At the El Corte Inglés Group Companies, we are committed to safeguarding your personal information and protecting it from misuse.
This document outlines who is responsible for processing data, what your personal information will be used for, the legal grounds for processing data, how and why we collect it, how we use it, your rights in this regard and also the process put in place to ensure your privacy.
We assume that by providing us with your personal information and using our websites, you have read and understood the terms and conditions set out relating to personal data protection. El Corte Inglés Group Companies undertake to comply with prevailing national and European law regarding data protection. As such, they endeavour to handle your data lawfully, honestly and with transparency.
This document applies to all El Corte Inglés Group companies.
“Data Controllers” is defined in the General Data Protection Regulations as follows:
“Data Controllers”: the individual or corporation, public authority, service or other body which, acting alone or in conjunction with others, specifies the purposes of processing and means by which this is performed.
All group companies are responsible to an extent for processing their customers’ personal information.
If you have any enquiry, comment or concern, or would like to comment on our use of personal information, you can email the El Corte Inglés Group Data Protection Officer at delegado.protecciondatos@elcorteingles.es
Innovation is one of the hallmarks of all companies comprising the El Corte Inglés Group. We are constantly adding new products in areas as diverse as fashion and accessories, decoration and household, technology, food and catering and culture.
El Corte Inglés includes new products in all areas in which it operates: fashion, decoration, the very latest in technology or sport, ground-breaking ideas in food and catering, culture and entertainment, etc. which, hand in hand with our quality commitments and guarantees, allows us to cater for customers with different tastes or needs.
In 2017, El Corte Inglés merged with Hipercor, with the aim of improving and supplementing what we offer to customers, while simultaneously harnessing the synergies of both business formats.
The Group’s specialist DIY, interior design, gardening and complete home refurbishment chain has two types of business formats: large establishments offering a wide range of products on public display, and the El Corte Inglés centres in urban areas enabling us to cater for customers seeking very competitively-priced home DIY solutions without having to travel to the outskirts of the city.
This is the Group’s specialist solutions and services integration company. It is a technology consultancy company catering for businesses and their digital transformation.
Since it was first established, it has based its growth on developing its services from its initial mission to distribute IT products and solutions, to including consultancy and integration of electronic business systems and solutions.
Its experience and knowledge of the market have led it to undertake major projects for both public and private organisations in a wide variety of sectors, including telecommunications, transport, insurance and banking.
Óptica 2000 is the El Corte Inglés Group’s optical and audiology chain. It operates through physical shops located in El Corte Inglés shopping centres and in individual establishments.
Seguros El Corte Inglés, Vida, Pensiones y Reaseguros is the El Corte Inglés Group’s own insurance company serving the needs of customers by offering products such as life and accident insurance, savings insurance, short-term and lifetime income insurance and pension plans.
From the very outset, its goal has been to provide quality services by offering its customers, their families and company staff the opportunity to protect themselves and plan for their futures, with the broadest possible coverage at competitive rates.
The El Corte Inglés Group’s own insurance company came into being to cater for customers’ needs by providing a wide range of comprehensive insurance and services.
Centros de Seguros y Servicios is an Insurance Broker and forms part of the El Corte Inglés Group. Currently, it is a leader in terms of nationwide presence, accessibility for policy holders, opening hours and experience in all kinds of risk cover.
This has allowed it to improve and expand the range of insurance plans offered, including launching new products for cars, travel assistance, technological assistance and mobile telephony, while updating the conditions for already consolidated products that require adjustments to meet new market requirements.
In as far as financial mediation is concerned, it has placed particular emphasis on combining a range of products from the best brokers with exclusive products for El Corte Inglés customers.
Sfera was conceived as a chain of stores specialising in fashion and accessories that feature a large selection of garments for men, women and children in the areas of formal fashion, sport-city fashion and weekend and leisure clothing.
Thanks to its exclusive team of designers, Sfera is constantly adding new fashion collections to its shops that are inspired by the latest trends. The result is comfortable, fashionable and affordable clothing, designed to ensure that everyone can find their own style.
It is committed to constant renewal, variety and quality at the best price on the market, opening its shops in the best shopping districts in each city of operation and its own section in El Corte Inglés shopping centres. It also has stores outside Europe in Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Lastly, it's known for its own collections of women's lingerie, men's underwear and a special line for babies.
This supermarket chain was created to satisfy customers’ everyday grocery needs at a nearby location, offering the experience and quality that are the hallmarks of the El Corte Inglés Group.
The focus is on the supermarket’s food, particularly fresh food items. These set it apart because of their quality and competitive pricing. At Supercor supermarkets, customers can shop for fresh products from the shelves or be served by specialist staff.
Supercor Exprés is geared more to fast, easy shopping for basic food, household or perfumery items. In addition to leading brands, this supermarket format features own-brand products from the El Corte Inglés group like Aliada and Special Line.
The chain recently struck a deal with Repsol to be the shopping provider for the approximately 3,500 service stations that the oil corporation is about to open.
We hope you will pay one of our inviting, simply laid out Telecor stores a visit and learn about the latest smartphones and cutting-edge technology. We have created a unique layout for sharing experiences, where we have the best specialists in the sector on hand to advise on the full range of products and service providers. We will be part of your community and your leading provider of mobile solutions and services. At Telecor, we are always Connected with you. Pay us a visit!
Viajes El Corte Inglés bases its management model around providing an individually-tailored service for both its private and business customers, as well as planning and organising conferences, conventions and travel incentives. A team of professionals is on hand to offer advice and organise travel to each customer’s specifications.
Viajes El Corte Inglés also has a Corporate Division that specialises in working with corporate clients and is able to cater efficiently for large multinational corporations and SMEs alike.
The travel agency has more than 500 branches and, apart from Spain, is present in France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, the United States, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
The main purpose for collecting your personal information is to provide an improved service, which is what you as a customer expect of us.
We collect your personal information so that we can process your purchases, orders or requests, whether it be in one of our shopping centres, warehouses, agencies, supermarkets, or via our websites or applications, by telephone or by completing a form.
Below, we've included the main purposes for collecting data in El Corte Inglés Group companies:
HOW DO WE GATHER INFORMATION ABOUT YOU?
We gather personal information about you through various means. In some cases, you contact us to share your personal details; in other cases, we gather your personal data by other means. Below, we've outlined the different methods we use for gathering your personal information, along with a few examples of how the information is used.
We gather personal information that you furnish via El Corte Inglés Group websites, email, mobile phone, when you sign up to a service, when you fill out a form, etc. In all cases, you will be notified of the Data Controller of the information, what it will be used for and who will receive the information when the information is gathered, as well as how to exercise your rights under prevailing data protection law.
For instance, it is likely that you provide us with information when you contact our customer service, place an order, register with our websites, update your preferences and account details, fill out a questionnaire, or take part in a competition, etc.
Generally, the personal information you provide us with is: first name and surname(s), address, ID, date of birth, email address, contact telephone number and payment details. In isolated cases, depending on how we anticipate using your data and to what end, data may be gathered about you as a person, your education and career, employment details, commercial information, social circumstances, money and insurance and transfers of goods and services.
We gather and store limited personal information and anonymous overall statistics for all users visiting our websites, either because you have actively provided us with that information, or because you are merely browsing our websites. Information we gather includes the IP address of the device you are using, the browser used, your operating system, the date and time our website was accessed, the web address via which you accessed our websites, as well as information about how you use our websites.
We use this information to give us an idea of how long it takes our websites to load, how the websites are used, the number of hits on the different sections and the type of information that draws most hits. It also helps to ascertain whether the website is working as it should. If we detect functional faults or errors, if helps us to fix them and improve our web performance, so that we can also offer a better service for all users.
This information is gathered using cookies. For further details, please refer to the cookies policy, which is available on each El Corte Inglés Group Company website.
Use of social networks is becoming increasingly common. As a result, the El Corte Inglés Group has a presence on most of them and may use them to contact you.
Information we collect via social networks sometimes includes personal information that is publicly available online. We always ensure that all information used by us correctly acknowledges its source or is made anonymous.
It is likely that these social networks have their own privacy policy explaining how your personal information is used and shared. We recommend you carefully read the privacy policies before using social networks so that you are sure you agree with how your personal details are collected and shared.
The El Corte Inglés Group apps have a geolocation feature for pinpointing your whereabouts so that it can show you the nearest establishment. Enabling the geolocation feature on your mobile device means you can make the most of the applications’ full range of functionalities. We will remind you to turn on geolocation if it is not enabled by sending you a message requesting permission beforehand.
This geolocation service will not be used to inform third parties of your location, except where this is a legal requirement.
Most mobile devices offer users the option of disabling location services. This option is likely to be found in the settings menu of your device. If you have any questions regarding how to disable your device’s location services, we recommend that you contact your mobile service provider or the manufacturer of your device.
If you wish to disable location services on an Android device, go to Location services in your mobile phone’s Settings menu. Most Android devices allow location services to be disabled for the entire mobile phone, such as GPS services and other companies’ location services. Generally, location services will not be enabled unless you check the box to enable them.
If you wish to disable location services on your iPhone, you can do this for all models from the Settings menu by selecting Location Services. In order to disable location services for the whole device, slide the bar until the Off option appears. In order to disable location services for a certain application, slide the bar next to each application until the Off option appears.
There are a number of reasons why we are legally entitled to process your personal details:
HOW CAN YOU MAKE CHANGES TO THE WAY IN WHICH WE CONTACT YOU WITH INFORMATION ABOUT OUR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES?
This can be done in the following ways:
If you have never requested that we send you commercial correspondence, you can sign up for the various newsletters we provide or you can email us at customer_support@elcorteingles.com
If you have already given your consent, your information will be passed on to El Corte Inglés Group Companies (please go to https://www.elcorteingles.com/informacioncorporativa/es/quienes-somos/empresas-del-grupo/) for it to be processed for the aforementioned purposes. Not all the purposes mentioned involve a transfer of data, especially since each Group company gathers data of its own accord.
There are cases where we have to disclose the data you have provided us to third parties in order to carry out the requested service. These include travel and hotel bookings, logistics, transportation and delivery, fitters and/or assemblers, home refurbishments, etc.
In addition, there are companies that provide us with other kinds of services such as: information technology (information storage and processing), security services, financial services, audit services, etc.
These third parties may only access personal information required for providing said services. They are required to keep your personal information confidential and may not use it in any way other than as requested by us.
El Corte Inglés Group companies accept liability at all times for personal information provided to us. We request that companies with which we share your personal information protect it to the same extent as we do.
In addition, your personal information will be accessible to Public authorities, Judges and Courts for addressing any duties arising as a result of processing.
The personal information we gather is held in Spain. It may be the case, however, that some Group companies operate in other countries, in which case your personal information would be held in that company's country of operation.
In some cases, US-based cloud computing services will be contracted, which involves data being transferred internationally. In such cases, the appropriate guarantees will be made to protect your information. You can find out more about these guarantees by writing to delegado.protecciondatos@elcorteingles.es.
Where we provide links to websites not operated or monitored by El Corte Inglés Group companies, you will be notified without delay, since the El Corte Inglés Group exercises no control over said websites, nor is it responsible for their content, and it exercises no control over how third parties gather and use your personal information. It is likewise not responsible for third-party websites and makes no claim in this respect.
It is likely that these websites have their own privacy policies explaining how your personal information is used and shared. We recommend carefully checking the privacy policies before using these websites so that you are sure you agree with how your personal information is collected and shared.
We only store your personal information for as long as is necessary to use it in accordance with the purpose for which it was collected, and in compliance with the legal basis for processing as per applicable law. We will hold your personal information for as long as there is a contractual and/or commercial relationship with you, or until such time as you exercise your right of erasure, cancellation and/or limiting processing of your data.
In such cases, we will block the information as instructed and we will not use it. However, it may be necessary for making or disputing claims, or its processing may require legal or contractual liability issues to be addressed. In these instances, the data would have to be recovered.
You are entitled to a say in how the personal information we collect is handled. In this respect, we also undertake to ensure its accuracy and truthfulness.
You are entitled to be provided access to your personal information, as well as to request rectification of inaccurate information or, where applicable, request its removal for reasons such as the data no longer being necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
Under certain circumstances, and for reasons relating to your specific situation, you may object to your data being processed. Your personal information will no longer be processed for those purposes to which you have objected. Likewise, you may exercise your right to limit processing of your personal information by requesting that we hold it.
Under certain circumstances, you may request transfer of your data to another Data Controller.
You may exercise your rights free of charge, and can expect to receive a reply within the time periods set out under the prevailing law on data protection. You may do so in any of the following ways:
You may lodge a claim with the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), particularly if you are dissatisfied with how your request to exercise your rights has been handled. For more information, visit the website www.agpd.es
We are committed to protecting your personal information. We use appropriate technical and organisational measures for protecting your personal information and privacy. We review said measures regularly. We protect your personal information using a combination of security checks. These are both physical and IT- or logic-based, including access checks restricting and managing how your personal information and data are processed, managed and handled. We also make sure that our employees are properly trained to protect your personal information. In accordance with our procedures, we may request proof of identity from you before sharing your personal information with you.
Pursuant to our security and confidentiality guarantee, we are particularly intent on offering you the highest possible level of security and protecting the confidentiality of personal information you have provided us with. As a result, commercial transactions are made in a secure server environment using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocol.
If you encounter problems at any time accessing any part of our website, this may be because of your browser type or version or its settings. If you need help finding a solution or have any questions regarding how our purchasing system works, please call us at 902 22 44 11. We will be more than happy to help.
The Internet is a means of communication as well as a new medium which enables commercial transactions to be made online. In this regard, one of the main concerns of Internet users is the online security of their data.
An E-commerce transaction is the entire process of reaching a commercial agreement, including contact between the two parties: customer and company. Aspects that all commercial transactions must share are:
We are especially concerned with security and ensuring the confidentiality of the data provided by you. This has led to us becoming both founding members of @ECE (the Spanish E-Commerce Association) and signatories of Confianza Online, a system for settling possible disputes between consumers and companies in the context of E-Commerce and Interactive Advertising, backed by a large number of business associations, the National Institute of Consumer Affairs (INC), the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) and the Ministry of Science and Technology.
El Corte Inglés Group websites, applications and products are not usually aimed at minors. However, there are occasions when we run a campaign, such as the launch of consoles or video games, which may appeal to minors. Nevertheless, we do not intentionally gather any personal information for minors without the authorisation of their parent(s) or guardian(s).
If you are a minor, please do not attempt to register as a user of our website, applications or products. If it comes to our attention that we have mistakenly obtained personal information from a minor, we will delete said information as soon as possible.
These are some of the precautionary measures that we recommend our customers take:
We will review and update data protection when changes are made to the law or any procedures for processing your personal information, stating the date of the most recent update, content and date.
The latest update to this data protection information was made in November 2018.
El Corte Inglés. All rights reserved.