This policy is valid from March 1, 2019
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.
The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.
The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.
This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Our cookie policy
In compliance with the European Union legislation, we inform you that our website will store some information about your preferences on your own computer inside a tiny file called a ‘cookie’.
A cookie is a small piece of data that a website asks your browser to store on your computer or mobile device. The cookie allows the website to “remember” your actions or preferences over time.
You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.
Most browsers support cookies, but users can set their browsers to decline them and can delete them whenever they like. A third-party website called aboutcookies.org has been setup to help you with instructions how you can do that on various browsers.
We use cookies to:
1) Identify you as a returning user and to count your visits in our traffic statistics analysis;
2) remember your custom display preferences;
3) Suggest any recent searches you’ve made on our site
4) Other usability features including tracking whether you’ve already given your consent to cookies
Enabling cookies from our website is not strictly necessary for the website to work but it will provide you with a better browsing experience.
The cookie-related information is not used to identify you personally and the pattern data is fully under our control. These cookies are not used for any purpose other than those described here.
There may also be other types of cookies created after you’ve visited our website. We use Google Analytics, a popular web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics uses cookies to help us to analyse how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google undertakes not to associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.
Third Party Advertising
We may have third-party advertising companies serving ads to you when you visit our website. These companies may store information about your visits to our website and to other websites in order to provide you with relevant advertisements about goods and services.
These companies may employ cookies and other identifiers to gather information which measures advertising effectiveness. The information is generally not personally identifiable unless, for example, you provide personally identifiable information to them through an ad or an e-mail message.
Information Gathered by Third Party Advertisers
Cookies enable advertisers to learn about what ads you see, what ads you click, and other actions you take on our site and other sites. This allows advertisers to provide you with more useful and relevant ads. For example, if they know what ads you are shown while visiting our site, they can be careful not to show you the same ones repeatedly. They do not associate your interaction with unaffiliated sites with your identity in providing you with interest-based ads.
We do not provide any personal information to advertisers or to third party sites. Advertisers and other third-parties (including the ad networks, ad-serving companies, and other service providers they may use) may assume that users who interact with or click on a personalized ad or content are part of the group that the ad or content is directed towards (for example, readers in the Pacific Northwest who read certain types of articles). Also, some third-party cookies may provide them with information about you (such as the sites where you have been shown ads or demographic information) from offline and online sources that they may use to provide you more relevant and useful advertising.
If you would like to learn more about what options you have about limiting the gathering of information by third-party ad networks, you can consult the website of the Network Advertising Initiative.
You can opt out of participating in interest-based advertising networks but opting out does not mean you will no longer receive online advertising. It does mean that the companies from which you opted out will no longer customize ads based on your interests and web usage patterns using cookie-based technology.
Type and Purpose of Collection
We collect information at various points in the Website to facilitate its use by our customers. Non-Personal Information: Upon accessing the Website, certain non-personal information will be automatically collected without your knowledge or consent, such as your IP address, location data (which is anonymous) and the referring website (“Non-Personal Information”). We use Non-Personal Information to examine our traffic and to view how our customers use the Website. This type of information will not allow you to be personally identified. For example, we use “cookies”, which contains only certain statistical information. You can instruct your computer to inform you whenever a cookie is being sent, or you can disallow cookies through your web browser. If you do choose to disallow cookies, your experience on the Website may be diminished, or your ability to choose some of the options on the Website may be limited.
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Sharing Information
We will not sell, rent or disclose to outside parties the information we collect, save and except that we may share the collected information with other parties as follows:
(a) Affiliated Service Providers: We have agreements with various affiliated service providers to facilitate the functioning of the Website, with whom we may share the information we have collected. For example, we may share your credit card information with the credit card service provider to process your purchase. All administrative service providers that we use are required to have the same level of privacy protection as we have, and therefore we expect that your information will be handled with the same level of care that we employ. Additionally, for example, we may use analytic or marketing services such as Google Analytics, Google Adsense, Taboola, or RevContent, to which collection you hereby unconditionally consent.
(b) Where required by law: We may share the collected information where required by law, specifically in response to a demand from government authorities where such demand meets the legal requirements.
(c) Statistical Analysis: We may share Non-Personal Information and aggregated information with third parties, including but not limited to for advertising or marketing purposes. No Personal Information will be shared in this manner.
(d) Transactions: In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition, or in any other situation where Personal Information may be disclosed or transferred as one of our business assets.
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Choices and How To Opt Out Of Interest-Based Advertising
(a) Opting Out of Interest-Based Advertising Services This website is a member of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and adheres to the NAI Codes of Conduct as described on the NAI website. This website also adheres to the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) Self-Regulatory Principles. For a description of the DAA Program, please visit the DAA website. As described above, this website may use or transfer Device Data that it directly collects or that it receives from this website’s Customers, who may use cookies or non-cookie technologies, to enable advertising that is more tailored to Consumers’ inferred interests, preferences, and locations. This practice is known as interest-based advertising.
(b) Opting Out of Interest-Based Advertising by Third Parties
This website may permit third parties to collect information on its Site and combine that information with other information collected on non-affiliated websites or applications over time. These third parties may use technologies, including cookies and web beacons, to collect information about Consumers’ or Customers’ use of the Site in order to analyze, report on, or customize content or advertising on the this website or on other sites, or to help us operate and improve the Site. To find out more about interest-based advertising in the web environment, and how to opt-out of information collection for this purpose by companies that participate in the Network Advertising Initiative or the Digital Advertising Alliance, visit NAI’s opt-out page or DAA’s Consumer Choice Page.
WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU, FOR WHAT PURPOSE AND ON WHAT GROUND WE PROCESS IT
Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual. It does not include anonymized data.
We may process the following categories of personal data about you:
- Communication Data that includes any communication that you send to us whether that be through the contact form on our website, through email, text, social media messaging, social media posting or any other communication that you send us. We process this data for the purposes of communicating with you, for record keeping and for the establishment, pursuance or defense of legal claims. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to reply to communications sent to us, to keep records and to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.
- Customer Data that includes data relating to any purchases of goods and/or services such as your name, title, billing address, delivery address email address, phone number, contact details, purchase details and your card details. We process this data to supply the goods and/or services you have purchased and to keep records of such transactions. Our lawful ground for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps at your request to enter into such a contract.
- User Data that includes data about how you use our website and any online services together with any data that you post for publication on our website or through other online services. We process this data to operate our website and ensure relevant content is provided to you, to ensure the security of our website, to maintain back- ups of our website and/or databases and to enable publication and administration of our website, other online services and business. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business.
- Technical Data that includes data about your use of our website and online services such as your IP address, your login data, details about your browser, length of visit to pages on our website, page views and navigation paths, details about the number of times you use our website, time zone settings and other technology on the devices you use to access our website. The source of this data is from our analytics tracking system. We process this data to analyze your use of our website and other online services, to administer and protect our business and website, to deliver relevant content and advertisements to you and to understand the effectiveness of our advertising. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business and to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.
- Marketing Data that includes data about your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences. We process this data to enable you to partake in our promotions such as competitions, prize draws and free give-aways, to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of this advertising. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.
- We may use Customer Data, User Data, Technical Data and Marketing Data to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you (including Facebook adverts or other display advertisements) and to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve you. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interests which is to grow our business. We may also use such data to send other marketing communications to you. Our lawful ground for this processing is either consent or legitimate interests (namely to grow our business). [NOTE SEE SECTION 4 BELOW]
Sensitive Data
We do not collect any Sensitive Data about you. Sensitive data refers to data that includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. We do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.
Where we are required to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of the contract between us and you do not provide us with that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract (for example, to deliver goods or services to you). If you don’t provide us with the requested data, we may have to cancel a product or service you have ordered but if we do, we will notify you at the time.
We will only use your personal data for a purpose it was collected for or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. For more information on this please email us at support@retailmarketingacademy.com. In case we need to use your details for an unrelated new purpose we will let you know and explain the legal grounds for processing.
We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
We do not carry out automated decision making or any type of automated profiling.
DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below:
- Service providers who provide IT and system administration services.
- Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers
- Government bodies that require us to report processing activities.
- Third parties to whom we sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets.
We require all third parties to whom we transfer your data to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only allow such third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
We share your personal data within our group of companies which involves transferring your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
Countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) do not always offer the same levels of protection to your personal data, so European law has prohibited transfers of personal data outside of the EEA unless the transfer meets certain criteria.
Many of our third parties service providers are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.
Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we do our best to ensure a similar degree of security of data by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is in place:
- We will only transfer your personal data to countries that the European Commission have approved as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data by; or
- Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts or codes of conduct or certification mechanisms approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe; or
- If we use US-based providers that are part of EU-US Privacy Shield, we may transfer data to them, as they have equivalent safeguards in place.
If none of the above safeguards is available, we may request your explicit consent to the specific transfer. You will have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.
DATA SECURITY
We have put in place security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorization. We also allow access to your personal data only to those employees and partners who have a business need to know such data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they must keep it confidential.
We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach if we are legally required to.
DATA RETENTION
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for we look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure, the processing purposes, if these can be achieved by other means and legal requirements.
For tax purposes the law requires us to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they stop being customers.
In some circumstances we may anonymize your personal data for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.
You can see more about these rights at:
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at support@retailmarketingacademy.com.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive or refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you.
If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We should be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you.