Privacy Policy
YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS
We believe the responsible use of information is important for meeting your needs and providing consistent service quality. This privacy statement explains data collection and use practices of Columbia House (http://www.columbiahouse.com).
As we further describe below, we may share your personally identifiable information with third parties for their marketing purposes. You can elect for us not to do this by writing to: Member Service Center, PO Box 916400, Rantoul, IL 61866-6400, or by sending an email to customer.service@columbiahouse.com.
Columbia House collects and maintains personal information regarding its members: the personal information we collect and maintain includes name, shipping or billing addresses, email address (“Member Contact Information”), and, if provided (by you), credit card, opt-in and other financial information (please review the Security section of our Terms of Use) and any other information you provide to us (“collectively, “Member Information”). We may also obtain information about you from third parties, such as credit or demographic information. We may incorporate the information you provide with demographic information that is publicly available. We use this combined information to enhance and personalize your experience with us, to communicate more effectively with you, and to make our future marketing efforts more efficient. We may use or disclose aggregate or third-party-provided information for any purpose.
We collect the domain name and e-mail address (where possible) of visitors to our website, the email addresses of those who communicate with us via email, aggregate information on what pages consumers access or visit, user-specific information on what pages consumers access or visit, information volunteered by the consumer, such as survey information and/or site registrations, name and address, payment information (e.g., credit card number and billing address) and third party financial and demographic information.
Our website and email use "cookies" and similar means to gather information. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server if permitted by your browser settings. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you. Cookies are also used to recognize members' preferences, store session information (such as items that consumers add to their shopping cart), and past activity at our site in order to provide better service, easier access when members return to our site, and to enable the delivery of offers which may be of interest to you. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of this or other websites you visit. We do use third-party advertising companies to serve advertising on our behalf. These companies may also employ cookies and action tags (also known as single pixel gifs or web beacons) to measure and enhance advertising effectiveness. If you would like more information about this practice and your choices, click here: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/
We use the personal information we collect to service your account. Throughout your club membership, your account history and club experience is maintained in a secure customer file. All our third party service providers who may need access to our members' information to perform fulfillment and other services for us or our members are held to the strictest confidentiality requirements and are (a) only authorized to use the personal information for the intended purpose accessed and (b) not permitted by us to use personal information in any other way or for any other reason.
Columbia House will only use your email address to contact you about merchandise or product offerings which may be of interest to you, to contact you about your account, or for Columbia House’s internal use.
The following types of companies are sometimes permitted to use our Member Contact Information [defined above] to promote goods and services: Catalog, Publishing, Fundraising/Non Profit, Financial, Credit Card, Insurance, Newsletters, Other Club/Continuity programs, Education and Seminar Companies, e-Commerce and marketing firms and other Direct Marketing service firms. From time to time, Columbia House may make arrangements with other companies to provide you with joint products or services. We may also participate in cooperative databases and work with third party modeling service providers to facilitate targeting of future marketing efforts.
If you prefer not to have your Member Contact Information released or prefer that we not send you e-mail communications about offerings which may be of interest to you, please let us know by writing to: Member Service Center, PO Box 916400, Rantoul IL 61866-6400 or by sending an e-mail to customer.service@columbiahouse.com. Please note that Columbia House may share your Member Information with its affiliated entities, which may include other clubs operated under common control (collectively "Affiliates"). This Privacy Statement and the choices you make on this site will not necessarily apply to personal information you may have provided to other Affiliates in the context of other products or services or other separate clubs.
Columbia House may disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary, as required by or permitted by law, to protect and defend the rights or property of Columbia House, or to act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Columbia House, its Web sites, or the public. For example, Columbia House may also share personal information with companies assisting in fraud protection, investigation to protect against fraud, or to service your account. We do not provide information to these agencies or companies for marketing or commercial purposes. We may report information about your account to credit bureaus. Late payments, missed payments, or other defaults on your account may be reflected in your credit report.
Please note that because a customer information database is customarily considered a business asset, we shall have the right to transfer it in a merger, sale of some or all of its company, consolidation, change in control, reorganization, liquidation or in an action for bankruptcy. In the event all or part of our company is sold or dissolved, we will transfer information we have about you to one or more third parties with a requirement that such third parties treat your personal information substantially in accordance with our privacy policy as it exists at the time of the transfer. If we close down one of our services or shut down a website, we will keep your information secure and will only use it, again, in accordance with the terms of our then current privacy policy.
While we and our Affiliates offer children's products, including a book club for parents that sells children's books, we do not solicit children for membership but, rather, their parents, nor do we intend to collect any information from children. Any information we do have on file relating to the children of members is used for internal purposes only in conjunction with their account. With regard to our list-rental practices, we do not offer or disclose specific individual information about our members' children (other than the fact that there are households with children of a particular age range and sex).
Personally identifiable information collected on this site may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Columbia House or its partners, affiliates, subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using this site, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country.
We may occasionally update this Privacy Statement. For material changes to this Privacy Statement, we will notify you either by placing a prominent notice on the home page of our Web site or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Statement to stay informed about our use of the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the service constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Statement and any updates.
This policy and all of our legal obligations are subject to the laws of New York and the USA, regardless of the location of any user. Any claims or complaints must be filed in the USA in the State of New York. Columbia House welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Statement. If you believe that Columbia House has not adhered to this Statement, please contact us by email or by postal mail at the addresses listed above, and we will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.
This Privacy Policy is effective as of: March 30, 2015