Privacy Policy

This privacy policy sets out how AUK Supplies Limited trading variously as AUK Supplies, AUK Hygiene, SWS Hardware and Modu Hygiene, AUK Hygiene uses and protects any personal data and information supplied when you use this website.

PRIVACY POLICY

We are committed to ensuring that your personal data and information is protected and never misused.

Our Privacy policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, the control you have over your personal information and the procedures we have in place to protect your personal information. Privacy policies can be complicated. We have tried to make ours as clear and as accessible as possible.

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

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about any aspect of this policy or how we handle your information please email our Privacy team on [email protected]

1. WHAT INFORMATION IS BEING COLLECTED?

Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified.

We will only ask for or collect the personal information we need to provide and improve the service, products and experiences our customers expect.  We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data as follows:

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

We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data which is not personal data as it does not directly (or indirectly) reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate individuals' Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature in order to analyse general trends in how users are interacting with our website to help improve the website and our service offering.

2. WHO IS COLLECTING IT?

AUK Supplies Limited (Company Number: 05111595) is the data controller and responsible for your personal data. In this policy we may be referred to as AUK Supplies, Auk Hygiene, SWS Hardware, Modu Hygiene (which are all trading styles of the Company), the Company, “we”, “us” or “our”. A data controller determines the purposes and means of processing personal data.

Our registered address is 7 Cavalier Road, Heathfield Industrial Estate, Newton Abbot, TQ12 6TQ. 

3. HOW IS IT COLLECTED?

Personal data is collected in one or more of the following ways:

• When you register for an account
• When you request a catalogue, technical information or white paper
• When you sign up to receive Product and Service Updates
• When you submit a Special Product Enquiry
• When you contact us through the website
• When you communicate with us through email or on the phone
• When you provide us with your contact details at an exhibition or show
• When you accept cookies on our website (see our Cookie Policy)
• Telephone calls into and out of our business may be recorded for training or monitoring purposes as well as to assist with customer issues.
• Technical data is collected from analytics providers such as Google based outside the UK
• Contact, financial and transaction data is collected from providers of technical, payment and delivery services such as Orderwise Accounts and Max Optra
• When your personal information is openly available or through a purchased database 

4. WHY IS IT BEING COLLECTED?

The primary legal basis for processing your personal data is contractual, to allow us to carry out the business transactions agreed between you and the Company.

In addition, we may also process your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interests in carrying out marketing activities and developing new products or services. If we rely on legitimate interests as the lawful basis for processing and using your data, we will also complete a legitimate interests assessment to ensure we balance your interests with ours. We do not process your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent to do so, or we are required to do so by law).

We may also use your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to. If this is the case, we will identify the legal obligation when we rely on this basis.

However, we will only send you marketing communications if either: 

• you have specifically told us it is okay to do so; or
• you are a corporate body and we are not communicating with a specific named individual (eg we are using an info@ email address or similar) and we believe it is in your legitimate interests to receive our marketing communications (you can still ask us to stop at any time); or
• if you are an individual existing or prospective customer of ours who has previously bought or negotiated to buy a similar product or service from us to the subject matter of our marketing communications. If we are relying on this ground we will only do so where we gave you a simple way to opt out of receiving marketing messages from us at the time we collected your data, and where we have repeated that opt out option in all of our follow up messages.

In all cases, you may change your mind about this at any time by just letting us know. If you do opt out, you may still receive service related communications that are essential for administrative or customer service purposes.

We will never share your data with third parties for their own marketing purposes unless you have expressly agreed that we can do so.

5. HOW WILL IT BE USED?

Our main reason for collecting and using your personal information is to provide and improve the service, products and experiences that you expect from us. We use the information you share with us in the following ways:

• To respond to queries and requests
• To communicate with you and generally manage our relationship with you
• To provide services and support for our products and services, including registering you as a customer, processing your orders, managing payments
• As long as you’re happy for us to do so, to tell you about our other products and services from the Company.
• To customise and improve the way you shop with us in the future; for example by showing you products that we think you might like on the website, which may include the use of data analytics
• To allow us to improve your experience through customer satisfaction surveys
• To administer and protect our business and this website (troubleshooting, data analysis, support and hosting of data)

6. WHO WILL IT BE SHARED WITH?

Most importantly, we never sell your personal information to anyone and only share it as outlined in this Privacy policy or when you ask us to.

We share your personal information with certain third parties who provide services on our behalf. They only have access to the personal information they need to perform those services. They are required to keep your personal information confidential and may not use it other than as we ask them to and always in accordance with this Privacy policy.

The third parties who provide services on our behalf fall into the following categories:

• Those helping us to deliver products to you
• Third parties that assist us with our marketing

We will also share your personal information if we are required to do so by law.

If we choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets, we may share your data with third parties relating to that purpose. If a change happens to our business, the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this policy.

We may transfer your personal data outside the UK to some of our service providers. 

Where we do so we will only do so where the UK has issued regulations confirming that the country to which we are transferring your data ensures an adequate level of protection for your rights and freedoms, or where other appropriate safeguards are in place, such as binding corporate rules, standard contractual clauses approved for use in the UK, an approved code of conduct or a certification mechanism.

7. HOW LONG IS IT KEPT?

We only keep your personal information for as long as we need to, to be able to use it for the reasons given in this Privacy policy, and for as long as we are required to keep it by law. We may retain it for longer in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe that there is the prospect of litigation in relation to our relationship with you.

By law we have to keep basic information about you and any transactions we have had with you for six years after you cease being a customer e.g. for tax purposes.

8. LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES

We may provide links to other websites which are not operated and controlled by the Company.

We have no control over and are not responsible for the content of those sites or how the third parties responsible for them collect and use your personal information. We do not endorse or make any representations about third-party websites.

Third-party websites may have their own privacy policies explaining how they use and share your personal information. You should carefully review those privacy policies before you use these websites to make sure that you are happy with how your personal information is being collected and shared.

9. HOW WE USE COOKIES

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added, and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, you may be prevented from taking full advantage of our website.

Cookies used on this website

Laravel Cross Script Reference 
XSRF-TOKEN
First party 
Necessary 
This cookie is provided by the Laravel framework in order to prevent the cross-scripting attacks.

Laravel Session 
auk_session 
First party 
Necessary 
This cookie is provided by the Laravel framework in order to handle sessions.

Google Analytics Universal Tracking Limiter 
UA-33443009-1 
Third party 
Analytics 
This cookie is used to limit the amount of data recorded by Google on high traffic volume websites.

Google Analytics ID 
_gid 
Third party 
Analytics 
This cookie is created by Google Analytics as an id to track for analytics purposes.

Google Analytics Assignation 
_ga 
Third party 
Analytics 
This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics – which is a significant update to Google’s more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the site’s analytics reports. By default, it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners.

tawk.to 
tawkUUID  
Third party  
This cookie tracks unique visitors to the website. The cookie does not store your personal details. However, it can help the website remember your preferences and create a more personalised user experience.

tawk.to 
_tawkuuid 
Third party  
This cookie tracks unique visitors to the website. The cookie does not store your personal details. However, it can help the website remember your preferences and create a more personalised user experience.

tawk.to Session 
ss 
Third party  
When you log in to the website with your name and email, your credentials are verified and a session ID is created, which is sent to your computer in a session cookie (ss). That way, you don’t have to log in every time you visit the page. This cookie does not contain any personal data. The data is not shared, and this cookie is automatically deleted on logout or when the browser is closed.

tawk.to Connection Management 
TawkConnectionTime
Third party  
When a visitor opens a page from a website and the tawk.to widget is already appearing in multiple browser tabs on that site, the TawkConnectionTime cookie manages requests to load the widget simultaneously.

tawk.to Preference 
Tawk_xxxxxxx 
Third party  
This cookie tailors the visitor experience on the website by remembering details such as preferred language or video player settings.

10. HOW YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS PROTECTED

We are committed to protecting your personal information. We use appropriate technical and organisational measures, including encryption, to protect your personal information and privacy, and review those regularly.

We protect your personal information using a combination of physical and IT security controls, including access controls that restrict and manage the way in which your personal information and data is processed, managed and handled.

We also ensure that our staff are adequately trained in protecting your personal information.
 

Our procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we share your personal information with you.

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

11. HOW CAN YOU CHANGE THE WAY WE CONTACT YOU ABOUT OUR PRODUCTS?

We will only send you marketing communications when you have told us that you are happy for us to do so, or on the basis set out in this policy above.
You can change the way that we contact you in the following ways:

Opt-In/Start Contacting Me

If you hadn’t previously asked us to send you marketing communications, you can ask us to start contacting you (sometimes called an "opt-in") by:

• Contacting customer services and stating that you would like to receive communications from us
• Logging onto your account on our website and changing your preferences and information

Changing your preferences

If you have previously said that you would like us to contact you ("opted-in") but would like to change or update the way that we do so, you can update your preferences by:

• Contacting customer service and stating that you would like to change or update the way that we contact you
• Logging onto your account on our website and changing your preferences and information

Opt-Out/Stop Contacting Me

If you want to stop receiving marketing communications from us (sometimes called "opting out"), you can do so at any time by:

• Contacting customer services stating that you no longer wish to receive such communications
• Using the unsubscribe option included in all our email correspondence (on all marketing and support communications)
• Logging into your account on our website and changing your preferences and information
• Emailing our Privacy team at [email protected].

12. YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to access, update and amend personal information that we hold about you. Please do keep us informed if your personal data changes during the course of our relationship with you. You can also:

• Object to our use of your personal information for certain purposes
• Ask us to limit or restrict our use of your personal information
• Ask us to remove or delete personal information about you

If you would like to exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal information, please email [email protected] or contact us by telephone on 01626 355177or by post at 7 Cavalier Road, Heathfield Industrial Estate, Newton Abbot, TQ12 6TQ.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your data or exercise your rights relating to it, but we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is unfounded, repetitive or excessive. We can also refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us to confirm your identity.

We try to respond to all such requests within one month but occasionally it can take us longer, in which case we will notify you and keep you updated.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your request, you also have the right to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner in the UK. 

Updated February 2025.