Ralston Williams Privacy and Anti-Spam Policy

In Canada, privacy legislation has been enacted so that the person who owns the personal information (you) can decide what information you want to disclose and how that information will be used by the parties you disclose the information to (which may include Ralston Williams). Anti-Spam legislation has also been enacted to ensure that, so long as you are Canadian situated, you receive only those types of emails that you want to receive.

At Ralston Williams, we respect the applicable privacy and anti-spam legislation and your right to determine what personal information you will give to us and the type of information you want to receive from us.  Our privacy practises are outlined in this document. It is long, but it tells you why we collect your personal information and how we’ll use it. Happy reading.

How do we Collect, Use and Protect your Personal Information?

Ralston Williams will only ask you for personal information which is relevant and necessary to allow us to provide you with information about our company and/or the products and services you want or may want to receive from us. If you choose not to give us some information, that’s ok, but we may then not be able to deliver all our products and services to you. We will only collect personal information about you that you give to us. If you give us your personal information (which includes your name and contact information) we will take steps to maintain its confidentiality and to protect the information from improper disclosure. We will not sell or trade that personal information for any commercial purposes. There may be some times when your personal information may need to be disclosed outside the company – but that would occur only in limited circumstances such as if we need to disclose your personal information in order to provide you with the services you expect from us (for example, we may provide your name and home address to a third party delivery service to send you clothes that you have ordered) or as may be required or permitted by law (for example, to collect a debt or to comply with a subpoena).  If you have signed up to join our mailing list,  we store our mailing list on MailChimp which, we are told, complies with PIPEDA in Canada and the EU privacy legislation in Europe.

Online, we do not collect information from you if you visit our website unless you voluntarily send us an email. For the Shopify store, if you buy online, all credit card info is retained by the credit card processor and is not provided to us in any event. Your contact info and order info is retained so that we can fulfill your order, and take steps to provide a positive shopping experience for you.  If you ask us for information or provide your comments to us, we ask you to provide your name and email address so that we can respond to your inquiries. We also invite you to add your name to our mailing list so that we can keep you informed about our product launches, marketing news and general information about our company. If, online, you request to be on our mailing list, you will go through a “double click” process in which you will expressly agree that we can email you (using the contact information you provide to us) for these purposes.

We may at any time assign our rights and obligations under this policy, in whole or in part, without notice to you. We may also modify the terms of this policy, and if we do make amendments, we’ll post the revisions online and you should check the policy periodically so you know how we’ll use the personal information.

What does the Anti-Spam legislation mean for you?

The anti-spam legislation means that we will only send emails with your consent (express or implied) in the following cases:

  • You have explicitly informed us that you would like to receive such messages (that is the double click process described above);
  • You have an existing business or non-business relationship with Ralston Williams;
  • Ralston Williams is responding to your inquiry or request for information;
  • You have provided your e-mail address to us; or
  • To communicate with you about your relationship with us

Use of Google AdWords Conversion-Tracking

Our website utilizes the online advertising program “Google AdWords” and the conversion tracking within the framework of Google AdWords. The conversion-tracking cookie is set on your browser, if you click on an ad delivered by Google. Cookies are small text files, which the internet browser places on your browser. We are told that these cookies lose their validity after 30 days.  They are not used to acquire personal identification data. If you visit a certain page of this website and if the cookie has not yet expired, Google and Ralston Williams will be able to tell that you clicked on the ad and you were  forwarded to this page. Each Google AdWords client gets a different cookie. Thus, cookies cannot be tracked by us. The information collected by the conversion cookies is used to provide aggregate conversion statistics to AdWord clients (like Ralston Williams) who have opted-in for conversion tracking. Clients (like Ralston Williams) are informed about the total number of users who clicked on the ad and were forwarded to a conversion tracking tag page. However, Ralston Williams does not get any information enabling us to identify users personally. If you do not want to participate in the tracking program, you can refuse the use of this program by easily deactivating the Google conversion-tracking cookie via your internet browser through the user settings. If you do disable the conversion-tracking cookie,  you will not be included in the conversion tracking statistics. Further information concerning Google data privacy can be found at https://www.google.co.uk/intl/en-GB/policies/privacy/

Google Adwords & Facebook Pixel Retargeting

Our  website uses retargeting technology of Google. This technology enables us to target visitors of our website with interest-based ads directed to those who already have shown interest in Ralston Williams products. The ads are displayed by using a cookie-based analysis of the previous usage data. Personal data will not be stored. In the case of retargeting technology, a cookie will be stored on your computer or your mobile devices in order to collect anonymized data about your interests and adapt ads specifically according to the stored information. Cookies are small text files stored on your computer or your mobile devices. They help us to display ads, which are most likely to correspond to your information interests. You may permanently refuse the setting of cookies for advertisement purposes by setting your browser to refuse cookies or by downloading and installing the browser plug-in using the following link: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/
Our  website also uses the retargeting technology “Facebook Pixel” of Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA (“Facebook”). The Facebook Pixel enables us to show visitors of our website interest-based ads. The Facebook Pixel also tracks users’ activity after they have seen or clicked on a Facebook ad. This technique is designed to evaluate the impact of Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes and may help us to optimize future advertising activities.
Data collected shall remain anonymous and cannot be used to draw any conclusions about the identity of the user. However, those data are stored and processed by Facebook to enable a connection to the user profile and to allow Facebook to use those data for its own advertisement purposes in accordance with the Facebook privacy policy (https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation). You may allow Facebook and its partners to place ads on Facebook and outside of Facebook. Furthermore, a cookie may be placed on your computer for this purpose.
You may object to the use of cookies in a general manner, by choosing a setting of your browser to prevent cookies from being placed on your computer, or by disabling cookies already placed via your browser. You may deactivate the use of third party cookies as for example Facebook with the aid of the Digital Advertising Alliance website at: https://www.aboutads.info/choices/.

And what if you no longer want to receive information from Ralston Williams?

If you put your name on our mailing list, you can easily remove it by sending an email to info@ralstonwilliams.com (please put “unsubscribe” in the Re line of your email), or by using the unsubscribe button when you receive an email from us. If you use the unsubscribe button, we’ll remove your name as soon as possible and not later than 10 business days after receiving your request. Notwithstanding any request to remove your name from our mailing list, we will continue to send you emails if they are related to business transactions.

Here’s How You Can Contact Us about Privacy

If you have any questions or concerns about your personal information or any privacy matters, we want to discuss your issues with you. Please contact us at info@ralstonwilliams.com.or call us at 416-624-6282. Alternatively, you can mail a letter to Ralston Williams at 1042 Bathurst Street, Rear Studio, Toronto, Ontario M5R 3G7.

Modified May 13, 2020