At Jamaica Observer Media Group, we are committed to protecting the privacy of our customers.  We will take all possible precautions to protect your personal information and to processing your information fairly and lawfully and only for the purposes for which the information was provided. This privacy notice will explain how our organization collects, processes and safeguards your personal data collected or submitted through the use of this website, over the telephone, electronically or in person.

Our notice can be summarised in one sentence: we will not share your information with others without your prior consent. We have also established the following four principles:

Our principles:

1. We will continue to invest in high-quality security and do our utmost to protect user privacy through the use of the appropriate security technology.
2. We will respect your email privacy. You will not receive unsolicited email from the Jamaica Observer Media Group and/or from third parties screened by the Jamaica Observer Media Group unless you have agreed to this. We will, however, email you occasionally with information about your registration and/or your subscription account.
3. We will not pass on any individual user details (including your email address) unless we have your prior consent.
4. Otherwise, we will only share anonymous aggregate statistics about our users, sales and traffic patterns with our advertisers.

Should we elect to change our privacy notice, we will post the changes here. Where the changes are significant, we may also choose to email all our registered users the new details.

We also offer a ‘My details’ page, where you can update your personal information at any time. You can get to this page from most pages on the site – simply click on the ‘My details’ link at the top of the screen when you are signed in.

If you do not agree with these terms, you should not use this website.

1. WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT?

• PERSONAL INFORMATION

In addition to collecting information from your computer via cookies, which are explained in further detail below, we also collect your personal information when you: –

1. Sign up to become a registered user on this website;
2. Submit your personal details to purchase a subscription or any other of our products and services on this website, electronically or over the phone;

• Complete a contact form on the website or submit your contact information over the telephone to receive more information about our products and services;

1. Register to participate in any of our prize competitions, promotions or events.

The minimum information we need to register a user is an email address, a password and a country. UK and US users will also need to provide a postal code / zip code.  We may also, where necessary, ask for further information for different services including our prize competitions, promotional events and activities and our subscription-based services.  Such information may include your name, email address, date of birth, gender, telephone number, mailing address, financial information such as credit card or banking details, your occupation, place of work, town or city.

We may also ask some further, voluntary questions so we can gain a clearer understanding of the interests and preference of our users. Your responses help us to sell appropriate advertising space and so keep the site free. They also enable us to personalise services for our users. We do not share this information with third parties unless you have specifically consented to this.

We also collect data listing which of our pages are most frequently visited and by which types of users.

1. OTHER INFORMATION – COOKIES

We will collect information regarding the nature of the information you prefer to view, your comments, products and services which are of interest to you.

Information is automatically delivered to us from your computer and web browser when you log on to the website by the placement of a cookie on your computer which delivers information to us.  This information is not personal but includes the pages you requested on your last visit, your computer’s IP address, operating system and version and internet settings. You can adjust your computer’s settings to prevent automatic delivery of information.

2. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

At the Jamaica Observer Media Group, we will treat your personal data confidentially and will only process your personal data for the following reasons: –

1. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you (i.e. we need to provide the products and/or services you have requested);
2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation;

• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights are not overridden by those interests;

1. Where you have consented to us doing so.

In particular, our company collects your personal information for purposes such as:

1. Confirming your identity;
2. Communicating with you;
3. Emailing you with special offers on our products and services that we think you might like;
4. Processing your purchase of our goods and/or services;
5. Improving and monitoring our products and services;
6. Assisting us in developing products and services to suit our customers’ interests and providing personalized services unique to individual users;
7. Creating and providing statistical reports and analysis;
8. Providing you with notification of changes to our products, services and/or the website;
9. Using anonymous details about our users to sell appropriate advertising space on the site. This might mean showing an advertiser how many users we have on the site; it does not mean sharing an individual’s details with an advertiser. Where we collect registration information from an individual, we will never share that individual’s information with a third party, including an advertiser, without that user’s explicit permission.

You acknowledge and agree that Jamaica Observer Media Group can use your personal data for the purposes described herein.

Jamaica Observer Media Group will not sell, trade or rent your personal information to others unless you have given us your permission, it is necessary for any of the purposes described above or if we are required by law to do so or if we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with judicial or regulatory proceedings, a court order or other legal process.

With your permission we will only share the information with carefully chosen, reputable and trustworthy third parties.  In addition, if your personal data is disclosed to third party vendors or contractors, we ensure that the person or entity receiving your personal data is subject to strict contractual obligations requiring them to agree to only use and disclose your personal data to carry out its specific business obligations to Jamaica Observer Media Group or for the permitted purpose of the disclosure (as described above).

Also, the Jamaica Observer Media Group may provide aggregate statistics about our customers, sales, traffic patterns and related site information to reputable third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information.

In the event that your personal information is shared with our third-party vendors who are overseas, all necessary steps are taken in order to ensure that your personal data is processed in accordance with our privacy notice and the applicable law of the country where the data is located.

3. MARKETING AND PROMOTIONAL EMAILS

We will respect your email privacy and therefore we will not send unsolicited emails to your email address. We may send you information by email in response to your enquiries, or your completion of a contact form on our website, in person or your submission of an entry in one our prize competitions or promotional activities or events.

We will send notices of our promotions or events which may be of interest to you, if you ask us to. If you have agreed to receive marketing information, you may always withdraw your consent at any time.

You have the right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes.

4. SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

How does the Jamaica Observer protect customer information?

We invest in high-quality technology and security and do our utmost to protect user privacy. We follow strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of information which you have given us, to safeguard the privacy of your personal data from unauthorised access or improper use, destruction or disclosure, accidental loss, to ensure business continuity and disaster recovery and to restrict access to personal information.

Jamaica Observer Media Group will seek to continue to enhance its security procedures as new technology becomes available.

5. HOW LONG WILL WE RETAIN YOUR INFORMATION?

We will only retain your personal information 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.

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 unauthorized 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. Generally, we will keep information relevant to our dealings with you for minimum of seven years once you have ceased being a customer.

Generally, we will keep information relevant to our dealings with you for up to seven years once you have ceased being a customer. Exceptional circumstances will or may apply to customer service data where we will keep information for up to 10 years.

In some circumstances we may anonymize your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you as it is no longer personal data.

Once we no longer require your personal data for the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. We will securely destroy your personal data in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

6. YOUR RIGHTS IN RELATION TO PERSONAL DATA

Jamaica Observer Media Group would like to make sure you are fully aware of all your data protection rights.  You are entitled to the following:

• The right to access your personal information – you have the right to request from us copies of your personal information that we have collected;
• The right to rectification – you have the right to request that our company correct any information you believe is inaccurate or complete any information you believe is incomplete.
• data portability – you have the right to request that your personal information be transferred to another organisation or directly to you
• restriction of processing and objection – you have the right to object to the processing of your personal date and to request that our company restrict the processing of your personal data.

• The right to not be subject to automated decision-taking – you have the right to object to any processing that results in a decision made about you which includes no human intervention.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at  dpo@jamaicaobserver.com. If you make a request, we have 30 days to respond to you.

You may also contact The Office of the Information Commissioner:

Masonic Building, 2nd Floor.

45 – 47 Barbados Avenue. Kingston 5

Email: info@oic.gov.jm

Website: oic.gov.jm

CHANGES TO PRIVACY NOTICE 

We keep our privacy notice under regular review and advice of any change to our Privacy Notice will be posted on this page. This privacy notice was last updated on the 21^st of November 2024.