What is the purpose of this document?
Hiscolumn Limited (hereafter referred to as Hiscolumn) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.
This privacy notice and privacy policy describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your working relationship with us, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Hiscolumn is a "data controller". This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this policy.
This notice applies to current and former customers, suppliers, contractors and other third parties. This notice does not form part of any contract to provide services. We may update this notice at any time.
It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.
Data protection principles
We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:
Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
Accurate and kept up to date.
Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
Kept securely.
The kind of information we hold about you
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you including, but not limited to, the following:
Personal contact details such as name, address, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.
age
date of birth
shopping history (please see our Cookies Policy)
bank information
your navigation on our website (please see our Cookies Policy)
your purchase history
There are "special categories" of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection and we do envisage that we will hold or process special categories of sensitive personal data. If we are required to process special categories of sensitive personal data then we will contact you and obtain your explicit consent for us to process your special categories of sensitive personal data.
How is your personal information collected?
We collect most information from you. However, we may also collect information:
from you directly in hardcopy or email format;
from any forms completed and submitted by you to us via our website;
via our information technology systems, eg:
case management, document management and time recording systems;
relevant websites and applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Spotify;
automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, communications systems, email and instant messaging systems.
How we will use information about you
Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data 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
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.
The table below explains the reasons what we use and process your personal data and our reasons for doing so:
What we use your personal data for
Our reasons
To send products and deliver your purchases to you or someone you have duly nominated
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
Sending information about our products
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party and we will only send this with your permission.
To prevent and detect fraud against you or Hiscolumn.
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to minimise fraud that could be damaging for us and for you.
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, eg policies covering security and internet use
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party
Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, eg in relation to our financial performance, client base, work type or other efficiency measures
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party
Updating and enhancing customer records
For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party
Your date of birth
To prevent and detect fraud
Your payment information so that we can take payment and provide refunds
For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
Marketing and communications of our products.
For the performance of our contract with you.
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party.
Your purchase history
For the performance of our contract with you.
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party
The above table does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.
Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.
Marketing/Promotional communications
We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone, post or social media) about our products that might be of interest to you including exclusive offers, promotions or new products.
We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for promotional purposes (see above ‘How we will use information about you’). 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 data with the utmost respect and never sell OR share it with other organisations outside of Hiscolumn for marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by following the opt-out links on marketing material or by contacting us by post or email by contacting us at [email protected] (see ‘How to contact us’).
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.
Retention Policy
This policy sets out how long information will normally be held by us and when that information will be confidentially destroyed.
How long your personal data will be kept
We will keep your personal data after we have finished working with you. We will do so for one of these reasons:
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 data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data.
We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer a customer we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for legal, regulatory and tax purposes.
Information (hard copy and electronic) will be retained for at least the period specified in our Data Retention Period (see Appendix).
All information must be reviewed before destruction to determine if there are special factors that mean destruction should be delayed, eg:
potential litigation
complaints
ongoing cases
We will endeavour to delete hard copy and electronically held documents and information at the end of the retention period.
Data Retention Period – Appendix
Data
Retention period
Your personal information such as your name, age, date of birth, bank information, address, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.
· age
· date of birth
· shopping history (please see our Cookies Policy)
· bank information
· your navigation on our website (please see our Cookies Policy)
· your purchase history
6 years or a date you notify us in writing to delete your data in accordance with this Privacy Policy, whatever comes earlier.
Your shopping history
3 years or a date you notify us in writing to delete your data in accordance with this Privacy Policy, whatever comes earlier.
Your navigation history on our website and purchase history
3 years or a date you notify us in writing to delete your data in accordance with this Privacy Policy, whatever comes earlier.
Financial/Accounts records
6 years
Marketing
3 years unless you ‘opt out’ of the marketing material or exercise your right to withdraw in accordance with this policy.
Complaints records
1 year from the conclusion of the complaint
If you fail to provide personal information
If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you, or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
How we use particularly sensitive personal information
Special categories" of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information.
As confirmed previously, we do not envisage that we will obtain, handle or process your sensitive personal information.
Data sharing
As highlighted above, we will never sell any of your data to a third party.
However, we may have to share your data with third parties to enable us to provide our services to you, such as:
third-party service providers such as our website host, UK Fast, FatMedia
third parties to get your purchases to you such as delivery companies and warehouses
professional advisers such as our lawyers, marketing agencies and others who help us run our business
law enforcement agencies and fraud prevent agencies
social media websites, marketplace sellers where you choose to use their payment service to order our products
We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.
We may transfer your personal information outside the EU. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.
All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
We may share your personal information with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business. We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.
Data security
We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information.
Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
Your rights
You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:
Access
The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data (the right of access)
Rectification
The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data
To be forgotten
The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations
Restriction of processing
The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data—in certain circumstances, eg if you contest the accuracy of the data
Data portability
The right to receive the personal data 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 data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling);
—in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, 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
To withdraw
In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact Danesh Chauhan, Director at [email protected]. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.
email, call or write to us—see below: ‘How to contact us’; and
let us have enough information to identify you (eg your full name, address and client or matter reference number);
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 what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
Changes to this privacy notice
We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.
If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact Danesh Chauhan, Director at [email protected].
How to complain
We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may 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.How to contact us
Please contact us by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.
Our contact details are:
Post
Email
Hiscolumn Limited
Unit 30, 77-87 River Road,
Trafalagar Business Centre,
Barking, Essex
IG11 0JU
