Privacy Policy

A.B. Walker & Son Limited (referred to below as we, our or us) is the owner and operator of www.abwalker.co.uk (“the Website”). We are committed to respecting your privacy. This statement explains our policy regarding the personal data we collect from you from forms you complete and submit to us, information you provide to us over the telephone and/or in connection with your use of our Website.

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

1. About us

Our contact and registration details are as follows:

Company Name: A.B. Walker & Son Limited

Country of Registration: England and Wales

Company Number: 520298

VAT Number: 115 0800 62

Registered office: Eldon House, 36 Eldon Road, Reading RG1 4DL

Tel: 0118 957 3650

Email: [email protected]

For information about how Memory Giving process your personal data please visit https://www.memorygiving.com/privacy-policy.aspx

2. Personal information we collect about you

2.1 We may collect the following types of personal data from you either via the Website or when you request our goods and/or services either over the telephone or by completing a paper form that you submit to us:

  • Identity Data: includes first name, last name, date of birth and gender.
  • Contact Data: information that allows us to contact you directly such as your name, email address, telephone number and addresses associated with your account including billing address and delivery address;
  • Financial Data: credit/debit card details and bank account details you provide to make payment for the products and services you purchase from us;
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preference
    Transaction Data information on the goods/services provided and arrangements made for the funeral of the deceased to advise the next of kin of those arrangements in the event of a future death within the family; details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
  • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access our website.
  • Usage Data when you use the Website we collect information about the pages you look at and how you use them.
  • Location Data: your computer’s IP address may tell us an approximate location when you connect to our websites but this will be no more precise than the city, state or country you are using your device in.
  • Records of your discussions with our customer support teams: when you share comments and opinions with us, ask us questions, make a complaint or provide written or online feedback and reviews, we will keep a record of this. This includes when you send us emails, phone our support team.

You are not required to provide any of the personal data described above to us, however, if you do not do so, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the Website or our goods/services.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

3. How we use your personal information

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

PurposePersonal data usedLawful basis
Respond to enquiries, Process your orders and maintain your account– Identity Data
– Contact Data
This is necessary to fulfil our contract with you.
Take payment for products (such as funeral flowers)– Identity Data
– Contact Data
– Financial Data
– Transaction Data
– Marketing and Communications Data
This is necessary to fulfil our contract with you. Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us).
Contact you to make arrangements for the provision of our products/services– Identity Data
– Contact Data
This is necessary to fulfil our contract with you.
Answer your queries or complaints– Identity Data
– Contact Data
– Transaction Data
– Records of your discussions with our customer support teams
We have a legitimate interest to answer your query and improve the services we provide.
Direct marketing (where you have opted to receive communications from us about other services we offer such as funeral plans or memorial)– Contact details
– Marketing and Communications Data
We will ask for your consent to process your data for each of these purposes, you may revoke your consent at any point by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email sent to you or emailing us at [email protected]
Administration of the Website including content presentation– Identity Data
– Contact Data
– Usage Data
– Marketing and Communications Data
– Technical Data
We have a legitimate interest to improve the services we provide to you.
Contact the winners of any competition we run– Identity Data
– Contact Data
This is necessary to fulfil our contract with you.
Develop new products and services– Identity Data
– Contact Data
-Technical Data
-Usage Data
– Marketing and Communications Data
We have a legitimate interest to improve the products and services we provide.
Staff training– Contact DataWe have a legitimate interest to improve the products and services we provide.

4. Change of purpose

4.1 We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

4.2 If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

4.3 Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

5. Where we collect your personal data from

We will collect personal data from a number of sources. These include the following:

  • Directly from you: when complete electronic and/or paper forms we provide to you, enter our competitions and promotions, contact us by phone, email or communicate with us directly in some other way.
  • Our Website: provides us with information about how you use it and the devices in your home that you connect to it.

6. Who we share your personal data with:

  • Third parties to the extent required to provide our services to you: such as the crematorium/cemetery, churchyard authority and funeral officiant.
  • Third parties where you have instructed us to pass on your contact information for the purpose of them providing their services to you: such as florist services, musicians to perform at a funeral service, dove release and memorial jewellery services.
  • Other service providers and advisors: such as companies that support our IT, help us analyse the data we hold, send communications to our customers, handle any payments, provide us with legal or financial advice and generally help us deliver our services to you.
  • Purchasers of our business: buyers or perspective buyers who we sell or negotiate to sell our business to. In that case, we shall require that they abide by the terms of this Privacy Policy.
  • The Government or our regulators: where we are required to do so by law or to assist with their investigations.
  • Police and law enforcement: to assist with the investigation and prevention of crime.

In common with most websites, our Website logs various information about visitors, including internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP) information, referring / exit pages and date/time stamp.

We may use this information to analyse trends, administer the Website, track your movement around the Website and gather broad demographic information. However, we do not link this information to personally identifiable information.

We also use Google Analytics which sets cookies to collect information about how visitors use our Website. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the Website. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the website and blog, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We do not disclose personal data to anyone else except as set out above. We may provide third parties with aggregate statistical information and analytics about users of our products and services but we will make sure no one can be identified from this information before we disclose it.

7. Cookies

As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect information about your website usage such as information about your equipment, browsing actions and pattern. We collect this information by using cookies, server logs, and other similar technologies.

You always have full control of cookies, but note that disabling cookies entirely could have adverse effects and stop some functionality working correctly. These are controlled and accessed via our cookie management functionality, where each is outlined and described. You may also control these at browser level if you wish.

Our website uses a limited number of cookies that fall into the following categories:

  • Necessary – Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
  • Functional – Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features. The website functionality may be effected without these cookies.
  • Analytics – Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
  • Performance – Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. The website functionality may be effected without these cookies.
  • Advertisement – Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns, these are likely to be included from interacting with third-party/hosted services like YouTube.
  • Others – Some cookies can’t be clearly categorised, and will be filed under this category in our cookie control functionality. The website functionality may be effected without these cookies.

8. Direct marketing

Email and direct mail: from time to time, we may contact you by email or post (whichever you have opted in to) with information about events and additional services we offer.

We will only send marketing messages to you in accordance with the marketing preferences you set when you create your account or that you tell us you are happy to receive.

You can then let us know at any time that you do not wish to receive marketing messages by sending an email to us at [email protected]. You can also unsubscribe from our marketing by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the marketing emails we send to you.

9. Transferring your personal data internationally

We will not transfer your information to, or store it, outside of the European Economic Area.

10. Data retention

10.1 We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

10.2 To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

10.3 By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.

10.4 In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see below for further information.

10.5 In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

11. Updating and removal of your personal data

11.1 You are responsible for ensuring that the personal data that we hold about you is accurate and up-to-date, and should you wish to check it, please email [email protected] and we will advise you. If your details change, you can contact us using the details in the paragraph below called “Contacting us” and, where appropriate, we will update the relevant personal data for you.

11.2 We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach of our obligations under data protection laws, where we are legally required to do so.

12. Security

12.1 Our Website has numerous security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of information under our control, such as passwords and firewalls. We cannot, however, guarantee that these measures are, or will remain, adequate. We do, however, take data security very seriously and will use all reasonable endeavours to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the information you provide.

12.2 We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

13. Your legal rights in relation to your personal data

13.1 You have the following rights in relation to your personal data: (i) the right to be informed about how your personal data is being used; (ii) the right to access the personal data we hold about you; (iii) the right to opt-out of receiving direct marketing messages; (iv) the right to request the correction of inaccurate personal data we hold about you; (v) the right to request the blocking or deletion of your personal data where the processing does not comply with applicable data protection laws and; (vi) the right to request that we port elements of your data either to you or another service provider.

13.2 To exercise any of the above rights, or if you have any questions or concerns relating to your rights, please contact us by using the details set out in the “Contacting us” section below.

13.3 If you make a complaint about our handling of your personal data, it will be dealt with in accordance with our complaints handling procedure. In the first instance it will be reviewed by our customer care team who will respond to you within 28 days. If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request that your complaint be escalated, in which case it will be passed to a senior person in our business who will review your complaint and the initial response and provide a further response within 28 days of your request to escalate the matter.

13.4 If we are unable to resolve your complaint, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Please see https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint for more information.

13.5 You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

13.6 We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

13.7 We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

14. Links to third party sites

Our Website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our Website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit so that you can understand how they treat your personal data.

15. Changes to this privacy notice

We reserve the right to alter this privacy policy at any time. Such alterations will be posted on the Website by us. Such changes will come into effect 3 business days after posting/emailing you. It is important that you read any such alterations as and when they are posted on the Website by us and should you object to any alteration, please contact us as described in paragraph 14 to ask us to cancel your account with us.

16. Contacting us

If you need to contact us about this policy or any matters relating to the personal data we hold on you, you can write to us at the address at Eldon House, 36 Eldon Road, Reading RG1 4DL or email at us [email protected].