Privacy Policy


BACKGROUND:

SecretsoTtheBees.com understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used. We respect and value the privacy of everyone who visits this website, http://secretsofthebees.com/ and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a way that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of this Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of Our Site. If you do not accept and agree with this Privacy Policy, you must stop using Our Site immediately.

1. Definitions and Interpretation

In this Policy the following terms shall have the following meanings:

“Account” means an account required to access and/or use certain areas and features of Our Site;
“Cookie” means a small text file placed on your computer or device by Our Site when you visit certain parts of Our Site and/or when you use certain features of Our Site. Details of the Cookies used by Our Site are set out in Part 14, below; and
“Cookie Law” means the relevant parts of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003;

2. Information About us

Our Site is owned and operated by:

3. What Does This Policy Cover?

This Privacy Policy applies only to your use of Our Site. Our Site may contain links to other websites. Please note that we have no control over how your data is collected, stored, or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.

4. What is Personal Data?

Personal data is defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679) (the “GDPR”) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier’.

Personal data is, in simpler terms, any information about you that enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also covers less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers.

5. What Are My Rights?

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights, which we will always work to uphold:

(a) The right to be informed about our collection and use of your personal data. This Privacy Policy should tell you everything you need to know, but you can always contact us to find out more or to ask any questions using the details in Part

(b) The right to access the personal data we hold about you. Part 13 will tell you how to do this.

(c) The right to have your personal data rectified if any of your personal data held by us is inaccurate or incomplete. Please contact us using the details in Part 15 to find out more.

(d) The right to be forgotten, i.e. the right to ask us to delete or otherwise dispose of any of your personal data that we have. Please contact us using the details in Part 15 to find out more.

(e) The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your personal data.

(f) The right to object to us using your personal data for a particular purpose or purposes.

(g) The right to data portability. This means that, if you have provided personal data to us directly, we are using it with your consent or for the performance of a contract, and that data is processed using automated means, you can ask us for a copy of that personal data to re-use with another service or business in many cases.

(h) Rights relating to automated decision-making and profiling. We do not use your personal data in this way.

For more information about our use of your personal data or exercising your rights as outlined above, please contact us using the details provided in Part 15.

Further information about your rights can also be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office or your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

6. What Data Do We Collect?

Depending upon your use of our Site, we may collect some or all of the following personal and non-personal data (please also see Part 14 on our use of Cookies and similar technologies:

  • Name;
  • Email address;
  • IP address;
  • Web browser type and version;
  • Operating system;
  • A list of URLs starting with a referring site, your activity on our Site, and the site you exit to;
  • Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website;
  • These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website;

7. How Do You Use My Personal Data?

Under the GDPR, we must always have a lawful basis for using personal data. This may be because the data is necessary for our performance of a contract with you, because you have consented to our use of your personal data, or because it is in our legitimate business interests to use it. Your personal data may be used for one of the following purposes:

  • Providing and managing your Account;
  • Providing and managing your access to our Site;
  • Personalising and tailoring your experience on our Site;
  • Personalising and tailoring our products for you.
  • Communicating with you. This may include responding to emails or calls from you.
  • Supplying you with information by email that you have opted-in to (you may unsubscribe or opt-out at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the end of those emails).
  • Analysing your use of our Site and gathering feedback to enable us to continually improve our Site and your user experience.

With your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your personal data for marketing purposes, which may include contacting you by email with information, news, and offers on our products. You will not be sent any unlawful marketing or spam. We will always work to fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, and you will always have the opportunity to opt-out.

Third Parties (including affiliate partners and Google Analytics) whose content appears on our Site may use third-party Cookies, as detailed below in Part 14. Please refer to Part 14 for more information on controlling cookies. Please note that we do not control the activities of such third parties, nor the data that they collect and use themselves, and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such third parties.

8. How Long Will You Keep My Personal Data?

We will not keep your personal data for any longer than is necessary in light of the reason(s) for which it was first collected. Your personal data will therefore be kept for the following periods (or, where there is no fixed period, the following factors will be used to determine how long it is kept):

  • If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
  • For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

9. How and Where Do You Store or Transfer My Personal Data?

We may store or transfer some or all of your personal data in countries that are not part of the European Economic Area (the “EEA” consists of all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein). These are known as “third countries” and may not have data protection laws that are as strong as those in the UK and/or the EEA. This means that we will take additional steps in order to ensure that your personal data is treated just as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and under the GDPR as follows.

10. Do You Share My Personal Data?

We will not share any of your personal data with any third parties for any purposes, subject to two important exceptions.

  • In some limited circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain personal data, which might include yours, if we are involved in legal proceedings or complying with legal obligations, a court order, or the instructions of a government authority.
  • Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

11. How Can I Control My Personal Data?

11.1. In addition to your rights under the GDPR, set out in Part 5, when you submit personal data via our Site, you may be given options to restrict our use of your personal data. In particular, we aim to give you strong controls on our use of your data for direct marketing purposes (including the ability to opt-out of receiving emails from us which you may do by unsubscribing using the links provided in our emails).

11.2. You may also wish to sign up to one or more of the preference services operating in the UK: The Telephone Preference Service (“the TPS”), the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (“the CTPS”), and the Mailing Preference Service (“the MPS”). These may help to prevent you receiving unsolicited marketing. Please note, however, that these services will not prevent you from receiving marketing communications that you have consented to receiving.

11.3. If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

12. Can I Withhold Information?

You may access certain areas of our Site without providing any personal data at all. However, to use all features and functions available on our Site you may be required to submit or allow for the collection of certain data.

You may restrict our use of Cookies. For more information, see Part 14.

14. How Can I Access My Personal Data?

If you want to know what personal data we have about you, you can ask us for details of that personal data and for a copy of it (where any such personal data is held). This is known as a “subject access request”.

All subject access requests should be made in writing and sent to the email address shown in Part 15.

There is not normally any charge for a subject access request. If your request is ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive’ (for example, if you make repetitive requests) a fee may be charged to cover our administrative costs in responding.

We will respond to your subject access request within 28 days. Normally, we aim to provide a complete response, including a copy of your personal data within that time. In some cases, however, particularly if your request is more complex, more time may be required up to a maximum of three months from the date we receive your request. You will be kept fully informed of our progress.

14. How Do You Use Cookies?

Our Site may place and access certain first-party Cookies on your computer or device. First-party Cookies are those placed directly by us and are used only by us. We use Cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of our Site and to provide and improve our products and services. We have carefully chosen these Cookies and have taken steps to ensure that your privacy and personal data is protected and respected at all times.

  • If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
  • If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
  • When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
  • If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

By using our Site, you may also receive certain third-party Cookies on your computer or device. Third-party Cookies are those placed by websites, services, and/or parties other than us. Third-party Cookies are used on our Site for affiliate tracking and analytics.

Our Site uses analytics services provided by Google. Website analytics refers to a set of tools used to collect and analyse anonymous usage information, enabling us to better understand how our Site is used. This, in turn, enables us to improve our Site and the products and services offered through it.

The analytics service(s) used by our Site use(s) Cookies to gather the required information. You do not have to allow us to use these Cookies, however whilst our use of them does not pose any risk to your privacy or your safe use of our Site, it does enable us to continually improve our Site, making it a better and more useful experience for you.

The analytics service(s) used by our Site use(s) the following Cookies:

Cookie Name Default Expiration Date Description
_ga 2 years Used to distinguish users.
_gid 24 hours Used to distinguish users.
_gat 1 minute Used to throttle request rate. If Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dc_gtm_<property-id>.
AMP_TOKEN 30 seconds Contains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service.
_gac_<property-id> 90 days Contains campaign related information for the user. If you have linked your Google Analytics and AdWords accounts, AdWords website conversion tags will read
__utma 2 years Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. The cookie is updated
__utmt 10 minutes Used to throttle request rate.
__utmb 30 minutes Used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exists. The cookie is updated
__utmc End of Browser Session Not used in ga.js. Set for interoperability with urchin.js. Historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether the user
__utmz 6 months Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached your site. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.
__utmv 2 years Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. This cookie is created when a developer uses the _setCustomVar method with a visitor level custom variable. This cookie was also used for the deprecated _setVar method. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.

For full details, please see:

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage

In addition to the controls that we provide, you can choose to enable or disable Cookies in your internet browser. Most internet browsers also enable you to choose whether you wish to disable all Cookies or only third-party Cookies. By default, most internet browsers accept Cookies, but this can be changed. For further details, please consult the help menu in your internet browser or the documentation that came with your device.

You can choose to delete Cookies on your computer or device at any time, however you may lose any information that enables you to access Our Site more quickly and efficiently including, but not limited to, login and personalisation settings.

It is recommended that you keep your internet browser and operating system up-to-date and that you consult the help and guidance provided by the developer of your internet browser and manufacturer of your computer or device if you are unsure about adjusting your privacy settings.

15. How Do I Contact You?

To contact us about anything to do with your personal data and data protection, including to make a subject access request, please use the following details (for the attention of Andy Williams):

Email address:

16. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. This may be necessary, for example, if the law changes, or if we change our business in a way that affects personal data protection.

Any changes will be immediately posted on our Site and you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of the Privacy Policy on your first use of our Site following the alterations. We recommend that you check this page regularly to keep up-to-date.