Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Rebecca Woollard Sewing School & Haberdashery is committed to protecting and preserving the privacy of our customers when visiting us, visiting our website or communicating (electronically or verbally) with us. Please take a moment to familiarise yourself with our Privacy Policy.

Our Privacy Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit us and visit our website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we store it.

We confirm that we will keep the information on a secure server and that we will comply fully with all applicable UK Data Protection legislation and regulations.

Please let us know if you have any questions regarding this Policy either by email, using the contact form or by writing to Rebecca Woollard Sewing School & Haberdashery, The Flowerpot, The Heath, Hatfield Heath, Hertfordshire, CM22 7EB. Alternatively, you can telephone 07887 654717.

How do we collect information from you?

Our team are aware of the importance of handling data safely, securely and understand the procedures we have in place to ensure this happens.

We collect information from you when you make a purchase, book a course, have your sewing machine serviced or any other enquiry/query about our services via our team either in person, over the telephone or email.

We collect information from you when you sign up to receive our newsletters via our website. We also collect information about you when we take a payment from you. This information is required to complete the task in question.

We will ask you to confirm that you are happy to receive communications from us and if you would like to be signed up to our newsletter to receive the latest news and offers from Rebecca Woollard Sewing School & Haberdashery.

In running and operating our website, we may collect and process certain data and information relating to you and your use of this site. We collect information relating to website users by using cookies (see details below).

If you connect with us via social media i.e. Instagram, Facebook or Twitter by 'liking' or 'following' us we may collect information and data such as your name and details you provide to us when entering a social media competition or poll. Our Privacy Policy applies to all social media activity.

What type of information is collected from you?

The data we collect from you may be classed as 'personal data' – information about an individual who can be identified by it.

The information we collect about you may include the following;

  • your name
  • your address and postcode
  • your email address
  • your home telephone number / mobile number
  • your IP address
  • your web browser type and version
  • your credit or debit card details when making a payment (this payment data is destroyed once the payment is made)
  • any information regarding what pages on our website are accessed and when

The data we may collect;

  • If you contact us, we may keep a record of your email and other correspondence.
  • Information you provide when you complete our Newsletter Sign Up Form.
  • Information you provide in order to enter a competition or promotion via the website or social media.
  • Information you provide if you complete a survey.

Details of visits to our website and the pages and resources that are accessed, including but not limited to, traffic data, location data and other communication data that may assist us in understanding how visitors use our website. This may also include the resources that you access, and information about where you are on the internet including the domain type, IP address and URL that you came from. This information could be (but unlikely to be) collected and used for our internal research purposes and to improve our customer service.

Your privacy is important to us and we confirm that we will never release your personal data to any third party for their mailing or marketing purposes.

How will we use the data about you?

We may use your information;

  • to process your order
  • to process your gift voucher purchases
  • to provide you with information you have requested from us about our products and services
  • for processing entries into a competition;
  • to seek your views or comments on the services we provide;
  • to notify you about any changes to our business or website, including improvements, and service or product changes
  • to send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about promotions, offers, information about the shop.
  • if you consent, to notify you via our sales and marketing channels (email, telephone and post) of products or special offers that may be of interest to you. You can stop these communications at any time by unsubscribing or contacting us via telephone or in writing (please see 'How to opt out' below)
  • for our internal purposes including internal record keeping, statistical purposes, quality control, website performance and evaluation, improvements to products and services.

Who has access to your information?

In order to comply with the Data Protection Act of 1984 and 1998, we follow procedures in the storage and disclosure of information that you have given to us, to prevent unauthorised access, misuse, alteration or loss of information under our control. Our security measure may mean that we will require proof of identity before we are able to disclose information to you.

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties. We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf: We may pass your information to our third-party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to process payments i.e. PayPal, booking a course/class i.e. Bookwhen and Mail Chimp to send you marketing communications). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we ensure their own Privacy Policies are in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it's treated securely. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. We have secure password protected databases.

Whilst we take appropriate measures, both technical and organisational, to safeguard your personal data you provide us, we cannot guarantee that transmissions over the internet are totally secure, therefore the transfer of personal data via the internet is entirely at your own risk.

The transfer of your information outside of Europe

The information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Union ("EU"). For example, we use Mail Chimp (based in USA) as a platform for email marketing. Please find their Privacy Policy at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. By submitting your personal data, you're agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing.

Retention of information

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was obtained, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Should you wish to unsubscribe from our mailing list we may still hold your personal data on our database to the extent permitted by law.

How do I opt out?

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. We will not make contact with you unless you have opted in. If then, you no longer want to receive direct marketing communications from us about the shop and offers, then you can change your preferences or completely unsubscribe in one of two ways:

  • Click the 'unsubscribe' or 'change preferences' link at the bottom of marketing emails sent to you
  • Email using the contact form or by writing to Rebecca Woollard Sewing School & Haberdashery, The Flowerpot, The Heath, Hatfield Heath, Hertfordshire, CM22 7EB. Alternatively, you can telephone 07887 654717.

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your prior consent. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted.

Your rights

Your 'right to be forgotten' and access. You are legally entitled to access, modify, correct, revoke your consent and delete any data we hold relating to you and that you have the legal right to forbid this data being presented to any third parties. You have the right to ask for a copy of the information Rebecca Woollard Sewing School & Haberdashery holds about you at any time. Please contact us if you would like to receive a copy. The accuracy of your information is also important to us. If you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please contact us.

Use of 'cookies'

Like many other websites, the Rebecca Woollard Sewing School & Haberdashery website uses cookies. A Cookie is a small file of letters and numbers sent by an organisation which asks permission from your browser to be placed on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise when you visit. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use Google Analytics to research user activities on our website in order to enhance its performance and usability. In the course of conducting this research Google places a First Party session 'cookie' on your browser and collects aggregate information to enable us to see what people view on the website and for how long. The use of cookies enables us to improve our website, deliver effective marketing and offer a more personalised service. You can choose to accept or decline cookies.

It is possible to switch off cookies by adjusting your browser preferences or using a dedicated browser extension.

To find out more about how to manage cookies through your chosen browser go to https://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/

Links to other websites

This privacy Policy applies solely to information and data collected by us. Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations over which we have no control, so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you were referred to our website from a third-party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third-party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third-party site.

Those aged 17 or under

We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 17 or under. If you are aged 17 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

This Privacy Policy is reviewed regularly. We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you're happy with any changes. By using our website, you're agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

This Privacy Policy is version 3 and was last updated in December 2019.