Introducing Our Policy
The Vanilla Valley is committed to protecting the personal data of its valued customers and using it only for it’s intended purpose. We respect that when visitors to our website make a purchase or sign up to one our accounts, they trust us to keep their personal details safe. We would never share anyone’s data with third parties for marketing purposes or chose to ignore the privacy right of our customers. You can rest assured that when we collect your details, we are doing so only to satisfy your online order and allow for meaningful correspondence. The systems we have in place are robust and our website operates on a well-protected e-commerce platform. Below we have outlined the types of data that we store and how it might get used. So, whilst you wait for that cake to rise in the oven, take a minute to read our Privacy Policy.
Types of Data We Collect
Personal Data
So that we can process orders effectively, we must gather some personal information from our customers. This will include;
- your name and title
- your contact details: postal address including billing and delivery addresses, telephone numbers (including mobile numbers) and e-mail address
- purchases and orders made by you
- your password
- when you make a purchase with us, your payment card details (Please note, we do not store card details on our system. Payment information is deleted immediately after payment has been confirmed)
- your communication and marketing preference
- your location
Website Cookies
Most people that visit this site are familiar with the cookies that get made in the kitchen but not everyone understands website cookies. Most websites use cookies, which are small files placed on to a user’s computer or hand-held/mobile device when they access a website. These files form a key part of helping to provide customers with a positive shopping experience and record information such a page views, products and website navigation.
It is widely believed that cookies improve browsing and shopping when they revisit a website. The data that is stored on your computer acts only as a reminder to a web browser that the user has been here before and helps to tailor the experience accordingly. Some examples of how we use them at The Vanilla Valley include;
- Saving usernames/passwords for quick access to user accounts
- Storing items in the shopping basket to allow users to navigate around the website without it resetting
- Allowing the user to navigate away from the website a whilst continuing to hold basket items
- Collect data concerning the “journey” around the website by a user. This includes pages viewed, products bought and general website interaction
*Please note that this is not an exhaustive list but rest assured that we do not share any of this cookie data with third-parties.
Google Analytics
The domain www.thevanillavalley.co.uk, all sub-domains and re-directs are monitored by a third-party service called Google Analytics. This service tracks and reports user interaction with our website and supplies us with a wealth of information on how to best optimise our website and its interaction with Google searches. On top of this, Analytics gives insights into how users found our website, the way it is navigated and general e-commerce conversions. Specific user information is not stored with analytics and we do not provide Google with any specific personal details that they could use in alternative advertising. We use Analytics only as way of providing a better user experience for our customers
Google Analytics Advertising
These cookies help make advertising more engaging to users and more valuable to publishers and advertisers.
For example, these cookies can be used to select advertising based on what is relevant to a user, to improve reporting on campaign performance and to avoid showing ads that the user has already seen.
We use cookies like ‘NID’ and ‘SID’ to help customise ads on Google properties, like Google Search. For example, we use such cookies to remember your most recent searches, your previous interactions with an advertiser’s ads or search results, and your visits to an advertiser’s website. This helps us show you customised ads on Google.
Google also uses conversion cookies, for example, cookies named ‘__gcl’, whose main purpose is to help advertisers determine how many times people who click on their ads end up taking an action on their site, like making a purchase. These cookies allow Google and the advertiser to determine that you clicked the ad and later visited the advertiser’s site. Conversion cookies are not used by Google for personalised ad targeting and persist for a limited time only. Some of our other cookies may be used to measure conversion events as well. For example, Google Marketing Platform and Google Analytics cookies may also be used for this purpose.
We also use cookies named ‘AID’, ‘DSID’ and ‘TAID’, which are used to link your activity across devices if you’ve previously signed in to your Google Account on another device. We do this to coordinate the ads that you see across devices and measure conversion events. These cookies may be set on the domains google.com/ads, google.com/ads/measurement or googleadservices.com.
- Remarketing
- Demographics and Interest reporting
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.
Facebook Pixel
Our site uses the Pixel from Facebook Inc. This allows us to see anonymous data about a user’s activity on our website when they have arrived on a page directed from Facebook, including via links in adverts. We can use this data to assess the effectiveness of our Facebook presence for market research purposes. While the information collected is anonymous to us, i.e. we do not receive the personal data of any individual, Facebook do store and process this information, and may use it for its own promotional purposes. These purposes are in accordance with Facebook’s Data Usage policy and are outlines at the following link - https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/. This may mean that Facebook and its partners will show you ads on and off Facebook, and a cookie may be stored on your device for these purposes.
This service is in accordance with Art. 6 paragraph 1 sentence 1 letter f GDPR. However, under these rules you are also entitled to object to the collection of your data via Facebook Pixel, and any uses thereof, at the following link - https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads.
Mailing Lists
When anyone signs up for an account or goes through the checkout process, they are asked if they would like to be contacted in future regarding our services. This applies to future mailouts regarding products and offers and not general correspondence such as order information. Our aim is only to keep interested customers involved in new things happening at The Vanilla Valley and not to send unrequested spam emails to anyone that shops with us.
It is also important that we can provide information to our account customers at various points throughout the year. However it is completely at the users discretion as to whether they receive these emails or not.
We use an external email provider Klaviyo to deliver these emails. They are one of the industry leaders in helping to deliver mailouts in large quantities and pride themselves on a robust Privacy Policy (view Klaviyo’s Privacy notice). Anyone included in the mailing list can unsubscribe at any point by following the link on the bottom of every email. Alternatively, they can contact us via email (enquiries@thevanillavalley.co.uk) should they wish to. We actively encourage all users to review their requirements in regards to their Mailout settings and take appropriate action should they no longer wish to receive advertising emails and newsletters.
We are not in the business of bothering people or filling up mailboxes with unwanted or unread emails. We hope our emails contain interesting product information, offers or useful account information. If our customers don’t agree then we completely respect their decision to unsubscribe.
SMS Marketing
SMS marketing messages are sent only to customers who give specific consent via one of the forms on our website. You will not be added to our SMS list when placing an order via the website. Our SMS service is provided by Klaviyo. SMS messages will be sent to the mobile phone number provided on the consent form from the name VV Offers. Each message will include an unsubscribe link if you would like to opt out of marketing messages. You may also contact us on enquiries@thevanillavalley.co.uk to request removal from this list. This is a UK only service.
Access to your Personal Information
Anyone that has their personal information stored with us is entitled to view, amend or delete it at any point. It is your information and you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. If you have an account with us, it is possible to log in and change the contact information yourself. Alternatively, you can send and email to enquiries@thevanillavalley.co.uk and mark it for the attention of The Data Protection Officer.
Changes to this Privacy Notice
In May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP) was brought in following a major legislation review. Prior to this, we at The Vanilla Valley undertook a thorough review of our own Privacy Policy to help show our customers that we take their personal data protection very seriously. In this day and age, when the internet and computers play such a huge role in our life and business, it is vital to know that we are protected. We will continue to review this policy regularly and make changes and updates when we feel it necessary or to keep in-line with current legislation.