Metropolis Privacy Statement

Data Collection

Metropolis undertakes to collect Your Data by means that are:

• fair;
• legal; and
• transparent.

If you visit Metropolis’s web-site, your web-browser automatically discloses, and Metropolis’s web-server automatically logs, the following information: the date and time, the IP address from which you issued the request, the type of browser and operating system you are using, the URL of any page that referred you to the page, the URL you requested, and whether your request was successful. This data may or may not be sufficient to identify you.

Any additional data that you provide, e.g. in a web-form, may also be logged. This data may or may not be sufficient to identify you.

Any additional data that your web-browser automatically provides may also be logged. This will be the case, for example, if your browser has previously been requested to store data on your computer in ‘cookies’ and submits them each time you request a web-page within a particular domain (such as Metropolis.com). This data may or may not be sufficient to identify you.

If you disclose personal data to Metropolis in conjunction with an identifier such as your name or your credit-card details, Metropolis will collect Your Data. Moreover, any data that becomes available to Metropolis through any of the means described in the preceding paragraphs may be able to be associated with that identifier, and hence become Your Data.

Subject to the qualifications immediately below, Metropolis undertakes to collect Your Data from youand not from other parties. This undertaking is qualified as follows:

• where Metropolis reasonably considers that the protection of its financial interests requires that it gather YourData from other sources, or from additional sources. This applies in particular where Metropolis has a lending exposure to you, and seeks information about your creditworthiness;
• where Metropolis reasonably considers that its capability to deliver quality services to you will be materially enhanced by gathering YourData from other sources. This applies in particular to consumer profile data.

Where Metropolis collects Your Data from sources other than you, it undertakes:

• to do so only by legal means;
• to do so only with your Consent; and
• to declare to you what sources it uses, and under what circumstances.

Metropolis undertakes to declare the purpose of collection in a manner which is clear and meaningful, and to avoid vague, highly inclusive statements such as ‘to support our operations’.

Data Security

Metropolis undertakes to store Your Data in a manner that ensures security against unauthorised access, alteration or deletion, at a level commensurate with its sensitivity.

Metropolis undertakes to store Your Data only in jurisdictions where data protections are at least equivalent to those required under the OECD Guidelines.

Metropolis undertakes to transmit Your Data in a manner that ensures security against unauthorised access, alteration or deletion, at a level commensurate with its sensitivity.

Metropolis undertakes to implement appropriate measures to ensure security of Your Data against inappropriate behaviour by Metropolis’s staff-members and contractors. These include:

• training for staff in relation to privacy;
• access control, to limit access to Your Data to those staff and contractors who have legitimate reasons to access it;
• particularly in the case of sensitive data, audit trails of accesses, including the identities of staff and contractors accessing the data;
• reminders to staff and contractors from time to time about the importance of data privacy, and the consequences of inappropriate behaviour;
• declaration of appropriately strong sanctions that are to be applied in the event of inappropriate behaviour
• clear communication of policies and sanctions; and
• processes to audit, to investigate and to impose sanctions.

Data Use

Use refers to the application of Your Data by any part of Metropolis, or any staff-member or contractor of Metropolis in the course of their work.

Metropolis undertakes to use Your Data only for:

• the purposes for which it was collected;
• such other purposes as are subsequently agreed between Metropolis and You;
• such additional purposes as may be required by law. In these circumstances, Metropolis will take any reasonable steps available to it to communicate to You that the use has occurred, unless it is precluded from doing so by law; and
• such additional purposes as are authorised by law (in particular to protect Metropolis’s interests, e.g. if it believes on reasonable grounds that You have failed to fulfil your undertakings to Metropolis or have committed a breach of the criminal law).

Metropolis undertakes to use YourData only if it has demonstrable relevance to the particular use to which it is being put.

Metropolis undertakes to use YourData in such a manner as to take into account the possibility that it is not of sufficient quality for the purpose, e.g. because it is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, or out-of-context.

Data Disclosure

Disclosure refers to making YourData available to any party other than Metropolis and You. The term disclosure may include many different conditions of data transfer, including selling, renting, trading, sharing and giving.

Metropolis undertakes to disclose Your Data only under the following circumstances:

• in the course of business being conducted between You and Metropolis, where disclosure is necessary to a contractor, such as a transport company. Where Your Data is disclosed in this way, Metropolis undertakes to exercise control over Metropolis’s contractors to ensure that their actions are compliant with these Terms;
• in other circumstances that are directly implied by the purpose agreed between You and Metropolis at the time of data collection or subsequently. Where Your Data is disclosed in this way, Metropolis undertakes to exercise control over Metropolis’s contractors to ensure that their actions are compliant with these Terms;
• with your consent, or at your request;
• where required by law, such as a provision of a statute, or a court order such as a search warrant or sub poena. In these circumstances, Metropolis will take any reasonable steps available to it to communicate to You that the disclosure has occurred, unless it is precluded from doing so by law;
• where permitted by law (e.g. the reporting of suspected breach of the criminal law to a law enforcement agency; and in an emergency, where Metropolis believes on reasonable grounds that the disclosure of YourData will materially assist in the protection of the life of health of some person), provided that Metropolis will apply due diligence to ensure that the exercise of the permission is justifiable.

In all cases, Metropolis undertakes to disclose only such of Your Data as is necessary in the particular circumstances.

Data Retention and Destruction

Subject to the qualifications immediately below, Metropolis undertakes:

• to retain Your Data only as long as is consistent with its purpose; and
• to destroy Your Data when its purpose has expired, and to do so in such a manner that Your Data is not subsequently capable of being recovered.

This undertaking is qualified as follows:

• Your Data may be retained in Metropolis’s logs, backups and audit trails within short-term retention cycles that are devised to protect the company’s operations. In such cases, Your Data will be destroyed in accordance with those cycles;
• Your Data may be retained beyond the expiry of its purpose if that is required by law, such as a provision of a statute, or a court order such as a search warrant or sub poena, or a warning by a law enforcement agency that delivery of a court order is imminent. In these circumstances, Metropolis:
  • will take any reasonable steps available to it to communicate to You that Your Data is being retained, unless it is precluded from doing so by law; and
  • will only retain Your Data while that provision is current, and will then destroy Your Data;
• Your Data may be retained beyond the expiry of its purpose if it is authorised by law (in particular to protect Metropolis’s interests, e.g. if it believes on reasonable grounds that You have failed to fulfil your undertakings to Metropolis or have committed a breach of the criminal law). In these circumstances, Metropolis will only retain Your Data while that situation is current, and will then destroy Your Data.

Access by You to Your Personal Data

Metropolis undertakes to provide you with access to Your Data, subject to only such conditions and processes as are reasonable in the circumstances. In particular, Metropolis undertakes to enable access:

• conveniently;
• without unreasonable delay; and
• without cost.

Metropolis undertakes to establish and operate identity authentication protections for access to Your Data that are appropriate to its sensitivity, but practical. This may involve some inconvenience; for example, relatively straightforward procedures may be involved in order to provide you with access through a channel that you have previously registered with Metropolis (such as a particular email-address), but may impose more onerous procedures if you wish to use some other channel.

In the event that you dispute some aspect of Your Data, Metropolis undertakes to take reasonable steps in relation to the amendment, supplementation or deletion of Your Data.

You undertake:

• not to seek access for frivolous purposes, or unreasonably frequently;
• to accept that deletion of some data may not be consistent with the provision of particular services by Metropolis to you.

Information about Data-Handling Practices

Metropolis undertakes to make information available to you about the manner in which Metropolis handles your data:

• in general terms, in a readily accessible manner; and
• in more specific terms, on request.

Where Your Data is disclosed to a contractor, Metropolis undertakes to make information available to you on request about the manner in which Metropolis’s contractors handle your data.

Metropolis undertakes to ensure that the information provided is meaningful, and addresses your concerns.

You undertake:

• not to seek such information for frivolous purposes, or unreasonably frequently; and
• to accept that the disclosure of excessive detail may harm the security of Your Data and Metropolis’s business processes, and may harm Metropolis’s commercial interests.

Handling of Enquiries, General Concerns and Complaints

If you have enquiries, general concerns, or complaints about these Terms, or about Metropolis’s behaviour in relation to these Terms, you undertake:

• to communicate them in the first instance:
  • to Metropolis only;
  • in sufficient detail;
  • through a channel made available by Metropolis for that purpose;

Metropolis undertakes:

• to provide one or more channels for communications to Metropolis, which are convenient to users;
• to promptly provide acknowledgement of the receipt of communications, including the provision of a copy of the communication, the date and time it was registered, and Metropolis’s reference-code for the communication;
• to promptly provide a response to the communication, in an appropriate and meaningful manner.

You further undertake to not pursue Metropolis through any Regulator or the media:

• until and unless Metropolis has had a reasonable opportunity to respond to the initial communication; and
• while Metropolis and you remain are conducting a meaningful dialogue about the matter.

Enforcement

Metropolis declares that its undertakings in these Terms are intended to create legal obligations, and that those obligations are intended to be enforceable under appropriate laws in appropriate jurisdictions. These include laws relating to data protection, privacy, fair trading, corporations and criminal laws.

You undertake to seek enforcement only in a jurisdiction that is relevant to the transactions that have taken place between You and Metropolis, in particular the jurisdiction in which you live or in which you performed the relevant acts, and the jurisdiction in which Metropolis is domiciled or performed the relevant acts.

If you wish to discover the relevant laws in any particular jurisdiction, Metropolis draws your attention to the following resources:

• WorldLII Privacy Links
• Privacy Law Sourcebook 2004, EPIC, Washington DC
• the Australian Privacy Foundation’s pages:
  • International Instruments Relating to Privacy Law
  • Privacy Laws of Countries of the World
• Privacy International

Changes to These Privacy Undertakings

Metropolis undertakes:

• not to materially change these Terms in a manner that reduces the protections for Your Data;
• to take all possible steps to prevent any company that acquires this company or any of its relevant assets from materially changing the Terms applicable to Your Data in a manner that reduces the protections for Your Data;
• where it is considering making changes to these Terms, or creating more specific Terms relating to specific services, to consult with appropriate representative and advocacy organisations;
• where it makes changes to these Terms, to ensure that the differences between successive versions are readily accessible;
• to maintain all prior versions of these Terms in such a manner that they are dated, and readily accessible.

Definitions

Metropolis means Metropolis International Group Ltd.

Head Office: 104 Wales Farm Road, London, W3 6UG, United Kingdom.

Your Data means data that is capable of being associated with you, whether or not it includes an explicit identifier such as your name or customer number. In particular, it encompasses all data that Metropolis is capable of correlating with you, using such means as server-logs and cookie-contents.

Your Data does not refer to data that can no longer be associated with you. This includes aggregated data that does not and cannot identify the individuals whose data are included in the aggregation.

Consent means your concurrence with an action to be taken by Metropolis. Consent may be express or implicit, but in either case must be informed and freely-given.

‘Cookies’

See below!

Use of cookies by Electronics Weekly

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.

Electronics Weekly  requires cookies in order to operate fully and works with third party advertisers who place cookies on your computer to serve and target advertisements more effectively.

Most web browsers allow some control of cookies through browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

If you have any complaints on this issue, please contact us at: eucookies@rbi.co.uk

Further information about the cookies used by Electronics Weekly is provided below. 

Cookies used by Electronics Weekly

The following Cookie categories are based on the classification presented in The International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) Cookie Guide

Category 1: Strictly necessary cookies. These cookies are strictly necessary to provide services that you have requested.

Category 1 Cookies used by Electronics Weekly

Category 2: Performance cookies. These cookies collect information about how visitors use our website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often.  The information collected by these cookies is aggregated, so these cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. The information collected is anonymous and is only used to improve the way our website works.

Category 2 Cookies used by Electronics Weekly:

Category 3: Functionality cookies. These cookies allow us to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more relevant features.

Category 3 Cookies used by Electronics Weekly:

Category 4: Targeting or Advertising cookies. These cookies are used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advert as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers.

Category 4 Cookies used by Electronics Weekly:

To contact us about the use of Cookies on this site please email eucookies@rbi.co.uk

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.