UPY 2025

This privacy policy sets out how the Underwater Photographer Of The Year (UPY) uses and protects any information that you give to us when you register for the competition or use the website.

UPY is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected and not kept for any longer than is necessary.

What we collect when you register

In order to enter the UPY competition, we ask you for the following information:

• first name and family name
• email address
• your country of residence
• if you are a British passport holder

We do not hold any payment details other than the amount you paid, when you paid it and the transaction ID – all other details are dealt with by PayPal.

What we collect when you sign up to our News Updates email

We use MailChimp for this service, and we will ask you for your First Name, Last Name and email address. All data is held by MailChimp and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Please see MailChimp’s Privacy Policy

What we do with your information

We need your personal information as an entrant in order to contact you about the success (or otherwise!) of your images.

If we have queries about the image or the details about it you have provided we will use your information to contact you.

If you are a winner, we may send your contact details to the sponsor of your chosen/allotted prize. This is in order for you and that company to come to a suitable arrangement for delivery of the prize.

If you are a winner, your name will be used in the copyright notice that we demand accompanies your image when-ever it is used either by UPY or by our global media partners.

We will not send out your email address to anyone outside of the UPY judges and gophers. Sometimes we are asked by media outlets for contact details of winning photographers – in that situation we will only forward the request to the photographer concerned, but never reveal the email address to the requestor.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Data disposal

We are an annual competition, and so our competition database of entrant’s details, image uploads and winning image information is deleted permanently on an annual basis.

The only information kept in for longer than 12 months is that which is made public about the winning photographers and their images on the website and in the yearbook.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. You have control over this file at all times via your browser settings.

The UPY website itself only uses cookies from 3^rd parties:

• We use Google Analytics to help us monitor website traffic
• We use PayPal as our payment service
• We use MailChimp as our newsletter provider

Links to other websites

The UPY website contains links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement.

Controlling your personal information

If you have entered the competition but wish to withdraw and have your details removed from our database, please just email us.