The Whitaker Group Privacy and Data Policy
This Privacy and Data Policy (the “Policy”) describes how the Whitaker Group, and its affiliates and subsidiaries, including APB (All Points Bulletin), Social Status, and A Ma Maniére (collectively, referred to herein as “TWG”, “our”, “we”, or “us”) collects, uses, shares, protects your personal information, the choices that you have regarding your personal information, and how you can contact us.
- Scope of the Policy
This Policy applies to personal information that TWG collects and processes when you interact with us as a customer, including when you interact with our websites, digital experiences, mobile apps, online or offline events, promotions, or one of our other products or services, all of which are part of the TWG Platform and direct to this Policy. This Policy also applies to the personal information that TWG processes when you subscribe to receive marketing communications from us, communicate with us or engage with us via our platform, or participate in contests, sweepstakes, and surveys.
TWG may provide you with additional privacy notices that will apply to certain personal information collected and processed by us. This Policy does not apply to your personal information if you work for us as an employee or independent contractor, apply for a job with us, or interact with third party partners or websites that are linked to or accessible from TWG’s Platform.
- Personal Information Collected
TWG collects personal information directly from you when you use our platform or interact with us. Occasionally, personal information is collected from third parties. The definition of “Personal Information” depends on the applicable law of where you reside. For the purposes of this Policy, “personal information” means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, to an individual or household. This does not include aggregated or de-identified information that is maintained in a form that cannot reasonably be used to infer information about, or otherwise be linked to, a particular individual or household. Collected personal information includes but is not limited to full names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, as well as apparel and footwear sizing preferences and choices.
- How and Why We Use your Information
TWG collects, uses, discloses, and otherwise processes the personal information we collect for the following business and commercial purposes:
To Provide the Features of the Platform and the Services You Request. When you use our platform, we will use your personal information to provide the requested product or service. For example, if you make a purchase on our website, we will use your personal information to fulfill your order and complete the transaction. If you participate in a promotion, we will use the contact information you provide to communicate with you about the promotion. If you contact our consumer services, we will use information about you, such as delivery or payment information, or the product you have purchased, to help you resolve a problem or question.
To Send Marketing and Communicate Information about our Products, Services, Events and for Other Promotional Purposes. If you are an existing customer of TWG (for example, if you have placed an order with us), we may use the contact details you provide to send you marketing communications about similar products or services, where permitted by applicable law (unless you have opted out). In other cases, we ask for your consent to send you marketing information.
For research, analytics, and improvement. We use information to better understand how consumers engage with the platform and our products and offerings, including consumer behavior and preferences. We administer surveys and questionnaires, for market research or member satisfaction purposes. We also use information for other research and analytical purposes, such as to evaluate and improve our platform and business operations, to develop services and features, and for internal quality control and training purposes. For example, we may use information about how consumers engage with the platform to search and find products, to better understand the best ways to organize and present product offerings in our storefront.
To Operate, Improve and Maintain our Business, Products and Services. We use the personal information you provide to us to operate, improve, and maintain our business, products, and services. We may use personal information about how you use our products and services to enhance your user experience and to help us diagnose technical and service problems and administer our platform. We also use information to consider and implement mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, bankruptcies, and other business transactions such as financings, and as related to the administration of our general business, accounting, auditing, compliance, recordkeeping, legal and other internal functions.
To Administer Sweepstakes, Contests, and Other Activities. We use information to administer sign-ups for events that we organize and to keep you informed of events that you may enjoy. Additionally, the information may be used to verify eligibility for sweepstakes or contests, contact winners, administer prizes and fulfill related legal matters.
To Protect Our or Others’ Rights, Property or Safety. We use information to protect the platform and our business operations; to protect our rights and those of our stakeholders; to prevent, detect and investigate actual or suspected fraud, abuse, illegal use, unauthorized or illegal activities and access and other misuse; and where we believe necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding situations involving potential threats to the safety or legal rights of any person or third party, or violations of our Terms of Use.
To Comply with Legal Obligations. We may also use your personal information as part of legal proceedings, to respond to legal processes, and to comply with court orders, governmental requests, or applicable law.
Other purposes. We may also use your personal information in other ways and will provide specific notice at the time of collection and obtain your consent where necessary.
- How We Disclose and Share Personal Information.
TWG may disclose and share personal information we collect with the following types of entities and recipients.
To our affiliates, subsidiaries, vendors, and service providers. We may disclose personal information to our affiliates and subsidiaries, as well as service providers, vendors and others for business purposes and to perform functions on our behalf (such as those who process credit cards and payments, perform shipping and deliveries; host, manage and service our data; provide technical support or logistics services; secure our platform; distribute emails; perform research and analysis; manage brand and product promotions; and administer certain services and features on our platform).
Retail Store Partners. We may share your personal information with partners of our TWG retail stores to help them manage in-store activities and events. For example, TWG may share a list of attendees with the partners who organize an event.
Business partners and potential buyers (and their agents and advisors). We may disclose your personal information with actual or potential buyers (and their agents and advisors) in connection with any actual or proposed purchase, merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, sale of company assets or transition of service to another provider, provided that we inform the buyer or transferee that it must use your personal information only for the purposes disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Other Parties. We may disclose personal information to other parties, including government entities and regulators, to the extent necessary to: (i) comply with a government request or applicable law and to respond to legal process; (ii) prevent illegal uses of our platform or violations of our platform's Terms of Use and our policies; (iii) defend ourselves against third party claims; and (iv) assist in fraud prevention or investigation (e.g., counterfeiting).
With your consent. We may disclose your personal information to any other third party where you have provided your consent.
- Children’s Policy
We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under the age of 13. Parents or guardians concerned about data collection pertaining to their children may contact us at datamanagement@thewhitakergrp.com.
- Protection of Personal Information
TWG uses a variety of technical, administrative, and organizational security measures, including encryption and authentication tools in certain circumstances, that are intended to protect your personal information. Please be aware that despite our efforts, no data security measures can guarantee security. You can help keep your data safe by taking reasonable steps to protect your personal information against unauthorized disclosure or misuse.
- Retention of Personal Information
We retain your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Policy or disclosed to you at the time of collection, unless otherwise required or permitted by law.
- Managing your Privacy Rights
Privacy Rights.
You may have certain rights identified below under applicable laws of where you reside with respect to your personal information. We have full discretion in choosing to voluntarily provide you with some or all of those rights regardless of the state in which you reside.
Depending upon the applicable law, access to your rights may be denied, such as: (a) when denial is required or permitted by law; (b) when granting access would have a negative impact on another's privacy; or (c) to protect our rights and properties.
The privacy rights you may have include the following:
- Right to know and access your personal information. You may have the right to know what personal information we collect about you, including the categories of personal information, the sources from and purposes for which we collect it, and the types of recipients we disclose it to, and to request a copy of the specific pieces of personal information that we maintain about you.
- Right to correct your personal information. Right to correct inaccurate personal information that we maintain about you.
- Right to delete your personal information. You may request the deletion of your personal information that we have collected about you, subject to certain exceptions.
- Right to non-discrimination. You have the right not to be subject to discriminatory treatment for exercising your rights under certain laws.
Exercising Your Rights and Choices
You may submit privacy rights requests and manage your privacy choices in several ways by contacting us at datamanagement@thewhitakergrp.com.
Submitting Privacy Rights Requests.
You may request to access your personal information (both the categories of data we collect, which is stated in this policy, and specific pieces of information), obtain an electronic copy of your personal information, correct your personal information if it is incomplete or inaccurate, or delete or restrict sharing of your personal information in certain circumstances, as provided by applicable law.
- Non-Discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for making these requests. If you request to delete your account, you can create a new account on our platform at any time.
- Verification. We will verify your request either through a message sent to the email address associated with your account (you must have access to this email account) or by asking you to provide information matching what we have on file within our systems. We will process your request based upon the personal information in our records that is linked or reasonably linkable to the information provided in your request. In some cases, we may request additional information to verify your request or where necessary to process your request. If we are unable to adequately verify a request, we will notify the requestor.
- Authorized Agents. You or your authorized agent may request to exercise your rights. Before we can act on a request from your authorized agent, we may require verification of your identity and proof from the authorized agent that they can act on your behalf. We may also require that the relevant consumer directly verify their identity and the authority of the authorized agent.
- Contact Us. If you have a request regarding your personal information that cannot be fulfilled from your account settings, please contact us by email datamanagement@thewhitakergrp.com.
- Denials and Appeals. If we deny your request, we will notify you and provide our reasons for the denial and instructions regarding the rights you may have under applicable laws to appeal the decision. If the appeal is denied, we will notify you of your rights under applicable laws to contact the Attorney General to submit a complaint.
- Changes to our Privacy Policy
Applicable law and our practices change over time. If we decide to update our Privacy Policy, we will post the changes on our platform. If we materially change the way in which we process your personal information, we will provide you with prior notice, including via email to the address we have on file, or where legally required, request your consent prior to implementing such changes. We strongly encourage you to read our Privacy Policy and keep yourself informed of our practices.
- Questions and Feedback
We are happy to address questions, comments and concerns about our privacy policy and practices. To provide such feedback or exercise your rights related to your personal privacy, please contact us at datamanagement@thewhitakergrp.com.
- State Specific Privacy Rights
Authorized Agents
If you reside in California, Colorado, Connecticut or Montana, you have the right to authorize another individual (an “authorized agent”) to submit a privacy rights request on your behalf. If you are submitting a rights request as an authorized agent, we may require you to submit proof of your authorization to make the request, such as a valid power of attorney or proof that you have signed permission from the individual who is the subject of the request. Please do not provide any sensitive personal information in connection with this request, such as a driver's license or other government-issued identification. In some cases, we may contact the individual who is the subject of the request to verify their own identity or confirm you have permission to submit this request. To submit a request as an authorized agent, please contact us at datamanagement@thewhitakergrp.com
Additional Information for California Residents
California law provides residents with additional information regarding our collection, use and disclosure of their personal information that supplements the disclosures in our Privacy Policy above. This section uses certain terms that have the meaning given to them in the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020) and its implementing regulations.
Categories of Personal Information Collected.
We collect the personal information detailed in the “Personal Information We Collect” section above. This information includes the following categories of personal information as defined under California law:
- Identifiers
- Personal Information described in California Section 1798.80(e)
- Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law
- Commercial Information
- Internet or other electronic activity information
Categories of Personal Information Disclosed for Business Purposes.
The personal information we process varies based upon our relationship and interactions with you. We may disclose the categories of personal information described above for the business purposes outlined in “How and Why We Use Personal Information.” The recipients to whom we may disclose your personal information (and that may have received such information during the last 12-months) for business purposes include: our affiliates and subsidiaries; order processing, fulfillment, shipping, and logistics vendors; payment processors and financial institutions; analytics and research vendors; information technology vendors; fraud prevention and security vendors; vendors supporting legal, compliance, accounting, audits and other internal functions; and certain marketing and advertising vendors.
California Privacy Rights.
California residents have the following rights with respect to their personal information:
- To know what personal information is collected
- To access personal information
- To correct personal information
- To delete personal information
- To opt-out of the “sale” of personal information
- To opt-out of the “sharing” of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising
- To limit the use of sensitive personal information
- To non-discrimination
California residents may exercise their privacy rights by following the instructions included in Exercising your Rights and Choices.
Shine the Light.
Under California’s “Shine the Light” law (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83), California residents who provide us certain personal information are entitled to request and obtain from us, free of charge, information about the personal information (if any) we have shared with third parties for their own direct marketing use. Such requests may be made once per calendar year for information about any relevant third-party sharing in the prior calendar year. To submit a “Shine the Light” request please contact us at datamanagement@thewhitakergrp.com and include in your request a current California address and your attestation that you are a California resident.
Additional Information for Virginia Residents.
This section provides Virginia residents with additional information regarding our collection, use and disclosure of their personal information that supplements the disclosures in our Privacy Policy above. This section uses certain terms that have the meaning given to them in the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act.
Personal Information Collected.
We collect the personal information detailed in the Personal Information We Collect section above.
Purposes of Processing Personal Information.
The purposes for processing personal information are described under How and Why We Use Personal Information
Disclosure of Personal Information.
We disclose and share your personal information as described under How We Disclose and Share Personal Information
Privacy Rights.
Virginia residents have the following rights with respect to their personal information:
- To access personal information
- To correct personal information
- To delete personal information
- To opt-out of targeted advertising
- To non-discrimination
- To appeal
Virginia residents may exercise their privacy rights by following the instructions included in Exercising your Rights and Choices.