Privacy policy

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe website (www.edfringe.com, including, without limitation, shop.edfringe.com, registration.edfringe.com, http://connect.edfringe.com/ and other websites owned or controlled, from time to time)  (the "Website") and the Fringe mobile app for iPhone and Android (the "App") are maintained by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, a company limited by guarantee and incorporated in Scotland (No SC 046605, Registered Charity No SC 002995) which sells tickets for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the Festival Fringe Trading Limited, trading as Edinburgh Festival Fringe Shop, incorporated in Scotland (No SC 130813, VAT registration number 171 276 804) which sells goods.  Please remember that throughout the terms that follow, when we mention ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’, etc, we mean Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society Limited ("EFFS") and/or Festival Fringe Trading Limited ("FFTL") (as applicable). When we refer to ‘you’ we mean the user and/or browser of the Website or App and those persons, organisations or companies registering a show for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Our principal place of business is at 180 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1QS. You can email us at info@edfringe.com. The main telephone number for our office is +44 (0)131 226 0015.

General Website Privacy Policy

What information do we collect?

You are not required to provide any personal information in order to access the majority of the content available on the Website or App. We do, however, require you to supply certain personal details when you register with us or make a purchase from the Website or App, in order to process your transaction and/or fulfil your order. This information may include, but is not limited to, details such as your name, address, contact information and payment details. We will also collect and process any personal data supplied by you in connection with your use of registration.edfringe.com when registering a show at the Festival Fringe. We may also ask you for information when you enter a competition or promotion sponsored by us and if you report a problem with the Website. We may also collect information about your computer, the mobile telephone and/or handheld device on which you are using the App or Website, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, mobile network information as well as the mobile telephone or handheld device's telephone number, for system administration and to report aggregate information about users' browsing actions and patterns (from which users cannot be identified). In respect of users of the App and website, we may also collect details of your network-based location in order to enable the "Nearby now" (and/or any other, similar location services) and map functions. We may also collect other information provided by you at the time of registering to use the App for enabling location services. 

Where will we store your information?

The data that we collect from you may be stored on our secure servers and, in respect of payment data, on those of our third party provider of payment processing services purely for the purposes of processing payment. The data we collect from you may be processed by staff who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff may be engaged in, among other things, the hosting of the Website and App and/or provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this storing and/or processing.  We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

Securing your payment data

When you are purchasing tickets through the App or tickets and/or retail goods through the website we will not store additional personal data (including, for the avoidance of doubt, your payment details). Your payment details will be securely stored by our payment processing provider, Stripe in line with industry standards.

Stripe offers a service called "Link," which allows you to securely store your payment methods with Stripe to conveniently use them across multiple website, if you so wish. When you sign up for Link, you agree to store your Personal Data (such as name, contact information, payment method details) with Stripe. This will allow for a more streamlined purchasing experience when using Link in the future.

Link allows customers to save their payment credentials and other information for future transactions on websites that have enabled Link for its customers. When a customer completes an order using Link for the first time, the customer will be asked if they would like to save their information. Stripe will collect and store certain personal information about the customer, such as the customer’s name, email address, mobile phone number (“Account Information”); the customer’s credit card or debit card information, bank account information, and billing address (“Payment Information”); and the customer’s shipping address (“Shipping Information”). Together, the customer’s Account Information, Payment Information, and Shipping Information are the customer’s “Saved Information”. Existing Link customers will be able to select and checkout with Link using their Saved Information.

How will we use your information?

The legal basis upon which we rely for using information held about you is primarily for the performance of a contract between us, or in anticipation of entering into a contract with us, e.g. to provide you with products and services that you have asked for. This includes:

• Carrying out our obligations arising from contracts entered into with between you and us.  
• Providing services you rely on from our Website and our App, such as interactive features of our Website or App, when you choose to do so.

• To ensure that content from the Website and App is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer, mobile telephone and/or handheld device.
• To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us, such as changes to show information, cancellations and refund services.
• To provide you marketing updates and communications relating to products or services that you request from us or which you feel may interest you (including content and advertising tailored to your interests), but only where you have expressly consented to be contacted for such purposes.
• To notify you about changes to our service that may affect you.
• To allow you to vote in Fringe Society elections (managed by ERS) and, if you have chosen to do so, to allow candidates to canvas directly to you.
• To maintain and keep updated the Website, and the App (including by viewing any personal data held on the Website and/or App in respect of you) and to transfer and process that information for the purpose of organising, coordinating, advertising and marketing shows and/or the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. From time to time, we rely on third party suppliers to perform these activities on our behalf.

If you do not provide us with your information, we may not be able to provide services to you. We will let you know about this at the appropriate time.

We have an annual programme of research to help us understand our audiences and your experience of attending the Fringe. This includes (but is not limited to) an online survey. All bookers will be invited to participate in the research but are under no obligation to take part. Full details of the processes are provided when you are invited to participate. All research is carried out according to Market Research Society guidelines.

We will also collect and analyse aggregate data on purchases, buying patterns and audience trends to inform research and service design.

Will we disclose the information we collect to outside parties?

We will not sell, trade or rent your personal information to others unless you have given us your permission. With your permission we will only share the information with carefully chosen, reputable and trustworthy third parties. We may provide aggregate statistics about our customers, sales, traffic patterns and related Website information to reputable third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information.  We may disclose your personal information to third parties:

• Where we have engaged suppliers to provide services to us to act on our behalf, and we will give you details of this as appropriate in this Privacy Policy.
• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation.
• In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
• If EFFS or FFTL or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
• In order to enforce or apply our Terms and Conditions and other agreements.
• To protect the rights, property or safety of us, our members or others. 

This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction. In the instance of stored payment details, we will securely send your data to our payment processing provider Stripe. Stripe offers a service called "Link," which allows you to store your payment details. Where you are a foreign national we may provide the UK Border Agency with confirmation of your nationality, passport/identity card numbers and other personal information relating to you that has been collected or processed when registering for a show.

How will my data be used when registering for a show?

Where your details are stored on the system and you are linked to a particular organisation, venue or show, the administrators of that organisation, venue or show may be able to see your name and contact details. In addition, except where you have opted for your profile to be private (which you can do during the registration process or at any other time by going to the edit profile page) by answering the following question in the affirmative 'Click here if you would like to opt out of appearing in the contact searches?'), all other users of the system will be able to:

• See your first name, last name and job title and to send you an invite via the system to become associated with, or accept a particular role within, an organisation, venue or show (for example, to become an administrator for a particular show).
• Access any contact details held about you on the system for the purpose of auto-populating the following fields:
  
  • Organisation primary contact
  • Venue Manager
  • Venue Secondary Contact
  • Venue Owner
  • Venue Media and Marketing Contact
  • Venue Box Office Contact
  • Venue Access Contact 
  • Show Primary Show Contact
  • Show Secondary Show Contact
  • Show Media Contact Details
  • Show Secondary Media Contact 
  • Show Touring & Development Contact Details

If your name and contact details have been identified as a contact associated with a venue, these may be displayed on the Website. If you have been identified as a contact for a particular show, your name and contact details may be used in show and venue proofs. We may ask you to give your permission to pass on the contact details for your nominated media and arts personnel provided by you to accredited media and arts industry professionals. You may withdraw your consent to our use of your data in this way at any time by emailing info@edfringe.com. 

How will my data be used when registering for Fringe Services, such as Fringe Connect and Market Place?

Fringe Connect
When subscribing to the platform you are required to submit the following to create an account:

• Name
• Email address

Marketplace
When subscribing to the platform you are required to submit the following to create an account:

• Name
• Email address

You may also provide any other information you wish to build your profile. Other users of the platform will be able to see your public profile and any comments or posts you make. We may use this data from time to time to contact you, via email. Other users can also contact you through the platform directly. If you are an accredited Arts Industry member then we will also make your information available to eligible companies participating in the Fringe, as noted in the terms of accreditation.

What happens when I opt-in to the Fringe mailing list?

By subscribing for Fringe updates, you agree to receive from us (but only us) emails detailing news, special offers, announcements and competitions. You can unsubscribe from this service easily, and at any time, by using the link provided at the bottom of the email you are sent.

How long will my data be held for?

We will retain your data for as long as we have a relationship with you, e.g. for supplying services to you, or otherwise providing you with information about services you request. Full details of the uses of data are set out above at “How will we use your information?” We may also need to retain your information beyond the term of our relationship for legal reasons, specifically to evidence the relationship between us. We will delete information when we no longer require it to evidence our relationship. If you would like specific information about you deleted or removed, please refer to “Your rights” below.

Your rights

You have a number of information rights that are provided for by data protection laws. These rights include:

• The right to access personal data which you have submitted through the Website which is stored by us, and otherwise held about you.
• The right to have inaccurate data about you rectified. This includes the right to provide us with supplementary data where we may hold information that is incomplete.
• The right to have data erased. This right has some exceptions, such as where we need the data for legal reasons.
• The right to restrict processing of data, e.g. where data held is inaccurate.
• The right to have your data transmitted to a third party in limited circumstances – known as The right of data portability
• The right to object to how we process your data which includes in the case of direct marketing, the right to object to marketing from us.
• The right to not be subject to any automated decision making including profiling.

You can also exercise any of these rights at any time by contacting us at info@edfringe.com and we will process such requests in accordance with applicable data protection laws within one month from receipt of request. We will contact you as appropriate, to explain how we have complied with your request.

The Website may, from time to time, contain links to other websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites and any services accessible through them are not governed by this Privacy Policy, and may be subject to a different privacy policy run by that third party website provider. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies or any personal data that may be collected through these websites or services, such as contact and location data. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites or use these services.

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request may be subject to a fee of up to £10 to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you. For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998, FFTL is the data controller in respect of the collection of data relating to the purchase of retail goods from the Website, and EFFS is the data controller in respect of all other data collected. Both can be contacted at the address above.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

Last updated, December 2024. We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time which will take effect from the date of posting on the Website. The new terms may be displayed on-screen and you may be required to read and accept them to continue to use the Website or App. Your continued use of the Website or App or failure to advise us to remove your advert, show or other content, will mark your acceptance of any changes to this Privacy Policy.

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