BAA Privacy policy


Updated February 2009

Please read carefully

1. Introduction

BAA Airports Limited and its group companies ("BAA") each take their obligations with regard to your personal information seriously. For a list of BAA group companies, please click here. This Privacy policy sets out the ways BAA handles your personal information collected via our websites (our “Websites") and through your participation and contribution in BAA related activities. BAA is registered as a data controller under the Data Protection Act. Any personal information collected by BAA is handled in accordance with applicable data protection legislation.

2. The information we collect about you and the way we use it

You may be asked to give us personal details when purchasing, registering or subscribing to an Airport service or product, taking part in customer research and surveys, service or product trials, entering competitions or providing feedback on various issues relating to BAA. If you give us your personal details we will inform you of the uses we make of that information at the time we collect it from you.

If you are giving us your personal details in the course of purchasing, registering or subscribing for a service, then we will of course use it in order to provide you with that service. We will use your information to communicate with you and to personalise our service. We may contact you by post, email, or telephone (including mobile SMS).

We may use your information to send you offers and news about our airport services or products or those of other carefully selected companies which we think may be of interest to you. Your confirmation emails (which may include details of bookings, airport services, product registration or subscription made through our Websites) may also include marketing material which we think may be of interest to you. We do our best to tailor this information so that it will be useful to you, but if at any time you no longer wish to receive it, you can opt out by following the instructions that we will give you with each communication.

Your data may be used for the following purposes: accounting, billing and audit, credit or other payment card verification and screening, immigration and customs control, safety and security, administrative and legal purposes, statistical and marketing analysis with a view to improving our products and services, the Websites and the user experience, systems testing, maintenance and development, customer research and surveys, customer relations and to help us in future dealings with you. If we use your information for the purposes of statistical or marketing analysis, your information will be anonymised so you cannot be personally identified from it.

We may disclose your personal information to others where we are required or permitted to do so by law, or if you send us any material that is unlawful, offensive, abusive, threatening, defamatory, obscene, discriminatory or infringes the rights of anyone else, in order to prevent you from continuing to do so.

If you are under 16 you must obtain consent from a parent or guardian before providing us with any personal information.

All personal information is held in a secure environment.All personal data that BAA Airports Limited collects are used in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

BAA may use 3rd party processors to handle personal data collected by them and these processors may be located in UK or abroad. When we do so, we ensure that appropriate contractual safeguards, as dictated by the Data Protection Act 1998, are put in place.

3.Cookies

BAA collects information about your use of the Websites from cookies.

When you enter the Websites your computer will automatically be issued with a cookie. A cookie is a small text file that identifies your computer to our server. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used.

BAA cookies record those areas of the Websites that have been visited by your computer, for how long and what activity was undertaken on the Website. We do this so as to understand which are the most popular parts of the Websites, and also to improve your experience. For example, cookies that we use ensure that some promotional items, such as pop-ups and overlays, do not appear too many times on the same visit to the Website.

In addition, we would also like to make you aware that, although external to BAA, third party cookies are served on the Websites and can be used to track internet activity after a user has left the Website. Third party cookies usually have a long lifetime as they are ‘harvested’ and ‘refreshed’ whenever a user visits a page where the same or a similar cookie is being used.

You are not obliged to accept cookies. You have the opportunity to set your computer either to accept all cookies, to notify you when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. The last of these, of course, means that your experience of using the Websites may be impaired as we will be unable to personalise aspects of your use of the Websites.

4. Your rights under the Data Protection Act

Under the Data Protection Act, you have the right to ask us what information we hold about you, the source of that information, and the uses to which it has been put. Such a request must be in writing and should be directed to the address below.

5. Contact us

If you would like to update your information, modify your communication preferences, or if you do not want to receive marketing communications from BAA in the future, you can contact us by writing to:

Tom Stapleton

Data Protection Manager

BAA Airports Limited

The Compass Centre

Nelson Road

London Heathrow Airport

Hounslow

TW6 2GW

6. Links to third party websites

This Privacy policy applies solely to the Websites and does not apply to any third party websites you may access from the Websites.

7. Updates to the Privacy policy

BAA may amend this Privacy policy from time to time in order to meet change in the regulatory environment, business needs, or to satisfy the needs of our customers, properties, strategic marketing partners, and service providers. Updated versions will be posted to our Websites and date stamped so that you are aware of when the Privacy policy was last updated.

List of BAA group companies

Aberdeen Airport Limited

BAA Airports Limited

BAA Enterprises Limited

Edinburgh Airport Limited

Gatwick Airport Limited

Glasgow Airport Limited

Heathrow Airport Limited

Heathrow Express Operating Company Limited

Southampton International Airport Limited

Stansted Airport Limited

Helpful links