Privacy Policy and Cookies
Privacy Policy and Cookies
This privacy policy sets out how Windows Music Academy uses and protects any information that you give Windows Music Academy when you use this website. Windows Music Academy is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our clients while providing the highest possible quality of service. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement and in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. Windows Music Academy may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page regularly to ensure that you are happy with any changes made. There is quite a lot of information to follow, but to summarise…. We value our clients and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that all and any data you provide to us is kept secure. We have never and will never sell your data to third parties. We only collect data where necessary for legal or financial compliance, or to enable us to provide help and support, and to make using our website a more simple and rewarding experience. We hope the following sections will answer any questions you have but if not, please do get in touch with us. When you are using our website, Windows Music Academy is the data controller.
When we collect your personal data…
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When you visit our website, Teaching Rooms or call us, and use your account to enquire about or buy our products and services
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When you make an online purchase and check out as a guest (in which case we just collect transaction-based data).
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When you create an account with us.
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When you purchase a service at our Teaching Rooms or by phone but don’t have (or don’t use) an account.
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When you engage with us on social media.
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When you register with us as a music teacher.
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When you contact us by any means with queries, complaints etc.
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When you ask us to email you information about a service.
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When you enter competitions.
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When you agree that we may call you or email you to follow up an enquiry either at our Music Rooms, via email or over the phone.
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When you book any kind of appointment with us or book to attend an event.
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When you choose to complete any surveys we send you.
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When you comment on or review our services.
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When you’ve given a third party permission to share with us the information they hold about you.
What sort of personal data do we collect?
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If you have a client account with us (online or at our Music Rooms): your name, gender, date of birth, billing address, orders and receipts, email and telephone number. For your security, we’ll also keep an encrypted record of your login password.
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If you have a finance account with us we also store credit history, employment and bank details as well as copies of personal identification.
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Details of your interactions with us online and at our Music Rooms.
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Copies of documents you provide to prove your age or identity where the law requires this. (including your passport and driver's licence). This will include details of your full name, address, date of birth and facial image. If you provide a passport, the data will also include your place of birth, gender and nationality.
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Details of your instrument preferences.
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Details of your visits to our websites, and which site you came from to ours.
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Information gathered by the use of cookies in your web browser
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Information regarding your requirements if you are enquiring about services we offer.
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Payment information.
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Your comments and service reviews.
To deliver the best possible web experience, we collect technical information about your internet connection and browser as well as the country and telephone code where your computer is located, the web pages viewed during your visit, the advertisements you clicked on, and any search terms you entered.
How and why do we use your personal data?
We want to give you the best possible customer experience. One way to achieve that is to get the richest picture we can of who you are by combining the data we have about you. We then use this to offer you promotions and services that are most likely to interest you. The data privacy law allows this as part of our legitimate interest in understanding our customers and providing the highest levels of service. Remember, if you choose not to share your personal data with us, or refuse certain contact permissions, we might not be able to provide some services you’ve asked for.
Here’s how we’ll use your personal data and why:
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To process any orders that you make at the Music Rooms or online. If we don’t collect your personal data during checkout, we won’t be able to process your order and comply with our legal obligations. Your details may need to be passed to a third party to supply or deliver the service that you ordered, and we may keep your details for a reasonable period afterwards in order to fulfil any contractual obligations such as refunds and so on.
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To respond to your queries, refund requests and complaints. Handling the information you sent enables us to respond. We may also keep a record of these to inform any future communication with us and to demonstrate how we communicated with you throughout. We do this on the basis of our contractual obligations to you, our legal obligations and our legitimate interests in providing you with the best service and understanding how we can improve our service based on your experience.
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To protect our business and your account from fraud and other illegal activities. This includes using your personal data to maintain, update and safeguard your account. We’ll also monitor your browsing activity with us to quickly identify and resolve any problems and protect the integrity of our websites. We’ll do all of this as part of our legitimate interest.
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To process payments and to prevent fraudulent transactions. We do this on the basis of our legitimate business interests. This also helps to protect our customers from fraud.
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With your consent, we will use your personal data, preferences and details of your transactions to keep you informed by email, web, text, telephone about relevant services including tailored special offers, discounts, promotions, events, competitions and so on.
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To send you relevant, personalised communications by post in relation to updates, offers and services. We’ll do this on the basis of our legitimate business interest.
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To send you communications required by law or which are necessary to inform you about our changes to the services we provide you. For example, updates to this Privacy Notice and legally required information relating to your orders. These service messages will not include any promotional content and do not require prior consent when sent by email or text message. If we do not use your personal data for these purposes, we would be unable to comply with our legal obligations.
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To display the most interesting content to you on our websites or apps, we’ll use data we hold about your favourite instruments and so on. We do so on the basis of your consent to place cookies or similar technology on your device.
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To administer any prize draws or competitions which you may enter, based on your consent given at the time of entering.
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To develop, test and improve the systems, services and products we provide to you. We’ll do this on the basis of our legitimate business interests.
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To comply with our contractual or legal obligations to share data with law enforcement.
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To send you survey and feedback requests to help improve our services. These messages will not include any promotional content and do not require prior consent when sent by email or text message. We have a legitimate interest to do so as this helps make our products or services more relevant to you.
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If you are registered with us as a music teacher then we will share your information with members of the public looking for details of teachers, if you have given us permission to do so. You can choose not to be included at this point or ask to be removed at a later date.
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To process your booking/appointment requests. Sometimes, we’ll need to share your details with a third party who is providing a service. We do so to maintain our appointment with you. Without sharing your personal data, we’d be unable to fulfil your request. Combining your data for personalised direct marketing We want to bring you offers and promotions that are most relevant to your interests. To help us form a better, overall understanding of you as a customer, we combine your personal data gathered across out platforms including our website.
How we protect your personal data:
We know how much data security matters to all our customers. With this in mind we will treat your data with the utmost care and take all appropriate steps to protect it. We secure access to all transactional areas of our websites and apps using ‘https’ technology. Access to your personal data is password-protected, and sensitive data such as payment card information is secured and tokenised to ensure it is protected. We regularly monitor our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and we carry out penetration testing to identify ways to further strengthen security.
How long will we keep your personal data?
Whenever we collect or process your personal data, we’ll only keep it for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. At the end of that retention period, your data will either be 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. Who do we share your personal data with? We sometimes share your personal data with trusted third parties. For example, for fraud management, to handle complaints, to help us personalise our offers to you and so on.
Here’s the policy we apply to those organisations to keep your data safe and protect your privacy:
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We provide only the information they need to perform their specific services.
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They may only use your data for the exact purposes we specify in our contract with them.
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We work closely with them to ensure that your privacy is respected and protected at all times.
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If we stop using their services, any of your data held by them will either be deleted or rendered anonymous. Examples of the kind of third parties we work with are:
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IT companies/systems which support our website and other business systems.
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Direct marketing companies who help us manage our electronic communications with you.
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Google/Facebook to show you services that might interest you while you’re browsing the internet. This is based on either your marketing consent or your acceptance of cookies on our websites.
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Data insight companies to ensure your details are up to date and accurate.
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Social Media platforms
Where your personal data may be processed?
Sometimes we will need to share your personal data with third parties outside the European Economic Area (EEA), such as Australia or the USA. Protecting your data outside the EEA The EEA includes all EU Member countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. We may transfer personal data that we collect from you to third-party data processors in countries that are outside the EEA.For example, this might be required in order to process your payment details or provide support services. If we do this, we have procedures in place to ensure your data receives the same protection as if it were being processed inside the EEA. For example, our contracts with third parties stipulate the standards they must follow at all times. If you wish for more information about these contracts please contact our Data Protection Officer. Any transfer of your personal data will follow applicable laws and we will treat the information under the guiding principles of this Privacy Notice.
What are your rights over your personal data?
You have the right to request:
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Access to the personal data we hold about you, free of charge in most cases.
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The correction of your personal data when incorrect, out of date or incomplete.
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For example, when you withdraw consent, or object and we have no legitimate overriding interest, or once the purpose for which we hold the data has come to an end.
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That we stop using your personal data for direct marketing (either through specific channels, or all channels).
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That we stop any consent-based processing of your personal data after you withdraw that consent.
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Review by a Partner of any decision made based solely on automatic processing of your data (i.e. where no human has yet reviewed the outcome and criteria for the decision). You have the right to request a copy of any information about you that the we hold at anytime, and also to have that information corrected if it is inaccurate. To ask for your information, please contact us.
Your right to withdraw consent:
Whenever you have given us your consent to use your personal data, you have the right to change your mind at any time and withdraw that consent. Where we rely on our legitimate interest In cases where we are processing your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected to your individual situation. We must then do so unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to continue processing your personal data.
Direct marketing:
You have the right to stop the use of your personal data for direct marketing activity through all channels, or selected channels. We must always comply with your request. Checking your identity To protect the confidentiality of your information, we will ask you to verify your identity before proceeding with any request you make under this Privacy Notice. If you have authorised a third party to submit a request on your behalf, we will ask them to prove they have your permission to act.
How can you stop the use of your personal data for direct marketing?
There are several ways you can stop direct marketing communications from us:
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Click the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any email communication that we send you. We will then stop any further emails from that particular division.
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Write to us at Windows Music Academy, 1-7 Central Arcade, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5BP. Please note that you may continue to receive communications for a short period after changing your preferences while our systems are fully updated but be assured we will follow your request as soon as possible.
Contacting the Regulator:
If you feel that your data has not been handled correctly, or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can contact them by calling 0303 123 1113. Or go online to www.ico.org.uk/concerns (opens in a new window; please note we can't be responsible for the content of external websites) If you are based outside the UK, you have the right to lodge your complaint with the relevant data protection regulator in your country of residence. Details can be found in Section 16.
Cookies:
Like many online service providers and other websites, we use cookies to facilitate your navigation through the website By visiting our site with your browser settings adjusted to accept cookies tells us that you want to use our products and services and that you consent to the use of cookies and other technologies to provide them to you as described below.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer, mobile device or tablet by certain web pages that you visit. We use cookies to allow you to use various features of the website, such as adding items to your basket, displaying personal recommendations and checking out. If you wish to purchase items from our website, you will need to have cookies enabled. Cookies do not harm your computer nor do any of our cookies store any credit/debit card information or password details. We don't store personally identifiable information such as address details in the cookies we create, but we do use encrypted information gathered from them to help us to identify and resolve errors. For more information please see Google's video about cookies.
How we use cookies:
We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience and to enable functionality such as:
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’Remembering’ who you are when you visit our site, for example preferences that you may have set. Again, this is not personally identifiable
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Enabling you to log-in, add items to your basket and check out
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Displaying items relevant to you, based on your browsing history
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Enhancing the customer journey through the use of Google Analytics.
Adjusting your preferences:
Most browsers are automatically set to accept cookies but if you are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Netscape Navigator, you can configure your browser to restrict cookies or block all cookies should you wish.
Any questions?
We hope this Privacy Notice has been helpful in setting out the way we handle your personal data and your rights to control it. If you have any questions that haven’t been covered, please contact our Data Protection Officer who will be pleased to help you:
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Email us at info@windowsmusicacademy.com
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Or write to us at Windows Music Academu, 1-7 Central Arcade, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5BP
This notice was last updated in December 2019