Privacy Policy

Introduction
Your privacy is important to Match Play Media and maintaining your trust is paramount to us. We are fully committed to keeping your personal information safe. 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 other websites controlled by us or by a company within our group (including but not limited to www.irishgolfer.ie, matchplaymedia.ie 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 info@matchplaymedia.ie.

Changes to this privacy policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. If we make any material changes, we will notify you prior to the changes taking effect by posting a notice on our websites and, where appropriate, sending you a notification.

Who we are and how to contact us
Throughout this privacy policy, “we” “us” and “ours” refers to Irish Golfer and Match Play Media Ltd. Match Play Media is a registered company with an address at Unit G13 Maynooth Business Campus, Maynooth, Co. Kildare Ireland. We are the company that controls your data known as the “data controller” under data protection law. We can be contacted by email at info@matchplaymedia.ie or by phone at +353-1-5036099.

Information 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 or play at one of our Irish Golfer events.

To pay for the services you have requested from us
We will collect your payment information to pay for any services you have requested from us. Credit and debit card information is processed directly by Elevon payment providers who perform payment services on our behalf. Occasionally, our employees receive payment information from customers over the phone. When this occurs, the payment information is entered as instructed into the relevant payment system and all other copies are deleted or destroyed immediately.

To facilitate registration through social networks
We may collect your publicly available social media profile details, including your name and email address, when you sign up for one of our services through a social media account. We may use these details for the purposes of our registration process in order to enter into a contract with you. We may also automatically import your profile photo and membership status of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter if you choose to make these details public. Where we do, we do so in pursuit of our legitimate interest in understanding the demographics of our customers and readers.

To place an advertisement
We may process your personal information if you opt to place an advertisement. We only process this information to deliver the advertising service you have requested as per the terms and conditions you accept.

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. In some cases, your competition entry may be shared with the promoter and this will be specified 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 will publish your name on our website and indicate the prize you have won.

To participate in a survey or poll
We conduct surveys and polls that we use to produce original research from our readers. Your participation is entirely voluntary. You may consent to Irish Golfer 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
We offer a number of email newsletters / digital magazines to non-paying subscribers. 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, and if you wish to do so please email us at info@matchplaymedia.ie.

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:

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 behavioural 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.

To attend one of our events
We host many Irish Golfer events throughout the year.

To correspond with you
If you correspond with us, we will use your contact information to respond to your enquiry. We process this information in pursuit of our legitimate interests to develop and maintain relationships with our customers and readers.

To manage our everyday business needs
We may use your personal information to manage our everyday business needs, including for internal purposes such as auditing, data analysis, troubleshooting, accounting, providing customer service, technical support and fraud prevention in our legitimate interest. Our legitimate interest is the effective management of our business.

To verify your identity
To exercise your data rights, we may need to collect additional personal information from you to verify your identity and to process your request.

When you provide professional services to us
You may provide us with your personal information if you provide professional services to us. We process this information so we can administer, manage and pay for the relevant services you provide and as per the terms and conditions of our contract.

Anonymous information we process
We process data in a form that does not, on its own, permit direct association with any specific individual and therefore cannot be reasonably used to identify or contact you. Aggregated and anonymous data is considered non-personal information for the purposes of this privacy policy.

Push notifications
We use app push notifications to inform you about breaking news, live event coverage and other top stories. We do not process any personal information and cannot establish the identity of the users who have subscribed to receive these notifications. We may occasionally use push notifications to send you marketing material which may be of interest to you. 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.

The legal basis for processing your information
We collect your information for a number of purposes and rely on a number of different legal bases to use your personal information.

To enter into and perform a contract with you
We use your personal information to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us or to take the necessary steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with us, including:

  • To provide you with the subscription, services or products you have requested
  • To process your payment information
  • To authenticate and verify your account
  • To provide customer and technical support
  • To administer competitions or similar promotions
  • To enter into a subscription contract with us
  • To pay for the services you may professionally provide to us
  • To send 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
  • To keep you informed of the benefits of your subscription
  • To ensure you get the most out of your subscription
  • To deliver exclusive content and benefits to our subscribers
  • With your consent, which can be withdrawn at any time

We will, in certain circumstances, rely on your explicit consent to process your personal information. Where we do, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. In most circumstances, your consent can be withdrawn by following the unsubscribe instructions included at the end of each email communication from us.

To comply with our legal obligations
We may be required to process your personal information to comply with certain legal obligations to which we are subject, including:
Providing information to an Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners or other Government bodies or agencies when required to do so by law
If you have exercised one of your data rights, we will retain a copy of all correspondence to demonstrate our compliance with data-protection legislation
If you have exercised one of your data rights and ask us not to contact you by email at a particular email address, we will need to retain a copy of that email address in order to comply with your no-contact request

To carry out our statutory audit
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 info@matchplaymedia.ie. Please bear in mind that if you do object, this may affect our ability to carry out certain tasks for your benefit.

When and how your information is shared
Within our group
We may share your personal information with any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries and use it in a manner that is consistent with this privacy policy.

Bundle subscriptions
We may share your personal information with any member of our group if the service you have requested is fulfilled by them. For example, where subscriptions are offered as part of a bundle, if the digital access is provided by a member of our group, we will share your personal information to fulfil the services you have requested.

With third parties
We may share your personal information with third parties for a number of reasons as outlined below. We do not sell your personal information to anyone and only share it with third parties who are facilitating the delivery or fulfilment of our services and or are working on our behalf. We contractually require that our suppliers protect such information from unauthorised access, use, and disclosure.

Third-party service providers
We may share your personal information with third-party service providers which perform services and functions at our direction and on our behalf, such as our accountants, IT service providers, printers, payment providers, lawyers, providers of security and administration services and other business advisers.

Third-party service partners
We provide certain services and run promotions in conjunction with third parties and we may share your personal information if the service you have requested is fulfilled by them.  These third parties have their own security and privacy policies. You are advised to review these separately.

Third-party data controllers
We may share your personal information with third parties that may receive and process your personal information as a data controller in their own right. In the context of delivering an order or product to your address, we will share your shipping information with our delivery partners who will use it for the purposes of picking up, delivering and tracking your shipment. Our delivery partners may further use this information to plan delivery routes, to optimise and improve transportation operations and to enhance route and network planning tools such as maps, etc. As such, these third parties act as a data controller in their own right in respect of any shipping information that they hold. You can obtain more information about the delivery partners we use, how they process and treat your personal information and how to exercise your data rights by contacting us at info@matchplaymedia.ie

Third-party advertisers
We disclose non-personally identifiable anonymous information to third-party advertisers to help them reach the kind of audience they want to target. We share summary aggregate reports for our advertisers to measure the effectiveness of the ads they have served. These advertising parties may combine the information we send with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services.

Independent auditors
We may share your personal data with a third-party auditing organisation (ABC) in accordance with our legitimate interests to verify aggregated statistics about circulation and usage of our products or to review our policies, processes and procedures for compliance with relevant standards.

Social networking sites
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 policy 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. We may 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.

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.

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 info@matchplaymedia.ie. 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.

Processing for journalistic purposes
As a news publishing organisation, Match Play Media processes personal data for the purpose of exercising the right to freedom of expression and information, and for journalistic purposes. This processing is exempt from compliance with certain obligations of the GDPR.
We may process your personal information for journalist 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 discussion forums
It is important to understand that certain rights which you have in relation to your personal information may not apply where that data is processed for journalistic purposes.