Introduction
Welcome to Emerge Global LLC. We recognize the importance of your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information while providing you with a positive experience on our website and throughout your use of our services. This Privacy Policy outlines our practices and your options regarding the collection, use, and sharing of your information. By accessing or using our services, you acknowledge and agree to the terms outlined herein.
Purpose and Commitment
At Emerge Global LLC, your privacy is paramount. We are dedicated to safeguarding your personal data and enhancing your experience with our services. Our commitment extends to ensuring transparent, responsible, and secure handling of your personal information, consistent with industry best practices and regulatory requirements.
Scope of This Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to all information collected by Emerge Global LLC through your interaction with our website, whether as a registered user or a guest. It covers how we collect, use, disclose, and protect the following types of information:
- Personal Identification Information: This includes, but is not limited to, your name, email address, telephone number, and any other details that might personally identify you.
- Technical and Usage Data: Information that we automatically collect as you access and use our website, such as your IP address, browser type, and browsing behavior.
- User Contributions: Any data that you voluntarily provide and publicly post on our website, including comments, feedback, and other submissions.
The scope of this policy is limited to information collected through our website. It does not apply to information collected offline or through other channels not directly linked to Emerge Global LLC’s digital services.
Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It
Types of Information Collected
At Emerge Global LLC, we gather various types of information to enhance the functionality of our services and improve your experience. These include:
- Personal Identification Information: This encompasses details you provide that can personally identify you, such as your name, email address, and phone number. Such information is often provided by you when you register for our services, fill out forms, or communicate directly with us.
- Usage and Technical Data: We automatically collect information regarding your interactions with our website, including IP addresses, browser types, and detailed usage patterns. This data helps us to understand how you use our services and identify areas for improvement.
Methods of Collection
We collect your information through several methods:
- Directly from You: This information is gathered when you voluntarily provide it during your interactions with our services, such as during registration when filling out forms, or through direct communications with us.
- Automatically as You Navigate the Site: As you use our website, we collect information via cookies, web beacons, and other similar technologies to enhance your user experience and gather insights into usage patterns.
- From Third Parties: We may receive information about you from our business partners, such as data aggregators and marketing partners, which helps us to better tailor our services and communications.
Use of Your Information
Purpose of Usage
The information we collect serves multiple purposes:
- To Provide and Improve Services: We use your information to fulfill your requests for products and services, and to personalize and enhance your experience on our website.
- To Communicate About Products, Services, and Offers: We use your contact details to send you updates and communications about new offerings and promotions, subject to your preferences and applicable law.
- To Provide Customer Service and Respond to Inquiries: When you reach out to us with questions or for support, we use your information to respond effectively.
Marketing
- Promotional Messages and Updates: With your consent, we may send you marketing emails about new products, special offers, and other information we think you might find interesting.
- Market Trends and Customer Interests: Your information helps us to analyze preferences and trends, which assists in improving our service offerings and marketing efforts.
Consent and Sharing of Information
With Your Consent
We respect your privacy and do not share your information without your explicit consent, except as necessary for providing requested services or as required by law.
Third Parties
- Service Providers: We share your information with trusted third parties who perform services on our behalf, such as payment processing (e.g., Stripe). These partners are obligated by contract to protect the privacy and security of the information they process on our behalf.
- Legal Reasons and Business Transfers: We may disclose your information if required by law, or as part of a corporate transaction, such as a merger or acquisition.
Data Security Measures
At Emerge Global LLC, we understand the importance of protecting your personal information. We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal data when you enter, submit, or access your personal information. Below are the specific practices and technologies we use to ensure data security:
Protection Efforts
- Commercially Reasonable Steps: We employ commercially reasonable security measures that include physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, use, and modification. These safeguards are designed to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your personal information and involve:
- Secure server configurations
- Strong data encryption technologies during data transmission
- Regular software updates and security patches
- Secure data storage practices
Breach Notification
- Immediate Notification: In compliance with applicable laws, we will notify you without undue delay after becoming aware of any personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms. This notification will include all necessary information about the breach, its likely consequences, and the measures taken or proposed to be taken by us to address the breach.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies
Types of Technologies Used
To enhance your experience and gather valuable data about how our site is used, we employ various tracking technologies:
- Cookies: Small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enable the site’s or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.
- Flash Cookies: Also known as Local Shared Objects, used to store your preferences or display content based upon what you view on our site to personalize your visit.
- Web Beacons: Small electronic files also known as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs that allow us to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics.
Purpose of Tracking Technologies
- Site Functionality and User Experience: These technologies enable us to tailor user experiences by maintaining user preferences and tracking user trends, such as pages you visit and the frequency of access, which helps us to understand your preferences and improve site functionality.
- Demographic and Usage Data: This data assists us in understanding user behavior and patterns, demographic information, and overall engagement with our site. This helps us to improve service delivery, content, and advertisements based on user activities and interests.
Commitment to Data Security
Emerge Global LLC is committed to ensuring the security of your personal data. By using diverse and robust security technologies and procedures, we strive to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.
Children’s Privacy
Emerge Global LLC recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of children, especially in the digital environment. We are committed to complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and other applicable laws regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of children’s information. Below are the measures we take to ensure the safety and privacy of children under the age of 13 who interact with our services.
Compliance Measures for Children’s Data
- Age Verification: We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 without obtaining parental consent. Our website includes mechanisms to verify the user’s age before any personal data collection occurs.
- Information Collection: In cases where we do collect information from children under the age of 13, it is strictly with parental consent. Parents are fully informed about the types of information collected, how it is used, and whom it may be disclosed to.
- Use and Disclosure: Any information collected from children is used only for the purpose for which it was collected. We do not share or disclose children’s data without explicit parental consent, except as required by law.
Parental Control Options
Emerge Global LLC provides parents with the following options to manage their children’s privacy:
- Review Information: Parents can request to review the personal information collected from their children by contacting us at [email protected].
- Modify Information: If a parent discovers that their child’s information is inaccurate, they can request corrections or updates to ensure the data reflects the correct information.
- Delete Information: At any time, parents can request the deletion of their child’s personal information from our databases. To ensure the security of the information, we may ask the parent to verify their identity before we can process the deletion.
- Restrict Processing: Parents have the option to restrict further processing of their children’s personal information. This means while the information may remain stored, it will not be further processed or used.
Ensuring Safety and Compliance
Emerge Global LLC takes every possible measure to ensure compliance with COPPA and to maintain the online safety and privacy of children. We continuously review and update our practices to keep up with legal requirements and technological advancements. Our dedicated privacy team is committed to making our digital platforms safe for children, providing parents with all necessary tools to manage their children’s data effectively.
Data Retention and Transfer
Emerge Global LLC takes a responsible approach to the management of user information, adhering to best practices for data retention and ensuring compliance with international data protection laws. This section outlines our policies on how long we retain your data and how it is transferred across borders.
Criteria for Retention
- Retention Period: Emerge Global LLC retains personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including for the provision of services, compliance with legal obligations (e.g., tax, accounting, and administrative purposes), and resolving disputes. The specific retention period depends on the nature of the information and the reasons for which it is processed. Generally, user data is retained for the duration of the user’s relationship with us plus a period thereafter as dictated by legal and practical business requirements.
- Data Deletion: Upon expiration of the retention period, personal information is securely deleted from our systems in accordance with our data protection policies and applicable regulations.
Details on Data Transfers
- International Transfers: Given that Emerge Global LLC operates globally, personal information may be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where data protection laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction. When we transfer your data internationally, we take necessary measures to ensure that your data receives an adequate level of protection as required by data protection law, including entering into appropriate data transfer agreements or ensuring that our data transfer mechanisms comply with applicable legal standards.
Your Rights and Choices
Emerge Global LLC respects your rights over your personal data and provides you with various choices regarding the use and control of your information:
Detailed Rights
- Right of Access: You have the right to access personal information we hold about you and to ask how your data is used and disclosed by us.
- Right to Rectification: You have the right to request correction of your personal information if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Right to Erasure (“Right to be Forgotten”): You may request the deletion or removal of your personal information when there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.
- Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to ‘block’ or suppress processing of your personal data under certain circumstances.
- Right to Data Portability: You have the right to receive the personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and the right to transmit that data to another controller.
- Right to Object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data for specific reasons, including processing based on direct marketing, profiling, or statistical purposes.
Management of Cookies
- Cookie Settings: You can manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings at any time. Here’s how you can control or restrict cookies and tracking technologies:some text
- Browser Settings: Most browsers allow you to adjust your cookie settings to delete or block cookies. Please refer to your browser’s help articles for specific instructions.
- Opt-Out Tools: Some third-party sites provide tools to opt-out of data collection through cookies and other tracking technologies, which can help you manage your privacy preferences.
GDPR Compliance and DMCA Procedures
GDPR Compliance
Emerge Global LLC is committed to complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which protects the data rights of European Union (EU) residents. Below is an overview of the rights afforded under GDPR and our legal basis for processing personal data.
Explanation of Rights Under GDPR
EU residents have specific rights concerning their personal data. These rights include:
- Right to Access: You have the right to request access to your personal data and to obtain information about how we process it.
- Right to Rectification: You can request that we correct any inaccuracies in your personal data.
- Right to Erasure: Also known as the ‘right to be forgotten,’ this allows you to request the deletion or removal of your personal data when there’s no compelling reason for its continued processing.
- Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to block or suppress the processing of your personal data under certain conditions.
- Right to Data Portability: You have the right to move, copy, or transfer personal data easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way, without hindrance to usability.
- Right to Object: You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling); direct marketing (including profiling); and processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics.
- Rights Related to Automated Decision Making Including Profiling: You have the right to be free from decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
Legal Justifications for Processing
We process personal data on the following legal bases:
- Consent: We may rely on your explicit consent to process personal data for specific purposes.
- Contractual Necessity: Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
- Legal Obligations: Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject.
- Legitimate Interests: Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject.
DMCA Compliance and Intellectual Property
DMCA Process Explained
To comply with the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Emerge Global LLC follows a detailed process for addressing claims of copyright infringement:
- Notification: Submit a Notification of alleged infringement, including:some text
- A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works.
- Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
- Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an email address.
- A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
- Counter Notification: If material you posted was removed or access to it was disabled and you believe this was a mistake or misidentification, you can send us a Counter Notification.
Intellectual Property Policy
Emerge Global LLC respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects its users to do the same. We have established policies and procedures to ensure that infringed material is dealt with appropriately. Our users are encouraged to respect copyright and other intellectual property rights and to consult the legal guidelines for copyright compliance.
SMS Opt-in and Privacy Terms
SMS Opt-in Compliance
Emerge Global LLC adheres strictly to compliant opt-in methods as required under current regulations to ensure that our customers provide explicit consent to receive text messages. Below is a detailed description of our opt-in workflow, which aligns with industry standards provided by our telephony partner, Twilio:
Paper Form Opt-in Process:
- In-Store Form Completion: Customers visiting our stores can choose to subscribe to our texting campaigns by completing a physical opt-in form. This form collects their phone number and explicit consent to receive promotional and informational text messages.
- Confirmation of Consent: Upon submitting the form, customers are provided with a clear statement of consent that they must agree to, ensuring they are fully informed about the nature of the messages they will receive.
- Documentation and Verification: A digital copy of each completed form is stored securely for compliance verification. These forms are accessible via a publicly shared link, provided during the campaign setup with Twilio, to ensure transparency and compliance validation.
- Opt-In Examples and Details: For more detailed examples of compliant opt-in methods, please refer to Twilio’s guidelines on A2P 10DLC campaign approval, available here.
Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for SMS
In accordance with our commitment to privacy and compliance with regulatory guidelines, the following terms apply to our SMS services:
- Program Description: Emerge Global’s SMS program includes updates on promotions, product launches, and event information.
- Opt-Out Option: You can cancel the SMS service at any time by texting “STOP” to the provided shortcode. Upon receiving your request, we will send a confirmation message confirming that you have been unsubscribed.
- Help and Support: For issues with our SMS services, text “HELP” for assistance or contact our support directly at our provided email address or toll-free number.
- Carrier Liability: Please note that message delivery is dependent on the operation of network providers and thus cannot be guaranteed by Emerge Global.
- Costs and Frequency: Message and data rates may apply depending on your provider plans. The frequency of messages varies according to user preferences and promotional activity.
- Privacy Assurance: Your personal data is respected and protected; it will not be shared or sold to any third parties, in line with Twilio’s requirements and our own privacy standards. Our full privacy policy can be reviewed [here](link to privacy policy).
- Forbidden Message Categories: In compliance with regulations, we do not send messages that include content related to high-risk financial services, third-party lead generation, debt collection, “get rich quick” schemes, illegal substances, prescription drugs, gambling, or any content that falls under the S.H.A.F.T. categories (Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco) as specified here.
Contact Information for Queries and Opt-In Management
For any questions regarding our SMS services, or to manage your opt-in preferences, please contact us via:
Emerge Global LLC is committed to maintaining the highest standards of privacy and compliance in all our customer interactions. If you have any concerns about your data or our SMS services, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
Policy Changes and Contact Information
Policy Changes
Emerge Global LLC is committed to maintaining the highest standards of privacy protection and ensuring our practices align with legal requirements and best practices. Our Privacy Policy may be updated periodically to reflect changes in our practices, new regulatory requirements, or advancements in privacy legislation. Below outlines how we notify you of these changes:
- Notification Procedures: Whenever significant changes are made to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by:some text
- Posting a notice on the homepage of our website,
- Sending an email to the address associated with your account, and/or
- Alerting you through any other communication channels as applicable, at our discretion.
We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about how we are protecting the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the website and our services after any changes or revisions to this Privacy Policy shall indicate your agreement with the terms of such revised Privacy Policy.
Contact Information
At Emerge Global LLC, we value open communication and transparency. Should you have any questions, concerns, or inquiries about our Privacy Policy or your personal information, please do not hesitate to contact us through one of the following methods:
- Email: For privacy-specific questions or any other inquiries, please email us at [email protected].
- Online Contact Form: Additionally, you can contact us via the contact form available on our website. This is a secure method for sending inquiries directly through our site.
Emerge Global LLC is dedicated to providing excellent customer service and addressing your concerns as quickly and efficiently as possible. We strive to ensure your experience with our website and services is secure, comfortable, and compliant with all privacy regulations.