Privacy & Cookie Policy

Use of private information policy (GDPR)

Last updated: 12th September 2019

Summary:

We respect the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and this policy explains how we collect and treat any information you give us. You won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We’ve no desire to trick you into agreeing to something you might later regret.

Our policy covers

  • Why we value your privacy
  • How we collect information
  • What information we hold
  • Where we store your information
  • What we use your information for
  • Who’s responsible for your information at our company
  • Who has access to information about you
  • The steps we take to keep your information private
  • How to complain
  • Changes to the policy
  • Why we value your privacy

We value your privacy as much as we do our own, so we’re committed to keeping your personal and business information safe. We’re uncomfortable with the information companies, governments, and other organisations keep on file, so we ask for only the bare minimum from our customers. We’ll never use your personal information for any reason other than why you gave it, and we’ll never give anyone access to it unless we’re forced to by law.

How we collect information

We ask for contact information including your name, email address, and phone number, on our website so that we can reply to your enquiry.

We collect your email address when you sign up for one of our newsletters.

We ask for your account and contact information when you hire or buy something from us.

Occasionally, we might receive your contact information from one of our partners. If we do, we protect it in exactly the same way as if you give it to us directly.

What information we hold

  • When you contact us by email or through our website, we collect your name, email address, phone number, a social media username, and the company you work for, if you’ve given us that.
  • If you sign up for a newsletter, we only collect your email address.
  • When you buy something from us, we collect your name, email address, phone number, and a delivery address.
  • If you do business with us, we also collect your business name and bank details and keep records of the invoices we send you and the payments you make.

Where we store your information

  • When you contact us by email, your information is stored in Google Mail.
  • When you contact us through our website contact forms, your information is stored on Bristlebird Media Works web servers in our Content Management System (CMS) software.
  • If you sign up for a newsletter, your name and email address are stored on Bristlebird Media Works email marketing platform.
  • We use Shopify to power our online shop, so when you create an account or purchase an item from our online shop, your information is stored on Shopify servers located in Canada and the US — view Shopify’s privacy policy here.
  • When you buy tickets for events at Ballyvolane, your information is stored on Paypal, our payment gateway.
  • If we do business, we store your information in our accounts software, Sage Accounts. We chose these systems partly for their commitment to security.

What we use your information for

We occasionally use your contact information to send you details of our products and services. When we do, you have the option to unsubscribe from these communications and we won’t send them to you again. We might also email or phone you about our products and services, but if you tell us not to, we won’t get in touch again. We will use your information to send you invoices, statements, or reminders.

Who’s responsible for your information at our company

Justin Green and Antony Jackson, Directors of Ballyvolane House Spirits Company Limited are responsible for the security of your information. You can contact them by email at info@ballyvolanespirits.ie or by phone on 025 36349 if you have any concerns about the information we store.

Who has access to information about you

When we store information in our own systems, only the people who need it have access. Our management team have access to everything you’ve provided, but individual employees have access to only what they need to do their job.

The steps we take to keep your information private

Where we store your information in third-party services, we restrict access only to people who need it. We store passwords in an encrypted password manager, use a different, randomly generated password for each service, and never use the same password twice.

The computers we use and protected either by a passcode or fingerprint access. These computers ask for authentication whenever they’re started or after 5 minutes of inactivity. Our mobile devices are also protected by a fingerprint recognition.

How to complain

We take complaints very seriously. If you’ve any reason to complain about the ways we handle your privacy, please contact Justin Green or Antony Jackson by email at info@ballyvolanespirits.ie or by phone on 025 36349. If you’re the letter writing type, send your envelope to Ballyvolane House Spirits Company, Ballyvolane House, Castlelyons, Co. Cork, P61 FP0, Ireland.

Changes to the policy

If we change the contents of this policy, those changes will become effective the moment we publish them on our website.

Cookie Policy

What’s a cookie?

A “cookie” is a piece of information that is stored on your computer’s hard drive and which records how you move your way around a website so that, when you revisit that website, it can present tailored options based on the information stored about your last visit. Cookies can also be used to analyse traffic and for advertising and marketing purposes.

Cookies are used by nearly all websites and do not harm your system.

If you want to check or change what types of cookies you accept, this can usually be altered within your browser settings. You can block cookies at any time by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

How do we use cookies?

We use cookies to track your use of our website. This enables us to understand how you use the site and track any patterns with regards how you are using our website. This helps us to develop and improve our website as well as products and / or services in response to what you might need or want.

Cookies are either:

Session cookies: these are only stored on your computer during your web session and are automatically deleted when you close your browser – they usually store an anonymous session ID allowing you to browse a website without having to log in to each page but they do not collect any personal data from your computer; or Persistent cookies: a persistent cookie is stored as a file on your computer and it remains there when you close your web browser. The cookie can be read by the website that created it when you visit that website again. We use persistent cookies for Google Analytics.

Cookies can also be categorised as follows:

Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are essential to enable you to use the website effectively, such as when buying a product and / or service, and therefore cannot be turned off. Without these cookies, the services available to you on our website cannot be provided. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you have been on the internet.

Performance cookies: These cookies enable us to monitor and improve the performance of our website. For example, they allow us to count visits, identify traffic sources and see which parts of the site are most popular.

Functionality cookies: These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced features. For instance, we may be able to provide you with news or updates relevant to the services you use. They may also be used to provide services you have requested such as viewing a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect is usually anonymised.