Privacy Policy

This policy explains why and how we collect data from people and organisations we work with to deliver our books, from trade professionals to our customers and readers. It shows the methods we use to collect this data; who we share it with; how we store it; and how we keep it secure.

What personal information does Comma collect?

Information you Provide

We may collect and store any personal information you enter on our website or provide to us in some other manner, including personal information that may be contained in any comment, survey response or other submission you send to us or post to the website. This includes identifying information, such as your name, address, e-mail address, and telephone number. We also may request information about your interests and activities, your gender and age, and other demographic information.

If you have signed up to receive one of our email newsletters, Comma will send you emails fortnightly containing news, offers, reviews and information relating to our books and events programme. These emails are sent via MailChimp who also store your information. Their privacy policy and information on their GDPR compliance can be found here: MailChimp Privacy Policy.

If at any time you wish to remove your details from the mailing list, simply click the unsubscribe link in any of our newsletters.

We will not share any of this personal information without your consent.

Payment Information

If you have bought anything from the Comma website your financial details will be processed by PayPal. Neither Comma nor PayPal retain any financial information and every transaction is protected by PayPal’s advanced encryption.

We also sometimes use Eventbrite for bookings. They also store your information and credit card details, which we do not see. For Eventbrite compliance information, look here: Eventbrite & EU Data Protection.

Cookies

When you visit our website, we may assign your computer one or more cookies, to facilitate access to our site and to personalise your online experience. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on our site, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on our site. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies.

IP address

An IP address is a number that is assigned to your computer automatically when you use the Internet. When you visit a particular web page on the Comma site, our server logs your IP address. We may log IP addresses for the purposes of systems administration, security, or to report information in aggregate form to our partners and funders (e.g., how many visitors logged in to our website) in a form that is not personally identifiable.

How We Use the Information we Collect

We use information that we collect about you to:

- to provide information to you that you request from us relating to our events, activities, services and publications

- to inform you of any changes to our website, services, activities or products.

- to understand your needs, provide you with a better service and to promote our work for the following reasons: internal record keeping. Using the information to improve our courses, activities and services. Occasionally we may use your information to contact your for research purposes. We may use the information to customise the website or our other activities according to your responses.

Who does Comma share information with?

We will not disclose your personal information to third parties, except to the extent necessary to provide you with a requested service, or under circumstances required by law. We will disclose your personal information when we believe in good faith that any applicable law, regulation or legal process requires it, or where we believe disclosure is necessary to protect or enforce our rights or the rights of another member. We may aggregate information anonymously to provide statistics to evaluate our work and feedback to funders, such as Arts Council England, about our performance. Some of our programmes and projects are produced in partnership with other carefully chosen organisations (such as the Manchester Metropolitan University). In such cases we will only share your information with the partner organisation if you have given us specific permission to do so.

What Else Should I Know About my Privacy?

You should be aware that if you voluntarily disclose personal information online in a public area, that information might be collected and used by others. If you disclose personal information on our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or any other publicly accessible place on or associated with the Comma site, you do so at your own risk and you understand that your information may be collected and used by others.

Comma Press has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Wherever we hold personal data we have two factor identification to prevent hacks and data leaks. We also train all our staff to handle data sensitively.

Links to other websites

The Comma website contains links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. Comma Press has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party sites or services.

GDPR

In carrying out any of the activities specified in this section, in the event that data is temporarily transferred outside the European Economic Area, ­­­your information will be afforded the level of protection as required under applicable UK data protection legislation.

You have the following rights under the GDPR:

• Request access to your personal data.
• Request correction of your personal data.
• Request erasure of your personal data.
• Object to processing of your personal data.
• Request restriction of processing your personal data.
• Request transfer of your personal data.
• Right to withdraw consent.

Occasionally our Privacy Policy may change, so please do check back regularly to see any updates. If you have any questions or complaints, please contact Sarah.Cleave@commapress.co.uk

If your complaint remains unresolved then you can contact the ICO, details available at www.ico.org.uk.