Privacy Policy

Mercatus Technologies Inc. (“Mercatus”, “us” and similar terms) is committed to the protection of Personal Information. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) governs the manner in which Mercatus collects, uses, maintains, discloses and otherwise processes Personal Information, including any Personal Information collected from or about visitors to our website (“Website Visitors”) located at mercatus.com (“Website”). This Policy applies to the Website and all products and services offered by Mercatus.

Where we collect and process your Personal Information through your use of the Website, we are the “controller” of that Personal Information for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). You can find our contact details in the “Contact Us” section of this Policy.

In this Policy, “Personal Information” means information about an identified or identifiable individual that is legally protected by applicable privacy and/or data protection legislation.  Depending on where you are located in the world, you may be more familiar with the term “personally identifiable information” or “personal data”. If you are located in California, “Personal Information” means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with an identified or identifiable individual or household.

When we refer to our “Clients” in this Policy, we mean our customers (i.e. retailers) who operate e-commerce platforms supported by our architecture.

Please read this Policy carefully before you provide us with your Personal Information. By providing us with your Personal Information and/or using the Website, you agree to the collection, use, disclosure and other handling of your Personal Information in accordance with this Policy and as otherwise permitted or required by applicable laws.  If you do not agree to the terms of this Policy, please do not use our Website or otherwise provide us with your Personal Information.

For a printable version of this Policy, please click here.

We understand that your time is valuable.  Therefore, we have set out below some important highlights of our Policy.  You can obtain more information about how we collect, use, disclose, store and otherwise handle your Personal Information by reviewing our full Policy and clicking on the links provided below.

Go to “Collection of Personal Information”
Go to “Purposes of Collection, Use & Disclosure”
Go to “Sharing of Personal Information”
Go to “Safeguards”

What Personal Information do we collect?

• We collect information that you provide directly to us when you request a product demo, use the “Contact Us” feature on the Website, sign-up to receive our marketing communications, access or download our restricted marketing materials on the Website, provide us with your contact information at a trade show, fill out a form on our Website or otherwise contact us, including your name, email address, company name, job title, phone number, social media address or handle, Personal Information posted on your social media account or platform, and any Personal Information contained in your communication with or submission to us.
• We collect information that you provide to us when you complete one of our surveys, including demographic information (such as gender, ethnicity, age), postal/zip code, information about your household (such as number of people, number of children, total household income), and any Personal Information that you include in your survey responses.
• We may collect information from or about Website Visitors, including your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, computer/device type, and technical information about Website Visitors’ means of connecting to our Website, such as your operating system and the Internet service provider utilized, date and time of access to the Website, pages viewed and links clicked while visiting the Website, length of time spent on the Website, the referring website from which the Website Visitor accessed the Website, your preferences with respect to cookies and other tracking technologies, and other similar information. Some of this information may be collected using cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies and may be integrated with any other information stored in our customer relationship management software.
• Subject to applicable law, we may collect certain information from or about individuals who click on the advertisements we place on social media platforms, including the social media that was used.
• We may have access to information that our Clients’ customers input into e-commerce platforms supported by our architecture, including customers’ personal shopping preferences, nutritional and lifestyle preferences, unique customer identifier (for example, loyalty number, phone number or email address), products purchased, purchase amount, purchase frequency and purchase/order history.

For what purposes do we collect, use and disclose Personal Information?

• We collect, use and disclose your Personal Information to provide you with the service or information you have requested, for example a product demo or our marketing communications or materials. We may also process your Personal Information to consider, investigate and respond to your inquiry or complaint, to otherwise provide you with customer service, to evaluate whether you are a potential sales lead, or to establish a business relationship with you.
• We collect, use and disclose information that you provide to us when you complete one of our surveys for the purposes of engaging in market trends research and analysis of consumer online shopping preferences. Where one of our Clients requests that we conduct a survey, we may share any Personal Information provided in response to the survey with the Client and/or with a sweepstakes house, as described further below.
• We collect, use and disclose information collected from or about Website Visitors to operate and maintain the security of the Website, understand and monitor Website activity, enhance Website Visitor experience, assess demand for specific information, products or services, and develop and improve our products and services.
• We collect, use and disclose information collected using cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies to identify which content a Website Visitor accesses on our Website and to make that content readily available on future visits, to conduct website analytics, to improve our Website and services, to facilitate Website safety and security, to measure and optimize our advertisements, to deliver targeted advertisements for our products and services across other websites and social media platforms, to understand what Website Visitors are interested in reading and learning about, to improve our understanding of what content functional areas in our target audience like to consume, to assess and evaluate inbound sales leads, and to otherwise enhance our Website personalization capabilities and digital marketing practices.
• We collect, use and disclose information from or about individuals who click on the advertisements we place on social media platforms for the purposes of education, thought leadership and marketing of product information in our sales process.
• We collect, use and disclose information that our Clients’ customers input into e-commerce platforms supported by our architecture for the purposes of enabling online engagement shopping and fulfillment experience, for example to help improve how our Clients attract consumers to their digital properties, understand how to encourage consumers to buy online, and assess how consumers want to receive their online orders (for example, either via curbside pickup or delivery).
• We collect, use and disclose Personal Information for other reasonable purposes related to managing, promoting and protecting our business activities and interests, maintaining information about sales leads in our customer relationship management software, and for such other purposes as are required or permitted by applicable law.

How is Personal Information shared or disclosed?

• We share Personal Information internally on a need-to-know basis.
• We may share Personal Information with our service providers, including our marketing, customer relationship management software, survey administration, sweepstakes houses, web development, call center and market research partners and business consultants, who may only use this information to help us further the purposes described above.
• We may share any Personal Information you provide us when you complete one of our surveys with the Client who requested the survey. We may also share this information with sweepstakes houses, who use this information for the purpose of selecting a winner.
• We may also disclose Personal Information in connection with a prospective or complete sale, transfer or reorganization of our business, when you consent to the disclosure, or in such other circumstances as are required or permitted by applicable law.

What are the risks?

• Although we take steps to safeguard the Personal Information under our control, “perfect security” does not exist online. We cannot guarantee the security of Personal Information posted or transmitted using the Website or via email or other electronic means. It is possible that third parties may unlawfully intercept or access such information.

Your Personal Information may be processed outside of the country where you live, and may be accessible to courts, law enforcement and national security authorities in the country where it is processed.  In particular, we may transfer and process your Personal Information in Denmark, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.  Some of our service providers store (or permit their own service providers to store) Personal Information in the cloud, which may be accessible worldwide.

The Personal Information that we may collect from or about you depends on the nature of your relationship and interactions with us.

We collect the following categories of Personal Information:

• Identifiers, including full name, IP address, phone number, social media address or handle and email address;
• Personal Information categories contained in customer records, including full name, telephone number and tokenized payment card information;
• Characteristics of protected classifications, such as age, ethnicity, or gender;
• Commercial information, which may include records of services or products purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies;
• Professional or employment-related information, such as information about your employer and job title;
• Internet, technical or other similar network activity, which may include IP address, browser type, computer/device type, and technical information about Website Visitors’ means of connecting to our Website, such as your operating system and the Internet service provider utilized, date and time of access to the Website, pages viewed and links clicked while visiting the Website, length of time spent on the Website, the referring website from which the Website Visitor accessed the Website, and other similar information; and
• Inferences drawn from other Personal Information, which may include a profile reflecting a person’s preferences, interests, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.

For more information about the specific types of Personal Information we may collect from or about you in light of the nature of your relationship or interactions with us, please review the categories below:

Individuals Who Contact Us

We collect Personal Information that you provide directly to us, for example when you request a product demo, use the “Contact Us” feature on the Website, sign-up to receive our marketing communications, request to access or download restricted marketing materials on the Website (such as gated eBooks or reports), provide us with your contact information at a trade show, fill out a form on our Website, or otherwise contact us by telephone, email, facsimile or through the Website.  The information that we may collect in these circumstances may include your name, email address, company name, job title, phone number and any Personal Information contained in your communication with or submission to us.

Without limiting the above, if you fill out certain forms on our Website, we may obtain your consent to collect your social media address or handle.  If you consent, we will use your social media address or handle to collect any Personal Information published on your social media profile, including topics and themes you engage with and the companies you follow, which we use to assess your interests, evaluate whether you are a potential sales lead, and improve our content creation and thought leadership.  For example, we use Personal Information gathered from your social media profile to help our sales and marketing teams understand what topics are of interest to you, to share relevant content on the Website and in our marketing communications, and to contact potential clients and buyers of our products and services.

Providing us with this information is voluntary.  However, if you do not provide us with this information, we may not be able to provide you with or allow you to access the information or marketing communications or materials that you request or investigate and/or respond to your inquiry, complaint or submission.

You may opt-out of receiving our marketing communications by emailing [email protected] and requesting to be unsubscribed, or by using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our marketing communications.

Individuals Who Complete Surveys

We collect information that you provide to us when you complete one of our surveys, including demographic information (such as gender, ethnicity, age), postal/zip code, information about your household (such as number of people, number of children, total household income), and any Personal Information that you include in your survey responses.

Website Visitors

We may collect information from or about Website Visitors using cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies (as described further below), such as your IP address, browser type and computer/device type, as well as technical information about Website Visitors’ means of connecting to our Website, such as your operating system and the Internet service provider utilized.  We may also collect information respecting usage of our Website, including the date and time when a Website Visitor accessed the Website, the pages viewed and links clicked by a Website Visitor while visiting the Website, length of time spent by a Website Visitor on the Website, the referring website from which the Website Visitor accessed the Website, a Website Visitor’s preferences with respect to cookies and other tracking technologies, and other similar information.  For more information about withdrawing your consent to our use of non-essential cookies and other tracking technologies, please see below .

Our Advertisements

Subject to applicable law, we may collect certain information from or about individuals who click on the advertisements we place on social media platforms, including your including topics and themes you engage with and the companies you follow.  This may also involve the use of cookies and other tracking technologies (as described further below.

Without limiting the above, if you engage with Mercatus content on social media platforms, we may obtain your consent to collect your social media address or handle.

Clients’ Customers

We may have access to information that our Clients’ customers input into e-commerce platforms supported by our architecture, including customers’ personal shopping preferences, nutritional and lifestyle preferences, unique customer identifier (for example, loyalty number, phone number or email address), products purchased, purchase amount, purchase frequency and purchase/order history.

We do not process credit card or other payment card numbers.  Our architecture integrates the services of third-party payment service providers, including Fiserv (located in Wisconsin, United States), First Data (located in Wisconsin, United States), Vantiv (located in Florida, United States), Wordplay (located in Florida, United States), and Chase Paymentech (located in Texas, United States).  Our third-party payment service providers tokenize payment card information, and Mercatus is only able to access these tokens.

Mercatus collects Personal Information for the purposes set out below, and for any other purposes identified to individuals before or at the time their Personal Information is collected.

In cases where our processing of your Personal Information is governed by the GDPR, we will only process your Personal Information where we are permitted to so do under a legal basis set out in the GDPR.  In each case, the legal basis that we would rely on for processing your Personal Information is set out below.

Mercatus and its affiliates, agents and service providers collect, use, and disclose Personal Information for the following reasons:

Individuals Who Contact Us

We collect, use and disclose your Personal Information to provide you with the service or information you have requested, for example a product demo, our marketing communications (such as our Top Shelf Newsletter, educational content and other information with respect to events, news and promotions), or access to or the ability to download our restricted marketing materials (such as gated eBooks or reports).

We may also process your Personal Information to consider, investigate and respond to your inquiry or complaint, to otherwise provide you with customer service, to evaluate whether you are a potential sales lead, or to establish a business relationship with you.

Where we process your Personal Information for this purpose, we do so based on our legitimate interests as the controller, specifically in the validation of an inbound marketing request, responding to a business related inquiry or request for information, or in response to a question related to our products or services.

Individuals Who Complete Surveys

We collect, use and disclose information that you provide to us when you complete one of our surveys for the purposes of engaging in market trends research and analysis of consumer online shopping preferences.

Where we process your Personal Information for this purpose, we do so based on our legitimate interests as the controller, specifically in response to a question about the survey’s purpose, clarification with respect to a specific question, or to communicate the results of the survey.

Website Visitors

We collect, use and disclose information collected from or about Website Visitors for the purposes of operating and maintaining the security of the Website, understanding and monitoring Website activity, enhancing Website Visitor experience, assessing demand for specific information, products or services, and developing and improving our products and services.  For more information about how and why we process information we collect using cookies and other tracking technologies, please see below.

Where we process your Personal Information for this purpose, we do so based on our legitimate interests as the controller, specifically in the validation of an inbound marketing request, responding to a business related inquiry or request for information, or in response to a question related to our products or services.

Our Advertisements

We collect, use and disclose information collected from or about individuals who click on our advertisements for the purposes of education, thought leadership and marketing of product information in our sales process.

Where we obtain your consent to collect your social media address or handle, we process this Personal Information based on the legal basis of consent. You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time by emailing [email protected] and indicating that you withdraw your consent.

Clients’ Customers

We collect, use and disclose information that our Clients’ customers input into e-commerce platforms supported by our architecture for the purposes of enabling online engagement shopping and fulfillment experience, for example to help improve how our Clients attract consumers to their digital properties, understand how to encourage consumers to buy online, and to assess how consumers want to receive their online orders (for example, either via curbside pickup or delivery).

Where we process your Personal Information for this purpose, we do so based on our legitimate interests as the controller, specifically online transaction log data. When you purchase online, you create an order table that contains information about you as a customer, what products did you buy and when, along with order details such as price, discount, and checkout payment method. Our clients use this data to conduct sales analysis, to audit historical purchases, and to analyze potential fraud activities.

Business Purposes

Subject to applicable laws, we may process any Personal Information that we collect for reasonable purposes related to managing, promoting and protecting our business activities and interests, including to:

• enter into business relationships;
• communicate and do business with suppliers, customers and others;
• provide customer service;
• manage and administer contracts;
• provide information to suppliers, customers and others about our business activities and projects;
• maintain information about sales leads in our customer relationship management software;
• seek advice from our professional advisors; and
• as otherwise required or permitted by law.

Where we process your Personal Information for one or more of these purposes, we do so based on our legitimate interests as the controller.

Other Lawful Purposes

We may process any Personal Information that we collect to comply with applicable laws, for example to:

• respond to a demand, request, order, warrant or subpoena that has been lawfully issued by a court or other government authority;
• prevent or detect fraud;
• investigate a contravention of law or contract;
• act in the event of an emergency that threatens the life, health or security of an individual; or
• as otherwise required or permitted by law.

Our Website uses “cookies” to collect certain information from or about Website Visitors. A “cookie” is a text file that is sent to and from your computer/device each time you use the Website. Cookies can track how and when you use the Website, which website you visited immediately before our Website, and information about your browser, computer/device, operating system and Internet service provider.  We also use web beacons that collect the IP addresses of Website Visitors.

We use information collected through cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies to identify which content a Website Visitor accesses on our Website, so that the next time you visit, that content may be readily accessible.  We use some essential cookies to operate the Website, for example to record and implement your preferences regarding our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.  We also use information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies to determine from which channel a Website Visitor accesses content on the Website, to allow us to assess engagement with our Website’s pages or content and which areas and content on our Website are of interest to Website Visitors, to assess repeat Website Visitor interest and to otherwise improve our understanding of what content functional areas our target audience likes to consume.  We may also use this information to deliver targeted advertisements for our products and services across other websites and social media platforms.

We engage Cybot CookieBot Consent Management Platform (“CookieBot”), located in Copenhagen, Denmark, to manage cookie consent, monitoring and control.  CookieBot may have access to Website Visitors’ IP address, browser user agent, referring URL, date and time of consent to use of cookies, a unique, random and encrypted key value assigned to the Website Visitor and the Website Visitor’s consent state, which are stored in a data centre by CookieBot’s cloud vendor, Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd., located in Dublin, Ireland.  CookieBot  may use such information for the purposes of generating two cookies to track which, if any, cookies a Website Visitor has consented to. In particular, the unique encrypted key and Website Visitor’s consent state are stored by CookieBot on the Website Visitor’s browser in the first party cookie “CookieConsent” so that the Website can automatically read and implement the Website Visitor’s cookie preferences on subsequent page requests and visits for up to twelve (12) months.  Both CookieBot cookies expire automatically for renewal after twelve (12) months from the date of the Website Visitor’s consent.

We engage VisiStat, Inc., doing business as KickFire (“Kickfire”), who is based in San Jose, California, USA, to conduct first-party intent data and intelligence. Kickfire uses a LIVE Leads™ tag to track activity on the Website. Mercatus uses information collected through this tag to understand first-party purchase intent data and to enhance in-market buyer identification, remarketing, Website personalization capabilities, and digital marketing practices. KickFire may have access to any information collected on our Website using its tag (including IP address, date, time and duration of visit, and pages viewed on the Website) for the purposes of performing data analytics, which we use to improve our Website and services, to facilitate Website visitor information gathering and to deliver targeted advertisements for our products and services across other websites and social media platforms.

Our Website also uses Google AdWords Conversion Tracking cookies to measure and optimize our advertisements in Google Search or on selected Google Display Network sites. This service is provided by Google Inc. (“Google”), headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States.  You can learn more about Google’s privacy policy here. You can opt-out of Google AdWords by visiting Google’s Ads Settings.

To help facilitate the delivery of relevant content, we use Google Analytics and Tag Manager on our Website. Google uses cookies to collect cookies to collect a unique ID that allows our Website to remember Website Visitors as individual visitors, and to know when Website Visitors return to our Website. We use any Personal Information collected through Google Analytics and Tag Manager for the purposes of optimizing our marketing, refining our advertising and programming strategies, and improving Website Visitors’ experience. For more information about Google Analytics and Tag Manager and how Google collects and processes Personal Information, please visit here. Instructions on how to opt out of Google Analytics using a specific plug-in are available here. Please note that this opt-out is specific to Google’s activities and does not affect the activities of other ad networks or analytics providers that we may use.

To help facilitate the delivery of relevant content, we use Google Analytics and Tag Manager on our Website. Google uses cookies to collect a unique ID that allows our Website to remember Website Visitors as individual visitors, and to know when Website Visitors to our Website. Google Analytics uses cookies to help collect data on Website Visitors to our site including location, last visit, duration of your visit, and to generate reports on Website Visitors’ interactions on our Website and on others’ websites. We use any Personal Information collected through Google Analytics and Tag Manager for the purposes of optimizing our marketing, refining our advertising and programming strategies, and improving Website Visitors’ experience. For more information about Google Analytics and Tag Manager and how Google collects and processes Personal Information, please visit here. Instructions on how to opt out of Google Analytics using a specific plug-in are available here. Please note that this opt-out is specific to Google’s activities and does not affect the activities of other ad networks or analytics providers that we may use.

 

Our Website also uses a marketing information tool called Pardot, managed by salesforce.com, inc. (“SalesForce”), who is based in San Francisco, California, United States.  Pardot captures information about Website Visitors who fill out forms on the Website, including any Personal Information input into the form and which content the Website Visitor accessed on our Website. Mercatus uses information captured by Pardot to assess and evaluate inbound sales leads and

Our Website also may use a location-based technology service tool called Flybuy, owned by Radius Networks. Inc. (“Radius”), who is based in Washington, DC, United States.  Flybuy provides curbside pickup and related functionality and captures location data to inform businesses when a customer is arriving at or near their business to pick-up an order.  Mercatus does not collect or process any Personal Information processed through Flybuy other than as is strictly necessary for the functionality of the Flybuy tool to work.  You can learn more about Radius’ Privacy Policy as applicable to Flybuy here.

Mercatus may integrate any information we collect using cookies and other tracking technologies with any other information stored in our customer relationship management software.

You can withdraw your consent to our use of non-essential cookies and tracking technologies on our Website by clicking on the widget at the bottom left of each page on our Website to change your consent or by deleting the two (2) cookies generated by CookieBot.  Please note that deleting CookieBot’s cookies means that our Website will not remember and implement your preferences regarding our use of cookies and other tracking technologies on your future visits to the Website, therefore you will need to re-enter your preferences during your subsequent visits.

The Network Advertising Initiative offers a means to opt-out of a number of advertising cookies. Please visit www.networkadvertising.org to learn more. The Digital Advertising Alliance also has an opt-out tool available here. Finally, you can reduce the collection of your information via cookies and other tracking technologies by browsing the internet in incognito mode and/or masking your IP address behind a VPN (provided this is legally permissible in your jurisdiction).

Declining or withdrawing your consent to our use of non-essential cookies and other tracking technologies may affect the functionality of some features of our Website, including your ability to access or download our restricted marketing materials (such as gated eBooks or reports).

The “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) privacy preference is an option that may be available in some web browsers, allowing you to opt-out of tracking by websites and online services. At this time, global standard DNT technology is not yet finalized and not all browsers support DNT. We therefore do not recognize DNT signals and do not respond to them.

Internally

Your Personal Information may be accessed by or disclosed to employees of the Company who have a need to know such information. Such employees may include members of our sales, marketing, Client experience, product management, engineering, finance, information technology, and people and  culture teams, depending upon the information they each require in order to perform their job duties and responsibilities.

There are certain services supplied to us by third parties.  Currently, the service providers engaged by Mercatus who may have access to or handle the Personal Information that we collect or otherwise process are:

• SalesForce, located in California, United States, who may have access to or process your name, email address, company name, job title, phone number and any Personal Information contained in your communication with or submission to us for the purpose of hosting our customer relationship management software and delivering the Pardot marketing information tool used on our Website. Where it acts as a controller of your Personal Information within the meaning of the GDPR, SalesForce will process your Personal Information in accordance with its privacy policy available here;
• SurveyMonkey, located in California, United States, who has access to any information that you provide to us when you complete one of our surveys for the purpose of engaging in market trends research and analysis of consumer online shopping preferences and trends;
• JBox Creative, located in Ontario, Canada, who may have access to or process your name, email address, company name, job title and phone number of Website Visitors for the purpose of routing information input into the forms on our Website to our customer relationship management software;
• Cloudflare, Inc., located in California, United States, who may collect, have access to or process information about Website Visitors for the purpose of providing content delivery network services including collecting and sorting models, observations, reports, analysis, statistics, databases and other information created, compiled, analyzed, generated or derived from Website server, network or traffic data as well as identifying, analyzing, mitigating, preventing and blocking malicious activities on the Website;
• Radius Networks, Inc., located in Washington, DC, United States who may have access to location data you make available (through, for example, turning on location services, and related Personal Information necessary to allow for drive-by or pick-up services and functionality;
• SalesEvolve Solutions, Inc. (“SalesEvolve”), located in Ontario, Canada, who may have access to or process any Personal Information that we input into our customer relationship management software. Without limitation, SalesEvolve’s call centre may have access to the name, job title, telephone number, and email address of any individual who has consented to receive direct marketing communications from us, for the purposes of making outbound sales calls and collecting information missing from our customer relationship management software on our behalf;
• Zendesk Inc., located in California, United States, who may have access to or process your name, email address, company name, job title and phone number for the purpose of providing software support and issue resolution follow-up;
• American Sweepstakes & Promotion Co., located in New York, United States, who may have access to your name, email address, company name, job title and phone number of individuals who fill out surveys for the purpose of selecting a winner; and
• CookieBot, KickFire, Pardot (SalesForce) and Google, as described above.

Please note that we may change or add third party service providers at any time, in our sole discretion, either locally or abroad. We encourage you to regularly review this Policy to obtain updated information about our service providers.

Sale of Business

Where permitted by applicable law, we may also disclose Personal Information in connection with a prospective or completed sale, transfer or reorganization of Mercatus’ business. We may disclose your Personal Information following completion of such transaction and/or during the assessment process pending transfer.

At Clients’ Request

At the direction of our Clients, or when our Clients consent, from time to time we may share their contact information, including their full name, position/title, email address and phone number, with third-party suppliers, other Clients, prospective Clients, and/or consultants. For example, if a prospective Client requests a reference, we may obtain a current Client’s consent to disclose their information to the prospective Client for the purpose of providing a reference and discussing their experience with Mercatus.

Client Surveys

When requested by a Client, we may conduct a survey of the Client’s customers.  Any Personal Information that you provide when you complete one of these surveys may be shared with the Client who requested the survey. If the survey is associated with a giveaway, we may share your Personal Information, including your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number with a bonded sweepstakes house, who may use this information for the purposes of selecting and contacting a winner.

Any Personal Information shared with our Clients and sweepstakes houses shall be processed in accordance with their respective privacy policies.  For more information, you should carefully review the terms and conditions of each survey prior to participating in the survey.

With Legal Authority

There are circumstances where we may disclose or otherwise process Personal Information without notice or consent, when required or permitted by applicable law. For example, from time to time, we may be compelled to release Personal Information to a third party in connection with a legal proceeding, statutory reporting obligation, search warrant, court order, or bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings.

In certain circumstances, we may also be permitted by law to disclose or otherwise process Personal Information without the consent of the individual concerned. For example, subject to applicable law, we may disclose Personal Information without consent to investigate a potential breach of law or contract, to collect on a debt, or in certain emergency situations that threaten the life, health or security of an individual.

Sale of Personal Information

We do not “sell” Personal Information within the meaning of the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”).

We may store Personal Information in physical or digital format at 200 Wellington St. West, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3C7.  Some of our service providers, such as SalesForce and CookieBot, store (or permit their own service providers to store) the Personal Information they process on our behalf in the cloud, and therefore this information may be accessible throughout the world.

Personal Information will be retained only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

We will develop guidelines and implement procedures with respect to the retention and destruction of Personal Information, including minimum and maximum retention periods. Personal Information that has been used to make a decision about an individual will be retained for at least the minimum period required by applicable law.  In the event of an access request or challenge, Personal Information will be retained long enough for the individual to exhaust any recourse they may have under applicable law.

At the conclusion of the applicable retention period, Personal Information will be destroyed, erased, or made anonymous in accordance with applicable law.

We may transfer an individual’s Personal Information outside of their jurisdiction for processing or storage. The countries in which your Personal Information may be collected, used, disclosed or stored include Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland and the United States. Some of our service providers store (or permit their own service providers to store) the Personal Information they process on our behalf in the cloud, and therefore this information may be accessible throughout the world. Personal Information processed in a foreign country may be accessible to courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of that jurisdiction.

Where your Personal Information is transferred from the United Kingdom or an EEA jurisdiction to Canada, this will be subject to the decision of the European Commission or the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (as applicable) establishing Canada as offering an adequate level of personal data protection where Personal Information is transferred between commercial organisations.

You may contact our Privacy Officer at the coordinates set out at the “Contact Us” section below to: (i) obtain written information about our policies and practices with respect to service providers outside of Canada, including the specific safeguards used to protect your Personal Information when it is transferred outside of your jurisdiction; or (ii) ask questions about the collection, use, disclosure or storage of Personal Information by service providers outside of Canada for or on behalf of Mercatus.

Mercatus will use appropriate physical, technological and organizational safeguards to protect your Personal Information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.

Examples of the measures we currently use to protect Personal Information include, but are not limited to:

• limiting physical access to areas in which Personal Information is stored;
• limiting the storage of Personal Information on removable media or portable devices;
• maintaining a “clear desk policy” and requiring that documents containing Personal Information be stored in locked cabinets or drawers when not in use;
• maintaining encryption standards for the electronic transmission of Personal Information; and
• requiring that personnel who handle Personal Information complete training regarding cybersecurity and the handling of Personal Information.

Despite our implementation of these measures, posting or transmission of Personal Information via the Internet, including using our Website, by email or by other electronic means, is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee that Personal Information that is transmitted to us, particularly by electronic means, will be totally secure.  It is possible that third parties may unlawfully intercept or access such information.

The rights of individuals with respect to their Personal Information may vary depending upon the jurisdiction in which the individual is located.  Depending on your location, and the legal basis that we rely on for processing your Personal Information (if applicable), such rights may include the right to:

• withdraw your consent to our continued use of your Personal Information, subject to legal and contractual restrictions and reasonable notice (including, where applicable, exercising your Right to Opt-Out and Right to Non-Discrimination pursuant to the CCPA);
• access, correct, rectify or update your Personal Information, and/or obtain a copy of the Personal Information we hold about you, subject to certain limitations and restrictions under applicable law (including, where applicable, exercising your Right to Know pursuant to the CCPA);
• request that your Personal Information be transferred to another data controller;
• exercise your Right to Request Deletion pursuant to the CCPA; and/or
• ask a question or make a complaint regarding our processing of Personal Information and/or challenge our compliance with applicable privacy laws.

To exercise any rights that you may have in your jurisdiction, please contact our Privacy Officer at the coordinates set out at the “Contact Us” section below.

We may require an individual to provide sufficient information to permit us to respond to a request to exercise the above rights. Depending on your location, you may be entitled to designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf.  Any information provided to us for verification purposes will only be used for this purpose.

While our response to an access request will typically be provided at no cost to the individual, depending on the nature of the request and the amount of information involved, we reserve the right to impose a cost, subject to applicable law. In these circumstances, we will inform the individual of the approximate cost to provide the response (and, if required by applicable law, why we believe a cost is appropriate), and proceed with responding upon payment by the individual of the cost.

In addition to the rights listed above, you may have the right to make a complaint to the relevant data protection regulator regarding out processing of your Personal Information and/or to challenge our compliance with applicable privacy laws.

We may offer various financial incentives from time to time. The terms of a financial incentive will be provided at the time you sign up for a financial incentive. You may withdraw from any of the financial incentives. We have calculated the value of a financial incentive by using the expense related to the offer, and the value of your data is the value of the offer presented to you.

We do not knowingly collect or sell any Personal Information about children.  If we discover that we have collected such information, we will promptly delete it, subject to any legal and contractual restrictions. If you believe that we have collected Personal Information about any child, please let us know at the coordinates set out at the “Contact Us” section below.

This Policy was last updated in November, 2021.

Mercatus has the discretion to update this Policy at any time. If you provide us with your contact information and we have your consent to receive messages from us (or we are permitted to send you a message without such consent), we will notify you of any material changes to the processing of your Personal Information. We will also post a notification of any material changes to this Policy on the main page of our Website. We encourage Website Visitors to frequently check this Policy for any changes and to stay informed about how we process the Personal Information we collect. By providing us with your Personal Information or accessing our Website, you acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this Policy periodically and become aware of modifications.

To Contact Us with respect to this Policy, you may contact us online at [email protected], by phone at 416-603-3406, or by mail at the following address:

Mercatus Technologies Inc.
Attention: Privacy Officer
200 Wellington St. West, Suite 310
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 3C7