We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.
For the same reason, we may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us:
To estimate our audience size and usage pattern.
To store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our site according to your individual interests.
To speed up your searches.
To recognise you when you return to our site.
You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our site.
Our website may also use a website recording service which may record mouse clicks, mouse movements, page scrolling and any text keyed into website forms. Data collected by this service is used to improve our website usability. The information collected is stored and is used for aggregated and statistical reporting, and is shared with our service partner – SessionCam - only for the purpose of improving our website.
(Please note that our advertisers may also use cookies, over which we have no control.)
| Cookie Name | Duration |
| ARRAffinity | |
| .ASPXAUTH | 48hrs |
| _ga | 2 years |
| _gid | 24hrs |
| _pk_id.271.b823 | 2 years |
| _omappvp | 11 years 11 months |
| __lc.visitor_id.9111590 | 2 years 9 months |
| _pk_ses.271.b823 | 30 minutes |
| lc_window_state | |
| adiErr |
| Cookie Name | Third Party | Duration |
| IDE | doubleclick.net | 2 years |
| message_text | .livechatinc.com | |
| 3rdparty | .livechatinc.com | |
| recent_window | .livechatinc.com | |
| __lc_vv | .livechatinc.com | |
| __livechat_lastvisit | .livechatinc.com | 3 years |
| __livecha | .livechatinc.com | 3 years |
| Mc | .quantserve.com | 3 years |
| b1Pi | www.tag4arm.com | |
| SCOGID | .beacon-rumlive.rum.nccgroup-webperf.com | 1 year |
| fr | .facebook.com | 3 months |
| CONSENT | .google.co.uk | 3 months |
| NID | .google.co.uk | 6 months |
| b1Pi | www.tag4arm.com |
The personal information we collect will depend on the relationship we have with you. We might collect the following personal information:
Contact / demographic details such as name, email address, postal address and telephone number.
health and lifestyle information relating to current or historic eye conditions, medications and health conditions, ethnicity, occupation, hobbies and if you are a driving licence holder.
Current visual or ocular symptoms or concerns.
Clinical outcomes of examinations, assessments or diagnostic tests.
Your visual motivations and current vision correction solutions.
Your consent to undertake diagnostic imaging, ophthalmic examinations or surgical procedures.
Your marketing preferences.
Financial information such as bank details, credit and/or debit card details.
Information obtained via our cookies as detailed in the cookies section above.
Images obtained from CCTV.
Voice recordings from telephone calls with us.
Details of other persons who are named as your next of kin or health care providers or referees.
Educational and professional qualifications.
Employment history.
We may use the personal information we hold about you in different ways for different purposes. These are described below:
Where it is necessary to provide eye care or treatment, or for the management of health care systems and services which are under the responsibility of a registered eyecare/medical professional. This includes to perform any form of ophthalmic examination, such as an eye examination (sight test), a contact lens related consultation, a pre-operative consultation to assess suitability of surgery, to conduct a surgical procedure or in the provision of any post-operative care.
Where it is necessary to analyse the clinical or patient reported outcomes of vision correction solutions (surgical and non-surgical, to include information obtained at eye examinations, contact lens consultations or pre- or post-operative refractive surgery consultations and during ophthalmic procedures) provided by Optical Express
To carry out our obligations arising from any contract entered into or with the intention to enter a contract (between you and us) and it is necessary to provide you with a service and/or vision correction solution/product, such as to fulfill orders for glasses, contact lenses, ocular lubricants or medications and contact lens cleaning solutions, or to undertake a surgical procedure, such as Laser Eye Surgery or Intraocular Lens (IOL) implantation. If you don’t provide us with your personal information we will not be able to provide you with our services.
Where you have given consent to provide you with Optical Express marketing information. We will generally ask for consent to provide you with information about the products or services from the Optical Express group that we feel may be of interest you.
Where it is necessary to meet a legal or regulatory obligation set by our regulators, such as the General Optical Council (GOC), General Medical Council (GMC), CORU, Irish Medical Council (IMC), Care Quality Commission (CQC), Health Improvement Scotland (HIS), Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW), Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) and our data protection supervisory authority the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Where it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights. This will include our right to defend any legal claim or to pursue a legal claim.
For the prevention, investigation, detection of criminal conduct, and in order to protect our premises, our customers and staff.
For reasons of substantial public interest such as fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
For the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of breaches of ethics for regulated professionals.
Where we have a legitimate business need to transmit and use personal information within the Optical Express group for internal administrative tasks, to resolve any complaints, and develop and improve our products and services. This may include details of your visits to our website and the resources you access, and recording telephone calls for training purposes. At all times we will ensure our business needs do not result in harm to you by impacting on your privacy rights and freedoms.
We may share your personal information within the Optical Express group or with third parties (as described below). Personal information is shared for the following reasons:
For our general business administration with any member of our group detailed below.
A third party contracted to assist us provide services to you, to help us improve our services and where we have a legal or regulatory obligation. Disclosure of your personal information will only be made where there is a contract in place and the third party has agreed to keep your information confidential, secure and that it shall only be used for the specific purposes for which we provide it to them.
For clinical research and development purposes and the subsequent benefit of the wider ophthalmic community in an anonymised manner.
Third parties we may share your personal information with include:
Where will only do this where we have your authority to do so. Your relatives, associates, representatives or organisations associated with you. We will only do this where we have your authority to do so.
Your medical, social and welfare adviser(s) or professionals.
Eyecare professionals.
NHS health boards.
Our service providers such as IT and software suppliers, auditors, lawyers, marketing and PR agencies. Other suppliers and providers of goods and services associated with our products and services
Regulatory authorities such as the General Optical Council (GOC), General Medical Council (GMC), CORU, Irish Medical Council (IMC), Care Quality Commission (CQC), Health Improvement Scotland (HIS), Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW), Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority(RQIA) and our data protection supervisory authority the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
NHS fraud teams, the police and other law enforcement agencies.
Debt collection agencies.
Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, these websites have their own privacy policies. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
In the event that we sell, transfer or buy any business or assets to a prospective seller, transferee or buyer of such business or assets.
Personal information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers in the UK. Any payment transactions will be encrypted (using SSL technology). 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 your password with anyone.
The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data that is transmitted by you to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we have in place strict procedures and security features to protect it.
The personal information that we collect from you may be transferred to some of the recipients outlined above who work for us, or for one of our suppliers, and stored at a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”), notably in the United States, for recruitment purposes and anonymised data for clinical research and publication, including bio-statistical purposes. Such a party maybe engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services such as recruitment and marketing purposes. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal information is secure and your rights are protected. This will include having in place a contract with the party that will protect personal information to appropriate standards.
We will only keep your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the relevant purpose set out in this privacy policy and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. How long we keep your personal information will vary according to its nature and how we use it. This is largely defined by our regulatory and legal obligations. We generally keep health and medical records for up to 10 years from the end of our relationship with you, if there is a dispute or legal action we will keep records up to 10 years, if you apply for employment we will keep your information for 12 months and where you make an information request we will keep these records for up to 3 years.
Address: Optical Express, 200 St Vincent Street, Glasgow, G2 5RQ
Email: DPO@opticalexpress.com
If you would like to contact the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Officer direct write to:
Address: the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number. ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/
Optical Express Limited SC161469 – Incorporated on 3 November 1995
The Ca'D'Oro, 45 Gordon Street, Glasgow, G1 3PE
Optical Express (Westfield) Ltd SC161695 - Incorporated on 17 November 1995
The Ca'D'Oro, 45 Gordon Street Glasgow, G1 3PE
Optical Express (Gyle) Ltd SC150432 - Incorporated on 22 April 1994
The Ca'D'Oro, 45 Gordon Street, Glasgow, G1 3PE
The Frame Zone Ltd SC182069 Incorporated on 13 January 1998
The Ca'D'Oro, 45 Gordon Street, Glasgow, G1 3PE