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Privacy Policy

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting any personally identifying information you may share with us at Smith & Fong Co. (“S&F”), including by accessing and using our various Internet websites.  This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) is intended to help you understand how we collect and use the information you decide to share with S&F, and to help you make informed decisions when providing personally identifying information as a visitor or registered user at our various websites.

This Privacy Policy is effective as of September 23, 2024, and we may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated “Revised” date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is publicly accessible. If we make material changes to this policy, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

As of the date of this Privacy Policy update the following sites owned and controlled by S&F are subject to this Privacy Policy:  plyboo.com, plyboodirect.com, plybooclearance.com, modpuzzle.com, and durapalm.com (individually as “Site,” or collectively as “Sites”).

We recognize that individuals located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or the United Kingdom (“UK”) may access and use our Sites.  We are committed to complying with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“EU GDPR”), the Data Protection Act of 2018, including the United Kingdom General Data Regulation (“UK-GDPR”), and other applicable laws and regulations in connection with any EEA or UK individuals’ data received through our Sites.  As further discussed below, S&F complies with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (“EU-US DPF”), and the UK Extension to the EU-US DPF as set forth by the United States Department of Commerce.  S&F has certified to the US Dept. of Commerce that it adheres to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework Principles (“EU-US DPF Principles”) with regard to the processing of personal data received from the EEA in reliance on the EU-US DPF, and from the United Kingdom (and Gibraltar) in reliance on the UK Extension to the EU-US DPF.  If there is any conflict between the terms of this Privacy Policy and EU-US DPF Principles and/or the UK Extension to the EU-US DPF Principles (collectively, the “DPF Principles”), the DPF Principles shall govern.  Please see the section entitled “Privacy Principles for Data Collected from the EEA and/or the UK” for more information on our compliance with the DPF Principles.

By accessing any Site, using our services or Site feature, or by providing us with your personally identifying information, you are accepting the practices and policies described in this Privacy Policy and to our processing of your personal information for the purposes identified in this Privacy Policy.

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time, and any changes will be posted on this page, and if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice. Your continued use of any Site after we make and post changes to this Privacy Policy is deemed acceptance of those changes.

Our Privacy Policy applies to our services, but excludes services that have separate privacy policies that do not incorporate this Privacy Policy.  Similarly, our Privacy Policy does not apply to services offered by other companies or individuals, including third party services used by S&F, or third party websites accessed through any Site.  For these third party websites and services, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the third party privacy policies applicable to those websites.  Our Site may also provide links to third-party websites that are outside of our control and not covered by our Privacy Policy.   We encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these (and all) websites to learn about those websites’ policies and practices with respect to your personally identifying information.

If you have questions or concerns regarding the Privacy Policy, to update your information maintained by S&F, or to address any other inquiry regarding our privacy practices, please first contact us at privacy@plyboo.com.

Who is the Data Controller for your Personal Information?

Smith & Fong Co., an organization established under the laws of the State of California, the United States of America, with offices located at 394 Bel Marin Keys Blvd., Ste. 6, Novato, California, USA, 94949, is the data controller, including with respect to the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

What Information Does S&F Collect?

“Personal Information” and “Personal Data” are data or information about an identified or identifiable individual.  This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, share, and protect such data or information, and the choices you have regarding your Personal Information.

S&F collects information you share with us, as well as information we learn from your use of any Site or services.  The data we collect depends on the services that you access or use. You provide some data directly to S&F, for example when you submit a search query on our Site, or contact us for support. Our servers collect information known as “log data,” that includes your IP address, the time your computer or device visited the site, the URL of the website you arrived from, and the type of device or browser you used to access the site.

We also get information by recording how you use our services and whether you navigate between our Site and other sites. For example, we use cookies (small text files placed on your device) may receive usage data from software running on your device. For more information about our use of cookies, please see the section on Cookies and related data identifiers below.

We collect the following general types of Personal Information:

Contact and demographic data. Your first and last name, email address, postal address, phone number, and other similar contact information. We also may collect data about you such as your age, country, and preferred language.

Account credentials.  Passwords and similar security information used for authentication and account access.

Usage data.  Usage and behavioral data about how you use our Site and associated services. This includes for example data such as the search terms you use, the webpages you visit, the links you use, and the items you purchase. We may also collect information about browsing history and websites visited before and after visiting our Site.

Device data.  Data about your device such as IP address, device identifiers, and data about the network, operating system, browser, and software you use to access our Site and services.

Payment data. If you make a purchase, we collect data necessary to process your payment, such as your name, credit card number, and security code.

Support data. If you contact S&F customer support, conversations or correspondence with our representatives may be monitored and recorded.

Do Not Sell My Information. S&F does not use, sell or rent your Personal Information to anyone for any purpose, including for advertising purposes.  S&F only shares your Personal Information as permitted by this Privacy Policy, or as specifically requested or authorized by you to provide access to a Site, or to render or complete the services requested or authorized by you, for example to provide you with samples of our products, or to complete a sales transaction.

Information We Learn From Your Use of the Site. We may use browser session data to store your session data while you browse our site.  Though your data is typically only stored for that browser session, certain information may be saved by browser session and stored on our servers with a session ID.  This may include usage data (such as the search terms you use, the pages you visit, the website links you utilize.  We may also collect information about your browsing history and websites visited prior to, and subsequent to our Site.

Like many companies, we monitor the use of our Site and services, by collecting information pertaining to functional features such as browser type, operating system, IP address, and the like. This information may include data pertaining to you and your use of our products and services.  This information is used to improve usability, performance and effectiveness of the Site, and may be disclosed to third parties as aggregate data (without any personally identifiable information.)

We also use device information gleaned from cookies, log files, and various other online identifiers such as cookies to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).

Cookies and Related Data Identifiers.  In some instances, we may collect various information through cookies, pixel tags, web beacons, and other anonymous identifiers. Although web browsers typically accept cookies and similar files by default, you can usually prevent this by selecting the appropriate privacy settings on your browser.  However, if you do so, some functionality of our site may be impaired or lost, particularly any site customization features.

The Site does not use any tracking cookies or advertising cookies which enable targeted or behavioral advertising solicitations. Various functional and analytical cookies may be placed via the website when accessing or using any Site.

When you first visit any Site you will be prompted to select your various preferences for how cookies are used on the Site, the types of cookies used, the information collected using cookies, and how that information is used, and how to manage the cookie settings.

We use the services provided by www.cookieyes.com to manage your cookies preferences.  To change your preferences at any time (e.g., during subsequent visits to any Site,) you access your cookies preferences panel by visiting the landing page of a Site, and navigating to the cookieyes.com preferences panel by clicking on the cookies control button displayed toward the bottom of the webpage.  This will let you revisit the cookie consent banner and preferences panel and change your preferences, or withdraw your consent.

We predominantly use Google Analytics to help us understand how our clients use our Site, and to help us improve your user experience while accessing and using our Site.  You can read more about how Google uses your information at https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

By connecting with us on social media, or accessing various Site features, you may visit third party websites that deploy other data identifiers beyond the control of S&F.  To learn more about such third party websites’ privacy policies, and to take appropriate action to protect your personal data accessed through those third party websites, please visit the following links:

Web browsers also enable you to block and delete cookie by changing the settings of your browser.  Listed below are various support documents describing how to manage cookies from the major web browsers:

Publicly Accessible Information.  When you provide information to be published or displayed on public areas of the Site, or transmitted to other users of the Site or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions”), your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. For example, if you submit a product review or use a public posting feature on any Site, you should be aware that any information you share is visible to other users, can be read, collected, or used by other individuals to send you unsolicited messages. S&F is not responsible for the User Contributions you choose to submit. If you delete your User Contributions from the Site, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by others.

Sensitive Information.  S&F does not collect or retain sensitive information (i.e., Personal Information specifying medical or health conditions, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership or information specifying the sex life of the individual).  S&F will however treat as confidential any such Personal Information received from a third party where the third party identifies and treats it as sensitive information.

How Does Smith & Fong Use Personal Information?

We respect your privacy, and value the information you share with us.  We will not use, sell, rent, or share with a third party any personally identifiable information other than as permitted by the Privacy Policy (including for example by using such data in the aggregate,) relevant laws, rules, or regulations authorizing such disclosure, or as specifically requested or authorized by you when accessing or using our Site and related services.

We use the information we collect to provide the Site and its contents to you, to enable the interactive features of our Site, to provide any service or transaction you requested, and importantly, to maintain and improve the services we provide, including for example by providing you with a better user experience when accessing our Site.  We only use or process your information in a way that is compatible with and relevant to the purpose for which it was collected or authorized for use, for example to fulfill any purpose for which you provide information, including to meet our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us (including for billing and collection purposes.)

We may share your personally identifiable information with authorized third-parties such as data processors, vendors, or contractors in order to provide you with a requested service or transaction.  For example, to provide you with email newsletters we must share your personally identifiable information with our email newsletter service provider. We also use information collected from cookies and other anonymous identifiers to improve your user experience and the quality of our services.

We may collect and share personally identifiable information when we have a good faith belief that access to, or the use or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to satisfy any applicable law, rule, regulation, or enforceable governmental or administrative request, to enforce our applicable Terms of Service, including to detect, prevent, or address fraud, security or technical issues, or protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of S&F, our users or the public.

Our use of information other than for the purpose of completing a requested transaction or service is on an opt-in basis.  This means that you will not receive communications from us regarding, for example special events, promotions, or new certified products, unless you have given us affirmative permission to receive such communications.  You may at any time update your various subscriptions, including for example to completely opt-out of receiving any further email solicitations from us.  Our email communications all include various links enabling you to modify or update your contact preferences, including to completely opt-out of further unsolicited contact, or you may contact us with your comments and inquiries at privacy@plyboo.com.

We may use your information to contact you about our goods and services. If you do not want your information used for such commercial solicitations, please check the relevant box located on the form on which we collect your data, or send us an e-mail stating your opt-out request to privacy@plyboo.com. If we have sent you a promotional e-mail, you may also send us a return e-mail asking to be omitted from future e-mail distributions. Note, these opt outs do not apply to information provided to S&F via the Site as a result of a product purchase, warranty registration, or other transactions.

We may also use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers’ target audiences, as well as for auditing, research, and analysis to improve S&F’s products and services and the Site.

Sharing of Personal Information with Third Parties.  Except as stated in our Privacy Policy, S&F will not disclose Personal Information about our users to any third party without your prior consent.  S&F does not rent, sell, or share Personal Information that you have provided to us when using any Site.

At our discretion, we may share aggregated information about our users, such as aggregate information regarding visitor demographics, traffic patterns and site usage with our partners, advertisers or sponsors.  This information does not include your Personal Information, and does not identify any individual,

We may however share Personal Information with third parties as necessary to render services you have requested or authorized, for example to trusted business partners who process sales information on our behalf, to our subsidiaries and affiliates, as well as contractors and service providers used to support our business.  We may also share your Personal Information in connection with a merger or sale of all or a portion of our business to another company.

We may offer some services on or in collaboration with other Internet web sites. Personal Information that you provide to those third-party sites may be sent to us so that we can deliver the requested service. We process such information under our Privacy Policy.

We may also provide you with access to third party applications, such as gadgets or extensions, through our website. Any information collected when you enable a third party application on our site is processed under our Privacy Policy, but any information collected by a third party application provider is governed by their privacy policies.

We may also share your Personal Information with third parties if we have a good faith belief that access to or use of this information, or the preservation or disclosure of this information is reasonably necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; to enforce our Terms of Service, including for investigation of possible violations; detect, prevent, or otherwise remedy fraud, security threats or breaches, or other technical issues; and to prevent harm to the personal or property rights of S&F, or other third parties, as permitted by applicable laws.

To the extent that a third party processes your personal data as a data processor of S&F, we will place a processor agreement with such party that meets relevant legal requirements for that third party processor to process such information based on our instructions, in compliance with our Privacy Policy, the relevant laws and regulations and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.  Nevertheless, S&F is neither responsible nor liable for the processing of your personal data by third parties.

Retention Period.  We may retain certain information for legitimate business purposes, as required by law, or where necessary to preserve it in contemplation of litigation, legal proceedings or an investigation. The storage periods are determined on a case-by-case basis that depends on factors including but not limited to the nature of the information collected, the purpose for which it is collected and processed, as well as relevant operational retention needs and legal obligations.

How Do I Access Or Change My Personal Information?

To provide our products and services, and for you to gain the optimum benefits of our products and services, we need to store and provide you with access to your Personal Information. You can review, and update the Personal Information that we retain for your account by using the appropriate links provided in our email communications, or by contacting us at privacy@plyboo.com.

We may ask you to verify your identity before we update your Personal Information. At our discretion, we may reject requests that are unreasonably repetitive, require disproportionate technical efforts, are impractical, or risk the privacy rights of other users. We may not immediately delete copies of your outdated information from our servers and may not remove all outdated information from our backup systems after you delete this information.  This residual retention period is intended to protect our information servers from accidental or malicious loss of data.

Privacy Principles for Data Collected from the EEA and/or the UK

S&F Sites and services are hosted and operated entirely within the United States of America, and any information you submit to us is presumed to be hosted on servers located within the USA. When you access or use the Sites you are consenting to the transfer of your Personal Information to United States jurisdiction.

Compliance with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles for the EEA and UK.  For access to or use of Personal Information, including for transfers of any Personal Information outside the EEA or the UK, S&F complies with the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce.  S&F has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (EU-U.S. DPF Principles) with regard to the processing of personal data received from the European Union in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and from the United Kingdom (and Gibraltar) in reliance on the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF.  If there is any conflict between the terms of this Privacy Policy and the DPF Principles, the DPF Principles shall control.

To learn more about the Data Privacy Framework and to view our certification, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/.

Notice and Choice for Use of Your Personal Information.  We will use or disclose your Personal Information in accordance with the notices you provide to us, only if consistent with the DPF Principles, and the choices you make regarding with whom your Personal Information may be shared.

You have the right to choose to opt out of (a) disclosures of your Personal Information to third parties not identified at the time of collection or subsequently authorized, and (b) uses of Personal Information that is materially different from those disclosed at the time of collection or subsequent authorization.

You may contact us at privacy@plyboo.com to exercise your right to opt out with whom your personal information may be shared. 

Please also review the section above entitled “How Does S&F Use Personal Information” for more information on how we use your Personal Information.

Please note that your notices to us regarding use of your Personal Information, and the choices you make regarding use or disclosure of your Personal Information, may have an impact on your ability to access or use a Site or various services offered through a Site.

Recourse, Enforcement, and Liabilities.  In compliance with the EU-US DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-US DPF, S&F commits to resolve complaints related to the DPF Principles about our collection and use of your Personal Information.

S&F is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the Federal Trade Commission regarding S&F’s compliance with the EU-US DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-US DPF, and under certain circumstances, you may be required to invoke binding arbitration.  For more information regarding the FTC’s administration of the DPF, including for directions on how to file a complaint with the FTC, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/Individuals-in-Europe.

Liability for Onward Transfers.  S&F remains liable and responsible for onward transfers of Personal Information to third parties, including onward transfers to agents that S&F engages to process Personal Information on its behalf in any manner that is inconsistent with the EU-US DPF or the UK Extension to the EU-US DPF, unless S&F proves that it is not responsible for the event(s) giving rise to the damage.

S&F may provide Personal Information to third parties that act as agents or subcontractors performing tasks on behalf of and under contract from S&F. Such third parties must agree to use such information only for the purposes for which they have been engaged by S&F and must contractually agree, through European Commission model clauses and/or similar agreements (e.g., EU Directive 95/46/EC), to comply with the DPF Principles or another mechanism permitted by applicable data protection laws for transfers and processing of personal data.

S&F may also disclose personal data for other purposes or to other third parties when an individual data subject has consented to or requested such disclosure. S&F may also be required to disclose an individual data subject’s Personal Information in response to a lawful request by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

Consistent with the EU-US DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-US DPF, as well as S&F’s commitments under European Commission model clauses agreements, S&F will transfer such data only for limited and specified purposes as authorized by the data subject, ascertain that the agent is obligated to provide at least the same level of privacy protection as is required by the DPF Principles, take reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure that the agent effectively processes the Personal Information transferred in a manner consistent with the organization’s obligations under the DPF Principles, require the agent to notify S&F if it makes a determination that it can no longer meet its obligation to provide the same level of protection as is required by the DPF Principles, and upon notice, take reasonable and appropriate steps to stop and remediate unauthorized processing.

Dispute Resolution.  An individual has the possibility, under certain conditions, to invoke binding arbitration for complaints regarding compliance with the EU-US DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-US DPF which are not resolved by any of the other DPF mechanisms.  For more information regarding when an individual data subject may invoke binding arbitration, please see Annex I of the DPF Principles.

In compliance with the EU-US DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-US DPF, S&F commits to refer unresolved complaints concerning our handling of Personal Information received in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF to JAMS Alternate Dispute Resolution, an alternative dispute resolution provider based in the United States.

If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your DPF Principles-related complaint from us, or if we have not addressed your DPF Principles-related complaint to your satisfaction, please visit JAMS at https://www.jamsadr.com/dpf-dispute-resolution for more information or to file a complaint.  The services of JAMS Alternative Dispute Resolution are provided at no cost to you. In addition, in certain and in limited situations, EU individuals may seek redress from the Data Privacy Framework Panel, a binding arbitration mechanism.

Inquiries Regarding your Personal Information.  You may bring any inquiry or complaint regarding our collection or use of your Personal Information under this Privacy Policy directly to our attention, and under certain circumstances, may also seek independent recourse to investigate and resolve your complaint.

Individual data subjects may request to edit, update, or otherwise amend their Personal Information, or seek complete erasure of their Personal Information, with a written request addressed to privacy@plyboo.com, in which case we will endeavor to respond to your complaint within 30-days of receipt.  While making modifications to their data, individual data subjects must provide truthful, complete, and accurate information.

Processing the Personal Information of persons in the European Union and the United Kingdom will always be carried out in compliance with the GDPR, EU Regulation 2016/679. This means that you have several rights as a person residing in the European Union or the United Kingdom with regard to the processing of your personal data.

The following is a general overview of the privacy principles and your specific rights under the EU-US DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-US DPF:

Access:  You have the right to request information about your own Personal Information collected or processed by, or on behalf of, S&F.

Data portability:  When the processing is carried out by automated means and is based on your consent, your personal data shall be presented to you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.  You further have the right to transmit the collected data to another controller.

Rectification:  You have the right to correct or amend your personal data when it is inaccurate or incomplete.

Restriction of processing:  You have the right to request a restriction on the processing of your personal data in the situations regulated by Art. 18 of the GDPR.

Objection and Erasure:  You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data and to request an erasure of your personal data.

Withdrawal of consent:  You may withdraw your consent for the processing of your Personal Information.

For a complete overview please refer to the text of the GDPR, and upon your request, S&F will endeavor to provide you more specific information based on the specific facts of your request.

S&F’s Information Security & Compliance Practices

S&F takes reasonable and appropriate steps to protect your Personal Information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.  For Site security purposes, and to ensure that our Site and services remain publicly accessible, the platform for which the Site resides on utilizes software tools and programs intending to assure its confidentiality, integrity, and availability.  Tools which are currently in use, or are to be deployed if necessary for the security of the Site include, but are not limited to, network security and monitoring tools (e.g., network firewalls, web application firewalls, routers, switches, intrusion detection systems, etc.), network performance (e.g., monitoring tools to assess Site performance, uptime, etc.), as well as a variety of physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to help achieve Site safety and security.  All information accessed through the Site is compliant with the requirements of Art. 32 of the GDPR.

We store your Personal Information on secure servers that are password protected and shielded from outside access by a firewall.  We practice safety procedures intended to ensure, as far as possible, the security and integrity of all our information, including your personally identifying information. However, no system or information can ever be fully protected against every possible hazard.  As a result, we cannot assure or warrant the security or privacy of any information you provide to us and, accordingly, you do so at your own risk.

We also use a self-assessment approach to assure compliance with this Privacy Policy and to periodically verify that this policy is accurate, comprehensive for the intended purposes, and prominently displayed for consumer review.  We encourage interested persons to share any concerns with us and we will investigate and attempt to resolve any complaints and disputes regarding the use or disclosure of your Personal Information.

COPPA Disclaimer

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was created to protect children under the age of thirteen from unsuspecting practices related to collecting, using, or disclosing any information about them.  Our services are neither intended nor directed for use by children under the age of thirteen. C2CPII does not knowingly accept, collect, maintain or use any information from any child under the age of thirteen, and if a child whom C2CPII knows or suspects to be under the age of thirteen sends personal information to us online, we will only use that information to respond directly to that child, notify the parents, or seek parental consent.

Who Do I Contact With Other Questions?

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us at Privacy@plyboo.com.

 

©2018-2024 Smith & Fong Co. All rights reserved. S&F reserves the right to make changes in services, terms, and other information contained in this document without prior notice. The reader should in all cases consult S&F to determine whether any such changes have been made. Revised September 23, 2024.