Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. Privacy Policy

  1. What this Privacy Policy covers
  2. The HubSpot marketing platform
  3. Information we collect
  4. How we use information we collect
  5. Navigational information
  6. How to opt out or unsubscribe
  7. The legal bases for processing your data
  8. Your right to your personal information

At Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. we are serious about protecting your privacy; we believe that permission should be at the heart of how we communicate with the people that are searching for and interested in what we do.

1. What this Privacy Policy covers

Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. is committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with our obligations under data protection legislation. From the 25th May 2018, the main data protection law will be the General Data Protection Regulation, replacing the Data Protection Act 1998.

This Privacy Policy explains, in this context, what information Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. collects about you and how it will be used. We aim to be transparent with you when we collect your data and to use it only in ways that you would reasonably expect.

The Policy applies to this website (https:// www.argonelectronics.com) and overarches our data collection, processing and usage practices, achieved chiefly via our use of marketing automation software. By using our website, you consent to the data practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with these, you should not use the Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. website.

1.1 Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time, particularly where changes in legislation warrant this. To that end, we would encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically. If we do make any significant changes to the way we collect and process your personal information we will make this clear via our website, or by contacting you directly.

1.2 Raising queries or concerns

This Policy recognises the new rights of individuals under GDPR and describes your choices regarding use, access and correction of your personal information. We have a written policy outlining how Argon Electronics (UK)Ltd. will respond to data subject requests, which you are welcome to view a copy of here.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about data protection please contact us at argon@argonelectronics.com you are not satisfied with the response you receive from us for any reason then you may wish to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office via https://ico.org.uk/.

2. Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. use of HubSpot

Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. uses the HubSpot platform to underpin some of our inbound marketing and sales activity. HubSpot’s marketing automation platform allow us to build and manage our webpages effectively as an inbound marketing hub where visitors can learn more about our company and our services, download content, and provide their contact information and other demographic information, as and where appropriate. This information, which is stored and managed on the HubSpot service providers' servers (learn more about HubSpot data protection and security here), is then used by Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. so that the visitors can be contacted about their interest in our services and can interact with us as they choose.

HubSpot provides their platform by way of a subscription service to its customers for marketing and lead generation. Information that we collect and manage using the HubSpot subscription service for our marketing belongs to us and is used, disclosed and protected according to this Privacy Policy.

3. Information we collect

3.1 When you visit our website

You are free to explore the Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. website without providing any Personal Information about yourself. When you visit the website to download our content, subscribe to our blog or we request that you provide Personal Information about yourself, we collect Navigational Information.

3.2 “Personal Information"

This refers to any information that you voluntarily submit to us and that identifies you personally, including contact information, such as your name, e-mail address, company name, address, phone number, and other information about yourself or your business. Personal Information can also include information about any transactions, both free and paid, that you enter into on our website, and information about you that is available on the Internet, such as from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google, or publicly available information that we acquire from service providers.

3.3 "Navigational Information"

This refers to information about your computer and your visits to this website such as your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and pages viewed. Please see the "Navigation Information" section below.

3.4 Information about children

Our website is not aimed at addressing anyone under the age of 13. As such, we do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

4. How we use information we collect

4.1. Compliance with our Privacy Policy

We use the information we collect only in compliance with thisPrivacy Policy.

4.2. We never sell Personal Information

We will never sell your Personal Information to any third party.

4.3. Use of Personal Information

In addition to the uses identified elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, we may use your Personal Information to: (a) improve your browsing experience by personalising our website and to improving your engagement with our content; (b) send information to you which we think may be of interest to you by post, email, or other means; (c) send you marketing communications, which might include content offers, surveys or training/event details, relating to our business which we think may be of interest to you.

4.4 Use of Navigational Information

We use Navigational Information to operate and improve your experience of our website. We may also use Navigational Information alone or in combination with Personal Information to provide you with personalised information about Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd.

4.5 Client testimonials and comments

We post client testimonials and comments on our website, which may contain Personal Information. We obtain each client's consent via email prior to posting the client's name and testimonial. When an individual posts a comment for publication on our website pending review, the act of submitting that comment grants permission for the publication of that comment.

4.6 Security of your Personal Information

We use marketing platforms and partner services, (for example HubSpot, which is managed under contract by an independent marketing organisation) that are scrupulous about the safety of the data we store with them, using a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. They secure the Personal Information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. You can contact us at argon@argonelectronics.com to understand more about the security provisions of the platforms we use.

4.7 Social Media Platforms

Our website includes Social Media features, such as the Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn “sharing” or “follow” buttons. 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. To this end, such features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our sites, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. This Privacy Policy does not apply to these features, instead they will be covered by the policies of the companies providing them.

4.8 External websites

Our website provides links to other websites, for instance via links in blog posts or webpage copy. We do not control, and are not responsible for, the content or practices of these other websites. Our provision of such links does not constitute our endorsement of these other websites, their content, their owners, or their practices. This Privacy Policy does not apply to these other websites, which again are subject to policies they may have.

4.9 Retention of Personal Information

We retain Personal Information that you provide us as long as we consider it potentially useful in contacting you about our services, or as needed to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements, and then we securely delete the information.

4.10. International transfer of information

Where we work with clients outside of the European Economic Area, we may transfer and access Personal Information from around the world, including the United States. This Privacy Policy - cognisant of GDPR - shall apply even if we transfer Personal Information to other countries.

4.11 Complying with the Law

We reserve the right to use or disclose your Personal Information if required by law or if we reasonably believe that use or disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or comply with a law, court order, or legal process.

5. Navigational Information

5.1. Cookies

Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. use cookies or similar technologies to analyse trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about our visitor base.

We use "cookies" to help you personalise and enhance your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web server. Cookies are not used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you and can only be read by a Web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalise pages on our Websites, for instance completing a form, a cookie helps us to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. When you return to the same Website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the customised features.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the webpages you visit. We use the platform HubSpot to keep track of the pages you visit, in order to determine what portion of our site is the most popular or most used. This data can be used to deliver customised content and promotions within the Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. website to visitors whose behaviour indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

In addition, when you’re accessing our website, your device may provide us with information about the device you’re using, this could include the type of device or what operating system you’re using. Your device manufacturer or operating system provider will be able to provide you with more details about the information your device makes available to us.

5.2. Log Files

Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd. may gather information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by the HubSpot marketing platform, and also by other website analysis software, such as Hotjar. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, internet service provider (ISP), the files viewed on our site (e.g., HTML pages, graphics, etc.), access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by Argon Electronics to maintain and improve quality of our website user experience, and for general statistics regarding use of our website.

5.3 Google Analytics

We sometimes use Google Analytics to help us understand how visitors are using and engaging with our website. This again allows us to make improvements to our web services and your online experience. The Google Analytics tracking tool uses a number of cookies to collect information and report website usage statistics and does so without personally identifying individual visitors to Google or Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd.

The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website will be transmitted and stored by Google on servers in the United States. For more information about Google’s Privacy Policy in regards to Google Analytics, please see www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html

6. How to opt out and unsubscribe

You always have a choice as to whether and how you want to receive communications about our content and services. As inbound marketers, your permission or consent is central to how we engage with you, for example, you will need to specifically opt-in to receive blog notifications from us.

6.1. To unsubscribe from our communications

If you ever want to change your contact preferences, or opt out of communications, you can do this at any time by clicking the “update my preferences” or “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email from us.

If you choose not to be contacted by us we will never send you marketing communications, but we may keep your details on a ‘suppression list’ to ensure you aren’t contacted, or because the communication was related to the business of your employer.

You may also let us know via our general email argon@argonelectronics.com or at our address: Argon Electronics (UK) Ltd, 16 Ribocon Way, Progress Park, Luton, LU4 9UR.

7. Legal bases for processing your personal data

In the majority of circumstances, we will collect and process your personal information via our website using the “legitimate interest” legal processing basis. For instance, this might relate to an occasion where we offer you more personalised content on our website based on navigational information we’ve collected about your previous interaction with the site. In addition, if you've downloaded one of our eBooks or guides, we are likely (as part of our lead nurturing activity) to send you further blog or content offers that we believe you may also find interesting or helpful.

As part of our marketing activities, we may also occasionally send outreach email campaigns to you as a prospect where we will notify recipients of helpful and educative content that we hope will resonate with their business interests and needs. In all cases, we hope that your interest in this type of tailored “Business to Business” (which in the case of Argon electronics (UK) Ltd. also includes “Business to Government”) content would be a reasonable expectation on our behalf (in keeping with legitimate interest guidance), and remember, you can choose to opt out of these type of emails at any time (as described in section 6 above).

In addition to electronic marketing, we may use your data for the purpose of contacting you by means post / mail and telephony.

We will also use your data for the purposes of proactively selling you product, providing you after sales care once you have purchased that product including for maintenance, technical support and training.

Some engagement with our website visitors, subscribers and leads adheres to a permission-based, inbound philosophy, so we may also rely on “consent” when using personal data as a result of interaction here. An example of this would be when you consent to receive (affirmatively subscribe to) newsletters or blog notifications via our site. In line with GDPR, we recognise that this consent needs to be freely given and unambiguous so we will aim to use language on forms and consent options that are clear.

We may have obtained your contact details by means of either a personal meeting or as a result of a telephone conversation, for example. In such instances your data shall be recorded, but you will only receive specific electronic marketing communication if you have specifically visited our website and entered your contact information.

In addition, we will need to process your data as it is part of the terms and conditions of a contract which you have entered into. For instance, if you require specific delivery instructions to be adhered to, require training or need to provide payment details such as a credit card then we will need to contact you to enable us to provide the relevant services under the agreement with you.

8. Your right to your personal information

Under the General Data Protection Regulation you have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. You also have the right to request that we erase any personal information we hold, where we have no compelling reason to continue processing this data.

If you wish to request this information or wish to exercise your right to erasure, please contact argon@argonelectronics.com or call 01582 491616. Once we have received and verified your information request we will respond or action your request within one month. A fuller policy document describing this process in more detail is available here.