Privacy

Media Solutions respects your privacy and is committed to the protection of it. This privacy policy explains why and when we collect your personal information, and what use we make of that information. The policy also explains where and why your information may be disclosed to third parties, and the security measures used by Media Solutions to help protect your personal information.

• Why and when Media Solutions collects your information
• How Media Solutions uses your information
• Disclosure of your information to third parties
• Accuracy
• Security
• Changes
• Further information or comments

WHY AND WHEN MEDIA SOLUTIONS COLLECTS YOUR INFORMATION

• Personal information you give us

Media Solutions collects the information you give us, either online or by email or facsimile. In most cases, the personal information Media Solutions will collect from you is the personal information we are required to obtain and pass on to the relevant registry when you apply to register a domain name with us. This information includes your full name, mailing address, phone number, email address and where applicable, your facsimile number. Media Solutions also collects your payment details from you when you apply to register a domain name, such as your credit card number or bank account details.

If you purchase a digital certificate through us, we are required by the provider of those certificates to collect personal information from you to pass back to that provider. We will also collect your payment details from you such as your credit card number or bank account details.

• Website information (including cookies)

Media Solutions makes limited use of cookies on this website. A cookie is a small message given to your web browser by our web server. The browser stores the message, and sends the message back to the server each time you request a page from the server.

Media Solutions only uses cookies to tell us when you have set up an account with us previously (i.e. when you are a "registered user" of our website), and sometimes to let us know how you found our website. Where the cookies tell us that you are a registered user, cookies also allow us to automatically link you to your personalised accounts so that you can easily access any products or services only made available to our registered users, without your having to provide us with your username and password on every web page. The cookies allow us only to identify you in our database if you are a registered user, and to connect you to the relevant products and services on our website, but not to track the pages you visited on our website.

You always have the option to disable cookies by turning them off in your browser. However, you should be aware that many of the services available on the Media Solutions website will not work if you have chosen to do this.
In addition to cookies, Media Solutions servers register the type of web browser you are using and your IP address when you access our website.

HOW MEDIA SOLUTIONS USES YOUR INFORMATION

• Use of your information as required by ICANN or other domain administrators, or the registries

ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is the organisation which governs the functions performed by both its accredited registrars , and the registries in regulating the domain name registration process. ICANN requires that each of its registrars must make available the personal information we collect from you when you apply to register any generic top level domain names ( i.e. com, net, org, biz, info and name) to the public on a publicly accessible database known as the WHOIS database. In addition, it applies to some of the country code top level domains. For example, in the UK the personal information you supply to us in applying for a domain name registration for a .co.uk domain name, must be made public on the publicly accessible database run by the Nominet registry.

The public policy behind this requirement is that the personal details of domain name licence holders should be freely available to all other users of the Internet. This public policy is adopted by the domain name industry as a whole. The requirement means, however, that Media Solutions will not be able to control how members of the public may use the information made available on these publicly accessible databases.

In addition, ICANN has another mandatory requirement that all its accredited registrars make the WHOIS database of personal information for com, net and org available for bulk downloads by third parties who have entered into a bulk access agreement with Media Solutions. If you do not want your personal information to be included in these bulk downloads, you may opt out of this service by providing written notice to Media Solutions, or by emailing us.

• Use of your information to fulfil our role as registrar

We will be contacting you using the personal details you provide to us when you apply for a domain name registration through Media Solutions, to advise you of all relevant information relating to your domain name licence. This includes any account administration information including renewal information and billing information, as well as notices of any important system changes which will impact on your online interactions with us. Each of these functions is necessary if Media Solutions is to effectively fulfil its role as the registrar of your domain names.

• Other uses

Media Solutions may use your information to measure your experience of our services and products and to inform you of new product developments and associated services that we believe will interest you. If you do not wish to receive email notices or other communications from Media Solutions regarding additional products and services, simply use the newsletter unsubscribe function available here to notify us that you wish to opt out of this service.

We may use your information in statistical form to analyze your purchasing preferences. This information is not used to track your individual preferences but rather to give us a general picture of the products and services our customers prefer. We might also gather information in statistical form such as the number of visitors who visit the Media Solutions website on a daily basis. Again this is not used to track any individual customer's browsing habits.

We may use your email communications with Media Solutions to analyze customer service issues as a way of identifying potential improvements for Media Solutions products and services. In addition, we may occasionally monitor telephone conversations with you in order to facilitate staff training and to maintain our high levels of customer service. We will always inform you prior to any telephone conversation which is monitored in this way to obtain your prior approval.

We may use your IP address to contact your Internet Service Provider to let you know of any problems with payments you have made to us where we believe this is reasonably necessary to protect against fraud and credit card misuse. o Where you purchase a digital certificate through us, we are required by the provider of those certificates to collect personal information from you to pass back to that provider (other than your payment details, which we hold internally).

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES

• Third party service providers

We may supply your personal information to our third party billing and payment service providers where we believe this is reasonably necessary to protect against fraud and credit card misuse. Where you have made a query in respect of a payment processed by Media Solutions which is made known to us by your bank or credit card company by communicating the query through our bank, we may supply the relevant personal information to assist you with your query. On occasion, we may also engage other companies or individuals to perform services on our behalf such as the distribution of marketing information to you (except where you have
chosen to opt out of receiving this information from us).

Our relationships with such third party service providers are governed by our contracts with them. Those service providers are required to hold your personal information strictly confidential.

ACCURACY

You may access and update the personal information we provide to the registries in respect of your domain name licence at any time. For information on this procedure, feel free to contact Media Solutions here.

If you believe that Media Solutions may hold other personal information about you which is inaccurate, please contact us by using this web form and we will take reasonable steps to ensure that it is corrected.

SECURITY

The transfer of information across any media may involve a certain degree of risk, and the Internet is no different. However, helping you to keep your information secure is very important to Media Solutions.

In order to protect the security of personal information transmitted to Media Solutions online, our Web servers support the use of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Protocol where appropriate. Using this protocol, information transferred between our systems is encrypted.

In addition, in respect of any payment details you send to us, we reveal only the first six and last three digits of your credit card number on the tax invoice receipt which we send to you for billing purposes. This is to help keep your credit card details secure.

You can also use simple precautions to help protect your security, such as
protecting against the unauthorised use of your username or password or other authentication id.

CHANGES

Media Solutions may make changes to its privacy policy from time to time. You should check our privacy policy from time to time to see if we have made any changes to it.

FURTHER INFORMATION OR QUERIES

If you have any queries or comments, or would like more information concerning Media Solutions's privacy policy, please contact us by using this web form.