At Ez Straw, we respect the privacy of our website visitors and customers. This policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect personal information provided through our website and online services. Please read this privacy policy carefully to understand our data practices before using our site or submitting any personal information.
Information We Collect
We only collect data that helps us achieve the purpose set out in this privacy policy. We collect it in two ways:
Information you provide to us directly
When you make a purchase or sign up for our mailing list, you may provide us with certain information voluntarily. This includes:
- Contact details like your name, shipping/billing address, phone number and email address.
- Payment information such as your credit/debit card number, security code and billing address.
- Account login credentials like your username, password and security questions/answers.
- Communications preferences that determine what promotional emails or other offers you want to receive from us.
- Survey responses that give us feedback for improving your customer experience.
- Any other information you intentionally submit to us through order forms, account registration, product reviews, forum posts, surveys, etc.
Please note that some of the above information may be considered personal data under data protection laws. We only collect it when you voluntarily provide it to complete a transaction or request support.
Information automatically collected from your device
As you interact with our website, certain technical data is automatically gathered through cookies (small text files stored on your device) and other tracking technologies. The main types of information we collect automatically include:
- IP address which identifies the network location of your device.
- ** Device type, operating system, browser type and settings** that provide technical details of the device you use to access our site.
- Web activity data including the web pages you visit on our site, links you click, items you view/add to cart, and how long you stay on certain pages.
- Location data (if you enable location access) to provide geographically relevant content.
We may associate and analyze the above categories of data to help our website function smoothly, track activity patterns, personalize content, and allow us to improve our offerings.
How We Use Your Information
Ez Straw uses the data we collect for the following purposes:
- Fulfilling orders for products or services you purchase on our website. We’ll use certain payment and contact details for this.
- Sending product shipping/tracking updates so you’ll know when your items have shipped and are on their way.
- Processing returns or exchanges as per our policies. Contact info helps us handle your request.
- Creating user accounts when you sign up on our site. Credentials like username/password let you securely log in.
- Handling billing for paid products/services. Billing name, address and payment info get saved to your account.
- Providing customer support via email, chat or phone. We’ll ask for your contact details and account history to assist you.
- Sending promotional communications like email newsletters if you sign up to receive them. Name and email help personalize our messages.
- Replying to reviews, forum posts or submitted content which you voluntarily share on our website. We’ll use your name and reply-to email for this.
- Conducting research to improve our offerings. Aggregated usage statistics and survey responses help us understand consumer needs.
- Preventing fraud, abuse and illegal activity on our website, including investigating suspicious activity and enforcing our Terms of Service.
- Legal requirements to share data with law enforcement, courts or regulators per a valid legal process. We only disclose this when strictly required.
We use aggregated, anonymized data to analyze website traffic patterns and trends to improve your user experience. We rely on consent, contractual necessity and legitimate business interests as the legal bases for processing your information.
When We Disclose Your Information
Ez Straw does not sell your personal data to any third parties. We only share it in the following circumstances:
- Service providers who help operate our services like payment processors, shipping, email delivery, marketing, analytics, customer support, website hosting, and others. We ensure they provide the same levels of security and privacy.
- Partners who work with us to jointly offer products or services. For example, retailers who fulfill and ship your orders from their store locations.
- Law enforcement agencies, courts, regulators per valid legal processes if compelled to share data. We carefully validate these official requests before disclosing only the required information.
- Corporate transitions like mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies, dissolutions etc. involving partial transfer of assets that may include some personal data.
- Your consent to share your personal information with any other third parties for their own independent purposes subject to your explicit permission.
Except for the above cases, Ez Straw will not share your personal data with any other companies, organizations or individuals without your explicit consent.
How We Protect Your Information
Ez Straw takes reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect your personal information against misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, loss, and destruction. This includes:
- SSL encryption of sensitive data like payment info transmitted through our website and services.
- Encrypted storage of personal data in secured facilities and servers.
- Access controls with need-based restricted employee/partner access to certain data.
- Penetration testing to continuously assess and improve cybersecurity posture.
- Intrusion detection mechanisms that automatically alert security teams in case of unauthorized access attempts.
- Regular staff training on our privacy commitment and data handling policies.
While we aim to protect your information the best we can, no data storage or transmission is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute protection against risks like human errors, technical faults, hacking attacks, accidents and natural disasters.
How Long We Retain Your Information
Ez Straw retains your personal data only as long as required to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy or per contractual and legal obligations. This may involve keeping some data even after you deactivate your account or place an order.
As a general rule:
- Account information like usernames, profile data and order history is stored until you delete your account.
- Transactional data like orders, payments, refunds, claims etc. is retained for 7 years after the event for accounting purposes.
- Promotional data like email lists, contact info is stored until you unsubscribe.
- Correspondence like support tickets, documents exchanged is kept for a period needed to fulfill operational requirements.
- Tracking data like visitor activity logs, analytics are anonymized and periodically deleted after initial purpose is served.
We securely erase or destroy personal data once the retention period expires to minimize risks from unauthorized access.
Your Data Privacy Rights
At Ez Straw, we respect your control over your personal data. You hold certain rights around your information:
Accessing the personal data we have about you to verify, update, correct it if needed.
Restricting or limiting how we process or disclose your data if certain conditions are met.
Deleting your account and personal information if you no longer wish to use our website and services.
Receiving an electronic copy of your personal data for portability to another service provider if required.
Opting out of promotional communications and direct marketing initiatives by following unsubscribe instructions we provide.
Revoking consent you previously provided to process your data for specific purposes that you no longer wish to permit.
Anonymizing or de-identifying your personal information to minimize risks of identity theft or fraud.
Filing complaints with appropriate supervisory data protection authorities to report data misuse, violation of rights or other grievances.
To make privacy rights requests, please contact us with “Data Privacy Request” in the subject line. We may verify identity to process certain requests per security protocols. While we aim to accommodate legitimate requests, certain legal and policy restrictions may prevent full implementation in some cases. Please note processing some requests may end your ability to use our website and services going forward.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies
Ez Straw uses essential first-party cookies to enable basic site functionality like maintaining user sessions and preferences. These cookies do not store any sensitive personal information and are necessary for our website to function properly.
We also use third-party cookies for analytics and advertising. These help us analyze visitor behavior patterns, track website performance, and show relevant promotional messages. While you may disable these through your browser settings, it may affect your ability to view parts of our website.
Our website may include web beacons and similar technologies provided by third-party partners to help track page performance, analyze usage trends, measure marketing efforts, and collect aggregated visitor data. You can usually choose to disable these as well via your browser, though again it may interfere with displaying certain elements properly.
For full details on the cookies and related technologies we use, please check our full Cookie Policy.
International Transfers of Data
Ez Straw generally processes and stores your personal information in data centers within the United States. However, we may transfer your data via third-party service partners to other countries, some of which may not have the same legal protections for personal data. Where this occurs, we implement appropriate contractual protections and security controls to safeguard your information per applicable regulations. Please contact us if you need specific details on cross-border data flows.
Updates to Our Privacy Policy
Ez Straw may modify this privacy policy periodically to keep pace with new technologies, industry practices, regulatory compliance and user feedback. We will post an updated version on our website along with its published date. If we make any significant changes that alter our data practices, we may additionally notify registered users through email or other means prior to the change taking effect.
The most current version of our privacy policy will govern how we use your information and provide the basis for user rights. By accessing our website and services after any changes become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised policy. If you do not agree to the new terms, you should refrain from further use of our site.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about Ez Straw’s privacy practices or use of your personal data, please contact us at:
Privacy Manager
Ez Straw LLC
123 Main St, Ankeny, IA 50021
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (515) 555-1234
We will make reasonable efforts to address your inquiries in a timely manner. You may also contact your local data protection authority with complaints related to our data handling.
