Privacy Policy
Your privacy is very important to us. Drawn up in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), our privacy policy explains what personal information we have, how we use it, and how you can check and update any personal information we hold about you.
For the purposes of this privacy policy, which applies to Ossila Ltd. and its subsidiaries, "we" refers to Ossila Ltd.
Information We Collect
We collect information when you contact us, and when you use our products and services, including when you:
- Contact us to ask us something
- Contact us for a quotation
- Make a purchase directly from us - whether via our online checkout option, a purchase order, over the phone, email, or fax
- Enter any promotions, competitions, or prize draws that we carry out
- Visit our website - to browse and engage with our product pages, use our written support guides, or watch our video guides
- Apply for a job with us
If necessary, we may also collect information from publicly available sources (e.g. university websites). For example, to send your order to you, our shipping services require the recipient's phone number to be included on the shipping invoice. If you have not provided us with a phone number when submitting a purchase order, we may sometimes search online for it so that your items can reach you without any delays.
The types of information we collect includes things like who you are, the products you have bought from us, your shipping/billing address(es), the promotions/competitions/prize draws you have participated in, and the jobs you have applied for with us.
Information we collect when you visit, browse, and engage with our website is anonymised. We use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and tools provided by Shopify Inc. to collect this data. The data we collect on our website includes traffic source (search, paid advertising, direct links, etc.) location data, pages visited, interactions performed, device type, operating system, browser name and version number, and screen resolution.
How We Use This Information
We use the information we collect:
- To deliver products and services relevant to you
- To improve our products and services and develop new ones
- To help us run and grow our business
Information gathered when an order is placed (or when steps have been taken to enter into a purchasing contract) is used to arrange delivery, process payments (if applicable) and for company record-keeping. If you make an enquiry, then that information is used to respond to the enquiry and for company record-keeping.
Anonymous analytics information collected about site usage is used to help us improve the website and analyse trends.
Storage and Processing of Information
Data sharing between Ossila Ltd. and and Ossila BV
Ossila BV is a wholly owned subsidiary which has been set up by Ossila Ltd. to serve the European market.
If you place an order with us and your delivery address is the EU or EEC, your order will be processed by Ossila BV. Your data, including personal information such as your name and delivery address and other relevant information about your order, will be shared between Ossila Ltd. and Ossila BV.
Disclosure of information to 3rd parties
We do not, and will never sell any of your personal data to any third party – including your name, address, email address or credit card information.
However, we share your data with the following categories of companies as an essential part of being able to provide our services to you. This is in accordance with our legal basis for processing and storing data. A list is available below:
- Companies that do things to get your purchases to you, such as payment service providers (if you make a payment via our online checkout), and delivery companies
- Professional service providers who help us run our business. This includes our web hosting platform (Shopify Inc) and our customer relationship manager database software (Zoho).
- Professional individuals, with contractual obligations for data protection and privacy, who help us improve our key operational systems and software.
Transfer of information outside of the EU
The third party services that we use, as above, may transfer data outside of the EU in compliance with the relevant legislation.
Data received by our website hosting platform is processed first by their Irish entity before being transferred to their parent entity in Canada. Canada’s privacy law, PIPEDA, is recognised as ‘adequate’ under GDPR. This means that it provides comparable protection to that provided by EU member states.
Our payment provider may store information outside of the EU. This data is transferred outside of the EU in accordance with the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework.
Data may be transferred to third party contracted professionals (as above) who are located outside of the EU. These transfers will be performed in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including GDPR, and use Ossila-controlled secure networks in all data processing activities. To ensure the adequate protection of personal information, we have GDPR-compliant transfer agreements in place with all of these professionals.
Recruitment
When you apply for a job with us, we will securely store your application (and therefore your personal details) for the duration of the active recruitment process for that specific role. In the first instance, all applications will only be viewed by a member of our HR team. If you are successful in the HR pre-screen, your application (and any information that you have provided within) will be shared with internal recruitment personnel, who will decide whether to progress you on to the interview stage.
You may be invited for an initial telephone interview with a member of our HR team, or the hiring manager for the role. Promising candidates will ultimately be invited to onsite face-to-face interviews with us.
Regardless of whether you've included the contact details for obtaining references, we will always ask your permission before getting in touch with your reference providers.
Once the recruitment round has closed, we will delete all applications from unsuccessful candidates. Our HR team may retain notes from the interviews for a period of one year (the legally recommended retention period). We will not keep your CV and cover letter beyond the recruitment round unless we have specifically gained your consent to do so.
If your application is submitted through a third-party site, you must check the company’s privacy policy directly. Please note that we will always be happy to accept direct applications. We do not work with recruitment agencies.
Website analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to collect anonymous information on website traffic. We use this information to monitor site performance and develop the platform to better suit users' needs.
Information (such as location data, pages visited, and so on) are all reported independently so that an individual user can never be traced or identified. In addition, we have disabled data sharing with other Google services. As such, Google processes the data collected by GA4 “only as required to maintain and protect the Google Analytics service”. Your anonymised data may be transferred to the US in order to facilitate this. We are currently phasing out GA4 in favour of Matomo (see below).
In addition to GA4, we also track sessions which come through Google Ads in order to help us improve the quality of our paid advertising campaigns. We do not serve adverts on our website or collect data for advertisers, except for that which is necessary to allow us to advertise on Google Search.
We also use Matomo to collect anonymized data about site usage and interaction. This data does not identify you personally. Data captured via Matomo is stored on Matomo servers, which are located within the EU. We have configured Matomo operate without cookies.
You can opt out of Matomo tracking below.
Email newsletters
If you have opted in to being contacted in this way, we may send you marketing emails to help you see and find our products. Typically, this may include email newsletters about similar products or services.
You will always have the option to unsubscribe from these emails at any time, simply by clicking the “unsubscribe” button located at the bottom of each email newsletter. If you wish to opt out of marketing emails at any other time, you can do so by contacting us either via email, or via the contact form on our website.
Certain emails, such as order confirmation emails or emails to notify you of significant changes to this policy, are sent independently to email newsletters, so you will still receive these if you have opted out of marketing emails.
Cookie Policy
Cookies are text-only pieces of information that a website transfers to a visitor’s local storage or other web-browsing device for record-keeping purposes. We use cookies to help improve your use of our website by remembering information. such as the saved items in your cart, or your currency choice. We also use cookies for website analytics and marketing purposes.
Cookies we use
| Provider | Name | Description | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | See https://www.shopify.com/uk/legal/cookies | ||
| Ossila Ltd | ossilaCountry | Saves your country selection | 365 days |
| ossilaCurrency | Saves your currency selection | 365 days | |
| ossilaLanguage | Saves your language selection | 365 days | |
| hideCookieLawWarning | Saves whether you have accepted the cookie policy banner displayed at the bottom of the website | 365 days | |
| ShippingHighlightShown | Set to true when the shipping side bar box highlight has been shown (so that this is only shown once per session) | Session | |
| CartShippingHighlightShown | Set to true when the shipping side bar box highlight has been shown on the cart page | Session | |
| hiringBannerSwingShown | Set to true when the swinging animation on the “WE ARE HIRING” sign has run (if applicable) | Session | |
| Name dependant on field | “Save for later” functionality on forms; one session cookie is used per field (with an appropriate name) | Session | |
| Google Analytics | _ga | Used to distinguish users. | 730 days |
| _ga_id number | Used to persist session state. | 730 days | |
| Google Ads | See https://business.safety.google/adscookies | ||
Manage cookie preferences
You can control the use of cookies via your browser settings.
If your web browser is not listed here, information on how to manage cookie preferences in your specific browser can be found by simply doing a quick search online.
Please note, disabling cookies may negatively affect the functionality of our website.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly. To monitor changes please check back to this page regularly.
| Date | Description of Change |
|---|---|
| 24/10/2023 | More information on the different cookies we use and how to contact us with a data erasure request (no change in policy). Removal of section on user experience tools as these are no longer used. Details on how we use Google Analytics to record anonymous website data. Changes to the wording throughout the policy to add clarity. |
| 13/10/2023 | Updates to the "Disclosure of information to 3rd parties" and "Transfer of information outside of the EU" sections to describe how we work with third party contracted professionals. |
| 10/10/2023 | New recruitment process and information on how we process and store applicant data. |
| 01/11/2021 | Changes to how your data is handled and shared; if you place an order with us and your delivery address is in the EU or EEC, your order will be processed by Ossila BV. Your data, including personal information such as your name and delivery address and other relevant information about your order, will be shared between Ossila Ltd. and Ossila BV. |
Your Rights
Under data protection legislation including GDPR, you have a lot of rights when it comes to your personal information. Under this policy, you have:
- The right to be informed about how your personal information is being used
- The right to access the personal information we hold about you
- The right to request the correction of inaccurate personal information we hold about you
- The right to request that we delete your data, or stop processing it or collecting it, in some circumstances (see below)
- The right to stop email marketing messages (which you can do either by clicking the "Unsubscribe" link in all marketing emails from us, or by emailing info@ossila.com) and to withdraw consent for other consent-based processing at any time
- The right to request that we transfer or port elements of your data either to you or another service provider
- The right to complain to your data protection regulator — in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office
If you want to exercise your rights, have a complaint, or just have questions, please contact us.
Data erasure requests
Ossila respects the privacy of our users and their right to control their personal data. We recognise the right to be forgotten, also known as the right to erasure. This gives you the right to request the deletion or removal of personal data.
You can request the deletion of your personal information from our systems via email. To expedite the process, your request should include:
- The email subject "Data Erasure Request"
- Your full name and contact details where you can reached
- Your customer or order ID (if applicable)
- Which data you would like to be provided or have deleted
There are some situations where your right to erasure does not apply, including:
- To comply with a legal obligation, including but not limited to:
- Demonstrating compliance with international trade restrictions
- Where data is required for accounting or tax reasons
- Where data is required for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims
- If the request is deemed to be manifestly unfounded or excessive
To prevent unauthorized data processing, we will confirm your identify before assessing the legitimacy of the request.
All requests will be processed within 28-days. If your request is valid and proceedable, your data will be removed from all live systems. It may take additional time for your personal data to be removed from our automated backup systems.
Contact Us
If you have any queries about our privacy policy or any of your personal data that we hold, you can contact us by phone or email. Please note that our operating hours are 9.00am - 5.00pm UK time (GMT).
Phone: +44 (0) 114 2999 180
Email: info@ossila.com