Privacy policy

Last updated: 26 August 2026

Signet Autocare is run by working detailers, and we treat your data the way we'd want ours treated: we collect what we need to get your order to your door, we don't sell it, and you can ask us to delete it.

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, what we do with it, and the rights you have over it under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are — the Data Controller

Signet Autocare is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. That means we decide why and how it is used, and we are the ones answerable for it.

Trading name: Signet Autocare
Address: 5 Fen Road, Cambridge, CB4 1TU, United Kingdom
Email: info@signetautocare.com
Website: signetautocare.com

Email is the fastest way to reach us about anything in this policy, and it reaches a person, not a queue.

2. What We Collect

Depending on how you use the site, we may hold:

Order and contact details — your name, email address, delivery and billing address, phone number if you give one, and what you ordered.
Payment information — the amount, the currency, the outcome, and the last four digits and card type. We never see or store your full card number, expiry date or security code. Card details go straight to our payment provider, who is separately responsible for them.
Account details — if you choose to create one: your email, a password you set (stored only in encrypted form by Shopify), and your saved addresses.
Correspondence — emails, contact-form messages and social media messages you send us, and our replies.
Marketing preferences — whether you opted in to our emails, and when you opted in or out.
Technical and usage data — IP address, browser and device type, the pages you viewed, what you added to your basket, and how you arrived at the site. This is collected through cookies and similar technologies.

We do not collect or ask for any special category data — nothing about health, race, religion, politics, sex life or biometrics. Please don't send it to us.

3. Where It Comes From

Almost all of it comes directly from you, when you place an order, create an account, sign up for emails, or contact us. The rest is collected automatically by our website and analytics when you browse, or comes from our service providers — for example our payment provider telling us a payment succeeded, or a courier telling us a parcel was delivered.

4. Why We Use It, and Our Lawful Basis

UK GDPR requires us to have a lawful basis for every use of your data. Ours are:

To process and deliver your order — take payment, send confirmations and tracking, arrange delivery, handle returns and refunds, answer your questions about an order. Lawful basis: performance of a contract with you.
To meet our legal obligations — keeping accounting and tax records, and complying with consumer law. Lawful basis: legal obligation.
To send marketing emails — product news, guides and offers, only if you asked for them or bought from us. Lawful basis: your consent, or our legitimate interest in marketing similar products to existing customers (the “soft opt-in” under PECR). Every email has a one-click unsubscribe, and unsubscribing is honoured immediately.
To run, secure and improve the site — keeping it working, preventing fraud and abuse, understanding which products and pages people actually use. Lawful basis: legitimate interests — running a functioning, non-fraudulent shop — balanced against your rights.
To use non-essential cookies and advertising — analytics and any ad measurement. Lawful basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
To handle disputes, chargebacks and legal claims — Lawful basis: legitimate interests in defending our position, and legal obligation where one applies.

We do not use your data for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you.

5. Cookies and Analytics

Essential cookies make the site work — they keep your basket, keep you logged in, and secure checkout. These can't be switched off, and don't need your consent.

Analytics and marketing cookies are only set if you agree. They tell us things like which products get viewed and where orders come from. Where a cookie banner or cookie settings link is shown on the site, you can accept or reject these and change your mind at any time. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings, or email info@signetautocare.com to withdraw consent — though blocking essential cookies will break checkout.

6. Who We Share It With

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not rent or trade your email address. We share it only with the parties we need to in order to run the shop, and only what they need:

Shopify Inc. — hosts the store and processes orders, accounts and site analytics on our behalf.
Payment providers (such as Shopify Payments, PayPal or your chosen card provider) — they process your payment as independent controllers under their own privacy policies.
Suppliers, fulfilment partners and couriers — they receive the delivery name, address, and contact details needed to pack and deliver your parcel. Some of our stock ships direct from the supplier's warehouse, so your delivery address is passed to them for that order.
Email and marketing tools — to send order emails and, if you opted in, marketing emails.
Professional advisers — accountants and, if ever needed, legal advisers.
Law enforcement, regulators or courts — where we are legally required to disclose, or need to establish or defend a legal claim.

Where these parties act as our processors, they are under written contracts that only let them use your data on our instructions.

7. Sending Data Outside the UK

Some of our providers — Shopify among them — store or process data outside the United Kingdom. When personal data leaves the UK we make sure it is protected by one of the safeguards UK law recognises: transfer to a country covered by UK adequacy regulations, or the International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA), or the UK Addendum to the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. Ask us at info@signetautocare.com and we'll tell you which applies to a given provider.

8. How Long We Keep It

Order and transaction records: six years after the end of the relevant tax year, because HMRC requires it.
Customer accounts: for as long as the account is open. Ask us to close it and we'll delete it, keeping only what tax law makes us keep.
Marketing contacts: until you unsubscribe, or after a long period of no engagement, whichever comes first. We keep a minimal suppression record of unsubscribes so we don't email you again by accident.
Support emails: around two years after the matter is closed.
Analytics data: in aggregated or pseudonymised form, in line with our analytics providers' retention settings.

When a retention period ends we delete the data or irreversibly anonymise it.

9. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

Be informed — which is what this policy is for.
Access — get a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Rectification — have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
Erasure — have your data deleted, where we have no overriding reason to keep it (tax records being the usual exception).
Restrict processing — have us pause using your data while a dispute about it is sorted out.
Data portability — receive the data you gave us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or have it sent to another controller.
Object — to processing based on our legitimate interests, and absolutely and at any time to direct marketing.
Withdraw consent — at any time, where we relied on consent. This doesn't undo processing that already happened lawfully.

To use any of these, email info@signetautocare.com. It's free. We'll reply within one month, and tell you if we need longer because the request is complex. We may need to confirm who you are first — that's to stop someone else getting your data, not to slow you down.

10. Complaints — and the ICO

If we've got something wrong, tell us first at info@signetautocare.com and we'll try to fix it. You don't have to go through us, though. You have the right to complain directly to the UK supervisory authority:

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113
ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

11. Security

The site runs over encrypted HTTPS and card payments are handled by PCI-DSS compliant providers, so card numbers never reach us. Access to customer data is limited to the people who need it and protected by strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication. No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach ever put your rights at risk we'll tell you and the ICO within the timescales the law sets.

12. Children

Our shop is meant for adults and we don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us their details, email info@signetautocare.com and we'll delete them.

13. Other Sites

Our pages sometimes link out to manufacturers, guides or social platforms. Once you're on their site, their privacy policy applies, not ours, and we're not responsible for what they do with your data.

14. Changes to This Policy

We'll update this policy when our practices change. The “last updated” date at the top always shows the current version, and if a change materially affects your rights we'll tell you directly.

15. Contact Us

Questions about your data, or want to exercise any right above? Email info@signetautocare.com or write to us at 5 Fen Road, Cambridge, CB4 1TU, United Kingdom.