Skip to content

Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy

Smith & Burgess' Privacy Policy

Last modified: February 7, 2020

We at Smith & Burgess are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy governs our data collection, processing, and usage practices. It also describes your choices regarding use, access, and correction of your personal information. If you do not agree with the data practices described in this Privacy Policy, you should not use our website or the subscription service. 

We periodically update this Privacy Policy. We will post any privacy policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice by sending you an email notification.

While we will notify you of any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically. We will also keep prior versions of this Privacy Policy in an archive for your review.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our treatment of the information you provide us, please write to us by email at marketing@smithburgess.com or by mail to Smith & Burgess 7600 W. Tidwell Rd., Ste. 600, Houston, TX 77040 USA, Attn: Privacy.

  1. Use of the Subscription Service by Smith & Burgess
  2. Information We Collect
  3. How We Use Information We Collect
  4. Cookies and Similar Technologies
  5. How to Access & Control Your Personal Data

 

1. Use of the Subscription Service by Smith & Burgess

Our online Subscription Service allows any company that uses it (our customers and Smith & Burgess itself) to create and share marketing, sales and customer service content. The Subscription Service can also be used to help organize sales data about a company’s sales pipeline (e.g., leads, customers, deals, etc.). The information added to the Subscription Service, either by site visitors providing their contact information or when a Subscription Service user adds the information, is stored and managed on our service providers' servers. This information is then used to contact visitors about their interest in the company's goods or services and interact with the company.

2. Information We Collect
When You Visit our Website

You are free to explore the Smith & Burgess’ website without providing any Personal Information about yourself. When you visit the Websites or register for the Subscription Service, we request that you provide Personal Information about yourself, and we collect Navigational Information. 

"Personal Information"

This refers to any information that you voluntarily submit to us and that identifies you personally, including contact information, such as your name, e-mail address, company name, address, phone number, and other information about yourself or your business. Personal Information can also include information about any transactions, both free and paid, that you enter into on the Websites, and information about you that is available on the internet, such as from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google, or publicly available information that we acquire from service providers.

Personal Information also includes Navigational Information or Payment Information where such information can directly or indirectly identify an individual. Navigational information refers to information about your computer and your visits to this website such as your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and pages viewed. Please see the "Navigation Information" section below. Payment information includes We collect and process payment information from you when you subscribe to the Subscription Service, including credit cards numbers and billing information, using the third party PCI-compliant service providers. Except for this, we do not collect Sensitive Information from you.

Log Files

When you use our services or view content provided by us, we automatically collect information about your computer hardware and software. This information can include your IP address, browser type, domain names, internet service provider (ISP), the files viewed on our site (e.g., HTML pages, graphics, etc.), operating system, clickstream data, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by Smith & Burgess for the operation of the Subscription Service, to maintain the quality of the Subscription Service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Smith & Burgess Website. For these purposes, we do link this automatically-collected data to Personal Information such as name, email address, address, and phone number.

3. How We Use Information We Collect
Compliance with Our Privacy Policy

We use the information we collect only in compliance with this Privacy Policy. Customers who subscribe to our Subscription Services are obligated through our agreements with them to comply with this Privacy Policy.

We Never Sell Personal Information

We will never sell your Personal Information to any third party. 

Use of Personal Information

In addition to the uses identified elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, we may use your Personal Information to:

  • improve your browsing experience by personalizing the Websites and to improve the Subscription Service;
  • send information or Smith & Burgess content to you which we think may be of interest to you by post, email, or other means and send you marketing communications relating to our business;
  • promote use of our services to you and share promotional and information content with you in accordance with your communication preferences;
  • send information to you regarding changes to our Customer Terms of Service, Privacy Policy (including the Cookie Policy), or other legal agreements
  • meet legal requirements.
Use of Navigational Information

We use Navigational Information to operate and improve the Websites and the Subscription Service. We may also use Navigational Information alone or in combination with Personal Information to provide you with personalized information about Smith & Burgess. 

Customer Testimonials and Comments

We post customer testimonials and comments on our Websites, which may contain Personal Information. We obtain each customer's consent via email prior to posting the customer's name and testimonial.

Use of Credit Card Information

If you give us credit card information, we use it solely to check your financial qualifications and collect payment from you. We use a third-party service provider to manage credit card processing. This service provider is not permitted to store, retain, or use the information you provide except for the sole purpose of credit card processing on our behalf.

Security of your Personal Information

We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. We secure the Personal Information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. All Personal Information is protected using appropriate physical, technical and organizational measures.

Social Media Features

Our Websites include Social Media Features, such as the Facebook Like button and Widgets, such as the Share This button or interactive mini-programs that run on our sites. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our sites, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social Media Features and Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Websites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to these features.  Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy and other policies of the companies providing them.

External Websites

Our Websites provide links to other websites. We do not control and are not responsible for, the content or practices of these other websites. Our provision of such links does not constitute our endorsement of these other websites, their content, their owners, or their practices. This Privacy Policy does not apply to these other websites, which are subject to any privacy and other policies they may have.

Retention of Personal Information

How long we keep the information we collect about you depends on the type of information. as described in further detail below.  After such time, we will either delete or anonymize your information or, if this is not possible, then we will securely store your information and isolate it from any further use until deletion is possible. 

We retain Personal Information that you provide to us where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, as long as is required in order to contact you about the Subscription Service or our other services, or as needed to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements).

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your Personal Information, we securely delete the information or anonymize it or, if this is not possible, then we will securely store your Personal Information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible. We will delete this information from the servers at an earlier date if you so request, as described in "To Unsubscribe from Our Communications" below.

If you provide information to our customers as part of their use of the Subscription Service, our customers decide how long to retain the personal information they collect from you. If a customer terminates its use of the Subscription Service, then we will provide the customer with access to all information stored for the customer by the Subscription Service, including any Personal Information provided by you, for export by the customer according to our agreement with our customer. After termination, we may, unless legally prohibited, delete all customer information, including your Personal Information, from the Subscription Service.

If you have elected to receive marketing communications from us, we retain information about your marketing preferences for a reasonable period of time from the date you last expressed interest in our content, products, or services, such as when you last opened an email from us or ceased using your Smith & Burgess account.  We retain information derived from cookies and other tracking technologies for a reasonable period of time from the date such information was created. 

4. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Smith & Burgess and its partners use cookies or similar technologies (such as web beacons) to analyze trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. To find out more about how we use cookies on our Websites and how to manage your cookie preferences please see our Cookie Policy below.

5. How to Access & Control Your Personal Data
Reviewing, Correcting and Removing Your Personal Information

You have the following data protection rights:

  • You can request corrections, updates, or deletion of your personal information.
  • You can object to the processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information or request portability of your personal information.
  • If we have collected and processed your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
  • You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information. Contact details for data protection authorities in the EEA, Switzerland and certain non-European countries (including the US and Canada) are available here.)

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at marketing@smithburgess.com or by mail to Smith & Burgess 7600 W. Tidwell Rd., Ste. 600 Houston, TX 77040 USA, Attention: Privacy. We will respond to your request to change, correct, or delete your information within a reasonable timeframe and notify you of the action we have taken.

Anti-Spam Policy

Our Acceptable Use Policy, applies to us and to our customers and, among other things, prohibits the use of the Subscription Service to send unsolicited commercial email in violation of applicable laws, and requires the inclusion in every email sent using the Subscription Service of an "opt-out" mechanism and other required information. We require all of our customers to agree to adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy at all times, and any violations of the Acceptable Use Policy by a customer can result in immediate suspension or termination of the Subscription Service.

To Unsubscribe From Our Communications

You may unsubscribe from our marketing communications by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link located on the bottom of our e-mails, updating your communication preferences, or by sending us an email at marketing@smithburgess.com or by mail to Smith & Burgess 7600 W. Tidwell Rd., Ste. 600 Houston, TX 77040 USA, Attention: Privacy. Customers cannot opt out of receiving transactional emails related to their account with us or the Subscription Service. 

Smith & Burgess' Cookie Policy

Last modified: February 7, 2020

This Cookie Policy explains how Smith & Burgess uses cookies and similar technologies to recognize you when you visit our website. It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control our use of them. 

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. When you visit the site again, the cookie allows that site to recognize your browser. Cookies may store user preferences and other information.  

Cookies provide a convenience feature to save you time, or tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize pages on our Websites, or register for the Subscription Service, a cookie helps us to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. When you return to the same Website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the customized features.

Cookies set by the website owner (in this case, Smith & Burgess) are called "first party cookies". Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called "third party cookies".  Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website (e.g. like advertising, interactive content and analytics). The parties that set these third-party cookies can recognize your computer both when it visits the website in question and also when it visits certain other websites. 

Why do we use cookies?

We use first-party and third-party cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Websites to operate, and we refer to these as "essential" or "strictly necessary" cookies. Other cookies also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our Websites and Subscription Service.  For example, Smith & Burgess keeps track of the Websites and pages you visit within Smith & Burgess, in order to determine what portion of the Smith & Burgess Website or Subscription Service is the most popular or most used. This data is used to deliver customized content and promotions within the Smith & Burgess Website and Subscription Service to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area. Third parties serve cookies through our Websites for advertising, analytics and other purposes.  This is described in more detail below.

What types of cookies do we use and how do we use them?

The specific types of first and third-party cookies served through our Websites and the purposes they perform.

  • Essential website cookies: These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our Websites, Subscription Service and Mobile Apps and to use some of its features, such as access to secure areas.
  • Performance and functionality cookies: These cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our Websites, Subscription Service and Mobile Apps but are non-essential to their use. However, without these cookies, certain functionality may become unavailable.
  • Analytics and customization cookies: These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our Websites, Subscription Service and Mobile Apps are being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our Websites for you.
  • Social networking cookies: These cookies are used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on our Websites, Subscription Service or Mobile Apps through third-party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes too.
How can I control cookies?

You have the right to decide whether to accept or reject cookies. You can exercise your cookie preferences by clicking on the appropriate opt-out links provided below.

You can set or amend your web browser controls to accept or refuse cookies. If you choose to reject cookies, you may still use our website through your access to some functionality and areas of our website may be restricted. As the means by which you can refuse cookies through your web browser controls vary from browser-to-browser, you should visit your browser's help menu for more information.

In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising.  If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or http://www.youronlinechoices.com. You may opt-out by clicking here: https://preferences-mgr.trustarc.com/ (or if located in the European Union, by clicking here: https://www.youronlinechoices.eu/). Please note this does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic advertisements.

Essential website cookies: Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the Websites to you, you cannot refuse them. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings, however, as described above.

What about other tracking technologies, like web beacons?

Cookies are not the only way to recognize or track visitors to a website.  We employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage the Website and Subscription Service by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users.  In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user's computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on Web pages or in emails and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. We use clear gifs or pixels in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. We tie the information gathered by clear gifs in emails to our customers' Personal Information.

How often will you update this Cookie Policy?

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.  Please re-visit this Cookie Policy regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies. 

The date at the top of this Cookie Policy indicates when it was last updated. 

Where can I get further information?

If you have any questions about our use of cookies or other technologies, please contact us through our website.