This Privacy Statement applies to the handling of your Personal Information in connection with all services and Web sites offered by Cole Office Products.
This Privacy Statement describes:
• Why we collect Personal Information
• What Personal Information we collect and when it is collected
• How your Personal Information is used and protected
• When and with whom your Personal Information is shared
• How to contact us with questions or comments
Information We Collect. This Privacy Statement applies to Personal Information, which is information that Cole Office Products collects from you as a customer that specifically identifies you as an individual.
Cole Office Products may collect your Personal Information when you:
• Place an order from our catalog or on Coleop.com
• Create an account on Coleop.com
• Return an item, make an exchange or submit a rebate
• Inquire about our products or services or contact customer service
• Request our catalog
• Sign up for Cole Office Products email or other promotional materials
• Enter a Cole Office Products contest or sweepstakes
Personal Information that Cole Office Products collects from you may include:
• Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Email address
• Transaction information
• Credit card, debit card or checking account information
Cole Office Products may also collect other information, including browsing activity on Cole Office Products Web sites, activity in response to Cole Office Products emails, location information, and aggregated or statistical information regarding use of our Web sites to improve site performance, product offerings, and promotions and targeted advertising. If you do not want to receive targeted advertising from Cole Office Products, please see the Cookies section below. If you do not want to receive email or other mail from us, please see the Choices section below.
Note: In order to provide you with a better shopping experience and to improve the quality of our services, we may combine Personal Information you submit under your account with other information that we may receive from you, from third parties or with other public information. We maintain this information, along with a record of your purchases, in restricted databases.
Cole Office Products does not knowingly collect Personal Information from children younger than 13.
How We Use the Information We Collect. Cole Office Products strives to make your shopping experience easy and convenient, from your initial search for products and services through the delivery of your requested items. The information we collect helps us meet this goal by allowing us to:
• Customize your shopping experience and identify your preferences
• Confirm, process, fulfill, and track your orders
• Respond to your customer service inquiries or requests
• Inform you of special values and featured items
• Send you catalogs or promotional offers we believe will be of interest to you
• Serve you targeted advertising
• Send you Cole Office Products email updates
• Inform you of recalls or other information on products you have purchased
• Prevent or mitigate fraud and credit risk
• Administer promotions, contests, sweepstakes, and rewards programs
• Improve our merchandise selection, Web sites, and customer service
• Comply with applicable legal demands, laws and regulations
California Residents – Notice of Disclosure. California law gives California residents the right to request a notice describing the categories of Personal Information Cole Office Products shares with affiliated companies or other parties for their direct marketing purposes.
Use of “Cookies.” Cookies are pieces of information that are transferred from Web sites to your computer’s hard drive and they may serve a variety of purposes (web beacons, Flash cookies and other similar technologies may also be used for these purposes). For example, cookies “remember” you when you return to COLEOP.com or other Cole Office Products Web sites and make your experience more user-friendly. Cookies help Cole Office Products identify which Cole Office Products web pages are visited and how often and evaluate how its Web sites are used to improve their services.
Cookies also enable Cole Office Products and third parties to deliver targeted advertising to you. You can also opt-out of receiving personalized ads from third party advertisers and ad networks who are members of the Digital Advertising Alliance or the Network Advertising Initiative by visiting their opt-out pages. If your browsers are configured to reject cookies when you visit these pages, or if you subsequently erase your cookies, use a different device or change web browsers, your opt-out may become ineffective and may need to be repeated. Browser settings, including do not track signals and other mechanisms, will not affect data collection and not constitute an opt-out of advertising-related cookies, personalized third-party advertising or promotional messages from Cole Office Products; you must use the opt-out choices described herein in order to opt out from such promotional messages.
Your Choices Regarding Cole Office Products Promotional Messages. You may decide to opt out of receiving promotional messages from Cole Office Products. To do so, please notify us by one of the following means:
• Follow the “unsubscribe” link on any promotional email from Cole Office Products
• Email us at coleop@coleop.com and tell us what marketing programs you want to opt-out of from Cole Office Products
• Call us toll-free at 800.298.3203
• Write to us at Cole Office Products Direct Marketing Services 1245A Stone Dr., San Marcos, CA 92078 (please note that an opt-out request sent by postal mail may take at least sixty (60) days to become effective)
Once Cole Office Products has processed your request, you may continue to receive messages or postal mail from affiliated companies and others if they received your email, mobile number or postal address from Cole Office Products previously, from sources other than Cole Office Products or through their own transactions or communications with you. You will also continue to receive promotional messages if you later request to hear from us again.
Information Sharing. Cole Office Products may share your Personal Information with third parties in the following instances:
• We may provide your Personal Information to third parties to process this information on our behalf. We require that these parties agree to process this information based on our instructions and requirements consistent with this Privacy Statement.
• We may disclose your Personal Information to: (a) satisfy applicable law, regulations, legal process or valid governmental request; (b) enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations of Terms of Service; (c) detect, prevent or mitigate fraud or security or technical issues; or (d) protect against imminent harm to the rights, property or safety of Staples, its customers or the public as required or permitted by law.
• We may disclose some elements of your Personal Information to third parties to notify you of offers or services that may be of interest to you. We do not share credit card or other financial information for marketing purposes.
• We may disclose Personal Information to third parties in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale (including any transfers made as part of insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings) involving Cole Office Products or its affiliated companies or as part of a corporate reorganization, stock or asset sale, or other change in corporate control.
• We may also disclose to third parties aggregated or other information that does not identify you individually, such as how many customers viewed a particular product or web page, to conduct website analytics or to serve you targeted advertising.
Third-Party Web Sites. Coleop.com and other Cole Office Products Web sites may contain links to, or plugins or widgets from, social media or other sites operated and maintained by third parties, over which we have no control. Privacy practices on such sites may be different from our Privacy Statement. Similarly, Coleop.com and other Cole Office Products websites may be accessed and used from third-party sites that we do not control. Cole Office Products encourages you to consult the privacy policies that govern such sites before using them.
Information Security. Cole Office Products maintains reasonable and appropriate standards to safeguard your Personal Information.
When you enter Personal Information that contains a Social Security Number, driver's license number or credit or debit card number at the designated and secured sections of Coleop.com or other Cole Office Products websites, the site encrypts or encodes the information when sending it over the Internet. Personal Information that we collect and maintain is subject to physical, administrative, and technical controls that are consistent with recognized industry standards.
Cole Office Products processes Personal Information on our servers in the United States and in other countries. In some cases, we may process your Personal Information on a server outside your own country in accordance with this Privacy Statement and applicable law.
Avoiding Identity Theft. If you think someone has improperly accessed or used your Personal Information supplied to Cole Office Products or made unauthorized purchases at Cole Office Products using your Personal Information, please contact us immediately.
Consider taking the following steps to protect yourself against fraud and identity theft:
Review your account statements regularly. Carefully review your bank, credit card, and other account statements every month to ensure that all of your account activity is valid. Report any questionable charges promptly and in writing to the card or account issuer.
Review your credit report from time to time. Obtain and review your credit report periodically to ensure that all your information is correct. You can obtain a free credit report once per year by visiting http://www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 877-322-8228. Carefully reviewing your credit report can help you spot problems and address them quickly. If you have any questions about your credit report or notice any inaccuracies, contact the relevant consumer reporting agency promptly at the telephone number listed on the report.
Create a fraud alert. Consider placing a fraud alert on your credit file. The fraud alert prompts creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts or increasing credit limits on your existing accounts. You can place a fraud alert on your credit file by contacting one of three consumer reporting agencies listed below. You need to contact only one of the three agencies in order to create the alert; the agency you contact is required by law to contact the other two. You will receive confirmation letters in the mail and then will be able to order a credit report from each of the three agencies, free of charge. The fraud alert will remain in your credit file for at least 90 days.
Equifax
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
800-525-6285
www.equifax.com
Experian
P.O. Box 9532
Allen, TX 75013
888-397-3742
www.experian.com
TransUnion
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834
800-680-7289
www.transunion.com