Protecting your privacy is important to us. Please take a few moments to review this Policy.

Introduction
bmj.com and its online renewals website  are websites of the BMJ Publishing Group Limited, which is a UK based international medical publishing house. bmj.com is currently hosted in the US by HighWire Press which is a division of Stanford University Libraries ("HighWire"). Our online renewals site is currently hosted within the UK. We take privacy issues seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information.
This privacy policy explains what information has been collected about you, how personal information is being used, to whom personal information is being disclosed and how this personal information is stored and protected. This privacy policy has been developed in accordance with our legal obligations and may be updated from time to time.

If you have any queries concerning your personal information or any questions on our use of the information, please contact us.

The information we collect and how we use it:

1. What information is being collected and how is it used?
   For online renewals, data is collected within the UK and certain data may then be transferred to Highwire our hosting provider of bmj.com. When you visit bmj.com, any data collected will be initially collected by HighWire within the US. This may then be transferred to and from the US as necessary. As certain parts of bmj.com are subscription only, you will either be a registered or non registered user depending on what information you wish to access. There are various sections of the website, for which we collect different information. What we collect and how this is used is as follows:
   • 1.1 Non Registered Users of bmj.com
     If you access parts of bmj.com without a subscription, as you browse the website, we collect information about your use of the site. Essentially this will be which pages you have visited and how long you stay online. We will not be able to identify who you are from the information we store, but we will be able to identify where you are located - (see point 1.3 below).
   • 1.2 Registered Users bmj.com
     You will be asked to submit details including a personal email address as well as your name and contact details, including your address. All mandatory information is indicated and is so to understand our users and so we can fulfil our obligations to you. Renewals information will be as indicated. We then use this information to set up a customer number and user name or to renew your subscription and generally fulfil our obligations to you. You will be asked if you wish to receive general email updates and further product information from us and if you do you can 'opt out' to receiving these. You will be given an opportunity to 'opt out' of this on each occasion we contact you thereafter. Additionally you can 'opt in' to us passing on your details to the BMA or other third parties.
     Apart from bmj.com subscription customers, other parts of bmj.com also require you to register (such as Rapid Responses and Email Alerts). You will be advised what information is required and what can be seen by us and third parties when you register.
   • 1.3 What else do we collect when you use our website
     Each time you use the internet, an IP address is assigned to your computer via the internet service provider. This number may either be the same or different each time. Each time your computer requests information from our website, we log your IP address on our server. We may use this in order to gather information about the website traffic and usage.
     Whether you are a registered user or not, our web server collects certain information such as (a) IP address; (b) host names (c) domain name (d) time and date information as requested (e) the browser version and platform when it is requested, (f) a record of which pages have been requested.
   • 1.4 What else do we use personal information for?
     Other than for fulfilling our obligations to you (where these exist), on some occasions we use the information provided to produce aggregate statistics in relation to pages being accessed. We may also use it to monitor usage patterns on the website in order to improve navigation and design features to help you get information more easily. This information is provided to us as daily logged files. In order to help us develop the website and our services, we may provide such aggregate information to third parties. The statistics however will not include any information that can be used to identify any individual.
2. To whom will personal information be disclosed?
   Unless you have agreed otherwise, we will not disclose your personal data to any third party other than our contractors who must keep this date secure and confidential. Corporate location information however may be shared.
3. How long do we keep the information we collect?
   We keep your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil our obligations to you and protect our legal interests. This will never be longer than six years from the end of your subscription period.
4. Can you change information we hold about you?
   Where you have provided us with an email address or any information which becomes outdated, you should inform us by using the contact form on the website or updating your details using the "my account link" link at the top of the site. You must be logged in to access the "my account page".
5. How is personal information stored and protected
   Your personal data is stored by us in electronic and paper-based form. Website usage information is stored electronically.
6. Security
   The information we collect about site visitors the site, is stored in secure environments and we do not share any data that identifies any individual, to any other individual or party. We have mechanisms in place to protect data. One such mechanism is called a "firewall". A firewall is a barrier that allows only authorised traffic through. It safeguards our computer systems and your information. We also use system and application logs to track all access. We review these logs periodically and investigate any anomalies or discrepancies.
   We understand that the security of your information is important to you. We also understand that our continued success as a publisher on the web, relies on our ability to communicate with you in a secure manner. We adhere to the highest standards of decency, fairness, and integrity in our operations. We use several measures to authenticate your identity when you visit our site. We also take steps to protect your information as it travels the internet, and to make sure all information is as secure as possible against unauthorised access and use (for example, by hackers). We review our security measures regularly.
   Despite our best efforts, and the best efforts of other firms, "perfect security" does not exist on the internet, or anywhere else. As a result, whilst we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot warrant the security of the information you transmit to us online. You therefore do so at your own risk.
   Once we receive your transmission, we make our best efforts to ensure its security on our system.
7. Authentication
   You should not share your user name and password with other people. If you think you might lose or forget these identifiers, write them down and keep each in a separate place.
8. Email
   Any email between you and BMJ Publishing Group Limited is not encrypted. It will be stored securely within our corporate firewall (see above ).
9. Cookies
   Access to our website is dependent upon the use of session cookies. Most browsers allow the users to control the cookies including whether or not to accept them and how to remove them. If users disable cookies on their computers some of the more sophisticated features on our website will be unavailable to you.
   Session Cookies are stored, in memory, by your browser. Session cookies have a life of 30 minutes from the time you last accessed a page on our site. If you have not used our site for more than 30 minutes the cookie will be destroyed by your browser and you will have to login again to view certain areas.
   More information about cookies, including how to block them and/or delete them, can be found at www.AboutCookies.org.
10. Contact Us
    If you have any concerns or queries about the information we hold about you or wish to provide feedback about this site, please contact us
11. Linking to external sites
    You will encounter links to other sites that are not those which we control (e.g non English versions of bmj.com). Please be aware that once you click to one of these sites, you are subject to that site’s privacy policy and not to ours. You may wish to review the privacy policy for each site you visit.
12. Your Consent
    By using this website you consent to the use of any data we collect as set out in this policy. You should review this privacy policy regularly, to note any changes relating to how we collect and use your information.

[View privacy policy as PDF]

Date of document: January  2007