This privacy policy was last updated on 18 May, 2018.
The privacy and security of your personal information is very important to us. We take this matter very seriously. This privacy policy sets out how we collect and manage your personal information and how you can remove your personal information from our databases. For any queries that you may have about your personal information at Franchise Direct, please email privacy@franchisedirect.com.
Who Is Collecting Your Personal Information?
This privacy policy applies to franchisedirect.com which is owned and operated by Franchise Direct USA, Inc., an incorporated business located at 3500 Lenox Rd. NE., #1500, Atlanta, GA 30326, USA (collectively: “we”, “us”, and “our”). This privacy policy describes how Franchise Direct collects and uses the personal information you provide on our website franchisedirect.com. It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update this information.
How We Collect Personal Information
You can view all of the content on our site without providing your personal information. Here are the ways we do collect personal information on our site:
1. We collect personal information when you use the Request Information form.
- If you seek more information about a franchise business listed on our site, personal information will be requested by submitting a Request Information form.
- The personal information we ask for on the Request Information form is your name, email address, phone number, zip code, state, country, and available cash.
- The information you submit via our request form is shared only with the franchise businesses that you have in your Request Information form.
- These franchise businesses will contact you by means of email and/or telephone (phone call or SMS) only to the email address and phone number you provide.
- By submitting the Request Information form you are consenting to send your personal information to the franchises businesses listed on the form.
- By submitting the Request Information form you are consenting to subscribe to further email marketing from Franchise Direct if you have checked the sign-up box on the form.
2. We also collect personal information when you use the ‘Sign up to our newsletter’ form.
- You can sign up to Franchise Direct’s email newsletter by submitting this form.
- To complete the Our Newsletter form you must submit your email address.
What We Do with Your Personal Information
Franchise Direct does not share, sell, rent, or trade your personal information with third parties without your consent. We retain access to your personal information at all times on our secure electronic database servers. These servers may reside in or outside the European Economic Area (EEA). We will only share your personal information with the franchise businesses you consented to receive further information about that are listed in the Request Information form. These businesses will contact you by telephone (call and SMS) and/or email and in doing so they may use third party services to handle your data. These services may reside in our outside the EEA. You will receive a confirmation email from Franchise Direct and one SMS message. If you complete the Our Newsletter form your personal information will only be used by Franchise Direct for further email marketing purposes. We will retain and use your personal information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Requesting and Updating Your Personal Information
To request a copy of your personal information or to make changes to it please send an email to privacy@franchisedirect.com with the subject line ‘Request for Personal Information’ and we will endeavor to respond to your request in four working days. Before we can complete your request you will need to verify your identity to us by confirming your full name and email address.
Deleting Your Personal Information from Franchise Direct
To request that your personal information be deleted from Franchise Direct’s records please send an email to privacy@franchisedirect.com with the subject line ‘Deletion of Personal Information’ and we will endeavor to respond to your request in four working days. Before we can complete your request you will need to verify your identity to us by confirming your full name and email address. If you wish to unsubscribe from email marketing you can click the ‘Unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of any email we send to you.
Existing Personal Information Data (Before 25 May, 2018)
Franchise Direct has always made the best efforts under the prevailing data privacy regulations to collect personal information on an opt-in/consensual basis. Personal information we hold prior to the coming into force of the GDPR regulations on 25 May, 2018 will also be subject to the terms of this privacy policy.
Where Does Consent to Providing Personal Information Take Place?
Franchise Direct connects prospective franchisees with franchisors. Visitors who request information about franchise businesses on our site will be presented with the following consent messages on the Request Information form:
“By clicking SUBMIT you consent to sending the details on this form to the franchises listed above. Franchise Direct’s reputation for integrity in the franchise industry has been established over 20 years. We NEVER sell or share your information with any other third parties. Please view our privacy policy.“
Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
Technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags and scripts are used by Franchise Direct and our partners e.g. marketing partners, affiliates, or analytics or service providers (e.g. customer experience optimization providers, etc.). These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users’ movements around the site and in gathering demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.
We use cookies for our Request Information form to store your information so you don’t have to enter it more than once if you so choose. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies you may still use our site, but your ability to use some features or areas of our site may be limited.
Analytics/Log Files
As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. We do not link this automatically-collected data to personal information.
Local Storage Objects (Flash/HTML5)
Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your web browsing activity use Flash cookies or local storage such as HTML5 to collect and store information. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5. To manage Flash cookies, please click here.
Behavioral Targeting/Retargeting
We partner with third party ad networks to either display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third party partner may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this site and other sites in order to provide you with advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may opt out by emailing privacy@franchisedirect.com. Please note this does not opt you out of being served ads. You will continue to receive generic ads. We do not link this automatically-collected data to personal information.
Email Marketing
You will be added to our email marketing list only if you complete the check box on the Request Information form or submit your email address to the Our Newsletter form. If you wish to unsubscribe from our email marketing, you may opt out by clicking on the ‘Unsubscribe’ link in any of the emails we send to you.
Children’s Privacy
Franchise Direct is intended to be used only by individuals aged 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect any information from individuals under the age of 18. If we are made aware of information collected from an individual under the age of 18, we will remove their information from our system as soon as possible.
Links to Other Sites
We may provide links to other companies and services from our site. Once you leave our site and enter another site, you are subject to their privacy policies. If you submit personal information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies. You should carefully review the company’s privacy policy before using that site.
Legal Disclaimer
We reserve the right to disclose your personal information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our website. If Franchise Direct is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our website of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.
Security Measures
We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. While no data transfer can be completely secure, we will make reasonable efforts to secure all data that is transferred, stored or processed. We recommend that you take every precaution to protect your personal information when you are on the internet. For example, use a secure browser, change your passwords often, and select a strong password by choosing a combination of numbers, letters and characters. The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow latest standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once it is received. If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us at privacy@franchisedirect.com.
Social Media
Our website includes social media features, such as the Facebook Like button, and widgets, such as the Twitter button or interactive mini-programs that run on our site. These features may collect your IP address and which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our site. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
Franchise Direct reserves the right to make material changes to its privacy policy. These changes will be posted prominently on our privacy policy, the home page, and other places we deem appropriate. We will also notify you by email (sent to the email address specified in your account) prior to the change becoming effective so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
Data Protection Officer
Franchise Direct USA, Inc., 3500 Lenox Rd. N, Ste. 1500, Atlanta, GA 30326
privacy@franchisedirect.com