Privacy & Cookie Policy

Highwood House Publishing Limited (HHPL) is committed to protecting the privacy of users of the site www.maturetimes.co.uk at all times. It is our policy to disclose within this statement all issues related to privacy in the collection by HHPL of personally identifiable information from the users of the site www.maturetimes.co.uk.

Our Privacy Policy is written to advise you of our practices with regards to the collection, use and disclosure of information that you may provide via the website www.maturetimes.co.uk. Whenever you use our site you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We have put in place a set of information guidelines that serve as the basis for our customer and advertiser relationships. These guidelines have been developed to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. We will also, from time to time, act on advice published by the Information Commissioner.

These guidelines are subject to change. We will, from time to time, make changes to our Privacy Policy. Any such changes will be posted on these pages without notification.

Highwood House Publishing Limited is registered as required under the Data Protection Act 1998, registration number Z960527X. If you require information on the Data Protection Act 1998, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 or the Information Commissioner you can visit www.dataprotection.gov.uk.

The following measures are taken by HHPL to protect our users' privacy:-

  • We do not provide or sell your details to advertisers or third parties unless you have specifically requested that we do so, to allow these advertisers and / or third parties to offer you information, goods and services that may be of interest to you. In the case of any offers made to you these offers will only come from HHPL.
     
  • HHPL and our group of companies may contact you by post or telephone with details of their products, services and promotions. In the case of e-mail this correspondence will be sent to all users excepting those who have specifically opted out of receiving communications via these methods.
     
  • All e-mail correspondence that you receive will include an unsubscribe option.
     
  • We reserve the right to disclose information about member usage and demographics to advertisers and partners, but this will only be in anonymous aggregate format. HHPL will not reveal your personal identity in connection with the disclosure of such information.
     
  • What Personally Identifiable Information Is Collected About You?

     

    Information is collected on our users in two ways: through the use of cookies and through registration. For more information about cookies please see below.

    We may require users to provide us with a name, e-mail address, postal address, postcode, gender and date of birth in order to register for access to certain services. We may also ask for other non-mandatory demographic information from subscribers.

    Following registration we will employ a registration cookie to recognise a subscriber and his or her access privileges on www.maturetimes.co.uk as well as to track site usage.

    We will also collect personal information from you through your use of enquiry and feedback forms and every time you e-mail us your details. We will only collect such information when you choose to supply it to us.

    We will also log IP addresses, or the location of your computer on the internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We occasionally use IP addresses to track a user's session, but do not link IP addresses to personally identifiable information.

    For your information, an IP address is a number assigned to your computer by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), so you can access the internet. An IP address is generally considered to be non-personally identifiable information, because in most cases an IP address is dynamic (i.e. it changes each time you connect to the internet), rather than static (i.e. unique to a particular user's computer).

    What Do We Do With The Information We Collect?
     

    We may use the information we collect to perform statistical analyses of user behaviour in order to measure relative consumer interest in the various areas of our site (to improve our site) and to inform advertisers as to how many consumers have seen or 'clicked' their advertising banners. In performing these statistical analyses, we will disclose information to third parties only in aggregate form. Personal information on individual subscribers will not be provided to third parties.

    We may periodically send you e-mail updates on www.maturetimes.co.uk and services offered by www.maturetimes.co.uk and its advertisers. All users will receive these communications via e-mail unless they have specifically opted not to receive these communications. If you wish to opt out of receiving such information from us, then please use the unsubscribe option included in all our e-mail correspondence or send and e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. stating that you would prefer not to receive such mailings.

    We will also use your information to target banner and box advertising on our site in order that you will see advertising that may be more relevant to you. You will never be targeted as an individual, but as a larger demographic group of similar users. This use of your personal information is contractual to the use of www.maturetimes.co.uk. If you do not wish your information to be used in this way then you will be unable to use those areas of www.maturetimes.co.uk that require registration.

    We will use files generated by our web servers to analyse site usage and statistics but the files do not identify any personal information. Files analysis helps us to understand usage patterns on our website and to make improvements to our service.

    'Third Party' Advertising Cookies
     

    Most of the advertisements that you will see on www.maturetimes.co.uk are generated by third parties. Some of these third parties will generate their own cookies to track how many people have seen a particular advertisement (or use the services of third parties to do this), and to track how many people have seen it more than once. These cookies cannot be used to identify an individual; they can only be used for statistical purposes, for example, in providing you with advertisements that are more relevant to your interests. Some of the information gleaned from third party cookies will be aggregated with other anonymous information for statistical purposes. The third party companies that generate these cookies have their own, very strict, privacy policies but we don't have access to these cookies; other than allowing them to be served, we have no role to play in these cookies at all (although we may use statistical information arising from these third party cookies and provided to us by third parties, to improve the targeting of advertisements to users of www.maturetimes.co.uk).

    If you would like to disable these 'third party' cookies generated by advertisers or providers of targeted advertising services, you can turn them off by going to the third party's website and getting them to generate a one-time "no-thanks" cookie that will stop any further cookies being served to your machine.

    With Whom Do We Share The Information We Collect?
     

    We do not provide or sell 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. Also, we may provide aggregate statistics on our customers, sales, traffic patterns and related site information to reputable third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information.

    We will provide subscribers with a summary of all personal information that we process on them upon request. We will charge a fee of £50 for any such requests. If you wish to make such a request please send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and include the e-mail address that you registered with along with your full postal address, postcode and telephone number. We will then call you to collect the fee payable by either debit or credit card payment. We undertake to comply with such requests and provide information within 14 days of you making such a request. No information will be provided, or requests actioned, until the appropriate fee has been collected.

    Please note it may be necessary, or required by law or if pertinent to judicial or governmental investigations to release your personal identifiable information to third parties. If we receive such a request we will comply with it but we will not be under any obligation to inform you of such instances or disclosure.

    What Is A Cookie?
     

    A cookie is described as a small, numeric text file that is stored by your browser on your computer's hard drive. Any information you provide to us is held securely on our web servers and not on your machine. A cookie does not contain any personally identifiable information.

    If you would like to know more about cookies and how they work, or if you would like to learn how to disable cookies in your browser settings or to refuse cookies then please visit www.allaboutcookies.org for more information.

    External Websites
     

    HHPL cannot be held responsible for the content or the privacy policies of web sites to which www.maturetimes.co.uk may link. If you are concerned with or have a complaint about an external website with whom www.maturetimes.co.uk links then please advise us of your concerns or complaint by sending an e-mail to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Please note that any such e-mails must contain the name, address and telephone number of you as an individual. If this information is missing or is not provided then HHPL are under no obligation to investigate or to reply to such a complaint.

    If you are unsure as to the content or nature of an external website then we would encourage you to read the privacy policy of that website before you use it.

     

    © Highwood House Publishing Limited 2012

    Campaigns & Issues

    Lobby for libraries

    NPCThe NPC officers have given their backing to a lobby being organised by UNISON, the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI), Voices for the Library, The Library Campaign, Campaign for the Book and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) which will call on politicians to protect vital library services. 

    Read More

    News

    WRVS response to Health Committee report on social care

    WRVS.jpg

    WRVS calls for a decisive leap towards joining up health and social care responding to the Health Select Committee inquiry report.

    David McCullough, Chief Executive of WRVS said:  “Delivering 21st-century health services will hinge on us switching considerable resources into keeping older people in their own homes and  breaking the cycle of isolation that faces many people from their seventies onwards.

    Read More

    Competitions & Fun

    Win a signed copy of Citizen James on DVD

    citizen james

    CARRY ON’S inimitable Sid James is Citizen James in the hilarious 1960s BBC comedy, which finally comes to DVD for the first time. This long-lost classic comedy series makes its DVD debut, featuring the only known surviving episodes, the complete series one, and two episodes each from series two and three. They will be released as a two-disc set on 6 February 2012 courtesy of Acorn Media.

    In series one written by Alan Simpson and Ray Galton (Hancock, Steptoe & Son), Sid (Sid James) is a hard-working layabout, gambler and con-artist, hanging out on the streets of Soho with his sidekick Bill (Bill Kerr), in Charlie’s Nosh Bar and occasionally paying a visit to his long-suffering fiancée Liz (Liz Fraser), to borrow money to pay off his gambling debts and cons gone wrong.

    Read More

    Advertorial

    February is travel love month with Silver Travel Advisor

    Silver Travel_Advisor_LogoWIN £1,000 CRUISE VOUCHERS WITH VIKING RIVER CRUISES AND MANY OTHER PRIZES

    Silver Travel Advisor is a friendly website packed with advice, tips, information and honest reviews written by and for silver travellers (aged over 50). A team of advisors are on hand to answer queries (for free), and you can share your own experiences too. 

    February is Travel Love month at Silver Travel Advisor, and there is a whole range of prizes to be found including the star prize:

    Viking River Cruises – win £1,000 cruise vouchers

    Read More

    Health & Wellbeing

    Scrap the government's health bill, say BMJ readers

    bmj logoMore than 90% of British Medical Journal readers responding to a poll published today think the government's health reforms should be scrapped.

    The poll asked: "Should the Health and Social Care Bill for England now be withdrawn?"

    Read More

    Property & Finance

    Did you miss the Self Assessment deadline?

    hmrc logoIf you have missed the deadline for submitting a Self Assessment (SA) tax return and you can show that you should not have been in the SA regime in the first place, then you may be able to avoid any penalties.

    Read More

    Lifestyle

    Paula's Wines of the Week starting 6 February 2012

    Paula Goddard

    If you really like a certain wine, rather than buying it in single cork-stoppered bottles why not get larger four bottle-sized amounts available in boxes? But if stepping along to the supermarket seems like too much of a chilly effort then try the online winebox retailer InspiredWine.co.uk because they’re offering free delivery during February.

    There are advantages to buying wine in a winebox. As the wine is dispensed through a plastic tap all the annoyance of the cork is removed: no more tainted 'corked' wine (this spoils at least one in ten traditionally bottled wines due to improperly sterilised corks) and no more chasing around bits of broken cork that always sink when the index finger sent in to oik them out gets anywhere near them.

    Read More

    Travel & Leisure

    £15m boost for sustainable travel

    Sustrans imageTransport Minister Norman Baker today announced £15m of new funding for sustainable travel projects across the country that will promote economic growth and cut carbon.

    The investment is in addition to the £560m Local Sustainable Transport Fund announced in January 2011. This additional funding, heavily geared towards cycling, will support jobs, enhance access to employment and encourage greater use of more environmentally friendly transport.

    Read More

    The paper is better than ever, more professional, carrying a profusion of by-lined articles that are intensely relevant and interesting to us oldies. Take a bow, Editor David Thomas. You and your team are doing a great job.