Privacy Policy

Last reviewed: 10 May 2022

This Privacy Policy describes how and when The Blue Bear Vending Co. collects, uses, and shares information when you purchase from us, contact us, or otherwise use our services through our Big Cartel store or our related sites and services. We take your privacy seriously and will take all measures to protect your personal information.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to or cover the practices of third parties that we do not own or control; including (but not limited to) Big Cartel whose privacy policy you can view here.

Any personal information received will only be used to fulfil your order. We will not sell or redistribute your information.

Personal information we collect

To fulfil your order, you must provide us with certain information (which you authorise Big Cartel to provide to us), such as your name, email address, postal address, payment information (as disclosed by Paypal only – we do not have access to your payment account details), and the details of the product/s that you are ordering. We also acknowledge that you may provide us with additional personal information (e.g. for a custom order or commission, for example), if you contact us directly.

How we use your personal information

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

When you provide explicit affirmative consent, (which you may revoke at any time); such as by signing up for a store mailing list.  Please note that at this time, the Blue Bear Vending Co. does not offer, maintain, or utilise a mailing list

As needed to provide our services; such as when we use your information to fulfil your order, to settle disputes, or to provide customer support

If necessary to comply with a legal obligation or court order or in connection with a legal claim

As necessary for our legitimate interests, where your interests or fundamental rights do not override those interests, such as compliance with the Big Cartel Merchant User Agreement and Terms of Service.

Information sharing and disclosure

Information about our customers is important to our business. We will share your personal information only in a restricted set of circumstances, as follows:

Big Cartel Incorporated (based in the U.S.)

Our store is hosted by Big Cartel Inc. They provide us with the online e-commerce platform that facilitates your purchase of products we offer for sale.

Your personal information is stored through Big Cartel’s data storage, databases and the Big Cartel application. Big Cartel, including its service providers and affiliates, have access to information related to our store’s customers for Big Cartel to analyse performance, make improvements to Big Cartel’s services and products and to provide related services, such as payment processing. You consent to the collection, processing, and transfer of all data by Big Cartel, and third parties contracted by Big Cartel, to assist in the performance of the services. 

For more information on how your information is stored, shared and protected by Big Cartel, please refer to their privacy policy here.

Paypal (based in the U.S.)

We use Paypal to process payments on our site and all PayPal transactions are encrypted and subject to the PayPal Privacy Policy.

For more information on how your information is stored, shared and protected by Paypal, please refer to their privacy policy here.

Business transfers

If we sell or merge our business, we may disclose your information as part of that transaction, to the extent permitted by law.

Legal compliance

We may collect, use, retain, and share your information if we have good faith that it is reasonably necessary to: (a) respond to legal process or to government requests; (b) enforce our agreements, terms and policies; (c) prevent, investigate, and address fraud and other illegal activity, security, or technical issues; or (d) protect the rights, property, and safety of our customers, or others.

Third party services

In general, the third-party providers used by us (and described above) will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us. 

However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies in respect to the information we are required to provide to them for your purchase-related transactions. For these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies (links provided above) so you can understand the manner in which these providers will handle your personal information. Certain providers may be located in or have facilities that are located in a different jurisdiction than either you or us. So if you elect to proceed with a transaction that involves the services of a third-party service provider, then your information may become subject to the laws of the jurisdiction(s) in which that service provider or its facilities are located. 

Once you leave The Blue Bear Vending Co’s website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or our website’s Terms of Service. 

When you click on links on the store, they may direct you away from our site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites and encourage you to read their privacy statements. 

Data retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to provide you with our services and as described in our Privacy Policy. However, we may also be required to retain this information to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, to resolve disputes, and to enforce our agreements.  We are required under UK tax law to keep your basic personal data (name, address, contact details) for a minimum of 6 years after which time it will be destroyed. Any information we use for marketing purposes will be kept with us until you notify us that you no longer wish to receive this information.

Transfers of personal information outside the EU

Although we store and process your information using third-party services outside the EU (e.g. in the United States), all of this information is collected directly by those third parties and we do not initiate the transfer of any information.

Instagram plugin

Our website contains a link to Instagram (based in the US). 

This means that if you are logged into Instagram when you click the link, Instagram can associate visits to our pages with your user account. As the provider of this website, we receive no information on the content of the transmitted data or its use by Instagram.

For more information, see the Instagram Privacy Policy. 

Gmail

Our email services are provided by Gmail and our operation of these services will comply with this privacy policy.  The existence of your personal information in Gmail will be restricted to email exchanges we may have with you from time to time.  Google’s public policy can be found here.  

Age of Consent

By using this site you represent that you have reached the age of majority (legal adulthood) in your state or province of residence, or that you are the age of majority in your state or province of residence and afford us your consent to allow any of your minor dependents to use this site.

Your Rights

If you reside in certain territories, including the EU, you have a number of legal rights in relation to your personal information. While some of these rights apply generally, certain rights apply only in certain limited cases. We describe these rights below:

Access. You may have the right to access and receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you by contacting us using the contact information below.

Change, restrict, delete. You may also have rights to change, restrict our use of, or delete your personal information. On your request, we will update or delete your personal information unless we are obligated to retain the information to comply with our other legal obligations.  In such circumstances we will anonymise the relevant data to the fullest extent possible.

Object. You can object to (i) our processing of some of your information based on our legitimate interests and (ii) receiving marketing messages from us after providing your express consent to receive them. In such cases, we will update or delete your personal information unless we have compelling and legitimate grounds to continue using that information or if it is needed for legal reasons. In such circumstances we will anonymise the relevant data to the fullest extent possible.

Complain. If you reside in the EU and wish to raise a concern about our use of your information (and without prejudice to any other rights you may have), you have the right to do so with your local data protection authority.

How to Contact Us

For purposes of EU data protection law, Joanna McPherson, trading as the Blue Bear Vending Co. is the data controller of your personal information. If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact me using the contact form in the store.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

I reserve the right to modify this privacy policy without prior notification.  Changes will not apply retrospectively without express permission. Please check regularly to ensure that you have full awareness of the policy in force at the time of your purchase.