Privacy Policy

BORDERS (UK/Ireland) LTD. Privacy Policy

Borders (UK/Ireland) Ltd. and Books Etc Ltd. and our related companies (hereinafter referred to as “Borders (UK/Ireland)”) believe that your personal information—including your purchase history, name, phone number(s), email and residential address, and credit card data—belongs to you. We appreciate that your personal information and security are important to you. Our aim when collecting this type of information is to serve you better. We will not rent or sell your information to third parties.  The terms and conditions our Privacy Policy are further set forth below.

Controllers of Personal Information

Borders (UK/Ireland) is a subsidiary of Borders Group, Inc.  This Privacy Policy applies in the following instances:

1. When you make a purchase at any Borders, Borders Express or Books Etc store
2. When you visit the www.bordersstores.co.uk website, which includes the Books Etc brand (the “Website”)
3. When you subscribe to any of our email programs in the United Kingdom.

We have teamed with Amazon.co.uk to deliver a first class online shopping experience for our customers. As such, any personal information you provide when making purchases from borders.co.uk and booksetc.co.uk is subject to Amazon.co.uk’s Privacy Policy.

What Personal Information About Customers Does Borders UK/Ireland Gather?

Our primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you with a smooth, efficient, customised shopping experience.  The personal data we collect includes your name, phone number(s), email and residential address.  This information helps us to personalise and continually improve your experience in our stores and when using our Website.

The types of information we gather are:

• Information You Give Us:
  We receive and store information, including information that relates to and identifies you (“personal data”), that you enter on our Website, provide to us in our stores, or give us in any other way. You can choose not to provide certain information, but if you do so then you may not be able to take advantage of many of the features contained in our Website.

• Automatic Information and Cookies:
  Like many websites, we use "cookies" to obtain certain types of information about our customers.  When your Web browser accesses our Website and when you register, it will send us information which is useful to us, such as your name and your email address.
  
  Cookies are pieces of information that are transferred to your computer's hard drive via your web browser. They allow us to provide you with a more convenient and personalised shopping experience by recording information about your preferences.
  
  Most browsers will allow you to prevent your computer from accepting cookies. However, if you choose to disable cookies certain elements of our Website’s functionality will no longer be available to you.
  
  Please note that the information in our cookies can be requested only by the Website and our browser will not pass these cookies to any other site.

• E-mail Communications:
  You can choose to receive emails from us by signing up in store or online. When you sign up for Borders or Books etc email, we may, from time to time, send you co-branded communications (from both Borders and Books Etc.), or we may send you information about our affiliated companies. The emails we send will include special offers, advance notice of new releases and in-store promotions, updates on services offered and notification of upcoming author events. To ensure that we are providing materials of interest to you, we may monitor whether you opened a particular email have clicked on the images and/or links therein.
  
  Our HTML-based email messages include an invisible coded sensor that is activated when the email message is opened. This sensor communicates the date and time the message was opened and, more importantly, whether your computer is capable of receiving HTML-based email. You will receive a functioning sensor only if your computer is enabled to accept HTML email.
  
  You may unsubscribe at any time from receiving emails from us by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email message.

Information from Other Sources

We may also gather information about or relating to you from other sources in order to provide you better products and services. 

For what Purposes does Borders (UK/Ireland) Process Personal Data?

We use your personal data for purposes such as updating our account records, improving Borders (UK/Ireland) products and services, marketing of Borders (UK/Ireland) products and services and communicating with you. You may notify us at any time that you do not wish to receive marketing material from us by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email communication your receive from us.

Does Borders (UK/Ireland) Share the Information It Receives?

When we collect your personal information, you are sharing it with our parent company, Borders Group, Inc., and our affiliate and subsidiary entities as mentioned above and third parties as further described herein

• Service Providers and Agents:
  We employ other companies and individuals to perform certain functions on our behalf. This includes Cheetahmail UK. They only have access only to personal information needed to perform their functions, and only for the purpose of performing those functions, but may not use it for other purposes.

• Borders (UK/Ireland) Related Company/Group Transfers:
  Borders (UK/Ireland) is part of a larger group of companies and, accordingly, may need to disclose user information to its related group companies from time to time for user and customer administration, and compliance purposes.

• Business Transfers:
  As we continue to develop our business, we may sell or buy companies, subsidiaries, or business units. In such transactions, user information generally is one of the transferred business assets. In the unlikely event that Borders (UK/Ireland) or substantially all of its assets are acquired, user information will of course be one of the transferred assets.

• Protection of our Website and Third Parties:
  We release account and other personal information if and to the extent that we consider release is necessary to comply with the laws or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our Website, our users, or third parties. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. Naturally, this does not include selling, renting, sharing or otherwise disclosing personal data for commercial purposes in violation of the commitments set forth in this Privacy Policy.

Is Data Transferred Outside the EU?

Borders (UK/Ireland) is part of a larger group of companies operating internationally.  In addition, we may use service providers who may provide services for us that operate or are located in countries outside the EU.  The data protection laws outside the EU may not provide an equivalent level of protection to those in the UK, but Borders (UK/Ireland) will abide by this Privacy Policy, as well as any applicable laws, when data is transferred.  Borders (UK/Ireland) will take steps to ensure that such recipients of data transfers are made aware of this Privacy Policy and take action to preserve the confidentiality and security of your personal data.  By providing us with your personal information on our Website or in the course of using our services, you consent to the transfer of your personal data to Borders (UK/Ireland) related group companies and authorised third parties outside the EU, for the purposes described in, and in accordance with, this Privacy Policy.

Which Information Can I Access?

We take precautions to ensure the security and confidentiality of your personal data, and strive to keep it accurate.  Borders (UK/Ireland) believes that you should have the ability to review and update your account information. Borders (UK/Ireland) gives you access to information about your account via the Website for the purpose of viewing and updating personal data (including name, e-mail, password, addresses, communications preferences and e-mail notification settings).

Children

We do not seek or knowingly collect any personal information about children under 16 years of age.

Conditions of Use and Revisions

If you choose to visit the Website, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and any applicable terms of use. If you have any concern about privacy or have any questions or comments, please send them to feedback@borders.co.uk and we will try to resolve it.
We may need to update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We may e-mail periodic reminders of our policies and conditions, unless you have instructed us not to, but you should check our Website frequently to see recent changes. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.

Codes of Practise

Borders (UK/Ireland) is registered with UK Information Commissioner (Registration No. Z5913303) in compliance with provisions of the Data Protection Act. All personal information processed by Borders is in accordance with accepted codes of practise. Further information on our codes of practise can be obtained from our Data Protection controller through contacting us via the Website.

9th December 2005.