We will respect your privacy!
Abel & Cole are strongly committed to protecting the privacy of our customers. This statement explains our policy on the processing of our customers' personal information.
We will hold your details on our internal system . We do our best to ensure the security of your details by using up to date industry practices to guard against unauthorised access, use, disclosure or loss.
Your personal details will not be used in ways to which you have not consented.
It is possible to view our site without providing any personal details. However, without registering your details you will not be able to order from us.
Use of information and your preferences
We will only ask for personal information from you where it is necessary for us to provide our service to you. We will only collect information where it is specifically and knowingly provided by you. For example, we will ask for your name, email and physical address, telephone number and payment card details when you register with us or place an order.
We will use this information to process your order and payment. If you default on payments, we may disclose your relevant details to debt collection agencies.
We may also review the products you buy using our on-line service or in store to enable us to give you information about products and services that you may be interested in.
We keep a record of your emails to us to assist in our management of your account with us.
Your telephone calls to us may be recorded and monitored for quality control and training purposes.
We will also use your contact details to communicate with you (see section on Contacting You).
We might also pass your personal information, but never your credit card or payment details, to elected third parties for marketing purposes. Again, however, we will not do this if you tell us not to, when registering with us, when you select your preferences, or if you later tell us not to, by changing your preferences. You can review or change your preferences on the contact preferences section of "my account".
The only other circumstances when we may provide details, from which you are identifiable, to third parties, are where we are required to do so by law, in order to administer your order (see section on Payment Details below), to our suppliers who process data on our behalf in the UK or abroad, inside or outside the EEA, and where required for business succession reasons.
Contacting you
We may occasionally contact you in connection to your account to enable us to manage and fulfil your order correctly. For example, if an item you have ordered is unavailable or if your delivery day needs to be changed, we would need to contact you. Or, for example, if we believe that you have not confirmed as intended or mistakenly processed your order. On such an occasion, we will normally try to reach you by telephone or email. If you have told us that you would prefer us to use a particular form of contact, we will endeavour to do so. You can update your preferred form of contact by viewing the contact details section of 'my account' when you are logged into our website.
From time to time, we may also send you a letter, email or other communication, telling you about new products or special offers offered by us or by carefully selected third parties which we believe may interest you.
We might ask for your views on our products or services to improve our offering. We will not send you any non-administrative emails or text messages without your consent. You can choose your preferences in this respect when you register with us, or at any time afterwards, on the contact details section of 'my account' when you are logged into our website, or by contacting our office. If we send you emails about products and services, we will provide a link that you can click on to change your preferences on your Abel & Cole account, enabling you to "unsubscribe" from promotional emails. If we contact you by phone, you can request to opt out of further calls at any point. If you do any of these things, we will honour your preferences.
If you cancel your account with us, we may archive your address and occasionally send you communications inviting you to try us again. You can remove yourself from our mailing list at any time by contacting our office (contact details are given on the contact page of our website) or clicking on the link in the communication to "unsubscribe".
Security policy
As a company that does business over the Internet, we understand the importance of security. We have highly secure facilities to give you confidence when using your payment card, and when you give us personal information, such as your address or telephone number. Please note, however, that although we use technology and systems designed to ensure security, we cannot guarantee the security of your information.
We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt your details as they're transmitted between your computer and our systems. This ensures, to the extent we can, that your payment card and personal details are kept private except where we have advised you otherwise in our terms and conditions or this statement. Your payment card details are encrypted and stored on a secure server that is set up to the extent practicable so as not accessible via the Internet.
You store your payment card details with us, so we can automatically take payment for your deliveries. When you look at the 'payment details' section of 'my account’, you will only see the last four digits of your card number. This enables you to check it's right, but prevents anybody else (except those staff of ourselves and our agents and your card issuer, applicable bank and their agents who need to see those details strictly only to enable your payment to be processed) from seeing your full card details. Access to your card details within Abel & Cole is highly restricted.
Every time you fill out personal or payment details on our site, your browser is switched to 'secure mode', to encrypt the information that you send to us. To verify you are in a secure part of the site look for a closed padlock icon, commonly in the bottom bar of your internet browser. If you have any further questions, please contact us.
Payment Details
Redacted payment information is stored within our systems for administrative purposes. Your full payment card details are encrypted, stored and processed by a fully PCI compliant third party provider, and are inaccessible to any Abel & Cole staff or any other third party.
We will never email you asking you for your payment details; please be wary of fraudulent requests for your card details via this route.
'Cookies'
Abel & Cole use a feature of your internet browser called a 'cookie' on our site. Cookies are small text files sent by a web server to your web browser, stored on your computer and sent back to us each time you visit. Cookies are used by the vast majority of websites to provide features such as a shopping basket or automatic login. We use them in three ways:
- We use cookies to manage the login process - these cookies store anonymous information and are used to manage site features that rely on knowing that you're logged in. These cookies are only used for the duration of your visit.
- We also offer you the option of automatic login to our system, which means that our system will recognise you and will log you in automatically when you access the site. This service works by using cookies which store your account number and name. This information is encrypted and we do not store your password, but since this will enable any person using your computer to access your account, we strongly recommend you do not enable this service on a shared computer. The auto-login service is provided at your own risk. The auto-login service is permanent until you cancel it via your 'my account' pages or manually delete the cookie.
- Cookies are also used in email messages you have agreed to receive and at our website to help us measure the response to our marketing. We are able to understand how you interact with the pages of our website through the combination of the cookie and pixels set on the pages of our website. This enables us to understand what interested you in our emails and what did not, and what interests you about our website and what does not. We can then try to send you more interesting information in the future. We consider this information at an aggregated level, rather than looking at each individual's use of our website. Please note that this information is for our use only - we do not disclose or share this information with any third parties, except those who help us make the emails and the website. These companies are limited in number and always bound by strict confidentiality agreements. If you do not wish this to happen, you can change the cookie settings in your browser.
There will not be any personally identifiable information in the Cookie when an anonymous user browses the website and orders things from the catalogue. Use of the auto login stores your account number and username in the Cookie, and your password will be stored there in an encrypted form. The Abel & Cole Cookie will remain on your hard disk indefinitely.
Please note that we do not use Cookies to retrieve personal information about you from your computer. The only information we have about you is whatever you have knowingly and willingly provided to us.
All web browsers allow you to restrict the use of cookies on your computer - if you prevent us from placing a cookie, unfortunately you will not be able to use our site to place an order. This is because we use cookies to enable you to log in to your account.
Links to other sites
Whilst we make every effort to provide you with links to high quality, reputable sites, these are not under our day to day control. When you click through to these sites or any other site not wholly owned by Abel & Cole, you leave the area controlled by us. We cannot accept responsibility for any issues arising in connection with either their use of your data, the site content or the services offered to our customers by these sites. You are advised to consult each site's privacy statement to see how they will use your data.
Your rights
We are registered under the Data Protection Act 1998 and comply with the Act in our dealings with your personal data. The Act protects your personal data by providing, amongst other things, that the data we hold about you should be processed lawfully and fairly. It should be accurate, relevant and not excessive. The information should, where necessary, be kept up to date and not retained for longer than is necessary. It should be kept securely to prevent unauthorised access by other people. You have the right to see what is held about you and correct any inaccuracies.
During any on line session you will be able to see and amend the details you have provided on line by clicking on 'My Account' or on 'Logged on:…’.
The full history of your orders with Abel & Cole is not available on line as it would slow the website down too much. If you would like a full statement of your transactions with us, we will happily post this to you free of charge. You can request a statement, or request access to any additional information held about you, from us by contacting us: details are provided on the contact page of our website.
Changes to this statement
From time to time it may be necessary for us to update this Privacy Statement. We
will notify you of any such changes by posting them on the Abel & Cole website.