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Privacy statement

PRIVACY STATEMENT

  1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE

This Privacy Statement gives you information about how Crown Agents collects, uses and stores your personal data through use of this website and how we meet the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Crown Agents Limited of Crown Agents, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU (collectively referred to as “Crown Agents”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Statement) is the controller responsible for this website and is responsible for handling your personal data when you use this website. Crown Agents as a group of companies is made up of different legal entities, including in countries outside the United Kingdom. Where relevant, we will let you know if another entity within the group will be the controller for your data. If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the information set out in Section 9 below.

  1. TYPES OF PERSONAL DATA WE MAY COLLECT FROM YOU

Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. We may collect personal data from you in the following scenarios:

  • Information about your visits and behaviour on our website, which is used to ensure that the website is meeting the needs of our visitors and helps us improve our service to visitors.
  • Personal information which you provide and give us permission to collect and process in order to keep you informed about our work and services or to deliver relevant services to you.
  • Personal information which you provide in order for us to subsequently enter into a contract with you.

See Section 4 below for more information on how we use your personal data.

The personal data we may collect, use, store and transfer about you may include the following:

  • Identity data: Includes your first name, last name, username or similar identifier, title, date of birth and gender.
  • Contact data: Includes your billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
  • Transaction data: Incudes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us or supplied to us.
  • Technical data: Includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
  • Profile data: Includes your username and password, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
  • Usage data: Includes information about how you interact with and use our website, products and services.
  • Marketing and communications data: Includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

We may also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data which is not personal data as it does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate individuals’ usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature in order to analyse general trends in how users interact with our website to help improve the website and our service offering or, in the event of breach of security, may be used to aid detection.

  1. HOW YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS COLLECTED

We use different methods to collect personal data from and about you, including through:

  • Your interactions with us: You may give us your personal data by filling in online forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or on our website.
  • Automated technologies and interactions: As you interact with our website, we automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. More information on our use of cookies is set out in Section 4 below.
  • Third Parties and Publicly Available Sources: We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources such as Google or LinkedIn.
  1. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

The law requires us to have a legal basis for collecting and using your personal data. We rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

  • Performance of a contract with you: Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
  • Legitimate interests: We may use your personal data where it is necessary to conduct our business and pursue our legitimate interests, for example to enable us to give you the best and most secure customer experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests.
  • Legal obligation: We may use your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.
  • Consent: We rely on consent where we have obtained your active agreement to use your personal data for a specified purpose, for example if you subscribe to our newsletter or sign up for one of our training courses.

We set out below a description of the ways we plan to obtain and use your personal data depending on what you have provided it for. Where you provide us with your personal data for one specific purpose (e.g. signing up for our newsletter), we won’t use your personal data for another purpose (e.g. sending you training course information) without first obtaining your consent to do so.

  • When you sign up to the Crown Agents’ newsletter.
  • When you book onto a Crown Agents’ training course.
  • When you apply for a job at Crown Agents.
  • When you register with the Crown Agents’ procurement supplier portal.
  • When you send us information related to a contract between us.

Marketing

We may use your personal information to tell you about relevant products and offers relating to Crown Agents’ services. This is what we mean when we talk about “marketing”. We only use your personal information to send you marketing messages if we either have your consent or a legitimate interest. You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages by contacting us at any time using contact details in Section 9 below.

Use of cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website, to recognise and count the total number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our site when are using it. This information helps us to improve our services generally and to provide visitors with a good experience when browsing our site. For example, by understanding which areas are of particular interest and ensuring that visitors are always able to find what they are looking for. The cookies we use do not allow us to identify you personally. You can also alter the cookie settings applicable to your personal data on our website here:

Cookie Settings

If you do not wish to accept cookies you are able to decline them by altering the settings in your browser. If you do choose to block all cookies (including essential cookies) using your browser’s settings, you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

You can find out more information about the individual cookies we use and the purpose of each of them at the bottom of this page in the Cookie List.

  1. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA AND INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

We may share your personal data within the Crown Agents’ group or to specific external third parties. We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and we only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes in accordance with our instructions. We will never lease or sell your personal data to third parties.

Sharing your personal data may involve transferring your data outside the UK to our overseas offices. Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK to countries which have laws that do not provide the same level of data protection as UK law, we will ensure that a similar level of protection is afforded to it by requiring all our group companies to follow the same set of rules when processing your personal data.

We may transfer your personal data to service providers that carry out certain functions on our behalf. Whenever we transfer personal data out of the UK to service providers, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring safeguards are in place such as using specific contractual terms which give the transferred personal data the same protection as it has in the UK.

  1. DATA SECURITY

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised manner, altered or disclosed. In addition, we seek to limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

  1. DATA RETENTION

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for longer in the event of a complaint. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider factors such as the purposes for which we process your personal data, and the applicable legal, regulatory or other requirements. In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data. See Section 8 below for further information on your legal rights concerning your personal data.

  1. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have a number of rights under data protection law in relation to your personal data. You have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
  • Request erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have been able to exercise your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request for erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) as the legal basis for that particular use of your data (including carrying our profiling based on our legitimate interests). In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your right to object.
  • Object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or a chosen third party.
  • Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in one or more of the following scenarios:
    • if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy;
    • where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
    • where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
    • you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact using the contact details in Section 9 below. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may change a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

  1. CONTACT DETAILS

If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement or about the use of your personal data or you want to exercise your privacy rights, please contact our Data Integrity Officer at dataprotection@crownagents.co.uk or write to us at FAO: Data Integrity Officer, Crown Agents, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU, England.

  1. COMPLAINTS

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please do contact us in the first instance.

  1. CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY STATEMENT AND YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES

We keep our Privacy Statement under regular review. This version was last updated on 5th February 2024. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us, for example a new address or email address.

  1. THIRD-PARTY LINKS

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.