This statement is specific to your use of the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference website. If you visit the main Edinburgh International Book Festival website, purchase tickets for Book Festival events or communicate with the Book Festival by email, phone or post there may be differences in how we collect and use your personal information. You can find the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s main privacy statement at http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/privacy-statement

What information we collect

We collect personal information including your name and email address if you provide it by registering to participate in the online discussion or to receive email updates from us.

Our website keeps track of usage data, such as the source address that the page request is coming from (i.e. your IP address, domain name), date and time of the page request, the referring website (if any) and other parameters in the URL (e.g. search criteria). We also record anonymous usage data with analytics software provided by Google Analytics and WebTrends. These services use a cookie – a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters – to monitor your usage of the site (the pages you view, the links you click, and other actions you take on the site) and to differentiate between new and returning users for analytics purposes.

The comment facility embedded in the Conference Site is provided as a third party service by Disqus. If you wish to participate in online discussion, you will be asked to provide personal information including your name and email address. If you choose to sign in to Disqus using a third party account (for example, using your Facebook or Twitter profile) Disqus may also collect personal information related to your profile on that third party service. Disqus only collects personal information that you directly provide in order to use the service, and their privacy policy is detailed at http://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/466259-privacy-policy

What we do with your personal information

If you ask us to by registering for updates and ticking the relevant interest box, we may use your personal information to keep you informed about the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference and we may contact you from time about this. If you opt to receive information about the Edinburgh International Book Festival we may also use your information to send you email bulletins and other email alerts about Book Festival events and activities. You can unsubscribe from these emails at any time.

If you contribute to the online discussion on the conference site, we may use personal information that you have made publicly visible such as your name, twitter username, avatar or similar details to attribute your comments. We may reproduce your comments in other formats and other media as explained in the section of our terms and conditions governing user content. We will never publish any personal information (such as your email address) that you have not placed in the public domain.

We use aggregated usage data to understand better the usage of our website to allow us to improve the navigation, design and functionality offered based on user activity. This may include statistical analysis of information such as the routes users take through the website, the connections, devices, operating systems and internet browser versions used, and the regional location, timezone and preferred language settings of users. This data cannot be attributed to you as an individual.

We also use aggregated data to report to our public funders, project partners and others on the success of the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference. This may include statistical analysis of overall visitor and pageview numbers and visit duration, numbers of unique visitors to various areas of the website, and segmentation of these figures based on the same broad statistical categories as those we use for the usage analysis explained above. Again, this data is stored and processed in such a way that it cannot be attributed to you as an individual.

Childrens’ privacy

Many children are interested in information about Edinburgh International Book Festival, and their privacy is of the utmost importance to us. Any child under the age of 14 should always ask a parent or teacher for permission before making any type of online enquiry.

Who we share information with

If you choose to register for email updates and specifically ask to receive updates from the British Council, we will pass your name and email address to them for inclusion on their email list. Their usage of your information is governed by their privacy policy, which you can find at http://www.britishcouncil.org/home-privacy-policy.htm

The anonymous usage information collected by Google Analytics and WebTrends for processing on our behalf may also be used by them for statistical analysis of user behaviour and activity across a range of websites. We do not share any personally identifiable information with these providers. However, they may use the information that they collect to tailor advertising, search results or other content they provide to an automatically generated profile of your interests based on information they collect about your visits to a variety of websites. You can find their privacy policies and related information at http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ and http://webtrends.com/privacy-policy/.

We will not otherwise share any information we store about you with any third party.

Compliance with law

We will release personal information where we are required to by law or by the regulations and other rules (including auditing requirements) to which we are subject. We may also exchange information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Your rights

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information held by us in our records in return for which we may charge a small fee. You also have the right to require us to correct any inaccuracies in your information.

Consent

By using this website, you consent to the collection, storage and processing of your personal information by Edinburgh International Book Festival in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy.

If you have any concerns about the information we hold about you, you can email us at admin@edbookfest.co.uk