This privacy notice does not cover the activities Merkle undertakes on behalf of its clients - in which it acts as a service provider. Should you wish to enquire about the processing we undertake for any of our clients, or wish to assert your rights regarding that processing, please contact the relevant client directly.
01 | Information we may collect
This privacy notice covers those activities provided by Merkle Inc located at Poonam Chambers, 4th and 6th Floor, B Wing, Dr. Annie Besant Road, Mumbai - 400018 (“Merkle”, “we”, “us” or “our”).
It covers use of our website (https://www.merkle.com), marketing for our various brands, our contact with members of the public (for example, within our recruitment process) and with those acting in a professional capacity (such as when enquiring about, researching, reporting on, assessing or engaging in business discussions). This Privacy Notice explains in detail the types of personal information we may collect about you when you interact with us on any website where this Privacy Notice appears.
What this Privacy Notice Doesn’t Cover:
This Privacy Notice does not cover any data processing carried out by Merkle in connection with employment by, or the supply of contracted services to, Merkle or its subsidiaries. Please contact your local Human Resources Office or the Data Protection Office (if no longer in employment with Merkle) using the contact details below for assistance in these matters.
02 | Sources of information
We collect personal information about you from various sources.
We, and our service providers operating on our behalf, collect Personal Information about you, directly and indirectly, from the following categories of sources:
We collect information when you enter into an agreement, participate in a promotion, contact us, or sign up for our marketing communications and newsletters. We also collect any personal information you provide if you post a comment, make a request, or complete a survey.
We use tracking tools like browser cookies and web beacons to automatically or passively collect information about you. We collect information when you interact with our websites, our apps, our ads, or our emails that we or our vendors send to you. To learn about your choices for these tracking tools, read the Your Rights over Your Personal Information section below.
For example, vendors that host or maintain our websites and apps and send promotional emails for us may give us information. Our employment and recruiting vendors also give us information. Our marketing agencies, advertising technology vendors, and analytics providers may also provide us with information.
For example, we may get information from joint marketing partners and other business partners with whom we have a relationship. Mobile service providers may also provide information based on the device used to access the Services.
If you post to one of our pages on a social media site or connect to a social media platform from our website, we may receive information, including information contained in your social media profile. You acknowledge and understand that we can access this information even when you are not actively using the Services. We may also receive information about you if other users of social media give us access to their profiles and you are one of their “connections.”
Other parties may give us personal information about you. These other parties might also include clients, and business and marketing partners that give us information they have collected either directly or indirectly from you. We may also receive Employment-Related Information from a job network or social network if you choose to import your information from those platforms when applying for a job with us.
We combine information collected offline with information we collect online. Or we may combine information we get from another party with information we already have. We may also aggregate your information with other consumers’ information to understand preferences and trends over time. We also combine information collected across devices, such as computers and mobile devices.
03 | Types of information we process
We collect and use personal information from and about you.
Merkle (and the vendors we hire to perform services on our behalf) collect, receive, and develop several categories of personal information about you depending on the nature of your interactions with us. For example:
For example, we might collect your name, email address, social media account handles, phone number, and mailing address.
We may collect information about our contact history with you and your other transactions and preferences. We may also collect responses to surveys you complete. We may collect information about your job and title, details of your attendance at our events, and your interest in our services.
If you use our websites or apps, we may collect information about your operating system, the browser you are using and your IP address. We might also collect device identifiers and information about how you use our Wi-Fi network and other services. We might collect information at the site you came from, or the site you visit when you leave us. We may collect page interaction information (such as what areas of the websites you visit and for how long, what search terms you enter, and what content you view and click on), your use of the search function on our website, and methods used to browse away from the page. If you use our mobile apps, we may also look at how often you use the app and where you downloaded it. We may also collect information about your interaction with emails or other electronic messages we send you, such as when you open or click on an email.
We may infer a location based on your IP address. We automatically collect your precise GPS location when you access our apps or the mobile version of our websites. We also collect information about your general location, using your zip code or postcode and IP address.
When you apply for a job, we collect information you submit as part of your application and resume. This might include your work experience and previous employment, your education, the URL to your personal or professional websites, your workplace skill sets and certifications, whether you need a visa or require sponsorship, and/or salary expectations. If you apply for a job, you may choose to also voluntarily provide any of the following information: ethnicity, gender, disability status, and/or veteran status.
Using the other pieces of personal information collected about you, we may draw inferences about you, reflecting what we believe to be your preferences, characteristics, predispositions, and attitudes as well as attributes connected to your IP address.
04 | How we use your personal information
We use personal information as described here.
We use the above-referenced categories of personal information for the following purposes:
- We use information provided by our clients in order to provide services to our clients.
- We use information to provide you with services and fulfill your transactions.
- We use information for marketing purposes. For example, we might use personal information to provide you with information about special promotions, or offers. We might also use this information to send push notifications on our app and to serve you ads about our products and offers. We might tell you about new features or services. These might be our own offers or products, or third-party offers or products we think you might find interesting. We use Google Display Network Impression Reporting to report how our ad impressions, other uses of ad services and interactions with these ad impressions and ad services are related to visits to our site. You may opt-in to receive our email newsletters or to receive text messages from us. To learn about your choices for these communications, read the Your Rights over Your Personal Information section below.
- We use information to respond to your requests or questions. We use information to contact you in response to your feedback or other matters related to our relationship with you (such as about this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use. If your inquiries or feedback relate to your leases, purchases, or an account, we may also use your information to address the matter.
- We use information to analyze and improve our products and services. For example, may use your information to make our websites, apps, services, and products better. We might use your information to customize your experience with us and to conduct research and analysis.
- We use information to comply with our obligations, administer our websites and services, and for internal operations. For example, we use personal information to administer the websites, such as troubleshooting, data analysis, and testing.
- We use information for security purposes. For example, we may use personal information to protect our company, our customers, and our business partners. We also may use personal information to protect our websites or our services, as well as to detect and investigate activities that may be illegal or prohibited (such as cyber attacks or fraudulent transactions).
- We use information for hiring purposes For example, we use Contact Information and Employment-Related Information to review your job applications and contact you about employment opportunities. If you choose to voluntarily submit your ethnicity, gender, disability status, and/or veteran status in connection with a job application, we will use that information for statistical tracking purposes (not for hiring decisions), in accordance with applicable law.
- We use information for verification purposes. For example, we will use certain pieces of personal information to verify your identity if you make requests pursuant to this Privacy Policy. The verification steps and the pieces of personal information that we request may vary depending on the sensitivity and nature of your request.
- We use information as otherwise disclosed or permitted by law, or as we may notify you. We may use personal information to create deidentified or aggregated data which does not identify you or any other individual. We may use and disclose this anonymous or aggregated data as we choose.
05 | Sharing personal information with others
We share your personal information with other parties.
We share personal information under the following circumstances:
We may share personal information with vendors who assist us with the uses of personal information described in this Privacy Policy. This may include vendors who send emails for us, help us manage and operate our websites and apps, provide advertising or marketing services, provide analytics and search engine support, track advertising impressions, investigate and prevent data incidents, provide physical and digital security services, audit our business and financial statements, vet job applicants, provide legal advice, and place our advertisements on other platforms. We may share your information with organisations involved with the provision, management or otherwise direct engagement of events, webinars or other such Merkle hosted functions which you have registered for or have expressed an interest in. Personal information received by vendors may also be subject to their privacy policies.
We might share information with third parties who help us with our marketing efforts, including social media platforms, advertising networks, and ad tech companies. For example, we may share email addresses or other Contact Information with social media platforms so they can serve our advertising to you on their platform. Personal information received by our partners may also be subject to their privacy policies.
We may share any or all categories of personal information to respond to a court order or subpoena. We may also share this personal information if a government agency or investigatory body requests it. We might share your personal information in order to enforce our agreements and to protect our rights and/or the rights of others. We might share your personal information when we are investigating potential fraud. This might include fraud we think has happened during a promotion. Where we have a legal requirement to do so, if you are the winner of a sweepstakes or contest, we may also share your certain Contact Information with anyone entitled to request a winner’s list.
For example, if Merkle sells or merges any of its businesses (including any of our affiliates, divisions, and business units) or assets, applies for loans, or opens bank accounts, we may disclose your personal information as a part of that transaction, including to the prospective buyer or parter, lender or bank, as the case may be. We may share your personal information if there is a similar change to our corporate structure. We may also share your information with others as part of certain due diligence processes. We also share information for the purpose of management and administration of Merkle’s business.
We may share personal information for other reasons we may describe to you from time to time or as permitted by law.
06 | Your rights over your personal information
Merkle enables users to opt-out from certain uses of information in a digital environment. If you want to opt-out from our solutions from the browser you are currently using, click here and our systems will attempt to place an opt-out cookie on your computer.
You may also visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ to have the option of opting out of many of Merkle’s partners. Please note that if you clear cookies from your browser, you may need to renew your opt-out choice. The mobile operating systems (e.g., Android and iOS) have their own opt-out mechanisms that apply IBA in mobile app environments. To exercise this opt-out, please visit the privacy settings of your Android or iOS device and select “limit ad tracking” (Apple iOS) or “opt-out of interest based ads” (Android).
While Merkle does not currently respond to Do Not Track signals, when our systems detect the presence of our opt-out cookie or a mobile o/s opt-out indicator, our solutions will stop engaging in IBA for the opted out browser or device. And if we have linked two or more browsers or devices as described above, our systems will attempt to sever the link for the opted out browser or device.
If you wish to update your email marketing preferences, or unsubscribe, you can also do so by visiting this page.
You can make the below more specific requests with respect to your personal information. Depending on where you live and what you are asking us to do, we may or may not be obligated to comply with your request, and/or the time required to complete a request may vary:
- Right to Know – You can request that we disclose to you the categories of personal information we collected about you, the categories of sources from which we collected the personal information, the categories of personal information we sold or disclosed, our business or commercial purpose for collecting and selling the personal information, the categories of third parties with whom we shared the personal information, over the past 12 months
- Right to Access – You can request that we provide you with a copy of the specific pieces of personal information we collected about you over the past 12 months.
- Right of Deletion – You can request that we delete your personal information that we maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions.
- Do Not Sell My Info – You can request that we not sell your personal information by clicking Do Not Sell My Info. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “sell” means the sale of your personal information to an outside party for monetary or other valuable consideration, subject to certain exceptions set forth in applicable California law. Any opt-out of cookie-based tracking for advertising purposes is specific to the device, website, and browser you are using, and is deleted whenever you clear your browser’s cache.
Merkle will not discriminate against you because you made any of these requests.
You can make these requests online by clicking here, by emailing us at DPO.india@dentsuaegis.com or by calling us at +1.443.542.4000. We may deny certain requests, or fulfill a request only in part, based on our legal rights and obligations. For example, we may retain personal information as permitted by law, such as for tax or other record keeping purposes, to maintain an active account, and to process transactions and facilitate customer requests. Note that for purposes of these requests under this Privacy Notice, personal information does not include information about job applicants, employees and other of our personnel; information about employees and other representatives of third-party entities we may interact with; or information we have collected as a service provider to our clients.
We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity prior to responding to your requests. The verification steps will vary depending on the sensitivity of the personal information and whether you have an account with us.
You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on their behalf. When submitting the request, please ensure the authorized agent is identified as an authorized agent.
For purposes of making these requests, please also note the following regarding how we collect and use your personal information as described in this policy, including in the previous 12 months:
- We may collect, and use for our business and commercial purposes, the following categories of personal information as set forth in applicable California law: Identifiers; payment and customer records information; characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law (which include demographic information such as age and gender); commercial information; professional or employment information; internet or other electronic network activity information; geolocation data; audio, electronic or visual information; and inferences. We collect this personal information from the sources described above.
- We may disclose each of the foregoing categories of personal information for the business purposes described in this Privacy Notice to the extent permitted by applicable law.
- We may sell the foregoing categories of personal information to our business partners.
If you reside in California, you have the right to ask us one time each year if we have shared personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make a request, please send us an email, or write to us at the address listed below. Indicate in your letter that you are a California resident making a “Shine the Light” inquiry.
07 | Where and when we send information abroad
As Merkle is a global organization, we may transfer your personal information outside of India, to any Merkle group company, or to third parties and business partners inside or outside of India.
By using our websites and solutions or providing any personal information to us, you consent to the transfer, processing, and storage of such information outside of your country of residence where data protection standards may be different.
08 | How we protect your personal information
Merkle has reasonable security measures in place to help protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.
Merkle has implemented reasonable, industry-standard security policies, standards and practices designed to protect information from internal and external threats. The degree of protection for each piece of information is based on the risk and consequences associated with having that information compromised. While no security measures will provide for absolute security, all Merkle employees responsible for the management of information have the responsibility to adhere to Merkle’s documented security controls, which are developed commensurate with the understood risk.
Our Responsibility for Website Links
This Privacy Notice is limited to the personal data collected by Merkle. We do provide links within this site to other websites, including social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you follow these links, your use of these sites will be governed by their applicable user and privacy notices since their data practices fall outside the scope of this Privacy Notice. Further, we can have no responsibility for or control over the information collected by any third-party website and we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you may provide on such websites.
Children Under 16
This website is not intended for children aged 16 or under. We do not actively seek to collect personal data about children aged 16 or under. If you have any concerns about your child’s privacy in relation to our services, or if you believe that your child under the age of 16 may have entered personal data onto our website, please contact us at DPO.india@dentsuaegis.com. We will delete such personal data from our records or seek verifiable parental or legal guardian consent to retain such information within a reasonable time.
09 | Cookies
A cookie is a small file which may be downloaded to and stored on your computer, phone, tablet or other device when you visit a website. More general information about cookies is available here.
Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by being able to remember your choices and preferences.
We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages on our websites are being visited. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website’s reliability and to tailor it to customer needs.
Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you on your computer, other than the data you choose to share with us.
Site specific cookie information and help in understanding, making choices about and managing cookies can be found within our cookie notice
10 | Contact the Merkle Data Protection Officer
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, our approach to privacy or you would like to exercise any of the rights mentioned in this Privacy Notice you can contact our Data Protection Officer in any of the following ways:
You can contact the Merkle Data Protection Officer by post at:
Address: Data Protection Officer
Merkle Inc.
Poonam Chambers, 4th and 6th Floor, B Wing,
Dr. Annie Besant Road, Mumbai - 400018
Telephone:
+1.443.542.4000 (International)
Or by email at: DPO.india@dentsuaegis.com
11 | Updates to the Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice may be updated from time to time. When we do, we will update this page. The date of the most recent revision will appear below. You should review this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes that have been made. If you do not agree to the changes, please do not continue to use our services and please refrain from sharing your personal information with us.
This policy is effective from September 16, 2020.