What personal information does RS collect?
RS collects personal information from you when you provide it to us directly, or through your use of our website, for example:
- Information about yourself and the company you work for, when you register for an account with us. This may include your name and contact details, your company name and company details, information about your role in the company, and how you heard about the site.
- Transaction, billing and delivery information, if you make a purchase with us or contract for one of our solutions or services.
- Records of your interactions with us, e.g. if you send email feedback to our website, ask a technical question, report a problem or otherwise contact us. Please note that if you telephone us, we may record the call for compliance, quality and staff training purposes.
- If you respond to one of our customer surveys or enter into a competition.
- If you interact with one of our sales agents, for example at a trade counter, trade show or customer premises.
- We may also record certain details of how you use our website, such as the website you came from or are going to, your device's unique ID, your IP addresses and operating system, adverts you click on, products you search for, products you purchase, and information you download. Marketing emails we send you may also automatically detect whether you have received or opened the email or clicked on a link in our marketing materials. We use this information for our own performance measurement, but also so that we can tailor our promotional messages and advertising to you.
- RS sometimes also receives information about you from third parties. In particular, we may receive details about your role and the company you work for from business databases.
Some of the information above is mandatory for creating accounts and making purchases. Whether information is mandatory is indicated when you sign up or purchase our products or services. If you do not provide it, we may not be able to create an account for you or fulfil your purchases. Unless indicated all other information is optional but if you choose not to provide it any marketing you receive may be less relevant and your experience won’t be personalised.
How does RS use my personal information and what is the legal basis for this use?
Depending on how you use RS Online, your interactions with us, and the permissions you give us, we will use your personal information for the following purposes and legal basis:
Purpose | Type of Data | Legal Basis |
|---|---|---|
Register you as a customer and create your account Fulfil your order and/or provide you with services | Your contact details Information about your role and the company you work for Your delivery and billing information | Performance of a contract with you To take steps, at your request, before entering into a contract with you. |
Manage and respond to any queries or complaints you may have | Your contact details and any interactions with us | Legitimate interest (managing our business and providing services to our customers) |
Personalise RS Online to you and show you content we think you will be most interested in. | Your account information, Your purchase history, Your browsing activity | Legitimate interest (promoting our products and services to our customers) |
Invite you to take part in and manage customer surveys, reviews and other market research activities carried out by RS and other organisations on our behalf. | Your contact details | Your consent, Legitimate interest (managing our business, providing services to our clients and improving our products and services) |
Send you marketing messages and show you targeted advertising in relation to our products and services | Your account information, Your purchase history, Your browsing activity, Your company details | Your consent Legitimate interest (promoting our products and services) |
Manage any competitions you enter. | Your contact details, Your delivery information | Legitimate interest (promoting our products and services via competitions and managing our competitions) |
Improve and maintain RS Online, and monitor its usage. | Your browsing activity, Your interactions with our website | Your consent. Legitimate interest (operating our website and improving its operation) |
Investigate fraud and, where necessary, to protect ourselves and third parties. | Your account information, Your transaction history, Your website usage | Legitimate interest (preventing and detecting fraud or other wrongdoing) |
Complete our financial reporting and disclosure obligations to our parent company, tax agencies and regulators. | Your transaction history, Your delivery and billing information | Legal obligation |
With whom does RS share my personal information?
RS needs to share information with certain selected third parties in order to operate our business:
- RS Group: RS Components Ltd is a member of a world-wide group of companies, of which RS Group plc is the parent company. For full details of the RS Group of companies, please visit https://www.rsgroup.com . RS shares personal information with other members of the RS Group as necessary to support our services and to improve our customer insights.
- Service Providers: We provide information to our service providers acting on our behalf (for example to companies that provide digital marketing services like product recommendation, statistical analysis, business & operational insight, website optimization), as well as to those third parties involved in the delivery chain (for example freight forwarders, couriers and delivery companies). On occasion, we also share personal information with our professional and legal advisors.
- Government Authorities: Where your order is due for delivery outside the UK, we may need to share information with customs authorities both in the UK and in the country of destination. We may also share personal information with law enforcement or other governmental authority, e.g. to report a fraud or in response to a lawful request. When you purchase any television equipment, your details will be passed on to the TV Licensing Authority in accordance with the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1967.
- Credit & Fraud Checking: We may share information with credit reference agencies and with third parties engaged in fraud prevention and detection.
- Media: From time to time, we may release aggregated and anonymised marketing statistics to business partners, or may use these in press releases, advertising, or published reports. We would only personally identify you or any other customer in such press releases, advertising, or reports with your prior consent.
- Business or Asset Sale: In the event that we sell any business assets, the personal information of our customers may be disclosed to a potential buyer. In this event, we will make reasonable attempts to ensure the buyer will be bound by the terms of this privacy statement.
RS may also disclose personal information in cases where we believe the disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property or personal safety of RS, our customers, employees or the public, or where we are otherwise legally permitted to do so.
Where does RS store my personal information, and how long for?
The RS Group is a global group of companies, and RS also uses service providers based around the world. Consequently, your personal information may be processed in countries outside of Europe, including in countries where you may have fewer legal rights in respect of your information than you do under local law. If we transfer personal data outside the European Economic Area we will, as required by applicable law, ensure that your privacy rights are adequately protected by appropriate safeguards. Please contact us if you would like more information about these safeguards.
We keep your personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes set out above, and so this period will vary depending on your interactions with us. For example, where you have made a purchase with us, we will keep a record of your purchase for the period necessary for invoicing, tax and warranty purposes. We may also keep a record of correspondence with you (for example if you have made a complaint about a product) for as long as is necessary to protect us from a legal claim. For more information about the duration of cookies please refer to the cookie policy.
Where we no longer have a need to keep your information, we will delete it. Please note that where you unsubscribe from our marketing communications, we will keep a record of your email address to ensure we do not send you marketing emails in future.
What does RS do to protect my personal information?
RS always aims to deliver the highest level of service and security to our customers and the website has been specifically designed with security in mind.
In order to ensure the security and protection of your personal details whenever you submit any details we use the following security methods:
- The latest technology to encode and protect your data for a safe and secure transaction.
- To the extent possible, when you submit information this will be held in an encrypted format. This means that your information is protected and safe to submit.
- Your RS online account information and RS online personal profile are password-protected so that you and only you have access to this personal information. You may edit your RS online account information and RS online profile by using your RS online username and password.
How does RS use my personal information for marketing?
Unless you opted-out during your account registration and purchase or we requested your consent to marketing and you did not give it, RS may send you emails, call or text you regarding RS products and services. In addition, we may occasionally send you direct mail about products that we feel may be of interest to you. It is likely that some or all of these marketing messages may be tailored to you, based on what we know about you and/or your company, for example from your Online Personal Profile, your previous searches and browsing history on RS Online, and your purchase activity. If you no longer want to hear from us, at any time you can:
- Edit your preferences in the 'My Profile Update Details' area of My Account, which you can access anytime through the link in the navigation bar;or
- Unsubscribe from emails by clicking on the link in each email
Where applicable, you have a right to opt-out of direct marketing or profiling we carry out for direct marketing (you can exercise this right at any time). You may also see adverts for RS on third party websites, including on social media. These adverts may be tailored to you using cookies (which track your web activity, to enable us to serve adverts to customers who have visited RS Online). Where you see an ad on social media, this may because we have engaged the social network to show adverts to our customers, or users who match the demographic profile of our customers. In some cases, this may involve sharing your email address with the social network. If you no longer want to see tailored ads you can change your cookie and privacy settings on your browser and these third party websites.
How can I access, update, correct or delete my personal information?
You can view and edit your Personal Profile information at any time by clicking on the 'My Profile -Update Details' section in My Account, which you can access anytime through the link in the navigation bar.
If you have any problem accessing RS Online, please contact RS Customer Services on 03457 201201.
If you have a query regarding your personal information which you cannot resolve via your Online Personal Profile, please contact us using the details below. Under UK data protection law, you have the right to access (including in a machine-readable format), correct, and request the erasure, object to or restrict our processing, request the transfer (porting) to another company or third party of your personal data, and RS will comply with any requests to exercise these rights in accordance with applicable law. Please be aware, however, that there are a number of limitations to these rights, and there may be circumstances where we are not able to comply with your request.
Where we rely on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. We may however have other legal grounds for processing your data for other purposes, such as those set out above.
Cookies
RS uses cookies and similar technologies to provide the functionality of RS Online, improve website, and to personalise RS Online. For more information about cookies, please read our Cookie Policy.
Contact Us
For questions regarding this privacy notice or how we use your personal data, please email us here.
If you have unresolved concerns, you have the right to complain to a data protection authority in the country that you reside in or, the country of your place of work or the country where the alleged infringement took place.
Updates to this Privacy Statement
We may change this privacy statement from time to time in order to reflect changes in the law, regulatory guidance or our data privacy practices in compliance with the law. When this happens and where required by law, we will provide you with a new or an updated notice detailing how the use of your personal information is changing and, if necessary, obtain your consent for the further processing.
This Privacy Statement was last updated in October 2023.