Privacy Policy - Northern Hearth Guild
Northern Hearth Guild is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy details the types of information we collect, how we use it, and the measures we take to safeguard it in compliance with applicable data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Canadian privacy legislation.
1. Information We Collect
We collect various types of information to provide and improve our services, which involve the promotion and sale of handcrafted eco-friendly products, and fostering a community around sustainable artisan practices.
- Personal Data You Provide Directly: This includes information you provide when creating an account, making a purchase, subscribing to our newsletter, participating in workshops, or contacting us. This may include your name, shipping address, billing address, email address, phone number, payment information (processed securely by third-party payment processors), and any other information you choose to provide.
- Transaction Data: Details about products you purchase from our site, order fulfillment, and other details of products you have purchased from us.
- Communication Data: Records of your communications with us, including inquiries, feedback, and customer support interactions.
- Usage Data: Information about how you interact with our online platform, such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, referral sources, pages viewed, and the dates/times of your visits. This data is collected through cookies and similar tracking technologies.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the collected information for various purposes, primarily based on legitimate interests, contractual necessity, or your consent:
- To Fulfill Orders and Provide Services: Processing your purchases, managing your account, shipping products, and providing customer support related to our eco-friendly artisan goods.
- To Communicate With You: Sending order confirmations, shipping updates, responding to your inquiries, and sending newsletters or promotional materials about our sustainable products, workshops, and community events, if you have opted in.
- For Internal Operations and Improvement: Analyzing website usage to improve our online platform, product offerings, and user experience. This includes data analytics, research, and troubleshooting.
- For Marketing and Personalization: Tailoring our marketing efforts to your interests and providing personalized content and product recommendations.
- To Comply with Legal Obligations: Meeting legal requirements, including tax and accounting obligations, and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.
3. Sharing Your Information
We do not sell your personal data. We may share your information with trusted third parties under specific circumstances:
- Service Providers: We engage third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our services, such as payment processors (e.g., for secure financial transactions), shipping companies (e.g., to deliver your orders), website hosting, data analytics, and marketing services. These providers are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal data confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
- Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court order or government agency).
- Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale involving Northern Hearth Guild, your personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email or a prominent notice on our site of any such change.
4. Data Security
We implement robust technical and organizational measures designed to protect your personal data from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. This includes encryption, firewalls, and secure server environments. While we strive to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
5. Data Retention
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
6. Your Data Protection Rights
Depending on your location and subject to applicable law, you have certain rights regarding your personal data:
- Right to Access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data.
- Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or complete information you believe is incomplete.
- Right to Erasure: You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Right to Object to Processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: If we are processing your personal data based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact details provided below. We will respond to your request within one month.
7. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
Our online platform uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience, analyze site traffic, and for marketing purposes. Cookies are small data files stored on your device. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our service.
8. Links to Other Websites
Our site may contain links to other websites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
9. Children's Privacy
Our service is not intended for individuals under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under 16. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.
10. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the "last updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy.
11. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, our data practices, or would like to exercise any of your data protection rights, please contact us:
Northern Hearth Guild
839 King Street West, Suite 300,
Toronto, ON, M5V 1J9, Canada