As required by law, we have been a signed up member of The Information Commissioners Office (and its predecessors) for donkey’s years – our registration number is ZA113965 if you want to view our certificate.

Our Privacy Policy applies to Purple Spotted Media Services Ltd and all its activities including The Florist, theflorist.co.uk, Good Florist Guide and our events.

It explains the type of data we may collect, how we may use it and how you can stop us.

However, if it doesn’t cover what you want let us know, Para 12 has our contact info.

1. What information do we collect?

Because we don’t take any money directly (any payments are done via Stripe so totally secure) the only information we hold is your name, where it was supplied, your trading or home details, as you have supplied them, your address and telephone numbers – both land line and mobile if you have told us – and, where applicable, email and website details.

You will be on our central database because you have either registered for copies of The Florist Trade Magazine, signed up for our newsletters or have given us permission to keep you on our list as a result of a personal phone call.

There may be cases where your IP details and location may be recorded if you are using a device but we are not here to use your data for anything other than sending you information connected with the flower industry. It really is all about the flowers!

2. How do we use your information?

We use your information to:

1. Send you our Florist Magazine or Good Florist Guide newsletters via Mailchimp
2. Keep you up to date with services and offers we may provide.
3. Conduct flower industry based market research via Survey Monkey.
4. Send you marketing material and other communications, including information about products, services, or events that we think might be of interest to you but ONLY in relation to flowers, floristry, plants and industry focussed activities. Like we say it really is all about the flowers!
5. Assess your level of interest and generate analytical reports about the use of our services, e-mails, and other messaging campaigns so that we can see how we are doing and where we need to improve. However these reports are not based on individual responses but an aggregate of all responses so they don’t identify any individual.
6. Respond to your requests, questions, and concerns protecting our rights and property.

Like many other companies we may need to use Personal Information to meet internal and external audit requirements and for information security purposes. It is highly unlikely (but we need to say it) that we could need to respond to requests from courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies and other public and government authorities in which case we would need to share.

Some of the uses specified are needed so we can continue to provide a contract of service (as in the case of Good Florist Guide membership or posting out copies of magazines) others are based on our legitimate interests in marketing in our services to people who have expressed an interest in them or similar services.

3. How do we share the information we collect

The only place we hold your information other than our own, encrypted and secure computer drives, is with third party providers of services, specifically Mailchimp and Survey Monkey.

We may also share non-identifiable information about the usage of our services – i.e. to show a client how their campaign has worked in terms of number of responses.

Our posted items are dealt with by third party fulfilment houses but they only receive mailing addresses (no phone numbers/email addresses) and are required by law to destroy the data after use. We include sleepers to ensure this happens and that no unauthorised use is made of our/your data.

Sharing may also happen if there was a legal requirement or a government law or enforcement agency asked us to but we really don’t think that is going to happen … the world of flowers isn’t rife with legal complications.

One thing we would say is that if you post information onto our social pages that could be seen by other people who may use it for their own purposes which we would have no control over. 

4: How can you stop us

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. You can either use the unsubscribe button that appears on all our newsletters or you can email hello@purplespotted.com and in the nicest possible way we will delete you. If you want to check what information we hold on you again email hello@purplespotted.com and we’ll let you know.

5: Keeping it legal

Given the global nature of our business we know our database includes florists and other interested parties from around the world. As such we will, wherever possible, observe the current and prevailing rules set out by law and government because we actually like the fact that data should be kept safe.

6. How do we secure your Personal Information?

We do everything we can to keep your information safe and our firewalls are as tough as they can be. However it won’t stop a really determined hacker and to be honest any site with a Contact Us button could be at risk.

That said we have robust systems in place who will alert us pretty darned quickly if there is an issue and we have a strategy in place should anything happen. However, like every other Privacy Policy we have read there is a limit to what we can do and therefore you supply information to us at your own risk.

Currently we don’t have accounts on any of our services but if we did you would be responsible for creating the confidentiality of the password and any activity.

7: Cookies and other tracking tech of the non-biscuit type

Cookies are a whole element on their own and you can read our Cookie Policy here:

https://goodfloristguide.com/cookie-policy-eu/

8. Links and connections to Third Party Services

We are active on all social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and we may mention or incorporate third party social networking links. We will assume they are GDPR compliant but we cannot be responsible for how they may use any connected information.

Our magazine website and newsletter may contain links, banners, widgets, or advertisements that lead to third-party web sites and which may be tracked by their own people. Again we will assume they are GDPR compliant but we cannot be responsible for anything they may do if you sign up to their services and as such you should ideally read every Privacy Policy.

9. Your rights

You can opt out of our newsletters and other promotional mailings by clicking the opt-out/unsubscribe link within any digital communication you receive from us or by emailing us at hello@purplespotted.com . It may take us a few days to process any opt out request but we will get on the case ASAP.

10. Data Retention

Your Personal Information will be held for the purposes and uses set out in this Privacy Policy further above (Paragraph 2 in case you’ve lost track!) and for as long as there is a legal, taxation, accounting, risk management or business requirement to do so. As long as you don’t unsubscribe we shall you assume you want to keep receiving our newsletters.

11. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, especially if there are more changes to the law or we do something different. However we will always let you know what we are doing either by an email or coverage in our News section on theflorist.co.uk

12. Contact us/complaints

If you have any questions or comments regarding our privacy practices, you may contact us at:
Email: hello@purplespotted.com
Phone: 020 8237 1108

Snail Mail: Purple Spotted Media Services Ltd
Studio 3, The Wordhouse, 91 Lonsdale Road, London, SW13 9DA

1^st drafted 25 May 2018

Updated 10/06/2022 and reviewed 1/11/24