The RailStaff Awards 2024

Privacy Policy

Rail Media Privacy Policy

LAST UPDATED: 22/05/2018


Introduction

RailStaff Publications Limited trading as Rail Media, is committed to protecting the privacy and personal information of our customers, readers, advertisers, sponsors, exhibitors, visitors, and delegates. Rail Media respects your right to privacy. This Privacy Notice explains who we are, how we collect, share and use personal information about you, and how you can exercise your privacy rights. If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information, then please contact us using the contact details provided at the bottom of this Privacy Notice. 


What does Rail Media do?

Rail Media is the trading name for RailStaff Publications Limited. Rail Media is an authority in the rail industry. We publish the world’s best rail magazines and organise high quality events, and provide recruitment services and data to owners and professionals in the rail industry. Rail Media is headquartered in the United Kingdom. For more information about Rail Media, please see the “About Us” section of our Website.

Personal data that we collect Rail Media collects data to operate effectively and provide you with the best experience from our products and services. Some of this data will have been provided directly by you, such as when you create a Rail Media Account, subscribe to a mailing list, purchase a product or subscription, submit an entry to our awards, register for an event, enquire about a subscription to one of our products, or contact us for support. We’ll also get some of the data by recording how you interact with our products and services, for example, using technologies like cookies as explained further under the heading “Cookies and similar tracking technology” below. You have choices about the data we collect. When you are asked to provide personal data, you may decline, but if you choose not to provide data that is necessary for Rail Media to provide a product or feature, you may not be able to use that product or feature. The data we collect at Rail Media depends on the context of your interactions with us, the choices you make, including your privacy settings, and the products and features you use.

The data we collect can include the following:

Name and contact details: We collect your first and last name, email address, postal address, phone number, company name, job title, and similar other contact data.

Credentials: We collect passwords and similar security information used for authentication and account access.

Demographic data: We collect data about you such as your date of birth and country.

Payment data: We collect data necessary to process your payment if you make purchases, such as your credit card number, and the security code associated with it.

Device and Usage data: We collect data about your device and how you and your device interact with Rail Media and our products. For example, we collect:

  • Usage data. We collect data about the features you use, the items you purchase and the web pages you visit.
  • Device, connectivity and configuration data. We collect data about your device and the network you use to collect our products. It includes the IP address, geolocation, regional and language settings.
  • Error reports and performance data. We collect data about the performance of our products and any problems you experience with them. This data helps us to diagnose problems in the products you use and to improve our products and provide solutions.

Content: We collect information on the content you engage with on our sites and via our marketing communications. This includes:

  • The pages you visit
  • How you interact with web pages
  • The emails you open
  • The emails you click on
  • Emails that are sent but not delivered to you
  • Emails that you unsubscribe from

This data is collected to enable us to constantly improve our service and products, whilst ensuring that you are only sent the information that you want, and like to engage with. We also collect the information you agree to share with us, such as feedback and market research, or questions and information you provide for customer support. When you contact us, such as for customer support, phone conversations or chat sessions with our representatives may be monitored and recorded.


How we use your data

Rail Media uses the data we collect to operate our business and provide you with the products and services we offer, which includes using data to improve our products and services and personalise your experiences. We may also use the data to communicate with you, for example, informing you about your account, security updates and product or service information. We may also use the data to help us show you more relevant ads, whether in our own products, or in products offered by third parties. However, we do not use what you say in emails or chats with us to target ads to you. Rail Media uses the data we collect for three basic purposes, described in more detail below: (1) to operate our business and provide (including improving and personalising) the products we offer, (2) to send communications, including promotional communications, and (3) to show advertising, whether in our own products or in products offered by third parties. In carrying out these processes, we combine data that we collect to give you a more seamless, consistent and personalised experience. For example, we may use the articles you have viewed on our websites to deliver more relevant articles in our emails to you. However, to enhance privacy, we have built in technologies and procedural safeguards designed to prevent certain data combinations. For further information see 'How does Rail Media keep my personal information secure?' Providing and improving our products and services. We use data to provide and improve the products and services we offer and to perform essential business operations. This includes operating the products and services, maintaining and improving the performance of the products and services, developing new features, conducting research and providing customer support. Examples of such uses include the following:

  • Providing the products and services. We use data to carry out your transactions with us and to provide our products and services to you. Often, these products and services include personalised features and recommendations that enhance your experience and enjoyment, and automatically tailor your product experiences based on the data we have about your activities, interests and location.
  • Customer support. We use data to diagnose product problems and resolve these issues, in addition to providing customer care and support services.
  • Product improvement. We use data to continually improve our products, including adding new features or capabilities. For example, we use site behaviour and usage data to improve the content we create and deliver to you.
  • Security, safety and dispute resolution. We use data to protect the security and safety of our products and services and our customers, to detect and prevent fraud, to confirm the validity of access to digital products such as our digital edition app, to resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
  • Business operations. We use data to aggregate analysis and business intelligence that enables us to operate, protect, make informed decisions and report on the performance of our business.

Communications. We use data we collect to communicate with you and personalise our communications with you. For example, we may contact you by phone or email to let you know that a subscription is coming to an end, notify you of changes to your account, let you know about security updates or privacy updates, invite you to participate in a survey, provide you with important information relating to a purchase or subscription, or tell you that you need to take an action to activate your account. Additionally, you can sign up to email subscriptions and choose whether you would like to receive promotional and marketing communications from Rail Media, by email, telephone or post. To manage your contact data, email subscriptions and promotional communications, please visit the RailSubs website with your Subscription ID or call us on 01530 816 444. Advertising. We use data we collect from you through our interactions with you and through our products to show advertising. For example:

  • Rail Media may use your data to select and deliver some of the ads you see on our website
  • We may share data we collect with third parties, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, to enable us to deliver ads to you relating to Rail Media products or services that you have previously engaged with 

Legal basis for processing personal information

Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described above will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it. However, we will normally collect personal information from you only (i) where we need the personal information to perform a contract with you, (ii) where the processing is in our legitimate interests and not overridden by your rights, or (iii) where we have your consent to do so. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect personal information from you or may otherwise need the personal information to protect your vital interests or those of another person. If we ask you to provide personal information to comply with a legal requirement or to perform a contact with you, we will make this clear at the relevant time and advise you whether the provision of your personal information is mandatory or not (as well as of the possible consequences if you do not provide your personal information). If we collect and use your personal information in reliance on our legitimate interests (or those of any third party), this interest will normally be to operate our platform and communicating with you as necessary to provide our services to you and for our legitimate commercial interest, for instance, when responding to your queries, improving our platform and undertaking marketing. For example, we will process your details when you purchase a subscription to any of our magazines or events to enable us to deliver the product you have purchased. We may have other legitimate interests and, if appropriate, we will make clear to you at the relevant time what those legitimate interests are. If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us using the contact details provided under the “How to contact us” heading below. 


Cookies

We use cookies and similar tracking technology (collectively, “Cookies”) to collect and use personal information about you, including to serve interest-based advertising. For further information about the types of Cookies we use, why, and how you can control Cookies, please see our Cookie Notice


How does Rail Media keep my personal information secure?

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information that we collect and process about you. The measures we use are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing your personal information. 


Who does Rail Media share my personal information with?

We may disclose your personal information to the following categories of recipients: We share your personal data with your consent or as necessary to complete any transaction or provide any product or information you have requested or authorised. We also share data with Rail Media controlled affiliates and; with vendors working on our behalf (a list of our current service providers is available is available below); when required by law or to respond to legal process; to protect our customers; to maintain security of our products; and to protect the rights or property of Rail Media.

List of Vendors working on our behalf 

VENDOR DESCRIPTION
MailChimp Rail Media uses MailChimp to manage email subscriber information and serve requested email communications to subscribers.
SendGrid Rail Media uses SendGrid to send transactional email communications to subscribers.
Google Rail Media use Google Analytics to measure website visit volumes and behaviours, Google DFP to serve advertising, Google remarketing to promote our products to Rail Media website visitors, and Google Optimize to deliver multivariate testing.
Facebook Rail Media use Facebook advertising services to promote our products to Rail Media website visitors.
Zendesk Rail Media use ZenDesk to provide live chat support for customer service issues.
LinkedIn Rail Media use LinkedIn advertising services to promote our products to Rail Media website visitors.
Precision Colour Printing Rail Media use Precision Colour Printing to print and mail out some of our magazines.
Spatial Global Rail Media use Spatial Global to mail out some of our magazines.

For details of the information shared with vendors in relation to Cookies, please view the Cookie Policy which can be found here. When you provide payment data to make a purchase, we will share payment data with banks and other entities that process payment transactions or provide other financial services, and for fraud prevention and credit risk reduction. We also share data with vendors or agents working on our behalf for purposes described in this statement. For example, companies we’ve hired to assist in protecting and securing our systems and services may need access to personal data to provide these functions. In such cases, these companies must abide by our data privacy and security requirements and are not allowed to use personal data they receive from us for any other purpose. We may also disclose personal data to companies we’ve hired to assist in fulfilling a function or purchase that you have requested. For example, a mailing house to distribute a monthly magazine subscription. In such cases, these companies must abide by our data privacy and security requirements and are not allowed to use personal data they receive from us for any other purpose. Finally, we may disclose your personal information to any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court or other third party, when we believe disclosure is necessary to:

  1. Comply with the applicable law or regulation
  2. To exercise, establish or defend our legal rights, or
  3. To protect your vital interests or those of any other person

International data transfers

Your personal information may be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than the country in which you are resident. These countries may have data protection laws that are different to the laws of your country. Our Website servers are located within the UK, in Manchester, and our group companies and third party service providers and partners operate in the United States. This means that when we collect your personal information we may process it in any of these countries. However, we have taken appropriate safeguards to require that your personal information will remain protected in accordance with this Privacy Notice


Data retention

We retain personal information we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements). When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymise it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible. We will also retain personal information we collect from you when you have given us permission to do so. Any information collected for this purpose, that has stopped engaging with Rail Media for 2 years will be automatically removed. For more information on the Rail Media data retention periods, please contact us via the form below. 


Your data protection rights

You have the following data protection rights:

  • If you wish to access, correct, update or request deletion of your personal information, you can do so at any time by contacting us using the contact details provided under the “How to contact us” heading below
  • In addition, you can object to processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information or request portability of your personal information. Again, you can exercise these rights by contacting us using the contact details provided under the “How to contact us” heading below
  • You have the right to opt-out of marketing communications we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by clicking on the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing e-mails we send you. To opt-out of other forms of marketing (such as postal marketing or telemarketing), then please contact us using the contact details provided under the “How to contact us” heading below
  • Similarly, if we have collected and process your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
  • You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. 

Updates to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time in response to changing legal, technical or business developments. When we update our Privacy Notice, we will take appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make. We will obtain your consent to any material Privacy Notice changes if and where this is required by applicable data protection laws. You can see when this Privacy Notice was last updated by checking the “last updated” date displayed at the top of this Privacy Notice. 


How to contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information, please contact us using the following details: The data controller of your personal information is Rail Media Ltd, located at Rail Media House, Samson Road, Coalville, LE67 3FP. To make a privacy enquiry online please contact [email protected].