Privacy Policy & Cookies

Described herein is the privacy policy for GUSTATORY, found here at: www.gustatory.co. We are committed to protecting your information and respecting your online privacy. By continuing to use this website, you accept that this privacy policy, as well as our terms and conditions applies to you, and that you consent to our usage of cookies to provide the best service possible. Should any changes be made to this privacy policy, we will post any changes on this page and, where appropriate, notify you by email.

This statement sets out how we use the information we collect from you via the website. We shall at all times comply with the provisions and obligations imposed by the Data Protection Act 1984, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018. For all purposes, GUSTATORY are the 'data controller' and it is our responsibility to handle and process your data accurately, correctly and honestly.

In order to effectively deliver our fantastic services to you, the consumer, GUSTATORY may collect, store and process the following data, many of which you have supplied to us by either visiting the website, interacting in a competition or social media function, or purchasing an order from us:

  • Contact information such as name, postal address, city, postcode, telephone number, email address;
  • Financial information such as bank account number, sort code, card details;
  • User identification information such as computer IP address, login information, browser type and version, operating system, and more;
  • User behavioural information such as URL navigation clickstreams, products viewed, page visit lengths, and more.

Importantly, all 'contact information' is only held and used as necessary to successfully process your orders. No 'financial information' is ever transmitted beyond the purchasing process. 'User identification' and 'user behavioural information' are both used to improve the functionality of the website and deliver the best service possible. Whenever any of the four outlined data types are collected, we will only keep it for as long as is necessary and for the purpose for which it was collected. For example, processing a card payment for you or retaining your order history. We guarantee we will not sell, share, or rent this information to others, other than to trusted third parties for the purpose of providing our customer service as expected.

Responsible Third Parties

To facilitate order processing, third-party service providers that GUSTATORY have a trusted relationship with may also collect and use your data. Trusted third parties include, for example, our payment gateway providers (Shopify / Apple Pay / Google Pay / Paypal), and so on, all of whom will only process your data only so far as is necessary to perform their specific services; your consent is given for such a data exchange at the point you supply your personal data to us.

Cookies & Their Lawful Collection

We collect data via cookies, tiny text files that are stored on your web browser when you visit our website. Cookies can't harm your computer in any way and this website doesn't store personally identifiable information such as credit card details in any cookies that we create. By continuing to browse this website you consent to their presence and usage, however, are free to manage their application via your browser's settings at any time. Please note that for any order processing to successfully process through our system and via our third-party services, cookies will need to be enabled.

Cookies can be described as being one of either two types: 'persistent' cookies or 'session' cookies. The first allows a website to recognise specific users when they return to the website and to remember certain information about those users' specific preferences. These cookies will stay on your computer until you manually delete them. Secondly, 'session' cookies allow customers to carry information across website pages, without customers needing to re-enter that information at each point of asking. These cookies delete themselves automatically when you leave a website and go to another website, or when you shut down your browser.

Both types of cookies are used on this website for functionality reasons to allow you to navigate and use all our features, for example, add to checkout; for analytical reasons (for example, Google) to help us measure and improve our website towards improving your shopping experience; for customer preferences, to remember certain settings you chose to make your experience seamless and friction-less; and for marketing, to deliver ads relevant to you. For such 'marketing' purposes, cookies enable re-marketing channels (for example, Facebook / Instagram) to show you products that might interest you while you’re browsing the internet. We might also market to you via email marketing if you have opted-in (you can opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe button found in every newsletter), and social media. You may also see banners on other selected websites and their presence and product-recommendation intelligence are both based on cookies. Please note that GUSTATORY has no control over how third parties use the same cookies.

Unless you adjust your browser settings to refuse cookies, this website will automatically issue cookies as soon you visit. You can block cookies by activating a setting on your browser allowing you to refuse the setting of cookies. Please note, should you use your browser settings to disable or block cookies, specific parts of our website may not correctly function. For further information about our privacy policy and cookie collection, please contact our customer service team.

Legal Compliance & Your Rights Over Your Data

For legal compliance and if the law requires us to do so, we may need to collect and process your data further. As one example, fraudulent uses of credit cards to make purchases will be passed on to law enforcement agencies to counter criminal activity. Your rights to your data are important to us, and you have the right to request:

  • Access to the personal data that we hold about you, free of charge in most cases;
  • The correction of your personal data when incorrect, out of date or incomplete;
  • The ability of us ceasing to use your personal data for direct marketing (either through specific channels such as email or all channels);
  • An understanding of how your personal information is being used;
  • Our cooperation in any complaints you make to your data protection regulator (in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Officer).

To contact us on any matter regarding your online data, please contact our customer service team. If we choose not to action your request, we will explain to you the reasons for our refusal. Please allow 2-3 working days for our team to process your request. To ask for any of your customer order information to be amended, for whatever reason, please update your online account or, again, contact our customer service team.

We only process your collected data for legitimate and legal interests, for example, emailing you the news of competitions, new product launches and special offers, or successfully processing your order via our payment gateways. You have the right to change your mind at any time and withdraw your previously-given consent; we must always comply with any request. In the event of you wishing to amend any details or withdraw a previously-given consent, we will always ask you to verify your identity prior to proceeding with any request that you make in order to protect the confidentiality of your information.

Links To Other Websites

GUSTATORY may show referral links on our website to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to our own website and does not represent the terms and conditions of any external website. If you visit any of these other websites, we are not responsible for their privacy practices.

Data Security & Liabilities

We know how much data security matters and we take appropriate steps to protect this for you. All access to your personal data is password-protected (at both your personal online account level and in our back-office operations), and sensitive data such as payment card information is secured and tokenised via all of their transmissions. Where you are given a password, it is your responsibility for keeping such a password confidential and we ask that you do not share your personal password(s) with anyone. All GUSTATORY representatives regularly monitor our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks and do regularly change our back-office operations' passwords to maintain security. For order-processing, all orders are processed via Shopify and are hosted securely by the external platforms of our card payment gateways. This website uses the highest standard form of web encryption (https://) with advanced SSL security.

GUSTATORY takes no responsibility for any loss or damage suffered as a result of using our website, or goods supplied using it, except as required by law, even if we could have foreseen the loss, or the possibility of it was brought to our attention. We are liable for loss, damage, death or personal injury resulting from our negligence or any fraudulent misrepresentations, whilst our independent coffee roasters are each responsible for the quality of their own respective products that you purchase.

Further information regarding the usage of our website can be found in our terms and conditions, and we ask that you also read these to understand how GUSTATORY lawfully operates.