3. How do we use your personal information?

The following paragraphs describe the various purposes and features for which we might collect and use your personal information. Please note that not all the uses below will be relevant to every consumer.

Account maintenance

We may use your personal information to maintain your accounts with us, including administering any consumer loyalty, rewards or membership programs that are associated with your account. This typically involves the use of personal information that was originally collected to set up your account (e.g., personal contact information, payment information, account login information, demographic information, etc.).

Consumer service

We may collect and use your personal information to provide you consumer service, including responses to your inquiries. This typically requires the collection and use of certain personal contact information (such as your name or email address) and information regarding the reason for your inquiry (e.g., order status, technical issue, product question/complaint, general question, etc.). Consumer service may be provided through various forms of communication, including email correspondence, call centre support, social communities.

Product improvement and customization

We may collect and use your personal information so we can constantly improve our products, tailor them to your needs, and come up with new product ideas. This mostly involves the collection and use of demographic information and consumer feedback.

Consumer engagement

We may collect and use your personal information to get you more actively engaged with our products and services (including our websites and applications), thereby increasing overall brand engagement and awareness. This mostly involves the collection, use, and publication of consumer-generated content, profile information, promotional activity, engagement with our websites & digital content.

Contests and other promotions

We may collect and use your personal information to administer a contest, sweepstakes, giveaway, competition, or other similar marketing campaign or promotion. These events typically require the collection and use of personal contact information (for prize fulfilment), demographic information (for eligibility determination), and, in some instances, consumer-generated content. Some of our promotions may be run on third party social networks such as Facebook (for example, on our Facebook fan pages). To comply with legal requirements, we may publish or share a limited amount of personal information (such as name and city of residence) about the winners of a particular promotion. For more information about our contests and other promotions, please see the official rules or details posted with each promotion.

Marketing communications

We may collect and use your personal information to send you marketing communications, such as email communications, SMS text messages, and postal mailings. Please note that if you choose to opt-in to receiving SMS text messages, your mobile service provider’s fees for messaging will apply. We may also show you marketing communications on other websites, including on social media sites where you are a member, by matching activities or information collected on our websites with those collected on third party sites (“Targeted Advertising”). These marketing communications will keep you up-to-date on the latest news, events, special offers, and promotions from our brands of interest to you. On occasion, these communications may also introduce you to other Canada Royal Milk brands and inform you about offers and promotions from other third-party companies. Sending you marketing communications mostly requires the collection and use of certain personal contact information and demographic information. In some instances (such as for mobile applications and text messaging programs), this could involve the use of your precise geo-location, which may allow us to send you location-based offers and promotions. You can always opt-out from receiving marketing-related email communications or text messages by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in each such communication. If you have an account with us, you may be given the option to change your communication preferences under the relevant edit-account section of our site (if available) or by contacting Consumer Services. Changing these preferences would also remove you from our lists for future Targeted Advertising. You may also visit social media sites where you are a member to explore opt out options they may provide for Targeted Advertising. Please note that even if you opt out from receiving marketing communications, you may still receive administrative communications from us, such as order confirmations, notifications about your account activities (e.g., account confirmations, password changes, etc.), and other important announcements. You will also still see generic ads on other websites, including on social media sites where you are a member.

Also, please note that if you participated in a promotion that involved a third-party company, and, as part of that promotion, you agreed to receive future marketing communications directly from that third party, you will need to contact the third party (not Canada Royal Milk) to opt-out from such communications. This process may be outlined in the third party’s privacy policy.

Third party social networking

We may collect and use your personal information when you interact with third party social networking features such as “Facebook Connect” or “Facebook Like”. These features may be integrated in our sites or applications for the purposes of running contests, allowing you to share content with friends, or other stated purposes. If you use these features, we may have the ability to obtain certain information about you from your social networking profile (see “Social network information” under Section 2 of this Privacy Policy). You can learn more about how these features work, and the profile data we may obtain about you, by visiting the website of the relevant third party social network.

Website improvement and personalization

We may collect and use your information to improve and personalize your experience on our websites and applications, to analyze your preferences and habits, to anticipate your needs based on our analysis of your profile, to improve and personalize your experience on our websites and apps, to ensure that content from our website/apps is optimized for you and for your computer or device and to participate in interactive features. This is typically done through automated tracking technologies (please also see Section 8 of this policy) that collect and remember certain account login information, technical information, and/or previous website usage information. For example, we might remember your login ID/email address or screen name so you can quickly login the next time you visit our site or so you can easily retrieve the items you previously placed in your shopping cart. Based on this type of information, we may also show you specific Canada Royal Milk content or promotions that are tailored to your interests.

Website community features

We may collect and use your personal information to give you access to website community features, including features that may allow you to upload and share recipes, pictures, videos, artwork, or other messages or content. This typically involves the collection, use, and (in some instances) public display of certain personal contact information, account login information, demographic information, and/or consumer-generated content. Because these features are “communal” in nature, information or content that you post in these areas may be visible to others. Please use caution when using these features or uploading content to a Canada Royal Milk site. For some community features, we may give you the ability to control whether some parts of your profile can be seen by others. To access these settings, log in to the relevant edit account section of our site (if one is available) and access your community profile. For website community features that have social networking integration (such as “Facebook Connect”), see separate paragraph on “Third party social networking”.

Website viral features (e.g. referral program, contest)

We may request and use your personal information so you can use website viral features, such as our referral features. These features allow you to easily share certain news, product information, promotions, wish list items, or other content with family members and friends. These features typically require the collection and use of personal contact information (such as names and email addresses) so that the selected one-time message or content can be delivered to the proper recipients. In most cases, we do not retain the information provided. In some cases (for example, as part of a referral program), we may store the information so we can track and reward consumers for their successful referrals. For referral or other viral features administered by third party social networks (such as Facebook’s “Share” and “Like” features), please refer to the website of the relevant social network for additional information.

Order fulfilment

We may collect and use your personal information to process and ship your orders, to inform you about the status of your orders, correct addresses and conduct identity verification and other fraud-detection activities. This could involve the collection and use of certain personal contact information, payment information, account login information, and/or other information related to your purchase (such as products ordered). This could also involve the on-going storage of your payment information to allow for easier checkout on future purchases.

Please note that there are many independent e-commerce sites that Canada Royal Milk products but that are not controlled or operated by Canada Royal Milk. Because these sites may have different practices than we do, we recommend that you read their privacy policies before making any purchases on those sites.

Other general purposes (e.g., website security, internal research)

We may collect and use your information for other general business purposes, such as to maintain the day-to-day operation and security of our websites and applications, to conduct internal marketing and demographic studies (including using anonymized personal information in a statistical or aggregated form for research  purposes) and to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. These activities mostly require the collection and use of certain demographic information, technical computer information, website usage information, and consumer feedback.

Suppliers/Customers

We collect, hold, use, and disclose personal information for the purposes of assessing and ensuring the credit worthiness of suppliers and customers and for the purpose of determining the continuing viability of such suppliers and customers when entering or renewing contracts for supply of products to and from such suppliers or customers.

Employment-Related Data

When you submit personal information to us for the purposes of applying for a job, we may collect, use, hold and disclose the personal information submitted in order to determine your eligibility for a position with us, verify references provided as well as your qualifications, and also to communicate with you regarding your application.