personal information to us or otherwise through the Website and/or the Services at any other point.

How do we use information about you?

We may combine personal information that you provide on one Service with information collected from other Services and/or with information that is publicly available or that we receive from other reputable sources. All combined personal information will be stored and used in accordance with this privacy policy. Your personal information may be used by us and certain authorised third parties to:

• monitor, develop and improve the Website, Services and/or your experience. This may include personalising the advertising and content you see, based on the details given by you and/or your activity on the Services;
• assist in and administer the provision of Services to you;
• process and deal with any complaints or enquiries made by or about you;
• investigate any suspected breach of the Terms of Use or the breach of other terms and conditions otherwise relating to you;
• if any of the Services for which you have registered is no longer available, to contact you in relation to the closure of the Website and inform you of any similar services offered by us and/or any company within our group of companies and/or a third party partner on our behalf;
• to monitor compliance with the Terms of Use or other applicable terms and conditions including by way of (i) checking postings or submissions to the Website or otherwise in connection with your use of the Services, (ii) retaining forum or chat room exchanges, and (iii) using keyword triggers to investigate usage that may be inappropriate; and/or
• where you are a prize winner, to administer the prize and to publish or otherwise make available a list of prize winners.

Geo-blocking and Regionalisation:

Some of our Services may not be available outside the United Kingdom or within certain regions of the United Kingdom. We may therefore need to collect location data from you (e.g. by determining your location from your IP address or by accessing GPS functionality on your device) or we may request you provide your location to us (e.g. by providing your postcode). This is necessary for us to ensure you are within a region for which our Services are available and/or so that we can "geo-block" or regionalise our Services to prevent you from accessing them from outside the United Kingdom or where applicable from within a region where our Services are not available. This may involve the use of cookies or equivalent devices (see section "Cookies and other such devices" below).

Marketing Communications

Where and only where we have your consent or are otherwise permitted to do so, we will:

• send you and keep you updated with information by email, telephone (including SMS), mail or other methods of communication about existing and new services and special offers from us;
• send you information by email, telephone (including SMS), mail or other methods of communication about related products or services of selected third parties that may be of interest to you; and
• pass your details to selected third parties so that they may send you information by email, telephone (including SMS), mail or other methods of communication about products or services that may be of interest to you.

To opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us, you can use the facility contained in any such communication or you can email us at the email address set out in 'Contact Details' below or write to us by mail to the address below stating that you do not wish to receive further communications from us.

To opt-out of receiving any such communications from a selected third party, you will need to contact the applicable third party. Please note that we are not responsible for the communications or the content of any communications you receive from any such third party.

Amending your information

Where you register your details for certain services (such as our weekly newsletter) and open a user account that you can then use to access and log on to use those services, you may change or update your user name and password or other details at any time via your account. You must make sure that you update your details as soon as possible with any and all relevant changes.

Cookies and other such devices

A cookie is a small amount of data which is stored on your computer's hard drive.

We and those who we authorise may use cookies and other such devices to improve your experience including as follows:

• to allow you to carry information across pages of our Website and avoid having to re-enter information;
• within registration to allow you to access stored information;
• to help us recognise you as a unique visitor when you return to our Website or Services;
• to allow us to tailor content or advertisements to match your preferred interests;
• to avoid showing you the same adverts repeatedly; and
• within research surveys to ensure you are not invited to complete a questionnaire too often or after you have already done so.

We and those who we authorise also use cookies and other such devices to compile anonymous, aggregated statistics for the following purposes:

• to understand who has seen which pages and advertisements on the Website or otherwise via the Services;
• to determine how frequently particular pages and advertisements are visited;
• to track the success of any advertising campaigns on our Website;
• to determine the most popular areas of the Website or Services;
• to provide anonymised demographic data to third parties in order to target advertising more appropriately to you;
• generally in order to monitor usage of the Website or Services; and
• to undertake market research and/or to facilitate reviews, developments and/or improvements to the Services.

Use of cookies in this way allows us to understand how users use our Website and/or our Services and helps us improve the structure of our Website and/or our Services (we cannot identify you personally in this way).

Most internet browsers are automatically set up to accept cookies, but you can set your browser to refuse a cookie or ask your browser to show you where a cookie has been set up. Certain Services are only activated by the presence of a cookie and, if you choose to refuse cookies, particular features of the Website or Services may not be available to you.

Find out how to disable/enable cookies by clicking on the "Manage Cookies" section of the Interactive Advertising Bureau website on the following link http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

Will we share your information with third parties?

We may pass your information to other parties as follows:

• where relevant, your user name and information you voluntarily provide in your profile that you register with us will be published on areas of the Services such as forums, chat rooms or pages where user submissions are displayed and this will be the identity by which you are known on those areas. Where other users wish to chat or otherwise contact you, they will be able to identify you by your user name and any other information you may yourself disclose;
• we may pass your personal information to third parties authorised by us such as our employees, contractors, suppliers and/or agents to administer the Services provided to you by us now or in the future;
• If you contact our customer support team, we may pass them your personal information to allow them to deal with your call more efficiently;
• where we have your consent we will pass your details to selected third parties so that they may send you information by email, telephone (including SMS), mail or other methods of communication about products or services that may be of interest to you;
• some general statistical information about the Website and/or Services user base, sales patterns, traffic volumes and related matters may be passed on to reputable third parties but these details will not include information personally identifying you;
• we may disclose your personal information to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisers in connection with any alleged criminal offence, unlawful activity or suspected breach of the Terms of Use and or the breach of other terms and conditions otherwise relating to you or otherwise where required by law and we will co-operate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity of or locate anyone breaching these Terms of Use or otherwise for the prevention or detection of crime or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders.

We may display targeted advertisements based on the personal information that we hold. We do not provide your personal information to advertisers but advertisers and ad serving companies may assume that you meet the targeting criteria for that ad, for example men aged 18-30.

We do not pass or sell your personal information to third parties for any other purpose than as set out in this privacy policy. Unless you have given us your consent to pass your details to a third party, any marketing referred to in the section entitled "Marketing Communications" is conducted by us on behalf of third parties and they do not have any access to your data.

Always think carefully before disclosing your personal information or other information to other users or otherwise making your personal information publicly available. It is important that you are aware that any of your personal information or other information which you disclose to another user may then be disclosed by that user. We have no responsibility or control over the contents of communications made between users of our Services.

Third party service providers based outside of the United Kingdom

We use certain third party companies to perform some functions of the Services on our behalf (for example sending e-mails to you or analysing data that is collected from the Services).

These third party companies have access to personal information needed to perform these functions, but they are not allowed to use it for any other purpose.

Some of these third party companies are either located and/or have servers which are located outside the European Economic Area. Where we share personal information with such companies, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy, however please note that the data protection and other laws of such countries may not be as comprehensive as those in the European Economic Area.

Changes to our business

If we decide to change or re-organise the structure of our business, we may need to pass your personal information to one of our group companies so that we can continue to effectively deliver the Services to you.

Also, if we become involved in a merger, acquisition or other transaction involving the sale of some or all of our or our group companies' assets, user information (including the personal information collected from you through your use of the Services), may be included in the assets which are transferred to the new owner.

If any such event occurs, your personal information will remain subject to this Privacy Policy.

Security and how do we protect your information?

We endeavour to take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information. Where possible we use industry-standard technology to allow for the encryption of sensitive information.

Changes to our privacy policy

This privacy policy was last updated on 2 April 2011.