Privacy Policy

Our privacy policy sets out how The Leica Society uses and protects any information that you give when you use this website.

The Leica Society is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy policy statement.

The Leica Society may change this privacy policy from time to time by updating this page.

You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 19 June 2025.

What we collect when viewing the website

When you complete a form, we collect the following information:

Your name and title
Contact information including e-mail address
Demographic information such as postcode
Other information relevant to your enquiry or future member surveys

What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

Internal record keeping.
We may use the information to improve our services.
We may periodically send promotional e-mails, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the e-mail address which you have provided.
From time to time, we may also use your membership information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by e-mail, phone, or mail. We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to member needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question. Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

Controlling your personal information

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you, please write to us at the address below.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or e-mail us as soon as possible. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect. 

Correspondence Address 
The Leica Society Webmaster
20 Homewell, Havant. Hants. PO9 1EE

We collect information about you during the checkout process on our store.

What we collect and store while you visit our site, we’ll track:

• Products you’ve viewed: we’ll use this to, for example, show you products you’ve recently viewed
• Location, IP address and browser type: we’ll use this for purposes like estimating taxes and shipping
• Shipping address: we’ll ask you to enter this so we can, for instance, estimate shipping before you place an order, and send you the order!

We’ll also use cookies to keep track of basket contents while you’re browsing our site.

When you purchase from us, we’ll ask you to provide information including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, credit card/payment details and optional account information like username and password. We’ll use this information for purposes, such as, to:

• Send you information about your account and order
• Respond to your requests, including refunds and complaints
• Process payments and prevent fraud
• Set up your account for our store
• Comply with any legal obligations we have, such as calculating taxes
• Improve our store offerings
• Send you marketing messages, if you choose to receive them

If you create an account, we will store your name, address, email and phone number, which will be used to populate the checkout for future orders.

We generally store information about you for as long as we need the information for the purposes for which we collect and use it, and we are not legally required to continue to keep it. For example, we will store order information for 7 years for tax and accounting purposes. This includes your name, email address and billing and shipping addresses.

We will also store comments or reviews, if you choose to leave them.

Who on our team has access

Members of our team have access to the information you provide us. For example, Webmaster, Membership and Treasurer can access:

• Order information like what was purchased, when it was purchased and where it should be sent, and
• Customer information like your name, email address, and billing and shipping information.

Our team members have access to this information to help fulfil orders, process refunds and support you.

What we share with others

We share information with third parties who help us provide our orders and store services to you; for example —

Payments

We accept payments through Stripe. When processing payments, some of your data will be passed to Stripe, including information required to process or support the payment, such as the purchase total and billing information.

Please see the Stripe Privacy Policy for more details.