Privacy Policy

Reading Buses General Data Protection policy for website

We are extremely serious about your privacy and safety when visiting the Reading Buses website and using any of our services or products.

This Privacy Policy outlines what information we collect about you, when this happens and how it is used. We will always be open and honest about what data we collect and how we use it whenever this happens – and we will never share your data with any third party unless it is for the purposes of fulfilling a contract (e.g. sharing your details with our smartcard supplier to enable you to have a smartcard account) – and your details will never be used for third party marketing unless you give explicit consent. 

We will also let you know about the security you can expect whilst browsing our sites as well as when making a purchase from us online.

Children and data protection

Under the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), organisations have to be more open about all information usage, especially relating to Children. It is assumed under the regulations that children aged 13 and over are able to give consent as long as the information relating to their data is clear and easy to understand. Children under the age of 13 cannot give consent and this must be given by a parent or guardian. To this end, we will always ask for your date of birth to prove your age – if you are under the age of 13, we will then require another verification from your parent or guardian. This will be indicated on the relevant pages of the website or apps.

Reading Buses email communication

You can sign up for the Reading Buses via the Reading Buses website to receive our monthly eNewsletter which has information, offers and competitions all related to Reading Buses. There are two ways of doing this:

1. When buying a smartcard (or when logged in to your smartcard account), you can tick the box that asks if you want to receive our email.
2. You can sign up directly. This function will be available soon. 

• What information do we collect?

When signing up for our customer email, we currently collect certain information outside the obvious, your email address, to allow us to set up an account for you in our system – this gives you access to your account online so you can change your preferences at any time. This currently includes; Title, name, address, gender, date of birth, a contact number. We also ask that you set up a password.

We are working with our suppliers to ensure that in future, you should only need to give your email address and a preferred name (which will help personalise our customer email for you)

If you sign up to the customer email when buying a smartcard through our online shop, we collect the same information as above as the system is the same.

• Who holds my information?

Although your information is entered via the Reading Buses shop website, it is managed by our smartcard system supplier, Unicard. Your information will be stored in their system.

Your email address (but no other data), is then exported via an encrypted file into a third-party email system managed by a company called Appius. Appius do not see or use any of these email address as only Reading Buses employees manage the system.

• Is my information secure?

Yes! Unicard use a highly encrypted system to keep your data super safe. This is also governed by their data processing agreement with us.

• What do you do with my information?

For the purposes of the customer email, your information is used to set up an account for you in our system. All your information is securely stored within the system. Only your email address is processed for the purposes of sending you our customer email which you have consented for us to send you.

Your data is stored for as long as necessary for us to provide you with our customer email. This is considered to be indefinitely unless you ask for your data to be deleted. See below for your rights.

• What are my rights?

When opting in to receive our customer email, you have a few rights when it comes to your data. In all cases listed below, we have one month to respond to your request – we commit to responding and hopefully resolving any of the below within 28 days of receipt of your request.

• • Unsubscribe – You can unsubscribe to our emails any time. This can be done in a few ways; By clicking ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of the customer email, by contacting us directly in writing or via email, by unticking the consent box in your account.
  • Updated – If you think that any data we hold for you is incorrect, you can ask for us to amend this data. As data we hold for you is provided by yourself, it is highly unlikely that this would be needed. You can also amend your data by accessing your account online and updating your details.
  • Erasure – You can ask us to remove all of your details at any time. We will remove all trace of any details should you ask us to do this. If you ask for your details to be erased, you will not receive the customer email.
  • Restrict – You can ask us to restrict the use of your personal data – but this should not apply as we only use data you provide for the purposes of sending you our customer email.
  • Data portability – you can ask us to send you all the information we hold on you to yourself or third party so that it can be used elsewhere.
  • Object – You can object to the data we hold on you. Again, this should not apply as we ask for your consent to use your data.
• What legal basis do you use for processing my information?

For the purposes of you signing up to our customer email, we ask for ‘consent,’ meaning you are aware of what you are signing up for and give us consent to contact you in this way. We cannot (and will not!) use this consent to contact you in any other way other than if there are any changes to our system or service. E.g. if we decided to never send any more emails, we might send you a letter to inform you of the change.

Reading Buses online shop (and Reading Bus Shop for smartcard purchase)

• What information do we collect?

When buying a smartcard from us (either online or through the Reading bus Shop), we collect the following information: your email address, Title, name, address, gender, date of birth, a contact number. We also ask that you set up a password if you buy online.

This enables us to set up an account for you (and your smartcard) in our system. Each of our smartcards needs to be allocated to an account in our system to allow its use on our buses. This also allows us to contact you if there are any issues with your account.

Please note, we do not use any of the information provided in any of our marketing apart from your email address if, and only if, you have ‘opted-in’ to receiving our customer email.

When paying for your smartcard, you will be asked to supply payment details. We do not see, nor store, any credit or debit card details. All payments are dealt with by our payment services providers.

If you are able to pay for a product by direct debit, your direct debit details will be entered into the Bottom Line system for the purpose of collecting payments as instructed by you.

• Who holds my information?

Although your information is entered via the Reading Buses shop website (or keyed in by staff at the Reading Bus shop), it is managed by our smartcard system supplier, Unicard. Your information will be stored in their system.

As the smartcard card issuers Unicard will have full access to your data to help with various processes to manage your account and products, but will have no access or visibility of your payment details.

• Is my information secure?

Yes! The Unicard system is highly secure using the latest data encryption processes. 

• What do you do with my information?

For the purposes of providing a smartcard service, your information is used to set up an account for you in our system. All your information is securely stored within the system.

Your information is used to maintain your smartcard and account. It is not used for any other purposes.

Your data is stored for as long as necessary for us to provide you with a smartcard. This is considered to be indefinitely unless you ask for your data to be deleted. See below for your rights.

• What are my rights?

When buying a smartcard, you have a few rights when it comes to your data. In all cases listed below, we have one month to respond to your request – we commit to responding and hopefully resolving any of the below within 28 days of receipt of your request.

• • Updated – If you think that any data we hold for you is incorrect, you can ask for us to amend this data. As data we hold for you is provided by yourself, it is highly unlikely that this would be needed. You can also amend your data by accessing your account online and updating your details.
  • Erasure – You can ask us to remove all of your details at any time. We will remove all trace of any details should you ask us to do this. If you ask for your details to be erased, you will not be able to use any smartcard you possess, even if there are still products on them.  
  • Restrict – You can ask us to restrict the use of your personal data – but this should not apply as we only use data you provide for the purposes of providing you with a smartcard.
  • Data portability – you can ask us to send you all the information we hold on you to yourself or third party so that it can be used elsewhere.
  • Object – You can object to the data we hold on you. Again, this should not apply as we use data provided by you to us for the purposes of providing you with a smartcard.

• What legal basis do you use for processing my information?

For the purposes of you buying a smartcard from us, we use the ‘contract’ legal basis for holding and processing your information. This means that we have entered into a contract with you to provide a service or goods (in this case a smartcard that can be scanned and used for travel on our buses) and we can process your data only in ways that helps this. We cannot (and will not!) use the contract to contact you in any other way other than if there are any changes to our system or service. E.g. if we are changing our smartcard supplier and need all customers to convert to the new system, we might send you a letter to inform you of the change.

Reading Buses website

When simply browsing the Reading Buses website (or the Reading Buses shop website), the only information we will collect are ‘cookies’ that help to enhance your experience on the website.  Cookies are little tags stored within your browser and allow us to identify how you move through the site. They can include a unique identifier that is stored on your computer’s hard drive. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a web site to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not information sent to you by other sites.

This is common practice online as it allows sites to track what their users are doing on their own sites, such as most popular pages, products or to see how many people have visited that month. Cookies also record information about your online preferences. This can be for remembering forms or that you have ticked an acceptance box on a previous screen. You can set your computer to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time.

If you choose not to accept cookies, the order process on either or both of our websites will not work and some other personalised experiences will be unavailable to you. This means that you may not be able to take full advantage of all of the features available.

Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences. If you have set your computer to reject cookies you can still browse this website anonymously until such time as you wish to register for any services. For further information on cookies please visit www.aboutcookies.org 

When you proceed to the purchasing pages on the Reading Buses shop website, provided by Unicard, cookies will be used to log the session id for the login – this is a standard practice around the web and will allow the website to function correctly. We do not collect or use any other data without your consent.

By continued use of our website, you consent to our use of cookies as list in this policy.

Contact us - query:

When using the contact us form, the information we collect is only used to help us answer your query more effectively. Any information provided by you is used purely to allow us to re-contact you and/or to allow us to investigate and resolve your query.

Your information is stored on a secure system called Zendesk. Once your query has been completed, your details are saved indefinitely and are not used for any other purpose – your query may be used in future for training purposes but your personal details will be removed. You will not be contacted by us or any of our affiliated organisations other than to discuss your original query. Using this form will not enter you into any database, marketing or otherwise. Your information is no longer used after this query has been closed unless you have specifically indicated otherwise to us.

Reading Buses apps

Our mobile phone applications are currently supplied by the Passenger Technology Group. The Reading Buses app was created and developed by Netscape who are now part of the Passenger group.

• What information do we collect?

If you only use our apps for live times, timetables and bus tracking we do not collect any data about you.

For the purposes of buying and using bus tickets on your mobile phones, ‘mTickets,’ we ask that you set up an account with us to enable these tickets to work.

For the Passenger Group apps, we collect the following information: your email address and name. We also ask that you set up a password for account security.

For the Netescape apps, we collect the following information: your email address, physical address including postcode and name. We also ask that you set up a password for account security.

This enables us to set up an account for you in our system. We require you to set up an account to allow us to manage tickets and protect against fraud. This also allows us to contact you if there are any issues with your account.

Please note, we do not use any of the information provided in any of our marketing.

When paying for your mTickets, you will be asked to supply payment details. We do not see, nor store, any credit or debit card details. All payments are dealt with by our payment services providers.

We will also collect information about the handset that the app is downloaded to. This helps us to track tickets and work through account issues more easily. It also allows us to combat fraud to ensure that handset with previously reported fraud issues can be isolated and the app deactivated. Please note, we do not physically track your phone and will never use this information to locate you personally.

• Who holds my information?

Your details are stored on either the Netescape or Passenger systems.

Passenger will have full access to your data to help with various processes to manage your account and products, but will have no access or visibility of your payment details, nor will they use your details to contact you directly.

• Is my information secure?

Yes! The Passenger and Netescape systems are highly secure and use levels of encryption to ensure the safety of your data.

• What do you do with my information?

For the purposes of providing our mTicket service, your information is used to set up an account for you in our system. All your information is securely stored within the system.

Your information is used to maintain your mTickets and account. It is not used for any other purposes.

Your data is stored for as long as necessary for us to provide you with our app. This is considered to be indefinitely unless you ask for your data to be deleted. See below for your rights.

• What are my rights?

When buying mTickets, you have a few rights when it comes to your data. In all cases listed below, we have one month to respond to your request – we commit to responding and hopefully resolving any of the below within 28 days of receipt of your request.

• • Updated – If you think that any data we hold for you is incorrect, you can ask for us to amend this data. As data we hold for you is provided by yourself, it is highly unlikely that this would be needed. You can also amend your data by accessing your account online and updating your details.
  • Erasure – You can ask us to remove all of your details at any time. We will remove all trace of any details should you ask us to do this. If you ask for your details to be erased, you will not be able to use any smartcard you possess, even if there are still products on them. 
  • Restrict – You can ask us to restrict the use of your personal data – but this should not apply as we only use data you provide for the purposes of providing you with a smartcard.
  • Data portability – you can ask us to send you all the information we hold on you to yourself or third party so that it can be used elsewhere.
  • Object – You can object to the data we hold on you. Again, this should not apply as we use data provided by you to us for the purposes of providing you with a smartcard.

• What legal basis do you use for processing my information?

For the purposes of you buying mTickets from us, we use the ‘contract’ legal basis for holding and processing your information. This means that we have entered into a contract with you to provide a service or goods (in this case mTickets that can be scanned and used for travel on our buses) and we can process your data only in ways that helps this. We cannot (and will not!) use the contract to contact you in any other way other than if there are any changes to our system or service. E.g. if we are changing our app supplier and need all customers to convert to the new system, we might send you a letter to inform you of the change.