Privacy Statement

What does this privacy statement apply to?

This privacy statement applies to your personal information collected through the websites, mobile applications and other services and products that collect data and display this statement belonging to Mars and , This statement does not apply to such entities This statement does not apply to such entities

Our privacy practices are consistent with country data protection laws. We cooperates with country data protection authorities if they believe a privacy problem has occurred.

By visiting this website and submitting information, you consent to such collection, processing, transfer and/or storage of your personal information. Please note: our policies may differ by region, so if you visit one of our websites in a different region, please check to see if there is a statement specific to that location.

What information do we collect?

We may collect various information that you provide to us, including personal contact details, and information related to your purchases, employment or demographic.

1. Personal contact details includes information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, or e-mail addresses such as when you provide them to us during online registration; some websites allow you to establish a user name and password to set up an account.
2. Purchase-related information includes data regarding purchases you make on our websites, including payment card information and shipping details.
3. Employment-related information includes your indicated job preferences, work history and information provided on applications submitted to us online.
4. Demographic information includes data such as age, gender, hobby or activity information, taste or other preference information, and the like.

We may collect information from other sources, including contact lists, and demographic information from third parties and other sources. This data may be combined with other information that we collect.

We also collect certain types of information automatically:

1. Your Internet Protocol (IP) address or device identifier, your device’s operating system, browser type, websites visited before or after you visit our website, pages viewed and activities at our website, as well as your interaction with advertisements.
2. Third-party service and advertising partners may also collect information automatically.
3. Find out more about our collection practices at How do we use cookies and web beacons.

How do we use your information?

We principally use your information for the purposes of providing products or services that you request; to administer promotions (sweepstakes, contests and offers); to communicate with you; to deliver advertising; to improve our websites, products and services; and for our business, administration and management purposes relating to the earlier mentioned purposes.

1. Providing the features, products and services you request: We may use the information we collect about you to fulfill your requests for, and enable your use of, our features, products and services.
2. Registration, contests and promotions: We may use your information to enter you in contests, to notify you of results and to register you for certain features, products and services.
3. To communicate with you and provide you with information: We may use your information to communicate with you, to respond to your questions or comments, to provide you with updates and news and to alert you when job vacancies that fit your profile arise (in the event that you submit your resume). We also may use your information to provide you with personalized content, information, and to send you brochures, coupons, samples, offers and other information on our products or our family of companies. We ask visitors providing e-mail addresses to indicate if they would like further information or updates from us or our website and only those who request it will receive follow-up communications from us. We may also ask if you would like to receive information about other products available from members of our family of companies.

We also offer visitors an “opt-out” option at any time they wish to cease receiving e-mails or other information from us.

1. To deliver to you relevant advertising: We may purchase and use opt-in e-mail lists to contact potential customers who we believe may be interested in products or services from the Mars family of companies. We will honor opt-out requests and ask those providing lists to give us assurances that e-mail contact information is provided only for those consumers who have expressed a desire to receive offers and information by e-mail. We also may use demographic and preference information to allow advertising related to Mars products and services to be targeted to the users for whom they are most pertinent. This is designed so that users will see advertising that is most likely to interest them, and advertisers can display their ads to people who are most likely to be receptive. For further information about our advertising practices, please see What is our policy on online interest-based advertising below.
2. To provide you with other offers. For example, sometimes our brands will make offers, coupons and information, including catalogues, available to you through the mail. For example, when customers place an online order in our catalogue stores or sign up for one of our catalogues online we may add them to the list to receive that catalogue. We may also use lists we have received from third parties or public sources to send you this information, and, as is routinely done in the catalogue business, may exchange names and addresses (but not e-mail addresses absent consent) of our catalogue customers with other catalogue companies who may also contact you by mail. You may “opt-out” of receiving offline communications from our brands at any time.
3. To improve our websites, features, products and services. We may use the information that we collect to improve the Mars family of product offerings, services, as well as our websites and features.
4. For other purposes. We may also use your information other legitimate purposes not described above, which you will be informed of at the time of collection or prior to our use of your information.

We retain your information only for as long as needed to meet the purposes for which it was collected or as required by contractual agreement, by law or regulation, or, where applicable, for the appropriate statute of limitations period.

How do we share and disclose your information?

We may share or disclose your information:

1. With Mars and the Mars family of companies ;
2. With vendors or agents. For example, we may share your information with companies we have hired to provide services on our behalf. When we share information with these other companies to provide services for us, they are not allowed to use it for any other purpose and must keep it confidential unless you otherwise consent.
3. Where your information may be transferred along with other business assets.

We also may share or disclose personal information, including the content of your communications:

1. To comply with the law or respond to legal process or lawful requests, including from law enforcement and government agencies.
2. To conduct investigations of consumer complaints or possible breaches of law, to protect the integrity of the website, to fulfill your requests, or to cooperate in any legal investigation.
3. To protect the rights or property of the Mars family of companies or our customers, including enforcing the terms governing your use of the services.
4. To act on a good faith belief that access or disclosure is necessary to protect the safety of our associates, customers or the public.

Please note that our websites may include links to third-party websites whose privacy practices may differ our privacy practices. If you submit personal information to any of those websites, your information is governed by the privacy policies on those websites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any website you visit.

What about children’s privacy?

Our websites are primarily designed and intended for adults and, where brand-appropriate, teenagers. In accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we do not knowingly collect or store any personal information about children under age 13, and our company websites are not designed to collect personal information from children under age 13. We may ask visitors to enter a birth date to restrict those who are underage from accessing certain websites, areas or features. If we learn we are dealing with a child under age 13, we may ask for the e-mail address of a parent and make an effort to contact them to determine if the child has permission to provide information to us. For more information, please review our Special Note to Parents.

How do we use tracking technologies like “cookies”, web beacons and other technologies ?

We or our service providers or business partners use technologies like cookies and web beacons to offer certain functions at our website, to understand our visitors, and to offer ads at non-affiliated third-party websites, sometimes using information collected through technology at one of our family of websites and sometimes through third-party networks. Service providers or publishers may display ads for our products at unaffiliated third-party websites based on your online activities. We support self-regulatory programs for this practice, called interest-based advertising or online behavioral advertising, and ask our business partners to do the same. Find out more below at What are our policies regarding online interest-based advertising? Please note that third parties where you might see our ads have their own privacy statements and use technologies which we do not control. We encourage you to read those policies carefully.

What are cookies and how do we use them?

“Cookies” are data files that a website sends to your computer while you are viewing the website. These data files include information that allows our websites to remember important information that will make your use of the website more efficient and useful to you. Our websites use cookies for a variety of purposes.

Visitors to our websites use different web browsers and different computers. To make your visits as easy as possible with the technology you use, we automatically keep track of information like the type of browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox) and operating system (e.g., Windows, Mac-OS X) used by a visitor, IP address, domain name of the visitor’s Internet service provider, websites visited before and after, pages viewed and activities at our websites, and advertisements seen or clicked on. We also track the total number of visitors to our websites in an aggregate form to allow us to update and improve them. Personal contact information is not extracted in this process. This information tells us if more visitors prefer certain features or areas to others, which helps us keep our websites fresh and interesting to the majority of our visitors.

Cookie technology helps us deliver content tailored to a visitor’s interests, and allows us to make ordering products, entering and participating in sweepstakes and contests, and offering other functions at our websites easier for our visitors. Websites that offer online shopping use cookies to remember and process the items in your shopping cart. Where permitted, we may associate personal information with a cookie file in such instances.

Please note that we may allow third parties to advertise on our websites. Some of these third parties may place cookies on your computer for purposes of advertising. we do not control the cookies of third parties. Some of these companies are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), which offers a single location to opt out of their cookies. Please visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s website.

What are web beacons and how do we use them?

Some of our Web pages and e-mail updates may contain electronic images called “web beacons” (sometimes known as one pixel GIFs, clear GIFs or pixel tags). Web beacons allow us to count visitors who have viewed our webpages. In promotional e-mail messages and newsletters, web beacons allow us to count how many subscribers have read them. Web beacons allow us to develop statistical information about the activities and features that most interest our consumers for the purpose of providing more personalized content. Web beacons are not used to access personal information without your consent.

What if you don’t want cookies?

If you don’t want cookies, you can set your computer to warn you each time a cookie is being sent or turn off all cookies (except Flash cookies) through your browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or Safari). Check your browser “help” menu to learn the correct way to change or update your cookies. To find out more about how to manage or delete Flash cookies, visit Adobe. Please note that if you do not accept cookies, some features or activities may not be available to you.

What are our policies regarding online interest-based advertising?

We support the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising of the Digital Advertising Alliance in the US and applies to US consumers. More information about these Principles can be found here. Advertisements that we place online using interest-based data are expected to be delivered with the Advertising Option Icon to help consumers understand how their data is being collected and used and to provide choices for consumers who want more control. The Icon looks like this:

By clicking on the Icon when it appears, you can review information (and follow information) regarding online interest-based advertisements, including who is collecting and using your online data, how you can opt-out from receiving such advertisements, and more.

How do we serve advertisements through online interest-based advertising?

At times we display ads both on our network of owned and operated websites and on the websites of third parties. When you visit one of our websites or view ads that we serve elsewhere online, you may see different kinds of ads, such as text ads next to search results or video ads on web pages. Sometimes, these ads are based on the content of the pages on which they appear. Other times, these ads are generated by matching the particular ad to your interests as inferred from your online activities that have been collected over time. With interest-based advertising, the goal is to show you ads that are most relevant to you.

To do this, we and some of our third-party advertising companies use technologies such as cookies and web beacons to collect information about your interaction with our websites and other third-party websites (“Online Data”). This Online Data generally does not identify you to us personally and, typically, it is aggregated with other data to create segments – groups of users and certain general interest categories that we have inferred based on a variety of factors (for example, “sports fan”). The Online Data can include:

1. The Web pages, products and services you view and links you click when using our websites and services as well as third-party websites;
2. Our e-mails that you view and links you click on within that e-mail;
3. Whether you view or click on ads that are shown to you;
4. Demographic or interest data, including general geographic location derived from IP address;
5. Offline purchase data that may be combined with Online Data to create a better profile regarding your interests or purchasing preferences; and
6. The search terms you enter when using certain search services.

We and our third-party advertising partners use this Online Data to paint a more accurate picture of the interests of the audiences with which we interact – including you – so that we can serve ads that are more relevant to those interests.

In addition, our third-party advertising partners use this Online Data for a variety of other purposes, including (a) in conjunction with advertising that appears on our website or other websites, (b) for reporting website traffic, statistics, advertisement data and other interaction with ads and the websites on which they are served, and (c) to measure the effectiveness of web-based and e-mail advertisements.

Why would you want to receive interest-based ads?

Consumers like to receive interest-based ads for many different reasons. Interest-based ads are helpful because they are more tailored to your particular interests. For example, cat owners may see more ads for cat food and fewer ads for dog grooming services. Interest-based ads also are more likely to help you discover new products and services that are actually relevant to you and your interests. For example, dog owners may see an ad about the latest dog-grooming products, whereas cat owners might be more likely to see an ad for the latest feline hairball solution. In short, receiving interest-based ads can help to improve your access to new products, services and features that are most relevant to you, which in turn could help to improve your life and social experiences. You also will not see the same ads over and over from us because the number of times you see a particular interest-based ad is limited. By opting-out of interest-based ads, you lose all of these benefits.

How can you opt-out of receiving interest-based ads from us?

If you do not want this website to show you interest-based ads you can opt-out by following the instructions here. If you do not want to receive interest-based ads from any of our US sites, you need to click the AdChoices link in the footer section of that website. Please note, however, that opting-out does not mean you will no longer see ads from us online. It simply means that the online ads from us you do see will not be based on your particular interests.

For more information about who we allow to use technologies on our website to collect Online Data about you such as your interaction with our website, please click on the link at the bottom of our homepage.

What else do you need to know?

Where is your information stored and processed?

Personal information collected on our websites and services may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country where we or our service providers maintain facilities.

The servers and databases in which information may be stored may be located outside the country from which you accessed this website and in a country that does not have the same privacy laws as your country of residence. The personal information you provide us may be transmitted abroad, but we will collect, process and use personal information only in accordance with this privacy statement.

Employment-related queries may also be transferred to any member of the Mars family of companies. By visiting this website and submitting information, you consent to such collection, processing, transfer and/or storage of your personal information. Please note: our policies may differ by region, so if you visit one of our websites in a different region, please check to see if there is a statement specific to that location.

What about chat rooms, message boards, or other interactive forums?

We may offer chat rooms, message or bulletin boards, or interactive areas where visitors may post comments or information for our visitors’ enjoyment. If there is a chat room, bulletin or message board, social networking opportunities or other interactive areas where personal information may be posted at this website, be sure to check posted rules before entering, as you will be bound by them as well as our General Terms and Conditions. Rules for participation in interactive features may establish age and other restrictions on participation. Anything you post online is public information, we are not responsible for anything you voluntarily post online. Users should exercise caution when disclosing personal information online.

How do we safeguard your information?

We have implemented administrative, physical and technical safeguards designed to protect your information. If online shopping is permitted at the website, we use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to communicate with your browser software when you order from us online and thereby provide us with payment card or related information. SSL is the industry standard security protocol, which makes it very difficult for anyone else to intercept your credit card / transaction and order information that you send us when you submit your online order. Otherwise, the transmission of information to and from us is not encrypted or secure.

No security measures can be 100% secure, however, and so we recommend that you take additional measures to protect yourself and your information, including by installing up to date anti-virus software, closing browsers after use, keeping confidential your log-in credentials and passwords, and making sure that you regularly update software and apps you have downloaded to ensure you have enabled the latest security features on your devices.

Changes to this Privacy Statement

We may update this privacy statement from time to time, so please visit this page periodically and review this statement for changes. We will notify you of material changes to this privacy statement by posting a notice on our home page for a reasonable period of time and changing the “Last Updated” date [(below)]. Your continued use of our websites following the posting of changes will mean that you accept the changed terms.

What should you do if you have questions, wish to access, update or delete information, or wish to opt-out of receiving future communications?

If you would like us to access, update, change, or delete information we have about you in our marketing database (subject to any applicable legal exceptions), would like to opt-out of receiving further communications from us, or have questions about our privacy statement, please click here.

How can you contact us?

To contact us, privacy@effem.com
Our Mailing Address is: Global Privacy Team, Dundee Road, Slough, Berkshire
SL1 4LG.

What are your California Privacy Rights?

California law permits residents of California to opt-out of Mars’ disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. You may choose to opt-out of the sharing of your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes at any time by submitting a request in writing to our contact address above or by e-mailing us at privacy@effem.com. Please note that this opt-out does not prohibit disclosure made for non-marketing purposes. California law also permits residents of California to request and obtain from us once per year, free of charge, a list of the third parties (if any) to whom we have disclosed personal information for their direct marketing purposes in the prior calendar year, as well as the type of personal information disclosed to those parties. If you are a California resident and would like to request this information, please submit your request in an e-mail to: privacy@effem.com or by writing to our contact address above. Requests via telephone or facsimile will not be accepted. The e-mail subject line or mailing envelope and the content of your request must include the phrase “Your California Privacy Rights,” and include your name, e-mail address (if you wish to receive a response via e-mail) or street address, city, state, zip code (if you wish to receive a response via postal mail).

Last Updated: February, 2014