Privacy policy

Introduction

This is the privacy policy for Guardian News & Media Limited (collectively referred to as “Guardian”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this policy), our sites such as theguardian.com and our associated apps (“our sites”). Some of our other sites and services have their own policies, which will be relevant to you when you are using those sites and services.

Our values guide everything that we do – including our editorial approach and how we use personal data. We are strongly committed to keeping your personal data safe. This commitment exists throughout the lifecycle of your personal data, from the design of any Guardian service which uses personal data to the deletion of that data.

To complement our global approach to privacy protection, this policy also incorporates specific data privacy rights granted to individuals under Californian and Australian privacy law. This reflects our relationship with our readers in these locations where we provide localised editions of our editorial content.

We think carefully about our use of personal data, and below you can find the details of what we do to protect your privacy. This policy covers, among other topics:

• Information about your rights, the choices available to you, and our obligations in the UK, European Union, in California, in Australia, and elsewhere.

• Transparency about how we collect and use your personal data, including when and how it is shared.

• Information on how we protect your personal data.

• Information on how we will facilitate your rights and respond to your questions.

Find out more about how we manage your personal data below.

About this privacy policy

This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, share, transfer and sell (for California residents only) your personal data when you use the services provided on our sites or interact with us. This privacy policy also explains your data privacy rights.

Personal data is any information about you by which you can be identified or be identifiable. This can include information such as:

• Your name, date of birth, gender, email address, postal address, phone number, mobile number or financial details, such as payment cards you use to purchase products or subscriptions or to support our journalism.

• Information about your device (such as the IP address, which is a numerical code to identify your device that can provide information about the country, region or city where you are based).

• Information relating to how you use and interact with our sites and services.

When we refer to “personal data” in this policy, we are also referencing “personal information,” as it is defined under California law, and as it is defined under Australian law.

Some of our other sites provide additional privacy information. You can read that information using these links:

• Guardian Jobs (jobseekers)

• Guardian Jobs (recruiters)

• Guardian Holidays

• Guardian Crowd (pdf)

• Serelay app

• Guardian Foundation

Sometimes our sites may contain links to sites and services that are not part of the Guardian family of offerings. These sites and services have their own privacy policies. If you follow a link to these non-Guardian sites and apps, you should read the privacy policy shown on their site.

Who we are

Guardian News & Media Limited, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU is the data controller in respect of your personal data that you share with us. This means that we are responsible for deciding how and why we hold and use your personal data. If you want to contact us directly, you can find our contact details in the “Contact us for information about how we use your personal data” section below.

The types of personal data we collect about you

We collect your personal data when you visit our sites, subscribe for products or services, contribute to the Guardian or when you interact with us. We will only collect your personal data in line with applicable laws. We collect your personal data in the following ways:

• Directly from you, e.g. when you sign up for our services, purchase products or services, including by signing up for newsletters or selecting specific topics you are interested in, including through My Guardian, and when you browse or use our sites.

• Personal data we generate about you, e.g. personal data we use to authenticate you, or personal data we generate about you from your IP address or your preferences.

• Personal data we collect from third parties, e.g. personal data that helps us to combat fraud or which we collect, with your permission, when you interact with us through your social media accounts and/or payment service providers (e.g. Paypal).

More details about the types of personal data we collect are provided below.

The personal data we collect when you register for a Guardian account on theguardian.com

When you register for a Guardian account, we collect:

• Your name.

• Your email address.

• Other details such as your contact number and residential or billing address when you sign up to support us or a subscription.

• Your user name, if you comment on our sites.

• Your photograph, if you add one to your profile page.

• Some limited data from your social media profile (further information on this is below), if you have signed in to theguardian.com using your social media details.

You can change or remove these details using the profile and settings area of your Guardian account.

Personal data we generate about you

When you register for a Guardian account or sign up for a newsletter, we assign you a unique ID number. We use this to manage your preferences, for example, the newsletters you have subscribed to. When you register for a Guardian account we use your unique ID to recognise you when you are signed in to our services. This will recognise you if you sign in using the same account on a new device or through a different application such as the Guardian app on mobile devices.

When you use our sites we may also use cookies or similar technologies to collect extra data, including:

• Your IP address - a numerical code to identify your device, together with the country, region or city where you are based.

• Your geolocation data - your IP address can be used to find information about the latitude, longitude, altitude of your device, its direction of travel, your GPS data and data about connection with local Wi-Fi equipment.

• Information on how you interact with our services.

• Your browsing history of the content you have visited on our sites, including how you were referred to our sites via other websites.

• Details of your computer, mobile, TV, tablet or other devices, for example, the unique device ID, unique vendor or advertising ID and browsers used to access our content.

We will not collect special categories of data from you - such as personal data concerning your race, political opinions, religion, health or sexual orientation - unless you have chosen to provide that type of personal data to us.

When you use our apps

The Guardian apps use personal data based on the content you have viewed. Information on bugs and crashes is also sent to us when you use our apps. A list of the articles that you have recently viewed is also cached in the local storage on your device. You can delete this reading history in the settings of the app. You can choose to receive notifications on your device via the app, and manage these notifications in the settings of the app.

Using your social media details to sign into your Guardian account

When you sign in to our sites using your social media ID, we will use this personal data to form a profile for your Guardian account. If you remove the Guardian app from your Google settings or your Apple ID, we will no longer have access to this data. However, we will still have the personal data that we received when you first set up your Guardian account using your Google login, Apple ID, or any other social media sign in.

Apple

If you register or sign in with your Apple ID, you give Apple permission to share your personal data with us. This only includes your first and last name, and your email address. You can also choose to hide your email and Apple will create a random email address so your personal email can stay private. This email address will be linked to your Guardian profile and will be used to retrieve your subscribed content.

Google

When you sign in to our sites using your Google login details, you give Google permission to share the personal data that you have made public in your Google profile. This only includes your first and last name, your email address and whether your email address has been validated, a link to your Google profile and, if you have one, your profile picture. This email address will be linked to your Guardian profile and will be used to retrieve your subscribed content.

Personal data when you post comments about the Guardian on other social media sites

If you have mentioned the Guardian in posts on social media sites, then we may collect your social media handles. For example, when you mention the Guardian in a post, we may collect your X handle.

When you post publicly (comments) on our sites

When you post on a discussion board or comment publicly on an article on one of our sites, the personal data you post, including your username and other information about yourself, are publicly accessible. This personal data can be viewed online and collected by other people. We are not responsible for the way these other people use this personal data. When contributing to a discussion, we strongly recommend you avoid sharing any personal details, including information that can be used to identify you directly such as your name, age, address and name of employer. We are not responsible for the privacy of any identifiable information that you choose to post in our online community or other public pages of the site.

How we collect personal data

We collect personal data when you:

• Become a supporter or register for an account on our sites.

• Make contributions to fund and support the Guardian.

• Pay for a subscription or purchase any other products/services for yourself or others.

• Manage your account settings (e.g. notification, preferences).

• Attend our events (in person and/or virtually).

• Enter our competitions, prize draws, bids and surveys.

• Take part in our call-outs.

• Sign up for our editorial emails.

• Post or comment in our online community.

• Sign up for marketing communications.

• Use mobile devices to access our content.

• Access and interact with any of our sites.

• Contact us via email, social media, our apps or similar technologies or when you mention us on social media.

• Test our products, participate in focus groups or provide us with feedback.

We also collect personal data through cookies and other similar technologies. Please refer to our cookie policy for more details on how we use cookies.

How we use your personal data

We use personal data collected through our sites only when we have a valid reason and the legal grounds to do so. We determine the legal grounds based on the purposes for which we have collected your personal data.

Legal grounds for using your personal data

The legal ground may be one of the following:

• Consent: Often we will use your personal data because we have asked for your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. Please refer to the table below for examples of where we ask for your consent.

• Performance of a contract with you (or in order to take steps prior to entering into a contract with you): We will use your personal data if we need to in order to perform a contract with you. For example, where you have purchased a subscription from us, we will need to use your contact details and payment data in order to process your order and deliver your subscription. We will use your information as necessary in order to conduct competitions or prize draws. We may contact you directly via social media or email if you enter competitions, prize draws, bids or respond to call-outs.

• Compliance with law: In some cases, we may have a legal obligation to use or keep your personal data, for example to retain records of transactions as required by financial regulations.

• Our legitimate interest: We may process your personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests in a way that might be expected as part of running the Guardian and in a way which does not materially impact your rights and freedoms. For example, it is in our legitimate interest for us to understand our readers, promote our services and ways to support us, and operate our sites efficiently for the creation, publication and distribution of news, media and related journalistic content both online and in print form, globally. Please refer to the table below for examples of when we rely on our legitimate interests to use your personal data.

In addition to the above, we also rely on the legitimate interests below to use your personal data:

• For internal administrative purposes related to our services - such as our accounting and records.

• To inform you of any changes to our services, such as updates to our terms and conditions.

• To enable you to register for an account on our sites.

• To enable you to share our content with others using social media or email.

• When we respond to your queries and to resolve complaints.

• When we moderate comments under our community standards and participation guidelines.

• To remember where you have reached in our puzzle products.

• To troubleshoot technical issues on our sites and their functionalities.

• When we de-identify or anonymise personal data, or aggregate it so that it can no longer identify you.

• For security and fraud prevention, and to ensure that our sites are safe and secure and used in line with our terms of use.

• To contact you directly via social media or email if you send us emails or engage with the Guardian on social media or contact us.

Where we rely on cookies to collect any personal data please see our cookie policy for more information and how to manage your cookie choices through our “Privacy Settings” link on our sites in the footer of every page.

Where personal data has been de-identified or anonymised, it will not be used in order to re-identify individuals.

The Guardian is a media organisation and publisher. Data protection law includes certain exemptions when personal data is processed for the purposes of journalism. Those exemptions apply to some of the ways the Guardian uses personal data. This privacy policy does not cover personal data that the Guardian processes for the purposes of journalism.

Access permissions when you are using the Guardian app

When you use the Guardian app, we will ask for permissions to access particular functions of your mobile device. When we ask for permissions will depend on the operating system of your mobile device, but can include:

• When you decide to store content including photographs on your mobile device to read or use when offline. We will need your permission to save content to your mobile device.

• Asking permission to access your contact details/profile on your mobile device, so that we can add or find your Guardian account on your phone.

• If you decide to submit content, such as photographs, to the Guardian. We will ask permission to access your camera or photographs.

Updating your personal data and your profile page on our sites

When you register for a Guardian account, you have access to a profile page. Under “edit profile” you can review and update what personal data is public when you comment on our articles, or if people look up your profile. For more information on how to manage your account please see https://manage.theguardian.com/help-centre.

You may also update your marketing preferences in the “Emails and marketing” and/or “Data privacy” tabs in your account.

Personal data that we receive about you from other organisations

Adding to or combining the personal data you provide to us

When you sign up to our services we may add to the personal data you give us by combining it with other personal data shared with us by other trusted organisations. This includes, for example, the region that you are located in, so that we can show you the prices for subscriptions or other products in your local currency. We may also add personal data to improve the accuracy of your delivery address when we send out mail. We may also obtain your personal data from partners whose offers we include in some of our marketing communications and we use this personal data to ensure that we do not send you irrelevant marketing and to ensure the accuracy of the information we hold.

We also use personal data based on the content you have viewed on our sites and your interaction with the content to add you to groups with similar interests and preferences, so that we can make our online advertising more relevant. Sometimes we use data about your interests or demographics that some of our global third parties have collected from you online to add you to these groups, such as Comscore and Nielsen. Please refer to our cookie policy for more information on how we use cookies.

Personal data shared by event partners

When you register or book a ticket for a Guardian event organised by an event partner, your registration data may be shared with us by the event partner.

Children’s personal data

We do not aim any of our products or services directly at children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal data about children under 13 in providing our services. Some of our services may have a higher age restriction and this will be shown at the point of registration.

We also note and comply with the California law which prohibits sale of personal data of consumers between 13-16 years of age unless their guardian has authorised the sale.

Security of your personal data

We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational controls to protect your personal data against unauthorised processing and against accidental loss, damage or destruction. You are responsible for choosing a secure password when we ask you to set up a password to access parts of our sites. You should keep this password confidential and you should choose a password that you do not use on any other site. You should not share your password with anyone else, including anyone who works for us. Sending any information, including personal data, via the internet is not completely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of any personal data sent to our site while still in transit and so you provide it at your own risk.

When we share your personal data

Within the Guardian group of companies

Depending on where you live, we may share your personal data within the Guardian group of companies in the UK, US, or Australia. We may share it in order to perform a contract with you, for administrative purposes, or when we have a legitimate interest in doing so. For example:

• If you book an event held in Australia, at first we may hold your data on our systems in the UK and then we may share it with the Guardian in Australia for administration purposes.

• Sometimes we may receive a letter, email or another form of communication from you that we consider to be significant to the history of the Guardian. We may decide to share this with the Guardian Archive run by the Guardian Foundation for historic and archiving purposes.

• We may share your data to understand how you interact across our group products or to tailor and offer relevant advertising to you.

With external organisations

We share your personal data with other organisations that are not directly linked to us under the following circumstances:

Service providers - We may share your data with other organisations that provide services on our behalf. We may do this to perform a contract we have entered into with you, where it is in our legitimate interests or with your consent. Examples of when we may share your data with service providers include sharing with:

• Companies that help deliver newspapers and subscription vouchers, such as i-Movo.

• Online payments processors who process credit and debit card transactions on our behalf.

• Fraud management providers that help us to identify and prevent online fraud.

• Internet and cloud hosting services providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).

• Life-cycle engagement platforms such as Braze, to help us build and manage our campaigns and send our email communications, including newsletters.

• Software service providers such as Salesforce that assist us with our customer relationship management.

• Communications services providers, such as our podcast service provider called Acast.

• Error tracking software providers, such as Sentry and Google Firebase, to help us diagnose and fix errors and optimise the performance of our website and apps.

• Service providers that help us carry out analytics, facilitate audience creation and segmentation and to measure our audience engagement. For example, Permutive provides us with data management platform services.

• Service providers that help provide us with insights and analytics that help us to improve our products and services.

• Google ReCaptcha, which we use to protect our sites from fraudulent users.

• Data management companies, such as Formstack, that help us collect data via online forms and surveys.

• Service providers that help provide online identity-as-a-service and access management services such as Okta.

• Service providers that allow us to deliver personalised advertising to your device, such as Criteo.

• Service providers that allow us to compare your personal data with information held by advertising partners and identify if you are known to both us and our advertising partner, such as InfoSum, Optable or Permutive.

• YouTube because we use their unbranded embedded player to provide video content on our websites and apps. The embedded player relies on the YouTube API, which is a type of software that allows data to be communicated between our website and apps and the YouTube player. This will include personal data which will also be collected by cookies as set out in our cookie policy. We will provide this data about how you interact with videos to enable YouTube to provide statistical information such as how many views a video has, or how many users watch the entire video. More information about how YouTube will use this personal data, which includes usage data when you interact or use the embedded YouTube player, can be found at the Google Privacy Policy: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy.

• Skimlinks because they are an affiliate marketing service provider. We do not drop first or third party cookies, or otherwise access local storage through our affiliate links. Instead we use a type of link that redirects users into Skimlinks’ network. This means we are tracking and identifying the click, rather than individuals. Skimlinks will use IP addresses to direct readers to the geographically relevant affiliate link. The IP address and user agent are anonymised and truncated by Skimlinks. Third party sites including retailers and sites in Skimlinks’ network may place cookies or collect additional information. Details about Skimlinks use of data is set out in their privacy policy at https://skimlinks.com/privacy-policy.

Advertising partners - We may also share your data collected through our sites with our advertising partners, as set out in our cookie policy. These partners help us deliver relevant advertising across our sites. For example, we use Google Ad Manager to assist us with the delivery of relevant ads.

Affiliate marketing - When a product is linked from a Guardian article or gallery, if the retailer has an affiliate programme, then the link will redirect to the retailer website through our affiliate marketing partner, such as Skimlinks’ network. When a reader clicks on a link, Skimlinks will identify which page the click came from and assign it a randomly generated number. This is communicated to the retailer and associated with any subsequent purchase. The affiliate marketing partner, such as Skimlinks, then reconciles the list of clicks from links on the Guardian with purchases on the retailer’s site. This is used in order to calculate the commission for the Guardian.

Agencies and authorities if required by law - We may reveal your personal data to any law enforcement agency, court, regulator, government authority, or in connection with any legal action if we are required to do so to meet a legal or regulatory obligation, where the request is proportionate, or otherwise to protect our rights or the rights of anyone else (for example, in response to a valid and properly served legal process such as subpoena or warrant). If we have your contact details, we will take reasonable steps to attempt to notify you prior to disclosing your data unless (i) prohibited by applicable law from doing so, or (ii) there are clear indications of unlawful conduct in connection with your use of Guardian services.

Event sponsors and partners - We may share your personal data with sponsors of Guardian events and partners who we hold events with for marketing purposes when you have given your permission for us to do so. We may also share your personal data with these sponsors and partners for event administration and security purposes.

Prize draws, competitions and bids - We may share your personal data with sponsors and partners for the purposes of selecting and notifying winners when you participate in any of our prize draws, competitions and bids. We may also share your data with entities offering any prize you have won in order for that entity to contact you about such a prize.

Social media organisations - We may share your personal data with other organisations when our web pages use social plug-ins from these organisations (such as liking or sharing on social media). These other organisations may receive and use personal data about your visit to our sites or apps. If you browse our site or view content on our apps, personal data they collect may be connected to your account on their site. For more information on how these organisations use personal data, please read their privacy policies.

Organisation/s that buy any of the Guardian group companies - We may share your personal data to any other organisation that buys, or to which we transfer all, or substantially all, of our assets and business. If this sale or transfer takes place, we will use reasonable efforts to try to make sure that the organisation we transfer your personal data to uses it in line with our privacy policy.

When we share your personal data, as specified above, with any organisation which accesses your data in the course of providing services on our behalf, they will be governed by strict contractual restrictions to make sure that they protect your data and comply with applicable law. We may also independently audit these service providers to make sure that they meet our standards.

California resident - Do not sell

These transfers to third parties may constitute “sale” of your personal information under California law. A California resident can halt these sales at any time by pressing the “California resident - Do not sell” link that is located in the footer of every page on our site. Third-parties do not sell personal information that has been sold to them by the Guardian unless you have first received explicit notice and are provided an opportunity to exercise the right to opt out.

International data transfers

Data we collect may be transferred to, stored and processed in any country or territory where one or more of our Guardian group companies or service providers are based or have facilities. While other countries or territories may not have the same standards of data protection as those in your home country, we will continue to protect personal data that we transfer in line with this privacy policy.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA), we ensure similar protection and put in place at least one of these safeguards:

• We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been found to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data.

• We may also use specific approved contracts that use Standard Contractual Clauses for the protection of personal data where appropriate, with our service providers that are based in countries outside the UK or the EEA, including those based in the US and Australia. These contracts give your personal data the same protection it has in the UK or the EEA.

If you are located in the UK or the EEA, you may contact us for a copy of the safeguards which we have put in place for the transfer of your personal data outside the UK or the EEA.

How long we keep your personal data

We keep your personal data for only as long as we need to. How long we need your personal data depends on what we are using it for, as set out in this privacy policy. For example, we may need to use it to answer your queries about a product or service and as a result may keep your personal data while you are still using our product or service. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means. We may also need to keep your personal data for accounting purposes, for example, where you have bought a subscription.

If we no longer need your data, we will delete it or make it anonymous by removing all details that identify you. If we have asked for your permission to process your personal data and we have no other lawful grounds to continue with that processing, and you withdraw your permission, we will delete your personal data. However, when you unsubscribe from marketing communications, we will keep your email address to ensure that we do not send you any marketing communications in the future.

How we may contact you

Service communications

From time to time we may send you service emails or SMS, for example, telling you your subscription is coming to an end or thanking you when you contribute or place an order with us.

Marketing communications and editorial newsletters

If we have your permission or you have not opted out, we may send you materials we think may interest you, such as new Guardian offers and updates. Depending on your marketing preferences, which you can amend in the “Emails and marketing” tab of your Guardian account, this may be by email, phone, SMS or post.

We offer a range of editorial newsletters. You can manage your subscription to these emails through your profile page when you are signed in to your Guardian account.

You can decide not to receive these emails at any time and will be able to “unsubscribe” directly by clicking a link in the email or through your email preferences in the tab “Emails and marketing” when you are signed in to your Guardian account.

For more information on how to manage your account please see https://manage.theguardian.com/help-centre.

Guardian research

If we have your permission or you have not opted out, we may contact you for research purposes, for example about the Guardian app. You can opt out from being contacted in this way by signing into your Guardian account and going to the tab “emails and marketing”.

Responding to your queries or complaints

If you have raised a query or a complaint with us, we may contact you to answer your query or to resolve your complaint.

Special Note to California Users

If you elect to use the “California resident - Do not sell” button, we will not recontact you about that choice for at least 12 months.

Cookies and similar technologies

When you visit our sites, we may collect personal data from you automatically using cookies or similar technologies.

This privacy policy includes our cookie policy, where you can find more information about our use of cookies.

Your privacy and data protection rights with regard to the personal data that we hold about you

You have a number of rights with regard to the personal data that we hold about you and you can contact us with regard to the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• You have the right to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

• You have the right to correct the personal data we hold about you.

• Where applicable, you may also have a right to receive a machine-readable copy of your personal data.

• You also have the right to ask us to delete your personal data or restrict how it is used. There may be exceptions to the right to erasure for specific legal reasons which, if applicable, we will set out for you in response to your request.

• Where applicable, you have the right to object to processing of your personal data for certain purposes.

• Where you have provided us with consent to use your personal data, you can withdraw this consent at any time.

• If you do not want us to use your personal data for marketing analysis, you can change your settings in the “Data privacy” tab of your Guardian account.

If you would like to exercise any of your rights specified above, please email dataprotection@theguardian.com or write to the Data Protection Officer at Guardian News & Media Limited, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. We will respond to all standard legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a large number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

We may need verification of your identity to proceed with a request. If you provide us with proof of identity containing information that does not match our records, we may request further proof of identity from you. This is a security measure to ensure that your personal data is not disclosed to any person who does not have a right to receive it.

You will not have to pay a fee to obtain a copy of your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, for any further copies requested by you, we may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs.

Your California privacy rights

The California Consumer Privacy Act 2018 (“CCPA”) and California Privacy Rights Act 2020 (“CPRA”) provide certain rights to residents of California. The CCPA and CPRA are collectively referred to as “CCPA” below.

If you are a resident of California you may contact us with regard to the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Right to Know: At or before the time of collection, you have a right to receive notice of our practices, including the categories of personal data and sensitive personal data to be collected, the purposes for which it is collected and used, whether such personal data is “sold or shared” and for how long personal data is retained. These details are set out in this Privacy Policy.

• Right to Access: You have the right to request access to the personal data we may hold on you for the past twelve (12) months. You may submit up to two (2) requests per year of access to your personal data.

• Right to Correct: You have the right to correct inaccurate personal data we hold about you.

• Right to Opt-Out of Sale of Personal Data: For individuals sixteen (16) years or older, you have the right to opt-out of sale of personal data we may hold on you. You can exercise this right at any time by pressing the “California resident - Do not sell” link in the footer of every page on our site. For individuals between thirteen (13) to sixteen (16) years old, you have the right to opt-in to the sale of personal data we may hold on you.

• Right to Deletion: You also have the right to ask us to delete personal data we may hold on you or restrict how it is used. There may be exceptions to the right to deletion which, if applicable, we will set out for you in response to your request.

• Right to Limit Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Data: Where applicable, you have the right to limit our use of sensitive personal data for any purposes other than to provide the services you request or as otherwise permitted by law.

• Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your California Consumer Privacy Act rights.

If you want to make any of these requests, please contact dataprotection@theguardian.com. We will deal with requests for access to your personal data within forty-five (45) days for California-specific requests.

To help us respond as you expect, please specify that you are making a request under the CCPA. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity. For example, we will verify your identity before complying. If you provide us with proof of identity containing information that does not match our records, we may request further proof of identity from you.

You can designate an “authorized agent” to make requests to exercise your rights on your behalf under the CCPA. We will clarify that any “authorized agent” has your written permission in making that request. We may also contact you directly to verify your identity.

Record of Requests

We keep a record of requests that we received from users exercising their CCPA rights. If the user does not verify their identity, their request will be denied. We have set out this record of requests for the last calendar year from 1 July 2023 below:

California “Shine the Light” Privacy Rights

Residents of California can ask us to provide a list of the types of personal data we have disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the identity of those third parties. We do not generally disclose personal data as defined under the California “Shine the Light” law. To the extent that we share email addresses with third parties in connection with online marketing that could be covered, you may opt-out through your “Manage My Account” choices.

To make a “Shine the Light” request, please email dataprotection@theguardian.com with “Shine the Light” in the subject line.

Your Australian privacy rights

The Australian privacy Act has rules around how we handle your personal information that may be different to rules in other regions. These rules are set out in the Australian Privacy Principles in force under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Australian Privacy Act). We are required to treat your personal information in line with those principles, including to disclose to you what personal information we collect and how we use it, to store your information securely and to support you in exercising your rights.

Personal information we collect and use

When we refer to “personal data” throughout this policy, we are also referencing “personal information,” as it is defined under Australian law.

Details about the personal information that we collect, use and disclose is set out throughout this privacy policy. You can navigate these relevant sections by going to the contents section at the top of the page.

Your rights

Your rights to privacy are also protected by the Australian Privacy Act, including your:

• Right of access to the personal information held about you; and

• Right of correction to correct your information when it is incorrect.

These principles and rights are reflected throughout this privacy policy.

Opt out of personalised advertising

Under the Australian Privacy Act, you have the right to opt out of the use of your personal information for the purpose of direct marketing, including in relation to personalised advertising. You can opt out of personalised advertising across our website and apps at any time by going to the “Privacy Settings” link on our sites in the footer of every page. You will still see non-personalised advertising.

We and our partners use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about your use of the website to help create reports and statistics on the performance of the website. Analytics cookies such as Google Analytics collect information such as your IP address, device type and operating system, referring URLs, location and pages visited. If you don’t want Google Analytics to be used in your browser, you can install the ‘Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On’, provided by Google.

For a complete description of our use of cookies and similar technologies globally, please see our cookie policy.

If you have contacted us at dataprotection@theguardian.com with a privacy related complaint and you are not satisfied with our handling of that complaint, you may refer that complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

GPO BOX 5218, Sydney NSW 2001

1300 363 992

https://www.oaic.gov.au/

Contact us for information about how we use your personal data

If you have any questions about how we use your personal data or if you have a concern about how your personal data is used, please contact the Data Protection Officer at Guardian News & Media Limited, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Or, email dataprotection@theguardian.com.

Complaints will be dealt with by the Data Protection Team, and will be responded to within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with the way your concern has been handled, you can refer your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If you have a question about anything else, please see our Contact us page here.

For individuals based in the European Union:

Since we do not have an establishment in the European Union, we have appointed an EU based representative to serve as a direct contact for data protection authorities and individuals on our behalf, who can be contacted at theguardian@mcf.ie or MCF Legal Technology Solutions Limited, Riverside One, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Changes to this privacy policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, the updated privacy policy will be posted on this page. If the changes are significant, we may also choose to email all our registered users with the new details. If required by law, we will get your permission or give you the opportunity to opt out of any new uses of your data.

Changes to this privacy policy to date

The most recent changes to this privacy policy were made on:

• 1 July 2024

• 9 February 2024

• 8 December 2023

• 13 July 2023

• 19 August 2022

• 28 January 2022

• 8 October 2021

• 20 November 2020

• 12 August 2020

• 30 June 2020

A list of all previous changes are available upon request.