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Privacy Policy & Cookies

Please read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal information, your rights regarding your personal information and on how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

This website privacy notice is divided into the following sections:

  • Who we are
  • Our website
  • Our lawful purposes for collecting and using your personal information
  • Other companies we work with who process your data
  • The collection and use of your personal information
  • Who we share your personal information with
  • Cookies and similar technologies
  • Marketing
  • Your rights
  • How to complain
  • Changes to this website privacy notice
  • How to contact us
  • Do you need extra help?

Who we are

We are What About This. We are based in Unit 5 Charles Street, Sunderland, England, SR6 0AN. For more information about who we are and what we do, visit our website – https://whataboutthis.com/.

We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 which applies across the European Union (and in the United Kingdom). We are responsible as a ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.

Our website

Our website is hosted by Shopify. Their registered address is Intertrust Ireland, 2nd Floor 1-2 Victoria Buildings, Haddington Road, Dublin 4, D04 XN32 Ireland. For more information about who they are and what they do, visit their website – https://www.shopify.co.uk/.

Our privacy notice relates to your use of our website (https://whataboutthis.com/) when you purchase products from us and/or subscribe to our services.

Our lawful purposes for collecting and using your personal information

When we use your personal information we are required to have a lawful purpose for doing so. There are different lawful purposes on which we may rely, depending on what personal information we process and why.

The lawful purposes we rely on include:

  • Consent: where you have given us clear consent for us to process your personal information for a specific purpose. We rely on consent when on transaction completion you provide us with your date of birth to receive a discount code; when you opt-in into our email database to receive special offers and other marketing and promotional materials; and when you opt-in to be alerted about a particular product which is in stock.
  • Contract: when you visit our website and place an order, our confirmation of your order creates a contract between us. Our obligations under this contract are to fulfil your order; including delivery, payment and returns. We use personal information such as your name, address and telephone number to do these things. 
  • Legitimate interests: where we use your personal information for our legitimate commercial interests. We will only do this if there is no good reason to protect your personal information which overrides our legitimate interests.

Other companies we work with who process your data

This privacy notice will also refer to other companies who will process your personal data as part of our order fulfilment and marketing arrangements. These are:

  • Shopify process personal data on our behalf when you access our website and purchase a product. Certain apps are also installed within Shopify. These applications process personal data about you when you opt-in. We do not collate or store this personal data; it is electronically held by Shopify on our behalf. This data is processed in accordance with Shopify’s privacy policy. To learn more, visit: https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy.
  • Mailchimp is a marketing platform that we use for our marketing. Mailchimp collate personal information in accordance with their privacy policy. To learn more, visit https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.
  • Veeqo is a third-party software platform that we use as our inventory system. Veeqo is automatically integrated with Shopify and may process personal information about you in accordance with their privacy policy. To learn more, visit https://www.veeqo.com/privacy.

The collection and use of your personal information

This section explains when we collect your personal information and how we use it:

  • Shopify (on our behalf) collects personal information about you when you access our website and purchase our products. Shopify collects this directly when you purchase products. The information collected by Shopify (on our behalf) includes your name, address, telephone number, email address and payment details. This information is electronically stored on Shopify’s servers, subject to Shopify’s privacy policy. This information is linked to Veeqo, which we use to access your personal information in order to fulfil your order, including delivery, payment and returns. Shopify also collects personal information from you, such as your browsing activity, while on our website (see ‘Cookies’ below).
  • If you return an item to us, we keep your return labels in hard-copy form to ensure that we have accurate records of your transaction and the return. We keep these securely in our main warehouse. After not more than 6 years, they are shredded and confidentially disposed of.
  • Stock Alert collects personal information about you when, on the product page, you opt-in to be alerted about particular products. Stock Alert collects your name, email address and the product you wish to be alerted about. Stock Alert app is installed within Shopify. This information is electronically stored in Shopify’s servers. When we login into Shopify, we have access to this information. We use this to notify you when a particular product is in stock.
  • The ‘Happy Birthday Email’ app collects your date of birth when you enter this on transaction completion. This app is installed within Shopify. This information is electronically held in Shopify’s servers. When we login into Shopify we have access to this information. We use it to provide you with a discount code on your birthday.
  • Mailchimp collects personal information about you when you opt-in into our email database, either on transaction completion or when you subscribe to our newsletter. Mailchimp collects your name and email address. We use a Shopify app called ‘Shop Sync’ to connect Mailchimp and Shopify. This information is electronically stored in Shopify’s servers. We have access to this information through Shopify. We use this information to send you special offers and other marketing and promotional materials.
  • Veeqo collects personal information about you when your order is prepared for delivery. This personal information include your name, address and telephone number. Veeqo is automatically connected to Shopify. This information is electronically stored by both Shopify and Veeqo’s on their respective servers until we fulfil your order and is subject to their respective privacy policies. This information allows us to print your delivery label and invoice, which we attach to your item before it goes to the courier for dispatch.

Our website is not intended for use by children and we do not knowingly collect or use personal information relating to children.

Who we share your personal information with

  • We routinely share your name and delivery address details with our couriers. Our preferred couriers include Royal Mail UPS and DPD. We share this data to enable them to despatch the goods ordered to you.
  • Your card and payment information is handled by Shopify. It is encrypted through the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). We do not collect, store or access this data. We only see whether you have paid and what method you have used so we can fulfil your order.

Cookies and other tracking technologies

A cookie is a small text file which is placed onto your device (e.g. computer, smartphone or other electronic device) when you use our website and it allows our website to recognise your device and store some information about your preferences or past actions. On our website, Shopify uses and manages five types of cookies. These cookies are subject to Shopify’s Cookie Policy. To learn more, visit: https://www.shopify.co.uk/legal/cookies.

For more information about the cookies used on our website and why see the sections below:

  • Shopify uses strictly necessary cookies. These cookies are essential to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies the services you have asked for cannot be provided.
  • Shopify uses performance cookies. These cookies collect information about how our visitors use our website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies do not collect your personal information and they cannot be used to identify you. All information these cookies collect is only used to improve how our website works.
  • Shopify uses functional cookies. These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personalisation.
  • Shopify uses targeting cookies. These cookies are used to deliver adverts which are more relevant to you. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advert, as well as to help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign and social media cookies.
  • Shopify uses third party’s social media cookies from Facebook and Instagram. Shopify also uses Google Analytics to help us see where our customers are geographically located in the UK and to see how many users are there online.

You can use the settings in your web-browser to restrict or block the cookies set on our website by Shopify. Your browser’s Help Page will provide you with instructions on how to do this.

Marketing 

When you place an order with us, we may ask you to provide your consent to be included in our marketing database. We may use this to send direct marketing from us, to you, by electronic means.

All our direct marketing is subject to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.

The lawful basis we rely upon for sending you direct marketing is express consent. This is provided by you when you tick the box on the transaction completion page asking if you wish to be included in our marketing database. We use this consent to retain your name, email address and telephone number and we use this information to provide you with direct marketing of goods and services which we think you might like to receive from us.

We only use this information for our own marketing purposes and do not sell or otherwise share your data with any third parties.

Our marketing database is securely stored and maintained by our staff at our offices. We will keep you on our marketing database for 12 months from the most recent date that you provided your consent to be included. You have the right to opt-out from our marketing database at any time. To do so, click the opt-out button in our emails or send us an email at laura@whataboutthis.com.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 you have important rights. In summary, those include rights to:

  • fair processing of information and transparency over how we use your use personal information
  • access to your personal information and to certain other supplementary information that this privacy notice is already designed to address
  • require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold
  • require the erasure of personal information concerning you in certain situations
  • receive the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations
  • object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing
  • object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you
  • object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information
  • otherwise restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
  • claim compensation for damages caused by our breach of any data protection laws

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals rights under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

  • email, call or write to us
  • let us have enough information to identify you (e.g. your name and address)
  • let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill)
  • let us know the information to which your request relates, and
  • let us know which right you wish to exercise (and why, if appropriate)

How to complain

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.

The General Data Protection Regulation 2016 also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner, who is based at The Information Commissioner’s Office. Contact the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone at 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this website privacy notice

This website privacy notice was published on 14th September 2020 and last updated on 14th September 2020.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you please contact us:

  • by email to info@whataboutthis.co.uk;
  • write to Company Director, What About This Ltd, Unit 5, Charles Street, Sunderland, SR6 0AN

Do you need extra help?

If you would like this website privacy notice in another format (for example: audio, large print, braille) please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ above).