Privacy, Data & Cookies Policies

PRIVACY NOTICE

This privacy notice has been developed to satisfy the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

The policy is for publication on customer facing websites.

Presentation changes i.e. styling, layout, fonts etc. can be made to this policy but the text in the Privacy Notice section of this document should be used verbatim.

Changes to the text must be approved by the Data Privacy Steering Group prior to publication.

Principles:

Virgin Wines cares about your privacy. When using your personal data we promise:

• We will take proper care of your data and will treat it like our own.
• We will only use your data to deliver and improve the Virgin Wines experience
• We will not send you spam. Only you decide what and how you hear from us.
• We won’t keep your data longer than we need it.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and security. If you have any questions about how we look after your privacy, email us at privacy@virginwines.co.uk.

LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR DATA

Where we process your data Virgin Wines Online Limited is the Data Controller while you are the Data Subject. As the Data Controller we rely on the following legal bases to process your data:

Performance of a Contract

The use of your data is neccersary to perform the agreement you have with us. For example to accept an order, collect payment, ship your wine and deal with after sales service such as returns, refunds and exchanges.

Legitimate Interests

We may use your data for our legitimate interests. For example to improve the products and service we offer, to update and adapt our website and to use your data for fraud protection or legal purposes.

HOW WE USE YOUR DATA

We use your personal data to deliver our service to you in different ways. You don’t have to share any of this data with us but if you don’t, you may not be able to use our website or buy wine from us and you may not receive our best possible service.

Your Name and Contact Details, we use this data to:

• Deliver your order. We need to use this data to perform our contract with you
• Send you messages, by email or SMS about your order. We need to use this data to perform our contract with you
• Send you information by email, SMS or post about our products, offers, services and promotions. We do this to keep you informed so you get the best possible experience. We only do this with your permission. You can withdraw or amend permission at any time by visiting your account on our website or by giving us a call.
• Prevent and detect fraud. We do this to protect both you and Virgin Wines

Your Date of Birth, we use this data to:

• Verify you are over 18. We cannot sell you alcohol if you are under 18

Your Payment Information, we use this data to:

• Take payments and give refunds. We need to use this data to perform our contract with you
• Prevent and detect fraud. We do this to protect both you and Virgin Wines

WineBank Account Details, we use this data to:

• Ensure your WineBank account is up to date and accurate, to add payments you have made, calculate the WineInterest we give you and to process refunds. We need to use this data to perform our contract with you
• Complete payment for your order when you use your WineBank balance or interest. We need to use this data to perform our contract with you

Wine Club Membership Details, we use this data to:

• Deliver your wine. We need to use this data to perform our contract with you

Details of conversations we have had with you, we use this data to:

• Provide great customer service. We need to do this to perform our contract with you

Order History, Favourites, Preferences, Reviews, Tasting Notes and Wishlists, we use this data to:

• Provide relevant products, services and promotions. We do this to ensure we are giving you what you want

How and when you use our Website, the pages you visit and interactions you make, your IP address and device type, we use this data to:

• Analyse and optimise the way our website works. We do this to offer you the best possible experience
• Detect, prevent and investigate any attempt to hack our website or systems. We do this to protect both you and Virgin Wines

If and when an e-mail is delivered to you, if it is opened and if any links in the email are clicked, we use this data to:

• Analyse, optimise and improve our email campaigns. We do this to provide you with relevant products, services and promotions

We also take personal data and remove anything that connects it to you – this is called “anonymisation”. We then use this alongside other anonymous data in order to undertake analysis and research to improve the products and services we offer. To do this we share this anonymous data with third parties. These third parties will not see any personal data about you at all.

KEEPING YOUR DATA

We will not keep your data for longer than we need it. We do need to keep your data in the following circumstances:

• While your account with us remains open, or
• As long as it is needed to provide services to you such as returns or refunds, or
• Where it may be required to meet legal obligations, resolve disputes and to detect and prevent fraud

SHARING YOUR DATA

We will not sell any of your personal data to any other party.

We may share your personal data with other organisations or companies. We will only share this data so that we can perform our contract with you or to optimise, improve or personalise the products and services we offer.

The types of organisation or companies we share your data with are:

• Companies that package and deliver your wine to you.
• Companies that enable us to complete your order such as credit card companies, banks and payment providers.
• Fraud prevention companies.
• Where the law requires, the police or other law enforcement agencies.
• Specialist companies that host our website and systems or help us with our marketing.

We also share data that we anonymise, to make sure it does not identify you, with third parties to undertake analysis and research to help us improve the products and services we offer.

USING YOUR DATA FOR MARKETING

We will only send you marketing messages by email, SMS or post if you have agreed to receive them. We ask(ed) you for your marketing preferences when you open(ed) your account.

• You can stop receiving marketing messages from us at any time. You can do this by:
• Logging into the websites and updating your marketing preferences. These can be found in the ‘My Account’ area of the website
• Clicking the unsubscribe link in any marketing email we send you
• Calling our Customer Services team on 0343 224 1001

DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Virgin Wines undertakes various types of online advertising. Some of this advertising may be based on information we have about you and your use of Virgin Wines. We do this with using a variety of techniques such as tracking pixels, tags, cookies and other identifiers.

The actual adverts and the content you see may be based upon data we hold about you. We do this to ensure we are offering you the most appropriate products and services.

YOUR RIGHTS

Virgin Wines take your rights to privacy seriously. You have the right to:

• Know what personal data we hold and how we process that data. This information is laid out in this notice.
• Request that incorrect data we hold about you is updated
• Ask us to share with you the personal data that we hold about you
• Request that we stop processing your data or delete your data in some circumstances
• Stop us sending you marketing messages
• To request that we transfer some or all of your data to another service provider
• To complain to the Information Comissioners Office

If you wish to exercise your right to correct incorrect data you may be able to do this youself by logging into the website and updating the details yourself in the ‘My Account’ area of the website..

You can stop receiving marketing messages from us at any time. You can do this by logging into the websites and updating your marketing preferences. These can be found in the ‘My Account’ area of the website or by clicking the unsubscribe link in any marketing email we send you.

Alternitively, if you wish to exercise any your rights please contact our Customer Services team on 0343 224 1001

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY NOTICE

We may change our privacy notice from time to time. When we do change this notice we will update this page to reflect the changes.

Where we make significant changes to the notice we will inform you via email. You can then review the changes and decide whether or not you wish to continue using Virgin Wines.

PECR COMPLIANCE STATEMENT

OVERVIEW

Virgin Wines is committed to meeting its obligations with respect to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (2004), PECR.

PRINCIPLES

Virgin Wines will only send electronic marketing, email, SMS or make telephone calls to customers have given and have maintained consent to receive such communications.

Where a Customer has declined or withdrawn consent no further electronic marketing will be sent to that customer.

Irrespective of consent for marketing communication Virgin Wines will continue to send electronic communication related to servicing the customer’s account, for instance Order Confirmation emails, as allowed by the PECR regulations.

CONSENT

Upon registering on the website the customer is asked whether they consent or do not consent to electronic marketing. It is not possible to complete the registration process without either giving or declining consent.

The consent requested is sufficiently granular so that the customer can choose the communication channel, type and frequency of communication:

In the small number of cases where a Customer is registered over the telephone the Customer Service Representitve must also ask whether consent is given or the registration process cannot complete. The Agent is given an on screen prompt to ensure this is done.

All consents (or consents declined) are stored against each customer in our customer database.

USING CONSENT DATA TO BUILD ELECTRONIC MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

When marketing campaigns are built only customers who have given consent are included in the campaign. One of the last steps before executing the campaign is to check that consent has been given and maintained. 

WITHDRAWING CONSENT

Customers can withdraw some or all consent to electronic marketing at any point. This can be done themselves by selecting no marketing from the My Account section of the website, by calling the contact centre or by clicking the unsubscribe link included in every electronic communication.

There is short window of up to approximately 1.5 hrs after a customer has withdrawn consent where they may still be included in a campaign.

DATA PROTECTION POLICY

This data protection policy sets out Virgin Wine’s commitment to protecting personal data and how we implement that commitment with regards to the collection and use of personal data.

At Virgin Wines we are committed to:

• ensuring that we comply with the eight data protection principles, as listed in section 2 of this policy.
• meeting our legal obligations as laid down by the Data Protection Act 1998.
• ensuring that data is collected and used fairly and lawfully.
• processing personal data only in order to meet our operational needs or fulfil legal requirements.
• taking steps to ensure that personal data is up to date and accurate.
• establishing appropriate retention periods for personal data.
• ensuring that data subjects’ rights can be appropriately exercised.
• providing adequate security measures to protect personal data.
• ensuring that a nominated officer is responsible for data protection compliance and provides a point of contact for all data protection issues.
• ensuring that all staff are made aware of good practice in data protection.
• providing adequate training for all staff responsible for personal data.
• ensuring that everyone handling personal data knows where to find further guidance.
• ensuring that queries about data protection, internal and external to the organisation, is dealt with effectively and promptly.
• regularly reviewing data protection procedures and guidelines within the organisation.

DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES

1. Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully.
2. Personal data shall be obtained for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes.
3. Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed.
4. Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
5. Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
6. Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under the Data Protection Act 1998.
7. Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised and unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.
8. Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

Cookies policy

A “cookie” is a bite-sized piece of data that is stored on your computer’s hard drive. They are used by nearly all websites and do not harm your system.

We use them to track your activity to help ensure you get the smoothest possible experience when visiting our website but the information does not usually identify you directly. We can use the information from cookies to ensure we present you with options tailored to your preferences on your next visit. We can also use cookies to analyse traffic and for advertising purposes.

These also include social media plug-ins which enable you to share our website content via your social media account(s) or easily share information with others.  We have a presence on YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter, and if you click on any of these icons on our website, you will be taken to our pages or profiles on those platforms. The platforms may then start tracking your behaviour using cookies for their own purposes; for example, to better understand your interests so that they can present relevant content or advertising to you.  Data about you may also be transmitted to the social media channel even if you do not click on the plug-in.  The social media platforms will provide us with statistical information, which we use to help understand how you and our other users interact with our social medial presence.  All these platforms provide you with some control over their use of non-essential tracking technology and you can find details of how to exercise this control by reviewing their privacy and cookie notices.  We have contractual arrangements in place with the social media channels we use.  Please contact us for more information. 

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 generally on cookies, including how to disable them, please refer to aboutcookies.org. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your computer.

Below we describe the cookies which are installed upon this website.

You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking on the icon at the bottom left of this webpage.  You can then adjust the available sliders to “On” or “Off” and then click “Save and close”. You may need to refresh your page for your settings to take effect.

Alternatively, most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. Find out how to manage cookies on popular browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Opera
• Apple Safari

If you use a smart phone, you can usually prevent cross-site tracking and block cookies in the settings section on your device. You may also be able to visit websites without leaving a history by turning private browsing on.   You should visit the support section of the website of your device for more information on how to do this.

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are always active and are necessary for this website to function. They cannot be switched off. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences.

You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular, and see how visitors move around the site.

All information that is collected by these cookies is aggregated, and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.

These cookies are set by the Google Analytics service, but hosted by VirginWines.

Targeting cookies

We do not currently use targeting cookies.

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 require further information please contact us by emailing privacy@virginwines.co.uk.

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.

5. Disclosures of your personal data

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table above and with business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you, and credit reference agencies for the purpose of assessing your credit score where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you.

• External Third Parties as set out below.
• Specific third parties such as HMRC.
• 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.

External third parties

• Service providers acting as processors based in the UK who provide Investor Registrar services, Nominated Adviser and Broker services, and marketing services.
• Professional advisers based in the UK who provide banking, legal, insurance, accounting and auditing services and company secretarial services.
• HMRC, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the UK who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
• Fraud prevention agencies, credit reference agencies, HM Courts & Tribunals Service.

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. If you require further information please contact us by emailing privacy@virginwinesplc.co.uk.

6. International transfers

We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) to be used by any other party. We do however use US-based cloud email and storage system providers. This will therefore involve transferring your data outside the EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal data outside the EEA, 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 by the European Commission.
• Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe.
• Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between Europe and the US.

If you require further information please contact us by emailing privacy@virginwines.co.uk.

7. 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. We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information. We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure servers. All electronic transactions you make to or receive from us will be encrypted using SSL technology. Of course, data transmission over the Internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the Internet. You are responsible for keeping your password and user details confidential. We will not ask you for your password.

In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents 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 also 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.

8. Data retention and storage

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. We review the personal data that we hold every 12 months.

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 six years after they cease being customers for accounting, tax and legal purposes. This also helps us, for example, in the event that there is a complaint about our Services, to respond to you in full.

Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available from us by emailing us at privacy@virginwines.co.uk.

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

In other 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.

9. Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.

You have the right to:

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 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. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data 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), 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 of 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) 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. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time 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 email us at privacy@virginwines.co.uk with specific details of who to contact for subject access rights.

No fee usually required

Data Subjects have the right to access their personal data and supplementary information. The right of access allows individuals to be aware of and verify the lawfulness of the processing.

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, or requires copies of previously provided information. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

In the event of manifestly unfair or excessive requests, we may refuse to respond to the request and any such refusal will be notified to the requester with a reason for the refusal and, in addition, information as to your rights to complain to the ICO or judicial authority within one month of such a request being received.

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 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.