Privacy Policy - Garden Gravel Express

At Garden Gravel Express, we are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your information when you visit our website www.gardengravelexpress.co.uk, make a purchase, or interact with us.

1. Who We Are

2. What Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process various types of personal data about you, depending on how you interact with our website and services.

a) Data You Provide to Us Directly:

  • Identity Data: Name, title.
  • Contact Data: Billing address, delivery address, email address, telephone numbers.
  • Financial Data: Payment card details (we do not store full payment card details; these are processed securely by our third-party payment providers ie PayPal).
  • Account Data: Username and password (if you opt in to create an account with us).
  • Communication Data: Any information you provide when you contact us via email, phone, or contact forms, including feedback, reviews, and survey responses.

b) Data We Collect Automatically (via Cookies and Tracking Technologies):

  • Technical Data: Internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
  • Usage Data: Information about how you use our website, products, and services, including pages viewed, products viewed, and duration of visit.

c) Data We Collect from Third Parties:

  • We may receive Technical and Usage Data from analytics providers such as Google (based outside the UK/EEA).
  • We may receive Identity and Contact Data from payment and delivery services.

3. How We Use Your Personal Data and Our Legal Basis

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances and for the following purposes:

  • To process and fulfil your orders
    We use your identity, contact, financial, and transactional data to ensure that the goods you purchase are delivered efficiently and payments are processed securely.
    Legal Basis: Performance of a contract (to deliver the products you purchased).
  • To manage your account and provide related services
    Your identity, contact, and account data are used to handle account-related services, ensuring that you can access and manage your account conveniently.
    Legal Basis: Performance of a contract (to provide the account services you registered for).
  • To communicate with you about your orders or enquiries
    We use your identity, contact, and communication data to send updates about your orders or respond to your queries, feedback, or customer service needs.
    Legal Basis: Performance of a contract (for order updates); Legitimate Interests (to provide excellent customer service and maintain strong customer relationships).
  • To send you marketing communications
    If you have opted in, we may use your contact data to send newsletters or promotional updates about our products. You can withdraw consent at any time.
    Legal Basis: Consent (we rely on your explicit permission for this purpose).
  • To enhance and improve our website, products, and services
    We analyse technical and usage data to gain insights into how our website is used, troubleshoot issues, and improve the customer experience.
    Legal Basis: Legitimate Interests (to improve operations and provide better services to our customers).
  • To ensure the security and functionality of our website and business
    Technical and usage data help us protect our business by supporting security measures, preventing fraud, and maintaining systems effectively.
    Legal Basis: Legitimate Interests (to safeguard operations and maintain network security).
  • To comply with legal and regulatory obligations
    When required, we process identity, contact, financial, transactional, and technical data to meet our legal responsibilities, such as tax compliance and fraud prevention.
    Legal Basis: Legal obligation (e.g., in response to authorities).
  • To conduct internal analysis and research
    We may use technical and usage data (typically aggregated or anonymised) for research purposes, helping us understand market trends and improve our offerings.
    Legal Basis: Legitimate Interests (to make informed business decisions and improve customer experiences).

We are committed to safeguarding your data and ensuring it is only used as outlined above. If you have any questions about how we handle your personal data, please contact our support team for more details.

4. Who We Share Your Personal Data With

We may share your personal data with the following categories of third parties:

  • Delivery Partners: Couriers and logistics companies (e.g., pallet networks, parcel delivery services) to deliver your orders.
  • Payment Processors: Secure third-party payment gateways (e.g., Stripe, PayPal) to process your payments. We do not store your full payment card details on our servers.
  • IT Service Providers: Companies that provide us with IT and system administration services, including website hosting, email services, and data backup.
  • Analytics Providers: Providers like Google Analytics who help us understand website traffic and usage patterns.
  • Marketing Platforms: If we use external platforms for email marketing (e.g., Mailchimp), your email address may be shared with them for the sole purpose of sending you marketing communications you have opted into.
  • Professional Advisors: Lawyers, accountants, and other professional service providers.
  • Regulators and Law Enforcement: Where we are legally required to do so.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

5. International Transfers

Some of our external third parties may be based outside the UK and European Economic Area (EEA), meaning their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the UK/EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK/EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the UK Government.
  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the UK Government which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK/EEA.

6. Data Security

We have implemented appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, accessed in an unauthorised way, altered, or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

7. Data Retention

We will 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.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

For example:

  • Order data: We typically retain order details for a minimum of 7 years to comply with tax and accounting obligations.
  • Account data: Your account data is retained as long as your account remains active. If an account becomes inactive for a prolonged period, we may contact you or delete the account.
  • Marketing consent: We retain your email address for marketing purposes until you withdraw your consent.

8. Your Legal Rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. These include the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  • Request correction of the personal data we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
  • Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing, where we may have processed your information unlawfully, or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
  • Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
  • Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at customerservice@cwatson.co.uk or 01422 251 251. 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.

9. Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, please contact us.

  • What are cookies? Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
  • How we use cookies: We use cookies for purposes such as:
  • Strictly Necessary Cookies: Essential for the website to function, e.g., enabling you to add items to your basket and checkout.
  • Analytical/Performance Cookies: Allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works.
  • Functionality Cookies: Used to recognise you when you return to our website, allowing us to personalise our content for you and remember your preferences.
  • Managing cookies: Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

10. Third-Party Links

Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The latest version will always be posted on our website. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your data.

12. Further Information

If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy or the use of your personal information by Garden Gravels Express by Charles Watson (Ironmongers) Ltd, please contact; Charles Watson (Ironmongers) Ltd, Pellon Lane, Halifax, HX1 5QN

13. Complaints

If you have any concerns or complaints about how we process your personal data, please contact us in the first instance at customerservice@cwatson.co.uk or 01422 251 251.

You also 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). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.