The Cooling Technology Institute ("CTI") respects the privacy of its members and recognizes the importance of providing a secure forum for them. We have adopted a Privacy Policy that explains how we collect, store, and use the information you provide us. This Privacy Policy details how the CTI safeguards the privacy of its members and does not apply to information that may be collected by CTI in-person. Please note that when you click a link to other sites from the CTI website, this Privacy Policy does not apply to, and cannot control the activities on, those other sites. We highly recommend that you read the privacy policy of any third-party website you may be directed to before providing any personally identifiable information.
If you are a visitor from outside the United States, the personal information you provide may be transferred to, stored, and processed within the United States.
By using this website and/or any of CTI's products or services, you signify your assent to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use our website. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time, so please check back periodically to ensure that you are aware of any changes. If we make a material change to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting the change on our website or in this Privacy Policy and, if necessary, give you additional choices regarding such change prior to the change becoming effective. Your continued use of the CTI website will signify your acceptance of these changes.
1. What personal information is collected?
If an on-line visitor submits information to CTI, it will usually take the form of either: (1) the purchase of goods or services though our on-line stores, (2) membership registration, or registration for a CTI event, (3) message boards or forums, (4) contest registrations, (5) an "Ask-the-Expert" submission, (6) surveys, (7) customer service or technical support, (8) newsletters, or journals. Personal information collected may include your name, employer, home address, business address, phone number, and/or e-mail address. We do not require this information to gain access to our website, however, you will not be able to utilize certain products, services, or features that require membership or receive some materials such as newsletters unless such information is provided.
Visitors purchasing products or services will be required to provide additional information such as a valid credit card number, expiration date, and shipping and billing addresses.
2. What other types of information may we collect?
For some activities, we may ask you to provide other personal and non-personal information including but not limited to your age, date of birth, gender, and/or country of residence; and, we may combine such information with other personal and/or non-personal information. In addition, your web browser or client software may transmit certain geographic information or information regarding your computer to CTI. CTI may use this information to generate aggregate statistics about our user community and may provide such information to advertisers and/or our partners. In addition, CTI may use such information for security, system integrity (the prevention of hacking, etc.), or enforcement purposes. From time to time, we may also post Ask-the-Expert testimonials and questions that contain personally identifiable information on CTI’s website. However, we will obtain the submitter's consent to post these testimonials prior to publication in accordance with the applicable CTI agreement.
3. How do we use your personal information?
The information you provide CTI will allow us to fulfill your product or service order; alert you of new products or services, features, or enhancements; handle/route your customer service or technical support questions or issues; to send eCards or event reminder emails; and/or notify you of opportunities, contests, promotions, or specials. CTI may enhance or merge the personal information collected by the CTI website with data from third parties in order to update your contact information, perform market analysis, or improve our products, services, or systems. CTI may also provide your personal information to other companies or organizations that offer products or services that may be of interest to you. In such cases, we will notify you that the information will be shared and provide you with an opportunity to opt-out.
Lastly, we may use your personal information for internal marketing, profiling, or demographic purposes, so we can adapt our products and services to better suit your needs. We do this to better understand and serve our members.
Please be advised that personal information submitted by individuals acting solely in a business capacity (e.g., personal information contained in job applicant's resume) is not subject to the uses set forth above or to any other practices stated in this Privacy Policy.
4. What type of communications may you receive?
Upcoming Events and Updates
We will occasionally send you information on products, services, upcoming events, and updates. Out of respect for your privacy, we present the option not to receive these types of communications. Please see the “Choice” section below.
Service-related Announcements
We will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature.
Customer Service
Based upon the personally identifiable information you provide us, we will send you a welcoming email to verify your membership, identity, and allow you the opportunity to “opt in” under this policy. Note that the failure to opt-in will not allow the CTI to communicate with you. We will also communicate with you in response to your inquiries, to provide the services you request, and to manage your membership. We will communicate with you by email or telephone, in accordance with your wishes.
5. Who is collecting your information?
When you are asked for information while on the CTI website, you are sharing that information with CTI and its various affiliates, unless specifically stated otherwise. As a result of this sharing, you may receive communications from any of CTI's affiliates. From time to time, CTI may use third party contractors to collect and process personal information on its behalf (for product fulfillment, credit card processing, etc.).
If your personal information is being collected by a company other than CTI and not on CTI's behalf, you will be notified at the time the information is collected. If you do not want your information shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer of information by not using that particular service or by not providing any information at that time.
Please be aware that we cannot control the activities of third parties to whom we provide data, and while we cannot guarantee that they adhere to the same privacy and security procedures as CTI, we will take reasonable steps to assure that these third parties will provide sufficient protection of personal information.
Please be aware that advertisers or websites with links to and from our websites may collect personal information about you. And remember, this Privacy Policy does not apply to, and cannot control the activities of, those other advertisers or websites. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any advertiser or website you visit.
Our websites may include certain social media features such as the Facebook "Like" button, and widgets such as the Share this button or interactive mini-programs that run on our website. These features may collect your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, which page you are visiting on our website, 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 websites. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
6. With whom may your personal information be shared?
The CTI will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy. We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We may, however, share non-personally identifiable, aggregated, and/or public information with third parties. Additionally, we share unique identifiers specific to your device with third parties for the purpose of tailoring content as well as personalizing, adjusting and improving our services.
We reserve the right to disclose your personal information as required by law or in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing such information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against you if you are violating the Terms of Service or Use Agreements for the CTI website or a CTI product, or may be causing injury to or interference (intentionally or unintentionally) with CTI's rights or property, other members of the CTI, or anyone else who could be harmed by your activities. We also reserve the right to disclose your personal information if we have a good faith belief that it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activities.
As with any business, your personal information is also an asset of the CTI and will become part of our normal business records. As such, we may also disclose your personal information to a third party if we decide to sell a line of business to that third party, so you can continue to receive service and information in connection with that line of business with as little disruption as possible. Similarly, in the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or other similar event, your personal information may be transferred to CTI's successor or assign.
The CTI website may also have message boards, forums, and/or chat areas, where users can exchange ideas and communicate with one another. When posting to a message board, forum, or chat area, please be aware that the information is being made publicly available on-line and the user does so at his or her own risk. For certain forums, anyone posting or replying to a post may be doing so using their Registration--that is, their full first and last name. If your personal information is posted on one of our community forums, you may contact us at [email protected] to request removal. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.
7. What choices do you have regarding the collection, use, and distribution of your personal information?
The CTI allows you to control the way that we use personally identifying information that we might obtain. At the time you provide personal information, the CTI may give you the option of declining any future offers or information about new products, promotions, or services. In addition, many of the "mailings", either physical or electronic, that the CTI may send you, such as newsletters, have procedures within them to cancel the receipt of any future mailings. Lastly, you may be given the opportunity to "opt-out" of certain features or functionality.
8. What happens if there is a data breach?
The CTI is committed to your privacy and the protection of your personal information. In the event of a data breach you will be made fully aware of any potential privacy issue including what information may have been compromised, when the breach was discovered, and what the intention of that breach may have been if any such intent can be discovered.
Your rights:
You have the right to:
• Ask for a copy of any information the CTI holds about you.
• Withdraw consents given.
• Ask CTI to correct any inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Ask CTI to delete your information from our records (except as required by law).
• Ask CTI to send a copy of your information to a third party in a data portable format.
• Object to the processing of your information or suspend the processing of your information.
• File a complaint with CTI or with any relevant supervisory authority about how we handle your personal data.
If you wish to exercise any rights set out above, please contact CTI’s Data Protection Officer at [email protected]. We will ask you to provide identification to ensure that the information is provided to the correct individual. We will try our best to respond to requests within one month.