Statement of intent

From time to time, you will be asked to submit personal information about yourself (e.g. name and email address etc) in order to receive or use services on our website. Such services include email bulletins, automated responses and SMS updates.

By entering your details in the fields requested, you enable Varsity and its service providers to provide you with the services you select. Whenever you provide such personal information, we will treat that information in accordance with this policy. Our services are designed to give you the information that you want to receive.

Information on visitors

During the course of any visit to Varsity Online, the pages you see, along with something called a cookie, are downloaded to your computer. Most websites do this, because cookies allow the website publisher to do useful things like find out whether the computer (and probably its user) has visited the site before. This is done on a repeat visit by checking to see, and finding, the cookie left there on the last visit.

Any information that is supplied by cookies can help us to provide you with a better service and assists us to analyse the profile of our visitors.

This site runs Google analytics and Quantcast, which use cookies for tracking visitors to the site. Both the cookies and the embedded code provide non-personal statistical information about visits to pages on the site, the duration of individual page view, paths taken by visitors through the site, data on visitors' screen settings and other general information. Varsity uses this type of information, as with that obtained from other cookies used on the site, to help it improve the services to its users.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on Varsity Online.

Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to Varsity Online. and other sites on the Internet.

Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners include Google Adsense.

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on Varsity Online send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

Varsity Online has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. Varsity Online's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.

Use and storage of your personal information

When you supply any personal information to Varsity (e.g. for competitions) we have legal obligations towards you in the way we deal with that data. We must collect the information fairly, that is, we must explain how we will use it (see the notices on particular web pages that let you know why we are requesting the information.) Any information you provide to Varsity will only be used by us. No information will ever be supplied to anyone outside Varsity without first obtaining your consent, unless we are obliged or permitted by law to disclose it. Also, if you post or send offensive or inappropriate content anywhere on Varsity Online, and Varsity considers such behaviour to be serious and/or repeated, Varsity can use whatever information that is available to it about you to stop such behaviour. This may include informing relevant third parties such as your employer, college or e-mail provider or the University Information Service (UIS) about the content and your behaviour.

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as you use the service you have requested, and remove it in the event that the purpose has been met.

If you are notified on the Varsity site that your information may be used to allow Varsity to contact you for "service administration purposes", this means that Varsity may contact you for a number of purposes related to the service you have signed up for. For example, we may wish to provide you with password reminders or notify you that the particular service has been suspended for maintenance.

Varsity is fully compliant with the GDPR legislation being implemented in the United Kingdom from the 25^th May 2018.

A full copy of Varsity’s GDPR review and policy document can be found here: Varsity Data Protection Statement

Access to your personal information

You have the right to request a copy of the non-GDPR exempt personal information Varsity holds about you, to have any inaccuracies corrected and to have any non-GDPR exempt data (detailed below) removed. There is no charge for this.

Please be aware that as a registered newspaper based in the UK there is certain exempted data:

Exemptions

On 31st January 2020, the UK Government enacted the following legislation The Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and an amended Data Protection Act 2018. These two acts now effectively make up what is referred to as “UK GDPR”.

It is important to note that Varsity operates principally as a media organisation, and established appropriate exemptions under the UK GDPR are considered applicable with regard to these activities.

There are exemptions under the UK GDPR allowing controllers and processors to derogate from the specific personal data processing provisions, this includes (Article 6) – “performance of a task carried out in the public interest”.

The Journalistic Exemption

Of key relevance to Varsity is the special purposes exemption under ‘Part 5 Exemptions Etc' Based on Article 85(2) For Reasons of freedom of Expression and Journalistic, academic, artistic and literary purposes’
This states: “26(1) In this paragraph, “the special purposes” means one or more of the following— (a) the purposes of journalism; (b) academic purposes; (c) artistic purposes; (d) literary purposes. (2) Sub-paragraph (3) applies to the processing of personal data carried out forthe special purposes if—(a) the processing is being carried out with a view to the publication by a person of journalistic, academic, artistic or literary material, and (b) the controller reasonably believes that the publication of the material would be in the public interest.”

In addition, the amended Data Protection Act 2018 requires in Section 124 “Data protection and journalism code” the Commissioner “having regard to”:
5.b “the special importance of the public interest in the freedom of expression and information;”

Please ensure you read the full Varsity GDPR policy and review and policy document mentioned above before submitting your request.

Please address requests to Dr Mike Franklin, Data Protection Officer, Varsity Publications Ltd, 16 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX or via email to chairman@varsity.cam.ac.uk