An Post TV Licence Services

Privacy Statement

An Post TV Licence Services in its capacity as issuing agent for the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media / An Post trading as TV Licence.ie] (“An Post”, “we” or “us”) will collect and process your Personal Data and other information relating to your interactions and dealings with An Post, including when you visit www.tvlicence.ie or www.tvlicense.ie ("website"). This Privacy Statement explains how we will manage your Personal Data, how and why we use it, and how you may contact us if you have a query about Personal Data that we hold about you. Where you use An Post websites or obtain specific products and services, separate privacy statements may apply.

Personal Data means any information which An Post has or obtains or which you provide to us, such as your name, address, email address, telephone number(s) and PPS number (if you are entitled to a free TV Licence) from which you can be directly or indirectly personally identified, and may include information such as identification, (if paying by direct debit) or other payment details, IP addresses and online identifiers, depending on the services which we provide to you and the manner in which we interact. We may collect other types of Personal Data if we require it in order to carry out our duties in the enforcement and collection of the TV licence fee as provided for in the Broadcasting Act 2009.

Please note that this privacy statement does not apply to any other website which you may access from www.tvlicence.ie and the privacy policies of these third party websites should be referred to.


How we collect your Personal Data

We will obtain most Personal Data directly from you, such as when you give your details at the Post Office in order to purchase a TV Licence or where you update your address details on line or via the An Post redirection service or you send us a communication.

We may also obtain some of your information indirectly, from a variety of sources, as part of our revenue collection and investigation functions. This is done as part of our legal obligation to collect TV Licence revenue on behalf of the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.




Why we use and hold your personal Data

We use and hold your Personal Data:

a) for compliance with our legal obligations, including:

(i) to maintain and administer the TV Licence system, in the collection of the television licence fees, and enforcement of the Television Licence Legislation (the Broadcasting Act 2009); (including recording the name and address of those with no TV set)
(ii) to help detect and prevent crime and prosecute offences; and
(iii) where we are ordered to disclose information by a court with appropriate jurisdiction;

b) where you have consented to our use for a particular purpose, such as for contact by email or SMS (see TVLicence.ie Contact Preferences ). If you do give your consent for us to use your Personal Data for a particular purpose, you have the right at any time to withdraw your consent to our future use of your Personal Data for some or all of those purposes by opting out of this service at any time by logging on to the Personal Details Screen and unticking the consent box on TVLicence.ie or writing to us at the address set out under “Contact Us” below or to your local TV Licence records office.

c) where our use is for a legitimate purpose of An Post, including:

(i) to verify your identity when you contact An Post so that we can protect your privacy and prevent unauthorised processing of your data;
(ii) Verification of credit or debit cards; (when purchasing a TV Licence on line, over the phone or at the Post Office)
(iii) for day to day operational and business purposes, including board and group reporting and management purposes;
(iv) taking advice from our external legal and other advisors
(v) to help us improve our services and systems, and to improve your experience on our website and online service

d) where necessary to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights or for the purpose of legal proceedings; and

e) for such other purposes as were notified to you at the time you provided the information to us

We will not disclose your Personal Data except as outlined above and / or as follows:

a) where the disclosure is necessary to enable us to carry out our obligations under any agreement we have with you;

b) to anyone providing a service to us or acting as our agents, which may include either other companies within the An Post Group or third party service providers, on the understanding that they will keep the Personal Data confidential;

c) to the Department of Social Protection in order to facilitate the provision of free television licences;

d) where we need to share your Personal Data with our auditors, actuaries and our legal and other advisors; and

e) if the disclosure is required by law or regulation, or court or administrative order having force of law, or is required to be made to any of our regulators

We will not otherwise share your Personal Data with any third party unless we receive your prior written consent to do so.

In any case where we are acting on our own behalf and we share your Personal Data with a third party data controller (including, as appropriate, counterparties to transactions on your accounts), the use by that third party of the Personal Data will be subject to the third party’s own privacy policies.

When you visit the TV Licence website, you are accepting the An Post website terms of use, as well as the terms of this Privacy Statement. Please note that this Privacy Statement does not apply to any other website which you may access from www.tvlicence.ie and the privacy statements of those third party websites should be referred to. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of other websites that may link to or be linked to/from our website. Any external links to other websites are clearly identified as such.

We are obliged to retain certain customer information to ensure accuracy, to help maintain quality of service and for legal, regulatory, fraud prevention and legitimate business purposes.

Other information will be retained for no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it was obtained by us or as required or permitted for legal, regulatory, fraud prevention and legitimate business purposes. In general, we hold this information for a period of seven years, unless we are obliged to hold it for a longer period under law or applicable regulations

When you purchase a TV Licence online we will ask you for a contact method, usually an email address or a mobile number. This is to ensure that we have your correct address details in the event that the TV Licence is returned to us marked ‘undeliverable’. These contact details are held for a maximum of 30 days and are deleted after this time has elapsed.

If you are the licence holder, you can contact your local TV Licence records office either by Post or by email to update your Personal Data. If you have the necessary log-on credentials to log on to your account, you may transfer your licence to your new address through the website. If you are not the licence holder, we will request you to provide proof that you have the permission of the licence holder to change any details.

If we hold incorrect Personal Data about you, you have the right to have the data amended. While we will use reasonable efforts to keep your Personal Data up to date, you will need to notify us without delay in the event of any change in your personal circumstances, so that we can keep the Personal Data up to date.

You have a right to be given a copy of your Personal Data on request, subject to certain exceptions. Please note that we have the right to require that you identify yourself before we will respond to any access request.

For more information, see our Data Access Policy

You have the right in some circumstances to have your Personal Data, which we hold, erased by writing to the Data Privacy Office, An Post, GPO, O’Connell Street Lower, Dublin 1, D01 F5P2 or privacyoffice@anpost.ie together with:

1. Your name and address

2. A description of the specific Personal Data you wish to have erased.

If you request an erasure of your Personal Data, all your data will be erased subject to the following important notice.

We will not be required to erase your data where to do so would prevent us from meeting our respective contractual obligations, or where we are required to process (including retaining) your Personal Data in order to comply with a legal obligation, or if the Personal Data is necessary to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights or for the purpose of legal proceedings.

Under the Broadcasting Act 2009 An Post, under the official authority of the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, is the designated issuing agent for the collection of TV Licence fees, and for the identification and prosecution of TV Licence defaulters. An Post processes the personal data in the exercise of official authority vested in it. That personal data is not subject to the right of erasure.

You also have the right, in certain circumstances, to request restriction on the use, of your Personal Data, and to object to certain uses of your Personal Data, in each case subject to the restrictions set out in applicable data protection laws. . An Post does not use automated decision making for TV licence purposes. Further information on these rights, and the circumstances in which they may arise in connection with our processing of your Personal Data can be obtained by writing to us at the address set out under “Contact Us” below or to your local TV Licence records office.

In any case where we rely on your consent to process your Personal Data, you have the right to change your mind and withdraw consent by writing to us at the address set out under “Contact Us” below or to your local TV Licence records office.

Where we rely on a legitimate purpose of ours or of a third party recipient of the Personal Data, in order to use and disclose Personal Data, you are entitled to object to such use or disclosure of your Personal Data, and if you do so, we will cease to use and process your Personal Data for that purpose, unless we can show there are compelling legitimate reasons for us to continue to use the Personal Data or we need to use the Personal Data for the purposes of legal claims.

In limited circumstances, you may also have the right to data portability in respect of certain of your Personal Data, which means you can request that we provide it to you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or transmit it to your third party nominee where this is technically feasible.

You have the right to lodge a complaint about our processing of your Personal Data with the Data Protection Commission at info@dataprotection.ie

We will only send text messages, emails etc. if you have consented to receiving such communications, through TVlicences.ie. If you have provided your email address or phone number when contacting us, we may send you an email or text message in response to your query. You can opt out of this service at any time by logging on to the Personal Details Screen and unticking the consent box on TVLicence.ie or by calling your local TV Licence records office.

Any queries or complaints regarding our use of the Personal Data and / or the exercise of your individual rights should be addressed to the Data Privacy Office, An Post, GPO, O’Connell Street Lower, Dublin 1, D01 F5P2 or privacyoffice@anpost.ie