Privacy Policy
The East of England Co-operative Society Ltd is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected, so we want you to know exactly what kind of information we collect about you and how we use it.
This privacy notice sets out details of the information we collect about you, how we may use it, how we ensure its kept secure, who we share it with, and what rights you may have in respect of that information.
Our main use of your information is where it’s necessary to supply you with our products and services, or where it's necessary as part of the management of our Membership programme.
The type of personal information we collect
We may collect and process the following information:
- Contact information including name, address, phone number and email
- Membership identifiers such as member number, membership card number and share account details
- Demographic information such as gender, age, preferences and interests
- Proof of Identification
- Details of any of the transactions you make with East of England Co-operative Society Ltd and payment related information, such as bank card and account details
- Family, power of attorney and deceased details (where provided for funeral services)
- Information on what you view, click on and access by way of our marketing communications, websites and social media
- You may appear in still images or video footage including Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
How we get the personal information and why we have it
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:
- You complete an online or paper form with us
- You buy an item in our stores or online
- You swipe your membership card
- You use our website or social media accounts
- You contact us
We use the information that you have given us in order to:
- Create and administer your member record, including the accrual of dividend and your share account.
- Contact you about your membership rights which may include your dividend, Annual Members’ Meetings and elections for the Board of Directors.
- Keep you informed of and process any special offers or promotions.
- Confirm your identification when you contact us and for member servicing.
- For the purpose of processing your enquiry, application or feedback.
- For statistical analysis, including automated techniques / forecasting
- Occasionally invite you to participate in market research or to seek feedback on a product or service you’ve requested.
- Develop an understanding of the activities, preferences, and requirements of our Members and Customers to develop, optimise, personalise and tailor user experience.
- Improve existing products and services and develop new products and services.
- Better understand the common and more general needs of our customers and members.
- Obtain feedback on our performance, to assess customer service and satisfaction and to improve overall operations.
- Maintain security purposes in our stores
- Deliver or communicating about a relevant service or event
- Administer transactions and process payments
- Administer donations and grants for community purposes
- Display imagery to represent our services in literature and digital platforms
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:
- Your consent.
We will only contact you by phone, email or text if we have your consent to do so. You can remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting membersupport@eastofengland.coop.
- We have a contractual obligation.
We maintain your membership record and send any dividend payment.
- We have a legal obligation.
We may send you membership information and offers by post.
- We have a vital interest.
Disclosure of your information to service providers
From time to time, we may need to share this information with other parties where we are not able to run some of the services and benefits you receive from us without involving other organisations.
If we share your information, we will only do so in accordance with our legal data protection and privacy obligations. We ensure any third parties we may share your data with have at least the same privacy and security standard as ourselves and only use your information the specific reasons we ask them to.
Your information may be disclosed to organisations who:
- Maintain our customer and membership database
- Process transactions and bookings including online services
- Provide printing and mail services
- Provide digital services to us such as website, email and social media
- Provide research and insight services
- Provide community and grants processing services
- Any other organisation which carries out work on our behalf to help us provide our products and services.
- We may also disclose information to the investigating authorities such as the police, and customs and excise, or if required to do so by law.
We promise never to sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes. We also promise that your data will remain secure and confidential.
How we store your personal information
Your information is securely stored, retained, and disposed of in accordance with our internal security policies.
The Society is legally obliged to retain a Register of Members in accordance with Section 30 of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. The Society therefore permanently retains the following information in relation to Members even after their Membership record is closed:
Member Name, Member Number, Postcode, Date of Birth, Date Joined / Left, Member Status (Closed), Share Account Number.
How long will you keep my information?
We will retain your personal details in your membership record whilst you are a member of East of England Co-operative Society.
When your member account is closed and your share balance withdrawn, your data will be retained for a further two years to allow time for any subsequent queries. After this it will be either deleted completely or anonymised, for example by aggregation with other data so that it can be used in a non-identifiable way for statistical analysis and business planning.
If you are not a member and have provided your details to us at an event for example, we will retain your data in accordance with our deletion policy unless you request us to remove it before then.
After dormancy is activated (which is 2 years of non-activity), your data will be retained in line with the Society Rules.
What is a cookie and how will you use them?
A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.
The Google Analytics tracking cookie specifically also allows us to access aggregated demographic and audience data from online behavioural advertising services. This information is only available to us at a group level, with no personal or identifiable information contained within it. It is used only for us to evaluate the effectiveness of the website and see how different groups of visitors use and respond to the site, and in no way allows us to track people individually.
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.
Your data protection rights
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
If you are a member and ask for your data to be deleted, or restrict or object to the processing of your personal data in connection with the management of your account, your membership will need to be closed.
Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please email membersupport@eastofengland.coop including your Member number, or contact our Membership Support Team on 0800 389 5354. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.
How to complain
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at:
Jonathan Carey
Data Protection Officer
East of England Co-op
Wherstead Park
The Street
Wherstead
Ipswich
Suffolk IP9 2BJ.
Phone number 01473 786000
You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk
This privacy notice is kept under review and may be updated from time to time. It was last updated on 22nd November 2023.