Gem Imports Privacy & Cookie Policy

Gem Imports Limited (referred to as we/our/us) is responsible for the processing of any personal data that is provided through our website (www.gem-imports.co.uk) and in any subsequent dealings with our company, and it's processing in order to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679).

Looking after the personal data you share with us is a hugely important part of this and we want you to be confident that your data is safe and secure and understand how we use it to offer you a better and more personalised shopping experience. This privacy policy outlines how your personal information is collected and used.

Gem Imports Limited collects, processes and/or uses the information provided by you (Personal Data) for the purposes of general office administration and performing the customer contract with Gem Imports Limited, general and long-term customer care and personalised customer service, as well as sales promotions, market and opinion research activities (by mail and electronic communications). 

Access to your personal data is limited to authorised employees as required for the purposes identified below as well as IT security and maintenance. Gem Imports Limited uses reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect the security and confidentiality of your personal data and regularly reviews and improves these measures as necessary to reflect legal developments and/or improvements in available technology.

Our Privacy Policy will be reviewed and enhanced from time to time and you should check this page to see our most up to date policy.

What information do we collect?

When registering on the Gem Imports Limited website (www.gem-imports.co.uk) the data we require from you is:

• Your name and (if applicable) company name
• Your address and delivery address (if different)
• Your telephone number and/or mobile number
• Your VAT number (if applicable)
• How you heard about Gem Imports Limited
• Your type of business
• Your email address
• Your website address (if applicable)
• Areas (product ranges) you are interested in buying

When you place an order on www.gem-imports.co.uk the additional information we know is:

• Your I.P address (Internet Protocol)
• The web browser you were using when you placed the order
• How you paid for the order (card, PayPal or on account)
• What products you have purchased

When you visit our website (with or without registering) we know (provided by Google Analytics):

• The URL and page titles of the pages you are viewing
• Your browser name
• The size of your browser window
• Your screen resolution
• If Java is enabled
• Which version of flash you are using
• Your location (this is derived from the I.P address where the hit originated. The I.P address itself is not available in Google Analytics as it is personally identifiable information (PII) which violates the terms of Google)
• The language (derived from the language settings of your browser)

Lead Forensics

We use a third-party company called Lead Forensics to track visits to our website. Lead forensics doesn't use cookies. The software that is used only tracks the IP tracking to identify visitors without obtaining any personal information,. 

What do we use your information for?

• The contract of sale (between you and Gem Imports Limited)
• The processing of orders, including delivery, invoicing and order confirmation
• To send any service emails or important account information
• To contact you regarding any issues with your account or your order
• To detect and prevent fraud or other crime
• To send you relevant offers and news about our products and services in many ways including by email, (but only if you have previously agreed to receive these marketing communications). When you register with Gem Imports Limited, we will ask if you would like to receive marketing communications, and you can change your marketing choices online, within your 'My Account' section, over the phone or in writing at any time. You can also unsubscribe from any marketing communication we send you. We may also use your answers to 'Your Type of Business' and 'Areas Interested in Buying' to personalise your emails. Example; if you have told us you own a pet shop, we may send you pet product related emails.

How we protect your personal data

We use computer safeguards such as data encryption and firewalls, and we enforce physical access controls to our buildings and files to keep this data safe. We only authorise access to employees who need it to carry out their job.

We protect the security of your information while it is being transmitted by encrypting it using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) We enforce physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in connection with the collection, storage and disclosure of personal data. We may occasionally ask for proof of identity before we share your personal data with you. We will reveal only the last four digits of your credit card number when confirming an order. However, whilst we take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal data, please note that we cannot guarantee the security of any personal data that you transfer over the internet to us.

Transactions

All online transactions are made through Sage Pay or PayPal. This means all transaction information passed between www.gem-imports.co.uk and Sage Pay/PayPal is encrypted using 128-bit+ SSL certificates. No cardholder information is ever passed un-encrypted and any messages sent to our servers from Sage Pay or PayPal are signed using SHA2 hashing to prevent tampering. You can be assured that no information you pass to Sage Pay or PayPal's servers can be examined, used or modified by any third parties attempting to gain access to sensitive information. We do not store credit or debit card details. This means there is no risk of your personal data or credit card information being stolen by unauthorised access.

Your rights

You have the right to access and review your personal data. This can be accessed in your 'My Account' section of the website. Here you can review and amend your personal details, you can also view your order history.

You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you by writing to Gem Imports Limited, Unit A, Capitol Way Dodworth, Barnsley S75 3FG.

You have the right to request that your personal data is deleted by writing to Gem Imports Limited, Unit A, Capitol Way Dodworth, Barnsley S75 3FG. For legal and accounting purposes we may have to retain your order history.

Cookies and similar technologies

Effective Date: 28-Mar-2024
Last Updated: 22-Jul-2024

What are cookies?

This Cookie Policy explains what cookies are and how we use them, the types of cookies we use i.e, the information we collect using cookies and how that information is used, and how to manage the cookie settings.
Cookies are small text files that are used to store small pieces of information.

They are stored on your device when the website is loaded on your browser. These cookies help us make the website function properly, make it more secure, provide better user experience, and understand how the website performs and to analyze what works and where it needs improvement.

How do we use cookies?

As most of the online services, our website uses first-party and third-party cookies for several purposes. First-party cookies are mostly necessary for the website to function the right way, and they do not collect any of your personally identifiable data.

The third-party cookies used on our website are mainly for understanding how the website performs, how you interact with our website, keeping our services secure, providing advertisements that are relevant to you, and all in all providing you with a better and improved user experience and help speed up your future interactions with our website.

Types of Cookies we use

Manage cookie preferences Cookie Settings You can change your cookie preferences any time by clicking the above button. This will let you revisit the cookie consent banner and change your preferences or withdraw your consent right away.

In addition to this, different browsers provide different methods to block and delete cookies used by websites. You can change the settings of your browser to block/delete the cookies. Listed below are the links to the support documents on how to manage and delete cookies from the major web browsers.

Chrome: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050
Safari: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac
Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/clear-cookies-and-site-data-firefox?redirectslug=delete-cookies-remove-info-websites-stored&redirectlocale=en-US

Internet Explorer: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-delete-cookie-files-in-internet-explorer-bca9446f-d873-78de-77ba-d42645fa52fc

If you are using any other web browser, please visit your browser’s official support documents.

Google analytics

Our website uses “Google Analytics”, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses persistent cookies to help us determine the number of people that visit www.gem-imports.co.uk and to analyse how they use it so we can determine which pages and products on our site are the most popular ones.

The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers. Google and/or its subsidiaries may use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

Google may also transfer this information to third parties where, (a) required to do so by law; (b) it has a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public; or (c) such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf.

Google will not associate your IP address with any other data it holds. If you would like to read more about Google Analytics or how Google might use your information, please see www.google.co.uk/policies/privacy.

Managing cookies

Most web browsers are automatically set to accept cookies, but you can choose to reject cookies and/or delete existing cookies by using your browser settings. You can also set your browser to notify you each time new cookies are placed on your computer or other device. You can find more detailed information about how you can manage cookies including browser-specific instructions on how to restrict or block cookies on the Interactive Advertising Bureau's website www.allaboutcookies.org.

Hotjar

We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimize this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices. This includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf.

For further details, please see the ‘about Hotjar’ section of Hotjar’s support site."