Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Last Modified Date: April 26, 2024

 

The Ministry of Defence together with our affiliates and subsidiaries (“we”, “our”, and “us”) provide rich content across platforms in print, online, film, social media and on the The Ministry of Defence podcast (collectively, “Content”). Content includes our perspective and the perspective of other storytellers through our brand. We provide Content through our website, theministryofdefence.com (the “Site”), our social media, and our podcast (collectively, the “Content Services”). One of our main priorities is protecting the privacy of our business and marketing partners, visitors, customers, subscribers, listeners, and social media followers (collectively, “you” and “your”).

We provide this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to describe and explain our information collection practices. This Privacy Policy applies to personal information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with a particular consumer or household, or as defined by applicable privacy laws (“Personal Information”) collected when you interact with the Content Services (or any affiliated third-party website that may contain a link to this Privacy Policy). 

By accessing or using the Content Services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and consent to our privacy practices described in this Privacy Policy, including our use and disclosure of your Personal Information as described below. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, including our use and disclosure of your Personal Information, please do not use the Content Services and do not provide us with any Personal Information.

 

1.    REVISIONS AND UPDATES

From time to time, we may change this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to periodically review our Privacy Policy for the latest information on our privacy practices. If we make any material changes, we will notify you of such changes by posting the updated Privacy Policy on the Content Services and/or notifying you by email or via the Site. The date the Privacy Policy was last revised is identified at the top of this webpage as the “Last Modified Date.” You will be bound by any such revisions and modifications to the Privacy Policy when you use the Content Services after those revisions and modifications have been posted.

 

2.    COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

During your use of the Content Services, The Ministry of Defence collects Personal Information, in various ways, including:

 

  • Directly from you when you provide it to us;

 

  • Automatically as you use the Content Services; and

 

  • From third parties.

 

A.     INFORMATION PROVIDED BY YOU

We may collect Personal Information and other information directly from you when you use the Content Services, such as when you subscribe to the The Ministry of Defence, purchase from our store. We may collect the following types of Personal Information based on your interactions with the Content Services:

 

  • The Ministry of Defence Newsletter Subscription, including name, email;

 

  • Purchase from The Ministry of Defence Store, including name, email, phone number, mailing address;

 

  • Contact Information, including name, email, phone number, contents of message.

 

You may be required to provide payment information prior to making a purchase from the Content Services. Please note, we do not store financial and bank information; such information is securely processed and stored by our payment processor. Your information will be handled in accordance with the payment processor’s privacy policy and practices. For more information, please refer to the policies of the payment processor identified at the time of purchase.

Some of the information that we may collect as a result of providing the services is particularly sensitive (e.g., passport number). We only collect this information as provided by or consented by you.  Such sensitive information is only shared for the purpose of confirming trip details for the trip you request or as consented for and will not be shared or used by us for any other purposes.

 

B.    INFORMATION AUTOMATICALLY COLLECTED

Like many other websites or apps, The Ministry of Defence and its providers may collect and store information that is generated automatically as you navigate through the Content Services (such as your IP address, location, listening history, podcasts you subscribe to or have subscribed to; podcast categories you have marked as being of interest to you, browsing history, search history, viewing history, and browser type). This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of the Content Services, and for our internal analytics so that we can improve the Content Services; however, we may also use this information for marketing purposes. We may use the following technologies to collect certain types of information:

  • Log Files. The Ministry of Defence follows a standard procedure of using log files. These files log visitors when they visit websites. All hosting companies do this and a part of hosting services’ analytics. The information collected by log files include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date and time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. These are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable. The purpose of the information is for analyzing trends, administering the Content Services, tracking users’ movement on the Content Services, and gathering demographic information.

 

  • Cookies and Web Beacons. Like any other website, The Ministry of Defence uses ‘cookies’ on the Content Services. These cookies are used to store information including visitors’ preferences, and the pages on the Content Services that the visitor accessed or visited. The information is used to optimize the users’ experience by customizing our web page content based on visitors’ browser type and/or other information. You can configure your browser to accept cookies, reject cookies or notify you when a cookie is being used; however, if you do so it may render your computer unable to take advantage of certain personalized features of the Content Services. For more information on how to opt-out of cookies, please visit the Choices section below.

 

  • Third Party Cookies.

 

  • Google DoubleClick DART Cookie. Google is one of our third-party vendors on our Content Services. It also uses cookies, known as DART cookies, to serve ads to our Content Services visitors based upon their visit to our Content Services and other sites on the internet. However, visitors may choose to decline the use of DART cookies by visiting the Google ad and content network Privacy Policy at the following URL – https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads

 

  • Google Analytics. We use various analytics services to better understand how visitors interact with the Content Services. These analytics services provide information including but not limited to information on where visitors came from, what actions they took on the Content Services and where visitors went when they left the Content Services. For example, we use Google Analytics to help us perform our business and service-related analytics. For more information about how Google Analytics uses your data, please see: google.com/policies/privacy/partners, as well as its privacy policy: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy. You may opt out of the use of Google Analytics by vising the Google Analytics opt-out web page at: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

 

  • Facebook Pixel. We use the “visitor action pixels” from Facebook Inc. on the Content Services. This allows user specific behavior to be tracked after they have been redirected to the advertiser’s website by clicking on a Facebook ad. This enables us to measure the effectiveness of Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes. The data collected in this way is anonymous to us, in other words, we do not see the personal information of individual users. This data is stored and processed by Facebook. Facebook may link this information to your Facebook account and also use it for its own promotional purposes, in accordance with Facebook’s Data Usage Policy https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/.  You can regulate the collection of your data by Facebook pixel, or to the use of your data for the purpose of displaying Facebook ads by visiting the following address: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads.

 

C.     INFORMATION FROM THIRD PARTIES

In addition to collecting some Personal Information directly from you, we may collect Personal Information from third parties including our Affiliates and Subsidiaries, and business partners.  You agree that the third-party providers of information, not The Ministry of Defence, are responsible for maintaining your information with proper and sufficient accuracy and authority in accordance with all governing laws and regulations. We make no effort to verify any information for any purpose, including accuracy, legality, or non-infringement that we properly receive from third parties.

We may also receive information about you from social media platforms, when you interact with us on those platforms or access our content through social media. Please note that the information we may receive from those third parties (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) is governed by the privacy settings, policies and/or procedures of the applicable platform, and we strongly encourage you to review them before submitting any information using a social media platform.

 

3.    USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will use the Personal Information you provide to us for a variety of purposes, including to:

  • create and administer the Content Services;
  • provide you with the product or information you may request from us;
  • provide the newsletter from The Ministry of Defence;
  • contact you for support and feedback requests;
  • contact you to inform you of important changes or additions to the Content Services;
  • send you administrative notices, offers and any other communications that we believe may be of interest to you;
  • market to you;
  • to better our podcast service offerings, for example to obtain an overview of your listening history to recommend podcasts you may like and to provide you with personalized ads and offerings based on your location and other Personal Information collected.
  • operate, improve and maintain the Content Services;
  • track and monitor web traffic;
  • analyze trends and transactions;
  • deliver relevant advertisements;
  • improve understanding of customer needs and provide relevant services;
  • support our internal and external business operations;
  • fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it;
  • fulfill any legal or regulatory requirements and any of our internal policies;
  • fulfill other purposes disclosed at the time of collection;
  • enforce separate agreements between you and us and this Privacy Policy;
  • for any other purpose with your consent; and
  • as otherwise set forth in this Privacy Policy.

 

4.    DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We do not sell, share, rent, or otherwise disclose your Personal Information to any third parties, for monetary or other valuable consideration, except as described below:

  • With Your Consent. We may share information when you provide us with your consent to do so. This may occur, for example, when you affirmatively instruct us to do so or it may occur through your use of the Content Services as provided in this Privacy Policy.

 

  • Parent Companies, Subsidiaries, & Affiliates. We may disclose Personal Information about you to our Parent Companies, Subsidiaries, and Affiliates.

 

  • Service Providers and Contractors. We may disclose to service providers, contractors, or other third parties any or all of the information that we collect about you to conduct business on our behalf. These activities could include processing or making payments, maintaining the Content Services, or facilitating email delivery to you. Our service providers and contractors are contractually obligated to protect your Personal Information, including to keep your information confidential and to use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.

 

  • Business Partners. We may share your Personal Information with our business partners to provide you with a product or service you may have requested. We may also share your Personal Information to business partners with whom we jointly offer the any products, services, or content.

 

  • Advertising Partners. We may share your Personal Information with third party advertising partners, such as Google Display Advertising and Remarketing services and Facebook. These advertising partners may use first- and third-party cookies together to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on your past visits to the Content Services. You can opt out of these services using the Ads Preferences Manager or you can use the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. These advertising partners may use this information (and similar information collected from other services) for purposes of delivering personalized advertisements to you when you visit digital properties within their networks, commonly referred to as “interest-based advertising.”

 

  • In the Event of Merger, Sale, Divestitures, or Change of Control. If we go through a business transfer, such as consolidation, merger, restructuring, acquisition, reorganization, dissolution, or sale of part or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, you acknowledge and consent to the transfer or assign of your information. You further acknowledge and consent to the continued use of your information by the recipient so long as they comply with this Privacy Policy.

 

  • Other Disclosures. We may disclose your Personal Information when we have a good faith belief that disclosure is helpful or reasonably necessary to: (i) comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including responding to any government, law enforcement, or regulatory request; (ii) enforce or apply our terms of use, other agreements, including between you and us, and any other documents included or referenced therein (all of which are incorporated into and made a part of this Privacy Policy by this reference); (iii) fulfill the purpose for which you provide it; (iv) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud or security issues; or (v) protect against harm to our, your, or third parties’ rights, property, or safety.

 

A.     SHARING OF NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION AND AGGREGATE DATA

We may share Non-Personal Information and related aggregated information, your Personal Information that is no longer able to identify you directly, with third parties about how you interact with the Content Services, including log data for industry analysis and demographic profiling.

 

5.    CHOICES

You have choices about how we use your Personal Information. Please understand that if you choose not to disclose information to us, it may affect your ability to use some features and functionalities of the Content Services.

 

A.     COOKIES

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe's website. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the Content Services may then be inaccessible or not function properly.

 

B.    MARKETING

Email. If you no longer wish to receive marketing or informational emails, you may choose not to by contacting us as specified in the Contact Information section below or by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link located at the bottom of marketing emails you may receive from us. Regardless of your choices regarding promotional communications and updates regarding content, we may send you administrative messages, service announcements, or other similar communications, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them.

SMS. In accordance with our Terms and Conditions, when you opt-in for SMS marketing, you provide consent for us to contact you via voice call or text, including manual, autodialed, and prerecorded calls and texts.  You may limit or revoke these authorizations by following the instructions within the communications.

Your instructions to opt-out from these communications will be processed as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that exercising a marketing opt-out will not affect the services you receive and will not affect our right to contact you about the services to which you subscribe, including notifications regarding compliance obligations related to those services.

 

C.     ADVERTISING

Advertisements appearing on the Content Services may be delivered by advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by us and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

We and our service providers may use information about your interactions with the Content Services to predict your interests and select the ads you see on and off the Content Services. This is known as interest-based advertising. We may also use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers' target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your Personal Information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria. In providing interest-based ads, we follow the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising developed by the Digital Advertising Alliance ("DAA"). We do not control third parties' collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way.

For more information about interest-based advertising and how you can opt out, visit:

 

D.    DO-NOT-TRACK

Many web browsers include a Do Not Track (“DNT”) feature or setting that signals your preference not to have information about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. However, there is currently no uniform standard for recognizing and implementing the DNT signals. As such, The Ministry of Defence does not monitor or respond to DNT browser requests. If a standard is adopted that we must follow in the future, then we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this Privacy Policy.

 

6.    CONFIDENTIALITY & SECURITY

We have implemented reasonable measures designed to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure and can potentially be intercepted or incorrectly routed. Although we do our best to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information transmitted to the Content Services. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk.

 

7.    THIRD PARTY WEBSITE

The Content Services may contain links to third-party websites, services, products, mobile applications and/or contain advertisements from third parties that are not affiliated with us – and which may link to other websites, services, or applications. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or other practices employed by other websites or third parties, including those using the The Ministry of Defence or our Affiliates and Subsidiaries branding. We encourage you to review the privacy policies and practices of such third parties prior to using their websites, services, or application. We do not make any guarantee regarding those third-party websites, services, or applications, and we are not liable for any loss or damage caused by the use of such sites.

 

8.    PUBLIC FORUMS

Any information, communications, or material of any type or nature that you voluntarily submit for viewing by third parties online or otherwise make your Personal Information publicly available online (collectively, “Public Forums”) – for example through comments and participation in forums or through email – is done at your own risk and without any expectation of privacy. We cannot be responsible for any unauthorized third-party use of such information, nor do we guarantee the privacy or safety of Public Forums. We encourage you to be wary of providing any of your Personal Information in such Public Forums.

 

9.    INFORMATION RETENTION

We will retain your data for as long as necessary to perform the purpose in which it was collected and to enable us to provide the Content Services to you.

 

10. CHILDREN

Another part of our priority is adding protection for children while using the internet. We encourage parents and guardians to observe, participate in, and/or monitor and guide their online activity. The Content Services are not directed to children under the age of 16. The Ministry of Defence does not knowingly collect nor maintain any Personal Information from children under the age of 16. If you think that your child provided this kind of information, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately and we will do our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

 

11. INTERNATIONAL VISITORS

The Content Services are intended for visitors located within the United States and Canada. We may use service providers that operate in other countries, thus, your Personal Information may be processed in the United States or transferred to other locations where privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your state, province, or country. If you do not reside in the United States and provide Personal Information to us, please note that your Personal Information will be transferred, processed, collected, used, accessed and/or stored in the United States and subject to U.S. laws. The laws in the United States may not provide the same protections for your Personal Information as the jurisdiction in which you are located. Do not provide your Personal Information to us if you do not want this information to be transferred or processed outside of your country, or if the laws in your country restrict such transfers.

 

12. CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have questions, comments, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or The Ministry of Defence’s privacy practices, please contact us through email