We need to process your personal information to run our business and provide you with the Services. By accepting our Terms and Conditions, you are confirming that you have read and understand this policy including how and why we use your information. If you don’t want us to collect or process your personal information in the ways described in this policy, you shouldn’t use the Services. We are not responsible for the content or the privacy policies or practices of any third party websites that we reference on the Site or in any of the Services that we provide.

The PCSpecialist Terms and Conditions require all account owners to be at least 18 years of age. Children under 18 years of age and at least 13 years of age are permitted to use our Services only if they have the appropriate permission and direct supervision by the owner of the account. Children under age 13 are not permitted to use our Site or the Services. You are responsible for any and all account activity conducted by a minor on your account.

By using the Services, you acknowledge that PCSpecialist will use your information in the United Kingdom, Germany and any other country where PCSpecialist operates. Please be aware that the privacy laws and standards in certain countries, including the rights of authorities to access your personal information, may differ from those that apply in the country in which you reside. We will transfer personal information only to these countries to which we are permitted by law to transfer personal information, and we will take steps to ensure that your personal information continues to enjoy appropriate protections.

As part of providing our Services, we collect or receive your personal information in a few different ways. Often, you choose what information to provide, but sometimes we require certain information for you to use and for us to provide you the Services.

If you choose to create an account on the Site, you need to provide us with a valid email address, first name and surname. You may review, change, or remove your first name and surname through your online account. If you would like your email address to be removed, you should contact us on [email protected] and we will remove this by either deleting your account or by changing the email address on your account to a generic email address that does not contain any data personal to you.

Depending on which services you choose to use, additional information, such as invoice, delivery and payment information (including but not limited to invoice address, delivery address, company name, telephone numbers and credit card information) may be necessary in order for us to provide a particular service. You are not required to provide us with this information to create an account, but we will need it to provide certain services. For example, we need a physical delivery address if you are buying something on the Site for delivery.

We do not store full credit card information on our servers but we do store a payment token, the expiry date and the last four digits which will allow us to accept future payments without the need for you to enter full card details.

We automatically receive and record information from your browser or your mobile device when you visit the Site, such as your IP address or unique device identifier, cookies and data about which pages you visit in order to allow us to operate and provide the Services. This information is stored in our database, in log files and is collected automatically. We may combine this information from your browser or your mobile device with other information that we or our partners collect about you, including across devices. This information is used to prevent fraud and to keep the Services secure, to analyse and understand how the Services work for visitors, and to provide advertising, including across your devices, and a more personalised experience for visitors.

We may also automatically collect device-specific information when you use our Services. This information may include information such as the hardware model, operating system information, browser information, IP address, and device identifiers.

We collect information about your use of the Services for advertising, analytics, to serve content and to protect the Services, including your IP address and browser information (including referrers). We use your IP address to determine your geo-location to offer Services tailored to your region.

PCSpecialist is headquartered in the United Kingdom. If you are located outside of the United Kingdom, your information will be transferred to the United Kingdom to be processed by PC Specialist Ltd.

PC Specialist Ltd is a data controller and has committed to complying with this Privacy Notice and European privacy laws with regard to information transferred from Europe. The United Kingdom does not have a decision of adequacy from the European Commission, meaning that the laws in the United Kingdom may not be as protective as the laws in Europe. Because of this, PCSpecialist has taken steps to protect your rights when your information is transferred to the United Kingdom through the use of the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

In order for us to provide the Services, we may need to pass on your personal information to third parties. The information is provided to third parties solely for the purpose of fulfilling Services that you have requested. Details of these Services are as follows:

• For orders placed on the Site:
• We will provide your first name, surname, invoice address, delivery address, company name, email address, telephone numbers and IP address along with your payment details, such as your credit card number, expiry date, CVC number, cardholder name (and any other payment information that you enter on the Site) to our payment provider. This information is used for the purpose of fulfilling Services and fraud prevention.
• We will provide your first name, surname, invoice address, delivery address, company name, email address and telephone numbers to our courier (DPD) for the purposes of fulfilling the delivery of any Services you request.
• We may provide your order reference number, currency, total order price, order quantity and some aspects of the specification you have ordered such as the processor and graphics card to Google, Facebook, Bing and Hatch B.V. This is used for the purposes of sales tracking.
• We will provide your email address, delivery country and any associated EAN numbers to Google Customer Reviews. Google Customer Reviews is a program that allows you to rate your purchase experience with partners who participate in the program. The rating that you give in your review can help other shoppers make an informed decision to purchase.
  
  If you opt-in to receiving a survey from Google Customer Reviews, Google will send you one email a few days after your order has been delivered. Google will not send any other emails as a result of you opting in.
• To ensure that your credit, debit or charge card is not being used without your consent, we will validate name, address and other personal information supplied by you during the order process against appropriate third party databases. In performing these checks personal information provided by you may be disclosed to a registered Credit Reference Agency which may keep a record of that information. You can be rest assured that this is done only to confirm your identity, that a credit check is not performed and that your credit rating will be unaffected.


• For orders placed on the Site under the finance payment option:
• We will provide your first name, surname, invoice address, delivery address, company name, email address, telephone numbers and IP address along with your deposit value to our finance provider. This information is used for the purpose of fulfilling Services and fraud prevention.

We use cookies for collecting user information from the Site. Cookies are used to enhance the user experience of the Site by remembering a specification previously configured, allowing the specification to be loaded easily when the Site is visited at a later date. Cookies are also used to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns on external websites, by initially pointing the visitor to a tracking URL. Cookies are not used in any other way and we will never directly contact you based on data collected by cookies.

We use Google Analytics for the purposes of remarketing online. Third-party vendors, including Google, show our ads on websites across the Internet. The Site and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to inform, optimise, and serve ads based on your past visits to the Site. If you do not wish for your data to be collected and used by Google Analytics, you can opt-out.

The following cookies are necessary for our Site to function:

Manage Cookies

We give you the choice of providing, editing or removing certain information. You may remove certain optional information that you no longer wish to be publicly visible through the Services, such as your name. You can also request the deletion of the personal information in your account. You also have the following benefits:

• Data access and portability (including the right to obtain a copy of the personal data you provided to PCSpecialist, via your online account);
• Data correction (including the ability to update your personal data via your online account);
• Data deletion (including the right to have PCSpecialist delete your personal information, except information we are required to retain, by contacting us);
• Withdrawal of consent or objection to processing (including, in limited circumstances, the right to ask PCSpecialist to stop processing your personal data, with some exceptions, by contacting us).

PCSpecialist may send you emails about the Services or your activity. Some of these emails are required, service-related emails (such as customer support emails, order status emails or legal notices). Other emails are not required, such as newsletters. You can opt-out of newsletters by clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the email.

We partner with third parties to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third-party partners may use cookies or similar technologies in order to provide you with advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests.

If you no longer wish to use the Services or receive service-related emails (except for legally required notices), then you may request that your data is deleted by contacting us.

On occasion, PCSpecialist may need to contact you. Primarily, these messages are delivered by email and every account is required to keep a valid email address on file to receive messages. PCSpecialist may also contact you by telephone to provide support for Services that you have requested. If you have a valid mobile telephone number on your account, we may send you an SMS (or similar) message to notify you when Services are dispatched or completed. If you send correspondence to us by physical mail we may respond with a physical letter, by email or by telephone.

Some messages from PCSpecialist are service-related and necessary to provide information about Services you have requested. You agree that PCSpecialist can send you non-marketing emails or messages, such as those related to transactions, your account, security, or product changes. Examples of service-related messages include a welcome email when you create an account, confirmation of an order, service availability, and correspondence with our support team.

When you create an account, subscribe to a newsletter, save a quote or otherwise provide us with your email address or phone number you agree by unambiguous consent to receive marketing emails and messages from us. You can unsubscribe at any time from marketing emails through the unsubscribe link included in marketing emails or messages.

PCSpecialist operates Forums and collects reviews and testimonials. You don't have to use these features, but if you do, please use common sense and good judgment when posting data to the Site. Be aware that any personal information that you choose to submit there can be read, collected, or used by others, or could be used to send unsolicited messages to you. PCSpecialist generally does not remove content posted in forums, in reviews or testimonials, and your data may remain public even after your account is closed. You are responsible for the personal information that you choose to post through the Site.

Another visitor may follow your public activity on the forum to receive updates, such as when you make a forum post. You may choose to make certain activities private through your forum account settings.

When you access or use the Services, we collect, use, share, and otherwise process your personal information as described in this policy. We rely on a number of legal bases to use your information in these ways. These legal bases include where:

• necessary to perform the contractual obligations in our Terms and Conditions and in order to provide the Services to you;
• you have consented to the processing, which you can revoke at any time;
• necessary to comply with a legal obligation, a court order, or to exercise or defend legal claims;
• necessary for the purposes of our or a third party’s legitimate interests, such as those of visitors or partners;
• you have expressly made the information public;
• necessary in the public interest; and
• occasionally necessary to protect your vital interests, or those of others.

Note that we principally rely on consent:

• to send marketing messages
• for third-party data sharing related to advertising, and, to the extent applicable
• for the use of location data for advertising purposes.

Where we process your information on the basis of legitimate interests, we do so as follows:

• We may use your information to improve and customise our Services, including sharing of your information for such purposes, and we do so as it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests of improving our Services for our users. This is also necessary to enable us to pursue our legitimate interests in understanding how our Services are being used, and to explore and unlock ways to develop and grow our business. It is also necessary to allow us to pursue our legitimate interests in improving our Services, efficiency, interest in Services for users and obtaining insights into usage patterns of our Services.
• We may also use your information for safety and security purposes, including sharing of your information for such purposes, and we do so because it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests in ensuring the security of our Services, including enhancing protection of our community against spam, harassment, intellectual property infringement, crime, and security risks of all kind.
• We use your information to provide and improve the Services and our products, for billing and payments, for identification and authentication, for targeted online and offline marketing including through tools provided by Google and Facebook, and for general research and aggregate reporting. We may learn the sorts of products that you’re interested in from your browsing and purchasing behaviour on the Site and suggest potential purchases as a result. As a core part of our Services, we have a legitimate interest in customising your experience to help you discover relevant products.
• PCSpecialist may also retain, preserve, or release your personal information to a third party in the following limited circumstances: in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet legitimate national security or law enforcement requirements; to protect, establish, or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims, including to collect a debt; to comply with a court order, legal process, or other legal requirement; or when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with the law, prevent imminent physical harm or financial loss, or investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, threats to our property, or violations of our Terms and Conditions. In these cases, our use of your information may be necessary for the purposes of our or a third party’s legitimate interest in keeping our Services secure, preventing harm or crime, enforcing or defending legal rights, or preventing damage. Such use may also be necessary to comply with a legal obligation, a court order, or to exercise or defend legal claims. It may also be necessary in the public interest (such as to prevent crime) or to protect vital interests (in rare cases where we may need to share information to prevent loss of life or personal injury).
  
  If we receive a lawful, verified request for customer records or information in one of the limited circumstances described in the previous paragraph, we may disclose personal information, which may include, but may not be limited to, a first name and surname, address, phone numbers, email address, and company name.
• PCSpecialist may share demographic information with business partners, but it will be aggregated and de-personalised, so that personal information is not revealed.
• PCSpecialist also needs to engage third-party companies and individuals (such as payment processors, research companies, and analytics and security providers) to help us operate, provide, and market the Services. These third parties have only limited access to your information, may use your information only to perform these tasks on our behalf, and are obligated to PCSpecialist not to disclose or use your information for other purposes. Our engagement of service providers is often necessary for us to provide the Services to you, particularly where such companies play important roles like processing payments and shipments and helping us keep our Services operating and secure. In some other cases, these service providers aren’t strictly necessary for us to provide the Services, but help us make it better, like by helping us conduct research into how we could better serve our users. In these latter cases, we have a legitimate interest in working with service providers to make our Services better.
• In some cases, PCSpecialist may choose to buy or sell assets. Such transactions may be necessary and in our legitimate interests, particularly our interest in making decisions that enable our business to develop over the long term. In these types of transactions (such as a sale, merger, liquidation, receivership, or transfer of all or substantially all of our assets), customer information is typically one of the business assets that is transferred. If we intend to transfer information about you, we will notify you by email and you will be given an opportunity to opt out before information about you becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
• Third-party plug-ins also may collect information about your use of the Site. For example, when you load a page on pcspecialist.ie that has a social plug-in from a third-party site or service, such as a “Like” or “Send” button, you are also loading content from that third-party site. That site may request cookies directly from your browser. These interactions are subject to the privacy policy of the third-party site. In addition, certain cookies and other similar technologies on the Site are used by third parties for targeted online marketing and other purposes. These technologies allow a partner to recognise your computer or mobile device each time you use the Services. Please be aware that when you use third-party sites or services, their own terms and privacy policies will govern your use of those sites or services. PCSpecialist chooses and manages these third-party technologies placed on its Sites. However, these are third-party technologies, and they are subject to that third party's privacy policy.
• PCSpecialist does not control the privacy policies of third parties, even those linked to or from the Services. We encourage you to read the privacy policies and ask questions of third parties before you disclose your personal information to them. For the purposes of European law, third-parties are independent controllers of data, which means that they are responsible for providing and complying with their own policies relating to any personal information they obtain in connection with the Services.

The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and after it is received. Your account information is protected by a password which is stored in a one-way encrypted format. It is important that you protect against unauthorised access to your account and information by choosing your password carefully and by keeping your password and computer secure, such as by signing out after using the Services. If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us on [email protected].

PCSpecialist follows generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and after it is received. Unfortunately, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to protect your personal information, we can't guarantee its absolute security.

PCSpecialist will retain your information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this policy, for as long as your account is active (i.e., for the lifetime of your PCSpecialist account), as described in this policy, or as needed to provide the Services to you. PCSpecialist will retain and use your information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your information to comply with applicable tax/revenue laws), resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and as otherwise described in this policy. We also retain log files for internal analysis purposes. These log files are generally retained for a brief period of time, except in cases where they are used for site safety and security, to improve site functionality, or we are legally obligated to retain them for longer time periods.

You may benefit from a number of rights in relation to your information that we process. If you would like to manage, change or delete your personal information, you can do so via your PCSpecialist online account or by contacting us. Upon request, PCSpecialist will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your personal information. By visiting your online account, you can access, correct, change, and delete certain personal information associated with your account. In certain circumstances, you also have the right to request the deletion of your personal information, and to obtain a copy of your personal information in an easily accessible format. If you need further assistance, you can contact PCSpecialist through the contact section on the Site. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

If we process your information based on our legitimate interests as explained above, or in the public interest, you can object to this processing in certain circumstances. In such cases, we will cease processing your information unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing or where it is needed for legal reasons. Where we use your data for direct marketing purposes, you can always object using the unsubscribe link in such communications.

Where you have provided your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your information and your use of the Services. For example, you can withdraw your consent to email marketing by using the unsubscribe link in such communications. You can choose to withdraw your consent to our processing of your information and your use of the Services at any time by contacting us on [email protected] requesting that all associated data we have is deleted. This deletion is permanent and your account cannot be reinstated.

We may amend or update this policy from time to time. If we believe that the changes are material, we’ll let you know by doing one (or more) of the following: (i) posting the changes on or through the Site, (ii) sending you an email or message about the changes. We encourage you to check back regularly and review any updates.

If you have any questions:

Contact PCSpecialist on +44 333 011 7000.

Send an email to the PCSpecialist Data Protection Officer Nikki Harrison on [email protected].

Write to us at the following addresses:

Unit 12 Jubilee Business Park
Jubilee Way, Grange Moor
Wakefield
WF4 4TD
United Kingdom

If you live in the EEA and have a complaint, you may also file a complaint with your local data protection regulator.