Acklands-Grainger, Inc. ("Grainger," "we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy
Policy explains how your personal information is collected, used, stored, processed, transferred and disclosed
by Grainger.
By accessing or using our Service, you signify that you have read, understood and agree to our collection,
storage, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy and our Terms of
Access.
1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU AND HOW DO WE USE IT?
We collect personal information about you when you voluntarily submit information to us when you use our
Service. This can include information you provide to us when you register for an account, make a
purchase, post a review, send us messages, subscribe to our mailing lists, newsletters or other forms of
marketing communications, participate in a survey, click on an ad, redeem a promotion or use some other
feature of our Service.
We collect certain information automatically when you use the Service, such as
information about the pages you look at on our Service, the actions you take on our Service or the
device you use to access our Service.
We may also collect information about you from third parties if they have your consent to provide us the
information or otherwise as permitted by applicable law.
The categories of personal information we collect may include:
- Contact and profile information
- Comments, chat and opinions
- Payment and transaction information
- General Location information (e.g. Province, City)
- Information provided by social networks
- Information provided by third parties
- Information about fraudulent or criminal activity related to your account
The list below sets out the categories of personal information we collect about you and how we
use that information.
- Contact and profile information. We may
collect personal information, such as your name, phone number, address, business
information, and e-mail address, when you register for our Service, sign up for our mailing
list, enter a contest, participate in an offer, redeem a promotion, or enter a sweepstakes,
or otherwise communicate or interact with us. We will use your contact information to create
your account, to communicate with you directly about the Service and about any questions,
issues or concerns you or other users have, and to send you marketing communications in
accordance with your preferences and applicable law.
- Comments, chat and opinions. When you contact
us directly, e.g. by email, phone, mail or by completing an online form or participating in
online chat, we will record your comments, suggestions, and opinions. We will also record
comments and opinions you express when responding to surveys, entering a sweepstakes or
taking part in promotions we run. We will use your comments, and opinions to address your
questions, issues and concerns and improve our products and services. We may also use your
comments and opinions to determine products and services that may be of interest to you and
to send you marketing communications in accordance with your marketing preferences.
- Payment and transaction information. We
collect information such as items purchased, date and time of your transaction, and payment
information, such as your credit card or bank account details, when you make an in-branch or
online purchase in order to complete the transaction, pay your Grainger invoice, detect and
prevent fraud, and inform our advertising and marketing.
- Information provided by social networks.
When you interact with our Service through various social media networks, such as when you Like us on Facebook or when you follow Grainger or share Grainger content on Facebook, X (f/k/a Twitter), Snapchat, LinkedIn, Instagram or other sites, we may receive information from those social networks including your profile information and any other information you permit the social network to share with third parties. We use this information to communicate or interact with you on the social network, to better understand the demographics of our visitors and to personalize content and advertising. The data we receive is dependent upon your privacy settings with the social network. You should always review, and if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third party websites and social media networks and services before linking or connecting them to our website or Service.
- Information we receive from authentication services
you connect to our Service. We may offer Face ID, Touch ID, or other
fingerprint authentication as an alternative log-in method to password if you access the
Service through an Apple or Android device equipped with authentication technology. We are
only notified as to whether the authentication was successful and cannot access the data
associated with the enrolled fingerprint. For more details, please refer to the fingerprint
security guides offered by your device provider.
- Information provided by third parties. From
time to time, we may receive information about you from third parties and other users, for
example we may obtain information from our suppliers, resellers, marketing partners, and
other business partners or from other members of your company or organization with your
consent or as permitted by applicable law. We may obtain information from third parties to
enhance or supplement our existing user information. For example, we may obtain mailing
address information or we may work with third party partners who help us determine a general
location based on your IP address so that we are able to customize content for your
location. We may also collect information about you that is publicly available. We may
combine this information with the information we collect from you directly. We use this
information to contact you, to send you advertising or promotional materials or to
personalize our Service, to pre-populate online forms, and to better understand the
demographics of our users.
- Information provided by other Grainger
entities.
We may receive information about you from other Grainger companies, businesses, brands and
affiliated entities in our family of companies, so that information you provide to one brand
may be used by another brand to provide you services or to communicate with you.
- Information about fraudulent or criminal activity
relating to your account. We may use information about fraudulent or criminal
activity associated with use of our Service related to your account for the purposes of
detecting and preventing fraud or abuse.
All personal information: We will use the personal information we collect to
operate, maintain and provide to you the features and functionality of the Service, to
communicate with you, to monitor and improve our Service and business, and to help us develop
new products and services. We may also use the personal information that we obtain to create
aggregated, anonymized or de-identified information that we may use for business purposes or
disclose to our business partners, depending on the requirements of applicable law.
If you choose not to provide personal information, we may not be able to provide you with
requested products, services or information to the extent that the information is necessary for
the provision of the products, services or information.
Cross-Context Information. We may link or combine your activities and
information collected from you on our websites and mobile apps with your in-branch purchases and
information we receive from third parties with your consent or as permitted by applicable law,
as well as information we collect automatically through tracking technologies. This allows us to
provide you with a personalized experience regardless of how you interact with us – online,
in-branch, on mobile or social media.
2. INFORMATION AUTOMATICALLY COLLECTED THROUGH COOKIES AND OTHER
TRACKING
TECHNOLOGY.
When you use our Service, visit our branches, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us through a
computer or mobile device, we and our third party partners, automatically collect information about how
you access and use the Service and information about the device you use to access the Service.
We use this information to enhance and personalize your user experience, to monitor and improve our
websites and services, and for other internal purposes.
We typically collect this information through a variety of tracking technologies, including cookies,
Flash objects, web beacons, tracking pixels, embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, and
similar technology (collectively, “tracking technologies”).
Information we collect automatically about you may be combined with other personal information we collect
directly.
We and our third party partners use tracking technologies to automatically collect usage and
device information, such as:
- Information about how you access the Service,
for example, the site from which you came and the site to which you are going when you leave
our website, how frequently you access the Service, when and whether you open emails or
click the links contained in emails, whether you access the Service from multiple devices,
and other actions you take on the Service.
- Information about your use of other sites,
for example, pages viewed on a site that deploys technology that is employed by one of our
third party partners who provide services to us.
- Information about how you use the Service,
for example, the pages you visit, the links you click, the ads you view and click on,
purchase information and your checkout process, your location when you access or interact
with our Service, and other similar actions.
- Information about the computer, tablet, smartphone or
other device you use, such as your IP address, browser type, Internet service
provider, platform type, device type/model/manufacturer, operating system, date and time
stamp, a unique ID that allows us to uniquely identify your browser, mobile device or your
account (including, for example, a persistent device identifier or an Ad ID), and other such
information.
- Analytics information. We may collect
analytics data, or use third-party analytics tools, to help us measure traffic and usage
trends for the Service and to understand more about the demographics and behaviors of our
users.
We, or the third party partners we use, may use the data collected through tracking technologies
to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the
next time you visit the site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information,
including targeted content and advertising; (c) identify and contact you across multiple
devices; (d) provide and monitor the effectiveness of our Service; (e) perform analytics and
detect usage patterns on our Service; (f) diagnose or fix technology problems; (g) detect or
prevent fraud or other harmful activities, and (h) otherwise to plan for and enhance our
service.
Your choices to control tracking technologies. Unless otherwise required by
applicable law, if you would prefer not to accept cookies, most browsers will allow you to: (i)
change your browser settings to notify you when you receive a cookie, which lets you choose
whether or not to accept it; (ii) disable existing cookies; or (iii) set your browser to
automatically reject cookies.
Blocking or deleting cookies may negatively impact your experience using the Service, as some
features and services on our Service may not work properly.
Depending on your mobile device and operating system, you may not be able to delete or block all
tracking technologies.
You may set your e-mail options to prevent the automatic downloading of images that may contain
technologies that would allow us to know whether you viewed or engaged with our emails.
Deleting cookies does not delete Local Storage Objects (LSOs) such as Flash objects and HTML5.
You can learn more about Flash objects - including how to manage privacy and storage settings
for Flash cookies – on Adobe’s website or by clicking here. If you choose to delete Flash objects from our Service,
then you may not be able to access and use all or part of the Service or benefit from the
information and services offered.
Do Not Track. Although we do our best to honor the privacy preferences of our
visitors, we are not able to respond to Do Not Track signals from your browser at this time.
3. THIRD PARTY DATA COLLECTION AND INTEREST BASED
ADVERTISING.
Interest Based Advertising
We participate in interest-based advertising and use third party advertising companies to serve you
targeted advertisements based on your browsing history. We permit third party online advertising
networks, social media companies and other third party services, to collect information about your use
of our websites and mobile apps over time so that they may play or display ads on our Service, on other
websites, apps or services you may use, and on other devices you may use. Typically, though not always,
the information used for interest-based advertising is collected through cookies or similar tracking
technologies, which recognize the device you are using and collect information, including click stream
information, browser type, time and date you visited the site and other information. We may share a
common account identifier (such as an email address or user ID) with our third party advertising
partners to help identify you across devices. We and our third party partners use this information to
make the advertisements you see online more relevant to your interests, as well as to provide
advertising-related services such as reporting, attribution, analytics and market research. See Your Choices and Control Over Your Information, below, to learn
more about how you may control interest-based advertising.
Social Media Widgets and Advertising
Our Service may include social media features, such as the Facebook Like button, Google Plus, LinkedIn,
Snapchat, Instagram, X (f/k/a Twitter) or other widgets. These social media companies may recognize you
and collect information about your visit to our Service, and they may set a cookie or employ other
tracking technologies. Your interactions with those features are governed by the privacy policies of
those companies.
We display targeted advertising to you through social media platforms, such as Facebook, X (f/k/a
Twitter), and others. These companies have interest-based advertising programs that allow us to direct
advertisements to users who have shown interest in our Service while those users are on the social media
platform, or to groups of other users who share similar traits, such as likely commercial interests and
demographics. We may share a unique identifier, such as a user ID or hashed email address, with these
platform providers or they may collect information from our website visitors through a first-party
pixel, in order to direct targeted advertising to you or to a custom audience on the social media
platform. These advertisements are governed by the privacy policies of those social media companies that
provide them. If you do not want to receive targeted ads on your social networks, you can adjust your ad
preferences through your settings on those networks. If you do not want to receive targeted ads on your
social networks, you may be able to adjust your advertising preferences through your settings on those
networks. For example:
- Facebook. To learn more about your advertising preferences on Facebook, click here.
- X (f/k/a Twitter). To learn more about privacy controls for personalized ads on X
(f/k/a Twitter), click here.
- LinkedIn. To learn more about advertising preferences on LinkedIn, click here.
Cross-Device Linking
We, or our third party partners, may link your various devices so that content you see on one device can
result in relevant advertising on another device. We do this by collecting information about each device
you use when you are logged in to our Service. We may also work with third party partners who employ
tracking technologies, or the application of statistical modeling tools, to determine if two or more
devices are linked to a single user or household. We may share a common account identifier (such as an
email address or user ID) with third party advertising partners to help recognize you across devices.
We, and our partners, can use this cross-device linkage to serve interest-based advertising and other
personalized content to you across your devices, to perform analytics and to measure the performance of
our advertising campaigns.
Third party partners.
The following is a sample of the third party service partners we work with to provide cross-device
linking and advertising services. We will strive to update this list if or when we work with new
partners which offer you choices about the collection of your information, but as partners change and
new technologies become available, this list is likely to change over time and may not always reflect
our current partners. You can contact us at the contact information in Section 9 if you have questions
about our third party service providers.
Google Analytics and Advertising. We use Google Analytics and Google Universal Analytics
to recognize you and link the devices you use when you visit our site or Service on your browser or
mobile device, login to your account on our Service, or otherwise engage with us. We share a unique
identifier, like a user ID or hashed email address, with Google Universal Analytics to facilitate the
service. Google Analytics allows us to better understand how our users interact with our Service and to
tailor our advertisements and content to you. For information on how Google Analytics collects and
processes data, as well as how you can control information sent to Google, review Google's site “How
Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps” located at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You can learn about Google Analytics’
currently available opt-outs, including the Google Analytics Browser Ad-On here.
We may also utilize certain forms of display advertising and other advanced features through Google
Analytics, such as Remarketing with Google Analytics, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, the
DoubleClick Campaign Manager Integration, and Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting.
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 the Service. You may control your
advertising preferences or opt-out of certain Google advertising products by visiting the Google Ads
Preferences Manager, currently available at https://google.com/ads/preferences or by vising NAI’s online resources at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices.
Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service. We use Google Maps/Google Earth to
help enhance your experience on our site or as you use the Service. Unless your browser is configured to
prevent interaction these tools may automatically collect information about your location, including
through IP address, GPS and other sensor data that may, for example, provide Google with information on
nearby devices, WiFi access points and cell towers, in order to display relevant geographic information
to you. This information is governed by the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. For more
information regarding Google’s currently available opt-outs, click here.
Google Advertising. To learn more about your ad settings through Google, click here.
Adobe Marketing Cloud Device Co-Op. We participate in the Adobe Marketing Cloud Device
Co-Op to better understand how you use our website and apps across the various devices you use, and to
deliver tailored content and advertisements. Go to https://cross-device-privacy.adobe.com to learn more about how Adobe links your
devices and to manage your choices relating to this linking of devices.
Media Math. To learn more about Media Math and/or how to opt-out of certain advertising,
click here.
Bing Ads. To learn more about Bing Ads, click here.
Demandbase. Uses tracking pixels, web beacons and cookies to receive data from you to
deliver personalized ads to you, including delivering interest-based advertising to your device(s) on
our behalf. Demandbase may link your various devices so that content you see on one device can result in
relevant advertising on another device. Demandbase participates in the Digital Advertising Alliance’s
(“DAA”) AdChoices program and includes the AdChoices icon in its ads. You can click on the icon to learn
more about the ad and to opt-out of receiving ads from Demandbase in future. Your opt-out choices only
apply to the particular browser and device from which you have opted out and only to the applicable
advertising channel. If you delete, block or otherwise restrict cookies or change your cookie
preferences, or if you use a different computer or Internet browser, you may need to renew your opt out
choice.
User Experience Information
On some of our Services, we use third party tools to monitor user experience information. These tools
automatically collect usage information, including mouse clicks and movements, page scrolling and any
text keyed into website forms. The information collected does not include passwords, payment details, or
other sensitive personal data. We use this information for site analytics, optimization and to improve
website usability. We do not permit this information to be shared with or used by third parties for
their own purposes.
4. HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION
We may share your personal information in the instances described below. For further information on your
choices regarding your information, see the “Control Over Your Information”
section below.
We may share your personal information with the following parties:
- Our affiliates and companies in the same group of companies as
us: our affiliates and subsidiaries (i.e., any organization or brand we own or control,
including WFS Ltd.) or our ultimate holding companies (i.e., any organization that owns or controls
us, such as W.W. Grainger, Inc.)) and any subsidiaries it owns. These companies may use your
personal information in the same way as we can under this Privacy Policy.
- Third parties at your request: You may choose to
share your activities on Grainger with your friends through email, text or on various social media
networks.
- Promotional partners: Third parties with whom we
partner to provide contests and sweepstakes, or other promotional activities, which will usually be
identified by name in the Official Rules of the contest or sweepstakes.
- Select third parties: Third parties, so that they can
provide you with information and marketing messages about products or services that may interest
you. To opt-out of our sharing your personal information with such companies, see Your Choices and Control Over Your Information, below.
- Service providers and advisors: Third party vendors
and other service providers that perform services for us, on our behalf, which may include
identifying and serving targeted advertisements, providing mailing or email services, tax and
accounting services, product fulfillment, payments processing, data enhancement services, fraud
prevention, web hosting, or providing analytic services.
- Product Suppliers: third party product suppliers who
may have a legitimate business or legal interest in receiving such information. For example,
personal information may be shared with product suppliers to fulfill warranty service obligations,
product recalls or other product safety related matters, or transaction tracking regarding shipments
or leases of supplier products.
- The public: When you provide feedback or post user
content on our site. For example, if you post a product review on our website or a comment on our
social media sites, your information, such as your first name, last initial, state of residence, and
your comments, may be displayed on our website or on our social media pages.
- Purchasers and third parties in connection with a business
transaction: Personal information may be disclosed to third parties in connection with
a Grainger-related transaction, such as a merger, sale of Grainger assets or shares, reorganization,
financing, change of control or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another Grainger
or third party, or in the event of a bankruptcy or related or similar proceedings; and
- Law enforcement, regulators and other parties for legal reasons: Third parties as required by law or subpoena or if we reasonably believe that such action is necessary to (a) comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement; (b) to enforce our Terms of Use or to protect the security or integrity of our Service; and/or (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Grainger, our visitors, or others.
Subject to applicable law, we may also share information with others in an aggregated and anonymized form
that does not reasonably identify you.
Personal information relating to you may be transmitted outside of Ontario or Canada by us and our group
of companies, our business partners and our service providers consistent with the purposes disclosed in
this Policy. While outside of Canada, your personal information may be subject to the laws of that
foreign jurisdiction and may be accessible to law enforcement and other authorities in the foreign
jurisdiction. If you have any questions or concerns in this regard, please contact our Privacy Officer as set forth below.
5. YOUR CHOICES AND CONTROL OVER YOUR INFORMATION
By submitting personal information to Grainger, visiting our Sites, or using our Services, you
acknowledge and agree that you have consented to the collection, use, and sharing practices set forth in
this Privacy Policy as they relate to your personal information. You may withdraw your consent by
following the instructions set forth in this Privacy Policy. You may also contact Grainger’s Privacy
Officer as set forth below. However, withdrawing your consent may limit your ability to use our Services
and access our web content. You may not have the full functionality of our Services, and Grainger may
not be able to offer you some of the personalized products and services that depend on this type of
information to function.
Profile and data sharing settings: You may update your profile information, such as your
user name, address, or billing information, and may change some of your data sharing preferences on your
Account Page.
How to control your email preferences: You can stop receiving promotional email
communications from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe link” provided in such communications. We make
every effort to promptly process all unsubscribe requests. You may not opt out of service-related
communications (e.g., account verification, transactional communications, changes/updates to features of
the Service, technical, safety, and security notices).
Accessing, modifying or deleting your information: If you have any questions about
accessing, reviewing, modifying, or deleting your information, or if you want to remove your name or
comments from our website or publicly displayed content, you can contact us directly by submitting a
request to our portal here.
We may not be able to provide you with access to or to modify or delete your information in all
circumstances due to legal or contractual restrictions, and access to your personal information may be
subject to legal exemptions recognized in applicable law.
Additional Rights: As required or permitted by law, you may be entitled to additional rights, including: (i) the right to control the dissemination of your personal information; (ii) the right to receive computerized personal information collected from you in a structured, commonly used and technological format and to have this information transferred directly to another organization; (iii) the right to be informed of and submit observations regarding automated decision-making; and (iv) the right to request information about data processing.
Cookies, tracking and interest-based advertising preferences:
- Cookies and Flash cookies. Most browsers allow you to adjust your browser settings
to: (i) notify you when you receive a cookie, which lets you choose whether or not to accept it;
(ii) disable existing cookies; or (iii) set your browser to automatically reject
cookies.
Blocking or deleting cookies may negatively impact your experience using the
Service, as some features and services on our Service may not work properly.
Deleting
cookies does not delete Local Storage Objects (LSOs) such as Flash objects and HTML5. To manage
Flash cookie settings and preferences, you must use the settings manager on Adobe’s website or by clicking here. If you choose to delete Flash objects from our Service, then
you may not be able to access and use all or part of the Service or benefit from the information and
services offered.
You may also have the choice to opt-in to certain types of cookies, depending on your jurisdiction of residence.
- Interest-based advertising. To learn about interest-based advertising and how you may be able to opt-out of some of this advertising, you may wish to visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s online resources, at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices, and/or the DAA’s resources at www.aboutads.info/choices.
You may also have the choice to opt-in to certain interest-based advertising operations, depending on your jurisdiction of residence.
- Cross-device linking. Where applicable please note that opting-out of receiving interest-based advertising through the NAI’s and DAA’s online resources will only opt-out a user from receiving interest-based ads on that specific browser or device, but the user may still receive interest-based ads on his or her other devices. You must perform the opt-out on each browser or device you use.
- Mobile advertising. You may also be able to limit interest-based advertising through the settings on your mobile device by selecting “limit ad tracking” (iOS) or “opt-out of interest based ads” (Android). You may also be able to opt-out of some – but not all – interest-based ads served by mobile ad networks by visiting http://youradchoices.com/appchoices and downloading the mobile AppChoices
app.
- Some of these opt-outs may not be effective unless your browser is set to accept cookies. If you
delete cookies, change your browser settings, switch browsers or computers, or use another operating
system, you may need to opt-out again.
6. HOW WE STORE AND PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION
Data storage and transfer: Your information collected through our website may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Grainger or its affiliates or service providers maintain facilities. If you are located in Canada or the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information, including personal information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, and you consent to the transfer of information to the U.S. or any other country in which Grainger or its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, or service providers maintain facilities and the use and disclosure of information about you as described in this Privacy Policy. While in a foreign jurisdiction, your personal information may be subject to the laws of that jurisdiction and may be accessible to law enforcement or other authorities.
Keeping your information safe: Security of your information is very important to us, and we have put in place safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of information we collect and that we share with our service providers. However, no security system is impenetrable and we cannot guarantee the security of our systems 100%. In the event that any information under our control is compromised as a result of a breach of security, we will take reasonable steps to investigate the situation and, where appropriate, notify those individuals whose information may have been compromised and take other steps, in accordance with any applicable laws and regulations.
7. CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
Grainger does not knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under the age of 16 on this Site. In the event that we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under age 16, we will delete that information. If you believe that we might have any information from a child under 16, please contact us at privacyofficer@grainger.ca
8. LINKS TO OTHER WEB SITES AND SERVICES
The Services may contain links to and from third party websites of our business partners, advertisers, and social media sites and our users may post links to third party websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies. We strongly recommend that you read their privacy policies and terms and conditions of use to understand how they collect, use, and share information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content on the websites of third party sites.
9 HOW TO CONTACT US
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the website, please
contact our Privacy Officer at the following address:
Privacy Officer, Grainger
123 Commerce Valley Drive East, Suite 700, Thornhill, ON
L3T 7W8
privacyofficer@grainger.ca
If you wish to make a request to access, edit, or delete your personal information, please click here to
submit your request via our portal. The portal requires limited information about you that is needed to
process your request.
10. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
We may modify or update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect the changes in our business and practices, and you should review this page periodically. We will update the ‘last modified’ date at the bottom of this page when we post changes to this Policy. If you object to any changes, you may close your account. Continuing to use our Services after we publish changes to this Privacy Policy means that you are consenting to the changes.
