Privacy Policy

This is the privacy policy of Softcat plc.

It is Softcat’s policy to ensure that personal information is handled securely and with respect as well as in accordance with relevant regulations such as the UK Data Protection Act 2018, the Irish Data Protection Act 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK GDPR.

Following Brexit the UK’s data protection legislation may diverge from the EU standards. Our current approach is to continue to operate in accordance with the EU GDPR standard (together with any additional requirements in relevant jurisdictions) and to the extent of any divergence we will operate to the higher standard.

We do not sell or rent any information, whether gathered on line or via our normal working relationship, without your express permission.

The following privacy policy will help you understand how we collect and use your personal data, for example when you contact us, visit one of our websites, apply for a job, or purchase products and services.

Whenever you give us personal data, its collection and use will be in accordance with this privacy policy.

The information we hold on you will be dependant on our relationship with us. In most cases, such as if you’re a customer, partner or someone we’d like to work with this will include:

Name

Employer

Job role

Work address

Telephone number(s)

Email address

For visitors to our websites we will also be recording:

IP address

Account usernames

Our most regular use of your personal data will be contacting you regarding our products and services and for operational tasks associated with these such as order processing, invoicing and renewals.

If you’re not a current customer and no longer wish to hear from our team you can request to be added to our “Do Not Contact” list either through informing our staff or emailing dataprotection@softcat.com.  We’ll retain your name, employer, email address and telephone to ensure you are not contacted or added into our system again.

If you attend an event run by Softcat we will gather personal information as part of the registration process. This information may be used to track event attendance, relay any details before, during or after the event, gather feedback, and for future communications with you, in accordance with this policy.

Some events may have a photographer and/or videographer present and the content they create may be shared publicly. If you do not wish to appear in any photos or videos that may be used by Softcat, please let us know by contacting marketing@softcat.com.

Every time you visit our websites such as Softcat.com, SupportCat and eCat, we store a log of your visit that shows the unique identifier of your machine and gather information about your use of the sites. Common uses of this information include:  

Customising your user experience when interacting with our own and partner websites

Providing products/services and any associated maintenance and technical support

Providing incident and other alerts, and information about product upgrades, updates, renewals

Generating logs, statistics and reports on service usage, and service performance;

Evaluating, developing and enhancing products, services, and our infrastructure;

Blocking access where there is a breach of the Terms and Conditions for use of the site.

Market Research

If you participate in any Softcat surveys, we may use the data you supply to carry out market research. This research is conducted to support our business activities and anonymised results may be published externally. Research may also be used to improve our understanding of our users' demographics, interests and behaviour where relevant to engagements with Softcat. If you'd like any further information, please e-mail marketing@softcat.com.

We (or other selected third parties acting on our behalf) may contact you from time to time in order to provide you with information about products and services that may be of interest to you. All marketing emails that we send to you will follow the email guidelines described under “Phone and Email Communication from Softcat”. You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes, but if you do so, we may need to share your contact information with third parties for the limited purpose of ensuring that you do not receive marketing communications from them on our behalf.

If you provide us with your data at a career fair or similar event, we will use the data you provide to request feedback from you and to help us assess the success of the event and, if you consent, we will retain your data (for a maximum of 24 months, unless you agree to a longer period) and use it to contact you about future employment opportunities with us.

If you are making a job application or enquiry, you may provide us with a copy of your CV or other relevant personal information. Please review our recruitment data policy for more information.

Data protection regulations such as GDPR require organisations to have a lawful basis for the processing of personal data. In most cases Softcat will be acting as the controller of your personal data and using the principle of legitimate interest as the lawful basis of processing.

This means we have a genuine and legitimate reason to hold your data and the risk of us doing so is not outweighed by the risk of harm to your rights and freedoms.

Where we use data we carefully consider any potential impact on you and your rights. We also ensure we have controls in place so if you ask us to stop processing your data for any purpose we can respect this request.