Code of Practice - Privacy Policy

When you place an order with TalkTalk, we need to collect certain information to be able to process your order. What we need varies depending on the items you have ordered, and the pages you are asked to complete will vary accordingly. The information is sent to us via an SSL encrypted server. This information will form part of a permanent record of your dealings with TalkTalk.

When you email us, we may ask for certain information to be able to check this record and answer your questions quickly and accurately. When you contact us, in any way, we may make a note of this contact if it is relevant to your permanent record. This allows us to provide a higher level of ongoing customer care.

When you use the website at www.talktalk.co.uk we may ask you to provide certain information, for example if you are entering a competition.

We may share your information with companies within the TalkTalk Group Limited group of companies and other carefully selected third parties for the purposes described in this policy and, in the event that we undergo re-organisation or are sold to a third party, you agree that your information may be transferred to that re-organised entity or third party.These purposes may include:

• details you give us on application forms or during conversations with you on the telephone or at any of our stores,
• details you give us so that we can provide you with goods and services,
• details we receive from credit reference and fraud detection agencies,
• details you give us through use of our website.

You agree that we may use and update this centrally held information:

• for credit and credit related services and to manage your accounts;
• to provide you with other services;
• to identify other products and services which might be suitable for you;
• to recover debts;
• to prevent and detect fraud;
• to update our records about you;
• to prevent money laundering; and
• to check your identity.

You agree that we may use your personal information to make a credit check on you before we provide you with any services. These searches will be recorded by the credit reference agencies. We may disclose information about how you run your accounts to the credit reference agencies. We and other organisations may also use credit reference agency and fraud prevention agency records that we receive about you, people financially linked to you and others in your household to help make decisions about you and them.

We may also use your information for research and statistical analysis with the aim of improving our services.

We may use the personal information we collect from you to build up a profile of your interests and preferences. This information may be disclosed to other companies in the TalkTalk Group Limited group of companies and carefully selected third parties and/or used to make you aware of products or services that you may find of interest. If you do not wish your details to be used for the purposes described above, please write to us c/o The Data Controller, TalkTalk Telecom Limited, 11 Evesham Street, London W11 4AR stating your full name, address, account number and mobile phone number. Please note: this will not affect any marketing consent which you have already given in respect of agreements relating to other products and/or services.

When assessing an application, we may use automated decision-making systems.

If you request it, on payment of a fee, which is currently £10, we will provide you with a copy of the personal information to which you are entitled that we hold about you.

The information we hold about you is confidential. We will only disclose it outside the TalkTalk Group Limited group of companies when:

• you give us your consent,
• it is needed by certain reputable third parties involved in running accounts and/or providing services for you (for example, credit reference agencies who do credit checks for us),
• in order to obtain professional advice,
• we or others need to investigate or prevent crime (e.g. to fraud prevention agencies),
• the law permits or requires it, or any regulatory or governmental body requests or requires it, even without your consent, or,
• there is a duty to the public to reveal the information.

We may administer your account and provide other services from centres in countries outside Europe that do not always have the same standard of data protection laws as the UK. However, we will have a contract in place to ensure that your information is adequately protected, and we will remain bound by our obligations under the Data Protection Act even when your personal information is processed outside Europe.

This website uses cookies. Cookies collect information about your use of the website, including things like your connection speed, details of your operating system, the time and duration of your visit and your IP address. The information collected by cookies enables us to understand the use of our site, including the number of visitors we have, the pages viewed per session, time exposed to particular pages etc.

This in turn helps us to provide you with a better experience, since we can evaluate the level of interest in the content of our website and tailor it accordingly. We do not store information obtained from cookies alongside your personal information and we will not attempt to personally identify you from your IP address unless required to as a matter of law or regulation or in order to protect our or our other customers' rights. Most browsers automatically accept cookies. You can set your browser options so that you will not receive cookies and you can also delete existing cookies from your browser. However, you may find that some parts of the site will not function properly if you refuse cookies.

What are Cookies and how do I disable them? 

We allow other companies that are presenting and serving advertisements on the website to set and access their cookies on your computer. Please be aware that this activity is subject to their own privacy policies. Information about your visit to the website, such as the number of times you have viewed a particular advertisement (but not information about you, such as your name, address or any other personal information) may be used by these companies to decide which advertisements to serve to you.

Web advertising agency DoubleClick is one supplier which delivers advertisements appearing on the website. For more information about the information collected by Doubleclick and their use of your data, please click here. For more information about DoubleClick cookies and how to "opt-out", please click here.

Yahoo! uses the AdPath pixel on our website to collect information about you in order to provide targeted advertising to you on other websites in the Yahoo! Network. You should review Yahoo!'s privacy policy at http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/uk/yahoo/details.html for information about Yahoo!'s data collection practices and the purposes for which such data is processed. You may opt out of targeted advertising by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) opt-out at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

We do not specifically collect information about children and believe that children should always get the consent of their parents before giving out any personal information. Where children are specifically encouraged to participate on the website, they will always be advised that they should seek parental permission before they continue with the activity. We recommend that parents actively participate and where possible monitor their children's use of the internet and the website.

We may monitor, record, store and use any telephone, email or other electronic communications with you for training purposes, so that we can check any instructions given to us and to improve the quality of our customer service.

We will monitor network traffic from time to time for the purposes of backup and problem solving and in order to ensure that you are not misusing any of the services provided to you.

To the extent that sensitive personal data is processed about you, we will employ appropriate security measures given the nature of that data. However, you recognise that your use of the Internet and our website is entirely at your own risk. We have tried to create a secure and reliable website for our users. However, we have no responsibility or liability for the security of personal information transmitted via the Internet.

We may need to provide some of your personal information to third parties that we use for the purposes of delivering specific services to you (e.g. customer support, or a shipping company if you have asked us to send something to you).

Our website may provide links and banner advertisements to third party sites. Please note that we are not responsible for, and have no control over, information that is submitted to or collected by these third parties. Since we do not control those websites, you are responsible for reviewing and abiding by the privacy policies of these third party sites.

We may check what you have told us and share that information with fraud prevention agencies. It is important that you give us accurate information. If you give us false or inaccurate data and we suspect fraud we will record this at the fraud prevention agencies.

You are responsible for informing us that your personal details have changed: for example, a change of address or to your title. You confirm that you will inform us of any change to your personal information as soon as is reasonably practicable in order that we may update our records. Please note that notification of any change to your personal information must be in writing (to the address below), and should include your account and/or telephone numbers with us.

If you feel your privacy has been breached by us, then please write to:

TalkTalk Telecom Limited
Customer Care
11 Evesham Street
London
W11 4AR

or call customer services on 0870 444 1820*

During your time on this site you will have the opportunity to consent to us contacting you by e-mail, phone, SMS or MMS from time to time occasionally about products and services which the TalkTalk Group Limited group of companies (including, without limitation, its insurance and mobile line telephony companies) and carefully selected third parties believe may be of interest to you.

If you participate in our Member Get Member campaigns, the email information you provide to us about your friends and family will only be used to contact them once unless they then tell us that they would like to continue to hear from us.

You must not use any computers, computer equipment, network resources or any services provided by us for any illegal purpose, or for accessing, receiving or transmitting any material deemed illegal, indecent, offensive or otherwise unacceptable under UK law.

You must not use any false identity in email or other network communications.

You must not use the services and/or network systems or any part thereof for fraudulent activities, or to breach another organisation's security (cross-network hacking). This is an illegal act and prosecution under criminal law may result.

Please note that this policy will be reviewed, and may change, from time to time. The revised policy will be posted to this page so that you are always aware of the information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we disclose it.

By using this website you are consenting to this privacy policy. We may in the future change this policy, and if we do so we will post the amended policy on this website.

Any decision made by us in relation to the services provided to you shall be final.

* = Calls may be monitored and/or recorded for quality assurance. There is no charge for calls to this number from a TalkTalk registered landline. Call costs from other providers may vary. Lines are open: Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, Saturdays 9am to 6pm and Sundays/ Bank Holidays 10am to 5pm.