PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy sets out how this website uses and protects any information that you give while using www.sowconf.com.

Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Sowconf.com may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from July 1, 2023.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyze web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes, and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyze data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to Third Party Websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes
if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by contacting us.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

California Online Privacy Protection Act

CalOPPA is the first state law in the nation to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law's reach extends beyond California, requiring any person or company in the United States and globally that operates websites collecting personally Identifiable Information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals or companies with whom it is being shared. – See more at: http://consumercal.org/california-online-privacy-protection-act-caloppa/#sthash.0FdRbT51.dpuf

According to CalOPPA, we agree to the following:

Users can visit our site anonymously.

Third Party Tracking

This site allows third-party behavioral tracking via Google Analytics; Facebook pixel; embedded social posts from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok; and other third-party tracking for the purposes of analyzing and marketing our business.

COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)

When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under the age of 13 years old, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, United States' consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children's privacy and safety online.

We do not intentionally market to children under years of age.

Fair Information Practices

The Fair Information Practices Principles form the backbone of privacy law in the United States and the concepts they include have played a significant role in the development of data protection laws around the globe. Understanding the Fair Information Practice Principles and how they should be implemented is critical to comply with the various privacy laws that protect personal information.

In order to be in line with Fair Information Practices we will take the following responsive action, should a data breach occur:

We will notify you via email within 7 business days.

We also agree to the Individual Redress Principle which requires that individuals have the right to legally pursue enforceable rights against data collectors and processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or government agencies to investigate and/or prosecute non-compliance by data processors.

CAN SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

We collect your email address in order to:
• Send information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions
• Process orders and to send information and updates pertaining to orders.
• Send you additional information related to your product and/or service
• Market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our clients after the original transaction has occurred.

To be in accordance with CANSPAM, we agree to the following:
• Not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
• Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.
• Include the physical address of our business or site headquarters.
• Monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
• Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
• Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can email us at sowempowerment@gmail.com, and we will promptly remove you from all correspondence.

Do Not Track Signal Management

We honor Do Not Track signals and Do Not Track, plant cookies, or use advertising when a Do Not Track (DNT) browser mechanism is in place.

Third Party Behavioral Tracking

On occasion we allow third-party behavioral tracking via Google Analytics; Facebook pixel; embedded social posts from Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, SnapChat and TikTok; and other third-party tracking for the purposes of marketing and analyzing our business.

Display of Privacy Policy

A link to this Privacy Policy shall be located as a static link on our home page footer or at minimum, on the first significant page after entering our website.
Our Privacy Policy link includes the word ‘Privacy' and can easily be found by searching our site for the word.

Updates to this Policy

You will be notified of any Privacy Policy changes on our Privacy Policy Page.

You are able to change your personal information by emailing us at sowempowerment@gmail.com.

Shopify Privacy Policy

Our store is hosted on Shopify Inc. Shopify provides our digital e-commerce, allowing us to process sales and provide you with service. Your data is stored securely behind a firewall through Shopify’s data storage, databases and the general Shopify application.

Shopify stores your credit card data if you use it directly to pay for a purchase on this site. It is safely encrypted through the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Your purchase transaction data is stored only as long as is necessary to complete your purchase transaction. After that is complete, your purchase transaction information is deleted.

All direct payment gateways adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, which ensures the secure handling of your financial data by our store and service providers.

To view Shopify’s Privacy Policy for Consumers in its entirety, please visit: https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy/customers

EU-SPECIFIC PRIVACY POLICIES AND DISCLOSURES

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors and service users. This policy applies where we are acting as a data controller with respect to the personal data of our website visitors and service users; in other words, where we determine the purposes and means of the processing of that personal data.

We use cookies on our website. Insofar as those cookies are not strictly necessary for the provision of our website and services, we will ask you to consent to our use of cookies when you first visit our website.

Our website incorporates privacy controls which affect how we will process your personal data. By using the privacy controls, you can specify whether you would like to receive direct marketing communications and limit the publication of your information. You can access the privacy controls by emailing us at sowempowerment@gmail.com

How we use your personal data

We may process data about your use of our website and services (“usage data“). The usage data may include your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your service use. The source of the usage data is Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and various plugins from third party social media sites. This usage data may be processed for the purposes of analyzing the use of the website and services. The legal basis for this processing is consent or our legitimate interests, namely monitoring and improving our website and services.

We may process your account data (“account data“). The account data may include your name and email address. The source of the account data is you. The account data may be processed for the purposes of operating our website, providing our services, ensuring the security of our website and services, maintaining back-ups of our databases and communicating with you. The legal basis for this processing is consent or our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business or the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

We may process information you provide in your personal profile on our website (“profile data“). The profile data may include your name, address, telephone number, email address, profile pictures, gender, date of birth, relationship status, interests and hobbies, educational details and employment details. The profile data may be processed for the purposes of enabling and monitoring your use of our website and services. The legal basis for this processing is consent or our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business or the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

We may process information that you post for publication on our website or through our services (“publication data“). The publication data may be processed for the purposes of enabling such publication and administering our website and services. The legal basis for this processing is consent or our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business or the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

We may process information contained in any inquiry you submit to us regarding goods and/or services (“inquiry data“). The inquiry data may be processed for the purposes of offering, marketing and selling relevant goods and/or services to you. The legal basis for this processing is consent.

We may process information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters (“notification data“). The notification data may be processed for the purposes of sending you the relevant notifications and/or newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is consent or the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

We may process information contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us (“correspondence data“). The correspondence data may include the communication content and metadata associated with the communication. Our website will generate the metadata associated with communications made using the website contact forms. The correspondence data may be processed [for the purposes of communicating with you and record-keeping. The legal basis for this processing is [our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business and communications with users.

We may process behavior data (“behavior data“). This data may include links you clicked on within this site and any metadata associated with those links. The source of this data is a cookie placed by the action of clicking the link. This data may be processed for remarketing purposes. The legal basis for this processing is consent or our legitimate interests, namely remarketing purposes and affiliate marketing purposes or the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

We may process any of your personal data identified in this policy where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this processing is fulfillment of our legal requirement obligations or for our legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of our legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.

We may process any of your personal data identified in this policy where necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, or obtaining professional advice. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper protection of our business and risk prevention.

We may also process any of your personal data where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

Please do not supply any other individual's personal data to us, unless we prompt you to do so specifically, and in writing. Such data received without consent will be deleted upon discovery.

Automated decision-making

We will use your personal data for the purposes of automated decision-making in relation to remarketing campaigns.

This automated decision-making will involve remarketing campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok, and other third-party social media platforms for the purpose of marketing.

The significance and possible consequences of this automated decision-making are that you may be shown advertisements for our products and services on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok and other third party social media platforms.

Providing your personal data to others

We may disclose your personal data to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries) insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes, and on the legal basis described within this policy.

We may disclose your personal data to our insurers and/or professional advisors as deemed reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice, or the establishment, exercising a defense of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out of court procedure.

We may disclose your name and email information to our suppliers or subcontractors as deemed reasonably necessary for email marketing and remarketing purposes.

We may disclose your inquiry data to one or more of those selected third party suppliers of goods and services identified on our website for the purpose of enabling them to contact you so that they can offer, market and potentially sell to you their relevant goods and/or services. Each such third party will act as a data controller in relation to the inquiry data that we supply to it; and upon contacting you, each such third party will supply to you a copy of its own privacy policy, which will govern their separate use of your personal data.

In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data set out above, we may disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another individual. We may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out of court procedure.

International transfers of your personal data

Circumstances in which your personal data may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) are detailed below.

We and our third-party provider companies and payment processors are based in the United States. Transfers of data to the United States will be protected by appropriate safeguards, namely the use of standard data protection clauses adopted or approved by the European Commission.

The hosting facilities for our website are located in the United States. Data transfers to the United States will be protected by appropriate safeguards, namely the use of standard data protection clauses adopted or approved by the European Commission.

Our subcontractors are located in the United States. Transfers of data to the United States will be protected by appropriate safeguards, namely the use of standard data protection clauses adopted or approved by the European Commission.

You acknowledge that personal data that you submit for publication through our website or services may be available via the internet globally. We cannot prevent the use or misuse of such personal data by others.

Retaining and deleting personal data

Outlined below are our data retention policies and procedures, which are designed to ensure our compliance with all legal obligations related to the retention and deletion of personal data.

Your personal data that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.

We will retain your personal data as follows:

(a) Usage data, profile data, account data, publication data, inquiry data, correspondence data, and behavior data will be retained for a minimum period of 10 days following July 1, 2023, and for a maximum period of 10 years following the date it is received.

In some cases, it is not possible for us to specify in advance the periods for which your personal data will be retained. In such cases, we will determine the period of retention based on the following criteria:

(a) the period of retention of notification data will be determined based on your choice to unsubscribe from our email newsletter provider.

We may also retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another individual.

Amendments

We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website. Please return to this page upon each visit, to ensure you are apprised and in agreement with any changes to this policy that may impact you.

We will notify you of significant changes to this policy by email.

Your Rights

Below is a summary of the rights that you have under data protection law. Some of the rights are complex, and not all of the details have been included in our summaries. Accordingly, you should read the relevant laws and guidance from the regulatory authorities for a full explanation of these rights.

Your principal rights under data protection law are:

(a) the right to access;

(b) the right to rectification;

(d) the right to restrict processing;

(e) the right to object to processing;

(f) the right to data portability;

(g) the right to complain to a supervisory authority; and

(h) the right to withdraw consent at any time for any reason.

You have the right to confirmation as to whether or not we process your personal data and where, and to access to the personal data together with certain additional information. That additional information includes details of the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned and the recipients of the personal data. In the event that the rights and freedoms of others are not infringed upon, we will supply to you a copy of your personal data. The first copy will be provided electronically free of charge, additional or print copies may be subject to a reasonable fee and postage cost. You may access your personal data by submitting an email request to sowempowerment@gmail.com.

You have the right to have any inaccurate personal data about you rectified and, taking into account the purposes of the processing, to have any incomplete personal data about you completed.

Under certain circumstances you have the right to the erasure of your personal data without delay. Those circumstances include: the personal data is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or otherwise processed; you withdraw consent to consent-based processing; you object to the processing under certain rules of applicable data protection law; the processing is for direct marketing purposes; and the personal data has been unlawfully processed. There are certain exclusions of the right to erasure. The general exclusions include where processing is necessary: for exercising the right of freedom of expression and information; for compliance with a legal obligation; or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

In some circumstances you have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data. Those circumstances are: you contest the accuracy of the personal data; processing is unlawful but you oppose erasure; we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of our processing, but you require personal data for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims; and you have objected to processing, pending the verification of that objection. Where processing has been restricted on this basis, we may continue to store your personal data. However, we will only otherwise process it: with your consent; for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims; for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person; or for reasons of important public interest.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the extent that the legal basis for the processing is that the processing is necessary for: the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of any official authority vested in us; or the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party. If you make such an objection, we will cease to process the personal information unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes (including profiling for direct marketing purposes). If you make such an objection, we will cease to process your personal data for this purpose.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes on grounds relating to your particular situation, unless the processing is deemed reasonably necessary for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest.

To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal data is:

(a) consent; or

(b) that the processing is reasonably necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract,

and such processing is carried out by automated means, you have the right to receive your personal data from us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. However, this right does not apply where it would adversely infringe upon the rights and freedoms of others.

If you believe that our processing of your personal information infringes upon data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection. You may do so in the EU member state of your habitual residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement.

To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.

You may exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data by written notice to us, in addition to the other methods specified within this policy.

Third party websites

Our website utilizes third party payment processors and may include hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites.

We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.

Personal data of children

Our website and services are offered to adult users, specifically individuals over the age of 18.

If we have reason to believe that we hold the personal data of a person under 18 years of age within our databases, we will delete that personal data.

Updating information

Please inform us via email to sowempowerment@gmail.com if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.

Acting as a data processor

With respect to usage data and behavior data, we do not act as a data controller; rather, as a data processor.

Due to our legal obligations as a data processor, our compliance requirements relevant to this are set forth in the contract between us and the relevant data controller.

Use of Cookies

A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) 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.