Effective Date: 12/14/2021
We Are Committed to Your Privacy
This Privacy Notice applies to all websites, apps, and services operated and controlled by the Specialty Food Association (“SFA”), or a third party agent of SFA, and other websites, apps, and services where these Privacy Notice is posted, as well as information collected at events hosted by SFA (collectively, the "Websites"). We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Notice to keep up to date on how we are handling your personal information.
Please read this Privacy Notice carefully because by registering for or using the Websites, you signify that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound to this Privacy Notice, which is incorporated into our Terms & Conditions. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE, PLEASE DO NOT USE THE WEBSITES.
Information Collected
In a few areas on our Websites, online support tools, and occasionally at our events, we ask you to provide information that will enable us to enhance your experience and/or the event, to assist you with technical support issues, or to follow up with you after your visit. Information we may request includes your name, email address, phone number, address, type of business, job function or title, product and services offerings, payment information, customer preference information, and similar personal information. If we ever ask for significantly different information, we will inform you.
As a registered user of the Websites you may set up a personal dashboard on the Website and you may enter personal information and preferences on your dashboard in order to enhance your Website experience. You may also set up a user profile for the purpose of participating in interactive forums with other registered users. You may enter personal information in your user profile in order to identify and describe yourself to other participants in the interactive forums.
To be clear, “personal information” is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. The types of personal information we collect from you depends on how you interact with SFA and use the Websites. In particular, we collect the following information from and about you:
- Account Information. We may collect information from you when you sign up for a membership with us. That information may include, among other things, your full name, email address, username, employer, position, password, phone number and other information you provide.
- Email Addresses. We may collect your email address and name if you request information from the Websites.
- Payment and Financial Information. We may collect payment information, such as your payment card number, expiration date, billing address and payment account name.
- Demographic Information. We may collect your demographic information, such as your age, gender, city, state and country.
- Usage Information. We may collect information about how you and your devices interact with the Websites. This could include features you use, the web pages you visit and the search terms you enter. This could also include information about your devices and the network you use to connect to our services, including IP addresses, device identifiers and information about the performance of the services you use on the Websites and any problems you experience with them.
- Location Information. We may collect your location information. This information may help us provide recommendations to you based on your location, serve you with advertisements or direct you to a product or service that we believe may be of interest to you.
- Content and Other Information You Provide to Us. We may collect additional content and information that you voluntarily provide us, such as when you post a comment, submit a complaint or send us feedback.
You have choices about the information we collect. When you are asked to provide personal information, you may decline. However, if you choose not to provide information that is necessary to provide a product or service, you may not be able to use some of our features, products or services.
How We Collect Personal Information
Active Collection. We will collect, store and use your personal information solely to support and enhance your relationship with us and our members. For example, we may use your personal information to share products and services of the SFA and its members, partners and sponsors, and to update you regarding trade news, SFA events and offerings. Also, if you sign up for a membership or contact us with a question, we may store your communications, including any personal information you include in them, so we can effectively respond to you. If you do not want us to collect your personal information, please do not provide it to us.
Passive. We may collect information passively while you are visiting or interacting with the Websites. We call this “passive” collection because you may not know that this information is being collected. Here are some examples of the information that is collected via the Websites and a description of how this information is used:
- Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Your IP address is a number that lets computers attached to the Internet know where to send your information, such as the webpages you view. We use this information to deliver our webpages to you upon request, tailor our Websites to the interests of our members and users and measure traffic within our Websites.
- Cookies, web beacons, and other similar technologies. A cookie is a small text file that may be used to collect information about your activity on the Websites. For example, when someone visits a page within the Websites, a cookie is placed on the user’s machine (if the user accepts cookies) or is read if the user has visited the Websites previously. Web beacons are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to allow us to count members and users who have visited certain pages of the Websites and to help determine the effectiveness of promotional or advertising campaigns. When used in HTML-formatted email messages, web beacons can tell the sender whether and when the email has been opened. Web beacons are embedded invisibly on webpages. For more information, please see the Cookies and Similar Technologies section below.
Cookies and Similar Technologies
In order to help enhance the performance and functionality of the Websites, we use, and allow certain third parties to use, cookies and other similar technologies to provide our services and to help collect information. We provide further information on cookies and similar technologies in our Cookie Policy, available here.
We Use Your Personal Information for Limited Purposes
The information you provide will be used solely to support your relationship with the SFA and its members. We use your personal information collected on the Websites primarily for the following purposes:
- Customer User Experiences. The information entered on your personal dashboard is used solely to enhance your event and/or Website experience, your ability to obtain information regarding the SFA, SFA members and their products, and to communicate with the SFA and SFA members. We may use your personal information to complete a transaction or service requested by you, or to provide you with services, such as educational programs, or information.
- Identification. The information in your user profile is meant to identify and describe yourself to other participants in the interactive forums, and therefore may be viewed by other registered users.
- Communications. We may use your information to notify you about a material change to this Privacy Notice or the Terms & Conditions, if necessary, or to contact you in response to sign-up forms or as otherwise indicated.
- Advertising, Marketing, and Promotions. We may use your information to alert you to special offers, updated information and other new services from SFA or other third parties, or to forward promotional materials.
- Service and Websites Improvement. If you choose to subscribe to our membership and other products, we may use your information to ensure the Websites are relevant to your needs and to help us create and publish content most relevant to you. We may use your IP address and other similar information to make our Websites easier to use and navigate as well as to personalize the content provided on the Websites.
- Other Legitimate Business Reasons. We may also use your information for other legitimate business reasons.
Legal Bases for Processing
In processing personal information, we may rely upon the following lawful bases:
- Consent. We may process personal information with the consent of the individual whose data is being processed and/or in reliance upon the consent of the administrator of the account, who must affirm that s/he has obtained appropriate consent from all participants.
- Contract. When we enter a contract with you and/or an administrator for your account, we process personal information on the basis of our contract in order to prepare and enter into the contract, as well as to perform and manage our contract. This is necessary for us to provide the Websites to you.
- As required by law. We may process personal information as required to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject for the for the purpose of compliance with EEA, UK, or Swiss public, governmental, judicial or other regulatory authorities.
- For legitimate business purposes. This includes but is not limited to legal compliance and the purposes described above.
Sharing & Disclosure of Personal Information
We may share or disclose your personal information in the following instances and to the following parties:
- To fulfill a service to you;
- To affiliates, strategic partners, agents, third-party marketers or other unaffiliated parties who are offering products or services that we believe may be of interest to you or who require your personal information for research, administrative and/or internal business purposes;
- To unaffiliated third-party service providers, agents or independent contractors who help us maintain our Websites and provide other administrative services to us;
- To complete your purchase;
- To other members;
- To comply with the law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary in order to conform to the requirements of law or comply with legal process served on us, protect and defend our rights or property, or act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of our end users;
- To third parties as part of any corporate reorganization process including, but not limited to, mergers, acquisitions and sales of all or substantially all of our assets;
- To track and analyze non-identifying and aggregate usage and volume statistical information from our visitors and customers and provide such information to third parties; and
- To protect against potential fraud, we may verify with third parties the information collected from the Websites.
Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Notice, information regarding you (such as name, address and phone number) will not be given or sold to any third parties for use in marketing or solicitation without your consent. Your information may be shared with agents or contractors of the SFA that have agreed to maintain the confidentiality of your information and use it solely for the purpose of performing services for the SFA. The information of registered users entered on the personal dashboard will not be disclosed to any third parties, and may not be viewed or accessed by SFA members or other Website users. If you elect to contact, and/or be contacted by, an SFA member via the Websites, the SFA member will be provided with your name, but not your email address or other personal information. Any such contact by an SFA member will be made solely through your personal dashboard, unless you and the SFA member agree to contact each other through means other than the Websites.
The information of registered users entered in the user profile will not be disclosed to any unauthorized third parties by SFA, but may be viewed or accessed by other registered users. Except as described in this Privacy Notice or at the time we request the information, we do not otherwise use, share or disclose your personal information to any third parties.
Your Participation is Optional
Your participation in any portion of SFA events and/or the Websites or use of any Website functionality that calls for you to provide personal information is entirely optional. When registering for an optional service, your personal information will be used as described at the time that you register. Any time after you provide the SFA with personal information, you may elect not to participate in functionality offered through SFA events and/or the Websites or request the SFA to delete any personal information. As a registered user of the Websites, you may choose at any time to terminate your registration on the Website or change or delete personal information on your dashboard or in your user profile. Any personal information entered on the dashboard or in your use profile and so deleted will not be retained by the SFA.
You May Choose not to be Contacted by SFA or its Members
Periodically, we may send you information about our various services, trade shows and events, or other products and services we feel may be of interest to you. Only the SFA or agents acting on behalf of the SFA under obligations of confidentiality will send you information. If you do not want to be included on the SFA's marketing list, simply inform us at the time you provide us with your personal information. You may at any time opt-out of SFA's marketing list or update your information by contacting SFA's Data Governance at [email protected].
As a registered user of the Websites, you may elect to allow SFA members to contact you via the Websites’ onsite messaging system. You may at any time opt-out of this election by switching off this functionality on your personal dashboard.
Use of Your Email Address
We use return email addresses to answer the email we receive and for future contact with you. Such addresses are not shared with third parties without your permission, except as required by law, to protect the SFA, its members, or the public, to share products and services of the SFA and its members, partners and sponsors, or with companies that help the SFA's fulfill its obligations to you. If you would like your email address removed from the SFA marketing list or would like to update your information, please contact SFA's Data Governance at [email protected]. NOTE: When opting out, you may elect to remove yourself from all or select email campaigns.
Links to other Websites
Please be aware that the Websites contain links to third-party websites, including websites of SFA members, which are not operated or controlled by the SFA. Such third-party websites may collect personally identifiable information from you. The SFA is not responsible for the privacy practices of such third-party websites, and such practices are not covered by this Privacy Notice.
Some portions of the Websites may be animated using downloadable applications and video which use hosting services operating under their own privacy and security policies.
Forums, Chat Rooms & Other Public Posting Areas
Please note that any information you include in a message you post to any chat room, forum or other public posting area is available to anyone with access. If you do not want people to know your email address, for example, do not include it in any message you post publicly. PLEASE BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHEN DISCLOSING ANY INFORMATION IN CHAT ROOMS, FORUMS AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE BY OTHERS OF THE INFORMATION THAT YOU DISCLOSE IN CHAT ROOMS, FORUMS AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS.
Assignment
In the event that all or part of our assets are sold or acquired by another party, or in the event of a merger, you grant us the right to assign the information collected via the Websites.
Changes to This Privacy Notice
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Notice from time to time. When we do, we will also revise the “Effective” date at the top of this Privacy Notice. For changes that may be materially less restrictive on our use or disclosure of personal information you have provided to us, we will attempt to obtain your consent before implementing the change by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account or by placing a prominent notice on the Websites.
Security and Retention
No data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you understand that any information you transfer to SFA is done at your own risk.
Once we receive your transmission, we make reasonable efforts to ensure security on our systems. If we learn of a security systems breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. By using the Websites or providing personal information to us, you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy and administrative issues relating to your use of the Websites. We may post a notice on our Websites if a security breach occurs. We may also send an email to you at the email address you have provided to us in these circumstances. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing.
We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
Our Commitment to Children's Privacy
Protecting the privacy of children is especially important to the SFA. We never collect or maintain information through the Websites from those we actually know are under the age of 18, except that we permit registered users under the age of 18 to maintain a personal dashboard or user profile under the supervision of a parent or guardian. No portion of the Websites is designed to attract anyone under the age of 18. If we become aware that a person submitting personal information to us through the Websites is an unsupervised child, we promptly delete the information. A parent or guardian may request SFA to check for and delete any personal information of their child on SFA systems, or delete the personal dashboard of the child.
Your Acceptance of these Terms
By visiting or using the Websites, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Notice. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Notice, please exit the Websites immediately and do not visit or use the Websites in the future. This Privacy Notice may be modified from time to time, so please check back frequently.
International Transfer of Personal Information
If you choose to provide us with personal information, we may transfer that personal information to our affiliates and subsidiaries or to other third parties, in accordance with local law. We may also transfer your personal information across borders, from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions in accordance with legal requirements. We primarily use European Union Commission Standard Contractual Clauses for data transfers from the European Union, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland to countries outside the EEA (including the UK). For transfers between other jurisdictions, we may rely on other legal mechanisms for international transfer, as appropriate under the relevant law.
Laws & Rights that May Apply to You
The rights below apply most specifically to residents of the EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA, SWITZERLAND AND THE UNITED KINGDOM. When seeking to exercise these rights, please note that we will respond to any rights request in accordance with local legal regulations. If you wish to make a request related to any of these rights, please contact us using the contact information listed below. Please note that we may request that you provide additional information to confirm your identity and ensure that you are entitled to access the information and exercise the rights.
- Right of access and/or portability. You may have the right to get confirmation about whether or not your personal information is being processed. If so, you may have the right to access the personal information and other information, such as the purposes, the categories of personal information, the recipients (or categories of recipients) to whom the personal information has been or will be disclosed.
Here is our list of service providers to whom personal information is disclosed:- Maritz
- Map Your Show
- Balluun
- Specialty Food Partners (Infinite Aisle)
- On Peak
- Open Water
- Invoiced.com
- Invision Community
Where feasible and/or required by law, we will provide a copy of the personal information we are processing. For any further copies, we may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs. If you make a request by electronic means, and unless otherwise requested, the information shall be provided in electronic form. - Right to rectification. You may have the right to rectify or complete your personal information if inaccurate or incomplete.
- Right to erasure. You may have the right to the erasure of your personal information in certain circumstances to the extent that a lawful, countervailing rationale for maintaining your personal information does not exist.
- Right to object to processing. You may have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to processing of your personal information which is based on our legitimate purposes. We will stop processing your personal information unless we have compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interests, rights and freedoms.
- Right to restrict processing. You may have the right to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, for example, where you believe that the personal information we hold about you is not accurate or is not being lawfully held.
You may also have the right to lodge a complaint to a data protection authority. For more information, you may contact your local data protection authority.
California Privacy Rights
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits visitors to the Websites who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us at the contact information provided below.
We do not share personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes unless you consent to such disclosure, typically by “opting-in” to receive information from a third party that is participating in a sweepstakes or other promotion on our Websites. If you do ask us to share your personal information with a third party for its marketing purposes, we will only share information in connection with that specific promotion, as we do not share information with any third party (other than our service providers) on a continual basis.
At this time our Websites do not recognize automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include “Do Not Track” instructions, as there is no globally recognized “Do Not Track” mechanism.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Notice or the use of your personal information by the SFA, please contact us at:
SFA Data Governance
E-mail : [email protected]