Mercating LLC (“we”, “us”, “our” or “Mercating”) the marketing agency owns and operates the mercating.com website (“Website”). We help businesses scale with tailored and problem-solving marketing solutions (“Services”)
We, at Mercating, are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you of our policies regarding the collection, use, safety, change, deletion, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Website or Services (collectively, the “Platform”) and the choices you have associated with that data.
We mainly use your data to provide and improve the Platform. By using the Platform, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, the terms and conditions used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms of Service, accessible at https://mercating.com/terms
DEFINITIONS
Personal Data means the data about a living individual who can be identified from those data (or from those and other information either in our possession or likely to come into our possession). Personal Data in this Privacy Policy includes Personal Information, Device Information, and Order Information.
Usage Data means the data collected automatically either generated using the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
Cookies are small files stored on your device (computer or mobile device). For more information about our cookies policy, please click here.
Data Controller means the natural or legal person who (either alone or jointly or in common with other persons) determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal information are, or are to be, processed. For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, we are a Data Controller of your Personal Data.
Data Processors (or Service Providers) means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Data Controller. We may use the services of various Service Providers to process your data more effectively.
Data Subject (or User) is any living individual who is using our Service and is the subject of Personal Data.
USAGE OF THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We collect, process, and store the following types of information on your behalf when You use the Platform.
“User-Provided” Information
When you use our Platform, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Data”). Personal data is any form of information that can identify an individual, which may include, but is not limited to:
- Name and last name
- Email address
- Phone number
- Mailing Address
- Credit Card
- Address, State, Province, ZIP/Postal code, City
You may provide this information, for example, when you register to our site, subscribe to, or contract our services, contact us through our contact forms, complete surveys you have consented.
You may decline to submit any Personal Data through the Service; in which case we may not be able to provide certain Services to you.
“Automatically Collected” Information
When you visit the Website, we may also collect information on how you access and use the Website (“Usage Data”). In this case, we may automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, browser version, operating system, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device.
Additionally, as you browse the Website, we collect information about the individual web pages or services that you view, what third-party sites or search terms referred you to the Website, information about how you interact with the Website, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data (“Device Information”).
All the information that is automatically collected is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns. Some of this information is stored for security purposes so we can alert you of any suspicious activity on your account.
Furthermore, we may use the Device Information we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Website (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Website, and, when in line with the preferences you have shared with us, to provide you with information or advertising relating to our products or services, and assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).
We collect Device Information using the following technologies:
- Cookies. Cookies are data files that are placed on your device or computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Service and hold certain information. Please see our Cookies Policy for more information.
- Other tracking technologies are also used such as web beacons, tags, pixels, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze the Website.
- Log files. Log files track actions occurring on the Website and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
- Web beacons, tags, and pixels. These are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Website.
“User Collected” Information
We may collect personal data to ensure full functionality of the features provided depending on how You use the Website. For example, we may store names, mailing addresses and contact numbers (amongst other information) of your customers so you can fulfil any orders that are placed through our Platform. For this purpose, Mercating is the data processor. Each User is responsible for providing notice to their customers or users detailing what Personal Data may be stored and processed through our Platform, and the reasons for doing so.
“Third-Party” Information
We use third-party integration services (“Integrations”) that allow us to access to certain Personal Data and full functionality of those Integrations. Certain Integrations may also require us to receive and store data of your customers or users depending on the functionality of the service. By agreeing to this Policy, you authorize Mercating to access and store any Personal Data, including that of your users or customers, that may be required. Mercating will only have access and thus use any Personal Data that is essential and will not disclose any of the information shared via these Integrations. Please be aware that each Integration will have their own privacy policy. You acknowledge and agree to check with each service for exactly what information they make available to us.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics to measure traffic to our Site and understand how Users move around and use our Service. We use this information to enhance the Site and Service we provide to ensure that Users get the best experience possible. We also use Google Analytics to monitor aggregate information of your website which helps us monitor the performance of features we offer within our Service to ensure full functionality. The information gathered also enables us to improve these features in the future. All of the information we collect from Google Analytics is aggregate and will not be disclosed with any other third parties.
By agreeing to this Privacy Policy, you agree to the use of Google Analytics. Google may use the data collected to assess activity on our site. As Google is a separate entity to us, it has its own privacy policy which we recommend you review. Further information specific to Google analytics and how they secure the data collected can be found here. If you wish to do so, you can opt-out of Google Analytics by following the instructions here.
HubSpot
We use https://www.hubspot.com/ ("HubSpot") a CRM software that allow us to manage our sales and marketing operations, including your Personal Data, and general information about your business, products and services, goals, etc. with the sole purpose of performing and improving the Platform.
To understand how HubSpot processes the Personal Data we submit to HubSpot, please visit https://legal.hubspot.com/terms-of-service
USING THE DATA COLLECTED
During the provision of the Platform, we use the information collected for various internal purposes, including the following:
Operations
- To provide and maintain the Platform
- To allow you to participate in interactive features or events of the Platform when you choose to do so
- To perform our obligations arising from any contracts entered between you and us
- To carry out any business essential administrative processes
- To enhance the Platform, we provide by developing releases, and improving functionality of existing features
Analysis
- To investigate any issues that arise from using our Service
- To ensure that all the features we provide are available, functional, and maintained as per the specifications advertised
- To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our Service
- To monitor the usage of our Service
- To detect, prevent and address technical issues
Communications
- To enable our team to provide You with support when requested or required to do so
- To notify you of any changes to the Platform
- To investigate and prevent fraudulent activities
- To ask for Your feedback or review
Marketing
To share with You via newsletters, SMS, instant messaging, marketing or promotional materials, social media or any other available channel, updates that you have requested, or that we feel may be of genuine interest to You. These include updates about the Services we offer, new product releases, promotions and general business information which may or may not be connected to third parties we work with.
You have the right to opt-out of receiving any promotional information. You may opt-out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email we send or by contacting us.
Third-party services
We may also contract with companies or persons to provide certain services such as payment processing, order processing, tax calculation, shipping, data management, marketing, advertising, and other services.
We provide such companies or persons with the information needed for them to perform their services, which may include your Personal Information. Such information may be transmitted outside the United States, European Union, and other countries or regions. The location will depend on the places those companies or persons reside.
SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES
We share your Personal Information with third parties to help us use your Personal Information, as described above. The following is the list of the third-party software applications we use to manage the Platform
Webflow to power our sites – you can read more about how Webflow uses your Personal Information here: https://webflow.com/legal/privacy
Google Analytics helps us understand how our customers use the Website – you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here:
https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
HubSpot helps us manage our sales and marketing efforts – you can read about how HubSpot may use your Personal Information here. https://legal.hubspot.com/terms-of-service
QuickBooks allow us to manage our finances, quotes, estimates, invoices, and payment transactions – you can read more about their Privacy Policy here: https://www.intuit.com/privacy/
Microsoft Bookings provides us with an online booking system that helps You schedule meetings with us. Bookings is a Microsoft 365 app, meaning all data is stored within the Microsoft 365 platform and in Exchange. Bookings follows all data storage policies that are set by Microsoft, which are the same policies that all Office apps follow. You can read more about it here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/scheduling-and-booking-app. All data (including information You provide when booking) is captured in Bookings and is stored within the app, thus it's stored within Exchange. Microsoft Bookings uses the same policies used by Microsoft 365, which you can find here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/trust-center/privacy
Finally, we may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant, or other lawful requests for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.
Behavioral advertising
We also use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page at http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.
You can opt-out of targeted advertising by using the links below:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads
Google: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/anonymous
Bing: https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/policies/personalized-ads
Additionally, you can opt-out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out portal at http://optout.aboutads.info/.
STORING THE INFORMATION COLLECTED
When your information is submitted to us, we use it to ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to ensure your information is protected. These safeguards are implemented to ensure that personal data in our possession is not subject to any unlawful forms of processing which include accidental loss, unauthorized access, or disclosure. Our Website has Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption present amongst other general security measures such as firewalls and password protection to certain areas of the Platform. Our employees are trained to ensure that all administrative processes are followed to ensure that your data is handled and processed accordingly. These measures are regularly reviewed to ensure that your Personal Data is being stored in the most secure way possible.
The data we collect from you may be processed, transferred, and stored using various services integral to our business operations. These services may be based in locations outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) and only the essential and necessary data will be provided to them for them to fulfill their purpose. Data may also be processed by a member of staff operating outside of the EEA who works for us. Such staff may be engaged in, amongst other things, the fulfilment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your Personal Data to us, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.
We have ensured that all services we use to transfer, store and/or process data, in or outside EEA, have been verified to ensure that they are compliant with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and any other respective legal framework that applies to that particular service.
Further to this, we will continually monitor said services to ensure compliance is still being achieved at any given time and the data they hold is stored in a safe and satisfactory manner using the most up to date security measures. We will, to the best of our knowledge, not process, store, or transfer any data to any service that does not comply with the GDPR or have adequate security measures in place to protect your personal data.
Unfortunately, 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 the Platform; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorized access.
LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA UNDER THE GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)
If you are from the European Economic Area (EEA), Mercating legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described in this Privacy Policy depends on the Personal Data we collect and the specific context in which we collect it.
We may process your Personal Data because:
- We need to perform a contract with you
- You have given us permission to do so
- The processing is in our legitimate interests, and it is not overridden by your rights
- For payment processing purposes
- To comply with the law
You have the right to access the personal information we hold about you and to ask that your personal information be corrected, updated, or deleted. If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us anytime.
If you’d like to delete cookies or instruct your web browser to delete or refuse cookies, please visit the help pages of your web browser. As a European citizen, under GDPR, you have certain individual rights. You can learn more about these rights in the GDPR Guide.
Additionally, we may process your information to fulfill contracts we might have with you, or otherwise to pursue our legitimate business interests listed above. In such a case, please note that your information will be transferred outside of Europe, including Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
DATA RETENTION
Mercating will retain your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.
Mercating will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of the Website, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer periods.
Additionally, if You place an order through the Platform, we will maintain your Order Information for our records unless and until You ask us to delete this information.
If You are a prospective candidate applying for any vacancy through the Website or any other channel where Mercating submits career opportunities, you agree to the processing of your Personal Data required to complete the hiring process accordingly and thus, agree to this Privacy Policy. In case you are not selected to work at Mercating LLC, you acknowledge and agree that We will retain your Personal Data for future job opportunities unless you explicitly request us to remove or delete such information.
DATA TRANSFER
Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to – and maintained on – computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction.
If you are located outside the United States of America and choose to provide information to us, please note that we manage the data, including Personal Data, within the United States of America. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
Mercating will take all the steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.
DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION
We will only disclose your information to any third parties as detailed in this Policy and under the following circumstances:
Business Requirements
- If Mercating is involved in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, your Personal Data may be transferred to the prospective seller or buyer. We will provide notice before your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.
- If Mercating or substantially all its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case Personal Data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
- To our domain name registries only when we register domains on your behalf.
- To facilitate payment transactions.
- To enforce our Terms and Conditions and other agreements.
- To protect the rights, property, or safety of Mercating, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
For more information, please read the “YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS UNDER THE GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)” section of this Policy.
Advertising Requirements
We do not disclose any personally identifiable information about individuals to our advertisers, but we may provide them with aggregate and general information about our Users (for example, we may inform them that 200 women aged under 30 have clicked on their advertisement on any given day). We may also use such aggregate information to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target (for example, men in certain postal area). We may use of the Personal Data we have collected from you to enable us to comply with our advertisers' wishes by displaying their advertisement to that target audience.
Our Website may contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates (“External Websites”). If you follow a link to any of those External Websites, you acknowledge that those sites will have their own privacy policy, which you will read and accept before submitting any Personal Data. Mercating does not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies.
Legal requirements
Mercating may disclose your personally identifiable information to identify, contact, or bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to us, our customers, our suppliers, or service providers. In such a case, Mercating may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
- To comply with a legal obligation or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or governmental agencies.)
- To protect and defend the rights or property of Mercating
- To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
- To protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public
- To protect against legal liability
DATA SECURITY
The security of your data is important to us but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
OUR POLICY ON “DO NOT TRACK” SIGNALS UNDER THE CALIFORNIA ONLINE PROTECTION ACT (CALOPPA)
Mercating does not track You over time and across third-party websites to provide targeted advertising, and therefore does not respond to Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals. DNT is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked. Please note that some third-party websites still do keep track of your browsing activities when they provide You with content, which enables them to custom what information they present to you. If You are visiting such sites, You still can disable DNT signals by visiting the Preferences or Settings page of your web browser. On the contrary, enabling DNT means that a request will be included with your browsing traffic. Any effect depends on whether a website responds to the request, and how the request is interpreted.
The following web browsers allows you to turn on or off DNT signals to let third parties (advertisers) know you do not want to be tracked:
Google Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2790761
Microsoft Edge: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge-browsing-data-and-privacy-bb8174ba-9d73-dcf2-9b4a-c582b4e640dd
Mozilla Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-turn-do-not-track-feature
Safari: https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/prevent-cross-site-tracking-sfri40732/mac
When the DNT request setting is turned on it will send a request to the websites you visit to not track your activities, including to the third parties whose content may be hosted on the sites you visit.
Please note that we do not alter our website’s data collection and use practices when we see a DNT signal from your browser.
YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS UNDER THE GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)
If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain data protection rights. Mercating aims to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your Personal Data.
If you wish to be informed about what Personal Data we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us.
In certain circumstances, you have the following data protection rights:
- The right to access, update, or delete the information we have on you. Whenever made possible, you can access, update or request deletion of your Personal Data directly within your account settings section. If you are unable to perform these actions yourself, please contact us to assist you.
- The right of rectification. You have the right to have your information rectified if that information is inaccurate or incomplete.
- The right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your Personal Data.
- The right of restriction. You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information.
- The right to data portability. You have the right to be provided with a copy of the information we have on you in a structured, machine-readable, and commonly used format.
- The right to withdraw consent. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where Mercating relied on your consent to process your personal information.
Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.
You have the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority about our collection and use of your Personal Data. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority in the European Economic Area (EEA).
If you wish to exercise any of your rights in accordance with the GDPR, please contact us with the specific request. We will act at no cost within 30 days, where possible. The action taken will be free of charge, provided in an easily accessible format (if applicable) and actioned within 30 days, where possible.
SERVICE PROVIDERS
We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service (“Service Providers”), provide the Service on our behalf, perform Service-related services, or assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.
These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
Analytics
We may use third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.
You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.
For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy and Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Intercom
We use third-party analytics services to help understand your usage of our services.
In particular, we provide a limited amount of your information (such as sign-up date and some personal information like your email address) to Intercom, Inc. (“Intercom”) and utilize Intercom to collect data for analytics purposes when you visit our website or use our product.
As a data processor acting on our behalf, Intercom analyzes your use of our website and/or product and tracks our relationship by way of cookies and similar technologies so that we can improve our service to you. For more information on Intercom's use of cookies, please visit https://www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#cookie-policy.
We may also use Intercom as a medium for communications, either through email, or through messages within our product(s). The Intercom Messenger Apps and Apps in Help Desk products may also provide you with access to other third party applications such as Stripe.
You should consult these third parties' privacy notices for further information on their use of your personal data. As part of our service agreements, Intercom collects publicly available contact and social information related to you, such as your email address, gender, company, job title, photos, website URLs, social network handles and physical addresses, to enhance your user experience. For more information on the privacy practices of Intercom, please visit https://www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#privacy.
Intercom’s services are governed by Intercom’s terms of use which can be found at https://www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#terms. If you would like to opt out of having this information collected by or submitted to Intercom, please contact us.
BEHAVIORAL REMARKETING
Mercating uses remarketing services to advertise on third party websites to you after you visited our Service. Our third-party vendors and we use cookies to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on your past visits to our Website.
Facebook Inc., provides Facebook remarketing service.
You can learn more about interest-based advertising from Facebook by visiting this page: https://www.facebook.com/help/164968693837950
To opt-out from Facebook’s interest-based ads, follow these instructions from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/help/568137493302217
Facebook adheres to the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising established by the Digital Advertising Alliance. You can also opt-out from Facebook and other participating companies through the Digital Advertising Alliance in the USA http://www.aboutads.info/choices/, the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada in Canada http://youradchoices.ca/ or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance in Europe http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/ or opt-out using your mobile device settings.
For more information on the privacy practices of Facebook, please visit Facebook’s Data Policy: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation
PAYMENTS
We may provide paid products and/or services within the Service. In that case, we use third-party services for payment processing (e.g., payment processors).
We will not store or collect your payment card details. That information is provided directly to our third-party payment processors whose use of your personal information is governed by their Privacy Policy. These payment processors adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of payment information.
The payment processors we work with are:
QuickBooks. Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at https://www.intuit.com/privacy/
PayPal. Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full
LINK TO OTHER SITES
Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. You will be directed to that third party’s website if you click a third-party link. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
We respect and protect Children´s Privacy. Therefore, we do not address the Platform to anyone under the age of 16 (“Children”). If you are under the age of 16 and we have not been provided clear parental consent, Mercating will immediately terminate Your use or access to the Platform. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children, has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we noticed that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we will take the appropriate action to ensure it is removed from our system.
CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will make any efforts to keep you up to date regarding those changes. In such a case, we will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.
You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
CONTACT US
For more information about our privacy practices, if you have questions, or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us.
