Privacy & Cookies

Last updated: 27 October 2026

Who is responsible for your information

John Brown, trading as John Brown Hardware, 90 High Street, Nailsea, Bristol BS48 1AS, is responsible for your personal information. For any privacy question or request, call 01275 853368, email info@johnbrownhardware.co.uk, or write to us at the shop.

What we collect and why

Enquiries and reservations. When you ask about a product or ask us to reserve one, by email, phone or in person, we use your name, phone number or email address, the items and quantities you ask about, and anything you choose to send us, such as a photo of a part. We use this to answer you, check prices and supplier availability, order and hold the item, tell you when it’s ready, and deal with any problem afterwards.

Deliveries. If we deliver an item to you, we use your name, address and phone number to arrange and make the delivery.

Purchases and returns. When you buy in the shop, we keep the sales records we need to run the business and meet our legal and tax obligations. If you return an item, we use the details needed to deal with it. Card payments are processed by our card payment provider, Paymentsense, which handles your card details under its own privacy notice. We don’t keep your full card number.

Website visits. Our website does not ask you to sign in or fill in a form, and it does not collect your name or contact details. Like any website, our hosting provider automatically processes technical information (your IP address, browser type, the pages requested and the time) to deliver the site and protect it from misuse.

Product images. Product photos in our online catalogue are loaded directly from www.accesstoretail.com, the image server named in our supplier Stax’s product information. When a page shows these images, your browser contacts that server, which receives your IP address, browser details and the page you’re viewing, as for any website.

We do not use your information for marketing, we do not sell it, and we do not make automated decisions about you.

Our lawful basis

• Legitimate interests: answering enquiries, handling reservations, deliveries and returns, and keeping our website running securely. We only use what’s needed, in ways you would expect from a local shop.
• Legal obligation: keeping sales and tax records required by law.

Where your information is kept and who sees it

• Phone and in-shop reservations may be written in a paper reservation book kept in the shop.
• Emails are kept in our Google Workspace email account.
• Our website is hosted by Google (Firebase App Hosting on Google Cloud), in Google’s Netherlands region.
• Our product catalogue database (Supabase) holds product, price and supplier-stock information only. It does not hold customer information.

Only people working in the shop see enquiry and reservation details, and only where needed. We don’t pass your details to our suppliers when we order items for you. We’d share them with a supplier or manufacturer only if needed to deal with a fault, and then only what’s necessary.

International transfers

Google may process information outside the UK under its data processing terms, using legal safeguards recognised under UK law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum. Contact us if you’d like more details.

How long we keep it

We review paper and email enquiries at least once a year and delete those we no longer need. We keep sales and tax records for as long as the law requires. We may keep information longer when needed to resolve an ongoing order, complaint or legal claim. Website request logs are kept by Google, our hosting provider, for a limited period under its standard log settings, and then deleted automatically.

Your rights

You can ask us:

• for a copy of the information we hold about you;
• to correct it;
• to delete it, where the law allows; and
• to restrict or object to how we use it.

Contact us using the details above. We’ll respond within one month. There’s no charge.

Complaints

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first, using the details above. We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and look into it. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

Cookies

Our website does not set cookies, and it doesn’t use analytics, advertising or tracking tools. It also doesn’t store anything else on your device, such as local storage. That’s why you won’t see a cookie banner.

If we ever add cookies or similar technologies that aren’t strictly necessary, we’ll update this page and ask for your permission before using them.

Other websites

Our site links to other websites, including Google Maps, Facebook, Citizens Advice and the ICO. Those sites have their own privacy and cookie policies, which apply once you open them. We don’t embed maps or social media feeds on our pages.

Changes to this notice

We’ll update this page if the way we use information changes. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.