Privacy Policy

Crofters Food Ltd. Privacy Policy
Effective Date: July, 2009

This website is owned and operated by Crofters Food Ltd. Here at Crofters, we recognize that many visitors to our site are concerned about the information they provide to us, and how we treat that information. So we’ve developed this Privacy Policy to address those concerns. We may update this Policy from time to time, so please check in occasionally.

Types of Information We Collect
At our site, we collect both personally-identifiable information and aggregate information.

Personally-identifiable information relates to an individual consumer – e.g., name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, credit card number, etc. We only collect personally-identifiable information from individuals who provide it to us voluntarily and knowingly, such as by registering at our site, or by providing name and address information and requesting follow-up contacts from us. We don’t require you to register or provide this information to us in order to view our site or have access to its content.

Aggregate information relates to such things as how many consumers visit the site, which pages they access, what information they download, the type of web browser and operating system you use, the name of your Internet Service Provider (e.g., America Online), and so on. When you visit our site, we automatically collect this information, and combine it with similar information collected about all other visitors. By collecting this information, we learn how to best tailor our website to our visitors.

How Information is Collected
As we noted above, personally-identifiable information is collected from you directly and with your knowledge. Thus, when you register on the site, we collect the information you provide. When you enter a promotion, we collect the information needed for you to participate and for us to fulfill our obligations to you. When you e-mail us, we collect the e-mail address you supply, so that we can respond.
We also collect aggregate, non-personal information on an ongoing basis when you view our website. The collection of this non-personal information is done either through “cookie” technology or with “web beacons” (also called ‘single-pixel gifs’), as explained below.

Cookies
Like many companies, we use “cookie” technology on and off of our website. Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to an individual’s hard drive for purpose of keeping records. They enhance your online experience by saving your preferences while you are visiting a particular site. The cookies do not contain any personally-identifiable information and cannot profile your system or collect information from your hard drive.

When you view our website we may place a “cookie” on your computer. Temporary cookies are used for purposes such as counting the number of visits to our sites. These temporary cookies are eliminated when you exit your browser. A permanent cookie may also be stored on your computer by your browser. When you log in, this type of cookie tells us whether you’ve visited us before or if you are a new visitor. The cookie doesn’t obtain any personal information about you or provide us with any way to contact you, and the cookie doesn’t extract any information from your computer. We do use the cookie to help us identify site features and recipes in which you have the greatest interest, so that we can provide more of what you may want.

The “help” portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Remember, though, that cookies allow you to take full advantage of all of Crofters’s newest website features, and we recommend that you leave them turned on.

Web Beacons
Web beacons are Internet instrumentation that helps us to determine, for instance, whether a page has been viewed. When you ask us to send you information on a promotion or newsletter, we may use web beacons to determine how many of the e-mails we sent were actually opened. In general, any electronic image viewed as part of a web page, including a banner ad, can act as a web beacon.

Crofters retains no control over third party cookies and/or web beacons and does not have access to whatever information they may collect on behalf of the third party. To learn more about third party advertising networks and their privacy policies, click here http://www.networkadvertising.org/. In addition, Crofters may use cookies and/or web beacons when Crofters advertises on other companies’ websites. Any information we gather in this way will be governed by this Privacy Policy.

How We Use Your Personal Information
If you specifically agreed to follow-up contacts by us or asked to be put on our mailing list, we may contact you from time to time. For example, we may send you marketing or promotion materials; we may respond to your comments or requests for information; or we may contact you if needed in the course of processing a product or service you requested through our website.

In the e-mail section of our site, we may ask for some personally-identifiable information, such as your name and phone number. We use this information only if we need to contact you directly because our attempts to contact you by e-mail were unsuccessful. We don’t use your e-mail address for any purpose other than responding to the message you’ve sent, unless we have your permission.

We also use personal information about you to improve our marketing and promotional efforts; to statistically analyze website usage; and to improve our features and content. We may also use your personal information to deliver content that is customized to your interests as we best understand them from the information you’ve provided to us and your activities on the site. This customized content may include such things as recipes, banners, product information, and promotions. We do not collect personal information automatically, but we may combine non-personal information collected automatically (through cookies) with your previously submitted personal information.

Crofters’s primary goal in collecting personal information is to give you a meaningful and customized experience while you are using our websites and interactive banner ads.

Third Parties Who Provide Support Services to Crofters
In the course of doing business, we employ other companies and individuals to perform a variety of functions on our behalf. For example, we hire agencies to help administer promotions, to analyze data, to fulfill orders you place, and to provide customer service. These agents may have access to personal information if it is needed to perform their functions for Crofters; however, they are prohibited from using it for other purposes and they are required to maintain the information in confidence.

Data Sharing and Transfer
We do not sell, transfer, or disclose the personally-identifiable information we gather at our website to third parties without your prior consent. There are only two exceptions to this rule: (1) We will disclose information in cases where we believe in good faith that it is necessary to prevent a crime or an injury to ourselves or third parties; and (2) We disclose information to third parties who provide support services to us, as described above.

There may be times when we share aggregate information about our visitors (for example, the percentage of male and female visitors to our site) with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties in an effort to customize or enhance the content and advertising of our site for our users. We may also aggregate data from web log files (such as your web browser, operating system, pages visited, etc.) to understand how users navigate the site and what features are most popular.

Links to Other Sites
Crofters does its best to make sure that every link on our website sends you to a helpful place on the Internet. However, websites and addresses change quickly, and Crofters cannot guarantee the content of every site to which we provide a link. In addition, different websites have different privacy policies. You should always check the privacy policy of the specific site you’re visiting to understand your rights.

Choice and Control
You are ultimately in control of the personally-identifiable information you provide to us on our site. For example, you can always change your preference for follow-up contacts just by e-mailing the Online Team at the address listed below or by changing the information in Your Profile section of the site. Or, if you prefer, you can cancel your registration altogether and we will take prompt steps to remove your personally-identifiable information from our database.

Important Note to Kids
Before providing your name, address, e-mail address, or any other personal information to anyone on the Internet, be sure to ask your parents if it’s OK.

Children’s Privacy Policy
We might permit a child to send us an e-mail. We will respond to or deliver these e-mails, but we do not store the names, e-mail addresses, or the e-mails themselves in our operational database. We do not maintain this information, nor do we share it with third parties (other than support service companies as described above).

Under federal law, websites directed to children under 13 are prohibited from conditioning a child’s participation in an activity on the child’s disclosing more personal information than is reasonably necessary to engage in the activity. We comply fully with this requirement.

Upon proper identification, any parent can review any personal information we have collected from their child, if we are still maintaining the information in our operational database. They may also request that the information be deleted from our database, and refuse to permit further collection or use of their child’s information. If you are a parent and wish to exercise these rights, please contact the Online Team as described below.

Updates To This Privacy Notice
We may change or update portions of this Privacy Notice at any time and without prior notice to you. Please check back from time to time so you are aware of any changes or updates to the notice. We will indicate the notice’s effective date on the first page of the notice.

How To Contact Us
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, you can contact us at:

Crofters Food Ltd
470 Oastler Park Drive
Seguin, Ontario
Canada P2A 2W8

705-746-6301-phone

705-746-2733-fax

Business Hours 9:00am to 5:00pm EST

We’ll be happy to answer your questions or hear your concerns.