Privacy & Data

Privacy and Data Protection

This statement explains the privacy and the data protection practices which apply to all websites operated by Public Impact Communications Limited (PIC). A link to this Policy is available from all websites which it applies to.

Our aim is to safeguard our users’ privacy. Collecting personal information may be necessary if we are to satisfy the expectations and requirements of our users, for example by communicating with them and providing an interactive service. We appreciate that you do not want the personal information you provide to us distributed indiscriminately and here we explain how we collect information, what we do with it and what controls you have.

What information do we collect?

We may collect two kinds of information about our users:

a. non-personal information such as IP address (the location of the computer on the internet), pages accessed and files downloaded. This helps us to determine how many individuals use our sites, how many people visit on a regular basis, which pages are most popular, and which pages are least popular. This information doesn’t tell us anything about who you are or where you live, it simply allows us to monitor and improve our service.

b. personal information such as name, postal address, telephone number, e-mail address, date of birth (where appropriate), card or bank details, information about your interests and hobbies etc. We may collect this information only in connection with specific activities, such as registration requests, product purchases, feedback, the provision of information on products and services, competition entries etc. The information is either needed to fulfil your request or to enable us to provide you with a more personalised service by analysing or reviewing the information that you provide to ensure that we give you access to or send you the information that you are interested in. You don’t have to disclose any of this information to browse our sites. However, if you do choose to withhold requested information, we may not be able to provide you with certain services.

How is the information used?

Any personal data relating to you will be used and recorded by us in accordance with current data protection legislation and this Privacy Policy. We may use the information you provide to:

  • fulfil your requests;
  • process sales transactions, or other payments and verify financial transactions;
  • handle orders, deliver products and communicate with you about orders;
  • identify contributors;
  • provide a personalised service to you when you visit our websites e.g. by customising the content and/or layout of our pages for each individual user;
  • record any contact we have with you;
  • prevent or detect fraud or abuses of our websites and enable third parties to carry out technical, logistical or other functions on our behalf;
  • in aggregate (and therefore anonymously) to profile your use of the websites and carry out research on our users’ demographics, interests and behaviour to help us gain a better understanding of how our users navigate and use the websites, and to enable us to improve our service to you; and
  • provide you with information which we think may be of interest to you, as explained below.

As well as using personal information to fulfil requests, we also like to keep our customers, suppliers and potential customers informed about PIC’s activities. We will not share personal information with any other organisation unless providing services for PIC under the terms set out in the Data Protection Act (see below). In addition, we may contact our you with offers from partners companies that benefit PIC and may be of interest.

By entering a PIC competition you will be agreeing to receive mailings, emails or text messages from us but you have the right not to receive this information. In other situations, when submitting your personal information, you will be given the option not to be included in mailings or other contacts from PIC or other organisations (whether by post, e-mail or other electronic messaging, telephone or fax). If you do agree to receive this information (whether by entering a competition or otherwise), and later decide that you no longer wish to be contacted, you can let us know by e-mailing: contact (@) public-impact.com, or by telephoning +44 880 0028.

If we contact you by email or text message, each time you receive a message you will also have the option to decline to receive further information from us in that manner.

We may use other companies to provide services on our behalf, including packaging, mailing and delivering purchases, answering customer’s questions’ about products or services, sending postal mail, e-mails and text messages, analysing data and processing credit card payments. We will only provide those companies with the information they need to deliver the service and they are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose. We require all such companies to treat your personal information as fully confidential and to fully comply with all applicable UK Data Protection and consumer legislation.

We may disclose aggregate statistics about our site visitors, customers and sales in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information.

We may disclose personal information if we receive a complaint about any content you have posted or transmitted to or from one of our sites, if required to do so by law or if we believe that such action is necessary to protect and defend the rights, property or personal safety of PIC, its sites or its visitors.

Except as indicated above we will not use or transfer this data to any third parties without your prior permission.

Information about children

It is not the policy of PIC to contact children under the age of 18 directly. Where PIC may act on behalf of clients in this respect PIC expects those clients to comply with all relevant UK Data Protection and Safeguarding legislation.

Links

Our sites contain links to other sites. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites even if you access them using links from our websites and recommend that you check the policy of each site you visit.

In addition, if you linked to our websites from a third party website, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners or operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site and contact its owner or operator if you have any concerns or questions.

Security

We place great importance on the security of all personally identifiable information. We have security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to user information.

Use of cookies

This site may use cookies. EU legislation requires the site user informed consent to give informed consent to the use of any tracking technology. The use of this site requires the acceptance of the Terms of Use of which this statement forms part. As such the use of this site is acceptance that informed consent for the use of cookies has been granted.

In simple terms a cookie is a small piece of information sent from our website to your computer to help us to identify you quickly. If you prefer not to accept a cookie, you can navigate around our sites like a normal user. Any information gathered by the use of cookies is compiled on an aggregate, anonymous basis.

Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your hard drive to store and sometimes track information about you. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you should be able to change your browser to prevent that. You should read the information that came with your browser software to see how you can set up your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, this should then give you the opportunity to decide whether to accept it. However, you may not be able to take full advantage of a website if you do so. Cookies are specific to the server that created them and cannot be accessed by other servers, which means they cannot be used to track your movements around the web.

Cookies can be used for a variety of purposes, such as providing personalised pages, but at present, we use them only to work out how many people visit our sites.

Further information about cookies can be found at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s website www.allaboutcookies.org.

Where is the information stored?

Information which you submit via our websites is sent to a computer located in the United Kingdom. This is necessary in order to process the information and to send you the information you have requested. Information submitted by you may be transferred by us to our other offices and to other reputable third party organisations as referred to in this Policy, and these may be situated outside the European Economic Area.

Changes

We may make changes to this Policy from time to time. If we change our Privacy Policy we will post the changes on this page. If the change in our Privacy Policy affects the use of your personal information we will use our best endeavours to contact you by email to seek your consent to the use.

Your acceptance of this policy

By using our sites, or by entering a competition, you consent to the collection and use of information by PIC in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Policy, please do not use our sites or enter our competitions.

Your rights

Any personal information submitted via our websites or by text is treated in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. To find out more about your entitlements under this legislation, visit the Information Commissioner’s website or read the Act online. If you would like to review or revise information you have previously provided to us online, you may do so by emailing contact (@) public-impact.com.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you or if you have any questions relating to this Privacy Policy or how we use the personal information we have about you, please write to: PIC. The Dovecote, South Farm, Newcastle upon Tyne. NE15 9RH

This policy was last updated in July 2016.