Privacy policy

Etch Communications (‘we’) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.

By visiting www.etchcomms.ie you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

Accepting this privacy policy:

Please read this privacy policy carefully because by accessing the site and/or creating an account with us or allowing someone to use the sites on your behalf, you accept this privacy policy and you are authorising us to do the collection, use, disclosure, transfer and storage of you personal data or other information received by us as a result of such use in accordance with this privacy policy. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions of this privacy policy, please do not use the site.

What information is collected:

When you use our site, we collect your personal data. The types of personal data we collect from you depends on the sites and the features you use on the sites. Personal data refers to information that directly identifies, or can be used to determine the identity of, a person. This information may include:

Purchase information: we may collect your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, telephone number, credit card number and expiration date when you make a purchase. This information is used to provide the products and services that you have ordered or requested, to process and ship orders, to send order and shipping confirmations (or other transactional information) and/or to provide customer service.

Information collected in-store: we may collect your name, email address, mailing address, zip code, and preferences if you complete a form within the store. This information will be used to provide you with products that may be of interest to you and to provide you with information that you request.

Account information: we may collect your name, email address, mailing address, zip code, date of birth, and gender if you create an account with us. This information will be used to help you keep track of your orders, to keep you updated about special offers, updates related to the sites, and to facilitate checkout during purchases.

Information for commercial communications: we may collect your name, email address, mailing address, and birth date if you sign up to receive promotional emails from us. This information may be used to contact you about sales, special offers and new features available through the sites.

Information relating to inquiries: we may collect your name and email address if you contact us with a question or request a live chat with us. This information may be used so that we can respond to your question or contact you should we disconnect from our live chat.

Information for promotions: we may collect your name, email address, and other contact information if you participate in a promotion (e.G. Contest, sweepstakes) that we sponsor. This information will be used to fulfil the terms of the promotion and to contact you regarding promotional and special offer, sales, and new features available through the site. It will also be subject to the terms of accompanying such promotion.

Survey information: we may collect your name, age, zip code, shipping habits, email address and/or mailing address if you choose to participate in one of our online surveys. This information will be used to help provide us with relevant information about our consumers.

Data related to the location of your mobile device: we may collect location data when you access or use our online services from a mobile device equipped with a GSM or GPS connection, subject to your consent expressed through the settings of you mobile device, allowing us to locate this mobile device. If you have accepted the localisation of you terminal device, we may adapt the offer of our products and services depending on where you mobile device is located.

Data related to your utilisation of our online services: our online services collect browsing data which may identify your terminal device when you access or browse our sites. In this context, we may collect the IP address of your terminal device that is connected to the internet, the type of browser you use and the operating system used, as well as other data that are automatically processed, such as your internet service provider, the website from which you have accessed our sites, the number of pages viewed on our sites, your use of our sites, the time spent on each page of our sites, etc. These data may be used for the functioning of our sites, to generate our services and track and analyse visits to our sites.

The above section provides examples of the personal data that we may collect through the sites and the manners in which we may use such personal data. If you do not want us to collect your personal data, please do not provide it to us and do not use our services or access our sites.

Subject to your prior consent, we may transfer your personal data to our commercial partners or send you offers from our partners or from other brands.

How we collect personal data?

Passive Collection

We may collect information passively, while you are visiting or interacting with the sites. We call this “passive” collection since you may not know that this information is being collected when you visit or interact with the sites. This information may consist of the following items: website visitors’ IP address, IP address-related information, system media access control address, network configuration information, network device information, browser plug-in type and versions, and operating system.

Cookies and Other Session Identifiers

Like many sites, we utilise a technology called “cookies”. A cookie is a piece of information that is placed on your browser when you access the sites. The law requires us to provide you with certain information regarding cookies. Please click hereto learn more about our utilisation of cookies on our sites.

Other websites, including mobile applications and social media platforms:
If you use a social media platform or your mobile device (or other method of communication) to interact with the sites, that platform or application may have a specific privacy policy that governs the use of personal data related to it. For example, if you use a mobile application and your mobile device’s settings allow it, we may collect mobile location information from your device. Our application may be designed to collect information even if you are not logged into the application or the sites. If you have questions about the security and privacy settings of your mobile device, please refer to instructions from your mobile service provider or the manufacturer of your device to learn how to adjust your settings. We do not control the data collection or privacy practices of the application stores from which you download our mobile application, or of any third-party platform through which you access our sites or contact us. You should review the privacy policy and terms of use of any third-party site or mobile application store before using or downloading any app and review and use available controls and settings on your device to reflect your preferences.

Like any online site or service, our mobile application automatically collects certain information such as your IP address, geolocation, device information (e.g., the unique identifier of your mobile device, hardware model, operating system version, mobile network information), and the url from which you access our application. You are not required to affirmatively submit any personal data to us in connection with the general use of our application, unless you make a purchase through the application, in which case you must create an account. Any personal data you provide or that is collected via our application is subject to this privacy policy.

Direct Collection

We also collect information from you directly, at the time that you supply information to us via the sites. For instance, if you contact us to subscribe to our membership and other products or services, ask questions, or provide us feedback or comments (whether publicly available or not) about the sites or any of our products or services, we may store your communications, including any personal data you include in them, so we can effectively respond to you. If you do not want us to directly collect your personal data, please do not provide it to us.

Other Sources

To the extent permitted by law, we also may obtain, collect and aggregate information (including personal data) provided to us by our marketing service providers and other vendors. That information may include information on current subscribers or customers, and is used for commercial purposes including enabling us to send you the most relevant, timely and exciting offers and announcements specifically tailored for you and your interests. Of course, you can update your information or change your preferences regarding receiving announcements and other information from us at any time by accessing your account via the sites. However, should any profiling activity produce legal effect on you, we offer you the possibility to opt out at any moment to such profiling. (For more information, see below section entitled how can I access, correct and update my personal data?).

How do we use the information collected?

We may use personal data as necessary and to fulfil your requests, including in the following ways:

Access and use: if you provide personal data in order to obtain access to or use of the sites or any functionality thereof, we will use your personal data to provide you with access to or use of the sites or functionality and to monitor your use of the sites or specific functionalities.

Internal business purposes: we may use your personal data for internal business purposes including, without limitation, to help us improve the content and functionality of the site, to better understand our users, to improve the site, to protect against, identify or address fraudulent activities, to manage your account and to provide you with customer service and to generally manage the site and our business.

Marketing: we may use your personal data to contact you for certain marketing and advertising purposes, including, without limitation, to inform you about offers, contests or surveys which may be of interest to you and to display content and advertising on or off the sites which may be of relevance to you. If you wish to change or update your personal data or to change your subscription preferences, you may do so as provided herein. We also use your personal data for other marketing reasons, such as administering our loyalty program.

Specific reason: if you provide personal data for a certain reason, we may use the personal data in connection with the reason for which it was provided. For instance, if you contact us by email, we will use the personal data you provide to answer your question or to attempt to resolve your issue and will respond to the email address from which the contact came.

Aggregated information: in an ongoing effort to better understand and to serve the users of the site, we (either directly or working in concert with our marketing services providers) may conduct research on our customer demographics, interests and behaviour based on personal data and other information that has been provided or received by us. For example, we may combine information about visitors to the sites to determine how best to target our marketing and the products that we offer in certain areas of the country. This research may be compiled and analysed on an aggregate basis and this aggregate information does not identify you personally and is not classified or treated as personal data under this privacy policy.

Do we share information?

We seek to receive your consent before sharing your information when required by applicable laws and regulations. However, in some cases your permission will be given as part of a contract you have with us.

Your personal data is intended for Etch Communications and for our service providers located within or outside the European Union, and, where relevant, to our partners. We won’t sell, rent, or disclose your personal data to other entities without your consent or in the event of opposition from you.

Examples of instances in which we share your personal data are provided below:

Order fulfilment and fraud protection: if you choose to make a purchase on the site, we may collect from you your credit card number, billing address and other information related to such purchase, and we may use such collected information in order to fulfil your purchase. We may also provide such information, or other personal data provided by you, to unaffiliated third parties as necessary to complete your purchase (for example, to process your credit card). In addition, we may share your personal data with fraud protection services to assist us in preventing fraud and protecting our customers from credit card fraud.

Business transfers: as with any business, it is possible that as our business develops, we might sell, assign, buy, transfer or otherwise acquire or dispose of certain businesses or corporate assets. In the event of such or similar event, personal data may be part of the transferred assets. In the event that all or part of our assets are sold or acquired by another party, or in the event of a merger, you grant us the right to assign your personal data collected via the sites, and you acknowledge and agree that any successor to or acquirer of us and/or our e-commerce service provider will continue to have the right to use your personal data and other information in accordance with the terms of this privacy policy.

Brands: we may also share your personal data with our brands consistent with this privacy policy. Our brands will be bound to treat and to maintain any personal data in accordance with this privacy policy.

Agents, consultants and related third parties: as noted above with respect to our e-commerce service provider, we, like many businesses, sometimes engage other companies to perform certain business-related functions on our behalf so that we can focus on our core business. Examples of these services include, but are not limited to, payment processing and authorisation, fraud protection and credit risk reduction, product customisation, order fulfilment and shipping, marketing and promotional material distribution, website evaluation, data analysis and, where applicable, data cleansing. In connection with services those partners provide for us, we may provide or otherwise give them access to certain personal data. We employ a vetting process to assess our partners’ data protection practices.

Third-party marketers, partners, and other third parties: we may also share your personal data with other marketers, partners, and other third parties, whose products or services we feel may be of interest to you. These third-party marketers, partners, and other third parties may use your personal data for their own purposes, or further disclose your information to other third parties. If you prefer we do not share your personal data with these types of parties, please email us at hello@etchcomms.ie.

Legal requirements: we may disclose your personal data if required to do so by law (including, without limitation responding to a subpoena or request from law enforcement, court or government agency) or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary (i) to comply with a legal obligation or a request from an administrative or judicial authority, (ii) to protect or defend our rights, interests or property or that of other customers or users, (iii) to act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the sites or the public or (iv) to protect against legal liability or potential fraud, as determined in our sole discretion.

Other uses: we may also use and share your personal data for other legitimate business reasons not specified herein. We will periodically update this privacy policy to inform you of any changes to our data use and sharing practices.

How can I access, correct and update my personal data?

You can access, correct and/or update certain personal data that you have provided to us by clicking on “update account” within the “my account” area of the sites, or by contacting us at the contact information indicated below.

What steps are taken to keep my information secure?

Depending on the applicable state of the art, the implementation costs, the nature, context and purposes of the processing as well as the possible corresponding risks, we take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security and confidentiality of your personal data adapted to the risks, in order to avoid any loss, misuse, alteration or deletion of your personal data. We have implemented information security measures that contain administrative, technical and physical controls that are designed to reasonably safeguard your personal data. Even though we have taken and will continue to take appropriate steps to protect this information in the conditions set out in this section, no company, including us, can fully eliminate all security risks associated with personal data. Please understand that no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. If we learn of a data security systems breach that is likely to result in a high risk to your rights and freedoms, we shall communicate the security data breach to you without undue delay. By using the sites or providing personal data to us, you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of the sites. We may post a notice via the sites if a security breach occurs. We may also send an email to you at the email address you have provided to us in these circumstances. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive written notice of a data privacy or security breach. If you have reason to believe that your personal data that we have collected or our system security has been breached, please notify us by e-mailing hello@etchcomms.ie.

We use various security measures, including encryption technology, to protect information collected, transferred and retained. If you elect to set up an account on the sites, you will be asked to provide an email address and password. You must provide a valid email address and password in order to create and maintain an account, as well as to access account information. We recommend you select a complex password. In order to help protect your personal data, you should not provide your password to others and you should change it periodically. If you wish to update a password, or if you become aware of any loss, theft or unauthorised use of a password, please contact us at hello@etchcomms.ie.

Please be aware that we may store personal data or such information may be included in databases owned and maintained by our brands, agents or third-party service providers. As the data controller, we take all appropriate steps to protect the security and confidentiality of all personal data provided via the sites from loss, misuse, unauthosised access, inadvertent disclosure, alteration and/or destruction. However, no internet or email transmission is ever fully secure or error free. In particular, email sent to or from the sites may not always be secure. Please keep this in mind when disclosing any personal data via the internet or by email.

What choices do I have regarding my personal data?

You have several choices available when it comes to your personal data. We will honour the choices you make regarding your personal data. If you have created and maintained a user account on the sites, you will be able to sign in and update your account (including contact) information. You may also write to us at the address provided herein and update your contact information or to change your subscription preferences. In addition, you may:

Limit the personal data you provide: you can use the sites and limit the personal data you provide either by disabling cookies or by not registering an account with us. If you choose to limit the personal data you provide and/or to disable cookies, you may not be able to use certain functionalities of the sites. For instance, in order to purchase goods and services on the sites, payment and shipping information must necessarily be provided.

Manage your subscription preferences: we may send your information by email or text message. If you provide your mobile phone number and ask to receive information by text message, we may provide information in that manner. You further understand that consent is not a condition of purchase and that message and data rates may apply.

Opt out of marketing emails and texts: for email marketing, you will have an opportunity to change your subscription preferences by clicking on an “unsubscribe” hyperlink contained in all promotional emails sent by us or on our behalf. Please note that while we honour all subscription requests as timely as possible, it may take up to ten business days to become effective. Please be aware that even if you opt-out of receiving future promotional communications, you may, if you utilise the e-commerce features of the sites, be sent certain transactional communications related to the purchase or shipment of items purchased. Thus, if you order online, we will send you an email confirming your order and may need to contact you by phone, email or regular mail if we have questions about your order. Additionally, an opt-out will not remove you from messages that we are required to send under relevant laws or regulations. You may ask us not to contact you by text message at any time by responding to a text message after it is received. For automated text messages, you will have the opportunity to opt-out by replying “stop” to any message received. Please note that you hereby consent to receiving a confirmatory message in response to any opt-out request. We will process your unsubscribe request as soon as possible, but please be aware that in some circumstances you may receive a few more messages until the unsubscribe request is processed.

Social media & other public platforms: you may also manage the sharing of certain personal data with us when you connect with us through a social media platform or application, such as through facebook connect. Please refer to the privacy settings of the social media website or application to determine how you may adjust your permissions and manage the interactivity between us and your social media platform(s) or application(s). That said, we want you to be aware that when you post information to public forums, including publicly viewable social media platforms, that information will become available to all who access such platform pages. Please be extremely careful when disclosing any information in chat rooms, forums and other public posting areas. We are not responsible for the use by others of the information that you disclose in chat rooms, forums and other public posting areas.

What happens when I link to or from another site?

The sites may contain links to other websites not operated or controlled by us (the “third-party sites”). The policies and procedures set forth herein do not apply to any third-party sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such third-party sites. We are not responsible for the actions of these third party sites; rather, the owners and operators of all third- party sites are responsible for all personal data provided, collected, maintained, stored or otherwise disclosed on those sites, if any. The links on the sites do not imply that we endorse or have reviewed the third- party sites, including their privacy policies, if any. If you have any questions about how these third-party sites’ use of your personal data, we strongly encourage contacting those sites directly for information on their privacy policies and practices.

If you have accessed the sites through a link from certain of our advertising or marketing partners, the sites may include a frame of the applicable advertising or marketing partner. Nevertheless, the information you provide to us through these framed web pages is collected by us, and our use of such information is governed by this privacy policy.

How do we respond to do not track signals?

Please note that our sites do not support “do not track” browser settings and do not currently participate in any “do not track” frameworks that would allow us to respond to signals or other mechanisms from you regarding the collection of your personal data.

Is information collected from minors under the age of 16?

Protecting the privacy of children is extremely important to us. The sites are directed toward a general audience and are not directed at nor intended for use by children. We do not knowingly collect or intend to collect personal data for marketing purposes from anyone who is under the age of 16 unless consent is given and authorised by the holder of parental responsibility over the minor. In the absence of such a consent or authorisation, if you are under the age of 16, you should not provide any personal data to us and you should use the sites only with the knowledge, permission and involvement of a parent or the holder of parental responsibility. We encourage parents and holder of the parental responsibility to monitor their children’s internet usage and to help enforce our privacy policy by instructing their children never to provide personal data through the sites. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 16 has provided personal data to us, please contact us and we will endeavour to delete that information from our databases.

Minors under 16?

Our marketing activities are not intended to be used by minors under the age of 16 years old and are exclusively provided to persons over the age of 16 and enjoying legal capacity. We will not knowingly collect or process personal data from minors under the age of 16. Should we be made aware of data collection from minors through our services, we will take all appropriate steps to delete these personal data from our servers.

How will I be informed about changes regarding this privacy policy?

The sites and our business may change from time to time. As a result (and for other business and/or technological reasons), it may be necessary for us to make changes to this privacy policy. We reserve the right to update, change, amend or modify this privacy policy at any time and from time to time without prior notice. Please review this policy periodically, and especially before you provide any personal data.

If we make any material changes to this privacy policy (as determined by us), we will post a notice on the sites notifying users of the changes and providing an opportunity for you to take action relative to those changes prior to their implementation. In some cases, we also may send an email notifying registered users of upcoming changes.

This privacy policy was last updated on the date indicated above. Your continued use of the sites after any changes or revisions to this privacy policy become effective shall indicate your agreement with the terms of such revised and then-current privacy policy.

Your privacy rights

It is vitally important for you to keep your personal data accurate, current and complete at all times, as well as for you to be able to reach us should you have any questions or concerns regarding this privacy policy. If we are unable to address your issue immediately, we will respond as soon as possible.

By virtue of the European general data protection regulation n°2016/679 (“GDPR”), any user residing within a member state of the European union has the right to access, rectify and oppose, to the processing of his/her personal data and a right to erasure, in the conditions set out in the GDPR. As the case may be, such eu residents may exercise their rights at any time by writing to hello@etchcomms.ie or to the address at the end of this privacy policy (section “contacting us” below).

You have the right to receive your personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those personal data to another controller, where technically feasible.

In the event of a dispute regarding the processing of your personal data, you may send your claim to hello@etchcomms.ie. We will try to find a satisfactory solution for you to ensure compliance to the applicable regulations and to this policy. In the absence of a response from us, or should the dispute remain in spite of our remediation proposal, you may submit your claim to the competent data protection authority.

How long do we keep your information

We will retain your personal data for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this privacy policy and in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations. We undertake to archive and delete your personal data as soon as the purpose of the collection is fulfilled and the data retention period has expired.

Contacting us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to hello@etchcomms.ie.