Privacy Policy

Our UK Representative: 

Under Article 27 of the UK Data Privacy Act, we have appointed a UK Representative to act as our data protection agent. Our nominated UK Representative is: GDPR Local Ltd. 

Adam Brogden contact@gdprlocal.com  

Tel +44 1772 217800  

1st Floor Front Suite 

27-29 North Street, Brighton 

England

How we collect and use (process) your personal information 

SmarterCommerce collects personal information about its website visitors and customers. With a few exceptions, this information is generally limited to: 

• name 
  
• job title  
  
• employer name  
• work address  
• work email  
• work phone number  

We use this information to provide prospects and customers with services.  We do not sell personal information to anyone and only share it with third parties who are facilitating the delivery of our services. 

From time to time, SmarterCommerce receives personal information about individuals from third parties. Typically, information collected from third parties will include further details on your employer or industry. We may also collect your personal data from a third-party websites (e.g. LinkedIn).  

SmarterCommerce does not collect or process special categories of data or any data relating to criminal convictions or offenses.

Lawful Bases for Processing Personal Data 

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we are required to inform you of the lawful bases on which we process your personal data. SmarterCommerce only processes personal data when there is a valid legal basis for doing so. The purposes for which we process personal data and the lawful bases relied upon include: 

• To provide our services and fulfill contractual obligations 
  We process your personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you or your employer. 
  Lawful basis: Contractual necessity 
  
• To communicate with you about our services 
  We may use your contact details to provide updates, respond to inquiries, or send information related to our services. 
  Lawful basis: Legitimate interests 
  
• To comply with legal and regulatory obligations 
  In limited cases, we may need to process your personal data to comply with applicable laws, such as financial reporting or regulatory requirements. 
  Lawful basis: Legal obligation 
  
• To improve our website and services 
  We use cookies and similar technologies to analyze website usage and enhance user experience. Non-essential cookies are only used with your consent. 
  Lawful basis: Consent (for non-essential cookies), Legitimate interests (for strictly necessary cookies) 
  
• For marketing purposes 
  Where required by law, we rely on your consent to send you promotional communications. Where consent is not legally required, we may rely on legitimate interests to send relevant information to business contacts. 
  Lawful basis: Consent or Legitimate interests, as applicable 

Use of the SmarterCommerce website 

As is true of most other websites, SmarterCommerce’s website collects certain information automatically and stores it in log files. The information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, the region or general location where your computer or device is accessing the internet, browser type, operating system and other usage information about the use of SmarterCommerce’s website, including a history of the pages you view. We use this information to help us design our site to better suit our users’ needs. We may also use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website, analyze trends, track visitor movements, and gather broad demographic information that assists us in identifying visitor preferences. 

SmarterCommerce has a legitimate interest in understanding how members, customers and potential customers use its website. This assists SmarterCommerce with providing more relevant products and services, with communicating value to our sponsors and corporate members, and with providing appropriate staffing to meet member and customer needs.

Cookies and tracking technologies 

SmarterCommerce uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to support functionality and security of our website. Cookies are small text files stored on you device that allow us to remember your preferences, authenticate users and improve navigation. 

We use the following types of cookies: 

• Strictly Necessary Cookies – Required for the operation of our site (e.g., session identification, security tokens and authentication). These cookies do not store personal data. 

• Functional Cookies – Enhance the user experience by remembering preferences and enabling additional website features.

• Third-Party Cookies – Used by our integrated payment gateway providers (such as PayPal, Braintree and others listed in our Cookie Policy) to securely process transactions and maintain service functionality. 

The data collected through cookies may include session identifiers, authentication tokens, consent preferences, and user preference information. These are used to maintain security, enable login functionality, and remember your choices on our site.  

You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings, and you may also update your cookie preferences at any time through Cookie Review Preferences tool. Please note that strictly necessary cookies cannot be disabled, as they are essential for the operation of our website. 

For a detailed list of the cookies we use, their purpose and how you can manage them, please review our Cookie Policy. 

Sharing information with third parties 

The personal information SmarterCommerce collects from you is stored in one or more databases hosted by third parties located in the United States. These third parties do not use or have access to your personal information for any purpose other than cloud storage and retrieval. On occasion, SmarterCommerce engages third parties to send information to you, including information about our products, services, and events. 

A list of our third-party sub processors can be found here: www.smartercommerce.net/privacy/subprocessors. 

We do not otherwise reveal your personal data to non-SmarterCommerce persons or businesses for their independent use unless: (1) you request or authorize it; (2) it’s in connection with SmarterCommerce-hosted and SmarterCommerce co-sponsored conferences as described above; (3) the information is provided to comply with the law (for example, compelled by law enforcement to comply with a search warrant, subpoena, or court order), enforce an agreement we have with you, or to protect our rights, property or safety, or the rights, property or safety of our employees or others; (4) the information is provided to our agents, vendors or service providers who perform functions on our behalf; (5) to address emergencies or acts of God; or (6) to address disputes, claims, or to persons demonstrating legal authority to act on your behalf. We may also gather aggregated data about our services and website visitors and disclose the results of such aggregated (but not personally identifiable) information to our partners, service providers, advertisers, and/or other third parties for marketing or promotional purposes. 

The SmarterCommerce website connects with third party services such as LinkedIn, Twitter and others. If you choose to share information from the SmarterCommerce website through these services, you should review the privacy policy of that service. If you are a member of a third-party service, the aforementioned connections may allow that service to connect your visit to our site to your personal data. 

Transferring personal data to the U.S. 

SmarterCommerce has its headquarters in the United States. Information we collect about you will be processed in the United States. By using SmarterCommerce’s services, you acknowledge that your personal information will be processed in the United States. The United States has not sought nor received a finding of “adequacy” from the European Union under Article 45 of the GDPR. Pursuant to Article 46 of the GDPR, SmarterCommerce is providing for appropriate safeguards by entering binding, standard data protection clauses, enforceable by data subjects in the EEA and the UK. These clauses have been enhanced based on the guidance of the European Data Protection Board and will be updated when the new draft model clauses are approved. 

Depending on the circumstance, SmarterCommerce also collects and transfers to the U.S. personal data with consent; to perform a contract with you; or to fulfill a compelling legitimate interest of SmarterCommerce in a manner that does not outweigh your rights and freedoms.  SmarterCommerce endeavors to apply suitable safeguards to protect the privacy and security of your personal data and to use it only consistent with your relationship with SmarterCommerce and the practices described in this Privacy Statement.  SmarterCommerce also enters into data processing agreements and model clauses with its vendors whenever feasible and appropriate. Since it was founded, SmarterCommerce has received zero government requests for information. 

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact us at privacy@smartercommerce.net. 

Data Subject rights 

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other countries’ privacy laws provide certain rights for data subjects. Data Subject rights under GDPR include the following: 

• Right to be informed 
  
• Right of access 
• Right to rectification 
  
• Right to erasure 
  
• Right to restrict processing 
  
• Right of data portability 
  
• Right to object 
  
• Rights related to automated decision-making including profiling 
  
• Right to withdraw consent 

 This Privacy Notice is intended to provide you with information about what personal data SmarterCommerce collects about you and how it is used.  

If you wish to confirm that SmarterCommerce is processing your personal data, or to have access to the personal data SmarterCommerce may have about you, please contact us. 

You may also request information about:  the purpose of the processing; the categories of personal data concerned; who else outside SmarterCommerce might have received the data from SmarterCommerce; what the source of the information was (if you didn’t provide it directly to SmarterCommerce); and how long it will be stored. You have a right to correct (rectify) the record of your personal data maintained by SmarterCommerce if it is inaccurate. You may request that SmarterCommerce erase that data or cease processing it, subject to certain exceptions. You may also request that SmarterCommerce cease using your data for direct marketing purposes. In many countries, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the appropriate data protection authority if you have concerns about how SmarterCommerce processes your personal data. When technically feasible, SmarterCommerce will—at your request—provide your personal data to you. 

Reasonable access to your personal data will be provided at no cost. If access cannot be provided within a reasonable time frame, SmarterCommerce will provide you with a date when the information will be provided. If for some reason access is denied, SmarterCommerce will provide an explanation as to why access has been denied. 

For questions or complaints concerning the processing of your personal data, you can email us at privacy@smartercommerce.net. Alternatively, if you are located in the European Union, you can also have recourse to the European Data Protection Supervisor or with your nation’s data protection authority. 

Security of your information 

SmarterCommerce takes the security of personal data seriously and implements appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard it against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. 

We apply a combination of technical, administrative, and physical safeguards, including: 

• Encryption: All company data is stored on a secured SQL server that uses Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) to protect data at rest. 

• Access Controls: Access to personal data is strictly limited to authorized personnel who require it to perform their job duties. Role based access controls and authentication measures are in place to prevent unauthorized use.

• Monitoring and Safeguards: Systems are monitored to detect potential vulnerabilities through Qualys, and access rights are reviewed quarterly.

• Training and Awareness: Employees with access to personal data receive training on data protection responsibilities and security best practices. 

We regularly test, assess, and evaluate the effectiveness of our technical and organizational measures to ensure ongoing security strengthening. While we take appropriate measures to protect personal data, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is entirely secure. Therefore we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we continually work to enhance and update our security practices. 
 

Data storage and retention 

Your personal data is stored by SmarterCommerce on its servers, and on the servers of the cloud-based database management services SmarterCommerce engages, located in the United States. SmarterCommerce retains service data for the duration of the customer’s business relationship with SmarterCommerce and for a period of time thereafter, to analyze the data for SmarterCommerce’s own operations, and for historical and archiving purposes associated with SmarterCommerce’s services.  SmarterCommerce retains prospect data until such time as it no longer has business value and is purged from SmarterCommerce systems. All personal data that SmarterCommerce controls may be deleted upon verified request from Data Subjects or their authorized agents. For more information on where and how long your personal data is stored, and for more information on your rights of erasure and portability, please contact us at: privacy@smartercommerce.net.