Programme Privacy Policy

Swan Films Ltd (registered number 08741246) (“us”, “our”, “we”, Swan Films”) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.  Any reference to “you” or “your” means you as a potential participant in one of our Programmes whether commissioned or in development (“Programme”).

  1. 1.    Introduction

This Programme Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) sets out the types of personal data we may collect, store and use when we communicate with you about participating in one of our Programmes and how we may use the personal data you provide to us.

When you provide us with personal data we have legal obligations towards you in the way we use that data.  The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 (“Regulation”) creates these legal obligations.   We will collect, store and use your personal data in accordance with this Regulation and any other relevant and applicable laws and/or regulations.

For ease of reading, we have divided this Policy into several sections:

  1. Introduction
  2. What is personal data and what do we collect
  3. How we use your personal data
  4. Why we are allowed to use your personal data
  5. How we store and protect your personal data
  6. Your rights
  7. Contact details

Please note that Swan Films intends but does not guarantee that it will produce the Programme you are being considered for as a contributor.  The Programme is intended to be broadcast, promoted for broadcast (including on online and digital platforms), distributed worldwide, and, if applicable, we will confirm the specific channels and platforms for broadcast to you in due course.  

Please also note that we reserve the right to change this Policy from time to time.  Any changes we may make to this Policy in the future will be posted on our website, and, where appropriate, we will notify you by e-mail or social media messaging.

This Policy will be exclusively governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

  1. 2.    What is personal data and what do we collect

Where this Policy refers to ‘personal data’ it is referring to data about you from which you could be identified – such as your name, your date of birth and/or your contact details.

The personal data you supply to us over e-mail, social media, telephone, SMS, and in person may include, but is not limited to, your name, gender, social media username, contact details, the area you live, any images/videos/messages you supply and the content they reveal about you.

We may also collect special category data which may include details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, political beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, health information and genetic and biometric data.

The types of personal data we collect will depend on precisely what details you volunteer to us as you interact with us and/or contribute to our Programme but we will only collect what is necessary for the development and production of the Programme.

  1. 3.    How we use your personal data

Any or all of your personal data may be used but not limited to in the following ways:

i.        To evaluate your suitability as a potential contributor for the Programme. We may conduct pre-interviews with you by phone or in person and/or invite you to a further interview and/or audition, which may also be filmed.  These pre-screening activities will necessarily involve the collection and storage of your personal data.

ii.        Should you be selected to be a contributor to a Programme, you will be invited to participate in television shoots which will involve the collection and storage of your personal data.

iii.        In social media films, which may be made to accompany the Programme and which may be released on social media platforms (both online and digital platforms and for promotional purposes).

iv.            In developing, producing, promoting and exploiting the Programme, we may share your personal data with members of the production team, financiers, distributors, insurance brokers and underwriters of our programmes, broadcasters which commissioned the Programme and other broadcasters worldwide which may re-broadcast the Programme (our “Partners”).

v.        In our legal contract with you (the “Contributor Agreement”).  In addition to recording your personal data, the Contributor Agreement sets out a full, detailed description of the Programme and information about which broadcaster(s)/distributors will show/distribute the Programme.

vi.        If your contribution relates to a Programme featuring the artist Grayson Perry then your personal data may be used within the artworks made by Grayson Perry which may also be exhibited to the general public and may be reported on and publicised in national and international media.

vii.        Within an online platform called Silvermouse (“Silvermouse”) which is a broadcaster system where we will enter your personal data such as name, address, telephone number, and agent if you have one, so the broadcaster has a log of everyone included in the Programme and sometimes those cut from the final Programme.

viii.        Within another online system called Diamond (“Diamond”).  Broadcasters and the Creative Diversity Network (“CDN”) monitor diversity within UK television programming.  When you enter into a Contributor Agreement with us, the name and email address you provide us with is entered into Silvermouse by us.  You will then be sent an email by Diamond which collates diversity monitoring statistics in broadcasting.  Diamond will invite you to provide your diversity characteristics for input into its online platform. Swan Films will retain your name and email address for this purpose, however, we do not have access to the diversity information you may supply to Diamond.  Personal data and special category data you volunteer for this purpose will be held securely and will be anonymised.  Further information about Diamond can be found here: http://creativediversitynetwork.com/diamond/contributors.  Please note we may also be required to record similar information for our international distributors from time to time.

ix.        We may also retain your personal data so that we may stay in touch with you and contact you about prospective contributions to other Programmes we may produce.

We shall only use any personal information you give to us in accordance with this Policy and applicable data protection laws and with any additional statements appearing on forms used for submitting your personal information. We shall not sell any of your personal data nor shall we disclose your personal information other than in accordance with this Policy.

  1. 4.    Why we are allowed to use your personal data

Under the Regulation, we must have a legal justification (“Lawful Basis”) for using your personal data in the specific ways we have outlined above.

Contractual necessity

Additionally, our collection, storage and use of your personal data is necessary in order for us to enter into and perform our obligations under the Contributor Agreement.  We therefore rely on this contractual necessity as a Lawful Basis for using your personal data.

Legitimate interests

We also rely on our legitimate interests and the legitimate interests of our Partners as a Lawful Basis for using your personal data. This means that using your personal data is commercially necessary for us (and our Partners) to develop, produce and exploit our Programmes and this legitimate interest is not overridden by your data protection rights as an individual.

Please note that we have a legitimate interest in continuing to process your personal data even after your Contributor Agreement has concluded and/or your services are no longer required. The basis for this legitimate interest is making the production you contributed to available to audiences in the future.  If, in the course of Programme production, we decide to cut your contribution from the final edited Programme, it is within our legitimate interests to retain your personal data after the exercise of our editorial discretion for record keeping purposes and in the event we need to communicate with you in the future.

Special categories of personal data

With regard to special categories of personal data (see the section “What is personal data and what do we collect”) we rely on our legitimate interests and/or contractual necessity as lawful bases in addition to your consent as a lawful condition for processing (as required by the GDPR).  You have the right to withdraw your consent to our use of special categories of personal data at any time, although this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before the withdrawal.

Additionally, Diamond (see section “How we use your personal data”) may collect special categories of personal data as part of the CDN’s commitment to monitoring diversity.  Further information about Diamond and diversity monitoring can be found here: https://creativediversitynetwork.com/diversity-in-practice/resources/guidance-notes/.

  1. 5.    How we store and protect your personal data

We will hold your personal data only for as long as required in order for us to develop, produce, promote and exploit the Programme.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

To prevent unauthorised access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the correct use of your personal data, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the personal data we collect from you.  We may use encryption (SSL) to protect your personal data when appropriate, and all the information provided to us is securely stored once we receive it.

We also require that our Partners take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard the personal data that you provide to us.  We will only provide our Partners with the minimum amount of personal data they need to fulfil the services we request, and we stipulate that they protect this information and do not use it for any other purpose. We take these relationships seriously and oblige all of our Partners to sign contracts with us that clearly set out their commitment to respecting data protection rights, and their commitments to assisting us to help you exercise these rights.

Please note that some of our Partners may be based outside of the European Economic Area (the “EEA”).  Where we transfer your personal data to a Partner that is outside of the EEA we seek to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to make sure that your personal data is held securely and that your rights are upheld.

  1. 6.    Your Rights

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Below, we have described the various rights that you have, as well as how you can exercise them.

Right of Access

You may, at any time, request access to the personal data that we hold which relates to you (you may have heard of this right being described as a “subject access request”).

Please note that this right entitles you to receive a copy of the personal data that we hold about you in order to enable you to check that it is correct and to ensure that we are processing that personal data lawfully. It is not a right that allows you to request personal data about other people, or a right to request specific documents from us that do not relate to your personal data.

You can exercise this right at any time by writing to us using the contact details set out below and telling us that you are making a subject access request. You do not have to fill in a specific form to make this kind of request.

Your Right to Rectification and Erasure

You may, at any time, request that we correct personal data that we hold about you which you believe is incorrect or inaccurate. You may also ask us to erase personal data if you do not believe that we need to continue retaining it (you may have heard of this right described as the “right to be forgotten”).

Please note that we may ask you to verify any new data that you provide to us and may take our own steps to check that the new data you have supplied us with is right. Further, we are not always obliged to erase personal data when asked to do so; if for any reason we believe that we have a good legal reason to continue processing personal data that you ask us to erase we will tell you what that reason is at the time we respond to your request.

You can exercise this right at any time by writing to us using the contact details set out below and telling us that you are making a request to have your personal data rectified or erased and on what basis you are making that request. If you want us to replace inaccurate data with new data, you should tell us what that new data is. You do not have to fill in a specific form to make this kind of request.

Your Right to Restrict Processing

Where we process your personal data on the basis of a legitimate interest (see the sections of this Policy ‘Why we are allowed to use your personal data’) you are entitled to ask us to stop processing it in that way if you feel that our continuing to do so impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms or if you feel that those legitimate interests are not valid.

You may also ask us to stop processing your personal data (a) if you dispute the accuracy of that personal data and want us to verify that data’s accuracy; (b) where it has been established that our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where we no longer need to process your personal data (and would otherwise dispose of it) but you wish for us to continue storing it in order to enable you to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Please note that if for any reason we believe that we have a good legal reason to continue processing personal data that you ask us to stop processing, we will tell you what that reason is, either at the time we first respond to your request or after we have had the opportunity to consider and investigate it.

You can exercise this right at any time by writing to us using the contact details set out below and telling us that you are making a request to have us stop processing the relevant aspect of your personal data and describing which of the above conditions you believe is relevant to that request. You do not have to fill in a specific form to make this kind of request.

Your Right to Portability

Where you wish to transfer certain personal data that we hold about you, which is processed by automated means, to a third party you may write to us and ask us to provide it to you in a commonly used machine-readable format.

Because of the kind of work that we do and the systems that we use, we do not envisage this right being particularly relevant to the majority of individuals with whom we interact. However, if you wish to transfer your data from us to a third party we are happy to consider such requests.

Your Right to stop receiving communications

Whilst Swan Films does not currently engage in direct marketing communications such as e-mails (or other regulated electronic messages) we need to let you know that you have the right to opt-out of such communications at any time. Should Swan Films engage in direct e-mail marketing in the future, you can opt-out by using the ‘unsubscribe’ link that will appear in the footer of each communication (or the equivalent mechanism in those communications).

Alternatively, if for any reason you cannot use those links, or if you would prefer to contact us directly – you can unsubscribe by writing to us at info@swanfilms.tv and telling us which communications you would like us to stop sending you.

Your Right to object to automated decision making and profiling

You have the right to be informed about the existence of any automated decision making and profiling of your personal data, and where appropriate, be provided with meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing that affects you.

Exercising your rights

When you write to us making a request to exercise your rights we are entitled to ask you to prove that you are who you say you are. We may ask you to provide copies of relevant ID documents to help us to verify your identity.

It will help us to process your request if you clearly state which right you wish to exercise and, where relevant, why it is that you are exercising it. The clearer and more specific you can be, the faster and more efficiently we can deal with your request. If you do not provide us with sufficient information then we may delay actioning your request until you have provided us with additional information (and where this is the case we will tell you).

  1. 7.    Contact Details

If you have any queries regarding this Policy, if you wish to exercise any of your rights set out above or if you think that the Policy has not been followed, please contact us at info@swanfilms.tv.

You may also write to us by post at:

FAO: Data Protection Manager
Swan Films Ltd, Hackney Downs Studios, 17 Amhurst Terrace, London, E8 2BT