The Data Protection Act

Under the Data Protection Act, we have a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you. We use encryption software to safeguard your data, and keep strict security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to it. Subject to the terms of the Act, we shall not pass on your details to any third party or government department unless you give us permission to do so.

The Information we collect

We collect three kinds of information from visitors to this site: registration information, feedback (through emails to the Editor) and site usage information, from cookies and log files.

1 Registration information

You do not have to register to use British History Online. Registration, however, does help us develop a clearer understanding of our users' preferences and allows our users to access extra functionality, such as a personal bookshelf. The registration information we collect is:

• username
• password
• email address.

In addition, you may also choose to leave some extra information about yourself, including:

• first name
• last name
• email preferences.

This information is stored such that you do not need to re-register when you come back to the site. This information is regularly backed up to avoid loss of data. We do not pass this information on to any third party.

2 Feedback Information

We welcome your feedback. You can contact us by completing our feedback form.

Site usage information

a) Cookies

Cookies are pieces of information generated by a Web server and stored in the user's computer, ready for future access. Two cookies are created when you visit British History Online:

• the first cookie stores a random number on your computer to help us count the number of times users return to our site, and
• the second cookie is used to store some of your preferences while you move around the site. This cookie is deleted when you leave the site.

The cookies do not contain any personal information about you, and they cannot be used to identify an individual user. You can set your browser not to accept cookies but if you do this you will not be able to log in or change your preferences.

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and would like to know your options in relation to not having this information used by these companies, visit the Google Privacy Center.

b) Log files

Log files allow us to record visitors' use of the site. We analyse log file information from all our visitors, which we use to make changes to the layout of the site and to the information in it, based on the way that visitors move around it. Log files do not contain any personal information and they are not used to identify any individual patterns of use of the site.

External links

British History Online contains links to other websites, including commercial organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our site, so you should always be aware when you are moving to another site and read the privacy statement of any site which collects personal information.

We do not pass on any personal information you have given us to any other site.

Access to your information and contacting us

You can change your registration information at any time. To do this, you should sign in and then click "Update your personal details".

If you wish to see our records of any correspondence you have sent to us, or if you have a query or complaint about this privacy policy or about the site, you can contact us by completing our feedback form

Changes to this privacy policy

If this privacy policy changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we will share it with other parties.