Protecting your privacy is important to us. We hope the following statement will help you understand how Ridgeway collects, uses and safeguards the personal information you provide to us on our site.
The Data Protection Act: Under the Data Protection Act, we have a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you. We use appropriate technologies to safeguard your data, and keep strict security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to it. We do not pass on your details to any third party or send you subsequent communications unless you give us permission to do so.
How do we use your personal details? We only use contact details you provide us with to respond to an enquiry or to fulfil an order.
What information do we collect? When you complete one of our enquiry or feedback forms we collect information such as your name and email address.
We also use Google Analytics to collect information about how visitors use the site, for example how long a visitor stays on one page; or how many visitors at a given time are new or returning visitors. This information is used only to assist us in improving the layout of the site.
The Ridgeway site also uses Cookies, which are small pieces of code which save some of your preferences (such as font type) while you are visiting the website, and are deleted when you leave. You can reset your browser not to accept cookies if you wish. Cookies used on Ridgeway do not store any personal information about the user, or a record of previously visited sites.
Most modern websites use cookies in some way, and it is unlikely that the majority of internet users even notice cookies working away in the background as they browse from site to site. Until now it has been up to individual users to either block or allow cookies using settings in their internet browser. From the end of May 2012 though, a new EU law requires all sites that use cookies to seek your express permission to store and retrieve data about your browsing habits.
We will now draw your attention to their cookie policy when you first visit the home page. Don’t be put off by this, you were probably sharing details with the site before without even knowing it. In many cases you can click to say you understand the cookies policy but in many instance you can simply ignore the announcement and continue browsing as normal.
Sites will continue to use cookies and the information they store in order to make your online browsing an easier, more enjoyable experience. Cookies are nothing to be scared of, even if the new prompts seeking your consent might seem a little off-putting for the cautious internet user.
In the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is closely monitoring sites to make sure that they comply with this new legislation, so there will be no avoiding the regulations.
You can of course still change how cookies are stored on your machine by clicking on the ‘Tools’ menu in your internet browser, but you may find that the new law means your concerns about privacy and your personal data have been addressed.
If you have an enquiry about our privacy policy please contact us at info@ridgeway-online.com.
Policy effective from: April 2008.
Changes to this policy: If for any reason this policy needs to be updated the new details will be posted on this page.
