Privacy Policy

Introduction to our services

Sharpdots is a marketing services company.  We tailor our clients advertising and content to consumers who are most likely to consider them relevant, based on those consumers’ activities, interests and demographics. We work with our clients across various types of marketing methods and channels, including email, direct mail and display media, including data services and analytics, including those described on this website.  Our website address is: https://sharpdots.com.

Data privacy and protection are very important to our customers and clients. Information is entrusted to us, this policy is posted to help you understand how we collect data and how it is used.  Our aim is always to leverage data in order to more specifically communicate with you and deliver to you relevant information.

Opting in and out of communications made easy

Sometimes people want to read privacy notices because a business is asking for their permission to contact them for marketing. They want to be sure that, if they agree, it will be easy for them to withdraw permission in the future. We want you to be able to opt out as easily as you opted in. Any marketing email we send you will always have an “unsubscribe” link that will take you off that relevant marketing list. Please remember that you may have subscribed from another email address; you will only be able to use the link to “unsubscribe” from the address to which the marketing email has been sent.

What personal information do we collect from you?

We collect information:

• when you pay for any of our products or services
• when you register to receive one of our newsletters
• when you use any of our websites
• when you attend any of our events
• if you participate in any research we undertake
• if you join one of our communities or forums
• if you contact us about a query or a complaint

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We collect the following types of information:

Contact forms

When you use or subscribe to one of our services, such as purchasing a print product, signing up to an email newsletter, requesting sample kits, we will ask you to provide Personal Information (“PI”) such as your name, email and/or postal address so that we can provide you with the services requested.

Payment details

When you purchase a product or service from us, such as subscribing to one of our magazines or attending one of our events, we will also ask you for your payment details in addition to your contact information, in order to secure payment and to authorize access to our products and services.

Online identifiers

• IP addresses and the location of mobile devices.
• Unique individual identifiers that we, our customers or other companies (such as ad and data companies or platforms that we, clients or marketing platforms may create in order to identify a unique (anonymous or de-identified) user’s device or browser. We may use cookies and similar technologies that are linked to these anonymous identifiers. (See Section 6 titled “Cookies and similar technologies that we and others may use” for additional background on these technologies.)
• Hashed values that are derived from PI (such as email addresses) but have been de-identified, through various means.
• Anonymous information related to unique user behavior, such as the fact that a particular user tends to visit sports websites or entertainment websites.
• We also collect certain Information on our website, that you may provide to us, or that we may collect passively. We may combine, link, or aggregate the above Information with each other. We do not, however, place PI into cookies or associate PI with cookies, and we adhere to the DAA (Digital Advertising Alliance) self-regulatory principles, which are a very prominent industry standard setting forth guidance for consumer privacy protection.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies and similar technologies

We and Others May Use Cookies, Pixels and Similar Technologies

Sharpdots uses industry-standard technologies, including cookies and similarly functional technologies. Cookies do not contain personal information, and expire within 24 months (and often over a shorter time span than that). However, we may retain purely aggregated versions of the Information (i.e., not tied to a cookie or device) indefinitely. We may work with third parties to provide or enhance our services (e.g. for purposes of retargeting and tailoring ads, or placing browser cookies). These parties may set and access their own cookies, pixel tags and similar technologies on your device, which may have cookies with varying expiration period. Those parties may, likewise, collect various types of anonymous or de-identified information about your browser, device, or browsing activities through use of these cookies. Cookies are small data files made up of a string of characters, such as an anonymous unique browser identifier. Cookies are stored on your computer or other device and act as anonymous tags that identify your device, but not you personally. Our (or other companies’) servers send your device a cookie when you visit a website. A pixel tag (also commonly known as a web beacon or clear GIF) is an invisible 1 x 1 pixel that is placed on certain web pages. When you access these web pages, pixel tags generate a generic notice of the visit and permit us to set or read our cookies. Pixel tags are used in combination with cookies to anonymously track the activity on a site by a particular device. When you adjust your browser settings to stop accepting cookies, pixel tags simply detect an anonymous website visit. We and other marketing platforms may use cookies to among other things, “remember” you, track user trends, and collect information about whether and how you use our clients’ sites or interact with the advertising we deliver on their behalf. We use cookies to provide relevant content to you and replace non-relevant ads with ads that better match your interests.

Disabling Cookies

Most web browsers are set up to accept cookies. You may be able to set your browser to warn you before accepting certain cookies or to refuse certain cookies. However, if you disable the use of cookies in your web browser, some features of our services may be difficult to use or inoperable. In providing our services, we or other companies we may partner with may (but will not necessarily) work with certain third-party companies that use techniques other than HTTP cookies to recognize your computer or device and/or to collect and record information about your web surfing activity, including those integrated with our services. These technologies may not respond to browser settings that block conventional cookies. You may opt of many of these types of technologies by visiting the NAI’s opt out page at http://www.networkadvertising.org.

How Sharpdots uses the information we collect

We use the information we collect through our website to do the following:

• Create and manage your unique user account.

• Provide services to you.

• Respond to and communicate with you (including regarding news and updates about our services).

• Send you offers and ads for our products and services, when you browse the Site or other Sites on the Internet.

• Send you offers and ads for products and services of partner brands, or other offers we believe may be of interest to you.

Perform data analyses (including market research).

We may combine the Information with other information we obtain from third parties, publicly available sources, and any other product or service we provide to further improve the relevance and effectiveness of products, services, and advertisements offered, including (but not limited to), those provided on or through the services

We may use IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our servers and to administer our site. We also may use IP addresses to help identify visitors to our site for the duration of a session and to gather demographic information about our visitors. We may use clickstream data to determine how much time visitors spend on each web page of our site, how visitors navigate through the site, and how we may tailor our site to better meet the needs of our visitors. We also use the information for compliance with our legal obligations, policies and procedures, including the enforcement of our

Who we share your data with

We may share the information with service providers who help us deliver the services you request or we provide.

We may share the information to communicate with you and market to you, including through email, direct mail or display media.

We will disclose the information (including PI) if we believe in good faith that we are required to do so by law, regulation or other government authority or to protect the rights, safety or property of ourselves or any person or entity. We may also cooperate with law enforcement agencies in any official investigation and we may disclose any Information to the requesting agency in doing so.

If we or all or substantially all of our assets, are purchased by another company (such as in a merger, consolidation, restructuring, the sale of stock and/or assets, or other corporate change or financing transaction), the information in our possession will likely be transferred to the successor entity. We also may share the information during the course of any due diligence process.

What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data

We may work with a data provider to target advertising to you personally, through online and offline methods including email, display media, video media and direct mail. These providers may use personal information that we have collected or that you have provided to locate you online, such as when you visit or log in to websites or mobile applications.  When you log in to or visit our website, your IP address may be combined with other de-identified data (such as a hashed, non-readable email or postal address) in order to send ads and materials to you based on your preferences, interests and attributes.

How long we retain your data

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile indefinitely. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

You can review and edit any personal information you have provided to Sharpdots through your login.

How we protect your data

Sharpdots takes various steps to protect the information we license or maintain, and to house and transmit that information in a secure way. For instance, this may include various types of physical and electronic security, including firewall protections, encryption, hashing or truncation of data, and access controls to personal information. While neither we nor any platform can guarantee 100 percent safety from hacks or illegal intrusion, we take these steps to ensure that this does not occur.

Binding Agreement, changes

We may revise this Privacy Policy at any time, with an effective date posted with it. The revised Privacy Policy will at that time be posted on this website.

Questions or concerns

If you have questions or concerns about Sharpdots' privacy efforts or data products, please contact us at:

Privacy Officer
3733 San Gabriel River Parkway Unit B, Pico Rivera, CA 90660