Privacy Statement
Purpose
Welcome to the Shop Shield® service provided by Kemesa, LLC (“Kemesa”). Kemesa is the owner of this website and retains all ownership rights to the information collected at this site. This statement describes our Shop Shield® privacy practices.
Personal Information We Collect and What We Do With It
This statement tells you what types of personal information we collect via Shop Shield®, and what we do with it. In general, we collect “Identity Information” and other “Personal Data” – as described herein – to enable us to verify your identity or to complete the transactions you wish to make using Shop Shield®.
We collect personal information, including Identity Information and Personal Data: (A) from you on applications when you set up or revise an account; (B) from your transactions using Shop Shield®; and/or (C) from entities that we may use to verify your identity. By "Identity Information," we mean your name, billing address, email address, telephone number, and credit card or bank account information (including the account number, the financial institution, and routing number). “Identity Information” also includes your Social Security number, which federal law and our Bank Partner that produces the Virtual “cards” (Virtual Account Numbers or VANs) you use to make purchases through Shop Shield®) require us to obtain in order to comply with “Know Your Customer” banking regulations.
By "Personal Data," we mean other information about you that you may disclose to Shop Shield® that does not include Identity Information. Personal Data may include, for example, website user names, passwords, and anonymous email addresses that you may store at www.shopshield.net.
When you register with Shop Shield® to create a Member account,
we ask you to provide your name, Social Security number, date of birth, physical
address, a functioning email address, and telephone number, as well as information
about the credit card (including the billing address associated with the card,
the card verification number, and card expiration date) and/or bank account
that you will use to make payments when you use Shop Shield®.
We need this information in order to assure that purchases you make using Shop
Shield® are charged to the account you designate and to comply
with banking regulations. We also need your email address to assure that you
promptly receive order confirmation and shipment notices. We will use your
physical address and/or telephone number to send you confirmation material
and to contact you regarding your account or issues relating to purchases you
make using Shop Shield®.
When you use Shop Shield® to pay for a purchase on a website,
we substitute anonymous information for your real Identity Information -- e.g.,
name, billing address, email address, phone number, credit card numbers – to
protect your privacy and to protect you from identity theft. We use the account
information you provide to us at registration to arrange for payment from your
bank or credit card company; in doing so, information about that transaction
is shared with our Bank Partner solely for the purpose of completing the transaction.
We never provide your Identity Information with any website on which you make
a purchase (unless you instruct us to) and our Bank Partner will never share
your Identity Information with a third party or use it themselves for marketing
purposes.
When you use Shop Shield® to make a payment on an account, such as a utility bill, we must provide your name, billing address, and the number of the bill pay account to which the payment is being made in order that your payment can be completed. However, we do not reveal any information about the underlying payment method with which you choose to make your payment. As with online purchases, your account information is only shared with our Banking Partner where necessary to complete the transaction.
Shipping Addresses
In instances where the purchased item is to be delivered offline, you will need to provide the merchant’s website with a name and shipping address; Shop Shield® will not provide such a shipping address. In this instance, you may provide some of your Identity Information (name and address) to the merchant website. However, because Shop Shield® substitutes anonymous billing information, the merchant will not know that you also are the purchaser or whether the shipping address is also a billing address. If the shipment is to be made to another person or address, your name and address, of course, are not disclosed to the merchant website.
It is important that you always ensure that the shipment address is that of the desired recipient. If the Shop Shield® anonymous information is incorrectly used as the shipping address, the order will be received at a Shop Shield® location resulting in a delay of receipt and added shipping expense to you.
Other Personal Information
Please note that Shop Shield® protects only Identity Information or Personal Data you provide to us or we provide to the websites where you use Shop Shield®. This includes your name, billing address, email address, User ID, Social Security Number, passwords, user names, telephone number and financial accounts you designate as methods of payment for purchases made using Shop Shield®. Websites may ask for other information about you (such as age, clothing sizes), or additional information to confirm your registration (such as your mother's maiden name) or for other purposes. Shop Shield® cannot protect any such information, including Identity Information, that you provide directly to websites.
Existing Merchant Website Accounts
In certain circumstances (such as when a Member already has a registered account at a particular website which he or she may want to continue to use in order to remain in frequent purchase or other membership privilege programs), a Shop Shield® Member may intentionally choose to reduce the protection we offer. In these instances, Shop Shield® can still be used to protect the anonymity of credit card or bank account number and billing information associated with those purchases. We will maintain the privacy of all information we provide in conjunction with such transactions.
For travel transactions, such as ticketing or making a reservation, you are required to provide your own name so you can identify yourself as having made the reservation. To this extent, a Member somewhat reduces the protection of your Identity Information Shop Shield® would otherwise provide. However, for all such purchases, credit card or bank account numbers, billing information, email addresses and passwords continue to be anonymous, thereby providing significant protection to your personal information. We will maintain the privacy of all such information provided in conjunction with travel reservations.
Anonymous Registrations
Shop Shield® can also protect your Identity Information when you register at a website by providing an email address, a User ID, and Password even when you are not making purchases or payments. In such circumstances, Shop Shield® will create and provide you with an anonymous email address, random user ID and strong Password for use at that website. You will, however, be responsible for providing any other Identity Information at such websites.
Privacy of Email Addresses
As with purchase sites, communications from merchants to the anonymous email address Shop Shield® provides will be forwarded without modification to the email address you have registered with Shop Shield® after we have inspected them to protect you from phishing, viruses and other malware. Your use of such an anonymous Shop Shield® email address constitutes consent to such inspection by us.
We will use the anonymous Shop Shield® email addresses provided
for communications between the merchant and you, so that the merchant does
not receive your email address. Of course, you are free to contact the merchant
directly, but if you do so you will lose the anonymity provided by the Shop
Shield® service.
Customer Service Disclosures To Third Parties
As noted above, we are required to share certain of your personal information with our Banking Partner to comply with federal financial regulations.
Shop Shield® Customer Service strives to resolve most merchant or shipper issues without revealing your Identity Information or Personal Data. If, however, you specifically request that we provide Identity Information or Personal Data to a website, we will honor your request. In such instances, you must specifically provide advance permission in writing before we will share your Identity Information with the website. Of course, this will compromise the protection of your Identity Information or Personal Data for that purchase and with that website. It will also void the Shop Shield® identity theft guarantee/Victim Resolution Service provisions for that purchase. This does not apply to matters such as product returns or defects, which are handled by the shipping address recipient.
Other than these situations, we do not share Identity Information or Personal Data regarding you with any other company or third party unless we are legally required to provide such information (see below) or if we need to do so in order to prevent or investigate fraud. We will provide your Identity Information to third parties that you designate if we receive your prior written, email or recorded oral request or express instructions from you or your authorized representative. In such instances, you will specifically provide your permission before we share your Identity Information strictly for the purpose you have designated. We do not share Identity Information or Personal Data with other companies for marketing purposes.
Password–Protected Access
To access your Member account on our website, you must use your Shop Shield® Member name (User ID) and password. Each time you use Shop Shield®, you will be asked to enter certain additional information for security purposes. It is your responsibility to protect access to your User ID and password.
Aggregated Member Information
Shop Shield® will collect and analyze information about transactions using Shop Shield® to help us better understand, in the aggregate, our Members’ usage of Shop Shield® so that we can serve you and all of our other Members better. We aggregate this information in a manner that does not reveal any individually identifiable information of any Members to any other company or third party.
Disclosures Required by Law
Like any other business, there may be situations in which we may be legally required to provide an individual's Identity Information or other information about an individual to federal or state law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, or other legally–authorized government agencies, or in connection with a legal proceeding (such as if we receive a subpoena). If allowed by law in such situations, we will make reasonable efforts to provide you with notice before we supply Identity Information or other information about you in response to such a request. In such situations, we will attempt to protect your information from any exposure beyond what is legally required.
Security
Kemesa, through Shop Shield®, has implemented proprietary (patent pending) security measures to preserve the confidentiality and integrity of your personal information. Access to personal and account information is restricted by multiple levels of security and monitoring systems. Our security system is designed to render your personal information indecipherable even if it were stolen.
We maintain electronic, physical and procedural safeguards to protect the Identity Information and Personal Data of our Members. Multiple levels of encryption, with a "distributed database," protect your information from unauthorized parties. For example: (1) Individual Member's data are not stored in a central database; (2) Distributed databases contain only encrypted fragments of Members’ Personal Identity Information; (3) The encrypted fragments are compartmentalized into separate networks; and (4) A Member's Identity Information comes together only when a transaction is in process, when it is requested by that individual, when required to respond to a Member inquiry or protect you from a potential fraud or theft, and at no other time. We are fully compliant with Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards, and implement ISO 27001 security program standards. Kemesa undergoes an annual web certification, quarterly scans/tests by a nationally recognized computer security firm, and a 24/7/365 internal network monitoring program. The servers and other physical processing equipment are maintained in a top (level 4) Department of Defense (DOD) facility.
Data Retention
We do not retain your Social Security Number and date of birth after we have verified your identity during the signup process. We retain your encrypted and fragmented personal information for as long as you are a Member of the Shop Shield® service, and as required by federal financial regulations, credit card organizations, and our bank partner (Dollar Bank). We are required to retain for up to five (5) years certain transaction data (buyer, seller, amount, and date) which we retain in fragmented and encrypted format as described.
Involuntary Disclosure
In the unlikely event there is any breach of our security that might compromise the privacy of your Identity Information or Personal Data, we will act promptly to correct the breach and, at minimum, provide you with appropriate notification consistent with legal requirements. As a Shop Shield® member, you receive $10,000 of financial coverage over and above the combined coverages you may have from banks, credit card companies, insurance companies and others. You will also receive free and personalized Victim Resolution Service to address any identity theft issues related to the involuntary disclosure.
IP Address and Log Files
We may use your IP address and the device from which you use Shop Shield® to help correctly identify you for security-related reasons, to administer our website, to help diagnose problems with our servers, and, on an aggregated basis, to analyze usage trends and demographic data.
Cookies
Shop Shield® website does not use “cookies” on your computer to store personal information. Shop Shield® does use cookies in connection with session specific information when you shop at a website using anonymous information provided by Shop Shield®. These "session cookies" disappear after use and are not retained on your computer or by us.
Shop Shield® also uses a cookie to store a virtual cryptic “token” which is used as a security measure to recognize your registered computer device and location when you logon to the Shop Shield® website. The cryptic token cookies are “persistent” cookies. For security reasons, they are updated each time you access the Shop Shield® website. These persistent cryptic token cookies may not be used on any other computer.
When you access Shop Shield® from a non-registered device, Shop Shield® will prompt you to obtain a new persistent token cookie. The new token will be delivered to your registered email address or phone number. Once received, you must enter the token (persistent cookie) into the designated field before you can access your account and make purchases using Shop Shield®. For further protection, if the IP address changes on your registered device, or you are using your device at a different location (laptop away from home), you will need to follow the same procedure to obtain a new token cookie. In each case a new token which is a persistent cookie will be issued and the prior one discarded.
Children's Personal Information
Consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act:
This site does not collect, use, or disclose personal information (including online contact information) of children under the age of 13. In the event that a child under the age of 13 attempts to register on our site, we will not accept the registration and will delete information received from the child.
Access to Personal Information
Kemesa gives you the opportunity to modify or remove Identity Information or other information that you have provided to us. You may do so by modifying your registered Member information on the Shop Shield® Member website where you can also review your Shop Shield® transaction history. However, we may retain such deleted information for an appropriate period of time to satisfy legal requirements or to prevent fraud.
Other Websites
You may access our website through other websites. We are not responsible for the collection of information by those other websites, and are not bound by any policies or statements made on such sites. Other websites, Internet search engines and marketing companies through which you access our website use persistent cookies and collect information such as traffic, viewing and usage patterns.
Sale or Merger
If this site is sold to, or merges with, another company not owned by Kemesa, you should expect that some or all of the customer information collected from this website, including Identity Information and Personal Data, may be transferred to the buyer/surviving company as a transferred business asset. Also, in the event that Kemesa or substantially all of its assets are acquired, customer information will of course be one of the transferred assets. In both situations, that information will remain subject to the promises made in our Privacy Policy in effect at the time the Member information is or was collected (unless, of course, the Member consents otherwise).
Contacting Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this website, you can contact Customer Service at 1-888-997-4435.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
Kemesa will provide notice of any material changes to this Privacy Policy by email and by posting on this Shop Shield® website. Changes will take effect immediately. Your continued use of Shop Shield® constitutes your acceptance and agreement to be bound by any changes.
Effective date: June 1, 2009