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This Privacy Notice tells you all about how the Gear4music group of business entities collect and use your personal data. The table below shows who is part of the Gear4music group along with their location, who the Data Controller is, the websites owned by the business entity, and which data protection regulatory authority they fall under. .
| Gear4music Entity | Location | Data Controller | Websites | Data Protection Authority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gear4music Ltd | United Kingdom | Gear4music Ltd |
www.gear4music.com www.gear4music.ie www.gear4music.fr www.gear4music.es www.gear4music.pt www.gear4music.de www.gear4music.be www.gear4music.nl www.gear4music.dk www.gear4music.no www.gear4music.se www.gear4music.fi www.gear4music.it www.gear4music.ch www.gear4music.at www.gear4music.pl www.gear4music.cz www.gear4music.si www.gear4music.sk www.gear4music.com/us |
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) |
| AV.com | United Kingdom | Gear4music Ltd | www.av.com | Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) |
| Gear4music GmbH | Germany | Gear4music GmbH | n/a | State Commissioner for Data Protection & Freedom of Information North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Gear4music Ireland | Republic of Ireland | Gear4music Ireland | n/a | Data Protection Commission (DPC) |
| Gear4music Spain S.L. | Spain | Gear4music Spain S.L. | n/a | Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD) |
| Gear4music Sweden AB | Sweden | Gear4music Sweden AB | n/a | Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY) |
When we refer to “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Notice we mean the Gear4music group, unless otherwise stated.
We have designed this privacy notice to comply with the requirements of both the UK and EU GDPRs. This means we will provide you with clear and transparent information about why we need your personal data and what we will do with it.
If you have any questions about how we use your personal data or believe any of your rights have been infringed, please contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing [email protected].
This privacy notice was last updated July 29th 2026.
Our EU Representative is Gear4music GmbH (Lahnstr. 27, 45478 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany).
Depending on the purpose and GDPR lawful grounds we rely on for processing your personal data, there are various rights available to you.
We undertake profiling for marketing purposes. This means we use the data we hold about you to make predictions about your purchasing habits at Gear4music. This helps us determine which promotional offers you are eligible for.
If you want to exercise one of your rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing [email protected]@gear4music.com.
If you are not happy with how we are processing your personal data, or you believe we have not dealt with one of your rights correctly, you have the right to make a complaint. All data protection complaints must be sent to [email protected]@gear4music.com and you should put “complaint” in the subject line.
If, following completion of your complaint, you are still not happy with how we are processing your personal data, you can make a complaint to the relevant Data Protection Authority.
Sometimes it is not possible for us to process and store your personal data solely in the UK or the EU. When your personal data does need to be transferred or stored outside of the UK or EU, we make sure we comply with the specific requirements set out in the relevant GDPR.
At Gear4music, we use AI tools to analyse purchase or viewing history on our website to provide better or more relevant product suggestions. We also use AI to help answer your questions when you use our product assistant chatbot.
There are times when we may decide to buy another business and bring this into the Gear4music group. This usually means that the personal data from the business we have bought is transferred to us. This is usually done under the GDPR lawful basis of contractual obligation or legitimate interests.
Similarly, there may be times when we sell parts of the Gear4music group. This means that some of the personal data we hold may be transferred to another business. We will always inform you of any sale of any part of our business and how this affects your personal data.
We keep our Privacy Notice under review to ensure it remains accurate and up to date and reserve the right to modify it at any time.
Personal data is any identifiable information about you. We will obtain your personal data when you have given it to us directly or when someone else has given it to us indirectly.
Depending on your interaction with Gear4music, we may collect:
| The reasons we use your data | GDPR lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Respond to enquiries about products by telephone or email | Legitimate Interest |
| Process orders, including payment and delivery | Contractual Obligation |
| Send reminders about items left in your shopping basket | Consent |
| Process warranty scheme applications | Contractual Obligation |
| Record telephone calls for training, monitoring, complaints handling, security and quality purposes | Legitimate Interest and Legal Requirement in Some Jurisdictions |
| Process returned items | Contractual Obligation |
| Process trade-in transactions | Contractual Obligation |
| Send email marketing communications | Consent or Legitimate Interest |
| Send targeted digital advertising | Consent |
| Send review and feedback invitations | Legitimate Interest |
If you are not able to provide the personal data required to meet a contractual or legal obligation, we may not be able to complete your purchase.
We will only use your personal data for the purposes set out above unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another compatible purpose. If we need to re-use your personal data for a different purpose, we will update this privacy notice before we begin that processing.
Sometimes we need to share your personal data with other organisations when required by law or when GDPR permits us to do so. Where third parties process data on our behalf, we ensure GDPR-compliant contracts and appropriate due diligence are in place.
We share your name, address and contact details to deliver your purchases.
If you choose finance, we share relevant information with Klarna to establish your finance agreement.
We share address and payment details for payment verification and fraud prevention.
Customer, transactional and marketing consent data are processed and stored within Google Cloud Platform.
Customer and behavioural data may be processed to deliver personalised marketing communications.
Where consent has been provided, anonymised usage and behavioural data is shared for website analytics.
Limited data is processed to measure advertising effectiveness and support conversion tracking.
Where consent has been provided, limited customer and behavioural data is used for audience creation and advertising measurement.
Where consent has been provided, limited customer and behavioural data is shared for advertising and retargeting purposes.
Customer data may be shared to facilitate customer reviews and feedback.
We use Microsoft 365 for email, document storage and office productivity services.
Where consent has been provided, anonymised behavioural data is used to improve website usability and performance.
We may retain anonymised information for longer periods for trend analysis, reporting and process improvement purposes.
Cookies are tiny text files stored on your computer when you visit certain web pages. They are designed to hold small amounts of information. This information can be both specific to the website you’re visiting and to you.
The information contained within cookies can be used by the website you are visiting to enhance your experience, for example remembering what items have been added to a basket when moving from one page to another. The information can also be used for ‘remarketing’ purposes – which means to show you different products, offers, and services based on what you appear to be interested I through approved advertising partners such as Google.
To find out more, please check What are cookies (please note that we aren’t responsible for the content of external websites).
Gear4music use cookies to improve your experience on our website and to show you personalised offers and advertising across the web through our selected 3rd party partners.
If you disable cookies, that will mean that no information will be collected via cookies, however your experience of using our website will not be to its full potential and certain areas and features of the website may not behave as expected.
Most browsers have cookies enabled. See the ‘How do I manage my cookies?’ section to learn how to turn them on or off should you need to.
If you wish to manage which cookies you are happy to accept from Gear4music you can do so by using the button below. A pop-up will appear allowing you to opt in and out of any cookies that are not strictly necessary for the basic functioning of this website:
In addition to this, you are able set your browser to block cookies for any site you visit. Please check your browser for instructions on how to do this. You can refer to this information which explains how you can turn off cookies in each of the major web browsers.
We use a range of approved 3rd party advertising partners to show a selection of relevant products and offers, based on what you have viewed on the Gear4music site, when you visit other websites that display advertising.
The adverts you see may not be exactly the same products viewed on Gear4music’s website, they may be alternative styles and colours as well as other products deemed relevant to you. The technology behind tailoring these adverts to you is based on the use of cookies.
You can choose to opt out of this type of advertising permanently for each of the following channels:
Links will all open in a new window, Gear4music aren’t responsible for the content of external websites.
If you delete your cookies, we won't know that you've opted out, because the way in which we register that you've opted out is through a cookie; so the banners may reappear when you visit some other websites.
Learn more about cookies set by other companies on Your Online Choices.
If you'd like to learn more about cookies in general and how to manage them, please visit aboutcookies.org. If you'd like to opt out of cookies, please go to the Network Advertising Initiative website (opens in a new window, we aren't responsible for the content of external websites
Below is a list of necessary 1st party cookies Gear4music set when you visit our website and why they are used. These cookies cannot and should not be disabled as they are integral to the website functioning:
| Name of Cookie | Why we use them | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| Browser_token | This uniquely identifies the browser. This lets us detect malicious activity and keep data like the user’s basket, even when the session has expired | 10 years |
| Browser_token_us | This uniquely identifies the browser. This lets us detect bots and keep data like the user’s basket, even when the session has expired. This cookie is only active on Gear4music’s US domain. | 10 years |
| G4m_session_v2 | This enables the website to behave correctly during a customer’s visit. For example, it ensures that the basket and checkout work correctly. | 1 year |
| G4m_session_v2_us | This enables the website to behave correctly during a customer’s visit. For example, it ensures that the basket and checkout work correctly. This cookie is only active on Gear4music’s US domain. | 1 year |
| User_device_preference | This stores the user’s preference as to whether the mobile or desktop website should be displayed. | 1 day |
| lastRskxRun | Used by Riskified for fraud profiling and prevention. | 10 years |
| rCookie | Used by Riskified for fraud profiling and prevention. | 10 years |
| rskcRunCookie | Used by Riskified for fraud profiling and prevention. | 10 years |
If you visit a web page on our site that contains embedded content such as YouTube, you may be sent cookies from these websites. Gear4music don't control the setting of these cookies, so please check the third-party websites for more information about their cookies and how to manage them.
Where possible, we've supplied a link to the third-party website for further information (Please note that we aren't responsible for the content of external websites).
If you wish to manage whether or not you wish to accept these cookies from Gear4music you can do so by using the button below. A pop-up will appear allowing you to opt in and out of any cookies that are not strictly necessary for the basic functioning of this website:
If you'd like to opt out being shown personalised advertising from 3rd parties in general, please go to the Network Advertising Initiative.
| Name of Cookie | Why we use them | Expiry | _ga | A unique identifier for a user. The data is sent to Google Analytics. This helps us understand how much traffic Gear4music is receiving and how the website is being used. More information can be found here | 2 years |
|---|---|---|
| _gac_UA-334226-1 | This contains campaign related information for the user which is shared across Google Analytics and Google AdWords. | 90 days |
| _gat_gtag_UA_334226_1 | Used by Google Analytics to throttle requests to their service in the event of spam attacks. | 1 minute |
| _gid | A unique identifier for a user that is sent to google analytics. This helps us understand how much traffic Gear4music is receiving and how the website is being used. | 1 day |
| AddressOverrideInteraction | Tells the website the user has interacted with the address form during purchase which helps the website decide if the form should be shown. | Session length |
| g4m_default_country | This stores a customer’s default country and language. | 30 minutes |
| _asc | Used to collect information on customer behaviour, instructions for opting out can be found here | 30 minutes |
| _auc | Used to collect information on customer behaviour, instructions for opting out can be found here | 1 year |
| _fbp | Used by Facebook to track visits across different websites. | 3 months |
| _gcl_aw | Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertising efficiency and effectiveness across websites using their services. | 3 months |
| Affc | Used to provide affiliate conversion tracking. | 1 month |
| cto_bundle | Used for targeted adverts. here | 13 months |
| cto_idcpy | Used for targeted adverts. here | 13 months |
| cto_Iwid | Used for targeted adverts. here | 13 months |
| _aw_sn_* | Used for targeted adverts. here | 12 months |
This section describes what information is collected by Gear4music from candidates, and how that information is used by Gear4music. This section is solely applicable to job applications and other recruitment activities and is not relevant for other users of the website or Gear4music customers in general.
When you apply for a job with us (whether via the Website or otherwise), we collect and store certain pieces of Personal Data and other information relating to you, including:
We also collect and store information relating to when and how you use the Website, including (but not limited to) activity data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, although we do not knowingly collect any Personal Data as part of these activities.
Depending on the role, Candidates will be asked to consent that their personal information will be used for the purpose of employment screening. Further details will be given in the consent declaration and its supporting documents. Gear4music is working with Easyweb ATS Ltd, which will process the data in accordance with its privacy policy which can be viewed here.
The information that we collect from you (including any Personal Data) may be transferred to, and stored at, various destinations. This will usually not include destinations outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It may be processed by staff operating at various locations outside the EEA who work for us, or for one of our website development, website penetration testing (also known as “ethical hacking”), hosting, connectivity or telecommunications service providers. By providing us with your information (including Personal Data), you agree to this transfer, storing and processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Our recruitment portal is operated by EasyWeb Group (a trading style of Verticality Ltd,) with registered address at 15-17 Strixton Manor Business Centre, Strixton, Northamptonshire, NN29 7PA, United Kingdom. The company is ISO 27001 certified and all application and data is hosted on severs in the UK with documents also stored with Amazon Web Services in Ireland.
Personal Data will be stored on our own servers in the UK. We also use data storage services of Livedrive Internet Ltd., with registered office at The Battleship Building, 179 Harrow Road, United Kingdom, W2 6NB, Livedrive will not transfer the files containing your Personal Data outside the EEA and has implemented appropriate technical and organisational security measures designed to protect our files against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, unauthorised access, and other unlawful or unauthorised forms of Processing, in accordance with applicable UK and European law.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not always completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee the security of your information before 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.
If you apply for a role at our Manchester Office, the recruitment team will use data management services of Trello, Inc., with offices at 55 Broadway, 25th Floor, New York NY 10006. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Trello services are hosted on Amazon Web Services’ (“AWS”) EC2 platform. The physical servers are located in AWS’s secure data centres. Data content can also be found in Trello backups, stored in AWS EC2, S3, Glacier, and GCS. Trello is PCI-DSS certified and is a participant in the U.S. Department of Commerce's EU-U.S. Privacy Shield program and has certified that they adhere to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Principles. Trello, Inc. is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the Federal Trade Commission.
We use the information collected from you to process your job application. By submitting a job application your personal details will be shared with the Recruitment Team at Gear4music, including any Hiring Managers involved specifically in the decision-making process. We promise to treat your personal information confidentially and only share it with authorised personnel involved in the recruitment activity.
The lawful basis for processing your personal data is based on a legitimate interest - we need to capture this information in order to consider and process your job application.
We may also use your anonymised data to analyse recruitment activity, trends, and look at improving recruitment activity and processes moving forward.
You can edit any of the information in your Account. It is your responsibility:
You have certain rights under the Data Protection Laws, including:
By agreeing to the terms of our Privacy Policy, you consent to the collection, storage, processing and sharing of your Personal Data and other information on the basis set out above.
If you are working for the police or another public authority and need information from us for the prevention or detection of crime, the apprehension or prosecution of offenders, or the assessment or collection of tax or duty; please contact our Data Protection Officer directly under [email protected]
Please state the name, public authority and contact details of the relevant officer making the request. For a quicker identity check, the police officer badge number is also helpful. Please explain the information which is sought and why in as much detail as possible. If we should not inform the relevant data subject about your request, please advise accordingly and give the reason. We will deal with your request as quickly as possible. Please understand that requests made in languages other than English, German, Swedish or French will take longer to process. Requests from law authorities outside the EU or EEA may take longer due to additional consultations with the UK authorities.
Considering its data processing activities Gear4music Limited and Gear4music (Holdings) plc are subject to the GDPR and accordingly appointed Gear4music GmbH (seat: Lahnstr. 27, 45478 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany) as its EU representative.
The competent supervisory authority for EU/EEA requests is the Landesbeauftragte/r für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen .
Considering its data processing activities Gear4music GmbH and Gear4music Sweden AB are subject to the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 and accordingly appointed Gear4music Limited (seat: Holgate Park Drive, York, YO26 4GN, United Kingdom) as its UK representative.
The competent supervisory authority for UK requests is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) .
In line with the TRADE AND COOPERATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE EUROPEAN ATOMIC ENERGY COMMUNITY, OF THE ONE PART, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, OF THE OTHER PART, the EU will allow personal data to flow freely from the EU (and EEA) to the UK, until adequacy decisions have been adopted, for another six months after the end of the transition period. The UK has, on a transitional basis, deemed the EU and EEA/EFTA States to be adequate to allow for data flows from the UK.
Gear4music will continue monitoring the situation and if needed put in place alternative transfer mechanisms, to safeguard against any interruption to the free flow of EU to UK personal data. Gear4music is fully committed to providing data protection and privacy framework governed by EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Switzerland's revised Federal Act on Data Protection for individuals who are located in a European Union member state (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden), in a European Economic Area country (Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway) or Switzerland.
Gear4music operates a call recording and live monitoring system within our Customer Services Department. This is currently for our UK & ROI customers only. We have not yet implemented this for our international call centre.
What personal data will we collect?
When a customer telephones our UK and ROI Customer Services Department we will collect the following personal data on our call recording system:
If you make a purchase over the phone, the call recording is paused whilst you provide your payment card details. Once the transaction is complete, the recording will re-start.
Why do we need call recordings?
The recorded calls are primarily used for training and monitoring purposes, but we will also use the call recordings for the following purposes:
What is our lawful ground for collecting and sharing personal data?
Legitimate Interests - The recording of calls is necessary to protect the interests of you, our staff or both for the purposes set out in the section above.
Who might we share your data with?
We will not normally need to share your personal data with anyone outside of Gear4Music. However, there may be certain circumstances where we are required or permitted, under Data Protection legislation, to disclose your personal data when we have a legal obligation to do so, such as for:
How long are recordings kept?
All recordings are kept for 90 days before being securely destroyed unless we are required to keep a call for an investigation or other legal reason.
What are my rights?
You have the right to:
Gear4music will deliver targeted advertising via Google to customers who provide their consent. When we run a promotional campaign, these adverts will be matched to existing Gear4music customers who have recently browsed the same or similar items to those in the current promotion, and to get the best price on items they are interested in by being notified of relevant promotions.
Why do we need targeted advertising?
What personal data will we collect/share?
When a customer consents to targeted advertising, the following information will be securely shared with Google Ads:
This data will then be matched with existing customer information held by Google. The data will be hashed (an industry standard of pseudonymisation) as soon as possible, and raw customer data will be held by Google for less than 48 hours.
What is our lawful ground for collecting and sharing personal data?
Consent. When creating an account or placing an order with Gear4music, you will be given an option to consent to targeted advertising with Google Ads. We will only share the data of customers who have consented to this type of marketing (i.e., we are not relying on a 'soft opt-in', and opting into our direct e-mail marketing is a separate process that has no effect on advertising through Google Ads). Existing customers who have previously opted into e-mail marketing will also be sent an e-mail inviting them to opt into Google Ads marketing – again, only customers who actively consent to this type of marketing will have their data shared in this way.
What are my rights?
You have the right to:Gear4music shares the names and e-mail addresses of customers with trusted review company Trustpilot, so that customers can be invited by e-mail to leave a review of their Gear4music orders.
What personal data will we collect/share?
When a customer places an order with Gear4music, the following information will be securely shared with Trustpilot:
The customer can then provide further information while registering on Trustpilot’s website if they choose to proceed.
Why do we need Trustpilot reviews?
It is very helpful to both Gear4music and our customers to allow customers to leave an honest and public review on Trustpilot for the following reasons:
What is our lawful ground for collecting and sharing personal data?
Legitimate Interests – Inviting customers to leave reviews after their purchase is necessary for us to provide the best possible service, and for the further purposes set out in the section above.
How long is the data kept by Trustpilot?
The name and e-mail address are kept by Trustpilot for no longer than six months.
What are my rights?
You have the right to:
Gear4music’s product assistant chatbot allows you to ask questions about our products, and to get answers to those questions from an AI chatbot (automated service).
We will also use the information you enter into the Product Assistant chatbot to improve our chatbot performance and for security and abuse monitoring purposes.
The information you enter into the Product Assistant chatbot is not used for training or machine learning purposes.
If you are not comfortable using AI technology, please do not use our Product Assistant chatbot and continue to use our website in the normal way.
What personal data will we collect?
What is our lawful ground for collecting and sharing your personal data?
Who will we share your information with?
Our Product Assistant chatbot service is provided by Google, therefore any information, including any personal data, you enter into the Product Assistant chatbot will be shared with Google.
Where is your information stored?
How long do we keep your information?
What are my rights?
We ask you not to provide your personal data when you use the Product Assistant chatbot. This means we are not collecting and using your personal data. Therefore, no GDPR rights apply, because we cannot identify you from the information you have entered.
If you do enter your personal data, then the following rights may apply: