Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Spalding News collects, uses and protects your personal data when you use our website at https://www.spaldingnews.co.uk (the "Website"). We are committed to handling your data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
1. Who we are
For the purposes of UK data protection law, Spalding News is the "data controller" responsible for your personal data. If you have any questions about this policy or your data, you can contact us at news@spaldingnews.co.uk.
2. What data we collect
- Account details if you register, we store your display name, email address and a securely hashed version of your password.
- Comments and contributions the content of any comments you post, linked to your account.
- Favourites and reading history records of articles you save or read while logged in, used to provide those features.
- Newsletter if you subscribe, your email address.
- Technical and usage data information collected automatically when you visit, such as your IP address, browser type, device information and the pages you view, including basic page-view counts. Some of this is held in our server logs.
3. How and why we use your data
We use your personal data on the following lawful bases under the UK GDPR:
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Creating and managing your account and providing features such as comments, favourites and reading history | Performance of a contract |
| Sending you our newsletter | Consent (which you can withdraw at any time) |
| Operating, securing and improving the Website, preventing abuse, and understanding general usage | Our legitimate interests |
| Complying with our legal obligations | Legal obligation |
4. Cookies
We use a small number of cookies to make the Website work. Full details are in our Cookies Policy.
5. Who we share your data with
We do not sell your personal data. We may share it with:
- Service providers who help us run the Website (for example our web hosting provider), who process data on our behalf and under our instructions;
- Authorities or third parties where we are required to do so by law, or to establish, exercise or defend legal rights.
6. Third-party services
To display the Website we load some resources from third parties, such as web fonts and icon libraries from content delivery networks and images from external image hosts. When your browser loads these, the relevant provider may receive your IP address. The social sharing buttons on our articles are simple links; they do not share your data with those platforms unless you click them and visit those sites, where the platform's own privacy policy will apply.
7. How long we keep your data
We keep account data for as long as your account is active. If you close your account or ask us to delete your data, we will delete or anonymise it unless we are required to keep it for legal reasons. Server logs and usage data are kept only for as long as needed for security and operational purposes.
8. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to: access a copy of your data; have inaccurate data corrected; have your data erased; restrict or object to our processing; data portability; and, where we rely on consent, to withdraw that consent at any time. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at news@spaldingnews.co.uk.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you have the right to complain to the UK's supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk. We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns first.
9. Security
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including storing passwords only in a securely hashed form. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to protect your data and to deal with any breach in line with our legal obligations.
10. Children
The Website is not directed at children and you must be at least 16 to register for an account. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.
11. International transfers
Some of our service providers (such as content delivery networks) may process data outside the UK. Where that happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure your data remains protected by appropriate safeguards as required by UK data protection law.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top shows the latest version. Significant changes will be highlighted on the Website where appropriate.
13. Contact us
For any privacy questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at news@spaldingnews.co.uk.