Privacy Policy

Click here to view the SQA’s Privacy Statement.

We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy (together with our Terms & Conditions and any other documents referred to) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us (including data collected/provided online by phone or in person), will be processed by us.

For the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation (the “Regulation”) the data controller is Edinburgh Whisky Academy, a Scottish private company limited by shares incorporated in Scotland, with registered company number SC511961 whose registered address is at Edinburgh Whisky Academy, 15 Fountain Road, Bridge of Allan, FK9 4ET. 

WHAT DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU
We may collect and process the following data about you: 

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on our site www.edinburghwhiskyacademy.com  and www.ewaeducation.com ("our site") includes information provided at the time of registering to use our site, subscribing to our services, placing orders, posting material, comments, requesting further services or expressing an interest in a particular area of our work . We may also ask you for information when you enter a competition or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with our site;

• if you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence;

• we may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them;

• details of transactions you carry out through our site and of the fulfilment of your orders (including any services we provide you with as a result of your visit to our venues); and

• details of your visits to our site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise and the resources that you access.

• Such data may include your name, address, email address, date of birth and phone number. We do not retain credit or debit card information on site; all such information is encrypted and stored off-site in secure servers.

• During your dealings with us, we may also ask you to answer various general questions about yourself including any areas in which you are interested so that information can be tailored to cover the areas in which we believe you might be interested for future reference.

HOW WE USE YOUR DATA AND WHY

• We will use information held about you in the following ways:

• to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you;

• to provide you with information, products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes;

• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;

• to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so; and

• to notify you about changes to our service and your visits to our venues or if you need any additional information to facilitate your visit;

We want to keep in touch with you, but will only send you updates about our news, courses and events if you have given us specific, ‘opt-in’ consent to do so via email.

 We want you to be able to manage how we keep in touch, so at any time you can change your mind. If you wish to stop receiving communications from us you can click ‘unsubscribe’ on any email sent to you by us. We will continue to retain records on our system for up to 10 years from the last noted activity for analytical purposes, which form a legitimate interest for our business.

WHO ELSE CAN ACCESS YOUR DATA?
In order to provide you with our services, we employ other organisations who process your data on our behalf. We call these organisations ‘Service Providers’, and they help us with things like payment processing, website hosting, data analysis and email distribution.  All service providers will sign relevant data agreements and/or contracts to ensure that your data is stored securely and used only for the purposes contracted and destroyed where relevant once the job for which they are contracted is completed.

We don’t allow our Service Providers to use your data for any purposes other than those described in this privacy notice, and we do not sell or rent information about you to other parties.

When necessary to comply with the law, to protect you, ourselves and others, we will respond to requests from public and government authorities (which may include authorities outside your country of residence) to use and share your data with other organisations.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks 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.

YOUR RIGHTS TO YOUR DATA
You have the right to be informed about how we use your data and the right to access information we hold about you. To exercise this right simply contact us in writing at [email protected] and we will respond to you within 30 days of receipt of your request.

If you have any concerns about our use of your data and how that complies with the Regulation, or if you wish to initiate your ‘Right to be Forgotten’, please contact us in writing at [email protected] and we will respond to you within 30 days of receipt of your request. 

MONITORING OF WEB USER TRAFFIC
We may monitor user traffic on an aggregate basis in order to help us develop and improve our site for the benefit of all users.

IP ADDRESSES
We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers.

COOKIES
For the same reason, we may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on your browser or the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. Some of the cookies we use are essential for the site to operate.

Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit allaboutcookies.org.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies enables us to collect anonymous information about how our site is used, what pages are visited and how long is spent on each page. The information collected is used by us to improve the website and to provide broad statistical data for general benchmarking with other similar organisations.

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google.com/analytics/learn/privac.html

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

TARGETING AND ADVERTISING COOKIES
We use targeting and advertising cookies to serve tailored ads to you based on your previous visits to our website, or based on your demographics or interests as determined by Google*. Google uses the third-party DoubleClick cookie to collect data and serve ads that are relevant to you on the websites of its partners. The cookie does not contain any personally-identifiable information and we do not merge it with any personally-identifiable information collected through the website. Users may opt out of the use of the DoubleClick cookie for interest-based advertising by visiting Ads Settings.

The website uses Google Analytics Advertising Features for collecting data via Google advertising cookies and anonymous identifiers. The features used are: Remarketing with Google Analytics, Google Display Network Impression Reporting and Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting.

*How Google determines demographic and interest information
When someone visits a website that has partnered with the Google Display Network, Google stores a number in their browsers to remember their visits. This number uniquely identifies a web browser on a specific computer, not a specific person. Browsers may be associated with a demographic or interest category based on the sites that were visited. In addition, some sites might provide Google with demographic information that people share on certain websites, such as social networking sites. Google may also use demographics derived from Google profiles.

WHERE WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the internet and the transmission of information via the internet are not fully secure. Although we will use reasonable endeavours to protect your personal data and prevent unauthorised access to it by storing it on a secure server which is password protected and hidden behind a firewall from the outside world, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk.

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 email.

CONTACT
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to [email protected]. For more information on the General Data Protection Regulation you can call (UK) 01625 545 700 or visit the Information Commissioner's website at www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.