Any payments made via PayPal will be subject to the PayPal Privacy Policy.

This website is operated by Answer RC Limited (“Answer RC”, "we" or "us"). We are committed to protecting your privacy and we comply with data protection laws applicable to the United Kingdom.

This privacy policy applies to personal information about:

• Visitors to our website
• Customers who purchase goods or services or create an account with us
• Our suppliers

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information relating to an individual who can be identified directly or indirectly, often by name, account number, location, an online identifier or other factors specific to their identity

Personal information may include “special category data” relating to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, membership of a trade union, physical or mental health and criminal records and allegations.

As a rule, we do not collect “special category data” about visitors to our website or our customers or suppliers. The exception is where we identify suspected criminal activity such as fraudulent claims or the use of stolen payment card details. In this case we will record details of the suspected criminal activity and may take appropriate action, including refusing to accept orders, make payments or give refunds. We may also report the incident to the relevant bank or payment card issuer or to the police or other appropriate authorities.

See below for details of how we may use your personal information.

Website Visitors: The personal information we collect about you and how we use it

You can visit and browse our website without providing your name or contact details.

Like many websites, our server logs capture details of your operating system, browser software, IP (Internet Protocol) address and Uniform Resource Locator (URL), including the date and time of your visit.

You may choose to provide your contact details (name, address, business, job title, email address, telephone number) if you do any of these things:

• Buy or return things in store
• Use our  collection or delivery services
• Shop online (either as a guest or using your account)
• Enter a competition
• Sign up for news and offers

When you enter a competition or promotional feature we may also ask for details such as your name, address, email address and telephone number so we can administer the competition and notify winners.

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 them at the relevant time.

Customers: The personal information we collect about you and how we use it

If you purchase products or services from us, we may use your personal information in the following ways.

Enquiries and Information:

• to answer your questions or provide you with information you have requested;
• to keep track of sales and enquiries
• to keep you informed about our products and services
• to notify you about important changes or developments to our site or services;
• to provide a more personalised online experience by showing you the most relevant products and offers

Orders and Account Management:

• to process your order
• to help with any questions if you have started an order but not completed it
• to manage deliveries, returns and refunds
• to manage your account, including carrying out identity checks (if applicable)
• to manage your credit account (if applicable) including carrying out credit checks

Customer Relationship:

• to monitor how our customers transact with us in store and online, for example by checking who has redeemed vouchers or bought items using our mobile app, website or other facility (for more information see Understanding Our Customers below)
• to contact you for your views on our products and services
• to publish trends and/or to improve usefulness and content of our website
• to track activity on our site and to provide a more personalised online experience
• to link with social media sites and services, for example, for advertising purposes
• for market research purposes, by tracking activity on our site or in store (on an anonymous basis) to identify trends and/or to improve usefulness and content

Other:

• for product liability purposes
• to deal with enquiries and complaints
• for claims management and insurance purposes
• for general record keeping purposes

Suppliers: The personal information we collect about you and how we use it

If you supply products or services to us, we may use your personal information in the following ways:

• for order processing and management;
• to manage deliveries, installations, returns and refunds;
• for product liability purposes;
• to manage your account, including conducting credit and other background checks where applicable;
• for market research purposes;
• to notify you about important changes or developments to our websites or services;
• for supply chain management;
• to deal with enquiries and complaints;
• for claims management and insurance purposes; and
• for record keeping purposes.

If you are a supplier and you have any questions about how we use your personal information, please contact us your usual business contact.

Understanding Our Customers

So that we can provide a better service, we want to understand the shopping patterns of our customers, how customers select the products and services they ultimately buy, which apps and technology customers prefer to use, and how successful our advertising and promotional campaigns have been. We may use a number of different techniques to do this:

• We monitor which customers redeem vouchers using a code that makes the offer personal to you
• When you order goods in store to be delivered, we will ask for your marketing choices as we would like to send you information about other products and services that may be of interest. We may also link your in-store order details with your online account information and your shopping patterns on our website and mobile app so we have a complete picture of all the things you buy from Answer RC
• We may monitor other websites you visit and the goods and services you look for using search engines in order to provide you with information about products and services from Answer RC which are most relevant to you
• We may connect with social media sites so that we can better target our advertising while you are using these services and improve the relevance of what you see 

How your information is accessed within Answer RC

Answer RC is a single entity with no group affiliation, we may at times need to pass some details in relation to your order to suppliers to fulfill it or to our stocking customers to be able to fulfil the order. The only data passed on is that needed to complete the order, name, address, email and phone number. All suppliers and customers will in their own right need to be GDPR compliant.

Keeping You Informed

If you sign up to receive updates or have bought we may use the information we collect to let you know about our other products and services which may be of interest to you and to keep you updated with information about promotional offers and what is coming soon.

If you leave items in your shopping basket on our website without completing a purchase, we may send you an email to follow up and ask if you need any help with your order.

We review the products and services you buy and we also analyse your use of our website and the searches you make on this and other websites. We use this information to tailor the marketing you receive from us so it is as relevant as possible. This may include serving you with adverts on social media and other third party websites.

You can opt out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time by contacting our customer services team through one of the options on our “contact us” page or, if you have an online account with us, you can update your marketing choices on your account. See Your Rights below for more details.

Retention

We will retain your personal information for as long as needed for the legitimate business purposes described above

If you are a visitor to the website, we will retain your information for a limited period 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.

If you make a one-off purchase, we normally keep records of the transaction for 7 years. If you are an account customer or a supplier, we normally keep records for 7 years after the closure of your account or the last purchase or sale you made. In all cases, this is for accounting, tax and product liability purposes.

Your information may be retained for longer than this if there are valid legal grounds for us to do so, for example if required by law or court order, or as needed to defend or pursue legal claims.

Working with Service Providers

Like most organisations, we engage service providers to run our website and IT systems, to help us administer accounts, to conduct credit checks and fraud screening, and to handle marketing campaigns. We also work with a large number of suppliers who provide products and delivery services to us.

We will only provide these 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. Whenever we share personal information about our customers or visitors to our website with our service providers, we will put in place contracts which require the service provider to protect the information and keep it secure. See also Transferring information to other countries below.

Other Disclosures

Your information may be shared within Answer RC Limited

Your personal data may be disclosed to the following third parties for the purposes described above:

• tax, customs and excise authorities
• regulators, courts and the police
• fraud screening agencies
• central and local government
• insurance companies
• other professional advisors

We may also disclose your personal information if we believe that the disclosure is necessary to enforce or apply our terms and conditions or otherwise protect and defend our rights, property or the safety of our customers and other users of the website.

We may disclose and/or transfer your personal information in connection with a reorganisation of all or part of our business, if the majority of our shares are bought by another company or if we transfer all or some of our assets to another company.

Transferring information to other countries

Some of the companies who provide services to us may be located outside the United Kingdom. We use IT service providers who are located in India, for example. As a result, your personal information may be transferred outside the UK. We will ensure that those service providers comply with any legal requirements that apply to the transfer of personal information outside the UK.

Security

We are committed to safeguarding the personal information you provide to us. We use appropriate measures to protect the information that you submit through our website and the information we collect and store about our customers.Internally, we restrict access to personal information. Only employees who need the information in order to do their jobs have access to it.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our website and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal data against loss, theft and unauthorised use, access or modification.

If you have created an account or registered to use any online services, your account details may be password protected. It is your responsibility to keep your password confidential and to sign out once you have finished browsing.

Changes to this policy

This privacy policy was last updated in May 2018. Any changes to this privacy policy will be posted here. Please refer back to this page regularly.

Links to other websites

Links may be provided on our website to other websites that are not operated by us. If you use these links, you will leave our website. You should note that we are not responsible for the contents of any third party website. External sites will have their own privacy policies which you should read carefully.

Your Rights

Marketing

If you have an online account you can access, update and correct your personal information – including your marketing choices – using the account management facilities.

You can opt out of receiving marketing at any time by using the unsubscribe option in the message or by contacting our customer service team https://answer-rc.com/en/index.php?controller=contact . You can also opt out of postal and telephone marketing by contacting us using the contact us link on the website.

If you prefer not to receive marketing which is tailored to suit your customer profile, please contact our customer service team https://answer-rc.com/en/index.php?controller=contact . You will still receive generic marketing unless you opt out of receiving marketing entirely.

Access and Correction

If you would like to correct or update any of your other personal information, or if you would like a copy of the personal information we hold, please contact the Answer RC Data Protection Officer at the address below. We may need to ask for proof of your identity before we can respond to your request.

Other Rights

You may also have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

• in certain circumstances, the right to restrict or object to the processing of your personal information (including profiling), or request that your personal information is deleted
• where you have provided personal information voluntarily, or otherwise consented to its use, the right to withdraw your consent
• in certain circumstances, the right to receive a copy of the personal information which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to request that we transfer that information to another party (known as “data portability”)
• the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority (see further below)

If you have a query about this privacy policy or wish to exercise your rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer by writing to them at:

FAO: Data Protection Officer

Answer RC Limited

18 Momentum Place

Bamber Bridge, PR5 6EF

Or emailing them at:

sales@answer-rc.com (Marking emails for the attention of the Data Protection Officer)

If you are not satisfied with our use of your personal information or our response to any request made by you in relation to your personal information, you have a right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate)