Privacy notice

This website is run by The Cotswold Jeweller, an independent watch sourcing and brokerage service based in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. We decide how and why your personal information is used, which makes us the “data controller” under UK data protection law.

• Email: thecotswoldjewellers@gmail.com

If you have any questions about this notice or your information, please get in touch.

When you send an enquiry through our “Sell your watch” or “Source a watch” forms, we collect what you choose to give us:

• your name, email address and, if you provide it, your telephone number;
• how you’d prefer us to contact you, and whether you’d like to meet in person;
• details about a watch, such as its brand, model, reference number, condition, history, an expected price or your budget, and any other notes you add;
• any photographs you upload;
• your confirmation that we may contact you about the enquiry, and when you sent it.

Please don’t include sensitive information we haven’t asked for (such as payment or bank details) in a form.

When you contact us directly by email, phone or Instagram, we keep the messages and any details you share.

When you visit the website, our hosting provider automatically records basic technical information, such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested. This is used to deliver the site, keep it secure and diagnose problems. We don’t use it to identify you.

If a sale or purchase goes ahead, we may also need further information, such as proof of identity and evidence of ownership. We’ll explain what we need, and why, at the time.

UK data protection law requires a lawful basis for each use of your information. We rely on:

• Steps before a contract: to reply to your enquiry, review your watch or brief, arrange appointments, and prepare a proposal at your request.
• Contract: to carry out a sale, purchase or sourcing arrangement you agree to.
• Legal obligation: to keep business and tax records, and to carry out any identity or anti-money-laundering checks the law requires for high-value transactions.
• Legitimate interests: to keep the website secure, filter out spam, keep a record of our correspondence, and protect our business against fraud and legal claims. We only do this where it doesn’t override your rights.

The tick-box on our forms confirms you’re happy for us to contact you about your enquiry. We won’t send you marketing emails unless you separately ask us to, and you can tell us to stop at any time.

We don’t sell your information, and we don’t make decisions about you by automated means.

We only share your information where needed. This includes:

• Netlify, which hosts this website, receives and stores form submissions and uploaded photographs, and sends us a notification email for each enquiry. Netlify uses Akismet, a spam-filtering service, to screen form submissions.
• Google (Gmail), which provides the email account where we receive and answer enquiries.
• Prospective buyers, sellers or trade contacts, but only the details needed to progress something you’ve asked us to do (for example, a watch’s description and photographs). We won’t share your name or contact details with them without telling you first.
• Professional advisers and authorities, such as our accountant, insurers, HMRC or the police, where required by law or needed to protect our legal rights.

Our service providers act on our instructions and must keep your information secure. Some of them, including Netlify and Google, may store or process data outside the UK, for example in the United States. Where that happens, it’s protected by safeguards recognised under UK law, such as the UK–US “data bridge” or standard data protection clauses.

• Enquiries that don’t go ahead: we delete them, including any photographs, within 12 months of our last contact with you.
• Enquiries that lead to a sale, purchase or sourcing arrangement: we keep the records for up to 6 years after the transaction, as needed for tax, accounting and legal purposes.
• Technical logs kept by our hosting provider are held for a short period under its own retention policies.

You can ask us to delete your information sooner. See “Your rights” below.

This website doesn’t use cookies, analytics or advertising trackers, and our fonts are served from our own website rather than a third party.

We don’t store anything else on your device, either.

Our website links to our Instagram page. If you follow that link, Instagram’s own privacy policy applies.

The website is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. Access to enquiries is limited to us, through password-protected accounts. No method of sending or storing information online is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information and will act promptly if anything goes wrong.

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
• ask us to delete your information;
• ask us to limit how we use it, or object to how we use it;
• ask us to transfer information you gave us to you or another organisation, in some circumstances.

To use any of these rights, email thecotswoldjewellers@gmail.com. There’s normally no charge, and we’ll respond within one month. Some rights have exceptions, for example where we must keep records by law, and we’ll explain if one applies.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please contact us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator: visit ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or call 0303 123 1113.

Our services are intended for adults. We don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has sent us their details, please contact us and we’ll delete them.

We may update this notice from time to time, for example if we change how the website works or the services we use. The “Last updated” date at the top will always show when it last changed. You can also read our terms of use.