Privacy Policy

When visiting The Clare Echo website or using one of our services, you’re trusting us with your information. We know that this is a big responsibility and we work hard to protect your information and put you in control.

At The Clare Echo we seek to maintain the privacy, accuracy, and confidentiality of all data (including your personal data) that we collect and use as part of our services.

We will use your personal data only for the purposes described below and in full compliance with the GDPR Data Protection Legislation.

The purpose of this privacy statement is to explain how THE CLARE ECHO, in our capacity as a data controller, collect and use your personal information.

As Clare’s largest media company, THE CLARE ECHO reaches thousands of people each week across print and online.

This Privacy Statement applies to https://clareecho.ie and our business directory https://business.clareecho.ie.

THE CLARE ECHO provides a range of services through this site. We describe these in detail in this statement but basically, we provide services under the following broad headings.

Content: We provide the content that you view on our sites, and often fund the creation of this content by allowing advertisers to present you with relevant ads. You may choose to opt out of these personalised advertising services by means which we describe in the Advertising section.

Registrations: Certain services are only available to registered users. For example, some of our newsletters, some of our competitions and access to certain selected articles. We make registering for these services as easy as possible, enabling you to use Social Login providers such as Facebook and Google.

Subscriptions: THE CLARE ECHO makes certain services available through subscriptions. For example, the Clare Echo is available to read online here and subscriptions are taken here.

Site Function: We use analytics providers in order for us to understand our audience, the content that appeals to them and how well our site is working. We also provide tools from the major social networks (Twitter, Facebook etc.) to allow you to share content from our site.

Mobile Apps and other channels: We also provide our content through a variety of other channels including apps, Twitter, Facebook etc. The services and content that we offer through these channels may differ and we provide details of how best to manage them. Platforms such as Facebook have their own privacy controls and you should frequently review your privacy settings there.

By using this Site and by disclosing your Data to us, you consent to the collection, storage, processing, use and disclosure of your Data by us as described in this Privacy Statement.

When you visit our sites or use our services in any way we may collect and process different types of information about you. We have set out below the different types of data that we process, why and how we process it.

Content

Our stories and our audience are the key to everything we do here at THE CLARE ECHO. We fund our online journalism in part through advertising.

Advertising

Third-party vendors, including Google, display advertising on our site and services. Some of the ads you see are targeted based on interests that have been inferred from the type of content you view when visiting our site and other sites. This type of behavioural advertising is targeted towards groups of users in an aggregated manner. Such online advertising helps support the content, products and services we provide.

Our cookie policy provides links to manage your settings with these ad providers.

Processing for journalistic purposes

As a news publishing organisation, THE CLARE ECHO processes personal data for the purpose of exercising the right to freedom of expression and information and for journalistic purposes. It is recognised that this is in the public interest.

  • We may process your personal information for journalistic purposes where you submit content to be published online and in our printed publications
  • Where you have voluntarily contributed your experience to us and we publish this information
  • If we publish a letter you have written to the Editor
  • If you participate in one of our surveys or polls

It is important to understand that certain rights which you have in relation to your personal information, including the right to erasure, may not apply where that data is processed for journalistic purposes.

Registration

Certain services are only available to registered users. Examples of these are newsletters, competitions and access to certain selected articles. We make registering for these services as easy as possible, enabling you to use Social Login providers such as Facebook and Google.

Sign up

When you sign up or register with THE CLARE ECHO to avail of a service we collect only the information needed to provide that service.

What we process:

  • Personal Identifier–we collect an identifier such as your email address or social login.
  • Password –we collect a password to ensure that your data is kept safely on our systems and that other users cannot access your personal data.
  • Optional social information –we collect basic social profile information such as the photo provided that you have agreed to share this with us. This is described elsewhere on this page in the Social Sign Up section.

Why we process this data: The legal basis for processing this data is to enable us to deliver registration services that you have consented to.

The personal identifier allows us to recognise you when you come to our site or service. This enables us to provide you with the service that you signed up for. For example, access to special articles, viewing your newsletter preferences etc. Details of these specific services are provided elsewhere on this page.

Who has access: Customer registration identity information is only ever accessible to THE CLARE ECHO employees though sometimes aggregated statistics about usage may be made available to others. For example, we might state to the market that we have a certain number of registered users who access Clare Echo.ie.

Access may be granted to our registration system provider in order to resolve problems but only under the strictest governance by THE CLARE ECHO. THE CLARE ECHO ensures that our registration provider, adheres to the highest standards of data protection and privacy.

Your data may also be shared with a 3rd party if you choose to avail of a service from that 3rd party but only with your consent.

Delete My Account and associated data: If you wish to delete your Clare Echo.ie account and all associated personal data (as defined under GDPR, Article 4), please email members@clareecho.ie and request that your account is deleted.

Social Sign Up

We also provide the ability to sign up or sign in using social login services such as Google and Facebook. It’s a faster way to log in and saves you the pressure of having to create and remember countless different usernames and passwords.

What we process:

  • Google Login: If you register through Google, you grant permission to Google to share basic data from your Google account with us, like your name, email address, and profile picture.
  • Facebook Login: If you register through Facebook, you grant permission to Facebook to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth and location. You can also use your picture from Facebook as part of your profile.

Why we process this data: The legal basis for processing this data is to enable us to deliver services that you have consented to receive.

The personal identifier allows us to recognise you when you come to our site or service and provide you with the service that you signed up for. For example, access to special articles, viewing your mail preferences etc. Details of these specific services are provided elsewhere on this page.

Who has access: You are always in control of what data we can access, and you can change this through your Google or Facebook account preferences. We never have access to your Google or Facebook account or password.

Delete My Account: If you remove clareecho.ie from your Google Settings or Facebook Settings we will no longer have access to the information you previously chose to share with us. Similarly, you can delete the Google or Facebook account that you used to sign in to theclareecho.ie in my account page on theclareecho.ie. If you wish to delete your clareecho.ie account entirely please request same via our email address members@clareecho.ie.

What we process:

  • Registration & login data as described in the Sign Up and Social Sign Up Sections

Why we process this data: The legal basis for processing this data is to enable us to deliver services that you have consented to receive.

This registration data allows us to provide you with access to various THE CLARE ECHO sites with as little hassle as possible. It also allows us to understand which of these services are of interest to you so that we can provide you with a better service.

Who has access: Customer registration identity information is only ever accessible to THE CLARE ECHO employees. Sometimes aggregated statistics about usage may be made available to others. For example, we might state that we have a certain number of registered users who access clareecho.ie.

Access may be granted to our Registration system provider in order to resolve problems but only under the strictest governance by THE CLARE ECHO. THE CLARE ECHO ensures that our registration provider, adheres to the highest standards of data protection and privacy.

Newsletters

All readers who register, will also receive the Local News newsletters one day a week. These newsletters are a selection of our latest stories delivered each week. Readers can unsubscribe at any time, by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each newsletter or going to ‘My Account’.

We also offer to our readers the ability to sign up to a variety of newsletters. When you sign up for newsletters, we collect information to enable us to deliver the newsletter and to tell us what content you are interested in.

What we process:

  • Identity data –your email address and name
  • Newsletter Interest –which newsletters you wish to receive.
  • Interaction data– newsletters that you open and the links you follow in the newsletter

Why we process this data: The legal basis for processing this data is to enable us to deliver the newsletters that you have consented to receive.

This identity and interest data help us deliver the newsletters that you have requested. The interaction data allows us to understand which parts of the newsletter and which content interest you to enable us to improve the service that we deliver to you.

Who has access: Only THE CLARE ECHO employees will have access to this data through our email and customer identity systems. Access may be granted to third parties such as our email campaign provider in order to resolve problems sending emails etc. but only under the strictest governance by THE CLARE ECHO. THE CLARE ECHO ensures that our email campaign provider adheres to the highest standards of data protection and privacy.

Competitions

When you enter a competition on an THE CLARE ECHO site or through an THE CLARE ECHO publication such as The Clare Echo, we may collect data about you or your entry in order to manage the competition and enable us to deliver the prize to you if you are lucky enough to win.

Entering a competition

When you enter a competition, we need to process your entry.

What we process:

  • Identity data-including name, address, phone number, email
  • Data about entry-including date of entry, device used etc.

Why we process this data: The legal basis for processing this data is legitimate interest. In order to decide the competition winner, it is necessary for us to process your entry. This data is required to enable THE CLARE ECHO to contact winners and manage the competition.

Who has access: This data will only be processed by THE CLARE ECHO employees and systems, and sub contracted service providers for the sole purpose of managing the competition.

The only exception to this is where a 3rd party is sponsoring the competition and requests to get access to your information. Information will only be shared with this 3rd party with your consent and this will be made clear to you before submitting your competition entry to ensure that you have full control of who sees your data.

Winning a competition

If you are lucky enough to win a competition, then we need to contact you to ensure delivery of your prize and know where to send it.

What we process:

  • Identity data- including name, address, phone number, email
  • Data about entry-including date of entry, device used etc.

Why we process this data: The legal basis for processing this data is our contract with the winner to deliver the prize to them. This data is required to enable THE CLARE ECHO to contact winners and deliver the prize to them

Who has access: This data will only be processed by THE CLARE ECHO employees and systems, and sub contracted service providers for the sole purpose of delivering the prize to the winner. When a 3rd party is sponsoring the competition and providing the prize it is necessary to provide them with the winner’s personal data in order to enable them to deliver the prize to the winner.

The only exception to this is where a 3rd party is sponsoring the competition and requests to get access to your information. Information will only be shared with this 3rd party with your consent and this will be made clear to you before submitting your competition entry to ensure that you have full control of who sees your data.

Delete my competition entries: If you wish to delete any competition that you have made, please do so by emailing same to members@clareecho.ie.

Quizzes, Surveys and Polls

When you enter a quiz or answer a poll or survey on THE CLARE ECHO website we collect data about you and your response.

What we process:

  • Identity data-online identifier such as IP address
  • Quiz, Poll & Survey Data- data you provide in your response to the poll or survey

Why we process this data: The legal basis for processing this data is your consent for us to process your response to the poll or survey that you have entered.

This data is required to enable THE CLARE ECHO to display the results of the poll or survey. No poll data is ever associated with your email or other personal identifier.

We do record whether you have interacted with the poll or survey to ensure that duplicate entries are not counted but this is linked to your browser or device and never contains information on your poll response.

Who has access: This data will only be processed by both THE CLARE ECHO employees and systems, sub contracted service providers for the sole purpose of managing the quiz, survey or poll.

The only exception to this is where a 3rd party is running or sponsoring the quiz, survey or poll. This will be made clear to you, along with what happens to your data before submitting your entry to ensure that you have full control of who sees your data.

Delete my quiz, survey or poll entries: If you wish to delete any quiz, survey or poll entries that you have made on clareecho.ie, please do so by emailing same to members@clareecho.ie

Award Nominations 

When you submit a nomination for one of our awards on THE CLARE ECHO website we may collect data about you or your entry in order to facilitate judging, contact the shortlist, appoint a winner, showcase winning entries at the event and create follow-up media coverage of the event in print and online, and if the event is televised, on TV. Winners’ data will be stored for 12 months after the awards for purposes of publicising the following year’s event.

Entering an award

When you enter one of our awards, we need to process your entry.

What we process:

  • Identity data-including name, address, organisation name, phone number, email.
  • Data about entry-including entry, date of entry, device used, etc.

Why we process this data: The legal basis for processing this data is legitimate interest. In order to decide the award winner, it is necessary for us to process your entry. This data is required to enable THE CLARE ECHO to contact nominees and manage the awards.

Who has access: This data will only be processed by THE CLARE ECHO employees and systems, and sub contracted service providers for the sole purpose of managing the competition. Information provided to judging panels will be anonymised.

The only exception to this is where a 3rd party is sponsoring the awards and requests to get access to your information. Information will only be shared with this 3rd party with your consent and this will be made clear to you before submitting your entry to ensure that you have full control of who sees your data.

Delete my award entries: If you wish to delete any award entries that you have made please email members@clareecho.ie and request that you wish to have your entries deleted.

Being shortlisted or winning an award

If you are lucky enough to be shortlisted or win an award, then we need to contact you to ensure that you are available for the ceremony and promotional activities. We may ask for your consent to share your personal data with another media partner.

What we process:

  • Identity data- including winner’s name, address, phone number, email
  • Data about entry-including entry, date of entry, device used etc.

Why we process this data: The legal basis for processing this data is our contract with the entrant to put forward their submission for consideration in our awards. This data is required to enable THE CLARE ECHO to contact shortlisted parties/winners and arrange for them to attend awards ceremonies and partake in associated promotional activity.

Who has access: This data will only be processed by THE CLARE ECHO employees and systems, and sub-contracted service providers for the sole purpose of arranging attendance at the awards and associated promotional activity.

We may ask for your consent to share your personal data with another media partner in order to facilitate interviews and video coverage. Information will only be shared with this 3rd party with your consent and this will be made clear to you before submitting your entry and when we contact you to let you know you have been shortlisted to ensure that you have full control of who sees your data.

Delete my award entries: If you wish to delete any award entries that you have made, please do so by emailing same to members@clareecho.ie.

Subscriptions

THE CLARE ECHO makes certain services available through subscriptions.

ePaper

THE CLARE ECHO provides a free epaper hosted by issuu.com. We do not collect personal information on people who read this epaper. To read issuu’s terms of use for the service, click here .

Site Function

We use analytics providers in order for us to understand our audience, the content that appeals to them and how well our site is working. We also provide tools from the major social networks (Twitter, Facebook etc.) to allow you to share content from our site.

Analytics

Analytics tools allow us to understand how our audience interacts with our site and our content and enables us to provide a better service to our site visitors. We do not collect or process any personal information in our analytics platform.

What we process:

  • Your IP address-in order to track your activity on our site we process your IP address
  • Anonymous data about your device –your operating system (e.g. iOS11), device type (e.g. tablet)
  • Anonymous aggregated demographics– for example your current city and other anonymous data.
  • Anonymous data about your browsing-stories you read, types of content consumed and browsing patterns.

Why we process this data: The legal basis for processing this data is the legitimate interests of THE CLARE ECHO to manage and optimise the running of our site and its content.

This data helps us optimise the way the site is structured and how content is arranged on the site. It also allows us to show interested parties how many people access the different parts of our site and on average how often they visit. This allows understanding of how many people look at our content at different times of the day etc. These statistics are always calculated on an aggregated basis – never individually. We use the data for future marketing and personalised Advertisement

(https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2700409?hl=en-GB&utm_id=ad).

Who has access: Anonymised versions of the data are hosted on Google Analytics and the Adobe Analytics platform. At no point do we have access to personally identifiable information through Google Analytics. Adobe Analytics does store your IP address in order to be able to tell users apart. Anonymous aggregated reports about the general behaviour of our audience may be made available to the public, or advertisers, or others.

Stop being tracked:  These analytics tools run on most sites across the web. If you wish to opt out of analytics tracking you must do so on these 3rd party sites or by changing your browser settings. Click on a link below to see the privacy policy and manage your consent across the web for each cookie type:

Further information can be found in our cookie policy.

Social Sharing

Our website and mobile applications use interfaces with social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others.

If you choose to like or share information from our sites through these services, you should review the privacy statement of that service. If you are a member of a social media site and logged in, the interfaces configured on our Services allow the social media site to connect your site visit and browsing behaviour to the personal data held on your social media site. THE CLARE ECHO can use this information on an aggregate basis to place ads that are based on your interests on these social media sites. These practices are governed by the privacy statements of these social networking sites and you are advised to review these separately.

Where links are provided on the site to other websites, THE CLARE ECHO bears no responsibility for such sites. These sites are not under our control and we are not responsible in any way for any of their contents.
Where links are provided to websites that process your data. THE CLARE ECHO will not be privy to any processing that occurs and accepts no responsibility in relation to the processing of your data by these third parties.

Push Notifications

We use push notifications to inform you about breaking news, live event coverage and other top stories on our website. We do not process any personal information and cannot establish the identity of the users who have subscribed to receive these notifications. You may receive these notifications based on your location, operating device and/or interests that are derived from your use of our Services.

You can control your push notification and location settings directly on your mobile device. It should be noted that iOS devices operate on the basis of opting-in to push notifications whereas Android devices operate on the basis of opting out. If you wish to use this feature you will be asked to specifically consent to your data being used for this purpose. This is recorded in your phone’s notification settings. You can at any time turn off push notifications from us in your phone settings if you do not wish to receive further push notifications from us.

Your Rights

Your Rights Under Data Protection Law

You have several rights under data-protection law in relation to the personal information that THE CLARE ECHO holds about you. If you choose to exercise any of these rights, we will ask you to verify your identity. We will consider your request and provide a response within one month. These rights are described in detail on the Data Commissioner’s Website and summarised below:

  • Right of Access:You are entitled to have access to your personal data which we hold (this is more commonly known as submitting a “data subject access request”). Typically, there is no fee for this, however, we have the right to apply a reasonable fee in exceptional circumstances.
  • Right of Portability:You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and if technically feasible, have your personal information transmitted to another data controller in a machine-readable format.
  • Right to rectify:If it is found that personal data is inaccurate, you are entitled to have the inaccurate data removed, corrected or completed, as appropriate.
  • Right to withdraw consent: You have the right to withdraw your consent to any future processing for which you have previously given that consent.
  • Right to Erasure:Subject to certain conditions, you are entitled, on certain grounds, to have your personal data erased (also known as the “right to be forgotten”).
  • Right to Restriction:Restrict processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
  • Right to object to processing:You are entitled to object to our use of your personal information for our legitimate interests, for profiling and for direct marketing purposes.
  • Rights relating to automated decision making including profiling:You are entitled to not be subject to a decision which is based solely on automated processing where that decision produces a legal effect on you or otherwise significantly affects you. We do not make automated decisions of this nature
  • Right to complain:You are entitled to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner if you have concerns about how we process your personal data.

You can complain directly to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner at Canal House, Station Road, Portarlington, Co. Laois by telephone at +353 1890 25 2231 and/or by email to info@dataprotection.ie.

You can also make a complaint directly to the relevant data protection authorities in the country where you are ordinarily resident. For example, in the UK you can also complain directly to the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ or call their helpline on 0303 123 1113.

How To Exercise Your Rights

Requests for information or to exercise these rights should be made to the THE CLARE ECHO Data Protection Office via email at members@clareecho.ie. Alternatively, you can also make your request:

  • by post to The Clare Echo Offices 36C Abbey Street, Lifford, Ennis, Co Clare, Ireland.

If possible, you should specify the type of information you would like to see to ensure that we meet your expectations. We must be able to verify your identity in order to ensure the safety of your data. Your request may not affect the rights and freedoms of others, e.g. privacy and confidentiality rights of other individuals and/or businesses.

Limitations To These Rights   

These rights are in some circumstances limited by data-protection legislation. You may have various rights under Data Protection Legislation. However, in certain circumstances, these rights may be restricted (Article 23 of the General Data Protection Regulation, which is transposed into UK law by the Data Protection Act 2018 sets out the circumstances in which your rights may be restricted). Also the personal information that is processed as part of THE CLARE ECHO’s journalistic work may be exempt under Art 85 of the GDPR.

These rights are in some circumstances limited by Data Protection legislation. You may have various rights under Data Protection legislation. However, in certain circumstances these rights may be restricted by Data Protection legislation. Also the personal information that is processed as part of THE CLARE ECHO’s journalistic work may be exempt under Art. 85 of the GDPR and Section 43 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

In particular, your rights may be restricted where this is necessary:

  • for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of criminal offences; and/or
  • in the interest of freedom of expression and/or information; and/or
  • in compliance with a legal obligation such as a court order and/or
  • in contemplation of or for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim or legal proceedings (whether before a court, tribunal, statutory body or an administrative or out-of-court procedure).

Your Data

The following sections describe how we manage, secure and control access to your data and under what circumstances we disclose data to others.

Retention Of Your Data

To make sure we meet our legal Data Protection and Privacy obligations, where yo are an account holder, we will retain your information for at least as long as your account is active, as needed to provide you services or as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, protect our legal interests and enforce our agreements.

If you ask for your account to be closed we will do this as soon as is reasonably possible subject to any applicable terms and conditions relating to the account. Personal information from closed accounts is retained in order to comply with legal obligations protect our legal interests, prevent fraud, collect any fees owed or to resolve disputes.

As a matter of course, we will delete personal data associated with accounts that have been inactive for at least 6 years.

Where you are not an account holder, we will retain your information for so long as is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it is processed or for such longer period as is required to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, protect our legal interests and enforce our agreements.

Sharing Data With 3rd Parties

We use third party service providers who work for us in the provision of our services. Your data may be processed by a third party if required to deliver a service you have requested or as otherwise set out in this Privacy Statement.

We will check any third party that we use to ensure that they can provide sufficient guarantees regarding the confidentiality and security of your Data.

We will have written contracts with them which provide assurances regarding the protections that they will give to your Data and their compliance with our data security standards and international transfer restrictions.

We also share data with other CLARE ECHO entities within the group where they are providing you with services that you have requested or where they provide services to us that you have requested or as otherwise set out in this Privacy Statement.

How Is Your Data Secured

THE CLARE ECHO operate and use appropriate technical and physical security measures to protect your personal data.

We have in particular taken appropriate security measures to protect your personal data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access. In addition, our service providers are also selected carefully and required to use appropriate protective measures.

Where Do We Store Your Data?

In most cases, THE CLARE ECHO stores your data securely within the European Economic Area (EEA) using GDPR compliant service providers.

In some cases, THE CLARE ECHO may have to transfer or store your data to countries outside the EEA, for example, when one of our service providers use employees or equipment based outside the EEA.

For transfers of your personal data to third parties outside of the EEA, we take additional steps in line with Data Protection Legislation. We have put in place adequate safeguards with respect to the protection of your privacy, fundamental rights and freedoms, and the exercise of your rights, e.g. we establish an adequate level of data protection through EU Standard Contractual Clauses based on the EU commission’s model clauses.

Disclosure Of Your Data

Your Data is private and confidential. Your Personal data may only be shared within THE CLARE ECHO, for any of the purposes set out in this Privacy Statement.

From time to time, we may access and/or disclose your Data as set out in this Privacy Statement or if we are required to do so by law or in good faith and belief that such action is necessary to:

  • conform with the law or comply with legal process served on us;
  • protect and defend our rights or property including, without limitation the security and integrity of our network and systems; or
  • act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of our services or members of the public.

Changes to this Information

This statement is effective from: 18 May 2021

We may decide to make changes to this Privacy Notice. If it’s a fundamental change in how we deal with you, then the updated Privacy Notice will be provided to you well in advance of the change actually taking effect.

We will post the changes on our website or send them to you via e-mail along with an explanation of what the likely impact of those changes will be to you, if any.

In order to ensure fairness of the processing, we encourage you to review the content of this Privacy Notice regularly.

If you are unhappy with how we use your personal data

By using this Site and by disclosing your Data to us, you understand that we may collect, store, process, use and disclose your Data as described in this Privacy Statement. If you are not comfortable with any aspect of this Privacy Statement, you can discontinue using our Site or not provide us with any further personal data. We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Statement at any time.

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