The Economist Group's privacy policy

The Economist Group is committed to protecting the privacy of our customers. Because we operate from offices around the world, we have taken steps to ensure that high standards of data protection are adhered to globally for all the forms of data processing mentioned below. This statement outlines our privacy and data protection policy.

Definitions

"The Economist Group" comprises The Economist Newspaper Limited and its subsidiaries, which together operate a number of businesses, including the following:

The Economist
Other Economist-branded businesses, such as Economist Intelligence Unit, Economist Conferences and Economist Corporate Network
European Voice
EuroFinance Conferences
CQ-Roll Call Group (including, Capitol Advantage, Congressional Quarterly and Roll Call)

A "customer" (or "you") is anyone ordering, registering for or making use of any product, service or website of any Economist Group business.

Collection and use of customer information

Your personal details will be collected and processed when you order, purchase, register, subscribe or make use of any of our products or services. Information is collected by the companies of the Economist Group. For our businesses operated in the EU and EEA, the companies listed at the end of this policy statement are each registered with the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner's Office as a data controller in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

When you visit any of our websites, we also collect website usage information, and information about your computer and internet connection. This includes your computer's IP address, the type and version of browser and operating system you use, your internet domain and, if you visited via a link from another website, the URL of the linking page.

This information is collected to help us:

fulfil your order
manage your registration preferences
send you renewal notifications
personalise web content and advertising based on your personal characteristics or preferences
ensure, as far as is practical, that our websites are compatible with the browsers and operating systems used by most of our visitors
conduct customer satisfaction surveys

And, if you allow us to*, we may also:

tell you about additional products and services
tell you about other promotional activities across The Economist Group of companies or other companies with whom we have a business relationship
invite you to participate in market research and surveys

* Please indicate your privacy preferences using the order, registration or subscription form when ordering, purchasing, registering or subscribing.

We also use your information for in-house research and analysis. This helps us to:

improve our understanding of customer needs
create marketing profiles
support strategic development
To enable us to conduct research we may share your information with third party suppliers employed to help. All results of any research and analysis will be anonymised or aggregated information and will not reveal any personal details of individual customers.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file which is placed on your hard drive when you visit any of the Group's websites. We use information from cookies for purposes which may include:

identifying returning users, registrants and subscribers
eliminating the need for returning users to re-enter their login details
enabling you to move more easily around our sites
tracking your use of our sites to better develop our sites in accordance with your requirements
building up an anonymous profile based on your browsing patterns across our sites and third party websites, which enables us to make advertisements and content available to you that is more relevant to your interests

You can delete cookies from your hard drive at any time. Bear in mind, though, that if you delete them, any settings such as your stored username and password will have to be reset when you next log in.

You will be able to use our websites and applications even if your browser is not set to accept cookies. However, certain features and content may not be available to you and you will have to log in every time you visit.

By visiting an Economist Group website, you consent to the use of cookies as explained above.

You can also choose whether you wish us to collect cookie information for these purposes using the settings in your browser, as further explained at http://www.cookiecentral.com

Further information on the use of cookies can be found at http://www.cookiecentral.com/faq

E-mails

The Economist Group uses reputable third parties to deliver the e-mails you receive if you have subscribed to e-mail newsletters, or have chosen to receive information about Economist Group products, services and offers. These third parties use unique identifiers and invisible images (often called "pixel tags" or "clear GIFs") to perform message open sensing, message format sensing, and click-through sensing in order to bring you more relevant information.

To find out more about the technologies used in these e-mails sent on our behalf, please visit http://www.doubleclick.com/privacy/index.aspx. Content and some ad services in these e-mails are provided by Economist Group servers or by a third party.

The Economist Group uses DoubleClick to deliver the advertisements displayed on our websites. DoubleClick may note some of the pages you visit through the use of pixel tags (also called "clear gifs"). In the course of serving advertisements to this site, DoubleClick may place or recognise a unique cookie on your computer in order to bring to you more relevant information and to make sure that you do not receive the same ad many times in the same session. Some of the advertisers on our sites do not use DoubleClick ad-serving software and their ads are served by third-parties who may also place cookies. To find out more about these sensing methods and to know your choices about not having this information used by DoubleClick, please visit http://www.doubleclick.com/privacy/index.aspx.

External links

Our websites may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. The Economist Group is not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites and we recommend that you read the privacy policies on any external sites you use.

Security policy

The Economist Group does its utmost to protect your privacy and ensure your personal details are not misused, accidentally destroyed, lost or altered within The Economist Group.

Occasionally we share your details with other companies who are managing data for us (eg fulfilment bureaux, database consultants etc.). They are only permitted to process your data with explicit permission from The Economist Group, enabling them to perform the services required.

Transfer of personal data overseas

As the internet is a global environment, collecting and processing personal information may involve the transmission of this data internationally, including outside of the European Union. Therefore, by communicating electronically with us you acknowledge and agree to your personal data being processed in this way.

Children under 13

The Economist Group does not intentionally collect any personal information from individuals under the age of 13. When necessary, underage users will be told not to submit any personal details and we will make every effort to delete any details of such users where a parent or guardian has informed us that these details have been collected.

Changes to this statement

From time to time, we may make changes to the privacy policy. This may be in relation to changes in the law, best practice or changes in our services. These changes will be reflected in this statement, so you should check here from time to time.

Companies

In accordance with the UK Data Protection Act 1998, the following companies are registered with the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner's Office as a data controller to collect information:

Data controller: The Economist Newspaper Limited
Registered Office: 25 St James's Street, London SW1A 1HG, UK
ICO Registered Number: Z7134617 Data Protection Registration Number: 236383
Other names: The World In, The Economist, European Voice, Economist.com, Intelligent Life

Data controller:The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited
Registered Office: 25 St James's Street, London SW1A 1HG, UK
ICO Registered Number: Z6982453
Data Protection Registration Number: 1762617
Other names: EIU, Economist Intelligence Unit, Economist Conferences, Economist Corporate Network

Data controller: EuroFinance Conferences Ltd
Registered Office: 25 St James's Street, London SW1A 1HG, UK
ICO Registered Number: Z4865712
Data Protection Registration Number: 3015764
Other names: EuroFinance Intelligence, EuroFinance Training