Privacy policy
This page outlines how British Comedy Guide uses and stores personally identifiable information.
Basically, we're nice people who will carefully look after your personal data. We promise to never reveal your personal details to our website visitors or share your information with third parties, unless you give us explicit permission to do so. Our database employs high levels of security and we use SSL encryption on connections to our website as standard.
Identity of the data controller
British Comedy Guide is a trading name of Digital Mark Limited, a company based in the United Kingdom under registration number 06706722. The company's registered address is 58 London Road, Liphook, Hampshire, GU30 7TA.
Digital Mark Limited is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, registration number: ZB022814.
Personal information: what we collect
Many of the interactive elements on our website (for example our competitions and message board) require us to record some personal information about you in order for them to be able to operate. Here we explain what we use that information for when you share it with us.
We collect information when you use one of our standalone features or when you create a BCG Account. On the registration screen we ask for some personal information, which will be used by our interactive features.
When you interact with our systems we also store your IP address, which lets us know which ISP you are using and a rough geographic location. We use IP addresses to prevent abuse of our systems, and to tailor some aspects of your experience.
Our systems are all built in-house and inaccessible to third parties.
BCG Account
When you create a user account we ask for some personally identifiable information. The following details are mandatory:
Email address: The primary reason for asking for your email address is to ensure that you are a legitimate user and not here to cause trouble. We also ask for your email in case we need to contact you (for example, because you've won a competition) and so that some of our more advanced features (such as Private Message notifications) will work should you opt to make use of them.
Location: The country field is used to help us get a high-level understanding where our visitors are coming from. In some cases we may use this data to tailor our emails and website interface for you, so that you get information directly relevant to your location. Your country is also shown on your profile page and in other places (such as on forum posts).
The registration form also has spaces for the collection of a forename and surname - however, these are not mandatory. Should you choose to fill them in, they will be used to personalise our contact with you. Your name will not be shared in public.
The Account edit page also asks for the following non-mandatory pieces of information:
Date of birth: We may request you to confirm your date of birth should we be talking to you on email and need to confirm your identity (e.g. if you have lost access to your account and are requesting a reset). We also use the date of birth fields to gain a general high level understanding of the demographics of our visitor base for statistical reporting purposes. In future we may further tailor your user experience using your birth date (for example, a feature letting you find what was broadcast on the day you were born). Neither your date of birth nor your age are visible to other members.
Gender: We are collecting this field to obtain general demographic statistics about our visitors. We also use the gender field in some cases to refer to you correctly, for example: "Contact her via Private Message".
The 'edit your fan page' settings allow you to share more information about yourself with our other users, for example by writing a short description of yourself or uploading an avatar. It is entirely at your discretion as to what you share here. Information saved in this page will be publicly accessible. You can remove any information at any time, however be aware it may take seach engines a while to catch-up with the updates you have made.
We will hold your personal information on our system for as long as you require access to your website account. To terminate your account and thus delete your personal information contained within our database please use the 'Delete account' option found on your 'Account edit' page. Please note: Whilst all personal information will be deleted from our database, message board (forum) posts will be kept to ensure existing conversations do not lose context. By default we will also keep a record of your email address and nickname on file to guard against others impersonating you, and to allow you to re-join at a later date should you wish to do so. Some non-identifiable information such as Comedy.co.uk Awards voting data will also be kept, but unlinked from your account.
Likes
If you use a Like button anywhere on British Comedy Guide we will record this Like in your user account. What you have 'liked' will be shown publicly on your profile page by default. This can be changed on your Likes admin page. You can remove a Like at any time. Data from Likes is primarily used in a general, non-personal way for statistical purposes (for example, to produce our list of the top 10 sitcoms). We may also use your existing Likes to customise your experience on BCG - for example, suggesting shows or people you might be interested in finding out more about. Additionally, we may send you the occassional email based on what you have Liked. For example, if you click you Like Michael McIntyre, we may email you to let you know he has announced a new tour. You can opt out of receiving emails on a topic on an individual basis or for all Likes via your Likes admin page.
Wishlists
You can create a Shop Wishlist on BCG. This will remain private, unless you opt to make it public. We may occassionally email you about an item on your Wishlist (for example, if a release date is announced), however you can unsubscribe at any time. The Wishlist admin page contains the relevant privacy settings.
Comedy.co.uk Awards
Our awards voting system collects your email address and IP address. This is to help us prevent vote rigging. This data is not shared with anyone: we keep awards data to allow us to internally analyse voting trends over time. If you have a BCG Account we may use the data to customise your experience on the website but your votes will never be displayed in public.
Competitions
If you are not logged in to a BCG Account, when you enter a competition we will ask for your name, email address and - occasionally - phone number. Unless the Terms and Conditions of the competition (which are displayed at the bottom of the competition page) clearly state otherwise, this information will only be used for running this competition. Depending on the organisation of the individual competition, the winners' details may be shared with a third-party promoter in order to facilitate fulfilment of the prize.
BCG Pro
BCG Pro is our website for those who create comedy. If you subscribe to BCG Pro you'll have access to additional tools and services. This Privacy Policy also applies to those sections. The BCG Pro Profile Editor allows you to display additional details in public - this tool have privacy settings within it. You do not have to fill these fields in.
Newsletters
If you sign up to any of our mailing lists we will ask for your email address. We will only use this address to send you the newsletters requested.
When you subscribe, your email address (and only your email address) will be copied by us to the database of reputable mailing list management company MailJet (MailJet's privacy policy).
You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link found at the bottom of any newsletter, via our Newsletters page, or by contacting us.
If you unsubscribe via the form on the BCG website, your email address will be wiped from our own mailing list database. However, it will remain on the MailJet database in an 'unsubscribed' list to ensure the system does not send you any more emails.
MailJet records when a newsletter is opened, and when a reader clicks on links within that newsletter. This data is pooled together and only used for general statistical analysis - for example, to tell us what the most popular link in a newsletter was.
Payments
British Comedy Guide employs the services of Braintree to facilitate payments for its products and services. Owned by PayPal, Braintree accepts both PayPal and credit and debit card payment methods. When you place an order with British Comedy Guide we neither see nor store your payment credentials, passing them directly from your browser to Braintree's secure servers. Your payment details will therefore be subject to their own (excellent) privacy policy and security precautions. BCG cannot access or store a copy of your bank, credit or debit card details.
Other Sections
Whilst using the various features available on our website you may choose to fill in some additional profile fields. We treat this extra personal information in the same sensitive way as the rest of your data. If you have any further queries about how we may use your data beyond what is explained on screen please get in touch.
Protection & storage
No matter how much or how little information you save with us, we promise we'll only ever use it to help facilitate the running of our website functionality and services. We will never share, sell or rent your personal information without first seeking your express permission, unless ordered to do so by an English court of law. This agreement includes your email address: we will never disclose this to any third party without first obtaining your consent.
Your data is stored in a secure database on our server, located in England. Our database is protected by numerous levels of security, including a software firewall. All your interactions with British Comedy Guide are handled by a secure, encrypted connection managed by a SSL certificate.
Personal email correspondence is also stored securely on our server, whilst backed-up company data is stored offline on the company's computer hard drives and in a cloud storage service operated by Microsoft.
Information about advertising and cookies
A cookie is a very small data file (normally including an anonymous, unique identifier) that is sent to your browser by a web server and subsequently stored on your computer's hard drive. Almost every website with a user account system, and many without, from Amazon to the BBC, use cookies. For a more detailed explanation of what a cookie is please see Wikipedia
Like most websites, British Comedy Guide uses cookies to determine whether you are logged in and, if you are, remember you so that you don't have to keep logging in every time your visit the website. Our cookies contain no personal information.
Our advertising vendors partners may set one or more additional cookies linked to adverts whilst you are browsing our website. These also contain no personal information derived from British Comedy Guide - almost every website on the internet uses these types of cookies to help ensure that advertising is correctly targeted and reported.
Note: If you tick 'Remember me on this computer' when you log in then we will automatically log you back in next time you visit on the same computer, we will not request that you to re-enter your username and password. You should not tick this box if you use a shared computer. You should always 'Sign out' if someone else can access your computer. If you make use of the 'Remember me' option without signing out and someone else visits Comedy.co.uk from the computer you used, they will be able to access your account and thus view the personal details stored in your account. British Comedy Guide cannot be held responsible for such instances and thus, if in doubt, we suggest you sign out at the end of your session on BCG.
Our external advertising partners allow the delivery of GDPR-compliant advertising to users.
More information
If you require any additional information about our data usage or wish to clarify something above, we would welcome your email. Please do get in touch
This privacy policy was last updated on 24th May 2018, with minor clarifications updated on 31st July 2023.