Privacy

This section of our website certainly does not reflect ACUBIEN’S character. It is mind-numbingly dull, but it is essential that we explain important matters relating to the use of the acubien.com website. Given that the information is often draped in legal and rather formal language, we have attempted to enliven the information (even though I think we failed) where possible to make it as accessible and easier to understand.

General Information

The site may be accessed from anywhere around the world and each country has laws that may differ from those of the United Kingdom, where we are currently based. So, by accessing the site both you and we agree that the laws of England and Wales shall apply to all matters arising from or relating to its use and contents, unless it is expressed that the law of another country applies. You also agree that unless we specify otherwise the courts of England and Wales shall have non-exclusive jurisdiction in the unfortunate event that we need to find some legal redress. We certainly hope that is not the case – we are honest people!

“Us”, “Our” and “We” refers to ACUBIEN, acubien.com and affiliated companies. “You” generally refers to visitors, subscribers and readers of acubien.com and related websites.

Please note that our Privacy Policy apply only to acubien.com. We really have no control over other websites, even where we may participate or sponsor banners, advertisements or promotions on sites owned by third parties. To be clear, we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of other websites and it certainly does not mean that we ACUBIEN endorse them in any way.

Children Information

No one under the age of 13 is allowed to use acuben.com, provide any personal information or receive our email recommendations. If you are a minor, and we know that sometimes you lie about your age online, we beg you to please, please obtain the permission of a parent(s) or legal guardian(s) before viewing our website or signing up for our emails. We have children too your safety and protection means so much to us. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with any personally identifiable information without their consent, please contact us immediately at [email protected] and we deal with the matter soonest. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with any personally identifiable information, we will delete this information and the child’s account.

Personal Data

Hands on hearts we are genuinely serious about protecting your personal information and complying with data protection legislation. The core of our relationship with you is centred on conversations on varying levels, particularly through the site. At ACUBIEN it matters to us that you are confident that we respect your privacy and we really want you to know that the protection of your personal information is primary concern. After all, we feel the same way about our own privacy and personal information.

As is very common, we will automatically gather some data from everyone who visits acubien.com, while other information may be obtained at your discretion. We gather some data to enhance your personal experience as you engage with ACUBIEN. When we refer “personal data” we generally mean ‘information collected from you from which you may be personally identified. This may include your name, address, telephone and mobile number, bank and credit card information, log-in or profile name, email address, age, annual income, buying preferences, gender and family status. It may also include other information such as shopping habits and preferences and lifestyle details such as hobbies and interests. Please note we will not collect any personal data from your visits to our site unless you provide this information voluntarily.

ACUBIEN may use your data in a number of ways (but limited too):

• 1. Answering your questions or enquiry, and communicating with you via email on administrative or related to matters in your visit to acubien.com.
• 2. Newsletters, content and articles – sending you content and information which you indicated is of interest to you when you register on acubien.com
• 3. Entering a promotion, competition or offer – we may use abbreviated winners’ identity details, and/or may require winners to participate in future publicity. The promotion may be administered by third party agencies on ACUBIEN’s behalf, and so they may need access to the data you submit for these activities.
• 4. Completing a contract/order – we may need to use the personal data you submit to us in the process of ordering goods or services from us to complete, dispatch or fulfil that order. Where absolutely necessary, we may need to share some data with third parties such as the bank or credit card payment services provider.
• 5. Future direct marketing – where you elect to receive marketing from ACU BIEN, from time to time we will send you information and/or offers about goods and/or services which we believe may be of interest to you. If you agree, we may also share your data with or pass it to other carefully selected companies who may wish to send you information and/or offers about their goods/services. At any time, however, you may unsubscribe from (“opt out” of) such future contact.
• 6. We use the data to improve our site and/or personalize your experience at acubien.com in order to bring you targeted and relevant content and to display such content according to your preferences. From time to time we need to share some information with others, such as advertisers who may be interested in advertising on acubien.com. Rest assured we would never, ever share individual data without your permission. However, we do reserve the right to use and share your personal and non-personal data in an aggregate, anonymous format (which will NOT contain any personally identifiable information about you) for any business purposes, such as analysing subscriber usage trends and seeking compatible advertisers and partners.

Visit Information

Like many other internet based companies, acubien.com automatically tracks the usage of our website, for example using Google Analytics. We profile website usage by tracking the acubien.com pages viewed, the previous and following sites visited, the browser used, and the computer’s address. This information is used to analyse trends, track use, and optimize site administration.Your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address identifies the location from which you enter the Internet, like your Internet Service Provider, your company or your university. ACUBIEN from time to time may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, gather broad demographic information and administer our website.

Registration

In order to enjoy the best experience with ACUBIEN and to take advantage of our website and email communication services, we encourage visitors to complete the profile registration page. During registration, users are required to give their first and last names, email address, gender, age range and country of location. The email is used for a log-in and you are required to create a password. This information is used to allow you as a subscriber to receive tailored content and receive emails on topics for which they have expressed interest, and only where you choose to opt-in to receive email and other communication. Of course, you may opt-out of receiving communication at any time by changing the email settings on your acubien.com profile page, by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link in an email, or by visiting the unsubscribe page.

Regarding Your Social Networking Services (SNSS)

As an acubien.com user you can interact with and use SNSs, such as Facebook and Twitter. To do so, you must provide ACUBIEN with your account details (typically username and password) for an SNS. ACUBIEN and acubien.com will retain those credentials, keep them private and use them to enable your access to the SNS. When you choose to access an SNS via ACUBIEN, we may collect from the SNS your address, gender, user ID, list of friends and any information you’ve chosen to make public through the SNS. Depending on the SNS you choose to utilize via us and in accordance with the privacy settings you have set in your SNS account, you can post information to your SNS account via our platform, and information you have posted to an SNS will become available acubien.com. Gosh, that was tricky to explain! So, for example, via acubien.com you can access and log in to your Facebook account by entering your Facebook account credentials through “Facebook Connect” and interact with your Facebook account via acubien.com. We encourage you to read the privacy policies and other statements of the SNSs you use. You can disable the connection between your ACUBIEN and acubien.com and an SNS you have chosen to access at any time via the “EDIT PROFILE” section.

Secured Information

ACU BIEN take precaution to protect your personal information. When you submit sensitive information via the web site, the information is protected both online and offline. Access to all subscriber information is restricted, and only when specific members of the ACU BIEN team need certain information to perform a specific activity will they be granted access to personally identifiable information. We keep all the team up to date on our security and privacy practices. Please note also that the computer servers on which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment. That said, while we will take utmost care in securing your information, we cannot 100% guarantee that third parties may not unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications.

We therefore are not liable for illegal activities or actions used to gain access to your personal identifiable information.

Third Party Advertising

Some of the advertisements appearing on our website are delivered to you by our web advertising partners. Information about your visit to their website, such as the number of times you have viewed the advertisements on their website (but not your name, address or other personal information), may be used to serve advertisements to you. From time to time you may receive email recommendations from us about third party products and services, and the content are paid for by, and the responsibility of our sponsors. These recommendations do not necessarily reflective the opinions of our editorial staff, contributors or ACUBIEN team.

Linked Sites

At various points throughout acubien.com you may be offered automatic links to other internet sites. Please note that this does not indicate that ACUBIEN is associated with these external sites or their owners. We offer these link because we believe they may be of additional interest to the content we provide, however neither ACUBIEN, affiliates, editors, contributor, employees, agents or associates have any responsibility, or liability whatsoever for these other sites or any information contained in them, particularly since none have be verified or endorsed by us. If at any time you find that you have accessed another site that you do not wish to visit, you may return to acubien.com by clicking on the “backwards” arrow, or by re-keying our web address.

Disclosure to Authorities

We hope this may never happen, but please note that we may be forced or ordered under law (e.g. search warrant, subpoena or court order) to release your personal data and/or private communication. While we have outlined in this Privacy Policy the extent to which we will go to protect and safeguard personal identifiable data, you will appreciate that we are legally obligated act in accordance with the law. Accordingly, you authorize ACUBIEN to disclose any and all information about you to law enforcement or other government officials as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate, in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements or other activity that is illegal or may expose us to legal liability.

Content

The content on acubien.com is provided in good faith and for the purpose to inform, entertain, to offer opinion and to generate conversation and opinions. It should not be depended on for any specific purpose and no representation or warranty is given as regards its accuracy or completeness. Whenever we review, discuss, write about or feature products or services we are not making recommendation to purchase, acquire or consume these products or services.

ACUBIEN curates Third Party Material on acubien.com and other affiliated sites by posting selected content, text, data, graphics, images, photos, video or audiovisual content, hypertext links and any other content that ACUBIEN and our users uploads, posts, compile or submits to us. ACUBIEN expressly makes no claim to the ownership of any Third Party Material which we feature, curate or repost, including content protected by copyright, trademark and other laws of the United Kingdom. ACUBIEN expressly disclaims any liability concerning those materials. We endeavour to credit the source and/or ownership of such material and any failure to accurately do so will be immediately corrected once discovered or brought to our attention. You may not remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying acubien.com content. If you notice any copyright, trademark or intellectual property that has not been properly credited please tell us immediately and we will either correct the information accordingly or remove the information altogether. We take infringement seriously, because we are equally exposed to being infringed… That sounded naughty!

None of this information on the web site shall constitute an invitation to invest in ACUBIEN, acubien.com or affiliated companies nor should it be used as the basis for any investment decision. Neither ACUBIEN, acubien.com or its affiliates nor its or their officers, editors, contributors, employees or agents shall be liable for any loss, damage or expense arising out of any access to or use of this site or any site linked to it including, without limitation, any loss of profit, indirect, incidental or consequential loss. We reserve the right to make any changes and corrections to this site as and when we consider it appropriate and without notice.

The content on acubien.com is provided in good faith and for the purpose to inform, entertain, to offer opinion and to generate conversation and opinions. It should not be depended on for any specific purpose and no representation or warranty is given as regards its accuracy or completeness. Whenever we review, discuss, write about or feature products or services we are not making recommendation to purchase, acquire or consume these products or services.

ACUBIEN curates Third Party Material on acubien.com and other affiliated sites by posting selected content, text, data, graphics, images, photos, video or audiovisual content, hypertext links and any other content that ACUBIEN and which users uploads, posts, compile or submits to us. ACUBIEN expressly makes no claim to the ownership of any Third Party Material, including content protected by copyright, trademark and other laws of the United Kingdom. ACUBIEN expressly disclaims any liability concerning those materials. We endeavour to credit the source and/or ownership of such material and any failure accurately do so will be immediately corrected once discovered or brought to our attention. You may not remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying acubien.com content.

None of this information on the web site shall constitute an invitation to invest in ACUBIEN, acubien.com or affiliated companies nor should it be used as the basis for any investment decision. Neither ACUBIEN, acubien.com or its affiliates nor its or their officers, editors, contributors, employees or agents shall be liable for any loss, damage or expense arising out of any access to or use of this site or any site linked to it including, without limitation, any loss of profit, indirect, incidental or consequential loss. We reserve the right to make any changes and corrections to this site as and when we consider it appropriate and without notice.

Subscriber, Reader Content

We encourage our subscribers and readers of acubien.com to submit their content and information to us because central to ACU BIEN’s core values is to reflect the multifarious characteristics, talents and cultures of the wider Caribbean, Diaspora and Caribbeanistas. However, in submitting your content and information, you do so with the condition that you own all of the content and information. Further, for content that is covered by intellectual property rights, such as photographs, videos, music, etc., you expressly and specifically give ACUBIEN the following permission: you (the user) grant us a perpetual non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide right to use, reproduce and publish any content that you submit to us or in connection with acubien.com and ACU BIEN. We have the right to publish your name, city, state, country, parish and country of residence in connection with the posting or use of your content, such as in promotions or other publications, whether online or otherwise, including but not limited to the websites of ACU BIEN and acubien.com and its affiliates: Facebook, Instagram,  Pinterest, Stubleupon, Tumblr, Twitter and other social media platforms and websites. In no event is ACUBIEN and acubien.com obligated to use, reproduce or publish any content or information submitted by subscribers and readers.

Copyrighted Materials

Copying, reproducing, downloading, posting or re-posting any content from acubien.com (for anything other than strictly personal, non-public and non-commercial use), without ACUBIEN’s expressed and written permission in advance, is strictly prohibited and constitutes a violation of copyright laws. Permission may be granted by our sole discretion and will be conditioned, at a minimum, on ACUBIEN or acubien.com being credited as the source of such content.

Copyright

Copyright © ACU|BIEN, ACUBIEN and ACUBIEN.COM All rights reserved. All copyright and other intellectual property rights in all text, images, sound, software and other materials on this site are owned by ACUBIEN and its affiliated companies (Except Third Party Material which is protected that we curate) or are included with the permission of the owner. You are permitted to browse this site and to reproduce extracts by way of printing, downloading to a hard disk, and by distribution to other people, but in all cases for informational purposes only and provided that the above copyright notice appears in all such reproductions. No reproduction of any part of the site may be sold or distributed for commercial gain nor shall it be modified or incorporated in any other work or publication, whether in hard copy or electronic format, including posting to any other site. No other licence or right is granted.

Trade Marks

ACU|BIEN ACUBIEN is a registered Trade Mark. All trademarks displayed on this site are either owned or used under licence by ACUBIEN and its affiliates. The unauthorised use of any trade mark on this site is strictly prohibited.

Cookies

Use of Cookies

A cookie is a text-only string of information that a website transfers to the cookie file of the browser on your computer’s hard disk so that the website can remember who you are. A cookie will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has come, the “lifetime” of the cookie, and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number. When you visit our website we send you a cookie. Cookies may be used in the following ways:

To help us recognise you as a unique visitor (only as a number) when you return to our website and to allow us to tailor content or advertisements to match your preferred interests or to avoid showing you the same adverts repeatedly. To compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that allow us to understand how users use our site and to help us improve the structure of our website. We cannot identify you personally in this way.

Two types of cookies may be used on this website: “session cookies”, which are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your browser until you leave the site, and “persistent cookies”, which remain in the cookie file of your browser for much longer (though how long will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie).

Use of web beacons

Some of our website pages may contain electronic images known as web beacons (sometimes known as clear gifs) that allow us to count users who have visited these pages. Web beacons collect only limited information which including a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides. We may also carry web beacons placed by third party advertisers. These web beacons do not carry any personally identifiable information and are only used to track the effectiveness of a particular campaign. Because web beacons are the same as any other content request included in the recipe for a web page, you cannot opt out or refuse them. However, where they are used in conjunction with cookies they can be rendered ineffective by either opting out of cookies or by changing the cookie setting on your browser.Some of our website pages may contain electronic images known as web beacons (sometimes known as clear gifs) that allow us to count users who have visited these pages. Web beacons collect only limited information which including a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides. We may also carry web beacons placed by third party advertisers. These web beacons do not carry any personally identifiable information and are only used to track the effectiveness of a particular campaign. Because web beacons are the same as any other content request included in the recipe for a web page, you cannot opt out or refuse them. However, where they are used in conjunction with cookies they can be rendered ineffective by either opting out of cookies or by changing the cookie setting on your browser.

Third party advertising

We may use a third party to serve advertisements on our website. Cookies may be associated with these advertisements to enable the advertiser to track the number of anonymous users responding to the campaign. We do not have access to or control of cookies placed by third parties.

Disabling/Enabling cookies

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. However, you may not be able to use all the interactive features of our site if cookies are disabled.

There are a number of ways to manage cookies. If you use different computers in different locations you will need to ensure that each browser is adjusted to suit your cookie preferences. Some modern browsers have a feature that will analyse website privacy policies and allow a user to control their privacy needs. These are known as “P3P” features (Privacy Preferences Platform). You can easily delete any cookies that have been installed in the cookie folder of your browser. For example, if you are using Microsoft Windows Explorer:

Open ‘Windows Explorer’ Click on the ‘Search’ button on the tool bar Type “cookie” into the search box for ‘Folders and Files’ Select ‘My Computer’ in the ‘Look In’ box Click ‘Search Now’ Double click on the folders that are found ‘Select’ any cookie file Hit the ‘Delete’ button on your keyboard

If you are not using Microsoft Windows Explorer, then you should select “cookies” in the “Help” function for information on where to find your cookie folder.

Phishing

Identity theft and the practice currently known as “phishing” are of great concern to ACU BIEN. Safeguarding information to help protect you from identity theft is a critical priority. We do not and will not, at any time, request your credit card information, your account ID, login password or any other identification details in a non-secure or unsolicited e-mail or telephone communication.

Your rights

Under European Union data protection law, your rights include:

• 1. A right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data to which you have previously consented.
• 2. A right to obtain a copy of the personal data which we hold about you (we reserve the right to charge a small fee for the exercise of this right).
• 3. A right to object to the processing of your personal data for the purpose of direct marketing.
• 4. A right to have incorrect personal data we hold about you corrected.

Contact points

If you wish to raise any data protection issue with us, or exercise any of your legal rights, please contact us at: ACUBIEN, Email address: [email protected]

Updated: 9th May, 2021