Privacy Notice for Contributors

Who is this for?

This Privacy Notice is for "contributors", by this we mean:

• on-air talent (such as actors, musicians, presenters, writers and composers),
• people applying to be in our programmes (such as appear on a quiz show),
• other people providing contributions for our programmes (like people being interviewed or people giving us photos to use or people letting us use their property as a filming location), and
• agents or representative representing contributors

This Privacy Notice explains what personal data we collect and what happens to it.

If you are a contributor to a BBC Studios production you should refer to the BBC Studios Contributor Privacy Policy.

If you are engaged on an employment contract by the BBC or BBC Studios then you should instead refer to the BBC People Privacy Notice.

Your personal data

As a contributor you provide information about yourself. This is called “personal data”.

You provide personal data in the application form, talent contract, consent form and correspondence with us about your contribution, including (where relevant):

• Your name
• Email address
• Address

If you have a talent contract, you may also have provided us with other types of personal data, including:

• Mobile phone number
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Residence status
• Nationality
• Pension number
• Financial details including bank account information
• National Insurance number
• US social security number
• BBC staff number

You also provide personal data as part of your contribution. This could be your image, voice, photos of yourself, views of your property and other information contained in your contribution that identifies you.

Special Category and Criminal Offence personal data

You might also choose to share with us Special Category or Criminal Offence personal data relating to your:

• race or ethnicity
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• trade union membership
• health
• sex life or sexual orientation
• genetics or biometrics
• criminal offences
• criminal convictions

In certain circumstances we may ask you to request a DBS criminal records check (Disclosure and Barring Service check) and share the results with us.

Information from other sources

We may collect information about you from public sources (such as social media) industry contacts and public opinion through surveys and market research.

How we use your personal data

The BBC or BBC Studios (as applicable) is the "data controller" and decides how your personal data is used. This is called "processing data".

The data controller is required to have a legal basis to process personal data. We are processing your personal data for:

• the performance of the contract and relationship between you and us, including rights management, making payments, contacting you or your agent about the engagement and other purposes for the exploitation of your contribution;
• our legitimate interest in considering your application to be in a programme and the publication of your contribution as journalistic, artistic or literary material. We consider that, on balance, this processing is not disproportionate to your rights and freedoms and any impact this processing may have on you;
• to comply with our statutory, regulatory or compliance obligations, such as equal pay and treatment, safeguarding, HMRC reporting and our legal obligation to carry out research to improve our content and services, and
• the performance of the BBC’s public task and our role to act in the public interest and to serve all audiences with content which informs, educates and entertains. This is consistent with the BBC’s wider public purposes under its Royal Charter.We have to have an additional legal basis to process your Special Category and Criminal Offence personal data. Where you share Special Category or Criminal Offence personal data with us, we will only process for the purposes of journalism, arts and literature or where we have your consent or otherwise where the law allows.

Where you are represented by a third party, the BBC will also share personal data with your agent or representative in order for the BBC to meet the purposes set out in this privacy notice and for the purpose of allowing your agent or representative access to the Artists & Contributors Portal on your behalf. 

For these purposes your personal data may be shared within the BBC Group and with third parties including a commissioning party, programme data and payment management providers, unions and industry representative bodies (Equity, Musicians Union, Incorporated Society of Musicians, Writers Guild of Great Britain and Directors UK) or distribution agents nominated by a union, research partners, producers and distributors. Otherwise, we will only share your personal data where we have an appropriate lawful basis to do so.

We intend to retain your contribution in perpetuity. We will keep your talent contract, consent form and personal data concerning your contribution for the duration of copyright in your contribution. Unsuccessful applications to be in a programme will be kept until after broadcast of the programme or series.

How we keep your data secure

We maintain appropriate procedures and technical safeguards within our systems to help protect against loss, misuse or unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or destruction of the information we hold about you. This includes providing training and guidance to production teams to ensure they understand how to keep your data secure in the course of making programmes.

If you believe that your personal information under our control has been compromised, please contact us immediately using the details in the Contact section below.

Children as contributors

If you are the parent or guardian of a child 13 years old or under and they are the contributor, please make sure that you explain to them what will happen to their personal data.

If you have concerns about your child’s personal data that we have collected and how it will be used, please contact us using the contact details in the Contacts section below.

Your rights

Data protection law gives you certain rights in relation to your personal data.

You can request access, rectification and erasure of your personal data that we hold; or restrict its uses and you can object to processing, in certain circumstances.  Rectification means correcting errors in your personal data.

You are entitled to raise a concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about how the BBC uses your personal data or how the BBC deals with any complaints.

If your request is about your contribution itself, we will consider the impact of your request on:

• our publication of your contribution as journalistic, artistic or literary material, and
• the performance of the contract between you and us.

Contacts

Our Data Protection Officers are responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Notice.

If you have any questions about this, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the relevant Data Protection Officer using the details below.

For the BBC:

• by email: dataprotection.officer@bbc.co.uk
  
• by post: BBC Data Protection Officer, C/o First Floor, Wogan House, 99 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 7NY

For BBC Studios:

• by email: dataprotection@bbc.com
• by post: BBC Studios, 4B, 101 Wood Lane, London, W12 7FA

We're regulated by the Information Commissioner's Office. You can also contact them for advice and support.