Most websites, especially those dealing with your personal data, contain a section called privacy policy. Gambling venues, that is, online casinos, are of course not an exception. An average Internet user will typically be aware of what it’s all about, but there’s always more to explore when it comes to various peculiarities and so forth. What kind of your personal details are to be disclosed? Is it fully safe? What is the purpose of that? How do you manage your data? Read on to get all the answers to these questions. The article is sure to be useful to both novices in the gambling world and experienced players.
How does Privacy Policy Work?
To begin with, let’s figure out what exactly the privacy policy is. The privacy policy is a statement that discloses how a website collects and uses your personal data, which includes anything identifying an individual. Here is the list of details that may be gathered:
- First and second name;
- Birthdate;
- Physical and e-mail address;
- ID and date of expiry;
- Telephone number;
- Details of your credit card;
- History of transactions;
- Various information about your participation in some events, etc.
These items are dependent on a website, so they vary in accordance with an online casino you are playing at and the services you are using. The list above represents the general picture of what you normally need to provide, but some websites exclude some of the details mentioned (or the other way around — include other points in addition).
What you need to provide is gathered solely with your consent. No sensitive details are requested ‒ only those that are supposed to improve the services you make use of, contributing to their convenience.
It is true that you can visit this or that website and even use some of its services without providing your personal information, but the latter is necessarily required in terms of payment matters and other services which cannot be employed without it. In other words, you will face some restrictions if you decide not to disclose your data.
The servers of online casinos keep a special log, recording your activity, which includes your access time and dates, the pages you have visited and languages you’ve used, type of your browser, IP address, and more.
What Your Personal Details are Used For
The reasons for your data being used by websites are quite numerous. First and foremost, this information is needed to process transactions. To implement the procedure, it is crucial for you to enter the correct data, so make sure you meticulously check that the details you provide correspond to the real ones. Otherwise, you are bound to face some problems when making a deposit or trying to withdraw the money you have won.
Apart from that, it is your data that greatly helps an online casino to improve user support. To enhance the quality of the latter, a website employs its knowledge about your preferences, as it were. That is to say, your actions at a gambling site point to what you are particularly interested in. Thus, it will offer you promos and services that will probably be useful to you. You’ll get rid of annoying spam and will be offered the propositions that are most likely to appeal to you. This is possible through the use of cookies ‒ small text files that are stored on your PC, tablet, or smartphone by the website. You are free to accept them or not, but mind that it will affect the quality of services provided. Cookies are also responsible for other items associated with your activity on a website. For more information about cookies, read the corresponding article.
Besides, note that your data might be shared with subsidiaries and/or affiliates of the online casino for the purpose of technical support or extra offerings. You can also be invited to participate in various tournaments or surveys, which is, of course, entirely voluntary.
When you are given your winnings or a prize, you might be requested to authorize the reference to your name for promotion and advertisement.
How to Manage Your Personal Data
In case you want to update (or delete) your personal information, you need to contact the customer support of an online casino you are playing at. The same is also to be done if you have any issues (complaints, suggestions) concerning the use of your data. Managers on the website should answer your questions and solve your problems, in case there are any. Besides, you are able to cancel advertising and promotional mailing by means of contacting the support as well. Or else, you can use a simpler method: just tap the opt-out link or button that can be found right in the e-mail letter you’ve received. It is usually located at the bottom of a message.
Data Security
It goes without saying that any real online casino must keep all your personal information protected and secured. Once obtained, it is stored in a special password-protected database, which ought, in turn, to be protected by the SSL encryption protocol that prevents any information leaks.
That said, there are some exceptions as to the disclosure of users’ personal data. Websites, therefore, can reveal your details in cases when it is required by law (that is, any legal authority). Here belongs the protection of the personal safety of users, rights and property, and other instances.
It should be noted that websites such as online casinos are not allowed to be used by those under 18. The age of legal consent actually varies depending on a country (it may be, for example, 21 years). So anyone who uses a gambling website is to confirm that he or she is over the legal age. Some casinos also require a copy or scan of the ID of a user for that purpose (to verify your age visually).
