Privacy Notice

Introduction

This Privacy Notice applies to our News website (www.stv.tv/news) and our News application (“App”) (the “Services”), regardless of the platform you use to access them.

We are STV Central Limited, a company registered in Scotland (company number SC172149), with registered office at Pacific Quay, Glasgow, G51 1PQ (“STV”), the data controller responsible for looking after your personal data in line with data protection and privacy laws.

We are committed to ensuring your privacy and protecting the data we hold about you. This Privacy Notice explains how we do this and describes how and when STV collects and processes your personal data on the STV News Website and App. For information regarding other STV websites and apps, please see the relevant website or app.

Please note that on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you we may provide additional privacy notices so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.

By using the Services, you are presumed to have read and understood this Privacy Notice.

Please also note that we process information for the special purposes of journalism, art, and literary purposes. The processing of information for journalism and the special public interest in freedom of expression and information is protected under data protection law and exempt from many of the usual requirements, including data subject rights. This Privacy Notice does not apply to the processing of personal data for these special purposes unless explicitly stated. Please note that we update our Privacy Notice from time to time, so please take a fresh read through every so often. If we make significant changes, we will make that clear on our Services.

This Privacy Notice was last updated on 13/02/2024.

What data is collected?

The type of information that may be collected will vary depending on which of our Services you are accessing and includes:

Analytical Data: Information collected from cookies and other tracking methods about how you browse and use our Services including, for example, the frequency of your visits; what content you consume; and the time you spend viewing our content. Further information about the information we collect from cookies and other tracking technologies is set out in our Cookie Policy: https://news.stv.tv/cookie-policy

Technical Data: Includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, device identifiers, device advertising identifiers, location, operating system and platform; referring website addresses, date/time of visits, page view data, internet service provider, click data, and information about your device including make, model and data connection type; and

Contact Data: Data you provide when you make a submission through our Contact Us form, including any contact information you provide (though, please note you are not required to provide contact information when using the Contact Us form).

Cookies and other tracking technologies

When using our online Services, Technical Data and Analytical Data will be collected by us and our authorised partners about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns by using cookies and similar technologies, only if necessary or otherwise, expressly consented to by you. We do this in order to operate our service, serve you with targeted ads (that are more relevant to your interests), and enhance the performance of our Services.

We use third party advertising networks to provide some of the ads you see on our Services. Such third parties place cookies or tracking technologies which remember that you have visited a website in order to provide you with targeted ads which are more relevant to you and your interests. This is often referred to as Online Behavioural Advertising (“OBA”). Please see our Cookie Policy for more information.

Note that when you download or use our App on your mobile device or TV, information will be accessed from or stored to your device. This is done by using technologies similar to web browser cookies. These technologies carry out similar functions to web browser cookies, e.g. to enable the App to ‘remember’ you or to provide you with the content you have requested.

Please see our Cookie Policy for further details and how to manage your cookies.

Why we collect data

Data protection and privacy laws permit us to collect and use your personal data on a limited number of grounds. The key grounds upon which we rely are:

  • Where we have your consent;
  • In order to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation: including, if applicable, to respond to you where you have exercised your rights, to inform you about significant changes we’ve made to our privacy notice, or where necessary to respond to law enforcement or regulatory bodies; and
  • Our or our third party partners’ legitimate interests.

We rely on our legitimate interests to provide digital news services and for commercial purposes. Below we have set out a summary of why we seek to collect and where it is necessary process your personal data.

  1. To administer and protect our Services (including troubleshooting, system maintenance, monitoring quality and security of service; support and reporting), including to make use of our Contact Us form;
  2. To improve our Services, consumer relationships and experiences;
  3. To deliver ads to you
  4. To share data with data processing companies who act on our behalf, to enable us to deliver our Services, host our data, provide ads or, other technical services to us;
  5. To share data with third party advertising partners.

Our Contact Us form:

Some of our news stories will contain a Contact Us form, which allows you to provide additional information to our journalists.

The form accepts contact information but you are not required to supply this. If you do supply it, we will use it only for the purpose of contacting you should we wish to follow-up on the information you supplied.

All information submitted through the Contact Us form will be deleted within three months unless we choose to follow-up on it, in which case our usual “Data Retention” section below will apply to such data.

No information supplied via the Contact Us form will be directly published. Rather, it will solely be used to inform our reporting and will be governed by the journalistic standards that govern all of our output.

Social Media Contact

Where you have published your name and/or comments in response to one of our publications on social media platforms, we may quote your name and your comment in subsequent journalistic articles.

How do we keep your data secure?

The security of your data is important to us. We have technical and operational security measures in place internally within STV, and externally with our authorised suppliers to protect the data we collect, use and store, against unauthorised access or disclosure; improper use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction or loss.

We apply encryption and other security measures to keep information safe and secure. However, please be aware that the sending of information through the internet is not completely secure. Any information you send is at your own risk and may be read by others. As such, we do not recommend sending sensitive or private information over the internet.

We do not guarantee the security of your data transmitted to and from our Services over the internet, and you accept the inherent security implications of using the internet. We operate under strict procedures which ensure personal information is kept secure. Where we need to engage third party data processors to process information on our behalf, they will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

Sharing of personal data

We share your data in the following circumstances:

  • When we engage data processing companies to act on our behalf from time to time to help manage your data, to provide analysis and to deliver specific functionality. We use data processors to provide news gathering services, technical support services, including cookie information and consents and system maintenance and for e-newsletter services, including automation and monitoring engagement (i.e. open/click rates)We require those we share it with to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law and our strict instructions. Please note that some of these companies may be either located and/or have servers which are located outside the UK. In these circumstances, appropriate safeguards have been put in place to protect your information (please see below for further detail).
  • Where we are required or permitted to do so by law, or to protect or enforce our rights or the rights of any third party or our users (which may include steps taken arising from a breach of our Terms of Use.
  • In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your data to the prospective seller or buyer, or new business partner.
  • When delivering ads to you that are more relevant to your interests.

Transfers of Data Out of the UK

  • Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK to certain authorised suppliers providing functionality or other services to us, we ensure it will always be protected by adequate safeguards which protect the security of your personal data. One of the following safeguards will always be implemented:
  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been assessed as providing an adequate level of protection for processing personal data by the UK Government.
  • Where a country has not been assessed as above, we use regulator-approved international transfer agreements and Standard Contractual Clauses which ensure the protection of personal data. These contracts give your personal data the same protection it has in the UK.

Please contact our privacy team if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

To inform and enhance your experience when using our Services, we provide a number of links to third party websites that apply their own privacy policies. Please note that this Privacy Notice will not apply to any such third party website. We do not control such third party websites or have any responsibility for them.

Your rights

You have the right to:

  • Request access to a copy of the personal data we hold about you (commonly known as a “data subject access request or “DSAR””).
  • Request correction of any inaccurate personal data that we hold about you.
  • Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully, or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with a legal obligation. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for journalistic or other specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
  • Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
  • Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
  • Make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to resolve any concerns you may have before you approach the ICO so please contact our privacy team by email (privacyteam@stv.tv) in the first instance.
  • We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact our Privacy Team by email (privacyteam@stv.tv).

Marketing (App only)

If you have asked us to send you marketing messages about STV by allowing push notifications when you download our App, note that you can stop receiving push notifications by turning these off at any time by adjusting the settings on your device or deleting the App from your device.

Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Generally this means that we will hold your personal data on our systems for as long as you use the Services, and for a reasonable amount of time after you end your visit.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research, analytics or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

With regard to our journalism purposes, our articles which are publicly available are not actively monitored and remain published until we are notified of changes which would justify their being removed from the public site. At such time, or otherwise as agreed, articles are removed from the public site to our private archive for historical and journalistic purposes.

Contact us

If you have any data protection questions or requests you can contact our privacy team:

Email: privacyteam@stv.tv

Or write to: Data Governance Manager, STV Central Limited, Pacific Quay, Glasgow, G51 1PQ

Effective from: 13/02/2024