Privacy and Cookie Policy
Version: 1.0
Last updated: 23/05/2012
This privacy policy sets out how understandingawr.co.uk (referred to as “UnderstandingAWR”) uses and protects any information that you provide when you use our website, mobile website or apps.
The confidentiality of your information is of paramount concern to us. To this end, Understanding AWR uses reasonable endeavours to comply with Data Protection.
Understanding AWR is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should you decide to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that your data will only be used in accordance with this privacy and cookie policy. Any other data which we collect cannot be used to personally identify you and is used to help use make improvements to the site and our marketing.
The cookies set by Understanding AWR do not contain personally identifiable information and Understanding AWR will not associate a cookie with personally identifiable information without your consent.
We may amend this privacy policy from time-to-time and new versions will be posted on this website with an updated version number and date displayed at the top of this page.
This Privacy Policy covers the following sections
What information may we collect when you use this site or when you contact us?
What we do with the personal information we gather?
What we do with the personal sensitive information we gather?
What we do with the non-personal information we gather?
How long will we keep the data for?
Security of your personal information
Controlling your personal information
ICO registration number
What is a cookie?
Learn more about cookies and how to control them
Why does Understanding AWR use cookies?
How does Understanding AWR use cookies?
How do we get your consent to use cookies?
Which 1st party cookies does this site use?
Which 3rd party cookies does this site use?
Other measurement that you should be aware of
Links to other websites
What information may we collect when you use this site or when you contact us?
We collect two different types of data; (1) data about you and which you decide to submit and (2) anonymous aggregated data about how visitors use this site and interact with our marketing campaigns.
(1) If you decide to submit data to Understanding AWR, for example by completing the ‘contact us’ form or by contacting us through email, phone or blog replies, we may use the information to add to a database in order that we can identify you as an individual. We refer to any information that may identify you as an individual, such as your name and address, as personal data or personal information.
For example, we may collect the following personal information:
- name and job title;
- contact information including email address;
- other information relevant to surveys and / or offers.
(2) We may use cookies or other technology to understand how people are using our site and respond to certain marketing messages, such as search engine marketing. The data is aggregated and anonymous so we cannot and identify you personally. We refer to this is non-personal information.
What we do with the personal information we gather?
We require this information to understand the needs of our visitors and people who contact us in order to provide a better service and in particular, but not limited to, the following reasons:
- internal record keeping;
- we may use the information to provide and improve our products and services;
- we may periodically send promotional material about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address or other contact details which you have provided;
- we may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.
What we do with the non-personal information we gather?
We may use non-personal data in order that we can learn more about online behaviour to improve our web site, mobile site, apps, general marketing and to provide a better experience of our brand. Often we will use cookies for such measurement purposes. From time-to-time we may also analyse IP address, user agent string or other anonymous data sources too.
How long will we keep the data for?
We may hold personal information for as long as it is necessary to do so, having regard to the purposes for which it was collected and the purposes for which it is to be further processed.
Non-personal information may be held for as long as it is necessary in order that we can monitor aggregated statistics about use of our site and exposure to our brand. If we set a cookie you can see the expiry data in your browser’s cookie settings.
You should also note the comment in the ‘Controlling your personal information’ section about data deletion.
Security of your personal information
We are committed to ensuring that your personal information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
If the URL of a web page starts with HTTPS and / or you see a locked / green padlock symbol your data is encrypted when it is sent from your computer to our server. However, we cannot ensure the security of your data when it is being transmitted to our website or other digital sites from other pages and all transmission of personal information and other data is done at your own risk.
Controlling your personal information
You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information by writing to or emailing us at marketing@parasolgroup.co.uk .
We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.
You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee may be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please email marketing@parasolgroup.co.uk
If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete please write to us at Parasol Limited, Parasol House, 840 Ibis Court, Centre Park, Warrington WA1 1RL or email us at marketing@parasolgroup.co.uk as soon as possible and we will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.
You can at any time ask to have removed any information that we have stored on you. Please send your request by email to marketing@parasolgroup.co.uk. We will retain in our files information you have requested to remove in some circumstances, such as to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems and enforce our Terms & Conditions. Further, sometimes it is not possible for all information to be completely removed from our databases due to technical constraints and the fact that we back up our systems. Therefore, you should not expect that all of your personally identifiable information will be completely removed from our databases in response to your requests that it be removed.
ICO registration number
Understanding AWR is registered with the Information Commissioners Office, registration number Z846068X under Parasol Limited.
What is a cookie?
A cookie, also known as a browser cookie, is a text file containing small amounts of information which a server may download to your computer, mobile or tablet when you visit a website or use an app.
There are different types of cookies which are used to do different things, such as letting you navigate between different pages on a website efficiently, remembering preferences you have given and helping us to identify ways to improve your overall site experience. Others are used to provide you with advertising which is more tailored to your interests or to measure the number of site visits and the most popular pages users visit.
Cookies are also created not just by the website the user is browsing but also by other websites that run display ads and social sharing features for example. These are often known as 3rd party cookies.
Due to their core role of enhancing and enabling usability or site processes, disabling certain cookies may prevent you from using certain aspects of the Understanding AWR website.
There are two different types of browser cookie:
(1) Session cookies are stored in the computer’s memory during a user’s browsing session and are automatically deleted from the user’s computer when the browser is closed or the session is deemed to have ended.
These cookies usually store a session ID that is not personally identifiable to users, allowing the user to move from page to page without having to log-in repeatedly. They are widely used by commercial web sites; for example to keep track of items that a consumer has added to a shopping basket.
Session cookies do not collect any information from the user’s computer. Session cookies expire at the end of the user’s browser session and can also become inaccessible after the session has been inactive for a specified length of time, usually 20 or 30 minutes.
(2) Persistent cookies are stored on the user’s computer and are not deleted when the browser is closed. Persistent cookies can be used to retain user preferences for a particular web site, allowing those preferences to be used in future browsing sessions.
Persistent cookies usually assign a unique ID to the user’s browser and they are usually configured to identify a user for a prolonged period of time, from days to months or even years.
Each type of cookie can be set and controlled by Understanding AWR, known as a first party cookie, or a third party such as Twitter (to enable social sharing), known as a third party cookie.
Learn more about cookies and how to control them
To find out for further information about cookies, search in Google or visit aboutcookies.org or allaboutcookies.org (which is run by the Internet Advertising Bureau Europe).
You can choose to accept or decline session and persistent cookies, or delete them altogether, by amending your browser settings, please search your browser’s ‘help’ section for further information.
If you want to opt out of the main advertising cookies, you can go to the site of the National Advertising Institute.
Why does Understanding AWR use cookies?
We use cookies to better understand how people find and use our site in order that we can make continual improvements to provide a better user experience. This may be to help you find what you want more easily through to making sure that we invest our marketing efforts appropriately so we don’t waste money.
How does Understanding AWR use cookies?
Understanding AWR only use browser cookies to measure non-personal information, for example to learn about the behaviour of visitors to our website and how they respond to our marketing communications. The more we learn, the better we are able to provide relevant and interesting content and services. The cookies set by Understanding AWR do not contain any personally identifiable information and Understanding AWR will not associate a cookie with personally identifiable information without your consent.
How do we get your consent to use cookies?
Currently, Understanding AWR operates an ‘implied consent’ policy which means that we assume you are happy with this site setting cookies. If you are not happy then you should either not use this site, or you should delete Understanding AWR cookies having visited the site, or you should browse the site using your browser’s anonymous usage setting (called “Incognito” in Chrome, “InPrivate” for Internet Explorer, “Private Browsing” in Firefox and Safari etc.)
Which 1st party cookies does this site use?
http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Which 3rd party cookies does this site use?
We do not use various persistent cookies.
Other measurement that you should be aware of
Social buttons
On some of the pages of the site you will see ‘social buttons’ which enable users to share or bookmark the web pages or certain content. For example, there may be a button for Twitter, Google +1, Facebook ‘Like’, LinkedIn ‘Share’ and others.
When you click on these buttons, you should be aware that these sites are likely to be collecting information about what you are doing all around the internet, including on Understanding AWR’s site, by setting one or more of their own cookies. In some cases these sites will be registering the fact that you are visiting Understanding AWR and the specific pages you are on, even if you don’t click on the button if you are logged into their services, like Google and Facebook.
Understanding AWR is not responsible for the data generated by or processed by such third parties. Therefore, you should check the respective policies of each of these sites to see how exactly they use your information and to find out how to opt out, or delete, such information.
External web services
We use a number of external web services on the Understanding AWR site, mostly to display extra content within our web pages; for example YouTube videos. As with social buttons we cannot prevent such sites from collecting information on your usage of this embedded content but you can block the cookies.
Email marketing
We send a variety of email messages, which are automatically sent in response to an action on the website, such as a ‘thank you’ or ‘confirmation’ email, through to marketing emails which show you relevant offers.
We do not use cookies to measure our emails but we may use other measurement techniques to help us understand and improve certain aspects of our email marketing. Measuring open rates happens when you download images within the email and we measure clicks on links during the process of sending you to the correct web page. This data may remain anonymous although sometimes it may be associated with your personal information in our email database so we can improve our email marketing and manage unsubscribe requests.
We may also measure success metrics such as clicks from emails to our website using Google Analytics to ensure emails are working correctly.
If you want to be sure that none of your email activity is measured at an aggregated or personal level, then you should unsubscribe from receiving future Understanding AWR marketing emails. You can unsubscribe by sending a request to unsubscribe to marketing@parasolgroup.co.uk or by clicking on the unsubscribe link found in a marketing email; typically at the bottom of the email. Although unsubscribe will stop marketing emails being received, we will continue to send client related emails to you.
Surveys
From time to time we may request information from visitors to our site via surveys or competitions. Participation is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose certain information.
The survey may have been built on Understanding AWR’s technology or it may be managed by a third party.
Information requested may be non personal information, such as your opinion, or personal information such as your name and email address. The information required will vary depending on the nature of the survey and the stated purpose for the data. If you submit personal information, it will only be processed by Understanding AWR or the third party for the purposes explained.
Links to other websites from understandingawr.co.uk
Our website contains links to other websites. If you click on a link and leave our site we do not have any control over the website which you visit, nor can we measure what you do on that site. This Privacy and Cookie Policy only relates to Understanding AWR.
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