Policing privacy

We make our money by providing services to writers, not by selling lists of names. Our formal statement is attached. Our business partners who collect your payments or sell you books have their own privacy policy which differs in detail from our own. However, we are all committed to protecting your privacy.

Privacy as an issue

We have visitor information collected for us to find out which parts of the site are popular. The technology allows an increasing amount of information to be gathered about you and your use of the web.  This is analogous to the personal data that exists about payment or phone use. It is the responsibility of organisations collecting this data not to abuse it. If you want to follow an independent discussion on the issues surrounding privacy try http://www.epic.org/ or http://www.junkbusters.com/new.html. The paranoid should avoid these sites to preserve their peace of mind. Conspiracy theorists may find much to intrigue them.

We are able to find out about you as you browse. Want to know more?

Policing

This all sounds very worthy but the truth is that nobody polices the system. To press for a monitoring and enforcement system contact the UK Data Protection Commissioner or the UK Council for Civil Liberties. 

The Data Protection Act 1998

We, being resident in the UK, are able to claim exemption from The Data Protection Act 1998 as data is held exclusively for accounts and marketing purposes. Even though we are exempt for registration we still have to follow the eight data principles.

In summary they require that data shall be:

1  Fairly and lawfully processed

2  Processed for limited purposes

3  Adequate, relevant and not excessive

4  Accurate

5  Not kept longer than necessary

6  Processed in accordance with the data subject's rights

7  Secure

8  Not transferred to countries outside the EEA without adequate protection.

January 2004