Privacy Policy
Part of the Merlot Digital Legals
Last updated 2024/11/14 (November 14th, 2024)
1. What do we do with your information?
When you purchase something from our company, as part of the buying and selling process, we collect the personal information you give us such as your name, address and email address. Short of some extreme circumstances, such information is never released by The Network Crew Pty Ltd, as you would expect!
When you browse any of our websites or services, we also automatically receive your computer’s internet protocol (IP) address and other data/metadata in order to provide us with information that helps us learn about your browser and operating system. Some or all of that data may be used in marketing/remarketing campaigns.
Email marketing (if applicable): With your permission, we may send you emails about our website, new products and other updates. From within my.Merlot, you’re able to unsubscribe from our general email marketing. Our newsletter (of which you’d either have signed up for in person, during the on-boarding process or on our home page) can be unsubscribed from by using the link in any email footer. Please contact us if you have any troubles with unsubscribing and we’ll gladly assist.
2. Consent and withdrawal
How do you get my consent?
When you provide us with personal information to complete a transaction, verify your credit card, place an order, or arrange for service delivery or a billing change, we imply that you consent to our collection of that information to be used for that specific purpose only. If any information needs to be stored under applicable legislation, it will be held accordingly.
If we ask for your personal information for a secondary reason, such as marketing, we will either ask you directly for your expressed consent, or provide you with an opportunity to say no. All of our direct marketing efforts offer an opt-out process.
How do I withdraw my consent?
If after you opt-in, you change your mind, you may withdraw your consent for us to contact you, for the continued collection, use or disclosure of your information, at any time, by contacting us at help@merlot.digital or writing to us at:
The Network Crew Pty Ltd
ATTN: Privacy Officer
PO Box 3113
Uki NSW 2484
Australia
3. Disclosure of information
We may disclose your personal information if we are required to do so by law (once all requirements have been satisfied). or if you violate our Terms of Service.
There may be other unusual cases whereby usage is required, for example if we determine that you’re a risk to our infrastructure, and we escalate such concerns.
4. Our hardware, your data
Our systems & your information is located on hardware that is owned & operated by The Network Crew Pty Ltd, a 100% Australian family-owned company. We control the environment and ensure that your data remains safe. Part of this includes taking “above and beyond” steps towards greater security.
A large portion of our infrastructure is situated in Australia. Other hardware is located within New Zealand, Singapore, parts of Europe, the UK & USA. The vast majority of our infrastructure is located within Australia, with off-shore services tending to relate to supporting systems (DNS, monitoring systems, etc).
Card payment security:
If you choose to pay using a credit card, your details aren’t stored with us, but are stored directly with Stripe, our token-based merchant gateway. It is encrypted according to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Your purchase transaction data will be stored for at least as long as is required under applicable legislation/s.
All current payment gateways adhere to the standards outlined by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.
PCI-DSS requirements help to ensure the secure handling of credit card information by our company & platforms, as well as our carefully selected service providers.
5. Third-party services
In general, the third-party providers that we utilise will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us. They, like us, also need to adhere to applicable legislation, guidelines & regulations.
However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies in respect to the information we are required to provide to them for your purchase-related transactions. Where possible, we utilise providers who go no further than asking for what’s required from a compliance stand-point.
With these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies to ensure that you understand the manner in which your personal information will be handled. If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact them directly for clarification. We’re here to help where we can if they’re unable to resolve your query.
In particular, it’s important to keep in mind that certain providers may be located in or have facilities that are located in different jurisdictions than yourself and/or us. This means that if you choose to proceed with a transaction that involves the services of a third-party service provider, your information may become subject to the laws of the jurisdiction(s) in which that service provider or its facilities are located.
As an example, if you are located in Australia and your transaction is processed by a payment gateway located in the United States, then your personal information used in completing that transaction may be subject to disclosure under United States legislation, as well as Australian legislation.
Links to other websites:
Once you leave our company’s website/s or are redirected to a third-party website or gateway, you are no longer governed by our Privacy Policy and other policies.
When you click on links on our website/s, they may direct you away from our site/s. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites and encourage you to read their privacy statements, although we do make a conscious effort to only reference websites that we believe to be trustworthy.
6. Security & precautions
To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry standards and best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed. Vulnerability reports should be made via email only to escalate@merlot.digital – allowing 96 hours per reply.
If you provide us with your credit card information, the information is transmitted to Stripe, our merchant gateway provider, and is never stored with us. Once the card’s first payment has gone through, the details remain with Stripe to make future transactions easier. You’re welcome to remove that data from Stripe at any time via my.Merlot. Although no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, we and our financial partners follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional widely accepted industry standards in addition to offloading credit card information.
7. Cookies (not choc chip)
We use several different cookies across our website/s to provide a better user experience.
You are able to view these through your browser and can opt-out if you’d prefer, however this does tend to cause issues with viewing the website’s content without issues. We’ve tried to make it as compatible as possible, so please let our Development team know if you find a problem or would like to recommend improvements.
8. Age of legal consent
By using our site/s, you represent that you are at least the age of a legal adult in your state, territory or province of residence, or that you are at least the age of a legal adult in your state, territory or province of residence to use our site/s.
Typically this means that you will need to be either 18 or 21 years old, at a minimum, to use the Site/s in a capacity whereby you can enter in to Agreements/Contracts.
9. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of the information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.
We’re a 100% Australian family-owned private company with no plans to become anything else, however if our company was to be acquired or merged with another company, your information may be transferred to the new owners so that we/they can continue to sell products and services to you. You would receive advance warning of this eventuality, and would have easy options to move elsewhere before the settlement date.
10. Questions & contact information
If you would like to access, correct, amend or delete any personal information we have about you; register a complaint; or simply want more information, please contact our Privacy Compliance Officer at help@merlot.digital or by writing to us at the below address.
The Network Crew Pty Ltd
ATTN: Privacy Officer
PO Box 3113
Uki NSW 2484
Australia