Group Four prides itself on a commitment to privacy and respect for the user experience. We are updating Group Four ‘s Privacy Policy with options that give the users better control of their privacy and greater security for their data. In summary, here’s what this means to you:
- We’ve re-organized our Privacy Policy to make it clearer and more understandable including information on what data we collect, how we use it, and the rights that are available to you. Our updates and changes will make it easier for you to control the information you provide us. You’ll see that our policy explains your choices about this.
- We’re preparing for the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This means new requirements as to how we process EU personal data. As a result, we’re updating our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use to better explain our relationship with our users and how we keep your personal information safe.
In detail, you can read on. You’ll find specific information relating to the data we collect and what we do with it, as well as specific information relating to tools available to you to manage your data up to, and including, removing it from our website. At any time, should you have any questions or comments, send us a message at
privacy@group-4.com Why do we collect your data? Personal data is only collected by us when voluntarily given by you for a pre-determined purpose e.g. when you fill in a Contact Form, download a White Paper, complete a survey or in performance of a contract. We use this data so that we can contact you, to send you information about new products or alert you if there are product recalls, if products are becoming obsolescent etc. We do not pass your data on to third-parties.
What we collect. Group Four does not collect much data: we use Google analytics and advertising; we allow users to contact us via forms; and we sometimes email users who have requested news updates from us. Group Four does not share your data with third parties. Here is what we do specifically and how you can control it:
- Group Four, like the majority of business websites uses Google Analytics to offer insight to user sessions. Analytics may also include a tag from an online Google advertisement. We use this data to collect information about how you interact with our website, including what pages you visit, what site you visited prior to visiting our website, how much time you spend on each page, what operating system and web browser you use and network and IP information. We use the information provided by these tools to improve our Services and to help with our website user experience and to offer you the best information about our Services possible.
- This information comes to us via Google analytics, which uses cookies. Each cookie cannot be used by anyone other than the service provider (ex: Google for Google Analytics). The information collected from the cookie may be transmitted to and stored by these service partners on servers in a country other than the country in which you reside. Though information collected does not include personal data such as name, address, billing information, etc., the information collected is used and shared by these service providers in accordance with their individual privacy policies.
- Group Four offers forms on our website for contact and inquiry. On these forms we offer a link to this privacy policy and a tool we provide to you to have your name removed from our form if you previously submitted it. To be clear, we want to be open as a business to your contact and may continue to have a working contact with others at your company, but you have a right to be forgotten.
- Though rare, Group Four does offer occasional newsletter updates. Please click here and use this tool to be removed from any of our direct newsletters. Please note this will add you to our ‘Do Not Contact’ list.
More about cookies and how we use cookies.
Cookies are small text files stored on your computer when you visit our website. They do a variety of different jobs; some record how you use the website so we can see if it’s working well; some let you navigate between pages easily; some store your preferences and they generally improve your experience of the website. We cannot identify you by using these cookies. We use
Google Analytics to analyse and optimise the performance of our website. When you visit Group Fourinc.com, or Group Fourinc.de, Google Analytics uses cookies to note if your visit was made as a result of clicking on online advertising such as banners, video ads, search engine advertising, etc., and will also record which adverts, AdWords, etc. guided you to our website. We use this data to improve our advertising campaigns and to judge the effectiveness of articles in periodicals and on the Web. All this data is anonymised.
How can I manage cookies? You have an absolute right to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari etc.) automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. But if you choose to decline them, this may affect the performance of our website.
I don’t want to be contacted at all any more. How can I do that? There are two ways you can do that.
- If you want to be forgotten, let us know by email or by surface mail. We will erase your information from our system and not contact you again. But we have to be able to fulfil our legal obligations and sometimes that means that we can’t delete all your data, particularly if you are our contact within another customer company. If that’s the case, make sure to supply us with new contact details and then we can delete yours.
- Alternately, you can opt-out or unsubscribe. We keep your details but you can opt-out of emails, phone calls or ordinary mail. The advantage of an opt-out is that we would still let you know about vital issues like product recalls.
Please note our privacy policy and tools are a work in progress and we will seek to update you with new and better tools as they become available. Quick links –
Additional Data Information and Transfer of personal data abroad. If you utilize our Services from a country other than the country where our servers are located, your communications with us may result in transferring your personal data across international borders. Also, when you call us or initiate a chat, we may provide you with support from one of our global locations outside your country of origin. In these cases, your personal data is handled according to this Privacy Policy.
Compliance with legal, regulatory and law enforcement requests. We cooperate with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (such as subpoena requests), to protect our property and rights or the property and rights of a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we consider to be illegal or unethical. To the extent we are legally permitted to do so, we will take reasonable steps to notify you in the event that we are required to provide your personal information to third parties as part of legal process.
Third-party websites. Our website and our mobile applications contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of third-party sites. Please read the privacy policy of any website you visit.
How we secure, store and retain your data. We follow generally accepted standards to store and protect the personal data we collect, both during transmission and once received and stored, including utilization of encryption where appropriate. We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to provide the Services you have requested and thereafter for a variety of legitimate legal or business purposes. These might include retention periods:
- mandated by law, contract or similar obligations applicable to our business operations;
- for preserving, resolving, defending or enforcing our legal/contractual rights; or
- needed to maintain adequate and accurate business and financial records.
We have the right to disclose your personal data as required by law, or when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, request from a regulator or any other legal process served on Group Four. If you have any questions about the security or retention of your personal data, you can contact us at
privacy@group-4.com ‘Do Not Track’ notifications. Some browsers allow you to automatically notify websites you visit not to track you using a “Do Not Track” signal. There is no consensus among industry participants as to what “Do Not Track” means in this context. Like many websites and online services, we currently do not alter our practices when we receive a “Do Not Track” signal from a visitor’s browser. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” you may wish to visit
allaboutdnt.com.
Age restrictions. Our Services are not targeted to, intended to be consumed by or designed to entice individuals under the age of 18. If you know of or have reason to believe anyone under the age of 18 has provided us with any personal data, please contact us.
Changes in our Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes to this Privacy Policy and any other places we deem appropriate, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page, at least thirty (30) days prior to the implementation of the changes.
Additional rights. Subject to certain limitations, you have the right to:
- Request a copy of the information we hold about you and be told about its use.
- Request that Group Four rectifies mistakes in your information.
- Object to the processing of your personal data, based on your particular situation, where this processing is based on the legitimate interests of Group Four, where it involves direct marketing, or where it is completed for research or statistical purposes.
- Receive your personal data in a portable, commonly used, machine-readable format to transfer to another data controller. However, in some circumstances we may be unable to provide you with some or all of your personal data, for example, if it compromises the confidentiality of a third party.
What should I do if I still have concerns about how Group Four uses my data? If you have other concerns or questions over the collection, storage or processing of your data, please contact any member of our staff. We are happy to discuss any problems and we will help to resolve them if we can. Alternatively, you can contact our
Data Protection Officer:
Complaints. If you have a complaint and are not happy about the way we have handled it, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. In the EU, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Contact details for the ICO are available
here.
