Last Updated January 1, 2023
SyWest Development LLC (“SyWest”) takes your privacy seriously. Earning and maintaining your trust is important to us. We want you to understand what information we may gather from you, how it is used and protected, and what choices you have about how your information is used. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) discloses the privacy practices of SyWest’s website, www.sywest.com (the “Website”). By using the Website, you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this Privacy Policy.
If you access a third party website from a link on the Website, any information you reveal on that website is not subject to this Privacy Policy. You should consult the privacy policy of each website you visit.
Note to California residents: Please scroll down for additional rights afforded to you under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CCPA”).
INFORMATION COLLECTED ABOUT YOU
SyWest may collect two kinds of information: (1) Personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) voluntarily provided by visitors or tenants through optional registration or other methods; and (2) non-personally identifiable information routinely gathered as visitors navigate through our Website.
You are free to visit and use our Website without providing any Personal Information. However, SyWest may offer personalized services on our Website that might require registration and/or submission of Personal Information. The Personal Information that we request from you might include your name, address, and email address. Providing SyWest with your Personal Information is strictly voluntary for visitors who are not using personalized services on our Website.
You may use our Website without registering or submitting any Personal Information if you are not using personalized services on our Website. In that case, the only information we will collect from you is general, aggregated, demographic, or other non-personal information. We may use a third-party tracking service that uses cookies and log files to track non-personal information about visitors to our Website in the aggregate. We may also share non-personal information with third parties, such as advertisers and content and data partners. This non-personal, aggregate data is used to analyze trends, to track user movement around the Website, and to gather demographic information about how members, subscribers, and/or visitors use our Website.
COOKIES
A cookie is a small text file stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. We may use cookies on our Website to determine the number of unique visitors, to personalize your online experience, to identify returning visitors, and to provide you with advertisements and messages of interest to you. SyWest does not store any Personal Information in any cookies on your computer. Also, companies offering products or services through our Website may use their own cookies. This Privacy Policy covers the use and placement of cookies by SyWest only, and does not cover the use or placement of cookies by any third party.
Your browser may be set to reject all cookies. Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the “Help” section of the toolbar. If you reject our cookie(s), you may not be able to utilize some of the features of our Website.
LOG FILES
As is true of most websites, we might gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. We might use this information (which does not identify individual users) to analyze trends, to administer the Website, and to identify and solve hardware and software problems as they arise.
Sponsors, partners or advertisers on the Website or in emails, special promotions, or newsletters we may send to you (if any) may also use their own cookies or web beacons when you click on their advertisement or link to their website or service, or even if the advertisement simply appears on a page or in an email that you are viewing.
We do not control third parties’ use of cookies or web beacons, or how they manage the non-personal information they gather through them. Please review the privacy policy of other sites you visit or link to from our Website to understand how these other sites use cookies and how they use the information they collect through the use of cookies or web beacons on their own sites.
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. SyWest’s Website is not designed for, nor is it intended to attract, children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information directly from any person under the age of 13, and if we do inadvertently collect information from a person under the age of 13, we delete the information as soon as we discover it.
This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you send business information, ideas, concepts or inventions to SyWest by email to the contacts listed on the “Contact Us” link on our Website. If you want to keep business information, ideas, concepts or inventions private or proprietary, do not send them in an email to SyWest.
DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION
Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy or as specifically agreed to by you, SyWest will not disclose any Personal Information it gathers from you on our Website without your prior consent. Except as set forth herein or as specifically agreed to by you, you will have the opportunity to opt-in to SyWest sharing your Personal Information with third parties, and you can withdraw your consent to SyWest sharing your information at any time.
In some circumstances, we must disclose your Personal Information to third parties who help us administer our Website or our services. These third parties are required to keep your information confidential and do not use your information for any purpose other than the purpose under which your information was collected.
We may also release Personal Information to third parties: (1) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena, court order, or legal process; or (2) in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others, or to protect the rights and/or property of SyWest. Additionally, in the unlikely event that the entirety of our business is sold, liquidated, merged, or transferred to a third party, we may transfer all personal and non-personal information to the third party purchasing or merging with us.
DISCLOSURE TO THIRD PARTIES GENERALLY
Occasionally we might invite you to be contacted by third parties whose goods or services may be of interest to you. We will only share your Personal Information with these third parties if you grant us permission to do so.
We might provide third parties with non-personal information about you that does not allow you to be identified or contacted, including where such information is combined with similar information of other users of our Website. For example, we provide our advertisers and other third parties with aggregate, non-personal information about our Website users, including the number of unique users who visit our Website, the demographic breakdown of the registered users of our Website, or the activities that visitors to our Website engage in while on our Website.
DISCLOSURE TO OUTSIDE CONTRACTORS
We may employ independent contractors, vendors and suppliers (collectively, “Outside Contractors”) to provide specific services and products related to our Website, including, but not limited to, maintaining an email suppression list as required by state and/or federal law, providing credit card processing and shipping fulfillment, fraud screening, testing and implementation of special services such as those for contacting members, and developing applications for our Website and email services. These Outside Contractors may sometimes have limited access to information collected on our Website, including your Personal Information, in the course of providing products or services to us. Access to your Personal Information by these Outside Contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary in order for the Outside Contractors to perform their limited function for us.
DISCLOSURE TO THIRD PARTY SELLERS
Through our Website, you might be given the opportunity to purchase (or to obtain more information) regarding certain content, products or services which are sold through a person or company other than us or our affiliates (collectively, “Third Party Sellers”). We will attempt to notify you when you are dealing with a Third Party Seller by opening a new browser or otherwise notifying you that you are leaving our Website. For example, if you see a phrase such as “powered by” or “brought to you by” followed by the name of a person or company other than SyWest, then you are likely on, or about to enter, a website hosted or operated by a person or company other than SyWest. Third Party Sellers may request that you submit certain Personal Information (e.g., name and address for shipment purposes) to them in order to purchase their products or services or to obtain additional information from them. Alternatively, we might offer the products or services of these Third Party Sellers elsewhere on our Website. If you should make a purchase of these products or services, we will transmit your purchase data and your Personal Information to the Third Party Seller so that the transaction can be processed.
If you do not wish for a Third Party Seller to have access to your Personal Information, please do not make a purchase on our Website. By submitting the requested information, you affirmatively consent to have that information shared with the Third Party Seller. This information is used by the Third Party Seller and may be subject to a different privacy policy. We do not otherwise share or disclose your Personal Information to Third Party Sellers unless you give us consent to do so.
DISCLOSURE TO LINKED SITES
In addition to the third party websites that you might access as described above, for your convenience, there might be links to websites operated by companies other than SyWest (“Third Party Websites”) that are not contractors who provide content or services through our Website. These links might be found in advertisements, referenced within content, or placed beside the names or logos of sponsors. SyWest does not disclose your Personal Information to these Third Party Websites without obtaining your consent to do so. In addition, SyWest does not endorse and is not responsible for the privacy practices of Third Party Websites. If you choose to link to one of these Third Party Websites, you should review the privacy policy posted on the Third Party Website to understand how that Third Party Website collects and uses your Personal Information.
OTHER DISCLOSURES
We reserve the right to transfer information to a third party in the event of a sale, liquidation, merger, or other transfer of all or substantially all of the assets of SyWest. We will endeavor to gain such third party’s agreement and adherence to the terms of this Privacy Policy. In addition, we will endeavor to notify users of any such transfer through notice on our Website.
HOW SYWEST HANDLES SECURITY
The security of your Personal Information is important to us. When you enter sensitive information we follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the Personal Information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee or warrant its absolute security.
YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES
Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, we will only use Personal Information for the purposes described above or as otherwise disclosed at the time we request such information from you. You may also change your preference and “opt-out” of receiving voluntary, non-transactional communications by contacting legal@sywest.com. Unless separately and specifically agreed to otherwise by you, you may also change your mind as to whether SyWest may share your information with third parties by sending an email to legal@sywest.com.
SyWest operates in the United States and all of our servers are located in the United States. Privacy laws differ in jurisdictions outside the United States. If you are located in a country outside the United States, please be aware that your Personal Information will be collected and stored in compliance with United States laws.
UPDATING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND CONTACTING SYWEST
You can always contact us in order to (1) update or correct your Personal Information, (2) change your preferences with respect to communications and other information (if any) that you receive from us or third parties, or (3) delete the Personal Information maintained about you on our systems, by contacting legal@sywest.com, unless an exception exists. Such updates, corrections, changes and deletions will not have an effect on other information that we maintain, or information that we have provided to third parties in accordance with this Privacy Policy prior to such update, correction, change, or deletion. You should be aware that it is not technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to SyWest from our servers. The need to back-up our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss means that a copy of your Personal Information may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate.
CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS
Under the CCPA, California residents have certain rights related to SyWest’s collection and use of their personal information. SyWest does not sell your personal information and will not do so in the future without updating this Privacy Policy and an opportunity to opt-out of such sale as required by law. Similarly, we do not offer financial incentives associated with our collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information. SyWest collects various categories of personal information, including, but not limited to, identifiers and commercial information. A more detailed description of the information SyWest collects and how we use it is provided above. If you are a resident of California, you have the right to request to know what personal information has been collected about you, and to access that information. You also have the right to request deletion of your personal information, though numerous exceptions under the CCPA may allow SyWest to retain and use certain personal information notwithstanding your deletion request, including, without limitation, completing your transaction (including providing you a good or service or to otherwise perform a contract between us), protect your security, fix our system in the case of a malfunction, comply with a legal obligation, or to enable solely internal uses reasonably aligned with consumers expectations that are compatible with the context in which the information was provided. As of January 1, 2023, you have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal information and to request to limit disclosure or use of your sensitive personal information. Please note, however, that any right to request correction is limited by the legal rights of SyWest and its users relating to content on SyWest’s platform, including, without limitation, legally protected rights related to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or freedom to information. You can submit your data rights request by emailing us at legal@sywest.com, and in the subject line write “Attn: Legal – CCPA Privacy Related Request”, or by sending us a letter to, SyWest Development, 150 Pelican Way, San Rafael, CA 94901, Attn: Legal – CCPA Privacy Related Request, or by calling us at (415) 448-8383. Information on the number of data rights requests SyWest has received in California can be learned by using the same methods described immediately above. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights under the CCPA. An agent may submit a request on your behalf, but you must verify that your agent is authorized to do so. SyWest does not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age. Separate from the CCPA, California’s Shine the Light law gives California residents the right to ask companies what personal information they share with third parties for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes. We do not disclose your personal information to third parties for the purpose of directly marketing their goods or services to you unless you request such disclosure. If you have any questions regarding this policy, or would like to change your preferences, you may contact us by using the same methods described above. SyWest retains information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or as otherwise permitted or required by law. Beginning in 2023, you can access additional information about SyWest’s data retention practices here in this Privacy Policy. Unless defined elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, the terms referenced above in this section have the meanings ascribed to them under the CCPA.
CONTACT US WITH PRIVACY-RELATED QUESTIONS
If you have a complaint or problem related to your Personal Information, you may email us at legal@sywest.com and we will forward your complaint to the appropriate internal SyWest department for a response or resolution. We will endeavor to answer every email in a timely manner, but we may not always be able to do so. If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or feel that we are not abiding by the terms of our Privacy Policy, please contact us by sending an email to legal@sywest.com and including “Privacy/Legal” in the subject line.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We might occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will also revise the “last updated” date at the top of the privacy statement on the first page of this Privacy Policy. For material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you either by placing a prominent notice on the home page of the Website, or on this Privacy Policy, or by sending you a notification directly. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the Personal Information we collect. Your continued use of the Website constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Policy and any updates.