At the Soton Tab (“Soton Tab”) we appreciate your readership and support and place a high value on your personal privacy. In adopting this privacy policy (this “Privacy Policy”), our intent is to balance our legitimate business interests in collecting and using your personal information with your reasonable expectations of privacy. This Privacy Policy may be revised or updated at any time and we encourage you to check back often to ensure that you are familiar with the most recent version and the terms of our Privacy Policy.

When does the Soton Tab collect my personal information?

You may provide personal information to the Soton Tab in one of the following ways: (1) by sharing your e-mail address when subscribing to our newsletter, (2) by sharing personal information when you post comments on our posts or stories, or (3) by participating in a survey or competition where an email address is requested. We may also ask for other information at other times but at no time will you be required to share any personal information to gain complete access to our site.

In addition to basic contact information, our analytics trackers may also collect information that is in no way personally identifiable. This may include the operating system you are working on, the Internet browser you are using, and the screen resolution of your computer.

How does the Soton Tab use my personal information?

Depending on the portion of our site that you have subscribed to, we may use your information in a number of ways.

  1. The email address you provided through our newsletter subscription form enables us to send you a digest of Soton Tab news stories. This subscription is entirely opt-in by the user. (We cannot subscribe you to the newsletter as you personally must have access to the email account in order to verify the subscription.) Subscribers can opt-out of our newsletter at any time by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link that is present on every email at the very bottom of the newsletter.
  2. The email address that you use when contacting us will not be used for any reason but for the purposes of responding to your inquiry.
  3. The email address associated with your account when you comment on our stories may be used in conjunction with contests and promotions hosted on the Soton Tab’s website to notify you if you have won. Email addresses provided in comments are not used for any other reason, and will not be made public.
  4. We may at times request your participation in a survey. We will not provide your email addresses to any third party but may contact you via them to distribute prizes in associated giveaways.
  5. To maintain a site that is free of charge, we may display advertisements on our website. At no time does any party other than the Soton Tab have access to your personally identifiable information (with the exception of Google who maintains our RSS subscription-by-email service), and you will never be contacted by any party other than the Soton Tab. The only exceptions to the foregoing are that we may disclose personally identifiable information (i) in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order or subpoena, (ii) in response to a law enforcement agency’s request, or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take actions regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of another person, violations of our terms of use, or as otherwise required by law, or (iii) in the event we are acquired by or merged with another company.

When you sign up for our updates or receive e-mail messages from the Soton Tab, you will always be given the chance to opt-out of our communications. You may change your preferences at any time and will only be contacted in manners consistent with your stated preferences.

Non-personally identifiable information (such as stated above) may be shared in aggregate form with our advertisers or marketing partners but your personally identifiable information will never be disclosed to them.

Is there anything else I should know about my privacy and the Soton Tab?

Any information you disclose voluntarily on our comments page or in any properties hosted by the Soton Tab becomes public information. SotonTab.co.uk is a public forum. We cannot control the action of our site users and advise you to use your discretion in sharing information about yourself on the Internet. All information sharing is optional and done so at your own risk. Privacy is a very personal matter and we encourage you to be careful and responsible when disclosing personal information online.

Our comment policy can be found here.