VNU's data collection policy allows you to choose whether to give us your address details and to control how we use that information. We aim to allow you to control your privacy and give you the means to raise any questions or concerns you may have.

This statement discloses the privacy policy for the VNU network of sites which encompasses the following sites: http://www.vnunet.com

This statement does not extend to sites that are linked to VNU sites but which are not part of the VNU network.

The Policy
As a user of the VNU site you: control whether you want to submit your personal details control what VNU can do with your personal details have our assurances of privacy.

Information collected from site users
If you use the VNU site certain information is automatically collected so that delivery can be made of the service. Cookies may be stored on your machine by your browser. You can set your browser to disable cookies, but then you might find some site features will not work. However, if your system administrator doesn't like cookies you may need to turn cookies off.
When you request a page from the site's web server, the server automatically collects some information about your system, including your IP address. We collect the minimum information necessary to make the service work - this information is essential to send the pages back across the Internet to the right computer.
Your VNU user ID automatically identifies your computer, but not you, to our servers when you visit our site. Unless you specifically tell us, VNU will never know who you are, even though we assign your computer a cookie.
Other companies that place advertising on our site may collect information about you when you view or click on their advertising or content. VNU does not control this collection of information. You should contact these advertisers or content providers directly if you have any questions about their use of this information.

Registration
We will ask you to register in order to receive email newsletters, enter competitions, and receive services from VNUnet. This will require you to provide personal information such as your name, email address, home and work postcodes and job title. You never have to answer these questions but without them we cannot offer the above services. Upon registration, you will be asked to choose a password for future access to the site.

Use of Information
VNU will not reveal any personal information you provide to us to any third party if you tell us not to by using the opt-out feature on the site.
VNU may, however, make anonymous use of information to help diagnose faults, manage the system and gather broad demographic information about our users in general. This information will be stripped of all details that could identify you personally. For example, we may use IP addresses to help fix performance problems with our server. We may also combine demographic information supplied by you or your system with other statistical data to provide profiles, in aggregate form, about users and their preferences We may share this composite information with our advertisers to help them better understand the market. We may send you information or marketing materials on behalf of our advertisers, but we will not give advertisers information about individual users of our site.
Once you register with VNU, we will automatically send out by email a weekly newsletter full of computing news and events. You will be able to select more specialist alternative newsletters at any time by entering the registration page and ticking your specific choice.
You will also be able to indicate that you not wish to receive such newsletters by using the unsubscribe functions in the Amend Details section of the site. We don't intend to abuse the trust of our users by offending them with spam. We may contact you on behalf of some of our advertisers, but third parties will not contact you by using email addresses obtained from our user lists.

Opt-out Features
As a VNU site user you have complete control over what newsletters and other information you may receive and sign-up for. In addition, if you don't want to receive information on behalf of our advertisers, you can always check the "opt-out" box on the site.

Correcting and Updating
At all times a user of the VNU site has control over the accuracy of the personally identifiable information that the user provides to VNU. If you wish to correct or update the personal information you have provided to VNU, simply go to the Amend Details section of the registration process.

Deleting Information
All VNU site users can at any time remove personally identifiable information from their VNU user profile. To do this follow the procedure outlined at the Amend Details section.

Unsubscribing
We'll remove you from the list of site users and stop sending you emails/newsletters upon request. This process is known as unsubscribing and can be carried out almost instantaneously by following the instructions on the Amend Details section. If this doesn't work or you don't understand the procedure, simply contact Mark Goddard at Mark_Goddard@vnu.co.uk.

General disclaimers
VNU is not responsible for the content or the privacy polices of web sites linked to this site. But we'd like to know if you find anything objectionable about them.
VNU uses reasonable precautions to keep the personal information disclosed to it secure, and it discloses such information only to responsible third parties and then only after permission from the user.

Changes to this privacy policy
VNU reserves the right to change this privacy policy at any time by posting changes online. It is your responsibility to refer to this privacy policy on accessing this site.

Contact:
If you have any questions or suggestions about this privacy statement please contact: John Barnes at John_Barnes@vnu.co.uk or Caroline Gabriel at Caroline_Gabriel@vnu.co.uk.