Angara Privacy Policy

Effective Date: September 30, 2022

Introduction:

Angara values the trust you have placed in us. As a part of our relationship, we recognise and respect your privacy. That is why Angara is committed to protecting your privacy and using the information you share with us responsibly. Our Privacy Policy describes the information we collect about you, why and how we use it as well as your choices regarding such information. We collect, use and process your personal data in accordance with the applicable national and provincial data protection laws.

This Website www.Angara.com/ca-en (the “Site”) is owned and operated by Angara Gems Ltd. with its principal place of business in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

By visiting www.Angara.com/ca-en, you are confirming your agreement to the privacy policies described here. If you do not agree and consent, please discontinue using our services. Angara encourages you to periodically review our Privacy Policy to understand our privacy practices.

Definitions:

a) “Personal Data/Information” refers to the information that can be used to identify an individual who engages with our services or otherwise becomes a customer.

b) “Data Subject” means the end-user whose personal data can be collected and processed.

c) “Processing” means any action performed on the gathered personal data whether or not by automated means.

d) “Consent” means any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous action that shows agreement to having personal data processed with the permission of the data subject.

COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

We obtain, store, use and transfer different kinds of personal information provided by you via various channels and other automated means (such as cookies, web beacons, pixels, tags, web server logs and other technologies). These get captured when you visit our website, update your profile, access our content, place an order, interact with our emails, participate in a contest, promotion, survey, contact customer support and interact with other Angara-related ads, content, tools, widgets or plug-ins. We may also receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as mentioned below:

Information Provided by You

  • Identity Data: Entails information such as your first name, maiden name, last name, username, gender, date of birth, marital status and similar identifiers.
  • Contact Data: Includes your name, email address, billing address, postal address, contact number and other similar details.
  • Demographic Information: Details such as your age, gender and country.
  • Login Credentials: Information related to your password, authentication and account access.
  • Financial Details: Entails the necessary information required to process your payment such as your bank details, card number, expiration date, etc.
  • Profile Data: Includes your professional interests, wish lists, ring size preferences and other profile-related information.
  • Content: Includes all the content you have shared with us, such as feedback, product reviews, shopping history, photographs, purchase and transaction information or questions.
  • Contacts: Includes information about other people that you provide to us.
  • Career Prospects: Comprises information related to Human Resource practices such as career opportunities, recruitment, employee onboarding, etc.

Information Collected Automatically

Angara automatically collects information about your device and how it interacts with us. Some examples include:

  • User Behaviour Data: Includes information about the products purchased, pages visited, features used, emails and ads viewed, the time of day you browse and other similar information.
  • Device Data: Includes information regarding the type of device or browser you use, your device’s operating software, your internet service provider, your device’s regional and language settings and other similar information. It also includes details regarding your device’s location and IP address.
  • Marketing and Communication Data: Comprises your preferences in receiving marketing content from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

Information Collected Through Cookies, Web Logs and Other Tracking Technologies

  • Web Logs: We automatically collect information, such as your IP address, your browser type and language, and the date and time of your visit, which helps us track your movements around our site.
  • Device Fingerprinting and Pixels: Device fingerprinting is the process of analysing and combining information from your device’s browser in order to create a “fingerprint” of your device and uniquely identify it. Angara may use electronic images known as pixels or web beacons. When you access a website, email or an advertisement that contains a pixel, it may permit us or a third party to drop or read cookies on your browser.
  • Cookies: Cookies are bits of information that are automatically stored on your computer's hard drive to recognise your preferences in order to make shopping easier. We also capture information about your online activities and click stream data. These include information about your devices, browsing actions and usage patterns across online channels and third-party websites, obtained through the use of web beacons, cookies and similar technologies. Please refer to our Cookie Policy to know more about cookies, how we use cookies and how you can manage them.

Information From Other Services

To respect your privacy, Angara will not sell or rent the personal information you provide to us online to any third party. However, we may gather information about you from third-party sources such as social networks, public databases, partners, affiliates and data brokers.

CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE TO PROVIDE PERSONAL DATA

We will need to collect some of your personal data, either by law or under the terms of a contract we have with you. If you fail to provide this data upon request, we may be unable to fulfil the contract we have, or are trying to enter into with you (for example; providing you goods and/or services). In this case, we may have to cancel the order you have placed with us. However, we will notify you of such cancellations.

LEGAL BASES AND PURPOSE FOR USE OF INFORMATION OBTAINED

Legal Bases: In order to use the personal information obtained by us, we rely on numerous legal bases as mentioned in GDPR, which includes:

  • Performance of a contract with you
  • Our legitimate business interests
  • Compliance with a legal obligation, court order, or to exercise or defend legal claims; or your consent to the processing, which you can revoke at any time.

Purpose for Use of Information: We use the personal information for the following purposes in compliance with legal bases as mentioned above:

The information obtained is used to execute a contract with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract, which includes:

  • Transacting and providing you with various products and services.
  • Processing and fulfilling orders related to our products and services, and keeping you updated about the status of your order.
  • Managing career opportunities, including recruitment, employee onboarding and other Human Resources-related purposes.
  • Offering customer support, along with the creation and management of your Angara account.

    • The information collected is used on the basis of our legitimate interests to:

  • Verify your identity.
  • Review your information for errors and accuracy.
  • Operate, evaluate and improve our business, including developing new products/services; enhance and improve our services.
  • Confirm and manage your orders, track the ongoing processes, provide services such as cleaning, repair and resizing of the products and respond to your queries.
  • Interact with you via email, postal mail, phone and other means to improve the overall customer experience.
  • Manage our communications; analyse our products and customer base for demographic and behavioural features.
  • Perform data analytics, accounting, auditing and other internal functions.
  • Reduce credit risk and manage collections.
  • Send you promotional materials and other communications (including thank-you notes, special occasion reminders and other communication from sales professionals you have engaged with).
  • Manage your participation in special events, contests, sweepstakes, programs, offers, surveys and market research.
  • Identify and prevent fraud and other unlawful, illegal activities, claims and other liabilities.
  • Abide by and enforce relevant industry standards, contractual obligations and our policies.

    • In addition to the above, we process your personal information for the following:

  • To comply with and enforce applicable legal requirements.
  • For the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in administrative or out-of-court procedures.

SHARING OF INFORMATION COLLECTED

Personal information collected is not disclosed other than the way it is mentioned in this Privacy Policy.

  • Personal information gets shared with third-party service providers who deliver services on our behalf.
  • Personal information gets shared with third-party entities that process credit card payments, verify information, manage and reduce credit risks, fulfil orders, provide logistics and shipping services, provide web hosting, analytics and marketing services.
  • Your personal information will be shared within the Angara Group worldwide for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

We do not authorise these third-party service providers to disclose and use information in any manner except as necessary to carry out service obligations on our behalf or to comply with legal requirements.

  • In addition to this, Angara may also disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:

    • a. If we are required to do so by laws or for legal processes.

    b. With law enforcement authorities or other government officials.

    c. When we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss, or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual fraudulent or illegal activity.

  • Business Transfer: We also reserve the right to transfer personal information we have about you, if we decide to sell or transfer (or contemplate the sale or transfer of) all or a portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a merger, acquisition, joint venture, reorganisation, divestiture, dissolution or liquidation).
  • Fraud Protection: We may disclose your information

    • a. To other companies and organisations for fraud protection and risk reduction

    b. In order to investigate, prevent or take action regarding potential violations of our terms and conditions or other policies.

Consent: In case we have to share your information for any other purpose apart from the ones already disclosed to you, we will only do so after receiving your consent.

DATA TRANSFER OUTSIDE CANADA

Angara may transfer, process and save your personal data in countries other than the Canada, including the jurisdictions in which our affiliates and service providers operate. However, these countries may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which your personal data was initially collected. Whenever we transfer your data to other countries, we will have necessary safeguards in place to protect your data as described in this Privacy Policy. We will also ensure that these safeguards fulfil any legal requirements as may be applicable.

DURATION OF INFORMATION RETENTION

Angara retains your information for as long as your account is active or as per the applicable statute of limitation periods. Further, the duration of retention of data depends on the purpose for which we process the data.

Angara stores your personal data during the manufacture and delivery of your products, as well as the period specified in the return policy for any possible returns and/or product warranty.

If we need additional data to verify your identity, we will ask for it and will store the same until the legal obligation to store this data no longer applies.

The processing time will be determined as per the collection of personal data for specific campaigns, sweepstakes and other promotional activities about which the participants will be informed.

YOUR RIGHTS AS A DATA SUBJECT

You, as a data subject, have rights under GDPR and other relevant data protection Laws in relation to your personal data. You can exercise your rights as mentioned below, to the extent provided by the applicable laws:

  • Right to access your personal data i.e., the right to access, update, review or delete any of your personal data through our service by logging in to your Angara account or by contacting us
  • Right to have personal data to be rectified/corrected, if it is inaccurate and personal data to be completed, if it is incomplete
  • Right to erasure (“the right to be forgotten”) of your personal data i.e., you have the right to ask us to delete or remove personal data if you believe that it is no longer of use to us
  • Right to restrict/object processing of your data i.e., you have the right to object on legitimate grounds where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes or purposes materially different from what it was originally collected for or subsequently authorised by you
  • Right to data portability i.e., the right to receive selected personal data stored with us about you in a commonly used and structured format, or to provide consent for the transmission to another person
  • Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in your country if you are not satisfied with our responses
  • Right to withdraw your consent i.e., you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time for any data processing we do based on the consent you have previously provided to us

You can exercise any of the above-mentioned rights by contacting us. You can contact Angara using the details in the “Contact Information” section and specify which of the rights you intend to exercise. We will respond to your request within 30 days of receiving the enquiry. To unsubscribe from our promotional emails, use the “Unsubscribe” link displayed at the bottom of the emails or contact our customer support team.

We may require additional information from you to allow us to confirm your identity before granting access to your information while complying with your request. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may charge a reasonable fee to comply with your request if we find it to be manifestly unfounded or excessive, in order to provide you with additional copies of the personal information we maintain about you.

Please note that we store information as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, and may continue to retain and use the information even after a data subject request for purposes of our legitimate interests, including as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and enforce our agreements.

DATA SECURITY

We use a combination of administrative, physical and electronic security technologies, procedures and organisational measures to protect your personal data against loss, destruction, access, modification, distribution of your data and to help protect your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure.

We have implemented an array of internal ethical rules for the processing of personal data. Our employees have received special training on the principles of the right to personal data protection and the basic obligations of companies in relation to the applicable national and provincial data protection laws. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to only those who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

The security of your Personal Data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee its complete protection against all threats.

CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

This Website is not intended for use by children. We are committed to protecting the privacy of children and do not knowingly collect any personal information from children below the age of 13.

If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 years of age, we will promptly delete the information.

SMS AND WHATSAPP POLICY

By providing your mobile number and opting in, you agree to receive recurring marketing and promotional messages via SMS or WhatsApp from Angara. These messages may be updates about orders, new launches or offers.

You may withdraw your consent to receive SMS/WhatsApp messages at any time by replying “STOP” to any promotional message. It is important to note that your consent for text messages is not a mandatory requirement to receive other notifications from Angara, such as order updates, if any.

Neither Angara nor carriers shall be held responsible for messages that are delayed or undelivered. Standard messaging and data rates apply.

Angara will never request, nor should you ever provide any personally identifiable information, passwords, or any other confidential or sensitive information through SMS/WhatsApp messages.

If you come across any issues with the SMS messaging program just reach out to our customer service team at 1-866-341-5474. By continuing to use Angara’s messaging services, you indicate your acceptance of this SMS and WhatsApp Policy.

Our website uses so-called "Cookies" and similar tracking technologies (such as web beacons, pixels, tags, web server logs) to track the activity on our service and store certain information. We use these technologies in order to make our website user-friendly and to enable the use of certain functions, to improve and analyse our service, to display suitable products or for market research.

What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files. They do not cause any damage to your computer or device. When you visit our website, our web server sends cookies to your device. It allows us to recognise your device when you come back and obtain insights about your usage of our website. This helps us improve the performance and functionality of our services.

In some cases, cookies from third-party companies can also be stored on your device when you enter our website (third-party cookies). These enable us or you to use certain services of the third-party service provider (such as social media “like” and “share” buttons, processing payment services, interest-based advertising, etc.).

We do not store sensitive personal information, such as mailing addresses, contact numbers, account passwords, etc. in the cookies we use.

Cookies are stored on your device either temporarily for the duration of a session (Session Cookies) or for a certain period of time (Persistent Cookies). Session cookies are automatically deleted after your visit. Persistent cookies remain stored on your device until you delete them yourself or until they are automatically deleted by your web browser.

Types of Cookies Angara Uses and Their Purposes:

  • Essential: The essential cookies are functional requisites to help us keep our website services operational and cater to the customer’s requirements. These operational features help the customer to access secure areas, which include the My Account section, shopping cart, etc.
  • Marketing: These types of cookies help us customise, regulate and deliver advertising that is better suited to the customer’s needs and interests. For example, the customisation relates to the capping frequency of the times the customer gets to see an advertising campaign. Further, how and when Angara can “retarget” its visitors. For more details, please refer to Interest-Based Advertising.
  • Personalisation: These types of cookies allow the Angara website to remember the customer’s choices such as user name, specific language, geographical region, etc. and help Angara to render better services in terms of enhanced, more personalised and interest-based user experience.
  • Analytics: These types of cookies help Angara to understand and improve its website’s performance. These cookies capture information related to the visitor’s interaction with the website including reporting of technical issues. This type usually does not collect information pertaining to the visitor’s identity. Further, the analytics cookies help Angara gather information related to the popularity of its marketing campaigns.

The Choice You Can Make:

You can change your browser settings to restrict cookies from your device, if your browser permits. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse all or some cookies. Please be aware that if you disable or remove cookies, the functionality of our website may be restricted. For additional information on how to manage all cookies, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

LINKS TO NON-ANGARA SITES AND SERVICES

Our Online Channels may contain links to non-Angara websites, apps and services that may be operated by other companies that are not associated with us. These companies may have their own privacy policies and we recommend that you review these policies. Furthermore, some third-party platforms may also offer you our products and services. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of non-Angara websites, apps or services.

The data gathered and saved by third-party service providers, even if directed through this website, will remain subject to their own privacy policies and practices, including the data they share with us, your rights to their products and services and how they process your data.

THIRD-PARTY FEATURES

We may provide links to third-party sites or services via our website. If you access and use a third-party feature, both we and the applicable third party may have access to and use the information gathered through these features. Some examples of such features include:

  • Brand Pages: We may feature our content on social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Any information you provide to us when interacting with such content on our brand pages on social media will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Also, if you publicly mention our service or product on a third-party site; for example, use a hashtag associated with Angara in a post, we may also feature them on our service.
  • Liking and Sharing: We may embed a pixel that allows you to “like” or “share” content on your Angara account, through social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We may also collect any data you have allowed the third party to share with us such as your user ID, public profile information, email ID, date of birth, friend list and other data.

When you engage with third-party features and services, the providers may use automated means to access data related to your interactions with these features. This practice is subject to the privacy policies of the respective third-party providers; and to the extent permitted by applicable laws.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS, GOOGLE ADS AND CONVERSION TRACKING

Our website uses “Google Analytics”, a web analysis service offered by Google Inc. (“Google”). This service uses cookies to collect and access your data when you visit our website. Google uses this data to evaluate your use of our website on our behalf, create reports on website activity and provide other services related to website activity and internet usage. This information is also shared with other Google services. Google may use this information to contextualise and personalise the ads of its own advertising network.

Google summarises the data it collects into pseudonymous user profiles and transfers it to a Google server in the USA. Your IP address will remain anonymous. Therefore, we will be unable to determine which user profile belongs to a particular user. We cannot identify you on the basis of the data collected by Google, nor can we know how you use our website.

Our website also uses “Google Ads,” an online advertising programme by Google Inc. Within the framework of Google Ads, we use conversion tracking. When you click on an ad placed by Google, a cookie is set for conversion tracking. If you visit certain pages of this website and the cookies have not yet expired, Google and we can recognise that you clicked on the ad and were redirected to this page. Google Ads customers will get information about the total number of users who clicked on their ads and were directed to the page with a conversion tracking tag. However, they do not get information that allows them to personally identify such users.

For more information on Google’s privacy practices, please visit https://policies.google.com/privacy.

To know more about how Google uses the data from your activities when you visit and use Google’s partner sites or apps, please visit https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

You can also prevent the collection of data by Google, generated by cookies and related to your use of the website (including your IP address), and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at : https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

You can adjust your Google Ads settings here https://adssettings.google.co.ca/authenticated

CUSTOMER MATCH, CUSTOM AUDIENCES AND LOOKALIKE AUDIENCES

In order to advertise our products and services, we engage with certain third parties such as Google Ads and Facebook. We may share your email address or mobile number with these third parties. They may link your name, mobile number or email address to other data they collect and create custom audiences or offer targeted advertisements.

We may use Google Ads Customer Match to provide you with personalised ads based on the data we share with Google, such as your email address. Please note, Google doesn’t receive actual email addresses. Google’s system automatically transforms contact information such as email addresses and phone numbers into hashed codes using a secure hashing algorithm, a one-way hashing mechanism not unencrypted by Google. Customer Match allows us to use your email address to reach you via Google’s ad network. Google users can control the ads they see on the Google network, including Customer Match ads, in their Google Ads Settings.

We may use Facebook Custom Audiences to show you personalised ads on Facebook, using your email address or mobile number. This tool allows us to personalise our ads based on your engagement with us. It also enables us to convert your email address into a unique number. Facebook then matches this unique number to other unique numbers that it creates from email addresses of its users. As a Facebook user, you can control the ads you see in your Facebook account, including Custom Audience ads, in Your Ad Preferences.

Lookalike Audiences:

To enhance our advertising, we sometimes use customer information to create lookalike audiences or similar segments of prospective customers through Facebook or Google advertising platforms. This enables us to show ads on their networks to potential customers who seem to have interests or demographics similar to our existing customers, based on the platforms' own data. This is usually done by uploading a list of email addresses. Facebook's policy is to irreversibly hash or encrypt such lists prior to uploading. Then, they match the encrypted data against their own customers, generate the lookalike audience, delete the uploaded list and use it for no other purpose. We do not have access to the identity of users in the lookalike audience list, unless they choose to click on the ads. Based on this, we believe that generating lookalike audiences poses little or no threat to our customers’ privacy.

Please refer to the “Interest-based Advertising” section below, to learn how to opt out of receiving personalised ads.

INTEREST-BASED ADVERTISING

When you use our Online Channels, we and certain third parties (our digital advertising partners, advertising networks and social media platforms) will collect your data. These third parties include but are not limited to Google Ads, Facebook, Bing Ads and Criteo. The data collected may include information about your online activities, which we may use to show you personalised ads about our products and services. This data may also be used for remarketing, which displays advertisements relevant to pages or products you have previously viewed on our website. We may receive this data through third-party websites that display our ads. Some of our ads may be viewable on other platforms such as Facebook, Magnite and Twitter because we engage with third-party ad buying networks. These buying networks help us target our messaging based on user interest, demographic and contextual means. Further, the ad network may collect data on our behalf about your visits to websites that show Angara ads, your interactions on these websites and the pages or advertisements you viewed.

This data is collected on our website as well as on third-party sites that are part of these ad networks and help in tracking the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. The data collected by ad networks and other third-party sites through their tracking pixels, cookies and scripts is stored and processed by them and is subject to their own privacy policies and terms of use. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with their terms and policies.

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by choosing the opt-out links on the ads you receive or by contacting us via the details given below.

Some of the third-party advertisers and ad networks you receive personalised ads from, may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) or may be following the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioural Advertising. You can remove yourself from their advertising programs by visiting the respective opt-out pages on the NAI and DAA websites.

In addition, you may also deactivate personalised ads from many providers that are part of the self-regulatory campaign, Your Online Choices by EDAA

After you opt out, you may still receive some ads from us that are not customised based on your Service or user information, or ads from other third parties if they are not part of the DAA, EDAA or NAI. Further, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, product/service experience or any other engagement.

EMAIL ADVERTISING WITH REGISTRATION FOR NEWSLETTER

As part of our services, we provide the facility to subscribe to our newsletter. We will process your personal data to regularly send you our email newsletter, based on your consent, in accordance with applicable national and provincial data protection laws.

You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, either by contacting customer support or via a designated link in the newsletter.

UPDATION OF THE PRIVACY POLICY

We will revise and update this privacy policy whenever deemed necessary and the changes will be posted on the website along with an “Effective Date” at the beginning, and we reserve the right to do so at any time. For any significant updates, we will take appropriate measures to inform our website visitors and buyers. Lastly, in case you do not agree to the most recent updates, you may report them to our team at the below mentioned details and stop using our services with immediate effect.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you would like us to update the information, we have about you or your preferences, please contact us via the following:

By Email: customerservice@angara.com

By Phone: 1-866-341-5474