Personal information
People trust the BBC and we must be transparent with them. We should make it clear to people how we intend to use their personal information. This can be as little as an email address or a phone number. It is collected, for example, when people enter competitions, register with an interactive community or become part of a database of contributors.
Contributors' personal details, comments or other personal information should not normally be given to third parties without the consent of the contributor or, if consent cannot be obtained, this should be referred to a senior editorial figure or for Independents to the commissioning editor who may wish to consult Regulatory Legal. If we have consent a contract should require the third party to use the information only for the use agreed between the contributor and the BBC.
We should not send emails (spam) to people who have not agreed to receive them. If personal information is going to be used for promotion, marketing, research or any other secondary purpose, our users must "opt in". For example, we should not send promotional emails about our output when people have originally given us their email addresses in order to enter a competition.
Any proposal to collect personal information on a BBC publicly funded site which might be disclosed to third parties, including BBC Worldwide, must be referred to a senior editorial figure or for Independents to the commissioning editor who may wish to consult Regulatory Legal and Fair Trading.
We should take particular care when collecting personal information from children.