Channel 4 Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

1.   Who's in control?

1.1 It is important that you understand who is responsible for keeping your data safe. We are the "controller" of all personal data collected and used by Channel 4, including our Channel 4+ functionality, and for any other purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. This means that we are responsible for deciding how and why your data is used and for ensuring that your data is handled legally and safely.

1. 2 We have appointed a Data Protection Officer (“DPO”) who has ultimate responsibility within Channel 4 for making sure your data is treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the law. Our DPO can be contacted by emailing dataprotection@channel4.co.uk.

2.  What data do we collect and where from?

2.1 We collect some data directly from you when you register for an account with Channel 4 (“Account Data”). This data includes the following:

2.1.1 your full name;

2.1.2 your email address;

2.1.3 the password you set up to access your account;

2.1.4 your date of birth;

2.1.5 your gender (if you choose to provide it);

2.1.6 your postcode and address (if you choose to provide them); and

2.1.7 your email marketing preferences (whether you have opted in or not to receive marketing emails e.g. if you opt in we may send you an email with details of new shows available on Channel 4).

2.3 If you sign up to Channel 4+, we also collect information to set up and manage your account and to enable you to access the Channel 4+ functionality (“Channel 4+ Account Data”). Channel 4+ Account Data includes:

2.3.1 your card payment details (which will be collected directly by our third-party payment provider, MPP Global, and will not be visible to us); and

2.3.2 your payment history for Channel 4+.

Please note that only the last four digits of your payment card number are visible in your Channel 4+ account.

2.4 We collect and analyse information about how you use Channel 4 by using cookies and similar technology (Behavioural Data). Behavioural Data includes your viewing history, IP addresses, device identifiers, what you have watched including the ads you’ve been shown and information about how long you have stayed on certain pages or what pages you have clicked on. You can find more detailed information about this in our Cookies Policy. We also log and use information about any service errors or interruptions that you have experienced in order to help us create fixes and to make technical improvements to Channel 4.

2. 5 We also collect some data about you from third parties (“Third Party Data”). This includes:

2.5.1 reputable data pairing providers, such as Acxiom, whom we have thoroughly checked. The data we obtain from Acxiom has been collected by Acxiom through publicly available records such as the electoral roll, from surveys or other companies that you engage with. 

Before they obtain it, Acxiom requires all data to be aggregated so that it does not identify anyone. The marketing data that Acxiom shares with us may include data such as:

(a) Regional location;

(b) Typical home ownership status for an address (for example, is your property likely owned or rented);

(c) Information about your likely life stage (for example, young adult);

(d) Likely household makeup and composition for your address (for example, the number of adults and children in your household);

(e) Predicted media habits (for example, which newspapers or TV channels you prefer);

(f) Purchasing behaviours and domestic consumption habits propensities (for example, whether you are likely to have a car, take holidays, or shop online);

(g) Your and your household’s propensity to like different hobbies and personal interests (for example, if you like crosswords or how often you like to eat out); and 

(h) Acxiom’s unique identifier that they have assigned to your address.

2.5.2 retail providers, such as Boots, Tesco, and Nectar360, (“Retail Providers”) share information about their customers’ shopping behaviours which can be matched to a Channel 4 user. 

2.6 We collect information from our research panels. You can choose to sign up to research panels and respond to surveys and polls and these help us to understand our viewers' opinions, views, and attitudes. If you sign up to a research panel which we run, such as Core4, and complete our surveys or polls, we will collect information about you including your name, contact details and survey responses. We may also contact you directly by email to carry out research, for example about our products and services, any functionality that we offer or to find out more about your likes and interests to help tailor our products and services (including our advertising). You may also sign up to receive third party surveys from other research companies, like Dynata. The information we obtain from such research panels and surveys will only be gathered and used to help us inform our decisions regarding our products and services (including our advertising) (“Survey Data”). 

2.7 We collect information about you when you participate in our competitions, such as your contact information (“Competition Data”). This data is only used for the purposes of the relevant competition and will be subject to the terms and conditions of that competition, which will be notified to you when you enter the competition. If we share your data with a third party, such as a company that has sponsored the competition, we will tell you this when you enter the competition. Please see http://www.channel4.com/4viewers/comp-t-and-c  for our online and social competition terms and conditions.

2.8 We also collect publicly available information from social networking sites such as Meta, X (Twitter), YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat, for likes, shares, tweets, and posts about Channel 4 and all our programmes. This information is provided to us by a Channel 4 supplier and is used for analysis purposes.

3.  What do we use your data for?

It is important that you understand how and why we use the personal data that we collect about you. This section sets out the different purposes for which we process personal data and which types of personal data we need for each purpose.

3.1 Managing your account and providing you with our services.

3.1.1 We use your Account Data, Behavioural Data and Channel 4+ Account Data (if applicable) to set up and manage your account, to respond to your queries, complaints or comments, to log you into your account and to provide you with Channel 4 and any other services that you request from us. In particular, we use your Behavioural Data to customise your Channel 4 homepage and the ads you see on our site, and to provide you with programme recommendations when you are logged into Channel 4. These are programmes that we think you will be interested in watching based on your viewing history.

3.1.2 If you have signed up to access our Channel 4+ functionality, we use your Channel 4+ Account Data so we (and our payment processor MPP Global and its sub-processor Global Payments) can process your payments and deal with any related queries you may have.

3.1.3 We use your Account Data to contact you occasionally with service messages about Channel 4 and other products and services you have signed up for, for example to provide you with password reminders where your account is due to expire or if there is an issue with your Channel 4+ account. We will also use your contact details to contact you from time to time to ask you to participate in surveys to help us to improve our offerings. We may also use your email address and/or other Account Data to help us with database matching. For more detail about this see Database matching at paragraph 4.5 below.

3.2 Competitions and surveys

3.2.1 We use Competition Data for the purposes of allowing you to participate in competitions and to carry out any activities required in relation to those competitions, for example contacting you to let you know you have won a prize and using your address to send your prize to you.

3.2.2 We use Survey Data for the purposes of analysing insights and information to enable us to improve our products and services and to help us to build more accurate ad targeted segments for our users.

3.3 Improving our services

3.3.1 We use Account Data, Behavioural Data, Voluntary Data and Survey Data to help us monitor, analyse, and improve Channel 4 (including our Channel 4+ functionality). We use this data to help us understand which content and services are most interesting and enjoyable for our users and to help us identify errors and test features. This helps us to make sure that we are providing you with the best possible products and services.

3.4 Compliance with contracts

3.4.1 We use Behavioural Data to count programme views which enables us to pay rights holders for the content that you view.

3.5 Marketing and advertising

3.5.1 We use Account Data, Behavioural Data, Survey Data and Third-Party Data for marketing and advertising purposes. For more information on the ways in which we do this, please see ‘How do we use your data for marketing and advertising purposes?’ at paragraph 4 below.

3.6 Profiling

3.6.1 We combine all the different types of data that we hold about you in order to build up a picture of you and the types of products and services which might be of interest to you (“Your Profile”). We will use your Profile to provide you with a more customised and tailored experience on Channel 4 and to tailor the advertising that is displayed to you. This makes sure that you see advertisements (including personalised advertisements) that are relevant and interesting to you. If you opt out of targeted advertising, you will still see advertising on Channel 4, but this will not be specifically tailored to your interests.

3.7 Research panels – for example Core4, Your4 and Dynata

3.7.1 We use a number of research panels to conduct market research for us which may involve collecting personal data for the purposes of carrying out this research. This collection of personal data by third party research companies (such as Dynata) will be subject to separate privacy policies.

3.7.2 We use Survey Data to:

(a) enable us to assess our performance and to improve our products and services including advertising (including for profiling and for building our interest-based ad targeting models);

(b) inform our marketing and promotional activities; and

(c) inform and support our advertising partners (e.g. helping us to report to them about campaign performance).

3.8 We may use the personal data of relevant contributors in our programme listings.

3.9 Archiving

3.9.1 Channel 4 captures copies of the www.Channel4.com website and Channel 4 microsites to archive data that may be of historical or statistical value and to use this data for internal purposes or to allow third parties access to this data for research purposes, for example if someone is writing a book and the data we hold in our archives is useful for that book. Occasionally this may include copies of Voluntary Data that you have provided on public areas of the platform, or if you are contributor, information about you in relation to the programme you were in. We will only ever use personal data in this way that has already been made publicly available. Where possible, when the sites are archived, we anonymise or remove personal data.

3.9.2 We periodically review the data that we keep in our archive, and we will delete or anonymise your data held in the archive where we consider it is no longer of value or interest.

3.10 How we use anonymised data

3.10.1 We use combined and anonymised data for certain purposes, such as to report viewing numbers of particular genres of programmes and help us understand what type of content users like and to share with advertisers so that they know how effective their advertising is. When used for these purposes, this data does not enable you or any other individual user to be identified.

4. How do we use your data for marketing and advertising purposes?

4.1 Apart from monthly fees paid by users of our Channel 4+ functionality, our programming is almost entirely funded by advertising revenue. Marketing and advertising are therefore key parts of our activities. This section sets out the various types of marketing and advertising that we carry out and how your data is used for each type of activity. We do not serve targeted advertising to registered Channel 4 users who are under 18.

We also want to understand the effectiveness of our advertising (for example, whether you visited an advertiser’s website after viewing an advert). To do this we provide a third party with your IP address when you view an advert. This third party will be able to work with an advertiser to see if the same IP address carries out an action such as visiting an advertiser’s website. The advertiser does not have access to your data as part of this process.

4.2 Email marketing

4.2.1 We will use your email address to send you email marketing (including email newsletters featuring personalised recommendations, new and returning shows, we think you may like, reminders about shows you have watched, surveys and competitions) where you have signed up to receive this from us.

4.2.2 You can opt out of receiving marketing emails at any time by either following the instructions to unsubscribe in any of our email marketing communications or by changing your preferences in the "My Communications" section of your Account Settings. It may take up to forty-eight (48) hours for your change in preference to take effect and the change will not affect any marketing emails which have already been scheduled to be sent in the future.

4.2.3 If you opt out of email marketing, we will still need to send you service communications by email from time to time, such as information about changes to our services and updates to our policies.

4.2.4 When you first sign up to the service, we will send you a ‘Welcome’ email. This email provides information about our Channel 4 service and how to use it, this is a one-off automatic service email (and is not email marketing) and therefore does not contain an ‘unsubscribe’ link. 

4.3 Personalised advertising

4.3.1 We sometimes use your name, gender, location, or your birth month to personalise advertisements that you see on the Channel 4 platform. This means, for example, that you may hear your first name in an audio/video advertisement or see your first name in a text advertisement.

4.3.2 If you have opted out of “Targeted Advertising on Channel 4”, the advertisements you see will not be tailored to you and your interests, but they may still be personalised with your name, gender, location, or birth month.

4.3.3 You can opt out of personalised advertising at any time by changing your preferences in the "Privacy settings" section of your Account Settings. It can take up to seventy-two (72) hours for the change to take effect.

4.3.4 If you opt out of personalised advertisements without opting out of targeted advertising, you will still see targeted advertisements on Channel 4, but they will not be personalised with your name, gender, location, or birth month.

4.4 Data Pairing 

4.4.1 We offer certain data-led targeted advertising products to advertisers, for which we “enrich” the data that we hold on Channel 4 registered users with data held on that individual by third party data providers such as Acxiom or one of our retail partners. This way, we can see which of our users fall into certain segments that are popular with advertisers (e.g. segments based on likely household composition and interests or buying habits) and enable advertisers to reach our registered users that fall into these categories on Channel 4. We do not offer these advertising products on iOS or tvOS devices.

4.4.2 To carry out this data pairing exercise, we use reputable partners. Those partners obtain personal data about you directly from you, from publicly available sources and from other third parties. This will have been shared on the basis of legitimate interests or with your consent or where the data has been aggregated to anonymise it, and in accordance with the partners’ own privacy policies and practices.

We vet such companies to ensure they comply with their data protection obligations including explaining what they do with your data, keeping it secure and protecting it appropriately. We have a written agreement in place with such companies we use, and we monitor their activities to ensure they are complying with our contractual requirements.

4.4.3 Data pairing with Acxiom works by Channel 4 sharing your Account Data with them so that they can enrich this data with personal data that they hold about you. Data pairing with retailers is done via a secure, private, neutral cloud instance provided by a third-party data collaboration platform (explained further in 4.5.2). 

If there is a match, we collect and store the additional Third Party Data (including, for example, the information listed in 2.5 above) in our data warehouse, Mediarithmics, so that advertisers can target specific audiences of Channel 4 users that are comprised of specific segments. 

For more information on Acxiom and the data it provides to companies like Channel 4, please visit https://www.acxiom.co.uk/privacy/uk-privacy-policy/

For more information on the retail partners and the data they provide to companies like Channel 4, please visit their websites (Nectar: https://www.nectar.com/about/privacy-and-legal/privacy-policy, Boots: https://www.boots.com/privacypolicy, Tesco: https://www.tesco.com/zones/privacy-centre ).

4.4.4 We also conduct data pairing with research companies such as Dynata. We use Acxiom or a third-party data collaboration platform , to find Channel 4 viewers on their database of individuals who have opted in to receive third party surveys. We enrich our Channel 4 data with behavioural information that people have voluntarily provided in response to these surveys.

4.4.5 You can opt out of data pairing at any time by changing your preferences in the "Privacy settings" section of your Account Settings. It can take up to seventy-two (72) hours for the change to take effect. If you opt out of data pairing, this means that your personal data held by us will no longer be combined with data held by data pairing providers. However, unless you also opt out of targeted advertisements, we will still use your data to target advertisements to you in accordance with the section headed Targeted advertisements below. This targeting will be based on your Account Data.

4.5 Database matching

4.5.1 We use email addresses (and/or other Account Data) to securely match our Channel 4 registered user database with the customer databases of some of our advertisers in order to show their ads to customers/users we have in common when they are logged into Channel 4 (except on iOS or tvOS devices). We never use sensitive data, known as special category data, for this purpose or the data of any of our registered users who are under 18 years old.

4.5.2 To do this, we usually use a third-party data collaboration platform, which use proprietary technology to match its clients’ data using a secure, private, neutral cloud instance.  Both Channel 4 and the advertiser or agency upload data into a secure private, neutral cloud instance and neither party can access the other’s raw data. The third-party data collaboration platform has proprietary controls which allow both Channel 4 and the advertiser to set permissions over their respective data (e.g. to allow it to be matched). Once the data has been matched, the resulting list of matched Channel 4 users allows Channel 4 to activate the advertiser’s campaign to those Channel 4 users. We process opt outs on a monthly basis and advertisers are required to refresh the data in their secure, private, neutral cloud instance every 28 days during the campaign to ensure good data hygiene.

4.5.3 When we carry out this kind of ad campaign, we may also use modelling techniques within a Data Science AWS environment which we then push to Mediarithmics, to identify additional Channel 4 registered users that share similar characteristics as those in the target group, such as interests and viewing habits – who we call “lookalikes” – so that we can target them with the same ad campaign.

4.5.4 Following the advertising campaign, an advertiser could receive a report showing how successful the advertising campaign was without having access to which individuals had seen the adverts. 

4.6 Targeted advertisements on Channel 4

4.6.1 If we build a Profile about you (as set out under the section called Profiling above at paragraph 3.7, we will use this Profile to predict what products and services you will be interested in and to target advertisements for these types of products and services to you through Channel 4. These could be our own products and services or those of third-party advertisers who have asked us to send their advertisements to certain categories of recipients, including recipients located in a specific geographic area or recipients we have identified as an existing customer of the advertiser.

4.6.2 In relation to advertisements for third party advertisers, when an advertiser is trying to reach a specific target audience, we may create target audiences for these advertisers, such as people of a particular age range (e.g. 18-34 year olds) or in a particular interest group (e.g. DIY enthusiasts) or in a particular location (e.g. users who live in Manchester). However, these audiences are not shared with the advertiser in a way that enables individuals to be identified.

4.6.3 Our third party advanced data platform, Mediarithmics, also provides advertisers with the ability to build audience segments for targeting their ads on Channel 4 to individuals using a selection of Acxiom’s proprietary pre-defined segments, such as your household composition, interests and financial status (as described above). We enable them to select the segment names of their choice, but they never have access to your data as part of that process. We do not offer this option on iOS or tvOS devices.

4.6.4 We tell our advertisers how many people in a particular audience have seen their specific advertisements and we provide them with your IP address so they can check that our viewing count is accurate. This process is usually carried out by a company appointed by the advertiser’s advertising agency. This enables those advertisers to assess the effectiveness of their advertising.

4.6.5 We may also share “pseudonymised” versions of your personal data with certain advertisers in order to help them carry out the targeting of advertisements on Channel 4’s platforms. “Pseudonymisation” means that the relevant data will be changed from personal identifiable data to a coded version of that data. For example, we create anonymous temporary advertiser IDs for our users that we share with advertisers so they can cap the number of times you see a particular advertisement: however, advertisers are not able to identify you from these IDs.

4.6.6 You can opt out of targeted advertisements at any time by changing your preferences in the "Privacy settings" section of your Account Settings. It can take up to seventy-two (72) hours for the change to take effect. If you opt out, we will still show you advertisements that are relevant to your country, region, and city.

4.6.7 We and other third parties also use cookies to assist in targeted advertising. You can find out more about this in our Cookies Policy.

4.7 Targeted Advertising on YouView

4.7.1 If you are a YouView user, we are able to deliver targeted advertising, by dynamically inserting adverts, when you view Channel 4 channels on your YouView Service.

4.7.2 To do this, YouView generates an ID which relates to your YouView device. This is shared with Channel 4 and used to target advertising based on your Profile and/or your YouView viewing activity.

4.7.3 For YouView users who are also BT customers, BT may also share part of your postcode linked to your BT account to improve the accuracy of the relevant adverts.

4.7.4 We also use the YouView Information to personalise content and viewing recommendations on Channel 4 (both our streaming service and on Channel 4 channels).

4.7.5 You can tell BT to stop providing this information by visiting their privacy settings - https://www.bt.com/privacy-policy/ 

4.7.6 You can tell YouView to stop providing you with targeted adverts at any time by visiting the Privacy Settings in your YouView device (if you ask for targeted adverts to be turned off, you will still see adverts but they won’t be tailored to you).

4.7.7 You can also opt out of all targeted advertisements by Channel 4 at any time by changing your preferences in the "Privacy settings" section of your Account Settings as further detailed in the section called “Preference centre and opting out” at paragraph 4.11 below.

4.8 Promoting our own services on social media platforms

4.8.1 We promote our content and features on third-party social media platforms such as Meta (Instagram/Facebook), Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit and Amazon, so that you may see Channel 4 promotions that are relevant to you. 

4.8.2 How we match Channel 4 users with social media accounts

To deliver these promotions, we may share a hashed identifier (such as a hashed version of your email address) with our social media partners. The hashed identifier is used by the social media platform to check whether it matches one of their user accounts. If a match is found, the platform may show you Channel 4 promotions on your feed or profile. If no match is found, the platform deletes the hashed identifier in line with its own data deletion policies. 

We may also use Conversions APIs (CAPI) to measure the effectiveness of our social media advertising. For example, if someone sees or clicks on a Channel 4 advert on a social platform, CAPI allows us to understand - on an aggregated and non-identifiable basis - whether users who interacted with the advert later viewed a related programme on Channel 4. Channel 4 does not receive information about which specific individuals saw, clicked, or watched content. 

Using hashed identifiers means we control what information is shared with the platform, and only the minimum data needed to deliver the promotion is used. This also allows us to respect you opt in choices, which can be adjusted as set out in paragraph 4.11 below. 

4.8.3 Custom Audiences

We may create “custom audiences” to show Channel 4 promotions to users who have a Channel 4 account and also have an account on a social media platform. To do this, we provide the platform with a hashed list of identifiers, which the social media platform matches against its users. Matched users may then be shown Channel 4 promotions relating to programmes or features they may be interested in. 

For example, if you regularly watch Great British Bake Off, we may ask the platform to show you promotions for the newest series of Great British Bake Off. We may also use custom audiences to prevent you from seeing adverts for Channel 4 services you already have, for example, not promoting Channel 4+ to users who are already subscribed. 

4.8.4 Lookalike Audiences 

We may also use “lookalike audiences” to reach new people who are most like our existing audience. To do this, we provide a hashed “seed audience’’ (for example, users who have watched The Great British Bake Off). The social media platform uses this seed audience to build a broader audience segment made up of users with similar traits. Channel 4 can then promote content to this segment. 

Throughout this process, the data we share remains hashed and non-identifiable, and the platform does not reveal any personal information about Channel 4 users. We do not know which users are matched in the initial seed audience or the subsequent lookalike audience. 

4.8.5 Attribution 

To understand how effective our social media advertising is, we may provide a social media platform with ‘event data‘. This is data such as whether a user viewed a programme, visited the Channel 4 homepage, or subscribed to Channel 4+. The social media platform checks for a match using hashed identifiers and, where a match exists, reports to Channel 4 in aggregated form whether the advertising resulted in actions being taken. 

We only share event data for attribution if: 

• You have consented to this through our cookie banner.
• You have not opted out in your settings.
• You are aged 18 or over.
• You are not viewing on an iOS or tvOS device. 

You can disable attribution tracking at any time through our cookie settings. Channel 4 never receives individual-level information about who saw or responded to an advert on social media. 

4.8.6 Exclusions and your choices 

Users under 18 and users on iOS or tvOS devices are not included in these targeted promotions. 

You can opt out of this type of marketing at any time in your Privacy Settings on your Channel 4 account and through the Cookie Banner. We’ll action your request as soon as possible, but you may still see some Channel 4 adverts while the update is being processed or where the platform shows adverts based on its own settings. 

4.9 Broadcaster Sharing

4.9.1 We may share your Profile, or part of it, with reputable third parties such as other broadcasters to help them to target their own advertising on their own platforms. This helps to ensure that those third parties can target relevant advertisements to you on their own platforms that you will find interesting and helpful.

4.9.2 This data pairing applies where you have also shared your personal data with that third party in the course of using their service. The broadcaster then shares your data with us, and we combine it with any personal data we hold about you. If there is a match, we pass the broadcaster the information we hold about you, for example information about your lifestyle, interests and viewing habits. The broadcasters use this information to show you advertisements that are relevant to your interests.

4.9.3 Those third parties will be responsible for how they use the data that we share with them and how they advertise to you using that data.

4.10 Push notifications

4.10.1 If you download the Channel 4 app, some of the communications that we send to you, including marketing communications, content recommendations and information about new content or features, may be sent by push notification. Push notifications are messages that pop up on your mobile device. You can choose whether or not to receive push notifications from the Channel 4 app through your device settings.

4.10.2 If you use an Android device, your device will automatically opt you in for push notifications and you will need to turn these off if you don't want to receive them. If you use an Apple device, you will be asked when you set up your device if you want to receive push notifications and you can choose to receive them then. If you change your mind, you can change your preferences at any time in your device settings.

4.11 Preference centre and opting out

4.11.1 You can manage your advertising preferences at any time through the "My communications" and "Privacy settings" sections of your Account Settings. These sections enable you to choose the electronic marketing and advertising you are happy to receive.

4.11.2 We will always respect your preferences but please note that it can take up to seventy-two (72) hours for changes to your preferences to take effect. This may mean that you see some advertising that you have opted out of for a short time after opting out. Some advertising campaigns are also set up to run for a particular time, and we are unable to change these settings once they are set up. If that is the case, we will make sure that you are opted out of future campaigns, but you may continue to see advertising relating to a particular campaign if the campaign is ongoing at the time, you have opted out.

4.11.3 Even if you opt out of all marketing and personalised/targeted advertising above, we will still show advertisements while you watch Channel 4 based on your broad geographical location, unless you have paid for our Channel 4+ functionality (in which case you will not see any ads in most of the content on Channel 4). These advertisements will not be personalised or targeted to you (other than on the basis of your broad geographical location). They will be standard advertisements that will be served to every user in a relevant country, region, or city area, who has opted out of personalisation and targeting of advertisements. We will also still customise your Channel 4 homepage and the promotional clips you see for other programmes on Channel 4, based on your viewing history as we consider this to be an integral part of our service.

5.  What is our legal basis for using your data?

5.1 Data protection law says that we must tell you the legal basis that we rely on to process your personal data for the purposes that we have notified to you. This section tells you what that legal basis is in relation to each of the purposes set out above.

5.2 With the exception of email marketing and processing of payment data for Channel 4+ subscribers, we process your personal data for all of the purposes identified under the headings “What do we use your data for?” at paragraph 3 and “How do we use your data for marketing and advertising purposes?” at paragraph 4 above on the basis that it is in our legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of third parties with whom we share your data, to carry out these activities. Further information about what those interests are is set out below.

Purpose	Legitimate interests
Running your account and providing you with our services	To ensure that Channel 4 users enjoy the best experience possible, to help us deliver our remit as a public service broadcaster and to lead to increased viewing and therefore increased funding for our programming content.
Improving our services	To make sure that we continue to improve our service and provide our users with the best and most effective service possible.
Advertising and Marketing	To provide advertising that is relevant to you to ensure that you have the best experience possible of using Channel 4 or third party broadcasters' platforms, as well as to generate more advertising revenue so that we can put more funding back into the free content and services we are able to provide to you.
Profiling	To provide a customised experience of our Channel 4 platform to ensure you have the best experience possible of using Channel 4, as well as to generate more advertising income which in turn allows us to put more funding back into the free content and services we are able to provide to you. Where we use profiling to assist other broadcasters to target their advertising, we do this on the basis of the third-party broadcasters' legitimate interests in ensuring they can deliver appropriate, relevant, and effective advertising on their platforms.

5.3 You have the right to object to us processing your personal data for the purposes set out above. Unless we can show that we have a compelling legitimate reason to continue processing your personal data, we will stop processing it.

5.4 In respect of the use of your email address for email marketing purposes, we process this on the basis that we have your consent to do so. You can withdraw your consent at any time by following the instructions to "unsubscribe" in any email marketing communications with the exceptions of those emails that do not apply as already set out for example the automatic ‘Welcome’ email.

5.5 If you have signed up to use our Channel 4+ functionality, we process your Channel 4+ Account Data to enrol you and take payments because it is necessary for the performance of our contract with you.

6. How do we use data collected through our 4sales and press websites?

6.1 As well as the collection and use of personal data set out above, we also collect data through our 4sales website (www.4sales.com) and our press and information website (www.channel4.com/info/press/press-packs). The information we collect through these sites is primarily business information which does not identify a particular individual. However, we will collect some personal data about individual users who sign up to the 4sales and press offerings on our platforms, such as individual journalists or employees at companies who sign up for sales information.

6.2 The personal data we collect through our sales website will be limited to your full name, email address, job title, company name, and your email preferences. We will use this data to manage and administer your account and to send you the sales information that you request.

6.3 The personal data we collect when you sign up to the press and information website will be the same as the Account Data described above, plus your press credentials. We will use this data to manage and administer your account and to send you press packs and daily alerts and updates that you request. You can sign up for daily alerts without having an account. If you do this, we collect your first name, surname, email address, job title, and company name.

6.4 We process this personal data on the basis that we have a legitimate business interest in ensuring that we communicate effectively with actual and potential sponsors and advertisers and with the press. This ensures that we can continue to generate sufficient revenue to fund our programming activities.

7.  Freedom of information

7.1 We are required under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to provide certain information in response to Freedom of Information requests. You can make a request by emailing FOIAdmin@Channel4.co.uk. In order to respond to requests, we will need to collect your name, email address, and information about your request, including any additional personal data you choose to share with us when you make your request. We will use this personal data to respond to your request and will retain it for administrative purposes in line with the section headed “How long do we keep your data for?” at paragraph 10 below.

7.2 For more information about Freedom of Information, please CLICK HERE 

8.  Google

8.1 We use Google reCAPTCHA, which is a system that helps us prevent automated access to our site by computer programmes known as “bots.” reCAPTCHA does this by working out if you are a human or a bot, by collecting certain information from your browser/device like the cookies Google has placed over the last 6 months, how many mouse clicks you’ve made on that page (or touches if it’s a touch device), and the language of your browser.

8.3 Google may use the information they collect as part of the processes described above for additional purposes, details of which can be found here along with the ways you can control what Google does with that information: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

9.  Who do we share your data with?

9.1 We do need to share your personal data with some third parties in some circumstances. This includes where we use third party suppliers to perform various services for us. When we share your personal data with third parties, we enter into contracts to ensure your personal data is kept secure, is only used for the defined purpose, and is then deleted in accordance with our data retention requirements. The third-party suppliers we share your personal data with are as follows:

9.1.1 third party service providers who help us to manage our customer database and registration process;

9.1.2 third party service providers who help us to manage our viewer enquiries process;

9.1.3 information security service providers who manage our IT systems and ensure that they are secure, and protected from fraud and abuse;

9.1.4 technology solutions providers who help us to show you advertising on our platforms;

9.1.5 third party service providers who carry out user testing for us;

9.1.6 auditors and other professional advisors who help us improve the accuracy of our data, including checking the accuracy of the profiling that we carry out to ensure you receive relevant advertising;

9.1.7 third party marketing, advertising agencies and advertising sales houses who help us ensure our marketing and advertising is delivered effectively and select appropriate advertisements for us to serve to our audiences in accordance with this Privacy Policy;

9.1.8 advertising service providers (including Google) who receive IP addresses or other online identifiers to manage the number of times you see an advertisement; to count views and click throughs of advertisements (also known as impression counting); to check that advertising is viewable; and to help us measure the effectiveness of our promotions on third party platforms;

9.1.9 analytics providers who help us analyse data to detect fraudulent activity on our service so that we can use our data more effectively;

9.1.10 if you are a Channel 4+ subscriber, we use a third-party payment provider, MPP Global and they then use a sub-processor (Global Payments), to process your payment card details on our behalf. Channel 4 only ever receives the last four digits of your payment card. The full payment card details are sent directly to MPP Global.

9.2 We will share your personal data with the following categories of recipients for the following purposes: 

9.2.1 third party data pairing providers for the purposes of the data pairing exercise described under the section headed “Data pairing” at paragraph 4.4 above;

9.2.2 third party platforms to enable us to serve you advertisements send you recommendations for our content and services through those platforms, as described in the section headed “Promoting our own services on other platforms” at paragraph 4.8 above;

9.2.3 third party media agencies, in which case data will be shared in a pseudonymised form as described in the section headed “Targeted advertisements on Channel 4” at paragraph 4.6 above; and

9.2.4 other broadcasters and publishers where we act as advertising sales agent on their behalf to enable us to target and serve advertisements for those broadcasters and publishers.

9.3 We will also share your personal data with third parties in the following circumstances:

9.3.1 where you have specifically consented to us sharing your data with a particular third party; and

9.3.2 where we are required or permitted to do so by law or to protect or enforce our rights or the rights of any third party.

9.4 Except as stated in paragraph 9.5, we do not transfer or store your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). If we do carry out any further transfers of your data outside the EEA, we will inform you and we will ensure that the recipient provides an adequate level of protection of your personal data.

9.5 We transfer personal data outside of the EEA in the following ways:

Activity	Location	Safeguards
If you use Google Home features with your Channel 4 account, or sign in with Google reCAPTCHA, Google will store your data.	Google stores data in the USA	Google use EC approved standard contractual clauses to cover the international transfer of personal data. https://policies.google.com/privacy/frameworks?hl=en-GB
We use a third-party platform, InnoVida, to help us deliver personalised advertising.	Innovid stores data in the USA	Innovid use EC approved standard contractual clauses to cover the international transfer of personal data
	Moat stores data in the USA	Moat uses EC approved standard contractual clauses to cover the international transfer of personal data.

9.6 You should also be aware that if you choose to share Channel 4 content on social media via the share buttons, the relevant social media platform will know what page you are on in order to share that page. The use of that information will be governed by the social media platform's own privacy policy. Clicking the "share" buttons does not result in any other personal data being shared between Channel 4 and the platform.

10.  How long do we keep your data for?

10.1 We will keep all your personal data except for Channel 4+ payment card details for as long as your Channel 4 account remains open. You can close your account at any time using the "Close account" section of your Account Settings. If you do this, we will anonymise all your Account Data as soon as we can after you have closed your account. All other information about you, such as Behavioural Data, will also be fully anonymised.

10.2 If you have signed up to Channel 4+ and decide to cancel your Channel 4+ account, or if we cancel your account due to non-payment, we will instruct, our third-party payment processer, to delete your payment method details from your account. We will keep the rest of your Channel 4+ Account Data (e.g. your payment records) for up to six years.

10.3 If your account is inactive for a period of two years, we will send you a reminder email to remind you to use your account. If you still do not use your account, we will send a further reminder email before deleting your account and anonymising your personal data as set out above.

10.4 We may need to keep your data after account closure for limited purposes, for example if we need your data in order to respond to any complaints or claims that you make. If this is the case, we will only keep the data for as long as we need to in order to fulfil those purposes.

10.5 We keep information relating to any service errors or interruptions you have experienced for between 15-30 days.

10.6 Any Voluntary Data you submit to us will be retained for a period of two years from submission, after which it is anonymised or deleted.

11.  What rights do you have?

11.1 You have several rights under data protection law. These rights and how you can exercise them are set out in this section. We will normally need to ask you for proof of your identity before we can respond to a request to exercise any of the rights in this section and we may need to ask you for more information, for example to help us to locate the personal data that your request relates to.

11.2 We will respond to any requests to exercise your rights as soon as we can and in any event within one month of receiving your request and any necessary proof of identity or further information. If your request is particularly difficult or complex, or if you have made a large volume of requests, we may take up to three months to respond. If this is the case, we will let you know as soon as we can and explain why we need to take longer to respond.

11.3 A right to access your information

11.3.1 You can access all of your Account Data through the "Personal details" section of your Account Settings.

11.3.2 You also have a right to ask us to send you a copy of your Account Data and all other personal data that we hold about you (subject to some exceptions). A request to exercise this right is called a "subject access request" (SAR) and must be made in writing via email to: dataprotection@channel4.co.uk or via post to: Data Protection Officer, Channel 4 Enquiries, PO Box 1058, Belfast, BT1 9DU.

11.3.3 We do not accept subject access requests made via third parties without a letter of authorisation from you sent directly to us confirming that you authorise the third party to act on your behalf. We do not accept SAR requests from platforms where we are required to set up an account in order to provide the response to the SAR.

11.4 A right to object to us processing your information

11.4.1 You have a right to object to us processing any personal data that we process where we are relying on legitimate interests as the legal basis (paragraph 5 above) of our processing. This includes all of your personal data that we process for all of the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, with the exception of our use of your email address to send you marketing communications with your consent (but you can withdraw your consent to this at any time).

11.4.2 Save for direct marketing, if we have compelling legitimate grounds to carry on processing your personal data, we will be able to continue to do so. Otherwise, we will cease processing your personal data.

11.4.3 You can exercise this right by emailing us at: dataprotection@channel4.co.uk.

11.5 A right to ask us not to send you direct marketing materials

11.5.1 You can ask us not to send you direct marketing or advertising. You can do this by opting out of the advertising you no longer want to receive in the "My communications" and "Privacy settings" sections of your Account Settings. In relation to email marketing, you can also opt out by using the "unsubscribe" option in any of our email marketing communications.

11.5.2 Please note that it can take a short time for opt-out requests to take effect. The time taken to opt out of each type of marketing and advertising and further information on opting out is detailed at “How do we use your data for marketing and advertising purposes?” at paragraph 4 above.

11.6 A right to have inaccurate data corrected

11.6.1 You have a right to ask us to correct inaccurate data that we hold about you. If we are satisfied that the new data you have provided is accurate, we will correct your personal data as soon as possible.

11.6.2 You can update your own personal data at any time through your Account Settings. The only personal data you cannot change directly through your Account Settings is your date of birth, which can be updated by contacting viewer enquiries (https://www.channel4.com/4viewers/contact-us).

11.7 A right to have your data erased

11.7.1 You have a right to ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances, for example if we have processed your data unlawfully or if we no longer need the data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

11.7.2 We will fully anonymise any personal data we hold about you when you close your account, as set out under “How long do we keep your data for?” at paragraph 10 above. This means that any data held will no longer identify you and ceases to be “personal data.”

11.7.3 If you ask us to delete your personal data and you are happy for your account to be closed; we will close your account and fully anonymise your personal data as set out above. If you ask us to delete your personal data but you do not want your account closed, we may not be able or obliged to comply with this as we will usually need to keep processing your data in a personally identifiable form to keep your account open.

11.7.4 We do not accept data deletions made via third parties without a letter of authorisation from you sent directly to us confirming that you authorise the third party to delete data on your behalf. We do not accept data deletion requests from platforms where we are required to set up an account in order to provide the response to the data deletion.

11.7.5 If you would like to make a request to exercise this right, please email dataprotection@channel4.co.uk. If we are required by law to comply with your request, we will fully anonymise your data it so that it is no longer personal data and cannot be used to identify you.

11.8 A right to have processing of your data restricted

11.8.1 You can ask us to restrict processing of your personal data in some circumstances, for example if you think the personal data is inaccurate and we need to verify its accuracy, or if we no longer need the data but you require us to keep it so that you can exercise your own legal rights.

11.8.2 Restricting your personal data means that we only store your personal data and don't carry out any further processing on it unless you consent or we need to process the data to exercise a legal claim or to protect a third party or the public.

11.9 A right to data portability

11.9.1 In relation to Channel 4+ Account Data, you have a right to data portability, which means that you can ask us to provide you with a copy of the Channel 4+ Account Data that you have provided and which we hold in a commonly used re-usable format.

12. How can you contact us?

12.1 If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy and/or our processing of your personal data, you can get in touch with our Data Protection Officer using: dataprotection@channel4.co.uk.

12.2 If you are a Channel 4 registered user based in the Republic of Ireland, we have appointed an EU Representative in accordance with GDPR. The contact details are Medialink Limited, 15 Windsor Place, Off Pembroke Street, Dublin 2, 216410.

13.  What if you have a complaint?

13.1 If you are unhappy with the way in which we have processed your personal data then you can get in touch with our Data Protection Officer using: dataprotection@channel4.co.uk.

13.2 You may also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Officer (ICO), which regulates data protection compliance in the UK.

13.3 You can find out how to do this by visiting www.ico.org.uk.

14. What if this policy changes?

14.1 We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes we make will be posted on this page. We may also notify you by email if significant changes are made.

 

Updated 29 April 2026