Privacy Policy
Phillips takes the privacy of your information seriously. We are committed to ensuring that information relating to you, from which you can be identified (known as 'Personal Data') is protected in accordance with our legal obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation and other applicable national data protection laws.
This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use and share your Personal Data. It should be read in conjunction with other terms and conditions that you are asked to sign if and when you use our services ('Services'), since these may contain additional information regarding how we collect, use and share your Personal Data.
Who are we?
Phillips operates internationally and members of the Phillips Group aim to provide a seamless service to Phillips clients globally. For this reason, this Privacy Policy relates to all members of the Phillips Group.
Phillips Auctioneers Limited (registered in England with company number 04228373) is the data controller of your Personal Data processed in connection with its operations and is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998 ('DPA'), the General Data Protection Regulation ('GDPR') and any other relevant UK legislation.
Phillips Auctioneers LLC (registered in New York with number 3308792) is the data controller of your Personal Data if you are a California resident for purposes of the California Consumer Privacy Act ('CCPA').
If you interact with Phillips in locations outside the United Kingdom or New York, the local Phillips entity (see list below) may control your Personal Data.
In this Privacy Policy, we, us, our, Phillips and/or the Phillips Group means the companies and affiliated entities located inside and outside the European Economic Area, from time to time through which Phillips operates its business including :
- Phillips Auctioneers Limited (registered in England with company number 04228373)
- Phillips Auctioneers LLC (registered in New York with auction license 2013224)
- Phillips Auctioneers Limited (registered in Hong Kong with company number 1603703)
- Phillips Auctioneers SARL (registered in France with company number 490 461 019 R.C.S. Paris)
- Phillips Fine Watches Limited (registered in Hong Kong and Switzerland with company number 2131858)
to the extent that any such company is processing your personal data.
How do we collect your personal data?
Collection from you
We may collect Personal Data directly from you (by email, telephone, face to face, in paper form and via our website and digital applications), including when you:
- express an interest in our Services or interact with us as a client or prospective client;
- subscribe to our newsletters, digital applications and catalogues;
- create a Phillips account at www.phillips.com, inform us of your collecting interests and/or download and use Phillips‘ digital applications;
- instruct us to provide Services to you and sign contractual documentation;
- register to bid in an auction (in person, on line, by telephone or by absentee bid);
- attend viewings, auctions, events and exhibitions.
Collection from other sources
We may collect Personal Data about you and the property you own or wish to collect from sources outside the Phillips Group, including when:
- we carry out required due diligence checks on you and your property
- we carry out required credit reference checks
- someone introduces you to us;
- you access our Services through third party social media networks or services.
- we use the services of unaffiliated third-party advertising networks, media monitoring companies and publicly available sources.
Automated data collection
When you visit our website www.phillips.com or download Phillips’ digital applications or interact with third-party websites, we collect data to facilitate and personalise your experience, for security and analytical purposes (including trend analysis) and system administration.
Data we collect automatically may include:
- data about you, your computer and other devices you use to access our website and digital applications (including your IP address, browser information, device information, and operating system information);
- search terms and URL’s used to reach our website and digital applications;
- data regarding the emails we send you, such as opens, clicks, and unsubscribes;
- your interaction with our websites and digital applications (such as the date, time, length of stay, and pages accessed during your visits);
- usage data for our websites and digital applications (such as the number and frequency of visitors).
We may associate this data with the following:
- your Phillips account (if you have one),
- the device(s) you use to connect to our Services; and/or
email or social media accounts that you use to engage with Phillips. We use cookies (small text files placed on your computer or device) and other automated data collection technologies (such as pixels and gifs) to collect this information. Our Cookie Policy explains what cookies are, the types of cookies we use and your choices in relation to such cookies. To view our Cookie Policy, please click here.
When you visit our premises and sale and exhibition venues, we may record your image through our CCTV operations for security, client service and bid-monitoring purposes. Our auctions are also filmed for simultaneous live broadcast on our and third party websites and applications.
Your communications with Phillips, including by telephone and online (e.g. telephone and on-line bidding) may also be recorded for security, client service and bid monitoring purposes. Where we record such information we will process it for the purposes set out below.
Third-party social media services
When you access our Services through a social network (such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) we collect information about you from the social network in accordance with your settings on the social network. If you interact with us on social media, we will collect information about those interactions. The information we may collect includes your name and email address.
WHAT PERSONAL DATA DO WE COLLECT AND HOW DO WE USE IT?
The table below explains the purposes for which we use your Personal Data, the types of Personal Data used and the legal grounds on which we process it under applicable Data Protection Legislation. Please refer to the Glossary for explanations of the legal grounds and other defined terms.
| Use | Examples of Personal Data used | Legal grounds for processing | |
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1. |
To respond to your requests for information regarding our Services, auctions, exhibitions and events |
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2. |
To provide you with information regarding our Services, auctions, exhibitions and events |
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3. |
To invite you to attend auctions, exhibitions and events |
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4. |
To follow up with you following your requests for information and for general marketing purposes (including keeping you informed by email and other electronic means, telephone and letter) of Services offered by the Phillips Group which may be of interest to you |
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5. |
To provide you with requested Services and for any other purposes for which you provide us with your Personal Data including:
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6. |
To carry out identity and credit checks (for example, in relation to buyers and bidders). Please note that we may use credit reference agencies to do this, who may record that a search has been made and share the search and results (including the information that we provide) with other organisations. Any use of your personal information by such agencies will be subject to those agencies' own privacy policies and terms of use, unless they are acting only on our behalf when processing your personal information; |
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7. |
To create and maintain art market records, including records of property you own, possess and/or consign to us (including to carry out valuations, authenticity, provenance and title checks, for restoration purposes and to prevent fraud, theft or other unlawful activities) |
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8. |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations (including KYC and anti-money laundering checks, tax reporting, assisting with law enforcement investigations and judicial proceedings) |
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9. |
To protect you, our staff, guests, property and our premises |
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10. |
To collect money owed to us or our consignors |
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11. |
To deal with your comments, suggestions and feedback and invite you to participate in market research studies |
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12. |
To monitor, audit and analyse trends, usage and activities in connection with our Services and to evaluate and improve the performance and effectiveness of our website, applications and Services (including to improve your user experience and for staff training) |
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13. |
To customise our website, digital applications and Services in line with your interests and preferences |
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14. |
To personalise your online experience and the advertisements you see when you use digital services or third-party platforms based on your interests, preferences, transaction history and browsing behaviour |
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15. |
To maintain our business records and processes across the Phillips Group (including for shipping, storage and outsourcing selected 'back office' functions to third parties such as hosted software solutions and cloud storage providers) |
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16. |
To obtain advice on our rights and obligations, protect our business, enforce our legal rights, and protect another person's rights, property, or safety (including exchanging information with third parties such as legal advisors, law enforcement agencies, fraud prevention agencies, debt collection agencies, regulatory authorities and judicial authorities) |
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As referenced in the table above, the following terms have the following meanings:
Performance of a contract: We may process your Personal Data because it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract.
Legitimate interests: We may process your Personal Data because it is necessary for our or a third party's legitimate interests. Our "legitimate interests" include our commercial interests in operating the business of the Phillips Group in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
Compliance with our legal obligations: We may process your Personal Data to comply with our legal obligations, including KYC and anti-money laundering checks and tax reporting.
Task carried out in the public interest: We may process your Personal Data where it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.
We may also process your Personal Data where:
- it is necessary to protect your or another person‘s vital interests
- it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims (for example, to protect and defend our rights or property, and/or the rights or property of our clients, or of third parties); and /or
- we have your specific or, where necessary, explicit consent to do so (for example, where we have your agreement to include information about you (as a seller) in sale marketing materials) or where we have sought and obtained your consent to send you direct marketing by email, or for the use of cookies on our website.
SHARING YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We may share your Personal Data with other parties for the purposes referred to in this Privacy Policy and relying on the legal grounds for processing described above, including:
- any member of the Phillips Group (including employees, staff and contractors) for purposes including notifying you of sales, exhibitions and special events which may be of interest to you in other sale room locations
- anyone who provides services to members of the Phillips Group, their agents or affiliates for purposes including notifying you of sales, exhibitions and special events
- persons acting on your behalf
- financial institutions, credit reference agencies, fraud prevention agencies and internal and external auditors, professional advisors
- law enforcement and judicial, administrative and regulatory bodies;
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third parties:
- we use to provide services to you (including shipping agents and brokers, warehouse providers, data hosting providers, call centre operations, e-mail management services, data analytics providers and other providers of services required for the operation of our website, mobile applications and online bidding services)
- in connection with a reorganisation, sale or acquisition or any Phillips Group members‘ business, but always subject to suitable confidentiality restrictions.
- in connection with subpoenas or other legal requests submitted to any Phillips Group member.
- for marketing purposes where you have consented to marketing.
THIRD PARTY ADVERTISING AND ANALYTICS SERVICES
Interest-based Ads and Analytics
We may allow third parties not affiliated with Phillips to send advertisements on our behalf across the internet and in mobile applications and to provide us with analytics services.
These third parties may use cookies, and other automated data collection technologies (such as pixels and gifs) to collect information about your use of our Services and other websites and applications you visit. This information may include: your IP address, device ID, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on web pages or in apps, links clicked, and conversion information, and may be used by Phillips and other third parties to:
- analyse and track data,
- determine the popularity of content,
- deliver advertising and content targeted to your interests on the Phillips website and other websites, and
- better understand your online activity.
For more information about interest-based ads, or to opt out of having your web browsing information used for interest-based advertising purposes, please visit:
- US based users: www.aboutads.info/choices
- UK and European based users: https://www.youronlinechoices.eu/
Custom & Lookalike Audience Campaigns
We may work with third parties to send you advertisements as part of a customized campaign on third-party platforms (such as Facebook or Google). As part of these ad campaigns, we or third-party platforms may convert information about you, such as your email address, into a unique value that can be matched with a user account on these platforms to allow us to learn about your interests and to serve you advertising that is customized to your interests. The third-party platforms may offer you choices about whether you see these types of customized ads.
On occasions, we may also share with such third parties, aggregated or anonymised data that cannot reasonably be used by those third parties to identify you. This aggregated or anonymised data is used by the third party to create for us “lookalike” audiences displaying similar traits to those extracted from the aggregated or anonymised data.
TRANSFERRING YOUR PERSONAL DATA
Phillips is an international business and operates globally through a network of affiliates worldwide. Your Personal Data may be transferred and processed outside of the UK and the European Economic Area ('EEA') in countries that do not provide the same level of data protection. Where we do so, we will put in place an appropriate safeguard (typically approved data protection clauses) to ensure adequate protection of your Personal Data when it is transferred outside of the UK and the EEA.
You can obtain more details of the protection given to your Personal Data when it is transferred outside the EEA by contacting us (see Contact Information) below.
KEEPING YOUR PERSONAL DATA SECURE
Things we do
We are committed to ensuring that any Personal Data we hold about you is properly safeguarded. We seek to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to protect your Personal Data against unauthorised access or disclosure and any loss, destruction or damage.
We endeavour to take all reasonable steps to protect your Personal Data from external threats, however, please be aware that there are inherent security risks of sending information by public networks or on public computers and we cannot therefore guarantee the security of any data disclosed or transmitted over the internet.
Please note that our Bids, Client Accounting and Shipping Departments may seek your credit card details and/or bank account information by email in order to take payment for transactions or guarantee payments. Please note that the security, confidentiality and reliability of email cannot always be guaranteed.
Things you can do
Where you sign up to participate in auctions or receive other Services, you may be provided with log-in information and may have the ability to set passwords to allow you to access a personal account page. Where we do so, it is on the condition that you will be responsible for ensuring that such log-in information and any passwords are kept secure and confidential at all times. You will not share any log-in information or passwords, without our express authorisation. We cannot be responsible for any loss or damage caused by your negligence, misuse of log-in details or your decision to share account access with others.
“phishing”
Sometimes unauthorised individuals send e-mails to consumers, purporting to represent a legitimate company, requesting that the consumer provide personal, often sensitive information, using the information (such as the email and domain names of) a legitimate, trusted company. In reality, such information is sought for identity theft. This illegal activity has come to be known as "phishing."
If you receive an e-mail or other correspondence requesting that you provide any sensitive information via e-mail or to a website that seems suspicious to you, please do not provide such information, and report such requests to us.
WEBSITE LINKS
Our website may be linked to by third parties providing access to our bidding platforms and may contain links to other websites not operated by the Phillips Group (for example third party bidding platforms) ('Third Party Websites'). We do not have any control over such Third Party Websites to which we link, and we cannot be held responsible for the privacy of any Personal Data which you provide after you have used any link on our website to visit these Third Party Websites. You should exercise caution and look for any applicable privacy statements appearing on such Third Party Websites.
HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
The Phillips Group may retain your Personal Data:
- for as long as we are providing you with Services; or
- after your account / agreement with us is terminated, or if your application for a particular service or services is declined or abandoned, for as long as we are permitted or required to for legal, regulatory, fraud prevention and/or our legitimate business purposes.
Our legitimate interests include the indefinite maintenance of core transaction data, in the interests of maintaining the integrity of the wider art market.
WHAT LEGAL RIGHTS DO YOU HAVE?
You have the following rights under applicable Data Protection Legislation:
- to obtain access to, and copies of, the Personal Data that we hold about you;
- to require us not to send you marketing communications.
- to require us to correct the Personal Data we hold about you if it is incorrect;
- to require us to erase your Personal Data;
- to require us to restrict our data processing activities
- If our processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent, without affecting the lawfulness of our processing based on consent before its withdrawal);
- to receive a copy in a reasonable format specified by you, of the Personal Data which you have provided to us, including for the purpose of you transmitting that Personal Data to another data controller;
- to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to any of our particular processing activities which you consider have a disproportionate impact on your rights,
Please note that the above rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply, for example where we have a continuing or other legal basis to process your personal data.
You can find out more about your rights under data protection legislation as it applies in the UK from the Information Commissioner's Office website available at: www.ico.org.uk or as it applies in California at the website for the State of California Department of Justice available at: https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa.
HOW TO CONTACT US
Please email us at dataprotection@phillips.com or, if you are a California resident, by phone at 212 940 1200, if:
- you have any questions relating to the processing of your Personal Data by the Phillips Group;
- you have previously given your consent to our processing of your Personal Data for certain purposes and wish to withdraw it for some or all of those purposes.
- you wish to bring to our attention any concerns or complaints with the way we are processing your Personal Data.
Please note that if you withdraw your consent to our processing of your Personal Data for certain purposes, we may not be able to provide you with all or some of the Services unless other legal grounds exist justifying our processing of your Personal Data for these purposes.
If you have raised a concern with us regarding the processing of your Personal Data in respect of which GDPR applies and which we have not been able to resolve or you are not satisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the UK Information Commissioner or, if applicable, another relevant European data protection authority.
STATUS OF, AND UPDATES TO, THIS PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy was updated on 1 July 2020, and supersedes any previous privacy policy or similar terms provided by or on behalf of Phillips. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time and will publish any changes on our website www.phillips.com.
Last modified: 1 July 2020