BUZZ 16 PRODUCTIONS LIMITED CONTRIBUTOR & TALENT DATA PROTECTION POLICY
CONTRIBUTOR & TALENT DATA PROTECTION POLICY
1. PURPOSE
1.1. This privacy policy relates to applicants, talent, contributors, guests, performers, presenters, interviewees, participants, audience members and other on-screen or on-air participants who may feature in the digital content, TV projects or programmes ( “Production(s)”) produced by Buzz 16 Productions Limited (“we”, “us”, “our”).
1.2. We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. Unless otherwise stated, we are the data controller, which means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. We will comply with all relevant data protection laws in the way we use, collect, and retain your personal data. Where we make a Production with a commissioning partner, broadcaster, platform, co-producer or other production partner that company may also be a data controller in respect of your personal data.
1.3. We collect, use and process certain personal data relating to you for purposes connected with the Production and any contributor agreement or contract that we may in the future enter into with you (the “Contract”). For greater certainty, this includes managing, administering and complying with the Contract; assessing your suitability for participation in the Production; filming your contribution to the Production and elements of it; producing, broadcasting, distributing, publicising and commercialising the Production; communicating with you about your contribution to the Production; contacting you about other shows we are involved in, products, services and casting and complying with legal and regulatory obligations.
1.4. If you do not provide us with information necessary for the purposes of the Contract, we may not be able to fulfil our obligations under the Contract and you may not be able to participate in the Production.
2. THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU
2.1. Depending on the context, we may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal data about you:
• Personal contact details, such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.
• Other personal details, such as date of birth, gender, name, title, nationality, marital status, next of kin and emergency contact information, images, signatures, driving licence, and passport (to fulfil our legal obligation to check you have the right to work in the UK and in connection with any visa, certificate of sponsorship or any other permit we are required to obtain (where applicable). For minors, we may also collect parent/guardian details.
• Social media usernames; photographs or footage of you; information about your interests, opinions, personality, previous appearances on television, family life, job and general knowledge (to help us decide whether you are a suitable contributor for the Production and decide whether or not to enter into the Contract with you).
• Financial details, such as your national insurance number, bank account details, payroll records and tax status information.
2.2. We may also record communications with you, application materials and audition records, and technical information such as IP address and device identifiers where you interact with our online forms or services in connection with casting or the Production. If you are under 18, we will make this policy available to your parent or guardian, obtain any consents from them, and may share relevant personal data with the local authority and others involved in licensing and supervising children’s participation in the Production, such as chaperones.
2.3. We may also collect, store, and/or use the following more sensitive types of personal data:
• Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions;
• Information about your health (to obtain and administer insurance, to arrange and administer any medical treatment you may require, and to assess your suitability to take part and continue to take part in the Production);
• Any information you provide as part of the filming and recording of the Production, including personal data relating to your ethnicity, political opinions or religious belief, trade union membership, physical or mental health, sexual orientation, genetic and biometric data
(together, the “Special Category Personal Data”); and criminal background data.
2.4. Incidental capture: Filming in public or semi-public locations may incidentally capture people who are not participants in the Production. We assess footage editorially and, where appropriate and practicable, take steps such as blurring or editing out to protect the privacy of those individuals.
3. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?
3.1. We collect your personal data through a variety of sources, but mainly directly from you or your representatives. You may also be asked to provide us with documentation to verify personal data provided by you.
3.2. We may also conduct background checks to verify personal data about you. These checks could include information that is publicly available online, including information you have made public via social media and checks obtained lawfully from third parties engaged by us for verification purposes such as data intelligence services and any organisation authorised to provide basic criminal history checks. You may also be asked to provide us with documentation to verify personal data provided by you. We may also collect additional information from third parties including your agent or other representatives, casting agencies, previous production companies, former employers, credit reference agencies or third-party suppliers, such as our pension providers.
3.3. We may collect additional personal data during job-related activities throughout the period of you working for us or participating in a Production, including during filming and pre and post-production activities.
3.4. We may also receive footage and associated metadata from production partners, broadcasters and distributors for the purposes described in this policy.
4. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
4.1. We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to and when we are satisfied that one or more of the following legal grounds apply:
i) in performance of the Contract (or to take steps to decide whether or not to enter into the Contract with you);
ii) where it is necessary for us, or a company we have appointed to work with us in relation to the Production, to pursue a legitimate interest, and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests;
iii) where we need to comply with a legal obligation, for example, disclosing information to tax authorities; and/or
iv) where we need to protect your vital interests (or someone else’s).
4.2 We may also rely on your consent where required by law, for example for certain forms of electronic direct marketing described in section 8. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time as set out in section 11.
4.3. We may only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you.
4.4. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
4.5. We do not make decisions about you that have a legal or similarly significant effect based solely on automated processing.5. HOW WE USE YOUR SENSITIVE PERSONAL DATA (‘SPECIAL CATEGORY PERSONAL DATA’)
5.1. We may process your Special Category Personal Data or your criminal background information where one of the above legal grounds and any one or more of the following circumstances apply:
i) we need to fulfil our legal and regulatory obligations, establish, exercise or defend legal claims, and exercise our rights, including(where applicable) as an employer (for example, for the health and safety of our programme contributors, staff, and others);
ii) we need to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another individual, where you are not capable of giving consent;
iii) you have manifestly made the information publicly available, which for greater certainty, includes where you do so while participating in the Production;
iv) where it is of substantial public interest, such as for the purposes of Ofcom’s functions or for insurance purposes; and/or
v) with your explicit written consent, for example where you agree to be contacted by us for marketing purposes.
5.2. Where we are using your Special Category Personal Data for editorial research purposes only and where one of the above does not apply, we will obtain your consent to our use of your Special Category Personal Data.
6. INFORMATION ABOUT CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS
6.1. We may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so.
6.2. We will only collect information about criminal convictions if it is appropriate given the nature of the role and where we are legally able to do so. Where appropriate, we will collect information about criminal convictions as part of the recruitment, casting or onboarding process or we may be notified of such information directly by you during you working for us or your participation in a Production.
7. DATA SHARING
7.1. We will share your personal data with our staff, freelancers or other personnel from another company (such as professional advisors, commissioning partners, broadcasters and other productions partners) where it is necessary to make and deliver the Production or to administer the working relationship with you, on a need-to-know basis, if required by law or by a regulator, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.
7.2. We take the security of your data seriously and we take appropriate security measures to protect your personal data.
7.3. If we need to share your personal data with other third parties we will, so far as possible, share anonymised data with them. Where we need to share your personal data with any third-party and the data cannot be anonymised, we shall ensure that such third-party manages that data in accordance with GDPR and the Act, and in accordance with the obligations of a data processor if they are deemed to be such under GDPR or the Act.
7.4. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
7.5. Some of the people we share your personal data with (for example broadcasters, platforms, distributors, insurers or cloud service providers) may be based outside the UK. in relation to your personal data, and may not have a data protection supervisory authority to help you if you have any concerns about the processing of your personal data. Where we transfer your personal data outside the UK, we will do so only where the law permits, for example where the UK government has confirmed that the destination country provides an appropriate level of protection, or where we have put in place appropriate safeguards so that your personal data receives protection that is not materially lower than under UK law. You can ask for more information about these safeguards by contacting us as set out in section 13.
8. MARKETING AND ADVERTISING
8.1. If you opt in to be contacted by phone or email about our shows, products, projects and services and for your email and social media usernames to be used to generate and provide you with social media advertising related to us, we may use your email address, social media usernames and (where specified) your phone number (and other personal data such as your name, age category and general location required to administer your opt in) to:
i) send you emails with information about the Production and our other shows, products, projects and services;
ii) contact you by phone or email about casting for the Production and/or casting for other programmes being produced by us; and
iii) use your email or social media usernames to provide you with specific news or advertising related to us that we think you may be interested in on other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat and Google and/or to enable those other platforms to provide advertising related to us on our behalf to types of audiences who use those platforms. If we use your email or social media usernames in this way, we remain the data controllers of your information and the relevant platform does not have the right to use your email and/or social media usernames (provided by us in this way) for its own purposes. If you would like further information about how this works, please refer to the privacy information provided by the social media platforms you use.
8.2. You can unsubscribe from this marketing and advertising option by either emailing hello@buzz16.uk or, using the unsubscribe option in any of the marketing emails that you receive, or (if you are contacted by phone) telling us you no longer wish to be contacted. We will only send you electronic marketing where you have opted in or where the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 otherwise permit.
9. DATA RETENTION
9.1. We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, namely the Production and in fulfilling the Contract. For greater certainty, this includes satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
9.2. If you are not selected to participate in the specific series of the Production that you applied for then in order to consider you for future series of the Production and to contact you by email and/or telephone about future series of the Production, we will usually retain your personal data collected for your application until eighteen (18) months from the end of production of the specific series of the Production that you applied for.
9.3. If you are selected to participate in the Production, and have been engaged by us to provide your services, we will usually retain most of your personal data for the duration of your engagement and for a period of up to seven (7) years thereafter but personal data relating to any payments made to you will be retained for up to ten (10) years thereafter (unless otherwise required by a legal obligation).
9.4. We will keep footage of you, personal data contained within the Contract, personal data required to fulfil any ongoing contractual payment obligations, any records of your participation in the Production and information contained in any publicity material for as long as necessary for the purposes of the Production – which may be indefinitely for airing and re-airing the Production (whether in whole or in part).
9.5. In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once the retention periods in this section have ended, we will retain or securely destroy your personal data in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
10. RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION
10.1. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes for as long as you are involved with us.
10.2. You have certain rights in respect of your personal data which include:
• Right to be informed about how your personal data is being used (i.e. as set out in this policy).
• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to another party.
10.3. Please be aware that these rights are not always absolute and there may be some situations in which you cannot exercise them, or they are not relevant. Please also be aware that, as explained below, these rights will not apply to the extent that they are incompatible with the Special Purposes.
10.4. You will not usually have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.
10.5. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We will respond to requests within one month of receiving them. If we need to ask you for further information to confirm your identity or clarify your request, the one month period starts when we receive that information. We may extend the period by up to two further months where your request is complex or you have made a number of requests. When responding to access requests, we will carry out reasonable and proportionate searches.
10.6. To exercise any of these rights please contact us by emailing hello@buzz16.uk. You can find out more information about your rights on the Information Commissioner’s website ico.org.uk. You can also complain directly to us about how we use your personal data, using the email address above or the contact details in section 13. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receiving it, take appropriate steps to respond to it (including making appropriate enquiries and keeping you informed of progress) without undue delay, and tell you the outcome. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you have any concerns about your personal data. You can find out how to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.
10.7. The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (the “Act”) require us to use your personal data within the legal framework explained in this privacy policy, and in accordance with your rights under the GDPR (which we explain above). However, the GDPR and the Act contain an exemption which allows us and the Production broadcaster not to apply aspects of this legal framework and your rights if they are not compatible with the journalistic, artistic and/or literary purposes of the Production and we (or our production and distribution parties) reasonably believe that publication the Production is in the public interest (the “Special Purposes”). Consequently, please be aware that aspects of the legal framework explained in this privacy policy and your rights under the GDPR may not apply where they are not compatible with the Special Purposes.
11. RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT
In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so.
12. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE
We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal data.
13. CONTACT
If you want to withdraw your consent, review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal data, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal data to another party, or if you have any other questions about this privacy notice, please contact us at hello@buzz16.uk or by post to our registered office: Buzz 16 Productions Limited (company number 10518938), Elsley Court, 20-22 Great Titchfield Street, London, England, W1W 8BE..
Last updated October 2026
