This Privacy statement describes the collection and use of your personal information by Sterwater companies/brands in Europe and beyond. It applies whenever one of our websites, mobile apps, social media pages or hardcopy forms redirects you to this statement. This Privacy statement does not apply to the use of your personal information by websites that are not operated by Sterwater, even though links to these websites may be included on ours.
This Privacy statement may change when prompted by new developments. Sterwater advises you to read this Privacy statement regularly, in order to stay up to date on any changes. In case of major changes, we endeavour to inform you pro-actively.
This Privacy statement was last updated on 6 June 2018.
Click on the following topics to find out how we are using your personal information. Also take a moment to read the MORE INFORMATION section below to find out about:
- Sharing and receiving your information with others
- Storing your information
- Using your information to improve our products and services
- Using your information to build profiles
- Using personal information of children
- Your privacy rights
If you contact us by telephone, email, social media or by completing an online form, we register your query in our customer service database. We also register your name, address, telephone number, email address and all other personal data provided by you.
We only use the data to respond to you, handling your complaints and, after removing all items that relate to you, for improving our products and services.
Your personal information will be stored for no more than two years.
If you subscribe to a newsletter or leave your phone number for this purpose, your name, email address and phone number will be used to inform you about SterWater products, and related promotions and events. You may choose to give us more details, such as your age, gender or profession. We also store your interaction with our newsletters, for instance whether you opened the email or clicked on items in the newsletter. We use this information to get to know you better and to personalize our newsletters, for example by:
- Showing events that are organized in your region
- Highlighting products or offers based on your age, gender or consumption behavior
- Sending a special offer on your birthday
We also use the information to display advertisements of our products that may be interesting to you on third-party websites, like Facebook and Google.
In case you also interact with us via contests and events, join our loyalty programmes or order online, we add this information to your newsletter profile.
We keep you on our mailing lists until you choose to unsubscribe by clicking on the unsubscribe link in each newsletter. You can also send an email to privacy@sterwater.nl. If you want to keep receiving newsletters but do not agree to us sharing your information for displaying advertisements, send us an email too.
When you are using our websites or apps, we collect technical information about your device and your interaction with our websites and apps.We collect information such as:
- The IP address of your device
- Information on the operating system and browser of your device
- Your interaction with our websites, apps and online advertisements
If the website you visit or the app you use enables login, we also connect the information to your personal account (like your web shop or loyalty programme account), to optimise your browsing experience and provide you relevant information across all channels. Find out more about how we’re using your information to build profiles in section 3.4 below.
Cookies
We use cookies to collect the information. Cookies are small data files that are created on the device you use to visit our website. Cookies prevent you from repeatedly providing your data, specifying your choices or putting products in your shopping basket. They allow us to show you advertisements of our products on third-party websites. So, your information also becomes available to the other parties involved in publishing our advertisements. We will always seek your consent, before using these type of cookies.Cookies used for advertising are stored on your device for a maximum of twelve months following your last visit. You can always disable cookies yourself or delete them from your device. If you choose to delete cookies, our website may not operate as optimally as before, and some services may no longer be available to you.
If you take part in an online survey to give your opinion about our products, such as when clicking on a link to a survey in one of our newsletters, we will use your identifying information by:
- Linking surveys to your (loyalty) account to utomatically capture gender, age and region
- Connecting your opinion to your consumption behaviour, which is stored in your profile
This enables us to obtain more valuable input from you and to better understand your preferences. Apart from improving our products, we also add this information to your profile.
- Placing a comment or sending a message
- Uploading media
- Becoming a follower (by clicking on a “like” button or subscribing to a YouTube channel, for instance)
- Participating in our contests and campaigns on social media (Facebook lead forms, for example)
We will receive information such as your (user) name, your profile photo, the place where you live, your email address and your gender. You can check your social media account settings and the social media privacy statements to find out more.We use your information to respond to your comments and messages, to analyse and measure our consumer population and to enable you to participate in our contests and events.
We also use social media to display advertisements. This is either based on the information the social media platform has collected from you or the information SterWater has collected from you, such as when you subscribe to our newsletters (see 2.2 above).
- In case the social media platform has collected the information, SterWater does not get access to that information. As a result, we have no say in how the platform stores and uses the information. We recommend reading the conditions and privacy statements of your social media provider. They also often provide you with account settings or some other means to change your privacy settings.
- In case we share your personal information, like your email address or phone number, the social media platform uses your information to include or exclude you from seeing a particular advertisement. Your information will be encrypted (hashed) when transferred to the social media platform. If you don’t have a profile on a particular platform, that platform won’t be able to decrypt the information and find out who you are.
SterWater does not sell your information to others, but we make personal information available to partners that work with us to provide products and services, or that help us market to customers. Whether your information is provided to these partners depends on the nature of your interaction with us:
- Email marketing partners, to send you our newsletters, call or text you
- Order fulfilment partners, to ship products to you
- Payment providers, to administer your (ordering products) and our (cashback) payments
- Media agencies, to manage our website and apps and to display advertisements on the internet
- Marketing agencies, to assist us in organising contests, promotions, loyalty programme and other events
- Companies that assist us in analysing customer data and building profiles
- Social media platforms, to show you our advertisements
Our partners only use your information under our instructions. We take measures to ensure that your information is used only for the purposes described in this Privacy statement.Where necessary, we also share your information with SterWater group companies.
Personal data will only be provided to supervisory bodies, fiscal authorities and/or investigating authorities if SterWater is obliged to do so by law.
We use various systems and databases to store your personal information. Some are managed by SterWater and others by our partners (see 3.1 above). Because we fully understand the importance of keeping your information secure, we have taken various technical and organisational measures to protect your information against loss or improper use. Our systems and applications are protected according to the applicable standards for information protection.
Most personal information is stored within the European Union. If personal information is passed on to recipients in countries outside the European Union, we will take additional measures to protect your information.
SterWater uses the information you provide to us to measure, analyse and improve our:
- Products, based on your feedback
- Websites and apps, based on your use
- Newsletters, based on your interaction
- Contests and events, based on your participation
- Advertising, based on your interaction with them
Your information will be anonymised before it is used. We’re not interested in your particular situation but rather in trends and aggregated data.
If you subscribe to our newsletter, create an account on our website, use our apps or take part in our contests and events, we create a profile for you. This enables us to get to know you and do more effective marketing and communication. It allows you to receive communications according to your interests and preferences.
This is how we build profiles:
- We link your surfing behaviour on our websites and apps to your profile
- We connect data concerning your participation in contests, events, loyalty programmes and online surveys to your profile
- We mark your (possible) interests in your profile, based on the information above and demographic information, data resulting from market research and your interactions with us
If you would prefer us not to make profiles, or you’d like to correct or update your interests and preferences, feel free to send an email to privacy@sterwater.nl.
If you want to know what information we store about you, just ask and we will send you an overview of your personal information. No costs will be charged. If the information turns out to be inaccurate—or in case it appears to be stored in violation of data protection laws—we will correct or delete it. If you have an account on our websites or apps, you can also update your information yourself.
If you have a question about this Privacy statement, please send an email to privacy@sterwater.nl. If you have a complaint about the way we use your information or how we respond to your requests and questions related to privacy, you can also send a complaint to your national Data Protection Authority.
Requests can be made by clicking on the contact link on the website that forwarded you to this Privacy statement or publishes this statement. You can also go to the contact page of the SterWater corporate website (www.sterwater.nl). Alternatively, send an email to privacy@sterwater.nl by indicating how you’ve been in touch with SterWater or one of its products/brands. We will channel your request to the appropriate group company.