Privacy & Security Centre

PRIVACY AND COOKIES POLICY

In these P&C Policy the term we, our or us refers to ABBS Ltd.

OUR PRIVACY AND COOKIES POLICY AT A GLANCE

1. WHO WE ARE. We are ABBS LTD., and we are complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect as from May 2018.

   ABBS LTD. is committed to processing data in accordance with its responsibilities under the GDPR.

2. WHAT WE USE YOUR DATA FOR. We will use your data, among other purposes, to manage your registration as a user, to manage your purchases of products or services, to respond to your queries, and, if you wish, to send you our newsletter.
3. WHY WE USE YOUR DATA. We have legal standing to process your data for various reasons. The main reason is that we need to process your data to perform the contract that you accept with us when you register and when you make a purchase or enjoy any of our services or functionalities. We also use your data for other reasons, for example, to respond to your queries or to send you newsletters that you have asked to receive from us.
4. WHO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH. We share your data with service providers who provide us with assistance or support, these being companies in the ABBS LTD or third party providers, such as delivery companies.
5. YOUR RIGHTS. You have the right to access, rectify or delete your personal data.
6. OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU. We will use your data to improve your experience and we’ll protect it as if it was ours. You will be the one deciding what and how you hear from us, and in the case that we do not need your information anymore, we will delete it.

We encourage you to read our full Privacy and Cookies Policy below to understand in depth the manner in which we will use your personal data and your rights over your data.

BEFORE YOU START…

• In this Privacy and Cookies Policy, you will find all relevant information applicable to our use of our users’ and customers’ personal data, regardless of the channel or means that you use to interact with us.
• We are transparent about what we do with your personal data, to help you to understand the implications of the way in which we use your data, and the rights you are entitled to in relation to your data:
  • We permanently make available for you all the information included in this Privacy and Cookies Policy, that you can check when you consider appropriate, and in addition,
  • You will also find further information on how use your data as you interact with us.
• These are some terms we regularly use in this Privacy and Cookies Policy:
  • When we speak about our Platform, we refer, in general, to any of the channels or means you may have used to interact with us. The main ones are:
    • Our website.
    • Our store.

 

1. WHO IS THE CONTROLLER OF YOUR DATA?

Your data controller is:

• ABBS LTD
  • Industrial Zone, ATD 4000 Ta’Qali
  • +356 2338 4400/1
  • info@bigmatmalta.com

Additionally, if you have an item to deliver, we will share your data with this delivery companies:

• Miles Express Cargo System Ltd
  • 42, The Office House, Timber Wharf, MRS 1440 Marsa
  • +356 2124 0877
  • info@milesxp.com
• Malta Post P.L.C.
  • 305, Triq Hal Qormi, Il-Marsa, MTP1001
  • (telephone) +356 2122 4421
  • info@maltapost.com
• Wolt Drive

 

2. WHY DO WE PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

Depending on the purpose for which we process your data from time to time, as explained below, we need to process one or other data, which will in general be, depending on each case, as follows:

• your identity data (for example, your name, surname, image, language and country from which you interact with us, contact data, etc.)
• economic and transactions information (for example, your payment or card data, information on your purchases, orders, returns, etc.)
• connection, geolocation and/or browsing data (for example, the location data, the device identification number or the advertising ID, etc.)
• commercial information (for example, if you have subscribed to our newsletter)
• information about your tastes and preferences.

Remember that, when we ask you to fill in your personal data to give you access to any functionality or service of the website, we will mark certain fields as compulsory, since this is an information that we need to be able to provide the service or give you access to the functionality in question. Please take into account that, if you decide not to make such data available to us, you may be unable to complete your user registration or may not be able to enjoy those services or functionalities.

In other cases, we may collect information passively, as we may use tracking tools like browser cookies and other similar technology on our website and in communications we send you.

Depending on how you interact with our Platform, i.e., depending on the services, products or functionalities that you wish to enjoy, we will process your personal data for the following purposes:

PURPOSE	+ info
1. To manage your registration as user of the website	If you decide to become a registered user of our website, we need to process your data to identify you as a user of the Platform and grant you access to its various functionalities, products and services available to you as a registered user. You may cancel your registered user account by contacting us through Customer Support. We hereby inform you that the data we gather regarding your activity, which have been collected through the different channels of the Platform and which include your purchases, shall remain linked to your account so that all the information can be accessed together.
2. For the development, performance and execution of the purchase or services contract	We will process your data, mainly: -        To contact you for updates or informative notices related to the contracted functionalities, products or services. -        To manage payment of the products that you purchase, regardless of the payment procedure used. For example: If on purchasing any of our products through the website, you accept to save your payment data and your shipment address for future purchases: this enables your autocomplete payment data to appear in subsequent purchases so that you do not need to introduce them in each new process.  You may change or cancel your payment data at any time through the section on payment information from the My Account section of the website. -        To activate the mechanisms necessary to prevent and detect unauthorised uses of the Platform (for example, during the purchase and return process) as well as potential fraud being committed against you and/or against us during the purchase process. If we consider that the transaction may be fraudulent this processing may cause the blocking of the transaction or the deletion of your user account. -        To manage potential exchanges or returns after you have purchased and manage requests of availability information for articles, reservations of products through the website, depending on the availability of such options from time to time. -        For invoicing purposes and to make available to you the tickets and invoices of the purchases you have made through the website. -        To ensure that you can use other available functionalities or services, such as the purchase, receipt, management and use of the Gift Card.
3. To meet requests or applications that you make through the customer services channels	We only process the personal data that are strictly necessary to manage or resolve your request or application. If you contact us via telephone, the call may be recorded for quality purposes and so that we can respond to your request. If it is available and you choose to communicate with customer support through the chat service of a social network or another collaborator, some of your personal data such as your name or username, will be imported from your social network. Also, bear in mind that the data you submit on this service will be available to your social network or collaborator and subject to their privacy policies, therefore we recommend you review your privacy settings and to read the social network privacy policies to obtain more detailed information about the use they make of your personal data when using their services.
4. For marketing purposes	- Personalise the services we offer you and enable it to give you recommendations based on your interactions with us on the website and in the shop, and an analysis of your user profile (for example, based on your purchase and browsing history) - When you subscribe to our Newsletter, we will process your personal data to manage your subscription, including to send customised information on our products or services through email. Please consider that this data processing implies analysis of your user or customer profile to establish your preferences and therefore which products and services are most fit to your style when sending you information. For example, based on your purchases and browsing history, we will make you suggestions on products that we believe may interest you and. Remember that you may unsubscribe from the Newsletter at any time without extra cost. - To perform promotional actions. To disseminate in the Platform or through our channels in the social network photographs or pictures that you shared publicly, stated that you expressly give us your consent for the purpose.
5. Analysis of usability and quality to improve our services	If you access our Platform, it will treat your browsing data for analytic and statistic purposes, i.e., to understand the way users interact with the Platform and with the actions we implement on other websites, so we can improve our services.

 

3. HOW ARE WE LEGALLY PERMITTED TO PROCESS YOUR DATA?

The legal terms on which we are permitted to process your personal data also depends on the purpose for which we process them, as explained in the following table:

PURPOSE	LEGAL STANDING
1. To manage your website user resignation	We process your data because for you to be able to register as a user on the website, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to manage your registration. We consider we have a legitimate interest to link to your account your purchase and the data collected through different channels of the website about your activity.
2. Development, performance and making of the purchase or service contract	We process your data because is necessary for us to make the purchase or services contract with you. Certain processing of data related to the purchase process is activated only because you request or authorise it, as is the case of the storage of payment data for future purchases. In this case, our processing of your data is supported by your own consent. We consider that we have a legitimate interest to carry out he necessary verifications to detect and prevent potential fraud or fraudulent uses of the website, for example when you make a purchase. We understand that the processing of these data is positive for the customers, as it is for us: it allows us to put in place measures to protect you against attempted fraud perpetrated by third parties.
3. Customer service	We consider that we have legitimate interest in answering the queries or consultation raised by you through the existing different contact channels. We understand that the processing of these data is also beneficial to you to the extent that it enables us to assist you adequately and answer to the queries raised. When you get in touch with us for the management of incidents related to your order or the product/service acquired through the Platform, the processing of your data is necessary to perform the purchase contract. When your request is related to the exercise of your rights on which we inform you below, or to claims on our products or services, we are legally permitted to process your data for compliance with our legal obligations.
4. Marketing	We are legally permitted to process your data for marketing purposes due to the consent that you give it, for example when you consent through the cookies settings or when accepting the legal terms and conditions to participate in a promotional action or to publish your pictures on the website or our social media. We consider that we have a legitimate interest in conduct a profiling with the information that it has about you (such as your browsing, preferences or purchase history) and the personal data that you have provided us, such as the age range or language, since we understand that the data processing of these data is also beneficial to you because it allows you to improve your user experience and access the information in accordance to your preferences.
5. Analysis of usability and quality	We consider that we have a legitimate interest in analysing the Platform usability and the user’s satisfaction degree, since we understand that the processing of these data is also beneficial for you because the purpose is to improve the user experience and provide a higher quality service.

 

4. HOW LONG WILL WE KEEP YOUR DATA?

The time for which we will keep your data will depend on the purposes for which we process them, as explained below:

PURPOSE	TIME FOR WHICH THE DATA ARE KEPT
1. To manage your platform user registration	We will process your data for the time during which you remain a registered user (meaning, until you decide to unsubscribe). Additionally, we may retain information from deleted accounts to comply with the law, prevent fraud, resolve disputes.
2. Development, performance and execution of the purchase or service contract	We will process your data for the time necessary to manage the purchase of the products or services that you buy, including potential returns, complaints or claims related to the purchase of the product or service in question. Sometimes we will only process the data until the time when you decide, as is the case of payment data that you requested us to store for future purchases. Some information must be kept for about 10 years to comply with tax/VAT reporting requirements.
3. Customer Support	We will process your data for the time necessary to meet your request or application
4. Marketing	We will process your data until you unsubscribe or cancel your subscription to the newsletter. If you participate in, promotional actions, we will keep the data during a six (6) months period from the end of the action.
5. Analysis of usability and quality	We will process your data occasionally for the time during which we proceed to carry out a specific quality action or survey or until it anonymises your browsing data.

 

5. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

We will process your data for the time strictly necessary to achieve the purpose in question, during that time, we will keep them behind multiple firewalls on secure servers with restricted user access.

Secure sockets layer (SSL) technology is employed when you place online orders.

You might receive more information by contacting noel.hollier@bigmatmalta.com.

INFORMATION COLLECTED	HOW DO WE USE IT?
1. Name and contact details	- To send you service messages such as order updates - To process the delivery, if applied - Send you information about our products and services - To detect and prevent fraud
2. Date of birth	- To detect and prevent fraud If you are aged under 18, please get your parents/guardians permission before you provide any personal information to us, since we will need to process the information of the adult as well as the verification of documents to ensure consent is given.
3. Your payment information, as well as your preferred currency	- To take payments as well as to give refunds - To detect and prevent fraud
4. Your contact history with us	- To provide the best customer service and support if needed - To train our staff to remain up to scratch so that you get the best customer service
5. Purchase history and saved items	- To be able to sell things to you - For marketing reasons; to find out what you and other customer want from us - To provide customer service and support, as well as to handle returns
6. Information about your device with which you used our website	- To improve our website; to give you the best possible shopping experience - To protect our website from fraud against you or us
7. Information from accounts you link to us	- To enable you to log into our website simply and easily without having to create a specific account - To provide product recommendations

 

6. WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS WHEN MAKING YOUR DATA AVAILABLE TO US?

We undertake to keep your personal data confidential and to ensure that you may exercise your rights. You may exercise your rights free of charge by writing us an email to noel.hollier@bigmatmalta.com, simply informing us of the reason for your request and the right that you wish to exercise. If we consider this necessary to be able to identify you, we may request you to provide a copy of a document evidencing your identity.

In addition, we may offer you the possibility to exercise your rights and setting your privacy preferences when using our website.

For the purpose or legal basis, we use to process your data, you have the following rights:

• To request access to your personal data that we hold and to know how it is used. We remind you that where you are a Platform registered user you may also consult this information in the relevant section of your online account; if you decided to contact us for it, we may ask you for an identity proof.
• To request that we rectify the personal data that we hold. Please bear in mind that if you are a registered user on the Platform, you can also access the relevant personal data section of your online account to change or update it. In any case, please take into account that, on actively making your personal data available to us through any procedure, you guarantee that they are true and accurate and you undertake to notify to us any change or modification of your data. You will be liable for reporting erroneous, inaccurate or incomplete information in the registration forms. Please remember that, as a general rule, you must provide us only with your own data, not with those of third parties, other than to the extent otherwise permitted in this Privacy and Cookies Policy.
• To request that we erase, cancel or limit the processing your personal data to the extent that they are no longer necessary for the purpose for which we need to keep processing them, as we have explained above, or when we are no longer legally permitted to process them.

If you have given us your consent to process your data for any purpose, you also have the right to withdraw such consent at any time.

Should you not wish us to send information to third parties to show you ads, you can do it through several means such as changing your preferences on your device, browser and/or cookies settings, reviewing the privacy policies and settings of the social media sites on which you have profiles or sending us an email to the above-mentioned email address informing us of your request.

When we are legally permitted to process your data due to your consent or to for the purposes of a contract, as explained in section 3, you will also have the right to request the portability of your personal data. This means that you will have the right to receive the personal data that you made available to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-legible format. You have the right to move, copy or transfer your personal data from one company to another.

If we consider the frequency of your requests is being unreasonable, we may refuse to comply with your request. In those circumstances, if you disagree, you can complain to the data protection authority – in Malta, the Information and Data Protection Commissioner.

• To stop direct messages from us. We would communicate to you about products or services in which you have shown interest. But you can ask us to stop anytime.

HOW TO STOP MRKETING FROM US:

• Through your website account settings
• By clicking on the “unsubscribe” link in any email we send you.
• By contacting our Customer Care or sending an email to hollier@bigmatmalta.com

Once you do this, we will update your profile to ensure that you don’t receive further marketing messages. Please note that it might take a few days for all our systems to be updated, so you might get messages from us while we process your request.

This cancellation of marketing messages will not stop the service communications though – this may be necessary.

• You have the right to request human intervention if automated processing without human intervention is used to make decisions having legal or similar effects on you.
• To complain to your data protection regulator –in Malta- the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC). In the case you want to exercise your right, having a complain or just a question, please contact in the email hollier@bigmatmalta.com.

Please appreciate that the rights must be exercised within some limitations (you can only access to your own data). When we receive requests, we may also ask for an identification of yourself. Unreasonable requests may be subjected to a reasonable fee or refusal to respond.

• If we make changes to our Privacy and Cookies Policy, we will post these changes online so that you are always aware of what information we collect and how we use it.

7. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PROVIDE US WITH DATA OF THIRD PARTIES OR IF A THIRD PARTY HAS PROVIDED US WITH YOUR DATA?

We offer functionalities or services that require us to process the personal data of a third party that you must provide, such as in the case of activation of the Gift Card, or when you authorise a third party to collect an order in our stores. If you provide us with personal data of third parties, you confirm that you informed them of the purposes and of the manner in which we need to process their personal data.

If a third party has provided us with your data, we will use them to manage the feature or service in question in each case, within the limits of the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy, a link to which is always included in our communications.

8. INFROMATION ON COOKIES

We use cookies and similar devices to facilitate your browsing on the website, understand how you interact with us and, in certain cases, to be able to show you advertisements in accordance with your browsing habits. Please read our Cookies Policy to understand with greater detail the cookies and similar devices that we use, their purpose, how to manage your preferences, as well as other information of interest.

 

COOKIES POLICY

BEFORE YOU START…

In this Cookies Policy you will find information on how we use cookies and similar devices installed on the terminals of our customers and users. The use of cookies may sometimes be related to personal data processing, therefore we recommend you consult our Privacy Policy, available on our website, if you would like information on how we use the personal data of our customers and users, how to exercise your rights, or the terminology we use to refer to our website.

INFORMATION ABOUT COOKIES

What is a Cookie?

A Cookie is a small text file that a website, app or other platform store on your computer, tablet, smartphone or any other similar device, containing information on your browsing and use, like a tag that identifies your device. Cookies are necessary, for example, to facilitate browsing and understand how users interact with platforms so they can be improved. It’s important to know that Cookies do not damage your device.

By “Cookies” we are also referring to other similar technologies used to install and/or collect information on or from your device such as flash cookies, web beacons or bugs, pixels, HTML5 (local storage), and SDK technologies for apps. These technologies sometimes run alongside cookies to collect and store information, either to provide you with certain features or services on our website, or to display third-party advertising according to your browsing.

This explanation is a general overview of the meaning of Cookies and is for informational purposes only. The specific Cookies we use are detailed in the cookies settings panel on our website.

 

What types of Cookies are there?

Please look over this section which provides an overview of the types of Cookies that can be used in an online environment.

Cookies can be classified as follows, depending on the owner:

1. First-party cookies: these are sent to the user’s computer or device from a computer or domain managed by the editor, which provides the platform or service requested by the user.
2. Third-party cookies: these are sent to the user’s computer or device from a computer or domain not managed by the editor, but rather by another that processes data obtained from the cookies.

Cookies can be classified as follows, depending on the purpose:

• Strictly necessary cookies (technical): these allow the user to browse a website, platform or app and use the various options or services on it, such as: control traffic, identify data or session, access restricted access sections or content, remember the elements of an order, complete an order purchase process, manage payment, control fraud related to service security, use security elements during browsing, complete an application to register or participate in an event, store content for publishing videos and audio, enable dynamic content (for example, loading animation of a text or image) and share content on social media. As 13 they are strictly necessary, technical cookies are downloaded by default when they are needed to display the platform or provide the service requested by the user.
• Functionality or customization cookies: these cookies are needed to remember information so that the user can access the service or platform with specific characteristics that can differentiate their experience from that of other users, such as: language, number of results displayed when the user runs a search, appearance or content of the service based on the type of browser used, the region from where the service is accessed, etc. Not accepting cookies may cause slow website performance or poorly adapted recommendations.
• Analysis cookies: these cookies quantify the number of users, sections visited on the platform and how users interact with it to carry out statistical measurement and analysis on use, in order to implement improvements based on the analysis of data on how users use the platform or service.
• Behavioral advertising cookies: these store information on user behavior obtained from continuous observation of their browsing habits in order to develop a specific profile for displaying advertising adapted to these habits. These cookies allow for the most effective management possible of any advertising space the editor has included directly or in collaboration with third parties.

What are Cookies used for on our website?

Cookies are an essential part of how our website works. The main goal of our Cookies is to make your browsing experience as easy and efficient as possible. For example, they are used to remember your preferences (language, country, etc.) when browsing and during future visits. We also use our Cookies to continuously improve our services and to offer customized advertising according to your browsing habits. Information collected on Cookies also allows us to improve our website by making valuations on statistical data and patterns of use (number of visits, most visited sections, visit time, etc.).

We may sometimes use Cookies to obtain information that enables us to display advertising from our website, third-party platforms or any other means, based on an analysis of your browsing habits (products visited, sections consulted, etc.).

In any case, the Cookies we use never sensitive information such as passwords, credit or debit card details, etc.

How can I manage the use of Cookies on this website?

In the Cookies settings panel, available always on our website, you can find all the information on the Cookies used by this website, along with information on the purpose, duration and management (first or third-party) of each Cookie, so you can enable or disable the use of Cookies that are not strictly necessary for the website’s functioning.

Please remember that both managing the Cookies settings panel and opting to reject Cookies is specific to each browser you are using. Therefore, if you configure Cookies one way on one device and want your option to apply equally to another device, you must enable the same option on the other device.

Who uses the information stored on Cookies?

The information stored on our website’s Cookies is only used by us, expect those identified as “Third-party cookies”, which are used and managed by external entities to provide us service aimed at improving our services and the user experience when browsing on our website. More information in the Cookies settings panel that is always available on our website.

For more detailed information on how we process your personal data in collaboration with third parties and on data subject to international data transfers, please read our Privacy Policy, available on our website, and the privacy policies/privacy settings of these third-party collaborators, available on their platforms.