This page explains what information Dorset Gazette collects when you use dorsetgazette.co.uk, why, and what control you have over it. Dorset Gazette is published by Capital Media Newspapers Ltd, which is responsible for your information. If you have any questions, email [email protected].
The Gazette Briefing
When you sign up to our free daily email we keep your email address, the date you signed up, where on the website you signed up, and the date you were last sent a Briefing. We use this only to send you the Briefing and a one-off welcome email.
Our emails are sent through Brevo, an email delivery company that handles your address on our behalf and only for this purpose. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link. When you unsubscribe we stop emailing you straight away and keep only a note that you have unsubscribed, so that you are not sent anything again by mistake.
Forms you send us
When you use one of our forms — sending a story, an event, a correction or complaint, or an advertising enquiry — the details you enter (such as your name, email address and message) are emailed to our newsroom and kept in our newsroom system so we can reply and follow up. We don't sell or share them with anyone else.
Counting visitors
We count how many people visit the website and which pages they read, using our own system rather than a third-party analytics service, and without cookies. For each page view we record the page, the time, and the name of the website that linked to it (for example facebook.com — never the full address, which can contain search terms). To count visitors without identifying anyone, we make a one-way scrambled code from your network address and browser type that changes every day; it cannot be turned back into your address and is never linked to your name or email. We do not keep your network address itself.
Polls
When you vote in one of our polls, your choice is sent to our server and counted — it is not just stored on your device. To stop the same person voting twice on a poll, and to keep the count accurate, we generate a one-way scrambled code from your device's network address and browser type, combined with that specific poll. This code cannot be turned back into your address, is not linked to your name, email or any other personal information, and cannot be matched to your activity on any other page or poll. It is kept only to keep that poll's results accurate, including after voting closes.
Information stored on your device
The website keeps a few small settings in your browser so it works the way you left it: stories you have saved, whether you prefer dark mode, how you voted in a poll, and whether you have signed up to the Briefing or already seen our sign-up message (so we don't keep asking). These stay on your device and are not sent to us.
Advertising
We show adverts through Google AdSense. Google and its advertising partners use cookies and similar technologies to serve and measure adverts, which may be personalised based on your visits to this and other sites. Where the law requires it, for example in the UK and the European Economic Area, you will be asked for your consent before these are used. You can manage personalised advertising at adssettings.google.com, and read how Google uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Content from other websites
Some pages include content from other services. Our webcams page shows video from YouTube, and YouTube (Google) may set cookies and collect information when you view or play those videos. Headlines from other local publishers, and some of their pictures, are loaded from those publishers' own websites. These services have their own privacy policies.
How long we keep information
We keep Briefing subscriber details until you unsubscribe (then only the unsubscribe note), messages you send us for as long as we need them to deal with your enquiry, and visitor counts — which don't identify anyone — for as long as they are useful to us.
Keeping it safe
Only our newsroom team can see subscriber details and messages. Their accounts are protected by passwords and two-step sign-in, and access to our subscriber list is recorded.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to how we use it. Email [email protected] and we will help. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
We may update this page from time to time; the version here is the current one.