Privacy Policy

01. What is the purpose of this privacy notice and to whom does it apply?

Mercury Prize Limited (“MPL”, “we” or “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data.  References to your “personal data” include any or all of your personal data, as the context requires, including “special categories of personal data”, which involves more sensitive information about you.  This is most likely to include information about your racial or ethnic origin.  There are other categories of “special categories of personal data” which are less likely to be processed, but for a full definition, see Article 9 of the retained EU law version of the General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”), and Sections 10 & 11 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

MPL is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. 

This Privacy Policy sets out how we will store and process data we collect from people applying to take part in the Mercury Prize. We may update this notice at any time and without notifying you before we do so.

02. What information will MPL collect about me?

The Mercury Prize website and its subpages are referred to in this notice as the “Site”.  The Mercury Prize is a brand operated by the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Limited and the Site is managed by the BPI team.

We collect the following information from you when you register on our Site or fill out a form:

Name

Email Address

Phone number

Job Title

We may request that you provide us with government-issued identification information to confirm your eligibility for the Mercury Prize. For further information on eligibility please read our Terms and Conditions. 

This site is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

03. How do we collect your personal data?

We collect contact details from third parties from the data subjects themselves. 

Our Site uses Cookies to collect data (please see below for our Cookies Policy). We use Google Analytics to examine this data, but please note that all such data is anonymised.

04. Why do we collect your information?

We collect data to assess the eligibility of your application, keep you up to date with the progress of your application and request further information/clarification from you if this proves necessary.

We collect data as part of the administration and running of the Mercury Prize (including in relation to selling tickets to the Mercury Prize) and to maintain business relationships with third parties.  

 “Special categories” of personal data

“Special categories” of personal data require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal data. We may process special categories of personal data in limited circumstances with your explicit written consent. We do not process any special category data.

05. Change of Purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so, before we start using it for that unrelated purpose. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is permitted by law.

06. Sharing Data

MPL will not provide your data to any third parties.

How secure is your information with third party service providers?

All our third party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal data in line with our policy. We do not allow our third party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes unless they are data controllers in their own right in relation to your personal data. Where they operate as our “data processors” (i.e. they process your personal data on our behalf and acting only on our instructions), we only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

07. How long will we retain your personal data?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.  Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our Records Management Policy which is available from the DPM.  To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.


08. What are your rights and obligations as a data subject?

Your duty to inform us of changes:

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please let us know of any changes.  We will update your records promptly upon being notified of such changes.

Your rights in connection with personal data:

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
Object to processing of your personal data 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.
Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to another party.
If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal data, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal data to another party, please contact the DPM in writing.

No fee usually required:

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive.  Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances, as permitted by the Data Protection Act 2018.

What we may need from you:

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

What are your rights to withdraw consent to processing?

Where you may have provided your consent to the processing of your personal data for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, email us at admin@mercuryprize.com, or contact the DPM. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

09. Using our Site

The Site may contain links to other websites where information practices may be different to ours. 

Visitors should consult the privacy policies of the websites they are taken to for further details, as we are not responsible for and have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third parties.

The Site is published in the UK by MPL. All personal information submitted by you to the Site will be processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy (and any local terms that apply on the Site) unless terms on the Site specify otherwise.

Our site uses Cookies. Read our Cookies Policy.

10. Security

Our Site have security installed to ensure that any personal data entered onto the Site is protected against loss, misuse or alteration. However, due to the nature of the Internet, we can't guarantee the protection of your personal information and we can't be responsible for any outcomes resulting from a breach of security when the Site is used. We're confident in our security, and it is always a top priority to ensure we do not get any problems.

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available upon request but in brief, we secure the storage of your data on our servers, and restrict access to only those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

11. Changes to MPL's Privacy Policy

We reserve the right, from time to time, and at our sole discretion, to change or update this Privacy Policy.

All changes to this Privacy Policy will be published on this page and on the applicable Site. Upon publication, each change will become effective and you will be deemed to be aware of and bound by it. You should therefore review this Privacy Policy regularly to ensure that you are up-to-date with the current terms of the Privacy Policy.

12. Contacting MPL about this Privacy Policy and Cancellation of Registration

MPL is not obliged to appoint a statutory data protection officer, but has appointed an internal Data Protection Manager (“DPM”). For any queries, please contact:

Data Protection Manager, Mercury Prize Ltd

Email: dataprotectionofficer@bpi.co.uk

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7803 1300

The DPM is responsible for overseeing compliance with this privacy notice and for handling any data protection queries or issues involving BPI and its subsidiaries, including MPL.  You should contact the DPM in the first instance about any issue involving data protection, whether it involves your data or anyone else’s.

Cookies Policy


What are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files stored on your computer when you visit certain web pages. Using the Mercury Prize Limited (MPL) website www.mercuryprize.com, sometimes involves placing cookies on your device, for example, your computer or mobile phone.

Cookies can either be “session-based” – which means they are deleted when you leave the MPL website, or “persistent” – which means it will stay on your device after you leave: this allows the website to remember you when you come back.

Cookies are used in other ways to improve your experience of the MPL website, by (for example):

Enabling us to recognise your device - so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task;
Recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested;
Measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast;
Our Use of Cookies

Some of the cookies we use are essential for the MPL website to function properly. Without them, your experience of the sites won’t be complete. Others are to improve the performance of the websites.

If you would like a full list of the cookies we use, please e-mail us at: general@bpi.co.uk

Your Privacy is important to us

The law states that we can store cookies on your machine if they are essential to the operation of the MPL website, but that for all others we need your permission to do so.

The cookies we use can't harm your computer. We don't store personally identifiable information such as your name, address or payment details in cookies we create, but we do use encrypted information gathered from them to help improve your experience of the site. For example, they help us to identify and resolve errors. We do not use cookies to identify you personally.

Cookies used include:

(1) Analytics cookies that anonymously remember your device when you visit our website. They keep track of browsing patterns and help us to understand of visitors use the website. We use that information for customer analytics. Your browser may use similar cookies for similar purposes.

(2) Some of our cookies help us remember your devices so that we can provide the appropriate website experience. For example, remembering your settings preferences and customise how we present our services according to the screen size of that device.

(3) We have no access to third party cookies and third party organisations have no access to ours. The third party organisations that place cookies, including your browser (such as Firefox, MS Edge and Google) will have their own privacy policies.

(4) When you share stories using social media, for example Facebook, the social media company will load a cookie and identifiers to track this.

Restricting, Blocking or Deleting Cookies

However, if you'd prefer to restrict, block or delete cookies from the MPL website (or any other website), you can use your internet browser to do so. Each browser is different, so check the 'Help' menu of your particular browser (or your mobile phone's handset manual) to learn how to change your cookie preferences.

For more information, including how to control and delete cookies, you can visit www.allaboutcookies.orgwww.aboutcookies.org and you can adjust your cookie preferences at www.youronlinechoices.com.

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