Privacy Policy

Effective Date: May 26, 2000; Updated December 1, 2006; Updated August 1, 2022; Updated July 1, 2024.

The Freedonia Group has created this privacy policy to demonstrate our firm commitment to maintaining your privacy. The following explains how we gather and use your information. This policy may change over time. We will indicate in the "Effective Date" section above when such changes have been made.

This privacy notice covers all of the online information practices of the Freedonia Group website (https://www.freedoniagroup.com and such other websites as may be owned and operated by The Freedonia Group, Inc. from time to time. Sites maintained by our Web distribution partners have their own privacy and security policies.

The Freedonia Group, Inc. has embraced several changes to its Privacy Policy with the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect May 25, 2018. These changes affect our EU and UK Customers.

Since Brexit, the United Kingdom (UK) has implemented the UK-GDPR, which is nearly identical to the EU-GDPR. All references to GDPR or the EU take in to account UK-GDPR requirements. Please note the following:

• Transfers of data between the UK and EU are still permitted.
• Transfers of data to all other countries outside the EU and UK (such as the U.S. and Canada) can rely on the same transfer requirements as outlined by the EU-GDPR.

In accordance with its necessary business practices The Freedonia Group, Inc. collects and processes personal data relating to its customers. The Freedonia Group, Inc. is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data, and to meeting its data protection obligations as defined by the GDPR.

What information do we collect?

• IP Address: When you visit this site, your IP address is recorded. We use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website by creating statistical reports and tracking errors. Your IP address is used to help identify you when you buy and to gather broad demographic identification that will not be tied to your identity.
• Personal Identification Information: This includes name, address, contact details, email, phone. This information is collected (1) when you subscribe to our Alert or newsletter services, (2) when you want to view detailed information about our products, and/or (3) when you want to submit a question about our products/services to our customer service staff.
• Credit Card or Payment Information: This information is collected when purchases are made.
• Usage and Purchase History
• Name and Email Address of Colleague(s): If you elect to use our "Email to a Colleague" feature to inform others about our site or about particular products on our site, we ask you for your name and email address and your colleague's name and email address. The Freedonia Group will automatically send the colleague a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. The Freedonia Group does not store this information. It is used for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of the referral program.
• Cookies and other technical or site function data: This site uses "cookies" and other technology to record usage of the website. This gives us information about how many people visit certain pages on the site. We also use this technology to customize your experience on the service.
• Login Information: Your ID and site password is stored for verification on future visits and for future purchases.

The Freedonia Group may collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in website registration forms, customer-initiated chat applications, payment submission forms, notes collected through phone conversations, etc. We may also collect personal data about you from third parties. We do not collect special categories of personal data.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including in HR management systems, on other IT systems (including email), and marketing and sales-related software/spreadsheets.

Why does The Freedonia Group process personal data?

We need to process data to take steps to enter into a contract with you or to continue to fulfill a contract with you, which may even be a single purchase. For example, to register you as a new customer, process and deliver your order, manage our business relationship with you, enable you to complete surveys, deliver relevant website content, make recommendations to you for goods and services, etc. In some cases, processing your data is necessary to our legitimate business interests, such as to study how customers use our products/services or to recover debts owed to us. In some cases, we need to process data to ensure that we are complying with legal obligations as defined by the appropriate governments.

All information we collect will help us maintain your account and provide services to you.

Who has access to your data?

Your information may be shared internally for legitimate business reasons, such as customer support, marketing, or other client relationship building activities. This includes members of the marketing and sales teams, company analysts, Human Capital, and IT.

The Freedonia Group may disclose your information to third parties if we determine that such disclosure is necessary to fulfill the contract/provide requested services to our customers or to comply with the law. Some specific examples include:

• Shipping of Mailed Purchases: We use an outside shipping service provider to fulfill applicable orders. These orders will be shipped to you directly via a shipping provider, such as FedEx or DHL.
• Payment Processing: When you buy something with a credit card, we use a credit card processing service provider to verify your credit card and bill you. We also use an address verification service to verify that the billing and shipping address that you provide to us exist. If you purchase something that must be shipped to you, the shipper receives your contact information for this limited purpose.

Other than those third parties indicated above, we do not share, sell, rent, or trade personal identifiable information with other third parties for their promotional purposes.

For how long does The Freedonia Group keep data?

The Freedonia Group will retain your information for as long as it is necessary to provide you with services and/or complete data analytics processes. The Freedonia Group may also use your information in order to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, or enforce contracts and agreements.

As a data subject you have a number of rights. European clients and visitors can submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) to our Data Protection Officer to:

• Access and obtain a copy of your data on request to the (right of transparency)
• Request the organization to change incorrect or incomplete data
• Request the organization to delete (right of erasure) or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing

Changes in this Privacy Statement

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement on the home page and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page.

Legal Disclaimer

We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our website.

How is your information protected?

The Freedonia Group, Inc. is committed to protecting the 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. For example, we store the personal information you provide on computer systems with limited access that are located in controlled facilities. In addition, everything submitted to us is encrypted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL). This encryption method is used widely on the Internet to keep information secure. Although we use advanced encryption (Secure Socket Layers), we cannot guarantee the security of the information you transmit to us. While our website is secure, the Internet is not. If you prefer, our operators are standing by 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. EST Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST Fridays at 800,927,5900 (U.S.) or +1.440.299.6622 (Int'l) should you prefer to place an order over the phone.

Contact Information

If you would like to exercise any of these rights or have any questions regarding your rights, please contact:

Data Protection Officers
The Freedonia Group, Inc.
6116 Executive Blvd., Suite 550
North Bethesda, MD 20852
Phone: 240-747-3000
Fax: 240.747.3002
Email: [email protected]

For European and United Kingdom clients, if you believe that the organization has not complied with your data protection rights under GDPR, you can file a complaint with the Information Commissioner.