What personal information does RS collect?
RS collects personal information from you when you provide it to us directly, or through your use of our website, for example:
- Information about yourself and the company you work for, when you register for an account with us. This may include your name and contact details, your company name and company details, information about your role in the company, and how you heard about the site.
- Transaction, billing and delivery information, if you make a purchase with us or contract for one of our solutions or services.
- Records of your interactions with us, e.g. if you send email feedback to our website, ask a technical question, report a problem or otherwise contact us. Please note that if you telephone us, we may record the call for compliance, quality and staff training purposes.
- If you respond to one of our customer surveys or enter into a competition.
- If you interact with one of our sales agents, for example at a trade counter, trade show or customer premises.
- 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, adverts you click on, products you search for, products you purchase, and information you download. Marketing emails we send you may also automatically detect whether you have received or opened the email or clicked on a link in our marketing materials. We use this information for our own performance measurement, but also so that we can tailor our promotional messages and advertising to you.
- RS sometimes also receives information about you from third parties. In particular, we may receive details about your role and the company you work for from business databases.
Some of the information above is mandatory for creating accounts and making purchases, or it may be required by law. Whether information is mandatory is indicated when you sign up or purchase our products or services. If you do not provide it, we may not be able to create an account for you or fulfil your purchases. Unless indicated all other information is optional but if you choose not to provide it any marketing you receive may be less relevant and your experience won’t be personalised.
How does RS use my personal information?
Depending on how you use RS Online, your interactions with us, and the permissions you give us, we will use your personal information for the following purposes:
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Purpose
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Type of Data
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Register you as a customer and create your account
Fulfil your order and/or provide you with services
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Your contact details
Information about your role and the company you work for
Your delivery and billing information
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Manage and respond to any queries or complaints you may have
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Your contact details and any interactions with us
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Personalise RS Online to you and show you content we think you will be most interested in.
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Your account information
Your purchase history
Your browsing activity
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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.
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Your contact details
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Send you marketing messages and show you targeted advertising in relation to our products and services
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Your account information
Your purchase history
Your browsing activity
Your company details
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Manage any competitions you enter.
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Your contact details
Your delivery information
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Improve and maintain RS Online, and monitor its usage.
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Your browsing activity
Your interactions with our website
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Investigate fraud and, where necessary, to protect ourselves and third parties.
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Your account information
Your transaction history
Your website usage
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Complete our financial reporting and disclosure obligations to our parent company, tax agencies and regulators.
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Your transaction history
Your delivery and billing information
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With whom does RS share 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 South Africa, 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 South Africa 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.
We keep your personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes set out above, and so this period will vary depending on your interactions with us. For example, where you have made a purchase with us, we will keep a record of your purchase for the period necessary for invoicing, tax and warranty purposes. We may also keep a record of correspondence with you (for example if you have made a complaint about a product) for as long as is necessary to protect us from a legal claim. For more information about the duration of cookies please refer to the cookie policy.
Where we no longer have a need to keep your information, we will delete it. Please note that where you unsubscribe from our marketing communications, we will keep a record of your email address to ensure we do not send you marketing emails in future.
What does RS do to protect my personal information?
RS always aims to deliver the highest level of service and security to our customers and the website has been specifically designed with security in mind.
In order to ensure the security and protection of your personal details whenever you submit any details we use the following security methods:
- The latest technology to encode and protect your data for a safe and secure transaction.
- To the extent possible, when you submit information this will be held in an encrypted format. This means that your information is protected and safe to submit.
- Your RS online account information and RS online personal profile are password-protected. You may edit your RS online account information and RS online profile by using your RS online username and password.
Even by taking the above measures when processing personal information, we do not guarantee that your Personal Information is 100% secure.
How does RS use my personal information for marketing?
Unless you opted-out during your account registration and purchase or we requested your consent to marketing and you did not give it, RS may send you emails, call or text you regarding RS products and services. In addition, we may occasionally send you direct mail about products that we feel may be of interest to you.
It is likely that some or all of these marketing messages may be tailored to you, based on what we know about you and/or your company, for example from your Online Personal Profile, your previous searches and browsing history on RS Online, and your purchase activity.
If you no longer want to hear from us, at any time you can:
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Edit your preferences in the 'My Profile Update Details' area of My Account, which you can access anytime through the link in the navigation bar;
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Unsubscribe from emails by clicking on the link in each email; or
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Email us at:
You have a right to opt-out of direct marketing or profiling we carry out for direct marketing (you can exercise this right at any time).
You may also see adverts for RS on third party websites, including on social media. These adverts may be tailored to you using cookies (which track your web activity, to enable us to serve adverts to customers who have visited RS Online). Where you see an ad on social media, this may because we have engaged the social network to show adverts to our customers, or users who match the demographic profile of our customers. In some cases, this may involve sharing your email address with the social network. If you no longer want to see tailored ads you can change your cookie and privacy settings on your browser and these third party websites.
How can I access, update, correct or delete my personal information?
You can view and edit your Personal Profile information at any time by clicking on the 'My Profile -Update Details' section in My Account, which you can access anytime through the link in the navigation bar.
If you have forgotten your password, or have any other problems accessing RS Online, please contact RS Customer Services on +27 11 691 9300
If you have a query regarding your personal information which you cannot resolve via your Online Personal Profile, please contact us using the details below. Under South African data protection law, you have the right to access (including in a machine-readable format), correct, request erasure, object to or restrict our processing, request the transfer (porting) to another company or third party of your personal data, and RS will comply with any requests to exercise these rights in accordance with applicable law. Please be aware, however, that there are a number of limitations to these rights, and there may be circumstances where we are not able to comply with your request.
Cookies
RS uses cookies and similar technologies to provide the functionality of RS Online, improve website, and to personalise RS Online. For more information about cookies, please read our Cookie Policy. Our Cookie Policy is available at https://za.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=aboutRS/rs-cookie-policy
Contact Us
For questions regarding this privacy statement or how we use your personal information, please email popia@rs.rsgroup.com
If you have unresolved concerns, you have the right to contact the Information Regulator (South Africa), at the details set out at https://inforegulator.org.za/training/wp/contact-us/ .
Updates to this Privacy Statement
We may change this privacy statement from time to time in order to reflect changes in the law, regulatory guidance or our data privacy practices in compliance with the law. When this happens and where required by law, we will provide you with a new or an updated statement detailing how the use of your personal information is changing and, if necessary, obtain your consent for the further processing.
If you do not agree to the changes to this privacy statement, we may be unable to perform in terms of the contract we have in place with you. In this case, RS may be required to terminate the contract and/or relationship, upon notification to you and/or may request that you end your use of the RS Online site.