Privacy Policy

Last updated August 2024

Thirsty Birds Wine Ltd. respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data.

The information set out in this privacy policy aims to inform you as to how we collect and look after your personal data when you visit our website www.thirsty-birds.com; when you purchase wines from us (through our website or at the cellar door); when you open a customer account and/or register with us; when you otherwise contact us and when we deliver you the products and services you have ordered from us. It will also tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

References to "you" or "your" are to you as an individual using our website or otherwise contacting Thirsty Birds Wine Ltd. (either on behalf of yourself, your business or another individual or organisation).

Important information

Please make sure to read this privacy policy in conjunction with our Terms & Conditions and any other privacy policies or fair processing notices we may provide on specific occasions (such as events or tastings) when we collect or process your personal data. This is to ensure you are fully informed about how and why we use your data. This privacy policy is meant to complement those other notices and does not replace them.

Please be aware that Thirsty Birds Wine Ltd. regularly reviews this Privacy Policy and may update or amend it periodically. Any changes will be posted on our website. You can obtain previous versions by contacting us.

Ensuring that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and up to date is important. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us, such as a new postal or email address.

Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

By accessing and continuing to use Thirsty Birds Wine Ltd website, you accept the terms of this privacy policy.

Who we are

Thirsty Birds Wine Ltd. is a company incorporated in England and Wales with company number 15557757. Our registered office is 30a Claremont Square, London, United Kingdom, N1 9LX and is referred to as “Thirsty Birds”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy policy.

Thirsty Birds Wine Ltd. is a retailer of wines. We operate an ecommerce website and our cellar door shop in Unit 6, Bulcote industrial Estate, Retford, DN22 8WQ to provide our customers with the ability to purchase from a selection of distinctive wines, which we source from producers in the UK. 

Thirsty Birds Wine Ltd. is a controller, and we are responsible for your personal data. We are bound by applicable data protection laws in respect of the handling and collection of your personal data, and we are registered as a data controller in England and Wales, with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) who can be contacted on 0303 123 1113 or via www.ico.org.uk. Thirsty Birds Wine Ltd ICO number is ZB705352.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights as set out in the Legal Rights section, please contact us using the contact details in the Contact section.

The data we collect about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data) or data relating to a corporate entity.

If you visit our website, or contact us to enquire about our products and services or contact us by telephone, email or at our cellar door, we may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you, which we have grouped together as follows:

  • Identity Data includes first name, last name, title and date of birth.

  • Contact Data includes home or business address, billing and delivery address(es), place of work, email address(es) and telephone number(s).

  • Financial Data includes our customers' card holder details (CHD), bank account details (bank name, account name, number, address and sort code).

  • Transaction Data includes details about order history, payment instructions, payment patterns made by you.

  • Technical Data includes your internet protocol (IP) address, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, as well as the use of cookies or other devices to store and occasionally track information about you (more details on our use of cookies can be found in the Cookies section). This also encompasses other technologies used on the devices you use to access our website

  • Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases and orders made by you, any event history, account preferences, feedback and survey responses.

  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our website and/or software.

  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us, or other third parties and your communication preferences.

We also collect, use, and share Aggregated Data, such as statistical or demographic information, for various purposes. Although this aggregated data may be derived from your personal data, it is not considered personal data under the law, as it does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. However, if we combine or link Aggregated Data with your personal data in a way that could directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data, which will be handled in accordance with this privacy policy.

We do not actively collect any Special Categories of Personal Data. This includes details about your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs.

Our website is not intended for Children and in this respect, we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

If you fail to provide your personal data

If we are required by law, or under the terms of a contract with you, to collect personal data and you fail to provide it when requested, we may be unable to fulfil the contract we have or are attempting to establish with you. This could result in the suspension or cancellation of an order for a product or service you have with us. If this occurs, we will notify you at that time.

How we collect your personal data

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

Direct interactions: You may provide us with your Identity, Contact, Profile, Marketing, and Communications Data by filling out forms or communicating with us via post, phone, email, social media, or other methods. This personal data may be provided when you:

  • Purchase any of our products or services through our website, at the cellar door, or at our events.

  • Purchase any of our products or services by contacting us via email or telephone.

  • Set up a customer account with us.

  • Meet with one of our staff members to discuss our products and services or otherwise contact us.

  • Contact our sales and support teams via email or telephone.

  • Request marketing materials and publications to be sent to you.

  • Subscribe to our newsletter.

  • Enter a competition, promotion, or survey.

  • Provide us with feedback.

  • Automated technologies or interactions: As you interact with our website or software we may automatically collect Technical or Usage Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. Please see the Cookies section.

  • Third parties or publicly available sources: We may receive personal data about you from various other third parties and public sources

  • We receive Technical and Usage Data from analytics providers, such as Google, based outside the EU.

How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when permitted by law. Please be aware that we may process your personal data based on multiple lawful grounds, depending on the specific purpose for which we are using it. If you need details about the particular legal grounds we are relying on for processing your personal data, please contact us. The most common circumstances in which we will use your personal data include:

  • Performance of Contract. This involves processing your personal data when it is necessary to fulfil a contract you are a party to or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

  • Legitimate Interest: This refers to our business's interest in operating and managing our activities to provide you with the best products or services and a secure experience. Before processing your personal data for our legitimate interests, we carefully assess and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights. We will not use your personal data for activities where our interests are outweighed by the impact on you, unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted by law. If you would like more information about how we evaluate our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in specific activities, please contact us (refer to the Contact section).

  • Consent means where we have obtained your agreement to process your personal data. Consent must be freely given, specific, informed and be an unambiguous indication of your wishes for us to process your personal data (this may be collected by you ticking a box). Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending our newsletters and/or marketing material to you via email, post, phone, text message and social media. You have the right to withdraw consent to newsletters and/or marketing at any time by contacting us (please see the 'Opting Out/Unsubscribing’ and the Contact sections).

  • Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

  • Marketing: We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. You can unsubscribe using the link displayed on every email newsletter and marketing communication.

Marketing from Us

If you provide your express, opt-in consent, we may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and/or Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you.

You may receive marketing communications from us after you have requested information from us or opened a customer account and, in each case, you have opted-in to receiving that marketing. We share your contact information with Squarespace, our email marketing provider, so they can send these emails on our behalf.

You can withdraw your consent at any time using the unsubscribe link or contact us. (Please see the 'Opting Out / Unsubscribing' section).

In some limited circumstances, we may contact you about similar products and/or services where you have purchased products or services from us and you have not opted-out of receiving this information. The legal basis on which we process personal data for these purposes is our legitimate interest to develop our products and services and grow our business.

Third-Party Marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside Squarespace and Thirsty Birds Wine Ltd. for marketing purposes. 

Opting Out / Unsubscribing

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by logging into your account and checking or unchecking relevant boxes to adjust your marketing preferences or by following the opt-out / unsubscribe links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, you may still receive messages for other purposes (such as providing the services to you).

Cookies

Necessary cookies
This website uses cookies and similar technologies, which are small files or pieces of text that download to a device when a visitor accesses a website or app. For information about viewing the cookies dropped on your device, visit The cookies Squarespace uses.

Functional cookies
These functional and required cookies  are always used, which allow Squarespace, our hosting platform, to securely serve this website to you.

Analytics & Performance cookies
These analytic and performance cookies are used on this website, as described below, only when you acknowledge our cookie banner. This website uses analytics and performance cookies to view site traffic, activity, and other data

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate and traffic source. This website collects personal data to power our site analytics, including information about your browser, network, and device; web pages you visited prior to coming to this website; your IP address. This information may also include details about your use of this website, including clicks, internal links, pages visited, scrolling, searches and timestamps. We share this information with Squarespace, our website analytics provider, to learn about site traffic and activity. 

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you disable or refuse cookies when browsing our website, please note that some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

Change of Purpose

We will use your personal data only for the purposes for which it was originally collected, unless we reasonably determine that it is needed for another purpose that is compatible with the original one. If you would like an explanation of how the new purpose aligns with the original one, please contact us (see the Contact section).

If we need to use your personal data for a purpose unrelated to the original one, we will notify you and explain the legal basis for doing so.

Please note that, in compliance with the aforementioned rules, we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent if required or permitted by law.

Disclosures of your personal data

For the purposes set out in the 'how we use your personal data' section we may have to share your personal data with third parties listed below.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

  • Service providers and developers based in (and outside) the UK who provide IT and system administration (including email, payment software and hosting) services.

  • Parcel carriers and hauliers delivering the goods.

  • Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the UK who provide consultancy, legal, banking, accounting insurance and services.

  • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators, law enforcement bodies, police and other authorities based in the UK who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances (such as criminal activity, suspected or actual fraud or tax evasion).

  • Marketing and PR providers where you have agreed to a publication or article with us.

Squarespace payments. When you make a purchase from us on this website, we use Squarespace Payments as our payment solution. Squarespace Payments is a fully integrated, native payment solution provided to us by our online store service provider Squarespace. Squarespace Payments makes use of the following third party service providers which will also receive your personal information and process it in accordance with their privacy policies:

International Transfers

We do not process your personal data in any country outside the UK or the European Union (EU). However, certain third parties are based outside of the EU, so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EU.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EU, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission.

  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe.

  • Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between Europe and the US.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EU.

Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

We will generally retain our clients' data for a period of 7 (seven) years after a contract has ended, to ensure that we are able to assist you should you have any questions or feedback in relation to our products or services or to protect, or defend our legal rights, or for tax purposes.

Where we have processed your personal data to provide you with marketing communications or any other reason, with consent, we may contact you at least every 12 (twelve) months to ensure you are happy to continue receiving such communications. If you tell us that you no longer wish to receive such communications, your personal data will be removed from our marketing lists (but will be added to a "do not contact" list).

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data; please see the 'Request erasure of your personal data' section for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. These rights are detailed below:

  • Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

  • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

  • Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

  • Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

  • Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

  • No fee usually required: You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

  • What we may need from you: We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

  • Time limit to respond: We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

  • If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us directly (please see the Contact section).

Contact details & complaints

Our full details are:

Full name of legal entity: Thirsty Birds Wine Ltd.

Contact person: Amy Roberts

Email address: Amy@thirsty-birds.com

Postal address: Unit 6, Bulcote industrial Estate, Retford, DN22 8WQ

Telephone: 07932 697116

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the ICO, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.