Privacy policy

Introduction

All good relationships start with an introduction.

We, Gardener’s Dream Ltd (referred to as "GD”, “GardenersDream”) own and are legally responsible for Prickle Plants (also referred to as “PRICKLE”, “PRKL”, and “PP”. Collectively, we use the terms “we”, “us”, and “our” to refer to our businesses and brands. These terms are used in this Privacy Policy.

Let's set the record straight. We are Gardener’s Dream Ltd ℅ Prickle Plants, registered at Companies House under number SC404533Z, based at Avondale Ca, 148 - 150, Cumbernauld Road Muirhead, Glasgow, G69 9DX. Since you are visiting our website we act as a controller of your personal data which means we are trusted to look after and deal with your personal information in accordance with this policy. We determine the ways and means – which are outlined below – and we are also accountable for it. This means we want to be crystal clear with you from the get-go.

We respect the privacy rights of you, our online visitors/customers (referred to as "you", "your", or "yours") and recognise the importance of protecting the information collected about you. We will only ever use the information that we collect about you lawfully and in your best interests.

We are committed to the protection of any personal information you share with us. This statement describes what types of personal data we collect from you, how it is used, how we share it with others, how you can manage the information we hold and how you can contact us should you have any questions.

Since laws and regulations change regularly, we must update the information of this policy in line with them. Therefore, this policy is subject to change, so you may wish to revisit this page occasionally to ensure you are still happy to share your information with us. Where possible, we will also contact you directly to notify you of these changes. Our Privacy Policy will always be available on our website, providing transparent and clear information regarding how we process your personal data.

The following information is provided by us to enable our online visitors and customers to be fully informed and assured that our company privacy policies are in line with all laws governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom. By visiting www.prickleplants.co.uk or www.prickleplants.eu you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

We are registered with the ICO as a fee payer and our registration number is ZB117518.

We have a data protection manager responsible for overseeing this policy and your privacy rights. You can contact them by emailing contact@prickleplants.co.uk

This version of our Privacy Policy applies from 01 September 2021.

What information do we collect?

The information we collect from you is based on what is necessary and relevant in order to provide you with the products or services you request. Our website will also collect tracking information as you navigate through our website. This information falls within three categories:

  1. Personal data you share with us

    We may ask you for certain personal data when you order from us, including when you purchase from the website, make a member account on our website, fill out a survey, enter a competition, or post a comment/review, as well as when you sign up to our mailing list. The information we collect includes but is not limited to;

    • Full Name (including title)
    • Delivery address
    • Billing address
    • Payment card details
    • Phone number
    • Date of birth
    • Email address
    • Username and password

    The above information is collectively referred to as identity and contact data. You will know when this information is collected as it can only be provided to us by you and will be completed via a secure form or message.

  2. Personal data we receive from other sources

    We sometimes obtain information about you or your purchases from other third parties. These companies have their own privacy policies explaining how they use and share your personal data. You should carefully review these privacy policies prior to engaging with the third party in order to ensure that you are happy with them.

  3. Personal data we collect about you

    We will collect certain information when you use our websites and applications as well as our customer care services. Some of this data does not identify you personally, but rather provides us with information about how you use our services and engage with us. This enables us to improve our services and make them more useful to you. The information we collect includes but is not limited to;

    • The date and time you used our services
    • The pages you visited on our website and how long you visited us for
    • The products you viewed or added to your basket
    • The pages you actively visit whilst using our Live Chat & Messaging service
    • Your IP address
    • Your location (where you have permitted access to this)
    • The Internet browser and devices you are using
    • Cookie or pixel information (for more information please see our Cookie Policy)
    • Any information within correspondence you send to us
    • Where you engage with us in a business context, we may collect your job title, company contact details (including email addresses), and company details (some of which we may obtain from an online or public business directory)

We also collect financial and transactional data - details of orders made and processed; details of payments, and cards used for payments.

We collect usage data relating to the products you purchased and how you use and navigate the website. We may also ask you to complete surveys and give feedback that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.

We collect profile data which includes assumptions about your predicted buying behaviour and interests based on the usage data we collect about you and combined with non-personal data we obtain from third parties (see the section entitled “Third Party Marketing” below for more information). We do not carry out automated individual decision-making or profiling for the purposes of data protection legislation.

We collect technical data which includes your IP address; your general geographic location based on your IP address; the type of device you use, your device’s operating system and version; the browser type you use; what pages you view on our website and how you interact with the content on that site.

If you access the Website through a social networking profile, we may collect, store and use the details of that social networking profile and any information contained therein in order to populate any forms you might wish to complete on the Website.

We may randomly monitor and record your calls for training and quality control purposes. If we do so, we will play a prompt alerting you to this before we start the recording. Such recordings help us to ensure that we provide you with the highest level of service and maintain quality standards. The legal basis here is our legitimate interest in providing a quality service to you.

We partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay to improve and market our products/services. Website usage data is captured using first and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of products/services and online activity. Additionally, we use this information for site optimization, fraud/security purposes, and advertising. For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement

How do we use this information?

We will only process information that is necessary to provide the product or service for which it has been collected. We will always provide the option for you to choose not to receive marketing communications from us, and you can withdraw your consent at any time should you change your mind. We will never send you unsolicited 'junk' emails or communications, or share your personal information with anyone else who might.

Outlined below are the various ways in which we may use or process your personal data.

Consent
Where you have provided your consent, we may use and process your information to contact you through electronic channels such as email or SMS about promotions, events, products, services, or information that we think may be of interest to you.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing contact@prickleplants.co.uk or, in relation to any marketing messages you receive, by selecting the unsubscribe option included in those messages.

Contractual performance
We may use and process your personal data where necessary in order to perform a contract, such as to fulfil and complete your orders and purchases.

Legal obligation
Sometimes we are under a legal obligation to use your personal data, for example where we:

  • notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy or Terms & Conditions;
  • respond to a complaint made by you;
  • are obliged by a court of law or the police (or other authority).

Vital interest
We may need to process your personal data to contact you should there be an urgent safety or product recall notice that we need to inform you of.

Legitimate interests
We may use and process your personal information as set out below where it is necessary for us to carry out activities for which it is in our legitimate interests as a business to do so. This includes:

  • managing your account and answering your queries;
  • protecting our business and our website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting, and hosting of data);
  • requesting a review from you or your participation in a survey;
  • Using your identity and contact data for marketing purposes – note that email marketing to existing customers is carried out using soft-opt in, rather than consent;
  • promoting our business through delivering relevant website content and advertisements to you;
  • measuring the effectiveness of the advertising we provide to you;
  • improving our website and service;
  • preventing fraud.

In order to support sales and/or queries, we may use your information;

  • To respond to correspondence you send to us and fulfil any requests you make. For example, sending you information about a product or responding to a Customer Service enquiry you made. Processing is necessary for us to understand and respond to your customers’ needs.

To develop and improve our relationship with you, we may use your information;

  • To analyse, evaluate and improve our products and services, including use of our website, applications, customer services and stores, in order to improve your customer experience. Where possible we will use data amalgamated from many people so that it doesn’t identify you personally.
  • To undertake market analysis and research, including contacting you with customer surveys, so that we can better understand you as a customer.
  • To provide tailored offers, products, and services by email that we think you will be interested in. We will only send email marketing communications to you if you have provided your consent for us to do so.
  • We may use automated methods to analyse, combine and evaluate the information that you have provided to us. We collect and analyse this information in this way so that we can deliver the most appropriate customer experience to you by tailoring, personalising, and making relevant all our services and communications (for example, when we have a new arrival we think you might like).
  • Processing is necessary for us to operate the administrative and technical aspects of our business efficiently and effectively

To protect your personal information, we may use your data;

  • To verify the accuracy of the information that we hold about you and create a better understanding of you as a customer.
  • For network and information security purposes, i.e. in order for us to take steps to protect your information against loss, damage, theft, or unauthorised access.
  • To comply with a request from you in connection with the exercise of your rights (for example, where you have asked us not to contact you for marketing purposes, we will keep a record of this on our suppression lists in order to be able to comply with your request).
  • To inform you of updates to our Terms and Conditions and further policies.
  • Processing is necessary for us to promote our business, brands and products, and measure the reach and effectiveness of our campaigns

To support and promote our brands, we may use your information;

  • To send you marketing information after you have purchased a product or service from us, made a purchasing enquiry, or closed your browser with items in your shopping basket. You have the right to opt-out of us sending you this information at any time.
  • As a business customer, acting on behalf of said business or where we have obtained your business contact details, we may contact you with marketing information (unless you object). This happens when you have expressly indicated to us that you are acting on behalf of said business or where we have obtained your business contact details. In relation to any such information we send by email, we will include an option allowing you to object to receiving future messages by unsubscribing.
  • To show you targeted advertising online through social media and other platforms operated by other companies, unless you object. You may receive advertising based on information about you that we have provided to the platform or because, at our request, the platform has identified you as having similar attributes to the individuals whose details it has received from us. To find out more, please refer to the information provided in the help pages of the platforms on which you receive advertising from us.
  • To identify and record when you have received, opened, or engaged with our website or electronic communications (please see our Cookie Policy for more information).
  • To administer competitions and promotions that you enter with us and to distribute prizes.

How do we share this information?

We do not, and will never, sell your information to third parties. However, we may from time to time disclose your information to the following categories of companies or organisations to which we pass the responsibility to handle services on our behalf;

Service providers who help us to operate our website and app, fulfil your orders and deliver our products to you, including;

  • Credit reference agencies
  • Couriers
  • Payment providers
  • IT support
  • Direct marketing communications agencies and consultants
  • Market research and market analytics service providers
  • Legal and other professional advisors
  • Certain regulatory bodies, government and enforcement agencies, where required
  • Companies like Google/Facebook to show you products that might interest you while you’re browsing the Internet. This is based on either your marketing consent or your acceptance of cookies on our website. See our Cookies Policy for details

We take steps to ensure that any third-party partners who handle your information comply with data protection legislation and are as committed to the protection of your personal data as we are. We only disclose personal information that is necessary for them to provide the service that they are undertaking on our behalf. We will aim to make your data anonymous or use aggregated non-specific data sets wherever possible.

Due to the international nature of our business, there may be some instances where your information is processed or stored outside of the EU. In those instances, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place for that transfer and storage as required by applicable law.

Third Parties we use;
eDesk, TrustPilot, PayPal, Salesfire, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Microsoft, Royal Mail, DPD, Yodel, XDP, PalletLine, Linnworks, Klavio, Klarna and FireText.

These third-party companies will also use your personal data for a variety of reasons; if you ever wish to have your data removed please contact help@prickleplants.co.uk and we will ensure that the data is removed permanently where possible in line with the latest GDPR requirements.

Retargeting and Online Advertising

We engage in online advertising efforts, including using services provided by Google, such as Google AdWords and Google Analytics, for retargeting and remarketing purposes. This means that after visiting our website, you may see our ads on other websites as you browse the internet.

These services allow us to display targeted advertisements to users who have previously visited our website. These ads might be displayed on the Google Display Network or other third-party websites, based on your past interactions with our website.

To facilitate this, we may use cookies and tracking technologies provided by Google. These cookies and technologies collect information about your browsing behavior and interactions with our website. They do not store any personally identifiable information.

If you wish to opt-out of Google's use of cookies for these purposes, you can visit Google's Ads Settings or use the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.

Please note that we do not have control over the cookies and technologies used by third-party services, and we recommend reviewing their respective privacy policies for more information about their practices.

How we store your personal information
Your information is securely stored by third parties, Volo Commerce and Shopify.

How long do we keep your information?
We will not hold your personal information in an identifiable format for any longer than is necessary. If you are a customer or otherwise have a relationship with us we will hold personal information about you for a longer period than if we have obtained your details in connection with a prospective relationship.

How can you manage the information we hold about you?
You have the right as an individual to access any personal information we hold about you and make corrections if necessary. You also have the right to withdraw any consent you have previously given us and, in certain circumstances, ask us to erase information we hold about you. You can also object to us using your personal information (where we rely on our business interests to process and use your personal information).

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal information under data protection law. In relation to most rights, we will ask you for information to confirm your identity and, where applicable, to help us search for your personal information. We will respond to you within a month after we have received any request (including any identification documents requested).

You have rights in respect of our processing of your personal data.

You have the right to;

  • Ask for a copy of the information that we hold about you
  • Correct and update your information
  • Withdraw your consent (where we rely on it)
  • Object to our use of your information (where we rely on our legitimate interests to use your personal information) provided we do not have any lawful reason to continue to use and process the information. When we do rely on our legitimate interests to use your personal information for direct marketing, we will always comply with your right to object
  • Erase your information (or restrict the use of it), provided we do not have any lawful reason to continue to use and process that information
  • Provide you your information in a structured data file, where we rely on your consent to use and process your personal information or need to process it in connection with your purchase

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information or would like to manage your information, please contact us using the details below Prickle Plants ℅ Gardener’s Dream Limited

Mailing address:
Glasgow Road
Kilsyth
GLASGOW
G65 9BX

Email: contact@prickleplants.co.uk

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: www.ico.org.uk