Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Date of Last Amendment: November 30, 2022
Brands.com respects and endorses privacy rights and users'' right to understand how and why personal information is collected, used, and disclosed.
Brands.com (“Brands.com,” “we,” “us,” “our”) sells high-performing domain names suitable for enterprise-size companies and midsize companies.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, safeguard, and dispose of personal information, as well as other rights customers and visitors to our website have with respect to that information.
Two types of personal information are subject to privacy rights.
The first is information that identifies a specific person (either alone or by combining it with other information). The second is anything of a personal nature about an identifiable individual.
Brands.com is a B2B retailer. Our collection and use of personal information are incidental to domain name purchases or inquiries about purchasing a domain name.
Prospective customers making inquiries provide us with their names and email addresses. In most cases, a “work” rather than “personal” email address is provided, i.e., an identifier that is intended to be freely and widely available for use in commercial transactions.
When a customer makes a purchase, they provide us with that same information (if we don’t already have it), as well as information necessary to transfer the domain name to their preferred domain name registrar. The latter is not personal information.
We do not collect and process financial information of any kind. All payments for purchases are processed by escrow.com and we are paid by escrow.com, not purchasers.
Purchasers provide financial information to escrow.com but that information is not shared with us and, to the extent it includes personal information, its collection and use is governed by escrow.com’s privacy policy, not ours.
We collect personal information so that:
In all instances, we only collect personal information for the purposes outlined in this Policy. We do not collect personal information for any other purpose. Should we wish to use personal information for any purpose other than as outlined in this Policy, we will first obtain individual consent.
As a B2B company. Brands.com does not conduct business with or collect personal information from or about minors (children). If you have not reached the age of majority where you live, you must not (1) enter personal information in any form on this website, (2) provide personal information to us any other way, (3) transact or attempt to transact business with us, or (4) continue to browse this website.
By contracting with Brands.com (i.e., purchasing a product), you consent to our collection and use of personal information as outlined in this Policy.
By browsing our website, you consent to the collection and use of non-personal information as outlined in the Other Information We Collect section of this Policy.
If you do not want us to collect or use personal information to the limited extent that we do, do not make an inquiry about or purchase a product from us. If you want to purchase a product from us but do not wish to provide us with personal information, you may contact our Privacy Compliance Officer at joshua@brands.com to discuss if and how this can be accomplished.
Should you contact us by way of a form on our website, you consent to our collection and use of the personal information you provide. Similarly, if you contact us by any other means, you consent to our collection and use of the personal information you provide.
Access to personal information is limited to Brands.com employees who require it to do their jobs.
We do not now but may in the future share personal information with companies affiliated with Brands.com. If we do, we will require those companies to adhere to this Policy. Affiliate companies include a parent and any subsidiary companies, joint venture partners, and other companies that we control or that are under common control with us.
If a third-party contractor has or could have access to personal information, we require that contractor to treat it as confidentially as we do. An IT contractor providing system maintenance is an example of a third party that may have access to personal information in the course of providing services to us. Other third-party services that will or may involve access to personal information include customer services, data analysis, hosting services, and marketing. Specific third-party contractors to which we provide personal information are identified in the Other Information We Collect section of this Policy.
Other than as disclosed in this Policy, Brands.com does not disclose personal information to third parties except in situations in which a reasonable person would expect it to be disclosed. An example is if we hired a third party to provide customer support (e.g., live Help Desk) services.
Brands.com discloses personal information if required to do so by Court order or operation of law (e.g., receipt of a subpoena or summons). Unless legally prevented from doing so, we will first attempt to advise the customer that we have received an order or direction to disclose personal information so that the customer can challenge the order if they see fit.
We disclose personal information to the proper authorities if necessary to report criminal or probable criminal activity including fraud against us or one of our customers or generally to protect the security of our customers and their property, including their intellectual property. You consent to the reasonable exercise of our discretion in such matters.
We do not sell customers’ personal information.
For administrative efficiency and certainty, we dispose of personal information every 6 months.
For customers, this means that we may retain personal information for up to 6 months after the completion of their purchase (i.e., for 6 months after the transfer of their domain name to their preferred domain name registrar and the electronic delivery of a supplementary business and marketing package including logo files, and in some instances, audio and animation files).
In the case of prospective customers, for marketing purposes, we retain information provided to us (e.g., by way of a form on our website) for a maximum of 6 months.
When we dispose of personal information, we do so in a way that prevents a privacy breach, i.e., by securely shredding paper files and completely and permanently deleting electronic records. Any information retained purely for statistical purposes will be rendered anonymous and no longer personal information.
If instructed to do so by a customer or prospective customer, we will immediately dispose of personal information. Please contact our Privacy Compliance Officer at joshua@brands.com if you wish to have your personal information deleted from our records.
Customers and prospective customers themselves are the only sources of the personal information we collect and use. We assume it is correct.
We use industry-standard administrative, electronic (HTTP over TLS encryption), and physical security measures to prevent unauthorized access to personal information.
No security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data storage or transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other misuse. In particular, any information stored online is vulnerable to interception and misuse by unauthorized parties.
In the event of a data breach that poses a real risk of significant harm to customers, we will take the following steps:
Customers and prospective customers are entitled to know their personal information in our records.
A customer or prospective customer requiring a copy of their personal information may contact our Privacy Compliance Officer at joshua@brands.com.
If personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, please advise our Privacy Compliance Officer and we will correct it.
Brands.com offers its products to anyone with Internet access requiring a domain name. Our customers and prospective customers can be domiciled in any country in the world.
We have made commercially reasonable efforts to create a Privacy Policy that complies with the laws in all jurisdictions and have included special provisions to comply with specific regulatory requirements in California (the California Online Privacy Protection Act, “CalOPPA”), the countries in the European Economic Area (the GDPR), and the U.K. (the “UK GDPR”).
A customer or prospective customer who believes we are not handling their personal information as required by the privacy regulations in their country is invited to address their concern in the first instance to our Privacy Compliance Officer at joshua@brands.com.
Customers and prospective customers have the right to have their concerns reviewed fairly and impartially by our Privacy Compliance Officer in the context of the laws and regulations that apply to them, and to be advised of the outcome of the review and any steps taken to address their concern, including any amendments to this Policy or changes to our practices as they apply to customers in their country.
Brands.com has designated an appropriate official as its Privacy Compliance Officer. The Privacy Compliance Officer is empowered to ensure compliance with Brands.com’s confidentiality of personal information obligations.
Contact our Privacy Compliance Officer at joshua@brands.com.
Unless a prospective customer completes the contact form, Brands.com itself does not collect information when a user visits our website. In other words, Brands.com does not place cookies on users’ computers or other devices. Neither does Brands.com itself use other tracking technologies.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on users’ computers by websites. They are widely used to allow websites to work properly and be more user-friendly, remember user preferences, improve user experience, and provide the website’s owner with information it can use for legitimate purposes in its business. A description of what cookies are and how they work can be foundin this article.
As noted, we do not use cookies.
Google Analytics and Google Search Console
We use Google Analytics. Google (Alphabet Inc.) uses cookies to collect data to help us better understand how our website is being used including the number of users, session statistics (the pages visited, how long users stay on the site), approximate geolocation, and browser and device information.
We also use Google Search Console, a tool that provides search-engine-related data to help us optimize traffic to our site. Examples of search-engine-relate data include user queries and the number of times our site URL appears in search results (impressions), along with post-click data about site engagement like bounce rates and e-commerce conversion rates.
Google policies require that no data be passed to Google that Google could use or recognize as personal information. More information about Google’s policies isin this article. None of the information provided to us by Google is personal information.
Other Service Providers
Namecheap.com is Brands.com’s ICANN-accredited domain name registrar.
Our web servers and CDN service are hosted by Amazon Web Services (“AWS”). AWS provides storage services in data centers in over 20 countries. Therefore, our processing of data involves the transfer of data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
AWS is certified under the EU/US “Privacy Shield”, ensuring that your data is securely stored and GDPR compliant. We expect [name of web host] will adhere to the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework European Union–USA data transfer framework agreed to in 2022 upon its ratification by the European Commission.
We acknowledge that we are ultimately responsible for the security of personal information provided to us. We are satisfied that [name of web host] properly protects and lawfully uses personal information stored on its servers. [Name of web host]’s privacy policy can be viewed on its website.
Managing Cookies Settings
Cookies settings are accessible via browser settings. Specific cookies or all cookies can be cleared or blocked.
We amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. If the Date of Last Amendment is later than the last time you read it, please review this Policy again. Continued use of our website and/or the purchase of products from us constitutes your consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Policy.
Notice to California Residents
Amendments to this Privacy Policy
Other Information We Collect
Brands.com’s Privacy Compliance Officer
Compliance
Your Access to Your Personal Information
Advise applicable government authorities of the breach if required to do so by law.
Advise customers/prospective customers when the breach has been addressed and the risk to data has abated.
Advise customers/prospective customers of steps they can take to reduce the risk of harm from the breach, e.g., changing passwords or monitoring accounts.
If known, advise customers/prospective customers of the specific personal information that was or may have been accessed or affected.
Notify customers/prospective customers of the breach if their personal information was or may have been accessed or affected.
Data Breaches
Safeguards
Accuracy of Personal Information
Retention of Personal Information
External Disclosure of Personal Information
Internal Access to Personal Information
We can market our products by, for example, email, from which recipients can unsubscribe.
We can carry out contractual obligations to purchasers (e.g., transfer their domain name to their preferred domain name registrar and electronically deliver a supplementary business and marketing package including logo files, and in some instances, audio and animation files).
We can respond to prospective customers’ inquiries about our products.
Why We Collect Personal Information and Consent
The Personal Information We Collect
Personal Information
Accountability