Privacy Policy trees

Privacy Policy

Last Updated and Effective Date: January 1, 2023

Fast Growing Trees (“we”, “us”, or “our”) values your privacy.  We are committed to respecting your privacy.  We have developed this Privacy Policy (this “Privacy Policy”) to describe how we may collect information about you as a website visitor or customer through your interactions with us on our website www.fast-growing-trees.com (the “Site”), how we collect the information, how we use the information that we collect, and how and under what circumstances we disclose that information.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THE USES OF INFORMATION DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY, THEN PLEASE DO NOT USE THE SITE OR SUBMIT INFORMATION TO US.

This Site is operated by us from the United States and is designed for and intended only for users from the United States.

We may change this Privacy Policy. The “Last Updated and Effective Date” legend at the top of the page indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised.  Any changes will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Site.

When you visit the Site or submit information to us through the Site, you consent to the collection and processing of your information as described in this Privacy Policy.

By providing us with your contact information, you agree to receive informational emails about your order and specials from www.fast-growing-trees.com, as well as from our related companies. You may opt out of receiving future emails by clicking the "unsubscribe" button on the bottom of any email.

Definitions

“Personal information” means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. “Personal information” does not include: (i) publicly available information or lawfully obtained, truthful information that is a matter of public concern; or (ii) information that is deidentified or aggregate consumer information.  

“Sensitive Personal Information” means Personal Information that reveals information such as: (a) social security, driver’s license, state identification card, or passport number; (b) account log-in, financial account, debit card, or credit card number in combination with any required security or access code, password, or credentials allowing access to an account; (c) precise geolocation; (d) racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or union membership; (e) the contents of a consumer’s mail, email, and text messages unless we are the intended recipient of the communication; and (f) genetic data.  Sensitive Personal Information includes the processing of biometric information for the purpose of uniquely identifying a consumer, Personal Information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer’s health and Personal Information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer’s sex life or sexual orientation.  Sensitive Personal Information that is publicly available is not considered Sensitive Personal Information or Personal Information.

1. Information We Collect

Listed below are the categories of Personal Information that we collect.  Please note that we may not collect everything listed below from each individual.  

A. Identifiers, which includes information that personally identifies you when you voluntarily request information from us or supply information through the Site, including your name, email address, mailing address, zip code, and phone number, as well as other information we may collect about you from other sources and combine that with information we collect through our Site. For example, we may collect information about you from sources such as social media, our business partners, vendors, subcontractors, other advertising companies and publicly available sources. If you choose to login to the Site with your social media profile, you will receive prompts requesting access to specific user data. The information we receive from social media services depends on your privacy settings on the applicable social media service.

B. Commercial Information, which includes information about items you viewed or purchased from us.

C. Internet or Other Network Activity Information, including "Usage Data", such as the type of browser or operating system you use, your IP address, or the domain name of the website from which you linked to the Site, the activity of your browser when you are viewing the Site; your site path; and the time you come to the Site. In general, we gather Usage Data about all of our users collectively, and not on an individual basis, for purposes such as determining which parts of our website users access most frequently. If we link Usage Data with Personal Information in a way that renders the Usage Data personally identifiable, we will treat it as Personal Information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. 

D. Geolocation Data, such as your IP address.

E. Audiovisual Information, including recordings of telephone or chat conversations with our representatives.

F. Inferences Drawn from Personal Information, including demographic and psychographic, as well as inferences based on purchase and browsing behavior.

G. Financial/Account Information, including your payment information (such as your credit or debit card number and expiration date, PayPal account information or gift card information), login credentials (your username and password created when you sign up for an account with us).

2. Uses of Information – Purposes

We may use your Personal Information as follows:

A, To provide and deliver products and fulfill your orders;

B. To establish and manage business relations with you;

C. To respond to inquiries, requests and comments from you;

D. To operate, improve and personalize the products and services we offer, and to give each user a more consistent and personalized experience when interacting with us;

E. To communicate special offers, promotions and information about our company and service offerings to you via email or to your mailing address, if you have provided one;

F. To publish public product and customer reviews submitted by you;

G. To send you newsletters and information about products, services and promotions of our business partners and affiliates;

H. For customer service, security, to detect fraud or illegal activities;

I. To prevent or investigate activity we think may be potentially illegal, unlawful or harmful;

J. For archival and backup purposes in connection with the provision of the services;

K. To better understand how you access and use the Site, for the purposes of trying to improve the Site, diagnose problems, administer our Site and respond to user preferences;

L. To provide relevant advertising, as well as content and product recommendations;

M. To enforce our other applicable policies; and

N. We may use the Usage Data that we collect:

1. to operate, improve, find errors in and personalize the Site;
2. to recognize returning website visitors and improve user experience;
3. to provide customer service, and to detect, prevent and mitigate fraudulent or illegal activities; and
4. to learn things like what pages are most attractive to our visitors, which of our products most interest our customers, and what kinds of offers our customers like to see.

3. Information We Have Collected in the Past 12 Months, How and Why

Subject to the disclosures made above, set forth below in chart format are the categories of Personal Information we have collected in the preceding 12 months, the categories of sources from which the Personal Information was collected and the purpose for the collection.  

* We use Shopify to sell our products and services.  Through that relationship, we may obtain your Personal Information from Shopify.

** Like most commercial websites, our Site uses a standard technology called a “cookie” to collect information regarding how site consumers utilize the Site. Cookies and local storage are data files placed within a browser on your device when the device is used to visit the Site. These technologies store a unique identifier for your device that can be used to recognize your device whenever you visit the Site, and may be used for many purposes, including, without limitation, to evaluate and improve the functionality of our Site, to help us deliver content specific to your interests, and to improve browsing experience by preserving information so users will not have to re-enter it for each visit.  If you do not want to accept cookies, you can block them by adjusting the settings on your Internet browser. If you choose to disable cookies on your device, you may not be able to use all of the features of our Site, including features associated with creating a user profile or making an online booking if and when such functionality becomes available.  We may also use other tracking technologies such as web beacons.  

4. Disclosing Your Personal Information 

Selling of Personal Information.  We do not “sell” your Personal Information, nor do we have actual knowledge of any “sale” of Personal Information of minors under 16 years of age, as the term “sell” is commonly understood.  However, Third Party Tracking (discussed next) may be considered a sale under California law.  We take care to allow your Personal Information to be accessed only by those who really need to in order to perform their tasks and duties, and to parties who have a legitimate purpose for accessing it. 

Third Party Tracking. We use third party cookies and third-party tracking tools on our Site to measure traffic to our Site and how users interact with our Site and for targeted advertising.  This may be considered selling or sharing of Personal Information under California law.  We use Google Analytics. Google Analytics utilizes cookies to gather information regarding use of our Site, which Google uses to generate reports for us regarding our Site. This may include information like geolocation, internet activity, commercial information and inferences. 

The website uses cookies to help keep track of items you put into your shopping cart including when you have abandoned your cart, and this information is used to determine when to send cart reminder messages via SMS. The above excludes text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

Service Providers. We disclose Personal Information to our service providers and contractors for a variety of business purposes. 

These Service Providers may require the Personal Information to perform their functions on our behalf or to permit us to perform our functions. The types of service providers with whom we entrust Personal Information include service providers for: (1) creating and maintaining our Site, (2) sending postal mail and e-mail, (3) collecting user product reviews, (4) managing and updating customer lists, (5) developing and delivering general advertising, (6) providing analytics and site usage information, (7) processing transactions and payments, (8) administering our promotions, contests, sweepstakes, and surveys; (9) providing other marketing and promotional assistance, (10) providing other services related to the operation of our business; (11) fraud protection, and (12) customer service activities.  These Service Providers have agreed to keep your Personal Information confidential and not to use it except as necessary to perform the contract services on our behalf or to comply with applicable legal requirements, and this Privacy Policy. 

The business purposes for which we disclose Personal information to our service providers and contractors include: 

A. Auditing of Ad Impression. We use Personal Information for auditing purposes related to counting ad impressions to unique visitors, verifying positioning and quality of ad impressions, and auditing compliance with this specification and other standards.

B. Security and Fraud Detection. We use Personal Information for our security and fraud detection services including detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; and prosecuting those responsible for that activity.

C. Functionality & Debugging. We use Personal Information to engage in debugging to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.

D. Short-Term / Transient Use. We use Personal Information for short-term, transient use, including, but not limited to, non-personalized advertising shown as part of a consumer’s current interaction with the business, provided that the consumer’s Personal Information is not disclosed to another third party and is not used to build a profile about the consumer or otherwise alter the consumer’s experience outside the current interaction with the business.

E. Services on Our Behalf. We may disclose Personal Information in order to receive services performed on our behalf, including maintaining or servicing accounts, providing customer service, processing or fulfilling orders and transactions, verifying customer information, processing payments, providing financing, providing analytic services, providing storage, or providing similar services on our behalf.

F. Advertising and Marketing Services. We use Personal Information to provide advertising or marketing services on our own behalf.

G. Research & Development. We use Personal Information for our internal research related to technological development and demonstration.

H. Quality Control & Improvement of Products and Services. We use Personal Information to verify, maintain, and improve our products and services.

The chart below sets forth the Personal Information we have disclosed to our service providers and contractors during the last 12 months, and why. 

As Necessary.  We may also disclose Personal Information, as necessary: (a) to comply with any legal process; (b) to respond to requests from public and government authorities; (c) to enforce our terms and conditions; (d) to protect our operations and protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of you or others; and (e) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.  We may disclose Personal Information to attorneys, collection agencies, business credit reporting agencies, or law enforcement authorities to address potential Site Terms of Use or violations or breaches of the Equipment rental and leasing agreements, other contract violations, or illegal behavior, and we disclose any information demanded in a court order or otherwise required by law or to prevent imminent harm to persons or property.  Finally, we may disclose Personal Information in connection with a corporate transaction, like a merger, investment, acquisition, reorganization, consolidation, bankruptcy, liquidation or sale of some or all of our asset or in connection with the Equipment you have leased or rented on the Site.

We only use Sensitive Personal Information for purposes disclosed herein.  

5. Our Retention Policy

We will retain each category of your Personal Information identified above for an amount of time that is reasonably necessary for us to use the information for the purposes disclosed herein and for any other permitted purposes, including retention of Personal Information pursuant to any applicable contract, law or regulation.  To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Information, the purposes for which we process your Personal Information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

6. Security

We implement security measures to maintain the safety of your Personal Information. However, the security of information transmitted through the internet can never be guaranteed. We (like all websites) cannot warrant or guarantee 100% security of any information you transmit to us through the Site.

We may provide you with opportunities to share product reviews and customer reviews. Please remember that any information disclosed in these areas may be made public with your consent. You should exercise caution when disclosing Personal Information in these areas, as this information is made available to other users. Do not disclose information in these public forums that might be considered confidential or proprietary or that you do not wish to be publicly available or that you are prohibited from disclosing.

7. Managing "Do Not Track" Signals

Some browsers have an optional Do Not Track ("DNT") feature that allows you to express your preference regarding tracking of your online activity by websites. When you choose to turn on the DNT setting in your browser, your browser sends a special signal to websites, ad networks, plug-in providers, and other web services you encounter while browsing to stop tracking your activity via cookies or other tracking technologies.  We currently do not comply with DNT signals.

8. Third Party Links

The Site may contain links to websites maintained by third parties with which we have no affiliation. This Privacy Policy does not reflect the privacy practices of those sites, and you should consult the privacy policies of those sites to learn about their practices. A link to any third party site does not mean that we endorse it or the quality or accuracy of information presented on it. The social media features on our Site may allow social media providers to collect certain information. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policies of the company providing the features.

9. Additional Protections for Children

The Site is not designed for or targeted to children under the age of 13. We will never knowingly solicit or collect Personal Information from a child under the age of 16 through the Site without verifiable parental consent or unless that child's parent or legal guardian has submitted the information in connection with the Site. If we discover that a child under the age of 13 has submitted Personal Information without verifiable parental consent, we will delete that information.  

10. Your Choices About Our Collection and Use of Your Personal Information

Changing Personal Information. We strive to maintain the accuracy of Personal Information collected. If you have an online account with us, you may update your name by logging into your account. If you want to change any of your other Personal Information, we will work with you to correct any information you submitted to us upon your request. Please submit your request by calling us at 877-362-8744. It may not always be possible to completely remove or modify information in our databases, although we will make reasonable efforts to do so upon your request.

Commercial Electronic Communications. If you do not wish to receive communications from us, you may opt-out of receiving future communications by clicking the unsubscribe link featured at the end of our emails or by contacting us at [email protected].

11. Rights for California Residents Under California Law

This section only applies to California residents.

California residents may exercise certain privacy rights pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2023, and related regulations.  Your right to submit certain requests as a California resident are described below. Please note that these rights are subject to certain exceptions and certain of these rights are subject to verification mechanisms. 

• Right to Know Personal Information Collected About You. You have the right to know: (1) the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you; (2) the categories of sources from which the Personal Information is collected; (3) the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing Personal Information; (4) the categories of third parties to whom we disclose Personal Information; and (5) the specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you.  You also have the right to know the list of all third parties to whom we have disclosed personal information, as defined under California Civil Code Section 1798.83(e) (a/k/a the “Shine the Light Law”), during the preceding year for third-party direct marketing purposes. You may submit a request by calling us at 877-362-8744 or emailing us at [email protected].
• Right to Know Personal Information Disclosed, Sold or Shared and to Whom.  You have the right to request that we disclose to you: (1) the categories of Personal Information that we collected about you; (2) the categories of Personal Information that we sold or shared about you and the categories of third parties to whom the Personal Information was sold or shared, by category or categories of Personal Information for each category of third parties to whom the Personal Information was sold or shared; and (3) the categories of Personal Information that we disclosed about you for a business purpose and the categories of persons to whom it was disclosed for a business purpose.
• Right to Request Deletion of Your Personal Information.  You have the right to request that we delete your Personal Information, subject to a number of exceptions.  Following receipt of a request, we will let you know what, if any, Personal Information we can delete from our records.  If we cannot delete all of your Personal Information, we will let you know the reason.  You may submit a request by calling us at 855-481-2394 or emailing us at [email protected].
• Right to Correct Inaccurate Information.  If you believe that any of the Personal Information we maintain about you is inaccurate, you have the right to submit a request for us to correct that information.  Upon receipt of a request, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to correct the information as you direct.  You may submit a request by calling us at 855-481-2394 or emailing us at [email protected].
• Right to Opt-Out of the Sale and Sharing of Your Personal Information.  You may opt-out of the sale or sharing of your Personal Information, to the extent applicable, by clicking here.
• Right to Limit the Use of Your Sensitive Personal Information.  You have the right to limit the use of Sensitive Personal Information under circumstances.  We only use your Sensitive Personal Information for the following purposes:  (i) to that use which is necessary to perform the services or provide the goods reasonably expected by you; (ii) to help to ensure security and integrity; (iii) to perform services on our behalf; (iv) to undertake activities to verify or maintain the quality or safety of a service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by us; and (v) to improve, upgrade, or enhance the service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by us.  Given the nature of our use of your Sensitive Personal Information, you do not have the right to request that we limit the use of your Sensitive Personal Information.
• Right to Non-Discrimination for Exercising Your Rights. If you choose to exercise any of your rights, you have the right to not receive discriminatory treatment by us.  

When you make a request to know, delete and/or correct, to help protect your privacy and maintain security, we will take steps to verify your identity.  Our verification procedure may differ depending on whether you have an account with us or not and the request you are making.  The following generally describes the verification processes we use:  

• Password Protected Accounts.  If you have a password-protected account with us, we may use existing authentication practices to verify your identity but will require re-authentication before disclosing, correcting or deleting data.  If we suspect fraudulent or malicious activity relating to your account, we will require further verification (as described below) before complying with a request to know or delete.
• Verification for Non-Accountholders.  If you do not have, or cannot access, a password-protected account with us, we will generally verify your identity as follows:
• For requests to know categories of Personal Information, we will verify your identity to a reasonable degree of certainty by matching at least two data points provided by you with reliable data points maintained by us.
• For requests to know specific pieces of Personal Information, we will verify your identity to a reasonably high degree of certainty by matching at least three data points provided by you with reliable data points maintained by us.  We will also require a declaration, signed under penalty of perjury, that the person requesting the information is the person whose information is the subject of the request or that person’s authorized representative.  We will maintain all signed declarations as part of our records.
• For requests to correct or delete Personal Information, we will verify your identity to a reasonable degree or a reasonably high degree of certainty depending on the sensitivity of the Personal Information and the risk of harm posed by unauthorized deletion.  We will act in good faith when determining the appropriate standard to apply.

If there is no reasonable method by which we can verify your identity, we will state so in response to a request to know or delete Personal Information, including an explanation of why we have no reasonable method to verify your identity.

If you use an authorized agent to submit a request to know, delete or correct, we may require the authorized agent to provide proof that you gave the agent signed permission to submit the request. We may also require you to do either of the following: (a) verify your own identity directly with us; or (b) directly confirm with us that you provided the authorized agent permission to submit the request.  This requirement does not apply if you have provided the authorized agent with power of attorney pursuant to Probate Code sections 4121 to 4130.

We will respond to requests to know, requests to delete and / or delete no later than 45 calendar days.  If we cannot verify your request within 45 days, we may deny your request.  If necessary, we may take up to an additional 45 days to respond to your request but in such an event will provide you a notice and an explanation of the reason that we will take more than 45 days to respond to your request.   

12. Nevada Privacy Notice

Nevada law provides that Nevada residents may opt-out of the “sale” of “covered information” to third parties, including but not limited to name, address, social security number, and online service activity.  Our uses of your Personal Information  are not sales under Nevada law, so no opt-out is required.

13. Contacting Us

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or would like to review, update correct or delete any Personal Information you have provided, please contact us by phone at 855-481-2394 or by email at [email protected].

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

The Last Updated and Effective Date of this Privacy Policy is set forth at the top of this Privacy Policy. We may from time to time make changes to this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in legal or regulatory obligations or changes in the manner in which we collect and use Personal Information. We will notify you by posting the modified Privacy Policy, and its last updated and effective date, on this page, and by emailing you if you have provided your email address to us. For this reason, you should regularly review this Privacy Policy and note the last updated and effective date.