Privacy & Cookie Policy

What is covered by this privacy notice?

This privacy policy sets out how OFAS uses and protects any information that you provide to OFAS when you visit the website or use the services. As OFAS makes decisions relating to the data it collects, we are data controllers and must inform you of any personal data we hold, how this data is processed, together with your rights regarding OFAS’s use of your data.

OFAS is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

OFAS may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes

1. What we collect

We only collect personal information if we have your permission, or we have reasonable commercial reasons for doing this, such as the enquiries made by phone, email, social media, via the OFAS website, trade shows and events. We will only collect the minimum amount of information we need to do these things.

We may collect some of the following data:

  • name and job title
  • contact information including email address, business address and telephone number
  • Correspondence regarding your enquiries
  • demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests
  • other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers

This data may be collected when you join OFAS, use our website, post content to our website, sign up for a Journal or GAP subscription, on completion of a survey, questionnaire or entry to a competition, or by communication to us by email, phone and by other means.

When you pay us, we will record details of the financial transactions, but do not record any banking information.

If you use our website we may record your IP address, registration details and your browsing history such as the pages you have visited within our sites. If you sign up for a newsletter we may track your response e.g. open a newsletter or click on a link in a newsletter or the pages you visit.

We do not share personal data with 3rd parties for marketing purposes, other than with the direct consent of the individual(s) which may be withdrawn at any time.

2. What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

  • Internal record keeping.
  • We may use the information to improve our products and services.
  • We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.
  • From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone or mail. We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.

 

 

3. What is the legal basis for OFAS using your data?

OFAS will only collect and hold data of our customers and potential customers relating to the contract furniture industry and those who have a like minded interest in the products and services of OFAS members; and as such we have a shared legitimate interest, which does not unduly affect your privacy and other rights. Examples as below:

• Keeping you informed of relevant products and services;
• Informing you about events and other industry news;
• Providing you with offers and incentives;
• Ensuring our records are up to date and communications are relevant to you;
• Statistical analysis, including interactions on our website, responses to email campaigns, and improving our understanding of customer needs.

4. Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

OFAS will never hold any data that is not necessary for the reasons outlined above.

5. Your Rights

You have certain rights in relation to your personal information. These include: the right to access your personal information, the right to object to the processing of your information for certain purposes, and the ability to erase, restrict or receive a machine-readable copy of your personal information.

We will handle any request to exercise your rights in accordance with applicable law and any relevant legal exemptions. If you wish to exercise any of these rights please conduct us using the contact details below.

 You may also have the right to complain to a data protection authority if you think we have processed your personal information in a manner which is unlawful or breaches your rights. If you have such concerns we request that you initially contact us (using the contact details below) so that we can investigate, and hopefully resolve, your concerns.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from third party websites such as our business partners and advertisers. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy notices and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for them. Please check any such third party privacy before you submit any personal information to these websites.

6. How we use cookies

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.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

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.

7. Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

8. Transfer of data to third parties

We may use third party providers e.g. for web site hosting, web maintenance, email alerting, subscription fulfilment, mailing houses and taking payment. We share information with these third party to provide these services.  We will also share data with public or regulatory authorities where required by law or to enforce our terms of service. We take reasonable commercial steps to ensure that your data is kept secure and confidential by any third party, is deleted when not needed for the purpose it was given, that their data privacy policies protect your data and that they only process your data on our instruction. We do not sell or rent your personal data, although we may transfer, sell or assign your data outside of OFAS to a third party if we were to merge or be sold. Your data will be processed fairly, lawfully and securely in the UK and will only be transferred outside of the European Union when there is protection in place for your rights and when the data will be kept secure.

9. How long do we keep your data for?

Data is not kept any longer than is required for the purposes of the processing or to comply with the law. As we collect data for many different purposes there is not a single retention period for all data. We instead carefully assess the length of time to retain data according to the processing purpose and to comply with our legal obligations. When data is no longer required for the purposes of the processing it is securely removed from our systems.

 

10. Your Rights and Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

  • if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us at ofas@cfasuk.co.uk
  • Right to access: You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please write to ofas@cfasuk.co.uk.
  • Right to rectification: If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible, at the company address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.
  • Right to erasure: You have the right to ask for your data to be erased.
  • Right to restrict processing: Under certain circumstances you have the right to restrict the processing of your information. This may include when you contest inaccurate information, if you consider OFAS’s legitimate interests are overriding your own interests, or if you consider the processing to be unlawful.
  • Right to object: You have the right to object to certain types of processing of your data when it is based on legitimate interests, when it is used for direct marketing, or when it is processed for the purpose of statistical analysis.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

11. Restriction of liability

Our websites link to other websites. OFAS Ltd is not responsible for the privacy policies of those websites nor does it have or accept any liability for their content.