Privacy policy

This policy explains what we do with your personal information when you visit thehistoryshop.co.uk, buy from us, or hear from us by email. We are the data controller for that information.

Who we are

Simon Kingsnorth Ltd, trading as The History Shop, company number 11917951, of 44 Hilltop Road, Earley, Reading, England, RG6 1DA. Email hello@thehistoryshop.co.uk.

What we collect

Information	When we collect it
Name, email address, delivery and billing address, phone number	When you place an order or create an account
Order details and order history	When you buy from us
Payment confirmation (we never see or store your full card details)	When you pay – card details go directly to our payment provider
Email address and marketing preferences	When you sign up to our emails or tick the marketing box at checkout
Reviews and photographs you submit	When you review a product
Messages you send us	When you contact us
Device, browser, IP address and pages visited	Automatically, through cookies and similar technologies – see our Cookie policy

Why we use it, and our lawful basis

Purpose	Lawful basis
Taking payment, fulfilling and delivering your order, and dealing with returns	Performance of our contract with you
Keeping accounting and tax records	Legal obligation
Sending you order updates and despatch notifications	Performance of our contract with you
Sending marketing emails about products and offers	Your consent, or our legitimate interest in marketing similar products to existing customers – you can opt out at any time
Inviting you to review a product you bought	Our legitimate interest in improving the shop
Understanding how the site is used so we can improve it	Our legitimate interest in running the shop well
Preventing fraud and keeping the site secure	Our legitimate interest in protecting the business and our customers

Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with the suppliers who make the shop work:

Shopify – our ecommerce platform, which hosts the store, processes orders and provides our checkout.
Our payment providers – Shopify Payments and any digital wallets shown at checkout, who process your payment and carry out fraud checks. We never receive your full card number.
Printify and its print partners – who make our made-to-order gifts. They receive your name and delivery address so they can send your parcel.
Gardners Books – the UK book wholesaler who despatches book orders directly, and receives your name and delivery address for that purpose.
Couriers – Royal Mail and other delivery companies, who receive your name, address and (where you provide it) phone number or email for delivery notifications.
Omnisend – our email marketing platform, if you have opted in to marketing.
Judge.me – our reviews platform, which sends review invitations and publishes reviews.
Google Analytics – which tells us, in aggregate, how the site is being used.
Our accountant and professional advisers, and any authority we are legally required to disclose information to.

Where your information is held

Some of these suppliers are based outside the UK, mainly in the United States and the European Economic Area. Where information is transferred outside the UK we rely on the UK’s adequacy regulations or on approved contractual safeguards (the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or equivalent).

How long we keep it

Order and transaction records – seven years, to meet HMRC and accounting requirements.
Account details – while your account is open, and for two years after your last order.
Marketing contact details – until you unsubscribe, and for a short period afterwards so we can honour your opt-out.
Customer service messages – two years from the last contact.
Analytics data – 14 months.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you; to have it corrected or deleted; to restrict or object to how we use it; to receive it in a portable format; and to withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent. You can also object to direct marketing at any time, and we will stop.

To exercise any of these rights, email hello@thehistoryshop.co.uk. We will respond within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, or by calling 0303 123 1113. We would rather you came to us first so we can put it right.

Marketing emails

If you have opted in, we send occasional emails about new products, gift guides and offers. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing takes effect immediately. Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop the transactional emails about an order you have placed, which we have to send.