Policies
These are the terms and conditions on which you may use snowwatch.org and all subdomains.
By accessing Snow Watch you are agreeing to the terms and conditions below. If you use Snow Watch in the course of your business, you are also agreeing to these terms and conditions on behalf of that business. If you do not agree with the terms and conditions (or are not authorised to do so) you should not use our website or services.
Warranties and limitation of liability
Snow Watch content is only for your general information, unless otherwise stated and is not intended to address your particular requirements. In particular, it does not constitute any form of advice, recommendation, representation, endorsement or arrangement. The website and all data contained within are provided on as ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ basis and services and data maybe withdrawn at any time and without notice. Snow Watch does not provide any warranties of any kind. We will not be liable to you for loss of actual or anticipated profits or savings, loss of business, loss of opportunity, loss or spoiling of data, loss of contracts, or for any indirect or consequential loss, whether arising from negligence, or breach of contract, or in any other way, even if we were advised of, or knew of the likelihood of, that loss or type of loss arising.
We must adhere to the Consumer Contracts Regulations which came into force in the UK on 13 June 2014 (replacing the Distance Selling Regulations).
These regulations outline the various rights consumers have when it comes to cancelling orders which aren’t required. However, there are a number of exemptions to these rules and the types of products we create fall under those items that you are unable to return once received, unless there is a defect with the product.
The circumstances where the Consumer Contracts Regulations won’t give you a right to cancel include perishable items, CDs, DVDs, pharmaceutical products and software if you’ve broken the seal on the wrapping. Exemptions are also made for tailor-made or personalised items. All print on demand products are tailor made, custom-made and bespoke to the end-consumers individual specifications and no order would exist unless a personalised commission was provided.
Cancelling An Order
You may cancel your order at any stage, provided we have not initiated production for your order or dispatched the relevant products to you. We have a "Pause window" of 8 hours before your order heads to production. This means you may cancel free of charge within 8 hours of your order. To do this you must notify us by submitting this cancellations form. This instantly reaches our factory and once they have received notice they will update us to the status of your order and we will relay this to you.
We collect information about you during the checkout process on our store.
What we collect and store
While you visit our site, we’ll track:
- Products you’ve viewed: we’ll use this to, for example, show you products you’ve recently viewed
- Location, IP address and browser type: we’ll use this for purposes like estimating taxes and shipping
- Shipping address: we’ll ask you to enter this so we can, for instance, estimate shipping before you place an order, and send you the order!
We’ll also use cookies to keep track of basket contents while you’re browsing our site.
When you purchase from us, we’ll ask you to provide information including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, credit card/payment details and optional account information like username and password. We’ll use this information for purposes, such as, to:
- Send you information about your account and order
- Respond to your requests, including refunds and complaints
- Process payments and prevent fraud
- Set up your account for our store
- Comply with any legal obligations we have, such as calculating taxes
- Improve our store offerings
- Send you marketing messages, if you choose to receive them
If you create an account, we will store your name, address, email and phone number, which will be used to populate the checkout for future orders.
We generally store information about you for as long as we need the information for the purposes for which we collect and use it, and we are not legally required to continue to keep it. For example, we will store order information for 10 years for tax and accounting purposes. This includes your name, email address and billing and shipping addresses.
We will also store comments or reviews, if you choose to leave them.
Who on our team has access
Members of our team have access to the information you provide us. For example, both Administrators and Shop Managers can access:
- Order information like what was purchased, when it was purchased and where it should be sent, and
- Customer information like your name, email address, and billing and shipping information.
Our team members have access to this information to help fulfill orders, process refunds and support you.
What we share with others
We share information with third parties who help us provide our orders and store services to you; for example --
Payments
We accept payments through PayPal. When processing payments, some of your data will be passed to PayPal, including information required to process or support the payment, such as the purchase total and billing information.
Please see the PayPal Privacy Policy for more details.
This privacy policy applies to snowwatch.org and all subdomains.
Who We Share Your Data With
We do not disclose any potentially personally-identifiable information to any third parties. The only people that will see your data is our employees, contractors and affiliated organisations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on our behalf or to provide services, and (ii) that have agreed, in writing, not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organisations may be located outside of your home country; by using our websites and services, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. We will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifiable information to anyone.
We may be required to disclose an individual’s personal information in response to a lawful request by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.
If we ever were to engage in any onward transfers of your data with third parties for a purpose other than which it was originally collected or subsequently authorised, we would provide you with an opt-out choice to limit the use and disclosure of your personal data.
Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. We use cookies across our sites to help identify and track visitors, their usage of our services, and their website access preferences. We describe the specific cookies used in the sections below. Visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using our websites, with the drawback that the look and feel to our site(s) and certain features may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
What Personal Data We Collect And Why We Collect It
Registered Users
- If you create an account on one of our sites, you will be prompted to select a Username and provide your Email Address.
- Your Username and Email Address are stored in the website’s database. Your Email Address is used to send you an email with a link to set your password or to send you an email with a link to reset your password in the event you forget your password.
- Once an account is created, you must contact us to have it deleted.
- Accounts have a numeric User ID assigned to them when they are created. The User ID cannot be changed.
- An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) is provided to the Gravatar service to see if a Profile picture of you is available for display. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here.
- You may optionally complete your Profile by providing your First Name, Last Name, Website (URL) and/or Biographical info and other details. These additional details are also saved in the website’s database. You may edit these details, and your Email Address, in your Profile at any time.
- You may also choose how your name is displayed (your Display Name) to visitors to the site (e.g. in comments you create) in your Profile.
- Your Username, First Name, Last Name and Email Address are accessible by employees on the site.
- If you attempt to log in to our site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies at all. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
- If you have an account and you log in to a site, we will set up several cookies to save your login information and some of your screen options. The logged-in cookies last for two days, and the screen options cookies last for a year.
- If you select “Remember Me” these cookies will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. It is important that you log out if you are using a public computer.
- For users that register on one of our sites, we also store the data they provide in their profile indefinitely. All registered users can see, change or delete most of that data at any time except their login name/nickname.
Publishing Content (Comments, Pages, Posts, Forums)
- Your Profile Picture (Gravatar), Display Name, Website (URL) (if any) and Biographical Info (if any) may be visible to visitors to the website (e.g. if you leave a comment, forum post, or contribute an article/post).
- If you author an article/post, your Username, User ID, Profile Picture (Gravatar), Display Name, Website (URL) (if any) and Biographical Info (if any) are provided to any visitor using the website’s REST API interface.
- If you upload media (e.g. images) to the website (in forums, posts, or comments), you should avoid uploading images with EXIF GPS location data included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data included in images on the website.
- Visitors using the website’s REST API interface can correlate uploaded media to a particular user. This may allow such visitors to map a user to a particular time and location if EXIF GPS location data was included in the uploaded media.
- If you edit or publish an article/post, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
- When visitors leave comments on one of our sites we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
- Comments may require manual approval by one of our employees or site owners.
- If you leave a comment on a site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies so we can recognise you as a commenter. These cookies will persist for one year.
- Additional spam detection is provided by Automattic/Akismet. The Automattic privacy policy is available here.
- Published content and comments are stored indefinitely unless deletion/removal is requested by the original author.
Email/Chat/Contact Forms
- We use Krystal Hosting Ltd to process all internal email and communication with our customers. Krystal's privacy policy is available here.
- Customers that email us, or use any of the contact forms on our websites, will have their email address, IP address, and any data provided in the contact form or body of the email stored in our archives and in our help desk third-party service provider, HelpScout. The HelpScout privacy policy is found here.
- We use Comm100 to provide live chat and live support services. Any data provided during a live chat session with one of our team members will be recorded and logged in an email that is sent to our HelpScout help desk. This includes your name, email address, and IP address. The Comm100 privacy policy is found here.
- Comm100 uses cookies to tailor chat sessions to the individual. No personal information is stored in these cookies (only visit history). Cookies expire in 3 years.
- We keep all email and chat communication indefinitely to help us provide support and improve our services. Individuals can request copies of any previous correspondence with us at any time.
Embedded Content From Other Websites
Embeds are pieces from other websites that are shown from time to time on our websites. They behave in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website and may use cookies or capture information. Typically embedded content is from websites that share videos, images, or other content. These services may collect your IP Address, your User Agent, store and retrieve cookies on your browser, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including correlating your interaction with the content with your account with that service, if you are logged in to that service.
Links to the privacy policies of the most common services have been included below. Where a general privacy policy is not available, the applicable country is indicated.
Amazon | DailyMotion | Facebook | Flickr | Imgur | Instagram | Kickstarter | Photobucket | Reddit | ReverbNation | SlideShare (LinkedIn) | SoundCloud | Spotify (UK) | TED | Tumblr | Twitter | VideoPress | Vimeo | Vine | WordPress Plugin Directory | WordPress.tv | YouTube (Google)
Analytics
- We use Google Analytics for tracking visitors and aggregating information about the traffic to our websites. The Google Analytics privacy policy can be found here. You can learn more about how to opt-out of tracking in Google Analytics here.
- We use Mixpanel to track the logged-in activity of users of Snow Watch. This includes profile information provided during signup. Mixpanel’s privacy policy is found here.
- Mixpanel uses cookies to track activity on the Snow Watch site. Cookies include a unique identifier tied to your Snow Watch account but does not include personally identifying information. Cookies expire within 1 year.
Marketing Campaigns
- We use email marketing to communicate with customers and potential customers from time to time. All email lists and campaigns are “opt-in” meaning we will not send you these sorts of emails unless you indicated that you wish to receive them during signup or other interactions on our website.
- We may send you “system” emails, such as password reset requests or payment notifications/receipts even if you have not opted-in to email marketing lists.
- All marketing emails sent by us will include an unsubscribe link in the footer of the email. Emails sent to you may also include standard tracking, including open and click activities.
- We use two different services for email marketing, MailChimp and Mixpanel. Mailchimp’s privacy policy is found here. Mixpanel’s privacy policy is found here.
- With the exception of visitors to snowwatch.org, we may utilize social media and web advertising campaigns. These service providers use cookies on our sites and/or pixel tracking to serve ads across the different platforms.
- Google AdSense & DoubleClick (privacy policy | opt out)
- Twitter (privacy policy | opt out)
- Facebook (privacy policy | opt out)
Paying Customers or Donations
- For payment transactions for Snow Watch, we use PayPal and Stripe. PayPal’s privacy policy can be found here. Stripe’s privacy policy can be found here.
- For payment transactions and invoice records, we use Quickbooks. Privacy policy can be found here.
- To comply with accounting and legal requirements, we keep data on financial transactions in the systems above for up to 10 years.
Hosting
- Web hosting is managed by Krystal Hosting Ltd, a UK based company with UK based servers. This includes website hosting, backups, web database, file storage, APIs, and log files --> https://krystal.co.uk/terms
- We also use Digital Ocean to managed and deploy weather data, mobile and web applications --> https://www.digitalocean.com/legal/privacy-policy/
What Rights You Have Over Your Data
If you are a registered user or have left comments on our site you can request to see or download the data we have about you.
Typically for visitors that have left comments, the data will be their email address, any IP addresses assigned to them at the time of leaving the comments and the user agent strings of the browsers they used. The rest of the data is public as published by the visitors.
For registered users or paying customers, this will also include profile information and download, payment, and support ticket histories.
You can also request “to be forgotten” and we will erase any personally identifiable data we have about you. Of course, this excludes data we need for administrative or security purposes or if we are required by law to retain some of the data.
An individual who seeks access, or who seeks to correct, amend, or delete inaccurate data, should direct his/her query to enquiries@snowwatch.org. We will respond within a reasonable timeframe, not to exceed one week.
How We Protect Your Data
The security and reliability of our service is our number one priority. We invest heavily in the training of our staff and our infrastructure to ensure that best practices are followed in everything that we do.
See wordpress.org/about/security for details on the security of the WordPress core itself.
- Prevention is best when it comes to security, and as a first step, we follow all WordPress Code Standards in the plugins that we use.
- Every employee and contractor goes through background checks and an on-boarding process that includes a trial period where access to customer data is provided only when working directly under the supervision of another staff member.
- We only use third-party services, such as Amazon Web Services, that are fully vetted and adhere to the highest levels of privacy and security practices.
What Data Breach Procedures We Have In Place
Should any event occur where customer data has been lost, stolen, or potentially compromised, our policy is to alert our customers via email (or another appropriate way!) no later than 48 hours of our team becoming aware of the event. We will also report such incident to any required data protection authority. We will work closely with any users affected to determine next steps such as any end-user notifications, needed patches, and how to avoid any similar event in the future.
Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are likely to be minor, we may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, at our sole discretion.
CHANGELOG
- 25th May 2018 – Updated language of the policy to be more user-friendly, specifically outlining requirements for GDPR
- 30th April 2019 - Info has changed under Email/Chat/Contact Forms and Hosting due to changing web hosts. We have also started to use Digital Ocean to deploy weather data, web applications and Twitter bot for Snow Watch Travel.
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not.
Our complaints policy covers:
- the standard of service we provide
- the behaviour of our staff
- any action or lack of action by staff affecting an individual or group
Our complaints policy does not cover:
- matters that have already been fully investigated through this complaints procedure
- anonymous complaints
- complaints about access to information where procedures and remedies are set out in legislation, eg Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act
Our standards for handling complaints
- We treat all complaints seriously, but they must be made in private by email. Such communication via social media will be ignored, especially if it is intended to expose or embarrass SnowWatch or a project of ours. We kindly ask you act professionally during any tensions.
- You will be treated with courtesy and fairness at all times - we would hope, too, that you will be courteous and fair in your dealings with our staff at all times
- We will deal with your complaint promptly - we will acknowledge receipt of a written complaint within 5 working days and we will send you a full reply within 20 working days of receipt
- If we cannot send a full reply within 20 working days of receipt we will tell you the reason why and let you know when we will be able to reply in full
How to complain
You can make a complaint by emailing: feedback@snowwatch.org
Updated: 10th November 2020 at 21:45
Replies
We want to engage with all of our users, and try our best to do so, however, due to the amount of you this is not always possible. Therefore, we cannot guarantee to respond individually to every single message we receive via social media. If you're messaging about about weather or not you'll get snow please check our Advisories and any information we have published on our Status page.
Requests to Retweet
We retweet content from sources we deem reliable, and consider any requests to retweet content from others based on relevance and propriety. We reserve the right not to satisfy such requests at our discretion. Being retweeted by us does not imply endorsement of any kind.
Updated: 20th November 2020 at 11:45
- Trolling - Trolling refers to the act of disrupting the chat, making a nuisance out of yourself, deliberately making others uncomfortable, or otherwise attempting to start trouble.
- Avoid discussing offensive or controversial subjects - This includes topics such as politics, religion, acts of violence, rape, suicide/self harm, school shootings, and other serious topics; as well as hate speech including racial slurs or derivatives thereof, sexist or homophobic statements, and other similar types of behavior.
- Elitism - Members should refrain from insulting or belittling others based on their opinions.
- Disrespecting staff - Insulting the server moderators or becoming belligerent after being warned will not be tolerated. If it has been necessary to isolate a member we will be in touch. Measured discussion regarding the reasons for being warned, isolated or banned (be that temporarily or permanent) should be encouraged for the education of the user and general public, at some point it may be necessary to shut down the discussion or take it to DMs.
- Incitement - Encouraging the breaking of rules, inciting others to be blatantly rude and offensive, or otherwise promoting and/or encouraging conflicts between other members will result in a warning.
- Punishment Evasion - Users should not attempt to evade the consequences of their actions such as using an alternate account to bypass restrictions.
- This is punishable with an instant ban.
- Inappropriate User Profiles - For ease of communication and the comfort of those in chat, the profile picture, custom status, and display names (i.e., the name that shows up while reading the chat) of users should be in line with the rules of the server. Furthermore, the display name should also be easily readable, mentionable, and not attempt to imitate other users.
- Advertisement - Similar but not quite the same as spam, this refers to users attempting to promote their own social media/discord servers/other content creation channels. If you would like to advertise to Snow Watch users you must go through the proper procedure, please see our Advertisement page.
- In some cases it's fine to ask a moderator privately (via DM) before sharing another discord server or social media channel. Other businesses must go through our advertisement page.
- Speaking languages not understood by the server - Essentially, users should be prohibited from communicating in a language outside of the server’s official language, which is English.
Updated: 28th August 2024 at 14:30