Privacy Policy

All of our customers are important to us, which means keeping your personal data and information safe and secure is one of our top priorities. We know the world of understanding data security can be tricky, but it’s important you understand how we use your personal information and your options regarding how this information is used.

Our policy applies whether you're interacting with us online, in our stores, via social media or through our customer service team.

Our Privacy Guide in a Nutshell
  • Your data is YOUR data
    Your data will only be used to benefit you and your shopping experience.
  • Our promise to you
    We will treat and protect your data like it's our own.
  • The choice is always yours
    You are always in control - you decide why and how you hear from us, and you can change your preferences at any time.
  • You are protected
    Your personal information is protected under data protection law and you have a number of rights (see 'you choose' section) which you can action.
  • Get in touch
    If you ever have any questions on how we use your personal data just get in touch.

Remember, you can choose not to share your personal information with us and you are also able to change how we use your personal data, which can be found in the 'You Choose' section below at any time.

Your Personal Info - The How

Most of the personal information you provide us with happens when you are engaging with us and our brand. This could be anything from browsing our website to making a purchase online or in our stores. We may also receive information from you when you are engaging with us on our social media channels, submitting product reviews (applicable to 18 years and over only) or from any communication you may have with our customer service team.

It is really important that you fully understand how your information is collected so please click the link below for a detailed breakdown.

  • When placing an online order.
  • When registering for an online account.
  • When you visit any of our websites.
  • When contacting Customer Services and during any correspondence you have with our Customer Services team.
  • When you provide us with any personal information in one of our stores. For example, if you complete an accident form.
  • When shopping in one of our stores your image may be recorded via CCTV for the purpose of crime prevention and security.
  • When filming in-store, your image may be used (with your consent) for internal purposes only. This is explained in the 'What sort of personal information do we collect' section.
  • When engaging with us on social media.
  • When responding to a customer survey.
  • When clicking, opening and/or viewing an email, or links contained within an email, from The Works.
  • Your contact details and details of the emails and other electronic communications you receive from us, including whether that communication has been opened and if you have clicked on any links within that communication. We want to make sure that our communications are useful for you, so if you don't open them or don't click on any links in them, we know we need to improve our Services.
  • When you enter any prize draw or competition.
  • When you review any of our products or services.
  • When using Live Chat services on the website.
Your Personal Info - The What

Depending on how you engage with us will depend on the level of information we need from you.

For example when placing an order online you will need to provide us with personal information including your name, email address, delivery address, phone number, payment card details, date of birth and other general marketing preferences.

To ensure that you are fully aware of the personal information we may collect please click the link below.

  • If you have an online account with The Works: your name, email address, date of birth, home / billing address, gender, orders, telephone number and an encrypted record of your password.
  • Details of any purchases you have made in our stores or online, including payment type.
  • Details of any correspondence (including written, verbal communication and any images you may provide us with) you have with our Customer Services team.
  • Details of your marketing preferences.
  • Details of your social media username, if you interact with us through one of these channels.
  • Information gathered by use of cookies in your web browser.
  • When shopping in one of our stores your image may be filmed (with your consent) for internal use. If we are filming in-store, a notice will be placed at the store entrance and by the till and you will be given the option to opt out of being filmed.
  • Details of any reviews you have made of our products or services.
  • Details of your responses in any our surveys.
  • Details of visits to our websites including: pages browsed, your IP address, access device and which site you came from to ours.
  • Details of competitions you have entered or promotions you have participated in.
Your Personal Info - The Why

Our most important use of your personal information is to enable us to fulfil our contracts with you to successfully process any orders or purchases that you make via our website or in-store, to process refunds and to respond to any queries or complaints you may have.

We may also use your personal information to help us understand your needs for the purposes of providing you with our Goods and Services and so we can provide you with the best possible customer experience, for example to help to improve our website. This is done on the basis of legitimate interest.

If you would like to read more please click the link below.

  • Our main uses of your personal information are to process any orders or purchases that you make via our website or in-store and to help us to understand your needs to provide you with the best possible customer experience.
  • You have rights to change how we use your personal information, which can be found in the 'Your choices about your personal information' section.
  • Please remember that if you choose not to share your personal information with us, you might not receive some of the services that you have asked for.
  • We may also use your personal information:
  • Where necessary for the purposes of providing you with our goods and services, for example:
  • To administer any of our prize draws or competitions that you have entered.
  • Unless you have opted out, to send you email, SMS/text message or other electronic mail to inform you about other products or services provided by us that are similar to those that you have already agreed to, requested or enquired about.
  • To improve our website. To help us optimise your online customer experience we may collect information about the way you use our website. We may also employ one of our trusted partners to help us look at this information. This is explained in the 'Cookies' section below.
  • To improve your in-store customer experience.
  • To protect our business and you from fraud or any other illegal activities. We may pass this information on to other trusted partners or law enforcement agencies to use in the same way.
  • Where our use of your personal information is not necessary for one of the purposes outlined above we may seek your consent to use it in a particular way, for example:
  • With your permission, we may use and share your personal information with trusted partners to bring you personalised communications about relevant products, promotions, events, competitions and surveys by email, web or SMS. You can opt out of receiving these personalised communications at any time via your online preference centre (which can be accessed using the instructions we include in any communication we send you) or by contacting our Customer Services team.
  • If we ask you to complete a customer survey.
  • Where we ask for your consent you are free to refuse our use of your information for those purposes and you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting our Customer Services team.
  • Unless you have opted out, to send you SMS/text messages to inform you about products or services provided by us. You can read the full messaging terms & conditions here.
Your Consent

We may ask for your permission to use your personal information in a particular way. An example of this would be if we asked you to complete a customer survey.

Also, and only with your permission, we may use and share your personal information with our trusted partners to bring you personalised communications about relevant products, promotions, events, competitions and surveys by email, web or SMS.

We do not sell or exchange your personal information to or with third parties. The only transfers of personal information we do make are to fulfil our contracts with you for goods and services you have ordered, or to supply you with product and marketing information that you have opted to receive or where you have shown an interest in our products and services and not yet elected to opt in or out, commonly known as a soft opt-in. We reserve the right to share any data, which has been anonymised and/or aggregated with third parties to analyse and improve the performance of our site and the services we provide to our customers.

We take the necessary steps to ensure that any third parties we use are fully compliant with the UK GDPR regulations and legislation for the safeguarding and protection of your information.

Remember, you are always in control of your personal information and where we ask for your consent you are free to refuse our use of your information for those purposes and you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting our Customer Services team.

Email Tracking

To ensure that you receive messages that you'll love, are relevant to you and personalised to your interests and shopping experience, we add a pixel to our emails which helps us understand behaviours and personalise our campaigns.

Pixels are simply tiny images - which give us insight into what you do with our emails, for example if it is delivered to your inbox, if you open it, mark it as spam or unsubscribe or if you click through to our website or an offer. Additionally, it also tells us the type of device you use to open the email and where you are in the case of open or click (by IP address and 'best estimate' geo location based on that IP).

By having this insight, it helps us deliver, what we hope, to be relevant content that is engaging to you enabling us to send you emails you hope to receive from us, when you want to receive them.

When you elect to receive marketing emails from us you are also consenting to us tracking these emails as described above. If you do not wish to have this tracking applied then you can elect not to receive our marketing emails or control this with your own email settings.

You can opt out of receiving personalised communications at any time via your online preference centre (which can be accessed using the instructions we include in any communication we send you) or by contacting our Customer Services team.

We also use cookies and your email address to let you see personalised adverts from us when you are on other websites and apps such as social media. Our use of cookies and your email address is based on your consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time via your online preference centre (which can be accessed using the instructions we include in any communication we send you) or by contacting our Customer Services team.

Cookies

We do use cookies which are small data files on your computer or handheld device and are essential for helping us deliver you a high quality online shopping experience.

They help us understand your activity on our website and which of our products you are most interested in.

By using and browsing theworks.co.uk website, you consent to cookies being used in accordance with our policy. If you do not consent, you must disable cookies or refrain from using the site.

If you want to find out more about our use of cookies, check out our Cookie Policy

Profiling

The information from our email pixels, cookies and your purchase history are brought together to give us a unified customer view. This is so we can better understand what you would like to receive from us which enables us to offer you a more personalised shopping experience. Examples of this are birthday well wishes, emails at the beginning of the day rather than in the evening, promotional offers and insights that help us better plan our product range.

We do this by using data brought together by Ometria's customer data platform. For instance:

  • If we know a group of our customers want to hear about our latest products we store that preference and make sure they receive an email when we launch a new product; or
  • If we have special offers for loyal customers we will send those offers only to that group of customers.

Our aim is always for you to have a fabulous experience with us and we work hard to make sure that our analysis and use of your data are aligned with your expectations.

How do We Protect Your Info

At The Works, we take the security of your personal information very seriously and engage the following best practices to keep your personal information secure:

  • All our transactions are PCI Level 1 compliant. Click here for further information on PCI.
  • Your access to all transactional areas of our websites are secured via 'https' technology.
  • Access to your personal information is password protected and sensitive information is secured via SSL encryption and TSL 1.2 protocol.
  • We regularly monitor our systems for vulnerabilities or attacks.
  • We do not transfer your personal information outside the European Economic Area.
  • We respect your rights and choices about your personal information.
  • Your personal information is protected under data protection law and you have a number of rights (see you choose section) which you can seek to exercise.
Keeping Your Info on File
  • We will only retain and process your personal information for as long as we have a legitimate reason to retain and process it.
  • When you place an order with us online or make a purchase in-store, we will keep the personal information you give us for six years.

At the end of the retention period, will delete any personal information or anonymise it (this means removing all identifying details connected to you).

You Choose

You have choices regarding the personal information that you share with The Works:

  • If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete you have the right to have this information corrected.
  • You can access the personal information that we hold about you by making a Subject Access Request.
  • You can request to close your accounts and delete all the personal information we have about you. Please note that this right is not absolute and it may not be possible for us to delete the information we hold about you, for example, if we have an ongoing contractual relationship or are required to retain information to comply with our legal obligations.
  • You can opt out of receiving personalised communications from The Works at any time via your online preference centre.
  • You can instruct us to send your information to another organisation, where this is technically feasible.

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from other websites. If you follow a link to any of those websites, please note that they have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for their operation. Please check these policies before you submit any personal information to those websites.

  • If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete you have the right to have this information corrected. If you have an online account you can access and edit your personal information for yourself via www.theworks.co.uk and clicking on the Account button at the top of the home page. Alternatively you can contact our Customer Services team.
  • You can also access the personal information that we hold about you by making a Subject Access Request by contacting our Customer Services team.
  • You can request to close your accounts and delete all the personal information we have about you by contacting our Customer Services team. Please note that this right is not absolute and it may not be possible for us to delete the information we hold about you, for example, if we have an ongoing contractual relationship or are required to retain information to comply with our legal obligations.
  • You can opt out of receiving personalised communications from The Works at any time via your online preference centre (which can be accessed using the instructions we include in any communication we send you) or by contacting our Customer Services team. Please note that you may continue to receive communications from The Works for a short period of time, whilst we process your request. However, we may still send you servicing messages such as emails relating to an order you have placed with us.
  • You can instruct us to send your information to another organisation, where this is technically feasible by contacting our Customer Services team.
Sharing Information
  • At The Works, we promise never to sell your personal information to any third parties.
  • We may share your personal information with our trusted business partners to process transactions in the course of fulfilling your order and to further improve your customer experience.
  • We will only provide information they need to perform their specific services and they may only use your personal information for the exact purposes we specify.
  • Only with your consent will we pass your information to named third parties so they can send you marketing material about products and services they offer.

Details of the types of trusted business partners we may work with and the personal information shared with them can be found in the "Your Personal Info – the why" section of this privacy policy.

Get in Touch

If you have any questions about how we treat your personal data and protect your privacy, if you have any comments or wish to seek to exercise any of your rights as outlined above or to complain, please contact us.

  • In the UK by post to Data Protection Officer, The Works Stores Ltd, Boldmere House, Faraday Avenue, Hams Hall Distribution Park, Coleshill, Birmingham, B46 1AL
  • In the Republic of Ireland by post to Data Protection Officer, The Works Stores Ltd, Unit 11 & 12 Athlone Town Centre Shopping Centre, Athlone, County Westmeath N37 NN79
  • By email to dataprotection@theworks.co.uk
  • By phone on 0121 313 6050
Acceptance

If we update our Privacy Policy, we will post these changes on our website.

If at any time we decide to use your personal information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will tell you. You will be able to choose whether or not we can use your information in this different manner.