At the West Midlands Public Health Observatory, we recognise that your personal privacy is a serious and important issue and we support the principle of protecting privacy on the Internet within the context of current UK legislation.

This privacy policy explains how we treat your personal information. By using the West Midlands Public Health Observatory web site you consent to the collection and use of your personal information in accordance with this policy. Though the policy has been developed to take account of changes in Internet technology it is subject to change and any such changes will only be notified on this page.

The processing of personal data is regulated by the Data Protection Act 1998. Any requests by individuals for access to information held about them by the West Midlands Public Health Observatory should be made in writing to the:

The West Midlands Public Health Observatory,
Birmingham Research Park,
Vincent Drive,
Birmingham,
B15 2SQ, UK.

The statutory fee (currently £10) is payable.

In order to use the main web site at the West Midlands Public Health Observatory, you are currently not required to register or provide any personal information about yourself. Any personal information collected from visitors to our website is on a purely voluntary basis, however by supplying the information you are consenting to the West Midlands Public Health Observatory keeping it for a reasonable period of time and using it for the purposes set out below.

When you use the West Midlands Public Health Observatory site we may automatically issue your computer with a small piece of code (a 'cookie') that enables the web pages to be displayed correctly, and the information the cookie provides allows us to manage and improve the services on the website - this cookie does not however contain any personally identifying information.

When you view our web pages as with most other websites, our web servers build logs of activity which contain information about your location in the world and even your computers IP address. In addition on some pages small visible graphics are used to build and enhance this logging system.

Any personal information that you provide to us will only be used for the purpose stated at the time we request it. We will not sell, license or trade your personal information to others. We do not provide your personal information to direct marketing companies or other such organisations.

Using the logging data we analyse demographic and other statistical information about user behaviour to analyse the popularity and effectiveness of our site. In performing such analysis and in the course of our business we will only ever disclose such information in an aggregated form that is not capable of identifying an individual user.

If you have any queries or concerns about privacy on the West Midlands Public Health Observatory website please contact us.