Group Lotus Limited (“Lotus”) takes your privacy seriously and is committed to protecting it.
This privacy policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please take the time to review this policy so that you understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
Our website may contain links to other websites that may be of interest to you but which may be outside of our group. Please note that this Privacy Policy applies only to our websites and microsites. Websites which are linked from our website may not have privacy policies or they may use your personal information in ways which are different to those set out in this policy. Lotus is not responsible for the content, privacy or security of other websites.
Information we may collect from you
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kind of personal data about you which includes:
– Identity information i.e. your first and last name, title, marital status;
– Contact information i.e. your postal address, e-mail address, phone number;
– Financial data i.e. your bank account and payment card details;
– Profile data such as your username and password, purchases and orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses;
– Usage data i.e. information about how you use our website, products and services;
– Marketing and Communications data i.e. your preferences in receiving marketing from us, our third parties and your preferences as to how we communicate those marketing information to you.
We use different methods to collect personal data about you in the following ways:
- Information provided by you by filling in forms on our websites, including any microsites. This includes information provided for marketing purposes.
- If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
- Details of transactions you carry out through our site and of the fulfilment of your orders.
- Details of your visits to our websites and microsites and the resources that you access.
- Any data provided by you to us directly during a purchase transaction.
- Each time you visit our websites, microsites or use one of our apps we will automatically collect personal data including device, content and usage Data. We collect this data by cookies and other similar technologies.
- We will collect telemetry data (e.g. battery life, engine temperature and distance travelled data) from your vehicle in order to provide you with technical and support services.
- Once you have used our app to pair your vehicle we also use GNSS technology to determine your vehicle’s location. Some of our location-enabled Services require your personal data for the feature to work. If you wish to use the particular feature, you will be asked to consent to your data being used for this purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time by disabling Location Services in your vehicle’s settings menu.
- We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration. This is statistical data analysed for browsing actions and patterns and does not identify any individual.
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.
IP addresses and cookies
We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration. This is statistical data analysed for browsing actions and patterns and does not identify any individual.
For the same purposes, Lotus may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us:
- To estimate our audience size and usage pattern.
- To store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our site according to your individual interests.
- To speed up your searches.
- To recognise you when you return to our site.
We allow you to control the use of cookies. To do this, click on the link “Set cookie preferences” in the bottom line of the website. Here you can set which categories of cookies you would like to use at any time.
If you wish, you can delete the cookies at any time. However, this may mean that certain functions are no longer available to you. To delete the cookies, please refer to the help function of your browser.
If you fail to provide personal data
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
How we will use your personal data
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.
The various lawful basis we rely on is explained below:
Consent means where you provide specific consent for us to provide you or to contact you about our products and services which we feel may be of interest to you, via the method you pick i.e. post/email/text/telephone call.
Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.
| Purpose/Activity | Type of data | Lawful basis for processing (explained below) |
|---|---|---|
| Information provided by you to register you as a new customer or supplier, or when you get in contact with us with a query. | Identity and Contact details | Performance of a contract with youNecessary for our legitimate interests (to keep record of queries) |
| To process and deliver your order including: (a) Manage payments, fees and charges (b) Collect and recover money owed to us | Identity, Contact, Financial, Marketing and Communications data. | (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us) |
| To manage our relationship with you | Identity, Contact, Profile, Marketing and Communications data. | (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services) |
| To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) | Identity, Contact and details of when you use our website i.e. login data, time zone setting and location, IP address. | (a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise) (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation |
| To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences | Usage data and details of when you use our website i.e. login data, time zone setting and location, IP address. | (a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy) |
| To send you marketing communications with suggestions and recommendations about goods or services that may be of interest to you (for example, when you provide consent via our test drive form) | Identity, Contact, Usage, Profile and Marketing and Communications data. | Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business)Consent from you (where you specifically request for marketing communications) |
| To provide you with technical and support services. | Telemetry data (e.g. battery life, engine temperature and distance travelled data) from your vehicle. | (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services) |
| To determine your vehicle’s location through our app. | Identity and Contact details. | Consent from you via your mobile device. |
Additionally, we may collect and use your personal data in an anonymous form to analyse our customer profiles, for statistical and/or remarketing purposes. This anonymous data may be collected from our social media pages i.e. via Facebook or we may anonymise existing data we hold on you. We may share this anonymised statistical information with third parties as part of market research purposes. We may also share your personal data with companies within the Lotus group of companies and selected third party companies. We will not rent out or sell our customer lists to any other organisation.
Marketing
We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We will also get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.
You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing communication sent to you or by contacting us at any time using the contact details below. Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, warranty registration, product/service experience or other transactions.
Disclosure of your personal data
We may disclose your personal information to other members of our group of companies. This is for the legitimate interests of our business and to enable us to be able to integrate with our group companies for performance of our services to you.
We may also disclose your personal information to third parties:
- If such parties are used by us to provide you with services for which you have contracted with us.
- If you have provided information to our websites or microsites, we may publish the personal information you have provided alongside the information to enhance and personalise the information you have shared, save that we will not disclose your email on our websites or microsites.
- In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
- If Lotus or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by Lotus about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
- If we are under a duty to disclose or your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Lotus, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Lotus will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy. We require third parties to treat your personal data lawfully and permit them to only process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
The disclosure of your information may involve transferring your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
- We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission.
- Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe.
Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.
Where we store
The data that we collect from you will be stored in the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and/or other countries to the extent required for us or our service providers to provide the Services. It may be processed by personnel operating outside the UK and the EEA who work for us or for one of our service providers. Where personal data is shared outside of the UK and/or the EEA, we apply safeguards to add to the data protections that apply to those data transfers. This includes an assessment of the adequacy of the third country in question, use of European Commission approved model contract terms where appropriate, and assessment of Privacy Shield certification for US located entities where applicable.
How long we keep your personal data
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.
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.
The period of time we retain your personal data is provided below:
- If you have expressed an interest in buying products or services from us or from our selected partners, we will retain your contact details and related information concerning your enquiry for 5 years from the date that we last had contact with you.
- If you have purchased goods or services from us or from our selected partners, we will keep the data relating to that purchase (e.g. order forms and invoices and related correspondence) for 7 years from the date of the contract.
- Records of any discussions through our web chat facility will be kept for 6 months.
- If you have submitted information which is published on our websites or microsites, we will keep your contact details and related information provided for 6 months after ceasing to use the data on our websites or microsites, or 6 months after choosing not to publish your information, whichever is sooner.
- If you have provided consent for us to send you marketing communications, we will hold onto your data to send you such communications until you withdraw such consent. If you request that we do not send you marketing information we will always retain sufficient information to ensure that we remember to comply with your request.
- In the event that you do not use our app for a period of 12 months then we will treat the account as expired and your personal data may be deleted. A 30 day advance warning notice is issued prior to expiration.
- The periods stated in this section may be extended if we are required by law to keep your data for a longer period.
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.
Your legal rights
You have the right to:
- Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. You will not usually have to pay a fee to access your personal data however any repetitive, excessive or unfounded access request may be subject to a reasonable fee to meet our administration costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in such circumstances.
- Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
- Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
- Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
- Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
- If you want us to establish the data’s accuracy.
- Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
- Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
- You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
- Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
- Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
To exercise any of the rights above, please contact us on the Contact details listed below.
Changes to our privacy policy
This privacy policy may be amended from time to time and amendments published on our websites.
Contact us
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to us at website@lotuscars.com or at:
Webmaster, Group Lotus Limited, Potash Lane, Hethel, Norwich, Norfolk NR14 8EZ UK.
If you are not happy, or have a complaint about the way we use your personal information, we hope that you will contact us at the above address. If you are not satisfied, you may also make a complaint to the Information Commissioners office which is the supervisory authority who regulates personal data in the UK (www.ico.org.uk).
EU Representative
Our representative in the European Union is DüssData Solutions & Protection GmbH.
You may contact our representative at:
DüssData Solutions & Protection GmbH
Carl-Maria-Spett-Straße 30
40595 Düsseldorf, Germany
+49 173 1677947