We take your privacy and our responsibility to protect your information seriously.

 

1. WHO WE ARE

 

1.1 Our Company (company, we, us, our) is part of the Hachette UK Group of companies (see here).

 

1.2 We are the data controller in respect of your personal information. This privacy notice (Privacy Notice), together with our Cookie Policy, sets out ways in which we collect, use and share your personal data (your information) in connection with our publishing business. It also explains what right you have to access or change your personal data.

 

1.3 This Privacy Notice applies to anyone visiting our websites or engaging with our distribution services, and includes publishers and customers. Please read our Privacy Notice carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal information and how it will be treated.

 

2. CONTACT INFORMATION

 

2.1 For any queries about your personal data and how it is processed you can contact us at:

 

Legal Department (DPO)

Hachette UK Distribution Limited

Carmelite House,

50 Victoria Embankment,

London EC4Y 0DZ, UK

Email: privacy@hachette.co.uk

 

3. CHILDREN

 

Our websites are intended for adults. If you are under 13 you will need to have a parent or guardian sign up for any services. If you are under 18 you will need to have a parent or guardian place orders on your behalf. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under the age of 13.

 

4. WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

 

4.1 Information you provide:

 

4.1.1 The information you provide to us might include: your name, postal address, email address, phone number and date of birth.  If you’re applying to open a trade account with us you will provide additional business and registration details such as your VAT or DUNS identifiers and if you are ordering products/services you will provide your payment details. If you are accessing some of our systems and apps you may provide passwords and usernames. Your personal information includes anything which identifies you as an individual so if, for instance, you are a sole trader your business information may also be your personal information.

 

4.1.2 For more information on how we process job applicants’ personal data, please see our Privacy Notice for Job Applicants.

 

4.1.3 If you provide us with more sensitive information this is known as Special Category (“sensitive”) information and may include details about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious, philosophical or similar beliefs, trade union membership, genetics, biometrics, health, sexual life, sexual orientation or about criminal offences or proceedings. This type of information will be treated differently, and we will explain why we are collecting it. Sensitive data will generally only be used with your explicit consent. However, we may collect sensitive data for example, to help us ensure equality of opportunity or treatment in our publishing business or where it is necessary for things like public health.

 

4.2 We collect your information when you:

 

4.2.1 interact or correspond with us in letters, by phone, by SMS, by email or through our websites;

 

4.2.2 visit our offices;

 

4.2.3 visit our websites (including when applying to open a trade account via our site, provide any comments or reviews about our services or filling in forms on our site);

 

4.2.4 apply to create an account via our websites;

 

4.2.5 engage with our distribution services;

 

4.2.6 contact us with queries about your use of our websites or apps;

 

4.2.7 form part of our mailing lists;

 

4.2.8 enter into a contract with us;

 

4.2.9 submit a review of, or provide feedback about, one of our books or other products;

 

4.2.10 complete contact forms on our websites;

 

4.2.11 participate in our customer satisfaction surveys or other market research, feedback and survey responses; and

 

4.2.12 participate in recorded video conferences.

 

4.3 Information collected when you use our websites and apps:

 

4.3.1 We will also collect certain information about how you use our websites and apps and the devices that you use to access them. This includes your IP address, geographical location, device information (such as your hardware model, mobile network information, unique device identifiers), browser type, referral source, length of visit to the website, number of page views, the search queries you make on the website and similar information. This information is collected by Google Analytics using cookies or similar technology on our website. For more information on cookies please read our Cookie Policy

 

4.3.2 Our websites may include third party plug-ins and apps and links to third party websites. We are not responsible for and cannot control the privacy polices of third parties. Please ensure that you read the privacy notices on any such external websites and relevant third parties.

 

4.3.3 Information we receive from third parties:

 

In certain circumstances, we will receive information about you from third parties. For example,

 

(a) we use third party providers to run credit checks and verify information provided by you in connection with your application to open an account with us;

 

(b) we receive information about you from third parties if they are using our distribution services to deliver their products to you

 

(c) we may receive your information from your colleagues or staff when making applications to use our services;

 

5. HOW WE PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

 

5.1 We use your information lawfully. We do not sell your information to third parties We may also share your information in other ways as set out in the section “When We Share Your Information”. The details of how we use your information and the legal bases for our use are set out below.

 

5.2 We may process your personal information to:

 

5.2.1 to provide our warehousing and delivery services;

 

5.2.2 administer your account with us;

 

5.2.3 provide customer service support;

 

5.2.4 respond to your queries and correspondence;

 

5.2.5 contact you about complaints you made or enquiries you made or products you bought from us;

 

5.2.6 keep in contact with you and provide you with reports and other information about services we are providing for you;

 

5.2.7 for system administration purposes and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;

 

5.2.8 measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising;

 

5.2.9 monitor your use of our websites and apps and your responses to our communications;

 

5.2.10 personalise, enhance, modify or otherwise improve the services and/or communications that we provide to you;

 

5.2.11 for security and fraud prevention;

 

5.2.12 for credit checking and debt collection;

 

5.2.13 to ensure that our website is safe and secure;

 

5.2.14 to protect our rights and property and the safety of our employees; and

 

5.2.15 to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

 

6. LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

 

We will only process your personal information where we have a legal basis to do so. The legal basis will depend on the purposes for which we have collected and used your personal information. In almost every case the legal basis will be one of the following:

 

6.1 Consent: For example where you have provided your consent to receive certain marketing from us. You can withdraw your consent at any time, including by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any marketing email we send you.

 

6.2 Performance of a contract with you: for example, where you have purchased a product/service from us and we need to use your contact details and payment information in order to process your order and send/provide the product/service to you.

 

6.3 Our ‘legitimate business interests’. Where it is necessary for us to understand our customers, promote our services and operate effectively, provided in each case that this is done in a legitimate way which does not unduly affect your privacy and other rights.

 

6.4 Compliance with law: we may process your personal information where we are subject to a legal obligation and need to use your personal information in order to comply with that obligation.

 

7. WHO PROCESSES YOUR INFORMATION FOR US

 

Your information may be processed by our staff or by the staff of third parties we work with to deliver our business. Processing can mean any activity that involves the use of information about someone that can identify them. All uses, for example, obtaining, recording, storing, disclosing, organising, retrieving, deleting and destroying are types of data processing. We take measures to ensure that third parties processing your information on our behalf are acting lawfully in accordance with our instructions and are subject to appropriate confidentiality requirements. We also have adequate technical and organisational safeguards in place in our company and with third party processors to protect your information. Third party processors of your information include:

 

(a) website hosts and operators, IT support providers, database operators, site analytics providers and software developers;

 

(b) platform service providers;

 

(c) video-conferencing service providers;

 

(d) our royalty system software provider;

 

(e) our financial services and payment service provider;

 

(f) our warehousing and delivery service providers;

 

(g) our auditors, credit agencies, debt collection agencies, technical consultants and legal advisors;

 

(h) our fraud detection services.

 

8. WHEN WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION

 

8.1 We share your information within the companies that make up the Hachette UK group of companies as well as with our parent company and their parent company and as set out below. Where we share your information with third parties it is subject to usual requirements listed in the earlier sections of this Privacy Notice.

 

8.2 We will share your information with the following third parties:

 

8.2.1 customers and  publishers in order to provide our services;

 

8.2.2 any prospective seller or buyer of businesses or assets, only in the event that we decide to acquire, transfer or sell any business or assets;

 

8.2.3 any other third parties (including legal or other advisors, regulatory authorities, courts and government agencies) where necessary to enable us to enforce our legal rights, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our employees or where such disclosure may be permitted or required by law or where we have a legal obligation to do so.

 

9.HOW WE LOOK AFTER YOUR INFORMATION

 

We look for opportunities to minimise the amount of personal information we hold about you. Where appropriate we anonymise and pseudonymise your information. We use appropriate technological and operational security measures to protect your information against any unauthorised access or unlawful use, such as:

 

(a) ensuring the physical security of our offices, warehouses or other sites;

 

(b) ensuring the physical and digital security of our equipment and devices by using appropriate password protection and encryption;

 

(c) maintaining a data protection policy for, and delivering data protection training to, our employees;

 

(d) limiting access to your personal information to those in our company who need to use it in the course of their work.

 

10. HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION

 

We will retain your information for as long as is necessary to provide you with the services that you have requested from us or for as long as we reasonably require to retain the information to run our business or, for the purposes of exercising our legal rights or where we are required to do so by law. After this period it will be deleted or in some cases anonymised. We operate a data retention policy and look to find ways to reduce the amount of information we hold about you and the length of time that we need to keep it. For example,

 

(a) we archive our email and paper correspondence regularly and destroy unnecessary information;

 

(b) we operate a best practice email retention policy and protected shared drives to provide restricted access to information;

 

(c) deleted emails are auto-deleted periodically;

 

(d) we conduct regular access reviews to keep access profiles and policies up to date;

 

(e) we conduct periodic review and purge cycles of documents in accordance with our document retention policy;

 

(f) we retain information relating to orders, refunds and customer queries for approximately 7 years;

 

(g) we retain information relating to commercial contracts for approximately 7 years after expiration or termination whichever is the sooner;

 

(h) we maintain a suppression list of email addresses of individuals who no longer wish to be contacted by us. So that we can comply with their wishes we must store this information permanently; and

 

(i) we process requests to unsubscribe from our marketing lists promptly.

 

11. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF YOUR INFORMATION

 

11.1 Our company is located in the UK.

 

11.2 Whenever we transfer your personal information out of the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA) we will take all steps  reasonably necessary to ensure that it is adequately protected and processed and that your personal data has the same protection it has in the UK and EEA. If you are located in the UK or the EEA, you may contact us for a copy of the safeguards which we have put in place to protect your personal information and privacy rights in these circumstances.

 

12. SECURITY AND PASSWORDS

 

12.1 You must keep your password and any other authentication information for our website confidential. If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your password or any other authentication information, you must promptly notify us using the contact details below.

 

12.2 Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted during your use of our website.

 

13. YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES

 

13.1 You have certain rights in relation to your personal information. These include: the right to object to the processing of your information for certain purposes, the right to access your personal information, and the ability to erase, restrict or receive a machine-readable copy of your personal information.

 

13.2 We will handle any request to exercise your rights in accordance with applicable law and any relevant legal exemptions. If you wish to exercise any of these rights please contact us using the contact details above.

13.3 Please contact us if you have any questions or are unhappy about the way your information is used. We hope we will be able to resolve any problems or issues you may.

 

13.4 You also have the right to lodge a complaint about us and our use of your information to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk/) or the relevant authority in your country of work or residence.

 

14. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

 

We may make changes to this Privacy Notice from time to time. We will post any changes to our site.

 

This Privacy Notice was updated in September 2023.