Privacy Policy

Ball Horticultural Company ("Ball," "we," "us," "our") respects your privacy, and takes the responsibility of protecting the Personal Data that you provide to us via our website (the "Site") very seriously. The following Privacy Notice describes how we collect, use, disclose, and protect data we receive from users of the Site, including users in the European Economic Area ("EEA") (collectively, "you" or "users"). If you have objections to the Privacy Notice, you should not access or use the Site.

Within this Privacy Notice, users may be referred to as Data Subjects. A Data Subject means an identified or identifiable natural person in the EEA as set forth in the GDPR.

Privacy Notice Contents

1. Important Information
2. Data We Collect About You
3. How We Collect Data
4. How We use Your Data
5. How We Disclose Your Data
6. International Transfers
7. How to Withdraw Your Consent
8. Use of Cookies and Other Technology
9. External Links
10. Data Security
11. Data Retention
12. Your Legal Rights
13. Accessing and Updating Your Data
14. Contact Information
15. How to File a Complaint
16. Changes to the Privacy Notice and Your Duty to Inform Us of Changes
17. Glossary

Purpose of the Privacy Notice

The Privacy Notice aims to give you information on how Ball collects and processes your Personal Data through your use of the Site, including any data you may provide through the Site when you submit a job application, sign up to our newsletter, instruct us to act on your behalf, or engage any of our products.

It is important that you read the Privacy Notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing Personal Data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This Privacy Notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

Scope

The Privacy Notice applies to the Site, which includes www.ballhort.com, its subdomains, and all of the websites and internet properties owned or operated by us, regardless of the medium in which the Site is accessed by a user (e.g., via a web or mobile browser).

This Privacy Notice may also apply to information we collect from you during phone calls, when you communicate with us.

Data Controller

For the purposes of compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), we are the data "controller" of Personal Data (defined below) we receive from you via the Site.

We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Notice. If you have any questions about the Privacy Notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the information provided below.

Types of Data Collected

We collect several types of data from users of the Site:

Personal Data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of Personal Data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

• Identity Data. Includes salutation, first and last name, business name, occupation, IP address, or similar identifier.
• Contact Data. Includes billing address, delivery address, email address, telephone numbers, or similar data.
• Financial Data. Includes bank account details and credit and debit card numbers.
• Transaction Data. Includes payment details and other details of products you have purchased from us.
• Profile Data. Includes your username and password, purchases or instructions given by you, your interests, general preferences, marketing and communications preferences, feedback, and survey responses.

Usage Data means any non-personally identifiable data that is automatically collected anytime you visit the Site. This Usage Data may include navigation data about how you use the Site, use products and services, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access the Site.

We also collect, use, and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your Personal Data, but is not considered Personal Data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your Personal Data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as Personal Data which will be used in accordance with the Privacy Notice.

Types of Data Not Collected

Special Categories of Personal Data. We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any data about criminal convictions and offenses.

Children Under 13. The Site is not intended for children and Ball does not knowingly collect any Personal Data from or about children under the age of 13 without the consent of the child's parent or legal guardian. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected data from a child under 13 years of age, we will promptly take all reasonable measures to delete that data from our systems.

If You Fail to Provide Us Personal Data

Where we need to collect Personal Data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or products). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

Direct Interactions. You may voluntarily provide us with Personal Data such as your Identity, Contact, Financial, and Transaction Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by mail, phone, email, or otherwise. This includes data you provide when you complete our account set-up forms, or perform other activities like:

• Create an account on the Site;
• Have calls and chats with our service and support representatives;
• Complete a job application;
• Subscribe to our service or newsletter;
• Request marketing to be sent to you;
• Request stock availability report;
• Complete open day registration; or
• Geo-coordinates used to deliver product.

Automated Technologies or Interactions. As you interact with the Site, we may automatically collect Usage Data about how you access and interact with the Site, your equipment, and patterns. We collect this Usage Data by using automated tracking technology such as cookies, server logs, and other similar technologies. We do not match Usage Data with any of your Personal Data. Please find more information about our use of cookies below.

Call Interactions. You may also interact with us when you call us or work with a customer representative. When you communicate with us, we may transcribe the interaction to help us better serve you, to personalize your experiences, to train or otherwise support employees, resources or systems, and for security purposes. We may use artificial intelligence managed by humans, such as chatbots or transcription capabilities as well.

General

We use your Personal Data and Usage Data (collectively, "Your Data") for the purposes described below. Most commonly, we will use Your Data in the following circumstances:

• To register new customers;
• To process a job application or credit account;
• To fulfil orders for products and services;
• To address and respond to any correspondences;
• To enable delivery of marketing, products, or services;
• To protect an individual's vital interest;
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation;
• Other legitimate interests.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your Personal Data. However, when necessary, we will obtain you consent before using your Personal Data for the below purposes.

Purposes for Which We Will Use Your Data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use Your Data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Purpose/Activity	Type of Data	Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
To register you as a new customer	(a) Identity (b) Contact	Performance of a contract with you
To process a job application	(a) Identity (b) Contact
To process an application of a credit account	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial	Performance of a contract with you
To fulfil orders for products and services including delivery	(a) Identity (b) Contact	Performance of a contract with you
To process and deliver your instructions including: (a) Manage payments (b) Collect and recover money owed to us	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transaction	(1) Performance of a contract with you (2) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us)
To manage our relationship with you which will include: (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy notice	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile	(1) Performance of a contract with you (2) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To administer, optimize performance, and protect our business and the Site(including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data)	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Usage	(1) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT products, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise) (2) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To relevant marketing including: (a) Newsletter (b) Catalogues (c) Stock Availability Report	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to provide additional information regarding our products, to develop them, and to grow our business)
To comply with legal obligations such as: (a) Sharing with law enforcement, government officials, regulatory agencies, or other parties when we are required to do so by applicable law (b) Complying with a judicial proceeding, court order, subpoena, or legal process	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transaction (e) Profile (f) Usage	Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To protect an individual's vital interests in an emergency situation	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transaction (e) Profile (f) Usage	Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To realize another legitimate interest as long as such interests are not overridden by the users interests, rights, and freedoms with respect to data.	(a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transaction (e) Profile (f) Usage	Necessary for our legitimate interests
To verify the identity of a purchaser.	(a) Identity (b) Contact	(1) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for compliance with non-EEA export and sanctions laws) (2) Necessary to comply with legal obligation

Change of Purpose

We will only use Your Data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

Please note that we may process Your Data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain Personal Data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.

Promotional Offers from Us. We may use your Identity, Contact, and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products and offers may be relevant for you (we call this "marketing").

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased products from us or if you provided us with your details when you entered a competition or registered for a promotion and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Opting Out. You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us directly at any time. Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to Personal Data provided to us as a result of placing an order or other transactions.

We may have to share Your Data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in Section 4 above:

• Internal Third Parties;
• External Third Parties;
• Law Enforcement, government officials, regulatory agencies, or other parties when we are required to do so by applicable law; and
• Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use Your Data in the same way as set out in this Privacy Notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of Your Data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use Your Data for their own purposes and only permit them to process Your Data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

We do transfer your Personal Data outside the European Economic Area.

When you submit Personal Data to Ball through the Site, you understand and agree that this information may be transferred across national boundaries and may be stored and processed in any of the countries in which Ball and its affiliates and subsidiaries maintain offices, including, without limitation, the United States.

You also acknowledge that in certain countries or with respect to certain activities, the collection, transferring, storage, and processing of your Personal Data may be undertaken by trusted vendors of Ball. Such vendors are bound by contract not to use your Personal Data for their own purposes or provided your Personal Data to any third parties.

At any time, Data Subjects from the EEA may withdraw consent you have provided to us for using, disclosing, or otherwise processing your Personal Data. You may withdraw your consent by emailing Ball at the contact information provided below and following the instructions in our communication to you.

Please note that your withdrawal of consent to process certain Personal Data about you (1) may limit our ability to deliver services to you and (2) does not affect the lawfulness of our processing activities based on your consent before its withdrawal.

To enhance your experience with the Site, many of our pages use "cookies." Cookies are text files that are placed on your computer to store your preferences or for other record-keeping purposes. Cookies and other user tracking mechanisms (e.g., local shared objects), by themselves, do not tell us your email address or other personally identifiable information unless you choose to provide this information to us by, for example, registering at the Site.

However, once you choose to furnish us with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie or other tracking mechanisms. We may use cookies and other user tracking mechanisms, including "persistent cookies", which will remain on your computer even after you close your browser, to understand website usage and to improve the content and offerings on the Site. For example, we may use cookies to personalize your experience at the Site and to save your password in password-protected areas. We also may use cookies to offer you products, programs, or services. While most browsers are set to accept cookies and other tracking devices by default, you can set yours to refuse tracking devices or to alert you before accepting them. However, by disabling tracking devices, you may not have access to the entire set of features of the Site. Your browser manufacturer has information on changing the default setting for your specific browser.

Ball also uses standard internet technology, such as web beacons and similar technologies, to track your use of the Site or to track your response to email messages that we send you in connection with the Site. Web beacons (sometimes called transparent GIFs, clear GIFs, or web bugs) are small strings of code that provide a way for us to deliver a small graphic image on a web page or in an email. Web beacons can recognize certain types of information on your computer such as cookies, the time and date a page is viewed, and a description of the page where the web beacon is placed. We may use web beacons to improve your experience with the Site, including to provide you with content customized to your interests and to understand whether users read email messages and click on links contained within those messages so that the Site can deliver relevant content. Our web beacons may collect some contact information (for example, the email address associated with an email message that contains a web beacon).

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. Please be aware that declining cookies may prevent you from taking full advantage of the Site. While Ball uses cookies to track your visit, our web servers automatically log the IP/internet address of your computer. We do not use this data to identify you personally.

The Site may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not endorse or make any representations or warranties concerning, and will not in any way be liable for, any informational content, products, services, software, or other materials available on an external website, even if one or more pages of the external website are framed within a page of this Site. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of such other websites. When you leave the Site, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your Personal Data from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered, or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your Personal Data to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your Personal Data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

Unfortunately, no data transmitted over or accessible through the internet can be guaranteed to be secure. As a result, while we attempt to protect all Personal Data, we cannot ensure or warrant that Personal Data will be completely secure from misappropriation by hackers or from other nefarious or criminal activities, or in the event of a failure of computer hardware, software, or a telecommunications network. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected Personal Data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

We will only retain your Personal Data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Data, the purposes for which we process your Personal Data, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your Personal Data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us.

In some circumstances, you can ask us to delete your data See your legal rights below for further information.

Under certain circumstances, Data Subjects from the EEA have the following rights under the GDPR in relation to their Personal Data. Data Subjects from the EEA have the:

Right to Be Informed about the collation and use of your Personal Data, including our retention periods. This information will be concise, transparent, intelligible, easily accessible, and written in clear and plain language.

Right of Access to your Personal Data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the Personal Data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Right to Rectification of the Personal Data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Right to Erasure of your Personal Data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove Personal Data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your Personal Data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your data unlawfully or where we are required to erase your Personal Data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Right to Restrict Processing of your Personal Data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your Personal Data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Right to Data Portability of your Personal Data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the data to perform a contract with you.

Right to Object to the processing of your Personal Data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your data which override your rights and freedoms.

To exercise the above rights, please contact us at the information provided below. We will consider and process your request within a reasonable period of time. Please be aware that under certain circumstances, the GDPR may limit your exercise of these rights.

California Privacy Rights

California law provides that California residents have a right to request businesses to tell them how their Personal Data has been shared, if at all, with third parties for the third parties' direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us at the contact information listed below.

If you ever wish to access your Personal Data, or to have your Personal Data deleted, updated, changed, or modified, you may do so by contacting us by email at the contact information provided below.

No Fee Usually Required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your Personal Data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What We May Need From You

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your Personal Data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that Personal Data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time Limit to Respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one (1) month. Occasionally it may take us longer than thirty (30) days if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

If you would like to contact us with questions or comments, you can reach us at:

Ball Horticultural Company
622 Town Road
West Chicago, Illinois 60185
USA
Email: newsandinfo@ballhort.com
Phone: 630-588-3296
Fax: 630-562-7845

You may file a complaint regarding the Privacy Notice or our privacy practices by contacting us at the information we provided above. Additionally, Data Subjects from the EEA may file a complaint with EU data protection authorities ("DPAs"). A list of DPAs from the European Commission may be found here:
http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/article29/document.cfm?action=display&doc_id=50061.

You may also contact us to be directed to the appropriate DPA contact(s).

We may periodically revise the Privacy Notice in our sole and absolute discretion to reflect changes in the law or our business practices. If we revise the Privacy Notice, we will post the updated Privacy Notice on the Site. Changes to the Privacy Notice will become effective immediately and will apply to the information collected starting on the date we post the revised Privacy Notice.

It is important that the Personal Data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your Personal Data changes during your relationship with us.

Lawful Basis

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your Personal Data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your Personal Data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your Personal Data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

Third Parties

Internal Third Parties means other companies in Ball acting as joint controllers or processors and provide IT and system administration products and undertake leadership reporting.

External Third Parties means:

• Service providers acting as processors who provide IT and system administration products.
• Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors, and insurers based in the EEA who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance, and accounting products.
• HM Revenue & Customs, regulators, and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the EEA who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

Go Top