Privacy Policy

The purpose of the Privacy Policy is to provide clarity, transparency, and accuracy regarding the collection and use of an individual's personal data for which OWC may collect and use for processing.

Back to top

We do use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any Personal Information:

• To present our Site and its contents to you.
• To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us. To provide customer service to you, it is necessary for us to disclose information to our affiliates and other companies that work with us. We do not share your information with outside parties except as provided herein and to the extent necessary to provide you service and maintain our Site.
• To fulfill any purpose for which you provide information.
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
• To notify you about changes to our Site or any products or services we offer or provide through it.
• To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Site.

We may also use your information to contact you about our goods and services that may be of interest to you. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, please check the relevant box located on the form on which we collect your data (for example, our Sweepstakes entry form), or send us an email stating your request to support@owc.com. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may also send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions. Note, these opt outs do not apply to information provided to OWC via the Site as a result of a product purchase, warranty registration, or other transactions.

Finally, we may use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers' target audiences, as well as for auditing, research, and analysis to improve OWC's products and services and the Site.

Back to top

You also may provide information to be published or displayed on public areas of the Site, or transmitted to other users of the Site or third parties (collectively, "User Contributions"). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. If you submit a product or store review or use a bulletin board or chat room on an OWC Site, you should be aware that any information you share is visible to other users. Information you submit to one of these forums can be read, collected, or used by other individuals to send you unsolicited messages. OWC is not responsible for the User Contributions you choose to submit. If you delete your User Contributions from the Site, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other Site users. Proper access and use of information provided on the Site, including User Contributions, is governed by our terms of use.

Back to top

The Site allows individuals to post comments on discussion topics on various forums. We encourage you to share your thoughts as they relate to the topic being discussed, but please be advised that posts will be publicly visible; therefore, the Site utilizes a moderation policy for ensuring posts are appropriate and not harmful to others. As such, we review and moderate posts according to our stated guidelines below. The views expressed in posts reflect those of the individual making the post, and are not intended to be viewed as those of OWC.

• Are deemed obscene, indecent, or profane language.
• Contain threats, defamatory, or derogatory statements.
• Invoke terroristic threats, promote violence, along with any other offensive material and any other content deemed unprofessional, unethical or that violates any local, state, or federal law or regulation.
• Reveal Personal Information.
• Contain information posted in violation of law, including libel, condoning or encouraging illegal activity, and revealing classified information, or posts that might affect the outcome of ongoing legal proceedings.
• Promote or endorse services or products, including links to external commercial sites. (Note that non-commercial links that are relevant to the topic or another post are acceptable.)
• Contain content that is completely off-topic, spam, or intended primarily to promote a link for purposes of link building.
• Contain any other type of content deemed unprofessional, unethical or that violates any local, state, or federal law or regulation.

Unless you have clear permission to do so, please do not submit copyrighted, trademarked or other proprietary, confidential, and/or sensitive non-public information. By submitting your posts or other work, you effectively allow anyone viewing the discussion forum on the Site irrevocable permission to copy, distribute, make derivatives, display or perform the poster's work publicly and free-of-charge.

To protect your privacy, please do not include Personal Information that can be used to potentially identify you.

OWC will review all posts in a timely manner, and will respond accordingly and take action for any posts that violate the above-stated conditions.

Back to top

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, the platform for which the Site resides on – commonly known as a "production environment", utilizes a wide-range of software tools and programs for the ultimate goal of ensuring its confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) – a concept known as the CIA triad of information security. Tools which are currently in use, or are to be deployed if necessary for the security of the Site are to include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Network Security and Network Monitoring: Tools that assist in securing the network for which the Site resides on. Such tools include network and perimeter firewalls, web application firewalls, routers, switches, intrusion detection systems, and other related tools.
• Network Performance: Tools that assist in monitoring all aspects of the Site, such as performance monitoring for website uptime, etc.
• Other: Additionally, a variety of physical, electronic and procedural safeguards are implemented for helping ensure the safety and security of the Site.

Except for authorized law enforcement investigations by local, state, and/or federal agencies, no other attempts are made by OWC to identify individual users and/or their usage habits on the Site.

Back to top

The Site may contain links to websites created and maintained by other public and/or private organizations. OWC provides these links as a courtesy to our users only. When users click on a link to an external website, they are leaving the Site and are thus subject to the privacy and security policies and the related terms and conditions of these external websites.

Back to top

We collect several types of information from and about our customers and users of our Site, including information:

• by which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, email address or telephone number ("Personal Information");
• that is about you but individually does not identify you; and/or
• about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Site and usage details.

We collect this information:

• Directly from you when you provide it to us.
• Automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.

Information You Provide to Us. The information we collect may include:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Site. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Site, subscribing to our newsletter services, email registrations, posting material, orders, or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you enter a contest, sweepstakes, or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with our Site.
• Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.
• Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
• Details of transactions you carry out through our Site and of the fulfillment of your orders.
• Your search queries on the Site.
• Information that you provide through phone, mail and fax interactions or paper registrations that you submit to OWC via the Site.

Information We Collect from Other Sources

• We work closely with third parties (for example, business partners, advertising networks, analytics providers and search information providers) and may receive information, including Personal Data, about you from them. This could include socio-demographic information and information about your likely interests based on your previous web browsing and purchases. We may combine this information with other information you have provided to us or which we collected about you.

Usage Details, IP Addresses, Cookies. As you navigate through and interact with our Site, we may automatically collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including:

• Details of your visits to our Site, including traffic data, location data, logs and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Site.
• Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system and browser type.

The information we collect automatically is statistical data. It helps us to improve our Site and to deliver a better and more personalized service. The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include Cookies and Web Beacons.

When you interact with OWC on our Site or otherwise, such as when you call our sales or support staff, you may be required to provide financial information before placing an order through our Site. For example, we may collect Personal Information relevant to the situation, such as your name, mailing address, billing address, phone number, email address, and contact preferences; your credit card information; information about the OWC products you own, such as their serial numbers and date of purchase; and information relating to a support or service issue.

Back to top

In order to provide our customers with the best service possible we must, on occasion, utilized the services of third parties to assist us in our business operations. In certain instances we must share personal information with these third parties to enable their services to assist us in providing you service and in permitting our business to operate smoothly. These third parties include vendors who provide the following services:

• Accounting and banking services
• E-commerce services
• Payment processing services
• Fraud prevention technology services
• Insurance services
• Warehouse storage services

Back to top

OWC software includes an option to send anonymous information about your OWC products to OWC. This information is only sent to us if you agree to share it with us. The information collected DOES NOT include any user identifiers, email address, geolocation information, files, or any other personally-identifiable information. The anonymous information we collect will help us improve OWC products by focusing on features that are most useful to our customers. We will never sell or share this information.

Back to top

OWC offers two email newsletters that may be subscribed to at no cost. One newsletter is primarily focused on industry news and tech tips while the other provides regular updates on special offers and deals. To join click here for more information. You can opt-out of any OWC newsletter at any time via the link provided at the bottom of each newsletter mailing, or by sending us an email stating your request to support@owc.com.

Back to top

Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important. For that reason, OWC never knowingly collects or maintains information at our Site from those under 13, and no part of our Site is directed at anyone under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on this Site. If we learn we have collected or received Personal Information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will use our best efforts to delete the information as soon as possible.

Back to top

OWC will make good-faith efforts to provide you with reasonable access to your Personal Information for the purpose of correcting this data. To request updates to your information, contact us by writing us at the following address:

Other World Computing, Inc.
Attn: Executive Management
8 Galaxy Way
Woodstock, IL 60098 USA

Should you have other questions or concerns about these privacy policies, please contact us.

Back to top

All information accessed through the Site is in compliance with the required information security mandates of Article 32 of the GDPR. Specifically, Article 32 mandates the following:

• Implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk, including inter alia as appropriate:
  • The pseudonymization and encryption of personal data.
  • The ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of processing systems and services.
  • The ability to restore the availability and access to personal data in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident.
  • A process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of technical and organizational measures for ensuring the security of the processing.

Back to top

We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose Personal Information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

• To our subsidiaries and affiliates.
• To contractors, service providers and other third parties we use to support our business.
• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of OWC's assets.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.

We may also disclose your Personal Information:

• To comply with any court order, law or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
• To enforce or apply our terms of use or terms of sale and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of OWC, our customers or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

The Site includes hypertext links, or pointers, to information created and maintained by other public and/or private organizations. As such, OWC only provides these links for your information and convenience, thus, when you select a link to an outside website, you are leaving the Site and therefore subject to the privacy and security policies of these external websites. Additionally, please note the following:

• OWC does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of information contained on a linked website.
• OWC does not endorse the organizations sponsoring linked websites and we do not endorse the views they express or the products/services they offer.
• OWC therefore cannot authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained in linked websites. Users must request such authorization from the sponsor of the linked website.
• OWC is not responsible for transmissions users receive from linked websites.

Back to top

If we decide to materially change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this Privacy Policy and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Your continued use of this Site after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes.

Back to top

OWC does not share personal information as defined by California Civil Code Section 1798.83 (“Shine the Light law”) with third parties for their direct marketing purposes absent your consent. If you are a California resident, you may request information about our compliance with the Shine the Light law by contacting us by email to legal@macsales.com or by sending a letter to Other World Computing, Inc., 8 Galaxy Way, Woodstock, IL 60098 (Attention: Legal Department). Any such request must include "California Privacy Rights Request" in the first line of the description and include your name, street address, city, state, and ZIP code. Please note that we are only required to respond to one request per customer each year, and we are not required to respond to requests made by means other than through this email address or mail address.

If you are a California resident, California law may provide you with additional rights regarding our use of your personal information. To learn more about your California privacy rights, visit California Privacy Rights Addendum.

Back to top

We intend to allow Canadian residents to exercise their rights under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”). Although applicable data protection legislation in relevant jurisdictions may afford similar rights, there may be circumstances where some of these rights do not apply under or are modified by, local law. OWC takes reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, and delete your personal information, and exercise other rights available under applicable law. Please visit PIPEDA Privacy Rights Addendum for an understanding of your additional PIPEDA rights related to your use of Our Services and our performance of services to you which may result in the processing of your personal information.

—Right to Access / Disclosure: The right to have access to your personal data upon simple request – that is, you may receive a copy of such data upon receipt of a verifiable request, along with other information related to the processing.

—Right to Correction/Rectification: The right to correct your personal data if you find it is inaccurate, incomplete or obsolete.

—Right to Deletion: The right to obtain the deletion of your personal data in the situations set forth by applicable data protection law.

Back to top

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time and in our sole discretion. We reserve the right to change, modify, add or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time. If and when we do, we will post those changes to our website and update the revision date of this document. When you visit our website, you are accepting the current version of this Privacy Policy as posted on the website at that time.

Back to top

This Privacy Notice for California Residents supplements the information contained in OWC’s Privacy Policy and applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California (“consumers” or “you”). We adopt this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this Notice.

Where noted in this Notice, the CCPA temporarily exempts personal information reflecting a written or verbal business-to-business communication (“B2B personal information”) from some of its requirements.

Information We Collect

We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer, household, or device (“personal information”). Personal information does not include:

• Publicly available information from government records.
• De-identified or aggregated consumer information.
• Information excluded from the CCPA’s scope, like:
  • health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data;
  • personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994.]

In particular, we have collected the following categories of personal information from its consumers within the last twelve (12) months:

What Information do we Collect?

We collect personal information. For a full list of personal information we collect, visit the California Privacy Rights Addendum.

How do we use your Personal Information?

We may use, or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following purposes:

• To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information. For example, if you share your name and contact information to request a price quote or ask a question about our products or services, we will use that personal information to respond to your inquiry. If you provide your personal information to purchase a product or service, we will use that information to process your payment and facilitate delivery. We may also save your information to facilitate new product orders or process returns.
• To provide, support, personalize, and develop our products, and services.
• To create, maintain, customize, and secure your account with us.
• To process your requests, purchases, transactions, and payments and prevent transactional fraud.
• To provide you with support and to respond to your inquiries, including to investigate and address your concerns and monitor and improve our responses.
• To personalize your Website experience and to deliver content and product and service offerings relevant to your interests, including targeted offers and ads through our website, third-party sites, and via email or text message (with your consent, where required by law).
• To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our products and services, databases and other technology assets, and business.
• For testing, research, analysis, and product development, including to develop and improve our website, products, and services.
• To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
• As described to you when collecting your personal information or as otherwise set forth in PIPEDA.
• To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our website users/consumers is among the assets transferred.

We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.

What Personal Information do you Share?

We may disclose your personal information to a third party for a business purpose. When we disclose personal information for a business purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

We share your personal information with the following categories of third parties:

• Service providers.

How to Access Your Information and Your Other Rights?

Your Right to Access / Disclosure.

• The right to have access to your personal data upon simple request – that is, you may receive a copy of such data upon receipt of a verifiable request, along with other information related to the processing.

— Right to Correction/Rectification.

• The right to correct your personal data if you find it is inaccurate, incomplete or obsolete.

— Right to Deletion.

• The right to obtain the deletion of your personal data in the situations set forth by applicable data protection law.

Back to top