Privacy & SECURITY Policy

Digital

The Company’s websites do not require registration or the submission of personal information to enable browsing. Certain pages will enable the voluntary submission of personal data such as during the course of registration or submission of an enquiry.

In connecting to our website we automatically receive your internet protocol (IP) address in order to aid with understanding user’s browser and operating system requirements.

Physical

Data supplied to us during the course of face-to-face business and transactions is treated in the same way within this policy as information provided electronically.

Business transactions

The main use of your information provided is in the course of administering auctions, private sales, valuations and/or property clearances. A certain amount of data is legally required to be processed and stored in relation to normal business transactions you have with the Company. Other elements of data provided assist in simplifying this process and ensuring you have the best possible experience when buying and selling with us.

Marketing

Our staff and those working for our agents and contractors maintain a responsibility to keep your information confidential and will only use it to offer relevant products and services related to your enquiry that we believe will be of interest to you.

Your details may be combined with other information in our records in order to help you to get more out of your visits to our website by suggesting information about products and services which may be useful to you.

Business transactions

Where your information has been submitted to us via a third-party bidding platform, we may continue to share changes and updates to your information with the third-party platform provider in order to process the contractually required information for auction transactions.

In addition, necessary information may be shared with third parties in order to facilitate payment transactions or in the provision of other services related to business transactions.

Marketing

Any personal details that we use to provide or promote our products and services to you (e.g. name, address, email address, telephone number, or any details of the services you have purchased or about which you have enquired) will not be passed to any third party organisation for marketing purposes without your permission and will not be used by us for any purpose other than that which you requested, unless required by law.

We endeavour to keep your information private and secure, through the use of encryption, firewalls, backups, regular security testing and the following of best industry practices. We continually review and enhance our systems and security measures in response to newly discovered threats.

We use https (industry-standard browser security), which encrypts the pages of our website, and helps protect your data from unauthorized access as it passes through the internet between our website and your computer.

Bidding platforms requiring entry of card details either integrated into our website or externally linked are hosted by third parties who use secure environments for the processing of card data such as Opayo, Square, or other providers as noted in third party terms. These providers use industry standard encryption and card data is only accessible by the Company in encrypted format for the purposes of transacting a sale.

All card data processed by the Company is done so in line with current PCI-DSS requirements and generally accepted industry standards.

However, please be aware that the Internet is not a secure medium for private data transfer and any information provided is done so at the user’s risk.

The Company websites use ‘cookies’ to enhance your browsing experience. A ‘cookie’ is a piece of information that is held on your PC, which enables our website to recognise you on subsequent visits and allows us to tailor your visit to your specific requirements. Some cookies on this site are essential, and the site will not work as expected without them. For example, these cookies are set when you submit a form.

We also use some non-essential cookies to anonymously count visitors to the site. To control third party cookies, you can adjust your browser settings.

The Company complies with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 in the United Kingdom.

We respect the privacy of personal email accounts and store your email address as securely as any other personal information held. We will not send you unwanted email messages or junk mail and your details will not be passed to any organisation outside the Company without your explicit permission.

We may from time to time use email to send you messages to keep you up to date with news about our current services, as well as anything you express an interest in, either online or through other contact with the Company.

Third party internet sites that you can link through to from our website are not covered by our Privacy and Security policy, so we accept no responsibility or liability for these sites.

To monitor the safety of our sites and in order to prevent and detect crime and anti-social behaviour, footage of you may be recorded on our CCTV systems.

The lawful processing of this data is made under the legitimate interest we have in protecting our business, customers, colleagues and the local community. Designated staff may review footage from time to time for the purposes described above and footage will be retained for the length of time required for enforcement or investigation of the above purposes or until automatically overwritten.

Any footage obtained of individuals is not supplied to third parties unless there is a legal requirement for doing so.

Please be aware that from time to time we photograph and record video footage at our events for promotional purposes within all types of printed and digital media forms.

By attending one of our events, you acknowledge that you have been informed that you may be photographed and recorded, and that you give permission for the Company to lend and use any captured media for: the purposes stated; through analogue or digital means; either on their own or in combination with other items; via any form of media known now or in the future. Future rights to reproduce and re-use such images remain with the Company without need to request your authorisation.

In using our website you will be invited to select your cookie preference in order to restrict information obtained in this way and can update your browser security at any time to alter these settings.

Marketing emails are sent based on your identified preferences. If you wish to stop marketing emails you can do so at any time by clicking the link included at the bottom of any marketing email received. Please note while we seek to ensure your preferences are updated across all our marketing platforms there can be a short delay in which time you may receive further emails before your opt-out is processed.

On registration you are provided with a lifetime membership to bid at our auctions for which basic details are required to be obtained, you may at any point rescind this membership and ask for your details to be removed. Please note we are required by law to retain certain information for a period of no less than six years in these circumstances, and longer if it is believed to be in the Company’s best interest to not re-instate your membership in future.

The Company reserves the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, and you are therefore encouraged to review it regularly whilst continuing as a customer. Any changes or clarifications of terms will take effect immediately upon their uploading to the website.