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Privacy Policy

We take our commitment to your privacy seriously, and we treat any information you provide to us with care. This policy describes what Swell UK ("we", "our" or "us") do with your information and what we do to keep it secure. It also explains where and how we collect your personal information, as well as your rights over any personal information we hold about you.

This policy applies to you if you use our products or services in-store, over the phone, online, through any of our websites, or when interacting with us on social media (our "Services").

We recommend that you read this Privacy Policy in full to ensure you are fully informed. If you have any questions about this policy or our data collection, use, and disclosure practices, please contact us. 


Who we are

  • We are Swell UK Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales.
  • Trading as Swell UK, Swell Reptiles and Swell Pets.
  • Company Registration No: 06239940
  • VAT number: 825020666
  • Registered address: Swell UK Ltd, Unit C SK14 Industrial Park, Broadway, Hyde, Cheshire, SK14 4QF

What information we collect

  • When you place an order with us or interact with our website we may ask you for certain information and you may submit personal data to us (for example your name, phone number, postal address, email address, contact and bank/credit card details). We may also record which products you are interested in and which products you purchase as well as customer traffic patterns and site use.
  • Some examples of how information may be collected by us:
    • The information you provide us: We receive and store information that you submit when using our websites or that you provide us in any other way (for example by email or telephone). This information may be provided when ordering from us (via our websites or by telephone); entering competitions; registering an account on our websites; accessing your account; querying order status, or by submitting support requests or queries via our contact form.
    • Information we collect when you use our services: We receive, process, and store certain information whenever you interact with our websites. Like most websites, we use "cookies" and other tracking technologies which obtain certain information automatically when your web browser accesses our websites. Information automatically received by us may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, landing page, and referring URL; clickstream/path analysis of your journey through our website; and products you searched for. We may also use software tools to measure and collect session information, length of visits to certain pages, repeat visits, and page interaction information (such as clicks).
    • Email communications: To help us make our email newsletters more useful and interesting for our customers and subscribers we attempt to receive a confirmation when you open and click on email newsletters from us (if your email software/service supports this option). If you no longer wish to receive email newsletters, you can unsubscribe at the foot of our email newsletters or from your account area (By using the "My Account" link in the header of our websites after you've logged in) at any time.
    • Information from third parties: We may receive information about you from other sources and add this to our account information. For example, we may update address information using data from third parties (such as the Royal Mail “Change of Address” File), which we may use to correct our records and ensure any orders you place with us are delivered to your correct address. We also receive some information from our payment gateway providers after a successful or attempted transaction so that we can continue to process your order and help prevent fraud. No card or bank details are collected from our payment gateway providers.
    • Commenting on our blog: When you leave comments on our blog we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also your IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

How we use your information

  • We only collect, keep, use or share your information for genuine business purposes, when you've approved us to do so, or when we’re obliged to legally.
  • Your information is kept securely and may be used in various ways, including:
    • Process your orders;
    • Make available our Services to you, like our customer support services;
    • Provide you with an up to date, efficient, and reliable service;
    • Help find and prevent fraud (e.g. we may check payment card details with our credit agency, who may keep a record of that information, and reserve the right to refuse orders on that basis. Your credit rating can be checked for a nominal fee with the main UK agencies Equifax and Experian);
    • Develop new products, services, features, and functionality;
    • With your consent, we may send you promotional material via text messages, push notifications, email communications and post (You can manage your "Marketing Preferences" in your "My Account" area);
    • Administer prize draws;
    • To build a better profile of you as a customer and personalise your shopping experience across our websites; or
    • For compliance purposes, including enforcing our Terms and Conditions, or other legal rights, or as may be required by applicable laws and regulations or requested by any judicial process or governmental agency.

How we may share your information

  • We may share the information we collect in various ways, including the following:
    • Service providers:
      • We may share information with third-party service providers that provide services on our behalf, such as helping to provide our Services, for promotional and/or marketing purposes, and to complete your order we may need to disclose some of your information to our delivery partners including Royal Mail, Parcel Force and Yodel, or payment partners, such as Klarna.
      • If you order a product marked "Direct Despatch" then we will need to pass your delivery information to our manufacturers or supplier as they will be shipping directly to you.
    • Marketing campaigns:
      • We use email marketing to communicate with customers and potential customers from time to time. All email lists and campaigns are "double opt-in" meaning we will not send you these sorts of emails unless you indicated that you wish to receive them during signup or other interactions on our website and have confirmed your email address.
      • We may send you "system" emails, such as password reset requests or payment notifications/receipts even if you have not opted-in to any email marketing lists.
      • All marketing emails sent by us will include an unsubscribe link in the footer of the email. Emails sent to you may also include standard tracking, including open and click activities.
      • We use Mailchimp for our email marketing. Mailchimp's privacy policy is available here.
      • We may utilise social media and web advertising campaigns. These service providers use cookies on our websites and/or pixel tracking to serve ads across different platforms.
    • Aggregate information: Where legally permissible, we may use and share information about users with our partners in aggregated or de-identified form that can’t reasonably be used to identify you.
    • Third party partners: We may also share information about users with third-party partners in order to receive additional publicly available information about you.
    • Analytics: We use analytics providers such as Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect non-identifying information. Google provides some additional privacy options regarding its Analytics cookies at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
    • Business transfers: Information may be disclosed and otherwise transferred to any potential acquirer, successor, or the assignee as part of any proposed merger, acquisition, debt financing, sale of assets, or similar transaction, or in the event of insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which information is transferred to one or more third parties as one of our business assets.
    • As Required by law and similar disclosures: We may also share information to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request; (ii) enforce this Privacy Policy and our Terms and Conditions, including investigation of potential violations hereof; (iii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; (iv) respond to your requests; or (v) protect our rights, property or safety, our users and the public. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection and spam/malware prevention.

Cookies

Like other ecommerce websites, this site requires cookies to function correctly. We operate an implied consent policy and assume that by using the site you are happy for us to use cookies. Our usage of cookies, and details on how to opt-out are shown below. If you are not happy with cookies being used, please do not use the website.

Session cookies Session cookies are used by the website to keep you logged-in, keep items you may have stored in your basket, and allow you to pass through the checkout. They are essential and the site cannot operate without them.

Other cookies Other cookies are set by the third party tools we use to monitor and improve the site and our advertising. Data are anonymised and no personal information is shared. These are used on millions of sites and you can opt-out of them on all sites by visiting the provider's websites.

  • Google Analytics - Used to optimise site performance.
  • New Relic - Used to optimise server performance.
  • Optimonk - Used to control on-site notifications.
  • Google DoubleClick - Used to optimise off-site advertising.
  • Microsoft Bing - Used to optimise off-site advertising.

Opting out of cookies You can opt-out of cookies by visiting the sites above. You can also disable cookies in your browser or browse the site using an Incognito window or private browsing session, or use a cookie-blocking plugin. However, you may experience site usability issues in doing so.


Data security

  • Our site uses TLS encryption technology, to keep the information you give us as secure as possible. We only accept orders through web browsers that allow communication through Transport Layer Security (TLS - The successor to the SSL protocol) protocol.

    However, please bear in mind that the Internet cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
  • We employ a variety of security technologies and measures designed to protect information from unauthorised access, use, or disclosure. The measures we use are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing your personal information.
  • Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password that enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. It's important that you also take responsibility for protecting your account information. Make sure your password is strong, don't share it with others, and try not to use the same one for lots of online accounts. Don't send your password by email – we'll never ask you to do so. We won't ask you for your password information over the phone; we'll advise you on how to reset it.
  • We only use third-party services, such as Amazon Web Services, that are fully vetted and adhere to the highest levels of privacy and security practices.
  • All staff (including any contractors) undergo initial training to ensure a proper understanding of all security-related processes.
  • Every Swell UK Ltd employee and contractor goes through background checks and an onboarding process that includes a trial period where access to customer data is provided only when working directly under the supervision of another staff member.

Data retention

  • We retain personal information we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested or to comply with applicable legal, tax, or accounting requirements).
  • When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymise it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

Your data protection rights

  • As part of GDPR, if you wish to access, correct, update, or request deletion of your personal information, you can do so at any time by contacting us.
  • In addition, you can object to the processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information or request portability of your personal information. Again, you can exercise these rights by contacting us.
  • You have the right to require us to erase or anonymise your personal data which we are handling in the following circumstances:
    • We no longer need to use your personal data for the reasons we told you we collected it for.
    • Where we needed your consent to use your personal data and you have withdrawn your consent and there is no other lawful way we can continue to use your personal data.
    • You object to our use of your personal data and we have no compelling reason to carry on handling your personal data.
    • Our handling of your personal data has broken the law.
    • We must erase your personal data to comply with a law we are subject to.
  • You have the right to receive the personal data we hold about you in a structured, standard machine-readable format and to send this to another organisation controlling your personal data.
    This right only applies to your personal data that we are handling because you consented to us using it or because there is a contract in place between us.
  • You have the right to opt-out of marketing communications we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link in the marketing emails we send you. You can also opt-out of marketing emails and other forms of marketing, via the "Marketing Preferences" page in your "My Account" area.
  • Similarly, if we have collected and processed your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect the processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
  • You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office, the supervisory authority for data protection issues in England and Wales.

Third party websites

  • Our websites may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers, and affiliates. Our site connects you to different websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Where we store your information

  • The information that we collect from you may be transferred to and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff may be engaged in, among other things, the fulfillment of your order, the processing of your payment details, and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal information, you agree to this transfer, storing, or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

The data breach procedures we have in place

  • Should any event occur where customer data has been lost, stolen, or potentially compromised, our policy is to alert our customers via email no later than 48 hours of our team becoming aware of the event. We will also report any such incident to any required data protection authority.
  • We will work closely with any customers affected to determine the next steps such as any end-user notifications, needed patches, and how to avoid any similar event in the future.

Your consent

  • In using our website, you consent to the collection and use of this information by Swell UK in the ways described above. If you have any further questions about our privacy policy or its implementation, please contact us. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and in what circumstances we disclose it.

Klarna

In order to offer you Klarna’s payment methods, we might in the checkout pass your personal data in the form of contact and order details to Klarna, in order for Klarna to assess whether you qualify for their payment methods and to tailor those payment methods for you. Your personal data transferred is processed in line with Klarna’s own privacy notice.

Changes to this policy

  • We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make significant changes in the way we treat your personal information, or to the privacy policy, we will make that clear on our websites, or by some other means such as email, so that you are able to review the changes before you continue to use our service.

Changelog:

  • 21st May 2018 – Made the policy language more user-friendly, specifically outlined data use and data collection, as per the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
  • 4th January 2019 – Added information on what data is collected when a user comments on the blog and added link to Gravatar third-party privacy policy.
  • 31st January 2022 – Added privacy notice on the Klarna payment method.
  • 19th April January 2022 – Added further information on cookie usage.