This Privacy Policy describes how TheJoyofBackYardGardening.com (the “Site”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, and discloses your personal information when you visit, use our services, or make a purchase from www.thejoyofbackyardgardening.com (the “Site”) or otherwise communicate with us (collectively, the “Services”). For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “you” and “your” means you as the user of the Services, whether you are a customer, website visitor, or another individual whose information we have collected pursuant to this Privacy Policy.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By using and accessing any of the Services, you agree to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use or access any of the Services.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, including to reflect changes to our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will post the revised Privacy Policy on the Site, update the “Last updated” date and take any other steps required by applicable law.

How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information

To provide the Services, we collect and have collected over the past 12 months personal information about you from a variety of sources, as set out below. The information that we collect and use varies depending on how you interact with us.

In addition to the specific uses set out below, we may use information we collect about you to communicate with you, provide the Services, comply with any applicable legal obligations, enforce any applicable terms of service, and to protect or defend the Services, our rights, and the rights of our users or others.

What Personal Information We Collect

The types of personal information we obtain about you depends on how you interact with our Site and use our Services. When we use the term “personal information”, we are referring to information that identifies, relates to, describes or can be associated with you. The following sections describe the categories and specific types of personal information we collect.

Information We Collect Directly from You

Information that you directly submit to us through our Services may include:

• Basic contact details including your name, address, phone number, email.
• Order information including your name, billing address, shipping address, payment confirmation, email address, phone number.
• Account information including your username, password, security questions.
• Shopping information including the items you view, put in your cart or add to your wishlist.
• Customer support information including the information you choose to include in communications with us, for example, when sending a message through the Services.

Some features of the Services may require you to directly provide us with certain information about yourself. You may elect not to provide this information, but doing so may prevent you from using or accessing these features.

Information We Collect through Cookies

We also automatically collect certain information about your interaction with the Services (“Usage Data”). To do this, we may use cookies, pixels and similar technologies (“Cookies”). Usage Data may include information about how you access and use our Site and your account, including device information, browser information, information about your network connection, your IP address and other information regarding your interaction with the Services.

Information We Obtain from Third Parties

Finally, we may obtain information about you from third parties, including from vendors and service providers who may collect information on our behalf, such as:

• Companies who support our Site and Services, such as Shopify.
• Our payment processors, who collect payment information (e.g., bank account, credit or debit card information, billing address) to process your payment in order to fulfill your orders and provide you with products or services you have requested, in order to perform our contract with you.
• When you visit our Site, open or click on emails we send you, or interact with our Services or advertisements, we, or third parties we work with, may automatically collect certain information using online tracking technologies such as pixels, web beacons, software developer kits, third-party libraries, and cookies.

Any information we obtain from third parties will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We are not responsible or liable for the accuracy of the information provided to us by third parties and are not responsible for any third party’s policies or practices. For more information, see the section below, Third Party Websites and Links.

How We Use Your Personal Information

• Providing Products and Services. We use your personal information to provide you with the Services in order to perform our contract with you, including to process your payments, fulfill your orders, to send notifications to you related to you account, purchases, returns, exchanges or other transactions, to create, maintain and otherwise manage your account, to arrange for shipping, facilitate any returns and exchanges and to enable you to post reviews.
• Marketing and Advertising. We use your personal information for marketing and promotional purposes, such as to send marketing, advertising and promotional communications by email, text message or postal mail, and to show you advertisements for products or services. This may include using your personal information to better tailor the Services and advertising on our Site and other websites.
• Security and Fraud Prevention. We use your personal information to detect, investigate or take action regarding possible fraudulent, illegal or malicious activity. If you choose to use the Services and register an account, you are responsible for keeping your account credentials safe. We highly recommend that you do not share your username, password, or other access details with anyone else. If you believe your account has been compromised, please contact us immediately.
• Communicating with you. We use your personal information to provide you with customer support and improve our Services. This is in our legitimate interests in order to be responsive to you, to provide effective services to you, and to maintain our business relationship with you.

Cookies

Like many websites, we use Cookies on our Site. For specific information about the Cookies that we use related to powering our store with Shopify, see https://www.shopify.com/legal/cookies. We use Cookies to power and improve our Site and our Services (including to remember your actions and preferences), to run analytics and better understand user interaction with the Services (in our legitimate interests to administer, improve and optimize the Services). We may also permit third parties and services providers to use Cookies on our Site to better tailor the services, products and advertising on our Site and other websites.

Most browsers automatically accept Cookies by default, but you can choose to set your browser to remove or reject Cookies through your browser controls. Please keep in mind that removing or blocking Cookies can negatively impact your user experience and may cause some of the Services, including certain features and general functionality, to work incorrectly or no longer be available. Additionally, blocking Cookies may not completely prevent how we share information with third parties such as our advertising partners.

How We Disclose Personal Information

In certain circumstances, we may disclose your personal information to third parties for legitimate purposes subject to this Privacy Policy. Such circumstances may include:

• With vendors or other third parties who perform services on our behalf (e.g., IT management, payment processing, data analytics, customer support, cloud storage, fulfillment and shipping).
• With business and marketing partners, including Shopify, to provide services and advertise to you. Our business and marketing partners will use your information in accordance with their own privacy notices.
• When you direct, request us or otherwise consent to our disclosure of certain information to third parties, such as to ship you products or through your use of social media widgets or login integrations, with your consent.
• With our affiliates or otherwise within our corporate group, in our legitimate interests to run a successful business.
• In connection with a business transaction such as a merger or bankruptcy, to comply with any applicable legal obligations (including to respond to subpoenas, search warrants and similar requests), to enforce any applicable terms of service, and to protect or defend the Services, our rights, and the rights of our users or others.

We have, in the past 12 months disclosed the following categories of personal information and sensitive personal information (denoted by *) about users for the purposes set out above in “How we Collect and Use your Personal Information” and “How we Disclose Personal Information”:

Category:

• Identifiers such as basic contact details and certain order and account information
• Commercial information such as order information, shopping information and customer support information
• Internet or other similar network activity, such as Usage Data

Categories of Recipients:

• Vendors and third parties who perform services on our behalf (such as Internet service providers, payment processors, fulfillment partners, customer support partners and data analytics providers)
• Business and marketing partners
• Affiliates

We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for the purposes of inferring characteristics about you.

We have “sold” and “shared” (as those terms are defined in applicable law) personal information over the preceding 12 months for the purpose of engaging in advertising and marketing activities, as follows.

Category of Personal Information

• Identifiers such as basic contact details and certain order and account information
• Commercial information such as records of products or services purchased and shopping information
• Internet or other similar network activity, such as Usage Data

Categories of Recipients

• Business and marketing partners

User Generated Content

The Services may enable you to post product reviews and other user-generated content. If you choose to submit user generated content to any public area of the Services, this content will be public and accessible by anyone.

We do not control who will have access to the information that you choose to make available to others, and cannot ensure that parties who have access to such information will respect your privacy or keep it secure. We are not responsible for the privacy or security of any information that you make publicly available, or for the accuracy, use or misuse of any information that you disclose or receive from third parties.

Third Party Websites and Links

Our Site may provide links to websites or other online platforms operated by third parties. If you follow links to sites not affiliated or controlled by us, you should review their privacy and security policies and other terms and conditions. We do not guarantee and are not responsible for the privacy or security of such sites, including the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of information found on these sites. Information you provide on public or semi-public venues, including information you share on third-party social networking platforms may also be viewable by other users of the Services and/or users of those third-party platforms without limitation as to its use by us or by a third party. Our inclusion of such links does not, by itself, imply any endorsement of the content on such platforms or of their owners or operators, except as disclosed on the Services.

Children’s Data

The Services are not intended to be used by children, and we do not knowingly collect any personal information about children. If you are the parent or guardian of a child who has provided us with their personal information, you may contact us using the contact details set out below to request that it be deleted.

As of the Effective Date of this Privacy Policy, we do not have actual knowledge that we “share” or “sell” (as those terms are defined in applicable law) personal information of individuals under 16 years of age.

Security and Retention of Your Information

Please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and we cannot guarantee “perfect security.” In addition, any information you send to us may not be secure while in transit. We recommend that you do not use unsecure channels to communicate sensitive or confidential information to us.

How long we retain your personal information depends on different factors, such as whether we need the information to maintain your account, to provide the Services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes or enforce other applicable contracts and policies.

Your Rights and Choices

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the rights listed below in relation to your personal information. However, these rights are not absolute, may apply only in certain circumstances and, in certain cases, we may decline your request as permitted by law.

• Right to Access / Know. You may have a right to request access to personal information that we hold about you, including details relating to the ways in which we use and share your information.
• Right to Delete. You may have a right to request that we delete personal information we maintain about you.
• Right to Correct. You may have a right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information we maintain about you.
• Right of Portability. You may have a right to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to request that we transfer it to a third party, in certain circumstances and with certain exceptions.
• Right to Opt out of Sale or Sharing or Targeted Advertising. You may have a right to direct us not to “sell” or “share” your personal information or to opt out of the processing of your personal information for purposes considered to be “targeted advertising”, as defined in applicable privacy laws. Please note that if you visit our Site with the Global Privacy Control opt-out preference signal enabled, depending on where you are, we will automatically treat this as a request to opt-out of the “sale” or “sharing” of information for the device and browser that you use to visit the Site.
• Right to Limit and/or Opt out of Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information. You may have a right to direct us to limit our use and/or disclosure of sensitive personal information to only what is necessary to perform the Services or provide the goods reasonably expected by an average individual.
• Restriction of Processing: You may have the right to ask us to stop or restrict our processing of personal information.
• Withdrawal of Consent: Where we rely on consent to process your personal information, you may have the right to withdraw this consent.
• Appeal: You may have a right to appeal our decision if we decline to process your request. You can do so by replying directly to our denial.
• Managing Communication Preferences: We may send you promotional emails, and you may opt out of receiving these at any time by using the unsubscribe option displayed in our emails to you. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional emails, such as those about your account or orders that you have made.

You may exercise any of these rights where indicated on our Site or by contacting us using the contact details provided below.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights. We may need to collect information from you to verify your identity, such as your email address or account information, before providing a substantive response to the request. In accordance with applicable laws, You may designate an authorized agent to make requests on your behalf to exercise your rights. Before accepting such a request from an agent, we will require that the agent provide proof you have authorized them to act on your behalf, and we may need you to verify your identity directly with us. We will respond to your request in a timely manner as required under applicable law.

Complaints

If you have complaints about how we process your personal information, please contact us using the contact details provided below. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, depending on where you live you may have the right to appeal our decision by contacting us using the contact details set out below, or lodge your complaint with your local data protection authority.

International Users

Please note that we may transfer, store and process your personal information outside the country you live in, including the United States. Your personal information is also processed by staff and third party service providers and partners in these countries.
If we transfer your personal information out of Europe, we will rely on recognized transfer mechanisms like the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, or any equivalent contracts issued by the relevant competent authority of the UK, as relevant, unless the data transfer is to a country that has been determined to provide an adequate level of protection.

Contact

Should you have any questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, or if you would like to exercise any of the rights available to you, please email us at [email protected].

Privacy Policy Additional

Last updated: June 11, 2024

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

We use Your Personal data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, You agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy has been created with the help of the Privacy Policy Generator.

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words of which the initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions. The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:

• Account means a unique account created for You to access our Service or parts of our Service.
• Affiliate means an entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with a party, where “control” means ownership of 50% or more of the shares, equity interest or other securities entitled to vote for election of directors or other managing authority.
• Company (referred to as either “the Company”, “We”, “Us” or “Our” in this Agreement) refers to The Joy of Backyard Gardening.
• Cookies are small files that are placed on Your computer, mobile device or any other device by a website, containing the details of Your browsing history on that website among its many uses.
• Country refers to: Georgia, United States
• Device means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cellphone or a digital tablet.
• Personal Data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.
• Service refers to the Website.
• Service Provider means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Company. It refers to third-party companies or individuals employed by the Company to facilitate the Service, to provide the Service on behalf of the Company, to perform services related to the Service or to assist the Company in analyzing how the Service is used.
• Third-party Social Media Service refers to any website or any social network website through which a User can log in or create an account to use the Service.
• Usage Data refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
• Website refers to The Joy of Backyard Gardening, accessible from http://thejoyofbackyardgardening.com
• You means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable.

Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data

While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

• Email address
• First name and last name
• Address, State, Province, ZIP/Postal code, City
• Usage Data

Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, We may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device You use, Your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile device, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile device.

Information from Third-Party Social Media Services

The Company allows You to create an account and log in to use the Service through the following Third-party Social Media Services:

• Google
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

If You decide to register through or otherwise grant us access to a Third-Party Social Media Service, We may collect Personal data that is already associated with Your Third-Party Social Media Service’s account, such as Your name, Your email address, Your activities or Your contact list associated with that account.

You may also have the option of sharing additional information with the Company through Your Third-Party Social Media Service’s account. If You choose to provide such information and Personal Data, during registration or otherwise, You are giving the Company permission to use, share, and store it in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Tracking Technologies and Cookies

We use Cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on Our Service and store certain information. Tracking technologies used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze Our Service. The technologies We use may include:

• Cookies or Browser Cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on Your Device. You can instruct Your browser to refuse all Cookies or to indicate when a Cookie is being sent. However, if You do not accept Cookies, You may not be able to use some parts of our Service. Unless you have adjusted Your browser setting so that it will refuse Cookies, our Service may use Cookies.
• Web Beacons. Certain sections of our Service and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of a certain section and verifying system and server integrity).

Cookies can be “Persistent” or “Session” Cookies. Persistent Cookies remain on Your personal computer or mobile device when You go offline, while Session Cookies are deleted as soon as You close Your web browser. You can learn more about cookies on TermsFeed website article.

We use both Session and Persistent Cookies for the purposes set out below:

• Necessary / Essential Cookies Type: Session Cookies Administered by: Us Purpose: These Cookies are essential to provide You with services available through the Website and to enable You to use some of its features. They help to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts. Without these Cookies, the services that You have asked for cannot be provided, and We only use these Cookies to provide You with those services.
• Cookies Policy / Notice Acceptance Cookies Type: Persistent Cookies Administered by: Us Purpose: These Cookies identify if users have accepted the use of cookies on the Website.
• Functionality Cookies Type: Persistent Cookies Administered by: Us Purpose: These Cookies allow us to remember choices You make when You use the Website, such as remembering your login details or language preference. The purpose of these Cookies is to provide You with a more personal experience and to avoid You having to re-enter your preferences every time You use the Website.

For more information about the cookies we use and your choices regarding cookies, please visit our Cookies Policy or the Cookies section of our Privacy Policy.

Use of Your Personal Data

The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes:

• To provide and maintain our Service, including to monitor the usage of our Service.
• To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user.
• For the performance of a contract: the development, compliance and undertaking of the purchase contract for the products, items or services You have purchased or of any other contract with Us through the Service.
• To contact You: To contact You by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application’s push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation.
• To provide You with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless You have opted not to receive such information.
• To manage Your requests: To attend and manage Your requests to Us.
• For business transfers: We may use Your information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Us about our Service users is among the assets transferred.
• For other purposes: We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Service, products, services, marketing and your experience.

We may share Your personal information in the following situations:

• With Service Providers: We may share Your personal information with Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, to contact You.
• For business transfers: We may share or transfer Your personal information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of Our business to another company.
• With Affiliates: We may share Your information with Our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. Affiliates include Our parent company and any other subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that We control or that are under common control with Us.
• With business partners: We may share Your information with Our business partners to offer You certain products, services or promotions.
• With other users: when You share personal information or otherwise interact in the public areas with other users, such information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly distributed outside. If You interact with other users or register through a Third-Party Social Media Service, Your contacts on the Third-Party Social Media Service may see Your name, profile, pictures and description of Your activity. Similarly, other users will be able to view descriptions of Your activity, communicate with You and view Your profile.
• With Your consent: We may disclose Your personal information for any other purpose with Your consent.

Retention of Your Personal Data

The Company will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

The Company will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of Our Service, or We are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at the Company’s operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located. It means that this information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of Your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from Your jurisdiction.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by Your submission of such information represents Your agreement to that transfer.

The Company will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of Your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of Your data and other personal information.

Delete Your Personal Data

You have the right to delete or request that We assist in deleting the Personal Data that We have collected about You.

Our Service may give You the ability to delete certain information about You from within the Service.

You may update, amend, or delete Your information at any time by signing in to Your Account, if you have one, and visiting the account settings section that allows you to manage Your personal information. You may also contact Us to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that You have provided to Us.

Please note, however, that We may need to retain certain information when we have a legal obligation or lawful basis to do so.

Disclosure of Your Personal Data

Business Transactions

If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, Your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before Your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Law enforcement

Under certain circumstances, the Company may be required to disclose Your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Other legal requirements

The Company may disclose Your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

• Comply with a legal obligation
• Protect and defend the rights or property of the Company
• Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
• Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
• Protect against legal liability

Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While We strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect Your Personal Data, We cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Children’s Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13. If You are a parent or guardian and You are aware that Your child has provided Us with Personal Data, please contact Us. If We become aware that We have collected Personal Data from anyone under the age of 13 without verification of parental consent, We take steps to remove that information from Our servers.

If We need to rely on consent as a legal basis for processing Your information and Your country requires consent from a parent, We may require Your parent’s consent before We collect and use that information.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third party link, You will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update Our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify You of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let You know via email and/or a prominent notice on Our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.