We collect, use and store personal information about our Members and people who ask us about a service or product we offer or arrange.

While you have Business Cover with us, and if you take out Business Insurance we arrange for you, we may also collect and use personal information about people connected with your business.

While you have Home Cover, and if you take out Home Insurance we arrange for you, we may also collect and use personal information about members of your family included in your Cover or the insurance.

While you still have Cover with us, we will collect personal information from you, for example:

• when you make changes to your Cover with us
• if you tell us that your address or telephone number has changed
• when you ask for a quote for an insurance policy we can arrange for you
• if you ask us about or have another service or product we arrange
• when you contact us by phone, email or letter
• if you make a claim
• if you make a complaint

We record telephone calls to make sure that we follow instructions correctly and for staff training purposes.

After your Cover with us stops, and if you have taken out an insurance policy we have arranged for you, we will collect personal information from you, for example:

• when you make changes to your insurance
• if you ask us about another service or product we arrange
• when you renew an insurance policy we have arranged for you
• when you take out new insurance we arrange for you
• if you tell us that your address or telephone number has changed
• if you contact us by phone, email or letter
• if you make a claim under your Cover with us for something that happened before your Cover stopped
• if you make a complaint.

We record telephone calls to make sure that we follow instructions correctly and for staff training purposes.

We collect, use and store personal information for our legitimate business interests and, while you still have Cover with us, so that we can:

• give you information about our products and services
• tell you about changes to our services
• confirm your identity
• provide our Cover
• arrange or introduce products and services provided by somebody else
• understand our Members’ needs and requirements so we can improve current products and develop new products
• comply with Companies Act requirements and meet other legal obligations
• send information and documents about company matters
• administer the Cover and collect contributions
• if you pay your contribution monthly, arrange credit for you
• investigate, process and pay claims
• obtain legal advice on claims
• recover debts
• bring or defend legal actions
• detect crime and prevent fraud
• respond to complaints
• carry out market research
• if you agree, tell you by email, telephone call or text about products and services we
  offer.

If you have agreed that we can contact you to tell you about our products and services, you can ask us to stop sending you that information at any time. Please let us know if you no longer want to receive it.

We may use personal information about you in order to comply with financial sanctions which apply in the UK and internationally. This may include checking information on HM Treasury’s lists of financial sanctions targets.

We may arrange an insurance policy for you to replace your Cover with us. If you have that insurance, you will still be a Member of the Mutual. We will collect, use and store personal information for our legitimate business interests and so that we can:

• arrange and renew the insurance for you
• give you information about our services
• tell you about changes to our services
• introduce you to someone else who can give you a quote for an insurance policy
• confirm your identity
• comply with Companies Act requirements and meet other legal obligations
• send information and documents about company matter
• collect your contribution and insurance premium
• investigate, process and pay claims under your Cover with us for something that happened before the Cover stopped
• obtain legal advice on claims you make under your Cover with us for something that happened before the Cover stopped
• detect crime and prevent fraud
• respond to complaints
• carry out market research
• if you agree, tell you by email, telephone call or text about products and services we offer.

If you have agreed that we can contact you to tell you about our products and services, you can ask us to stop sending you that information at any time. Please let us know if you no longer want to receive it.

We may use personal information about you in order to comply with financial sanctions which apply in the UK and internationally. This may include checking information on HM Treasury’s lists of financial sanctions targets.

Personal information is anything that can identify a living person. The personal information we collect may include:

• name and address
• business name and address
• address of your rental property
• telephone number and email address
• age, marital status, gender, racial and ethnic origin
• photograph
• passport
• driving licence details
• bank account details
• credit/debit card details
• claims history
• employment records
• health and medical records
• criminal records information.

Special types of personal information

Information about racial and ethnic origin and health, and medical records are known as “special category” information and need special protection. We will only use your special category data if you agree that we can use it for one or more specified purposes.

If you give us special category information about someone else, please make sure that you only give it to us if they have agreed that you can.

We share personal information with our Managers. They run our day to day business including marketing, sales and complaints handling.

We will share personal information with other organisations who may be able to give you a quote for an insurance policy to replace your Cover with us.

While you still have Cover with us, or while we are dealing with a claim under Cover you used to have with us, we may also share personal information with other organisations which are essential to the running of our business and the services and products we provide to our Members, such as insurers, underwriters, loss adjusters, legal and medical advisers. We have contracts with our service providers which say that they can only use the information we give them to provide services to us and our Members and to comply with legal obligations.

We may also give personal information to fraud prevention agencies.

The police and other law enforcement authorities can ask for personal information to detect or prevent crime or to comply with legal obligations. If they ask, we have to give the information.

We will not give personal information to anyone else unless:

• the person agrees
• we are allowed or required by law to disclose it
• we are involved in a sale, merger, reorganisation, transfer of business or dissolution.

We will not give personal information to any other organisation for their own marketing purposes unless you have agreed that we can.

Our Managers manage several other Mutuals. They may use information from some or all of the Mutuals to help improve the services they and the Mutuals provide, and to make sure that records are accurate and up to date. Someone involved in the management of another Mutual may need to have access to personal information we hold, so procedures are in place to make sure that such access is only allowed on a need to know basis and that the use of the personal information is always fair and lawful.

We will only keep personal information for as long as we need to use it for the purposes it was given to us and for our business needs in line with our information retention standards (available on request), or as required by law or regulation.

When we no longer need to keep your personal information, we will securely and confidentially destroy it.

We do not currently send personal information outside the UK or the EEA, but if we ever did, we would have a contract in place to make sure that the personal information is protected if we give it to businesses and organisations in countries that do not provide the same level of personal information protection as the UK.

If the only reason we hold your personal information is because you have agreed we can, you can tell us to stop using all or part of it at any time. This includes information about your health and medical records, but if you are making a claim for personal injury and you tell us to stop using your medical records, we may not be able to deal with your claim.

If we want to use your personal information for a new reason and which you might not expect, we will write to you to tell you about the new reason and explain why we want to use the personal information in the new way.

If the only reason we hold your personal information is because you have agreed we can, we will ask you if you agree to the new use. If you don’t agree, this may affect what we can do for you.

The law gives you special rights. You have the right to:

• know if we are holding your personal information
• know what we use it for
• know what sort of personal information we hold
• know who we share it with
• know how long we will keep your personal information
• receive a copy of the personal information we hold
• have irrelevant personal information deleted
• have any inaccuracies corrected
• restrict the way we use your personal information until inaccuracies are corrected
• in some cases, have your personal information deleted from our records
• where we use your personal information to send you details of our other products and services, tell us to stop sending the details.

If you have any questions about how we collect and use your personal information, or:

• if you want a copy of it
• if you are unhappy with the way we are using your personal information
• you believe we should not be using it

please contact us:

The Information Officer
The Retail Mutual
Barrington House,
Heyes Lane,
Alderley Edge,
Cheshire,
SK9 7LA

Telephone: 0333 2121 006
Email: [email protected]

If you wish to make a complaint, we will deal with your complaint as quickly as we can.

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can contact the ICO by:

• completing the details at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/
• telephoning 0303 123 1113
• writing to
  Information Commissioner’s Office
  Wycliffe House
  Water Lane
  Wilmslow
  Cheshire
  SK9 5AF

If you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, you can chose to contact your local ICO office:

We collect personal information directly from you on our website if you complete a contact form.

When you visit www.theretailmutual.com we collect information through ‘cookies’ so we can improve your online experience. By using cookies, we can improve the efficiency of our website, remember your preferences and improve navigation. View our cookie policy here. To find out more about cookies and how they are used visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

We use a third-party service, Google Analytics to collect details of visitor behaviour patterns to understand how many people have visited the site, what pages have been visited and how we can make sure the site meets their needs. This information is processed in a way that does not identify individuals.