Let’s face it: you just want to know you can buy from our website with peace of mind knowing that we won’t do anything silly with your details. The answer is YES !

We are firm believers in personal privacy, are registered with the ICO (UK Data Protection Agency) and will do all we can to ensure we keep the data we hold on you private.

What information do we collect?

Cookies.

A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a Web site, that site’s computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies. Each Web site 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 the cookies sent to you by other sites.

Browsers are usually set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you may alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our site will not function as effectively when viewed by the users. A cookie cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive or pass on computer viruses. Some of the cookies used by our site are provided by well-known third party companies, e.g. Google.

Account registration and transaction information.

IP Addresses.

We keep only the minimum neccessary to process your orders and retain an order history.

All website payments are processed by PayPal (including both debit/credit card payments, and payments using a PayPal account), and are are subject to the PayPal Privacy Policy, which meets relevant legal requirements. We NEVER see or store your card information.  If you pay by card over the telephone, any card information you give us is retained no longer than is required to process your payment, and is then immediately destroyed in accordance with GDPR and PCI data protection principles.

IP addresses are used by your computer every time you are connected to the Internet.

Your IP address is a number that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer. IP addresses are automatically collected by our web server as part of demographic and profile data known as traffic data so that data (such as the Web pages you request) can be sent to you.

What do we do with the information that we collect?

WE WILL NEVER PASS OR SELL ANY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTY MARKETING AGENCIES.

We will only pass your details on to another party under the following circumstances:

  • If legally required to do so (e.g. if the police or HMRC insist that we do so).
  • If required in order to process orders placed on our site, e.g. your name and address may be passed to the companies processing your payment (although we never see any credit/debit card information you may enter on their sites)
  • If we have to use a debt collection agency to obtain or reclaim payment – very much the last resort !
  • If a Paypal, credit or debit card payment is disputed or reversed, in which case we may give information to our payment processor to resolve the issue, or (if we believe we are subject to fraud) to the police or courts.
  • To our couriers (where applicable) in order for them to facilitate deliveries to you.
  • We will only hold onto personal information about you which is neccessary to process your orders or required for tax or legal reasons.
  • If you have a credit account with us, we will retain sufficient data to enable us to operate your account.
  • We may use limited personal information (names, email addresses etc) on an opt-in basis to conduct marketing campaigns. We will not pass your information to external advertising agencies, although we may use third party software to generate email newsletters, and if we send you marketing emails we will always include an option to unsubscribe. We want to send you information we hope you’ll find interesting, not junk mail !
  • We sometimes advertise using the services of Google, Bing and Facebook. These companies may use cookies and tracking code on our website (“Pixels”) to understand how you view the site. This is intended to enable us to optimise our advertising. In such cases, we are the Data Controller, and these companies are the Data processor; we will make every reasonable effort to ensure that they meet the requirements of current data protection legislation.

Accessing and Correcting Your Information

You may request access to all your personally identifiable information (a “Subject Access Request”) that we collect online and maintain in our database by contacting us by letter, email or using the “Contact us” form on our website. In accordance with GDPR legislation, we levy a £10 charge for processing a Subject Access Request, although we may at our discretion waive this charge for requests which only take a short time to process. We undertake to respond to all such requests within 40 days of the date we receive (or agree to waive) the processing fee and also receive any further information we request from you (e.g. proof of identity in order to satisfy ourselves that we aren’t inadverently passing your data to an unauthorised party).

Requesting Erasure of Your Information

Under Article 17 of the General data Protection Regulations (GDPR) you have the right to request we erase your personal data (your “Right to be Forgotten”). You can submit such a request to us by letter or email, and we are happy to comply within the required 30 day time limit. Please note that we are permitted to request additional information to confirm your identity, which will of course then be deleted as part of the erasure request. There are a few exeptions under which we can reject such a request; full details can be found in the regulations, but the most notable are that a request can be rejected if it affects the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority, or to comply with a legal obligation.

Please note that if you request erasure of your data, the process will include closing any accounts you may hold with us. Should you place any orders with us at a future date, we may not be able to process them and if we do it will result in the creation of new data. We reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee for repeated data erasure requests, as allowed for by the GDPR.

Links to other websites

We are not responsible for the practices employed by Web sites linked to or from our Web site or the information or content contained therein. Often links to other Web sites are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that may be useful to the users of our Web site.

Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Website to another web site, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect and it is the Privacy Policy of the linked-to site which comes into effect.

CCTV

An an online-only business, we do not have a physical shop or trade counter to process transactions in person. However, our premises are monitored by closed circuit television (CCTV) in order to deter and record criminal activity. We operate this CCTV in accordance with ICO guidelines, including appropriate data retention policies. Data from CCTV is uploaded to external servers (“The Cloud”), which may include servers outside the UK. We have satisfied ourselves that these servers are operated in accordance with UK and EU data protection legislation. Images from our CCTV may be forwarded to the police in the event that it shows any possible criminal activity.

A Special Note About Children

While we don’t intend anything on our website to be deliberately (or accidentally) offensive or inappropriate, children are not eligible to use our services unsupervised and we ask that children (under the age of 16) do not submit any personal information to us. If you are a minor, you should use this website only in conjunction with permission and guidance from your parents or guardians.

Acquisition or Changes in Ownership

In the event that the web site (or a substantial portion of its assets) is acquired, your information would be considered part of those assets, and may be part of those assets that are transferred.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If/when changes are made to this privacy policy, we will post any changes here, so be sure to check back periodically. However, please be assured that if the Privacy Policy changes in the future, we will not use the personal information you have submitted to us under this Privacy Policy in a manner that is materially inconsistent with this Privacy Policy without your prior consent.

Last Updated: 14.5.2016 (update to include GDPR requirements)