Privacy Policy
Our Privacy Policy applies to our websites and brands or any other website, mobile application, or other online service that links to this Privacy Policy (collectively, our ‘Service’). You can read the full version of the Privacy Policy and find a summary below.
HOW DO WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION AND HOW IS IT COLLECTED?
We collect many categories of personal information. The categories we collect may include: Contact and profile information; Comments, chat and opinions; Payment and transaction information; Location information; Information provided by social networks; Information provided by third parties; Information about fraudulent or criminal activity related to your account.
This personal information is collected from you in many ways, a few examples include:
• When You Submit Personal Information To Us. We collect personal information about you when you register for an account, make a purchase, sign up for marketing communications, or otherwise send it to us.
• When You Use Our Service. We (and third party partners on our behalf) collect some personal information about you automatically as you use our Service.
We may link or combine information that we collect about you from various sources to help ensure a consistent user experience regardless of how you interact with us – online, on mobile, or on social media.
Generally, we use your personal information to provide our Service to you; to fulfil your requests; process transactions and contact you; to send you personalised advertising and promotional content and materials; and to analyse and improve our Service and our business.
To Learn More about the information we collect and how we use it, see our full Privacy Policy
WHAT RIGHTS AND CHOICES DO YOU HAVE?
We want you to understand your rights and choices regarding how we may process your personal information. Depending on how you use the Service, these rights and choices may include the following:
• Individual Rights. You have specific rights under applicable privacy law in respect of your personal information that we hold including a right of access and erasure and a right to prevent certain processing activities.
• Interest-based advertising. Visit the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance, Network Advertising Initiative’s online resources, and/or the DAA’s resources to learn about how you may opt-out of certain interest-based advertising. Some of these opt-outs may not be effective unless your browser is set to accept cookies. Furthermore, if you use a different device, change browsers or delete cookies, you may need to perform the opt-out task again.
• Cookies Settings and Preferences. You may disable cookies and other tracking technologies through the settings in your browser.
• E-mail Settings and Preferences. If you no longer want to receive marketing e-mails from us, you may choose to unsubscribe at any time. You can also set your e-mail options to prevent the automatic downloading of images that may contain tracking technologies.
To Learn More about your rights and choices, please see our full Privacy Policy.
QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR PRIVACY POLICY
If you have questions about our Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us.
PRIVACY POLICY
Our company (‘we,’ ‘our,’ or ‘us’) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how your personal information is collected, used, stored, processed, transferred and disclosed by us.
We are the controller responsible for protecting your personal information.
This Privacy Policy applies to our websites and brands or any other website, mobile application, or other online service that links to this Policy (collectively, our ‘Service’).
Before accessing or using our Service, please ensure that you have read and understood our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy:
1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU AND HOW DO WE USE IT?
2. INFORMATION AUTOMATICALLY COLLECTED
3. THIRD PARTY DATA COLLECTION AND INTEREST BASED ADVERTISING
4. YOUR CHOICES AND CONTROL OVER YOUR INFORMATION
5. HOW WE STORE AND PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION
6. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION
7. YOUR RIGHTS IN RESPECT OF YOUR INFORMATION
8. LINKS TO OTHER WEB SITES AND SERVICES
9. HOW TO CONTACT US
10. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU AND HOW DO WE USE IT?
We collect personal information about you when you voluntarily submit information to us when you use our Service. This can include information you provide to us when you register for an account, make a purchase, post a review, send us messages, subscribe to our mailing lists, newsletters or other forms of marketing communications, participate in a survey, click on an ad, redeem a promotion or use some other feature of our Service.
We collect certain information automatically when you use the Service, such as information about the pages you look at on our Service, the actions you take on our Service or the device you use to access our Service.
We may also collect information about you from third parties.
The categories of personal information we collect may include:
• Contact and profile information
• Comments, chat and opinions
• Payment and transaction information
• Location information
• Information provided by social networks
• Information provided by third parties
• Information about fraudulent or criminal activity related to your account.
The table at Annex 1 sets out the categories of personal information we collect about you and how we use that information. The table also lists the legal basis which we rely on to process the personal information and information as to applicable retention periods.
We may also share information with others in an aggregated or otherwise anonymised form that does not reasonably identify you directly as an individual.
For further information on your rights and choices regarding your information, see the Your Choices and Control Over Your Information and Your Rights In Respect Of Your Personal Information sections below.
If you choose not to provide personal information, we may not be able to provide you with requested products, services or information.
We may link or combine your activities and information collected from you on our websites and mobile apps with information we collect automatically through tracking technologies. This allows us to provide you with a personalised experience regardless of how you interact with us – online, on mobile or social media.
2. INFORMATION AUTOMATICALLY COLLECTED
When you use our Service, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us through a computer or mobile device, we and our third party partners, automatically collect information about how you access and use the Service and information about the device you use to access the Service.
We use this information to enhance and personalise your user experience, to monitor and improve our Service, and for other internal purposes.
We typically collect this information through a variety of tracking technologies, including cookies, Flash objects, web beacons, embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, and similar technology (collectively, ‘tracking technologies’).
Information we collect automatically about you may be combined with other personal information we collect directly. For example, we may combine your location based on your IP address that we have collected automatically with your email address that you have provided, or other information that we have collected from publicly available sources.
The table at Annex 2 sets out the categories of personal information we and our third parties collect about you automatically and how we use that information. The table also lists the legal basis which we rely on to process the personal information and information as to applicable retention periods. We may also share information with others in an aggregated or otherwise anonymised form that does not reasonably identify you directly as an individual.
For further information on third parties using tracking technologies please see Annex 3.
For further information on your choices regarding your information, including choices around tracking technologies, see Your Choices and Control Over Your Information below.
3. THIRD PARTY DATA COLLECTION AND INTEREST BASED ADVERTISING
Interest Based Advertising
We participate in interest-based advertising and use third party advertising companies to serve you targeted advertisements based on your browsing history. We permit third party online advertising networks, social media companies and other third party services to collect information about your use of our websites and mobile apps over time so that they may play or display ads on our Service, on other websites, apps or services you may use, and on other devices you may use. Typically, though not always, the information used for interest-based advertising is collected through tracking technologies, which recognize the device you are using and collect information, including clickstream information, browser type, time and date you visited the site and other information.
User Experience Information
On some of our websites or services, we use third party tools to monitor user experience information. These tools automatically collect usage information, including mouse clicks and movements, page scrolling and any text keyed into website forms. The information collected does not include passwords, payment details, or other sensitive personal data. We use this information for site analytics, optimization and to improve website usability. We do not permit this information to be shared with or used by third parties for their own purposes.
We may also share information with others in an aggregated or otherwise anonymised form that does not reasonably identify you directly as an individual.
Please see Annex 3 which sets out the third party service providers we work with to provide cross-device linking and advertising services and site analytics.
4. YOUR CHOICES AND CONTROL OVER YOUR INFORMATION
Profile and data sharing settings: You may update your profile information, such as your user name, address, or billing information, and may change some of your data sharing preferences on your Account Page.
How to control your email preferences: You can stop receiving promotional email communications from us by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link provided in such communications. We make every effort to promptly process all unsubscribe requests. You may not opt out of service-related communications (e.g., account verification, transactional communications, changes/updates to features of the Service, technical and security notices).
Modifying or deleting your information: If you have any questions about reviewing, modifying, or deleting your information, or if you want to remove your name or comments from our website or publicly displayed content, you can contact us. We may not be able to modify or delete your information in all circumstances.
Geolocation: You may control location tracking by adjusting your location services settings on your mobile device. We may continue to approximate your location based on your IP address when you access the Service through a computer or device.
Cookies, tracking and interest-based advertising preferences:
• Cookies and Flash cookies. Most browsers allow you to adjust your browser settings to: (i) notify you when you receive a cookie, which lets you choose whether or not to accept it; (ii) disable existing cookies; or (iii) set your browser to automatically reject cookies.
Blocking or deleting cookies may negatively impact your experience using the Service, as some features and services on our Service may not work properly.
You may set your e-mail options to prevent the automatic downloading of images that may contain technologies that would allow us to know whether you viewed or engaged with our emails.
Deleting cookies does not delete Local Storage Objects (LSOs) such as Flash objects and HTML5. To manage Flash cookie settings and preferences, you must use the settings manager on Adobe’s website or by clicking here. If you choose to delete Flash objects from our Service, then you may not be able to access and use all or part of the Service or benefit from the information and services offered.
• Interest-based advertising. To learn about interest-based advertising and how you may be able to opt-out of some of this advertising, you may wish to visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s online resources, at https://www.networkadvertising.org/choices, the DAA’s resources at https://www.aboutads.info/choices and/or Your Online Choices at https:www.youronlinechoices.com/uk.
• Cross-device linking. Please note that opting-out of receiving interest-based advertising through the NAI’s and DAA’s or Your Online Choices online resources will only opt-out a user from receiving interest-based ads on that specific browser or device, but the user may still receive interest-based ads on his or her other devices. You must perform the opt-out on each browser or device you use.
• Mobile advertising. You may also be able to limit interest-based advertising through the settings on your mobile device by selecting ‘limit ad tracking’ (iOS) or ‘opt-out of interest based ads’ (Android). You may also be able to opt-out of some – but not all – interest-based ads served by mobile ad networks by visiting https://youradchoices.com/appchoices and downloading the mobile AppChoices app.
• Some of these opt-outs may not be effective unless your browser is set to accept cookies. If you delete cookies, change your browser settings, switch browsers or computers, or use another operating system, you will need to opt-out again.
5. HOW WE STORE AND PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION
Data storage and transfer: Your information collected through our website may be transferred to, stored and processed in other countries, including those outside the European Union. Please note that these internal and external international transfers of your personal information are made pursuant to appropriate safeguards, namely standard data protection clauses adopted by the European Commission. If you wish to enquire further about these appropriate safeguards, please contact us using the details set out at section 9 below.
Keeping your information safe: Security of your information is very important to us, and we have put in place safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of information we collect and that we share with our service providers. However, no security system is impenetrable and we cannot guarantee the security of our systems 100%. In the event that any information under our control is compromised as a result of a breach of security, we will take reasonable steps to investigate the situation and, where appropriate, notify those individuals whose information may have been compromised and take other steps, in accordance with any applicable laws and regulations.
Retention of your information: The tables in Annexes 1 and 2 set out the applicable retention periods that we use in respect of your personal information.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and the applicable legal requirements.
6. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION
We will share your personal information with the following categories of recipients for the purposes set out in the Annexes:
• Our affiliates and companies in the same group of companies as us: our affiliates and subsidiaries (i.e., any organization or brand we own or control) or Grainger our ultimate holding company and any subsidiaries it owns or controls. These companies may use your personal information in the same way as we can under this Privacy Policy;
• Third parties at your request: you may choose to share your activities on us with your friends through email, text or on various social media networks;
• Promotional partners: third parties with whom we partner to provide contests and sweepstakes, or other promotional activities, which will usually be identified by name in the Official Rules of the contest or sweepstakes;
• Select third parties: third parties, so that they can provide you with information and marketing messages about products or services that may interest you. To opt-out of our sharing your personal information with such companies, see Your Choices and Control Over Your Information, above;
• Service providers and advisors: third party vendors and other service providers that perform services for us, on our behalf, which may include identifying and serving targeted advertisements, providing mailing or email services, tax and accounting services, product fulfilment, payments processing, data enhancement services, fraud prevention, web hosting, or providing analytic services;
• Suppliers: personal information may be shared with our product suppliers for logistical purposes and to improve distribution, for resolving warranty and related issues in the event of a recall or rebate of a product, and in connection with trade shows we host where the supplier is an exhibitor;
• The public: when you provide feedback or post user content on our site. For example, if you post a product review on our website or a comment on our social media sites, your information, such as your first name, last initial, state of residence, and your comments, may be displayed on our website or on our social media pages;
• Purchasers and third parties in connection with a business transaction: personal information may be disclosed to third parties in connection with a our-related transaction, such as a merger, sale of us assets or shares, reorganization, financing, change of control or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another Grainger entity or third party, or in the event of a bankruptcy or related or similar proceedings; and
• Law enforcement, regulators and other parties for legal reasons: third parties as required by law or subpoena or if we reasonably believe that such action is necessary to (a) comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement; (b) to enforce our terms and policies or to protect the security or integrity of our Service; and/or (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of us, our visitors, or others.
Stripe. We use Stripe as a payments processor to allow us to sell our products to you. All Stripe transactions are subject to the Stripe Privacy Policy which is available here: https://stripe.com/en-gb/privacy
7. YOUR RIGHTS IN RESPECT OF YOUR INFORMATION
In addition to the ways in which you can manage the use of your information as outlined in section 4 above, you have the following specific rights under applicable privacy law in respect of your personal information that we hold:
• Right to object. The right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of your personal information, and to object to processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes, to the extent it is related to such direct marketing;
• Right of access. The right to obtain access to your personal information along with certain related information;
• Right to data portability. The right to receive your personal information in a commonly used format and to have your personal information ported to another data controller;
• Right to rectification. The right to obtain rectification of your personal information without undue delay where that personal information is inaccurate or incomplete;
• Right to erasure. The right to obtain the erasure of your personal information without undue delay in certain circumstances, such as where the personal information is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or processed;
• Right to restriction. The right to obtain the restriction of the processing undertaken by us on your personal information in certain circumstances, such as where the accuracy of the personal information is contested by you, for a period enabling us to verify the accuracy of that personal information; and
• Right to withdraw consent. If you have provided consent for the processing of your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, this will not affect the lawfulness of our use of your personal information before your withdrawal.
If you wish to exercise one of these rights, please contact us using the details set out at section 9 below.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
8. LINKS TO OTHER WEB SITES AND SERVICES
The Service may contain links to and from third party websites of our business partners, advertisers, and social media sites and our users may post links to third party websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies. We strongly recommend that you read their privacy policies and terms and conditions of use to understand how they collect, use, and share information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content on the websites of third party sites.
9. HOW TO CONTACT US
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the website, please contact the Data Protection Officer from contact page.
10. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
We may modify or update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect the changes in our business and practices, and you should review this page periodically. We will update the ‘last modified’ date at the bottom of this page when we post changes to this Privacy Policy. Where we have your email address, we will notify you of any material changes to this policy. If you object to any changes, you may close your account. Continuing to use our Service after we publish changes to this Privacy Policy means that you have read and understood the changes.
ANNEX 3 – THIRD PARTY TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
We will strive to update this list if or when we work with new partners which offer you a choice about the collection of your information, but as partners change and new technologies become available, this list is likely to change over time and may not always reflect our current partners.
Partner Product:
Google Analytics and Advertising
Type of Tracking Technology:
Site analytics and advertising
Description:
We use Google Analytics and Google Universal Analytics to recognize you and link the devices you use when you visit our site or Service on your browser or mobile device, login to your account on our Service, or otherwise engage with us. We share a unique identifier, like a user ID or hashed email address, with Google Universal Analytics to facilitate the service. Google Analytics allows us to better understand how our users interact with our Service and to tailor our advertisements and content to you. For information on how Google Analytics collects and processes data, as well as how you can control information sent to Google, review Google’s site “How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps” located at https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. You can learn about Google Analytics’ currently available opt- outs, including the Google Analytics Browser Ad-On here https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
We may also utilize certain forms of display advertising and other advanced features through Google Universal Analytics, such as Remarketing with Google Analytics, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, the DoubleClick Campaign Manager Integration, and Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting. These features enable us to use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the Doubleclick advertising cookie) or other third party cookies together to inform, optimize, and display ads based on your past visits to the Service. You may control your advertising preferences or opt-out of certain Google advertising products by visiting the Google Ads Preferences Manager, currently available at https://google.com/ads/preferences or by visiting NAI’s online resources at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices
