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S4C Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us

We want you to understand how and why we collect and use information about you so that you're happy that you can trust us with your personal information.

S4C is committed to letting you know what information S4C collects about you, how and when it's collected and what happens to that information.

In this policy "we" and "us" means S4C. When you provide us with your personal data, S4C is the data controller and is responsible for ensuring that your personal data is kept safe and used legally.

It is important that you read this privacy policy and any other privacy notice we may give you on specific occasions when we collect your data so that you fully understand how and why we are using your data.

By accessing and using our services, you are agreeing to the terms of this privacy policy and our Cookies Policy.

We may update this privacy policy and our Cookies Policy from time to time and we will post any changes on our website at www.s4c.cymru.

Who is S4C?

S4C is the only Welsh language broadcaster in the world. S4C's aim is to deliver high quality content and media services in the Welsh language that provide entertainment, information and inspiration, and that reach the widest possible audience across a range of contemporary platforms.

S4C is a publisher–broadcaster seeking to reach the widest possible audience by offering optional English language subtitling and, for some content, an optional English language audio track. S4C's TV service is available on Freeview across Wales and also on the Sky, Freesat, Virgin Media and YouView platforms across the UK. S4C's online service is available throughout the UK and, where rights permit, its content is available on a worldwide basis. S4C's content is also available on iPlayer on a range of devices.

You can find out more about S4C here https://www.s4c.cymru/cy/amdanom-ni/page/31316/bwrdd-unedol-s4c/

Why does S4C need my personal information?

Sharing your data with us means that we can deliver a much better, more personalised service to you which is designed to meet your needs.

We'll be able to make more of the programmes we know you like to watch, tell you about them directly and easily, assess how we're doing and work to improve our services.

We'll be able to contact you with information you might find useful and get in touch with you if you take part in our competitions.

We'll also be able to undertake the day-to-day tasks required to run a broadcast channel.

In the section "You and S4C" below we've explained a bit more about how we use your data depending on how you interact with us.

Is this policy relevant to other, non-S4C, websites?

No, if you provide data to or via websites owned by other companies (even if there is a link to that other website on the S4C website), you will be providing your data to the owner of that website (not S4C). The privacy policy of that other website will be relevant to the way in which your data will be used. We recommend that you check the privacy policies of any other site if you provide your personal details.

How and why does S4C use my data?

Data protection law states that we must tell you how and why we use your data and our legal basis for using your data.

You can choose what information you provide to S4C about yourself. However, if you choose not to share some information with us, some of our services and areas of our website may be unavailable to you.

S4C Account Holder

If you have or intend to register to have an account with S4C, you may be asked to give us basic information about yourself including your full name, date of birth, gender, postal address, email address and telephone number. You may also choose a user name and set a password. You might register your direct marketing preferences.

We will also collect information about how you use S4C online and app services including your viewing history, IP addresses, geolocation data, browser type and version, operating systems, device identifiers and information about how long you have stayed on certain pages of our website. More information about how we collect this type of technical data is available in our Cookies Policy.

We use S4C Account Holder information to set up and manage your account, to ensure that you have access to your account at log in and to keep details of programmes that you are watching and the devices you use to access S4C. We may also keep information about which programmes you have searched for. In future we intend to use the information we collect about how you like to use S4C online and app services so that we can personalise the service we offer you, can recommend content based on your viewing and search history. It will also mean that you will be able to re-start programmes where you left off on your different devices.

We may use your date of birth to verify your age so that we can deliver age appropriate content to you, especially children.

We use your contact details to let you know about programmes or events that we think might be of interest to you in line with your direct marketing preferences. We will also use your contact details to update you about our services or to help you get the most out of the services e.g. user names and password reminders.

We use your technical data to deliver location specific information to you e.g. weather and to track your use of the service so that we can understand our viewers technical preferences.

We use geolocation data to restrict access to certain content if you are accessing our services outside the UK. We don't have the rights to make all content available outside the UK and have to limit access to some content outside the UK.

Competition/Prize Draw Participants

If you participate in a prize draw or competition administered by S4C, we may collect information such as your name, postal address, email address and telephone numbers. The competition/prize draw will have its own competition terms and conditions.

We may also ask you if you would like to receive direct marketing information from us, usually via email and we'll ask you to let us know specifically (consent) if you would like to receive these emails. See paragraph "Recipient of Marketing Emails"

Viewers' Comments or Contributions

If you contact S4C whether via the S4C Viewer's Hotline or otherwise or if you mention S4C or its services or programmes online, like in a Tweet, whether to make a complaint, register praise, send us creative content, make a request for information or raise a query or concern we may keep a record of your name, postal address, email address, telephone number, user name/twitter handle and nature of your message.

We may use your name and contact details to register the message and to contact you in the event that your message requires further action or response from S4C. We will only share your personal details with third parties where the input of that third party isnecessary to respond to your message.

We will also use your details to help us understand what our viewers like and dislike, attitudes and opinions on various matters.

Users of S4C Apps on Devices and TVs

S4C collects information about how you use S4C Apps,the S4C website or other S4C content online, and the devices you use to access the services.This includes collecting unique online identifiers such as IP addresses, which are numbers that can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on the internet. See our Cookies Policy.

When you download or use S4C apps on your TV or mobile device, information may be accessed from or stored to your device.This is similar to a web browser cookie, this enables the app to remember you and provide you with the content you have chosen.

Your web browser or devise may also provide S4C with information about your device, eg IP address or device identifier.Device identifiers may be collected e.g device ID, IP address, MAC address, IMEI number and app ID.

When you sign in to an S4C app, your sign in details may be stored on the device you are using, so you can access the S4C app on the same device without needing to enter your sign in details.

Weather Service Users

If you use our weather services including those available via our website and S4C Weather app, we may save your address/postcode and device geolocation details so that the services provided to you can be localised.

Survey/Poll Participants

If you participate in a survey from S4C, we may ask you for your name, postal address, home address, gender, age/date of birth, telephone number, your likes and dislikes and other feedback and question responses.

We may collect technical data such as internet IP address, log in data and browser type.

We use this data to help us to understand our viewer's likes and dislikes, attitudes and opinions on various matters.

Recipients of marketing information

If you receive marketing information from S4C, we may hold details of your name, date of birth, postal address and/or email address.

We will use your details for the purpose of sending you information regarding S4C programmes and services and only when you have agreed to us doing so (e.g. by opt-in).

Every marketing communication sent to you will have details as to how to unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive these messages.

Providers of services to S4C

If you provide services to S4C, you will provide the names and contact details of the staff with whom S4C need to contact in connection with those services. S4C may also use those details to keep you and your company informed of changes to the way in which S4C conducts its business.

Children under 13

If you are under 13 years of age S4C will need your parent (or person or organisation with parental responsibility) to agree to S4C collecting and using your data. We will need to contact your parent (or person or organisation with parental responsibility) directly to ensure that they are happy for us to keep and use your personal information.

Valid Reason for using your personal data

We will only use your personal information where we have a valid reason for doing so (known as the lawful basis for processing). The valid reason will depend on how and why we have your personal information. Generally we'll only use your personal information on the following lawful basis:

  • That you have told us that you would like us to use your personal information for an agreed purpose (Consent). You have the right to withdraw consent.
  • That the processing of your personal information is necessary for the performance of a contract with you (including the terms and conditions of any services provided to you by S4C)
  • The processing is in the legitimate interests of S4C. For example, it is in the legitimate interests of S4C to use data about how you use our services or comments that you make about our services to target resource at certain areas for technical development or improvements. It is in the legitimate interests of S4C to process certain information to ensure that you enjoy the best experience that we are able to deliver to suit your technical and other needs, likes and dislikes. It is in our legitimate interest to control whether or not content can be delivered to certain locations outside the UK to comply with our rights agreements.
  • The processing is being undertaken by S4C as part of the performance of a task in the public interest
  • The processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation placed on S4C

Data anonymisation and aggregation

We may anonymise or aggregate your personal information in such a way as to ensure that you are not identified or identifiable from it. We may use anonymised or aggregated data for a variety of reasons, for example, for statistical analysis and administration including analysis of trends, to carry out actuarial work, to tailor products and services and to conduct risk assessment and analysis of costs and charges in relation to our products and services. We may share anonymised or aggregated data with third parties.

Does S4C receive information about me from third parties?

We also obtain information from other sources of data, including information about you from 3rd party organisations, for example production companies that make our programmes will provide details of contributors to those programmes and sometimes marketing agencies will provide personal data to us where you have agreed to us having your data.

We will only accept and use information about you from reputable organisations who have either obtained your permission to share your information with us or who have collated information about you from publicly available sources.

Does S4C share my data with third parties?

S4C will not sell your data to anyone else.

We may share your data with other members of the S4C group, for the purposes of shared services or business management and optimisation.

We may share your information:

  • if we have been asked to provide information about you for legal purposes
  • when we need to protect you or other people from harm
  • where you voluntarily provide your information such as user name, profile information, twitter handle on our website or other social media sites we may publish that information on forums or pages where user submissions are displayed

We may use third party service providers to support our provision of the service.

This includes for the provision of direct services related to the provision of television services to you, including internet television service suppliers ornetwork operators or other, less direct, business functions, including IT support, mail delivery services,data hosting services on cloud platforms, legal, accounting, audit, consulting and other professional service providers, and providers of other services related to our business. Portions of our services may be provided by organisations with which S4C has a contractual relationship, including subcontractors, and your personal information may be disclosed to them only for the purpose of delivering the relevant services to you. We only provide these organisations with the information that they need to be able to perform their services.

We will have in place an agreement with our service providers which will restrict how they are able to process your personal information. If any service provider is based outside of the European Economic Area, we will ensure that the provider is either a current subscriber to the EU/US Privacy Shield, or we have an appropriate contract for the international transfer of personal information with them.

What if I accessing S4C's website outside of the UK?

All personal information submitted by users outside the UK will be processed in accordance with this policy and the Cookies Policy.

If you are outside the UK you might not be able to access some our services.You may not be able to open an S4C account.

What rights do I have to control my data?

Under data protection law, depending on the legal basis which S4C is relying on to use your data, you have a number of different rights. A summary of those rights and our obligations are set out below. More information about your rights and our obligations can be found on the ICO website https://ico.org.uk/.

  • Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. You may be required to send us proof of identity.
  • Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
  • Withdraw consent where we are processing your personal information on the basis that you have told us that you want us to do so, you can withdraw this consent by unsubscribing to marketing communications using the "Unsubscribe" option, by managing your preferences within your account or by emailing data@s4c.cymru with a message notifying us of the service for which you want to withdraw your consent.
  • Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. We will comply with this request unless we have a lawful reason to keep the data, for example we are required by law to keep the data for a certain period.
  • Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. We will comply with this request unless we have a lawful reason to keep processing the data. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  • Request data portability of your personal information.In certain circumstances, you may have the right to require that we provide you with an electronic copy of your personal information either for your own use or so that you can share it with another organisation. Where this right applies, you can ask us, where feasible, to transmit your personal data directly to the other party.
  • Complaints if you would like to complain about how we use your personal information, please contact us on data@s4c.cymru or via our complaints procedure. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is the UK supervisory authority for data protection matters. Please visit the ICO website for instructions.

Do I need to do anything to help keep my data safe?

We will keep your data safe as set out in this policy.

Sending information online is never 100% secure and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent to us in this way. Data sent over the internet is at your own risk.

If you choose to use the login facility available on our website and app, to log in to our player you are required to adhere to the following security procedures in relation to your username and password, which are referred to as "login information":

  • Keep your login information secret and secure at all times and do not disclose it to any other person or allow any other person to use it;
  • Do not write down or record in any form your login information or store it on any software, including a password save feature;
  • Destroy any notice from us concerning your login information as soon as you have read and understood it;
  • Should you become aware or have reason to suspect that your login information has been lost or disclosed to, or seen or accessed by, someone other than yourself, immediately notify us at the following email address data@s4c.cymru;
  • Do not leave your computer or other device unattended while you are using the login facility available on our website or app or let anyone else use your computer or other device unless and until you have logged out; and
  • Use particular caution if you access the login facility available on our website and app from a public or shared computer or device, to ensure that other people are not able to see your login details.

How do I manage my marketing preferences?

If you have consented we may use your personal information to provide you with direct marketing information about our programmes and services. Our direct marketing may be by email, telephone, post or SMS or such other method(s) as may become relevant and to which you have consented.

You can sign up to receive a monthly update from S4C by email telling you about our programmes and services.

We will ensure that any direct marketing from us and which is sent by electronic means will provide a simple means for you to stop further communications, in accordance with applicable law. For example, in emails, we may provide you with an "unsubscribe" link, or an email address to which you can send an opt-out request.

How long will S4C keep information about me?

S4C will usually only keep your data for as long as necessary to give you the services that you are using. Your data will then be securely deleted.

In certain circumstances, we may need to keep your personal information for longer, if required by law or record keeping requirements, including managing our relationship with you, defending any claims, or for tax purposes.

If you have not used your My S4C account in the last year then S4C may decide to delete your account.We will usually send an email before we decide to close your account.

Freedom of information and your information

S4C is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI). This means that any information we hold, which could include any information you have provided to us, may potentially be disclosable if an FOI request is made unless S4C has a lawful reason for not disclosing such information.

Changes to this policy

Data security is important to us and we will keep this policy under review. We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page to reflect changes in the law and/or our privacy practices.We will update the date at the top of the policy when this happens. We encourage you to check this policy for changes when you revisit our website or use our app and before you give us personal information. If you do not agree to any changes that we make, please do not continue to use our services.

Contact us about privacy

S4C has a Data Protection Officer. Please send all comments, queries or requests in relation to this Privacy Policy and/or the way in which we manage your personal information to data@s4c.cymru.

Alternatively you could send a letter to S4C Data Protection Officer, Canolfan S4C Yr Egin, Carmarthen, SA31 3EQ.

Updated June 2023

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