Privacy Policy

We take your privacy very seriously. To better protect your privacy, SweetWater Technologies (“we,” “us,” or “our”) provides this Privacy Policy (“Policy”) that explains our online information practices about the way your information is collected and used on www.sweetwatertechnologies.com (the “Site”). Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and our information practices, meaning how and why we collect, use, disclose, sell, share, store, and retain your personal information. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us with any questions or concerns.

1. Personal Information 

We may collect and use Personal Information to improve the security and relevance of the Sites to you. “Personal Information” identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonable capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular person or household.

Data We Collect. Some features of our Sites, for example, the Contact Us form, require disclosure of some personal information. We collect the minimum amount of Personal Information reasonably necessary to fulfill the collection purpose. We may collect the following types of Personal Information

Category	Details
Identifiers	Name; Phone Number; Email Address; Street Address; Date of Birth; Internet Protocol (IP) Address.
Professional Personal Information	Information related to your education, training, description of future goals, cover letter, references, and employment history.
Commercial information	Records of property, products, or services purchased, obtained, or considered, including prior or current business ownership.
Internet or other electronic network activity information	Internet or other electronic activity information, including but not limited to browser type, language, operating system, domain names, access times, browsing and search history, and information regarding your interaction with our sites, application, or advertisements. This information may be collected through automatic collection mechanisms, like Cookies (see “Cookies & Other Tracking Technologies” below).

You are not required to provide personal information to us. However, if you do not provide some personal information, it may delay or prevent us from responding to any inquiry from you or providing services to you.

2. How Your Personal Information is Collected. We collect personal information from the following categories of sources:

Personal Information You Provide
When you apply for opportunities with us or contact us through the Site, we use online forms to collect Personal Information. 

Automatic Collection of Online Activities
We collect Personal Information automatically through your online activities (see “Cookies & Other Tracking Technologies” below).

Social Media
We are active on social media, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn (“Social Media”). Anything you post on Social Media is public and not confidential. We may post comments or content you post on Social Media to any of our Social Media pages or on the Sites. Your use of Social Media is governed by the privacy policies on their sites, and not by this Policy. Therefore, we encourage you to review those policies.

Information We Do Not Intentionally Collect
The Site is not directed at children under age 13. We do not knowingly collect, use, or share Personal Information from children under 13. If a parent or legal guardian informs us that their child provided us with Personal Information without their consent, we will make commercially reasonable attempts to delete such Personal Information.

3. How We Use Your Personal Information.
   
   We only use your personal information when reasonably necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was collected. Our uses are limited to the following purposes:
   1. To Provide Products of Services to You. We may use Personal Information for the performance of any contract with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with us. Your Personal Information may be used to update our customer and user records.
   2. As Stated, or Agreed, at the Point of Collection. We may use Personal Information for any purpose stated or agreed-to (including purposes that are obvious) at the point of collection. This includes responding to your questions, comments, or complaints.
   3. Business Strategy and Administration. We may use Personal Information to ensure that business policies are adhered to and for reporting on internal procedures. We may also use Personal Information for operational reasons, such as to improve our efficiency, training, and quality control. We may also share Personal Information with our professional advisors, including attorneys, accountants, financial and business advisors, in their capacity as advisors to us.
   4. Legal and Regulatory Compliance. We may use Personal Information when it is reasonably necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. We may disclose Personal Information to law enforcement agencies when we have a good faith belief that we are required to do so by law or if we are advised to do so by our legal counsel.
   5. Advertising and Communications. Your Personal Information may be used for advertising and marketing our services to you.  We may use your personal information to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone, or post) about our products and services. You have the right to opt out of promotional communications with you, by contacting us at support@stg-sweetwatertechnologies-staging.kinsta.cloud or by using the “unsubscribe” link in emails or send “STOP” to any number where you receive a text message from us. 
   6. Site Management. We may use Personal Information to manage the Site, including troubleshooting, and improving the content and functionality of the Site. Personal Information may be used to perform statistical and other analysis of the Site and customize the Site for you and our other users. Further, Personal Information may be used to prevent and detect fraud against you and us and to prevent unauthorized access and modifications to our Site and systems.
   7. To Protect Our Rights. We may use Personal Information to conduct checks to verify the identity of our site users, a purpose aligned with our legitimate security interest and for compliance with any professional, legal, and regulatory obligations that apply to our business. Personal Information may be provided for the purpose of audits, inquiries, or investigations by any regulatory bodies. We may use Personal Information if it is reasonably necessary to protect confidential or commercially sensitive information, including our intellectual property, trade secrets, and other commercially valuable information. We may disclose Personal Information to law enforcement agencies when reasonably necessary to protect our rights.
   8. Change in Ownership. If we are the subject of a change of control or if the Site changes ownership, in whole or in part, or in the event of a bankruptcy, receivership, or similar transaction, we may provide Personal Information as needed in the due diligence process or to the subsequent owners. 
4. Cookies & Other Tracking Technologies. We may use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags and other tracking technologies (collectively “Cookies”) on our Site. These may consist of a small text file that saves to your computer or device when you use the Site to provide information about your activities. Cookies provide the Site with information about your actions and preferences and allow the Site to recognize you or your browser. Web beacons or pixel tags are small graphics on a site that monitor activity. The purpose of Cookies on our Site is to improve the Site’s function, personalize your experience, aid in our marketing, and help us improve our Site and services. 
5. Who We Share Your Personal Information With. We routinely share personal information with:

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal information if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal information. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers relating to ensure they can only use your personal information to provide services to us and to you. We may also share personal information with external auditors.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal information with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. We will typically anonymize information, but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

6. Personal Information We Sold or Shared. In the preceding 12 months, we have not sold or shared personal information for any promotional purpose, except for a purpose identified in Section 3 of this Policy.
7. Keeping Your Personal Information Secure. We take commercially reasonable technical and organizational measures to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorized way. We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so. You understand that no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be secure. While we strive to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of any Personal Information you provide to us, which you do at your own risk.
8. How Long Your Personal Information Will Be Kept. We will keep your personal information while you have an account with us or while we are providing products and/or services to you. Thereafter, we will keep your personal information for as long as is necessary:

• To respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf
• To show that we treated you fairly –or–
• To keep records required by law

We will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of personal information. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal information, we will delete or anonymize it.

9. Access Outside of the United States. If you access the Site while outside of the United States, your Personal Information may be transferred to, stored, in and processed within the United States. Some jurisdictions may not consider the level of protection of Personal Information in the United States to be equivalent with what is required in their jurisdiction.
10. California Consumers: Your Rights Under the CCPA/CPRA. You have the right under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA), and certain other privacy and data protection laws, as applicable, to exercise free of charge:
    1. Access to and correction of your Personal Information;
    2. Request deletion of your Personal Information;
    3. Request information about the Personal Information about you that we have disclosed and/or sold to third parties within the past 12 months; and to
    4. Opt-out of the sale of your Personal Information.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us via email at support@stg-sweetwatertechnologies-staging.kinsta.cloud. 

Please note that we are not required to:

1. Retain any Personal Information about you that was collected for a single one-time transaction if, in the ordinary course of business, that information would not be retained.
2. Reidentify or otherwise link any data that, in the ordinary course of business, is not maintained in a manner that would be considered Personal Information; or
3. Provide the Personal Information to you more than twice in a 12-month period.

Right to Opt Out. We do not sell or share Personal Information for the purposes of the CCPA, as amended by the CPRA.

Right to Limit Sensitive Personal Information. You have the right to limit the use and disclosure of your sensitive personal information.

Right to Deletion. Subject to certain exceptions set out below, on receipt of a verifiable request from you, we will:

1. Delete your Personal Information from our records; and
2. Direct third parties to whom the business has sold or shared your personal information to delete your Personal Information unless this proves impossible or involves disproportionate effort.

Please note that we may not delete your personal information if it is reasonably necessary to:

1. Complete the transaction for which the personal information was collected, fulfill the terms of a written warranty or product recall conducted in accordance with federal law, provide a good or service requested by you, or reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform a contract between you and us;
2. Help to ensure security and integrity to the extent the use of the consumer’s personal information is reasonably necessary and proportionate for those purposes;
3. Debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
4. Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act
5. Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with your expectations based on your relationship with us; 
6. Comply with an existing legal obligation; or
7. Otherwise use your personal information, internally, in a lawful manner that is compatible with the context in which you provided the information.

Right of Correction. If we maintain inaccurate Personal Information, you have the right to request that we correct that inaccurate Personal Information. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to do so. To request a correction, please contact us at support@stg-sweetwatertechnologies-staging.kinsta.cloud.

Protection Against Retaliation. You have the right to not be retaliated against by us because you exercised any of your rights under the CCPA/CPRA. This means we cannot, among other things:

1. Deny goods or services to you;
2. Charge different prices or rates for goods or services, including through the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties;
3. Provide a different level or quality of goods or services to you; or
4. Suggest that you will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services. 
5. Changes to This Privacy Notice. This privacy notice was published on January 29, 2024.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time–when we do, we will inform you via notice on our website.

12. How to Contact Us. Please contact us by email at support@stg-sweetwatertechnologies-staging.kinsta.cloud if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you. 
13. Do You Need Extra Help? If you would like this notice in another format (for example: audio, large print, braille) please contact us at:

SweetWater Technologies
3981 1945 North Ave.
Sheffield, IL 61361
(815) 454-9600
support@stg-sweetwatertechnologies-staging.kinsta.cloud