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Privacy Policy

What is a Privacy Notice?

At Fair Trade Scotland Limited, we respect and value your privacy and we want to engage with you in a fair and open manner. Therefore, we have created this privacy notice in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to your privacy.

Our privacy notice as stated below discloses our practices regarding information collection and usage solely for the website located at https://www.fairtradescotland.co.uk (the ‘website’). Our privacy notice does not apply to any other websites or services. 

Data Controller

Fair Trade Scotland Limited is a ‘data controller’. This means that the company is responsible for deciding how it holds and uses personal information about you. We appreciate the trust you put in us, and we assure you that we make every effort to give you full control over your personal data.

By using or accessing this website, you signify your agreement to be bound by our privacy notice. If you do not agree to our privacy notice, you must not access or otherwise use this service.

This notice is governed by The General Data Protection Regulations 2018.

Data Protection Principles

There are some basic data protection principles which we need to comply with. These principles are that your data needs to be:

  • Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;
  • Collected only for valid purposes that have been explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes;
  • Relevant and limited to the purposes we have told you about;
  • Accurate and kept up to date;
  • Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about;
  • Kept securely

Personal data or information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity of the person has been removed. There are also types of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.

Your Data

What type of information will we hold about you?

We may collect, store and use personal information about you, that you voluntarily submit to us such as:

(a) personal data you submit through our website, for example, when you subscribe to our mailing list or ask us to contact you about our services or vacancies. This data may include things like your name, email address, telephone number, address and/or CV details;

(b) data relating to any discussions carried out between you and us submitted through the website or subsequent email exchanges;

(c) any other personal information that you choose to send to us;

(d) We may collect some information about you using cookies or other similar technologies when you browse our website or if you open or click on links in electronic communications from us.

Before you disclose to us the personal information of another person, you must obtain that person’s consent to both the disclosure and the processing of that personal information in accordance with this notice.

Why we collect your information?

We collect and use your information for a variety of reasons.

  • We may need some information to enter into and perform a contract with you –and this will be collected and agreed as part of our workflow;
  • Some information processing is required by law or in the public interest including making sure we verify our customers’ identities;
  • Some information is processed because you have given your consent to that, which can be withdrawn at any time via a data deletion request to our Data Controller: eve.broadis@fairtradescotland.co.uk.

We collect other information because we have legitimate business interests in doing so, for example, in:

  • Understanding how you use our services and websites;
  • Understanding and responding to feedback;
  • Researching, analysing and improving our services;
  • Maintaining a public profile on both traditional and social media;
  • Providing security over our business and who we trade with; or
  • Developing and maintaining relationships with vendors, partners and other companies and dealing with individuals who work for them in our sector.

Do We Use Cookies?

Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser (if you allow) that enables the site or service provider’s systems to recognise your browser and capture and remember certain information.

When someone visits our website, through the use of Google Analytics, we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this and ask for your explicit consent. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it. Google’s privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html.

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. For example, in Internet Explorer you can refuse all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy”, and selecting “Block all cookies”, using the sliding selector. This will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.

Data Security

The security of your information is very important to us. We attempt to provide for the secure storage of your information by utilising generally accepted industry practices. However, due to the inherent open nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee that communications between you and Fair Trade Scotland Limited, or information stored on the Website or our servers, will be free from unauthorised access by third parties, such as hackers, and your use of the website demonstrates your assumption of this risk.

We have put into place reasonable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard the information we collect. Only those personnel who need access to your information in order to perform their duties are authorised to have access to your personal information.

Third Party Websites

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties.

As a convenience to you, we may provide links to third-party websites from within the website, including pulling content in from feeds such as Twitter. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these third-party sites, and by providing a link we are not endorsing or promoting such third-party sites. When you link away from our website, you do so at your own risk. We encourage you to read the policies and terms of every website you visit.

You should be aware that personal information which you voluntarily include and transmit online in a publicly accessible blog, social network or otherwise online, may be viewed and used by others. We are unable to control such uses of your personal information, and by using such services you assume the risk that the personal information provided by you may be viewed and used by third parties.

Data Retention & Deletion

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the retention period for personal data, we consider:

  • the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the data;
  • the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your data;
  • the purposes for which the personal data is being processed;
  • whether we can achieve those purposes through other means;
  • any legal requirements

In some circumstances, we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. 

Communications With Fair Trade Scotland Limited

By opting in to receive our email communications via MailChimp, you expressly consent to receive emails from us. We will not continue to contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your explicit prior consent.

If you have opted in, we may use email to communicate with you, to send information that you have requested or to send information about other services provided by us; provided that we will not give your email address to another party to promote their products or services directly to you without your consent or as set forth in this privacy notice.

Fair Trade Scotland Limited does not accept any unsolicited ideas from users, including without limitation suggestions about campaigns, strategies or other ideas or content. Therefore, you must not submit any such unsolicited materials. If, notwithstanding this policy, you submit an unsolicited idea or content to us, you understand and acknowledge that such idea or content is not submitted in confidence and we assume no obligation, expressed or implied, by considering it. You agree to waive any claim against Fair Trade Scotland Limited or its assignees regarding misappropriation of your ideas or content submitted in violation of this paragraph.

Opt-Out Process

To opt out of any future promotional messages from us, you should send an unsubscribe request to us at eve.broadis@fairtradescotland.co.uk. We will process your request within a reasonable time after receipt.However, we are not responsible for removing your personal information from the lists of any third party who has previously been provided with your information in accordance with this Privacy Notice or your consent.

Your Rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulations, individuals have the right to make a request for information, rectification, erasure, restriction, transfer, and/or object to the processing of their data. In order to fulfil any such request, we must be able to verify your identity and may ask for further details about you and your contact with Fair Trade Scotland Limited. Anyone wishing to make such requests, should put their request in writing to the company at eve.broadis@fairtradescotland.co.uk. Fair Trade Scotland Limited will endeavour to respond to any such written requests as soon as is reasonably practicable within 31 calendar days, in compliance with the GDPR.

The accuracy of your information is important to us. If you change your email address, or if any other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at eve.broadis@fairtradescotland.co.uk.

Changes To Our Privacy Notice

We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions from this Privacy Notice at any time. However, if at any time in the future we plan to use personal information in a way that materially differs from this privacy notice, including sharing such information with third parties, we will inform you of such changes and provide you the opportunity to opt out of such differing uses. Your continued use of the website following the posting of any changes to this policy means you accept such changes.

Contacting The Regulator

If you feel that your data has not been handled correctly, or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can contact them by calling 0303 123 1113.

Or alternatively go online to www.ico.org.uk/concerns (please note we can’t be responsible for the content of external websites).

Effective Date

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. Last updated June 2019.