privacy policy

-- Privacy Policy Updated: November 1, 2023

Down Etc., LLC (collectively with its parent, subsidiary, and affiliate companies, “Down Etc”, “we”, “our”) respect your privacy and, although we do not collect extensive information that may be used, either alone or in combination with other information, to personally identify an individual (hereinafter, “personal information”) from you, we are committed to protecting your privacy through our compliance with this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is part of our Terms of Use available here. In this Privacy Policy we describe the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you use our website, located at www.downetc.com and our affiliate websites, subdomains, mobile versions and any associated applications (“Site”), and/or purchase Merchandise through the Site, and our practices for using, protecting, and disclosing that information.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it, as you agree to this Privacy Policy by using the Site. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, do not use the Site and do not purchase Merchandise through the Site.

This Privacy Policy may change from time to time, and your continued use of the Site after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check this Privacy Policy periodically for updates.

1. Eligibility

The Site is intended only for access and use by individuals at least eighteen (18) years old. If you are not at least eighteen (18) years old, you are prohibited from both the access and usage of the Site. We do not seek to gather personal information from or about persons under the age of eighteen (18). NOTICE: Visit www.OnGuardOnline.gov for tips from the Federal Trade Commission on protecting children’s privacy online. 

2. Information Collection

We may collect several types of information from and about users on the Site, some of which would allow us to personally identify our users. We may collect information from you directly when you provide it to us through the Site. Additionally, we may collect generic information about your usage and equipment automatically as you navigate through the Site, but do not correlate tracking information to individuals. The types of information we may collect include:

Information You Provide to Us

• Information to create and fill out your Site account and/or send you newsletters or Text Messages, such as name, email address, and mobile telephone number;
• Information related to your Site browsing, such as any wishlist or registry information you enter;
• Transaction Information, such as the form of payment used to purchase Merchandise through the Service and the associated billing address, as well as the shipping address where we (via our third-party carrier) will send the Merchandise, as well as Transaction Information saved and stored in your account; and
• Information that you voluntarily enter or provide to us, such as phone number, comments, reviews, search queries, and email correspondence if you contact us.

Payment information is routed directly to the applicable Payment Processor and stored by these companies. Please refer to the Payment Processor’s terms and conditions for information on how they collect and use, and may share with us, Transaction Information in connection with purchases made through the Site.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with the Site, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including: 

• Details of your visits to our Site, such as your Site usage, user behavior and trends, and other communication data; and
• Information about your computer and internet connection, such as your IP address, operating system, and browser type. 

Other than the automatic technologies described in this Privacy Policy, third parties cannot collect personally identifiable information about you over time and across other websites when you use the Site, except as you may permit by accepting cookies when using the Site. 

In some countries, including countries in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), the information referenced above in this Privacy Policy may be considered personal information under applicable data protection laws. If you do not want us to collect this information, do not use the Site. 

    3. Information Use

We may use the information that you may provide and/or we may collect about you for a number of reasons related to the services and products we provide on the Site. First, we use information that you provide to us for the reasons you intend when you provide the information, such as creating your Site account to process and save your orders, sending you newsletters, processing and shipping your Site orders, payments (via our Payment Processors), and returns, and providing you with information, services, or products that you request from us, either via newsletters, Text Messages, or otherwise. We may also use your information to provide you with notices about your Site account and orders, to enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us (such as our Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy), and in other ways we may describe when you provide the information.

Second, we may analyze user information in the aggregate - that is, we may collect information about thousands of Site visits and analyze it as a whole. This kind of study involves looking for trends among many visitors to our Site, rather than analyzing information about any individual visitor. Examples include researching which parts of the Site are accessed most frequently or determining which products are most attractive to our users. We may also use aggregated, statistical information to describe our Site traffic and establish advertising and other business relationships with third parties.

Third, we may use information you provide to help us customize our communications with you and improve our services and products, which may include working with third parties to build, manage, and analyze these communication and preference systems.

If you do not wish to have Down Etc use your contact information to promote our own or third parties' products or services, you can opt-out by sending us an email stating your request to ops@downetc.com. If we have sent you a promotional email and wish to be omitted from future email distributions, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions, click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email you receive from us, or email us at ops@downetc.com. This opt out does not apply to information provided to Down Etc as a result of a registration, product service experience or other transactions.

4. Third Party Internet Sites

Third party Internet sites available through links on our Site have separate privacy and data collection practices. We have no responsibility or liability for these third-party policies, content, or actions, even if you access these third-party sites through a link on the Site. Please refer to the privacy statement of any applicable third-party site when providing personally identifiable information. 

5. Sharing and Disclosing Your Information
   

We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide:

• To employees and contractors who help us run our business.
• To service providers, vendors, and other third parties we use to support our business, such as the Site Host, email marketing and newsletter distribution platforms (e.g., The Rocket Science Group LLC d/b/a Mailchimp or EMEA Limited d/b/a Dotdigital), Text Message marketing and distribution services, MyRegistry LLC for hosting wedding, baby, or similar registries, third-party carriers who deliver your Merchandise orders, and Payment Processors to process order payments and refunds.
• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, reorganization, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, in which personal information about Site users is among the assets transferred.
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it (including, without limitation, to communicate with you in connection with the Merchandise you have purchased through the Site and other products, services, events, or offerings made available through the Site).
• To send you updates and promotional materials pertaining to Down Etc, the Site, or Merchandise and to provide other personalized advertising to you.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
• To third party contractors in order to analyze Platform performance and user behavior and/or to improve the Platform, such as Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics, and Pinterest Analytics.
• To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of us our customers, or others.
• With your consent.

6. Submissions

Your Submissions are posted and transmitted to others at your own risk and our obligations under this Privacy Policy do not apply to these disclosures. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Site with whom you may choose to share your Submissions, and we highly recommend that you do not include personal information in your Submissions.

7. Cookies and our Analysis Tools

We may use cookies, log files, clear gifs, and/or similar devices to identify you, to keep track of the user’s interactions with our Site, and to enhance certain activities available via our Site. These devices are small text or other electronic files that are used for user-identification purposes, record-keeping purposes, and to increase the ease of use of our Site. We may use persistent or not-persistent cookies. Users can remove or reject persistent cookies by following the directions provided in their Internet browser’s “help” file. If a user removes a persistent cookie or rejects persistent cookies, the functionality of our Site, or any part thereof, may be impaired or unavailable.

We may use one or more third-party analytics services (such as Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics or Pinterest Analytics) to evaluate your use of our Site, compile reports on activity (based on their collection of IP addresses, Internet service provider, browser type, operating system and language, referring and exit pages and URLs, data and time, amount of time spent on particular pages, what sections you visit, number of links clicked, search terms and other similar usage data), and to analyze performance metrics. 

8. Do Not Track Settings

Our Site and Site Host do not respond to the “Do Not Track” (DNT) signals that may be sent from some web browsers. The Site Host does provide information on how to opt-out of certain cookies within their Privacy Policy at www.shopify.com/legal/privacy.

9. Data Retention

We reserve the right to retain personal information we may collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested or to comply with applicable legal, tax, or accounting requirements).

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize any personal information that me may have collected or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store such personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

10. The Security of Your Information

Any personal information that we might collect from you would be stored through the Site Host’s data storage, databases, and websites and applications on a secure server behind a firewall. Please visit www.shopify.com/legal/privacy for more information about the Site Host’s security standards and practices for protecting your personal information.

11. Accessing and Correcting Your Information

You can review and change your personal information by logging into the Site and visiting your account. You may also send us an email at ops@downetc.com to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

12. Your California Privacy Rights

California Residents: Pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2019 and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (each as may be amended from time to time, the “CCPA” and “CPRA,” respectively, and together, the “California Privacy Laws”), you have certain rights with respect to your personal information. For the purposes of this Section, personal information is used as defined in the CCPA. Down Etc reserves the right to verify all requests made pursuant to the California Privacy Laws.

Requests to Know

You have the right to request that we disclose:

• The categories of personal information (if any) we have collected about you;

• The categories of sources from which we have collected personal information about you (if any);

• Our use (if any) of the personal information we may have collected about you;

• The categories of personal information about you we may have sold or disclosed for a business purpose as described herein;

• The business or commercial purposes for selling or collecting personal information about you;

• The categories of personal information (if any) we may have sold or shared about you, as well as the categories of third parties to whom the personal information was sold (if at all), by category of personal information for each party to whom personal information was sold; and
• The specific pieces of personal information (if any) collected about you for the twelve (12) months prior to the date of your request.

The delivery of our response to your request to know may take place electronically or by mail. We are not required to respond to requests to know more than twice in a twelve (12)-month period.

Requests to Delete

You have the right to request that we delete any personal information about you that we may have collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. We may deny your deletion request if retaining the personal information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:

• Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you;

• Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities;

• Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;

• Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by applicable law;

• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.), as may be amended from time to time;

• Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent;

• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us;

• Comply with an obligation under applicable law; and/or

• Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Right to Opt Out of the Sale of Personal Information

You have a right to opt out of the sale of personal information, which under the California Privacy Laws broadly means selling renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating, orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by a business to a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration, with certain exceptions, such as when the consumer uses or directs the business to intentionally disclose the personal information or interact with one or more third parties, among other things. You may, at any time, direct us to not sell personal information about you to third parties, to the extent Down Etc is doing so. If you exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information about you, we will not sell personal information about you to the extent Down Etc was doing so or may do so in the future. We will only use personal information collected in connection with your request to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to facilitate your request. You may submit opt-out requests by emailing us at ops@downetc.com.

Requests to Correct Inaccurate Personal Information

You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information that we may maintain or which pertains to you. Upon receipt of a verifiable request from you, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to correct the inaccurate personal information.

Authorized Agents

You may designate an authorized agent to make requests on your behalf. You must provide an authorized agent written permission to submit a request on your behalf, and we may require that you verify your identity directly with us. Alternatively, an authorized agent with power of attorney pursuant to California Probate Code Sections 4000-4465, as may be amended from time to time, may submit a request on your behalf. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.

Methods for Submitting Consumer Requests and Our Response to Requests

To make a request pursuant to your California Privacy Laws rights, you must contact Down Etc’s Privacy Officer by email at ops@downetc.com.

Upon receipt of such request, we may ask you for additional information to verify your identity, and any such additional information will be used only to verify your identity and not for any other purpose. We will acknowledge the receipt of your request within ten (10) days of receipt. Subject to our ability to verify your identity, we will respond to your request within forty-five (45) days of receipt. In order to protect your privacy and the security of personal information about you, we verify your request by requesting for additional identifying information that will only be used to verify your identity and for no other purpose.

Categories of Personal Information We Have Sold in the Last Twelve (12) Months

We have sold the following categories of personal information during the last twelve (12) months:

• Identifiers, such as name, email address, postal address, Internet Protocol (IP) address, and phone number;

• Commercial information, including records of Merchandise and other products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies;

• Internet or other electronic network activity information, a consumer’s interaction with an Internet website or advertisement;

• Inferences drawn from any of the information identified in this section to create a profile about a consumer reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, and attitudes; and
•  Certain government identifiers (e.g., Social Security Numbers), account numbers and log-in credentials, precise geolocation (e.g. physical address), racial or ethnic origin; religious beliefs, contents of a consumer’s mail, email, and text messages, or a consumer’s genetic information.

For information on how to opt out of the sale of your personal information, see “Right to Opt Out of the Sale of personal information” above.

Categories of Personal Information We Have Disclosed for a Business Purpose in the Last Twelve (12) Months

We may have disclosed the following categories of personal information for a business purpose during the last twelve (12) months:

• Identifiers, such as name, email address, postal address, Internet Protocol (IP) address, and phone number;

• Commercial information, including records of Merchandise and other products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies;

• Internet or other electronic network activity information, a consumer’s interaction with an Internet website or advertisement;
•  Inferences drawn from any of the information identified in this section to create a profile about a consumer reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, and attitudes; and

• Certain government identifiers (e.g., Social Security Numbers), account numbers and log-in credentials, precise geolocation (e.g., physical address), racial or ethnic origin; religious beliefs, contents of a consumer’s mail, email, and text messages, or a consumer’s genetic information.

 The Right to Non-Discrimination

You have the right not to be discriminated against for the exercise of your California Privacy Laws rights described above. Unless permitted by the California Privacy Laws, we will not:

Deny you Merchandise or other goods or services; 

• Charge you different prices or rates for Merchandise or other goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties;

• Provide you a different level or quality of Merchandise or other goods or services; or

• Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for Merchandise or other goods or services or a different level or quality of Merchandise or other goods or services.

Shine the Light Law

California’s “Shine the Light” law allows California residents to obtain a list of third parties to whom a business has disclosed personal information for their direct marketing purposes. However, if a business adopts and discloses in its privacy policy a policy of not disclosing customers’ personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes unless the customer first affirmatively agrees to the disclosure, the business may comply with the law by notifying the customer of his or her right to prevent disclosure of personal information and by providing a cost-free means to exercise that right.

Personal information submitted will only be used for marketing and promotional purposes. Whenever you agree to allow us to collect personal information, we provide you with an option to prevent such information from being shared for marketing and promotional purposes with third parties. Furthermore, you may exercise this cost-free option at any time by sending an email to ops@downetc.com.

Because we include a comprehensive Privacy Policy and provide you with details on how you may opt out of the use of your personal information by third parties for direct marketing purposes, we are not required to provide you with the third-party list.

13. Outside the US

If you are accessing the Site from outside of the United States, you cannot place an order from the Site. Orders from outside of the United States may be placed through Amazon.com, subject to Amazon.com, Inc.’s terms and conditions of service and privacy policy.

Additionally, by using the Site, you authorize us to transfer and store your information outside your home country, including in the United States, for the purposes described in this policy.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES TREAT YOUR INFORMATION IN A MANNER THAT MAY BE SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT FROM, AND LESS PROTECTIVE THAN, THE TREATMENT REQUIRED UNDER THE LAWS OF OTHER COUNTRIES AND JURISDICTIONS. IF YOU DO NOT WANT YOUR INFORMATION TRANSFERRED TO THE UNITED STATES, YOU SHOULD NOT SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH US.

TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY THE LAW OF THE COUNTRY IN WHICH YOU ARE LOCATED, YOU EXPRESSLY WAIVE ANY RIGHT YOU MAY HAVE TO REQUIRE US TO TREAT YOUR IDENTIFYING INFORMATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF ANY COUNTRY OR JURISDICTION OTHER THAN THE UNITED STATES.  HOWEVER, THE FOREGOING WAIVER MAY NOT BE LEGALLY BINDING IN SOME COUNTRIES, SUCH AS THE MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION.  TO THE EXTENT IT IS NOT LEGALLY BINDING IN THE COUNTRY IN WHICH YOU ARE LOCATED, THIS FOREGOING WAIVER DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU.

   14. EEA Users

You have options in relation to the information and data that we have about you. To exercise any of the options discussed below, please contact us at ops@downetc.com. If you’re an EEA user, you may:

• Access the information (if any) we have about you. We'll will make an effort to share this information with you within a reasonable time.
• Have your information (if any) corrected or deleted.
• Object to us processing your information to the extent Down Etc was doing so or may do so in the future. You can ask us to stop using your information, including when we use your information to send you marketing emails or push notifications. We only send you marketing material if you've agreed to it, but if you'd rather we don't, you can easily unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing emails we send you, or by emailing us at the email address above.
• Withdraw your consent for us to collect and process your personal information at any time to the extent Down Etc was doing so or may do so in the future. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect the processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
• Have the information you provided to us (if any) sent to another organization, where we hold this information with your consent or for the performance of a contract with you, where it’s technically feasible.
• Complain to a regulator. If you’re based in the EEA and think that we haven’t complied with data protection laws, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission in Ireland or with your local supervisory authority.

We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

15. Legal Basis for Processing Personal Information

Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described in this Privacy Policy will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it, if at all. However, we will normally collect personal information from you only (i) where we need the personal information to perform a contract with you (such as fulfilling an order for Merchandise that you place through the Site); (ii) where the processing is in our legitimate interests and not overridden by your rights; or (iii) where we have your consent to do so. We have a legitimate interest in operating our Site and communicating with you as necessary to provide the Site, for example when responding to your queries, fulfilling your order, improving our platform, undertaking marketing, or for the purposes of detecting or preventing illegal activities.

In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect personal information from you or may otherwise need the personal information to protect your vital interests or those of another person. If we ask you to provide personal information to comply with a legal requirement or to perform a contract with you, we will make this clear at the relevant time and advise you whether the provision of your personal information is mandatory or not (as well as of the possible consequences if you do not provide your personal information).

   16. Legal Disclaimer

We are not responsible nor will be liable to you in any way for events beyond our direct control. Because of the complex and constantly changing nature of our technology and business, we cannot guarantee nor do we represent that our performance will be error-free, and to the maximum extent permitted by law we will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages or other loss suffered by you and relating to the use or release of your personal information. The foregoing is in addition to, and not in substitution of, any and all disclaimers contained in the Terms of Use.

17. Changes to our Privacy Policy

From time to time, we may make changes to our information practices or alter the functionality of our Site. We will update this Privacy Policy accordingly and post a notice on the Site homepage that this Privacy Policy has been updated for a reasonable amount of time after the changes have been implemented, so we encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

     18. Contact Us

The Site is property of Down Etc, LLC, a California limited liability company. For general information about the Site, this Privacy Policy, or anything else, you can contact us at:

Katie Reuland, Data Protection Officer
ops@downetc.com

Copyright © 2023 Down Etc., LLC. All Rights Reserved.