Privacy Policy

At The Tea Makers LTD we are committed to safeguarding and preserving the privacy of our visitors. This Policy explains what happens to any personal data that you provide to us, or that we collect from you whilst you visit our site and how we use cookies on this website.

Information we collect

When you make a purchase or sign up for an account through our website, we collect certain information from you, including your name, email address, billing address, delivery address, telephone number, company name, and VAT number. Your orders will also store your IP address, its hostname and its country location, Type of device you used, the date and time of the order, Payment method, Payment amount, delivery method, number of loyalty points earned, date and time the order was completed, if you are new or a returning customer and the products ordered.

Your user account can be deleted on request. Please note your details will be stored in any prior orders placed before deleting the account. This is due to VAT regulations, which request we keep all records of VAT transactions for a minimum of six years.

Your payment information including credit or debit card details are directly sent to our payment gateway Stripe (https://stripe.com) or Paypal (https://www.paypal.com) and we do not store the payment details. Please refer to Stripe and PayPal's privacy policy for more information.

We will not collect sensitive personal information about you without your prior and explicit consent.

Information we use

We use the information collected to provide our services to you both online and off-line.  We DO NOT share this information with any third party. Where you have subscribed to our newsletter, you may also receive from time to time information on our products or services.  If at any time, you would like to opt-out of receiving future marketing and promotional material from us, you can simply advise us by unsubscribing by clicking the link at the bottom of the newsletter.

We also use the information in our strategic analysis and our assessment of market trends, and our production and re-ordering levels. In particular, we will compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that enable us to understand how users use the Website and to help us improve the structure of the Website. We cannot identify you personally this way. By using the Website, you agree to us using your personal information in this way.

We also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site -- you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Finally, we may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful requests for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.

We use marketing companies to contact you to undertake customer satisfaction surveys, invite you to provide product reviews or for market research.

Cookies

We use 'cookies' to collect additional information about your visit to the Website such as individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site, and information about how you interact with the Site.

For more information about cookies, and how to disable cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.

A cookie is a text file that a website transfers to your computer's hard disk so that the website can remember who you are. Cookies only record those areas of a website that have been visited by your computer and for how long.

This Website uses the following two types of cookies:

PHPSESSID - Contains a PHP "session ID", expires when the browser is closed

The "PHPSESSID" cookie is required so that the site can recognise the same user clicking from page to page. Without it, every page would be treated as the first visit to the site, and anything added to the shopping basket would be instantly forgotten. Online shopping would, therefore, be impossible.

Session - Contains a PHP "session ID", can also contain an email address and encrypted password expires after one year.

The "session" cookie is intended for the user's convenience, we create this with a copy of the initial session ID so that the users can be classed as "returning" and the contents of their shopping basket will still be available. If you sign in with an email address and password, these login details are also saved so that you can remain logged in when returning (the password is encrypted). Your login details are removed from the cookie when you sign out.

Behavioural advertising

As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page at http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.

You can opt out of targeted advertising by using the links below:

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads

- Google: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/anonymous

- Bing: https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/policies/personalized-ads

Additionally, you can opt out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out portal at: http://optout.aboutads.info/.

Looking after your information

We take appropriate security measures in relation to the sensitivity of the information which we hold on you. We will not hold your information on our systems for any longer than is necessary for us to meet the purpose of holding that information. Where you have made us aware that the information that we hold about you is inaccurate or not up to date, we will update that information. Also, you may wish to contact us via tea@theteamakers.co.uk if you have any questions about privacy.

Changes

We may update this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.