Privacy Policy

We know that by choosing Ocado to deliver your groceries, you've placed a great deal of trust in us. We also understand that you want the personal information you give us to be kept private as well as secure. To reassure you that we feel the same way, here's how we will and, more importantly, will not use the personal information you give us.

This Privacy Policy was most recently updated on 25th May 2010.

Information Collection

When you shop with Ocado you will submit your personal information to Ocado. We will treat all information submitted by you in accordance with the terms of this privacy policy (as updated and amended from time to time) and in strict compliance with all Data Protection Legislation.

By entering your personal information in the Ocado web site you accept that we may retain your information and it may be held by Ocado or by any third party company which processes it on our behalf.

What we collect and why

The information we gather from customers helps us to continually improve the service we offer to our customers.

When you shop with Ocado, there are different ways we gather information about you:

  • When you register with us, we ask for information such as your name, e-mail address, delivery address, contact details and, if you place an order, your credit card details. We keep a record of this information. All this is necessary for us to recognise you as a registered customer and to fulfil the orders you place with us. Storing this information means you do not need to re-enter these details each time you shop.
  • We keep a record of your purchases with us, which means we can create lists of your favourite items to make your shopping experience quicker and more convenient. It also means we can deal a lot quicker with any problems you may experience with your order.
  • We keep a record of any e-mail correspondence you send us. This helps us keep track of your likes and dislikes and any problems or concerns you've had with our products or services.
  • Telephone calls made to our Customer Service Helpline may be recorded for monitoring and quality control purposes.

How We Use Your Personal Information

All the information we collect via our website or through correspondence with you is used to operate and improve the service we offer you. We are committed to using your personal information only for:

  • Dealing with orders and accounts for the supply of our goods and services.
  • Monitoring and improving the Ocado web site and our services.
  • Planning and managing Ocado business activities, including analysing customers' shopping habits and preferences.
  • Enabling third parties to carry out technical, logistical or other functions on our behalf.
  • Conducting market research including statistical analysis of customer behaviour which we may disclose to third parties in depersonalised, aggregated form.
  • Providing you with information about the products and services we offer.
  • Providing you with periodic communications (this may be by post, telephone, SMS, email or as part of your Ocado grocery delivery) about features, products, services, events, promotions and special offers. Such communications from Ocado might include advertising for or offers from third parties. If you wish to withdraw your consent from receiving these communications you can do so by logging onto your Ocado account and amending your communication settings online.
  • Assessing your request for delivery of groceries from us where we may make enquiries about you including searching your records held by organisations like Experian and Equifax and credit reference agencies. We may also check your details held by the IMRG Security Alert scheme and other fraud prevention schemes.
  • Enabling our debt collection agency to collect payment from you should that be necessary.
  • Preventing and detecting fraud or abuses of our website.
  • Allowing us to comply with any requirements imposed on Ocado by law or court order.

Unsubscribing from our Marketing Communications

When you create your Ocado account you will be given the option to receive special offers and important information about our service and from our carefully selected partners. We will never pass your personal details to other companies for marketing purposes without your permission, and only then with approved partners. In the event that you do not wish to be contacted for such purposes, ensure that you tick the appropriate box as you go through the registration process.

If you wish to subsequently withdraw your consent from receiving these communications you can do so by logging onto your Ocado account and amending the Marketing Communications settings (Go to Settings / Marketing Communications and tick the appropriate boxes). You can also find an unsubscribe link at the end of all our promotional e-mails.

Alternatively, you may unsubscribe from our contact list at any time by sending an email from your Ocado registered e-mail address to unsubscribe@ocado.com with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

When we share your personal information

Information about our customers is an important part of our business and we do not sell or rent your information to anyone else to enable them to send you direct marketing unless you agree otherwise. However, there are circumstances where it is necessary for us to share personal information in order for us to provide our customers with the Ocado delivery service. At all times where we use or disclose your information it will remain secure.

The circumstances where we may share some of your information with others are described below:

  1. Third Party Service Providers
    We employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. For example we engage companies to analyse customer information, provide marketing assistance, process credit card payments. We also engage agents including credit reference agencies, fraud prevention and detection agencies and debt collection agencies that we use to process the orders you place with us or who assist us in the service we provide to you. In these instances, we provide them with only the information they need to perform their function.
  2. Promotional Offers
    Sometimes we send offers to selected groups of Ocado customers on behalf of other businesses. We will not permit other businesses to contact Ocado customers directly and all such promotional offers will come via Ocado. If you wish to withdraw your consent from receiving these communications you can do so by logging onto your Ocado account and amending your communication settings online.
  3. Business Transfer
    If our company is ever sold or its assets are purchased by another company it would typically be part of such a transaction for customer information to form part of the business assets being transferred but the information will remain subject to the obligations as outlined in this Privacy Policy.
  4. Research Companies
    To outside research companies whom we may ask to contact you directly for your opinions on our products and services (in which case we provide them with only the information they need to perform their function).
  5. Protection of Ocado and Others
    We release account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, to enforce our Terms and Conditions and other agreements or protect the rights, property or safety of Ocado, our customers or others.
  6. With your consent
    Other than as set out above you will receive notice when information about you may be sent to a third party and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information.

Cookies and Online Marketing Management Tools

Cookies are small text files that websites can send to your computer. A cookie can be thought of as an internet user's identification card, which tells a website when the user has returned. Cookies are not computer programs, and can't read other information saved on your hard drive. They cannot be used to disseminate viruses, or get a user's e-mail address etc. They only contain and transfer to the website as much information as the users themselves have disclosed to that website.

Cookies make the interaction between users and websites faster and easier. Without cookies, it would be very difficult for a website to allow a visitor to fill up a shopping trolley or to remember the user's preferences or registration details for a future visit. The Ocado website uses cookies to allow customers to move from one part of the website to another and to add items to the shopping trolley without having to login repeatedly. It also allows us to give you accurate information about your account and order history.

Ocado uses digital marketing organisations to attract new customers to our site. In order to track where new customers come from the digital marketing organisations provide us with technology such as pixels and transparent GIF files. That technology works by recognising a cookie on your web browser enabling us to identify which advert brought you to us. The technology is not able to identify any of your personal details.

The European Union Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (the "Directive"), which came into force on 31st July 2002, recognises that cookies are a "legitimate and useful tool" for many activities, including verifying the identity of website users. The Directive makes it compulsory for websites to inform users if cookies are being used (which is exactly what we are doing here!), and to provide some information on how cookies are used. You can find more information on this subject at www.allaboutcookies.org. Lastly, the Directive places an obligation on websites to make users aware that they can set their computers to reject cookies. You can do this by activating a setting in your internet browser to reject all cookies, or to notify you when a cookie is set. You should consult the Help section of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences. You may also find instructions on how to do this at www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you first access the Ocado website (not when you log on). However, you should be aware that the Ocado website (in common with most other shopping web sites) will not work without cookies and therefore we recommend you leave them turned on.

Security and Data Retention

Security is very important to Ocado and we use sophisticated technology to ensure that your information is protected at all times. Secure Socket Layer ("SSL") encryption technology is used for protection of information in transit for any sensitive transactions such as payments. Additional security procedures are in place to protect the confidentiality and integrity of your information.

We reveal only the last four digits of your credit card number when confirming an order. We also display the last four digits of your credit card, the expiry date and card type on your receipt. Of course we transmit the entire credit card number to the appropriate credit card company during the order processing.

We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in connection with the collection, storage and disclosure of personally identifiable customer information. Our security procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we disclose personal information to you.

It is important for you to protect against unauthorised access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when using a shared computer.

Identify Fraud

Fraudsters create authentic looking, but false or "spoof" websites. Their purpose is to tempt users to enter personal information to be re-used to try and access your bank accounts. Fraudsters are increasingly turning to email to generate traffic to these websites. Recently customers of several financial institutions have received such emails and this activity is only likely to increase. Such emails typically contain a link to a spoof website and advise account holders to enter user names and passwords so that security details can be updated or passwords changed.

If you get any email containing an embedded link and a request for you to enter any personal details, treat it as suspicious and do not input any personal information, even if the page appears legitimate. No reputable company ever sends emails of this type.

Data over the Internet

The internet is a global network - therefore there are cases where your data travels internationally, which may include places outside the European Union. We want you to know that if you visit or shop with Ocado, you're agreeing and authorising us to process data this way.

Updates

You may change your personal information retained by Ocado at any time by accessing your user profile on the Ocado web site.

We may change the terms of this Privacy Policy from time to time and you should check it regularly. Your use of the Ocado web site will at all times be subject to the Privacy Policy applicable at the time of each use.

Further information

If you have questions about your personal information or our privacy policy, please contact us at privacy@ocado.com. To see all the information we have about you, and to correct any inaccuracies, write to:

The Company Secretary
Ocado Ltd.
Titan Court,
Hatfield Business Park
Hatfield, AL10 9NE