Your Security Matters ...
Security is a massively important factor on any website and we at Wild Places Publishing would like to tell you more about the measures that we use to protect you and your information when you visit our site.
The first thing to notice is the padlock that appears in your browser at the start of the address, which starts with https (the 's' indicates a secure site). With this designation, you know that all the data that flows between your computer and ours, and vice versa, is encrypted; nobody can read the scrambled data while it is in transit.
To use the website, we ask that you acknowledge that we may use cookies. These are small files that help to make the website function - you can delete these or block them using your browser's settings, but this may prevent some aspects of the site working correctly. Cookies are used to ensure that things like your shopping basket work properly and avoid some messages from repeatedly appearing (like the one asking you to accept cookies). Wild Places does not place advertising cookies on your computer.
You are invited to register with the site; indeed, you must do so to place an order, because at minimum we will need your address to post your order to and, if you use a card for payment, the merchant banks will use this as part of their checks against possible fraud. Your password for your account is encrypted and we at Wild Places have no means of reading it: you are able to reset your password if you forget it, but as part of the security measures we cannot (literally, cannot) tell you anything about it or do this for you.
When you make a payment, this is handled by Square with all the security layers that this implies from a trusted payment gateway. Your card details are entered into software that is authorised by Square and at no time are these visible to Wild Places or stored by us. You may be asked to go through a 3D Secure (or equivalent) stage while making payment; this is entirely controlled by Square and your own bank/card supplier, which uses encrypted technology to check your card details against records with your bank. This is an anti-fraud step that protects the use of your card. In addition, Wild Places has to comply with regular security checks on the website.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under the Data Protection Act 2018, which controls what information we are allowed to store and how it may be used. We do not release your details to any other company, other than when required to supply any order you make (such as using the services of Royal Mail) or send emails (which necessarily require that these pass through computers owned by other companies).
To help speed up delivery of pages to your computer, we use the services of a Content Delivery Network that assembles pages ready to send as required. The goal of a CDN is to increase security and enhance the performance of the website, both benefiting you.
Finally, as well as anti-virus software installed on the computers hosting our website, we employ the services of SharkGate, a Cyber Security company that places a very strong firewall between the website and the world wide web as a protection against any attempt to insert malware into the website. As they say: 'SharkGate is the world’s pioneering Cyber Security solution designed exclusively to protect websites against hackers' and it is very, very good at its job. This effectively helps to protect you while you visit our website, and your information in your account.
In short, we do our best to ensure that your data is secure; our site is kept very secure indeed, which protects both us and you. For more information please also see our FAQs and Privacy Policy.