The privacy of your data — and it is your data, not ours! — is a big deal to us. In this policy, we layout: what data we collect and why; how your data is handled; and your rights to your data.
What we collect and why
Our guiding principle is to collect only what we need. Here’s what that means in practice:
Identity & access
When you sign up for a Union Hardware account, we typically ask for identifying information such as your name, email address and phone number. That’s just so you can personalize your new account, and we can send you invoices, updates, or other essential information whilst giving you the opportunity to keep track of the orders you make in the app. We sometimes also give you the option to add a profile picture that displays in our products, but we do not normally look at or access that picture. We won’t use your name or company in marketing statements without your permission either.
Website interactions
When you browse our marketing pages or applications, your browser automatically shares certain information such as which operating system and browser version you are using. We track that information, along with the pages you are visiting, page load timing, and which website referred you for statistical purposes like conversion rates and to test new designs. We sometimes track specific link clicks to help inform some design decisions. These web analytics data are tied to your IP address and user account if applicable and you are signed in to our Services. We blind all of these individual identifiers after 30 days.
Cookies and Do Not Track
We do use persistent first-party cookies to store certain preferences, make it easier for you to use our applications, and support some in-house analytics. A cookie is a piece of text stored by your browser to help it remember your login information, site preferences, and more. You can adjust cookie retention settings in your own browser. To learn more about cookies, including how to view which cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, please visit: allaboutcookies.org
Information we do not collect
We don’t collect any characteristics of protected classifications including race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or physical and mental abilities or disabilities. You may provide these data voluntarily, such as if you include a pronoun preference in your email signature when writing into our Support team.
When we access or share your information
Our default practise is to not access your information. The only times we’ll ever access or share your info are:
To verify your identity by sending only the necessary information to our application programming interface/backend service located at unionhardware.co.zw so that we grant you access to the website or mobile application.
To provide products or services you’ve requested. We do use some third-party services to run our applications and only to the extent necessary process some or all of your personal information via these third parties. Having sub-processors means we are using technology to access your data. We also use some other processors for other business functions.
To help you troubleshoot or squash a software bug, with your permission. If at any point we need to access your account to help you with a Support case, we will ask for your consent before proceeding.
To investigate, prevent, or take action regarding restricted uses. Accessing a customer’s account when investigating potential abuse is a measure of last resort. We have an obligation to protect the privacy and safety of both our customers and the people reporting issues to us. We do our best to balance those responsibilities throughout the process. If we do discover you are using our products for a restricted purpose, we will report the incident to the appropriate authorities.
To send you marketing and product information to you By using any of our Services, you consent to occasionally receive promotional emails or texts about products and services that you might be interested in. We promise to never spam you and only send you quality communications.
Location of Site and Data
Our products and other web properties are operated in Zimbabwe. If you are located outside of Zimbabwe, please be aware that any information you provide to us will be transferred to Zimbabwe. By using our Site, participating in any of our services and/or providing us with your information, you consent to this transfer.
Your Rights With Respect to Your Information
Right to Know. You have the right to know what personal information is collected, used, shared or sold. We outline both the categories and specific bits of data we collect, as well as how they are used, in this privacy policy.
Right of Access. This includes your right to access the personal information we gather about you, and your right to obtain information about the sharing, storage, security and processing of that information.
Right to Correction. You have the right to request correction of your personal information.
Right to Erasure / “To Be Forgotten”. This is your right to request, subject to certain limitations under applicable law, that your personal information be erased from our possession and, by extension, all of our service providers. Fulfilment of some data deletion requests may prevent you from using Union Hardware services because our applications may then no longer work. In such cases, a data deletion request may result in closing your account.
Right to Complain. You have the right to make a complaint regarding our handling of your personal information with the appropriate supervisory authority.
Right to Restrict Processing. This is your right to request the restriction of how and why your personal information is used or processed, including opting out of the sale of personal information. (Again: we never have and never will sell your personal data).
Right to Object. You have the right, in certain situations, to object to how or why your personal information is processed.
Right to Portability. You have the right to receive the personal information we have about you and the right to transmit it to another party.
Right to not be subject to Automated Decision-Making. You have the right to object and prevent any decision that could have a legal, or similarly significant, effect on you from being made solely based on automated processes. This right is limited, however, if the decision is necessary for the performance of any contract between you and us, is allowed by applicable law, or is based on your explicit consent.
Many of these rights can be exercised by signing in and directly updating your account information.