Privacy Policy

At Shop Somerset, we care about privacy. We believe in transparency, and we’re committed to being upfront about our privacy practises, including how we treat your personal information. We know you care about your privacy too, so we provide settings that allow you to choose how certain information is used by Shop Somerset. This policy explains our privacy practises for Shop Somerset (which we’ll refer to as the "Site"). We'll refer to the Site and our other services as the "Services". This policy does not apply to the practises of third parties (including other members who sell using the Services) who may also collect or receive data in connection with your use of the Services.

1. Our Privacy Policy

We process your personal information to run our business and provide our users with the Services. By accepting our Terms of Use, you confirm that you have read and understand this policy, including how and why we use your information. If you don’t want us to collect or process your personal information in the ways described in this policy, you shouldn’t use the Services. We are not responsible for the content or the privacy policies or practises of any of our members, or third-party websites and apps.

Shop Somerset’s Terms of Use require all account owners to be at least 18 years of age. Minors under 18 years of age and at least 13 years of age are permitted to use Shop Somerset's Services only if they have permission and direct supervision by the owner of the account. Children under age 13 are not permitted to use the Services. You are responsible for any and all account activity conducted by a minor on your account. We do not knowingly “sell”, as that term is defined under applicable law, the personal information of minors.

2. Information Collected or Received

In the course of providing our Services, we collect or receive your personal information in a few different ways. We obtain the categories of personal information listed below from the following sources: directly from you, for example, from forms you complete or during registration; indirectly from you based on your activity and interaction with our Services, or from the device or browser you use to access the Services; from our vendors and suppliers that help provide Shop Somerset services you may interact with (such as, for example, for payments or customer support), and from our third party advertising and marketing partners. Often, you choose what information to provide, but sometimes we require certain information to provide you the Services. Shop Somerset uses the personal information it receives and collects in accordance with the purposes described in this policy.

Registration, Account Setup, Service Usage. In order to use the Services, you will need to submit a valid email address. If you register, you will need to submit a name associated with your account. You may modify that name through your account settings. You need to provide this information to enable us to provide you with the Services. Additional information, such as a shop name, billing and payment information (including billing contact name, address, telephone number, credit card information), a telephone number, and/or a physical postal address, may be necessary in order for us to provide a particular service. For example, we need a physical postal address if you are buying something on the Site for delivery. For both buyers and sellers, Shop Somerset requires this information from you in order to provide you with the Services (including, to verify ownership of an account, to mitigate fraud and abuse, to comply with regulatory obligations, or to complete a transaction as a buyer or seller). Our payment processing providers, Stripe, may store credit card information and other information provided during checkout, for billing and payment purposes, and to process your transaction. Shop Somerset never sees, collects, or stores your credit card details on our servers. Shop Somerset may contact individual shop owners confidentially to request more information about their shops or items listed through the Services, or may request information from buyers to ensure compliance with our policies and applicable law.

Automated Information. Shop Somerset automatically receives and records information from your browser or your mobile device when you visit the Site or use certain features of the Services, such as your IP address or unique device identifier, cookies, and data about which pages you visit and how you interact with those pages in order to allow us to operate and provide the Services. This information is stored in log files and is collected automatically. We may combine the information from your browser or your mobile device with other information that we or our advertising or marketing partners collect about you, including across devices. This information is used to analyse and understand how the Services work for members and visitors and a more personalised experience for members and visitors.

Data from Advertising and Marketing Partners. As described below, Shop Somerset receives information from our advertising and marketing partners about you. This information can include attribution information via cookies and UTM tags in URLs to determine where a visit to Shop Somerset comes from, responses to marketing emails and advertisements, responses to offers, and audience information from partners who you have given consent to share that information with us.

Location Information. We collect information about your use of the Services for advertising, for analytics, to serve content, and to protect the Services. This can include your IP address, browser information (including referrers), ore device information.

We obtain location information you provide in your profile or your IP address or when you use the device location tools of your browser or device or enter your postcode in a form in the website. We use and store information about your location to provide features and to improve and customise the Services, for example, for Shop Somerset’s internal analytics and performance monitoring and policies for the Services; for local content, search results, and recommendations; for delivery and mapping services; and (using non-precise location information) marketing. Certain non-precise location services, such as for security and localised policies based on your IP address or submitted address, are critical for the Site to function. We will only share your geolocation details with third parties in order to provide you with the Services.

Analytics Information. We use data analytics software to ensure Site functionality and to improve the Services. We do not link the information we store within the analytics software to any personally identifiable information that you submit. For more information, see Shop Somerset's Cookies and Similar Technologies Policy and Disclosures.

Information from Third Parties. Some members or visitors may choose to connect to Shop Somerset or register an Shop Somerset account using an external third-party application, such as Facebook or Google. Connecting your Shop Somerset account to third-party applications or services is optional. If you choose to connect your account to a third-party application, it is subject to your agreements with that third party (like their Terms of Use and privacy notices), and Shop Somerset can receive information from that application. We may also collect public information in order to connect with you, such as when we communicate with you over social media. We may use that information as part of providing the Services to you. You can also choose to share some of your activity on Shop Somerset on certain social media networks which are connected to your Shop Somerset account, and you can revoke your permission anytime in your account settings. Certain third-party applications that you use to create or sign in to your account may provide you with the option to discontinue receiving messages from us or allows you to forward those messages to another email address. If we are unable to send you critical messages about your account, we may suspend or terminate your account.

Non-Member Information. Shop Somerset receives or obtains information (for example, an email address or IP address) about a person who is not yet a registered Shop Somerset member in connection with certain Shop Somerset features, such as when a non-member chooses to subscribe to an Shop Somerset newsletter, a member invites a non-member to visit the Site, a non-member engages in a transaction or makes a purchase. Non-member information is used only for the purposes disclosed when it was submitted to Shop Somerset, for purposes necessary to the functioning of Shop Somerset's Services or where Shop Somerset has a legitimate interest, as disclosed in the “Information Uses, Sharing, & Disclosure” Section below, or to facilitate action authorised by a member or the non-member.

3. Messages from Shop Somerset

On occasion, Shop Somerset will need to contact you. Primarily, these messages are delivered by email, for a variety of reasons, including marketing, transactions, advocacy, and service update purposes. You can opt out of receiving marketing communications via email in your account settings or by following the unsubscribe link in any marketing email you receive. Every account is required to keep a valid email address on file to receive messages. Shop Somerset may also contact you by telephone to provide member support or for transaction-related purposes if you request that we call you. Additionally, and with your consent where required by applicable law, Shop Somerset may send you an SMS (or similar) message, or reach out to you by telephone, in order to provide you with customer support, for research or feedback, or to provide you with information about products and features that you may find of interest. You can update your contact preferences in your account settings.

Some messages from Shop Somerset are service-related and necessary for members and Guest Checkout users. You understand and agree that Shop Somerset can send you non-marketing emails, or messages, such as those related to transactions, your account, security, or product changes. Examples of service-related messages include an email address confirmation/welcome email when you register your account, notification of an order, service availability, modification of key features or functions, relaying Messages with buyers, and correspondence with Shop Somerset’s Support team.

4. Information Uses, Sharing, & Disclosure

We respect your privacy. Shop Somerset will not disclose your name, email address or other personal information to third parties without your consent, except as specified in this policy. You can control your privacy settings through the opt-out buttons in your account settings privacy tab. Please note that some changes to your privacy settings may take a few days to take effect. We or our sellers may advertise our Services or our sellers’ products through a variety of different mediums and rely on your consent to do so off-site.

Legal Bases

When you access or use the Services, we collect, use, share, and otherwise process your personal information for the purposes described in this policy. We rely on a number of legal bases to use your information in these ways. These legal bases include where:

• Necessary to perform the contractual obligations in our Terms of Use and in order to provide the Services to you;
• You have consented to the processing, which you can revoke at any time;
• Necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, a court order, or to exercise or defend any impending or asserted legal claims;
• Necessary for the purposes of our or a third party’s legitimate interests, such as those of visitors, members, or partners (described in more detail below);
• You have expressly made the information public;
• Necessary in the public interest, such as to prevent crime; and
• Occasionally necessary to protect your vital interests or those of others (in rare cases where we may need to share information to prevent loss of life or personal injury).

We principally rely on consent (which can be withdrawn at anytime) (i) to send marketing messages, (ii) for third-party data sharing related to advertising, and, to the extent applicable, (iii) for the use of location data for advertising purposes.

Our Legitimate Interests

Where we process your information on the basis of legitimate interests, we do so as follows:

Providing and Improving our Services. We use your information to improve and customise our Services, including sharing your information for such purposes, and we do so as it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests of improving our Services for our users. This is also necessary to enable us to pursue our legitimate interests in understanding how our Services are being used, and to explore and unlock ways to develop and grow our business. It is also necessary to allow us to pursue our legitimate interests in improving our Services, efficiency, interest in Services for users, and obtaining insights into usage patterns of our Services. As a core part of our Services, we have a legitimate interest in customising your on-site experience to help you search for and discover relevant items and recommended purchases, including using this information to help sellers find the best ways to market and sell their products on Shop Somerset.

Providing Marketing Communications. We rely on our legitimate interest to send you marketing messages (where permitted independent of consent) and for Shop Somerset's advertising programmes (including Shop Somerset’s on-site advertising and marketing).

Keeping our Services Safe and Secure. We use your information for safety and security purposes, which can include sharing your information for such purposes, and we do so because it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests or those of a third party in ensuring the security of our Services, preventing harm to individuals or property, or crime, enforcing or defending legal rights, or preventing damage to Shop Somerset’s systems, or those of our users or our partners. This includes enhancing protection of our community against spam, harassment, intellectual property infringement, crime, and security risks of all kinds. We use your information to provide and improve the Services, for billing and payments, for identification and authentication, and for general research and aggregate reporting.

Buying and Selling. As part of the buying and selling process, Shop Somerset will facilitate the sharing of information between the two members involved in the transaction, such as the other Shop Somerset member's delivery address and payment status. This can also involve us sharing your information with some of our third party partners such as our delivery and payment partners to enable us to provide the Service to you. Such partners will process your personal information in accordance with their own privacy policies. In some instances, while they are subject to Shop Somerset’s privacy and security requirements for vendors, these partners, not Shop Somerset, are responsible for the protection of personal information under their control. By making a sale or a purchase on Shop Somerset, you are directing us to share your information in this way. Since this is an important part of the Services we provide, we need to do this in order to perform our obligations under our Terms of Use. We expect you to respect the privacy of the member whose information you have received. As described in Shop Somerset's Terms of Use, you have a limited licence to use that information only for Shop Somerset-related communications or for Shop Somerset-facilitated transactions. Shop Somerset has not granted a licence to you to use the information for unauthorised transactions or sending unsolicited commercial messages in violation of any applicable laws, including any consent requirements of the jurisdiction of the recipient. You should only add a member to your email or physical mailing list or otherwise use or store a member’s personal information in accordance with applicable laws, including any consent requirements that apply in that member's jurisdiction.

Site Customisation. We may learn about the types of products that you’re interested in from your browsing and purchasing behaviour on (and off) the Site and use such information to suggest potential purchases as a result. As a core part of our Services, we have a legitimate interest in customising your on-site experience to help you search for and discover relevant items and recommended purchases, including using this information to help sellers find the best ways to market and sell their products on Shop Somerset.

Legal and Safety. Shop Somerset may also retain, preserve, or release your personal information to a third party in the following limited circumstances: in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet legitimate national security or law enforcement requirements; to protect, establish, or exercise our legal rights or defend against impending or asserted legal claims, including to collect a debt, or a material violation of our policies (including our Intellectual Property Policy); to comply with a court order, legal process, regulation, or other legal requirement; or when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with the law, prevent imminent physical harm or financial loss, or investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, threats to our rights or property, or violations of Shop Somerset's Terms of Use. For example, if permitted due to the forgoing circumstances, your information may be shared with tax authorities or other governmental agencies. In the cases set out above, our use of your information may be necessary for the purposes of our or a third party’s legitimate interest in keeping our Services secure, preventing harm or crime, enforcing or defending legal rights, or preventing damage. Such use may also be necessary to comply with a legal obligation, a court order, or to exercise or defend legal claims or to facilitate the collection of taxes and prevention of tax fraud. It may also be necessary in the public interest (such as to prevent crime) or to protect vital interests (in rare cases where we may need to share information to prevent loss of life or personal injury).

If Shop Somerset receives a lawful, verified request for a member’s records or information in one of the limited circumstances described in the previous paragraph, Shop Somerset may disclose personal information, which may include, but may not be limited to, a member’s name, address, phone number, email address, company/trading name and, where appropriate, bank account and transaction details.

Affiliated Businesses. Shop Somerset is affiliated with a variety of businesses and works closely with them for a variety of purposes, including assisting us to perform and improve the Services. These businesses may sell items or services to you through the Services or, with your consent, offer promotions (including email promotions) to you. Shop Somerset also provides services or sells products jointly with affiliated businesses, including providing you with the opportunity to sign up with such partners and allow them to more effectively market to you. When an affiliated business assists in facilitating your transaction, we may need to share information related to the transaction with that affiliated business in order to facilitate your transaction, and this forms part of the Services we provide in accordance with our Terms of Use. We rely on consent (which can be withdrawn at any time) to send marketing messages and for third-party sharing relating to advertising. As part of this, we may work with advertising partners such as Facebook or Google and we may use analytics aggregated from usage information including, for example, search keywords, favourites, browsing history and purchase history.

Aggregated Information. Shop Somerset may share demographic information with business partners, but it will be aggregated and de-personalised so that personal information is not revealed.

Service Providers. Shop Somerset also needs to engage third-party companies and individuals (such as research companies, and analytics and security providers) to help us operate, provide, and market the Services. These third parties have only limited access to your information, may use your information only to perform these tasks on our behalf, and are obligated to Shop Somerset not to disclose or use your information for other purposes. Our engagement of service providers is often necessary for us to provide the Services to you, particularly where such companies play important roles like helping us keep our Service operating and secure. In some other cases, these service providers aren’t strictly necessary for us to provide the Services, but help us make it better, like by helping us conduct research into how we could better serve our users. In these latter cases, we have a legitimate interest in working with service providers to make our Services better. Business Reorganisation. In some cases, Shop Somerset may choose to buy or sell assets. Such transactions may be necessary and in our legitimate interests, particularly our interest in making decisions that enable our business to develop over the long term. In these types of transactions (such as a sale, merger, liquidation, receivership, or transfer of all or substantially all of Shop Somerset’s assets), member information is typically one of the business assets that is transferred. If Shop Somerset intends to transfer information about you, Shop Somerset will notify you by email or by putting a prominent notice on the Site, and you will be afforded an opportunity to opt out before information about you becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Third Parties. Third-party plug-ins also collect information about your use of the Site. For example, when you load a page on Shop Somerset that has a social plug-in from a third-party site or service, such as a “Like” or “Send” button, you are also loading content from that third-party site. That site may request cookies directly from your browser. These interactions are subject to the privacy policy of the third-party site. In addition, certain cookies and other similar technologies on the Site are used by third parties for targeted online marketing and other purposes. These technologies allow a partner to recognise your computer or mobile device each time you use the Services. Please be aware that when you use third-party sites or services, their own terms and privacy policies will govern your use of those sites or services. Shop Somerset chooses and manages these third-party technologies placed on its Site. However, these are third-party technologies, and they are subject to that third party's privacy policy. For more information, see our Cookies & Similar Technologies Policy. We rely on your consent to drop and read these cookies when not technically necessary or when not required based on another purpose such as legitimate interest.

This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties (such as other members who sell using the Services, certain third-party providers on whom we rely to provide certain services, or API users) that Shop Somerset does not own or control or individuals that Shop Somerset does not employ or manage, except as otherwise provided for in the Terms or as required by law. If you provide your information to such third parties in connection with your use of the Services, different practices may apply to the use or disclosure of the information that you provide to them. While Shop Somerset requires these third parties to follow Shop Somerset’s privacy and security requirements, Shop Somerset does not control the privacy or security policies of such third parties. To the full extent applicable in your jurisdiction, Shop Somerset is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of these sellers, API users, or other websites on the internet, even those linked to or from the Services. We encourage you to read the privacy policies and ask questions of third parties before you disclose your personal information to them. For the purposes of European law, these sellers, third party providers, and API users are independent controllers of data, which means that they are responsible for providing and complying with their own policies relating to any personal information they obtain in connection with the Services.

5. Security

The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and after it is received, for example encryption is used for certain information (such as credit card numbers) using TLS (transport layer security). Unfortunately, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to protect your personal information, we can't guarantee its absolute security.

Your account information is protected by a password. It is important that you protect against unauthorised access to your account and information by choosing your password carefully and by keeping your password and computer secure, such as by signing out after using the Services. Shop Somerset offers advanced security features and settings for members, such as two-factor authentication for signing in, and sign in history and notifications; you can view more information in your account settings.

If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us at [email protected].

6. Retention

Shop Somerset will retain your information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this policy, for as long as your account is active (i.e., for the lifetime of your Shop Somerset member account), or as needed to provide the Services to you. If you no longer want Shop Somerset to use your information to provide the Services to you, you may close your account. Shop Somerset will retain and use your information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your information to comply with applicable tax/revenue laws), resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and as otherwise described in this policy. In addition, Shop Somerset sellers may also be required to retain and use your information in order to comply with their own legal obligations. Please note that closing your account may not free up your email address, username, or shop name (if any) for reuse on a new account. We also retain log files for internal analysis purposes. These log files are generally retained for a brief period of time, except in cases where they are used for site safety and security, to improve site functionality, or we are legally obligated to retain them for longer time periods.

7. Your Rights & Choices

Certain privacy laws around the world, including the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provide users with rights related to their personal information. Consistent with those laws, Shop Somerset gives you the choice of accessing, editing, or removing certain information, as well as choices about how we contact you. You may change or correct your Shop Somerset account information through your account settings. You may also remove certain optional information that you no longer wish to be publicly visible through the Services, such as your name. You can also request to permanently close your account and delete your personal information. Depending on your location, you may also benefit from a number of rights with respect to your information. While some of these rights apply generally, certain rights apply in limited cases.

Right to Access & Portability: You can access certain personal information associated with your account by visiting your account privacy settings. You can request a copy of your personal information in an easily accessible format and information explaining how that information is used.

Right to Correction: You have the right to request that we rectify inaccurate information about you. By visiting your account settings, you can correct and change certain personal information associated with your account.

Right to Restrict Processing: In certain cases where we process your information, you may also have the right to restrict or limit the ways in which we use your personal information.

Right to Deletion: In certain circumstances, you have the right to request the deletion of your personal information, except information we are required to retain by law, regulation, or to protect the safety, security, and integrity of Shop Somerset.

Right to Object: If we process your information based on our legitimate interests as explained above, or in the public interest, you can object to this processing in certain circumstances. In such cases, we will cease processing your information unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing or where it is needed for legal reasons. Where we use your personal data for direct marketing purposes, you can object using the unsubscribe link in such communications or changing your account email settings.

Right to Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on consent, you can choose to withdraw your consent to our processing of your information using specific features provided to enable you to withdraw consent, like an email unsubscribe link or your account privacy preferences. This is without prejudice to your right to generally permanently close your account and delete your personal information.

If you would like to manage, change, limit, or delete your personal information, you can do so via your Shop Somerset account settings. Alternatively, you can exercise any of the rights above by contacting us. Once you contact us to exercise any of your rights, we will confirm receipt of your request.

Limiting use of, or deleting, your personal information may impact features and uses that rely on that information. However, we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights, including otherwise denying you goods or services, providing you with a different level or quality of services, or charging you different prices or rates for services. If you need further assistance, you can contact Shop Somerset. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

Please note that we may verify your identity before we are able to process any of the requests described in this Section, and in our discretion, deny your request if we are unable to verify your identity. As a part of this process, government or other identification may be required. You may designate an authorised agent to make a request on your behalf. In order to designate an authorised agent to make a request on your behalf, you must provide a valid power of attorney, the requester’s valid government issued identification, and the authorised agent’s valid government issued identification, and we may verify the authenticity of the request directly with you.

Email & Messages

You may also control the receipt of certain types of communications from Shop Somerset in your account settings. Shop Somerset may send you messages about the Services or your activity. Some of these messages are required, service-related messages for members (such as transactional messages or legal notices). Other messages are not required, such as newsletters. You can control which optional messages you choose to receive by changing your account settings. If you no longer wish to use the Services or receive service-related messages (except for legally required notices), then you may close your account.

Cookies

We use both technically necessary (for the functioning and security of the Services) and non-technically necessary cookies and similar technologies. A more detailed explanation of the technologies we use, and how to opt out when applicable, can be found inShop Somerset’s Cookies & Similar Technologies Policy.

8. Your Responsibilities

If you sell using our Services or use Shop Somerset’s API, you may receive and determine what to do with certain personal information. Your privacy responsibilities, including when you act as an independent data controller (someone who decides what personal data to collect and the purpose you use the data for) are laid out in the Shop Somerset Seller Policy and the Shop Somerset API Terms of Use.

9. Privacy Policy Changes

We may amend or update this policy from time to time. If we believe that the changes are material, we’ll let you know by doing one (or more) of the following: (i) posting the changes on or through the Services, or (ii) sending you an email or message about the changes. We encourage you to check back regularly and review any updates.

10. Contact

If you have any questions: Send an email to Shop Somerset's Data Protection Officer at [email protected]

Write to us: Shop Somerset Herons Dyke, South Road, Lympsham, Somerset BS24 0DY

If you live in the EEA, you may also file a complaint with your local data protection regulator.