Privacy Policy

The policy: This privacy policy notice is for this website; www.smartcowmarketing.com and served by SMART COW MARKETING which is the trading name of Acvita Ltd. Registered Office: Palmerston House, 814 Brighton Rd, Purley CR8 2BR. Telephone: 020 3137 1826. Registered in England & Wales No: 07039120 and governs the privacy of those who use it. The purpose of this policy is to explain to you how we control, process, handle and protect your personal information while browsing or using this website, including your rights under current laws and regulations. If you do not agree to the following policy you may wish to cease viewing / using this website.

Policy key definitions:

  • “I”, “our”, “us”, or “we” refer to the business, Smart Cow Marketing.
  • “you”, “the user” refer to the person(s) using this website.
  • GDPR means General Data Protection Act.
  • PECR means Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulation.
  • ICO means Information Commissioner’s Office.
  • Cookies mean small files stored on a user’s computer or device.

Contact & Communication

Users contacting this website and/or its owners do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use, as detailed in the Data Protection Act 1998. Every effort has been made to ensure a safe and secure form to email submission process but advise users using such form to email processes that they do so at their own risk.

This website and its owners use any information submitted to provide you with further information about the products / services they offer or to assist you in answering any questions or queries you may have submitted. This includes using your details to subscribe you to any email newsletter program the website operates but only if this was made clear to you and your express permission was granted when submitting any form to email process. Or whereby you the consumer have previously purchased from or enquired about purchasing from the company a product or service that the email newsletter relates to. This is by no means an entire list of your user rights in regard to receiving email marketing material. Your details are not passed on to any third parties.

Processing of your personal data

Under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) we control and / or process any personal information about you electronically using the following lawful bases.

  • We are registered with the ICO under the Data Protection Register, our registration number is: A8324452.
  • Lawful basis: Consent
    The reason we use this basis: To keep you informed though marketing emails and calls if opted-in for that purpose
    We process your information in the following ways: Store it in our internal secure database and through 3rd party marketing software including:

    • Constant Contact
    • Mail Chimp
    • Hub spot
  • Data retention period: We will continue to process your information under this basis until you withdraw consent or it is determined your consent no longer exists.
    Sharing your information: We do not share your information with third parties.
  • Lawful basis: Contract
    The reason we use this basis: Contact you with updates on your projects and related business matters.
    We process your information in the following ways: Store it in our internal secure database
    Data retention period: We shall continue to process your information until the contract between us ends or is terminated under any contract terms.
    Sharing your information: We do not share your information with third parties.
  • Lawful basis: Legitimate interests
    The reason we use this basis: to keep interested parties informed
    We process your information in the following ways: Store it in our internal secure database and through 3rd party CRM software including:

    • Hub spot CRM
    • Lead Forensics
  • Data retention period: 1 Year
    Sharing your information: We do not share your information with third parties.

If, as determined by us, the lawful basis upon which we process your personal information changes, we will notify you about the change and any new lawful basis to be used if required. We shall stop processing your personal information if the lawful basis used is no longer relevant.

Your individual rights

Under the GDPR your rights are as follows. You can read more about your rights in details here;

  • the right to be informed;
  • the right of access;
  • the right to rectification;
  • the right to erasure;
  • the right to restrict processing;
  • the right to data portability;
  • the right to object; and
  • the right not to be subject to automated decision-making including profiling.

You also have the right to complain to the ICO [www.ico.org.uk] if you feel there is a problem with the way we are handling your data.

We handle subject access requests in accordance with the GDPR.

Internet cookies

We use cookies on this website to provide you with a better user experience. We do this by placing a small text file on your device / computer hard drive to track how you use the website, to record or log whether you have seen particular messages that we display, to keep you logged into the website where applicable, to display relevant adverts or content, referred you to a third party website.

Some cookies are required to enjoy and use the full functionality of this website.

We use a cookie control system which allows you to accept the use of cookies, and control which cookies are saved to your device / computer. Some cookies will be saved for specific time periods, where others may last indefinitely. Your web browser should provide you with the controls to manage and delete cookies from your device, please see your web browser options.

Cookies that we use are;

  • _hssc : Hubspot CRM
  • _hstc : Hubspot CRM –  a Performance cookie for hubspot platform that is persistent
  • _utmb : Google Analytics – a Performance cookie used to track user behaviour usually expires after 30 minutes
  • _utmt : Google Analytics – a Performance cookie used to Measure site performance usually expires after 10 minutes
  • _utma : Google Analytics – a Performance cookie used to Measure site performance usually expires after 2 years
  • _gat : Google Universal Analytics – a Performance cookie used to Measure site performance usually expires after 10 Minutes
  • _utmz : Google Analytics – a Performance cookie used to Measure site performance usually expires after 6 months
  • _utmc : Google Analytics – a Performance cookie used to Measure site performance usually expires after each session
  • has_js : Drupal – a Functionality cookie used to assess if the site has javascript, usually expires after 6 month
  • _gid : Google Universal Analytics – a Performance cookie used to Measure site performance usually expires after 1 week
  • _hubspotutk : Hubspot CRM  – a Functionality cookie for user authentication, the is persistent
  • _ga : Google Analytics – a Performance cookie used to Measure site performance usually expires after 2 years
  • _atuvs : addthis – a Functionality cookie used to Measure site performance usually expires after session
  • _atuvc : addthis – a Functionality cookie used to Measure site performance usually expires after 2 years
  • ASP.NET_SessionId: Microsoft .NET – a Strictly Necessary cookie used to maintain anonymity usually is persistent

Data security and protection

We ensure the security of any personal information we hold by using secure data storage technologies and precise procedures in how we store, access and manage that information. Our methods meet the GDPR compliance requirement.

Transparent Privacy Explanations

We have provided some further explanations about user privacy and the way we use this website to help promote a transparent and honest user privacy methodology.

Sponsored links, affiliate tracking & commissions

Our website may contain adverts, sponsored and affiliate links on some pages. These are typically served through our advertising partners; Google Adsense, eBay Partner Network, Amazon Affiliates, or are self served through our own means. We only use trusted advertising partners who each have high standards of user privacy and security. However we do not control the actual adverts seen / displayed by our advertising partners.

Clickable sponsored or affiliate links may be displayed as a website URL like this; https://smartcowmarketing.com/ or as a titled text link like this: Digital Marketing Croydon.

Clicking on any adverts, sponsored or affiliate links may track your actions by using a cookie saved to your device. You can read more about cookies on this website above. Your actions are usually recorded as a referral from our website by this cookie. In most cases we earn a very small commission from the advertiser or advertising partner, at no cost to you, whether you make a purchase on their website or not.

We use advertising partners in these ways to help generate an income from the website, which allows us to continue our work and provide you with the best overall experience and valued information.

If you have any concerns about this we suggest you do not click on any adverts, sponsored or affiliate links found throughout the website.

External Links

Although this website only looks to include quality, safe and relevant external links, users are advised adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links mentioned throughout this website. (External links are clickable text / banner / image links to other websites such as https://smartcowmarketing.com/ )

The owners of this website cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website despite their best efforts. Users should therefore note they click on external links at their own risk and this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.

Email marketing messages & subscription

Under the GDPR we use the consent lawful basis for anyone subscribing to our newsletter or marketing mailing list. We only collect certain data about you, as detailed in the “Processing of your personal date” above. Any email marketing messages we send are done so through an EMS, email marketing service provider. An EMS is a third party service provider of software / applications that allows marketers to send out email marketing campaigns to a list of users.

Email marketing messages that we send may contain tracking beacons / tracked clickable links or similar server technologies in order to track subscriber activity within email marketing messages. Where used, such marketing messages may record a range of data such as; times, dates, I.P addresses, opens, clicks, forwards, geographic and demographic data. Such data, within its limitations will show the activity each subscriber made for that email campaign.

Any email marketing messages we send are in accordance with the GDPR and the PECR. We provide you with an easy method to withdraw your consent (unsubscribe) or manage your preferences / the information we hold about you at any time. See any marketing messages for instructions on how to unsubscribe or manage your preferences, otherwise contact the EMS provider.

Our EMS provider is; Smart Cow Marketing. We hold the following information about you within our EMS system;

  • Email address
  • I.P address
  • Subscription time & date
  • Name
  • Telephone number
  • Work Address

Social Media Platforms

Communication, engagement and actions taken through external social media platforms that this website and its owners participate on are custom to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform respectively.

Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate / engage upon them with due care and caution in regard to their own privacy and personal details. This website nor its owners will ever ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms and encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact them through primary communication channels such as by telephone or email.

This website may use social sharing buttons which help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform in question. Users are advised before using such social sharing buttons that they do so at their own discretion and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account.

Shortened Links in Social Media

This website and its owners through their social media platform accounts may share web links to relevant web pages. By default some social media platforms shorten lengthy urls [https://smartcowmarketing.com/cowshed-blog] (this is an example: https://bit.ly/2IAKr0N).

Users are advised to take caution and good judgement before clicking any shortened urls published on social media platforms by this website and its owners. Despite the best efforts to ensure only genuine urls are published many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking and therefore this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links.

Resources & further information