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Privacy Policy

Updated: December 12, 2024

The Townsend Company, LLC and its affiliated companies (“Townsend”) is committed to protecting the privacy of the information you share with us when you access and use our websites, applications, products, events, services and other offerings (“Services”). This policy describes how we collect, use and share the personally identifiable information (“PII”) you provide to us when you register or contract with us to receive Services.

This policy may be supplemented by additional privacy terms or notices disclosed to you in connection with your registration for or receipt of Services.

Information Collection

We collect PII and/or anonymous information from you in the course of your use of the Services. That includes information you provide to us when you subscribe or register for any of our digital, in-person or printed products, services, events, or offerings; sign up for newsletters or promotions; participate in a survey; purchase a product or service; use one of our mobile applications; post comments; and/or otherwise communicate with us or interact with the Services.

Once you have registered or otherwise interacted with us, we create a profile for you. We keep your profile up to date by adding information about your registrations or subscriptions, the events you attend, the content you access, how you interact with our offerings, and the like. In order to offer you a more consistent and personalized experience in your interactions with us, information collected through one Townsend Service may be combined with information obtained through other Townsend Services.

We also may receive information about you from external sources that are not affiliated with Townsend and add that to the information you have provided to us. For example, we may expand our communities by acquiring names and contact details from other sources that compile contact information. This information might be public information or data you provided to others with authorizations to share it with third parties.

Automatic Collection Technologies

Like most website operators, we use cookies (small data files stored on your computer by your web browser upon visiting a website) to operate our Services efficiently and as intended. Through these technologies we gather information about you, such as your browser type, operating system, IP address, mobile device identification number, and navigation history. We may also use these technologies to gather information about your interactions with our Services, such as the time and date when you viewed or used a page or item of content or functionality, which advertisements you have clicked on and whether you filled out an online form. When you receive newsletters or promotional emails from Townsend, we use customized links or similar technologies to determine whether the email has been opened and which links you click, in order to provide you more focused email communications or other information.

We use information gathered through these tools for our internal security audit log, for trend analysis and system administration, to gather broad information about our audiences and their geographic locations, and to otherwise improve the Services. By allowing us to understand how you use our Services, these tools can help us provide you with a better, more relevant online experience. In addition, we may work with third-party advertising companies to target and serve advertising you see on the Services or on third-party sites based on preferences gleaned from such technologies.

You may set your browser to block all cookies, including Townsend’s, while using our Services (in which case some aspects of the Services may not function properly), or you may set your browser to block third-party cookies and allow first-party cookies, which would allow us (but not third parties) to collect such information. Please refer to your browser’s documentation if you wish to block some or all cookies, web beacons, and/or similar tools.

We reserve the right to use new technologies, as they become available, to gather additional, relevant information from our users and improve our Services and your experience of them.

How We Use Your Information

We may use information about you: to provide you with Services and information that you have requested from us or that we think may be of interest to you; to send account notices, manage your account, respond to requests, inquiries, comments or concerns; to offer you customized content and individualized personalization of the Services to make them more relevant to your professional interests and responsibilities; to ask for your input to help in our research about our Services; to contact you with information about, and provide invitations for, products, services, events and research opportunities – ours and other companies’ – directed at your professional interests and responsibilities; and/or to give suppliers in our communities a limited opportunity to find you (using limited contact information, including email address).

Consent

By using Townsend’s Services (for example, when you register for an account, purchase a product or service, enter a contest or promotion, communicate with us, or use interactive portions of our sites and applications), you consent to our collection, use and sharing of your PII as described in this policy. In some cases, particularly if you reside in a country governed by a data protection regulation, we may ask you to provide explicit consent to receive information before we are able to send it to you.

Your Choices

You may opt-out of our email marketing lists by following the directions at the bottom of our emails. Please note that Townsend has a number of brands and products and we allow you to opt-out selectively. To remove a specific email address from all of Townsend’s marketing communications, you may send a request to [email protected]. If you wish to remove your email address only from a specific brand, please use the opt-out mechanism provided in emails you receive from such brand or contact the brand directly.

If you believe the information we have about you needs to be updated, please contact us so we can keep your information accurate. Any data that is no longer needed for the purposes specified in Information Collection will be deleted. If at any point you wish for Townsend to delete information about you, you can simply contact us at [email protected].

You may receive email marketing messages from us about other companies’ offerings as part of a business partner marketing program. To opt-out of a business partner marketing email program, you may follow the instructions at the bottom of any email we send you as part of the program.

 

You may also receive personalized ads for our products/events while browsing the internet (called “ad retargeting”). To opt out of receiving these personalized ads, the following third-party opt-out tools can be used for that purpose:

—DAA: http://www.aboutads.info/

—NAI: http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1

—EDAA (Europe only): http://www.youronlinechoices.com/

Please note that this “opt-out” function is browser-specific and relies on an “opt-out cookie”, thus, if you delete your cookies or upgrade your browser after having opted out, you will need to opt-out again.

Please note that opting out of promotional mailings will not affect delivery of your subscription-based products.

To remove a specific phone number or fax number from a specific brand’s marketing communications, please follow the opt-out directions provided during/in those communications. To remove a specific phone/fax number from all of Townsend marketing communications, you may send a request to [email protected].

Access to Your Information

You have the right to request access to the information we have about you. Simply contact us at [email protected] and we will make sure to provide you with a copy of the data we’ve processed about you. In order to comply with your request, we may ask you to verify your identity. Then we will fulfill your request by sending your copy electronically, unless the request expressly specifies a different method. For any subsequent access request, we may charge you with an administrative fee.

Disclosure of Your Information

Townsend contracts with other companies to provide certain services on our behalf, including customer service, credit card and billing processing, shipping, subscription fulfillment, research, analytics, list cleansing, postal mailings, email and fax deployment, telemarketing, and other information and business services. We only provide these companies with the relevant information required to perform their services and they are explicitly restricted from using any data received from us for their own marketing purposes.

We may also provide your information to third parties for marketing and/or analytical purposes as further described below:

Sponsors and Gated Resources

From time to time our sponsors wish to contact our subscribers and customers who have indicated an interest in their products, services or events. If you register for or access Services offered by these vendors, you choose to share your name and contact details directly with those vendors so that they may contact you. For example, if you register for a vendor-branded (or co-branded with us) resource, we will collect your registration information on behalf of that vendor for its own use. We may also keep a copy of that data for our own use, consistent with this privacy policy. We may provide a link to the vendor’s privacy policy (as well as to this policy) on the registration page.

Similarly, if you access third-party resources in certain registration-only, or “gated” websites, resource centers, or directory services on our websites, we may share your registration information when you access or click on a link to technical resources provided or sponsored by another company. This includes third-party resources sold through our online stores. In addition, we may share your contact information with sponsors of a particular e-newsletter if you click on their information or offerings. If you do not wish to have your information shared, you will be given an opportunity within the e-newsletter to opt-out.

When you register for an in-person or digital event, we will provide your registration information to the sponsor(s) of such event. We may also provide your information to sponsors of special sessions within the larger event.

Mobile Devices

Mobile marketing campaigns may involve your sending an email from your mobile device to Townsend or a third-party campaign operator. An email or other response will then be sent to your mobile device. Opting to participate in this type of campaign is your choice. When you engage in these mobile marketing campaigns, Townsend and the third-party campaign operator may collect and use your cell phone number, the name of your wireless service provider, images that you send using your cell phone as part of the campaign, and other relevant information.

From time to time, Townsend may collect data from visitors for cross-device tracking or advertising. Visitors may opt out from receiving cross-device site advertising (i.e. tracking a user across devices), by accessing their device setting or visiting and employing the controls described on the NAI’s Mobile Choices page at https://www.networkadvertising.org/mobile-choice/.

Correcting and Updating Your Information

If you are a registered user, you can access your account information and make corrections or updates upon log-in. The accuracy of such information is solely your responsibility. You may also separately contact us to request access to other PII about you which is in our possession. If you request to deactivate your account or delete your PII, we will endeavor to fulfill your request but some PII may persist in backup copies for a certain period of time and may be retained as necessary for legitimate business purposes or to comply with our legal obligations.

SMS Opt-In, Verifiable Consent, and Phone Number Privacy

If you provide your phone number for SMS notifications or communications, we want to assure you that:

  • Your SMS Opt-In and Phone Numbers Are Not Shared: We will not share your phone number or SMS opt-in information with any third parties or affiliates. Your phone number will only be used for communication directly related to the services we provide or to your relationship with Townsend.
  • Verifiable Consent: By providing your phone number and agreeing to receive SMS communications, you provide verifiable consent to receive such messages. We document and store this consent as required by law. If you do not provide this consent, we will not send you SMS messages.
  • Opt-Out for Non-Company-Owned Devices: If you are using a non-company-owned device, you have the right to opt-out of receiving SMS messages at any time. You can opt-out by replying “STOP” to any message you receive from us. Once you opt-out, we will no longer send SMS messages to your personal device.

Information Security

We use a variety of technical, physical, and administrative security measures to secure the confidentiality of your PII and to protect it from loss, misuse, alteration, and destruction. However, due to the design of the Internet and other factors outside our control, we cannot guarantee that communications between you and our servers will be free from unauthorized access by third parties or by government agencies. You remain responsible for protecting your username and passwords and for the security of information in transit to us over the Internet.

Other Important Information

Townsend reserves the right to access and disclose PII to comply with applicable laws, government requests, court orders and other legal requirements, or to investigate alleged or suspected fraud or violations of the terms and conditions governing our Services.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

As new products and services are offered or as existing products and services are improved, we may need to update this policy. When we do so we will post the changes here. For material changes we may also email our registered users with the new details. We encourage you to review this policy from time to time to stay informed about how we are protecting the PII you provide. Your continued use of our Services covered by this policy constitutes your consent to the practices in place at the time of your use.

Notice to California Residents

In accordance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), this section provides you with specific rights outlined in the legislation and includes information on how to exercise those rights.

Right of Access

You have the right to request that Townsend provide you with certain information pertaining to our collection and use of your PII over the past 12 months. Once we receive your verifiable consumer request, we will disclose to you:

  • The categories (and specific pieces) of information Townsend has collected about you.
  • The categories of sources for the PII that Townsend has collected about you.
  • Our business purpose for collecting and/or selling the PII about you.
  • The categories of third parties with whom we may share that information.
  • If we sold or disclosed your PII for a business purpose, we will disclose to you the categories of your PII that Townsend has sold/disclosed.

Right to Deletion

You may also request that Townsend delete any PII that we have about you.

To exercise the access and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by either:

– Calling us at 888-827-4802

– Emailing us at: [email protected]

You may only make a verifiable request for access to your PII twice within a 12-month period. In order for Townsend to respond to your request or provide you with PPI, the verifiable consumer request must:

  • Provide enough information for us to reasonably verify that you are the person about who PPI was collected.
  • Include sufficient detail in the description of your request so that we can properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We will only use the PPI provided in the verifiable customer request to verify the requestor’s identity.

Right to Non-Discrimination

Townsend will not discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA rights. You will not be:

  • Denied goods or services.
  • Charged different pricing/rates for goods and services or suggest that you will be charged different pricing/rates for goods and services.
  • Provided with a sub-standard quality of goods and services or suggest that you will be provided with a sub-standard quality of goods and services.

Categories and Sources of Personal Information Collected

Townsend is required by CCPA to provide details of the categories of personal information collected, and the sources of that personal information collection, within the last 12 months (see Information Collection and Automatic Collection Technologies above).

Use of Personal Information

Townsend is also required by CCPA to provide details on the purposes of collecting your personal information (see How We Use Your Information above).

Information Sold or Disclosed for Business Purposes

Townsend has sold the following categories of PII in the last 12 months: Identifiers (contact information) including name, postal address, phone number, email address; and business classifications such as “Company Type”, “Job Title”, and “Job Function”.

Additionally, we utilize trusted third parties to provide services and perform functions for us, including maintenance and hosting, database storage and management, registration processing, and direct marketing campaign processing. Your PII may be shared with these third parties to the extent necessary to provide the services and perform the functions mentioned.

NextRoll Privacy Notice

California visitors may also visit the California Residents section of NextRoll’s Service Privacy Notice at www.nextroll.com.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments, or requests regarding this policy or our processing of your information, please contact [email protected], or write/call us at:

The Townsend Company, LLC

Customer Service

1015 West Jackson Street

Muncie, IN 47035

P: 888-827-4802