Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal data Sterling Defence holds, why we hold it, and your rights under UK data-protection law.

What we collect

• Account details: name, email, date of birth and, optionally, phone.
• Order and payment records, and delivery or collection details.
• Certificate records where you reserve a controlled item. Certificate numbers are encrypted and shown to staff only when needed to verify an order.
• Club application and membership records, where you apply.
• Limited technical signals used to protect accounts (see “Identity checks” below).

Why we hold it (lawful basis)

• To fulfil your orders and reservations (contract).
• To meet our legal obligations as a firearms dealer (legal obligation).
• To run the club and administer membership (contract / legitimate interests).
• To keep our members and staff safe and prevent fraud and unlawful access to firearms (legitimate interests).

Identity checks

We check new accounts and applications against records of people excluded from the club, and for signs that someone is holding more than one account. We do this to protect our members and staff and to prevent firearms access by excluded individuals. The values we use for matching are stored only in a one-way hashed form; we do not keep a readable copy of them for this purpose.

How long we keep it

Retention periods are set out in our internal data map and follow legal and accounting requirements: order and payment records for six years; firearms register entries as long-term dealer records; certificate records until 12 months after expiry; and audit logs for two years, among others. Records of excluded individuals are kept for up to ten years as a matter of legitimate interest and to defend legal claims, and may be retained even after an account is anonymised.

Your rights

• Access a copy of your data - use “Download my data” in your account settings.
• Ask us to correct inaccurate data.
• Ask us to delete your data. Where we must keep certain records by law, we anonymise your account and retain only those legally required records; we explain the difference when you ask.
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests.

Cookies

We use only strictly necessary cookies. See our Cookies page for details.

Contact

To exercise any right or ask a question, contact us. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.