Privacy

About this privacy notice

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how The Midcounties Co-operative Limited collects and processes your personal information through your use of this website, including any information you may provide through this website when you apply to join as a member, log in to your membership account, enquire about the goods and services offered by The Midcounties Co-operative Group, sign up to a newsletter, take part in a competition, enquire about our community activities or apply for community funding, and when you shop with us online or in-store as a member. 

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect information relating to children.

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your information. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

Who’s responsible for your personal information?

We refer to The Midcounties Co-operative in this statement. This means The Midcounties Co-operative Limited and its subsidiaries. The Midcounties Co-operative Limited is responsible for this website and is the ‘data controller’ for your data.

How can you contact us?

We have appointed a data protection manager to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the Society’s Data Protection Manager at data-protection@midcounties.coop, by telephone on 01926 516007 or by writing to: Data Protection Manager, The Midcounties Co-operative, Co-operative House, Secretariat Group, Warwick Technology Park, Warwick CV34 6DA.

If you do not think that we have processed your data in accordance with this notice you should let us know as soon as possible.

Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

We may change this privacy notice from time to time. You should check this notice occasionally to ensure you are aware of the most recent version.

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your relationship with us.

Links to other websites

This website may include links to our trading groups’ websites, our dedicated careers website, third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow other parts of The Midcounties Co-operative’s Group and third parties to collect or share data about you. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit, particularly third party websites as we do not control those.

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 may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

• Identity Data includes first name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth, country of birth, national insurance number, gender and ethnicity.
  
  
• Contact Data includes address, email address and telephone numbers.
  
  
• Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details, related to your transaction data and/or which we may require in relation to your membership account.
  
  
• Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you relating to goods or services purchased from our businesses (including prior to becoming a member, where identifiable) and/or the administration of your membership account.
  
  
• 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, educational status, feedback and survey responses.
  
  
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our website.
  
  
• Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

We may, if you choose to provide it, collect data relating to your ethnicity as part of your application to become a member of The Midcounties Co-operative. We use that information to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting. Otherwise, we do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this also includes details about your race, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, the administration of your membership account). We will notify you if this is the case at the time.

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

• Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact, Transaction and Financial Data by buying our goods and services, filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
  
  
  • apply to become a member of The Midcounties Co-operative;
  • purchase our goods, products and services;
  • create an account on our website;
  • subscribe to our service or publications;
  • request marketing to be sent to you;
  • enquire about our community involvement;
  • enter a competition, promotion or survey; or
  • give us some feedback.
    
    
• Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.
  
  
• Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
  
  
  • Technical Data from the following parties:
    • (a) analytics providers;
    • (b) advertising networks; and
    • (c) search information providers.
  • Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services.
  • Identity and Contact Data from data brokers or aggregators.
  • Identity and Contact Data from publicly availably sources such as the Electoral Register.

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
  
  
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  
  
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Purposes for which we will use your personal information

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate. Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.

Marketing

As a co-operative, we are owned by our members. As such, we may contact our members regarding the range of goods, products and services that are available to them as a member. We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.

Promotional offers from us

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

As a member of The Midcounties Co-operative, you may receive marketing communications from us regarding the range of goods, products and services that we offer to our members. You will also receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased goods or services from us or if you provided us with your details when you entered a competition or registered for a promotion.

We won’t use your personal data for marketing purposes at all if you’ve told us not to and we’ll give you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving marketing information whenever we contact you directly for that purpose.

Third-party marketing

We may share your personal data with other legal entities within The Midcounties Co-operative Group for the purpose of marketing goods, services and products available to you as a member. We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside The Midcounties Co-operative Group for marketing purposes.

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time.

Cookies

We will strive to give you options as to the cookies that you consent to when your visit our website. Alternatively, you can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookie policy.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data 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 you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data 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 data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.

• Internal Third Parties such as other legal entities in The Midcounties Co-operative Group who provide administrative services and undertake management reporting.
  
  
• External Third Parties including the following:
  
  
• Organisations that provide outsourced printing, mailing and distribution services, such as the printing and mailing of membership cards and share of profits mailings.
  
  
• Organisations, such as Experian, who carry out data matching services to identify membership points earned with other co-operative societies that are part of the Society’s membership scheme.
  
  
• Organisations to which we may outsource certain other activities, such as membership database cleansing.
  
  
• Electoral Reform Services in connection with our Board member elections.
  
  
• Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.
  
  
• Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
  
  
• HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

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 only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

International transfers

We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those colleagues, 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.

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

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data 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.

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.

Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Request erasure below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes.

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  
  
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
  
  
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
  
  
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
  
  
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  
  
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact the Society’s Data Protection Manager.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you

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.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may 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.

Complaints to the regulator

If you do not think that we have processed your data in accordance with this notice you have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. You can contact them by going to their website at ico.org.uk, phoning them on 0303 123 1113 or by post to: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.