Privacy Policy — The Whisky Journal

This Privacy Policy outlines how we, The Whisky Journal, collect, use, and share your personal information. Whether you're a customer, a website visitor, or any other individual whose information we have collected, this Privacy Policy applies to you. By using any of our services, which includes visiting our website or making a purchase from thewhiskyjournal.co.uk, you agree to the terms outlined in this Privacy Policy.

Please read it carefully. If you don't agree to the terms, please refrain from accessing or using any of our services.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy may be updated periodically to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will make the revised Privacy Policy available on the Site, update the "Last updated" date, and take any other necessary steps as required by applicable law.

How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information

In order to offer you our services, we gather personal information about you from various sources, as explained below. The type of information we collect and use will depend on how you engage with us. Apart from the specific purposes mentioned below, we may also use the collected information to get in touch with you, provide the services, comply with any legal obligations, enforce our terms of service, and protect or defend the services, our rights, and the rights of our users or others.

What Personal Information We Collect

The personal information we collect about you depends on how you interact with our Site and use our services. By personal information, we mean any information that can identify you, describe you or be associated with you. In the following sections, we will describe the categories and specific types of personal information we collect.

Information We Collect Directly from You

Information that you directly submit to us through our Services may include:

Basic contact details including your name, address, phone number, email.
Order information including your name, billing address, shipping address, payment confirmation, email address, phone number.
Account information including your username, password, security questions.
Shopping information including the items you view, put in your cart or add to your wishlist.
Customer support information including the information you choose to include in communications with us, for example, when sending a message through the Services.

Some features of the services may require direct provision of certain information. Failure to provide may prevent access.

Information We Collect through Cookies

We also automatically collect certain information about your interaction with the services ("Usage Data"). We may use cookies, pixels and similar technologies ("Cookies") to do this. Usage Data may include information about how you access and use our Site and your account, including device information, browser information, network connection information, IP address and other information regarding your interaction with the services.

Information We Obtain from Third Parties

Finally, we may obtain information about you from third parties, including from vendors and service providers who may collect information on our behalf, such as:

Companies who support our Site and Services, such as Squarespace.
Our payment processors, who collect payment information (e.g., bank account, credit or debit card information, billing address) to process your payment to fulfil your orders and provide you with products or services you have requested, to perform our contract with you.
When you visit our site, open or click on emails we send you, or interact with our services or advertisements, we, or third parties we work with, may automatically collect certain information using online tracking technologies such as pixels, web beacons, software developer kits, third-party libraries, and cookies.

Any information we obtain from third parties will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We are not responsible or liable for the accuracy of the information provided to us by third parties and are not responsible for any third party's policies or practices. For more information, see the section below, Third Party Websites and Links.

How We Use Your Personal Information

Providing Products and Services. We collect your personal information to offer you the services. This is done in order to fulfil our contract with you. We use your data to process your payments, handle your orders, send you notifications related to your account, purchases, returns, exchanges or other transactions, manage your account, arrange for shipping, facilitate any returns and exchanges, and enable you to post reviews.
Marketing and Advertising. We may use your personal information to send you marketing, advertising, and promotional communications via email, text message, or postal mail. Additionally, we may use your personal information to display advertisements for products or services and to tailor the services and advertising on our site and other websites.
Security and Fraud Prevention. We may use your personal information to identify and investigate any potential instances of fraud, illegal activity or malicious behaviour. If you decide to use our services and create an account, it is your responsibility to ensure the safety of your account credentials. We strongly advise you not to share your username, password, or any other access information with anyone else. In the event that you suspect your account has been compromised, please do not hesitate to contact us immediately.
Communicating with you. We collect your personal information to offer you customer support and enhance our services. This is done in our legitimate interests to be prompt in our response to you, provide efficient services to you, and maintain our business association with you.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies, like many others. These cookies enable us to power and enhance our site and services. They help us remember your preferences and actions, run analytics, and offer you a better experience. To administer, improve, and optimise our services, we use cookies in our legitimate interest. We also allow third-party service providers to use cookies to personalise the advertising, products, and services on our site and other websites. For detailed information about the cookies we use to power our store with Squarespace, please visit https://www.squarespace.com/privacy

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you have the option to remove or reject them through your browser settings. Please note that disabling cookies may negatively impact your user experience, and some of the services, including certain features and functionality, may no longer be available or work properly. Furthermore, disabling cookies may not entirely prevent us from sharing information with third-party organisations such as our advertising partners.

How We Disclose Personal Information

In certain circumstances, we may disclose your personal information to third parties for legitimate purposes subject to this Privacy Policy, such as when we are required to do so by law or when it is necessary to respond to a valid legal process.

Our company shares data with third-party vendors who provide services such as IT management, payment processing, customer support, data analytics, cloud storage, and shipping and fulfilment.
We collaborate with business and marketing partners, such as Squarespace, to offer you services and promote products to you. We use Squarespace to facilitate personalised advertising with third-party services. Our business and marketing partners will use your information in compliance with their own privacy notices.
When you give us permission to share your information with third parties for product shipping or through social media widgets and login integrations.
Within our corporate group or with affiliates, we may share information for legitimate business interests.
In the event of a business transaction, such as a merger or bankruptcy, we may need to comply with legal requirements, including responding to subpoenas, search warrants, and similar requests. We may also enforce the terms of service, and defend the rights of the Services, our users, and others.

We do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you.

Third Party Websites and Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites or online platforms. If you decide to follow these links, it is important that you review their privacy and security policies as well as their terms and conditions. We cannot guarantee nor are we responsible for the privacy or security of these websites, including the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information provided on them. Any information you share on public or semi-public forums, including social media platforms, may be visible to other users of our website or third-party platforms and may be used without limitation by us or a third party. Please note that our inclusion of these links does not imply endorsement of the content on these platforms or their owners and operators unless explicitly stated on our website.

Children’s Data

Our services are designed for adults and are not intended for use by children. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children. In case you are a parent or guardian of a child who has provided us with their personal information, you can contact us using the contact details provided below to request that the information be deleted.

Security and Retention of Your Information

Please note that even though we take security measures to protect your information, no security system is completely impenetrable and we cannot guarantee perfect security. Moreover, any information you send to us may not be secure while in transit. We advise you not to use unsecured channels to communicate confidential or sensitive information to us.

The length of time we keep your personal information varies depending on various factors, such as whether we need the information to maintain your account, provide services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, or enforce other applicable contracts and policies.

Your Rights and Choices

The following are the rights you may have regarding your personal information, depending on your location. However, it's important to note that these rights are not absolute and may only apply under certain circumstances. In some cases, we may not be able to fulfil your request due to legal limitations.

Right to Access / Know. You may have a right to request access to personal information that we hold about you, including details relating to the ways in which we use and share your information.
Right to Delete. You may have a right to request that we delete the personal information we maintain about you.
Right to Correct. You may have a right to request that we correct the inaccurate personal information we maintain about you.
Right of Portability. You may have a right to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to request that we transfer it to a third party in certain circumstances and with certain exceptions.

Right to Opt out of Sale or Sharing or Targeted Advertising. You may have a right to direct us not to "sell" or "share" your personal information or to opt out of the processing of your personal information for purposes considered to be "targeted advertising", as defined in applicable privacy laws. Please note that if you visit our Site with the Global Privacy Control opt-out preference signal enabled, depending on where you are, we will automatically treat this as a request to opt-out of the "sale" or "sharing" of information for the device and browser that you use to visit the Site.

Right to Limit and/or Opt out of Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information. You may have a right to direct us to limit our use and/or disclosure of sensitive personal information to only what is necessary to perform the services or provide the goods reasonably expected by an average individual.
Restriction of Processing: You may have the right to ask us to stop or restrict our processing of personal information.
Withdrawal of Consent: Where we rely on consent to process your personal information, you may have the right to withdraw this consent.
Appeal: You may have a right to appeal our decision if we decline to process your request. You can do so by replying directly to our denial.
Managing Communication Preferences: We may send you promotional emails, and you may opt out of receiving these at any time by using the unsubscribe option displayed in our emails to you. If you opt-out, we may still send you non-promotional emails, such as those about your account or orders that you have made.

You may exercise any of these rights as indicated on our site or by contacting us using the contact details provided below.

We will treat you fairly and equally regardless of whether you choose to exercise any of your rights. However, in order to provide a substantive response to your request, we may require additional information to verify your identity, such as your email address or account information. If you are unable to make the request yourself, you may designate an authorised agent to act on your behalf. Before accepting such a request, we will require proof that the agent is authorised to act on your behalf. Additionally, we may need to verify your identity directly with you. We will respond to your request in a timely manner as required by applicable law.

Complaints

If you have any concerns or complaints about how we handle your personal information, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us using the contact details we have provided below. If you feel that our response to your complaint did not satisfactorily resolve your issues, depending on your location, you may have the option to appeal our decision by contacting us again using the same contact details, or you may choose to file a complaint with your local data protection authority.

Contact

Should you have any questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, or if you would like to exercise any of the rights available to you, email us at info@thewhiskyjournal.co.uk.