Privacy Policy

[GiftStart Inc.] (“[GiftStart]”, “we”, or “us”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it. In the course of servicing our customers, it may be necessary to collect personal information. The following privacy policy describes how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information when you use or access (i) our website, [GiftStart Website], and all pages associated thereto, (ii) the [GiftStart] iOS mobile app, if and when applicable (iii) the [GiftStart] Android mobile app, if and when available, (iv) the [GiftStart] paid subscription membership program, if an when applicable, and (v) the [GiftStart] page or profile on any social media network, including without limitation, Instagram and Facebook (each a “Site” and collectively, the “Sites”) or contact us. This Privacy Policy also describes your rights regarding your personal information that we collect.

We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy together with our General Terms and Conditions, our Terms and Conditions for Purchase of Goods or Services, and our Terms and Conditions for [GiftStart] , which together govern your access to and use of the Site(s).

CONSENT AND SCOPE OF INFORMATION

We may collect, use and disclose your personal information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced, either with your consent, including implied consent, or, in certain limited circumstances, without your consent where such collection, use or disclosure is permitted or required by law. By providing us with your personal information or by using the Site(s), you are consenting to the collection, use, and disclosure of such personal information in accordance with the terms of this privacy policy. You may withdraw your consent by providing us with written notice.

PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT AND HOW IT IS COLLECTED

When you use the Site(s), the categories of personal information we collect may include:

Contact Details and Identifiers: Your name, email address, mailing address and phone number.
Payment Information: When you order products or services through the Site(s), we will collect the personal information that is necessary to process your payment, including your credit card details.
Order and Commercial Information: When you order products or services through the Site(s), we will collect information about the products or services that you have purchased and the amounts paid. If you create an account to access the Site(s), we will also collect and store your account’s preferences, interests, order history and account identification.
Correspondence: If you have questions or require help with the Site(s), you are welcome to contact us by email at info@giftstart.ca or through the available communication pathways of the Site(s). We will collect and store your communication with us and any information provided to us in such communication. Since electronic communications by their nature are not always secure, we encourage you to avoid sharing sensitive information in your electronic communications to us.
User Contributions and Content: You may also provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, ”posted”) on public areas of the Site(s), including, without limitation, [GiftStart]’s social media accounts, or transmitted to other users of the Site(s) or third parties (”User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Please be advised that we cannot control the actions of other users of the Site(s) with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions, and we cannot and do not guarantee that unauthorized persons will not view your User Contributions.
Technical data, Usage Data and Online Activity Information: When you use the Site(s), we will collect technical data from your computer or mobile device, as the case may be, from cookies and similar technologies in connection with your use of the Site(s). This personal information may include your IP address, browser type and version, screen resolution, preferred language, geographic location, operating system, domain names, access times, referring addresses and computer platform. Even though we do not normally use technical data to identify individuals, sometimes individuals can be recognized by such technical data. This information is collected mainly for the operation of the Site(s), to maintain the quality of service provided to our customers and to provide us with information and statistics regarding the use of the Site(s). For additional information on cookies, please review the section below.
Identity Verification Information: When you call customer support or make other requests we may collect identifying information from you.
Audio Information: When you call our customer support we may record your voice for quality assurance purposes.
Third parties: We may receive personal information about you from third-parties, including analytical providers such as Google Analytics.

Most of the personal information that we collect about you is received from you directly when you use the Site(s). You always have the option to not provide us with certain personal information; however, certain personal information from you is necessary for us to provide you with our products and services, register your account or communicate with you. Not providing such personal information to us may prevent us from providing the products you expect from us.

PURPOSES FOR WHICH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WILL BE COLLECTED AND USED

The purposes for which [GiftStart] collects and uses your personal information include the following:

To operate our business and manage your online purchase: We may use your personal information, including your name, postal address, email address and payment information, to manage your purchase and payment, validate that you are of the minimum age to make the purchase and send you notifications regarding delivery or pickup. This use of personal information is necessary to fulfill the service of managing the order and delivering it to you according to our terms and conditions.
To provide you support and communicate with you: Your personal information, including your name, email address and correspondence will be used in order to provide you with support as required. For example, if there is a problem with your order, we will use your personal information in order to work to rectify the situation.
To send you offers, news and updates about [GiftStart]: We may use your personal information, including your email address, to send you notices and/or emails to allow you to participate in interactive features, inform you about new features, notify you when we are out shopping or keep you up to date regarding our offers, promotional contests, and products. Our electronic communications with you will therefore comply with applicable law, including Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation. You will always have the option to unsubscribe from such email communications.
To maintain, develop and improve our business and the Site(s): We may, as an example, periodically send you an email to solicit your feedback about the Site(s) and the content therein. You will always have the option to unsubscribe from such emails. Furthermore, your personal information such as technical information, your use of the Site(s) and the details of your purchase may be used to create statistics in an aggregate form that no longer identifies you. Statistics and statistical analysis will be used in order to develop and improve our business and the Site(s) to serve you better.
To fulfill our legal obligations: [GiftStart] is required to follow the laws of the jurisdictions in which [GiftStart] does business. This means that your personal information will be collected to the extent necessary for us to fulfill our legal obligations, including with respect to tax and record-keeping obligations. For Canadian users, [GiftStart]’s privacy obligations with respect to its collection, use, and disclosure of personal information are governed primarily by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
To protect our interests and legal rights: We will use your personal information where we believe it is necessary to protect and enforce our legal rights, interests and the interests of others, including in connection with legal claims, compliance, regulatory and audit functions.
In connection with a merger or acquisition: We may use your personal information in connection with certain corporate events such as a potential merger, sale of GiftStart assets, financing, insolvency or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another GiftStart.
With your consent: Your personal information may be used for purposes other than those stated above if you make a request or provide us with your consent unless such use is authorized by law.

HOW WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

[GiftStart] may need to share your personal information with others for the following purposes:

Our employees and consultants: Your personal information will, when appropriate, be disclosed to our employees and consultants; however, your personal information will be disclosed only to those who need it to perform their work. For example, personal information will be disclosed to support personnel to enable them to provide you with support. As a matter of corporate policy and practice, our employees and consultants who receive personal information in the course of their work are subject to confidentiality requirements.
Our Shoppers & Third-party retailers: We may disclose your personal information to our shoppers and third-party retailers in order to help resolve disputes, and manage and fulfill your order.
Affiliated companies: We may disclose your personal information to companies affiliated with [GiftStart], including our parent, related and subsidiary companies, if any. This disclosure of personal information may be necessary to enable us to centralize certain functions and to foster cooperation among us and our affiliates.
Service providers: We may disclose your personal information to our suppliers, subcontractors and service providers who help us provide you with our products and supply other services to us requiring the sharing of personal information. Examples of such parties include cloud-based order management system providers, payment service providers and logistics partners. We provide certain personal information to third parties for the purpose of delivering our products and managing our daily operations, including product marketing. We do not authorize our suppliers and subcontractors to use or disclose your personal information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or to comply with legal requirements.
Public authorities and other public actors: In certain circumstances, our legal obligations may be such that we are required by law to disclose your personal information. For example, we may be required to conform to lawful requests from law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies, and other public and government authorities requesting your personal information. We may also disclose personal information if necessary to protect and defend the rights or property of [GiftStart], you or others, or detect and prevent fraud. We may also disclose personal information in connection with a legal process such as, for example, when enforcing our agreements.
Business transactions: We may, in the future, decide to sell or transfer all or part of our business. In such a scenario, we may need to disclose your personal information to our professional advisors and parties involved in the transaction.
Others: We may also disclose your personal information to other companies, businesses, organizations, parties or individuals with your consent or at your direction.

HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Your personal information will be saved only for as long as it is needed for the purposes it was collected. It is difficult to specify the length of time that we will need to keep your personal information, particularly given the many types of personal information that we may hold. In fact, some personal information may be kept for a variety of purposes. We regularly review our need to keep personal information while taking applicable legislation into account.
Generally, we save your personal information during our business relationship with you for as long as you are a registered user of the Site(s), or to the extent necessary after your deregistration, and for the time needed for tax and book-keeping purposes and other legal requirements. Moreover, we also store personal information to the extent we believe it is necessary to protect our legal rights, interests and the interests of others. Your personal information may also be stored for a longer period if required by applicable statutory retention periods.

YOUR RIGHTS

Right to access: You may, in writing, request access to the personal information that we hold about you. Please be advised that we may deny access in certain circumstances in accordance with applicable laws.
Right to challenge: You also have the ability to challenge the accuracy and completeness of such personal information and have it corrected as appropriate.
Right to withdraw your consent: You may withdraw your consent at any time with reasonable notice. Please note that such withdrawal of consent is subject to legal or contractual restrictions. Your withdrawal of consent may also have certain implications of which we will advise you.
Opt-Out of Communications: From time to time, you may receive periodic mailings, e-mails or other communications from us with news or other information on events, products, discounts, special promotions, or other offers from or on behalf of [GiftStart]. If at any time you wish to stop receiving communications from us please send us an email to info@giftstart.ca with the phrase "Privacy Opt-out: [GiftStart] Mailings" in the subject line, or write to us at the address provided below, and we will remove you from our mailing list. Alternatively, for e-mail communications, you may opt out of receiving such communications by following the unsubscribe instructions set forth at the bottom of our promotional e-mail messages.
Text and SMS: If you have provided us with your prior express consent, [GiftStart] may use your information to send text messages to any mobile device connected to your cell phone number, until you opt out from future text messages by texting STOP. Once you cancel, we will send one additional confirmation message stating that you've opted out.

COMPLAINTS

[GiftStart] makes readily available to individuals information about its policies and practices relating to the management of personal information. Should you have a concern or question, please contact our designated Privacy Officer at the following contact information: info@giftstart.ca.

COOKIES

The Site(s) may use cookies, which are unique identifiers stored on your device so that we may recognize your device and provide features that make your use of the Site(s) more convenient. You may change your browser settings to disable cookies when using the Site(s) but this may negatively impact the function of certain features.

WEB BEACONS

The Site(s) and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit [GiftStart], for example, to count users who have used the Site(s) or opened an email and for other related statistics.

LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES

The Site(s) may contain links to websites owned and/or operated by third-parties. If you follow a link to any of these websites, we advise you that such websites have their own privacy policies and that we are not, under any circumstances, responsible for those websites or their privacy policies. Consequently, we strongly encourage you to review the privacy policies of such websites before disclosing any personal information.

SECURITY

While we take the security of your personal information seriously, please keep in mind that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is entirely secure. We strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information and to make sure it is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy; however we cannot guarantee absolute security. To protect your personal information we use administrative, technical and physical security safeguards that are appropriate under the circumstances and take into account the sensitivity of the personal information. Please contact our Privacy Officer for further information regarding our security measures.

12. CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), California residents have certain rights regarding the personal information that businesses have about them. This includes the right to notice, access and/or deletion of your personal information, as well as the right to direct a business to stop selling your personal information.

Right to Notice. You have the right to be properly notified of the following:

Personal Information We Collect: Please review the section of this Privacy Policy titled [ANCHORLINK TO THIS SECTION ABOVE: PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT AND HOW IT IS COLLECTED] for more information about the personal information we collected about you in the past 12 months.
Why We Collect Personal Information: Please review the section of this Privacy Policy titled [ANCHORLINK TO THIS SECTION ABOVE: PURPOSES FOR WHICH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WILL BE COLLECTED AND USED]for more information on why we collect personal information about you in the past 12 months.
How We Collect Personal Information: Please review the section of this Privacy Policy titled [ANCHORLINK TO THIS SECTION ABOVE: PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT AND HOW IT IS COLLECTED]for more information on how we collect personal information about you in the past 12 months.
With Whom We Share Your Personal Information: Please review the section of this Privacy Policy titled [ANCHORLINK TO THIS SECTION ABOVE: HOW WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION]for more information on how we share personal information about you in the past 12 months.

Right to Access Your Information: You have the right to request the following covering the 12 months immediately preceding your request:

The specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you
The categories of personal information that we have collected about you
The categories of sources from which we collected the personal information
The purpose for collecting or selling the personal information
The categories of personal information that we have disclosed about you, the purpose for disclosing such personal information and the categories of third parties with whom we disclosed such personal information
The categories of personal information that we have sold about you, as well as the categories of third parties to whom we sold such personal information

Please note that we may still use aggregated and de-identified personal information that does not identify you or any individual.

Right to Deletion: You have the right to request that we delete any personal information about you that we have collected from you. Please note that there are exceptions where we do not have to fulfil a request to delete information, such as when the deletion of information would create problems with the completion of a transaction or compliance with a legal obligation.

How to Exercise Your Access and Delete Rights: To exercise your access and delete rights as described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by emailing us at info@giftstart.ca.

Verifiable Consumer Requests: Only you, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access to your personal information twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must: 1) Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative of that person; and 2) Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate and respond to it. We cannot respond to your request to exercise your access and/or deletion rights if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. However, we do consider requests made through your password-protected account sufficiently verified when the request relates to personal information associated with that specific account. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

Response Timing and Format: We attempt to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days after we receive it. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing within 45 days after we receive your initial request. If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period immediately preceding the date we receive the verifiable consumer request. The response we provide will also provide the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For access requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

Right to Opt-Out of Sale: While we do not sell personal information in exchange for any monetary consideration, we do share personal information for other benefits that could be deemed a “sale,” as defined by the CCPA (Cal. Civ. Code 1798.140(t)(1)). We support the CCPA and wish to provide you with control over how your personal information is collected and shared. If you would like to exercise your right to request opt-out of sale, please submit a request using this LINK.

Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you (e.g., through denying goods or services, or providing a different level or quality of goods or services) for exercising any of the California rights afforded to you.

Complaints: In compliance with the CCPA, we commit to resolve complaints about your privacy and our collection or use of your personal information. We ask that you kindly contact us at info@giftstart.ca, so that we have an opportunity to resolve your complaint.

Do Not Track: Some internet browsers – like Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari – include the ability to transmit ”Do Not Track” or ”DNT” signals. Since uniform signals have not been adopted, we do not current process or respond to ”Do Not Track” or ”DNT” signals.

California’s Shine the Light law. California residents with an established business relationship with us can request information once a year about sharing their personal information with third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. If you you are a California resident and would like to request more information under the California Shine the Light law, you can email us at info@giftstart.ca.

UPDATES AND CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

From time to time [GiftStart] may make changes to this privacy policy with or without notice to you. You are advised to review our privacy policy each time prior to disclosing any personal information, including without limitation the ”last updated” date indicated on this page. If you do not agree with our privacy policy or any amendments thereto, you should stop your use of the Site(s) immediately. Your continued use of the Site(s) will constitute a binding acceptance by you of our privacy policy and any subsequent modifications thereto.

This privacy policy was last updated on 2023-09-25

___________________________________________________________________