How do you collect information about me?
You provide some information yourself
For instance, when you register for a BBC account:
- Anyone under 13 has to provide their date of birth and choose a username
- Anyone aged 13 to 17 has to provide their date of birth and email address
- Anyone over 18 has to provide their email address, postcode and year of birth
- We also ask everyone what gender they identify as. You can choose female, male or enter another term of your choosing. And there’s also an option if you’d prefer not to say
Find out why you have to provide personal information when you register
We collect some information automatically
Things like your IP address, which browser and device you’re using, and your unique identifier. And we can tell what webpage directed you to the BBC by looking at information from your browser.
If you’re signed in we’ll also know how you use the BBC. This helps us give you a better, more personalised BBC.
Any BBC apps on your phone, tablet or TV may store information on your device. And we may access that information. When you ask for local news or weather, you can choose if you want to give us access to your device’s location.
We may use all this information to see how you’re using the BBC online.
We also collect data about things you add
For instance, if you add artists you want to follow in BBC Music.
How does the BBC use my information?
Personal information
Information about your gender, age and location help us see how different people are using the BBC and check we’re making something for everyone.
We use some of your personal information to provide our services, provide recommendations to you on things you’ll like, and to personalise parts of the BBC to your tastes.
IP address and device information
Your IP address and information about your device might be used to confirm your location. This is so that we can find out if you are accessing the services from inside or outside of the UK, and to make your experience more relevant to where you live.
When you access a BBC website from outside the UK, you'll see bbc.com with advertising. Some of this advertising might be tailored to you. You’ll only see advertising or tailored advertising if you're visiting bbc.com from outside the UK.
Adverts on other websites
Based on what we know about you, we may show you adverts about BBC products and services on other websites, such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. For instance, to let you know about a new programme you might like.
If you don’t want to see these adverts, some websites will let you stop them. Each website is different, so you’ll need to check with them how to do that.
You can also stop these BBC adverts by turning off BBC personalisation.
Can I see a history of everything I’ve watched?
When you’re signed in, the My Programmes section in iPlayer shows any programmes you’re part way through. So you can pick up where you left off with anything you haven’t finished. Or find the next episode in a series you’ve been watching.