Privacy Policy

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

Key terms

It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:

Who we are

CS Electrics collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.

The personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of your use of our websites we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

• names of persons placing orders, delivery address, email address, telephone number and company details if applicable
• information to enable us to check and verify your identity, eg your date of birth
• location data, if you choose to give this to us
• your billing information, transaction and payment card information
• your contact history, purchase history and saved items
• Information about how you use our website, IT, communication and other systems

Information collected from other sources

We may also obtain personal information from other sources as follows:

• Our bank or payment provider(s) if you are making a purchase from us

How we use your personal information

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal information if we have a proper reason for doing so, eg:

• to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
• for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
• for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
• where you have given consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

Below explains what we use (process) your personal information for and our reasons for doing so:

To provide products and services to you.

For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.

To prevent and detect fraud against you or CS Electrics.

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to minimise fraud that could be damaging for us and for you.

Conducting checks to identify our customers and verify their identity, screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes, other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, eg under health and safety regulation or rules issued by our professional regulator.

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

 Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies.

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Ensuring business policies are adhered to, eg policies covering security and internet use.

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you.

Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control.

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price.

To assist with company recruitment drives.

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to protect any information sent to us in the form of job applications and or curriculum vitae’s to assist us with our recruitment process to ensure we adequately assess and where relevant store and or delete any information received.

Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information.

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to protect trade secrets and other commercially valuable information and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, eg in relation to our financial performance, customer base, product range or other efficiency measures.

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price.

Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems.

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Updating customer records.

For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. In addition, for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, eg making sure that we can keep in touch with our customers about existing orders and new products.

Statutory returns.

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments.

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations and for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, eg to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you.

Marketing our services to existing and former customers, third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services and third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings.

For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to promote our business to existing and former customers.

External audits and quality checks, eg for ISO or Investors in People accreditation and the audit of our accounts.

For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, ie to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Promotional communications

We may use your personal information to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about our products and services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new products and services.

We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal information for promotional purposes (see above ‘How we use your personal information’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.

We will always treat your personal information with the utmost respect and never share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.

You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:

• contacting us at CS Electrics at [email protected]
• using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails or ‘STOP’ number in texts

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further products and services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

Who we share your personal information with

We routinely share personal information with:

• third parties we use to help deliver our products and services to you, eg payment service providers, and third party suppliers;
• other third parties we use to help us run our business, eg marketing agencies or website hosts;
• third parties approved by you, eg social media sites you choose to link your account to or third party payment providers;
• our insurers and brokers;
• our banks;

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal information if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal information. We may also share personal information with external auditors, eg in relation to ISO accreditation and the audit of our accounts.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal information with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

We will not share your personal information with any other third party.

Where your personal information is held

Information may be held at our offices and those of our third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see above: ‘Who we share your personal information with’).

How long your personal information will be kept

We will keep your personal information while you have an account with us or we are providing products and services to you. Thereafter, we will keep your personal information for as long as is necessary:

•     to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;

•     to show that we treated you fairly;

•     to keep records required by law.

We will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of personal information.

When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal information, we will delete or anonymise it.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation you have a number of important rights free of charge:

Access

The right to be provided with a copy of your personal information (the right of access).

Rectification

The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal information.

To be forgotten

The right to require us to delete your personal information—in certain situations.

Restriction of processing

The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal information—in certain circumstances, eg if you contest the accuracy of the data.

Data portability

The right to receive the personal information you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party—in certain situations.

To object

The right to object:

—at any time to your personal information being processed for direct marketing (including profiling);

—in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information, eg processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.

Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making

The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

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.

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

• email, call or write to our Data Protection Officer
• let us have enough information to identify you (eg account number, user name, registration details),
• 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), and
• let us know the information to which your request relates, including any account or reference numbers, if you have them

If you would like to unsubscribe from any email newsletter you can also click on the ‘unsubscribe’ button at the bottom of the email newsletter. It may take up to 7 days for this to take place.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

How to complain

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

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone: 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this privacy notice

This privacy notice was published and updated on 9^th June 2021.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time, when we do we will inform you via our website or other means of contact such as email.

How to contact us

Please contact our Data Protection Officer if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you.

If you wish to contact our Data Protection Officer, please send an email to [email protected], write to CS Electrics at 12 Carisbrooke Crescent, County Durham, Bishop Auckland, DL14 0RW or call 01388 345679.

Do you need extra help?

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

Use of cookies

A cookie is a small text file which is placed onto your computer (or other electronic device) when you access our website. We use cookies on this website to:

• keep track of the items stored in your shopping basket and take you through the checkout process;
• recognise you whenever you visit this website (this speeds up your access to the website as you do not have to log in each time);
• obtain information about your preferences, online movements and use of the internet;
• carry out research and statistical analysis to help improve our content, products and services and to help us better understand our visitor and customer requirements and interests;
• target our marketing and advertising campaigns more effectively by providing interest-based advertisements that are personalised to your interests; and
• make your online experience more efficient and enjoyable.

The information we obtain from our use of cookies will not usually contain your personal data. Although we may obtain information about your computer or other electronic device such as your IP address, your browser and/or other internet log information, this will not usually identify you personally. In certain circumstances we may collect personal information about you—but only where you voluntarily provide it (eg by completing an online form) or where you purchase goods or services from us.

In most cases we will need your consent in order to use cookies on this website. The exception is where the cookie is essential in order for us to provide you with a service you have requested (eg to enable you to put items in your shopping basket and use our check-out process).

Consent

There is a notice on our home page which describes how we use cookies and which also provides a link to our website privacy policy. If you use this website after this notification has been displayed to you, we will assume that you consent to our use of cookies for the purposes described in this website cookie policy and our website privacy policy.

Third-party cookies

We work with third party suppliers who may also set cookies on our website. These third party suppliers are responsible for the cookies they set on our site. If you want further information please go to the website for the relevant third party. You will find additional information in the table below.

Google Analytics

This cookie helps CS Electrics to improve the performance of its website. Non-identifiable personal data is stored and used to analyse visits to web pages and usage of the CS Electrics website.

How to turn off cookies

If you do not want to accept cookies, you can change your browser settings so that cookies are not accepted. If you do this, please be aware that you may lose some of the functionality of this website. For further information about cookies and how to disable them please go to the Information Commissioner’s webpage on cookies: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies/.