Gray & Son Robemakers of Durham Limited (Grays) is committed to protecting your privacy. We use the information we collect about you to process orders and to provide a personalised service to you when you visit our website.

At Grays, we appreciate that you do not want the personal information you provide to us distributed indiscriminately and here, we explain how we collect information, what we do with it and what controls you have.

This Privacy Policy is for the website hosted at https://www.graysofdurham.com ("we", "us" and "our website"). The website is operated by or on behalf of Grays & Son Robemakers of Durham Limited.

This policy sets out:

  1. What information we collect and how it is used
  2. Our use of cookies
  3. Our promotional updates and communications
  4. When we share information with outside parties
  5. Where information is stored and how long it is stored for
  6. Payment processing
  7. How we protect personal information
  8. Your rights regarding your personal information
  9. Changes to this policy
  10. Contacting us

Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal information and how we will treat it. By engaging with our website you acknowledge you have read and understood this privacy policy.

For the purposes of European data protection law, ("Data Protection Law"), the data controller is:

Gray & Son Robemakers of Durham Limited

4 Neville Street

Durham DH1 4EY

E: grayandson@btconnect.com


1. What information we collect and how is it used

When you order we need to know:

  • your name, e-mail address, delivery address, debit/credit card number and expiry date;
  • your telephone number to enable us to contact you if there is a problem with your order; and
  • your ceremony or degree details.

We need this information for our contract with you so that we can process and fulfil your order, notify you of your order status and assist you if there is a problem with your order. We also use this information to administer your account with us and verify and carry out financial transactions in relation to payments you make under our contract with you.

When you submit an order on the website, we may also ask you questions about what kind of products and services you would like to be able to buy. If you answer those questions, we may keep a record of your answers for the purposes of our legitimate interests to help us to improve our products and services generally.

We may also use your email and address details to notify you (by email or post) about:

  • important functionality changes to the website, and about new Grays products, services and special offers we think you would appreciate, where you have given your consent to receiving this information from us where required by law or otherwise in our legitimate interests, provided these interests do not override your right to object to such communications. If you change your mind and would rather not receive this information please send an email at any time to grayandson@btconnect.com

We will automatically collect information from you each time you visit our website. This includes: technical information, information about your visit and location data. We use this to ensure in our legitimate interests that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer or device, and we provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us.

Except as indicated in this privacy policy, all other personal information that you give us through the website is used only for the purposes of complying with contracts that you enter into via the website.

2. Our use of Cookies

Grays uses cookies, which are tiny text files stored on your computer or device when you visit certain web pages. The types of cookies we use with your consent are for analytical purposes to help us understand our website better and give you an improved online experience and for advertising/marketing.

Analytic cookies

These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website. This helps us for our legitimate interests of improving the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

Google Analytics

Portions of this website use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses "cookies", which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyse how users use the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.

Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

How to remove cookies

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. Please note that deleting cookies will limit your web experience on our website.

3. Our promotional updates and communications

Where permitted in our legitimate interest or with your prior consent where required by law, we will use your personal information for marketing analysis and to provide you with promotional update communications by email or post about our products/services or those of business partners identified to you.

You can object to further marketing at any time by checking and updating your contact details within your account, or selecting the "unsubscribe" link at the end of all our marketing and promotional update communications to you, or by sending us an email to grayandson@btconnect.com.

4. When we share information with outside parties

We may disclose your personal information in the following circumstances to:

Organisations who process your personal information on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions and the Data Protection Law. This includes in supporting the services we offer through the website in particular those providing website and data hosting services, supporting the fulfilment of orders or in providing customer support, distributing any communications we send, supporting or updating marketing lists, and providing IT support services from time to time. These organisations (which may include third party suppliers, agents, sub-contractors will only use your information subject to contractual safeguards and only to the extent necessary to perform their support functions.

Your educational institution (which may be selected by you on our website) with whom we have entered into agreements in relation to the processing of your personal information.

Payment processing providers who provide secure payment processing services and as described further below. (note your payment card details are not shared with us by the provider).

We may also disclose your personal information to third parties:

In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal information to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets subject to the terms of this privacy policy.

If Grays or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal information held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.

If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of supply terms and other agreements with you; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Grays, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction and to prevent cybercrime.

5. Where is the information stored, and how long is it stored for?

Information which you submit via this website is sent to a computer located in the United Kingdom. This is necessary in order to process the information and to send you the information you have requested.

Information submitted by you may be transferred by us to, and stored at, a destination outside the UK that may not be subject to equivalent Data Protection Law.

Where your information is transferred internationally, we will take all steps necessary to ensure that your data is subject to appropriate safeguards, such as relying on a recognised legal adequacy mechanism, and that it is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

We retain personal data for as long as you have an account with us or in order to meet our contractual obligations to you or to your academic institution and for six years after that to identify any issues and resolve any legal proceedings.

We may also retain aggregate information beyond this time for research purposes and to help us develop and improve our services. You cannot be identified from aggregate information retained or used for these purposes.

International Transfers

The United Kingdom (UK) and countries within the European Economic Area (EEA) have laws relevant to the protection of personal data. We may transfer your personal information outside the United Kingdom (UK) to a country not located within the UK or EEA and not regarded as providing an equivalent level of data protection under laws applicable in the UK or EEA:

  • In order to enable us to provide goods or services to you and fulfil our contract with you. This includes order fulfilment, processing of payment details, and the provision of IT, hosting and other support services.
  • where it is in our legitimate interests and we have concluded these are not overridden by your rights.

We may transfer your personal information to the following such countries and subject to the following safeguards:


• USA

  • Google Analytics terms incorporate standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission and recognised by the UK Government as a legal mechanism for safeguarding personal data transfers
  • Stripe's terms incorporate standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission and recognised by the UK Government as a legal mechanism for safeguarding personal data transfers.
  • Legal transfer safeguards are assessed in relation to the circumstances of the data transfer and where required, supported by supplemental safeguards to seek to provide a similar level of protection of your personal data as would be required in the EEA and UK.

6. Payment processing

Payments made on the website are secured and directed through our payment gateway provider, Stripe. You will be providing credit or debit card information directly to Stripe which operates a secure server to process payment details, encrypting your credit/debit card information and authorising payment. Stripe has been audited by a Payment Card Industry (PCI) certified auditor and is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1. This is the most stringent level of certification available in the payments industry.

7. How do we protect customer information?

To prevent unauthorised access as required by Data Protection Law, we follow strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of information which you have given us. Our security procedures mean that we may request proof of identity before we are able to disclose personal data to you following a request from you to do so. We use a secure server by which you may place your order or access your account information.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

This website may, from time to time, contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites.

8. Your rights regarding your personally identifiable information?


You have the right under certain circumstances:

  • to be provided with a copy of your personal data held by us;
  • to request the rectification or erasure of your personal data held by us;
  • to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data (while we verify or investigate your concerns with this information, for example);
  • to object to the further processing of your personal data, including the right to object to marketing (as mentioned in 'Our promotional updates and communications';
  • to request that your provided personal data be moved to a third party.

Your right to withdraw consent:

Where the processing of your personal information by us is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent without detriment at any time You can also change your marketing preferences at any time as described in 'Our promotional updates and communications' section;

You can also exercise the rights listed above at any time by sending an email to grayandson@btconnect.com or by contacting us using details below.

If your request or concern is not satisfactorily resolved by us, you may approach your local data protection authority, (see http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/bodies/authorities/index_en.html ). The Information Commissioner ("ICO") is the supervisory authority in the UK.


9. Changes to this policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in future will be posted on this page and, in relation to substantive changes, may be notified to you by e-mail. This policy was last updated on 6th June 2022.

10. Contact Details

Privacy Officer

Gray & Son Robemakers of Durham Limited

4 Neville Street

Durham DH1 4EY


E: grayandson@btconnect.com