PRIVACY POLICY - Effective Date: January 31, 2022
Hydrofarm Holdings Group, Inc. our subsidiaries and affiliated brands located in North America (the “Company”) has adopted this Privacy Policy to inform you of our privacy practices, including the way that your personal information is collected, used and disclosed in the course of providing you with our products and services. Protection of your personal information is one of our highest priorities, and our privacy commitment includes ensuring the accuracy, confidentiality, and security of your personal information. If you are outside North America, policies of our subsidiaries in those countries will apply.
SCOPE OF THIS POLICY
This Privacy Policy governs our collection of personal information from or about you, and how we use and disclose that information. It also governs how you can request access to, and corrections of, personal information we collected. We have operations both inside and outside of the United States. This Privacy Policy applies to and governs the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in connection with the United States and Canadian activities of our Company, including from physical locations in the United States and Canada, and from our United States and Canadian websites. It is our policy to comply with the privacy legislation within each jurisdiction in which we operate. Sometimes the privacy legislation and / or an individual’s right to privacy are different from one jurisdiction to another.
All references in this Privacy Policy to “Hydrofarm,” “Hydrofarm Group,” “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” and like terms are references to Hydrofarm Holdings Group, Inc., together with our subsidiaries and affiliated brands.
WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?
We collect and maintain different types of personal information in respect of individuals with whom we interact. We collect personal information that you provide to us or that we otherwise obtain through both online and offline interactions. For example: we collect personal information online when you request information about or purchase a product through one of our websites, create an account on one of our websites, apply for a job with a Hydrofarm Group company through one of our websites, or subscribe to email newsletters and content and we collect personal information when you call our customer service center, register warranty information by mail, or otherwise interact with us without using any of our websites.
We may collect personal information that you provide when you:
- purchase, order, return or exchange any of our products and services online, over the telephone or in person;
- request a copy of an invoice;
- request a quote, special order or information about any of our products and services;
- contact our customer service staff;
- apply for employment;
- provide us with comments or suggestions; or
- visit our websites or any of our physical locations.
The personal information we collect includes the following:
- contact and identification information, such as name, address, telephone number and e-mail address;
- information concerning the products and services we provide to or receive from, you, including with respect to the service, maintenance and repair history of such products;
- credit and financial information such as payment methods and preferences, and billing and credit history;
- business relationship information, including information related to your agreements, preferences, advisors and decision-makers; and
- customer relationship information such as customer service requests and feed-back and information requested or provided by or from you.
We may also collect market-related information, which may include personal information, concerning market trends and activities impacting our business. This information may include contract terms, financial information and other information for the purpose of market analysis and strategic planning. We may also collect information related to our media, investor and public relations activities and information related to our interactions with financial and other analysts and advisors.
As a general rule, we collect personal information directly from you. In most circumstances where the personal information that we collect about you is held by a third party, we will obtain your permission before we seek out this information from such sources (such permission may be given directly by you, or implied from your actions). The third parties that we may collect information from include credit reporting agencies (for the purpose of conducting a credit check where you wish to obtain credit from us).
From time to time, we may utilize the services of third parties (including other members of the Hydrofarm Group) in our business and may also receive personal information collected by those third parties in the course of the performance of their services for us or otherwise. Where this is the case, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that such third parties have represented to us that they have the right to disclose your personal information to us.
HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
We use the personal information we collect to enable us to manage and develop our business and operations, including for the following purposes:
- to establish, maintain and manage relations with our customers (for example, we will use personal information to establish a customer’s identity and location so that we may accurately deliver and bill for products and services);
- to establish, maintain and manage relations with our suppliers;
- to analyze customer requirements for our products and services so that we may work to improve our products and services;
- to communicate with suppliers in order to improve the products and services supplied to us;
- to be able to inform you of products and services that members of the Hydrofarm Group, or third parties that we have carefully selected as partners, may wish to offer you, including sending you information promoting the products and services of those members or partners;
- to be able to comply with your requests;
- to verify your identity (for example, name, address, telephone number and birth date, if applicable);
- to verify creditworthiness;
- to protect us against error, fraud, theft and damage to our goods and property;
- to enable us to undertake our environmental, health and safety activities, including incident planning, response and investigation;
- to enable us to comply with applicable legal, audit or regulatory requirements (for example, we may collect personal information to satisfy the obligations imposed on us by various regulatory boards or agencies to follow procedures mandated by such boards or agencies in respect of the provision of our products and services); and
- any other reasonable business purpose to which you consent.
WHEN DO WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
We only disclose personal information where necessary to fulfill the purposes identified in this Privacy Policy. We share your personal information with our employees, contractors, consultants and other parties (including other members of the Company) who require such information to assist us with establishing, maintaining and managing our business relationship with you, including: third parties that provide services to us or on our behalf; third parties that collaborate with us in the provision of services to you; and, third parties whose services we use to perform our services. These service providers are contractually bound to protect your personal information and may only use that information to provide their services. We may process or store your personal information outside of the United States or Canada at the facilities of a member of the Hydrofarm Group or the facilities of a third party service provider.
Further, your personal information may be disclosed:
- as permitted or required by applicable law or regulatory requirements. In such a case, we will endeavor to not disclose more personal information than is required under the circumstances;
- to comply with valid legal processes such as search warrants, subpoenas or court orders;
- as part of our regular reporting activities to other members of the Hydrofarm Group, including Hydrofarm subsidiaries outside the United States or Canada;
- to protect the rights and property of the Company (for example, to collect a debt or to protect ourselves from fraud);
- when we require professional advice from financial or legal advisors;
- in an emergency that threatens an individual’s life, health, or personal security;
- when the personal information is available from a public source (for example, the telephone book); or
- with your consent, where such consent is required by law.
In addition, personal information may be disclosed or transferred to another party (including to another member of the Hydrofarm Group including our subsidiaries outside of the United States or Canada) in the event of a change in ownership of, or a grant of a security interest in, all or a part of the Hydrofarm Group or any subsidiary through, for an example, a loan, an asset or share sale, or some other form of business combination, merger or joint venture or steps taken in anticipation of such events (for example, due diligence in a transaction), provided that such party is bound by appropriate agreements or obligations and required to use or disclose your personal information in a manner consistent with the use and disclosure provisions of this Privacy Policy.
ONLINE PRIVACY
If you provide us with your email address, we may send you email messages to keep you informed of our promotions and offers by using your first and last name, postal code and email address. In order for us to provide you with these email messages, we may need to pass your name and contact information to our service providers who assist with the delivery of this email service. We may also use third party companies to authenticate and validate your email address. You may discontinue your receipt of future email communications by accessing the “manage your preferences or unsubscribe” link at the end of the email communication received and changing the preferences for the applicable content and/or email communication.
Our policies prohibit our service providers from using your information for any purpose other than how we instruct them. Therefore, if you sign up for our email newsletters or other email communications, you should not receive unsolicited emails from other companies. Please notify us at the address below if you believe this has occurred.
In addition to the information you provide, if you visit our websites, we may collect information during your visit using automatic data collection tools such as cookies, web beacons, embedded web links and other commonly used information-gathering tools which collect certain standard information which your web browser sends to our website during your visit. We may use this information to analyze customer activity, composition of web traffic and to make improvements to its website. You may modify your browser settings to disable the use of cookies. Please note, however, that, by doing this, certain features on our websites may not function correctly and you may be required to reenter your information more frequently.
YOUR CONSENT IS IMPORTANT TO US
It is important to us that where we collect, use or disclose your personal information we have your consent to do so. Depending on the sensitivity of the personal information, your consent may be implied, deemed (using an opt-out mechanism) or express. Express consent can be given orally, electronically or in writing. Implied consent is consent that can reasonably be inferred from your action or inaction. For example, when you accept our products or services, we will assume your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information for purposes related to your acceptance and use of those products or services, or for other purposes identified to you at the relevant time.
Typically, we will seek your consent at the time that we collect the personal information. In certain circumstances, your consent may be obtained after collection but prior to our use or disclosure of your personal information. If we plan to use or disclose your personal information for a purpose not previously identified (either in this Privacy Policy or separately), we will endeavor to advise you of that purpose before such use or disclosure.
As we have described above, we may collect, use or disclose your personal information without your knowledge or consent where we are permitted or required to do so by applicable law or regulatory requirements.
CHOICE / OPT-OUT
You may change or withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice, by using the contact information set out below. In some circumstances, a change in or withdrawal of consent may severely limit our ability to provide products or services to you. All communications with respect to such withdrawal or variation of consent should be in writing. We assume that, unless you advise us otherwise, by providing us with your personal information and by continuing to deal with us, you have consented to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as explained in this Privacy Policy.
INTEREST-BASED ADVERTISING
We may participate in interest-based and behavioral advertising. We allow third-party companies, such as ad networks, to collect certain information when you visit our websites. This information is used to serve ads for our products, or for the products or services of other companies when you visit our websites or other third-party websites. These third-party companies use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over, cookie and session ID) and personally identifiable information (e.g., static IP address) when you access websites in order to provide advertisements about products and services likely to be of greater interest to you, or advertising-related services, such as ad delivery, reporting, attribution, analytics, and market research. These third-party companies typically use a cookie, web beacon, or other similar tracking technologies to collect this information.
To learn more about interest based advertising or the available opt-out for this type of advertising, visit the Network Advertising Initiative website and the Digital Advertising Alliance website. Options you select are browser and device specific. To learn about opting out of Google Analytics, visit the Google Analytics website.
INFORMATION SECURITY
We endeavor to maintain physical, technical and procedural safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of the personal information in question. These safeguards are designed to prevent your personal information from loss and unauthorized access, copying, use, modification or disclosure. We will also use appropriate security measures when destroying personal information, and instead of destroying or erasing your personal information, may make it anonymous such that it cannot be associated with or tracked back to you.
INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER
We are headquartered in the United States. Information you provide to us or we collect from you will be processed in the United States on servers located in the United States. If you are outside the United States, please note that personal information provided to us will be handled in accordance with the federal and state laws of the United States. We strive to apply suitable safeguards to protect the privacy and security of your personal information and to use it only as described in this Privacy Policy.
FOR RESIDENTS OF CALIFORNIA
THIS SECTION APPLIES TO RESIDENTS OF CALIFORNIA
The Hydrofarm Group collects information only from any individual acting as an employee, owner, director, officer, or contractor of a company, partnership, sole proprietorship, nonprofit institution, or government agency in the context of providing or receiving a product or service from the Hydrofarm Group.
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) requires that certain information be provided to you as a California resident relating to certain rights that you have under the CCPA.
Right to opt-out
We do not sell your personal information; however, we are required to let you know that you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information if we ever engage in such activity.
Right to nondiscrimination
We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights under the CCPA, such as denying you products and services, charging you different rates or prices including use of discounts or penalties, or suggesting or providing a different level of service or quality of products to you. However, we may charge a different price or provide a different level or quality of products and services only if the price or difference is directly related to the value provided to you by your personal information.
To submit a request to exercise any of your rights, please contact us at privacy@hydrofarm.com and add “CCPA REQUEST” in the subject line. We will evaluate the request and take action where required to do so.
We will endeavor to respond to your request as soon as we can. If we are not able to respond to your request within 45 days, we will let you know that we may require additional time (up to 90 total days).
FOR CANADIAN RESIDENTS
THIS SECTION APPLIES TO RESIDENTS OF CANADA
For Canadian residents, you can ask to see the personal information that we hold about you. If you want to review, verify or correct your personal information, please contact us using the contact information set out below.
When requesting access to your personal information, please note that we may request specific information from you to enable us to confirm your identity and right to access, as well as to search for and provide you with the personal information that we hold about you. We will make the requested information available within 30 business days, or provide written notice of an extension where additional time is required to fulfill the request. We may charge you a minimal fee to access your personal information, however, we will advise you of any fee in advance.
Your right to access the personal information that we hold about you is not absolute. There are instances where applicable law or regulatory requirements allow or require us to refuse to provide some or all of the personal information that we hold about you. In addition, the personal information may have been destroyed, erased or made anonymous in accordance with our record retention obligations and practices. In the event that we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, we will endeavor to inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.
CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
We do not knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under the age of 18. In the event that we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal information from an individual under the age of 18, we will delete that information. If you believe that we might have any information from an individual under 18, please contact us at privacy@hydrofarm.com
CONTACTING US
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, concerns or complaints about how we manage your personal information, please contact by telephone, email or postal mail:
United States:
Hydrofarm
Attn: Privacy
1304 South Point Blvd #200
Petaluma, CA 94954
1-800-634-9990
privacy@hydrofarm.com
Canada:
Hydrofarm Canada
Attn: Privacy
5744 268th Street, Langley
B.C., V4W 0B2
Phone:1-800-663-2934
privacy@hydrofarm.com
REVISIONS TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We may from time to time make changes to this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in its legal or regulatory obligations or in the manner in which we deal with your personal information. We will post any revised version of this Privacy Policy on our website, www.hydrofarm.com, and the websites of our North American subsidiaries and affiliated brands and we encourage you to refer back to it on a regular basis. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective from the time they are posted.