your privacy
Your privacy is important to us and we do all we can to protect your data and personal information. This policy explains how we do that, and what your rights are.
About us
This is the privacy notice of Earth & Stone, which is a trading name of Ichor Developments Ltd, a company registered in England with number 12848118. Our registered office is at 11 Mardley Hill, Welwyn, England, AL6 0UE. We also trade from 19 Hay Wains, Woolmer Green, SG3 6HW.
This policy relates to the website www.earthandstone.co.uk (the ‘website’) In this policy, any references to ‘we’, ‘our’, or ‘us’ mean Earth & Stone. Any references to ‘you’ or ‘your’ mean you, as a user of this website.
This notice describes how we collect, store, transfer and use personal data. It tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
We define ‘personal data’ as information that clearly identifies you as an individual or which could be used to identify you if it was combined with other information. Acting in any way on personal data is referred to as ‘processing’ it.
This notice applies to personal data collected through our website and through social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Except as set out below, we do not share, sell, or disclose any information collected through our website to third parties.
Introduction
UK law requires us to have a reason for collecting and processing personal data. This section explains what kind of information we gather, how we obtain it, and the reasons we obtain it. We collect and process multiple types of personal data, and so there might be different reasons applicable to different types of data, even though they all relate to the same individual.
How we obtain personal data
We process information that:
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You have directly provided to us (for example by using our contact form)
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We gather from third party databases and service providers
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Is obtained as a result of monitoring how you use our website or our services
Types of personal data we collect directly
When you use our website or our services, we ask you to provide us with personal data, which can be categorised into the following groups:
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Personal identifiers, such as your first and last names, your title and your date of birth
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Contact information, such as your email address, your telephone number and your postal addresses for billing, delivery and communication
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Payment information, such as a debit or credit card number and expiry date and bank account details
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Records of communication between us including messages sent through our website, email messages and telephone conversations
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Marketing preferences that tell us what types of marketing you would like to receive
Types of personal data we collect from third parties
We might sometimes confirm some of the information you provide to us directly using data from other sources. We also add to the information we hold about you, sometimes to remove the need for you to provide it to us and sometimes in order to be able to assess the quality of the services you offer.
The additional information we collect can be categorised as follows:
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Information that confirms your identity
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Business information, including your business trading name and address, your company number (if incorporated), and your VAT number (if registered)
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Information that confirms your contact information
Types of personal data we collect from your use of our services
When you use our website and our services, we process:
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Information used to access our website and our services
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Information submitted to us through contact forms or other information-gathering tools like surveys
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Technical information about the hardware and the software you use to access our website and use our services, including your Internet Protocol (‘IP’) address, your browser type and version and your device’s operating system
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Usage information, including the frequency you use our services, the pages of our website that you visit, whether you receive messages from us and whether you reply to those messages
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Transaction information that includes the details of any services you have bought from us and payments made to us for those services
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Your preferences to receive marketing from us, how you wish to communicate with us, and responses and actions in relation to your use of our services.
Our use of aggregated information
We may aggregate anonymous information such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. This information does not identify you as an individual. Aggregated information may be derived from your personal data but it is not considered personal data because we do not use it to reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate usage information to assess whether a feature of our website is useful.
If we combine or connect aggregated information with your personal data in a way that can be used to identify you individually, we treat the combined information as personal data, and it will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
Special personal data
Special personal data is data 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. It also includes information about criminal convictions and offences.
We do not collect any special personal data about you.
Your personal data
Why we process your data
The law identifies a number of reasons that we would need to process your personal data. It then requires us to identify which of those reasons apply to each category of personal data that we collect, and then tell you about our decisions.
If we no longer have a legitimate reason for processing a certain category of personal data, then we will immediately stop doing so. If the reason changes, then in certain circumstances we might notify you of the change, including the new reason for processing the personal data.
Information we process because we have a contractual obligation with you
When you become our client, we will ask you to sign an agreement which explains the work we are going to perform for you and gives other information on how we will perform it. In order to carry out our obligations under that agreement, we must process certain information that you give to us. Some of this information might be personal data. We may use it in order to:
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Verify your identity for security purposes (for example, to perform a credit check) when you use our services
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Sell services to you
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Provide you with our services
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Provide you with suggestions and advice on products and services which may or may not be sold by us
We process this information on the basis there is a contract between us, or that you have requested we use the information before we enter into a legal contract.
We shall continue to process this information until the contract between us ends or is terminated by either party under the terms of the contract.
Information we process with your consent
You can also provide your consent for us to process your personal data by performing certain actions, even though you might not formally have entered into a contractual relationship with us. These actions include, but are not limited to, browsing our website, using its features and functionality, and submitting information to us through a contact form or other means of collecting information.
Wherever possible, we try to get you to explicitly agree to us processing this information, for example, through our cookie banner which appears when you first visit our website, or through checkboxes which we ask you to tick when you submit information in contact forms.
We continue to process your information on this basis until you withdraw your consent or it can be reasonably assumed that your consent no longer exists.
If you do not want us to process your personal data anymore, you can withdraw consent by emailing us at privacy@earthandstone.co.uk. We will then guide you through the process needed to withdraw your consent. Just so you know, if you do withdraw your consent, you might not be able to use our website (or it might not work as intended) and we might not be able to provide you with services as a client.
Whilst we will always consider your consent status when deciding whether to process personal data, there might be situations in which we continue to process it even after you have withdrawn your consent. For example, we might be required to do so under the law.
Information we process for the purposes of legitimate interests
We may process information on the basis that there is a legitimate interest, either to you or to us, of doing so.
We will only do this after we have carefully thought about whether we could achieve the same objective in another way that doesn’t require us to process your personal data, or whether our processing (or not processing) of the personal data might cause you or others harm. We also think about whether you would expect and consider it reasonable for us to process personal data.
For example, we may process your data to:
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Improve our services
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Keep the proper and necessary records for the administration of our business
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Respond to unsolicited communication from you where we believe you would expect a response
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Prevent fraud and fraudulent use of our website and services
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Exercise our legal rights, including to detect and prevent fraud and to protect our intellectual property
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Insure against risk, or obtain professional advice that is required to manage it
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Protect your interests where we believe we have a duty to do so
Information we process because we have a legal obligation
Sometimes, we must process your information in order to comply with the law. For example, we may be required to give information to law enforcement if they request it or if they have the proper authorisation to obtain it, such as a search warrant or court order. This may include your personal data.
Information we process to protect vital interests
There might be situations in which we need to process personal information to protect someone’s life, and where it might not be possible for consent to be given. For example, we may inform relevant organisations if we have a safeguarding concern about a vulnerable person.
Where we cannot process that personal information under any other lawful bases, we may process it on the basis of vital interests.
This section explains how we make use of your data, and the circumstances that might give us a reason for doing so.
Your personal data is not shared
We do not share or disclose any information collected through our website to third parties unless we are required to do so under law, or it is for the purposes of protecting vital interests (both of which are described in the previous section).
Information you provide
We might sometimes ask you to provide us with information with a view to that information being read, copied, downloaded, or used by other people.
For example, if you provide a review to us, we reasonably assume that you consent for that review to be seen by others. Whilst we do not include information that could specifically be used to identify you, it might nevertheless be possible (for example through the use of photos or names), and as such, and your review may contain information that is personal data.
Whilst we do not intend for any reviews provided to us to be used in a way that allows you to be identified, you should decide whether you are happy with the possibility that it might be.
Where you provide us with a review, we do not specifically use it except to allow it to be displayed or shared. We do store it, and we reserve the right to use it in the future in any way we decide.
Once your information enters the public domain, we have no control over what any individual third party may do with it. We accept no responsibility for their actions at any time.
If you no longer want us to display your review or any other personal information, then you can request that we delete it. Provided that your request is reasonable and there is no legal basis for us to retain it, then at our discretion we may agree such a request. You can make a request by contacting us at privacy@earthandstone.co.uk.
Payment information
If you are a client, we may store information about your debit or credit card or other means of payment. We store this information in order to take payment for services delivered to you either on a one-time or recurring basis.
We take a number of measures to protect your payment information, including:
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Keeping it encrypted on our servers
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Hiding or deleting certain elements of it so as to to prevent the possibility of our duplicating a transaction without a new instruction from you and to prevent any other third party from carrying out a transaction without your consent
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Restricting access to your payment information to authorised staff only
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Never sharing all payment information in communications with you or anyone else (other than our bank and payment processing providers). Instead, we might share a portion of the information, for example the last four digits of an account number
Direct Debit information
When you agree to set up a Direct Debit arrangement, the information you give to us is passed to our own bank for processing according to our instructions. We keep a copy of this information on secured servers which can only be accessed by authorised staff.
We keep this information only for the duration of the Direct Debit arrangement.
Job application and employment
If you send us information because you would like to work for or with us, we may keep it for up to three years in case we decide to contact you at a later date.
If we employ you, we collect information about you and your work from time to time throughout the period of your employment. This information will be used only for purposes directly relevant to your employment. Further information on how we process personal information related to your employment will be provided in a separate agreement with us.
Information obtained from third parties
Although we do not disclose your personal data to any third party (except as set out in this notice), we sometimes receive data that is indirectly made up from your personal data from third parties whose services we use.
Credit reference
To assist in combating fraud, we might share information with credit reference agencies, so far as it relates to clients who either do not pay us or who instruct their credit card issuer to cancel payment to us without having first provided an acceptable reason to us and given us the opportunity to refund their money.
Service providers and business partners
We may share your personal data with businesses that provide services to us, or with business partners. For example:
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We may pass your payment information to our payment service provider to take payments from you
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We may use fraud prevention agencies and credit reference agencies to verify your identity and we may pass your information to those agencies if we strongly suspect fraud is being perpetrated
How and when we process your personal data
We make use of a number of technology systems which automatically gather data about you when you use our website and certain other services provided by third parties.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer's hard drive by your web browser when you visit a website that uses them. They allow information gathered on one web page to be stored until it is needed for use at a later date.
They are commonly used to provide you with a personalised experience while you browse a website, for example, allowing your preferences to be remembered.
They can also provide core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility; record how you interact with the website so that the owner can understand how to improve the experience of other visitors; and serve you advertisements that are relevant to your browsing history.
Some cookies may last for a defined period of time, such as one visit (known as a session), one day or until you close your browser. Others last indefinitely until you delete them.
Your web browser should allow you to delete any cookie you choose. It should also allow you to prevent or limit their use. Your web browser may support a plug-in or add-on that helps you manage which cookies you wish to allow to operate.
The law requires you to give explicit consent for use of any cookies that are not strictly necessary for the operation of a website.
When you first visit our website, we ask you whether you accept our use of cookies. If you choose not to accept cookies other than those necessary for the operation of the website, we shall not use them for your visit except to record that you have not consented to their use for any other purpose.
If you choose not to use any cookies at all or you prevent their use through your browser settings, you may not be able to use all the functionality of our website, and it might not work properly.
How we use cookies
We use cookies in the following ways:
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To track how you use our website
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To record whether you have seen specific messages we display on our website
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To record your answers to surveys and questionnaires on our site while you complete them
Personal identifiers from your browsing activity
Our web servers record requests made by your web browser for web pages and other content on our website.
We record information such as your geographical location, your internet service provider and your IP address. We also record information about the software you are using to browse our website, such as the type of computer or device and the screen resolution.
We aggregate this information and use it to assess the popularity of pages on our website and how they perform.
Although unlikely, if someone was to combine other information we know about you from previous visits, the data collected could possibly be used to identify you personally.
Re-marketing
Re-marketing involves placing ‘tracking technology’ such as a cookie or a ‘web beacon’ (also known as an ‘action tag’, a ‘pixel’ or a ‘single-pixel GIF’) to track which pages you visit and to serve you relevant adverts for our services when you visit some other website.
The benefit of re-marketing technology is that we can provide you with more useful and relevant adverts, and not show you ones repeatedly that you may have already seen.
We may use a third-party advertising service to provide us with re-marketing services. If you have consented to our use of such tracking technologies, you may see advertisements for our products and services on other websites.
We do not provide your personal data to advertisers or to third-party re-marketing service providers. However, if you are already a member of a website whose affiliated business provides such services, that affiliated business may learn of your preferences in relation to your use of our website.
Information collected through automated systems
Your rights
The law requires us to tell you about your rights and our obligations to you in regard to the processing and control of your personal data. As such, we request that you read the information provided at knowyourprivacyrights.org.
Use of our services by children
We do not sell products or provide services for purchase by children, nor do we market to children. If you are under 18, you may use our website only with consent from a parent or guardian.
We collect data about all users of and visitors to these areas regardless of age, and we anticipate that some of those users and visitors will be children. However, we never store any personal information related to children unless we are required to do so by law, or in order to protect vital interests.
Encryption of data sent between us
We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to verify our identity to your browser and to encrypt any data you give us. Whenever information is transferred between us, you can check that it is done so using SSL by looking for a closed padlock symbol or other trust mark in your browser’s URL bar or toolbar.
Third party communication software
With your consent, we may communicate using software provided by third parties, each of whom will have their own privacy policies. Such methods of communication should secure your personal data using encryption and other technologies. The providers of such software should comply with all applicable privacy laws, rules, and regulations, including the GDPR. If you have any concerns about using a particular software for communication, please tell us.
Where your data is stored
Our website is hosted in a number of global datacentres to ensure optimal service. We may also use outsourced services in countries outside the UK from time to time in other aspects of our business. Because of this, data obtained within the UK or any other country could be processed outside the UK.
Where data is processed by organisations outside of the UK, we make all reasonable attempts to ensure that those organisation abide by rules which treat your personal data in a similar fashion to our own rules.
Control over your own information
If any of your personal data changes, please tell us as soon as possible so that we can update our records.
You may contact us at any time to request information on the personal data we hold about you. To do this, you should contact us at privacy@earthandstone.co.uk.
When we receive any request to access, edit or delete personal data we first take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access or otherwise taking any action. This is important to safeguard your information.
Please be aware that we are not obliged by law to provide you with all personal data we hold about you, and that if we do provide you with information, the law allows us to charge for such provision if doing so incurs costs for us. After receiving your request, we will tell you when we expect to provide you with the information, and whether we require any fee for providing it to you.
You can ask that we delete any personal data that we hold on you and which we process. However, there are some circumstances in which we might continue to process your personal data even if you have asked us to delete it, or you have withdrawn your consent. In these circumstances, it might not always be possible or appropriate to inform you of this.
Communicating with us
When you contact us, whether by telephone, through our website or by email, we collect the data you have given to us in order to reply with the information you need, and we might record your request and our reply in order to monitor the performance of our business.
We may keep personally identifiable information associated with your message, such as your name and email address so as to be able to track our communications with you to provide a high quality service.
Complaining
If you are not happy with our privacy policy, or if you have any complaint, then you should tell us. When we receive a complaint, we record the information you have given to us on the basis of consent. We use that information to resolve your complaint.
If we think your complaint is vexatious or without any basis, we shall not correspond with you about it.
If your complaint reasonably requires us to notify some other person, we may decide to give to that other person some of the information contained in your complaint. We do this as infrequently as possible, but it is a matter for our sole discretion whether we do give information, and if we do, what that information is.
We may also compile statistics showing information obtained from this source to assess the level of service we provide, but not in a way that could identify you or any other person.
If you are in any way dissatisfied about how we process your personal data or how we have resolved a complaint, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (‘ICO’). This can be done at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about your concern before you approach the ICO.
Retention period
Except as otherwise mentioned in this privacy notice, we keep your personal data only for as long as required by us to provide you with any services you have requested, to comply with other law, or to support a claim or defence in court.
Compliance with the law
This policy complies with the law in England & Wales, specifically with the Data Protection Act 2018 (the ‘Act’) accordingly incorporating the EU General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (‘PECR’).
Review of this privacy policy
We will update this privacy notice from time to time as necessary. As such, we recommend that you check back every so often to review any changes made.
Other matters
Contents
Earth & Stone
19 Hay Wains
Woolmer Green
SG3 6HW
© Earth & Stone 2021. All rights reserved. Earth & Stone is a trading name of Ichor Developments Ltd, a company registered in England with number 12848118 and its registered office at 11 Mardley Hill, Welwyn, England, AL6 0UE.