Privacy Policy

 
  • We respect privacy and your rights to control your personal data. Our principle guidelines are simple. We will be clear about the data we collect and why. Your data is sacredly protected by us. We do not and will not sell your data to third parties.

    The prime purpose of collecting your data is to improve your experience. Whether you’re visiting us for an eye examination, ordering your new spectacles, or offering highly responsive customer service when you need us, our aim is for you to have a great experience of the highest professional standards.

    This Privacy Statement (the 'Statement') explains the personal information we collect from you, either directly or indirectly, and how we will use it. Personal information is any information that can be used to identify you or that we can link to you. The Statement also elaborates on the choices you can make about the data we collect, and how you can control these decisions. It applies to all products offered by Eye Academy ('Eye Academy Product(s)'). It also applies to any Eye Academy-controlled websites, as well as other offline interactions, such as visiting an Eye Academy practice or attending an Eye Academy event (collectively referred to as, 'Services'). Please read this Statement carefully to understand how Eye Academy may collect, use and share your personal information. The terms 'we', 'us', or 'Eye Academy' are each intended as a reference to The Eye Academy (Richmond) Ltd.

    The Eye Academy (Richmond) Ltd also covers all Eye Academy practices including:

    - Eye Academy, Windsor

    - Eye Academy, Guildford

    - Ellis & Thompson Optometrists, Cobham

    - Underwood Eyecare, Ferndown

    - Peepers Opticians, Banbury

    - Niall O'Kane Optometrists, Strood

    - David Faulder Opticians, Kensington

  • INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE TO US

    We collect information you voluntarily provide to us, such as your:

    - your name

    - your date of birth

    - your contact telephone numbers (including mobile)

    - your email and postal address

    - your relevant health details including (a) current and past eye health/conditions, general health condition and spectacles or contact lens prescriptions; (b) current medication details; and (c) correspondence between your optometrist and your GP/ophthalmologist your examination and test results

    - your payment details

    - your occupation/lifestyle/driving information

    - details of any prescription supplied to you by your healthcare professional or medical practitioner

    - information that you provide by filling in forms on Eye Academy website

    - details of your visit to the website and any transactions you carry out on the website

    - any other information voluntarily provided to us by you from time to time for instance, when you want to learn more about Eye Academy Products and Services, when you contact Eye Academy to book an appointment or when you make a purchase in one of our branches.

    INFORMATION WE COLLECT AUTOMATICALLY

    We automatically collect information about you, such as information collected by cookies and similar technologies when you use, access or interact with us via our websites. We may, for example, collect information about the type of device you use to access our websites, the operating system and version, your IP address, your general geographic location, as indicated by your IP address, your browser type, the web pages you view on our websites, whether you interact with content available on our websites and how.

    INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM OTHER SOURCES

    We may receive information about you from social media platforms, for instance, when you interact with us on those platforms. From time to time we may receive information from third parties relating to your eye health; including prescriptions from other opticians or hospitals and any referral information from GP’s, medical practices or hospitals. We protect data obtained from third parties according to the practices described in this Statement and we also apply any additional restrictions imposed by the source of data.

    INFORMATION OF CHILDREN

    Eye Academy only collects information for children when legal parents or guardians choose to bring them for an appointment or purchase prescribed products on the child’s behalf (including prescription eyewear and contact lenses) at Eye Academy. The Eye Academy website(s) does not target and is not intended to attract children under the age of sixteen. Although visitors of all ages may navigate through our websites, we do not knowingly collect or request personal information from those under the age of sixteen without parental consent. If following a notification from a parent, guardian or discovery by other means, a child under sixteen has been improperly registered on our site by using false information, we will cancel the child's account and delete the child's personal information from our records.

    CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS WITH EYE ACADEMY

    To make the information in this Statement easy to understand, we have highlighted different occasions when Eye Academy could potentially collect personal information from customers. The customer interactions with Eye Academy are broken down into the following segments:

    LEARNING ABOUT EYE ACADEMY

    As you gather more information about Eye Academy, you may virtually or physically visit a site that we own. Examples include browsing our website, calling our customer service team, physically visiting an Eye Academy-owned practice or attending Eye Academy-sponsored events. To learn more about Eye Academy Products, you may voluntarily provide personal information, such as your name and email address during these interactions. We may also collect information about you online via cookies or similar technologies when you visit our websites.

    WE COLLECT:

    name, email address, contact phone number, appointment request details, Date of Birth, IP address, and information provided by cookies or similar technology.

    WHY:

    We use this information to book requested appointments, answer enquiries, or share news about events and products offered by Eye Academy. Additionally, the IP address helps us to understand geographic information about our website visitors better, so that we can improve our website for everyone. It is our legitimate interest to process your personal data for these purposes.

    BUYING PRODUCTS FROM EYE ACADEMY

    Once you have decided to buy a product from Eye Academy, we offer a way for customers to buy directly from us at www.eyeacademy.com or at an Eye Academy owned optical practice. When you buy from us, you may be asked to provide information so that we can complete your purchase.



    All our website financial transactions are handled through our payment services provider; Stripe. You can review the provider's privacy policy at https://stripe.com/en-gb/privacy. We will share information with our payment services provider only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments you make via our website, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds.

    WE COLLECT:

    your name, phone number (optional), email address, prescription details (if necessary), delivery/shipping address, and payment information.

    WHY:

    We use this information to complete your transaction, carry out any follow-up with you about your purchase, help with any delivery issues, handle returns, and other issues related to the purchase of products from Eye Academy.

    Processing your personal data for this purpose is necessary for the performance of the agreement we have with you. Please note, we do not store any payment or credit card information.

    We only use payment information in connection with the purchase of Eye Academy Products. If we collect Direct Debits from you these payments will either be processed by Optinet Ltd, Eyeplan Ltd, Bottomline Technologies Ltd or Coopervision Ltd.

    Any third-party company is only permitted to process your data for the specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. We retain your information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide our products and services and to maintain records to satisfy tax and other legal requirements.

    GETTING HELP FROM EYE ACADEMY

    From time to time, you may decide to contact one of our practices or our Customer Service department for assistance with your Eye Academy purchase or experience. To be able to offer you the best service possible, we may collect certain data from you.

    WE COLLECT:

    This may include contact information, such as your name, email address, phone number, social media identifiers (if you contact us using a social media channel), and the content of your chats and other communications with Eye Academy Customer Care (including voice recording if you call Customer Care). Collecting the above-described information is necessary to provide customer support.

    WHY:

    We collect this information to give you the best and most efficient customer support possible. For instance, for customer inquiries and technical questions, we use contact information to respond to the customer in their preferred channel (phone, email, social). For product returns and/or exchanges, we use contact information to ensure successful product receipt and/or delivery. Using these types of data is necessary to fulfill the agreement we have with you.

  • Eye Academy uses the data we collect to provide you with the Products and Services we offer, which includes using data to improve and personalise your experiences.

    We also use the data to communicate with you, for example, informing you about your next appointment, account, new products or services available, security, and other types of updates.

    Eye Academy uses the data for the following purposes:

    - Providing our Product Experience

    - Customer Support

    - Product Improvement

    - Security, Safety, and Dispute Resolution

    - Business Operations

    - Communication, Marketing, and Advertising

    PROVIDING AN EYE ACADEMY EXPERIENCE

    We use data to provide, support, and improve the Eye Academy Products and Services we offer to ensure our customers have the most thorough, pleasant, and efficient experience. This processing is necessary for the responsibility and success of the agreement we have with you.

    CUSTOMER SUPPORT

    We use data to respond to customer enquiries, assist with issues and provide other customer care and support services. This processing is necessary for the performance of the agreement we have with you, as well as to serve our legitimate interest.

    PRODUCT IMPROVEMENT

    We continually use data for research purposes and to develop and improve our Eye Academy Products and Services, including maintaining and improving the Eye Academy Products and Services, such as using search queries and clicks to improve the relevance of search results. This processing is necessary to serve our legitimate interest.

    SECURITY, SAFETY AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION

    We use data to protect the security and safety of our Eye Academy Products & Services and our customers, to detect and prevent fraud, to resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. This processing is necessary to serve our legitimate interest.

    BUSINESS OPERATIONS

    We use data to develop aggregate analysis and business intelligence that enable us to operate, protect, make informed decisions, and report on the performance of our business. This processing is necessary to serve our legitimate interest.

    COMMUNICATION, MARKETING, AND ADVERTISING

    We use the data we collect to deliver and personalise our communications with you. For example, we may contact you by email or other means of electronic communication to inform you about new Eye Academy Products or Services, new services available in your area, security updates, update you on an issue, invite you to take part in a survey or invite you to review your Eye Academy experience. This processing is necessary to serve our legitimate interest.

    We also use cookies and similar technologies to provide the most relevant Eye Academy advertising to you. A cookie is a small text file containing information that a website transfers to your computer's hard disk for record-keeping purposes. A cookie cannot give us access to your computer or to your personal information.

    Most web browsers automatically accept cookies; consult your browser's manual or online help if you want information on restricting or disabling the browser's handling of cookies. If you disable cookies, you can still view the information on our website, but the functionality of certain areas may be reduced.

    For information about managing email subscriptions and promotional communications, please visit Your Rights and Choices. To give you a better understanding of the personal information we collect and use in different occasions you may interact with Eye Academy, please see the sections below.

  • Eye Academy does not and will not sell personal information about our customers or patients. We only disclose your data as described in this Statement. We may share information with the following types of third parties.

    THIRD-PARTY VENDORS

    Eye Academy uses or may use a variety of third-party vendors to carry out services like website management and hosting, online product purchases and shipping, credit card processing, and email and mail communications. We only share your personal data as necessary. To complete a transaction, provide a Product or Service you have requested or authorised and only with vendors or agents working on our behalf for the purposes described in this Statement. In this case, your personal information will be shared with these agents or contractors but only for the purpose of performing services on behalf of Eye Academy and in accordance with this Statement.

    It is our legitimate interest to process your personal data for these purposes. For questions about third-party vendors, please send an email to privacy@eyeacademy.com.

    EYE ACADEMY-CONTROLLED AFFILIATES AND SUBSIDIARIES

    We share information with Eye Academy-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries for business purposes, such as internal administration, promoting Eye Academy Products, and providing customers with our Eye Academy Products and Services.

    It is our legitimate interest to process your personal data for these purposes. Compelled Disclosure When legally required, strictly necessary to protect our rights or the rights of our affiliates or customers, we disclose your personal information to law enforcement authorities, investigative organisations, our affiliates, or in legal proceedings.

    SALE OR MERGER

    We may share your personal information in the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets. Of course, we shall notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our website and inform you of your rights.

    SHARING AND DISCLOSURE OF AGGREGATE DATA

    We share data in aggregate form and/or in a form that does not enable the recipient of such data to identify you, with third parties, for example, for industry analysis.

    Please note, from time to time we may include links to products or applications of third parties whose privacy practices may differ from Eye Academy. If you provide personal data to any of those third parties or their products, your data is governed by their privacy statements, and we encourage you to read these privacy statements carefully.

    When sharing data with third parties, your personal information may be transferred to countries where data protection laws may provide a lower standard of protection for your personal information than your country. We take great care in protecting your personal information and have put in place adequate mechanisms to protect it when it is transferred internationally.

    We will transfer your personal information in compliance with applicable data protection laws and will implement suitable safeguards to ensure that your personal information is adequately secured by any third party that will access your information (for instance, by using the Standard Contractual Clauses as approved by the European Commission). If you have questions or wish to obtain more information about the international transfer of your personal information or the implemented safeguards, please send us an email to privacy@eyeacademy.com.

  • There are different legal bases that we rely on to use your personal information, namely:

    PERFORMANCE OF A CONTRACT

    The use of your personal information may be necessary to perform the agreement you have with us. For example, to complete your purchase from Eye Academy, to perform professional eye examinations and dispense prescribed items in accordance with the UK legal standard, to help with delivery issues, or to handle returns and exchanges.

    LEGITIMATE INTERESTS

    We may use your personal information for our legitimate interests. For example, we rely on our legitimate interest to analyse and improve our Eye Academy Products and Services and the content on our website(s), to send you notifications about updates or information about Eye Academy Products and Services or to use your personal information for administrative, fraud detection or legal purposes.

    Where we process your personal information based on our legitimate interest and no opt-out mechanism is available to you (e.g. for your eye examination reminders), you may exercise your right to object by sending an email to privacy@eyeacademy.com.

  • SECURITY

    Eye Academy is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. However, while we take reasonable precautions to guard the personal information we collect, no security system is impenetrable. While no Service is completely secure, Eye Academy takes precautionary measures to help prevent information about you from loss, theft, misuse, and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. For example, we store the personal data you provide on computer systems that have limited access and that are in controlled facilities.

    We also ensure that our third-party data centre vendors provide adequate security measures. Additionally, your data is protected with encryption, such as Transport Layer Security (TLS), during transition over the Internet. Please note, for your online Eye Academy account, your password is stored using a one-way hash, which means that it cannot be recovered (or disclosed) by anyone, including Eye Academy, it can only be reset.

    If we hold physical patient records for yourself, these are secured by means of limited access. They are insecure storage within the practice building and backed up on a secure computer system. You can only access your Eye Academy account information and our service through the use of individual user login and password.

    To protect the confidentiality of personal information, you must keep your password confidential and not disclose it to any other person. Please notify us immediately if you believe your password has been misused. You should always log out and close your browser when you finish your session. Please note, we will never ask you to disclose your password in an unsolicited phone call or email. If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us at privacy@eyeacademy.com.

    STORAGE

    Personal data collected by Eye Academy may be stored and processed in your region, or in any other country where Eye Academy or its affiliates, subsidiaries or service providers are located or maintain facilities. Eye Academy has put in place adequate mechanisms to protect personal information when it is transferred internationally, for example by using the Standard Contractual Clauses as approved by the European Commission.

    RETENTION

    We retain your information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide our products and services and to maintain records to satisfy tax and other legal requirements.

    We only retain information to continue to provide services to you, to comply with applicable laws (including those regarding document retention), resolve disputes with any parties, and otherwise as necessary to allow us to conduct our business. All personal information we retain will be subject to this Privacy Statement and our internal retention guidelines. If you have a question about a specific retention period for certain types of personal information we process about you, please send an email to privacy@eyeacademy.com.

  • YOUR RIGHTS

    We want you to be in control of how your personal information is used by us. Subject to local law, you can do this in the following ways: you can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you; you can inform us of any changes to your personal information, or if you want us to correct any of the personal information we hold about you; in certain situations, you can ask us to erase, block or restrict the personal information we hold about you, or object to particular ways in which we are using your personal information; and in certain situations, you can also ask us to send the personal information you have given us to a third party.

    Where we are using your personal information on the basis of your consent, you are entitled to withdraw that consent at any time. Moreover, where we process your personal information based on legitimate interest or the public interest, you have the right to object at any time to that use of your personal information. We rely on you to ensure that your personal information is complete, accurate, and up to date.

    Please do inform us promptly of any changes to or inaccuracies in your personal information by contacting privacy@eyeacademy.com. We will respond to your request as soon as possible but certainly within 30 days. For more information about how you can control your Communication, Marketing, and Advertising Preferences, please visit Your Choices sections below.

    YOUR CHOICES

    YOUR EYE ACADEMY RECORD

    If you have visited an Eye Academy owned location and attended an examination or made a prescription purchase; we will have created a medical record to document this. In certain circumstances, you can request that we erase your data which we will do where this would not prevent us from meeting our legal and regulatory obligations.

    YOUR EYE ACADEMY ONLINE ACCOUNT

    If you wish to access, edit or remove profile information, change your password, close your account or request deletion of your personal data, you can do so by logging in to your Eye Academy account or by sending an email to privacy@eyeacademy.com. If you cannot access certain personal information collected by Eye Academy, via the Eye Academy account, we will respond to any request to access or delete your personal data as soon as possible, certainly within 30 days.

    YOUR COMMUNICATION, MARKETING, AND ADVERTISING PREFERENCES

    You can opt out of receiving direct marketing communications from Eye Academy by following the instructions included in every email sent to you via the “Unsubscribe” tab.

    We respect your choice, and we will stop sending you promotional emails once you unsubscribe. Please note, regardless of your communication settings, we will continue to communicate with you regarding appointment reminders, changes to terms and conditions, policy updates, routine customer service messages such as information about a current or past purchase, delivery of products, or any other significant information that may affect you.

    If you choose not to receive appointment reminders please email privacy@eyeacademy.com with the name of the practice you visited for your appointment or made a purchase.

  • We use cookies and similar technologies like pixels, tags, web beacons, and other identifiers to help us personalise our website for you, remember your preferences, understand how users are using our website(s), and help customise our marketing offerings.

    COOKIES

    A cookie is a small data file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. When you visit the website again, the cookie allows that site to recognise your browser.

    "Cookies" are little pieces of data we send when you visit our store. Cookies help us get to know you better and personalise your experience. Plus they help protect you and other shoppers from fraud.

    Set your browser to accept cookies so you can buy items, save items, and receive customised recommendations.

  • Eye Academy reserve the right to modify or update this Statement when necessary, to reflect customer feedback and changes in our Eye Academy Products and Service. Please review it regularly. When we update this Statement, we will revise the 'Last Update' date at the top of the Statement. If there are material changes to the Statement or in how Eye Academy uses your personal data, we will inform you either by posting a notice of such changes, prior to them taking place or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to regularly review this Statement to learn more about how Eye Academy is using and protecting your information.

  • We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner's Office.

    OUR DATA PROTECTION REGISTRATION NUMBER IS Z6150793

  • This website is owned and operated by The Eye Academy (Richmond) Ltd

    We are registered in [England and Wales] under registration number 04317626

    If you have any questions about the use of your personal information, please email privacy@eyeacademy.com.

    Unless otherwise stated, Eye Academy Ltd. is a data controller for personal data we collect through the Eye Academy Products and Services subject to this Privacy Statement.

    Our address is:

    Suite 12 Silwood Business Centre, Silwood Park, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PW.

    Updated: 10/01/2022

  • The table below lists the cookies we collect and what information they store.

    Form Key: Stores randomly generated key used to prevent forged requests.

    PHPSESSID: Your session ID on the server.

    GUEST-VIEW: Allows guests to view and edit their orders.

    PERSISTENT_SHOPPING_CART: A link to information about your cart and viewing history, if you have asked for this.

    STF: Information on products you have emailed to friends.

    STORE: The store view or language you have selected.

    USER_ALLOWED_SAVE_COOKIE: Indicates whether a customer allowed to use cookies.

    MAGE-CACHE-SESSID: Facilitates caching of content on the server to make pages load faster.

    MAGE-CACHE-STORAGE: Facilitates caching of content on the server to make pages load faster.

    MAGE-CACHE-STORAGE-SECTION-INVALIDATION: Facilitates caching of content on the server to make pages load faster.

    MAGE-CACHE-TIMEOUT: Facilitates caching of content on the server to make pages load faster.

    SECTION-DATA-IDS: Facilitates caching of content on the server to make pages load faster.

    PRIVATE_CONTENT_VERSION: Facilitates caching of content on the server to make pages load faster.

    X-MAGENTO-VARY: Facilitates caching of content on the server to make pages load faster.

    MAGE-TRANSLATION-FILE-VERSION: Facilitates translation of content to other languages.

    MAGE-TRANSLATION-STORAGE: Facilitates translation of content to other languages.