What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Data privacy and protection is very important to us for everyone who uses our products and services, and who entrusts us with their information. We have written this privacy notice so you can better understand how we collect data, what we do with it and how we look after it. We will tell you how long we keep data and what happens when we no longer need it. We will also outline what rights you have over your data and how we protect and facilitate those rights.
Opting in and out of communications made easy
Sometimes people want to read privacy notices because a business is asking for their permission to contact them for marketing. They want to be sure that, if they agree, it will be easy for them to withdraw permission in the future. We want you to be able to opt out as easily as you opted in. Any marketing email we send you will always have an “unsubscribe” link that will take you off that relevant marketing list. Please remember that you may have subscribed from another email address; you will only be able to use the link to “unsubscribe” from the address to which the marketing email has been sent.
1. What personal information do we collect from you?
We collect information:
- when you pay for any of our products or services
- when you register to receive one of our newsletters
- when you use our website
- when you attend any of our events
- if you participate in any research we undertake
- when you enter a competition/contest/promotion
- if you contact us about a query or a complaint
We collect the following types of information:
Contact information
When you use or book one of our services, signing up to an email newsletter, entering a competition, joining one of our online communities or participating in any of our research projects, we will ask you to provide information such as your name, email and/or postal address so that we can provide you with the services requested.
General personal information
When conducting surveys or running competitions, in addition to contact information, we may collect other personal information such as your gender, date of birth, marital status, etc.
Payment details
When you purchase a product or service from us, such as subscribing to one of our magazines or attending one of our events, we will also ask you for your payment details in addition to your contact information, in order to secure payment and to authorise access to our products and services.
Online identifiers
When you visit our website, we collect information about your web visit, such as how long you visited, what pages you looked at, your IP address and where you were when you visited, what sort of device you were using when you visited (such as a mobile phone or type of desktop PC, Mac etc).
Behavioural data
When you visit our website, we collect data on your online behaviour (eg time spent on website, items clicked on, etc).
When you buy a product or service from us, we will collect information about what products and services you have bought from us.
When you register for a newsletter or take part in research, we may collect data about your preferences, tastes and interests.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
The type of information the site collects about you
Brown Girls Love collects personal information that you provide to us or that we learn about you from your use of the Site. For example, you may provide information to us when you register, sign in, search, add items to your shopping cart, purchase a product, participate in a survey, contest or promotion, rate or review our products or services, or communicate with Brown Girls Love Customer Care department. As a result of those actions, you might supply us with such personal information as your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, payment information and personal shopping and product preferences.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
2. How do we use your personal information?
At Brown Girls Love we collect different types of information about people for four main reasons:
- To provide personalised services unique to individual users.
- So we can monitor and improve the services we offer.
- To sell advertising space on our websites. This helps us to keep our websites free for people who visit them.
- To market products and services which we think would be relevant to you.
Newsletters
When you sign up to our newsletter, you are giving consent for us to use the email address provided to send you relevant content for the services we provide. You can withdraw this consent for any newsletter by unsubscribing at any time.
Delivery of goods and services / Customer account management
We will use the information you have provided for the provision of goods and/or services that you have requested and subsequently communicating with you about those products and services.
Please note too, that when you buy something from us – such as subscription or a ticket to an event – we may contact you about your registration details, to manage any account or subscription you have with us, or to provide customer service. This will be the case even if you have opted-out of, or declined to consent to, receiving promotional emails.
Competitions
When you enter one of our online competitions, we will process your information for the purposes of picking a winner. If you have opted-in to receiving information from us about our products and services then we will use the information you provide to make sure we offer you relevant products and services. If you have opted-in to receive news and offers from any competition sponsors, we will share your information with them.
Customer queries and complaints
We process any information you provide when dealing with any complaints or enquiries made by you or legally on your behalf.
3. Online store
We collect information about you during the checkout process on our store.
What we collect and store
While you visit our site, we’ll track:
- Products you’ve viewed: we’ll use this to, for example, show you products you’ve recently viewed
- Location, IP address and browser type: we’ll use this for purposes like estimating taxes and shipping
- Shipping address: we’ll ask you to enter this so we can, for instance, estimate shipping before you place an order, and send you the order!
We’ll also use cookies to keep track of cart contents while you’re browsing our site.
When you purchase from us, we’ll ask you to provide information including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, credit card/payment details and optional account information like username and password. We’ll use this information for purposes, such as, to:
- Send you information about your account and order
- Respond to your requests, including refunds and complaints
- Process payments and prevent fraud
- Set up your account for our store
- Comply with any legal obligations we have, such as calculating taxes
- Improve our store offerings
- Send you marketing messages, if you choose to receive them
If you create an account, we will store your name, address, email and phone number, which will be used to populate the checkout for future orders. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your log-in information and password.
We generally store information about you for as long as we need the information for the purposes for which we collect and use it, and we are not legally required to continue to keep it. We will store order information for 20 years for tax and accounting purposes. This includes your name, email address and billing and shipping addresses.
We will also store comments or reviews, if you choose to leave them.
Who on our team has access
Members of our team have access to the information you provide us. For example, both Administrators and Shop Managers can access:
- Order information like what was purchased, when it was purchased and where it should be sent, and
- Customer information like your name, email address, and billing and shipping information.
Our team members have access to this information to help fulfill orders, process refunds and support you.
What we share with others
In this section you should list who you’re sharing data with, and for what purpose. This could include, but may not be limited to, analytics, marketing, payment gateways, shipping providers, and third party embeds.
We share information with third parties who help us provide our orders and store services to you
Our security practices
Except as otherwise set forth in this Privacy Policy, our internal data security policies restrict access to customers’ personal information to authorized employees on a need to know basis. Our employees are bound by Brown Girls Love policies that require them to maintain the confidentiality of our customers’ personal information. Employees who violate these requirements are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that are designed to protect our customers’ personal information loss, theft, misuse or unauthorized access, alteration, destruction or disclosure. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be absolutely secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, Brown Girls Love cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you transmit such information at your own risk.
We also have personal information retention processes designed to retain personal information for no longer than necessary for the purposes stated above or to otherwise meet legal requirements.
Who we share your data with
Service providers
We work with service providers to perform some tasks on our behalf. This might include: analysis, payments, marketing, etc, and we may share your personal data with these providers to perform the necessary tasks. However, they are obliged not to disclose or use it for any other purposes. Any third-party processing of your data on our behalf will be subject to security and confidentiality obligations consistent with this privacy notice and applicable law.
Customer research & insight
We may disclose de-personalised data (such as aggregated statistics) about the audience of our products and services and/or research participants to describe our sales, customers, traffic patterns and other information to prospective partners, advertisers, investors and other reputable third parties, and for other lawful purposes. These statistics will never include identifiable personal information.
Law enforcement organisations
Under certain circumstances we may occasionally be required by law, court order or governmental authority to disclose certain types of personal information and we reserve the right to comply with any such legally binding request.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Additional information
How we protect your data
We make sure that we have appropriate security measures to protect your information. This includes encryption; two factor authentication; and staff training in data protection.
What third parties we receive data from
- Blog. We have public blog on our Website. Any information you include in a comment on our blog may be read, collected, and used by anyone. If your Personal Information appears on our blog and you want it removed, contact us. If we are unable to remove your information, we will tell you why.
- Social media platforms and widgets. Our Website includes social media features, such as the Facebook Like button. These features may collect information about your IP address and which page you are visiting on our Website, and they may set a cookie to make sure the feature functions properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Website. We also maintain presences on social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Any information, communications, or materials you submit to us via a social media platform is done at your own risk without any expectation of privacy. We cannot control the actions of other users of these platforms or the actions of the platforms themselves. Your interactions with those features and platforms are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide them.
- Links to third-party websites. Our Website includes links to other websites, whose privacy practices may be different from ours. If you submit Personal Information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit.
What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data
We do not use any profiling.
