PRIVACY POLICY
George Lines ("we" or "us") is the trading name of Carboclass Ltd which is a subsidiary of Lords Builders Merchant Holdings Ltd ("Group"). We are committed to protecting your privacy and we comply with the data protection laws applicable to the United Kingdom. This Privacy Policy explains how we use any information we collect about you and forms part of our Conditions of Use.
WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU AND HOW?
We collect personal information about individuals with whom we interact in the context of operating our business – in particular, we will collect information about you when you open an account, register with this website, place an order for products or services, request further information from us or if you wish to contact your local branch.
The type of information we may collect includes your name, and business contacts details – in particular your postal address, job title, e-mail address and telephone number so that we can contact you accordingly.
When you enter a competition or promotional feature, we may also ask for your name, postal address, e- mail address and telephone number so we can administer the competition and notify winners.
From time to time we may purchase other businesses who deliver similar goods and services to us - where we do so, we may also receive your personal information (name and business contact details, particularly your email address) from the acquired business – in particular, if you had purchased goods or services from that acquired company, and/or received marketing emails from them. Please see further details below on our use of such data.
Separate terms and conditions may apply when you open an account or if you decide to participate in a competition so please make sure that you read these at the relevant time.
HOW DO WE USE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU?
We may use the information provided by you:
• to process your order or manage your account (if applicable)
• to contact you for your views on our services,
• to notify you about important changes or developments to our site or services,
• to provide a more personalised online experience,
• for record keeping purposes,
• to keep you informed about our products and services that we offer. If you agree, we may also pass your information to other companies in the Group so that they keep you informed about the products or services which they offer. For more information see the paragraph on direct marketing below,
• for market research purposes, on an anonymous basis to track activity on our site, to publish trends and/ or to improve usefulness and content, and
We may also use your information, including shopping habits, to open and run your credit account including payment recovery, fraud prevention and debt tracing and for our marketing.
DIRECT MARKETING EMAILS
As part of running our business, we are keen to let people know about our range of products and services, including new products and services which we introduce from time to time. In order to do this, we send marketing emails to people – our approach to doing so is as follows:
· Potential customers:
Individuals – we will obtain consent of individuals before sending you marketing emails,
Corporate subscribers - for business subscribers (e.g. people who have an email address of a limited company), we are not required to obtain your consent in order to send you marketing emails, but you have the right to opt out at any time
· Existing customers - For existing customers who have bought our products or services previously (or entered into negotiations with us about doing so), we may use the information we collect to email you to let you know about our other similar products and services which may be of interest to you. We will give you the option to opt out at the time of the original purchase/negotiation and in every subsequent marketing email we send to you.
· Contacts from acquired businesses – as mentioned above, we may acquire other businesses from time to time and when we do so, we might inherit that company’s marketing list of contacts/customers etc.. We are keen to ensure that existing customers/contacts of the acquired company continue to receive information about our relevant products and services – therefore, in this situation, we will seek the consent of such individuals, to check whether they are happy to continue to receive marketing emails from us, relating to relevant products /services.
· If you provide your consent to us doing so, we would also like to send you information about the products and services offered by other companies in the Group.
Regardless of which scenario above applies, you can let us know at any time if you no longer want to receive marketing emails from us or our group companies – you can opt out, each time that you receive a communication by following the link to unsubscribe. Where we rely on consent in order to send direct marketing emails to you, you can withdraw such consent at any time – where you do so, we (and our other group companies where you indicate) will promptly stop sending marketing emails to you.
DISCLOSING YOUR DATA
We never make your personal details available to companies outside of the Group for marketing purposes and will only disclose your personal details to other companies within the Group if you have agreed to us doing so.
However, we may use other companies to provide services to you on our behalf. These services may include but are not limited to answering your questions about products or services, sending postal mail and e-mails and analysing data. We will only provide those companies with the information they need to deliver the service we have engaged them for and they are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose. We have robust agreements in place with such third parties, which includes legally binding clauses restricting their use of your personal data, so that they can only use it to deliver the services to us.
We may have to disclose your information by law or because a court or the police or other law enforcement agency has asked us for it. In the event that a majority of our shares were bought by another company or we transferred a substantial amount of our assets to another company, we would disclose your personal information to that purchaser, who would likely contact you to enquire whether you were still happy for them to hold your data and/or happy to continue to receive communications from them.
HOW IS YOUR INFORMATION PROTECTED?
We take protection of your information seriously and have appropriate physical and technological security measures in place to keep it safe. Internally, we restrict access to personal information. Only employees who need the information in order to do their jobs have access to it. We never transfer your data outside of the UK.
OUR COMPLIANCE WITH UK GDPR AND DATA PROTECTION ACT 2018
The Group fully supports the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR and is committed to the protection of personal data belonging to our suppliers, customers and colleagues. We conduct regular audits around the Group to ensure compliance with our policies.
We are aware of our obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and DPA 2018 and have adopted a proactive approach to the implementation of this important legislation. This includes having in place policies and procedures to ensure personal data is collected, stored and disposed of in a manner compliant with the requirements of the UK GDPR and DPA 2018.
HOW WE LEGALLY JUSTIFY USING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Under the UK GDPR and DPA 2018, we are required to identify a lawful basis for each use of personal data – our lawful bases are summarised as follows:
|
Use |
Lawful basis under the UK GDPR |
|
Direct marketing emails |
Corporate subscribers - If the email address you have provided to us is a corporate email address, we rely on legitimate interests under the UK GDPR, specifically our interest in informing people about our products and services which we think they may be interested in purchasing.
If the email address is a personal one, then we will only send you marketing emails where we have first obtained your prior written consent to doing so (unless you are an existing customer, in which case we do not rely on your consent, but give you the option to opt out at any time). |
|
Sharing your details with other companies within our Group for marketing purposes |
We will request your written consent. |
|
To manage the relationship / account you have with us |
Corporate subscribers - If the email address you have provided to us is a corporate email address, we rely on legitimate interests under the UK GDPR, specifically our interest in informing people about our products and services which we think they may be interested in purchasing.
If the email address is a personal one, then we will only send you marketing emails where we have first obtained your prior written consent to doing so (unless you are an existing customer, in which case we do not rely on your consent, but give you the option to opt out at any time). |
|
To deliver products/services which you have purchased from us |
Corporate subscribers - If the email address you have provided to us is a corporate email address, we rely on legitimate interests under the UK GDPR, specifically our interest in informing people about our products and services which we think they may be interested in purchasing.
If the email address is a personal one, then we will only send you marketing emails where we have first obtained your prior written consent to doing so (unless you are an existing customer, in which case we do not rely on your consent, but give you the option to opt out at any time). |
RETENTION PERIODS
We only retain your information for 7 years in order to respond to your query, provide you with the information you require or to send you updates on our products and services for as long as you indicate that you are happy for us to do so. We are required to keep some records for a longer period of time to meet our legal obligations.
CONTACT US
If you have any questions relating to this policy or the use by us of personal data please write to the Group Data Protection Manager at our registered address or via [email protected], quoting Security and Privacy Enquiry.
YOUR RIGHTS
If you have any questions in relation to our use of your personal data, you should first contact us using the contact details above. Under certain conditions, you may have the right to require us to:
(a) provide you with further details on the use we make of your personal data and/or transfer a copy of your personal data to another data controller;
(b) provide you with an electronic copy of personal data that we hold;
(c) update any inaccuracies in the personal data we hold, restrict processing of your personal data;
(d) delete any personal data that we no longer have a lawful ground to use;
(e) object to our use of your personal data which is based on the 'legitimate interests' legal ground. If our use of your personal data based only on this legal ground is causing you undue harm, then we must cease using your personal data for that purpose.
You also have the right to object to receiving direct marketing communications from us and where any use of your personal data is based on consent (including direct marketing), to withdraw that consent at any time. This is an absolute right – if you exercise it, we will promptly cease sending any further marketing information to you.
Your exercise of most of these rights is subject to certain conditions and exemptions, for example to safeguard the public interest in investigating crimes, or protecting legal privilege. If you exercise any of these rights we will check your entitlement and respond in most cases within a month.
If you are not satisfied with our use of your personal data or our response to you, you can complain to the contact listed above. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at any time.
COOKIES
Cookies are small files that a website places on your hard disk to enable additional features of the website to work. Use of cookies is an industry standard and many websites use them and most internet browsers automatically accept cookies.
Website operators are required to provide clear information in relation to the cookies operating on their site and to also obtain the user’s consent before setting a cookie on their computer or handheld device.
Our cookies do not contain any personally identifying information, but they do enable us to provide a more user-friendly experience. We do not use cookies to gather personal information such as a person's name or e-mail address. However, to track usage on our website, we may use cookies to identify repeat visitors to the website and to determine the path visitors take on our site. Any information gathered using cookies is compiled on an aggregate and anonymous basis.