At the University of Birmingham we recognise that your personal privacy is a serious and important issue and we support the principle of protecting privacy on the Internet within the context of current UK legislation.

This privacy policy explains how we treat your personal information. By using the University of Birmingham web site you consent to the collection and use of your personal information in accordance with this policy. Though the policy has been developed to take account of changes in Internet technology it is subject to change and any such changes will only be notified on this page.

The processing of personal data is regulated by the Data Protection Act 1998. Any requests by individuals for access to information held about them by the University should be made in writing to The Information Compliance Manager, Legal Services, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. The statutory fee (currently £10) is payable.

What information is collected?

In order to use the main website at the University of Birmingham, you are currently not required to register or provide any personal information about yourself. Any personal information collected from visitors to our website is on a purely voluntary basis, however by supplying the information you are consenting to the University keeping it for a reasonable period of time and using it for the purposes set out below.

On occasions we may ask you to provide some limited personal information about yourself to participate in services such as the Alumni email directory or the University e-payment facility. This information may include your name, title, institutional affiliation, address, telephone number and email address. It may be stored electronically or manually by the University.

When you use the University of Birmingham site we automatically issue your computer with a small piece of code (a 'cookie') that enables the web pages to be displayed correctly, and the information the cookie provides allows us to manage and improve the services on the website - this cookie does not however contain any personally identifying information.

When you view our web pages as with most other websites, our webservers build logs of activity which contain information about your location in the world and even your computers IP address. In addition on some pages small visible graphics are used to build and enhance this logging system.

What we do with the information?

Any personal information that you provide to us will only be used for the purpose stated at the time we request it. We will not sell, license or trade your personal information to others. We do not provide your personal information to direct marketing companies or other such organisations.

Personal information provided by you, and any other information relating to you, will be held by the University of Birmingham and may be used for its own marketing purposes, or occasionally shared with other organisations in the prevention of fraud.

Using the logging data we analyse demographic and other statistical information about user behaviour to analyse the popularity and effectiveness of our site. In performing such analysis and in the course of our business we will only ever disclose such information in an aggregated form that is not capable of identifying an individual user.