Privacy policy
This website is owned and operated by Reed Business Information Limited
Information we collect from our customers and users of our websites may be used in the following ways.
1. Subscription Services
Personal information provided as part of the registration process for any publication, product or service is used to manage your subscription and to enable us to provide a better service.
2. Payment details
Any information provided by you in connection with any transaction regarding your credit or debit card numbers, expiry date and billing or delivery address will be used by us to process the transaction. These details will be stored on a secure server and may be used by us to facilitate and personalise future transactions with you. If you do not wish us to store and use the information for future transactions, please contact us.
3. Contact details
We will use contact details provided by you as part of any registration process (i.e. your name, job title, telephone and fax number and your email and postal addresses) to provide any product or services requested by you and also to tell you about important changes to relevant subscription services and their functionality.
Contact details other than email addresses will be used by us and by our associated companies to provide you with information about other services and products which may interest you and may also be disclosed to third party businesses and advertisers for the same purpose. If you do not wish to be contacted for this purpose, you may register your preferences by clicking here.
We will not use or disclose your email address for marketing purposes unless you have agreed that we may use or disclose it in this way. You may at any time opt-out of receiving further emails by registering your preference here.
4. Voluntary Information
We may ask for further information about you as part of online surveys or if you enter any competition or other promotional feature. This information will be used to enable us to improve the relevant publication, product or service and may also be disclosed to other companies as specified in the relevant promotion.
5. Statistical information
Aggregate statistical information provided by us to our advertisers or others regarding sales or website usage will not include personally identifying information.
6. Security
Your personal data will be held on a secure server. Our sites are equipped with the latest security devices/firewalls.
7. Access to Data
Under the Data Protection Act 1988. You have the right to be told what personal information we hold about you on our databases. You should write to us, attn Company Secretary at the following address: Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS. UK stating your full name, your address and any of our publications or services to which you know you subscribe. A small administrative charge may be made for fulfilling this request.
8. Cookies
How we use cookies on our site and what information we collect. Click here for information and instructions on how to adjust your settings.
A cookie is a text-only string of information that a website transfers to the cookie folder of the browser on your computer's hard disk so that the website can remember who you are. For more information about cookies, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
The following types of cookie are used on this website:
Session Cookies - These are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your browser until you leave the site. We use them to maintain your login (so that you stay logged-in until you wish to log out), and to remember your preferences for things like forms. If you disable these cookies, you will not be able to stay logged in and you will not be able to register a login for the first time. You have the ability to accept or decline these cookies by modifying the settings in your browser (see instructions below).
Our session cookies contain the following information:
- Name: JSESSIONID
- Content: RANDOM STRING
- Host: newscientist.com
- Path: /
- Secure server: no
- Expires: at end of session (this is 30 mins or when you close your browser)
No personal or identifying information is held in these cookies. As soon as you leave our sites or close your browser, they are automatically deleted from your computer.
Persistent Cookies - These are cookies which remain in the cookie file of your browser for a much longer period, though how long will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie. We occasionally set persistent cookies to manage the number of times a day you will see ads. If you disable these cookies, you will be served the ad on every page you visit rather than just once per day. You have the ability to accept or decline these cookies by modifying the settings in your browser (see instructions below). Again, no personal or identifying information is held in these cookies.
Third Party Cookies - In addition, the third party companies who sell and provide advertisements to the site and host our contacts database make use of cookies for the purpose of serving and targeting advertisements more effectively. These are used for the following purposes:
- To serve advertisements on our site and track whether these advertisements are clicked on by users.
- To control how often you are shown a particular advertisement.
- To tailor content to your preferences such as geographical location.
For more information about these cookies, how you can opt out of receiving them and how this will affect your use of our website, please visit the websites of our third party suppliers:
Adtech - www.adtech.info/privacy/
Hitbox - www.omniture.com/en/company/acquisitions/visualsciences/privacy/policy
DREAM mail - www.epsilon.com/epsilonstatic/privacy.html
You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. However, you may not be able to use all the interactive features of our site if cookies are disabled. Instructions are given below for the most popular browsers. If you browser is not on this list and you require help with your cookie settings then please contact us.
AOL browsers
Some versions of the AOL browser do not accept session cookies at all. We strongly recommend using another browser, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer, to access the NewScientist web network
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x and above
- Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.
- On the 'Privacy" tab click the "Sites" button
- Type in the "Address of Web Site" box:
- ' newscientist.com', 'space.newscientist.com', 'tech.newscientist.com', 'environment.newscientist.com' or 'newscientistjobs.com', as applicable
- 'adtech.de' to regulate popups
- Press ALLOW or BLOCK as preferred.
- Apply the settings and close all Internet Explorer windows.
- Firefox 2.x and above
- Select 'Options' from the 'Tools' menu
- Click the 'Privacy' tab
- To enable cookies check the box next to 'Accept cookies from sites'. To disable them, uncheck the same box
- Click 'OK'
9. Changes to Privacy Policy
Any changes to the privacy policy will be posted here. Last updated: 6 November 2008
