Privacy & Security

Bits And Pieces: Privacy & Security Policy

Effective date: May 25, 2021

Our commitment to the highest level of integrity in dealing with our customers at Bits And Pieces extends beyond the highest quality products and services that we sell. We are also committed to protecting the privacy of our customers in their interactions with us through our website.

Commitment to Privacy

This Privacy Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect, use and safeguard any data and personal information we receive or that you provide to us. This Privacy Policy is also designed to assist you in making informed decisions when using our site, products and services. The policy outlines our practices in:

  • Collecting information about you;
  • Using and protecting information that we collect;
  • Sharing information that we collect;
  • Receiving your feedback about our privacy practices; and
  • Communicating policy changes.

Read on to learn how we use data and your personal information and the choices you have regarding our use of, and your ability to review and correct, the information.

Collecting Information About You

In general, you can visit the Bits And Pieces website without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. Our web servers track the Internet domain address from which people visit us and analyze this data for trends and statistics, but data about individual users visiting the website is limited in nature and you will remain anonymous, unless you voluntarily tell us who you are.

There may be times (such as when you place an order, sign up to receive catalogs or email newsletters, or participate in contests, sweepstakes or promotions) when we ask you to provide certain personal information about yourself, such as your name, shipping and billing addresses, telephone number, email address, and/or credit card information. We also maintain a record of online purchases from our website. Whether or not to provide such information is completely your own choice. But if you choose not to provide the information we request, you may be unable to make purchases, participate in special offers, or access certain content on our website.

Cookies

The Bits And Pieces website uses "cookies." A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. Generally, we use cookies to remind us of who you are, tailor our products and services to suit your personal interests, estimate our audience size, assist our online merchants in tracking visits, process your order, track your status in our promotions, contests and sweepstakes, and/or analyze your visiting patterns. You can generally set your browser to not accept cookies or to notify you when you are sent a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it. However, by not accepting cookies, this may affect or impede your ability to shop on our site. We may contract with third parties who may use cookies and collect information on our behalf. These third parties are prohibited by our contract with them from sharing that information with anyone other than us or other designated service providers.

For informational purposes, here are the types of cookies that Bits And Pieces may use through its website:

  • Session Cookies:A session cookie is temporarily placed within your browser while you are using the browser to use the Internet. Session cookies are erased once the browser is closed. Session cookies may be used, for example, to store and prepopulate information in a product checkout process so that you only have to enter certain information once before other parts to a form (for example) are automatically populated.
  • Persistent Cookies:A persistent cookie is stored on your computer’s hard drive for a set period of time before the cookie is erased. Persistent cookies may (among other functions) assist Bits And Pieces in measuring use of the website by helping us track if you are a repeat visitor to the site. Persistent cookies can also be used to support advertising banners, including ones managed by third parties, in order to present advertising content that is more relevant to your expressed interests and browsing history.
  • Web Beacons:A web beacon (also called a clear gif or page tag) is another mechanism Bits And Pieces may use to track website activity. While different from cookies, web beacons act in similar ways and often in conjunction with cookies. A web beacon may be an unobtrusive object embedded into a page that helps to log information (e.g., accounting for page requests by browsers).

Using Information About You

Bits And Pieces will use the data and personal information you provide for internal purposes, such as confirming and tracking your order or registration, analyzing trends and statistics, informing you about our products, services and special offers, and providing you with information from and about Bits And Pieces. To serve you better, we may combine information you give us online, over the phone or through the mail. We may also combine that information with publicly available information and information we receive from others, such as our Marketing Partners. We use that combined information to enhance and personalize your shopping experience with us, to communicate with you about our products and special offers that may be of interest to you, and for other promotional purposes.

For sake of simplicity, here is a range of uses we may make of the information we collect from you:

  • Provide and deliver products and services and fulfill your orders;
  • Process, record and track your purchases, payments, returns, warranties, and rebates;
  • Communicate with you through channels such as email, phone or text message;
  • Evaluate and respond to your requests, inquiries, and applications;
  • Create and manage account registrations, such as a Bits And Pieces user account;
  • Conduct and administer sweepstakes, surveys, promotions, and contests;
  • Customize your online experiences, including customized advertisements and offers;
  • Publish product reviews as submitted through the website or mail by you and other customers;
  • Operate and improve our business, products, and services (such as product development, performance of market research, data analytics, and billing, reconciliation and collection activities);
  • Guard against and work to prevent fraud and unauthorized transactions; and
  • Comply with and enforce applicable legal requirements, industry standards, and our policies and contractual terms.

Mobile Marketing

We send mobile offers and promotions to mobile devices of customers who have requested to receive them via an opt-in request. Message and data rates may apply. To stop receiving these messages at any time, contact Bits And Pieces customer service at (513) 354-7909 or follow the STOP and HELP instructions within our text messages.

Security

We use encryption and authentication tools to protect the security of your personal information that you share with us. Unfortunately, however, much like offline transactions, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we take every precaution to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to or from our website. By sending your personal information to us through the website, you accept the risks inherent with Internet communications and transmissions. Once we receive your personal information, we exercise administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect its security on our systems. We urge you to keep any password you use for the Bits And Pieces website in a safe place and not to divulge it to anyone. Also remember to close your browser window when you have finished your visit to our website. This is to ensure that others cannot access your account, especially if you are sharing a computer with someone else or are using a computer in a public place such as a library or hotel.

Protecting Children

Bits And Pieces takes special care to protect the safety and privacy of children. Our websites are general audience sites. We do not intend to nor knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. It is our policy, in compliance with the requirements of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), not to collect information online about or from children age 13 and under. We also do not send email or regular US Mail correspondence to anyone under the age of 13 without their parent's consent. Children under the age of 13 should always ask their parents or guardians for permission before providing any personal information to anyone online and should then do so only under supervision of their parents or guardians. We urge parents and guardians to participate in their children's online activities and use parental control or other web filtering technology to supervise children's access to the web. If a child under the age of 13 has provided us with personal information, we ask that a parent or guardian contact us so we can delete that personal information.

Sharing Information About You

From time to time we might establish a business relationship with other persons or entities whom we believe trustworthy and whom we have confirmed or required that their privacy policies are consistent with ours. These are known as our Marketing Partners. In the course of such business relationships we might share and cross-reference information, including personal information about you, that will enable such persons or entities to contact you regarding products and services that may be of interest to you. Additional details are described below regarding online advertising. We may also share personal information with third party marketing partners for their own marketing purposes.

We may contract with companies or persons to provide certain services including credit card processing, shipping, data management, promotional services, etc. We call them our Service Providers. We provide our Service Providers with the information needed for them to perform these services, including your personal information when necessary. Although unlikely, in certain instances we may disclose your personal information when we have reason to believe that it is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to you, to Bits And Pieces or to others. We may also disclose your personal information when the law requires it.

Online Advertising

Bits And Pieces may, from time to time, engage with certain third parties to manage some of our advertising on other sites. These third parties may use cookies and web beacons to collect information (such as your IP address) about your activities on the Bits And Pieces website and others’ websites to provide you targeted Bits And Pieces advertisements based upon your interests.

Links to Third Party Sites

Our website may contain links to website operated and maintained by third parties, over which we have no control. Privacy policies on such linked sites may be different from the Bits And Pieces privacy policy. Your access and navigation to linked sites is at your own risk. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of a linked site before disclosing any personal information on those sites.

Sale or Transfer of Business or Assets

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, without limitation, in the event of a reorganization, dissolution, or liquidation).

Aggregate or De-Identified Data

We may share or make public aggregate or de-identified data derived from personal information. Such information, however, will not identify you or any other individual.

User Generated Content

Uploading Content

Bits And Pieces Sites enable users to submit their own content for contests, blogs, videos, and other functions. Bits And Pieces Sites include gardensalive.com and the official Bits And Pieces social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and any other social media platform. Please remember that any such information you disclose becomes public information and is not covered by this Privacy Policy. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal, financial or other information in a submission. Bits And Pieces cannot prevent such information from being used in a manner that may violate this Privacy Policy, the law, or your personal privacy and safety.

Bits And Pieces is not responsible for user generated content. User generated content remains the sole responsibility of the person who submitted it. For example, the content you submit must not infringe or misappropriate third party intellectual property such as copyrighted materials. You must have permission from any and all third parties whose intellectual property you include in the content you submit to the Bits And Pieces Sites or you must be otherwise legally entitled to include such intellectual property in the content you submit. You are legally responsible for the content you submit to the Bits And Pieces Sites. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Bits And Pieces may (but is not required) to use systems and software to analyze the content you submit to help detect infringing or abusive content, such as spam, malware, or other illegal content.

Rights You Grant

Bits And Pieces does not acquire any right, title, or any other ownership interest in the content you submit. However, we do require you to grant certain rights to us and other users of our services and the Bits And Pieces Sites, as described below.

You grant to Bits And Pieces a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use the content you submit in connection with the Bits And Pieces Sites, including reproduction, distribution, preparation of derivative works, public display, and public performance of the content you submit, for the purpose of promoting and redistributing part or all of the Bits And Pieces Sites and promoting the Bits And Pieces business.

You also grant each other user of the Bits And Pieces Sites a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use the content you submit in connection with the Bits And Pieces Sites, including reproduction, distribution, preparation of derivative works, public display, and public performance of the content you submit, only as enabled by a feature of the Bits And Pieces Sites (e.g., video playback or embeds).

The licenses granted by you continue for a commercially reasonable period of time after the content you submit has been removed or deleted from the Bits And Pieces Sites. You understand and agree, however, that Bits And Pieces may retain, but not display, distribute, or perform, server copies of your content that have been removed or deleted.

Removing Your Content

You may remove the content you submit from the Bits And Pieces Sites at any time. You must remove your content if you no longer have the rights required by the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Copyright Protection

We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement consistent with the terms provided below. If we reasonably believe that any content you submit is in breach of this Privacy Policy or any other terms of use for the Bits And Pieces Sites, or that the content you submit may cause harm to us, our suppliers or vendors, our customers, or any other third parties, we may remove or take down that content in our sole discretion.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the "DMCA") provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you believe that your work has been copied and posted on the Bits And Pieces Sites in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide us with the following information: (1) an electronic or physical signature of the copyright owner or of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (2) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; (3) a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Bits And Pieces Sites; (4) your address, telephone number, and e-mail address; (5) a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (6) a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. Any notification by a copyright owner or a person authorized to act on its behalf that fails to comply with requirements of the DMCA shall not be considered sufficient notice and shall not be deemed to confer upon Bits And Pieces actual knowledge of facts or circumstances from which infringing material or acts are evident. Bits And Pieces notice address for claims of copyright infringement is:

Bits And Pieces
PO Box 4150
Lawrenceburg, IN 47025-4150
Attn: Bits And Pieces Legal Department

We suggest that you consult your legal advisor before filing a copyright infringement notice. You should note that there can be penalties for false claims under the DMCA.

Receiving Your Feedback

If you would like to give us your feedback regarding our privacy policy and practice, please do so by emailing us or writing to us at Bits And Pieces Marketing Dept., P.O. Box 4150, Lawrenceburg, IN 47025. Our email address is service@bitsandpieces.com

Editing, Updating, Correcting and Deleting Information About You

At Bits And Pieces, we want to communicate with you only if you want to hear from us. If you prefer not to receive information from us or share your information with our Marketing Partners, or to exercise any of the rights/options mentioned above, please let us know by calling us (513) 354-1483, by sending us an email (legal@bitsandpieces.com), or writing to the following address:

Gardens Alive Brands
c/o Gardens Alive Marketing Dept.
230 Mary Avenue
Greendale, IN 47025

Please be sure to include your email address, full name, mailing address and details on what information you do not want to receive. If you would like to update or correct your email address, street address or other personal information with us please contact us and provide the current information on our records for authentication purposes before providing the information that you would like our records updated to. Please note that these requests may take up to 6-8 weeks to become effective, particularly when the changes affect postal mailings. In addition, when you purchase from us online or through our catalogs, or when you choose to enter a sweepstakes or other promotion, we may need to contact you via phone, email or physical mail to address questions or issues specific to your order, entry, etc., even if you have opted to not receive communications from us. Also note, if you delete certain information you may not be able to continue to purchase products or access other portions of our website without entering additional information. You may request a description of the types of customer information we may share with others and a list of the entities with which we may have shared customer information in the preceding calendar year, by mailing us at the above address or by sending an email to us.

Policy Changes

From time to time, it may become necessary for us to change our privacy policy in whole or in part. If we do so, the new policy will be posted on our website. Those changes will go into effect on the date posted in the notice. The new policy will apply to all current and past users of our website and will replace any prior policies that may be inconsistent.

Have another question? Visit Our Contact Information page or send and e-mail directly to Customer Service.