Privacy Policy – Merchants Quay Shopping Centre

The Merchants Quay Shopping Centre, 1-5 Patrick Street Cork, Co Cork, T12 ERW9 (here on after referred to as MQSC) is committed to protecting any personal data you provide to us, including information you provide or we collect when you use our digital channels, including the MQSC website, MQSC facebook page, MQSC Instagram and Twitter accounts, the MQSC wifi and when you email MQSC.We believe it is important for you to know what personal data we collect and how we use it. This policy (together with our terms and conditions and any other documents referred to in it) explains the personal data we process, what it is used for and the legal basis upon which we process this information. It also explains legal rights you may have to control that processing.

About us and how to contact us

Our contact address is

The Management Office
Merchants Quay Shopping Centre
1-5 Patrick Street
Cork
Y12 ERW9

What personal data do we process?

We process the personal data set out below, provided to us by either you or your device when either accessing our website or using one of the multimedia platforms listed above.

There is no obligation on you to provide the information listed below; however, if you do not, we may be unable to engage with you, send you the MQSC newsletter, allow you to enter competitions or to redeem offers without the necessary information to enable us to do so.

The type of data that we process about you includes

Information you have given to us:

  • When you sign up to use the wifi system in MQSC you submit your name, your email address and your preferences in relation to the type of communication you wish to receive from MQSC. You may also sign up using your Facebook account. The system also captures the date of signing up and your consent to send you communications. When entering a Text to Win competition, we will receive your mobile phone number and your name should you choose to provide it.

Information we collect from or observe about you when you use our services, including:

  • Device and Website Use Information – When you use a computer, tablet, smart phone or other device to access our website, we may collect information about the device and how you use it. This information may include the type of device, your operating system, your browser (for example, whether you used Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome or another browser), your internet service provider, your domain name, your internet protocol (IP) address, your device identifier (or UDID), the date and time that you accessed our service, the website that referred you to our website, the web pages you requested, the date and time of those requests, and the subject of the ads you click or scroll over. To collect this information, we use cookies, and similar technologies.
  • Images of you collected from CCTV cameras in operation at MQSC.

How we use it?

We use your data to:

Send you marketing information by various channels including email, SMS, mail or telephone, including sending notices of new products, new store openings, competitions, special offers and other marketing materials to enhance and support your relationship with MQSC. We will use this data in accordance with any preferences you have selected, either on the basis of consent (where requested) or of legitimate interests where you have not objected to receiving such information.

We may also use your data for our own legitimate interests:

  • Including sending you surveys or supporting Marketing Research activities to you in other ways to help us improve our services and understand our customers better;
  • Allowing you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so.
  • Ensuring that content from our digital channels is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer/smart phone and/or tablet;
  • Allowing us to investigate and respond to any issues or correspondence received;
  • Administering any promotion or competition which you have entered;
  • Notifying you about changes to our services.

We believe that these interests are justified as it is completely optional for you to register, participate or otherwise provide us with Personal Data in the above situations. You will be able to object to this processing at any time. For more information, please see Your rights below.

Device and Website Use

  • We use Device and Website Use information to improve the effectiveness and operation of MQSC and/or the website, to improve our existing services and develop new services and to inform and direct our marketing strategy. In addition, anonymised statistical data may also be shared with retailers or used by us to develop new promotions that may interest our customers.
  • We will also use this information for system administration and to report aggregate information to our retailers. This is anonymised statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns and to help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us:
    1. To estimate our audience size and usage pattern.
    2. To store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our site according to your individual interests.
    3. To speed up your searches; and
    4. To recognise you when you return to our site. For more information, please see our Cookie Policy.

CCTV images

Where we consider that, on balance, it is appropriate for us do so, we will process CCTV footage for the following legitimate interests:

  • Keeping our staff, visitors and property safe and secure.
  • Ensuring compliance with health and safety procedures.
  • Detecting and preventing crime; and
  • Assisting law enforcement agencies in the apprehension, investigation and prosecution of offenders.

This may include sharing footage with the Gardaí or other law enforcement agencies, or our insurers where necessary in relation to a claim, as well as any other third parties in connection with legal proceedings or emergency situations.

Data processed where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation imposed on us

We will process your personal data to allow us to comply with any requests you are lawfully entitled to make, including under data protection laws, and to allow us to keep records that we are legally required to retain, including evidence of consents provided, or to evidence of our compliance with legal obligations.

How long will we hold your information?

We will normally retain your personal data is for a period of up to 7 years from the latter of:

  • The last date you logged into our website or
  • When you unsubscribe from receiving marketing from us (if later); unless we are legally required to retain the information for longer. However, we may delete your data sooner if we have no purpose to retain it. We will retain your details if you have unsubscribed from receiving marketing communications to ensure that we respect your withdrawal of consent on an ongoing basis.

Who will we share your personal information with?

We will share your personal data with:

  • MQSC uses reputable third party service providers acting on our instructions to support the provision of our website, our wifi service, our SMS service and our newsletters/emails. These providers, who are specifically contracted to process personal data on our behalf, do so in compliance with GDPR legislation and their own Privacy Policies.
  • We may share your personal data, where necessary, with prospective purchaser(s) or purchaser of any part of our business, on the basis of our legitimate interests and the interests of our purchaser, so that they can appropriately value the business and assess any risks and continue doing business with you after the acquisition.

We will also share your personal data where:

  • You have provided prior explicit consent;
  • Where we are required by law, including any court order;
  • Where necessary to protect you, the MQSC, its customers or the wider public.

Where will your personal data be held?

  • We may store or process your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) or other countries approved by the European Commission as providing appropriate safeguards for personal data, when we use service providers located in those countries.
  • If this is the case, we will put in place appropriate safeguards to protect your personal data and ensure that it is compliant with all appropriate legal requirements. If you require further information in respect of the countries where your personal data is processed and/or copies of any documents setting out the appropriate safeguards we have implemented to protect it, please contact us.

Children’s Privacy

  • Where people under the age of 13 use our services they are required to confirm that they have their parent’s consent. Parents should supervise the online activities of their children, and consider the use of tools available from online services and software providers that help provide child-friendly Internet environments.

Other Sites

  • Our digital channels may contain links to other sites on the Web. These other sites are not covered by this privacy policy and although we are committed to protecting your Personal Data, we cannot control and do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices, cookies or content of such other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects your Personal Data.
  • You are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and other account information, and we cannot take responsibility for any damage arising from any disclosure of your password or access to your email account and other multimedia platforms by other parties.

How do we protect your information?

  • MQSC is committed to ensuring that all data held by us is held securely. Our appointed and vetted third party suppliers who are responsible for the security of our network, our supporting infrastructure and our information systems have robust systems, both technological and systematic, which protect your information. These solutions may include, but are not limited to, password protection, encryption, firewalls, anti-virus, intrusion detection, anomaly detection and access controls for our employees.

Your rights

If you wish to withdraw your consent to receive marketing materials, this can be done by:-

  • Emailing us at mail@mqsc.ie
  • By clicking on the unsubscribe link in any emails sent by us or by opting out as per the instructions included in SMS messages sent by us.
  • If you withdraw your consent, this will not affect our rights to have sent you marketing material prior to your withdrawal, but we will not send any further marketing. Whilst we will endeavour to ensure that you do not receive any further marketing material immediately, there may be a slight delay for any changes to take effect. Please note that your information will not be deleted but will be retained in a suppression list to ensure that we do not inadvertently send further marketing communications once you have withdrawn your consent to receive them.
  • Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our site.
  • If you do not wish us to process your Device and Website Use information, you may prevent this by disabling the function or blocking the cookies on your device or browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site, or it may impact on the usability of our website. For further information on how to do this, please visit: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

You are also entitled to request that we:

  • Provide you with a copy of any personal data we hold about you.
  • Provide you with a copy of any of your personal data, provided by you, that we hold in an electronic format, in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
  • Have any incorrect personal data corrected or completed.
  • Delete any personal data that we no longer need for the above purposes, where you have withdrawn your consent and there are no other grounds to process that information, where the personal data has been unlawfully processed or where we are required by law to delete it; and
  • restrict the processing of your personal data whilst we confirm whether any data needs correcting following your request, the processing is unlawful and you do not want us to delete this personal data; where we no longer need to process the personal data, but you require the information to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. In these circumstances we will only process your personal data for purposes for which you have consented, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or the protection of the rights of another person; and/or
  • object to our processing of your personal data, where we process it under the legitimate interests grounds and we are unable to show a compelling legitimate interest that overrides your interests, rights and freedoms, or for the purposes of defending, exercising or defending legal claims
  • If you wish to make such a request, please contact us using the Contact Us section on the MQSC website or write to:

The Management Office Merchants Quay
Shopping Centre
1-5 Patrick Street
Cork
T12 ERW9

  • We may require additional information to either confirm your identity before we can process your request and/or to assist us in responding to your request.
  • If you are unhappy with the outcome of your request or with our processing of your personal data, you are entitled to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission through the link on their website.

Modifications of this policy

  • We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any changes to this privacy policy that may materially impact on you or our processing of your personal data, we will notify you by email (sent to the email address specified in your account) or by means of a notice on our website prior to the change becoming effective. Date of the last update of the Privacy Policy 31st August 2022.
  • Any questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed via our Contact Us page.