Personal Data That We Collect
The information we learn from customers helps us personalise and continually improve our service. We use the information to handle orders, deliver products and services, process payments, communicate with you about orders, products, services and promotional offers, update our records and generally maintain your accounts with us and recommend services that may further improve your waste management needs.
We also use this information to improve our website, prevent or detect fraud or abuses of our website and enable third parties to carry out technical, logistical and other functions on our behalf.
Types of Information We Gather:
Grist Environmental may collect personal information which we receive when:
- You use our website
- You use our services
- You contact us
- You are a recipient of our services
This may include information which you provide when you:
- Complete one of our forms or receipts
- Enter into a contract with us
- Enter information on the www.gristenvironmental.com website
- Contact Grist Environmental directly in writing or by phone
We may collect the following types of information:
- Your name, address, email address and telephone number(s)
- Information required to provide you with a service and details of our services that you have used.
- Your company’s name, your position in the company, the company’s address, company’s email address and telephone number
- Information collected through your use of the Grist Environmental website. Please refer to the Cookies section within this policy for more information
Email Communications
As a user of our products or services, we will need to send you support communications by e-mail such as transaction messaging, delivery schedules or in relation to queries regarding your account or service we have provided. As part of the service we provide, we are committed to ensuring you have the most efficient and effective waste management solution for your needs, if changes to your current service is recommended, we may use email as a means of communicating this to you.
Online Interactions
We collect and handle information from all visitors to our website, whether you actively provide us with that information or are just browsing our website. The information we collect includes the internet protocol (IP) address of the device you are using, the browser software you use, your operating system, the date and time of access, the internet address of the website from which you link through to our website and information on how you use our websites.
We use this information so that we can see how long our website takes to load, how it is used, the number of visitors to the different sections of our website, and what information visitors look at most.
We also collect and handle information about how you engage with our promotional campaigns and advertising online, outside of our own websites (for example, on Google, YouTube or social media)
That information is, predominantly, collected through our use of cookies and similar technologies.
Social Media
You may use social media to contact us or share your views of our service. We review publicly available social media and online sites to get a better understanding of what people are saying about us and our service for feedback purposes and to assist the people who prefer to contact us via social media.
The information we collect from social media and online sites sometimes includes personal information that has been put online and is publicly available, we make sure any information we use is properly credited to its source or it is made anonymous.
These online and social media sites may have their own privacy policies explaining how they use and share your personal information. You should carefully review those policies before you use these sites to make sure that you are happy with how your personal information is being collected and shared.
Our Use of Cookies and Similar Technologies
Please note that we use cookies on the website. Cookies are files that store information on your hard drive or browser so that the website can recognise that you have visited before. You can, should you choose, disable the cookies from your browser and delete all cookies currently stored on your computer. Please consult the HELP menu of your browser to learn how to disable or delete cookies. On Microsoft Internet Explorer, this can be done by selecting ‘Tools/ Internet Options’ and reviewing your privacy settings or selecting ‘delete cookies’. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of some features on the website.
The cookies used on our website have been categorised based on the guidelines found in the ICC UK Cookie guide. We use the following categories on our websites and other online services:
Category 1: Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are essential to enable you to browse around our websites and use their features. Without these cookies, services like the ‘contact us’ form cannot be provided.
Category 2: Performance Cookies
These cookies collect information about how you use our website, e.g. which pages you go to most. This data may be used to help optimise our websites and make it easier for you to navigate. These cookies are also used to let affiliates know if you came to our website via a link from their website and which pages you visited. These cookies do not collect information that identifies you. All information that these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous.
Category 3: Functionality Cookies
These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make while browsing. For instance, we may store your geographic location in a cookie to ensure that we show you our website localised for your area. We may also remember preferences such as text size, fonts and other customisable site elements. They may also be used to keep track of what featured products or videos have been viewed to avoid repetition. The information these cookies collect will not personally identify you, and they cannot track your browsing activity on non-Grist Environmental websites.
How is Your Personal Information Used?
We use the personal information we collect to:
- Provide and improve our services
- Manage your account by monitoring the service and products we provide you to ensure you are receiving the most efficient and effect waste management solution for your needs.
- Contact you about your account and the service we provide you
- To provide you customer service
- To detect fraudulent or illegal activities, including enforcing our Privacy Notice
We retain your personal information for as long as it is necessary and relevant for our operations. In addition, we may retain personal information from closed accounts for the following reasons:
- to comply with laws
- to prevent fraud
- to resolve disputes
- to troubleshoot problems
- to assist with any investigation
- to enforce our privacy notice and take other actions permitted or required by applicable laws.
After it is no longer necessary for us to retain your personal information, we dispose of it in a secure manner according to our data retention and deletion policies.
Changing the way we contact you about products and services
We will only send you marketing communications when you have told us that you are happy for us to do so and via the method that you have indicated.
You can change the way that we contact you by completing the Communication Preference Form via this website which will allow you to notify us if:
- you haven’t previously asked us to send you marketing communications but would like us to start (Opt in)
- Have previously opted in to receive marketing communications but now wish to stop (Opt out)
- Are happy to receive marketing communications but wish to change the method by which we contact you.
Data Sharing with Third Parties
We never sell your personal information to anyone and only share it as outlined in this Privacy Policy or when you ask us to.
Third parties who provide services on our behalf
We share your personal information with certain third parties who provide services on our behalf. They only have access to the personal information they need to perform those services. They are required to keep your personal information confidential and may not use it other than as we ask them to and always in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
The third parties who provide services on our behalf fall into the following categories:
- Sub-contractors who help us to deliver our services in certain regions
- Third parties that help us with mailing services, financial services, audit services, administrative services, IT technologies (e.g data storage), website management services, security services and claims.
- Social media platforms who serve our advertising and feedback on their platforms on our behalf.
How Long We Keep Personal Information
Grist Environmental will only retain customers’ personal information for as long as it needs to carry out a purpose or meet a particular obligation.
Keeping Personal Information Accurate
Grist Environmental will ensure that personal information is kept accurate and up to date as far as is reasonably possible. However, Grist Environmental relies on customers to ensure that some of the information it holds about them is accurate and up to date. We encourage customers to inform us of any changes to their information.
Access to Your Personal Information
We give you control over the personal information we collect about you, to ensure it is accurate and reflects your preferences. You have the right to access, update and amend personal information that we hold about you. In certain circumstances you can also:
- Object to our use of your personal information for certain purposes
- Ask us to limit or restrict our use of your information
- Ask us to remove or delete personal information about you
- Provide your personal information to a third party provider of services.
If you would like to exercise your rights in relation to your personal information, please e-mail privacy@gristenvironmental.com.
To request a copy of your information, you can request details of the information that Grist Environmental holds about you, including our website and databases, by contacting us.
Requests must be made in writing. Proof of identification will be required to protect your information. We also require sufficient details to be able to locate your information. For example, dates and details of the products or services that you have used. A Subject Access Request Form may be provided to assist us in locating the information you require.
How we Protect Personal Data
We know how important it is to protect and manage your personal data. This section sets out some of the measures we have in place.
We use computer safeguards such as firewalls and data encryption, and we enforce physical access controls to our office areas and files to keep this data safe. We only authorise access to employees who need it to carry out their job responsibilities.
Our procedures mean that we may request proof of identity before we share your personal information with you.
In the unlikely event that we do suffer a security breach which compromises our protection of your personal information and we need to let you know about it, we will do so.
However, whilst we take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal data, please note that we can not guarantee the security of any personal data that you transfer over the internet to us.
Marketing and Market Research
You have choices when it comes to receiving marketing communication.
We will send you relevant offers and news about our services in a number of ways, including email, but only if you have previously agreed to receive these marketing communications. You will be asked if you wish to opt in to our marketing communications, and after opting in, you can change your preferences on how we communicate with you or if we communicate with you at all, at any time as outlined in the ‘Changing the way we contact you about products and services’ section of this policy.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
We will keep this Privacy Policy under regular review and will place any updates on this web page. This Privacy Policy was last updated in May 2018.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, or would like to make a complaint about how we use personal information we hold about you, please email our Privacy Team.
If after speaking to us, you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk) who is responsible for handling complaints about the use of personal information.
You can contact our Privacy Team at any time at privacy@gristenvironmental.com. we will get back to you as soon as possible.
