Advertising messages on BBC.com
If you are outside the UK, you will see the international version of the BBC website, which features advertising. A certain amount of this advertising is tailored to the individual user. Sometimes this advertising is based on the pages that you view so that we can make these messages as relevant as possible and maximise your enjoyment of the website.
How do we collect information?
Tailored advertising is facilitated by a company called Audience Science. This is a practice widely used by other major web publishers and is known as 'onsite behavioural targeting'. The tracking system is anonymised and therefore it does not know who you are: it simply uses the limited information available to it to serve ads to you that it believes are relevant.
Audience Science uses cookies to discover general information about the pages on BBC.com that you visit and your IP address information in order to add general information about the country, city or region in which you are located along with your domain name (e.g. what internet service provider you use). This information enables you to be grouped anonymously with other people of similar interests and places you in a "market segment". It then places advertisements onto BBC.com which it believes people in your market segment will find relevant.
At no time will we or our service providers attempt to identify you individually, and at no time do we know what pages you individually have been looking at.
Our 'onsite behavioural targeting' functionality is different from other forms of behavioural targeting in that we only look at your journey across BBC.com and other websites controlled by BBC Worldwide. Please note that we do not share data with or from other external websites
What if I'd prefer not to receive tailored advertising?
BBC.com respects your privacy and we understand that some users may choose to opt out of our tailored advertising. You may opt out or adjust your settings via the box on the right hand corner of this page. This will place a cookie on your computer or other device so that we can recognise that you do not wish to receive advertising of this type.
Will this affect my browsing experience and enjoyment of BBC.com?
If you choose to opt out of receiving our tailored advertising messages, you will see the same amount of advertising but the advertising may not be relevant to you.
Should you opt out, your settings will be changed for the computer or other device (e.g. iPhone) that you are using. Should you browse the website from a different device, you will need to opt out again.
If you delete cookies stored on your computer/device, BBC.com will not be able to recognise that you have previously opted out and you will need to return to this page to opt out again.
Further information
The BBC is committed to protecting you and your family's personal information when you are using BBC services. We want our services to be safe and enjoyable environments for our audience. Please click here to view our Privacy Policy in full.
