Privacy Policy

Thatchers Motor Company Limited ("TMC”) is committed to ensuring that when we collect and use information about people who visit our website or contact us in other ways (as described below), we do so in accordance with applicable data privacy laws. This Privacy Policy explains how we may use information that we obtain about you and how you can exercise your rights with respect to your personal information. Changes to the content or services found on our website may be changed without notice, and consequently our Privacy Policy may change at any time in the future. You should visit this page regularly to check for changes.

Under EU data protection laws, personal information may only be used where one of the following applies:

• You have consented to the use
• We use it to achieve a legitimate interest, and our reasons for using it outweigh any prejudice to your data protection rights
• It is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you
• We need to use it to comply with our legal obligations
• The use is necessary for us to protect your vital interests (or another person’s)
• We need to use it to perform a task in the public interest

Generally, we will process data on one of the first two grounds listed above. If we are processing on the basis of consent, you will be presented with an opportunity to consent at the point where we collect your data. You may withdraw your consent at any time through the data preference centre (see further details below). If we are processing on the basis of our need to achieve a legitimate interest, the nature of that interest is set out below.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

If you visit our website

When someone visits www.tmcmotors.co.uk we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information (your IP address, browser, and type of device) and details of visitor behaviour patterns (where you joined our site from, the path you take through our site and where you leave). We do this for the legitimate business purpose of monitoring the number of visitors to the various parts of the site and engagement levels, which in turn enables us to make improvements. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. Additionally, if you use our live chat service, this service is driven by artificial intelligence developed by TMC however, does use external LLM's such as Openai. However, your data will only be used internally for the purpose of assisting you with your request or for possible future benefits with TMC.

Thatchers Motor Company Limited also uses cookies on its website. You can read more about how we use cookies in our Cookie Policy. This Privacy Policy does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

If you contact us via social media

We use a third party provider, Hootsuite, to manage our social media interactions.

If you send us a private or direct message via social media, this will be received by Hootsuite. Your social media user name and message (including any personal information you choose to include in it) and will be stored by Hootsuite for three months, and used by Thatchers Motor Company Limited for the legitimate business purposes of monitoring our reputation levels and social media engagement (and taking steps to improve this) and responding to any queries raised in the message. It will not be shared with any other organisations.

If you call our contact numbers

When you call Thatchers Motor Company a representative may record your contact number and store in in our CRM. We may collect this for the legitimate business purpose of processing your enquiry (we may collect both email and telephone contact details in case we cannot reach you using one of these). We may use the data to contact you in the future where we have a legitimate interest in doing so (but you may ask for it to be deleted in accordance with the section below on your rights to manage your personal information).

If you email us

Any email sent to us, including any attachments, may be monitored by us for cybersecurity reasons. Email blocking software may also be used. Thatchers Motor Company Limited has a legitimate business interest in using your email address, and any personal data included in your message, to resolve and respond to any issues raised. Your email will be handled in line with our policies, depending on the nature of your enquiry.

Emails sent to named individuals within Thatchers Motor Company Limited (e.g. joe.bloggs@tmcmotors.co.uk) will be stored on our CRM systems indefinitely for the legitimate business purpose of resolving your enquiry and then checking how enquiries have been dealt with, but will not be processed for any other purposes. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send to us is within the bounds of the law.

If you use our enquiry form

When you submit information via our enquiry form, we collect your name, email address and telephone number. We need to collect this for the legitimate business purpose of processing your enquiry (we collect both email and telephone contact details in case we cannot reach you using one of these). We may use the data to contact you in the future where we have a legitimate interest in doing so (but you may ask for it to be deleted in accordance with the section below on your rights to manage your personal information).

If you work for a customer

Our customers provide us with names and contact details (email addresses and phone numbers) of people within their business who are involved in managing Thatchers Motor Company Limited products.

These details are stored within our CRM system for the legitimate business purpose of allowing access to our products. They are retained in the system until the customer chooses to delete them.

The details are also stored indefinitely on our CRM system (see above) and used for the following legitimate business purposes:

• To contact you regarding the running and management of the customer account;
• To send you emails about updates to our products;
• To send you marketing emails about new products (these emails will contain details of how you can opt out of future marketing communications, or you can opt out using our data preference centre);
• To contact you periodically after the end of a contract to see if you are interested in working with us again

If we contact you as part of an email campaign going to all our contacts, we may use a third party e-mail campaign provider. If the provider is based in the US, we will ensure that they are part of the EU-US privacy shield framework.

If you make a complaint to us

When we receive a complaint from a person we make up a manual file containing the details of the complaint and store it. The file normally contains the identity of the complainant (together with any contact details provided) and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect for legitimate business purposes, i.e. processing the complaint and checking on the level of service we provide.

We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. This is inevitable where, for example, the accuracy of a person’s record is in dispute. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for three years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

HOW CAN YOU MANAGE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Under data privacy laws, you have the rights to:

• Request access to your personal data
• Request deletion or correction of your personal data
• Request that your personal data be transferred to another person

Our online data preference centre helps you to exercise the rights that data privacy laws give you and control your personal information. It contains five separate forms, as set out below.

See your data

You can ask to see any personal information that we hold (known as a “subject access request”) by writing to us, addressing it to our Data Protection Officer at the address provided below.

If you agree, we will try to deal with your request informally, for example by providing you with the specific information you need over the telephone.

Transfer your data

You can ask us to provide your data to a third party by writing to the Data Protection Officer.

Delete your data

You can ask us to delete the information we hold about you by writing to the Data Protection Officer

Change your data

If we do hold information about you, you can also ask us to correct any mistakes by writing to the Data Protection Officer

Marketing preferences

You can tell us how you would like us to send you marketing information, or ask us to stop marketing to you entirely. Just contact the Data Protection Officer at the address below.

Any data collected through the data preference centre is stored indefinitely so that we are able to demonstrate our compliance with data privacy laws.

By entering into an agreement, you are agreeing to us sharing your information with the Administrator and other members of the Autoguard Group and its associated trading names, so they can manage this agreement on our behalf. The Administrator will not share your personal information outside of the Autoguard Group, including its associated trading names, or with any third parties without your permission, unless they are required or allowed to do so by law. They will keep your personal details on file for no longer than is necessary. Full details of how your information will be used and an explanation of your rights can be found at www.warrantyadmin.co.uk/privacy.pdf. With our express permission, we may ask a member of the Autoguard Group and/or its associated trading names to contact you when this agreement expires.

DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Other than as outlined above (for example where we use third party service providers), we will not usually disclose personal data. However we may disclose your information to third parties in the following circumstances:

• If we are under a legal or regulatory obligation to do so
• If we believe the purpose of passing your data will be in your best interest or for the purpose of further warranty support for you and your vehicle.
• If we believe your use of our websites has or may violate any law, regulation or our Terms of Use
• If we believe you are or may be a threat to safety, security, property, our rights or the rights of others
• In a merger, acquisition, change of control, joint venture or other business combination involving Thatchers Motor Company Limited

HOW CAN YOU MAKE A COMPLAINT ABOUT OUR USE OF DATA?

Thatchers Motor Company Limited tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

Any complaints should be addressed to the Data Protection Officer using the contact details below. If we fail to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you have the right to contact the UK Information Commissioner. For further information on how to do that, please go to the following webpage: https://ico.org.uk/concerns.

HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US?

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of Thatchers Motor Company Limited collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below. The Thatchers Motor Company Limited Data Protection Officer is Gerard Thatcher. If you want to request information about our privacy policy, make requests concerning your data or make a complaint, you can email dpo@tmcmotors.co.uk or write to:

FAO Data Protection Officer

The Yard, Oakhanger, Bordon,

Hampshire, GU35 9JU

Last Updated: January 2024.