Privacy Policy

The Tortoise Shop. ("We") are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.  Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. We keep certain basic information when you visit our website and recognise the importance of keeping that information secure and letting you know what we will do with it.

We ensure that the provisions and obligations imposed by the new GDPR regulations and the Data Protection Principles together with any subsequent re-enactment or amendment thereof in storing and processing data, are complied with at all times.

This policy only applies to our site. If you leave our site via a link or otherwise, you will be subject to the policy of that website provider. We have no control over that policy or the terms of the website and you should check their policy before continuing to access the site.

Information we will collect from you

We collect and store the following data about you:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on our site www.thetortoiseshop.com (our site). This includes Full name, address, contact number and email address.
  
• If you contact us by email, we will keep all correspondence.
  
• We will also have access via google analytics details of your visits to our site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs, operating system, browser usage, IP address and other communication data.

IP addresses and cookies

We collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual and we will not collect personal information in this way.

We obtain information about your general Internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us:

• To estimate our audience size and usage pattern.
• To recognise your computer or device when you return to our site.
• The ability for our embedded video and radio players to load faster.

You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser, which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you visit our site.

Where we store your personal data

The data that we collect from you is kept by our processors;

Open Cart (order form information) - No card details are stored on this platform. This is solely to keep track of individual orders, contact number and be able to pull up a delivery address for returns and replacements

Rackspace (email correspondence) - This is for our security and yours. We only monitor emails should an issue arise.

Google (analytics, browsers, ip address, etc) - This is to ensure that we are reaching the correct customer base and not spamming those who are not looking for us.

DPD/Royal Mail/Walkers European Transport (name, address, contact phone number, email address) - Our couriers carry their own privacy policies for the use of your details in regards to delivering our products

PayPal/World Pay (name, address, contact number, email address, card details) - PayPal and World Pay have their own privacy terms for the holding of your personal data. They do not allow access to card details.

Please be aware that although we are confident that your data is secure, these companies do have their own Privacy Policies and timelines for keeping data.

We hold our copy of invoice/dispatch notes (containing name, address, contact number, email address and items ordered) for no more than 7 years.

Uses made of the information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

• To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
• To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us. This includes; passing your information onto our chosen courier to distribute goods purchased, to contact you with regards to your order (delivery, address checks, etc)
  
• To allow you to participate in interactive features of our website, when you choose to do so.
• To notify you about changes to our service.
• Subscription of our mailing list

Data Protection

We have an appointed Data Protection Officer with knowledge of your privacy rights and new laws.

Any breaches of personal information will be reported to the local authorities and the persons involved within 72 hours as per new GDPR regulations.

Your rights

You have the right to;

• Request access to your personal information.
• Update your personal information should you move house, change name, etc.
• Request deletion of your data
• Request that we stop processing your data
• Request any data we keep to be delivered to yourself or a third party
• Request a stop on marketing calls, emails, etc.

These requests must be submitted in writing. Where you have to log in, you are responsible for your own password and it's security. We do not have access and cannot guarantee the complete safety of the internet, external networks or your own device.

Access to information

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request must be submitted in writing and will be upheld within 21 working days.

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. We advise that you check this page regularly to keep up to date with any necessary changes.

Cookies and how they benefit you

Our website uses cookies, as almost all websites do, to help provide you with the best experience we can. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites

Our cookies help us:

• Make our website work as you'd expect
• Improve the speed/security of the site
• Allow you to share pages with social networks like Facebook
• Continuously improve our website for you
• Make our marketing more efficient (ultimately helping us to offer the service we do at the price we do)

We do not use cookies to:

• Collect any personally identifiable information (without your express permission)
• Collect any sensitive information (without your express permission)
• Pass personally identifiable data to third parties i.e. Google Analytics etc
• To pay sales commissions
• To send your information to advertisers

Granting us permission to use cookies

If the settings on your software that you are using to view this website (your browser) are adjusted to accept cookies we take this, and your continued use of our website, to mean that you are fine with this. Removing or not using cookies on our site will likely mean that our site will not work as you will expect.

We use cookies to make our website work including: 

(PHPSESSID) - To identify a specific user session and of which expires at the end of the session. 
(_utm) - This cookie stores information via google analytics to track your activity on our site. This cookie is used by Soundcloud, YouTube and vimeo on our embedded players.

(UID / UIDR) - This is a third party cookie used by ShareThis (Our social plugin) to send tracking information to ComScore a data tracking company affiliated with ShareThis.

(VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE / YSC / PREF / GEUP / ACTIVITY) - These cookies are used by Youtube (Google) to allow you to view clips embedded on our site and also track some information.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to info@thetortoiseshop.com

Updates

This Privacy Policy was last updated 23/5/2018