Updated May 14, 2024

Gelson's Markets ("Gelson's," "we," “ours,” or “us”) recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy needs of users of our website or any mobile application (the "Site"), subscribers to our mailing lists, customers that place orders for Gelson's products and services online or at our locations, participants in our text messaging service, participants in our rewards programs, and participants in our surveys, polls, contests, and sweepstakes (collectively the “Services”).

Note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to Personal Information that you submit to the websites of our business partners or any other third parties or that are collected by them from you, even if those third-party websites are linked to our Site or listed in our Cookie Policy. This Privacy Policy also does not apply to job applicants or employees. Any employees, contractors, job applicants or prospective employees are subject to our Workplace Privacy Notice.

1. Definitions

2. Information We Collect

3. Categories of Personal Information Sold or Shared to Third Parties

4. Categories of Personal Information Disclosed to Service Providers

5. Additional Information About our Data Collection and Sharing Practices

6. Cookies

7. Do-Not-Track Signals

8. Global Privacy Signal

9. Rewards Program - Notice of Financial Incentive

10. Links

11. No Use by Children Under the Age of 18

12. How to Contact Us with Questions

13. Your Privacy Rights

14. Notification of Changes to Privacy Policy

“Personal Information” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated, linked or linkable with a particular individual or household, including any information that is subject to applicable data protection laws

"Process" or "processing" means any operation or set of operations performed, whether by manual or automated means, on personal data or on sets of personal data, such as the collection, use, storage, disclosure, analysis, deletion or modification of personal data.

“Targeted advertising” or “Cross-context behavioral advertising” means displaying advertisements to a consumer where the advertisement is selected based on personal data obtained from that consumer’s activities over time and across nonaffiliated websites or online applications to predict such consumer’s preferences or interests.

“Sale” or “Sell” means renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by the business to a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration.

“Share,” “shared,” or “sharing” means sharing, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, Personal Information to a third party for cross-context behavioral advertising.

"Sensitive Personal Information" has the same meaning as given to it under the California Consumer Privacy Act.

“Profiling” means any form of automated processing of personal information to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person and in particular to analyze or predict aspects concerning that natural person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location, or movements.

a) Categories of Sources

We collect Personal Information about you from various sources, directly and indirectly, including from the following:

• Directly or indirectly from you: Most of the Personal Information we collect comes from you. This is either information you provide to us directly, such as your name and email address, or indirectly, such as when shopping on our Site or in our stores.
• Business Partners: We may receive Personal Information from third-party business partners (such as online shopping and credit check providers) related to your transactions with them that involve us providing you with merchandise or Services. We also partner with third party service providers to offer you the ability to shop with us. If you use those Services, we will collect the Personal Information you provide to use the Services and will also share that data with the third party service provider to provide the Services for which you provided the information. The Site may also permit you to log-in and connect to the Site with your social media account username and password (such as your Facebook credentials), and we may collect profile information about you from that social media website that you have made publicly available. We use the information for the same purposes as when we receive the information directly from you, as described above.
• Automatically Through the Site: Like many website operators, when you access and use our Site, we use cookies, log data, and similar technology to automatically record personal identifiers (such as your IP address and device identifiers), information about your device (such as your browser type, locale preferences, and mobile carrier) and information concerning your usage activity on the Site (such as your interaction with our Site, the link you used to reach them, and the content and advertising displayed on them and our content and advertising on other websites and online services). We use the data to enable certain features of our Site, preserve your preferences and customize your experience when you visit and return to the Site, and study, enhance and improve the use and capabilities of our Site, content, and advertising.
• From other sources: Other parties may give us Personal Information about you, such as business and marketing partners, data brokers, companies that we acquire, and social media platforms.

b) Business or Commercial Purposes

We collect and use Personal Information for the following purposes:

Provide, maintain, and improve our Services: If you make a purchase at a retail location, we will collect the information required to process your orders or respond to your customer service requests. This may include your name, credit card number, card type, expiration date, and security code. In addition to utilizing this information to fulfill your requests, Gelson’s may use information collected during these transactions to analyze and improve our Services. In conducting these activities, we do not store, archive, or otherwise retain credit card numbers. When you use our Site or other online services, we collect information about your use of our online services and use that information to improve our Services.

Administer loyalty program: When allowed under the law, we may offer a loyalty program or other similar promotional programs where you receive various discounts or incentives, such as special member only pricing or discounts.

Provide customer support: To respond to your requests and improve our Services for you. Information you provide helps us respond to your questions and requests more efficiently.

Communicate with you: We may use your provided email address to send you information and updates or to respond to your inquiries, questions, and/or other requests. If you subscribe to our email communications, we might provide you with information about special promotions, offers, new features, new services, or our newsletter. We may also use your information to serve you ads about our products and offers. To learn about your choices for these communications, read the Privacy Rights section below.

Provide personalized shopping recommendations: We use your personal information to provide you with recommendation or products we think you may be interested in.

Research and analytics: We use information to better understand our customers and users.

Comply with legal and regulatory obligations: We may use information we have collected to enforce our Terms of Use, prevent or respond to fraud, and fulfill legal obligations, like conducting CCTV monitoring of certain retail locations and responding to court orders, subpoenas, or government requests.

c) Personal Information we Collect

The below chart provides the categories of Personal Information we collect, the business or commercial purpose(s) for collection, the categories of third parties we share this information with, and information about the retention period. We retain this information for as long as necessary to complete the purpose, unless otherwise instructed by consumer, or unless otherwise disclosed at the time of collection.

We do not knowingly sell or share the Personal Information of children under 16 years of age. We have shared the following categories of Personal Information with the following categories of third parties and for the following business purposes.

In the preceding 12 months, we have disclosed the following categories of Personal Information with the following categories of service providers and for the following business purposes:

A “cookie” is a small data file that we transfer to your browser or mobile device. Most browsers provide controls whereby you can choose to block receipt of cookies, to delete cookies, or to be prompted before cookies are received. Please note that, if you delete or choose not to receive cookies from our Site, the functionality of the Site may be impaired. To find out more about cookies, including how to manage or delete them, visit allaboutcookies.org.

Note that we use third-party advertising services to serve ads when you visit our Site, third-party email services to send informational and marketing email, third-party text messaging services to send marketing text messages, and third-party analytics services to help us understand and improve the usage of our Site and the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. In some situations, we permit the companies providing these services to set and access cookies (and use similar data tools, such as “pixel tags” or “web beacons”) through our Site and our marketing email, and these companies may collect, for example, your personal identifiers (such as IP address, device and browser identifiers and characteristics, anonymous identifiers) and information about your device (such as operating system and language preferences), your usage activity on the Site (such as your interaction with our Site, the link you used to reach them, and the content and advertising displayed on them and our content and advertising on other websites and online services) and use it to provide advertisements to you on our Site and other non-affiliated websites and/or to provide analytical information for our Site. These third-party companies also may collect and combine information about your online activities over time, on other devices, and on other websites or online services, if those websites and online services also use the same partners.

For more information about the use of cookies and related technologies on the Site, including the use of Google Analytics and advertising networks, please see our Cookie Policy.

You may opt out of receiving marketing emails from us by using the unsubscribe link located in a marketing email. 

Currently, various Internet browsers offer a “Do-Not-Track” option. Because the providers of Do-Not-Track and similar signals do not yet operate according to common, industry-accepted standards, we currently do not respond to those signals. For more information about Do-Not-Track, please visit https://www.allaboutdnt.com.

We receive and process Global Privacy Signals (“GPC Signal”) for requests to opt-out of sale or sharing. We process the commonly used and industry standard GPC Signals but because this is new technology and new providers may offer solutions, we will do our best to recognize, process, and honor a GPC Signal that meets the legal standards and is widely adopted in the industry.

Gelson’s operates a rewards program that is designed to recognize, encourage, and reward you for your loyalty. In order to operate this rewards program, we collect your name, phone number, and email address and we will provide you with a unique rewards program number. We use this information to operate the rewards program and to send you news, special offers, and invitations. We also receive information about the transactions that you associate with your rewards number, and we use this information to provide you with more personalized offers, invitations, and marketing. Our financial incentives are reasonably related to the Personal Information we collect through the Gelson’s rewards program, as demonstrated in our rewards program terms which can be found here.

To opt-in to the Program, please click here.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your data access rights in connection with the Program including by:

• Denying you goods or services;
• Charging you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties;
• Providing you a different level or quality of goods or services;
• Suggesting that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

We estimate the value of personal information we request from our Loyalty Rewards Program customers by comparing the amount spent by Loyalty Rewards Program customers to similarly situated customers who do not participate in the Loyalty Rewards Program over a 12-month period. This estimate is not specific to any individual consumer and varies per consumer. We have based this good-faith estimate on the value that arises from our commercial relationships and the collection and retention of the Personal Information of consumers who have voluntarily signed up and chosen to remain in the Program. The value of Program benefits to members varies significantly as individual members take advantage of Program benefits to varying degrees.

The Site may contain links to other websites, and other websites may link to the Site. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites. Whenever you visit another website – via a link from the Site or otherwise – you should review the privacy policy of that other website. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information provided or obtained on our Site.

The Site and Services are not intended for use by children under the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18, you may not use our Site or Services. If an individual under 18 years of age wishes to participate in contests or promotions, the individual must obtain the consent of a parent or guardian, and the parent or guardian must agree to terms on behalf of the minor. We do not knowingly collect, maintain, or use Personal Information from children under 13 years of age. If we believe that any information has been posted by a child under the age of 13, we will promptly delete that information. Parents may contact us using the methods set forth below to request that information concerning their child be removed from our Sites.

Customer questions, comments and feedback are very important to us. Upon request, we will allow you to access and change certain information about you (e.g., your Gelson's username and password, contact information, transaction information and payment information). To do so, contact us at:

Gelson's Markets
16400 Ventura Blvd., Suite 240
Encino, CA 91436

or by e-mailing us at privacy@gelsons.com.
 

California law imposes specific legal requirements and privacy rights with respect to Personal Information, and we will comply with restrictions and any requests California consumers submit as required by applicable law.

Right to Know and to Access

You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your Personal Information over the past 12 months. This information is disclosed in the “Information We Collect” Section of this Privacy Policy.

You also have the right to request access to Personal Information collected about you and information regarding the source of that information, the purposes for which we collect it, and the third parties and service providers with whom we share it. You may submit such a request as described below. To protect our customers’ Personal Information, we are required to verify your identify before we can act on your request.

Right to Portability

You have the right to request that we provide a copy of the Personal Information we have collected about you, in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit the data to another entity without hindrance. Once we receive your request and confirm your identity, we will provide to you a copy of your data as required under the applicable data protection laws. We may provide this data to you through your user account with us, or via email to the email address you have provided with your request.

Right to Delete

Subject to certain exceptions, you have the right to request that we delete any of your Personal Information. Once we receive your request and confirm your identity, we will review your request to see if an exception allowing us to retain the information applies. We will delete or deidentify Personal Information not subject to one of these exceptions from our records and will direct our service providers to take similar action.

Right to Correct

Subject to certain exceptions, you have the right to request that we correct inaccurate Personal Information that we have collected about you. Once we receive your request and confirm your identity, we will review your request, taking into account the nature of the Personal Information and the purposes of the processing of the Personal Information to see if we can correct the data. We may also request additional information showing that the information you want to correct is inaccurate.

Sensitive Personal Information

In certain circumstances we may collect Sensitive Personal Information. We do not process Sensitive Personal Information for the purpose of inferring characteristics and we only use this information for the purpose for which it was collected.

Right to Opt-out

You have the right to opt-out of the Sale or Sharing of your Personal Information. We use your Personal Information for the purposes described in the “Information We Collect” section above, some of which may be considered to be Sharing under California’s privacy laws and you may have the right to request to opt-out of such data uses. To exercise this right, please visit our “Do Not Share My Personal Information” webpage or set your browser Global Privacy Controls to send this signal when you visit our Services.

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your data privacy rights.

Shine the Light

In addition to the above, if you reside in California, you also have the right to ask us one time each year if we have shared personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make a request, please send us an email, call, or submit a request using one of the methods listed below. Indicate in your email that you are a California resident making a “Shine the Light” inquiry.

How to Submit a Request

To exercise your rights, the easiest way to submit a request is through our Web Form here. You may also call 888-204-9468 to request assistance with submitting a request.

Gelson’s will endeavor to respond to your request with 45 days of receiving that request. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. Please note that additional information may be requested from you to confirm your identity. This is to ensure that your Personal Information is not disclosed to a person who does not have a right to receive it. We will only use Personal Information you provide in connection with your request to review and comply with your request. Depending on your request, we will ask for information such as your name, the last item you purchased from us, or the date of your last purchase from us. We may also ask you to provide a signed declaration confirming your identity.

Verification Procedures

In order to process your request to exercise your rights, we must first verify it. We do this by asking you to:

• Provide personal identifiers we can match against information we may have collected from you previously; and
• Confirm your request using the email and/or telephone account stated in the request; or

We will not collect additional Personal Information from you for the sole purpose of your exercising your rights under the data protection laws. Similarly, we will not require you to create an account with us, solely for the purpose of exercising your rights under the data protection laws.

Authorized Agents

California law permits California consumers to use an authorized agent to make privacy rights requests. We require the authorized agent to provide us with proof of the California consumer's written permission (for example, a power of attorney) that shows the authorized agent has the authority to submit a request for the California consumer. An authorized agent must follow the process described above to make a request, and we will additionally require the authorized agent to verify his/her own identity and we will confirm the agent's authority with the California consumer about whom the request was made.

Please see our Cookie Policy for information about the collection and use of Personal Information by third-parties who process information collected by cookies and related technologies that we permit them to use on the Sites.

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy. Whenever we decide to change this Privacy Policy in a material manner, notice of the change will be posted on the Site for a reasonable period of time or provided to you using other means. Nevertheless, you should review the Privacy Policy from time to time to be sure you are aware of the most recent version. Please be assured that we will only use information in accordance with the Privacy Policy in effect at the time the information was collected, unless we receive your consent.

*Like most websites, we use Google Analytics to collect and process certain website usage data. To learn more about Google Analytics and how to opt out, please visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gapoptout. In addition, you can click the following link in order to find out more information about your options with respect to Google Analytics and other Google services: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

For information about opting out of Hotjar cookies, click here: https://help.hotjar.com/hc/en-us/articles/115011639887-Data-Safety-Privacy-Security
 

You may learn more about advertising networks and opt out of receiving personalized advertisements on this browser or device from advertisers who are members of the Network Advertising Initiative or who subscribe to the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising by visiting the opt-out options of each of those organizations. Links to those sites are here:

• Network Advertising Initiative:
   

- Browser Opt-Out: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices
 

• Digital Advertising Alliance:
   
• - Browser Opt-Out:

http://www.aboutads.info/choices

Note that, when you opt out of personalized advertising, you may continue to see online advertising on the Site and/or our ads on other websites and online services.