Privacy Policy

The effective date of this Privacy Policy is August 14, 2020.

1. Overview

Kärcher North America, Inc. (“Kärcher,” "we," "us," or "our") is a leading manufacturer of commercial, industrial and consumer cleaning equipment in North America, and is a subsidiary of Kärcher Group. This privacy policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect, use, retain, process, store, share and transfer information you provide to us when accessing and using our website, accessible at https://kaercher.com/us and each of our mobile apps, sites or portals that post a link to this Privacy Policy (“Sites”), and the services provided through our Sites (the “Services”).

If you use our Sites and Services, we collect various types of data from you. In some instances, the data will be considered “Personally Identifiable Information,” “Personal Information” or “Personal Data” under applicable laws. Generally, this type of data is information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual. This Policy describes how and why we collect information, and provides an overview of your choices and privacy rights relating to our collection, use and sharing of your data.

From time to time, we may change this Privacy Policy. If we do, we will post an amended version on this webpage. Please review this Privacy Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Sites and Services after any amendment confirms that you accept the terms of this Privacy Policy and any amendments in effect at the time of your use of the Sites and/or Services.

2. Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding data protection or your rights, please contact us:

Kärcher North America, Inc.
Legal Services
6398 Kärcher Way
Aurora, CO 80019
303-738-2400
privacy.us@karcher.com

3. Categories of Information We Collect

When we interact with you, we may collect the following types of Personally Identifiable Information from you.

A. Information you provide:

Contact information (name, company name, customer number, title, mailing address, telephone number, electronic mail address)
Order information
Shipping information
Return information
Inquiry Information
Warranty registration information
Support information
Payment information, including payment card information
Purchase order
Order history
Communications to and from you through the Site and/or Services
Your login information (if applicable)
Any other information you provide to us.

B. Information we collect as you navigate our sites. We automatically collect certain Personally Identifiable Information through your use of the Sites and Services, such as the following:

Usage Information. We collect information such as which of the pages on the Sites you access, the frequency of access, and what you click on while on the Sites.
Technical Information. We collect technical information about your connection to our Site, including the Internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, browser plug-in types and versions.
Device Information. We collect information about the device you are using, such as hardware model, operating system, application version number.
Mobile Device Information. In addition to the Device Information listed above, when you access our Sites via a browser on your mobile device, we collect and aggregate information about whether you are accessing the Sites via a mobile device or tablet, device type, and carrier.
Location Information. We collect location information from Site visitors on a city-regional basis.

We use cookies and other tracking technologies (such as pixels and web beacons) (collectively, “Cookies”) to collect information as you navigate our Sites. “Cookies” are small files of information that are stored by your web browser software on your computer hard drive, mobile or other devices (e.g., smartphones or tablets). We use Cookies to:

Estimate audience size and usage patterns;
Understand and save your preferences for future visits, allowing us to customize the Sites and Services to your individual needs;
Advertise new content, events and services that relate to your interests;
Keep track of advertisements and search engine results;
Compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions to resolve issues and offer better site experiences and tools in the future; and
Recognize when you return to the Sites.

We set some Cookies ourselves and others are set by service providers. We use Cookies set by service providers to provide us with useful information to help us improve our Sites and Services, to conduct advertising, and to analyze the effectiveness of advertising.

Cookies can be blocked by changing your Internet browser settings to refuse all or some Cookies. If you choose to block all Cookies (including essential Cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of the Sites.

You can find out more about Cookies and how to manage them by visiting www.AboutCookies.org.

You can understand which third parties have currently enabled Cookies for your browser or mobile device and how to opt-out of some of those Cookies by accessing the Network Advertising Initiative’s website or the Digital Advertising Alliance’s website. For more information on mobile specific opt-out choices, visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s Mobile Choices website.

C. Third party information you provide. In some cases, we may receive certain Personally Identifiable Information from you about a third party. For example, you may purchase a product that is shipped to a third party. If you submit any Personally Identifiable Information about another individual to us, you are responsible for making sure that you have the authority to do so and to allow us to use their Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

4. Why We Collect and How We Use Your Personally Identifiable Information

We use the Personally Identifiable Information we collect to provide the Services to you, to improve our Services and Sites, and to protect our legal rights. In addition, we may use the Personally Identifiable Information we collect to:

Allow you to participate in features we offer on the Sites and Services
Process your account registration
Review your job application
Email you information
Contact you regarding our products, services or promotions that we feel may be of interest to you
Communicate with you about our Sites or Services or to inform you of any changes to our Sites or Services
Provide support
Tailor our content, advertisements and offers
Maintain and improve our Sites and Services
Defend our legal rights and the rights of others
Determine your location and manage digital content rights
Efficiently maintain our business
Comply with applicable law.

5. Information We Share With Third Parties

We may share the information that we collect about you in the following ways:

With service providers. We may share information with service providers who:

perform data services on our behalf (e.g., email, hosting, maintenance, backup, analysis, etc.)
process payments on our behalf
to prepare, deploy and analyze advertising content on our behalf
provide other services on our behalf

To ensure that your Personally Identifiable Information receives an adequate level of protection, we have put in place appropriate procedures with the service providers we share your Personally Identifiable Information with to ensure that your Personally Identifiable Information is treated by those service providers in a way that is consistent with and which respects the applicable laws on data security and privacy. For example, we use cloud data storage; payroll processors; accounting software; payment processors; marketing service providers.

Other. We also may share information in the following instances:

We may share your information with one of our dealers if you have expressed interest in a particular product or service
We may share information with other person or entity if you have consented to the disclosure.

To meet our legal requirements or exercise our rights. We may share information with third parties in the following instances:

When we are required to do so by law
In connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings
To establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights, including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention
To any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that Personally Identifiable Information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that Personal Information
We may share information with other persons or entities as part of our own corporate transactions, such as during financing of our business, or any business or asset sale or merger.

6. Third Party Content and Advertising Services

Third-Party Links

Our Sites may contain links to websites, platforms, applications or services operated by third parties. These third parties may use their own cookies, web beacons and other tracking technology to collect information about you. They may also ask you to provide information. This Privacy Policy does not cover those practices and we encourage you to review the privacy policies and procedures of any third-party sites and services you use.

We may engage or work with other third parties to serve advertisements or other analytics on our Sites or Services.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics uses Cookies or other tracking technologies to help us analyze how users interact with the Sites and Services, compile reports on their activity, and provide other services related to their activity and usage. The technologies used by Google may collect information such as your IP address, time of visit, whether you are a returning visitor, and any referring website. The technologies used by Google Analytics do not gather information that personally identifies you. The information generated by Google Analytics will be transmitted to and stored by Google and will be subject to Google’s privacy policies. Learn more about Google’s partner services and how to opt-out of tracking of analytics by Google.

Google AdWords

We use Google AdWords for targeting and remarketing. We collect data about your activities that does not personally or directly identify you when you visit our Sites, the website for which we serve advertisements, or the websites and online services where we display advertisements. We use the information we collect to serve you more relevant advertisements (referred to as “Remarketing”). We collect information about where you saw the ads we serve you and what ads you clicked on. Users may opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting the Google Advertising Opt-out Page.

Interest-Based Ads

We may use cookies and other technologies on our Sites and third-party vendors to collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites you visit in order to provide you with interest-based advertising. You can generally opt-out of receiving interest-based advertisements from members of the Network Advertising Initiative or the Digital Advertising Alliance by visiting their opt-out pages: (http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/) and (http://www.aboutads.info/choices/). When you opt-out using these links, please note that you may still receive advertisements. They just will not be personalized based on your interests.

“Do Not Track” Signals

Some internet browsers incorporate a “Do Not Track” feature that signals to websites you visit that you do not want to have your online activity tracked. Given that there is not a uniform way that browsers communicate the “Do Not Track” signal, the Sites do not currently interpret, respond to or alter its practices when it receives “Do Not Track” signals.

7. Choices About Your Personally Identifiable Information

Review and request changes to your personally identifiable information

If you have an account with us, you may use your account to access, correct, or view certain Personally Identifiable Information we have collected and which is associated with your account. Alternatively, to review or request changes to any of your Personally Identifiable Information, please contact us at privacy.us@karcher.com.

Marketing communications
To unsubscribe from emails from us, please click the unsubscribe link included in the footer of our emails. You also may submit a request to us at privacy.us@karcher.com.

8. Security

We maintain commercially reasonable security measures to protect the Personally Identifiable Information we collect and store from loss, misuse, destruction, or unauthorized access. However, no security measure or modality of data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. Although we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personally Identifiable Information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Sites or Services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone. Unfortunately, however, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk.

9. Children's Privacy

The Sites and Services are not intended for or directed to children under 16 years of age. We do not intentionally or knowingly collect, use, sell or disclose personal information from children under 16. If we obtain knowledge that we have collected Children’s Personal Information, we will remove such data.

10. Data Retention

We will store your information for as long as you are a customer, our performance of the Services require, and as long as our ethical obligations require. We may keep records of transactions with you for a period of up to seven (7) years to comply with the IRS requirements.

11. Notice to Nevada Residents

Nevada law allows Nevada residents to opt-out of the sale of certain types of personal information. Subject to a number of exceptions, Nevada law defines “sale” to mean the exchange of certain types of personal information for monetary consideration to a person for the person to license or sell the information to additional persons. We do not currently sell personal information as defined in the Nevada law. However, if you are a Nevada resident, you still may submit a verified request to opt-out of sales and we will record your instructions and incorporate them in the future if our policy changes. Opt-out requests may be sent to privacy.us@karcher.com.

12. Notice to California Residents Disclaimer

This notice reflects our good faith understanding of the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and our current data practices. However, the CCPA implementing regulations are not yet approved and there are varying interpretations of the law’s requirements. This Notice to California Residents (“Notice”) is for California residents and supplements all other provisions of our Privacy Policy.

The CCPA defines “personal information” to mean information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. Personal information does not include information that is publicly available, deidentified or aggregate information. For purposes of this Notice section we will refer to this information as “Personal Information.”

This Notice covers our collection, use, disclosure, and sale of California Consumers’ Personal Information, except to the extent such Personal Information is exempt from the notice obligations of the CCPA for the twelve months preceding the Effective Date. Some of the data we collect and process is not subject to CCPA Consumer rights. For example we collect and process the following types of information that is currently exempted from the CCPA:

Business-to-business information
Employee or personnel information
Publicly available information (as defined by the CCPA)

A. YOUR RIGHTS. If you are a California resident, you have the following rights:

1. Right to Know: You have the right to request that we disclose what Personal Information of yours that we have collected, used, disclosed or sold in the 12 months. This right includes the right to request any or all of the following:

a. Specific pieces of Personal Information that we have collected about you;
b. Categories of Personal Information we have collected about you;
c. Categories of sources from which the Personal Information was collected;
d. Categories of Personal Information that we sold (if applicable) or disclosed for a business purpose about you;
e. Categories of third parties to whom the Personal Information was sold (if applicable) or disclosed for a business purpose; and
f. The business or commercial purpose for collecting or, if applicable, selling Personal Information.

Categories of Personal Information. In the last 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information about California residents:

Identifiers (name, account name, email address, postal address, and telephone number)
Unique personal identifiers (cookies, beacons, pixel tags, mobile ad identifiers, or other similar technology; customer number, unique pseudonym or user alias; Internet Protocol address)
Social Security number
Financial information (bank account number and credit and debit card number)
Internet or other electronic network activity information (browsing history; search history; information regarding consumer’s interaction with website, application or advertisement; and geolocation data)
Commercial information (records of products or services purchased, obtained or considered; or other commercial information such as the last four digits of credit cards, shipping and tracking information)
Inferences drawn from above information to create a profile about a consumer reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes

Categories of Sources of Personal Information. We collect personal information from the following sources:

You: We collect the content, communications, and other information you provide when you use our Sites and Services, including when you sign up for an account, make a purchase, create or share content, and message or communicate with us. We collect information about how you interact with our Sites and Services, and the time, frequency, and duration of your activities.

Other people: We may also receive and analyze content, communications, and information about you that other people provide when they use our Sites and Services, such as when an order is made and shipped to you.

Your device(s) and technology: We collect information from and about the computers, phones, connected TVs, and other web-connected devices you use that integrate with our Sites and Services, and we may combine this information across different devices you use.

Kärcher Companies: We may receive information from other Kärcher companies for business purposes that help us provide you with better products, services and online experiences. We may also process information about you across the Kärcher Companies for these purposes, as permitted by applicable law, and in accordance with their terms and policies.

Partners & Service Providers: We may receive information about you from our distributors or others who assist us in providing information and fulfilling orders. We may also share information with our service providers, such as payment processers, advertising providers, data analytics providers, and others identified above.

Business or Commercial Purposes for Collecting Personal Information. The business purposes for which we collect and use Personal Information is set forth in Section 4 above.

2. Right to Request Deletion: You have the right to request that we delete your Personal Information that we have collected from you.

3. Right to Opt Out of Sale of Personal Information: You have the right to opt out of our sale of your Personal Information. We do not sell the Personal Information we collect from you.

4. Right to Non-Discrimination: You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us if you exercise any of your rights under the CCPA.

B. HOW TO EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS OR OBTAIN MORE INFORMATION. If you would like more information, or would like to exercise your “right to know” or your “right to request deletion,” email us at privacy.us@karcher.com or leave a message with your name, request, and contact information for a follow-up call on our toll free privacy line 1-833-220-2420.

C. OUR PROCESS FOR RESPONDING TO AND VERIFYING YOUR REQUESTS.

To protect your Personal Information, we will take steps to verify your identity before processing your request. Our verification process will differ depending on whether you have a password protected account with us and on the nature of your request.

For requests to access categories of Personal Information and for requests to delete Personal Information that is not sensitive and does not pose a risk of harm by unauthorized deletion, we will verify your identity to a “reasonable degree of certainty” by verifying at least two data points that you previously provided to us and which we have determined to be reliable for the purpose of verifying identities.

For requests to access specific pieces of Personal Information or for requests to delete Personal Information that is sensitive and poses a risk of harm by unauthorized deletion, we will verify your identity to a “reasonably high degree of certainty” by verifying at least three pieces of Personal Information previously provided to us and which we have determined to be reliable for the purpose of verifying identities. In addition, you will be required to submit a signed declaration under penalty of perjury stating that you are the individual whose Personal Information is being requested.

Authorized Agent requests.
Under the CCPA, you may exercise these rights yourself or you may designate an authorized agent to make these requests on your behalf. If a request is submitted on your behalf by an authorized agent, we will require the agent to provide proof that the agent is authorized to act on your behalf.

D. SHINE THE LIGHT LAW. We do not disclose personal information obtained through our Sites or Services to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Accordingly, we have no obligations under California Civil Code § 1798.83.

13. Notice to Residents of the European Economic Area.

The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) allows us to collect and use personal information from residents within the European Economic Area only for one or more of the following reasons:

To fulfill a contract we have with you;
When we have a legal duty;
When it is in our legitimate interest; or
When you provide consent.

If you reside in the European Economic Area and we have a business or commercial reason to use your personal information, this is considered a legitimate interest. We will tell you what that interest is in this Privacy Policy or any privacy notice provided to you at the time of the collection of the information. We will not use your personal information if such use is against your own interest.

The GDPR and other regulations treat some types of sensitive personal information as particularly sensitive, including information about racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, trade union membership, health data and criminal records. We will not collect or use these types of data without your consent unless the law allows us to do so. If we do, it will only be when necessary for reasons of substantial public interest or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

If you reside in the European Economic Area, you have a number of rights under data protection laws in relation to the way we process your personal data. These are set out below. You may contact us directly to exercise any of these rights, and we will respond to any request received from you within one month from the date of the request. In very exceptional circumstances we may need to extend this timescale, but we will always tell you in advance if we do, and our reasons why.

Number	Description of your right
Right 1	A right to access personal data held by us about you, as well as information about how we are using your data.
Right 2	A right to require us to rectify any inaccurate personal data held by us about you.
Right 3	A right to require us to erase personal data held by us about you, and where the personal data has been made public, for other controllers processing the personal data to also erase links to, or copy or replication of, such personal data. This right will only apply where (for example): we no longer need to use the personal data to achieve the purpose we collected it for; or where you withdraw your consent if we are using your personal data based on your consent; or where you object to the way we process your data (in line with Right 6 below).
Right 4	A right to restrict our processing of personal data held by us about you. This right will only apply where (for example): you dispute the accuracy of the personal data held by us; or where you would have the right to require us to erase the personal data but would prefer that our processing is restricted instead; or where we no longer need to use the personal data to achieve the purpose we collected it for, but you require the data for the purposes of dealing with legal claims.
Right 5	A right to receive personal data, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. You also have the right to require us to transfer this personal data to another organisation, at your request.
Right 6	A right to object to our processing of personal data held by us about you (including for the purposes of sending marketing materials to you).
Right 7	A right to withdraw your consent, where we are relying on it to use your personal data (for example, to provide you with marketing information about our services or products). If you have consented to receive communications from us, you can contact us at any time to have your details removed from lists used by us or to update your marketing preferences. Please email privacy.us@karcher.com and provide your name, email/telephone number/account number in the body of the email, telling us what you would like us to do. You can also click "unsubscribe" on any of our emails, and we will ensure we don't send you any communications of this nature in future.

You may also reach out to your applicable Data Protection Authority (“DPA”) for more information. There is a DPA located in each EU Member State.

14. Accessibility

We are committed to ensuring this Privacy Policy is accessible to individuals with disabilities. If you wish to access this Privacy Policy in an alternative format, please contact us via the address, phone or email set forth in Section 2 above.