Privacy Policy

Introduction

We’ve put together this privacy policy to give you a ‘plain English’ version of the legal jargon that once stood in its place. Privacy and taking proactive measures over your own data can only be done successfully if you understand what it’s being used for, how it will be stored and how companies use it. Our policy aims to do just that.

Going forward, this policy refers to Thrive Marketing Limited (registered in England number 8411705) as Thrive (or “We”).

For the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018, the data controller is Thrive Marketing Limited, Xcel Centre, Long Tens Way, Aycliffe Business Park, Newton Aycliffe, DL5 6AP.

Please address any data and privacy-related queries, complaints or requests to ‘Data Controller’. You can also contact us via hello@thriveability.co.uk with the subject ‘Data Controller’ if you’d prefer.

This policy was last reviewed on March 30, 2021.

Contents 

In this policy, you will find:

• Your Rights

• Your Data & How We Use It

• Cookies

• Tracking

• Third-Party Platforms

• Social Media

• Email Communications

• Security

• Queries & Complaints

Your Rights & GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) in Europe gives people certain rights in regards to your personal information and how it is collected, stored and used by Thrive (or any website). We recognise and comply with GDPR and those rights, allowing you to exercise the following rights, should you wish to do so:

• Right of Access: This includes your right to access the personal information we gather about you, and your right to obtain information about the sharing, storage, security and processing of that information.
• Right to Correction: This is your right to request correction of your personal information.
• Right to Erasure: This is your right to request, subject to certain limitations under applicable law, that your personal information is erased from our possession (also known as the “Right to be forgotten”). 
• Right to Complain: You have the right to make a complaint regarding our handling of your personal information with the appropriate supervisory authority.
• Right to Restrict Processing: This is your right to request the restriction of how and why your personal information is used or processed.
• Right to Object: This is your right, in certain situations, to object to how or why your personal information is processed.
• Right to Portability: This is your right to receive the personal information we have about you and the right to transmit it to another party.
• Right to not be subject to Automated Decision-Making: This is your right to object and prevent any decision that could have a legal, or similarly significant, effect on you from being made solely based on automated processes. This right is limited, however, if the decision is necessary for the performance of any contract between you and us, is allowed by applicable European law, or is based on your explicit consent.

You can exercise any of these rights, or get further assistance from our team about any GDPR or data related concerns by using the contact details outlined at the start of this policy.

We respond to all queries as urgently within 72 hours wherever possible (bank holidays, weekends and the festive break may mean it could take us slightly longer to respond).

Your Data & How We Use It 

We gather and use certain information about you in order to provide our products and services in a customised manner and to enable certain functions on this website.

Ultimately, we use your data carefully and securely to collect information that will allow us to better understand you and your business needs, to provide a more accurate, enjoyable end-user experience for you. We may use your data to send email marketing, contact you by telephone or send you other forms of marketing communication. Examples of information we collect, include (but may not be limited to):

• Name and job title
• Contact information including email address, telephone number
• Demographic information, such as a business address, postcode
• Communication preferences
• Website usage data
• Other information which will allow us to answer your queries
• Other information to help us offer relevant special offers, customised content (via ebooks, videos, emails, social media communication, etc.)
• Other information relating to your business’ demographics, goals, objectives and challenges

Collecting this data helps us understand what you are looking for and how our team of specialists at Thrive may be able to help. Specifically, we may use data:

• For our own internal records.
• To improve the products and services we provide.
• To contact you in response to a specific enquiry.
• To customise your website experience at www.thriveability.co.uk.
• To send you promotional emails about our products, services, offers and other things we deem relevant to you based on the information you’ve provided or explored on our website.
• To send you promotional letters and postal mail in relation to our products, services, offers and other things we deem relevant to you based on the information you’ve provided or explored on our website.
• To call you about our products, services, offers and other things we deem relevant to you based on the information you’ve provided or explored on our website.
• To send you carefully tailored, relevant social media messages in regards to our products, services, offers and other things we deem relevant to you based on the information you’ve provided or explored on our website.
• To contact you via email, telephone, social media or postal mail for market research reasons.

Special Category ("Sensitive") Personal Data

Please be aware, we do not normally collect or store special categories of personal data. We will not ask for sensitive data through our website.

However, there are some situations where we may collect and store this data, such as if you apply to, or do, work for us. This data may include information we need to process your application and provide a suitable working environment, such as medical, access or dietary requirements.

Please explore the company handbook and data-specific company policies provided to you upon your successful appointment about how we process, store and safely destroy your data as required by GDPR. 

How Long We Keep Personal Data

We retain personal data only for a legitimate and lawful reason and only for so long as necessary or required by law. We have adopted Records Retention Guidelines which set out the time period for which different categories of data are kept.

Please see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/record-retention-and-disposition-schedules for further details.

Cookies 

A cookie is a small file placed on your computer's hard drive. It enables our website to identify your computer as you view different pages on our website.

Cookies allow websites and applications to store your preferences in order to present content, options or functions that are specific to you. They also enable us to see information like how many people use the website and what pages they tend to visit.

You can use your web browser’s cookie settings to determine how our website (www.thriveability.co.uk) uses cookies. If you do not want our website to store cookies on your computer or device, you should set your web browser to refuse cookies.

However, please note that doing this may affect how our website functions. Some pages and services may become unavailable to you. Unless you have changed your browser to refuse cookies, our website will issue cookies when you visit it.

To best understand how we may use cookies to provide better user experiences, here are a few real-life examples of Thrive’s cookie use:

• Analyse our web traffic using an analytics package. Aggregated usage data helps us improve the website structure, design, content and functions.
• Identify whether you are signed in/already registered to our website. A cookie allows us to check whether you are signed in to the site.
• Test content on our website. For example, 50% of our users might see one piece of content, the other 50% a different piece of content.
• Store information about your preferences. The website can then present you with information you will find more relevant and interesting.
• To recognise when you return to our website. We may show your relevant content, or provide functionality you used previously.

Please Note: Cookies do not provide us with access to your computer or any information about you, other than that which you choose to share with us.

Tracking 

We use Hotjar on our website (www.thriveability.co.uk) in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimise this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices (in particular device's IP address (captured and stored only in anonymised form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), preferred language used to display our website). Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymised user profile. Neither Hotjar nor we will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. For further details, please see Hotjar’s privacy policy by clicking on this link.

You can opt-out to the creation of a user profile, Hotjar’s storing of data about your usage of our site and Hotjar’s use of tracking cookies on other websites by following this opt-out link.

Third-Party Platforms 

We use other third-party platforms that may securely hold data about how you use our website and services. Data retained on these platforms is held securely and we only use third-party platforms when they are necessary for our website performance and activity requirements, or marketing activity. These companies are all credible platforms, with their own extensive regulations and procedures to ensure the safety and anonymity of data they store. These platforms may be used to store your details like a website visitor, or as a customer, or as a member of staff:

• Google Analytics, Ads, Cloud, Drive
• Facebook & Instagram
• HubSpot
• LinkedIn
• SproutSocial
• Twitter

Data stored on our internal servers and computers are secured and we make regular backups and checks on the integrity, security and safety of these resources and the data stored on them. We regularly destroy data in a secure manner, to ensure we only keep up-to-date, relevant information on file, for all of our customers, staff and other contacts we may have (i.e. suppliers).

For further explanations on how we may use your data across any platforms, please use the contact details at the start or end of this policy, using the subject ‘Data Controller - Tracking & Storage’.

Please Note: Using our website (www.thriveability.co.uk), particularly on our blogs or in our ebooks and downloadable resources, as well as on our social media platforms, you may find third-party links or shortened URLs that take you to an external location.

It is beyond our control if these links are broken and/or updated to direct you to other information than we originally intended, but we do our best to ensure we only direct you to safe and secure websites and resources. Please use and access these shortened links and external URLs at your own discretion.

Social Media 

Thrive has a number of profiles on social media, allowing us to communicate our messages, products and services to a wider audience. Although social media is a fantastic tool for bringing people together and ‘widening your reach’, please be aware that once you are on these external platforms, we have no responsibility for the content you may see that is either advertised to you or recommended to you, whilst viewing our social media profiles on platforms including, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

Take care to follow the terms and conditions of each social media platform you visit, respectively, and bear in mind that Thrive, its owners and team will never ask you to share personal information via social media. If you are interested in working for, or collaborating with Thrive and need to share personal details, please contact our team using the methods outlined at the start and end of this policy.

We do not tolerate any comments, multimedia or messages on our social media platforms, our blog, or elsewhere in the Thrive ‘network’ that encourages/suggests/displays:

However, please note that doing this may affect how our website functions. Some pages and services may become unavailable to you. Unless you have changed your browser to refuse cookies, our website will issue cookies when you visit it.

To best understand how we may use cookies to provide better user experiences, here are a few real-life examples of Thrive’s cookie use:

• Abusive, harassing or threatening language towards individuals and/or businesses.
• Defamatory, offensive or obscene language and/or depictions of violence.
• Offensive/hateful content which targets a specific individual/business/group including that of race/ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality.
• Content deemed to be spam/potential spam, including content that could be considered to be fraudulent, deceptive, misleading or unlawful.
• "Trolling" or similar deliberate disruption of discussion.

We reserve the right to remove and report any content or individuals that appear to fall under any of the above descriptions. This is for the safety and integrity of our company, its staff, our clients and the general public. For information on staying online, we encourage you to visit Stay Safe Online.

Email Communications 

Any e-mail message and its attachments sent from an email address associated with Thrive Marketing (@thriveability.co.uk) are for the addressee only and may be confidential.

If the message is received by anyone other than the addressee, please return the message to the sender by replying to it and then delete the message from your computer.

The dissemination, distribution, copying or disclosure of any such message or its contents is prohibited unless authorised by the sender.

Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Thrive Marketing Limited.

Whilst all reasonable care has been taken to avoid the transmission of viruses, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that the onward transmission, opening or use of such email communications and attachments will not adversely affect its systems or data. No responsibility is accepted by Thrive Marketing Limited in this regard and the recipient should carry out such virus and other checks as it considers appropriate.

Thrive Marketing Limited is registered in England number 8411705.

Security 

We promise to implement strong physical and electronic security safeguards to ensure the protection and safe storage and use of your personal data. We have implemented these safeguards to protect against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage using a variety of organisational and technical measures.

Our team regularly conducts reviews of our data and privacy processes and storage, to ensure that your data continues to be handled and stored securely.

If a security breach were to happen we have processes in place that will give the best likelihood of restoring and/or retrieving your data.

Queries & Complaints 

For the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018, the data controller is Thrive Marketing Limited, Xcel Centre, Long Tens Way, Aycliffe Business Park, Newton Aycliffe, DL5 6AP.

Please address any data and privacy-related queries, complaints or requests to the ‘Data Controller’. You can also contact us via hello@thriveability.co.uk with the subject ‘Data Controller’ if you’d prefer.

We aim to respond to all data, privacy and GDPR-related queries as a matter of urgency, no later than within 72 hours of you submitting your request digitally or upon receipt of your letter or after taking your phone call. There may be some instances where this is not possible because wider investigation or further conversation with you (or our team) needs to be had, or because of bank holidays, weekends and the festive break. Wherever this is the case we strive to offer regular updates and feedback on our progress in resolving your issue.

However, if you are not happy with our response, or you believe that your data protection or privacy rights have been infringed, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office which regulates and enforces data protection law in the UK. Details of how to do this can be found at www.ico.org.uk.