WEBSITE PRIVACY STATEMENT

Welcome to The Local Palate. When you use or interact with a website or other digital service operated or owned by Peninsula Publishing, LLC / DBA: The Local Palate, we may obtain certain information about you. We recognize that you may be concerned about the information that you provide to us or that may be collected, and how we treat that information. In order to address those concerns, we have developed this Privacy Policy.

A.  TYPES OF INFORMATION COLLECTED

We may collect both personal information (information that identifies, relates to, or could be linked with a particular individual) and non-personal information about you.

Personal information. You don’t have to provide us with your personal information (such as your name, address, telephone number, email address) in order to read most of what’s posted on our sites. We do collect personal information about you when you set up an account for your subscription with us or place an order from a site. We may also collect personal information about you when, for example, you sign up to receive newsletters or emails, enter a contest or promotion, respond to a survey, email us, or when we alert you that you must submit personal information. Such information may include name, screen name, password, address, phone number, email address, credit card numbers, expiration dates, CVV codes, as well as billing and shipping addresses. Without this information, we would not be able to fulfill your orders, or respond to your inquiries, entries, and requests.

Other information. Other information that we may collect about you include the following. When you engage in transactions with us, we keep a history of your purchases or goods or services that you considered. If you attend a Local Palate event, we may take a photograph or video of you or in which your image may be included and published. When you access our website, we collect your IP address automatically, and we may be able to use this information to determine your general location.

Information from other sources. We obtain personal and non-personal information from third-party sources, such as our advertisers, business partners, sponsors, service providers, data partners, social media sites, and other third parties accessible through the site (such as via links from our websites and/or framed on our websites). These parties may collect information directly from you pursuant to their own separate privacy policies.

Non-personal information. We may collect non-personal information, such as which pages on the site are accessed, what information is downloaded, what type of browser and operating system are being used, which Internet service provider is being used, and other information of this general type from visitors to our websites. By collecting this information, we learn how best to develop our websites to meet the needs and desires of our visitors.

B.  METHODS OF INFORMATION COLLECTION

Personal information. We collect personal information when you submit it—such as when you sign up for an account with us, place an order for a product, or when you send us an email. In addition, your personal information may be collected by third parties as described above and then provided to The Local Palate by the third party.

Non-personal information. We collect non-personal information via cookies, pixel tags, or other tracking technology. When you visit our website, log in, register or open an email, cookies, ad beacons, and similar technologies may be used by our online data partners or vendors to associate these activities with information they or others have about you, including your email address. We (or service providers on our behalf) may then send communications and marketing to these email addresses. A cookie is a string of information that is stored on your computer when you visit our websites, and that your browser provides to the website each time you return. A pixel tag (also called a web beacon or clear GIF) is a tiny graphic with a unique identifier, embedded invisibly on a webpage (or an online ad or email), and is used to count or track things like activity on a webpage or ad impressions or clicks, as well as to access cookies stored on users’ computers.

C.  HOW WE USE INFORMATION

Personal information. If you sign up for a subscription account with us or place an order from the site, then we may use your personal information to maintain your account and to correspond with you. We may also use it to send you information that we think would be of interest to you, such as Local Palate events, Local Palate Marketplace products or offers, or similar matters. If you enter one of our contests, then we may use your personal information for purposes of the contest (such as to notify you if you win) or otherwise in accordance with the contest official rules. If you email us or ask to be placed on a mailing list that we maintain, then we may contact you and send information to you. If you register to purchase merchandise from us, then we may use your personal information to maintain your account and/or process your order. If we receive your personal information from a third-party service provider, then we may use the information to contact you and to assist in performing the service for which you have registered with the third party. In addition to the uses listed above, we may use your personal information to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, as part of a statistical website usage analysis, and/or to improve the features and content of our websites. We may also use your personal information to assist in delivery of content that is customized to your interests, or to analyze your actual or likely preferences. We may use your personal information to detect misuse or abuse of our online services, to protect us, you, and other users from fraudulent activity, or to comply with the law. We may also use your personal information as set forth elsewhere in this Privacy Policy.

Non-personal information. We may use your non-personal information to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, as part of a statistical website usage analysis, to improve the features and content of our websites, and/or for other purposes to assist our business. We use information we collect from cookies to track visitors, their usage of our websites, and their website access preferences. We use information we collect from pixel tags to measure the popularity of our various pages, features and services. We may share such information with advertisers and other third parties, typically in the aggregate. We may also use your non-personal information as set forth elsewhere in this Privacy Policy.

D. WHEN WE DISCLOSE INFORMATION

Public disclosure. If you choose to interact with us on social media, your screen name and other information you have provided will be public. If you attend one of our events, we may publish a photograph or video that includes your image. We may also publish information concerning winners of contests that we sponsor, as permitted by the contest rules.

Service providers. During the course of its business, The Local Palate uses third parties to provide a variety of business services, such as credit-card and billing processing, shipping, marketing, advertising optimization and interest-based targeting, email and text message distribution, data processing, mobile and website analytics, user authentication, security and promotions management, legal services, and financial services. In some instances, The Local Palate may need to provide personal and/or non-personal information about you to such third parties. However, all third-party service providers are prohibited from using your personal information for any purpose other than that for which they were selected to work with The Local Palate.

Advertisers. We may provide your information to advertisers and marketing service providers to develop, manage, and conduct advertising and marketing campaigns, promotions, and offers, including about our content, products, and services or third parties’ products and services. We may also share information you provided when entering a contest with the sponsor(s) of the contest.

Data partners. We may share information with data partners, such as data aggregators and data resellers. They may provide us with demographic information, information about your purchases, and other information that helps us learn about you and other visitors. We do not retain or preserve this information or disclose any personal information that we may obtain in this manner to other third parties.

Other uses. In addition to the uses set forth elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, The Local Palate may use or disclose personal or non-personal information: (i) in cases where we believe in good faith that it is necessary to prevent a crime, an injury, or financial loss to ourselves or to third parties; (ii) to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our websites; (iii) pursuant to a court order, warrant, subpoena, discovery request, or as required by law; (iv) in conjunction with the sale or offering for sale of some or all of The Local Palate; (v) in the event of our bankruptcy, assignment for the benefit of creditors, or similar financial circumstances; and/or (vi) when you have been made aware of the possibility of use or disclosure of the information at or prior to the time of collection.

E. THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

Please be aware that The Local Palate advertisers, business partners, sponsors, service providers, and other third parties accessible through the site (such as via links from our websites and/or framed on our websites) may collect information about you pursuant to their own privacy practices. In addition, we maintain a presence on social media sites, which may collect information directly from you. The Local Palate has no control over these parties and is not responsible for any actions or policies of such third parties. You should check the applicable privacy policies of the third parties when providing information to them.

F.  OUR COMMITMENT TO SECURITY

We have put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures that we believe are appropriate to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect online. Please note that we cannot guarantee the security of our databases or sites, nor can we guarantee that information will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the Internet. In order to use some of the features of our websites, you may be required to create an account with us. For your protection, your account will only be accessible by means of a password or similar security measure. If you believe that your password or email address has been compromised, you should change your account with us immediately. If you forget your password, follow the instructions on the login page.

G.  CHILDREN UNDER 13

The Local Palate websites are not intended for use by children, especially those under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 through our websites. If you are a child under the age of 13 who intends to submit information to The Local Palate through our websites, you must obtain your parent’s consent prior to making such a submission. Even if you are 13 or over, we recommend that all children under the age of 18 obtain parental consent prior to the submission or purchase of anything through our websites.

H.  ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND “OPT OUT” PROCEDURES

1. You can update and review your account information by logging into your account with your username and password. If you do not have a username and password, or if there are pieces of information that you cannot alter yourself, please email us at info@thelocalpalate.com or send mail to PO Box 639 Charleston, SC 29402 for assistance.

I.  CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

1. California Shine the Light Act. Under California’s “Shine the Light” law, California residents have the right to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, a list of the third parties to whom we have disclosed certain types of personal information (if any) for their direct marketing purposes in the prior calendar year. At our option, we may respond to such requests by providing instructions about how our users can exercise their options to prevent our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. You can read these instructions above in the section titled “Access to your Personal Information and “Opt Out” Procedures.” Or, if you are a California resident and prefer that we send you a separate response, please email your request to info@thelocalpalate.com

2. California Consumer Privacy Act. The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) grants of California residents certain rights with respect to their personal information and requires us to provide such individuals with certain information. Under the CCPA, you have the following rights:

—You have the right to request that we delete your personal information. You can make this deletion request emailing us at info@thelocalpalate.com.

—You have the right to request that we disclose to you the categories of personal information we collect, the purposes for which the information will be used, the categories of third parties with whom we share the information, and the specific pieces of information we have collected about you. You can make this disclosure request by emailing us at info@thelocalpalate.com

—You have the right to request that we disclose to you the categories of personal information we sell to third parties, the categories of third parties to whom we sell the information, the specific pieces of information we have collected about you, and the categories of personal information that we disclosed about you for a business purpose. You can make this disclosure request by emailing us at info@thelocalpalate.com

—You have the right to tell us not to sell your personal information to third parties (your “opt out” right). You can make this opt-out request emailing us at info@thelocalpalate.com

J.  NON-U.S. VISITORS

The Local Palate websites are operated in the United States and intended for users located in the United States. However, if you are located in the European Union, you may have certain rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These include your right to access personal information that has been processed, right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”), right to rectification of any information that is incorrect, right to restrict processing your personal information, right to data portability, and right to object (opt-out) to processing (unless we otherwise have compelling legitimate grounds). EU residents can exercise these rights by raising a request directly to info@thelocalpalate.com

K.  CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT

This Privacy Policy may be changed from time to time, so we encourage you to check back with every visit to our websites. If you do not agree to one or more of the changes, you may choose to “opt out,” using the procedures set forth above. Once the change has been made, all information collected by the site before or after the change will be subject to the new terms of the Privacy Statement. The current version of this Privacy Statement is effective July 1, 2022.

CONTACT US

If you have questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact us as follows:

Email: info@thelocalpalate.com

Mail: The Local Palate
PO Box 639
Charleston, SC 29402