Privacy Policy

Encyclopædia Britannica (UK) Ltd is committed to protecting your privacy. Please read the following to understand how your personal information will be handled. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we disclose it.

The Britannica shop has been certified by Trust UK part of Direct Marketing Association who are the recognised authority and author of Direct Marketing Code of Practice.

Your personal information

When placing an order, we collect the following information from you – your name, address, telephone number and Email address, credit/debit card number and expiry date. This information allows us to process and fulfil your order and to send confirmation of the details of your order.

When registering or entering a competition, the following information will be requested – your name, address, telephone number and Email address. We also ask you to complete a short survey, this information is completely optional on your part.

Using your personal information

Britannica will use the information that you provide us for marketing purposes and to notify you about improvements and enhancements to our online shop. We would like to keep you informed about our products and services and notify you of special offers that we think may be of interest to you.

Occasionally, we may pass your name and address details to other approved organisations so that they can contact you with news of products or offers that might be of interest to you. If you do not wish us to do this you can let us know at any time by Emailing us at enquiries@britannica.co.uk. We will not, however pass on your email address to any third parties.

Secure Shopping Guarantee

Security is probably one of the most significant concerns for both the shopper and the retailer during an online transaction. In reality, an online transaction is probably more secure than a card transaction in a shop or conducted over the telephone or by fax, as the information transmitted online is strongly encrypted using complicated logarithm combinations. We want you to be happy placing your orders online, so we have incorporated the well known and established WorldPay payment system to process payments by credit or debit cards.

The WorldPay payment system uses a combination of both established and innovative techniques to ensure the security and integrity of all sensitive data. Furthermore, our public web servers are certified by Thawte, a public Certificate Authority, ensuring that both the shopper and retailer can have confidence that nobody can impersonate WorldPay to obtain confidential information.

Transaction Encryption

The transfer of the purchase details from the retailers site to Worldpay are encapsulated using our own encrypted and digitally-signed protocol. This uses a combination of standard methods such as PGP, RSA and MD5 to ensure that the information passed is secure and tamper-proof via SSL. See Purchase Token Security for details.

Security for the Shopper

Any communication between the shopper and WorldPay is also encrypted to the maximum strength supported by the shopper's browser using 128 Bit SSL. Shoppers are also protected from fraudulent use of their card in a "card not present" environment, by their card issuers. The card issuers provide the right for shopper to dispute a transaction if the goods/services did not arrive or if the card was used fraudulently.

Data Storage

Data storage on WorldPay systems, and the communication between WorldPay and the worldwide banking networks, is regularly audited by the banking authorities to ensure a secure transaction environment.