1. About us

This Privacy Policy applies to all Personal Information which Reading City Football Club and our affiliate and associated companies (together “RCFC”, “we” or “us”) collects about you when you use our main website. It also applies to any Personal Information we collect if you visit us at the Rivermoor, or otherwise interact with us.

2. What Information do we collect?

We collect Personal Information from you when you provide it to us directly and through your use of a Reading City Football Club site. This information may include:

• Information you provide to us when you use a Reading City Football Club site (e.g. Your name, contact details, date of birth, and/or age.

• Transaction and billing information, if you make any purchases from us or using a Reading City Football Club Site (e.g. a record of your purchases, credit/debit card details, and delivery information).

• Records of your interactions with us (e.g. if you contact our customer service team or interact with us on social media).

• Information you provide when you attend a match or an event held by us or at our premises. Audio and/or visual recordings may be taken of you while you are at our premises.

• Information you provide us when you enter a competition or participate in a survey.

• Information collected automatically, using cookies and other tracking technologies (e.g. which pages you viewed and whether you clicked on a link in one of our email updates). We may also collect information about the device you use to access a Reading City Football Club Site.

We also receive Personal Information about you from third parties, such as information provided by:

• third parties who sell match and event tickets for us, to let us know you have bought a ticket.

• third parties who sell our official merchandise for us, to let us know you have made a purchase.

• government, other authorities, and security providers for the purposes of security or other investigatory activities.

We may combine the information collected via the Reading City Football Club website with information we collect from you offline, for the purposes of better understanding our customers and fans and to improve our marketing, as well as for security purposes.

3. How do we use Personal Information?

Depending on how you use the Reading City Football Club Sites, your interactions with us, and the permissions you give us, the purposes for which we use your Personal Information include:

• To fulfil your purchase, order, or request (for example, when you buy a ticket or any merchandise through a Reading City Football Club Site).

• To manage and respond to any queries or complaints to our customer service team.

• To improve and maintain the Reading City Football Club Sites and monitor their usage.

• For market research, e.g. we may contact you for your opinions and comments.

• To send you marketing messages and show you targeted advertising, where we have your consent or are otherwise permitted to do so.

• For security purposes, to investigate fraud or abuse, and where necessary to protect ourselves and third parties.

• To investigate breaches of our contracts, policies or Terms and Conditions.

• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We rely on the following legal bases, under data protection law, to process your Personal Information:

• Because the processing is necessary to perform a contract with you, or take steps prior to entering into a contract with you (e.g. where you have made a purchase with us, we use your Personal Information to process the payment and fulfil your order).

• Because we have obtained your consent (e.g. where you contact us with a query or if you consent to receive marketing from us). You are free to withdraw your consent at any time.

• Because it is in our legitimate interests in operating our business, for security purposes, to protect our staff, players, premises, and reputation, for fraud prevention and to operate and promote the Club.

4. How do we use your Personal Information for marketing & advertising?

Depending on your marketing preferences, Reading City Football Club may use your Personal Information to send you marketing messages by email, phone, SMS, or post. Some of these messages may be tailored to you, based on the interest you have shown in an RCFC initiative or purchase activity, and other information we hold about you.

If you no longer want to receive marketing communications from us (or would like to opt back in!), you can change your preferences at any time by contacting us via any of the methods given in the ‘Contact us’ section at the end of this Policy, or by using the ‘unsubscribe’ mechanism in the promotional message or updating your contact preferences in your account. If you unsubscribe from marketing, please note we may still contact you with service messages from time to time (e.g. ticket confirmations, and information about your legal rights). Once you unsubscribe, you may continue to receive marketing messages for a few days while we action your unsubscribe request.

Social Media

You may also see adverts for Reading City Football Club on third-party websites, including on social media. These ads may be tailored to you using cookies (which track your web activity, so enable us to serve ads to customers who have visited the Reading City Football Club Sites). Where you see an ad on social media, this may be because we have engaged the social network to show adverts to our customers, or users who match the demographic profile of our customers. In some cases, this may involve sharing your email address with the social network. If you no longer want to see tailored ads you can change your cookie and privacy settings on your browser and these third-party websites.

5. Who do we share this Personal Information with?

We share Personal Information with third parties in the following circumstances:

• With our suppliers and service providers working for us, e.g. payment processors and delivery companies.

• With our professional and legal advisors.

• With third parties engaged in fraud prevention and detection.

• With law enforcement or other governmental authorities or regulatory bodies, e.g. to report a fraud or in response to a lawful request.

• In the event that we sell any business assets, your Personal Information may be disclosed to a potential buyer. In this event, we will make reasonable attempts to ensure the buyer will be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy.

• Otherwise where we have your consent or are otherwise legally permitted to do so.

6.  Where is your Personal Information stored, and how long is it kept?

Our servers are located in the United Kingdom. However, Reading City Football Club uses service providers based around the world. Consequently, your Personal Information may be processed in countries outside of Europe, including in countries where the local laws do not provide the same level of data protection as those in Europe. If we transfer Personal Information outside the European Economic Area we will, as required by applicable law, ensure that your privacy rights are adequately protected by appropriate safeguards. These safeguards may include the EU’s standard contractual clauses or the EU-US Privacy Shield. Please contact us if you would like more information about these safeguards.

We will keep your Personal Information for as long as we need it for the purposes set out above, and so this period will vary depending on your interactions with us and the nature of the Personal Information. For example, where you have bought a ticket or merchandise from us, we will keep a record of your purchase for the period necessary for invoicing, tax and warranty purposes. We may also keep a record of correspondence with you (for example if you have made a complaint) for as long as is necessary to protect us from a legal claim. Where we no longer have a need to keep your information, we delete or anonymise the relevant information. Please note that where you unsubscribe from our marketing communications, we will keep a record of your email address and/or phone number (as applicable) to ensure we do not send you marketing emails in future.

7. How do we protect information?

We take the security of your Personal Information very seriously. We have put in place technical and organisational security measures to prevent the loss or unauthorised access of your Personal Information. Your Personal Information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessed when necessary. A limited number of people have special access rights to such systems and they are required to keep the information confidential. When you place orders or access your Personal Information, we offer the use of a secure server. All credit/debit card information you supply is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our databases to be accessed only as stated above.

Whilst we have used our best efforts to ensure the security of your Personal Information, please be aware that we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet.

8. Third-party links

The Reading City Football Club Sites may include links to websites operated by third parties. These linked sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We, therefore, have no responsibility or liability for the content or activities of these linked sites. However, we do seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these linked sites (including if a specific link does not work) by email or in writing via the contact details given below.

9.Your rights regarding your Personal Information

You have certain rights in respect of your Personal Information, including the right to access, correct, restrict, and request the erasure of your Personal Information, and obtain a copy of it in a machine-readable format.

You also have the right to object to your Personal Information being used for certain purposes, including to send you marketing. See section 4 (‘How do we use your Personal Information for marketing & advertising?‘) for more details of how to opt-out of marketing.

We will comply with any requests to exercise your rights in accordance with applicable law. Please be aware, however, that there are a number of limitations to these rights, and there may be circumstances where we are not able to comply with your request. To make any requests regarding your Personal Information, or if you have any questions or concerns regarding your Personal Information, you should contact us using the details below. You are also entitled to contact the UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you have any concerns.

10. Contact us

If you have any queries on any aspect of our Privacy Policy or wish to exercise any of your rights referred to above, please contact us by email at media@readingcityfc.co.uk