Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy

v1. - Updated 31st May 2018

The Franchise Company understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used. We respect and value the privacy of everyone who visits this website, https://www.thefranchisecompany.co.uk (“Our Site”).

Throughout this policy, we’ll provide detailed information on when and why we collect your personal information, how we use it, the limited conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of this Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of Our Site. If you do not accept and agree with this Privacy Policy, you must stop using Our Site immediately.

1. Information About us

Our Site is owned and operated by The Franchise Company.

Registered address: The Franchise Company, 7 Victoria Road, Darlington, County Durham, DL1 5SN.

Our standard enquiries address is info@franchisecompany.co.uk.

For all Data Protection Enquiries, including Subject Access Requests, please contact us using the details contained in section 13 of this document.

2. What Does This Policy Cover?

This Privacy Policy applies only to your use of our Site. Our site may contain links to other websites. Please note that we have no control over how your data is collected, stored, or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.

3. What is Personal Data?

Personal data is defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679) (the “GDPR”) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier’.

Personal data is, in simpler terms, any information about you that enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also covers less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers.

4. What Are My Rights?

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights, which we will always work to uphold:

• The right to be informed about our collection and use of your personal data. This Privacy Policy should tell you everything you need to know, but you can always contact us to find out more or to ask any questions using the details in Part 13.
• The right to access the personal data we hold about you. Part 10 will tell you how to do this.
• The right to have your personal data rectified if any of your personal data held by us is inaccurate or incomplete. Please contact us using the details in Part 13 to find out more.
• The right to be forgotten, i.e. the right to ask us to delete or otherwise dispose of any of your personal data that we have. Please contact us using the details in Part 13 to find out more.
• The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your personal data.
• The right to object to us using your personal data for a particular purpose or purposes.
• The right to data portability. This means that, if you have provided personal data to us directly, us using it with your consent or for the performance of a contract, and that data is processed using automated means, you can ask us for a copy of that personal data to re-use with another service or business in many cases.
• Rights relating to automated decision-making and profiling. We do not use your personal data in this way.

For more information about our use of your personal data or exercising your rights as outlined above, please contact us using the details provided in Part 13.

Further information about your rights can also be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

5. How Do You Collect Data?

When you communicate with us

Identifiable personal data is only collected when you complete a form, make an enquiry or initiate a conversation with us, for instance in any of the following cases where you:

• Complete other online enquiry form on this website
• Engage with a customer representative via our online chat function
• Register for our e-mail communications

In every case, we’ll endeavour to only contact you with information specific to your enquiry unless newsletter subscription is highlighted on any of our online forms.

If you have provided permission for us to contact you for marketing purposes, this data will be kept fully secure and never sold or shared with any third parties.

You’ll have the opportunity to unsubscribe from communications at any time using the details in section 13 of this policy.

When you visit this website

We, like many companies, automatically collect the following pseudo-anonymous information:

• Technical information, including the type of device you’re using, the IP address, browser and operating system being used to connect your computer to the internet. This information may be used to improve the services we offer.
• Information about your visit to this website, for example we collect information about pages you visit and how you navigate the website, i.e. length of visits to certain pages, products and services you viewed and searched for, referral sources (e.g. how you arrived at our website).

We collect and use your personal information by using cookies on our website – more information on cookies can be found under the ‘Use of Cookies’ section below.

Social Media

When you interact with us on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter we may obtain information about you (for example, when you publicly tag us in an event photo). The information we receive will depend on the privacy preferences you have set on those types of platforms.

6. What Type of Information Do You Collect?

The personal information we collect, store and use might include:

• your name and contact details (including postal address, email address and telephone number);
• information about your activities on our website and about the device used to access it, for instance your IP address and geographical location;
• Any other personal information shared with us.

We do not usually collect sensitive data about you unless there is a clear and valid reason for doing so and data protection laws allow us to.

7. How Do You Use My Personal Data?

If we do collect any personal data, it will be processed and stored securely, for no longer than is necessary in light of the reason(s) for which it was first collected. We will comply with our obligations and safeguard your rights under the GDPR at all times. For more details on security see Part 8, below.

As stated above, unless consent is received to send marketing communications, If you contact us and we obtain your personal details from your email, we will use them only in reference to the subject of your enquiry or request.

You have the right to withdraw your consent to us using your personal data at any time, and to request that we delete it.

We will not share any of your data with any third parties for any purposes.

8. How and Where Do You Store My Data?

We will only store your personal data within the European Economic Area (the “EEA”). The EEA consists of all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. This means that your personal data will be fully protected under the GDPR or to equivalent standards by law.

9. Do You Share My Personal Data?

We may sometimes contract with the following third parties for both data storage purposes and providing quality services. In many cases, the below services depend on interactions from customers with our organisation and will not be relevant to all users. This information is always the property of The Franchise Company, and inaccessible by another entity. These services include:

• Google Analytics – Anonymous browsing data (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en)
• Tawk.To – Online Chat Functionality (https://www.tawk.to/data-protection/gdpr/)
• MailChimp – E-mail Communications (https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/)

If any of your personal data is transferred to a third party, as described above, We will take steps to ensure that your personal data is handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the third party’s obligations under the law, as described above in Part 8. We’ll conduct reviews of these third parties on a regular basis to ensure their policies comply with our own.

10. How Can I Access My Personal Data?

If you want to know what personal data we have about you, you can ask us for details of that personal data and for a copy of it (where any such personal data is held). This is known as a “subject access request”.

All subject access requests should be made in writing and sent to the email or postal addresses shown in Part 13.

There is not normally any charge for a subject access request. If your request is ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive’ (for example, if you make repetitive requests) a fee may be charged to cover our administrative costs in responding.

We will respond to your subject access request within 28 days of receiving it. Normally, we aim to provide a complete response, including a copy of your personal data within that time. In some cases, however, particularly if your request is more complex, more time may be required up to a maximum of three months from the date we receive your request. You will be kept fully informed of our progress.

11. Use of Cookies

Like many other websites, this website uses cookies. 'Cookies' are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. For example, we use cookies to store your location preferences. This helps us to deliver a better more personalised service when you browse our website and improve our services.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. Turning cookies of may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.

For more information about the different types of cookie, visit the About Cookies website: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

12. 16 or Under

If you are aged 16 or under‚ we require you to seek a parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide personal information via the Site.

13. How Do I Contact You?

To contact us about anything to do with your personal data and data protection, including to make a subject access request, please use the following details:

• Email address: info@franchisecompany.co.uk
• Telephone number: +44 01325 351455
• Postal Address: The Franchise Company, 7 Victoria Road, Darlington, DL1 5SN.

14. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. This may be necessary, for example, if the law changes, or if we change our organisation in a way that affects personal data protection.

Any changes will be immediately posted on our Site and you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of the Privacy Policy on your first use of our site following the alterations. we recommend that you check this page regularly to keep up-to-date.