Privacy Policy

The purpose of this statement is to give you an outline of how we obtain your personal information and how it is used by Blue Banyan. Please be assured that we take the issue of the privacy of your personal information very seriously and consequently we will only use customer data for legitimate business purposes.

Please note that as part of the ordering process our website captures information about you. We do not use any indirect means to collect personal information about you. By placing an order on our website, by subscribing to our mailing list or by submitting enquiries to Blue Banyan you are agreeing to the use of your personal information.
It is our policy that any information which you provide to us or that we obtain in the course of our dealings with you may only be used for the following purposes:

- to fulfil our agreement with you, including administering any accounts, processing and obtaining payment;
- to inform you (by mail, telephone, e-mail, text message or otherwise) about products and services (including those of other companies within the Blue Banyan group of companies) which we consider may be of interest to you;
- in exceptional circumstances for fraud prevention and detection.

Blue Banyan and its owners will not give or sell your information to 3rd Parties other than for the purposes of processing your payments and fulfilling your orders.

Finally, please note that this Privacy Policy applies only to our website and consequently we are not responsible for the content and privacy policies (including any lack thereof) on web sites linked to our website.

Cookies
In common with most other ecommerce websites Blue Banyan uses cookies. Put simply, a cookie is a text file sent by a web server to a web browser, and stored by the browser. The text file is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. This enables the web server to identify and track the web browser.

In order to improve the order administration process, we may send a cookie which may be stored on by your browser on your computer's hard drive on a temporary basis. We will use the information we obtain from the cookie in administration of this website in the following way:-
Login sessions to enable us to track the logged in users.
Cookies are also set to store shopping basket items.

Please Note that all cookies expire when the browser widow is closed and session is ended. Our website does not store tracking cookies.

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. (For example, in Internet Explorer you can refuse all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy”, and selecting “Block all cookies” using the sliding selector.) This will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites, including this one.

If you have any comments or queries in connection with our privacy policy, please e-mail us at info@bluebanyan.co.uk

Ethical Policy
Blue Banyan aims to trade in a way which supports a sustainable global and local environment and economy.This means in practice that where it is possible and practicable to do so we use certified organic materials and products and (where relevant, possible & practicable) source from Fair Trade suppliers.

Organic - We prefer organic products because of their environmental benefits over conventionally-produced materials (for example, no use of harmful chemicals, recycling principles, waste minimisation). We prefer certified organic products so that both we and you can be sure that the products really are organic - it is unlawful to claim to be organic without being certified and certified producers have to undergo stringent and regular inspections to gain and maintain their organic status.

Fair Trade - We support certified Fair Trade products because the scheme offers producers in developing economies a guaranteed price at a fair level and builds long-term trading relationships with producers in order to readdress the power imbalance between small, relatively poor producers in the developing world and large, relatively rich purchasers of the developed economies. The Fair Trade Foundation awards its certification mark to products which meet the following criteria:

- Price to the producer covers cost of production plus social premium to be used to
improve living and working conditions

- Advance payment to provide debt protection

- Long enough contracts for producers to allow for planning and sustainable
production practices

- Democratic organisations for farmer participation

- For workers, freedom to join trades unions, decent wages, housing and health &
safety standards

- No child or forced labour

- Programmes for environmental sustainability.

Relevant Links:-

Fairtrade Foundation
www.fairtrade.org.uk

Ethical Consumer
www.ethicalconsumer.org