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Virgin Active knows that you care how information about you is used and shared and we appreciate your trust in us to do that carefully and sensibly.
This policy describes the types of personal information that we may collect about you, the purposes for which we use the information, the circumstances in which we may share the information and the steps that we take to safeguard the information to protect your privacy. As used throughout this policy, the term “Virgin Active” refers to Virgin Active Limited (“VAL”) and any member of the VAL group, which means VAL’s subsidiaries and VAL’s ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the Companies Act 2006. By visiting Virgin Active, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
Controllers of Personal Information
Any personal information provided to or gathered by Virgin Active Limited is controlled by Virgin Active Limited (the data controller), whose registered office is at: Virgin Active Limited, 100 Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4LX.
What Personal Information about club users does Virgin Active Limited Gather?
The information we gather helps us to continually improve your experience at Virgin Active. This personal information may include: your name and contact information; date of birth; preferred communication methods; business name (in the case of a corporate membership) and business address; bank details and credit card details. We also create information that becomes part of the personal information we hold about you, such as your membership number and your usage of the club. We may also collect and create details on joint members and other family members, where applicable, including family members under the age of 18.
We also collect the following information:
Sensitive information
The term "sensitive information" in this context refers to information related to your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, criminal background or trade union membership. Whilst we do not generally collect sensitive information unless it is volunteered by you, we do specifically collect health data to the extent that it is required to assess your readiness for physical exercise. By providing the sensitive information to us, you are consenting to our using it in the manner set out in this Policy.
Personal Information from Children
We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 16 years of age without the permission of their parent or guardian. As a parent or legal guardian, please do not to allow your children to submit personal information without your permission.
Photographs for Membership Card
In the interests of security and the prevention of crime, we may take a digital photograph of each member to whom a membership card is issued. By providing the digital photograph to us, you are consenting to our using it in the manner set out in this Policy.
Contacting us via Website or otherwise
When you use the www.virginactive.com website (“Our Site”) or contact us by post, telephone, fax, email or SMS, we collect, store and use certain personal information that you disclose to us. This includes details such as your name, address, telephone, fax, email and mobile phone number as well as traffic data, location data, web logs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise and the resources that you access. If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
CCTV
We use CCTV in our clubs for health and security reasons. If you have any queries in relation to the use of CCTV operating in and around our clubs please contact us.
Surveys
We also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
What do we do with personal information collected from you?
We use information held about you in the following ways:
Information you give to us. We will use this information:
Information we collect about you. We will use this information:
Information we receive from other sources.
We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We may us this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).
What about Cookies?
Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your web browser to enable our systems to recognise your browser and to automatically collect information from your computer such as your IP address and other details about your computer which are automatically collected by our web server, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.
A copy of our cookies policy is available here.
The “Help” menu on the menu bar of most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie and how to disable cookies altogether. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons, such as Flash cookies, by changing the add-on's settings or visiting the website of the browser’s manufacturer. However, because cookies allow you to take advantage of some of Virgin Active’s essential features, we recommend that you leave them turned on.
If you do leave cookies turned on, be sure to sign off when you finish using a shared computer.
Please note that our advertisers may also use cookies, over which we have no control:
Does Virgin Active share the Information it receives?
Information about our club users is an important part of our business and we do not sell it to others. Virgin Active shares member information only as described in this Privacy Policy and with other members of the Virgin Active Group.
Third Party Service Providers and Business Partners: We have business partners and employ other companies and individuals to perform certain functions on our behalf. Examples include sending postal mail and e-mail, removing repetitive information from member lists, analysing data, providing marketing assistance and providing debt collection assistance. Third party service providers have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes. Further, they must process the personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and as permitted by the UK's Data Protection Act 1998 (as amended).
Promotional Offers: Sometimes we send offers to club users on behalf of other businesses. When we do this, we do not give that business your name and address. If you do not want to receive such offers, please tick the relevant opt-out box in your terms and conditions of membership or let us know in writing if you don’t want to receive these offers.
Business Transfers: As we continue to develop our business, we might sell or buy health clubs or subsidiaries or business units. In such transactions, member information generally is one of the transferred business assets but remains subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Policy (unless, of course, the member consents otherwise). Also, in the unlikely event that Virgin Active or substantially all of its assets are acquired, personal information will of course be one of the transferred assets.
Protection of Virgin Active and others: We release account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our membership or other agreements; or protect the rights, property or safety of Virgin Active, our users or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. This does not include selling, sharing or otherwise disclosing personally identifiable information from members for commercial purposes in a way that is contrary to the commitments made in this Privacy Policy.
With your consent, other than as set out above, you will receive notice when information about you might go to third parties and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information.
Whenever we transfer personal information to countries outside of the European Economic Area in the course of sharing information as set out above, we will ensure that the information is transferred in accordance with this Privacy Policy and as permitted by the applicable laws on data protection.
How Secure is Information about me?
We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in connection with the collection, storage and disclosure of personally identifiable information. Our security procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we disclose personal information to you.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
What about Links to other websites?
Our site may include links to other websites. We do not provide any personally identifiable customer information to these advertisers or third-party websites.
These third-party websites may use technology to send (or "serve") the advertisements that appear on our website directly to your browser. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. They may also use cookies, JavaScript, web beacons (also known as action tags or single-pixel gifs), and other technologies to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalise advertising content. We do not have access to or control over cookies or other features that they may use, and the information practices of these advertisers and third-party websites are not covered by this Privacy Policy. Please contact them directly for more information about their privacy practices. In addition, the Network Advertising Initiative offers useful information about Internet advertising companies (also called "ad networks" or "network advertisers"), including information about how to opt-out of their information collection.
What Choices do I have?
You can always choose not to provide information. If you do not want to receive e-mail or other promotional communications from us, tick the relevant opt-out box in your terms and conditions of membership or let us know in writing if you don’t want to receive these communications. However, please note, if you do not want to receive legal notices from us, such as this Privacy Policy, those notices will still govern your use of Virgin Active and it is your responsibility to review them for changes.
As mentioned above, the Help menu on the menu bar of most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie and how to disable cookies altogether. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons, such as Flash cookies, by changing the add-on's settings or visiting the website of its manufacturer. However, because cookies allow you to take advantage of some of Virgin Active’s essential features, we recommend that you leave them turned on.
Are Children allowed to use the Site?
If you are under 18, you may use the Site.
What Rights do I have in relation to my Personal Information?
You have the right to ask us not to process your personal information for marketing purposes by sending an email to the webteam. The Data Protection Act 1998 (as amended) gives you the right to access personal information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request may be subject to a fee of £10 to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you. If you would like to access your personal information contact us by email to data.requests@virginactive.co.uk or by post to Data Requests, Virgin Active Limited, 100 Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4LX.
Notices and Revisions
If you have any concern about privacy at Virgin Active, please e-mail us a thorough description and we will try to resolve the issue for you.
Our business changes constantly and our Privacy Policy and the website Terms of Use will change also. We may e-mail periodic reminders of our notices and conditions, unless you have instructed us not to, but you should check our website frequently to see recent changes. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account. However, we stand behind the promises we make and will never materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of member information collected in the past without the consent of affected members.
Contact
Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Policy are welcomed and should be addressed to the Legal Department, Virgin Active Limited, 100 Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4LX.