Privacy and Cookie Policy

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy governs the manner in which bits & bytes collects, uses, maintains and discloses information collected from users (each, a "User") of the bitsandbytesmalta.com ("Site"). This privacy policy applies to the Site and all products and services offered by bits & bytes.

Security

Personal information provided on the website and online credit card transactions are transmitted through a secure server. We are committed to handling your personal information with high standards of information security. We take appropriate physical, electronic, and administrative steps to maintain the security and accuracy of personally identifiable information we collect, including limiting the number of people who have physical access to our database servers, as well as employing electronic security systems and password protections that guard against unauthorized access.

Our website uses encryption technology, like Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), to protect your personal information during data transport. SSL encrypts ordering information such as your name, address, and credit card number. Our store also operates over a private, secure network. Please note that email is not encrypted and is not considered to be a secure means of transmitting credit card information.

Information we collect

We may collect personal identification information from Users in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to when Users visit our site, register on the site and in connection with other activities, services, features or resources we make available on our Site.

Users may be asked for, as appropriate:

  • Name
  • Contact information including email address and phone number.
  • Demographic information such as mailing address and preferences.
  • Other information relevant to customer service and/or offers.

Users may, however, visit our Site anonymously, by disabling cookies. This may, however, keep the User from using certain services on the Site.

We will collect personal identification information from Users only if they voluntarily submit such information to us. Users can always refuse to supply personally identification information, except that it may prevent them from engaging in certain Site related activities.

For the exhaustive list of cookies, we collect see the list of cookies we collect section. From your purchases and other interactions with us, we obtain information concerning the specific products or services you purchase or use. When you visit this website, our web server automatically collects anonymous information such as log data and IP addresses and may collect general information concerning your location. We may use the automatically collected information for a number of purposes, such as improving our site design, product assortments, customer service, and special promotions.

How we use the information collected

bits & bytes collects and uses Users personal information in a number of different ways, depending on the information collected. We use this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

  • How we use the user's name & contact details
    • To deliver purchases to the User.
    • To send the User service messages by e-mail, such as order updates.
    • To send the User periodic emails to keep you up to date. If User decides to opt-in to our mailing list, they will receive emails that may include company news, updates, related product or service information. If at any time the User would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include detailed unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email or User may contact us via our Site.
    • To prevent and detect fraud against eitheryouorbits& bytes.
  • How we use the user’s payment information
    • To take payment
    • To prevent and detect fraud against either the User or bits & bytes.
  • How we use the user’s contact & purchase history with us
    • Internal record keeping.
    • To provide customer service and support.
    • We may use the information to improve our products and services.

We also anonymize and aggregate personal information (so that it does not identify the User) and use it for purposes including testing our IT systems, research, data analysis, improving our site, and developing new products and services.

How we protect your information

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

We adopt appropriate data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures to protect against unauthorized access, alteration or disclosure of your personal information.

We do not give the User’s email to any third party unless otherwise stated.

Others with whom we share your information.

  • Service Providers:
    • We may disclose information to outside companies that help us bring you the products and services we offer. For example, we may work with an outside company to:
      • assist us with the delivery service;
      • provide us with the emails distributing service;
    • We make sure that these outside companies agree to keep confidential all information we share with them and to use the information only to perform their obligations in our agreements with them.
  • Compliance with Law:
    • We may provide access to information when legally required to do so, to cooperate with police investigations or other legal proceedings, to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our website, to limit our legal liability, and to protect our rights or to protect the rights, property, or safety of visitors of this website or the public.

Privacy of devices for repair

bits & bytes make sure that we keep your data secure and steps are taken to prevent any unauthorized access to your information. We are aware that you have personal data on your computer, laptop or tablet, which may be sensitive to you or your clients, so we will do our utmost to keep your information safe and secure. We also make sure that the data copied during a repair (for backup purposes), is deleted once the repair is finished.

Cookies, Web Beacons, and How We Use Them

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps to analyze web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes, and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyze data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

A "web beacon" or "pixel tag" or "clear gif" is typically a one-pixel image, used to pass information from your computer or mobile device to a website.

We use cookies and web beacons to keep track of what you have in your shopping cart and to remember you when you return to the website as well as to identify the pages you click on during your visit to our site. We use this information to improve our site design, product assortments, customer service, and special promotions. You can, of course, disable cookies and web beacons on your computer by indicating this in the preferences or options menus in your browser. However, it is possible that some parts of our website will not operate correctly if you disable cookies. We may also use web beacons, and other technologies, to help track whether our communications are reaching you, to measure their effectiveness, or to collect certain non-personal information about your computer, device, or browser in order to allow us to better design future communications to you.

We may contract with third parties who may use cookies and web beacons and collect information on our behalf or provide services such as credit card processing, shipping, promotional services, or data management. We call them our Customer Care Partners. These third parties are prohibited by our contract with them from sharing that information with anyone other than us or our other Customer Care Partners.

It is important that you set your browser to accept cookies so you can buy, save and receive customized recommendation items. You can do this according to the browser you have:

List of cookies we collect

The table below lists the cookies we collect and the information they store.

COOKIE name COOKIE description
CART The association with your shopping cart.
CATEGORY_INFO Allows pages to be displayed more quickly.
COMPARE  The items that you have in the Compare Products list.
CUSTOMER An encrypted version of your customer id.
CUSTOMER_AUTH An indicator if you are signed into the store.
CUSTOMER_INFO An encrypted version of the customer group you belong to.
CUSTOMER_SEGMENT_IDS Stores your Customer Segment ID
EXTERNAL_NO_CACHE A flag that, indicates whether caching is on or off.
FRONTEND Your session ID on the server.
GUEST-VIEW Allows guests to edit their orders.
LAST_CATEGORY The last category you visited.
LAST_PRODUCT The last product you looked at.
NEWMESSAGE Indicates whether a new message has been received.
NO_CACHE Indicates whether it is allowed to use the cache.
PERSISTENT_SHOPPING_CART A link to information about your cart and viewing history if you have asked the site.
RECENTLYCOMPARED The items you recently compared.
STF Information on products you emailed to friends.
STORE The store view or language you have selected.
USER_ALLOWED_SAVE_COOKIE Indicates whether a customer authorized cookies.
VIEWED_PRODUCT_IDS The products that you recently looked at.
WISHLIST An encrypted list of products added to your wish list.
WISHLIST_CNT The number of items in your wish list.

Our website also uses Google Analytics, a service which transmits website traffic data to Google servers in the United States. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. We use reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand website traffic and webpage usage. Google Analytics uses these cookies:

Cookie Name Expiration Time Description
_ga 2 years Used to distinguish users.
_gid 24 hours Used to distinguish users.
_gat 1 minute Used to throttle request rate.
AMP_TOKEN 30 seconds to 1 year Contains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service.
_gac_<property-id> 90 days Contains campaign-related information for the user in conjunction with Google Analytics and Google AdWords.

Online Account Registration

To make online shopping faster and easier, you may register on the bits & bytes website. As a registered customer, you only have to enter your shipping addresses and billing information once; they will be securely stored with us for your future use. Using your email and a password of your choice, you may access your account online at any time to add, delete, or change information. If you are using a public computer, we strongly encourage you to Sign Out when you finish shopping. Your information will still be stored with us but it will not be accessible to anyone else from that computer.

Changes to this privacy policy

bits & bytes has the discretion to update this privacy policy at any time. We encourage Users to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the personal information we collect. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this privacy policy periodically and become aware of modifications.

Your acceptance of these terms

By using this Site, you signify your acceptance of this policy and terms of service. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our Site. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes to this policy will be deemed your acceptance of those changes.

Contacting us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, please contact us.