Effective date: November 21, 2024
This Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is collected, used, and shared when you visit or make a purchase from wamerch.com (the “Site”).
This policy applies to anonymous visitors, members, and all users of our website, and is part of our Terms of Service.
By using our website, you agree that your personal information that you provide directly to us, or that we collect through your use of the website, may be transferred to and stored in the United States and handled as described in this Policy.
Who We Are
Our website address is: https://wamerch.com.
Personal Information We Collect
Automatically Collected Information
When you visit the Site, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the Site, we collect information about the individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site, and information about how you interact with the Site. We refer to this automatically-collected information as “Device Information”.
We collect Device Information using the following technologies:
- “Cookies” are data files that are placed on your device or computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. For more information about cookies, and how to disable cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
- “Log files” track actions occurring on the Site, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
- “Web beacons”, “tags”, and “pixels” are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Site.
Additionally when you make a purchase or attempt to make a purchase through the Site, we collect certain information from you, including your name, billing address, shipping address, payment information (including credit card numbers, email address, and phone number). We refer to this information as “Order Information”.
When we talk about “Personal Information” in this Privacy Policy, we are talking both about Device Information and Order Information.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Reviews
When customers leave reviews on the site we collect the data shown in the review form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your review.
Media
If you upload images to the Site, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
User Surveys
From time to time, we may solicit your participation in user surveys. We may ask you demographic information, including information related to your gender, ethnicity, race, age, sexual orientation, earnings, and accessibility to better understand and serve our user base which you may elect to share or not. We collect such information to ensure we provide fair and equal access to our services. To the extent that you participate, we will store your survey responses.
Event Information
At in-person and online events, we may request information from you. This is done to better tailor the event experience to those in attendance. This information may include your name, email address, payment details, mobile phone number, demographic information, social media and other online accounts you maintain, and survey or feedback responses.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
Information Collected by Third Parties
Cookies
We use Cookies on our website that collect information to allow us and third parties to understand your use of our website. Please see our cookie policy for more information on our use of cookies on our website.
Social Media Features and Widgets
We use social media features, including the Facebook Like button and widgets, such as the Share button or similar interactive mini-programs that run on our website. If you provide your social media information to us, we may use it to interact with you on these social networks. These features may collect your IP address and other personal data including which page you are visiting on our site and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our website. Your interactions with these Features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it. For more information on the technologies used by these social networks, please refer to their specific privacy notices. We have provided links to the most used social networks below for easy reference:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/
- Instagram: https://help.instagram.com/155833707900388
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/legal/page/us/privacy-policy/en
- Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/p/legal/privacy-notice/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/privacy
- YouTube: https://policies.google.com/privacy
How We Use Your Personal Information
We use the Order Information that we collect to fulfill any orders placed through the Site (including processing your payment information, arranging for shipping, and providing you with invoices and/or order confirmations). Additionally, we use this Order Information to:
- Communicate with you;
- Screen our orders for potential risk or fraud; and
- When in line with the preferences you have shared with us, provide you with information or advertising relating to our products or services.
We process your information to:
- verify your identity to comply with US federal, state, and international laws
- allow you to sign in to your account
- process payments
- send merchandise to your shipping address
- send you emails relevant to your usage, as controlled by your email preferences
- reply to your questions
- provide to you existing and enhanced services related to your our website account
- market our website products and services to you or to audiences similar to you based on your networks and common factors that others
- understand how you use the service, and create better tools to serve members
- conduct research and development to improve our website and develop future products
- prevent fraud and abuse on our website
- provide you with reasonable accommodation, if you notify us of a disability
We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).
Information We Share with Third Parties
We never sell your information to third parties. We share your Personal Information with third parties to help us use your Personal Information, as described above. For example, we use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site — 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.
We will only share data with third parties under the following circumstances:
- with our service providers, who are companies that are contractually engaged with us to provide us with services, such as order fulfillment, email management, analyzing data trends, credit card processing, multi currency settlement solutions, increasing our brand awareness and user engagement with marketing initiatives, and fraud detection and prevention. These companies may have access to your data to perform their services, and are obligated by contract to safeguard any of your data they receive from us to the same extent that our website protects it.
- to protect the security or integrity of our website, and to protect the rights, property, or safety of our website, its employees, users, or others, if we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, or other valid legal process (e.g., subpoenas or warrants served on our website). If we are going to release your data, we will do our best to provide you promptly with notice by email, unless we are prohibited by law from doing so.
- in connection with the sale, merger, bankruptcy, sale of assets or reorganization of our company. We will notify you if a different company receives your data. The promises in this privacy policy apply to any data transferred to a new entity.
- with third party apps used to help run our loyalty and other customer programs.
Behavioral Advertising
As described above, we 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/.
Do Not Track
Please note that we do not alter our Site’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.
Information We Share with the Public
The following information may be publicly accessible:
- any post comments or product reviews you make
- your aggregated or anonymized usage data in blog posts, press releases, or in other ways to share information about our website’s usage. Aggregated or anonymized data cannot be linked back to any individual website user
Your Rights over Data
Marketing Activities
By agreeing to our terms of use, you expressly agree that our website may:
- provide you with information about our products, our offers, or service enhancements while you are on our web site or using our apps.
- send you messages regarding your existing service, or enhancements related to your existing service, when you are off our website, via email, or via text, if you have signed up for a service or event notification that uses text messages.
- market our website to you and audiences similar to you based on your networks and common factors that others have with you, unless you opt out.
- send you marketing emails or texts if you don’t have a our website account but have consented to receiving such messages, from which you may opt out.
- ship physical items to you via mail as part of a promotional activity.
Opting out of Marketing
You may object to the use of your data for marketing purposes at any time, free of charge, when we collect your personal information and in every marketing communication.
Opting out will stop marketing emails. Please allow up to 30 days for your opt-out request to be processed. If you have an account with our website, you will continue to receive service-related emails, and texts, if you have opted into receiving texts. You will also continue to receive service-related shipments of benefits to the designated delivery address.
We will never sell your information to third parties for marketing purposes without your prior consent.
Accessing, Updating or Exporting the Information in Your Account
You can access and update certain information associated with your account on the My Account pages.
Deleting Your Account
Please email us directly at info@wamerch.com to request account deletion.
Turning off Email Notifications
You can change your email notifications in your email settings. While this allows you to stop many notification emails, we will still send some critical service emails and all order related emails.
Verification of Requests
Users maintain password protected accounts with our website. If you submit a request to exercise your privacy rights, you will be asked to verify the request by logging into your our website account.
If we are unable to verify your request, then for your protection, we reserve the right to deny the request.
Compliance with EU Privacy Laws
Our website is an international company that complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We act as Data Controllers, as defined under the GDPR, and process personal data based on our legitimate interests, and for contractual necessity in providing you the Service as described in “How We Use Your Personal Information.” We also process and share personal information based on notification and users’ consent, which our users may revoke at any time.
Our website relies on various legal bases to lawfully execute international transfers of personal information, including the European Union Commission approved standard contract clauses.
Our website is responsible for the processing of personal information it receives or subsequently transfers to a third party acting as an agent on our website’s behalf.
If you are a European resident, you have the right to access 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 through the contact information below.
Additionally, if you are a European resident we note that we are processing your information in order to fulfill contracts we might have with you (for example if you make an order through the Site), or otherwise to pursue our legitimate business interests listed above. Additionally, please note that your information will be transferred outside of Europe, including to Canada and the United States.
With respect to personal information received or transferred, our website is subject to the regulatory enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Exercising Your Data Rights
Users in certain locations may have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regarding data that our website controls as a Data Controller as defined under the GDPR, including:
- the right of access to their personal data,
- the right to correct or rectify any inaccurate personal data,
- the right to restrict or oppose the processing of personal data,
- the right to erase or delete their personal data,
- the right to personal data portability, and
- the right to opt-out of the sale of personal information.
You can exercise rights over your data on our website in the following ways:
- accessing, reviewing, modifying, and updating your data by logging into your account at our website and going to your account settings.
- viewing our privacy policy or viewing our data practices by going online to our our website Privacy Center, where the Data Practices tab describes how we use your data, and the Policies tab shows you our privacy policy.
- downloading your data to port it, or deleting your data altogether, by clicking on the “Take Control” button at the our website Privacy Center.
- deleting a previously-disabled account by emailing our website at requests@arpcomics.com.
- opting out of marketing by entering your email address at this opt out link.
- going to FAQ support online for data-related issues.
If you are unable to log into your account, and are unable to recover your account with a password reset in order to lodge your privacy request, then you may reach out to info@wamerch.com. We reserve the right to decline you access to or recovery of your account, at our discretion, to prevent an unauthorized takeover of your account.
Account Holders with Disabilities
Our website is committed to accessibility for its account holders with disabilities; details are available in our Accessibility Policy. If you are having difficulty accessing your account, please email us at info@wamerch.com for assistance.
Prohibition against Discrimination
We do not discriminate against users who exercise their privacy rights.
Our Data Retention Period
When you place an order through the Site, we will maintain your Order Information for our records unless and until you ask us to delete this information.
We retain your account information for up to ten years after your account is last active, unless you delete, or you request us to delete, your account. We may continue to retain some information, even after you delete your account if we are required to do so in order to comply with various laws.
Security
The security of your personal information is important to us and we follow industry standards to protect it.
Children
Our website is not directed at children under the age of 13, and children may not create an account or otherwise use our website.
Changes
We may sometimes make changes to this policy for operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Continuing to use our website after a change to this policy means you accept the new policy. If you have any questions, please email info@wamerch.com.
Contacting our Data Protection Officers
If you have privacy concerns or questions, you can contact us via email at info@wamerch.com.