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Group Privacy Notice For World Of Books And Ziffit


We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do so we are subject to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

Key terms

It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this notice:

We, us, our

World of Books Limited, World of Books Group Ltd and the Ziffit brand.

Our World of Books Limited company registration number is 06437594, and our World of Books Group Ltd company registration number is 07464694, our registered office is at Mulberry House, Woods Way, Goring-By-Sea, West Sussex, BN12 4QY, United Kingdom.

Ziffit is a trading name of World of Books Limited.

The Shopiago brand is not included within the scope of this notice.

Personal data Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual
Special category personal data Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membershipGenetic and biometric data (when processed to uniquely identify an individual)Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation
Data subject The individual who the personal data relates to
Websites World of Books Limited - https://www.wob.com/en-gb
Ziffit - https://ziffit.com/en-gb/
Apps The Ziffit app that you may use when using the Ziffit services.

Personal data we collect about you

The personal data we collect about you depends on the particular products and services we provide to you. We will collect and use the following personal data about you:

  • your name and contact information, including email address and telephone number
  • location data, if you choose to give this to us
  • your billing information, transaction information and some payment card information
  • your contact history, purchase history and saved items
  • information from accounts you link to us, eg Facebook
  • Information about how you use our website, IT, communication and other systems
  • your responses to surveys, competitions and promotions

We collect and use this personal data for the purposes described in the section 'How and why we use your personal data' below. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing products and services to you.

How your personal data is collected

We collect most of this personal data directly from you— in person, by telephone, text or email and/or via our Websites and Apps. However, we may also collect information:

  • from publicly accessible sources, eg Companies House or social media sites;
  • from a third party with your consent,
  • from cookies on our Websites—for more information on our use of cookies, please see our cookie policies for World of Books and Ziffit.
  • from our reception logs;

How and why we use your personal data

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason, eg:

  • where you have given consent;
  • to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
  • for the performance of a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract; or
  • for our legitimate interests or those of a third party.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your personal data, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. We will carry out an assessment when relying on legitimate interests, to balance our interests against your own.

The table below explains what we use your personal data for and why.

What we use your personal data for Our reasons
Providing products and services to you To perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
Preventing and detecting fraud against you or us For our legitimate interest, ie to minimise fraud that could be damaging for you and/or us
To enforce legal rights or defend or undertake legal proceedings Depending on the circumstances:
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
—in other cases, for our legitimate interests, ie to protect our business, interests and rights
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, eg policies covering security and internet use For our legitimate interests, ie to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control For our legitimate interests, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information Depending on the circumstances:
—for our legitimate interests, ie to protect trade secrets and other commercially valuable information;
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, eg in relation to our financial performance, customer base, product range or other efficiency measures For our legitimate interests, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems Depending on the circumstances:
—for our legitimate interests, ie to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us;
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Protecting the security of systems and data used to provide our products and services To comply with our legal and regulatory obligationsWe may also use your personal data to ensure the security of systems and data to a standard that goes beyond our legal obligations, and in those cases our reasons are for our legitimate interests, ie to protect systems and data and to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us
Updating and enhancing customer records Depending on the circumstances:
—to perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
—for our legitimate interests, eg making sure that we can keep in touch with our customers about existing orders and new products
Statutory returns To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Marketing our products and services to:
—existing and former customers;
—third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our products and services;
For our legitimate interests, ie to promote our products and services to potential, existing and former customers or where we have obtained your express consent.
External audits and quality checks, eg for ISO and B Corp and the audit of our accounts Depending on the circumstances:
—for our legitimate interests, ie to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards;
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
To share your personal data with members of our group and third parties that will or may take control or ownership of some or all of our business (and professional advisors acting on our or their behalf) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale, initial public offering or in the event of our insolvencyIn such cases information will be anonymised where possible and only shared where necessary Depending on the circumstances:
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
—in other cases, for our legitimate interests, ie to protect, realise or grow the value in our business and assets

How and why we use your personal data when you purchase our products and use our services - in more detail

More details about how we use your personal data and why are set out in the table below.

Purpose Processing operation Lawful basis relied on under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR Relevant categories of personal data
Communications with you not related to marketing, including about changes to our terms or policies or changes to the products or other important notices (other than those addressed above) Addressing and sending communications to you as required by data protection laws, ie:
—the UK GDPR or Data Protection Act 2018;
Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject (Article 6(1)(c)) —your name, address and contact information, including email address and telephone number;
—your account details (username)
Addressing and sending communications to you about changes to our terms or policies or changes to the products or other important notices Our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)), which is to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you —your name, address and contact information, including email address and telephone number
—your account details (username)
Processing your order or returns and refunds If you have purchased from World of Books, preparing and sending your order to you in accordance with our contract with you.If you have used Ziffit's services, receiving the goods and matching them to your trade Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with you (Article 6(1)(b)) so that we can send you products that you have purchased from World of Books or identify the goods that you have sent us as part of a trade with Ziffit. —your name, address and contact information, including email address and telephone number;
—your account details (username)
—your billing information, transaction information and some payment card information
Assisting with customer service enquiries, Dealing with your enquiries and providing a response Processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) or is necessary for the performance of our contract with you (Article 6(1)(b))It is in our legitimate interest to process your personal data so that we can provide a response to your enquiry. —your name, address and contact information, including email address and telephone number;
—your account details (username)
Personalising repeat visits to our Websites Using your personal data to tailor our Websites in a way that benefits you by providing relevant information based on your previous visits to the Websites, such as wish lists, account details, favourites categories and products you may be interested in. Processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) or you have given consent to the processing of your personal data (Article 6(1)(a))It is in our legitimate interest to process your Personal Data so that our Websites are personalised when you visit again because it allows us to provide the best experience for you as a customer —your name, address and contact information, including email address and telephone number;
—your account details (username)
—location data, if you choose to give this to us
—your purchase history—information about how you use our website
Marketing communications with you related to other products or services that may be of interest to you We may contact you via email or post about other products or services that we provide which we think may be of interest to you. Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller (Article 6(1)(f)) or the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data (Article 6(1)(a))It is in our legitimate interest to contact you about other products or services that may be of interest so that we can keep you informed about our latest products and services. —your name, address and contact information, including email address and telephone number;
—your account details (username)
—location data, if you choose to give this to us
—your contact history, purchase history and saved items
—information from accounts you link to us, eg Facebook—information about how you use our website, IT, communication and other systems

Special category personal data

We do not collect any special category personal data.

Marketing

We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about our products and services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new products and services.

We have a legitimate interest in using your personal data for marketing purposes (see above ' How and why we use your personal data'). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you marketing information although we may seek your consent in some circumstances. Where consent is needed, we will ask for this separately and clearly.

You have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by:

  • contacting us at [email protected] for World of Books Limited or [email protected] for Ziffit;
  • using the 'unsubscribe' link in emails; or
  • updating your marketing preferences on your account or in our Preference Centre.

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further products and services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

We will not share your information for marketing purposes with any of our group companies unless you tell us we can. We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell or share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.

Who we share your personal data with

We routinely share personal data with:

  • our group companies;
  • third parties we use to help deliver our products and services to you, eg payment service providers, warehouses and delivery companies;
  • other third parties we use to help us run our business, eg marketing agencies or website hosts;
  • third parties approved by you, eg social media sites you choose to link your account to or third party payment providers;
  • our banks;

We only allow those organisations to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data.We also impose contractual obligations on them to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.

We or the third parties mentioned above occasionally also share personal data with:

  • our and their external auditors, eg in relation to the audit of our or their accounts, in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations;
  • our and their professional advisors (such as lawyers and other advisors), in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations;
  • law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
  • other parties that have or may acquire control or ownership of our business (and our or their professional advisers) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale, initial public offering or in the event of our insolvency—usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of any of your personal data will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

Who we share your personal data with—in more detail

If you would like more information about who we share our data with and why, please visit our 'List of Recipients of Personal Data and International Transfers' here which provides more detail about the recipient, the processing operation and the categories of your personal data that are shared.

Where your personal data is held

Personal data may be held at our offices and those of our group companies, third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see above: 'Who we share your personal data with').

Some of these third parties may be based outside the UK. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this happens, see below: 'Transferring your personal data out of the UK'.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will not keep your personal data for longer than we need it for the purpose for which it is used. If you no longer have an account with us or we are no longer providing goods or services to you, we will delete or anonymise your account data after sevenyears. If you do not have an account or otherwise use our services, we only store your personal information for two years.

Information on how long we store cookies is set out in our Cookie Policy which can be found here for World of Books and here for Ziffit.

Transferring your personal data out of the UK

Under the UK GDPR, we will only transfer your personal data to a country or international organisation outside the UK where:

  1. the UK government has decided the particular country or international organisation ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an 'adequacy decision');
  2. there are appropriate safeguards in place, together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects; or
  3. a specific exception applies under data protection law

If you would like further information about data transferred outside the UK, please contact us.

Any changes to the destinations to which we send personal data or in the transfer mechanisms we rely on to transfer personal data internationally will be notified to you in accordance with the section on 'Changes to this privacy notice' below.

International transfers of your personal data outside the UK—in more detail

More details about the countries outside the UK to which your personal data is transferred are set out in our 'List of Recipients of Personal Data and International Transfers' which can be found here.

Your rights

Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights:

  • Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. You may also do this yourself through the My Account dashboard (if you are a registered customer).
  • Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
  • Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information 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 information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
  • Object to processing of your personal information 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. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  • Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

The above rights are not absolute, and in certain circumstances we may refuse to comply with your request to exercise them. In those cases we will inform you of our refusal and our reasons for it. In some circumstances, we may also charge you for our cost of complying with your rights, but only where permitted to do so by law (and where we have given you notice that we will do so).

If you have a complaint about the usage of your information, please contact us using the details in the 'How to contact us' section.

Keeping your personal data secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your personal data will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

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

How to complain

Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns about our use of your personal data (see below 'How to contact us'). We hope we will be able to resolve any issues you may have.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner in the UK. The UK's Information Commissioner may be contacted using the details at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by telephone: 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this privacy notice

This privacy notice was published on 7 April 2022 and last updated on 19 July 2023.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time—when we do we will inform you via our website or other means of contact such as email.

How to contact us

You can contact us by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you, to exercise a right under data protection law or to make a complaint.

Our contact details are shown below:

Address

World of Books, Mulberry House, Woods Way, Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex, BN12 4QY United Kingdom

Email address

Contact us by email at [email protected] for World of Books Limited and Ziffit.

Telephone number

01903 507 544

Do you need extra help?

If you would like this notice in another format (for example audio, large print, braille) please contact us (see 'How to contact us' above).