Privacy Policy
Last update: May 24, 2024
Your privacy is important to Hotstart, Inc. This privacy policy discusses how and why we collect information from you and what we do with it. This Privacy Policy applies to our website, www.hotstart.com.
By using this website you agree to this policy, represent that you are at least 13 years old or older and consent to the privacy practices described in this policy, as it may be modified by us from time to time. We reserve the right to change the provisions of this policy at any time. If you do not agree with this policy and our practices then do not use this website.
This policy does not apply to information obtained independently by HOTSTART offline or from another source and does not apply to information collected by any third party through any application or content that may link to or be accessible from or on our website.
Collection of Information
How we collect and store information depends on how you access and use our website. We collect information in multiple ways including when you provide information directly to us, when you permit third parties to provide information to us, and when we passively collect information from you, such as information collected from your browser or device.
Personal Information You may submit to us personal information that identifies you as an individual when you choose to interact with us on this website. Personal information that you may submit includes your name, e-mail address, postal address and telephone number. In some cases, you may also submit demographic information such as your age, gender, zip code, level of education, household income, and interests. If we combine demographic information with your personal information, we will treat it as personal information as set forth in this Privacy Statement. In some cases, you may provide additional information including when you choose to personalize your use of our website, or when you contact our customer support group.
Personal Information Provided When Requesting Information On this website you will find web forms where you can subscribe to our e-news or are requested to submit personal information in order to be contacted by our Sales and/or Marketing Department. When you submit your personal information via such forms, we will make our best effort to protect your personal information in accordance with our privacy and information security policies.
Children's Personal Information Our website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from users under the age of 13. If we find out that we have such personal information, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.
Website Usage Information Our website collects non-personally identifiable information such as navigational data (log files, server logs, click-stream) and information about how our website is used by you (through cookies or web beacons, etc.). A cookie is a file containing a unique identifier that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies. We use both session and persistent cookies on our website.
We may also collect information such as the URL of the website you visited just before and just after our website and the time of day that you use our website. Analytics information also keeps track of the pages you visit within our website. You can set your browser to notify you when a cookie is sent, or to refuse or delete cookies altogether, but in such cases many features of our website will not function as designed. Additional information is collected through Google Remarketing. Google Remarketing is a remarketing and behavioral targeting service provided by Google. It connects the activity of hotstart.com with the Google Ads advertising network and the Google Marketing Platform Cookie. You can opt out of the cookie tracking here.
Google Remarketing provides a traffic measurement service that allows us to analyze how visitors use our website. Third-party advertising providers and advertisers may use this website usage information for, among other purposes, helping deliver advertisements to you that you might be interested in, to prevent you from seeing the same advertisements too many times and to conduct research regarding the usefulness of certain advertisements to you. Any cookies, web beacons and embedded scripts or other similar mechanisms used to collect website usage information from advertising providers, advertisers and traffic measurement services are governed by their respective privacy policies and not this privacy policy.
International Users As an international company, HOTSTART abides by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Framework to ensure consumer privacy and protection. As a part of the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, users from the European Union are provided personal data protection as specified by the European Commission. It is our priority to protect the flow of personal information across borders, so that our international users can use our website securely.
HOTSTART stores any collected information within the United States; however, any information collected by Google is stored in accordance with Google’s Privacy Policy. Learn more about the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.
How We Use Your Information
Personal Information We use the personal information that you submit to help enhance and personalize your use of our website. This information also allows us to provide you with relevant information, content, and advertising (on our website, in newsletters, via e-mail, etc.).
When you respond to an offer of information or a service on our website (for example, by completing an online form), we may use that information to connect you to a specific provider or with a trusted partner who will provide the information or service that you requested.
We may also use your personal information to respond to your inquiries, send you service e-mails or follow-up with a phone call with important information regarding our website and related services, and to send you newsletters and offers.
Non-Personal Information We use anonymous and aggregated data to create statistics and reports for various business purposes. We may aggregate anonymous data and share it with our advertisers or partners in order to offer you potentially desirable content, products, and services.
The website usage information we collect is used to monitor and improve the operation, technical functions, and quality of our website and services. This data is also used to deliver customized content and advertising to you when your online behavior indicates that you are interested in a particular subject area.
Disclosure of Data We do not disclose your personal information to third parties except under certain circumstances. Set forth below are various circumstances under which we may disclose your personal information:
- Certain employees of ours and independent contractors we work with have access to your personally identifiable information for the sole purpose of helping us run our business. These employees and contractors have confidentiality and security obligations.
- We may disclose your information to third parties who provide us with services, such as (but not limited to): contact information verification, payment processing, customer service, website hosting, and email delivery services. Third parties may include: Google Marketing Platform; Unbounce Marketing Solutions, Inc.; MailChimp; SilverStripe CMS; Amazon Web Services; Facebook; LinkedIn; YouTube; Media Marketing Group, LLC, DBA: 116 & West; CrazyEgg; Dealfront . This information may be used for marketing purposes by such third parties.
- We may disclose your information to another business entity should we plan to merge with or be acquired by that business entity; or to any organization involved in a merger, transfer, or sale of our assets or business.
- We may also disclose your personally identifiable information to respond to law enforcement requests, court orders, or other legal processes; or if we believe that such disclosure is necessary to investigate, prevent, or respond to illegal activities, fraud, physical threats to you, others, or to yourself; or as otherwise required by any applicable law or regulation.
Before we disclose your personally identifiable information for other reasons, we will first obtain your consent or provide you with an opportunity to opt out, via e-mail, click-through, an online opportunity to enter your preference, or some other manner.
In the event that we disclose your personally identifiable information in accordance with this section ("Disclosure of Data"), we will require third parties to take appropriate measures to protect and maintain the privacy and confidentiality of your personally identifiable information.
Prohibited Disclosures Except as set forth above, we will not disclose your personally identifiable information to any third party without your explicit consent. In addition, we will not sell, rent, or otherwise disclose our e-mail list or address list except as explicitly set forth in this Statement.
Retention Policy As previously stated, we do our best to protect and maintain the privacy of your personal information. HOTSTART reserves the right to retain your information for a period of 10 years from the date of collection. This retention period allows us to fulfill our legal and regulatory obligations, address any disputes or claims that may arise, and maintain accurate business and financial records.
Control of Your Personal Information
Our customers may choose whether to provide personally identifiable information at the time of collection. In addition, customers may stop the delivery of future e-mail communications by unsubscribing at any time. For instance, each e-mail you receive (aside from "service e-mails") contains instructions explaining how to stop receiving such e-mails.
If your personally identifiable information (such as zip code, phone, or e-mail or postal address) changes, or if you no longer desire our service, we provide a way for you to correct, update, or delete/deactivate your personally identifiable information.
You can ask to review any of the information we have retained, how we have used it, and to whom we have disclosed it at any time or ask us to delete such information by contacting us as indicated below under the heading "Contact Information." Subject to certain exceptions prescribed by law, and provided we can authenticate your identity, we will advise you of the personal information in our records and you will be entitled to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and to have it amended or deleted as appropriate. You may also ask us to change your preferences regarding how we use or disclose your information, or let us know that you do not wish to receive any further communication from us. You may also unsubscribe from our newsletter and update the profile information we have obtained in connection with our newsletter by clinking on the appropriate link at the bottom of our newsletters.
Protection of Information—Security
We are committed to the protection of your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.
You should keep in mind that no Internet communication is ever completely secure or error-free.
Changes to This Statement
We may periodically update this Statement to reflect changes in our services and policies. When we post changes to this Statement, we will revise the "last updated" date at the top of this Statement. If there are material changes to the Statement or in how we will use your personal information, we will notify you either by posting a prominent notice prior to implementing the change or by sending you a direct notification. We encourage you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how we are protecting your information.
Contact Information
If you have questions or complaints regarding this Statement, you should contact us at
HOTSTART, Inc.
5723 E. Alki
Spokane, WA 99212
USA
+1-509-534-6171
To update your personal information, email HOTSTART at marketing@hotstart.com.