Veterans Welding Supply Online Privacy Notice

Veterans Welding Supply respects and values your privacy. This Online Privacy Notice is published by Veterans Welding Supply (hereafter, “VWS”, “our” and “we”) and describes our policies and practices regarding the collection and use of personal information about you online on our websites, applications, email, customer portals and other digital services (our “Sites”) and sets forth your privacy rights. We recognize that information privacy is an ongoing responsibility, and so we will from time to time update this Privacy Notice as we undertake new personal data practices or adopt new privacy policies.

1. Information We Obtain From You

When you interact with our Site, we may obtain certain personal information from you. The types of personal information we obtain from you include, but are not limited to:

• Basic details, whether personal or business related, such as your first and last name, physical address, e-mail address, or telephone number;
• Business information such as your occupation, position and role in the company or organization that you represent, if applicable;
• Purchase and payment information, including records about your orders and details of chosen payment method such as credit card or bank account details; and
• Online identifiers such as IP address, device IDs, browser information, and other data elements that may be collected via cookies or similar technologies as further detailed below.

Unless explained otherwise at the time, the provision of personal information on our Sites is optional and any disclosures are made voluntarily.

2. How We Use Your Personal Information

We may use the personal information described above for the following purposes:

• Provide services to you upon your request:you may complete a form or send us an e-mail to purchase a product, download a report or other material, submit a request, respond to an e-mail or blog posting, ask a question, or make a comment. Each form varies in the information required and collected. In most cases, an asterisk (*) indicates the required information on a form. You may choose to provide additional information within fields that are not required.
• Respond to and communicate with you about your request:we process personal information to respond to your inquiry, contact you about your request, ask a question, provide announcements about products, conduct surveys, and contact you for other reasons related to offering and improving our services.
• Provide you with useful features on our Sites:we may offer visitors to our Sites various features, which we may change from time to time. We may ask you to submit certain personal information so we can provide you with those features.
• Operate, evaluate, and improve our business:we may also use the personal information you provide on our Sites to:
  • Developing new products and services
  • Managing our communications
  • Performing market research
  • Advertising and marketing
  • Determining the effectiveness of our advertising and marketing campaigns
  • Analyzing our products, services, and website
  • Administering our website
• Protect our business and comply with legal requirements: we may also use the information you provide to us to protect against and prevent fraud, claims, and other liabilities and to comply with or enforce applicable legal requirements, industry standards, and our policies and terms.

In addition, we may use the information we obtain through the Sites in other ways for which we provide specific notice at the time of collection.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

When you visit our Sites, we may collect certain information by automated means using technologies such as cookies, non-cookie-based tokens, web server logs, tracking pixels, and web beacons. Cookies are files that websites send to your computer or other Internet-connected device to identify your browser uniquely or to store information or settings in your browser. Your browser may tell you when you receive certain types of cookies and how to restrict or disable certain cookies. Please note, however, that without cookies, you may not be able to use all of the features of our Sites. You can order any product by telephone by calling our phone number available on the website and via “Contact” link. Non-cookie-based tokens are encoded URL-based identifiers that track e-mail click-thru activity or time-sensitive password reset keys and will work in scenarios where cookies are disabled, or a session has not been initiated.

Our web servers may log information such as your operating system type, browser type, domain, and other system settings, as well as the language your system uses and the country and time zone where your device is located. The web server logs may also record information such as the address of the web page that referred you to our Sites and the IP address of the device you use to connect to the Internet. They may also log information about your interaction with the Sites, such as which pages you visit.

We also use third-party web analytic services on our Sites, such as Google Analytics. The service providers that administer those services may use cookies and web beacons to help us analyze how users use the Sites. The information collected by the cookies and web beacons (including your IP address) is available to the service providers, which use the information to evaluate your use of the Sites. You can opt out of the sharing of your personal information collected via cookies with third parties by adjusting your cookie preferences on our websites or on your browser.

We use information collected online through cookies, non-cookie-based tokens, web beacons, and other automated means for purposes such as customizing and enhancing our visitors’ visits to the Sites, facilitating use of the Sites, collecting statistics about your visits to the Sites, and understanding the manner in which our visitors browse the Sites in order to create a more relevant Web experience. We also use the information to help diagnose technical and service problems, administer the Sites, and identify visitors to the Sites. We use clickstream data to determine how much time visitors spend on web pages of the Sites, how visitors navigate through the Sites, and how we may tailor the Sites to meet the needs of our visitors.

Social Media

Our Sites may include certain social media tracking functions for third-party sites such as but not limited to X, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. These tracking functions may collect information about which webpages you visited on our Sites and the IP address of the device used to connect to the Internet. They may also use cookies to ensure that certain features are working properly.

Social media tracking functions are hosted either by a third party or directly on the Sites. Your interactions with social media sites are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide them. If you use any of the social media functions on our Sites, we strongly suggest you review the privacy policies of the companies that provide those functions and features.

“Do Not Track” Signals

Your browser settings may allow you to transmit a “Do Not Track” signal to websites and online services you visit. Like many other websites and online services, we do not currently process or respond to “Do Not Track” signals from your browser or to other mechanisms that enable choice. Both we and others (such as our service providers) may collect personal information about our visitors’ online activities over time and across third-party websites.

3. How We Share Your Personal Information

We do not sell or otherwise disclose personal information we collect about you on our Sites except as described in this Online Privacy Notice. We may share personal information with affiliates and service providers that perform services on our behalf and with whom we have appropriate agreements or terms in place. We do not authorize those service providers to use or disclose the information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or comply with legal requirements.

In addition, we may disclose personal information about you (a) if we are required to do so by law or legal process (such as court order or subpoena), (b) to law enforcement authorities or other government officials, (c) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss, or (d) in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual fraudulent or illegal activity. We reserve the right to transfer personal information we have about you in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a reorganization, dissolution, or liquidation). Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will make reasonable efforts to direct the transferee to use personal information you have provided to us in a manner consistent with our Online Privacy Notice.

4. Storage and Retention of Personal Information

Your personal information is stored by VWS on its servers, and on the servers of certain cloud-based database and data storage management services with whom VWS engages and has a contractual relationship with.

VWS keeps and maintains personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes mentioned above. Personal information is generally retained for the duration of our business relationships with customers or other stakeholders, and in compliance with other legal, tax and operational retention obligations.

5. Links to Third-party Websites

Our Sites may provide links to other third-party websites that are not owned or operated by VWS. These third-party websites may have their own privacy policies, which we strongly suggest you review, as we are not responsible for the operation, content or the privacy practices of those third-party websites.