Hot Press Privacy Policy

We start from the key principal, that we have asked you if we can do anything that we do, and that at any moment in time, you can remove any data that we hold on you.

There is usually a straightforward response to most queries about why we ask for information and how we use it, but to give some examples …

We ask for locations because when we have events that are near said location we went to be sure to invite you!

We ask for your age (or date of birth), because there are competitions or events that we need to restrict to certain ages.

We are interested in what artists you like so that we can inform you of specific items in relation to them.

In none of these situations do we pass this information to a 3rd party to look at in an individual basis
Instead what we do is use global data and contact you in an collated, anonymised way

The 2018 updates necessitated by the GDPR changes have also given rise to us developing some new and innovative tools for members and subscribers, which we will always detail to you in full.

This privacy policy is intended to provide you with information about the personal information we collect and how that information is used and shared. We collect personal information about you when you access this website or when you use any of our products, applications or services (collectively our “Services”).
This document outlines our approach to compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and all other relevant data-protection legislation. It also sets forth your privacy rights. Please take a moment to familiarise yourself with our privacy practices.
It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy we may provide on specific occasions so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
We value your opinions. Should you have any questions or comments related to this privacy policy, please contact us at [email protected].
Changes to privacy policy
We will update this privacy policy from time to time. Some of those changes will reflect new standards, some will be merely minor technical implementations. This page will always mark the updates.

Who, where, how.
Throughout this privacy policy, “we” “us” and “ours” refers to hotpress.com or Hot Press. hotpress.com is operated by the company Citygrove Ltd. Hot Press is published by Osnovina Ltd
These two entities operate in tandem to provide Hot Press magazine and hotpress.com and share a core management group to insure oversight. At any moment in time, you can contact us at [email protected] and we will respond within 72 hours. Alternatively you can phone +353 1 2411500.
Our offices are in 100 Capel St, Dublin 1

Data protection officer
We have appointed an internal data protection officer (DPO) for you to contact if you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, our privacy practices or if you wish to exercise your data rights. We are a small independent publishing company, and we will always be accountable to you, our readers and users.
Again, we will always aim to respond to request to [email protected] as quickly as possible.
Information & Data we collect and how we use it
We collect and use your personal information for a variety of reasons including:
If you register, purchase or subscribe to one of our Services
To create an account with us
To become a member or to subscribe to Hot Press you will need to create an account with us.
We will use your personal information to carry out our obligations arising from any contract you as our customer have entered into with us, including sending important notices such as communications relating to payment, delivery services, changes to our terms, conditions, and policies and to notify you about changes to our service. We may notify you by phone, post, email, SMS text or through other digital media depending on the content of the notification and your preferred contact mechanism.
We will also use your personal information to provide you welcome emails to help you get the most out of your subscription, subscriber-only content (e.g. specially selected articles and subscriber-only newsletters) and subscriber rewards which may include competitions, events and offers that are available exclusively to our subscribers.
If you cancel your subscription with us, we may use your personal information for direct marketing (provided you have not objected to us using your details in this way). We will generally send you direct marketing by email. We will use your information for a reasonable period of time after your relationship with us has ended. Specifically, we will send you a short series of emails to remind you of the benefits of a subscription with us. You have the right to unsubscribe to receipt of these emails at any time. We rely on the lawful processing ground of our legitimate interests which are:
To keep you informed of the benefits of a subscription.
To develop and maintain relationships with our customers
To implement customer-retention and win-back strategies
To deliver marketing, promotions and to conduct research
To receive marketing communications
We may periodically send promotional emails about features, events, exclusive offers and competitions to the email address you have provided – we will only do so with your consent. We have an interest in making sure our marketing is relevant for you, so we may process your information to send you marketing communications tailored to your interests. You may at any time choose not to receive marketing communications from us by following the unsubscribe instructions included at the end of each email communication.
For competition and promotional purposes
We regularly run competitions or similar promotions. If you choose to enter a competition or promotion, we will use your personal information to administer these promotions and as per the terms and conditions you accept when you enter. If you win a competition, your contact information will be used to notify you as the winner and to award the relevant prize. We may publish your name on our website and indicate the prize you have won.
To participate in a vote, survey or poll
We conduct votes, surveys and polls that we use to produce original research from our readers. Your participation is entirely voluntary. You may consent to Hot Press contacting you at the email address provided to participate in this research. We do not track individuals but look at the information in the aggregate. Any opinion you express, therefore, is anonymous.
From time to time, upon completing a survey or poll, we may ask for your email address for competition, promotional or gifting purposes. Participation is entirely voluntary and this information is processed and stored separately from the information you provide us for the survey or poll. Where you provide this information to us, it will be processed only to administer the competition or promotion.
To deliver our content to you
To provide you with an email newsletter
We offer an email newsletters . We will only send you these newsletters with your explicit consent. We collect and use your information to send you the newsletter(s) you have requested and in some cases to personalise the email we send. You can opt out at any time by unsubscribing at the bottom of each email newsletter communication.
To share our content
We provide tools that enable users of our services to share or forward our content to a nominated email address. If someone else shares our content with you, we may temporarily collect your email address for the purpose of sharing the requested content. We will only use this information to fulfil the sharing request and this contact information is not retained by us. By providing us with your email address, the third party that initiates the sharing request indicates they have your consent to share our content with you.
To recommend content
We may use aggregate information we collect about you to suggest and recommend tailored content. By understanding which content you find useful or interesting, we can recommend more content that you might also like, as well as continuing to produce the most valuable content to meet your needs. This processing is necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interest in delivering relevant content to our readers. You have the right to object to this processing,

To understand how you use our services
To track how you gain access to or read our content
We collect information relating to your use of our services to track how you gain access to or read our content. We use log-in information, cookies and similar technologies, device information and internet protocol (“IP”) addresses to log your use of our services as follows:
When you sign up for or subscribe to one of our services, we will track and aggregate non-personal information previously collected about you through our services with the personal information provided when you register or subscribe. If we link other data with your personal information we will treat that linked data as personal information for as long as it remains combined. We use this information to evaluate your personal preferences and interests, which under the GDPR may constitute as customer profiling. We do so in pursuit of our legitimate interests which are:
To research and improve Hot Press’ and hotpress.com’s products, services, and customer communications
To understand which content you find useful or interesting
To develop and maintain relationships with our customers and readers
To deliver relevant content to our readers
To understand the demographics of our customers and readers
You have the right to object to this processing, and if you wish to do so please visit contact us at [email protected]
We log technical information that your browser sends us including: the internet protocol (IP) address; browser type and version; time-zone setting; access time; browser plug-in types and versions; operating system; and platform and device type
We log usage information about the use of our website and services, including: a history of the pages viewed and other actions taken, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site; articles, content and products viewed or searched for; page response times; download errors; length of visits to certain pages; page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs); and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number
Technical information, including: the type of mobile device used; unique mobile identifies, such as the devices IMEI number; mobile network information; the mobile operating system; the type of mobile browser used; and the time-zone setting
Details of our mobile applications used including but not limited to: traffic data; location data; weblogs; and other communication data and the resources accessed
Some of our location-enabled services require your personal GPS location data for the feature to work. If you wish to use a particular feature, you will be asked to specifically consent to your data being used for this purpose. This consent can by withdrawn at any time.
We use cookies and similar technologies to facilitate our Services in the retrieving of your user preferences; to personalise your visits; for the operation of our website; to collect statistical information about our visitors for analytical purposes; to simplify any sign-in procedures; to personalise content and ads and to provide social media features. We use some of the information you provide to personalise your experience with us as you use our Services, such as addressing you personally and making navigation on our sites easier. For more information on the use of cookies and similar technologies, please see our Cookie Policy.
To measure the effectiveness of our email communications
We use such technologies to determine whether you’ve opened an email communication from us or clicked on a link contained in an email. Collecting information in this manner allows us to gather statistics about the usage and effectiveness of our services and products, including our email newsletters and direct marketing communications, in our legitimate interest.
To support our advertising services
Third-party vendors, including Google, display advertising on our 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. This type of behavioral advertising is targeted towards groups of users in an anonymous and aggregated manner as opposed to you as an individual. Such online advertising helps support the content, products and services we provide.
We and third-party vendors use first-party cookies and third-party cookies together to inform, optimise and serve ads based on your browsing activities and interests. Any information we disclose to advertisers and advertising networks is non-personally identifiable.
Advertising networks may use cookies and similar technologies track you in order to measure the effectiveness of the ads they serve, detect fraudulent traffic, or to create a browsing profile that is used to deliver more relevant ads. For more information on how to manage advertising cookies please visit our cookie policy.
Processing based on our legitimate interests
We process your personal information for carefully considered and specific purposes which are in our legitimate interests and enable us to enhance the services we provide, but which we also believe benefit our customers. Our legitimate business interests do not automatically override your interests. You have the right, free of charge, to object to our use of your personal information for our legitimate interests. If you wish to do so contact us at [email protected]
Please bear in mind that if you do object, this may affect our ability to carry out certain tasks for your benefit.
Where you object to our use of your personal information for our legitimate interests, we may continue to process your personal data, despite your objection, where there are compelling legitimate grounds to do so. We will always ensure there is a fair balance between our legitimate interests and your fundamental right and freedoms.
We process personal information for the following legitimate business purposes:
To manage our everyday business needs and for internal purposes such as auditing, data analysis, troubleshooting, accounting, providing customer service, technical support and fraud prevention
To provide you with a more personalised experience, such as making content recommendations
To understanding which content you find useful or interesting
To support our advertising services
To determine the effectiveness of promotional campaigns, email campaigns and advertising
To research and improve Hot Press’ products, services, and customer communications
To ensure content from our site and mobile applications is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device
To develop and maintain relationships with our customers and readers
To implement customer-retention and win-back strategies
To better understand and improve the usability, performance, and effectiveness of our Services
To protect you against fraud and to detect, prevent, investigate security or technical issues to ensure our Services are secure
To protect the rights, property and safety of Hot Press or the rights, property or safety of our employees or others
To verify student credentials and assess the eligibility for a free subscription
To understand the demographics of our customers and readers
To send direct marketing to our subscribers or former subscribers.

Data storage and retention
We will retain your personal information as needed to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. We will retain and use your personal information no longer than is necessary to comply with our business and legal obligations. Where we enter into a legal contract with you, we will hold your personal information for a period of seven years from the date of completion of this contract by reference to the statute of limitation for a legal claim under contract.
International transfers
We may transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). These countries do not always afford an equivalent level of privacy protection and in such circumstances we take specific steps, in accordance with data protection law to protect your personal information. In particular, for transfers of personal data outside the EEA we rely either on an adequacy decision by the European Commission or on contractual protection approved by the European Commission.
Your data rights
You have several rights under data-protection law in relation to how we use your personal information. You have the right, free of charge, to:
Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format
Rectify any inaccurate personal information we hold about you
Withdraw your consent where we have relied upon your consent to process your information
Erase the personal information we hold about you subject to certain exceptions
If technically feasible, have your personal information transmitted to another data controller in a machine readable format at your request
Restrict processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
Object to our use of your personal information for our legitimate interests, for profiling and for direct marketing purposes
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
Lodge a complaint with the appropriate data-protection authority if you have concerns about how we process your personal data
These rights are in some circumstances limited by data-protection legislation. If you wish to exercise any of these rights please contact us at [email protected] . We will take measures to verify your identify which we will do by reference to copies of acceptable identification documentation supplied by you.
We will endeavour to respond to your request within a month. If we are unable to deal with your request within a month we may extend this period by a further two months and we will contact you and explain why.
Consequences of not providing information
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

What are Cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored in the hard drive of your computer by your browser.
How does the hotpress.com use cookies?
When you visit hotpress.com e we send one or more cookies to your computer or device that uniquely identify your browser. Like many website, hotpress.com uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising. In particular, cookies are used to keep a record of your preferences and to keep you logged in between visits if you so choose. This permits us to provide you with a more personalised experience. We also use temporary session cookies which enable a visitor’s web browser to remember which pages on this website have already been visited.
We specifically use Google Analytics to collect information about Demographics and Interest reporting and to potentially allow Remarketing, GDN Impression Reporting, and the DoubleClick Campaign Manager integration.

If you are primarily concerned about third party cookies generated by advertisers, you can turn these off by going to www.youronlinechoices.com/ie/
Here is a list of all the cookies that we set and how we use them

You should also be aware that where you link to another website from the hotpress.com website, that hotpress.com has no control over that other website. Accordingly, hotpress.com cannot guarantee that the controller of that website will respect your privacy in the same manner as hotpress.com.

Finally, you should be aware that personal information which you disclose by way of message boards or chat rooms can be collected and used by third parties who are unknown to you or to hotpress.com. Therefore, hotpress.com gives no guarantees in relation to the security of information which you disclose on line, and you acknowledge and agree that you do so at your own risk. You also acknowledge and agree that there are certain inherent risks in use of the Internet in respect of which hotpress.com has no liability.

hotpress.com reserves the right in its sole discretion to amend this privacy statement at any time, and we should regularly check this privacy statement for any amendments.