Southwire Privacy Policy
Last Updated: June 14, 2022.
I. INTRODUCTION
Southwire Company, LLC and our affiliates (collectively, “Southwire” or “we”) recognizes that individuals need to understand how their privacy is protected, so we have established the following privacy policy (this “Privacy Policy”) for our customers and users. This Privacy Policy describes how Southwire will collect, access, use and disclose your Personal Information that Southwire collects in relation to your use of Southwire’s websites, including but not limited to MySouthwire.com, Southwiretools.com, and GarvinIndustries.com (collectively, the “Websites”), and that Southwire collects when you place orders for Southwire products using other methods (e.g., when you place an order offline, such as with a Southwire representative over the phone, or through a third-party e-commerce platform).
For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” is information relating to an identified or identifiable individual. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, Personal Information does not include de-identified or aggregated information and, to the extent permitted by law, does not include publicly available information from government records.
II. INFORMATION COLLECTED BY SOUTHWIRE
In order to provide you with the benefits of using our Websites, Southwire collects certain information from you and your devices. By using the Websites, purchasing Southwire’s products or otherwise providing Personal Information to Southwire, you consent to Southwire’s collection, use and sharing of the data as described in this Privacy Policy.
1. Categories of Personal Information Collected
We may collect, and may have collected in the twelve (12) months prior to the date of this Privacy Policy, the following categories of Personal Information:
- Business contact and shipping information (e.g., name, company name, job title, business email address, business phone number, etc.)
- Personal contact and shipping information (e.g., name, home email address, home phone number, etc.)
- Financial information (e.g., bank account information)
- Government ID numbers (e.g., FEIN for Southwire’s vendors)
- Transactional history (e.g., order information and history)
- Background information, to the extent permitted by law
- Account login information (e.g., username and password used to create account on MySouthwire.com)
- Website Activity Data (as described further below)
- Cookie data (as described further below)
2. Categories of Sources from which Personal Information Is Collected
We may receive, and may have received in the twelve (12) months prior to the date of this Privacy Policy, Personal Information from the following sources, in compliance with applicable laws:
- Directly from you or your device (e.g., when you register for an account on the Websites, complete forms on the Websites, make an online or offline purchase, communicate with us, or subscribe to our mailing lists)
- From a Southwire affiliate
- From a Southwire customer
- From a Southwire service provider or vendor (e.g., service provider collecting information on Southwire’s behalf, or vendor providing information that it owns)
- From third party providers from which you purchase our products (e.g., e-commerce stores, such as Amazon or Home Depot)
- From consumer reporting agencies
3. Information Collected from Your Browser or Device
When you visit the Websites, we may automatically gather and store certain information about your visit from your browser or device, such as your IP address, geographical information, browser type and version, operating system, referral sources, and other information relating to your usage of the Websites (“Website Activity Data”). We may collect this information through the use of browser information, log files, and other methods.
4. Information Collected Using Cookies
Cookies are small data files stored on your device by a website. When you visit the Websites, we may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your device until you delete them) to make your experience on our Websites more personal and interactive. We and our analytics providers use both first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) as well as third-party cookies (such as the Google Advertising cookie). Cookies allow us to collect information such as the pages you viewed on our Websites, the number of times you accessed our Websites, the amount of time you spent on our Websites, and other web traffic data. We also use cookies to conduct analytics on our Websites and for marketing purposes, as described further below. If you do not wish to have your information collected by using cookies, you can disable cookies (or specific cookies) by adjusting your browser settings. Note that if you remove or reject our cookies, it may affect how our Websites work for you. For more information on the Websites’ use of cookies, please visit Southwire’s Cookie Notice. For more information on our use of analytics providers, please see Section V.2 below.
III. USE AND SHARING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
1. Business or Commercial Purposes for Collection or Use of Personal Information
Southwire may use, and may have used in the twelve (12) months prior to the date of this Privacy Policy, your Personal Information in a variety of ways, including:
- To Provide You with Services: We may use your Personal Information to maintain your account, process and fulfill your orders and requests, provide you with the Websites, verify your identity to use the Websites, provide you with customer service, and for troubleshooting, support services, and maintenance.
- To Communicate with You and Send You Materials: We may use your Personal Information to communicate with you, including regarding your account or your orders. We may also use your information to fulfill your requests for information or services, including requests to receive our newsletter and other materials, and to send you marketing or promotional communications in compliance with applicable anti-spam laws. Should you no longer wish to receive these marketing or promotional communications, you may opt out as described in the “Opting-Out” section below. We may also contact you to ask for your feedback.
- To Manage Our Business and Improve Our Products and Services: We may use your Personal Information to manage our business, including performing accounting, auditing and other internal and administrative purposes. We may also use your information to evaluate and improve our products and services (including our Websites), conduct research and perform analysis, learn more about our users and customers and identify new customers, and enhance the customer experience (including to better optimize and target our marketing and services). We may use your information to personalize your experience on the Websites and to improve the security, design, and functionality of our Websites.
- For Other Uses Specifically Identified in Agreements: We may also use your Personal Information for the uses identified in any agreements you may have with us, including but not limited to the Southwire Terms of Use, as applicable.
- Other Uses: We may also use your Personal Information as described in the “Additional Uses and Sharing of Personal Information” section below.
2. Sharing of Personal Information
Southwire may share, and may have shared in the twelve (12) months prior to the date of this Privacy Policy, the categories of Personal Information described in Section II.1 above with the following categories of third parties:
- With Our Service Providers and Vendors: Southwire may share certain Personal Information with third parties acting on our behalf, such as payment processors (as described further below), call center operators, consultants, professional advisers, data analytics providers, and other service providers and vendors.
- With Our Affiliates: Southwire may share your Personal Information with our affiliates or another member within our group of companies (e.g., with our subsidiaries) for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
- With Other Third Parties: We may also share your Personal Information with third parties in certain other circumstances that we identify to you (e.g., as needed to provide a service), including the third parties described in the “Additional Uses and Sharing of Personal Information” section below.
3. Additional Uses and Sharing of Personal Information
In addition to the uses and sharing described above, Southwire may also use or share your Personal Information in the following ways or as otherwise authorized by law:
- To comply with laws, regulations, court orders and subpoenas or similar requests for information by government or regulatory authorities, or as otherwise required by law
- If we determine a policy violation has occurred, including to enforce the Southwire Terms of Use and any other agreements you may have with us
- To identify, contact or bring legal action regarding injury or interference with our rights and property, including to enforce our rights against unauthorized access or attempted unauthorized access to our information technology assets or against other inappropriate use of our Websites
- In connection with pending litigation
- To detect security incidents, investigate and protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecute those responsible for that activity
- For safety purposes, including to respond to an emergency, and to protect the rights, property, safety and security of you and others
- To debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality in the Websites
- In connection with a merger, divestiture, acquisition, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding
- To report to credit bureaus if applicable
4. Payment Processors
All financial transactions conducted in connection with orders placed on our Websites are securely and directly collected and processed by our third party payment processor. We do not store any credit card or bank information from such transactions on our servers.
5. No Sale of Personal Information
Southwire has not sold your Personal Information to third parties, including during the twelve (12) months prior to the date of this Privacy Policy. In addition, Southwire will not sell your Personal Information to third parties (including for their own direct marketing purposes) without further notice to you. If you are entitled to any disclosure rights in your jurisdiction regarding our sale of your Personal Information to third parties or our disclosure of your Personal Information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes, this disclosure satisfies those requirements. If we are required to obtain your consent under applicable laws in your jurisdiction regarding our sale of your Personal Information to third parties, we will comply with such requirements. If we change our practices in the future for any new information that we collect from you, we will update this Privacy Policy accordingly. If you still wish to learn more about our compliance with this requirement, please contact us using the information provided in the “Contact Us” section below.
IV. OPTING-OUT
You may receive email communications from Southwire, including communications regarding the Websites, marketing or promotions, and/or other topics. To contact you, Southwire may use the information you provide to us, including email, address, fax or phone. You may also opt-out of promotional email communications by clicking on a link provided in the promotional email message.
After opting-out, you will no longer receive marketing or promotional communications but will continue to receive other non-marketing-related messages, such as emails relating to your orders, your account or your use of the Websites.
V. TRACKING; THIRD PARTY ANALYTICS PROVIDERS
1. Do Not Track Disclosure
Certain web browsers may provide a do-not-track (“DNT”) option. You may be able to ask your browser to inform websites that you do not wish your activities to be tracked, either with cookies or other persistent identifiers, commonly called “DNT signals.” The Websites currently do not respond to DNT signals.
2. Third Party Analytics Providers
We work with third party analytics service providers, including but not limited to Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel, to help us better understand how you use the Websites. We use certain third party applications on some of the Websites to provide services such as analytics or marketing for us. Such third parties may be able to collect limited information about you, including through the use of cookies (including tracking cookies), as described above.
Google Analytics; Google Analytics Advertising Features
We use Google Analytics to learn more about the types of users that visit the Websites and to help improve the Websites. For example, Google Analytics provides us with certain data regarding the demographics of the users that visit the Websites. To provide this service, Google Analytics may collect certain information about you from your computer, including but not limited to: information regarding your visit (such as the pages you visit and the length of your visit), information about your device (such as your IP address), how you got to the Websites, and other information about you. You can learn more about Google Analytics and how it collects and processes data (including how to control the information sent to Google) by visiting: www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You can opt-out of Google Analytics by using the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/. You can opt-out of your data being used by Google Analytics Advertising Features via Google’s Ads Settings page, available at http://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/ or any other available means (e.g., the NAI’s consumer opt-out, available at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/). Because these opt-out pages are specific to the individual browser, and because these pages are not operated by Southwire, we are unable to perform the opt-outs on your behalf.
Facebook Pixel
We use Facebook Pixel on certain of the Websites, including GarvinIndustries.com, which allows us to display our posted Facebook ads only to a target group of Facebook users (e.g., users who have shown an interest in our products or have other similar factors). By using a “visitor action pixel,” Facebook allows user behavior to be tracked after the user has clicked on a Facebook ad. In this way, Facebook Pixel enables us to understand the effectiveness of our Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes. Please refer to Facebook’s data policy at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update for more information. You can disable this function by going to https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads while logged into your Facebook account.
Hotjar
We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimize their experience on the Websites. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g., how much time they spend on which pages, etc.). Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices (e.g., device's IP address, device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, country location). Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. For further details, please see Hotjar’s privacy policy at https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy.
You can opt-out to the creation of a user profile, Hotjar’s storing of data about your usage of the Websites and Hotjar’s use of tracking cookies on other websites by going to https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy.
VI. CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides California consumers with certain rights with regard to their Personal Information. This Section explains those rights. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, a “California consumer” is a natural person who resides in California, and does not include persons to the extent they are (i) acting as an employee, owner, director, officer or contractor of a company, partnership, sole proprietorship, nonprofit or government agency that is doing business with Southwire (for example, our business contacts, vendors and service providers) or (ii) acting as a job applicant to, an employee of, owner of, director of, officer of, medical staff member of, or contractor of Southwire. If you are a California consumer and would like to exercise your CCPA rights, please see Section VI.5 below for more information on how to submit a request.
1. Right to Know About and Access Your Personal Information
If you are a California consumer, you may have the right to request that Southwire provide you with information regarding what Personal Information about you we have collected, used, disclosed, or sold in the preceding twelve (12) months. Once we receive your request and verify your identity, we will disclose to you one or more of the following as requested:
- The categories of Personal Information we have collected about you in the preceding twelve (12) months.
- The categories of sources from which we collected your Personal Information in the preceding twelve (12) months.
- The business or commercial purposes for collecting your Personal Information in the preceding twelve (12) months.
- The categories of third parties with whom we shared your Personal Information in the preceding twelve (12) months.
- The specific pieces of Personal Information we collected about you in the preceding twelve (12) months.
- You may only make a consumer request to know about or access your Personal Information twice within a twelve (12)-month period.
2. Right to Delete Your Personal Information
If you are a California consumer, you may have the right to request that Southwire delete certain of your Personal Information that we have collected from you. However, this right to deletion does not apply to any of your Personal Information that is subject to an exception under the CCPA (as described below). Once we receive your request and verify your identity, we will delete your Personal Information in our records that is not subject to any of the CCPA exceptions.
CCPA Exceptions
We may deny your deletion request where your Personal Information is required for any of the following reasons, which we will identify in our response to you if we deny your request:
- Complete the transaction for which we collected the Personal Information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
- Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
- Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with your expectations based on your relationship with us.
- Comply with a legal obligation.
- Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.
3. Right to Opt-Out of the Sale of Your Personal Information; Right to Receive Information regarding Sale of Personal Information
If you are a California consumer, you may have the right to opt-out of the sale of your Personal Information. However, as indicated in Section III.5 above, we have not sold Personal Information about you to third parties in the twelve (12) months prior to the date of this Privacy Policy, and we will not sell Personal Information about you without further notice. If we change our practices in the future for any new information that we collect from you, we will update this Privacy Policy accordingly.
If you are a California resident, you may have the right to request and receive certain information about our disclosure of your Personal Information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes, and your choices with respect to such disclosures. As indicated in Section III.5 above, because it is our policy not to share your Personal Information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes unless you are first given the opportunity to opt-out from such sharing, we are exempt from having to meet this requirement. If you still wish to learn more about our compliance with this requirement, please contact us using the information provided in the “Contact Us” section below.
4. Right to Non-Discrimination
If you are a California consumer, you have a right to not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your privacy rights. Southwire will not discriminate against any California consumer who exercises any of the rights described above. Specifically, except as permitted by the CCPA, we will not deny you goods or services; charge you different prices or rates, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties; provide you with a different level of service or quality of goods or services; or suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.
5. How to Submit a Request
If you are a California consumer and would like to exercise any of the CCPA rights identified above, you may submit a request by either sending an email to privacy@southwire.com or by calling us at 1-800-339-7348 and providing the information requested in Section VI.7 below.
6. Submitting a Request Through Your Authorized Agent
If you are a California consumer, you may have the option to designate an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf, so long as the authorized agent has your written permission to do so and you have taken steps to verify your identity directly with us. If you would like to designate an agent, your agent must register as such with the California Secretary of State and submit a copy of this registration along with your consumer request to us. We may need to contact you directly to verify the request.
7. How We Verify Your Request
We cannot fulfill your request to provide you with or delete your Personal Information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the Personal Information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us.
Once you have provided the required information to Southwire, we will confirm your identity by conducting an electronic search of our internal systems to ensure the information provided by you in your request matches what we have in our systems.
To verify your identity, we will ask that you provide the following information when you submit your request:
- Your name
- Your home address and, if different, shipping address
- Your state of primary residence
- Your home phone number
- Your email address
- Means of purchase (e.g., directly from Garvin, through a third party website, such as Amazon, etc.)
- Date of most recent transaction and description of items purchased
Depending on your type of request or the information requested by you, we may require additional information in order to verify your identity and fulfill your request. If we cannot successfully verify your identity, we will inform you of that fact.
We will respond to your request within forty-five (45) days. However, in certain circumstances, we may require additional time to process your request, as permitted by the CCPA or other applicable law. We will advise you within forty-five (45) days after receiving your request if such an extension is necessary and why it is needed. Any disclosures we provide will only cover the twelve (12)-month period preceding our receipt of your request. If we cannot fulfill your request, our response to you will also explain the reason why we cannot fulfill your request.
We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.
VII. CANADIAN RESIDENTS: YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS
Canadian data protection laws provide that Canadian consumers receive certain notices and that they have certain rights with regard to their Personal Information. This Section provides those notices and explains those rights.
Consent. By purchasing our goods and services, submitting information to us in connection with using our goods or services and/or by visiting, interacting with and/or using our Websites, you are providing your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information as set out in this Privacy Policy. You may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with the requested goods or services, and it may impact the functionality of our Websites.
Cross-border transfer. In some cases, Personal Information that we manage may be transferred, processed and stored outside Canada, and therefore may be available to government authorities under lawful orders and laws applicable in such foreign jurisdictions.
Retention. Personal Information will be retained only as long as necessary for the fulfilment of the purposes for which it was collected and for which consent was received, unless otherwise required by law. Personal Information that is no longer required to fulfil the identified purposes will be destroyed, erased or made anonymous.
Access rights. You have the right to access and rectify the Personal Information we hold about you. Upon request, we will provide you with access to your Personal Information within a reasonable timeframe, in compliance with applicable laws. You can request access or rectification by contacting us as described in the “Contact Us” section.
VIII. SAFEGUARDING YOUR INFORMATION
Southwire is committed to maintaining the security of the data you provide us. However, please note that there is always some risk in transmitting information over the Internet. Because the Websites are provided through the Internet, when you use the Websites, your communications may be intercepted by others. For this reason, Southwire cannot guarantee the security and privacy of transmissions via the Internet, and we will not be liable for any lack of security relating to the use of the Websites by you. You agree that you will not hold Southwire liable for any damages resulting from any loss of privacy or security occurring in connection with any communications over such networks.
IX. EXCLUSIONSThe Websites may contain links to websites owned by other companies. Because Southwire has no control over the privacy practices or content of these linked sites, we recommend that you carefully review the privacy policy of each website you visit. Southwire is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of websites owned by other companies.
This Privacy Policy addresses Southwire’s procedures for handling the Personal Information of customers who are at least 16 years old. We do not seek to, nor do we knowingly collect, information from children. If a child has provided us with Personal Information, a parent or guardian of that child may contact us to have the information deleted from our records. To do so, contact Southwire through the information provided below in the “Contact Us” section.
X. CONTACT US
For questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
By Phone:
1-800-339-7348
By Postal Mail:
Southwire Company, LLCAttn: Legal Department, General Counsel
One Southwire Drive
Carrollton, GA 30119
USA
By E-mail:
XI. UPDATES TO PRIVACY POLICY
From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy. If we do, we will note near the top of this page the date that any changes are made and/or when they become effective. If the changes being made are material, we may alert you to the changes in a more prominent way and obtain your consent if required by law. Your inaction or continued use of the Websites after any such notices, will tell us that you agree to these changes.