HMG Paints Limited Privacy Policy

This is a privacy policy for HMG Paints Limited (“HMG”). We want to protect the privacy of users (“Individuals”) and organisations who visit our website.

Such individuals and organisations include:

  • Unregistered website visitors
  • Private individuals who actively registered their personal data to access our HMG Portal website
  • Business clients who register their personal data with HMG to access our HMG Portal website

Our Beliefs and Promise

  • Individuals privacy and data protection are human rights
  • We have a duty of care to the individuals and organisations for which we process and store data on our systems
  • We will not contact individuals or organisations with irrelevant or unsolicited messages
  • Individuals and organisations data has a financial and security cost to store, so we only store and process data which is lawful and for as long as is necessary
  • We will never share individuals or organisations data with any other private organisation, or make public individuals and organisations information
  • We may only disclose Individuals or organisations personal data if we are required to by Law

User Privacy and Data Protection

HMG regard an individual’s privacy and data protection as a human right, and we are actively ensuring our systems and processes comply to the following United Kingdom (“UK”) and European Union (“EU”) legislation:

UK Data Protection Act 1988 (DPA)
EU Data Protection Directive 1995 (DPD)
EU General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR)

Personal Information We Collect

Generic Registration

We ask you to register your personal data with HMG so you are able to access certain features such as our product technical information.

Such personal data includes:

  • An email address which will is used for website account activation
  • A persons’ full name
  • The company name the person is employed by

An individual who intends to go through the generic registration process on our website will receive a confirmation email which includes an activation link. This link has a direct link to our website and includes a unique identifier which will be used to activate your website account.

This personal data is stored on our Website Server and used for the purpose of legitimate interest, and allows an individual further access to our websites features without the requirement to repeat the registration process.

If an individual has consented by opting in to further contact by HMG through occasional marketing emails, their personal data will be used by authorised HMG marketing personnel solely for this purpose. Marketing emails from HMG are very occasional. As with any other individual, we don’t like constant emails either!

Any individual who wishes to register their personal data with our website who is under 16 years of age must obtain parental consent before they try to register.

My Account Registration

The My Account registration is for the purpose of registering your personal data with HMG for a My Account website account. This registration is the same as the Generic Registration above, but also requires your account number which was provided to you when an organisation opens a trading account with HMG.

An individual who intends to go through the My Account registration process on our website will receive a confirmation email explaining that their My Account registration will be considered, and a representative of HMG will soon contact them.

A My Account request emails an individuals’ personal data to an HMG representative and does not store personal data on our website.

When a My Account request is sent to HMG for consideration, the request is assessed by an HMG representative to confirm the request is valid. Once a request is confirmed as valid, the personal data of the individual is stored as a business contact on our Customer Relations Management (“CRM”) system and used for the purpose of legitimate interest.

A My Account registration provides an individual of an organisation access to enhanced website features which are only available to HMG customers.

Website Enquiries

Our website includes a Quick Inquiry, Contact Us and Brochure Request which allows an individual to enter their personal details for the appropriate enquiry. This personal data is sent to an appropriate HMG representative via email. Data captured via the quick enquiry is processed into our CRM system as a potential lead for following up.

Distributor Enquiry

Our website includes a feature called HMG Distributors which allows an individual to make an enquiry of our products to either one of HMG approved distributors who are more local to the individual, or to HMG Paints Limited if there are no nearby HMG approved distributors.

Personal data requested from the individual varies depending on the method of contact the individual chooses. Personal data will include full name, email address and the company name the individual is employed by. The addition of the individual’s telephone number will be required for a call back or an individual’s full address will be required if they require a personal visit.

Once an individual makes a request to a chosen HMG approved distributor, the personal data they enter will be sent via email to a pre-approved contact at the HMG approved distributor and to pre-approved HMG Paints Limited contact.

This personal data will be used for the purpose of legitimate interest and used for contacting the individual based on their enquiry.

Website Cookies

Session Cookies

Our website uses a cookie which is a tiny file that is saved on your device or computer. This file is a session cookie, and does not store any personal data in the file, and only saves a new identifier each time you log in to our website. This identifier allows your browsing interaction with our website to be more personal and helps to authorise your access to secure sections of the site.

Any session cookie created by logging in exists for as long as your browser is open. Once the browser is closed, the session cookie is deleted.

Persistent Cookies

Our website implements Analytical Software (Explained below) which a visitor can enable or disable whilst they are browsing. To implement this choice, three cookie files are saved on your device or computer.

A new visitor to our website is presented with a banner which informs them that our website uses anonymous tracking cookies. To remember if a visitor accepts or does not accept these cookies, the answer is stored in three cookie files. These files are called “consent_ga”, “cookieconsent_status” and “scriptconsent_status”.

The stored life of each cookie file is explained below:

Cookie NameUsePossible ValueExpiry
consent_gaConsent status for Google Analyticsyes / noN/A
consent_lfConsent status for Lead Forensicsyes / noN/A
cookieconsentv3_statusCookie banner accepteddismissN/A
scriptconsent_statusScript options confirmedconfirmedN/A

No personal data is stored in these cookies, and none of the information contained in these cookies is sent to Google Analytics or other 3rd party.

Tracking & Analytics

Our website implements Google Analytics to help us understand how visitors use our website, and to better understand what content is popular (and what is not!). This is only implemented on our main website - https://www.hmgpaint.com and is not implemented on our portal - https://portal.hmgpaint.com. Our implementation of Google Analytics is done anonymously which means any visitor to our website will only be sending a part of their IP address to Google Analytics. No other information that could identify a visitor is sent to Google Analytics.

Google Analytics provides us with aggregated and anonymised reports on our website visitors, which helps us improve our content to maintain our website as a free to use service.

In addition to Google Analytics we also use Lead Forensics and LinkedIn Insights. These services enable us, as a business, to get a better understanding of what other businesses are visiting our site. This does not affect your rights and you can request to be excluded from this service on request at any time.
For more information on this, click here.

Google Analytics Cookies

The use of Google Analytics on our website will store three cookie files that are saved on your device or computer. These files are called “_ga”, “_gat” and “_gid”.

These cookie files are created by Google Analytics to ensure visitors browsing our website can be seen as individual whilst remaining anonymous. This is achieved by each cookie file containing a randomly generated identity number for each visitor.

The three cookie files created by Google Analytics are defined as persistent cookies which means they will remain stored on your device or computer when you close your browser, and even if you switch off your device or computer, for a specific period of time.

The stored life of each cookie file is explained below:

Cookie NameUseExpiry
_gaDistinguish visitors2 Years
_gidDistinguish visitors24 Hours
_gatThrottle visitor requests10 Months

Each of the above cookie files will have their expiry date reset each time you re-visit our website, or will be re-created if they have been removed.

Settings

You can opt-in or out of any of the Analytics Tools used on our site by using the "Privacy Settings" button below.

Privacy Settings

Privacy Icon

The icon style helps to identify your current privacy setting level.

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Services Running

    About This Website Server

    This website is hosted on a Server which is located on our premises which is located in Manchester, England.

    Our Servers are kept secure by:

    • Being isolated and secured in locked cabinets
    • Secured behind two stage locked rooms
    • On-site security 24x7
    • Overnight roaming security
    • Perimeter and internal CCTV systems
    • Authorised personnel only allowed access

    All communication between your browser and our website is encrypted and secure using HTTPS.

    Privacy Notice

    This HMG website policy has been written in accordance to HMG’s general privacy notice which can be viewed here.

    Change Log

    • 02/06/2023 - Added LinkedIn Insights to the list of analytics tools
    • 26/07/2019 - Modified the section "Website Enquiries" to further clarify how enquiry data is processed.
    • 21/02/2019 - Added section "Distributor Enquiry" regarding the HMG Distributors feature under "Personal Information We Collect"
    • 20/08/2018 - Added description about Lead Forensics under "Tracking & Analytics"
    • 12/06/2018 - Added section "Settings" to describe how the privacy settings work.
    • 12/06/2018 - Added section “Tracking & Analytics” along with facility to control running services.
    • 12/06/2018 - Changed heading “Cookies” to “Website Cookies”.
    • 25/05/2018 - Implemented new HMG Website Privacy Policy.

    Getting in touch.

    To place an order or to find out more about HMG Paints get in touch via the details below.