Privacy and Cookie Policy

Essentially England – essentially-england.com - are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.  Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By visiting essentially-england.com you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

We are registered for Data Protection.  For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), our registration number is ZA185942.  For the Data Controller’s details and a copy of the Certificate of Registration, you can contact us using this form.

Information We May Collect From You

We may collect and process the following data about you:

Information you give us. You may give us information about you by filling in forms on our site essentially-england.com (our site) or by corresponding with us by e-mail or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you subscribe to our newsletter.  The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address.

Information we collect about you. With regard to each of your visits to our site we may automatically collect the following information: 

1. technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, browser type and version, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
2. information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); products you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page. None of this information is personally identifiable information.

Information we receive from other sources. We may receive information about you whilst working closely with third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and analytics providers) may receive information about you from them.  None is personally identifiable information.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

• Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

• Targeting / marketing cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:

First Party Cookies: also known as essential cookies, are cookies that are set by the site itself and can only be read by this site. They are commonly used for the functionality of the site.

Third Party Cookies: cookies are set by third parties, which can be tracking or marketing companies (e.g. advertising networks). These cookies get re-read during a visit on other sites if they do business with these companies as well. Retargeting is a good example of an application.

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These may be ‘strictly necessary cookies’ that are required for the operation of their websites and that enable you to log into secure areas, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services. They may also be cookies that are analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

We perform regular cookie audits on the site, checking that only our cookies and those of advertising partners who work with us are in use on the site. The last audit was performed in May 2024.

We currently use

• Google Analytics and the Facebook pixel to help us analyse our website traffic.
• Google Adsense for in-page advertising

We also work with affiliate marketing platforms like amazon. Affiliate Window, Partnerize, Affiliate Future, and Commission Junction, and individual companies like booking.com

Please note that these third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These may be ‘strictly necessary cookies’ that are required for the operation of their websites and that enable you to log into secure areas, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services. They may also be cookies that are analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

Blocking and Giving Consent to Cookies

Our consent information pop-up is provided by Google. It will be shown to you the first time you visit our site and periodically after that. The pop-up allows you to block cookies from specific advertisers or to opt out of having cookies set altogether.

You can change your mind and refuse cookies, even if you've agreed to them on a previous visit.

If you block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to see all of the content of the site, including editorial content or third party adverts.

Children and Data Protection Issues

This website is directed to adults aged 18 years and over.  It is not directed to or targeted at children under the age of 13 although it is not unsuitable for children as long as they are supervised by an adult. 

We operate our site in accordance with the Personal Information Online Code of Practice produced by the United Kingdom Information Commissioner’s Office and with reference to the UK Data Protection Act 1998.

A Parent or Guardian’s consent is always required with regard to the collection of personal information from children under the age of 16 years. We assume that consent for the use of the site by children under the age of 16 has been obtained from a Parent, Guardian or appropriate adult responsible for the supervision of those children. If a child or children contacts us by email, then we assume that they have the consent to do this from a Parent, Guardian or appropriate adult responsible for the supervision of them. We do not knowingly collect or use personal information from anyone under the age of 16 years. Any emails that are received from children or that appear to be from children will be appropriately destroyed. 

Uses Made of the Information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

Information you give to us. We will use this information:

• to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us;
• to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
• to send you a newsletter about essentially-england.com

Information we collect about you. We will use this information:

• to administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
• to improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
• as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;
• to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
• to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about goods or services that may interest you or them.

Information we receive from other sources. We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We may use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).

Disclosure of Your Information

We may share your information with selected third parties including:

• Advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others. We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to our advertisers, but we may provide them with aggregate information about their users. We may make use of the personal data we have collected from you to enable us to comply with our advertisers' wishes by displaying their advertisement to that target audience.

• Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties:

• In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.

• If Essentially England (essentially-england.com) or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.

If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Essentially England (essentially-england.com), our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisation.

Where We Store Your Personal Data

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or our hosting company or email marketing provider. By submitting your name and email address, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.  Essentially England (essentially-england.com) will take all steps necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

All information stored is on our hosting company’s server or the servers of our email marketing provider.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Your Rights

We will never process your personal data for marketing purposes or provide this to  third parties. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. 

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates.  If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies.  Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Access to Information

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request may be subject to a fee of £10 to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to info@essentially-england.com. Alternatively, you can contact us using this form.