The Social Media Hat is committed to protecting the privacy of our customers. This statement outlines our privacy and data protection policy. Contact us at any time with questions or requests.
Collection and use of customer information
Your personal details will be collected and processed when you order, purchase, register, subscribe or make use of any of our products or services.
In addition, when you visit our website, we also collect website usage information (which may include your reading history and any advertisements you may have viewed), and information about your computer or other digital device and your internet connection. This includes your computer’s or digital device’s IP address, the type and version of browser and operating system you use, your internet domain and, if you visited via a link from another website, the URL of the linking page.
This information is collected to help us:
- fulfill your order
- manage your registration preferences
- send you renewal notifications and/or service notifications
- personalize web content and advertising based on your personal characteristics or preferences
- ensure, as far as is practical, that our websites and applications are compatible with the browsers and operating systems used by most of our visitors
- conduct customer satisfaction surveys
We also use your information for in-house research and analysis. This helps us to:
- improve our understanding of customer needs
- create marketing profiles
- support strategic development
- To enable us to conduct research we may share your information with third party suppliers employed to help. All results of any research and analysis will be anonymized or aggregated information and will not reveal any personal details of individual customers.
More detailed information follows:
Types of Data collected
Among the types of Personal Data that this website collects, by itself or through third parties, there are: first name, email address, Cookies, Usage Data and last name.
Complete details on each type of Personal Data collected are provided in the dedicated sections of this privacy policy or by specific explanation texts displayed prior to the Data collection.
Personal Data may be freely provided by the User, or, in case of Usage Data, collected automatically when using this website.
Unless specified otherwise, all Data requested by this website is mandatory and failure to provide this Data may make it impossible for this website to provide its services. In cases where this website specifically states that some Data is not mandatory, Users are free not to communicate this Data without consequences to the availability or the functioning of the Service.
Users who are uncertain about which Personal Data is mandatory are welcome to contact the Owner.
Any use of Cookies – or of other tracking tools – by this website or by the owners of third-party services used by this website serves the purpose of providing the Service required by the User, in addition to any other purposes described in the present document and in the Cookie Policy, if available.
Users are responsible for any third-party Personal Data obtained, published or shared through this website and confirm that they have the third party’s consent to provide the Data to the Owner.
Mode and place of processing the Data
Methods of processing
The Owner takes appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or unauthorized destruction of the Data.
The Data processing is carried out using computers and/or IT enabled tools, following organizational procedures and modes strictly related to the purposes indicated. In addition to the Owner, in some cases, the Data may be accessible to certain types of persons in charge, involved with the operation of this website (administration, sales, marketing, legal, system administration) or external parties (such as third-party technical service providers, mail carriers, hosting providers, IT companies, communications agencies) appointed, if necessary, as Data Processors by the Owner. The updated list of these parties may be requested from the Owner at any time.
Legal basis of processing
The Owner may process Personal Data relating to Users if one of the following applies:
Users have given their consent for one or more specific purposes. Note: Under some legislations the Owner may be allowed to process Personal Data until the User objects to such processing (“opt-out”), without having to rely on consent or any other of the following legal bases. This, however, does not apply, whenever the processing of Personal Data is subject to European data protection law;
- provision of Data is necessary for the performance of an agreement with the User and/or for any pre-contractual obligations thereof;
- processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the Owner is subject;
- processing is related to a task that is carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Owner;
- processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Owner or by a third party.
In any case, the Owner will gladly help to clarify the specific legal basis that applies to the processing, and in particular whether the provision of Personal Data is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract.
Place
The Data is processed at the Owner’s operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located.
Depending on the User’s location, data transfers may involve transferring the User’s Data to a country other than their own. To find out more about the place of processing of such transferred Data, Users can check the section containing details about the processing of Personal Data.
Users are also entitled to learn about the legal basis of Data transfers to a country outside the European Union or to any international organization governed by public international law or set up by two or more countries, such as the UN, and about the security measures taken by the Owner to safeguard their Data.
If any such transfer takes place, Users can find out more by checking the relevant sections of this document or inquire with the Owner using the information provided in the contact section.
Retention time
Personal Data shall be processed and stored for as long as required by the purpose they have been collected for.
Therefore:
- Personal Data collected for purposes related to the performance of a contract between the Owner and the User shall be retained until such contract has been fully performed.
- Personal Data collected for the purposes of the Owner’s legitimate interests shall be retained as long as needed to fulfill such purposes. Users may find specific information regarding the legitimate interests pursued by the Owner within the relevant sections of this document or by contacting the Owner.
The Owner may be allowed to retain Personal Data for a longer period whenever the User has given consent to such processing, as long as such consent is not withdrawn.
Furthermore, the Owner may be obliged to retain Personal Data for a longer period whenever required to do so for the performance of a legal obligation or upon order of an authority.
Once the retention period expires, Personal Data shall be deleted. Therefore, the right to access, the right to erasure, the right to rectification and the right to data portability cannot be enforced after expiration of the retention period.
The purposes of processing
The Data concerning the User is collected to allow the Owner to provide its Services, as well as for the following purposes: Contacting the User, Analytics and Content commenting.
Users can find further detailed information about such purposes of processing and about the specific Personal Data used for each purpose in the respective sections of this document.
Detailed information on the processing of Personal Data
Personal Data is collected for the following purposes and using the following services:
Analytics
The services contained in this section enable the Owner to monitor and analyze web traffic and can be used to keep track of User behavior.
Google Analytics with anonymized IP (Google Inc.)
Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google utilizes the Data collected to track and examine the use of this website, to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services.
Google may use the Data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.
This integration of Google Analytics anonymizes your IP address. It works by shortening Users’ IP addresses within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the complete IP address be sent to a Google server and shortened within the US.
Personal Data collected: Cookies and Usage Data.
Place of processing: United States – Privacy Policy – Opt Out. Privacy Shield participant.
Contacting the user
By filling in the contact form with their Data, the User authorizes this website to use these details to reply to requests for information, quotes or any other kind of request as indicated by the form’s header.
Personal Data collected: email address and first name.
Mailing list or newsletter
By registering on the mailing list or for the newsletter, the User’s email address will be added to the contact list of those who may receive email messages containing information of commercial or promotional nature concerning this website. Your email address might also be added to this list as a result of signing up to this website or after making a purchase.
Personal Data collected: email address and first name.
Content commenting
Content commenting services allow Users to make and publish their comments on the contents of this website.
Depending on the settings chosen by the Owner, Users may also leave anonymous comments. If there is an email address among the Personal Data provided by the User, it may be used to send notifications of comments on the same content. Users are responsible for the content of their own comments.
If a content commenting service provided by third parties is installed, it may still collect web traffic data for the pages where the comment service is installed, even when Users do not use the content commenting service.
Comment system: Disqus
Personal Data collected: first name and last name.
The rights of Users
Users may exercise certain rights regarding their Data processed by the Owner.
In particular, Users have the right to do the following:
Withdraw their consent at any time. Users have the right to withdraw consent where they have previously given their consent to the processing of their Personal Data.
Object to processing of their Data. Users have the right to object to the processing of their Data if the processing is carried out on a legal basis other than consent. Further details are provided in the dedicated section below.
Access their Data. Users have the right to learn if Data is being processed by the Owner, obtain disclosure regarding certain aspects of the processing and obtain a copy of the Data undergoing processing.
Verify and seek rectification. Users have the right to verify the accuracy of their Data and ask for it to be updated or corrected.
Restrict the processing of their Data. Users have the right, under certain circumstances, to restrict the processing of their Data. In this case, the Owner will not process their Data for any purpose other than storing it.
Have their Personal Data deleted or otherwise removed. Users have the right, under certain circumstances, to obtain the erasure of their Data from the Owner.
Receive their Data and have it transferred to another controller. Users have the right to receive their Data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and, if technically feasible, to have it transmitted to another controller without any hindrance. This provision is applicable provided that the Data is processed by automated means and that the processing is based on the User’s consent, on a contract which the User is part of or on pre-contractual obligations thereof.
Lodge a complaint. Users have the right to bring a claim before their competent data protection authority.
Details about the right to object to processing
Where Personal Data is processed for a public interest, in the exercise of an official authority vested in the Owner or for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Owner, Users may object to such processing by providing a ground related to their particular situation to justify the objection.
Users must know that, however, should their Personal Data be processed for direct marketing purposes, they can object to that processing at any time without providing any justification. To learn, whether the Owner is processing Personal Data for direct marketing purposes, Users may refer to the relevant sections of this document.
How to exercise these rights
Any requests to exercise User rights can be directed to the Owner through the contact details provided in this document. These requests can be exercised free of charge and will be addressed by the Owner as early as possible and always within one month.
Additional information about Data collection and processing
Legal action
The User’s Personal Data may be used for legal purposes by the Owner in Court or in the stages leading to possible legal action arising from improper use of this website or the related Services.
The User declares to be aware that the Owner may be required to reveal personal data upon request of public authorities.
Additional information about User’s Personal Data
In addition to the information contained in this privacy policy, this website may provide the User with additional and contextual information concerning particular Services or the collection and processing of Personal Data upon request.
System logs and maintenance
For operation and maintenance purposes, this website and any third-party services may collect files that record interaction with this website (System logs) use other Personal Data (such as the IP Address) for this purpose.
Information not contained in this policy
More details concerning the collection or processing of Personal Data may be requested from the Owner at any time. Please see the contact information at the beginning of this document.
How “Do Not Track” requests are handled
This website does not support “Do Not Track” requests. To determine whether any of the third-party services it uses honor the “Do Not Track” requests, please read their privacy policies (i.e. Google Analytics).
Cookies
A cookie is a small file which is placed on your hard drive. We use information from cookies for purposes which may include:
- identifying returning users, registrants and subscribers
- eliminating the need for returning users to re-enter their login details
- enabling you to move more easily around our sites and applications
- tracking your use of our sites to better develop our sites and applications in accordance with your requirements
- building up an anonymous profile based on your browsing patterns across our sites, applications and third party websites, which enables us to make advertisements and content available to you that is more relevant to your interests
You can delete cookies from your hard drive at any time. Bear in mind, though, that if you delete them, any settings such as your stored username and password will have to be reset when you next log in.
You will be able to use our websites and applications even if your browser is not set to accept cookies. However, certain features and content may not be available to you and you will have to log in every time you visit.
By visiting The Social Media Hat website, you consent to the use of cookies as explained above.
E-mails
The Social Media Hat uses reputable third parties to deliver the e-mails you receive if you have subscribed to e-mail newsletters. These third parties use unique identifiers and invisible images (often called “pixel tags” or “clear GIFs”) to perform message open sensing, message format sensing, and click-through sensing in order to bring you more relevant information.
Advertisements
The Social Media Hat uses reputable third parties to deliver the advertisements displayed on our websites, as well as our own internal advertising system.
External links
Our websites may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. The Social Media Hat is not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites and we recommend that you read the privacy policies on any external sites you use.
Security policy
The Social Media Hat does its utmost to protect your privacy and ensure your personal details are not misused, accidentally destroyed, lost or altered within The Social Media Hat.
Changes to this statement
From time to time, we may make changes to the privacy policy. This may be in relation to changes in the law, best practice or changes in our services. These changes will be reflected in this statement, so you should check here from time to time.