PRIVACY POLICY
This privacy policy covers Group Purchasing Solutions (“GPS,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) public website, GroupPurchasingSolutions.com, and the group purchasing services provided to GPS members through the password protected web pages (collectively, the “Website”). Your privacy is important to GPS.
Our Privacy Policy is designed to advise you about how we collect, use, and protect the personal information you may provide. By using our Website, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
WHAT INFORMATION IS COLLECTED
When you visit a website, you disclose certain information, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and the time of your visit. Our website, like many other sites, records this basic information about visits to our website. Cookies are pieces of information that are transferred to your computer from a web server. Most browsers are set up to accept cookies, but you can change your settings to have your browser notify you when you receive a new cookie or to refuse to accept cookies.
We collect any information you enter through our Website, or that you give us in any other way. This includes information submitted through our online inquiry forms, sweepstakes and contest submissions, the membership account sign-up process and through your use of your membership account.
When you log in to your membership account through the Website, you will be directed to the websites of various third-party suppliers (“Suppliers”) to make your purchases. Although these websites may be branded as GPS partner websites, each website is hosted and maintained by that Supplier or its affiliates. GPS does not have any control over how information is collected or used once you leave our Website and enter the Suppliers’ websites. We may receive statistical reports from our Suppliers regarding purchases by you and other GPS members. Please refer to each Supplier’s own website regarding their own privacy policy and how they may be collecting or using your information.
HOW WE USE AND SHARE YOUR INFORMATION
We use the information we collect on our Website for responding to inquiries, managing member accounts, providing customer support and administering our business activities. If you provide payment information through your member account, we will use that information to process your payments to GPS.
GPS’ Website is not set up to track, collect, or distribute personal information not entered by visitors. However, certain limited automatic and cookie information is collected. This information is used for internal purposes by technical support staff for research and development, user and traffic analysis, and business decision making.
We may use the information we collect in an aggregated fashion to develop and tailor the services we offer. We will also use member purchasing information to negotiate contracts and agreements with new and existing Suppliers.
We may also use the information we collect for various marketing and promotion purposes including, but not limited to, (1) notifying you about changes to our Website, special offers, or providing you with GPS newsletters; (2) publishing the business names of members in our membership list on the Website or in other promotional materials; (3) using the business names of members for publicity or any other purposes without additional compensation; or (4) notifying you of offerings from other companies we are affiliated with, including our Suppliers. If you do receive any promotional emails, you may opt out of those emails by following the instructions in the email.
On our Website we provide a mechanism to refer our Website to a colleague, which requests your and your colleague’s email addresses. This information will be used solely for the purpose of contacting you or your colleague and tracking the success of our marketing efforts.
From time to time, GPS provides individual and aggregate member information to Suppliers for marketing purposes and to serve you better. We may send information about you to our Suppliers so they can contact you about products, services or special offers that may interest you. You will register with or provide your information directly to each Supplier you wish to do business with as well.
HOW WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION
The privacy and protection of your information is important to us. GPS uses industry standard encryption technologies when transferring and receiving personal information. In addition, our business practices are reviewed periodically for compliance with policies and procedures governing the security and confidentiality of our information.
Your access to some services and content is password protected. We advise that you do not disclose your password to anyone. In addition, we recommend you sign out of password protected services at the end of your session.
WHO HAS ACCESS TO THE INFORMATION
You will submit your information to a Supplier when you purchase products or services from them. The Supplier will have access to all of the information that you provide to it. We may also share your purchasing information and patterns with our current Suppliers and prospective suppliers.
GPS works with other businesses to perform business services for GPS. These businesses are provided with information about our users only to the extent required to perform their services, and are prohibited from using the information for other purposes. These services may include, but are not limited to, providing marketing assistance, support for the Website, processing credit card payments and providing customer service. We may also disclose your information to trusted third-party vendors for marketing, advertising, or other uses.
We may also disclose your information to third parties as reasonably required to protect or exercise GPS’ legal rights, to protect the rights and safety of any person (such as to legal representatives and law enforcement), as you expressly permit, and as required by law (such as the result of a court subpoena).
We may transfer your information in the event of the sale of substantially all of the assets of our business to a third-party or in the event of a merger, consolidation or acquisition. However, in such event, any acquirer will be subject to the provisions of our commitments to you or we will not disclose your information.
LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES
Our website contains links to other websites. This includes the links to our Suppliers’ websites contained in the password-protected portion of our Website. GPS is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those other websites, or for the use of any information you may provide directly to our Suppliers.
NO LIABILITY FOR ACTS OF THIRD PARTIES
GPS will exercise all reasonable efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of user information. However, transmissions protected by industry standard security technology and implemented by human beings cannot be made absolutely secure. Consequently, GPS shall not be liable for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information due to no fault of GPS including, but not limited to, errors in transmission and unauthorized acts of third parties.
CHILDREN
GPS does not provide services or sell products to children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect or maintain any personal information or non-personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. We will remove or delete any personal information we believe was submitted by any child under the age of 18.
CONSENT
By using our Website, you consent to the collection and use of your personal or business information as described in this Privacy Policy. Each use by you shall constitute and be deemed your unconditional acceptance of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, your sole remedy shall be to not use the Website.
CHANGES TO PRIVACY POLICY
If our Privacy Policy or procedures change, we will immediately post those changes to our website. Any changes will be effective immediately upon being posted, unless otherwise stated in the change. It is and will be your responsibility to review our Privacy Policy from time to time to make sure you are aware of any changes.
EFFECTIVE DATE
This Privacy Policy is effective as of September 6, 2011. To see what has changed, Privacy Policy.
QUESTIONS
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, please do not hesitate to contact:
Corinne Donlin
VP of Administration
Global Risk Management Solutions
620 Newport Center Drive, Suite 1100
Newport Beach, California 92660-8011
Phone: (949) 759-8500
Fax: (949) 759-8510