Privacy Policy
Last Updated: 1 July 2024
Privacy Policy Statement
At icebreaker, we understand that you care how information about you is collected, used, and shared. This Privacy Statement describes information we may collect about you directly or indirectly; how and why we may collect, use, and share your information; and the choices you have regarding your information. As more fully described below, we collect, use and share your information to better serve you and to improve our own business processes.
This is a comprehensive Privacy Statement that describes all of the ways we might handle consumer personal information in the United States and Canada in a variety of contexts, such as when consumers use our websites, mobile applications, or retail locations; buy our products; participate in our promotions and events; or provide information to us in other ways. In some cases, we may collect, use and share less personal information or for fewer purposes than is described in this Privacy Statement, but we will not collect, use or share personal information beyond the ways described in this Privacy Statement. We process consumers' personal information in different ways and to different degrees, based in part on how consumers choose to interact with us. For example, if a consumer chooses to purchase a product in one of our retail stores without identifying themselves, we would typically collect, use and share less personal information than if a consumer chooses to join our customer loyalty program or use our mobile application.
In the United States, icebreaker is a division of VF Outdoor LLC, a subsidiary of VF Corporation, and in Canada, icebreaker is a division of VF Outdoor Canada Co., also a subsidiary of VF Corporation. For purposes of this Privacy Statement, when we use the terms "we," "us" and "our," or similar terms, we are referring to VF Outdoor, LLC in the United States or VF Outdoor Canada Co. in Canada.
Categories of Information We Collect
How Information About You Is Collected
Cookies and Similar Technologies
Why Your Information Is Collected, Used, and Shared
What Information About You Is Shared and With Whom
Keeping Your Personal Information Secure
Your Options Regarding Personal Information
How Your Identity Will Be Verified
Requests from Authorized Agents
How You Can Opt Out of Online Advertising or Other Promotional Communications
Notice of Financial Incentives
Changes to This Privacy Statement
Categories of Information We Collect
In order to help us better understand you so that we can give you an excellent customer experience, we collect information that identifies you or that we can associate with you (your "personal information"), as well as information that does not identify you (e.g., anonymous, deidentified, or aggregated data). We may also collect various categories of information directly (from you), or indirectly (from others), as more fully described below. The categories of personal information (including sensitive personal information) that we, or our service providers or contractors on our behalf, collect (or have collected during the preceding 12 months) may include the following:
- Identifiers (such as your name, nickname, account name, unique personal identifier, online identifier/screenname, IP address, driver's license number, or signature);
- Contact Information (such as your physical or mailing address, telephone number, or email address);
- Profile information that we collect or that is inferred (such as commercial information and inferences, including products or services purchased or considered, purchasing histories or tendencies, interactions with us online or offline, preferences, psychological traits/ predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, or abilities/aptitudes, some of which may be assigned by probabilistic methods);
- Sensory information like audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory or similar information (such as call recordings and security camera video data)
- Education information (such as your education status or history);
- Employment information (such as your employment status or history, or your professional information);
- Internet activity (such as browsing activity, search activity, clicks, interactions with websites, applications, chatbots and advertisements, social media information, device and configurations, and use of our in-store WiFi);
- Demographic information (such as your age, date of birth, sex or gender);
- Physical characteristics (such as your size, height, weight, or other information relevant to your footwear and apparel preferences);
- Financial information (such as your bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, and other payment information);
- Location data (such as the estimated geographical location information indicated by your mobile device or computer) and
- Sensitive Personal Information (such as your account information, precise geolocation, biometric information, race or ethnicity).
How Information About You Is Collected
We may collect information about you directly from you or indirectly through third parties, as further described here. When you interact with us, we may collect information about you directly. Examples of direct interaction with us include when you visit our websites, shop in our stores, communicate with our customer service representatives, attend our events, use our mobile applications, participate in our marketing efforts (including contests and sweepstakes), participate in our customer loyalty programs, or any other way you interact directly with us. When we collect information about you directly, we may ask you to affirmatively furnish the information to us (such as when we ask you for your telephone number), or we may collect the information from your electronic device (such as when you download and use our mobile applications or visit our websites) or by observing your activity (such as when you visit our stores). We and some of our service providers, contractors and advertising networks may collect identifiers matched to your browser, mobile or other devices, which can be used to deliver customized ads or content via the Internet, across different devices or browsers (sometimes called "cross-device tracking"). In some cases, we may engage service providers or contractors to help us operate our business, and they may collect data on our behalf in the course of the services they provide to us. In other cases, where permitted by applicable law, third parties may obtain information about you independently, and we may acquire that data (for example, by purchasing the data).
We use Google Analytics to better understand how our users interact with our offerings. Information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to our sites is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use (https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/us/) and the Google Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy). Visit https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites to understand how Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps. Opt out of Google Analytics at any time by visiting https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.
We may also use certain forms of display advertising and other advanced features through Google Analytics. These features enable us to use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the Doubleclick advertising cookie) or other third-party cookies together to inform, optimize, and display ads based on your past visits to our offerings. Visit the Google Ads Preferences Manager, currently available at https://google.com/ads/preferences or visit NAI's online resources at https://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1 to control your advertising preferences or opt-out of certain Google advertising products.
The following list describes the sources from which we, or our service providers or contractors on our behalf, may collect various categories of personal information:
- Identifiers may be collected directly from consumers; public records; consumer data resellers/brokers; advertising networks; operating systems and platforms; or social networks/social media.
- Contact information may be collected directly from consumers; public records; consumer data resellers/brokers; or social networks/social media.
- Profile information may be collected directly from consumers; consumer data resellers/brokers; advertising networks; operating systems and platforms; or social networks/social media.
- Sensory information may be collected directly from consumers;
- Education information may be collected directly from consumers; or consumer data resellers/brokers.
- Employment information may be collected directly from consumers; or consumer data resellers/brokers.
- Internet activity may be collected directly from consumers; consumer data resellers/brokers; advertising networks; internet service providers; operating systems and platforms; or social networks/social media.
- Demographic information may be collected directly from consumers; or consumer data resellers/brokers.
- Physical characteristics may be collected directly from consumers; or consumer data resellers/brokers.
- Financial information may be collected directly from consumers.
- Location data may be collected directly from consumers; consumer data resellers/brokers; advertising networks; internet service providers; operating systems and platforms; or social networks/social media.
- Sensitive Personal Information may be collected directly from consumers; advertising networks, internet service providers, operating systems and platforms; or consumer data resellers/brokers.
Cookies and Similar Technologies
We, our service providers or contractors, and third parties collect information, which may include personal information, from your browser, device or application when you interact with our service offerings or open emails from us or otherwise engage with us. We use technologies such as cookies, web beacons, pixels, and mobile identifiers. The information collected via these technologies may include your IP address, unique identifiers, device type, domain, browser type, operating system, date and time stamp, unique device ID, click-path, pages visited, referring URLs, how frequently you access our offerings, whether you open emails or click links in email, or other actions you take. We use the information collected through these technologies to allow you to browse our offerings and use features, to provide custom, personalized content and information, including targeted content and advertising, to measure the effectiveness of our advertising, to recognize you across multiple devices, to remember your preferences, to monitor aggregate usage metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, usage, and demographic patterns of our visitors, to identify errors and resolve them, to analyze performance, to improve our offerings, and otherwise enhance our offerings and your user experience.
We use the personal information we collect directly and indirectly to conduct our business, to communicate with you, and to provide better products, services, and experiences, as further described below. The specific purposes for which we, or our service providers or contractors on our behalf, may collect and use information about you are (1) to provide the products and services that you have ordered or requested, and to communicate about your orders; (2) to enable and improve our customer service; (3) to address your comments, questions or complaints; (4) to personalize your experiences; (5) to understand your opinions, preferences and shopping habits; (6) to analyze trends and statistics; (7) to administer and fulfill our contests and other promotions, including special discounts for professionals, military personnel, students and first responders; (8) to analyze and improve our websites, mobile applications, facilities, products and services, both on an aggregated and individualized basis; (9) to market our products and services to you, including by sending you marketing communications and other information regarding our products, services, or special events, and to improve our marketing efforts; (10) to share reviews, testimonials, or other user-generated content; (11) to facilitate our merger or acquisition activities; (12) to secure and protect our information and technology systems, as well as information about you and other consumers; (13) to facilitate internal audits, dispute resolution or investigations; (14) to evaluate new technology for our businesses; (15) to conduct market research; (16) to formulate our business strategies; (17) to analyze information about organizations to which you may belong; (18) to enable us to monitor and evaluate our third party service providers or contractors and their activities; (19) to manage our gift card programs, loyalty programs, other stored value programs; (20) to keep records of transactions; (21) to comply with our contractual obligations; (22) to detect and address actual or potential fraud; (23) to establish and maintain data back-ups for our business continuity and disaster recovery; and (24) to comply with various legal obligations or other rules to which we are subject. The following list describes in detail the purposes for which we and our service providers or contractors on our behalf collect and use each category of personal information (each number below corresponds to a specific purpose above):
We operate under the following brand names: Altra®, Dickies®, Eastpak®, Icebreaker®, JanSport®, Kipling®, Napapijri®, Smartwool®, Supreme®, The North Face®, Timberland®, and Vans®, and we may share your personal information within our organization.
We may also share your personal information (including sensitive personal information) with service providers and contractors who provide services to us or conduct activities on our behalf. When we share your personal information with our service providers and contractors, we instruct them to only use or share your personal information for the intended purposes, which are limited to those listed above. One example of our information-sharing with a service provider is when we share your name, address, and similar contact information with a courier service for the purpose of delivering a product to you and notifying you of the status of the shipment. Our service providers and contractors include entities that perform the following activities on our behalf: marketing and advertising; order fulfillment; consumer or market research and analysis; account management; event or promotion management; fraud detection; security; customer service; payment processing; technical support; or product creation. The categories of information that we may share with service providers and contractors for our business purposes are the following: identifiers; contact information; profile information; sensory information; education information; employment information; internet activity; demographic information; physical characteristics; financial information; or location data. We share these categories of information for the same purposes we collect and use them, as described above under the caption "Why Your Information Is Collected and Used."
We may also share your personal information (including sensitive personal information) with third parties who are not our contractors or service providers for the following purposes: to advertise our products (including advertising across contexts), to facilitate our merger or acquisition activities; to facilitate internal audits, dispute resolution or investigations; to detect and address actual or potential fraud; or to comply with various legal obligations or other rules to which we are subject. We may also use or share information that does not identify you (e.g., anonymous, deidentified, or aggregated data) and, in these instances, we do not attempt to reidentify the information and require that each recipient agrees not to reidentify or allow reidentification of the information. We do not sell consumers' personal information for money. We do, however, share consumers' personal information (including sensitive personal information) with certain third parties in ways that might be considered a "sale" or "share" of personal information for targeted or cross-context behavioral advertising under US state privacy laws, even though we do not receive any financial compensation from the third parties in exchange. When we share information in this way, we share it with digital advertising companies and analytics companies for marketing and advertising purposes or analytics purposes. For example, we allow third parties, such as Facebook®, Google® and other third-party advertising networks, to place technologies (such as cookies) on our websites that collect personal information for the purpose of personalized advertising to users of our websites and other potential consumers. The categories of personal information that we share with these third parties for the purpose of targeted or cross-context behavioral advertising are: identifiers, contact information, profile information, internet activity, demographic information, physical characteristics (such as your clothing or shoe size), and location. To request that your personal information not be sold or shared for the purpose of targeted or cross-context behavioral advertising, or to limit the use of your sensitive personal information, please use this hyperlink: Your Privacy Choices.
Data Retention
We retain each category of personal information about consumers for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it is collected and used, but not longer. In determining the period of time consumer personal information will be retained, we consider the frequency with which our consumers purchase from us, our consumer's experience, the utility of the information to our business objectives, warranty and recall issues, legal and contractual record retention requirements, and other factors. We do not retain any category of personal information for more than six years following our last interaction with a consumer, unless required or permitted by law.
Children's Privacy
We do not intend to collect personal information from anyone under the age of 16. If you are under the age of 16, you should not provide any personal information to us. If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 16 and suspect they have provided personal information to us, you may contact us using one of the Communication Methods described in this Privacy Statement to notify us so that we may delete the information. We do not knowingly share or sell the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age. Other age requirements may apply to our loyalty programs or other activities and events.
Keeping Your Personal Information Secure
We store personal information on our servers or those of our service providers (including "cloud" servers), and it is accessible by authorized employees, representatives and agents who require access for the purposes described in this Privacy Statement. We have implemented reasonable security procedures and measures that are intended to protect personal information and our information technology systems that store personal information. Unfortunately, no transmission of information over the Internet nor storage of information electronically can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. In order to help protect personal information you provide to us, you: (i) should not share your password or account information with others, (ii) should use a secure internet connection and web browser, (iii) should select a unique, complex, secure password, (iv) should change your password frequently, and (v) should not use the same password elsewhere. If you become aware of any loss, theft, or unauthorized use of a password, please contact us immediately using the contact information below. By providing your email address in connection with a purchase or your use of our websites, mobile applications, or services, you are consenting to receive electronic notice of any information security issues using your most recent email address in our records.
Links To Other Websites
Our websites and mobile applications may contain links to third-party websites to which this Privacy Statement does not apply ("Linked Websites"). Your use of Linked Websites will be governed by the terms of use, privacy policies, and other terms, notices, and policies set forth on or referenced in those Linked Websites.
International Data Transfers
This Privacy Statement describes our policies and procedures in the United States and Canada. We are a global company, and personal information we collect in the United States and Canada may be transferred to other jurisdictions (such as the United States, Canada, and the European Union) as permitted by law, for the purposes described in this Privacy Statement, and the information may become subject to the laws of those jurisdictions and accessible to authorities in those jurisdictions.
Your Options Regarding Personal Information
We have established processes by which you or an authorized agent can submit requests regarding your personal information. To exercise your options as described in this Privacy Statement, or if you have privacy questions or concerns, you may contact us in one of the following ways:
- by telephone at +1-877-709-1800;
- by completing the web form at https://www.vfc.com/privacy-requests; or
- by mail at: VF Corporation, Attn: Privacy Officer, 105 Corporate Center Blvd., Greensboro, North Carolina, USA 27408.
- Request to Know: You may ask us to furnish you with (i) the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you; (ii) the categories of personal information we have collected about you; (iii) the categories of sources from which we collect information about you; (iv) the business or commercial purposes for collecting information about you; (v) the categories of third parties with whom we share or have shared personal information about you; (vi) the categories of personal information we have shared about you; (vii) profiling or automated decision-making affecting you; or (vii) a list of specific third parties to whom we have disclosed personal information.
- Request to Delete: You may ask us to delete any personal information that we have collected from you and to direct our service providers or contractors to delete your personal information from their records.
- Request to Correct: You may ask us to correct or update your personal information that has been previously provided to us.
- Request to Opt-Out of Selling or Sharing of Personal Information: You may request that we not sell your personal information or share your personal information with third parties for certain purposes.
- Request to Opt-Out of Targeted Advertising: You may ask us not to target advertisements to you based on your behavior across contexts.
- Request to Opt-Out of Sharing for Third-Party Marketing: You may ask us not to share your personal information with unaffiliated third parties solely for their independent direct marketing purposes (under California's Shine the Light Law).
- Request to Opt-Out of Profiling and Automated Decision-Making: You may ask us not to use your personal information in profiling or automated decision-making processes.
- Request to Opt-Out of the Use or Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information: You may ask us not to use and/or revoke previously given consent to use your sensitive personal information for certain purposes.
- Request to Opt-In: After making an opt-out request listed above, you may choose to opt back in.
Collectively, these are referred to as the "Communication Methods." To effectively exercise your privacy options or inquire about how we handle your personal information, you must use one of these Communication Methods. You may also send questions or complaints to our Privacy Officer using the above Communication Methods, and we will take appropriate steps to address any legitimate concerns or complaints.
The list below describes the types of requests you may make to us regarding personal information we have collected from you:
We will make commercially reasonable efforts to fulfill your Request to Know, Delete or Correct within 45 days; however, we may notify you during the initial 45-day period that we will extend the timeframe as permitted by law. We will make commercially reasonable efforts to accommodate any Request to Opt-Out within 15 days. We reserve the right to deny any request to the extent permitted by applicable law. We may decline a Request to Delete, in part or in whole, if we determine that there is a lawful basis for retaining the information, and we will explain our decision. If we deny a request, in whole or in part, we will notify you using the Communication Method you have selected, and we will provide you with instructions on how to appeal the decision. We will not discriminate against you because you have made a request described in this Privacy Statement or otherwise exercised your rights under applicable law. We may offer financial or non-financial incentives in connection with programs that require you to disclose certain personal information, such as a customer loyalty program, but only if you opt into such an incentive program. If you ask us to delete your information or opt out of the use of your information, we will comply with your request, but you may lose some or all of the benefits associated with the incentive program. (For example, if you ask us to delete your personal information, you will lose any accumulated loyalty program points.)
Information regarding the consumer privacy requests we received in the prior calendar year is available here.
How Your Identity Will Be Verified
For your privacy and security, and to prevent fraud and other harmful activities, when we receive a request through one of the Communication Methods, we may need to ensure that the person submitting the request is the person they purport to be. Accordingly, we may take reasonable measures to verify the identity of the person submitting the request, as further described in our privacy request web portal. If we ask you to verify your identity, you must promptly cooperate with our efforts so that we can fulfill your request.
Requests from Authorized Agents
If you submit a consumer privacy request on behalf of another person, you must verify your legal authority to act on behalf of that person, and your identity and the identity of the other person, to our satisfaction before we can fulfill your request.
How You Can Opt Out of Online Advertising or Other Promotional Communications
In addition to the options described above, you can take other steps to limit the collection, use and sharing of your personal information. You can manage how your device, mobile browser and other devices share information with our websites and mobile apps, as well as how your browser handles cookies and other tracking technologies, by adjusting the privacy and security settings on your device. Please refer to instructions provided by your service provider or the manufacturer of your device to learn how to adjust your settings. Our websites are able to recognize the Global Privacy Control signal, which is one type of Internet browser opt-out preference signal, and we will honor the Global Privacy Control signal only for users who visit our websites from locations that require us to. You may need to use a specific browser or an extension that supports these opt-out preference signals. Several of the companies that utilize cookies or other tracking or monitoring mechanisms enable you to opt out of advertising through mechanisms established by trade groups. If you wish to reduce this type of third-party, interest-based advertising, you may opt out of advertising from members of the National Advertising Initiative here, and from members of the Digital Advertising Alliance here (for US) or here (for Canada) or here (for apps). Please note that opting out of participating ad networks does not opt you out of being served advertising. You may continue to receive generic or 'contextual' ads from us. You may also continue to receive targeted ads on other websites from companies that do not participate in the above programs. Please note the links above will not opt you out of receiving all marketing communications from us. There are other ways in which you can tell us whether or not you want to receive promotional communications from us. When you set up an account or log into your account on our websites or mobile applications, you may have an opportunity to make or change your selections with respect to each brand. You also will have an opportunity to opt out of advertising email messages from us by clicking on an "unsubscribe" hyperlink contained in commercial emails those brands send you. If you receive a text message (SMS or MMS) from one of our brands and would like to opt out of receiving further text messages, you may do so by following the opt-out instructions within the text message.
Notice of Financial Incentives
We may offer various financial incentives. We may provide coupons, discounts, and other benefits to you for sharing your personal information with us, including, but not limited to, when you sign up for promotional marketing communications, participate in a survey, or join a loyalty program. We may ask you to provide your contact information (such as email address or phone number) and additional categories of personal information requested at the time you opt-in to participate. We will use your personal information as described in the section above, "Why Your Information is Collected, Used, or Shared." In order to participate, you will opt-in by following the instructions provided. In some cases, you may be subject to additional terms and conditions, which we will provide to you at this time. You may opt-out at any time. For promotional marketing, you may unsubscribe by following the unsubscribe or opt-out instructions in our promotional messages. You may also contact us using one of the Communication Methods described above. The value of your personal information is reasonably related to the value of the offer or discount presented to you. We estimate the value of personal information considering factors such as expenses in the administration of the offering. The value to us depends on the benefits offered to you in the financial incentive.
Changes to This Privacy Statement
We will review our Privacy Statement periodically (at least annually), and we reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to revise, change or modify this Privacy Statement at any time. We will post any changes to this Privacy Statement on our websites, and they will be effective as of the date of posting. We encourage you to visit this page periodically to review this information. By engaging with us, including by visiting our website(s) or mobile application(s), after this Privacy Statement has been updated, you agree to the updated terms of this Privacy Statement. This Privacy Statement was last updated on July 1, 2024.
