Privacy Policy

Last Updated February 2016

Winmark Corporation (“Company”) is committed to providing you with information, products or services to meet your needs. That commitment includes protecting information we obtain about you. We want to earn your trust by providing strict safeguards to protect information about you as we continue to bring you valuable information, products and services. Please take a moment to read this Privacy Policy for some important information about your rights.

By using the Company website or any of our applications, products, services, features, tools, or resources you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and our Conditions of Use.

This Privacy Policy, along with our Conditions of Use, governs your use of the Company website at winmarkfranchises.com, and any other information we may access through social media platforms such as Facebook, which is owned and operated by us.

Information We May Collect

When you apply to be a franchisee at our websites or request information from the Company, we may collect information about you, including information you give us on applications, questionnaires or other forms. This information is voluntarily provided by you and may include, but is not limited to, your name, address, telephone number, email address, personal preferences, or other personal identifiers. Based on the information you provide us, we may also collect information from consumer reporting agencies, such as credit bureaus, in order to evaluate your eligibility to become a franchisee.

In addition to information provided by you, our website may make use of browser “cookies.” Cookies are text files written to a user’s hard drive and read by the server programs to inform a website if the user has previously visited that site. We use cookies to deliver content specific to your interests, to save your password so you don’t have to re-enter it each time you visit our site, and for other purposes. The cookie never contains data that is “executed” as code, so it cannot carry viruses. Cookies are linked to browser programs and do not specifically identify an individual user. Cookies can be rejected by you and if so, none of the functions listed above will be performed.

We may also use third-party vendors, such as Google Analytics, to advertise to our users online. These third-party vendors may display Company product or service advertisements on other websites based on your internet usage. More specifically, these vendors use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytic cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on your past visits to the website or another site affiliated with Company products or services. Any information that these third parties collect via cookies is not linked to any personally identifiable information (name, address, email address, or phone number) we collect or you provide on the website. You can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising by using Google’s Ads Settings.

Children Under 13

We do not knowingly solicit data online from or market online to children under the age of 13.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

The Company collects personally identifiable information from you when voluntarily submitted by you, for example, if you complete an on-line franchise application. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone. We may send personally identifiable information about you to others only when: 1) we have your consent to share the information; 2) we need to share the information to provide the information, service or product that you requested; 3) we need to send the information to people or companies who work on behalf of the Company to provide information, products or services to you; 4) we respond to subpoenas court orders or legal process; or 5) we find that your actions on the website violate the Conditions of Use, or any of our usage guidelines for specific products or services. In addition, user demographic information is shared with advertisers on an aggregate basis in a manner that will not personally identify the individual submitting the information.

When This Policy Does Not Apply

This policy does not apply to the practices of companies that the Company does not own or control, or to people that the Company does not employ or manage. In addition, this policy does not apply to the websites of other divisions of the Company, as each website has its own privacy policy.

Linking to Other Internet Sites

You should be aware that other Internet sites that you link to from the Winmark Corporation site or a Winmark e-mail may contain privacy policy provisions that differ from the provisions of this Privacy Policy. To ensure your privacy is protected, we recommend that you review the privacy policy of other Internet sites you visit.

Security

This site has taken reasonable security measures to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. However, please remember that no computer system should be considered safe from intrusion. E-mail may pass through many computer systems, and should not be considered as a secure means of communication unless encrypted. Even then, information is only as secure as the encryption method. If you visit our website, the Company will not communicate with you unless you have given us permission to do so.

How Users Can Limit Information Collected

By providing information to us or using our website, you are consenting to our use of your data as outlined in this Privacy Policy.

While we work hard to use and disclose our users’ personal information only for the purposes identified above, you can choose not to provide personal information or limit the personal information obtained by us as follows:

• You may have your contact information removed from our marketing lists to inform users of new or relevant products, services and special offers by clicking on the unsubscribe link in any communication received from us or by emailing us at marketing@winmarkcorporation.com.
• You may limit the collection of “cookies” through your browser settings. However, this may disable our ability to provide you with the most relevant products or information regarding the system; and
• You may limit the ability of Google Analytics to track your online activity, as outlined in the “Behavioral Advertising” section.

Copyright Infringement

We prohibit the submission of any copyrighted material without the user first obtaining the prior written consent of the copyright owner. In particular, if you are a copyright owner or an agent thereof and believe that any User Submission or other Content infringes upon your copyrights, you may submit a notification pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") by providing our Copyright Agent with the following information in writing (see 17 U.S.C 512(c)(3) for further detail):

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at the Site;
3. Identification of the material on the Site that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material;
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an email address;
5. A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Our designated Copyright Agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement is Tamara L. Harmon who can be reached at (763) 520-8500. For clarity, only DMCA notices should go to the Copyright Agent; any other feedback, comments, requests for technical support, and other communications should be directed to customer service at (763) 520-8500. You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this Section, your DMCA notice may not be valid.

Changes to This Policy

We reserve the right to modify this policy from time to time and will mark new versions with a corresponding effective date. We recommend that you visit the site regularly to review any changes in our practices.

Your California Privacy Rights

California Civil Code § 1798.83 permits users that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us via the website.

Conclusion

We appreciate how important privacy is to you. We want you to understand why we collect and sometimes share information about you and how this can benefit you. Simply stated, by knowing more about you, we can provide a greater range of information, products and services that may be of interest to you.

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Winmark Corporation
Attn: Legal Department
605 Highway 169 N, Suite 400
Minneapolis, MN 55441

(866) 595-0053