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The Sherwin-Williams Company
Privacy Policy
Your right to privacy is very important. The Sherwin-Williams
Company ("Sherwin-Williams") recognizes that when you
choose to provide us with information about yourself, you trust
us to act responsibly. That's why we have prepared this Privacy
Policy to describe the types of personal and non-personal information
we collect through our various Web sites (collectively, "Web
Sites"), how we use such information, and to whom and under
what circumstances we disclose such information. Below is a summary
of our Privacy Policy. By using our Web Sites, you signify your
assent to this Privacy Policy and to the Web Sites' Terms of Use.
If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy or our Web
Sites' Terms of Use, please do not use our Web Sites.
What information do we collect?
Personal Information
In general, Sherwin-Williams collects personal information from
you when you voluntarily provide it to us by (1) registering on
any of our Web Sites; (2) signing up to enter a promotion, participate
in an event or survey, receive newsletters or other literature;
(3) making product, project, or service inquiries; and (4) contacting
us (including our webmaster, customer service representatives, or
other employees) by e-mail. In connection with these activities,
we may collect personal information from you, including, but not
limited to, your name, physical address, e-mail address, age, gender,
telephone number, fax number, user name and/or password associated
with the use of any of our Web Sites or web portal(s), occupation,
company name, name of position within company, whether you are a
Sherwin-Williams customer, your primary field of expertise, the
type of product you are seeking, the type of project you are or
will be working on, the time frame for starting your project, where
you typically shop for paint and coatings products, the number of
paint/coatings products you purchased in the past year, how you
heard about Sherwin-Williams, and other demographic information.
Non-personal information
As part of the standard operation of our Web Sites, we may collect/obtain
certain non-personal information from you including, but not limited
to, your browser type (e.g., Netscape or Internet Explorer), operating
system (e.g., Windows or Macintosh), Internet service provider,
IP address, web sites visited, and the domain name from which you
accessed the Web Sites (e.g., yahoo.com).
In addition, we may collect information about your browsing behavior,
such as the date and time you visit our Web Sites, the areas or
pages of our Web Sites that you visit, the amount of time spent
viewing our Web Sites, the number of times you return to our Web
Sites, and other click-stream data. We may use cookies to collect
this information, which may be combined with your personal information.
A cookie is a small text file that may be stored on the hard drive
of your computer which enable us to recognize your computer when
you return to our Web Sites.
You are always free to decline cookies, but in doing so you may
not be able to use certain features on our Web Sites. The "help"
segment of the toolbar on most browsers explains how to configure
a browser to not accept new cookies, how to have the browser inform
a user when they receive a new cookie, and how to erase cookies
from a computer's hard drive.
We may use web beacons to assist us in understanding how visitors
to our Web Sites use such sites and/or to collect information regarding
users activities on the web. We may utilize the services of a third
party to collect such information for us.
How do we use your information? We may use the information
we collect from you for any of the following purposes: (1) to facilitate
your use of our Web Sites and better understand your needs; (2)
to fulfill your requests for information about certain products,
services, and projects; (3) to send you information, promotional
materials, and offers from our company as well as from our subsidiaries
and affiliates; (4) to contact visitors to our Web Sites when necessary;
(5) to help address problems with our Web Sites; (6) to administer
our Web Sites; (7) to conduct internal reviews of our Web Sites
(e.g., to determine the number of visitors to specific pages within
the site); (8) to help us better understand visitors' use of our
Web Sites; (9) to protect the security or integrity of our Web Sites;
and (10) for such other purposes provided in this Privacy Policy.
Non-personal information will be used for these purposes as well
to monitor our Web Sites and provide a greater online experience
for our visitors.
Will we disclose information we collect from you?
Sherwin-Williams may transfer or otherwise disclose information
collected from you to the following entities for the following purposes:
(1) to Sherwin-Williams' employees, independent contractors, subsidiaries,
affiliates, consultants, business associates, service providers,
and suppliers, if the disclosure will enable that entity to perform
a business, professional, or technical support function for Sherwin-Williams;
(2) to employees, independent contractors, service providers, and
suppliers of Sherwin-Williams to fulfill a product or service request;
and (3) to respond to judicial process and provide information to
law enforcement agencies or in connection with an investigation
on matters related to public safety, as permitted by law. In addition,
we may disclose such information to our third party marketing or
service providers who may use such information in their business
operations or who may contact you with information they feel may
be useful to you. By browsing any of our Web Sites, you consent
to your receipt from us and/or from any of our third party marketing
or service providers of information and data we believe may be of
interest to you.
Do we collect information from children?
We do not direct our Web Sites to, nor do we knowingly collect any
personal information from, children under the age of 13.
Does this Privacy Policy cover practices on third party web
sites?
Our Web Sites may contain links to other third party Web sites (such
as those of our marketing partners), which may have privacy policies
that differ from our own. We are not responsible for the activities
and practices that take place on these Web sites. Accordingly, we
recommend that you review the privacy policy posted on any Web site
that you may access through our Web Sites.
What happens to your information in the event of unforeseen
circumstances?
In the event that Sherwin-Williams or any of its assets are acquired
by a third party, personal information acquired by us may be one
of the assets transferred.
Will there be changes to this Privacy Policy in the future?
We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add,
or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time. We recommend
that you revisit this Privacy Policy periodically to ensure that
you are aware of our current privacy practices. Your continued use
of our services following any changes signifies your acceptance
of these changes.
Can I access my information?
If you would like to access or change any contact information you
have provided to us, please contact us at webmaster@sherwin.com.
How can I contact Sherwin-Williams?
If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, you
can contact us at webmaster@sherwin.com.
Copyright 2003. The Sherwin-Williams Company. All rights reserved
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