General Equipment Company Privacy Policy.

Effective Date: May 1, 2023

General Equipment Company appreciates your interest in our company, our products and our services.  Please take the time to read this privacy policy carefully before using the General Equipment website, sending us an email, calling us by phone or contacting us by other means. 

By accessing or using our website or emailing, calling or contacting us by other means you agree to this policy.  Note this privacy policy may change over time, please refer to the “Changes to Our Privacy Policy” section below on how changes are handled.  This privacy policy does not apply to third parties that General Equipment Company does not own or control. 

If you have questions about this policy, you can contact us using the information supplied in the “Contact Information” section of this policy below.

What Data Do We Collect?
We collect various types of voluntarily submitted information about you based on how you choose to interact with our company whether it be our website, social media or other means.  We may collect personal and non-personal information that either identifies with you as a specific individual or does not respectively.

The data we collect on or through our website and other means may include:
Personal:  name(s), telephone number, email address, gender, date of birth, correspondence, address, shipping address, financial bank details and credit card number for business transactions, messenger app details, online messaging details, and social media details.

Consent:  records of consents you have given, together with the date and time, means of consent and any related information (e.g. – the subject matter of the consent). 

Purchase:  records of purchases and prices plus, consignee name, address, contact telephone number and email address.

Website/App Usage:  products viewed, resources used/accessed (e.g.- search, videos, manuals, promotional codes), device type, operating system, browser type and name, browser settings, IP address, language settings, dates, times and means of connecting to a site, Internet service provider, App usage statistics, App settings, dates and times of connecting to an App, geolocation data, and other technical communications information (some of which may constitute Personal Data), username, password, security login details, usage data, aggregate statistical data.

Advertising:  records of your interactions with our online advertising and content, records of advertising and content displayed on pages or App screens displayed to you, and any interaction you may have had with such content or advertising (e.g.- mouse hover, mouse clicks, any forms you complete in whole or part) and any touchscreen interactions.

Views & Opinions:  any views and opinions that you choose to send to us, or publicly post about us on social media platforms or blogs.

How Do We Collect Your Data?
You directly provide General Equipment Company with most of the data we collect.  We may collect information directly from you when you provide it to us (e.g. – online form completion, account creation, email subscription, email correspondence, posting product reviews, requesting customer service, phone calls or completing surveys) or automatically as you navigate through our website or other applications such as a social site or an app. 

We collect data when you: 

  • Browse our website via your browser’s cookies.
  • Download information from our website, complete a web form or interface with our company experts using online chat features.
  • Call us or register online to request information for any of our products and services.
  • Place an order by calling us, by email, fax or placing an order through our online store.
  • Request a quote by calling us, by email, by fax or website and online store.
  • Make payments in association with an order you have placed.
  • Click on digital advertising and links in associated web landing pages.
  • Open emails/e-blasts, newsletters and/or click on links provided or call us as a result.
  • Contact us or visit our website due to direct mail you received from us.
  • Voluntarily participate in research such surveys, focus groups or provide feedback on any of our message boards, blogs, social media sites or via email or in writing.
  • Provide us a business card or visit our facilities or trade show exhibit booth.
  • Interface with third party partners and vendors, third party apps or similar technologies.

How Will We Use Your Data?
The information you may voluntarily submit to us or that we may collect about you will allow General Equipment Company and those third-party working relationships where information is shared (e.g. – credit reference agencies, marketing agencies, other) to:

  • Provide you with requested information about our products and services or that of our third-party partners.
  • Manage your account, process your order, run credit reference checks, administer/manage warranties and answer your questions.
  • Communicate changes/updates about products or services we offer plus, status changes to your account, services or your orders, websites, social sites, terms, conditions and policies.
  • Improve products, service programs and customer service by more effectively responding to your customer requests and support needs, plus, develop new products and expand business activities.
  • Improve and/or address issues with our websites, social media sites and operating systems through use of analytics in relation to sites and systems usage.
  • Store information about your preferences, allowing us to personalize our website according to your individual interests, speed up your searches and recognize you when you return to our website.
  • Conduct research to understand the markets we serve more deeply.
  • Monitor usage of our website, social media sites, advertising, products and services.
  • Estimate our audience size and identify usage patterns.
  • Personalize marketing/communication efforts in terms of direct mail, emails, e-newsletters, promotions, sweepstakes, advertising, social media and website content.
  • Determine the effectiveness of advertising and promotional campaigns.
  • Fulfill any other purpose for which you provide your information.
  • For any other purposes that are authorized or required by law, or with your specific consent.
  • When possible, we will aggregate personal information so that it no longer identifies an individual and use it for purposes mentioned above.

Please note, information collected automatically is classified as non-personal identification information but, may include some personal information.  We may choose to maintain this type information as is or combine it with personal identification information collected via other methods or a third-party source.  When combined, we will treat the data as personal information. 

Legal Basis for Data Collection & Use
Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal data described above will depend on the specific context in which we collect it. 

  • You have given us your consent.
  • The performance of a contract with you is required.
  • Processing is in General Equipment’s or one of our third parties’ legitimate business interests such as direct marketing and sales of our products and services or payment processing.
  • Compliance with our legal obligations.

If we ask you to provide personal data to comply with a legal requirement or to enter into a contract with you, we will make this clear at that time and advise you whether the provision of your personal data is mandatory or not (as well as possible consequences if you do not provide your personal data).

How Do We Store & Disclose Your Data?
Information Security
The security of your information is important to us.  We follow accepted industry standards to help protect your personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized access and disclosure plus, other unlawful or unauthorized forms of collection, use or disclosure of personal information, in accordance with applicable law.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers.  Any sensitive information such as payment transactions will be encrypted using secure socket layer (SSL) technology.  General Equipment Company does not sell, lease, trade or otherwise transfer your personally identifiable information to outside individuals or organizations.  All information is confidential.

Please note, no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.  Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk and you are responsible for ensuring that any personal information that you send to us is sent securely. 

If a password is used to protect your account and personal information, it is your responsibility to keep your password confidential and to change it if you think it has been compromised.  If you provide personal information about another person, you must ensure you have the right to disclose that personal information with us.

Retention
General Equipment Company will retain your personal information for time periods consistent with the original purpose of collection and for which consent was received, including to pursue our legitimate business interests, comply with our legal obligations, applicable laws, resolve disputes and enforce applicable legal agreements and policies (e.g. – purchases, invoicing, taxes, warranty purposes, product complaints).

We, and our third-party advertising service providers, will also retain website and other usage data for internal analysis purposes, sales and marketing research, webpage/path tracking, campaign targeting, direct mail and email targeting, online advertisement tracking on our website, other websites, and links to marketing partners’ links or landing pages. 

Usage data is generally retained for shorter periods of time (define), except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our products, services, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.  We may combine this information with other personal information we have collected about you (e.g.- how you arrived at our website and through cookies previously stored on your machine.

With your consent, we may use your personal information to build a profile about you so that when you visit our website you don’t miss out on offers or information that is relevant to you and to enhance your overall user/customer experience.

We will keep your personal information for as long as you have an open account with us.  If you no longer require your account to remain open, please contact us via the “Contact Information” section of this policy.  Personal information that is no longer required to fulfill the identified purposes will be destroyed, deleted or made anonymous to prevent improper access.  Please note that where you unsubscribe from our marketing communications, we will keep a record of your email address to ensure we do not send you marketing emails in the future.

If you make a request, we have 30 business days to respond to you.  If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us by one of the methods listed in the “Contact Information” section of this policy below.

Disclosure
We will not disclose (other than for routing purposes) your personal information to any third party, except when authorized by law, with your consent or in the following circumstances:

  • Service Providers:  we may disclose to service providers, who are persons or companies that General Equipment Company uses to carry out the internal operations of our website or business (e.g.- Google Analytics, Google Ads, AdRoll, Constant Contact, Survey Monkey, Hoovers, printing companies, IT services, others).  Information provided is limited to perform only the services required on behalf of General Equipment.
  • As Permitted or Required:  we may disclose as authorized or required by applicable law to comply with items such as any court order, law, legal process or government or regulatory a request.
  • Protection:  we may disclose, if necessary, to protect the rights, property, or safety of General Equipment Company, our customers, or others.  This may include enforcing our Terms of Sale and other agreements such as for billing, collection and discretionary reporting of potential illegal activities to authorities. Exchanging information with other companies and/or organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction may also be included.
  • Business Transactions:  we may disclose to a third party in situations such as a merger, acquisition, sale or transfer of business or assets, re-organization or financing parts of our business.  In the event such a transaction is completed, your personal information will remain protected by applicable privacy laws and we will notify you before your personal data is transferred and falls under a different privacy policy.  If such a transaction is not completed, the other party will be required to not use and disclose plus, to delete your personal information.

Personal Information Transfers
Your personal information may be stored and processed in another country in which we engage partners or service providers.  Those countries may have different personal data protection rules than the country in which you currently live or the country you were in when you initially provided us your information.

By using our website or disclosing information to us you consent to the transfer of information outside of your country of residence.  We will take all necessary steps to ensure adequate protection is in place in accordance with applicable laws and this policy.  If not, the information will not be transferred. 

Marketing 
General Equipment Company may send you information about our product and services as well as those of our partner companies.  This may include emails, surveys and other marketing communications on topics, products and/or services that may be of interest to you. 

Third parties with whom we may have shared your personal information with may send you direct marketing communications as well.

  • Our Manufacturing Sales Representatives: California Sales Associates, Cardinal Sales, Connect Sales, The Danny Gans Co., Devitt & Associates, Douglass, Inc., Ebbert Pacific Company, Johnson Company, JS Performance Marketing, McClelland Marketing, Inc., Meridian Pacific Southwest.
  • Lime Valley Advertising
  • Promersberger

If you have agreed to receive marketing information, you may always opt out later by clicking here, following the “unsubscribe” link in any email, changing your “My Account” settings or sending an email request to us to the email address located in the “Contact Information” section of this policy.

Please note, if you do not wish to receive marketing communications from us going forward, you may still receive account and transactional information such as emails, invoices and balance statements if you are a customer of ours.

Forums & Other Interactive Services
Our website may include interactive areas or services such as blogs, chat rooms, bulletin boards, online hosting or storage services in which you or third parties create, post or store any content.  If you use an interactive area, these areas are public in nature and any personal information you post or provide at registration may be viewable by others. 

  • General Equipment is not responsible for personal information you submit in connection with interactive areas or for how others might use that information, including sending you unsolicited messages. 
  • Interactive area postings may be retained indefinitely.  If at any time you would like to remove a posting, please email us at pr************@**********ip.com.  Removal of a posting from an interactive area does not mean that the posting will be deleted from our systems or other locations where other individuals or third parties may have stored that same information.

What Are Your Data Protection Rights?
You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use and sharing of your personal information at any time, subject to contractual and legal restrictions plus, reasonable notice.  If you withdraw your consent to certain uses of your personal information, we may no longer be able to provide you with certain products or services.  

You have the following data protection rights to:

  • Request we provide copies of your personal data we hold on you at no charge. 
  • Request we rectify any personal data you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Request we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • Request that we restrict the processing of your personal information, under certain conditions.
  • Object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • Data portability, requesting we transfer your personal data we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions. 
  • Withdraw consent at any time where General Equipment Company relied on your consent to process your personal information.

Please note that, if you requested a copy of your personal data or to provide access to it, we will not be able to honor that request if the action would reveal personal information about another person.  If your information has been exposed to a third party, in accordance with this privacy policy, we will take reasonable steps to notify the third party of the updated information.

Cookie Policy
For more information about the type cookies we use, how we use them, plus, how to manage such cookies, please read our Cookie Policy.

Privacy Policies of Other Websites
The General Equipment website may contain links to third-party websites, apps or social media sites that are not operated by us.  As a result, features such as buttons you can click on that are related to these third-parties, can be located on our website.  These features can collect information about your device’s IP address, set cookies on your device or link you to social media sites that may have different privacy policies and practices from those disclosed here.  

General Equipment Company is not responsible for the collection, use and disclosure policy and practices (including data security practices) of other third-party websites and/or other organizations such as Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter or any other app developer, app provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider, or device manufacturer, including any personal information you disclose to other organizations through or in connection with the third-party websites, apps or social media pages.

We strongly recommend you familiarize yourself with the privacy practices of other organizations in relation to their business and how they can gain access to your personal data.

Children’s Privacy
Our Website is not intended for children under 18 years of age.  We do not knowingly collect or solicit personally identifiable information from children under the age of 18 in any jurisdiction in which the child resides. 

If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on this Website on or through any of its features.  Do not register, make any purchases, use any interactive or public comment features or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use on this Website. 

If we learn we have mistakenly or unintentionally collected or received personal information from a child under the age of 18 without verification of parental or legal guardians’ consent, we will delete that information.  If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under the age of 18, please contact us at pr************@**********ip.com.

Sensitive Information
We do not accept, solicit or retain any sensitive personal information related to areas such as race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion, political or other beliefs and opinions, health, biometrics, genetic characteristics, criminal background, memberships in other organizations or similar information.  Do not send or disclose such information to us on or through our website or by any other communication means.

Accessing & Correcting Your Personal Information
If you would like to access, correct, amend, remove or limit use or disclosure of your personal information collected and stored by General Equipment, or have it transferred to another organization, please notify us at pr************@**********ip.com for consideration and response in accordance with applicable law. 

For your protection, we only implement requests with respect to the personal data associated with the specific email address that you use to send us your request.  We will respond to your request within 30 business days and will need to verify your identity before implementing any changes.  If you choose not to disclose needed information with respect to the request, we will be limited in our ability to respond and/or implement any changes.

Please note, that we need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting such access, change or deletion.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy
General Equipment Company has the right to update this privacy policy at any time.  The privacy policy with its latest revisions incorporated are posted on this page.  When a change occurs, we will post a notice with an effective date on the website homepage prior to the changes going into effect.  In addition, the effective date of the revision will be stated at the top of this page.

By use our website or contacting us through other means you consent to the changes to this privacy policy.  You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this privacy policy periodically and become aware of its modifications every time you interact with our website.

Contact Information
If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about General Equipment Company Co., Inc’s privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or would like to exercise one of your data rights, please contact us by: 

  • Emailing us at:  pr************@**********ip.com.
  • Sending a letter to us at:  620 Alexander Drive SW, Owatonna, Minnesota 55060.
  • Calling us at:  1-800-533-0524 during normal business hours 8:00am to 5:00pm EST.