Privacy Policy For Members & Businesses/Individuals Applying To Buy With Confidence


Privacy Notice For Buy With Confidence Member Businesses & Applicants

This policy only applies to those who are already members of Buy With Confidence or who are applying for membership. If you are leaving feedback, a complaint or contacting the Buy With Confidence Central Administration/Operations Group for any other reason, please refer to this privacy policy.

Who is collecting and using your personal data?
The Buy With Confidence Partnership* and the Scheme Operator for your area [hereafter referred to collectively as Buy With Confidence] will act as a “co-data controllers” for any personal data that you provide to us. All Scheme Operators are local authorities and you may also wish to refer to their policies as to how they deal with data, as in some circumstances (mainly uses of data for Public Protection or Criminal Investigation), their policies will supersede this privacy notice. If you are not sure who your local Scheme Operator is, please email: admin@buywithconfidence.gov.uk to find out. We will ensure that the data given to us is processed in line with your rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulations and associated data protection laws currently applicable in the UK.

Please note that failure to provide your personal data means we will be unable to process your membership of Buy With Confidence or have any business you own/work for as a member.

Why are we collecting your personal data?
We are collecting your personal data for the following purposes;

Our use of your data will be guided by the contract between the member company and Buy With Confidence, which is largely governed by the business’ agreement to abide by the Scheme’s Terms & Conditions, made at the time of application. We reserve the right to hold, request, gather or check any data which the Buy With Confidence Partnership or the Local Scheme Operator may need in order to check compliance with those Terms & Conditions either before or during the business’ membership (within the bounds of the Data Protection Act 2018 and other applicable legislation). We will also use the data to contact the member about changes in legislation and other things relevant to their membership – some of which the member/individual may not be able to opt out of if they wish to retain their membership.

As well as being contractual, as Buy With Confidence is designed to protect the public from rogue traders, our basis for holding and gathering personal data about people and businesses that apply for membership is the execution of a Public Task. This means that it may not be disclosable under a Freedom Of Information/Right Of Access request, although this will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

Please note, if you are providing us with the personal details of someone other than yourself (e.g. a company director, or a company secretary), you should seek that person’s permission beforehand. You should also ensure you have the necessary permissions to make the application. Once an application is received, Buy With Confidence is under no obligation to get explicit consent to hold details on individuals relevant to that business, as our legal basis for holding personal data is NOT individual explicit consent.

Please note this website, like most others, include Cookies, most notably ones from Google, which helps us to monitor how many people have come to the site and which pages they have visited. This includes storing the ip addresses of the computers that visit the site for a period of up to 12 months. This ip data is for internal use only and will never be shared publicly.

Who we will share your personal data with?
To deliver services to you it may be necessary for us to share your personal data with the following organisations / partners;

Your Buy With Confidence website data will be held in the UK by servers operated by our data processor, Siteon Limited, registered at Leofric House, Binley Road, Coventry, CV3 1JN. Siteon may only access and process data controlled by Buy With Confidence under permission from the Buy With Confidence Partnership.

Data held directly by the Buy With Confidence Partnership will be held securely by Devon, Somerset & Torbay Trading Standards, who can be contacted at Devon County Council, County Hall, Topsham Road, Exeter, EX2 4QD.

Data held by the local Scheme Operator will be held on their systems and may be passed to their partners. For further details please contact the Scheme Operator and/or look up their privacy policies.

We may also share data you allow to be publicly available on your Buy With Confidence Profile (e.g. business name, phone number, email address) with selected partners, such as local authorities, charities, and Resolver (complaint handling service). This will never include privately held data and will only be done when we believe there is benefit to the scheme and/or its members.

How long will we hold your personal data?
Once an application is received, Buy With Confidence reserves the right to hold relevant data for up to six years after the application either fails or is abandoned, the business’ membership is terminated, or the business leaves the scheme. While any request for deletion of personal data before that time will be handled on a case-by-case basis, Buy With Confidence may reject this request if it will undermine the Scheme’s Public Task objectives (e.g. being able to know a business owner isn’t trying to hide a history of rogue trading by renaming their company), or make it impossible to continue the business’ membership.

Exercising your rights
Under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the EU General Data Protection Regulations you have the following rights;

Should you wish to exercise any of your rights, you should contact us here: admin@buywithconfidence.gov.uk (Please note, this email address contacts the Buy With Confidence Partnership, who may pass the request to the local Scheme Operator, if appropriate).

Please note these rights are not absolute and each request will be treated individually in accordance with the applicable laws.

Your right to complain
If you wish to complain about the way that your personal data has been handled by Buy With Confidence, you should contact us here: admin@buywithconfidence.gov.uk. Your complaint will then be investigated in accordance with our Customer Feedback/Complaints Procedure.  If you remain dissatisfied with the way your personal data has been handled, you may refer the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office whose contact details are below.

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Email: casework@ico.org.uk

*The Buy With Confidence Partnership consists of the equal partners Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service, Hampshire County Council Trading Standards Service and Trading Standards South West Community Interest Company (which is wholly and jointly owned by 14 local authority Trading Standards Services).

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