Why do I have to provide personal info when I register?
Page updated: 23 February 2021
We manage your personal info with great care. So we want you to understand why we’re asking for each piece of information and how we’ll use it to make the BBC better.
What we’ll use your personal information for
The BBC is a public service. Everything we do has to benefit you, our audience. And that includes what we do with your personal information.
We use this information to benefit you in two ways:
1. A more personal BBC for you
It helps us make the BBC more personal for you. It means we can:
- Recommend things we think you’ll like
- Show you content that’s relevant to where you live
- Make sure you can use things that are appropriate for your age.
2. Making something for everyone
As a public service, we need to make something for everyone.
As more of our content gets consumed online, we need to understand who's consuming it. Things like iPlayer give you more ways to enjoy BBC content. And while they let us see how many people are enjoying the things we make, they don’t tell us anything about them, which makes it hard to know if we’re making something for everyone.
That's why we ask you to sign in and provide a bit of information.
Keeping your information safe
We will never sell your personal details to anyone and we'll only use your data commercially if you're using a commercial BBC service. We will never give your personal details to anyone outside the BBC without your consent.
Find out more about your information and privacy.
We share some of your personal data with TV Licensing, to check if you are using BBC iPlayer and to keep their database up to date. Find out more about when you need a TV Licence.