Privacy Policy

RS Components Ltd, through its brand RS Think Hub ('RS'), is committed to safeguarding your privacy. Please read the following privacy policy to understand how your personal information will be treated when you use the RS Think Hub website, sign up to our newsletter, or otherwise interact with RS.

 

This privacy policy does not apply to personal information collected via rs-online.com, DesignSpark, Connected Thinking, rsdelivers.com, or by our parent company RS Group PLC in the context of its corporate activities. Please refer to the privacy policy on these websites to learn more.

 

What personal information does RS collect?

RS collects personal information from you when you provide it to us directly, or through your use of our website, for example:

• Information about yourself and the company you work for, when you sign up to receive our RS  newsletter or by submitting a question on our website. This may include your name and contact details, your company name and company details, information about your role in the company, and how you heard about the site.

• Records of your interactions with us, eg. if you submit feedback on our website, ask a technical question, report a problem or otherwise contact us. Please note that if you telephone us, we may record the call for compliance, quality and staff training purposes.

• If you respond to one of our customer surveys, complete a product research test or enter into a competition.

• We may also record certain details of how you use our website, such as the website you came from or are going to, your device's unique ID, your IP addresses and operating system, adverts you click on, products you search for, products you purchase, and information you download.

• Marketing emails we send you may also automatically detect whether you have received or opened the email or clicked on a link in our marketing materials. We use this information for our own performance measurement, but also so that we can tailor our promotional messages and advertising to you.

How does RS use my personal information?

Depending on how you use RS, your interactions with us, and the permissions you give us, we will use your personal information for the following purposes:

• To provide you with our services.
• To manage and respond to any queries or complaints.
• To personalise RS to you and show you content we think you will be most interested in, based on your browsing activity.
• To improve and maintain RS, and monitor its usage.
• For market research, eg. we may contact you for feedback about our products and services
• To send you marketing messages and show you targeted advertising, where we have your consent or are otherwise permitted to do so.
• For security purposes, to investigate fraud and where necessary to protect ourselves and third parties.
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We rely on the following legal bases, under data protection law, to process your personal information:

• Because the processing is necessary to provide our services to you (eg. where you have asked us a question on the website, we use your personal data to contact you and answer your question).
• Because we have obtained your consent (eg. where you submit a question, agree to take part in a survey or product user test, contact us with a query, or if you consent to receive marketing from us).
• Because it is in RS’ legitimate interests to maintain and promote our services. We are always seeking to understand more about our customers in order to offer the best customer experience. We use information about you to tailor your view of RS Online, to make it more interesting and relevant in respect of the products and offers on view. This will include where you agree to take part in a product user test for our research.

With whom does RS share my personal information?

RS needs to share information with certain selected third parties in order to operate our business:

• RS Group plc: RS Think Hub, a brand of RS Components Ltd, is a member of a world-wide group of companies, of which RS Group plc is the parent company. For full details of the RS Group of companies, please visit https://www.rsgroup.com/. RS shares personal information with other members of the RS Group as necessary to support our services and to improve our customer insights.

• Service providers: we provide information to our service providers acting on our behalf (for example, to companies that provide digital marketing services like product recommendation, statistical analysis, business and operational insight, website optimisation and for product user testing and research). On occasion, we also share personal information with our professional and legal advisors.

• Government authorities: we may also share personal information with law enforcement or other governmental authority, eg. to report a fraud or in response to a lawful request.

• Media: from time to time, we may release aggregated and anonymised marketing statistics to business partners, or may use these in press releases, advertising, or published reports. We would only personally identify you or any other customer in such press releases, advertising, or reports with your prior consent.

• Business or asset sale: in the event that we sell any business assets, the personal information of our customers may be disclosed to a potential buyer. In this event, we will make reasonable attempts to ensure the buyer will be bound by the terms of this privacy policy.

RS may also disclose personal information in cases where we believe the disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property or personal safety of RS, our customers, employees or the public, or where we are otherwise legally permitted to do so.

 

Where does RS store my personal information, and how long for?

The RS Group PLC is a global group of companies, and RS also uses service providers based around the world. Consequently, your personal information may be processed in countries outside of Europe, including in countries where you may have fewer legal rights in respect of your information than you do under local law. If we transfer personal data outside the European Economic Area we will, as required by applicable law, ensure that your privacy rights are adequately protected by appropriate safeguards. Please contact us if you would like more information about these safeguards.

 

We keep your personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes set out above, and so this period will vary depending on your interactions with us. For example, we may keep a record of correspondence with you (for example if you have submitted a question to our experts) for as long as is necessary to protect us from a legal claim. For more information about the duration of cookies please refer to the cookie policy.

 

Where we no longer have a need to keep your information, we will delete it. Please note that where you unsubscribe from our marketing communications, we will keep a record of your email address to ensure we do not send you marketing emails in future.

 

What does RS do to protect my personal information?

RS always aims to deliver the highest level of service and security to our customers and the website has been specifically designed with security in mind.

 

In order to ensure the security and protection of your personal details whenever you submit any details we use the following security methods:

• The latest technology to encode and protect your data for a safe and secure transaction.

• To the extent possible, when you submit information this will be held in an encrypted format. This means that your information is protected and safe to submit.

How does RS use my personal information for marketing?

If you subscribe to the RS mailing list, RS may send you emails, call or text you regarding RS products and services. In addition, we may occasionally send you direct mail about products that we feel may be of interest to you.

 

It is likely that some or all of these marketing messages may be tailored to you, based on what we know about you and/or your company, for example from your previous searches and browsing history on RS Think Hub.

 

If you no longer want to hear from us, at any time you can unsubscribe from emails by clicking on the unsubscribe link contained in each email or email us at: thinkhub@rs-components.com.

 

You may also see adverts for RS on third-party websites, including on social media. These adverts may be tailored to you using cookies (which track your web activity, to enable us to serve adverts to customers who have visited RS). Where you see an ad on social media, this may because we have engaged the social network to show adverts to our customers, or users who match the demographic profile of our customers. In some cases, this may involve sharing your email address with the social network. If you no longer want to see tailored ads you can change your cookie and privacy settings on your browser, and these third-party websites.

 

How can I access, update, correct or delete my personal information?

If you would like to update or correct your personal data or have a query regarding your personal information, please use the ‘Contact us’ details below. Under UK data protection law, you have the right to access (including in a machine-readable format), correct, and request the erasure of your personal data, and RS will comply with any requests to exercise these rights in accordance with applicable law. Please be aware, however, that there are a number of limitations to these rights, and there may be circumstances where we are not able to comply with your request.

 

Cookies

RS uses cookies and similar technologies to provide functionality, improvements, and personalisation of the RS website. For more information about cookies, please read our cookie policy.

 

Contact us

For questions regarding this privacy policy, or how we use your personal data, please email GDPR-RScomponentsUK@rs-components.com.

 

You are also entitled to contact the UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you have any questions or concerns regarding your personal information.

 

Updates to this privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect changes in the law, regulatory guidance, or our data privacy practices in compliance with the law. When this happens and where required by law, we will provide you with a new or an updated notice detailing how the use of your personal information is changing and, if necessary, obtain your consent for further processing.

 

This privacy policy was last updated in November 2022.