Privacy Policy, Cookies & UGC

Welcome to The Alternative Flooring Company Ltd's privacy policy. 

The Alternative Flooring Company Ltd respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you. 

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how The Alternative Flooring Company Ltd collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you sign up to our newsletter or purchase a product or take part in a competition.

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children. 

It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them. 

The Alternative Flooring Company Ltd is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as The Alternative Flooring Company Ltd, "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy policy).

We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below. 

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact our data privacy manager in the following ways: 

Email address: [email protected]

Postal Address: Data Privacy Manager, Alternative Flooring, 4 Stephenson Close, East Portway, Andover, Hampshire UK SP10 3RU 

Telephone number: 01264 335111 

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. 

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit. 

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). 

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows: 

• Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
• Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
• Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
• Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products you have purchased from us.
• Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
• Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses. 
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
• Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

• Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
  • apply for our products or services;
  • create an account on our website;
  • subscribe to our service or publications;
  • request marketing to be sent to you; 
  • enter a competition, promotion or survey; or
  • give us feedback or contact us.

• Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.

• Third parties or publicly available sources. We will receive personal data about you from various third parties [and public sources] as set out below:
  • Technical Data from the following parties: 
    • analytics providers [such as Google based outside the UK];
    • advertising networks [such as Google based outside of the UK]; and
    • search information providers [such as Google based outside of the UK].
  • Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services [such as Opayo based inside the UK].
  • Identity and Contact Data from data brokers or aggregators [such as DMRi based inside the UK].
  • Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the UK.

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circunstances:

• Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
• Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

Click here to find out more about the types of lawful basis that we will rely on to process your personal data.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data although we will get your consent before sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us. 

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate. 

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contcat us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below. 

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. 

Promotional offers from us

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing). 

You will receive marketing communcations from us if you have requested information from us or purchased goods and services from us and you have not opted out of receiving that marketing. 

Third-party marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time. 

Where you opt out of receiveing these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, product/service experience or other transactions. 

You can set your browers to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookie policy below. 

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason us compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatibile with the original purpose, please contact us. 

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. 

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in complaince with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table above. 

• Internal Third Parties as set out in the Glossary. 
• External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary. 
• Specific third parties listed in the table above.
• Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the lae, We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specific purposes and in accordance with our instructions. 

Some of our external third parties are based outside of the UK so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the UK. 

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented: 

• We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data. 

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK. 

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so. 

How long will you use my personal data for? 

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonable believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you. 

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we conside the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purpose for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements. 

Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are set out in the table above. 

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes. 

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see your legal rights for further information. 

In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statiscal purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you. 

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please click on the links below to find out more about these rights: 

• Request access to your personal data.
• Request correction of your personal data.
• Request erasure of your personal data.
• Object to processing of your personal data.
• Request restriction of processing your personal data.
• Request transfer of your personal data.
• Right to withdraw consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us on [email protected]

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances. 

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response. 

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated. 

LAWFUL BASIS

• Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interest are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
• Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performane of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract. 
• Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to. 

THIRD PARTIES

• Internal Third Parties Other entities in The Alternative Flooring Compay Ltd acting as joint controllers or processors and who are based in the UK & ROI and provide IT and system administration services and undertake leadership reporting. 
• External Third Parties 
  • Service providers acting as processors based in the United Kingdom who provide IT and system administration services.
  • Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the United Kingdom who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
  • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom and ROI who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
  • Local retailers for the supply of our products based in the United Kingdom or the ROI as selected by you.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. 
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate date we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us. 
• Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have sucessfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request. 
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms. 
• Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
  • If you want us to establish the data's accuracy.
  • Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
  • Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
  • You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you. 
• Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

We just love it everytime we spot one of our floor coverings on social media. This content, created and shared by real customers rather than by Alternative Flooring, gives an inspirational glimpse into how our products can be used and how they look in 'real-life' situations.

Sometimes we may request to share these pictures and/or video content on our own channels. 

Any user generated content that we are given permission to share would be tagged with the floor covering used in the photo and/or video. This content would then be primarily used on the respective product page on our website to give other customers a glimpse of that product in-situ. 

This content may also feature in other areas of our website including, but not limited to, our homepage and Floor Gazing gallery. The content may in some cases also be published on one of our other channels such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Houzz, YouTube, Blog and/or e-newsletters. 

By responding to our rights request on your piece of user generated content with #afsharephoto, you agree to the following - 

• You provide The Alternative Flooring Company Ltd, a company registered in England under registration number 05211952, (hereinafter "Alternative Flooring") a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use any pictures and/or video (hereinafter referred to as "content") you have responded with #afsharephoto in their marketing and/or advertising. This includes in a gallery on the Alternative Flooring website, newsletter, social media, email, other customer communications, store materials and other marketing purposes. 
• You give us permission to reproduce, alter or edit the content and use the content for commercial purposes, without any obligation to you. 
• You are an individual person of at least 18 years of age, or you have parental consent to share this content with Alternative Flooring. 
• You confirm to Alternative Flooring that you are the creator of this content and own all of the rights to this content.
• You confirm that you have permission from any person/s appearing in the content to transfer the rights herein. If these person/s are under the age of 18, you have received parental consent. 
• You confirm that the use of this content by Alternative Flooring does not violate any rights of a third party and does not violate any law. 
• You release Alternative Flooring from any financial obligations to pay you for the use of your content and freeing and agreeing to keep Alternative Flooring, and all persons acting on behalf of Alternative Flooring, from all claims (including claims from a third party), liabilities, irrespective of nature, in connection with the use of the content as described above.
• You confirm that any other people who appear in the content also release Alternative Flooring from any financial obligations. 

If you have questions in regards to the above terms & conditions, or on matters of privacy and data protection, please contact us at [email protected]. 

No problem and we completely understand.

If you have changed your mind and would like to withdraw the permission you have given to Alternative Flooring to use your content, simply email our friendly team on [email protected]. We will then confirm in writing to you that Alternative Flooring will no longer use your content in the future. 

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