Privacy policy

Who we are

This website is for the podcast Acting on Experience. The organisation responsible for your personal information (the “data controller”) is Something Real Media. You can contact us about anything in this policy at privacy@somethingreal.media.

What we collect, and why

If you join the newsletter we store your email address, the date and time you agreed, the exact wording you agreed to, and a scrambled (hashed) version of your internet address, which we use only to spot and block abuse. We use this to send you emails about new episodes and news, which you have asked for. Our legal basis is your consent.

If you send us feedback we store your message, your name and email address if you chose to give them, which episode it was about (if any), the date and time, and a scrambled (hashed) version of your internet address, which we use only to spot and block abuse. We use this to read and respond to what listeners tell us. If you gave an email address, we use it only to reply to you personally; it is not added to any mailing list, and you will not receive newsletters or other emails from us unless you sign up for them separately. Feedback is seen only by the show's administrators and editors and is never published. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in hearing from and replying to our listeners. We check messages for web links, code and hidden characters, and may reject a message that contains them.

To check a form is being used by a person, we use Cloudflare Turnstile. It runs in your browser and Cloudflare may receive technical information such as your internet address to make that decision.

We store a log of the emails we send you (which email, when, and whether it was delivered) so we can fix problems.

Links in our newsletters. Some newsletters may include links to things related to the show, such as a guest's film or book. Some of these links may carry a referral or affiliate identifier, which lets the organisation we link to see that a visit came from us and, if a purchase follows, may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. We may also measure how the links in our emails are used, so we can see what listeners find useful. Where the law requires it, we will ask for your consent first. The websites we link to have their own privacy policies, and we will keep this policy up to date if what we do changes.

Cookies

When you first visit, we ask whether you're happy for us to use analytics cookies (Google Analytics) to understand how the site is used, such as which pages and episodes are popular. They are only set if you say yes, they never identify you personally, and Google does not store your full internet address. You can accept or decline, and change your mind at any time, using the “Cookie preferences” link in the footer of every page. Declining does not stop you using any part of the site. Google's own privacy policy is at policies.google.com/privacy.

Who else handles your information

We use trusted providers to run the site and send email: Resend (sending email), Cloudflare (the sign-up check and image storage), Upstash (short-lived counters that limit how often a form can be used; these use a scrambled version of your internet address, never your email), Google (analytics, only if you accept cookies), our website host and our database provider. They may only use your information to provide their service to us.

How long we store it

Sign-ups that are never confirmed are deleted after 30 days. If you unsubscribe we store your email address on a “do not email” list so that we never email you by mistake, and we delete it if you ask us to. Email delivery logs are deleted after 90 days. Feedback messages (and any name or email address sent with them) are deleted 12 months after we receive them, or sooner if you ask us to.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct or delete the information we hold about you, and you can withdraw your consent at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us. If you are unhappy with how we handle your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).