Terms and conditions
Virgin Media Privacy Policy
At Virgin Media, we look after your details carefully. We adhere strictly to the requirements of the UK Data Protection Act 1998 and we're also registered on the public register of data controllers which is looked after by the Information Commissioner.
This policy describes how we collect, use and look after the information you provide us with when you use our online services and when we provide you with our products and services. Please take a moment to read our Privacy Policy so you know what choices you have about the information we may ask you for. This policy may change from time to time so it's a good idea to come back and read through it again, from time to time.
Information we collect
This is what we normally collect about you to help us provide you with our services, and improve them even more, where we can:
- Name, address, email, telephone number, payment details and service details;
- Information on how you use our website to help us develop and improve our website, including details of your domain name and Internet Protocol (IP) address, operating system, browser version, cookie details, how long you stayed on a page, the route you took to navigate through the pages and the website that you visited prior to accessing our site;
- Information about your use of Virgin Media services, including processing call, usage, billing, viewing and interactive data;
- Other data, from time to time, to help us provide you with improved products and services, for example now and again we might ask you to fill in a questionnaire, just so you can let us know how we're doing.
For our TiVo TV service:
Information about your usage and viewing, for example:
- The types of programmes you watch;
- How you use the television services, e.g. pausing, fast-forwarding or rewinding programmes;
- Whether you save programmes to watch later;
- Whether you tend to skip the adverts, watch programmes on demand and your purchasing preferences for example, responding to advertisements or promotions.
We may supplement the information that we collect from you and about your use of the services with information that we receive from third parties. This may include, for example, data we collect from other members of your household or information we receive from content providers (for example, information about your use of BBC iPlayer via our TiVo service so that we can personalise your TiVo service and recommend programmes you might like).
Using your information
Collecting this information helps us better understand what you need from us. We use it to offer you products and services that we think will suit you down to the ground and attempt to improve your browsing and shopping experience with us. The main uses of your data are:
- To help provide your services;
- To provide you with service information and updates;
- To provide access to privileged areas of the website;
- To administer contests and competitions and personalise your visit to our site;
- To enable us to review, develop and improve the products, services and special offers;
- To occasionally carry out market research;
- To profile your usage and viewing;
- Personalising your experience of the TiVo service based on your usage and viewing profile for example, recommending programmes you might enjoy, or tailoring advertising contained within the services so that it corresponds with your likely interests. We will not use information about your use of BBC iPlayer on our TiVo service to personalise or tailor advertising;
- To send you details of products, services, special offers and rewards that we think will be of interest to you. However, we hate junk mail as much as you do so it's up to you to decide whether or not you want to receive this information;
- To improve and develop the services.
When you apply for or use Virgin Media's products and services, you agree to Virgin Media's Terms and Conditions. Our Terms and Conditions set out the purposes for which Virgin Media may use your personal information, and to whom it may be disclosed. Please refer to our Terms and Conditions for full details.
Where you use Virgin Media's Online Movie Service, which is provided by FilmFlex Movies Limited on our behalf, you agree to FilmFlex's terms and conditions which set out the purposes for which Virgin Media and FilmFlex may use your personal information. Please refer to FilmFlex's Terms and Conditions.
Disclosing your information
Here's when we may provide information about you:
- To employees and agents of Virgin Media to deal with any accounts, products and services provided to you by Virgin Media or our group companies now or in the future.With your agreement, to other Virgin companies (e.g. Virgin Atlantic), whose products and services may be of interest to you.
- To search the files of a credit reference agency, which will keep a record of that search, when you apply for service. Additionally, details of how you conduct your account may also be disclosed to the agency. This information may be used by other organisations in assessing applications from you and members of your household.
- We may use aggregate information and statistics for the purposes of monitoring web site usage in order to help us develop the web site and our service and may provide such aggregate information to third parties for example content partners and advertisers. These statistics will not include information that can be used to identify any individual for example, '10,000 people clicked on an advertisement yesterday'.
We will not pass on your personal information to third parties except in accordance with this policy and our Terms and Conditions or where we are required by law to disclose that information.
Protecting your information
Any information sent to us is encrypted (scrambled) using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. This is industry standard encryption technology that protects your data whilst being sent over the internet from being intercepted and misused by third parties. When it reaches us, we then store it on a secure server so that it can only be read by authorised personnel. Although we make every effort to create a secure environment for your personal information, Virgin Media cannot guarantee the safety of any personal information you transmit to Virgin Media online.
We will not ask you for your Virgin Media identification and authentication passwords or PIN numbers in an unsolicited phone call or unsolicited email. You are responsible for keeping your password and PIN secure and you should not disclose them to anyone (unless you wish to authorise them to access your account and incur charges on your account).
Accessing your information
You're welcome to ask us what information we have about you, any time you like. If you need us to send it to you, it'll cost £10 - that covers the cost of our administration. If any of the details are incorrect, let us know and we'll amend them right away. If you'd like us to send your information, you can write to our team at the address on the back of your bill, enclosing a cheque or postal order for £10 made payable to Virgin Media Payments Limited.
Marketing our products and services
We will automatically contact you with regard to your services, for example, with updates to your services, service disruption messages or bill payments.
We may also, subject to your consent, use your personal information to contact you with information about special offers and rewards. Additionally, we may, subject to your consent, disclose your personal information to other Virgin companies so that they can contact you with information about their products and services. But don't worry, your details won't be shared with companies outside the Virgin group for marketing purposes without your consent.
If you have given us the consent referred to above, then from time to time, we may contact you by mail, telephone, email, other electronic messaging services (such as text, voice, sound or image messages including using automated calling systems) or fax with information about our products and services (including discounts and special offers).
If you wish to receive information and offers from us and you have not previously given us your consent, let us know by calling Customer Care or writing to us at PO Box 333, Virgin Media, Matrix Court, Swansea, SA7 9BB
If you're already receiving information about special offers and rewards from us then don't worry, you don't need to do anything. We'll assume that you're happy to continue receiving information unless we hear from you.
However if you no longer wish to receive such information from us, please let us know by calling Customer Care or writing to us at PO Box 333, Virgin Media, Matrix Court, Swansea, SA7 9BB. Remember that if you say you do not wish to receive any promotional material from us, this will preclude you from receiving any of our special offers or promotions which may be of interest to you and we will not share your information with other Virgin companies for them to market to you. You can opt-out of receiving marketing information from other Virgin companies at any time by contacting them directly.
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of information stored by your internet browser on to your computer's hard drive. Like most website providers, Virgin Media uses cookies to enable us to make a link between you and the information you have provided to our website and therefore provide you with personalised content so that we can give you a better experience when you return. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, although you can choose not to. To ensure you get the best from our websites, we advise that users keep cookies active on their machine whilst visiting our website. You can manually disable and enable cookies on your PC. The process will depend on your browser and is usually part of your 'Security Settings'. However, if you disable cookies from your browser you will not be able to create a shopping basket or place an order on this site.
For further information about managing and disabling cookies, you can refer to your browser's help section or user guide. Alternatively, the Interactive Advertising Bureau has produced a series of web pages (see www.allaboutcookies.org) which explain to users how cookies work and can be managed.
Making advertising relevant to your interests
Virgin Media uses Flashtalking technology for the serving of ads across its digital properties, including but not limited to virginmedia.com. We will ensure that our usage of the Flashtalking service is in compliance with all applicable privacy laws, rules and regulations.
Flashtalking is an online ad server delivering ads to websites across the world and the web for well known brand names and advertisers. You can find out more about Flashtalking services by visiting www.flashtalking.com
Virgin Media works with Flashtalking to deliver advertisements that are relevant to your interests or behaviour online, such as visiting a particular website. Flash Talking’s technology allows Virgin Media to create ads that are hopefully of interest and value to you as you browse the web.
Virgin Media is fully committed to preserving the privacy of internet users who see advertisements delivered by Flashtalking. Never during an ad campaign does Flashtalking, nor does Flashtalking acting on behalf of Virgin Media, collect any personally identifying information about the internet user other than required when placing an order for a Virgin Media service on the Virgin Media or Virgin Mobile websites.
Advertising Cookies
To enable Virgin Media to deliver advertising effectively and to limit the number of times an internet user may see an ad, we employ cookies. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on the users computer and can be accessed by Flashtalking software to determine what advertising has been delivered to the user already. Cookies are a very common device for tracking information on internet usage.
At no point is any personal information of any nature whatsoever collected or solicited unless you sign up for a Virgin Media service and then the only information collected is that relevant and required for your Virgin Media order to be processed. Unless you place an order with Virgin Media, neither Virgin Media or Flashtalking know who you are. We do not know your name. We do not know where you live, where you work, your gender, your age, your email address or any other personally identifiable information about you. When an order is made Virgin Media does not use the information collected other than to report that an order has been placed, the data is never used for any other purpose nor is it supplied to any other third party. We do not collect any information from the publisher website on which you may have seen our ads. We do store an anonymous IP address number and use it to work out what geographic area ads are shown in. If the use of cookies is unacceptable, users can turn them off via facilities in their browsers or you can opt out of Virgin Media’s Flashtalking Cookies.
Please be aware that opting out of Cookies does not mean you will no longer see advertisements from Virgin Media, only that the advertisements you see will no longer be based on your browser site visits.
* You are currently not opted out of Flashtalking Virgin Media cookies.
Click here to opt-out.
Click here if you already have an opt-out cookie and you want to experience Flashtalking Virgin Media relevant ads.
Please note: This opt out relies on a cookie, so if you delete your cookies on a browser we will no longer know that you have opted out.
Statistical Information
In line with every other internet business, Flashtalking systems will analyse web server activity logs. These logs contain information such as your browser type and version, operating system and the pages you requested to view. They can also be used to approximately determine the country you reside in. All of this information is completely impersonal and is aggregated to compile statistical reports for our clients about the reach of their campaigns.
Use of Flashtalking website
Flashtalking clients and sites that run Flashtalking ads have access to Flashtalking’s website through a logon mechanism. The data is protected by passwords and each client is only able to see their own information. The only personal data our website databases record is information such as email address and phone numbers to enable Flashtalking personnel to contact the appropriate people.
Links from this site to other sites
Please be aware that our site may provide access to other web sites by linking to them. We are not responsible for the data policies (including data protection and cookies), content or security of these linked web sites.
Contacting us
If you have any comments or queries concerning the website, please contact us. For queries regarding Virgin Media's services, please call our team on 0845 454 1111 or dial 150 from a Virgin Media phone line.
If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information you should write to Virgin Media's Group Compliance department at the address below:
Group Compliance
Virgin Media
Bartley Wood Business Park
Hook
Hampshire
RG27 9UP

