South West Cleaning Equipment Website Privacy Policy

Here at South West Cleaning Equipment we are committed to processing our customers’ personal information in full compliance with our legal obligations as well as being clear with our customers about what kind of data is collected, how it is used and passed on, what security measures we take to protect your data and how you can exercise your rights.

The following statement gives you an overview of how South West Cleaning Equipment Ltd (hereinafter, South West Cleaning Equipment) handles all website data processing procedures (e.g. collection, processing and transmission) in accordance with EU law and how you – as the individual concerned – can get in touch.

Contact / data protection officer

If you have any questions regarding data protection or your rights, please contact our data protection officer:

Terry Davies

South West Cleaning Equipment, Unit F, The Clarke Centre, Marsh Barton Trading Estate, Hennock Road North, Exeter, Devon EX2 8NJ

Phone: (01392 672749) or email sales@swcleaningequipment.co.uk

1. Collection, use and storage of personal data

If you use South West Cleaning Equipment‘s online platform, South West Cleaning Equipment collects various data from you. In some cases this will also be so-called ‘personal data’ i.e. information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual (known as the ‘data subject’).

1.1. Visiting the South West Cleaning Equipment website in general

When visiting South West Cleaning Equipment websites, you transmit data to our web server via your Internet browser (due to technical necessity). The following data is recorded during a running connection for communication between your Internet browser and our web server:

• Date and time of the request
• Name of the requested file
• Page from which the file was requested
• Access status (file transferred, file not found, etc.)
• Web browser and operating system used
• Complete IP address of the requesting computer
• Volume of data transferred

We temporarily store this data for reasons of technical security, in particular to prevent attempts to attack our web server. It is not possible for us to draw conclusions about individual persons on the basis of this data.

The legal basis of the storage is Legitimate Interest for security of our websites, apps, products and IT systems.

Further personal information is only collected if you provide it voluntarily, for example as part of an inquiry or registration. Depending on the area concerned, South West Cleaning Equipment uses the personal data you provide to answer your enquiries, to process your order and for the purpose of technical administration of the websites. Specifically, the use in the respective areas of the site is as follows:

1.2. Online shop

If you visit our online shop, we store the following information in order to fulfil the contract between you and South West Cleaning Equipment or to carry out pre-contractual measures in accordance with Article 6 lit. b) GDPR:

1.2.1. Order without setting up a customer account

When placing an order in the online shop, all data necessary for the implementation and processing is requested through the mandatory fields: Your full name, your e-mail address, your address (billing address and, if applicable, different delivery address). Your data will only be used to process your order.

1.2.2. Customer account / registration

It is also possible when purchasing to register for a South West Cleaning Equipment To do this, you can choose a password together with your e-mail address, both of which will make it easier for you to log in later without having to re-enter your data. South West Cleaning Equipment stores the data entered by you to set up a customer account, via which your orders are recorded, implemented and processed. South West Cleaning Equipment will keep your data for further orders as long as you maintain your registration. You have the right to access, correct and/or have your registration data deleted by South West Cleaning Equipment at any time.

1.2.3. Storage of order data

If you transfer data to South West Cleaning Equipment for an order, your data will be stored for as long as necessary to complete the purchase and in accordance with statutory retention periods. Extended storage to fulfil the retention obligations is carried out in accordance with Article 6 lit. c) GDPR.

1.2.4. Visiting another dealer’s shop

If you visit another dealer shop when making your purchase (by clicking on a link on the Kärcher website to access the web shop of one of our specialist dealers) and continue the order process there, South West Cleaning Equipment will not collect any order data from you as you are continuing the purchasing process in the other dealer’s shop. In this case, please note the data protection information of the relevant merchant’s shop.

1.3. Contact forms

If you contact South West Cleaning Equipment via a contact form on the South West Cleaning Equipment website, the data you provide will be stored so that your message can be forwarded to the correct contact person. This is done in accordance with Article 6 lit b) GDPR for processing your request. Your data provided via a contact form will not be used for any other purposes, especially not for advertising. After answering your inquiry we will delete your inquiry and the related personal data.

1.4. Competitions

In the case of competition campaigns, South West Cleaning Equipment only stores the data necessary for the respective competition (e.g. your name, your address, your e-mail address) for the implementation of the competition in accordance with Article 6 lit b) GDPR. Only if you have ticked the box explicitly giving your consent to the use of your data for further purposes, will we also use your data for market research or for sending newsletters in accordance with Article 6 lit a) GDPR.

1.5. Warranty extension campaign

Our warranty extension campaigns are only aimed at South West Cleaning Equipment ‘s commercial customers. If you participate, you must enter your name, address, e-mail address and product details for the device for which you wish to extend the warranty period in the form (required fields). This data is required for handling the warranty claim and the accompanying need to be able to assign the device to you and is collected in accordance with Article 6 lit b) GDPR for the execution of warranty processing. Filling in the other fields is optional. We therefore collect this data in accordance with your consent under Article 6 lit a) GDPR.

1.6. My account

The creation of a password-protected user area (my account) enables or simplifies the use of our provided services, e.g. online shop and online repair processing.

The following data will be stored: first and last name, e-mail address, password and date of birth as mandatory data. Form of address, title, telephone and mobile phone number as optional data.

If a purchase (online shop or repair order) is made via the password-protected user area, the address data is also stored.

1.7. Online repair process

If you use the online repair process on our website, we will collect your name, address and the type of device you specify, in order to carry out your repair order in accordance with Article 6 lit b) GDPR.

After completion of the repair order, your data will be stored for as long as required by the statutory retention periods. Extended storage to fulfil the retention obligations is carried out in accordance with Article 6 lit. c) GDPR.

1.8. Newsletter

You can subscribe to the South West Cleaning Equipment e-mail newsletter – without giving your name – by registering with an e-mail address and expressly agreeing to receive it by ticking the checkbox next to the following text:

“I would like to subscribe to the South West Cleaning Equipment newsletter and accept the data protection regulations.”

After your consent, which is requested by sending a confirmation e-mail, South West Cleaning Equipment will then use your e-mail address as the recipient address for newsletter e-mails, through which you will be regularly informed about current offers and South West Cleaning Equipment products. This data processing is carried out on the basis of your consent in accordance with Article 6 a) GDPR. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.

2. Transfer and deletion of personal data

2.1. Visiting the South West Cleaning Equipment websites

The data stored when simply visiting the South West Cleaning Equipment websites (§ 1) will not be passed on to third parties.

2.2. Online shop

2.2.1. Passing on to specialist dealers

Your personal data will only be passed on to third parties within the framework of the online shop, if it is necessary for the purpose of contract processing, billing purposes or collecting payment. If you do not order the goods directly from South West Cleaning Equipment Limited, but have selected to let us pass your details on to a contractual partner such as another Kärcher dealer, South West Cleaning Equipment will collect your order data on behalf of the dealer you have selected, as described in § 1 Section 2. After completion of your order, South West Cleaning Equipment will forward this data to the specialist dealer for processing. The respective specialist dealer is responsible for the handling of your personal data in order to process your order. South West Cleaning Equipment only provides specialist dealers with the information they need to fulfil their respective tasks. They are not permitted to use the information for any other purpose.

2.2.2. Deletion of your customer account

If you have registered for a customer account in the South West Cleaning Equipment online shop, South West Cleaning Equipment will delete your registration, if you notify the data protection officer of this request.

2.2.3. Credit assessment

Our company regularly checks your creditworthiness when concluding contracts and in certain cases where there is a justified interest, also for existing customers.

2.3. Contact form

Your message and the associated data will be only be transmitted beyond the South West Cleaning Equipment company whose contact form you have used if your inquiry is for another part of the Kärcher Group or another Kärcher dealer,. In this case, the enquiry will be forwarded to the correct contact person within the correct Kärcher company. The data you have entered in a South West Cleaning Equipment online contact form will not be passed on to other third parties unless you are specifically notified of this.

2.4. Market research

All data collected on the South West Cleaning Equipment websites for the purpose of market research will be used exclusively for South West Cleaning Equipment internal purposes and will not be passed on to third parties. This data is deleted when the information is no longer necessary for the specific market research.

2.5. Competitions

The data collected within the scope of a competition on the South West Cleaning Equipment websites will be completely and immediately deleted after the end of the campaign and also not passed on to third parties.

2.6. Warranty extension campaign

South West Cleaning Equipment will delete the data collected during the warranty extension campaign after expiry of the extended warranty period. The data will not be passed on to third parties outside of South West Cleaning Equipment.

2.7. Newsletter

The e-mail address you provide for newsletter registration will not be passed on to third parties. If you no longer wish to receive the newsletter (§ 5 Section 3), your e-mail address will be deleted from the distribution list.

2.8. Transmission to authorities and other public bodies

Your data will only be passed on to third parties outside the South West Cleaning Equipment if a government body or state institution orders the disclosure, wherein we are obliged to comply by law.

3. Safety note

3.1. General technical and organisational measures:

South West Cleaning Equipment has taken a variety of security measures to adequately protect personal information.

All data stored at South West Cleaning Equipment is protected by physical and technical measures as well as procedural measures that restrict access to the information to specially authorized persons in accordance with this data protection declaration.

The South West Cleaning Equipment websites are located behind a software firewall to prevent access from other networks connected to the Internet. In addition, only employees who need the information to perform a specific task will have access to personal information. These employees are trained in security and privacy practices and will keep your information confidential.

3.2. Secure data transmission

The transmission of your personal data within the framework of an order process in the online shop is encrypted using the industry standard Secure Socket Layer (“SSL”) technology (SSL encryption version 3).

3.3. Credit card information

Credit card information provided by you is not stored at South West Cleaning Equipment, but encrypted via hypertext transfer protocol secure (“https”) directly by the payment service provider.

3.4. Passwords

You should never give your password for access to our website to third parties and you should also change it regularly. If you want to leave your customer account in the online shop, you should press the logout button and close your browser to prevent unauthorized access.

4. Cookies / usage-related advertising (behavioural advertising)

4.1. Use of cookies

Cookies are used for behavioural targeting on our website. These are text files by means of which data containing usage information (websites visited, number of visits, visiting times, length of stay on pages, etc) are stored on your hard disk.

The profiles are anonymised and evaluated for statistical purposes, in order to allow the interests of the respective user when Internet advertising (e.g. banners) is uploaded to other websites. Cookies do not hold any personal data such as name, address or email.

By continuing to use our websites and apps, you accept that cookies will be set on your device. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, we would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all functions of this website to their full extent.

4.2. Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies. The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website. Google’s privacy policy is available at: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

4.3. Use of Google’s Consent Mode

At South West Cleaning Equipment we are committed to protecting the privacy of our users and complying with applicable privacy regulations. To align with these obligations and ensure a transparent and secure environment for all of our website visitors, we implement Google’s “Consent Mode” functionality on our website. “Consent Mode” is an advanced technological solution designed to optimise cookie consent management and ensure respectful data collection and in accordance with the preferences of our users.

4.3.1. What is Google’s “Consent Mode”?

Google “Consent Mode” is a technology that adjusts the operation of cookies and data processing on our website according to the user’s consent. The technology dynamically modifies how Google services, such as Google Analytics and Google Ads, interact with user data, based on specific consent preferences. On a technical level, Consent Mode uses API consent signals to communicate with our web services and Google solutions, adapting data collection and use in real time. This approach reduces the collection of personal data to the minimum necessary, in line with user preferences, while maintaining the comprehensive functionality of our digital services.

South West Cleaning Equipment has implemented the advanced v2 version of “Consent Mode” which increases flexibility and control over data handling and audience measurement in compliance with relevant privacy laws in the United Kingdom.

4.3.2. Purpose and function

The purpose of “Consent Mode” is to ensure that we respect our visitors’ consent choices regarding the collection and use of their data. When a user visits our site, they are presented with a detailed consent interface, allowing an informed choice about the categories of cookies they wish to enable. This modular approach ensures precise compliance with user privacy preferences, allowing from full acceptance to specific rejection of cookie categories.

4.3.3. Measurement without third-party cookies:

Even without tracking cookies, we use “Consent Mode” to obtain crucial information about site usage in an anonymous and aggregated form. This ability to collect data, complemented by conversion modelling techniques based on machine learning when specific consent for cookies is not granted, allows advertisers to evaluate the performance of our campaigns in an aggregated and anonymous way, optimising the user experience while protecting your privacy.

4.3.4. Third party information

You can find more information about “Consent Mode” in the Google Help Center https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10000067?hl=en-GB

5. Your rights

5.1. Information

You have the right to be informed at any time about the data stored concerning your person, its origin and recipient as well as the purpose of data processing. Please contact the South West Cleaning Equipment data protection officer (§ 6).

5.2. Objection (market research)

You can object to the future processing of the data concerning you in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR at any time. The objection may be made in particular against processing for direct marketing purposes. Please send a short e-mail to sales@swcleaningequipment.co.uk (no reason required).

5.3. Withdrawal of consent (e.g. newsletter emails)

You can withdraw your consent to the use of your personal data by South West Cleaning Equipment data at any time, for example for sending you the South West Cleaning Equipment data newsletter. If you wish to withdraw your consent please click on the “Unsubscribe” link included at the bottom of a received e-mail. In all other cases, please contact the South West Cleaning Equipment Limited data protection officer.

5.4. Your other rights

You have the right to correct or delete or to limit the processing of your personal data, a right of objection to future processing and a right to data transferability.

Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, you have the right of appeal to a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State where you are staying, working or the place of suspected infringement, if you consider that the processing of personal data concerning you is contrary to data protection rules.

5.5. Supervisory authority

If you have any questions, comments, complaints or suggestions in relation to this notice, or any other concerns about the way in which we process information about you, please contact our Data Protection Officer: sales@swcleaningequipment.co.uk

You also have a right to make a complaint to your local privacy supervisory authority:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire, United Kingdom

SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate)