Privacy Policy

The Association of Convenience Stores takes individuals privacy seriously. This privacy statement explains what personal data or information we collect from you and from people who visit our website and how we use it.  We would encourage you to read the information below.

Who are we?

The Association of Convenience Stores is a limited company, registered at Federation House, 17 Farnborough Street, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 8AG.

What personal data or information do we collect?

We collect personal data about members, supplier members, event attendees, prospective members and supplier members, job applicants and current employees. The personal information we collect may include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages you access on this website and when.

How do we collect data or information from you?

We collect personal information about you when you:

  • Use ACS.org.uk to sign up to our services or to book onto an event
  • Enquire about a job opportunity
  • Work for ACS
  • Are a member or supplier member of ACS
  • Are a prospective member of ACS
  • Respond to a survey or questionnaire from ACS
  • Speak at an ACS event, conference or meeting
  • Take part in an ACS video or film

How is your information used?

We collect your personal data or information to provide you with the best possible service and membership experience.  We may use your information:

  • To provide briefings and updates on policy issues related to your business, for example through the ACS Weekly Briefing.
  • To answer enquiries about your business, for example on an issue related to Assured Advice.
  • To keep you informed about our upcoming events, industry trends (through communications like the Convenience Pulse Report), best practice guides and Assured Advice.
  • To process a job application
  • To fulfil our obligations as an employer
  • To provide benefits to employees
  • To work with you as a supplier to our business
  • To maintain security of our office and IT infrastructure
  • To invoice you, and to track payments you make or payments made to you

We believe that all these purposes are justified on the basis of legitimate interest, our contractual requirements to deliver the above services to members and supplier members, and our legal obligations a business and responsible employer. We do not share your data with any third parties for the purposes of marketing or other communication, and all data is held securely on our internal CRM system, Tribe.

Member/supplier member data and communications

We may hold the following information about members of ACS:

  • Name and business contact information.
  • Information relating to your business activities and appearances in public forums, such as records of interviews in trade press and trade award wins.
  • Company financial details
  • Demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests
  • History of ACS event and meeting attendance
  • Assured Advice status where applicable
  • Login information and passwords relating to profiles at ACS.org.uk
  • Billing and payment information for membership and event booking purposes

We store your information in our secure online database on the Tribe platform which is provided by TSG. TSG’s privacy statement with regard to GDPR regulations is available at: https://www.tsg.com/sites/default/files/The%20EU%20General%20Data%20Protection%20Regulation%20Compliance%20Statement.pdf

We use the following third-party tools to deliver our services to you as a member:

  • MailChimp to send HTML emails to you about our services, events and updates on key issues. MailChimp’s privacy policy is available at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/
  • WeTransfer to share large files with you which would otherwise not be possible to send via email. WeTransfer’s privacy policy is available at https://wetransfer.com/legal/privacy
  • SurveyMonkey to allow you to respond to our surveys about issues like the impact of the National Living Wage, investment plans and other issues. This data will always be held confidentially and individual responses will not be shared, unless requested by the individual business themselves. SurveyMonkey’s privacy policy is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/legal/privacy-policy/
  • Insight Mobile to deliver content and information about our events, primarily the Summit conference. Insight Mobile’s privacy policy is available at http://www.insightmobile.co.uk/
  • WhatsApp to facilitate conversations between members and the ACS executive team. WhatsApp’s privacy policy is available at https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/
  • PayPal to facilitate online payments for events through ACS.org.uk. PayPal’s privacy policy is available at https://www.paypal.com/en/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full
  • Inc Dot to facilitate the mailing of quarterly member newsletters and legal updates, in accordance with our obligations to members. Inc Dot’s privacy policy is available at https://www.inc-dot.com/faqs/privacy/

We will retain your details for the duration of your membership and then for seven years thereafter (including financial information).

Prospect data and communications

As a prospective member or supplier member of ACS, we may hold the following information about you:

  • Name and business contact information
  • Records of previous conversations with the ACS executive
  • History of ACS event attendance

Information is stored in the same way that we store member data and is used with the same third-party tools as appropriate.

Prospective and current employees

When you apply for a job with us, we may hold the following information about you:

  • Name, date of birth, and contact information.
  • Information relating to your qualifications and experience
  • Demographic information such as postcode
  • References where we take them up
  • Information and documents relating to the review, interview and selection process, including communications with you.

We will only use this data for the purposes of recruitment and will not share data externally. Data may be retained for up to two years after the application data.

As an ACS employee, we may hold the following information about you:

  • Name, date of birth, and contact information
  • National insurance number
  • Information relating to your qualifications and experience
  • Demographic information such as postcode
  • Information and documents relating to your performance and supervision as an employee of the business, including communications with you
  • Your photograph, including Passport and Driving Licence
  • Financial information, such as bank details, pension scheme and salary details
  • Information about your next of kin
  • Health information

This data will be retained for the duration of your employment and for a period of seven years after you leave the Association of Convenience Stores.

How you can access your personal information

You have the right to ask for a copy of the personal information that the Association of Convenience Stores holds relating to you.

To do this please contact Chris Noice at chris.noice@acs.org.uk or by post at:

FAO Chris Noice (Data Request), Association of Convenience Stores, Federation House, 17 Farnborough Street, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 8AG.

Keeping your data secure

The data that we hold on you is kept on site at the ACS offices in Farnborough. ACS uses TSG for its online database, and ProjectFive for server maintenance and IT support. Only authorised ACS employees, and those of the aforementioned support agencies have access to personal data. This data is not shared externally. On site backups of ACS servers are taken on a daily basis from Monday-Friday.

If we receive a specific request to delete an individual’s personal data we will remove the information if appropriate. 

Using ACS.org.uk

Introduction: From time to time, you will be asked to submit personal information about yourself (e.g. name and email address) in order to contact the ACS. By entering your details in the fields requested, you enable us to provide you with information you require. Whenever you provide such personal information, we will treat that information in accordance with this policy. When using your personal information the ACS will act in accordance with current legislation and aim to meet current Internet best practice.

If you provide the email address of a third party to us, we understand that you have permission to use this email address. This web site does not automatically capture or store personal information, other than logging the user’s IP address and session information such as the duration of the visit and the type of browser used. This is recognised by the web server and is only used for system administration and to provide statistics, which we compile to evaluate site use.

Please see our cookie policy below. Links to other web sites included on our site do not imply any endorsement, validation or responsibility by the ACS as to the content or privacy policies of such sites. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.

Links to other websites: Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third-party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

Disclaimer: As far as is reasonably possible, the ACS will ensure that information provided on this website is accurate. the ACS cannot accept any liability whatsoever for omission or error. Equally, as we regularly virus check materials, we cannot accept any responsibility for any disruption of damage that may occur during use of this website.

Intellectual property: Users of this site may not print, download or in any manner copy images or text from the site, except for personal, non-commercial use, without permission from the ACS.

How Cookies are used by ACS: Cookies cannot be used to identify you personally. These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

  • enabling a service to recognise your device so you don’t have to give the same information several times during one task
  • recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don’t need to do it for every web page requested
  • measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there’s enough capacity to ensure they are fast
  • analysing data to help us understand how you use our services so we can improve them

Cookies are stored in the computer’s memory only during your browsing session and are automatically deleted from your computer when the browser is closed. These cookies usually store a session ID that is not personally identifiable to users, allowing you to move from page to page without having to log-in repeatedly.

Session cookies are never written on the hard drive and they do not collect any information from your computer. Session cookies expire at the end of your browser session and become no longer accessible after the session has been inactive for a specified length of time, usually 20 minutes.

Google Analytics: Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses "cookies", which are text files placed on your computer, to help us analyse how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for our website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website

To opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

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For further details on the cookies set by Google Analytics, see the following link. Cookies set by Google Analytics 

How to opt out of cookies: Our website works better with cookies enabled. Our cookies don’t give us, or anyone else, access to your personal data. We advise you to keep cookies enabled. However, you can choose to reject cookies. You can use your browser to delete and reject cookies. There are instructions on how to delete cookies and how to control cookies on the About Cookies website.