Privacy notice

Rotherham Essentials is run by Essentials Media Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 14510993. We also run the other Essentials town sites across South Yorkshire, Radio Essentials and Sheffield Podcast. We are the “data controller” for the details described here, which means we decide why and how they are used.

You can reach us at hello@rotherhamessentials.co.uk or on WhatsApp 0114 321 31 31. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can check any registration at https://ico.org.uk.

• Messages you send us. Your name, email address, what the message is about and what you have written. It comes to our team as an email — we do not keep a copy of it in a database.
• The newsletter. Your email address, and nothing else.
• Events you tell us about. The event name, date and time, venue, town, description, price and link, plus your name and email so we can check it and let you know when it is live.
• Business listings. The business name, address, phone, email, opening hours, description and photos. If you claim a page we also take your name, your role and the email you claim it with.
• Accounts. The email and password you sign up with, and whether you are a business owner or a member of staff. Passwords are stored in a scrambled form we cannot read.
• Very light usage counts. We note once per browser session that a visit happened, and keep a running “people on the site now” figure. Neither identifies you.

• To reply to you. When you send a news tip, an event or an advertising question we use your name and email to answer you. That rests on you choosing to write to us and our interest in corresponding with readers.
• To send the newsletter. Only to people who asked for it. Your consent is what allows this, and you can withdraw it at any time.
• To publish events and business pages. We use what you give us to check, publish and maintain the listing, and to tell you when it is live. This is the service you asked us for.
• To run accounts. So the right person can edit the right business page, and so staff can reach the areas they are responsible for.
• To keep the sites safe. We check business claims, watch for spam and abuse, and act on anything harmful. This is a legitimate interest of ours.
• To meet our legal duties. For example keeping records the law requires, or responding to a valid request from the police or a court.

Much of what we publish is journalism about people, places and events in Rotherham and South Yorkshire. Where we name someone, it is because the story is in the public interest and we have checked the facts first. Publishing news is covered by the “special purposes” provisions of data protection law, which is why we can report on people without asking each of them first.

If you are named in something we have published and you want it corrected, or you would like your personal details taken down, our editorial standards page explains how to ask. We read every request and answer each one.

• Our staff, and the owner of a business listing where it is their page and their enquiry.
• The companies that work for us: cloud hosting and database, email delivery, and the services we use to gather weather, traffic and news information and to write and voice our bulletins. Those services receive story text and public information — not your contact details, your newsletter address or your password.
• Nobody else. We never sell your details, and we do not let advertising networks or tracking cookies follow you around the web.

Some of the services we use store information outside the UK. Where they do, we rely on the safeguards the Information Commissioner’s Office recognises — such as the UK government’s international data transfer agreement — so your details get a broadly similar standard of protection.

• Messages: up to 12 months in our email, or longer while we are dealing with a complaint or a legal matter.
• Newsletter: until you unsubscribe, or ask us to — then it is deleted straight away.
• Events: approved events stay listed until the day has passed; ones we do not publish are deleted within 30 days.
• Business listings: while the page is live, and for six months afterwards so we can answer questions about it.
• Accounts: while the account is open. If you ask us to close it, we delete it within 30 days.
• Radio bulletins: written scripts and audio are deleted automatically after 24 hours.
• Photos: kept while the page they belong to is live, or until you ask us to remove them.

You can ask us for a copy of the details we hold about you, have anything corrected, have something deleted, ask us to stop using it in a particular way, or have it handed over to someone else in a usable format. Where consent is what allows us to use something — the newsletter, for instance — you can withdraw it whenever you like.

Asking costs nothing. Email hello@rotherhamessentials.co.uk or message us on WhatsApp 0114 321 31 31and we will deal with it within one month, which is the time limit the law gives us. If you are not happy with how we have handled it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113 — though we would much rather you came to us first.

Our sites are not aimed at children. We do not knowingly collect details from under-13s, and anyone under 16 should ask a parent or guardian before sending us anything.

Only staff can see submissions and applicant details. Passwords are stored in a scrambled form. Bulletin audio sits in private storage that only our own tools can reach. News, events and listings are all checked by a person before they go live.

We will update this page if what we collect changes, and put a new date at the top. Anything significant will also get a note on the site so regulars are not caught out.