Privacy Policy

The personal data we hold on you will be dependant on your relationship with us. In most cases, such as if you’re a customer, partner or someone we’d like to work with, this will include:

• Name
• Employer
• Job role
• Work address
• Telephone number(s)
• Email address

For visitors to our websites, this will include information about your visit and device, such as:

• IP address
• Account usernames
• Operating system
• Pages visited
• Average time spent
• Language preferences.

Data protection laws and regulations such as GDPR require organisations to have a lawful basis for the processing of personal data. In most cases, Softcat will be acting as the controller of your personal data and using the principle of legitimate interest as the lawful basis of processing. This means we have a genuine and legitimate reason to hold your data and the risk of us doing so is not outweighed by the risk of harm to your rights and freedoms.

In Canada, Softcat relies on consent or an exception to consent to process your personal data in accordance with applicable Canadian privacy laws.

Where we use data, we carefully consider any potential impact on you and your rights. We also ensure we have controls in place so if you ask us to stop processing your data for any purpose, we can respect this request subject to our legal and contractual obligations.

Softcat provide products and services from many partners with global operations. When you engage Softcat, we may pass personal data to suppliers, service providers, subcontractors, agents, distributors, vendors and other partners, located worldwide. This is necessary to provide you with the information, products and services that you requested or otherwise for the purposes described in this privacy policy.

If Softcat are acting as a Data Processor to your organisation as part of a services agreement, international data transfers will be set out in our data processing agreement. In most circumstances, this will only apply when consuming one of Softcat’s own services. If you are purchasing a third-party product or service, Softcat will be acting as a commercial intermediary and not as a data processor

In the event that we receive requests from government departments, agencies or other official bodies, we will only disclose your personal data if, and to the extent that we believe we are legally required to do so, (for example, but without limitation, upon receipt of a court order, warrant, subpoena or equivalent legally valid inquiry or order). This may include access to personal data by U.S. or foreign courts, law enforcement or other government authorities.

We may transfer personal data as an asset in connection with a proposed or completed merger, acquisition, financing, or sale (including transfers made as part of insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings) involving all or part of Softcat or as part of a corporate reorganization or other change in corporate control.

Except as set out above, we will not disclose your personal data save where we need to do so in order to enforce our rights or carry out our obligations in accordance with applicable laws. For example, we may share personal data with another organization for the purpose of investigating a breach of an agreement or contravention of law or to detect, suppress or prevent fraud. We may also share personal data where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim or to investigate or prevent actual or suspected loss or harm to persons or property.

Whenever we share personal data, we take all reasonable steps to ensure that it is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

Links to other sites

This privacy policy applies to personal data collected by us. If an email or site contains links to a third-party site, please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such site. We encourage our users to be aware then they leave our sire, and to read the privacy policy of other sites that collect personal data.

Subject to exceptions under applicable law and depending on the jurisdiction in which you are located, you may have certain rights in respect of your personal data, such as those described below. In order to respond to your request, we may ask you to provide certain information for the purpose of verifying your identity.

The right to be informed

The right to be informed about the personal data we process and how it is used, which this policy sets out.

The right to update your personal data

The right to rectify any incorrect personal data we hold on you.

The right to access your personal data

The right to ask for access to the personal data we hold on you.

If you’d like to request any information about or access to your personal data or believe that we are holding incorrect personal data on you, please contact dataprotection@softcat.com.

Subject to limited exceptions under applicable law, it is possible to obtain a copy of the information that we hold on you.

The right to request deletion of your personal data

The right to request that your personal data be deleted. This is also known as the “right to erasure” or the “right to be forgotten”.

Sometimes we can delete your personal data but other times it’s just not possible, like if the law prohibits us from deleting it. If you would like to request the deletion of your personal data, please contact dataprotection@softcat.com.

The right to object to the processing of your personal data

This is known as the “right to object” and is your right to tell us to stop using or otherwise processing your personal data. Where we are relying on consent to process your personal data, this is also known as the “right to withdraw consent”. Our ability to stop processing your personal data may be limited by our legal or contractual restrictions. Depending on the processing you object to or withdraw your consent from, this may also result in our inability to continue providing you with certain services. 

If you’re not a current customer and no longer wish to hear from our team, you can request to be added to our “Do Not Contact” list either through informing our staff or emailing dataprotection@softcat.com. We’ll retain your name, employer, email address and telephone to ensure you are not contacted or added into our system again.

The right to object also allows you to object to automated individual decision making, which may impact your ability to benefit from some services. If you are concerned about or have questions regarding the use of automated decision making by Softcat, please contact dataprotection@softcat.com.

The right to request that your information be transferred

This is known as the “right to data portability”. If you have a need for us to transfer some of your personal data,  and your usual contacts are unable to assist, please contact dataprotection@softcat.com.

The right to lodge a complaint with your data protection regulator

If you have any concerns about our processing of your personal data, you can contact us through dataprotection@softcat.com.

Alternatively, or if you feel we have not resolved your concern, if you live in the UK, you have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk).

If you live in a country or territory located in the European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA), you can complain to your national data protection regulator. You can find contact details of national data protection regulators in the EU and EEA, please refer to the European Data Protection Board website.

If you are located in Canada, you can complain to the relevant privacy regulator in your jurisdiction:

• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
• Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia
• Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta
• Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec

As opposed to a delightful treat, on the internet a cookie is a piece of text that gets entered into the memory of your computer by a website, allowing the website to store information on your machine and later retrieve it. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website, to view our cookie policy in full, click here.

This is the website of Softcat Canada Inc a company registered in Canada whose registered office is at 15 Wellesley Street West, Suite 201, Toronto, Ontario, M4Y 0G7, Canada.

If you have any questions, comments or complaints about this privacy policy or the manner in which we or our service providers treat your personal information, or to exercise your rights (as described under “What are my rights?” above), please contact dataprotection@softcat.com.

If you wish to contact us by post in the UK, please use our Marlow address. For the purposes of the EU GDPR, if you wish to contact us by post please use our Irish branch.

If you are located in Canada, please contact Jarrod Lawson and/or Liam Dennison at Softcat Plc, Fieldhouse Lane, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, SL7 1LW, United Kingdom.

Getting in touch and account management

Our most regular use of your personal data will be contacting you regarding our products and services and for operational tasks associated with these such as order processing, invoicing and renewals.

If you’re not a current customer and no longer wish to hear from our team, you can request to be added to our “Do Not Contact” list either through informing our staff or

emailing dataprotection@softcat.com. We’ll retain your name, employer name, email address and telephone number to ensure you are not contacted or added into our system again.

Events

If you attend an event run by Softcat we will gather personal data as part of the registration process. This information may be used to track event attendance, relay any details before, during or after the event, gather feedback, and for future communications with you, in accordance with this policy.

Some events may have a photographer and/or videographer present and the content they create may be shared publicly. If you do not wish to appear in any photos or videos that may be used by Softcat, please let us know by contacting marketing@softcat.com.

Using our websites

Every time you visit our websites such as Softcat.com, SupportCat and eCat, we store a log of your visit that shows your IP address and the unique identifier of your device and gather information about your use of the sites, such as operating system, browser type, pages visited, average time spent and language preferences. Common uses of this information include:

Customising your user experience when interacting with our own and partner websites (see our cookie policy here for more detail)

Providing products/services and any associated maintenance and technical support

Providing incident and other alerts, and information about product upgrades, updates, renewals

Generating logs, statistics and reports on service usage, and service performance;

Evaluating, developing and enhancing products, services, and our infrastructure;

Blocking access where there is a breach of the Terms and Conditions for use of the site.

Market Research

If you participate in any Softcat surveys, we may use the data you supply to carry out market research. This research is conducted to support our business activities and anonymised results may be published externally. Research may also be used to improve our understanding of our users’ demographics, interests and behaviour where relevant to engagements with Softcat. If you’d like any further information, please e-mail marketing@softcat.com.

Marketing and promotions

We (or other selected third parties acting on our behalf) may contact you from time to time in order to provide you with information about products and services that may be of interest to you. All marketing emails that we send to you will follow the email guidelines described under “Phone and Email Communication from Softcat”. You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes, but if you do so, we may need to share your contact information with third parties for the limited purpose of ensuring that you do not receive marketing communications from them on our behalf.

Job Applicants

If you provide us with your data at a career fair or similar event, we will use the data you provide to request feedback from you and to help us assess the success of the event and, if you consent, we will retain your data (for a maximum of 24 months, unless you agree to a longer period) and use it to contact you about future employment opportunities with us.

If you are making a job application or enquiry, you may provide us with a copy of your CV or other relevant personal data. Please review our recruitment data policy for more information.

Softcat’s employees regularly contact existing customers and other organisations for the purpose of discussing IT solutions.

If you’re not a current customer and no longer wish to hear from our team you can request to be added to our “Do Not Contact” list either by informing our staff or

emailing dataprotection@softcat.com. We’ll retain your name, employer, email address and telephone to ensure you are not contacted or added into our system again.

Our standards for email communications

Emails will clearly identify us as the sender

Emails sent to you from our email marketing platform will include an option to unsubscribe from future email messages

You may unsubscribe from all mailing lists, with the exception of any emails regarding legal notices, invoicing or license renewals

Any third parties who send emails on our behalf will be required to comply with legislative requirements on unsolicited emails and the use of personal data

We send emails from a number of different domains in both plain text and HTML email formats. Emails are usually sent using sender email address: @softcat.com

If you receive an email which claims to come from us but does not use these domains, or if you are suspicious that an email may not be approved by us, then please send a copy of the email to ITsecurity@softcat.com so we can investigate.

In accordance with our record retention policies, we will hold personal data for as long as required to carry out the activities described in this notice or as otherwise necessary to meet our legal or contractual requirements. Where we retain personal data, in determining the necessary and appropriate period for retention, we will always consider the type and sensitivity of the personal data and any risks associated with retaining it, such as potential risk from anyone using or sharing it without permission.

Following Brexit data transfers to and from countries outside the UK are treated as a data transfer to a third country.

To enable you to benefit from our worldwide partnerships with suppliers of IT products and services it may be necessary to transfer your personal data outside of the jurisdiction in which you are located. In most cases, the transfer of information is limited to basic contact information such as name, employer, phone number and email address.

If Softcat are acting as a Data Processor to your organisation as part of a services agreement, international data transfers will be set out in our data processing agreement. In most circumstances this will only apply when consuming one of Softcat’s own services. If you are purchasing a third-party product or service Softcat will be acting as a commercial intermediary and not as a data processor.

In accordance with our internal security procedures and applicable law, we endeavour to hold all personal data securely and to train our personnel with access to personal data on their roles and responsibilities.

You can learn more about our security practices and obtain copies of relevant certifications at https://trust.softcat.com

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or any other network can be guaranteed as 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal data, we cannot ensure and do not warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and this information is transmitted at your own risk.

If you have been given log-in details to provide you with access to certain parts of our Site (for example eCat), you are responsible for keeping those details confidential.

The privacy policy was last updated in August 2025. We reserve the right to amend or vary this policy at any time and the revised policy will apply from the date posted on the site. You accept that by doing this, we have provided you with sufficient notice of the amendment or variation.