Privacy Policy

Computer Geeks Ltd (“Computer Geeks”, “we”, “us” or “our”) takes the privacy of its clients’ data very seriously.

This policy sets out the basis on which any data we collect from you, that you provide to us, or that we collect from other sources about you, will be processed by us when you access our website, purchase products or services from us or via us, or make enquiries or otherwise communicate with us.

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

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

Controller

We are the controller and responsible for your personal data.

We have appointed a Data Protection Compliance Officer (DPCO) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this policy and is contactable at: DPCO@geeks.co.uk.

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 (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

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

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This policy was last updated on 9th August 2023. Previous versions can be obtained by contacting us.

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

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.

What information does Computer Geeks collect?

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 or your personnel which we have grouped together as follows:

1. Technical Data, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our website or for us to access your systems and any remote access codes.
2. Identity Data includes: first name, last name, title, date of birth and gender, your login information.
3. Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
4. Usage data, which includes information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs); application logs detailing who has added, edited or amended content and when; methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.
5. Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
6. Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
7. 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 could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will 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 policy.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, 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.

Information about other people. If you provide information to us about any person other than yourself, such as your personnel, your clients, or your suppliers, you must ensure that they understand how their information will be used and that they have given their permission for you to disclose it to us and for you to allow us, and our outsourced service providers, to use it.

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, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

How is your personal data collected?

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

1. Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact, and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
   • Discuss our services with us as a prospective client;
   • subscribe to our newsletters or publications;
   • request marketing to be sent to you;
   • complete a survey;
   • make a complaint; or
   • give us some feedback.
2. Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you or your personnel, from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
   • Technical Data from the following parties:
     • analytics providers such as Google based in USA and
     • search information providers based inside the UK.
   • Identity and Contact Data from data brokers or aggregators.
   • Data from publicly availably sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the EU.

How is your personal data used?

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data as a controller 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 although we will get your consent before 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.

We have set out below 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 legal basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please Contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Marketing

If you have elected to receive it, we may send you our regular newsletter, and we may contact you by electronic means (e.g. by e-mail or SMS/ text or push messages to your smartphone)

with information about goods and services of ours which are similar to those which you have purchased or enquired about previously. If you have agreed that we may do so, we may also use your personal data to contact you by electronic means with information about other products and services of ours;

We will always ensure that your personal data with respect and we will never sell or share it with other organisations for marketing purposes unless we have your express opt-in consent to do so.

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences over time, such as when 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.

Opting out of marketing

You can ask us 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.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase or other transactions.

Cookies

We want to be up-front about how our website uses cookies. For more detail on how we use cookies, or to change or withdraw the consent that you previously provided, 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.

Disclosure of your Information

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below :

• 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 policy or under your contract with us.
• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Computer Geeks, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of managing our credit risk, fraud protection and the protection of minors. If we are requested by the police or any other regulatory or government authority investigating suspected illegal activities to provide your personal information, we may be obliged to do so.

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.

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 way, altered or disclosed. Any personal data that is provided to us is stored on our secure servers and/or those of the service provider hosting our site on our behalf.

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.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk.

International Transfers

Many of our external third parties are based outside the UK so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the UK.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

• We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data.
• Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved for use in the UK which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

Data Retention

We will retain your information only for as long as it is reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

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, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

Access to information and other rights

Under certain circumstances, and depending on our relationship with you as a controller or processor, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data:

• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data held about you and to check that it is being lawfully processed.
• Request correction of your personal data that is held about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data held about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal data. You can ask for your personal data to be deleted or removed 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 data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal data. Object to processing of your personal data 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 as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
• Request restriction of processing your personal data. This enables you to ask that processing of your personal data to be suspended in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where use of the data is unlawful but you do not want it to be erased; (c) where you need the data to be held even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to the use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
• Request transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. You can ask to be provided with, or that a third party you have chosen is provided with, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
• Right to withdraw consent where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

No fee usually required – You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these 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 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 you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond – We try to respond to all legitimate requests. 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.