Privacy Policy

Brother is committed to respecting and protecting your privacy when you are accessing and using our services.  This notice sets out how we use, collect, transfer, store and disclose your data.

This Privacy Notice together with any applicable Website Terms of Use and Cookies Notice set out Brother’s use of personal information collected from you via the online services listed below, whether as a guest or a registered user:

  • any Brother website that links to this Privacy Notice (“Website”);
  • Brother Web Forms;
  • Brother’s service centres;
  • mobile device applications;
  • Managed Print Services;
  • Brother Business Academy; and
  • Brother’s partner portal.This Privacy Notice also sets out how Brother uses personal information provided to Brother by alternative means such as by phone, email or alternative correspondence.

Where you use a particular service there may be additional terms and conditions which apply to the processing of your personal information, so it is important that you read the applicable terms and conditions for each service that you use. In the event and to the extent of any conflict or inconsistency between such additional terms and conditions and this Privacy Notice, the terms and conditions for a particular service will prevail over this Privacy Notice.  

In addition, a Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers, affiliates or other third parties.  If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy and cookie policies governing their use of your personal information which we highly recommend that you review carefully prior to submitting any of your information. Brother does not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies and the privacy practices of such third party websites.  

We encourage you to contact us if you have any concerns regarding this notice and its application. Details of how to do so are listed below.  

Who is collecting information?

Brother International Europe Limited, a limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 664172 whose registered office is at Brother House, 1 Tame Street, Audenshaw, Manchester M34 5JE (“Brother”) is the European headquarters of the Brother group.  Brother International Europe Limited has branch offices in the European Union and there is also a network of Brother sales offices throughout the European Union. Your local sales office is Brother UK Limited, a limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 29301 whose registered office address is at Shepley Street, Audenshaw, Manchester M34 5JD.  Both of these companies control data collected through or in connection with a Website or any of the online services listed above. 

Brother International Europe Limited is the European headquarters of Brother Industries Limited, based in Nagoya Japan.  Brother is a global manufacturer and distributor of printer and sewing machinery and business solutions, operating in over 40 countries globally.  

Information we collect

Brother may collect and process information about you such as:

  • Information that you may provide when filling in forms on, or otherwise submitting or making available information to, a Website or service provided by Brother. This includes for example:
  • (a) information provided when registering as a user of a Website or for any services made available by Brother; and
  • (b) information provided in any documents, materials, communication or other content uploaded, transmitted, shared, distributed or otherwise made available by you in connection with your use of any Websites or services provided by Brother; 
  • (c) your email address, browser IP address and billing address when performing fraud prevention checks on our Websites.
  • If you contact us for any reason, Brother may keep a record of that correspondence. 
  • Information that may be captured via any error logging and reporting tool that captures error report data and, at your option, sends this data to Brother in order for Brother to be informed of any software errors or problems that may occur during your use of a Website or any other Brother services. 
  • Details of your visits to the Websites or use of any services, the activities you engage in when using the services made available by Brother, whether or not via the Websites and the resources that you access on or via the Websites. 

How we use your information

Brother may use information held about you in the following ways:

  • To present content and information on the Websites in the most suitable manner for you and the equipment and devices from which you view the Websites;
  • To provide you with information, products or services that you request from Brother or which Brother feels may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes;
  • To provide you with any services that you may request from Brother from time to time (whether paid for or not), to communicate with you in relation to those services and to process any orders for products or services as appropriate;
  • To conduct customer surveys and market research to help improve our products and services; or
  • To manage and administer your accounts and contact you as may from time to time as necessary in connection with your use of the Websites and/or Brother’s services, including, but not limited to, notifying you about changes to our website services and the basis on which these are provided.

In certain circumstances Brother may provide third parties with aggregate information about users of its Websites or services. This may include information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration, to identify and monitor potential sales markets and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

Where we store your data

Generally, Brother will store and process your personal information within the European Economic Area. However, the data that Brother collects from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a country outside the European Economic Area, the laws of which may not provide the same level of protection for your data, although we will always ensure it receives an equivalent level of protection and that any organisations processing your personal data outside of the European Union or the Brother Group must comply with our express instructions regarding your personal information. 

Although Brother will endeavour to protect your personal information once Brother receives it, we are not responsible for your transmission of information to us via the internet which may not be completely secure. For the avoidance of doubt, Brother accepts no liability for any loss or damage you may suffer as a result of your device settings or unsecure internet connection.

Where Brother has given you, or where you have chosen, a password to access certain parts of a Website or your registered user account, you should not share this password with others.

Updating your information

Where you submit information to Brother, you should try to ensure such information is accurate, and let us know if such information changes so that we are not holding any inaccurate information about you. If you have registered an account for a Website, you can review and update your personal information yourself at any time by logging in to your account.

Disclosure of your information

Brother will keep your personal information within the Brother group except where disclosure is required or permitted by law. Please note that some Brother group companies are situated outside of the European Economic Area. Please see the “Where we store your data” section above for further information. 

Generally, we will not disclose your personal information outside of the Brother group but occasionally Brother may disclose personal information with appropriate safeguards in place in the following circumstances:

  • If Brother sells any business or assets, in which case Brother may disclose your personal information to the prospective buyer of such business or assets;
  • If Brother or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal information held by Brother about you and its other customers will be one of the transferred assets;
  • If Brother sub-contracts any services which require the processing of your information, for example, where a third party is engaged:
  • (i) to provide and maintain any IT equipment used to store and access your personal information;
  • (ii) to host and maintain the Websites or services; or
  • (iii) otherwise in connection with the provision of certain services provided to you on or via this website; and
  • If Brother is under a duty to disclose or share your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply and Terms of Use relevant to a Website or services; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of any person (including for example for the purposes of fraud detection and prevention). 

Why will Brother use my information?

We will only use your information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your information in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform a contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

When will Brother contact me for marketing purposes?

Brother will inform you (when collecting your information) if Brother would like to use your data for marketing purposes but will only do so if you give your consent to such use of your personal information. You can exercise your right to prevent such use when Brother collects your data by indicating that you do not want to be contacted for marketing purposes.  You can also tell Brother should you change your mind about this at a later date by contacting Brother at privacy@brother-uk.com or via your Website account. 

How long will Brother keep my information?

Brother will retain your information for as long as necessary for the relevant activity for which the information was provided. If you delete a Website account, your personal information is either deleted or anonymised and used solely for analytic purposes.Information provided via Web Forms is retained and used for a period of 6 months and is then anonymised and used solely for analytical purposes.

Your rights

Under data protection laws, you have the right to request details of any information held about you, request for any errors in your information to be rectified and, in some circumstances, you may also request the deletion of personal information or that we cease processing your personal information. Should you request access to any information held about you, Brother will process such request in accordance with data protection laws as such may be amended, varied or supplemented from time to time.  In order to ensure that any such request is genuine and that we do not make disclosure of personal information to anyone other than the data subject, we request that you provide two forms of identification when making a request (these may be passport, driving licence, birth certificate, bank statement or utility bill). You can delete an account on a Brother Website by following the procedures set out in your Brother Online account.

Cookies

Brother uses cookies on its Websites. For more information on the cookies Brother uses, and the purposes for which Brother uses them, please see our Cookies Notice.Cookies are small pieces of data which may include unique identifiers which are sent to your computer, mobile phone or tablet. They are used to store or retrieve information about you and your device, usually in order to give you a personalised web experience.  

Changes to this notice

Brother may change this Privacy Notice from time to time, and will indicate this on this page or elsewhere on the Website. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we have made as they are binding on you.

Further information about protection of personal data and the Data Protection Act 2018

To find out more about protecting your personal information visit your local data protection authority website.If you want to contact us with specific queries or concerns in relation to this Privacy Notice, please contact us at privacy@brother-uk.com or contact our European Data Protection Manager by emailing privacy@brother.co.uk or writing to Data Protection Manager, Brother International Europe Limited, Brother House, 1 Tame Street, Manchester M34 5JE. If the Data Protection Manager is unable to satisfactorily deal with any complaint and you need to approach a data protection authority, we recommend that you approach the local data protection authority in your jurisdiction.