WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT?
Merit Sleep Ltd are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.
This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your relationship with us, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This notice applies to:
- All Client’s
2. All Third Parties and Suppliers with whom we have dealings in the ordinary course of our business including those individuals with whom we send marketing information regarding
Any reference to ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’, ‘the company’ shall mean Merit Sleep ltd.
Any reference to ‘you’ or ‘Data Subject’ shall mean any individual receiving this notice for whom we hold personal data.
This Privacy Statement does not include information relating to the retention of data on limited companies as such data is not incorporated within the provisions of GDPR.
This Privacy Notice also applies to our websites listed as follows:
3. www.Merithome.co.uk (‘the Website’)
The Website content is owned by Merit Sleep Ltd.
In many circumstances we hold your data as a “Data Controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice. In some circumstances we may acquire or handle your data as a ‘Data Processor’ which means we have been asked to handle your data by a third party other than yourself and do not directly store your data.
We may update this notice at any time.
It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.
DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES
We will comply with data protection laws including GDPR. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:
- Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
- Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
- Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
- Accurate and kept up to date.
- kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
- Kept securely.
THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT CLIENTS
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).
There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.
We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:
Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.
Information that you provide by filing in forms on our website or when you enter a competition. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use the Website, subscribing to our service, posting material or requesting further services.
Information you provide when responding to surveys that we use for research purposes, but you are not obliged to respond to these.
Details of your visits to the Website, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data which may include IP addresses and cookies.
We will not ordinarily collect any data which would be categorised as “special categories” of more sensitive personal information.
As part of the usage of the Website and acceptance of our Cookies Policy, we may collect limited and anonymised regarding the usage of the Website. This may include statistical data which we may use to profile similar customers for marketing purposes. This is typically anonymised data regarding user’s browsing actions and patterns and general internet usage. It is not possible to identify the individual for this data.
This data may be used to recognise when you return to the Website to improve your search options and user experience but cannot otherwise be used to identify the Data Subject.
In some circumstances we may use anonymised statistical data to identify target audiences for marketing purposes. This may be based on aggregate of customers who share similar features, for instance age or geographic location.
WHY WE HOLD INFORMATION ON CLIENTS
It is necessary for us to retain data on clients in order for us to fulfil our contractual obligations and we must hold data for our legitimate business needs.
We will only retain data which we reasonably require and for a period which is reasonably necessary.
We will not disclose your data to the third parties unless you have consented for us to do so or we are otherwise required to do so either contractually or under another law or enactment.
HOW IS CLIENT PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED?
We collect personal information about clients from forms the client’s fill in on the Website. In some circumstances where a Client’s order is processed by a retailer, the client data is provided to us by a retailer or third party who has captured the data to facilitate an order for our products. We may sometimes collect additional information from third parties including credit reference agencies or other third parties which may include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter or Rightmove.
HOW WE WILL USE INFORMATION ABOUT CLIENTS
We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you.
- Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
- 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.
We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:
- Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).
- Where it is needed in the public interest [or for official purposes].
Situations in which we will use your personal information
We need all the categories of information in the list above (see The kind of information we hold about you) primarily to allow us to perform our contract with you and to enable us to comply with legal obligations. In some cases we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. The situations in which we will process your personal information are listed below.
Administering the contract we have entered into with you including arranging delivery of products to you;
To adhere to the guarantee offered with our Products
Business management and planning, including accounting and auditing.
Dealing with legal disputes involving you
To prevent fraud
To market other products or services which we offer which may be of interest to you
To inform you about updates about the Company and advise you of an opportunities or promotions.
To assist in marketing activities including collating your data in an anonymised manner to identify trends or statistics which we may use to determine future marketing activity.
Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.
In certain circumstances listed above, we hold your data in order to market other services to you. We have a legitimate business interest in retaining your data for this purpose but you may ‘opt out’ of receiving marketing communications from us.
We may exchange your personal information if all, or substantially all, our assets are merged or acquired by a third party, or we expand or re-organise our business, in which case your personal information may form part of the transferred or merged assets or we may need to transfer your information to new entities or third parties through which our business will be carried out.
We may provide your data to other Companies within our Group as defined by the Companies Act 2006.
If you fail to provide personal information
If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information 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 information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT INDIVIDUALS OTHER THAN CLIENTS AND HOW THIS DATA IS USED
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).
During the course of our day to day basis we acquire information regarding individuals other than our Clients and we will retain this data where we have a legitimate business reason to do so.
Typically we acquire personal data on individuals other than our clients in the following circumstances:
- Where we have met individuals at networking or other marketing events;
2. Where individuals have made enquiries with us regarding possible goods or services but have not subsequently become clients of the business;
3. Where we have dealt with individuals in the capacity as suppliers of goods or services to the Company;
4. Where we have regular business related dealings with you
In many circumstances the extent of the data we hold is limited and may be publicly available by way of other websites but usually the information we will retain is limited to:
Contact information including but not limited to email addresses, contact telephone numbers, business addresses and in some cases personal addresses.
We have a legitimate business interest in retaining this data on the basis that we must retain some personal data on third parties and suppliers in the ordinary course of business. We may also use this data to send marketing information to you in respect of promotions, events or other updates relating to us. We have a legitimate interest in retaining your data for this purpose however you have the right to ask us to erase or rectify your data and the right to opt out of receiving marketing information.
AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING
Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. We are allowed to use automated decision-making in the following circumstances:
- Where we have notified you of the decision and given you 21 days to request a reconsideration.
- Where it is necessary to perform the contract with you and appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.
- In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent and where appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.
If we make an automated decision on the basis of any particularly sensitive personal information, we must have either your explicit written consent or it must be justified in the public interest, and we must also put in place appropriate measures to safeguard your rights.
You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.
We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means, however we will notify you in writing if this position changes.
DATA SHARING
We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities in the group.
We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.
Your data is stored on our servers and account management software. Wherever possible we take reasonable steps to ensure that the servers for these systems are based inside the EU. Where data is saved outside of the EU we have ensured that the data is stored in compliance with GDPR.
We may transfer your personal information outside the EU. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.
Why might you share my personal information with third parties?
We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.
Which third-party service providers process my personal information?
”Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within our group.
The following third-party service providers process personal information about you for the following purposes:
Courier companies including, but not limited to, Royal mail, Hermes, Parcel force, DPD Local, and TNT in order to process your order;
Our Accountants for our own accountancy purposes
Klaviyo in order to send email marketing communication to you;
As appropriate anonymised data may be shared with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn Twitter and other social media platforms to enhance our marketing.
How secure is my information with third-party service providers and other entities in our group?
All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
When might you share my personal information with other entities in the group?
We will share your personal information with other website in our group including wwwmeritmattress.com.
What about other third parties?
We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.
Transferring information outside the EU
Some of the third parties detailed above may have servers based outside the EU. For instance, Amazon have servers in the USA.
However, to ensure that your personal information does receive an adequate level of protection we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is treated by those third parties in a way that is consistent with and which respects the EU and UK laws on data protection.
DATA SECURITY
We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information.
Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted online and transmission is made at your own risk. If you communicate with us by email then you assume the risks of such communications being intercepted, not received or delivered or are received by individuals other than the intended recipient.
DATA RETENTION
How long will you use my information for?
We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.
In respect of Client data we will typically hold data relating to your instructions for a period of 10 years after completion of the matter. The reason for this is that we offer a 10 year guarantee on our products and must retain the data in order to fulfil any obligations we may have under the guarantee. Further the Limitation Act 1980 typically provides that legal proceedings for breach of contract or negligence can be brought up to 6 years after the events. We therefore have a legitimate business interest in retaining the data should any subsequent legal proceedings
RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION
Your duty to inform us of changes
It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.
Your rights in connection with personal information
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
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.
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.
If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact us in writing.
Please note that where you ask us to erase, correct, object to process or seek to restrict our processing of data we may refuse your request where we have a legal obligation, contractual or other legitimate business interest to refuse your request. If we refuse your request then we will notify you of this refusal and you will have the right to appeal.
No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.
What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
We do not allow the public display of written information provided by our agents, whether by email, online chat or otherwise, without prior consent received from Merit Sleep Ltd (Merit Home) in writing.
RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT
In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact us by mail or e-mail. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.
DATA PROTECTION OFFICER
We have appointed Data Privacy Manager to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact Arash Naeimi-Zaker, the data privacy manager. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.
Information Commissioners Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
COOKIES POLICY
Our website uses cookies to better the users experience while visiting the website. Where applicable this website uses a cookie control system allowing the user on their first visit to the website to allow or disallow the use of cookies on their computer / device. This complies with recent legislation requirements for websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user’s computer / device.
Cookies are small files saved to the user’s computers hard drive that track, save and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its server to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website.
Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computers hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors
This website uses tracking software to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computer’s hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. You can read Google’s privacy policy here for further information:
www.google.com/privacy.html
Other cookies may be stored to your computer’s hard drive by external vendors when this website uses referral programs, sponsored links or adverts. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information is stored, saved or collected.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE
We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.
CONTACT AND FURTHER INFORMATION
If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact us with the e-mail provided in our website.
If you have any questions or wish to submit a complaint then please submit this to:
Merit Sleep Ltd
43 Church Road,
Port Talbot,
SA12 8SU
United Kingdom
You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office or such other regulatory body or supervisory authority as may be appointed from time to time.
Once you make a complaint, we will respond to let you know how your complaint will be handled.
