Introduction
This is the privacy policy of Crochet Society, part of the Practical Publishing Group. It explains how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use our services, and how we keep that data safe.
The Practical Publishing Group consists of:
- CraftStash Ltd which operates the websites craftstash.co.uk, craftstash.us and CrochetSociety.co.uk
- Practical Publishing International Ltd which publishes craft magazines including Simply Cards & Papercraft, Creative Stamping, Die-Cutting Essentials, Crochet Now, Knit Now and Love Sewing, and manufactures craft products
In this document, the terms 'we' and 'us' mean the Group and its brands.
We take seriously our responsibilities around the collection, protection and use of your personal data. This policy sets out responsibilities as Data Controller for the data we collect, why we collect it, and your rights and choices regarding this data.
We keep this policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this page.
You can view our cookie policy here.
| Data Collected as Data Controller | Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Your personal details, including your name, title, postal and billing addresses, email address and phone number | To purchase a product or subscription from us, or set up an account on one of our websites | Performance of contract |
| Your date of birth (if you so choose) | To receive offers | Consent |
| Your account login details, such as your username and the password that you have chosen | To protect and maintain any accounts you may create with us | Performance of contract |
| Email alerts (examples: back in stock, order dispatch and confirmations) | To manage your purchase | Performance of contract |
| Payment details | To process payment for a product from our website or setup a subscription | Performance of contract |
| Information you provide to enter competitions | To manage competitions and promotions | Consent Legitimate business interest |
| Personal data that you submit to us to register for newsletters Information about which emails from us you open, and which links in those emails you click on |
To receive newsletters or alerts and advise you about other products and services we think may be of interest to you | Consent Legitimate business Interest |
| Your communication and marketing preferences | Contact preferences | Consent |
| Information about your online purchases from us | To process orders, monitor website usage | Performance of contract |
| Information you provide when corresponding with us in relation to inquiries | To respond to inquiries | Consent |
| Information you supply when you voluntarily complete customer surveys, provide feedback | To help improve our products and services | Consent |
| General User data (when browsing our website - via cookies) | ||
| Technical information such as the type of device you use, network information, your operating system, the type of browser you use and approx geographic location. | To monitor Platform usage, content effectiveness | Legitimate business interest |
| Information about your online browsing behaviour on our Websites | To monitor Platform usage and protect our own systems and notifying you about changes to our services | Legitimate business interest |
| To improve the Platform and products and services that we offer, including recognising when there is a higher demand for our services; tailoring our Platform to the needs of all users; recommending options that match any stated preferences | Consent | |
| No automated decision making, including profiling, is used when processing your personal data. | ||
| The Platform is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect or solicit personal data from anyone under the age of 16. | ||
| We do not collect any special category personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). | ||
You can choose not to share your personal data with us, or refuse to allow certain types of processing. This may however mean we are unable to provide some of our services to you where those services are reliant on the processing of personal data.
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.
Protecting Personal Data
We take seriously our responsibility to safeguard your personal data. Measures taken to protect it include the use of SSL-secured websites, firewalls, data encryption, and restricting systems access to those employees who require it to carry out their duties.
In the case of individual purchases, we do not store credit card details. In the case of recurring subscription payments, credit card details are encrypted and stored securely.
Retaining Personal Data
We’ll only keep your personal data for as long as it is needed for the purpose for which it was collected. Once it is no longer required for that purpose, we'll ensure it is deleted.
Sharing Personal Data
We may share your data with third parties as part of a Company sale or restructure, or for other reasons to comply with a legal obligation upon us.
Data Processors
In order to provide the highest quality service to our customers, we work with carefully selected service providers who carry out certain functions on our behalf. These include payment processing companies, delivery companies, email service providers and other information technology companies.
We share selected information with these service providers in order to enable them to deliver the services on our behalf. We have a data processing agreement in place with third parties we use to process your data under our instructions as part of providing our services to you. Third parties must implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security and confidentiality of your data.
We only share such data as is necessary to provide the services, and the service providers treat your personal information with the same degree of care and trust as we do.
In common with many online businesses, we may share your email address (only) with online advertising companies (including Google and Meta), for instance to enable us to show you advertisements for our services or products whilst you are on their platforms. This on the basis of legitimate interest, but should you object to this specific use please contact us and we'll exclude your email address from this.
Other than this, we will not share your information with companies outside the Group without your express consent.
Where data is processed
Some personal data we collect from you may be transferred to, stored at, or processed at a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"), or processed by companies outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our service providers. Where this is the case, appropriate technical and organisational measures are applied to ensure the security and confidentiality of your data is treated in line with this Policy.
Automated Decision Making
Automated decision making means making decisions about you using no human involvement e.g. using computerised algorithms or programmes. Aside from credit checks undertaken when you request to pay in instalments, we do not undertake automated decisions with your data.
Opting out of marketing communications
You can opt out of email communications by clicking the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of all emails. This is applied on a brand-by-brand basis, so that for instance you can opt out of emails from one of our brands whilst still receiving emails from another.
Your personal data rights
You have the following rights, with some restrictions, in relation to the personal data we hold on you:
- the right to be informed about the data we hold on you and what we do with it
- the right of access to the data we hold on you
- the right for any inaccuracies in the data we hold on you to be corrected (rectified)
- the right to have data deleted in certain circumstances (erasure)
- the right to restrict the processing of the data
- the right to transfer the data we hold on you to another party (portability)
- the right to object to the inclusion of any information;
- the right to regulate any automated decision-making and profiling of personal data.
Should you wish to exercise these rights, you can email customerservice@crochetsociety.co.uk or write to Privacy Department, Crochet Society, Units 2&3 Bredbury Business Park, Bredbury Park Way, Stockport SK6 2SN, UK. For your protection, we will ask you to verify your identity before actioning any requests in relation to your personal data rights.
Making A Complaint
We will make every attempt to ensure you are satisfied with our handling of your data requests, however, you are entitled to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner (ICO) if you are not satisfied. You can contact the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
This page was updated 10th September 2024