Privacy Policy

Privacy Statement for Connected Thinking

This privacy statement applies to the website www.rs-connectedthinking.com, which is operated by RS Components Limited (“RS Components”, “we” “us” or “our”).

What personal information does RS Components collect via the Connected Thinking website?

RS Components collects information you voluntarily provide us when you use our website, which may include your name, email address, company and job function.

If you contact us, we will keep a record of that correspondence. From time to time, we may also ask users of our website to complete surveys that we use for research purposes.

We may also record certain details of how you use our website, such as the website you came from or are going to, your device's unique ID, your IP addresses and operating system. However, this information will generally not identify you personally. If we send you an email, it may automatically report to us whether you have opened the email and/or clicked on a link through to our website.

How does RS Components use my personal information?

Depending on how you use Connected Thinking, your interactions with us, and the permissions you give us, we will use your personal information for the following purposes:

To fulfil your request, for example providing you with download content.
To reply to any correspondence or enquires you may have.
To send you newsletters or other marketing communications, where we have your consent or are otherwise permitted to do so.
To conduct statistical and trend analysis on our users.
To improve and maintain Connected Thinking, and monitor its usage.
To contact you to invite you to take part in online surveys, focus groups or specialist panels about our products and services or third party products and services.

Purpose	Type of Data	Legal Basis
Manage and respond to any queries or complaints you may have	Your contact details and any interactions with us Information about your role and the company you work for	Legitimate interest (managing our business and providing services to our customers)
Invite you to take part in and manage customer surveys, reviews and other market research activities carried out by RS and other organisations on our behalf.	Your contact details	Your consent Legitimate interest (managing our business, providing services to our clients and improving our products and services)
Send you marketing messages	Your contact information	Your consent Legitimate interest (promoting our products and services)
Improve and maintain Connected Thinking and monitor its usage.	Your browsing activity Your interactions with our website	Your consent. Legitimate interest (operating our website and improving its operation)
Investigate fraud and, where necessary, to protect ourselves.	Your website usage	Legitimate interest (preventing and detecting fraud or other wrongdoing)

Where we process personal information
On the basis of a legitimate interest, then – as required by data protection law – we have carried out a balancing test to document our interests, to consider what the impact of the processing will be on individuals and to determine whether individuals’ interests outweigh our interests in the processing taking place.

We will only process your personal information where we have a legal basis for doing so. Generally, we will be processing it because you have consented to us doing so, or because it is in our legitimate interests in order to manage and promote our website.

With whom does RS Components share my information?
RS Components Ltd is a member of a world-wide group of companies, of which RS Group plc is the parent company. For full details of the RS Group of companies, please visit https://www.rsgroup.com/. RS Components Ltd shares personal information with other members of the RS Group as necessary to support our services and to improve our customer insights.

We also provide information to our service providers acting on our behalf and, on occasion, to our professional and legal advisors.

RS Components Ltd may also disclose personal information in cases where we believe the disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property or personal safety of RS Components Ltd, our users, employees or the public, or where we are otherwise legally permitted to do so.

Where does RS Components store my information?
The RS Group is a global group of companies, and RS also uses service providers based around the world. Consequently, your personal information may be processed in countries outside of Europe, including in countries where you may have fewer legal rights in respect of your information than you do under local law. If we transfer personal data outside the European Economic Area we will, as required by applicable law, ensure that your privacy rights are adequately protected by appropriate safeguards. Please contact us if you would like more information about these safeguards.

Opting-Out of Marketing
If you no longer want to receive marketing from us you can let us know at any time. Please click on the ‘unsubscribe’ link in the email or contact us using the details below. If you opt-out, we will retain your email address to ensure you do not receive communications from us in future.

Exercising your rights
You may have the right to request access to (including in a machine-readable format), rectification or erasure of, object to or restrict our processing, request the transfer (porting) to another company or third party of any personal information we hold about you. You may also have the right to withdraw your consent, object to or restrict certain types of processing of your personal information.

Where we rely on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. We may however have other legal grounds for processing your data for other purposes, such as those set out above.

Any request to exercise one of these rights will be assessed by us on a case by case basis. There may be circumstances in which we are not legally required to comply with your request or because of relevant legal exemptions provided for in applicable data protection legislation.

Contact Us
Please contact us at [email protected] if you would like to find out more about any matters relating to this privacy statement or if you have concerns about the way in which we have handled your personal information.

If you have unresolved concerns, you have the right to complain to a data protection authority in the country that you reside in or, the country of your place of work or the country where the alleged infringement took place.

This Privacy Statement was last updated on 12th July 2023.