Thank you for visiting the Imperial Brands PLC website. Imperial Brands and its affiliated companies welcome your interest in this website (www.imperialbrandsplc.com).
We are committed to protecting your privacy online and off. This notice, our “Privacy Notice”, explains what personal information we collect about you either directly or indirectly and how we use, share and look after that information. We encourage you to review our Privacy Notice carefully.
This Privacy Notice applies from 16 March 2021. It applies when we collect personal information about:
This website includes links to different sub-sites for Imperial Brands businesses, products and services, and careers, which may have their own privacy notice and may be operated by other Imperial companies. These privacy notices should be read in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. Please read these if you visit our sub-sites. For example, if you click on our Next Generation Products page, you can be directed to a sub-site operated by our subsidiary Fontem Ventures B.V. displaying a privacy notice relevant to that business. Alternatively, if you apply for a job with an Imperial company through the careers area of this website, you will be directed to the Global Careers or the Intern, Graduate and MBA Opportunities sub-sites, which are operated by Imperial Tobacco Limited. You will find relevant privacy notices there.
There is a privacy statement addressed to shareholders in our Shareholder Centre.
In addition to the commitments set out in this Privacy Notice, we live by a set of data privacy rules which apply to the processing of all personal information by our organisation. These privacy rules can be found in our Code of Conduct, which can be downloaded from our website here
If you have any questions about how we handle or protect your personal information, please contact us using the contact details below.
We are Imperial Brands PLC, 121 Winterstoke Road, Bristol, BS3 2LL in the United Kingdom. We are responsible for operating this website for the Imperial Brands group of companies.
Personal information is any information that tells us something about you. This could include information such as your name and contact details. Some personal information is categorised as “special” under data protection legislation. This includes information relating to health, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, genetic and biometric data, sex life, sexual orientation and trade union membership. This personal information is more sensitive and we need to have further justifications for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. There are also additional restrictions on the circumstances in which we are permitted to collect and use criminal conviction data. We may process special categories of personal information and criminal conviction information in limited circumstances with your explicit consent unless we have a legal reason to do so without your consent. Where we ask for your consent, we will explain at the time the purpose for which the personal information will be used. Otherwise, this Privacy Notice applies.
We collect personal information to manage our business, maintain communications with analysts and investors, engage with people who want to stay in touch with us or who have questions or complaints about us or our products, and to comply with our regulatory obligations.
Information you provide to us
We collect information you voluntarily provide to us, such as your name and contact details, for instance, when you make a general enquiry or sign up for our email alert service, or when you do business with us. We may also ask you to provide information to us so that we can respond to your enquiry or complaint.
Information we collect automatically
We collect information about you automatically, such as information collected by cookies and similar technologies when you use, access or interact with us via our website. For more information about our use of cookies, see our Cookies Policy below.
Information we collect from other sources
In some circumstances, we collect personal information from employees, our subsidiaries, other business partners and, in the case of the investigatory work we need to do to comply with our regulatory obligations, law enforcement and other public bodies. Where possible and as long as we are not prevented by law from doing so, we will tell you when we collect your personal information from third-parties.
Visitors to our website
If you are a visitor to our website, you should read this Privacy Notice in conjunction with our Cookies Policy below.
We use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out the number of visitors to the various parts of our website and how they interact with the content on the site. This information does not identify any individuals.
We use this information to maintain and monitor the performance of our website, and to look for ways of improving our website and the services it offers to users.
Visitors to our premises
We take care to secure our premises appropriately. We collect personal information so that we know who is on our premises. You will be asked to comply with our security requirements, which will include verifying your identity. We use CCTV to monitor our premises. We collect ID and CCTV information for security and safety purposes.
If you use the Wi-Fi on our premises, we will provide you with the address and a password. We record the device address and will automatically allocate you an IP address while you are on our premises. We log traffic information in the form of the websites visited, the duration and date sent/received. We use the information to provide you with access to the internet while you are on our premises. We monitor and from time to time test the security of our networks, which may occur while you are using the Wi-Fi. Imperial has no responsibility or control over your use of the internet while you are on our premises.
People who sign up to our newsletters and email alert service
If you ask us to send you newsletters or our email alerts, we collect your contact details and keep a record of your communications preferences so that we can send you just what you want.
People making general enquiries
When you contact us to make an enquiry, we collect the information we need, including your personal information, so that we can respond to it. If you contact us by email or post, we will collect a return address for response. We use the information to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues that arise, and to check the level of service we provide.
People making complaints about us or our products
When you contact us to make a complaint about us or our products, we collect the information we need, including your personal information, so that we can investigate and respond to your complaint. If you contact us by email or post, we will collect a return address for response. We use the information to deal with the complaint and any subsequent issues that arise, and to check our processes for handling complaints. We compile internal reports and statistics on the number of complaints we receive and how quickly they are handled, but not in a form that identifies anyone.
Others connected to our Imperial Brands’ businesses or employees
We are a global organisation offering goods and services across many jurisdictions. You may be one of the many people we or our employees have a connection to (for instance, you may be a contact at our business partners or an emergency contact for our employees). When we collect your personal information, we do so in line with our privacy rules and this Privacy Notice. We ensure we have a legitimate purpose for collecting your personal information and only collect what is necessary for the purpose.
We operate in a regulated industry. In support of our anti-illicit trade and anti-money laundering objectives, we collect personal information when we conduct our “Know Your Customer and Contractor” procedures and to verify the integrity of our supply chain. For more information, please contact us using the details below. We also collect personal information when we investigate illicit trade, money laundering and fraud.
We do not intentionally collect any information about visitors to this website who are under eighteen years of age. If we become aware that a child has provided any information, this will immediately be deleted from our records.
If you are based in the UK or a European country where rules on data protection apply, we need to tell you the legal basis on which we process your personal information. We rely on the following legal bases to use your personal information:
The table below provides more detail about the personal information we use and the legal basis that we rely on in each case.
| Communications, newsletters and email alerts | Name, contact details, communication preferences | Consent where necessary or legitimate interests. It is in our legitimate interest to communicate with business contacts/partners. |
| Website analytics. | Device, IP address, general geographic location indicated by your IP address, the web pages you view and whether you interact with the content on the website. | Consent where necessary or legitimate interests. It is in our legitimate interest to evaluate our website and its services to ensure its effectiveness. |
| Administering and protecting our businesses. | Name, contact details, device, IP address, other information collected for the purpose. | Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise). |
| To deal with enquiries and complaints. | Contact details, information submitted as part of the enquiry. | Legitimate interests. It is in our legitimate interests to collect appropriate information to handle enquiries and complaints thoroughly. |
| Verifying identity at our premises and monitoring our premises for safety and security reasons. | Identification information, vehicle registration details and contact details. | Legal obligation and legitimate interests. It is in our interests as well as the interests of our employees and visitors to ensure that our premises are safe and secure. |
| Fraud and crime prevention. | Information about criminal convictions and offences committed by you. Identity verification information. CCTV images. | Public interest, legal obligation and legitimate interests. It is in our interests as well as the interests of our stakeholders and of tax and law enforcement organisations to ensure the prevention of fraud and crime. This helps create a safe workplace for all and helps us to comply with our anti-illicit trade and anti-money laundering obligations. |
| To deal with legal disputes. | Name, contact details, other information required for the purposes. | Legitimate interests. It is in our legitimate interest to process personal information to bring and defend legal claims and ensure our legal rights and those of our employees are protected. |
We need some of your personal information to respond to your enquiries, to confirm you as a customer/contractor or your status in our supply chain, to register you as a shareholder or to handle your complaint. If you do not provide the necessary information personal information, we may not be able to continue with the process that you want us to. We explain when this is the case at the point where we collect personal information from you if it is not clear why we need it.
We treat all personal information as confidential and in accordance with applicable data protection laws. However, sometimes we need to share your personal information with others for specific purposes including the following Imperial Brands companies that carry out activities for other parts of Imperial:
Imperial Tobacco Limited (UK) – Employee and business management
Fontem Ventures BV (Netherlands) – Consumer services and e-commerce platform management
Van Nelle Tabac Nederland BV (Netherlands) – IT Support services
Imperial Brands Global Duty Free & Export, S.L. (Spain) – Duty free business
We may share your personal information where necessary with other Imperial Brands companies worldwide for the purposes outlined above.We share your personal information with our third-party service-providers. For instance, to provide website hosting services, and system maintenance and support.
We may also disclose your personal information to public authorities, other businesses, financial organisations or law enforcement agencies for the prevention or detection of fraud, to comply with tax obligations, or if we are required or permitted to do so by law, or if we consider disclosure necessary to protect and defend the rights, property or personal safety of Imperial, our people, our brands or other visitors to our website.
We may decide, for strategic or other business reasons, to sell, buy, merge or re-organise our business. In doing so, we may share information we hold about you with third-parties or receive it from third-parties as part of the transaction.
Your personal information will only be transferred to a third country under UK and/or EU data protection law where the recipient has confirmed an adequate level of protection for it, for instance, by contractual agreement. You can ask us about the arrangements we have in place.
Transmission of information via the internet is not always secure. We cannot guarantee the security of the information while it is being transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. However, once we have received your information, we take appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorized modification or unlawful destruction or accidental loss of your personal information once it is under our control. We monitor compliance with our policies and take disciplinary action where appropriate. Where we use service providers, we require them to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information.
This website uses cookies. A cookie is a small file of numbers and letters that we put on your device if you agree. These cookies allow us to distinguish you from other users of the website and tells us how you are using the website. Some cookies help us to provide you with a good experience as you browse our website; others enable us to gather information that informs how we improve our website.
For further information on the cookies we use on this website, please refer to our Cookies Policy below.
We keep your personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. After that we will delete or de-identify your personal information unless we hold it to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
Our website may contain links to other sites which are outside our control. These websites will have their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for the content of such websites or the protection and privacy of any information you provide on those websites.
You have the right, within certain legal parameters, to ask us:
If we have asked you and you have given us permission to use your personal information in any particular way, you have the right to withdraw that permission at any time.
For more information and to exercise your rights or if you have a query or complaint about how we handle your personal information, please contact us using the details below.
If you have made a complaint to us about how we handle your personal information that we have not been able to resolve, you have the right to complain to the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk or your local Data Protection Authority.
We may make changes to this Privacy Notice at any time. We will do this by posting an updated version of the Privacy Notice on our website. You can find the date when this Privacy Notice was last updated at the top of the page. We recommend that you check this page from time to time to ensure that you are aware of any changes. Previous versions of our privacy notice can be obtained by contacting us.
| Version | Date | Detail of Change |
| 1.0 | May 2018 | First Published |
| 1.1 | June 2019 | Minor update to include a link to the privacy statement in the Shareholder Centre |
| 1.2 | January 2021 | Minor update to include reference to UK GDPR alongside EU GDPRMinor update to refer to a local data protection authority |
| 1.3 | March 2021 | Update to legal bases to include legitimate interests for communications to business contacts/partnersInclude the list of Imperial Brands Companies with whom personal data is shared to carry out activities for other parts of ImperialUpdate cross-border transfers section to refer to third countriesInclusion of this version history table |
Contact
By post:
Group Privacy Counsel
Imperial Brands plc
121 Winterstoke Road
Bristol
BS3 2LL
By email:
data.protection@uk.imptob.com
Cookies are small text files that are saved on your device to help the website perform a number of functions. On your first visit to our website, a popup banner asked you to accept our use of cookies and similar technologies. The information these cookies collect is based on your browsing device’s IP-address (hardware identifier).
What do the cookies do?
The cookies we use:
| DO NOT: | store personally identifiable information about you |
| store information such as passwords | |
| (and cannot) allow us to access other information stored on your device | |
| store information about you others could understand | |
| compromise your security | |
| DO: | allow us to see how many people use our website and monitor their activities |
| allow us to see how people arrive at our site (e.g. via search engine) | |
| allow us to gather geographic location and browser information |
What cookies does the website use?
This website uses two types of cookies:
1. Persistent cookies, which remain on your device to capture and remember your preferences (if chosen) for any future re-visit (e.g. your location).
2. Session cookies, which are deleted when your browser is closed. These cookies are used for analytical services provided by Google Inc. in the US on our behalf. The analysis allows an insight into where and how our website is used so that we can continuously work on its improvement. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. However, if you don’t wish to be part of this analysis, feel free to download and install a browser plug-in to opt-out under https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-G.
The cookies we use, what they are used for and how long they remain on your device are set out below:
| Website | Cookie | Cookie Name | Validity | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| www.imperialbrandsplc.com | Performance Cookies | _ga | 2 years | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics – which is a significant update to Google’s more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners. |
| www.imperialbrandsplc.com | Performance Cookies | _gid | 1 day | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics. This appears to be a new cookie and as of Spring 2017 no information is available from Google. It appears to store and update a unique value for each page visited. |
| www.imperialbrandsplc.com | Performance Cookies | _gat | session | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics, according to documentation it is used to throttle the request rate – limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites. It expires after 10 minutes. |
| www.imperialbrandsplc.com | Functionality Cookies | __atuvs | 30 mins | This cookie is associated with the AddThis social sharing widget which is commonly embedded in websites to enable visitors to share content with a range of networking and sharing platforms. This is believed to be a new cookie from AddThis which is not yet documented, but has been categorised on the assumption it serves a similar purpose to other cookies set by the service. |
| www.imperialbrandsplc.com | Functionality Cookies | __atuvc | 1 year | This cookie is associated with the AddThis social sharing widget which is commonly embedded in websites to enable visitors to share content with a range of networking and sharing platforms. It stores an updated page share count. |
| .mathtag.com | Targeting Cookies | uuid | 1 year | This cookie is used to optimize ad relevance by collecting visitor data from multiple websites – this exchange of visitor data is normally provided by a third-party data-center or ad-exchange. |
| .mathtag.com | Targeting Cookies | mt_misc,mt_mop | 1 month | This cookie carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website. |
| .addthis.com | Targeting Cookies | uvc,loc | 1 month | This domain is owned by AddThis. AddThis provides web widgets that site owners embed into their pages or other content to enable visitors to create and share links to the content across social networks. They also make use of the data collected to provide advertisers and marketers with profile information for targeted behavioral advertising. |
| .addthis.com | Targeting Cookies | vc,uid,ouid,na_id | 3 weeks | Tracks how often a user interacts with AddThis |
| .addthis.com | Targeting Cookies | mus | 1 year | Tracks how often a user interacts with AddThis |
| .youtube.com | Targeting Cookies | PREF | 2 years | Google uses the PREF cookie, to help personalize ads on Google properties, like Google Search, particularly when you aren’t signed in to a Google account |
| .youtube.com | Targeting Cookies | CONSENT | 17 years | This cookie is used to track consent to cookie use. |
| .youtube.com | Targeting Cookies | GPS | 1 hour | YouTube collects user data through videos embedded in websites, which is aggregated with profile data from other Google services in order to display targeted advertising to web visitors across a broad range of their own and other websites. |
| .youtube.com | Targeting Cookies | VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | 6 months | This cookie is set by Youtube to keep track of user preferences for Youtube videos embedded in sites;it can also determine whether the website visitor is using the new or old version of the Youtube interface. |
| .youtube.com | Targeting Cookies | YSC | Session | These cookies are used by Google to display personalized advertisements on Google sites, based on recent searches and previous interactions. |
| .doubleclick.net | Targeting Cookies | IDE | 6 months | This domain is owned by Doubleclick (Google). The main business activity is: Doubleclick is Googles real time bidding advertising exchange |
| .google.com | Targeting Cookies | NID | 6 months | These cookies are used by Google to display personalized advertisements on Google sites, based on recent searches and previous interactions. |
| .google.com | Targeting Cookies | 1P_JAR | 1 month | These cookies are used by Google to display personalized advertisements on Google sites, based on recent searches and previous interactions. |
| .google.com | Targeting Cookies | SEARCH_SAMESITE | 5 month | This cookie is used to prevent the browser from sending this cookie along with cross-site requests. |
| www.glassdoor.co.uk | Targeting Cookies | ADRUM_BT1,ADRUM_BT2,ADRUM_BtaAWSALB,AWSALBCORS | 1 week | This cookie is managed by AWS and is used for load balancing. |
| www.glassdoor.co.uk | Targeting Cookies | GSESSIONID, SameSite, __cf_bm,asst | 1 hour | The __cf_bm cookie is a cookie necessary to support Cloudflare Bot Management, currently in private beta. As part of our bot management service, this cookie helps manage incoming traffic that matches criteria associated with bots. |
| www.glassdoor.co.uk | Strictly Necessary | JSESSIONID | 6 hours | General purpose platform session cookie, used by sites written in JSP. Usually used to maintain an anonymous user session by the server. |
| www.glassdoor.co.uk | Targeting Cookies | _gd_svisitor,_gd_visitor | 15 months | Used to track which users have shown interest in what job postings. The cookie ensures that the most relevant job postings are shown to the specific user. |
| www.glassdoor.co.uk | Targeting Cookies | at,trs | 3 months | Used to track which users have shown interest in what job postings. The cookie ensures that the most relevant job postings are shown to the specific user. |
| www.glassdoor.co.uk | Targeting Cookies | cass | 2 hours | Used to track which users have shown interest in what job postings. The cookie ensures that the most relevant job postings are shown to the specific user. |
| www.glassdoor.co.uk | Targeting Cookies | gdId | 10 years | Used to track which users have shown interest in what job postings. The cookie ensures that the most relevant job postings are shown to the specific user. |
| www.glassdoor.co.uk | Targeting Cookies | gdsid | 6 hours | Used to track which users have shown interest in what job postings. The cookie ensures that the most relevant job postings are shown to the specific user. |
| www.glassdoor.co.uk | Targeting Cookies | uc | 9 years | Used to track which users have shown interest in what job postings. The cookie ensures that the most relevant job postings are shown to the specific user. |
| .addevent.com | Performance Cookies | _ga | 2 years | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics – which is a significant update to Google’s more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners. |
| .addevent.com | Targeting Cookies | promo_at_dsa_exp | 9 months | This cookie identifies the user and allows them to add events to a user’s calendar. |
| .addevent.com | Targeting Cookies | addevent_track_cookie | 1 year | This cookie identifies the user and allows them to add events to a user’s calendar. |
| Investis.com | Strictly Necessary | AWSALBCORS | 1 week | AWS ELB application load balance |
| otp.tools.investis.com | Strictly Necessary | AWSALBCORS,AWSALBTGCORS | 1 week | AWS ELB application load balance |
| otp.tools.investis.com | Strictly Necessary | ASP.NET_SessionId | Session | This cookie name is associated with the Amazon Web Services Elastic Load Balancing functionality for routing client request on the server. |
| tapad.com | Targeting Cookies | TapAd_TS | 2 months | This cookie carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website. TS |
| tapad.com | Targeting Cookies | TapAd_3WAY_SYNCS | 2 months | This cookie carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website. TS |
| tapad.com | Targeting Cookies | TapAd_DID | 2 months | This cookie carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website. |
Analytics cookies – our website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service offered by Google, Inc (“Google”). The cookies used by Google Analytics are third-party cookies referred to above, and help analyse how you use the website. The information generated by the cookies 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 to provide us with reports on website activity and other services relating to website activity. For more information about how Google uses your personal information, please see Google’s Privacy & Terms.
For more choice about how your personal information is collected by Google Analytics, please go to the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on here.
Using Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter
This website uses these third-party cookies when you share information to social media via the AddThis sharing button on our website or you engage with our content on or through a social networking website such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. The social network will record that you have done this. Please note that third-party cookies used by social networks are not under our control so you should check their websites and cookie policies accordingly. The information is used for analytics purposes so we can better understand the content users are sharing.
How are cookies deleted?
To delete or stop cookies being placed on your device, please check the help menu of your internet browser. Blocking cookies may reduce the functionality of this website.
For more information
To learn more about cookies and similar technologies, we recommend you visit: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/