Privacy Policy

Pointer Group (hereinafter referred to as “Pointer Group” or “us” or “we” or “our”) is committed to preserving the privacy of all of its customers and visitors to its website at www.pointergroup.co.uk (the “Website”).

The privacy policy sets out the basis on which any personal data Pointer Group collects from you, or that you provide to Pointer Group, will be processed and how Pointer Group uses and protects the information provided to it by its Customers and/or users of the Website.

Unless the context otherwise requires, references to “you” or “your” within this privacy policy shall be a reference to you and/or your organisation. References to “Application Form” within this privacy policy shall be a reference to the standard forms used by Pointer Group (as may be amended from time to time without notice) to obtain information about you prior to commencing a trading relationship, such forms include, without limitation, a Credit Account Application.

Pointer Group reserves the right to update and amend this privacy policy at any time without notice. You are responsible for reviewing the privacy policy on each occasion that you visit the Website, and if you continue to use the Website after amendments have been made then you are deemed to have accepted the amendments.

If you follow a link from the Website to a third party’s website, this privacy policy will no longer apply. Pointer Group is not responsible for the information handling practices of any third-party websites and recommends that you read the privacy policy specific to such websites.

By completing an Application Form, ordering goods and/or services from Pointer Group or using the Website you agree to the collection, use and disclosure of your information by Pointer Group under the terms of this privacy policy.

Information About Us

Pointer Group is registered in England and Wales with Registration Number 08022088 with its registered office at Adwalton House, Bruntcliffe Avenue, Leeds, LS27 0LL. Please see the “Contact Us” page on the Website for full contact details.

Collection of Information

If you complete an Application Form or order goods and/or services from Pointer Group, we will collect information from and about you.

Pointer Group may collect information about you when you contact us, whether by telephone, fax, email or post, and may also collect any information you submit via any online forms, message boards, forums, surveys or any other interactive sections that may be on the Website from time to time. Pointer Group may also collect information about your use of the Website and will use Cookies in the manner described below.

Pointer Group may also collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

Use of Information by Pointer Group.

If you complete an Application Form, the information you provide will be used by Pointer Group to verify your identity, to process the relevant Application Form and to process (including processing payment for) any orders for goods and/or services received. We may also use the information provided to carry out credit reference searches (details of which are set out in section 4 below).

If Pointer Group approves your Credit Account Application and opens a credit Account for you, Pointer Group will use the information provided to administer your Account and process any orders received.

Information will be stored in our computer database and this, together with other information provided by you (and this information may be supplemented by information we received from third parties), may be used by us for assessment and analysis (e.g. market, customer and product analysis) to enable us to review, develop and improve the goods and/or services we offer and to enable us to provide you and other customer with relevant information through our marketing programme.

Unless you have expressly asked us not to do so, Pointer Group may use information provided for marketing purposes, to undertake marketing analysis and to make general improvements to the Website and Pointer Groups products and services. We may also use your information to make decisions about you using computerised technology, for example, automatically selecting products or services that we think will interest you from the information we hold. We may keep you informed of such products or and services (including special offers, discounts, and so on) by email, post or telephone.

See section 7 below about your rights to request that your information not be used for marketing purposes or to obtain a copy of the information held.

Pointer Group will keep your information secure, by taking appropriate measures against its unauthorised or unlawful processing and against its accidental loss, destruction or damage. Pointer Group are committed to ensuring that your information is secure and have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online in order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure. Pointer Group will retain your information for as long as it is needed for the purposes set out in this privacy policy or as otherwise required by law.

Credit Reference Searches

If you complete an Application Form and/or place an order with Pointer Group, we may make enquiries (and share information) with credit reference agencies, and any other third parties we deem necessary. When a search is made with a credit reference agency they may provide both public information (including information from the electoral register and in relation to County Court judgments) and shared credit and fraud prevention information and a footprint may be placed on your credit file by them, which may be seen by other companies and lenders. Pointer Group makes such enquiries, and shares information with credit reference agencies and other third parties, to verify the identity of you and/or any representatives that purport to act on your behalf, to assess an Application Form, to monitor and manage your Account (if any) and for the purposes of debt collection, tracing and fraud prevention.

Disclosure of information by Pointer Group to third parties

Pointer Group may share your information with credit reference agencies and other third parties (as described at section 4 above). In order to protect you and our other customers, and us, from fraud and/or theft, we may pass on information that we obtain from making identity and/or credit checks and other information in our customer records, including how you conduct your account, to other companies, other retailers and to financial and other organisations (including law enforcement agencies) involved in fraud prevention and detection to use in the same way.

Pointer Group may also share your information with any associated organisations or business partners of Pointer Group so that any information or products you have requested can be provided and for administrative purposes and/or marketing purposes.

Pointer Group may also share your information with any organisation which buys or is interested in buying our business or assets or to whom Pointer Group transfers its agreement with you and in the course of any negotiations, which may or may not lead to such a transfer or sale.

Pointer Group may allow third party providers and contractors who supply goods or services to Pointer Group or who process information on behalf of Pointer Group incidental access to your information. In such circumstances, Pointer Group will endeavour to ensure that such third parties keep your information secure and do not use it for their own purposes.

Pointer Group will disclose any information provided if required to do so by law (such disclosure may be to enforcement authorities or to a third party in the context of actual or threatened legal proceedings) to the extent so required. Unless permitted or required to do so by law, Pointer Group will not otherwise share, sell or distribute any of the information provided to us by you without your consent.

Cookies

In accordance with the separate cookie policy available on the Website, the Website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of the Website and to provide increased functionality when you are using the Website. This helps Pointer Group to provide you with a better experience when you browse the Website and allows us to improve the Website.

A “cookie” is the name of a message given by a web server to a web browser and is a small file of letters and numbers. The message is then stored by the web browser in a text file called “cookie.txt” and can be removed from your system at any time. Each time the web browser requests a page from the web server, this message is sent back. Pointer Group uses cookies to collect information from the Website but Pointer Group will not collect any information about you except in accordance with this privacy policy and as required for the system administration of the Website server.

We use the following categories of cookies:

1. Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website and to enable you to access certain services on the Website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website.
2. Analytical/performance cookies. These cookies collect anonymous information on pages visited and allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the Website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way the Website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
3. Functionality cookies. These cookies are used to recognise you when you return to the Website to improve your use of the Website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

The above cookies also fall into 2 categories – session or persistent. Session cookies expire at the end of your browsing session (when you leave the Website) and persistent cookies expire at a specified time in the future.

You can find more information about the categories and types of individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:

Cookie Name	Category	Purpose	Type
Google Analytics	2	5 cookies (_utma, _utmb, _utmc, _utmv and _utmz) – utilised by Google Analytics to track visitor’s data on the Website.	Persistent – set by Google Analytics in accordance with their privacy policy which can be viewed at the following link: https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/concepts/gaConceptsCookies
_utma	2	Identifies unique visitors anonymously and used to analyse the number of visitors who come back to the Website on subsequent occasions.	Persistent (expires 2 years after the last visit to the Website)
_utmb	2	Used to analyse which pages a visitor looks at during their visit to the Website. Used to analyse how useful internal links are, and how popular individual pages are.	Persistent (expires 30 minutes after the last activity on the Website)
_utmc	2	Used to analyse which pages a visitor looks at during their visit to the Website. Used to analyse how useful internal links are, and how popular individual pages are.	Session (expires as soon as user navigates away from the Website or closes browser)
_utmv	2	Used to analyse which pages a visitor looks at during their visit to the Website. Used to analyse how useful internal links are, and how popular individual pages are.	Persistent (expires 30 minutes after the last activity on the Website)
_utmz	2	Stores information about the referral route (how a visitor ended up on the Website) and is used to analyse effectiveness of keyword campaigns.	Persistent (expires 6 months after the last visit to the Website)

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, please note that if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of the Website.

Your Rights

You have the right to see any of the information Pointer Group holds about you on payment of a statutory fee (currently £10.00). You also have the right to correct any errors in the information Pointer Group holds about you; please inform Pointer Group of any changes you would like to be made to your details so that we can keep our records accurate and up to date. You have the right to opt out of receiving any marketing material from Pointer Group or any third party at any time by sending a written request to us.

Further Information

If you have any queries about the information held by Pointer Group about you or would like to exercise the rights set out above at section 7, please contact us via www.pointergroup.co.uk