Privacy, Cookie & Data Policy

The privacy of our users is important to us and we take care to safeguard it. We have updated this policy in line with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that came into effect on 25th May 2018.

This page describes our privacy policy, including the information that we might collect and how this is processed and stored.

What information do we collect?

We collect:

• The names, job roles, email addresses and mobile numbers of company nominated individuals for receipt of email and other correspondence from the NBF
• The names of individuals, emails and their company (if appropriate) who contact the NBF to place a trade enquiry
• The name, job role and company details of individuals that register for a short seminar or other event
• The name, e-mail address, job role and company name of individuals that register for the NBF Bed Show – for privacy and cookie policy, see here:
• The names and email addresses of individuals that contact us – companies or members of the public – directly with an enquiry
• Why do we collect this information?

We collect information for the following activities:

• To act as a trade association
• For membership services
• For NBF events including conferences, seminars, training sessions
• To run the Bed Show
• To publish trade enquiries
• To allow individuals from member companies access to the NBF members’ area of the web site
• To answer questions from the trade and the public

More specifically:

About NBF: The NBF is a (not for profit) trade association for British and Irish bed manufacturers and other companies within the supply chain, and as such is principally a membership organisation. Therefore, the focus of the NBF’s main public activity in regard to the processing of personal data is business-to-business and the lawful basis for processing personal data will often be because it is in the legitimate interest of the parties and necessary for the performance of the contract with the NBF and the member.

The NBF operates with a few trusted individuals that provide consultancy services in specific areas and these are governed by a contract (employment or service) and a privacy policy in line with data protection laws. With a few exceptions, when engaged with members, including member recruitment or retention activities, no personal data will be shared outside of the NBF or any consultant(s) or trusted third parties that the NBF engages to help in this exercise and in the general operation of the business. (For further detail – see below – Do we disclose any information to outside parties).

Membership services: As a membership organisation, the NBF requests and stores the contact details of nominated individual representatives from companies that join the NBF as members through completion of an application form. This enables the NBF to keep members up to date with our services through email and other correspondence, and contact will also extend to billing and the administration of accounts.

Additionally, we may collect information from members relating to their use of the service for the purposes of monitoring and improving our provision and tailoring the provided service.

NBF events: the NBF also runs events such as our Spring Forum and contact details are obtained from those that attend which may include individuals from member and non-member companies. Contact details will be added to or deleted as advised by member companies. The information regarding other individuals will be kept for a limited period in the event that those individuals may be interested in another event being run by the NBF or for further contact if that person has expressed an interest in NBF membership.

The Bed Show: the NBF also runs the Bed Show each year and as such has established a database of email contacts from those that have attended the show (s) or expressed an interested in doing so. Those individuals are appraised of the event, date, time and location together with the names of the exhibitors and for, and from, the 2019 show these emails will only be sent to those that specifically opt-in to receiving them. In addition there is an unsubscribe option for those that wish to withdraw consent for the Bed Show emails. (See e-mail platform below for further details).

Visits to our website:

Visitors to the open NBF web site do so on an anonymous basis. However, your personal information will be processed if you voluntarily complete any forms on our site or if you contact us with comments or specific requests.

Log File Analytics & Google Analytics: Our web server records IP addresses and writes these to log files that allow us to analyse visitor numbers on this website, track user’s movement around the website and from page to page, we use this information see how visitors use and interact with our website.

Google Analytics is implemented on this website and collects various data points from visitors to the website. IP Addresses are used to distinguish visitor numbers to the website. Google Analytics will record the country you access this website from using your IP Address. Data gathered by Google Analytics allows us to analyse visitor numbers on this website, track user’s movement around the website and from page to page, we use this information see how visitors use and interact with our website. Google Analytics data is stored for a period of 26 months which allows us to build a year upon year picture of visitor numbers to our website.

Data gathered by Google Analytics may be stored outside of the European Union in line with its undertakings through the EU-US Privacy Shield Program. Further information can be found at https://policies.google.com/privacy/frameworks?hl=en&gl=de

You can find out more about Google’s position on privacy as regards its analytics service at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en-GB

Website Backups: This website is backed up on a regular basis for security and disaster recovery purposes. The backups are stored securely with Dropbox. Dropbox may store these backups outside of the European Union in line with its undertakings through the EU-US Privacy Shield Program. Further information can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/privacy

Website backups will be stored for a maximum of 30 days before being deleted.

Technology platforms:

E-mail marketing platform: the NBF uses a respected email platform (currently Mailchimp) for member bulletins, for the Bed Show and for our BedBiz newsletter and this allows the NBF administrator to view who accessed the email and who unsubscribed. E-mail address lists are uploaded to this site as a distribution list. Administrator access to site is password protected.

You can unsubscribe from our newsletters at any point by click the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of each email newsletter you receive.

For more information, see: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/

MailChimp may store data outside of the European Union in line with its undertakings through the EU-US Privacy Shield Program. Further information can be found at https://kb.mailchimp.com/accounts/management/about-mailchimp-the-eu-swiss-privacy-shield-and-the-gdpr

CRM platform: To help with the management of NBF members, we store NBF member data in Sheep CRM.

For more information, see SheepCRM’s privacy policy: https://sheepcrm.co.uk/privacy-policy and Sheep CRM’s data processing agreement: https://sheepcrm.co.uk/data-processing-agreement 

Event platform: Visitors to the Bed Show register through a technology platform – RegBox – and this allows the NBF administrators to view a spreadsheet of the details entered on the registration form. Administrator access to the site is password-protected. For the RegBox personal data safeguards see – https://www.regbox.co.uk/privacy-policy/

How does the NBF store and protect your information?

The information we collect is stored on and off line and we implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of personal information. On-line data is stored in the local server and backed-up regularly. Some data is held in portable hard drives and these are stored in secure locked cabinets. Paper documentation is stored in organised files in locked cabinets. Archived paper data is held concerning past NBF activities and this data held in a secure and locked storage area.

We will retain all given information on the following basis

All information required to administer our accounts system, including bank account details, are stored on Sage software. All paper accounting information is routinely destroyed after seven years. Similarly, where applicable, the criteria used to determine the period of storage of personal data is the respective statutory retention period. After expiration of that period, the corresponding data is routinely deleted, as long as it is no longer necessary for the fulfilment of the contract or the initiation of a contract.

All other contact details and information is retained until otherwise advised by a member company that it should change, or for a reasonable period after a member company leaves membership as is the case for any other contact details unless that individual has unsubscribed from further contact or a specific opt-in requirement is appropriate and that individual had not provided it.

Do we use cookies?

Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.

We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business.

See our Cookie Policy for more information.

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

Identifiable personal information collected by the NBF whether business or public, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company or third party for any reason whatsoever, without your explicit consent. This does not include:

• Trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, e-mail distribution, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information being confidential.
• Attendance lists at NBF events which are shared between those that attend but this is restricted to name, company and job role. Email addresses are not disclosed.
• Attendance lists at the Bed Show which are shared with exhibitors – this is restricted to name of individual, company and job role and does not include email addresses.
• Information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety.
• Non-personal information such as company name may be disclosed to the public and third parties in certain circumstances, such as the names of those companies that attend the Bed Show or member companies that exhibit at the January Furniture Show.

Third party links

Occasionally at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites. We do not provide personal information to these third parties.

Internal policies

All those working for the NBF are issued with a privacy policy, a data subjects’ access policy and a data subject rights policy and in that respect all are advised of their right:

• to be informed
• of access
• for any inaccuracies to be corrected
• to have information deleted
• to restrict the processing of the data
• to portability
• to object to the inclusion of any information
• to regulate any automated decision-making and profiling of personal data

Equally, all are advised to make the controller (NBF) immediately aware if they believe there has been a personal data breach and the NBF will, if founded, report the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office without undue delay and within 72 hours of discovering the breach.

Please note a reportable breach is one which is likely to result in a risk to people’s rights and freedoms. If this is not a likely consequence, the breach does not need to be reported. The data held on individuals in NBF member companies is provided by the member and can be corrected, deleted or amended at any time by advising NBF of the appropriate changes.