Last updated: March 1, 2023
Samick® Guitars (“Samick Guitars”, “we”, “us” or “our”) respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and disclose information from you when you access our website or interact with us.
Please take a moment to carefully read this Privacy Policy. By using our website and services, you agree that your personal information will be handled as described in this Privacy Policy.
Collection of Information
We collect information from you in various ways when you access our website, interact with us, or use our services. The types of information we collect depend on how you use our website and services. The information we collect can include:
- Contact details such as your name, email address, phone number, postal address if provided.
- Account login details such as your username and password when you register for an account.
- Device information such as your IP address, browser type, operating system details, device ID, and platform type.
- Usage information such as your browsing activities, page interactions, referral sources, search terms you used, ads you clicked on, items viewed or added to cart, and purchase history.
- Communications such as email exchanges, chat sessions, phone calls, feedback submissions, user reviews, or communications via social media directed to us.
- User content such as any information you upload, submit, or post to the website such as product reviews, images, videos, audio files, guitar profiles, or other user generated content.
- Location information if you allow us to access your device location. We may collect city-level location used for purposes such as showing local guitar stores.
- Social media information if you interact with us on social media platforms. We may collect your social media username, profile information, and messages you send us.
Use of Information
We use your information for purposes that include:
- Providing, operating, and maintaining our website and services.
- Enabling user-to-user communications such as product reviews.
- Understanding user needs and interests to improve website and services.
- Personalizing your experience by showing relevant content, ads, guitar recommendations.
- Processing orders and payments you make for products or services.
- Communicating with you about our products, services, promotional offers, or upcoming events.
- Conducting guitar giveaways, contests, or sweepstakes.
- Responding to user inquiries, feedback, or support requests.
- Complying with legal obligations.
- Enforcing applicable terms of service or policies.
- For any other purposes disclosed to you at the time of collecting information or pursuant to your consent.
If you register for an account, we use your contact details to create and administer your user account. Account holders can view orders, manage subscriptions, customize settings, participate in loyalty programs, and utilize other account features.
We may analyze use of our website and track usage metrics such as number of visitors, pages viewed, device information, returning users, and other aggregated data for improvement purposes. We may use third party analytics providers to assist with analyzing this data.
Legal Basis for Processing Information
Our legal basis for processing your personal information depends on the information concerned and the context in which we collect it. We will normally collect and process your personal information only if:
- Processing is necessary to deliver the products or services you request.
- You consent to the processing, which you can revoke at any time.
- Processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate business interests, such as providing and improving our website, services, security, ad displays, feedback collection, or connecting users with each other and musicians.
- Processing is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations.
Disclosure of Information
We may share your personal information with:
- Authorized third party vendors and service providers who perform services such as website hosting, data analysis, payment processing, order fulfillment, infrastructure provision, IT services, auditing, email delivery services, credit card processing, catalogs and marketing campaigns, etc. These third parties are only provided access required to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use the information for any other purpose.
- Musicians, artists, or influencers who are part of our brand sponsorship or ambassador programs. We share select data such as product reviews or feedback provided by users to help musicians understand fans and improve products.
- Music retailers if you choose to be connected with or purchase from a third party retailer using our services. We may share necessary data such as your contact details and order information to facilitate transactions.
- Law enforcement, government officials, or third parties when compelled by subpoena, court order, or other legal procedure, or if necessary to comply with applicable laws.
- Third parties in connection with any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, brands, subsidiaries, affiliates or assets, including in connection with bankruptcy or similar proceedings.
We will never sell your personal data to any third party without your explicit consent.
Online Advertising and Analytics
We may allow third party advertising partners to set tracking tools (like cookies) to collect information regarding your activities and your device (e.g., your IP address) on our website. These tools allow tailored advertising content to be delivered to you by measuring your interests and serving relevant ads.
These cookies may track information such as how many times you visit the site, what pages you go to, traffic source information, ad data, viewing history, clickstream data, location information, and your IP address.
Your browser settings allow you to automatically or selectively reject cookies or delete cookies. Disabling cookies may interfere with site usability. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to understand those settings and enable/disable cookies as per your preference.
We may utilize Google Analytics and other analytical tools to support display advertising, gain insight about website performance, understand user movement through the website, gather demographic data, and track conversion events. Tracking data collected through Google Analytics relies on cookies and is used strictly according to Google Analytics policies at privacy.google.com.
Online Forums
We may offer public comments sections, user review areas, private messaging features, forums, chat rooms or other interactive areas that allow feedback and user content to be posted. Note that any information disclosed in these areas becomes public information for anyone to access. We cannot control unauthorized uses of public information by third parties. Any content you post in these interactive areas can be read, collected, used or disclosed by us or others and could be used to send unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personal information you choose to share or submit in these public areas.
Opting Out of Communications
You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us by using the unsubscribe link within each email, updating your communication preferences within your account settings if you have created an account with us, or by contacting us at [email protected] with your request.
Please note that transactional account communications are necessary for administrative purposes, such as order confirmation emails, are not promotional in nature, and cannot be opted out of.
Access Rights
Upon request, we will provide you with information about whether we hold any personal information about you. You have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal data by emailing [email protected]. We will respond consistent with applicable laws.
Where we process your information based on legitimate interest or consent, you have the right to object or withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at the email provided or updating your account settings and preferences. Note that certain processing of information may be required to fulfill transactions you request.
Data Retention
We will retain your personal information as needed to fulfill the purposes described in this policy unless retention is no longer necessary or permitted by law. We abide by applicable data retention policies and associated deletion timeframes when personal data is no longer needed.
Factors for determining retention periods include:
- The nature and sensitivity of the personal data
- Potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure
- Purposes for which we process your personal data
- Applicable legal requirements such as statutes of limitations
- Whether retention supports business operations and user interests
Even if we delete your data upon request, residuals may persist in backup copies for a limited period of time.
Security Safeguards
We take reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect your data from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction in line with industry standards. These safeguards vary based on the sensitivity of the information being processed. We also utilize contractual and technical safeguards to restrict unauthorized access by third parties to any data we process.
However, no method of electronic transmission or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of personal information.
International Data Transfers
We are a global company and personal data may be stored and processed in any country where we have operations or engage service providers. Some of these countries may allow access to personal data by government authorities. We take appropriate safeguards to protect your personal data regardless of location.
If we transfer personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) to other countries, we implement appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission, or rely on certification schemes like the EU-US Privacy Shield. Contact us if you would like further details on safeguards implemented for international data transfers.
Changes to this Policy
We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy to account for changes in law or our personal information handling practices. When we post changes, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy. If we make significant changes, we may provide additional notice such as by adding a statement on our website or sending you a separate notification. We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy whenever you access our website or interact with us to stay informed about our information practices and any ways you can better protect your privacy.