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Privacy Policy

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our customers, whether they are website visitors, online customers or members of our Clintons Rewards Scheme (the “Rewards Scheme“). The purpose of this privacy policy is to describe the types of information we collect from you when you visit any website from time to time operated by Clintons (including clintoncards.co.uk, clintonsretail.co.uk and/or such other websites as may be operated by Clintons from time to time) (the “Site“) or as part of the Rewards Scheme and to explain how we may use this information and to whom it may be disclosed. Please read the policy carefully. By continuing to use the Site and by submitting personal information to us, you consent to the use of that information as described in this privacy policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this policy, please do not use the Site. If you are a member of the Rewards Scheme, you have consented to us using the details you have provided as described in this privacy policy. If you no longer wish to be a member, or wish to change or remove any of your contact details, please contact us at the postal address or email address set out in paragraph (10) below. The Site and the Rewards Scheme are operated by AG Retail Cards Limited trading as ‘Clintons’. Registered Office: The Crystal Building, Langston Road, Loughton, Essex IG10 3TH. Registered in England No: 08087453 (“Clintons“, “we“, “our“, etc), and for the purposes of the Act, we are the data controller.

(1) What personal information do we collect about you?

In the course of using the Site or participating in the Rewards Scheme we may collect, store and process the following kinds of personal information about you:


(i) Information about your visits to and use of the Site.


(ii) Information about transactions carried out between you and us, including information, such as payment details such as debit/credit card details, in relation to any purchases you make of our goods or services.


(iii) Information that you provide to us for the purpose of joining the Rewards Scheme,  registering with us, subscribing to our website services and/or email notifications.  This may include your name, postal and email address and contact telephone numbers.


(iv) Records of any correspondence between you and us.


(v) Any information that you provide in response to surveys, if you choose to respond to them.


(vi) Any information collected through any social media functionality that may be made available via the Site.


From time to time you may also choose to provide us with additional information, for example in response to online services or if you choose to take part in online competitions.

You must ensure that any personal information you provide is true, accurate and complete.  It is also your responsibility to let us know about any changes to your personal information so that we can ensure our records are complete and up-to-date.

Please note that we will never ask you to confirm any personal details, log-in details or payment details by email. If you receive an email asking for any such information which appears to be from us, do not respond to it. It may be an attempt to obtain those details for fraud.

Protecting the privacy of children is important. For that reason, we never collect information via the Site from those we know are under the age of 13.

 

(2) What other information do we collect about your website visits?

We may collect information about your computer and your visits to the Site, such as:

  • The date and time that your device accesses the Site.
  • How many and which pages you visit during a ‘session’ on the Site and how long you were on the Site.
  • Your Internet domain name (this might be the domain name of your internet service provider such as aol.com or your place of work) and the ‘IP’ address (this is a number assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the web) which allows you to access the Site.
  • The web browser you use and your device’s operating system.
  • The site you were on before you linked to the Sites (for example, Google, if you found us using a search engine).

This information does not itself identify you by name.  However if you have logged in to an account on the Site at the time that we record this information, we may be able to match these details back to you.

We may use this information in the administration of the Site, to improve the Site’s usability, to develop and improve the products and services that we offer, and for marketing purposes.

Please see our Cookies Policy for more information about the way in which the Site stores or accesses information on the device that you use in order to access the Site and the ways in which you can change this.

 

(3) Using your personal information

Personal information submitted on this Site or through the Rewards Scheme will be used for the following purposes:

  • Making the Site available for you and delivering to you the functions, products and services offered through the Site.
  • Processing orders for products and services and performing our obligations under any contracts which may result from those orders.
  • Operating the Rewards Scheme and processing details of your purchases through it.
  • Dealing with any queries that you raise with us and to keep a record of our dealings with you.
  • Notifying you of any changes or improvements to the Site or the Rewards Scheme.
  • Protecting us, our suppliers and our customers.
  • Helping us understand how people use the Site, to analyse the effectiveness of campaigns and to help us improve the Site generally.
  • Helping us to understand what products and services our customers like or may wish to receive, to improve our existing products and services and to develop new products and services.
  • Improving your browsing experience by personalising the Site and providing content tailored to you.
  • If you have agreed to receive marketing communications, contacting you to inform you about promotions, products and services that may be of interest to you.

From time to time we may also ask you whether we can use particular information that you provide us for other purposes. For example we may ask you if you are happy for us to pass your details to carefully selected companies whose products and services may be of interest to you. Where you agree to us doing this then we may also use that information for the additional purposes that you have agreed. 

 

(4) Disclosure & sharing of information

We will only share personal information with people or organizations other than Clintons and our group of companies in the following circumstances:

  • To provide products and services to us or on our behalf

    We provide personal information to our group companies and other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with this privacy policy and other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. For example:

    (i)      Contractors used to host, operate and maintain the Site on our behalf.

    (ii)     Contractors used to process and fulfil orders that you place with us and to take payments for those orders.

    (iii)    Organisations that we appoint to handle marketing communications or to provide marketing and advertising services.

    (iv)    Organisations that we appoint to assist in operating the Rewards Scheme.

  • With your consent

    We may share personal information with people or organizations where we have your consent to do so.

  • If we sell or consider selling any part of our business

    We may share personal information with potential purchasers of any business which we are considering selling as well as with their advisors but only for use in connection with that sale (or its evaluation) and subject to appropriate confidentiality and security obligations.

  • For legal reasons

    We may share personal information with other people or organizations where we consider in good faith that one or more of the following circumstances apply:

    (i)      It is reasonably necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable government request.

    (ii)     Any applicable laws specifically permit us to make the disclosure.  For example UK privacy laws permit us to disclose personal information where necessary in connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings, for the prevention and detection of crime and for certain other purposes.

    (iii)    It is required to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk)

 

Where we do disclose your information to our contractors, we require them to process the information only in accordance with our instructions and to take appropriate measures to keep the information secure.

(5) International data transfers

Due to the international nature of our business, and as our parent company, American Greetings Corporation, is based in the US, your personal information may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which member companies of the American Greetings group, or our contractors, operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this privacy policy. These countries may be outside of the European Economic Area. This will only take place for the purposes set out in the “Using your personal data” section above. By submitting personal information to us, you consent to this processing. We will always seek to ensure that data processed outside the European Economic Area will be adequately protected in a way permitted under UK law..

(6) Security of your personal data

We will take appropriate technical and organisational measures to seek to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information. We will store all the personal information you provide on secure servers. All electronic transactions you make with us will be encrypted using SSL technology.

However, you should be aware that the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to our Site. We will not be liable for loss or interception of this data unless this is caused by our failure to take reasonable steps to keep your data secure.

(7) Policy amendments

We may update this privacy policy from time-to-time by posting a new version on our website. You should check this page occasionally to keep up-to-date with any such changes, as the changes will apply to any data we collect after the change. Reasonable changes will also apply to data collected before the change. .

(8) Your rights

You have a number of rights under English law (and in particular the Data Protection Act 1998, referred to in this policy as the “Act”) in relation to how your personal information is used, and some of these are set out below. You can obtain further information about your rights from the UK’s Information Commissioner at www.ico.gov.uk.

You have the right to access the information that we hold about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request may be subject to the statutory fee, towards our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you (currently £10).

You have the right to have information about you corrected. If you need to amend any of your personal details provided via the Site, you can do so by logging into your account or by contacting us using the details below. Changes to your personal details where you have joined the Rewards Scheme through one of our stores should be provided to a member of staff in store, and your details will then be updated. Please ensure that you provide us with accurate personal details and update it as necessary.

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal data for marketing purposes (for example, when you join the Rewards Scheme). We will also provide you with an opportunity to opt-out of the use of your personal data for marketing purposes in each email that we send to you. You can also instruct us not to use your personal data for marketing purposes by email to [email protected]

(9) Third party websites

The Site contains links to and from other websites, including sites operated by third parties. We have no control over those websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that they have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for those policies. Please check those policies before you submit any personal information to these websites.

(10) Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our treatment of your personal data, please write to us by email at [email protected] or by post to:

Customer Services (Website)

Clintons

The Crystal Building

Langston Road

Loughton

Essex

IG10 3TH

Cookies Policy

This cookies policy describes the way in which the Site stores or accesses information on the device that you use in order to access the Site.

By using the Site, you are providing your consent to Clintons storing and using cookies and web beacons in accordance with this cookies policy.  However, you can adjust the settings on the browser you use to view the Site to remove or limit the types of cookies that it accepts. More information about this is set out in the section ‘Managing Cookies’ below.

What are Cookies?

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer, mobile or another device that you are using to access that website, so that the website can remember and identify it.  They contain anonymous information and will typically include the name of the domain from which the cookie has come; the “lifetime” of the cookie; and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number.

They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.  For example they enable a website to identify that when you move from one page to another you are not a new user and so do not need to log on again.

Some websites will also use cookies to enable them to target their advertising or marketing based for example, on your location or browsing habits.

Cookies can be set by the owner of the website itself (‘first party cookies’) or by other websites that provide content (such as advertising) for the website that you are viewing (‘third party cookies’).

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. 

How the Site uses Cookies

We may send a cookie which may be stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. We may also use that information to recognise your computer when you visit our Site, and to personalise our Site for you.

Some cookies used on the Site are temporary and remain on your device until you leave the Site, at which point they are deleted. These are often called session cookies. Session cookies are typically used on the Site to allow you to carry information across pages of the Site and avoid having to re-enter information, and to allow you to access stored information whilst you are logged into a user account on the Site.

Other cookies used on the Site remain on your device once you have left the Site (though how long will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie). These are often called persistent cookies. Persistent cookies are typically used on the Site to help it recognise your device when you return to it, and to help us improve the structure of the Site by compiling anonymous, aggregated statistics that allow us to understand how users use the Site.

The cookies used by the Site can be grouped into three categories.

Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of the Site. They allow our web servers to respond to your actions on the Site and whilst browsing it. The Site will not work for you without these cookies.

Analytical cookies. These cookies allow us to see how visitors move around the Site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way the Site works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily, and also to analyse the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.

Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to the Site in order to remember your preferences, and also allow us to provide certain aspects of the Site’s functionality.

Here’s a list of the cookies we use on the Site, and what we use them for.

 

Cookie NameCookie PurposeWhen does this cookie expire?

__atuvc

ATTACID

bkc

bkdc

bklc

bko

bkp1

bkst

bku

bkw5

demdex

di

dpm

dt

exchange_uid

id

mt_mop

partnerUID

RCID

RCOUNT

sess

uid

uit

uuid

uuid2

wfivefivec

This website uses AddThis, a provider of social plugins services and web analytics services provided by Add This, Inc. (“AddThis”).

 

AddThis uses cookies to allow you to share content via social media. When you use tools to share content on our website AddThis also collects data about what is being shared, when, and how. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website (including your IP address) is transmitted to an AddThis server and stored there.

 

AddThis will use this information to evaluate your use of the website and compile reports on website activity for website operators and provide other website activity and internet services.

 

AddThis may transfer this information to third parties, if required by law or if third parties process the information on behalf of AddThis. AddThis may also use non-personally identifiable information about your website visits for the purpose of serving you with targeted advertising.

 

__atuvc : this cookie is associated with the AddThis social sharing widget which is commonly embedded in websites to enable visitors to share content with a range of networking and sharing platforms. It stores an updated page share count.

 

Click here to view the AddThis privacy policy: http://www.addthis.com/privacy/privacy-policy.

 

You can disable the setting of cookies by AddThis by visiting: http://www.addthis.com/advertising-choices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are persistent cookies and the time after which they are deleted after you leave the Site ranges from 2 weeks to 3 years.

 

The __atuvc cookie is a persistent cookie and is deleted 6 hours after you leave the Site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

__utma

__utmb

__utmc

__utmz

F5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies to analyze your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website (including your IP address) is transmitted to and stored on a Google server in the United States of America. Google use this information to assess your use of the website, providing reports on website activity for website operators and other website activity and internet related services. Google may transfer this information to third parties, if required by law or if third parties process the information on behalf of Google. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. utma, utmb, utmc and umtz are the four main cookies set by the Google Analytics service which enable website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance.

 

__utma : This cookie lasts for 2 years by default and distinguishes between users and sessions. It is used to calculate new and returning visitor statistics. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. The lifespan of the cookie can be customised by website owners.

 

__utmb : This cookie determines new sessions and visits and expires after 30 minutes. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Any activity by a user within the 30 minute life span will count as a single visit, even if the user leaves and then returns to the site. A return after 30 minutes will count as a new visit, but a returning visitor.

 

__utmc : This cookie is not used in most sites but is set to enable interoperability with the older version of Google Analytics code known as Urchin. In older versions this was used in combination with the __utmb cookie to identify new sessions/visits for returning visitors. When used by Google Analytics this is always a session cookie which is destroyed when the user closes their browser. Where it is seen as a persistent cookie it is therefore likely to be a different technology setting the cookie.

 

__utmz : This cookie tracks where visitors have come to the Clintons site, i.e. directly browsing to the site, using a search engine (tracks the search term used, etc.), as well as the geographical location of the visitor. It allows Google Analytics to report on how to “credit” a visit or successful ecommerce transaction. 

 

Additionally there is also a cookie called “F5” which comes from the load balancer, to ensure that the visitor’s session is tied to the web server they initially get directed to in the load balancer rotation.

 

Click here for an overview of privacy at Google

http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html.

 

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

__utma is a persistent cookie and is deleted 2 years after you leave the Site.

 

__utmb is a persistent cookie and is deleted 30 minutes after you leave the Site.

 

__utmc is a session cookie.

 

__utmz is a persistent cookie and it expires 6 months from the time of creation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
frontend This website uses the Magento eCommerce platform, which sets a cookie to store a session ID. This cookie is necessary for much of the Site functionality. This is a persistent  cookie and is deleted 6 hours after you leave the Site
external_no_cache This is a cookie set by Magento which indicates whether caching is disabled or not.

This is a persistent  cookie and is deleted 6 hours after you leave the Site

 
personalmerchant This website uses PredictiveIntent, which sets a cookie for the purpose of behavioural analysis. This is a persistent  cookie and is deleted 10 years after you leave the Site
__cfduid This cookie is associated with sites using CloudFlare, which is used to speed up page load times. It is used to override any security restrictions based on the IP address you are coming from. It does not contain any user identification information. This is a persistent  cookies and is deleted 6 hours after you leave the Site
cookie_policy This cookie is used to obtain information about whether a visitor has previously accepted the Cookies Policy. This cookie has a numeric value. This is a persistent cookie and it expires 1 week after you leave the Site

 

Managing Cookies 

 

Disabling and Enabling Cookies

 

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. Your browser may have a Help section or some other form of instructions which should explain how to do this. If you are using a smartphone, then the manufacturer should have instructions on its website explaining how to do this (for example, in Internet Explorer you can refuse all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy”, and selecting “Block all cookies” using the sliding selector).

Useful guidelines on how to do this for a number of popular computer browsers can be found at www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/online/cookies.

Please note that if you do disable any cookies, this will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites, including this one.