1. Introduction and General Terms

VAEG is committed to protecting you and your family's personal information when you are using VAEG services. We want our services to be safe and enjoyable environments for our audience. This Privacy Policy relates to our use of any personal information you provide to us through VAEG websites.

In order to provide you with the full range of VAEG services, we are sometimes required to collect information about you.

This privacy policy explains the following:

• what information VAEG may collect about you;
• how VAEG will use information we collect about you;
• when VAEG may use your details to contact you;
• whether VAEG will disclose your details to anyone else;
• your choices regarding the personal information you have provided to us;
• the use of cookies on the VAEG website and how you can reject these cookies.

As set out above, VAEG is committed to safeguarding your personal information. Whenever you provide such information, we are legally obliged to use your information in line with all laws concerning the protection of personal information, including the Data Protection Act 1998 (these laws are referred to collectively in this Privacy Policy as the "data protection laws").

The websites contains hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by third parties. These third party websites have their own privacy policies, including cookies, and we urge you to review them. They will govern the use of personal information you submit or are collected by cookies whilst visiting these websites. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third party websites and your use of such websites is at your own risk.

2. What information will VAEG collect about me?

When you sign up to participate in or receive a service from any VAEG website, such as newsletters, competitions, live chats, message boards or register with the single universal online registration system used across different parts of www.vaeg.info called "Single Sign-On", we may ask for personal information about you. This can consist of information such as your name, e mail address, postal address, telephone or mobile number or date of birth. Different webpages may ask for different personal information.

By entering your details in the fields requested, you enable VAEG and its service providers to provide you with the services you select.

Please note that sometimes on particular webpages we will require you to provide additional personal information, and sometimes sensitive personal information. When we do this we will specify further on these webpages why we are collecting your information and how we will use it.

VAEG also uses cookies and collects IP addresses (an IP address is a number that can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on the internet). We use analysis software to look at IP addresses and cookies for the purpose of enhancing your user experience. This information is not used to develop a personal profile of you and the log files are regularly purged.

3. How will VAEG use the information they collect about me?

VAEG will use your personal information for a number of purposes including the following:

• for "service administration purposes", which means that VAEG may contact you for reasons related to the service you have signed up for.
• to contact you about a submission you have made to the websites, including any content you provide.
• to personalise the way VAEG content is presented to you.
• IP addresses are used to identify the location of users, the number of visits from different countries and also to block disruptive use; and
• to analyse and improve the services offered on www.vaeg.info. e.g. to provide you with the most user-friendly navigation experience.

Where VAEG proposes using your personal information for any other uses we will ensure that we notify you first. You will also be given the opportunity to withhold or withdraw your consent for your use other than as listed above.

4. When will VAEG contact me?

VAEG may contact you:

• in relation to the functioning of any service you have signed up for in order to ensure that VAEG can deliver the services to you;
• where you have opted to receive further correspondence;
• in relation to any contribution you have made to www.vaeg.info.
• to invite you to participate in surveys about VAEG services (participation is always voluntary); and
• for marketing purposes where you have specifically agreed to this.

5. Will I be contacted for marketing purposes?

VAEG won't contact you for marketing purposes, or promote new services to you unless you specifically agree to be contacted for these purposes.

6. Will VAEG share my personal information with anyone else?

We will keep your information confidential except where disclosure is required or permitted by law (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies). Generally, we will only use your information within VAEG. However, sometimes VAEG uses third parties to process your information. VAEG will require these third parties to comply strictly with its instructions and VAEG will require that they do not use your personal information for their own business purposes.

7. Offensive or inappropriate content on VAEG website

If you post or send offensive, inappropriate or objectionable content anywhere on or to www.vaeg.info, or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour on www.vaeg.info, VAEG may use your personal information to stop such behaviour.

Where VAEG reasonably believes that you are or may be in breach of any law. VAEG may use your personal information to inform relevant third parties such as your employer, school e-mail/Internet provider or law enforcement agencies about the content and your behaviour.

8. What if I am a user aged 16 or under?

If you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide personal information to VAEG's website. Users without this consent are not allowed to provide us with personal information.

9. How long will VAEG keep my personal information?

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant service, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with VAEG or VAEG's corporate retention schedule (this is a database that defines which documents should be kept and for how long). In the case that you wish to cancel your registration as a www.vaeg.info member, once an account is deleted a red flag goes on the database and, while people cannot use the personal information, it stays on the system for a period of one year for administration purposes before being deleted automatically.

Where you contribute to www.vaeg.info VAEG will generally only keep your content for as long as is reasonably required for the purpose(s) for which it was submitted. For example, VAEG will only keep copies of entries to a photographic competition for the duration of the competition. However other projects are likely to have a longer, or even permanent, duration.

VAEG has an obligation to record snapshots of history which may include some User Generated Content i.e. content provided by users. Therefore, some content submitted to or shared with VAEG may be retained for prolonged periods of time or potentially indefinitely in the VAEG's Archive, which is true of News contributions which are published. There may also be rare instances where we will share your contribution with third parties in the interests of maintaining historical archives. Where possible, we will endeavour to inform you upfront or let you know at a later date where we are likely to keep content indefinitely or pass it onto an approved historical archive.

10. Can I find out what personal information VAEG holds about me?

Under the Data Protection Act you have the right to request a copy of the personal information VAEG holds about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. (We charge €25 for information requests and will require you to prove your identity with 2 pieces of approved photographic identification.) We will use reasonable efforts to supply, correct or delete personal information about you on our files.

11. Changes to VAEG's Privacy Policy

This privacy policy may be updated from time to time so you may wish to check it each time you submit personal information to any www.vaeg.info website.

12. Cookies Policy -Information VAEG collects from you

a. What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes a unique identifier that is sent to your computer or mobile phone (referred to here as a "device") browser from a website's computer and is stored on your device's hard drive. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites. Many sites do this whenever a user visits their website in order to track online traffic flows.

Cookies record information about your online preferences and allow us to tailor the websites to your interests. Users have the opportunity to set their devices to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. The last of these means that certain personalised services cannot then be provided to that user and accordingly you may not be able to take full advantage of all of www.vaeg.info features. Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.

During the course of any visit to www.vaeg.info, the pages you see, along with a cookie, are downloaded to your device. Many websites do this, because cookies enable website publishers to do useful things like find out whether the device (and probably its user) has visited the website before. This is done on a repeat visit by checking to see, and finding, the cookie left there on the last visit.

b. How does VAEG use cookies?

Information supplied by cookies can help us to analyse the profile of our visitors and help us to provide you with a better user experience.

VAEG also use a number of independent measurement and research companies. They gather information regarding the visitors to VAEG sites on our behalf using cookies, log file data and code which is embedded on our website. VAEG uses this type of information to help improve the services it provides to its users. VAEG strictly requires that third parties do not use any information for their own business or other purposes. Certain other areas of www.vaeg.info may use cookies for a specific reason. If this is the case, the local terms for that area of the website will make this clear and you should refer to those local terms for additional information.