I. Commitment to Confidentiality Statement
Blue Hill Co-op (“We,” “Us,” or “Our”) is committed to building a lasting relationship with you based on mutual trust. When you use our services, we recognize that you are trusting us with your information. We do not take that responsibility lightly, and we work hard to protect your data and put you in control of how it is managed.
This detailed privacy policy explains how we collect, use, and protect the information you share when you interact with our websites (collectively, “Sites”) and advertisements and how you can update, manage, or request deletion of your information.
This policy is for visitors of our Sites in the United States only. This privacy policy also does not cover information that you submit on third party websites, applications, or social media platforms (collectively, “Platforms”) even if we communicate with you on those sites. For example, if you post something on Facebook or Twitter, that information is governed by the privacy policies on those Platforms.
II. Non-Discrimination Statement
A. General
Any form of discrimination based on age, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national or ethnic origin, political beliefs, veteran status, disability, or any other category protected by state or federal law is contrary to the principles and policies of Blue Hill Co-op. For these reasons, store hours, shelf prices, non-owner sales prices, and owner benefits available and offered to owners are the same for all customers regardless of owner equity invested or tender-type chosen for payment.
B. Tender-Type
All customers are welcome to use the following tender types: Blue Hill Co-op or vendor-issued coupons or vouchers, cash, check, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Co-op gift card, and EBT/SNAP.
In addition to acting in accordance with non-discrimination and State and Federal regulation, our co-op prohibits requiring a minimum purchase, requesting personal or financial information, or requesting proof of eligibility for use of EPT/SNAP or any other nutrition incentive program tender-types. When employees request assistance from supervisors to handle transactions involving these tender-types via page, they may not identify these tender-types as the reason for seeking assistance.
III. How We Collect Data
A. Consent to Processing Data in the United States & Other Jurisdictions
Our Sites are governed by and operated in, and in accordance with the laws of, the United States, and are intended for the use of residents of the United States. Blue Hill Co-op makes no representation that our Sites are governed by or operated in accordance with the laws of any other nation. By using our Sites, or providing us with any information, you (a) acknowledge that our Sites are subject to the laws of the United States, (b) consent to the collection, processing, maintenance, and transfer of such information in and to the United States and other applicable territories in which the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as or equivalent to those in the country where you reside and/or are a citizen, and (c) waive any claims that may arise under those laws.
B. Platforms on Which Data Is Collected
Blue Hill Co-op collects information that you provide to us, information from your engagement with our Sites, advertisements, and media, and information from third parties with which you have consented to share it. We may combine information that we collect via one method (e.g., from a website or a social media advertisement) with another method (e.g., an in-person event). We do this to get a complete view of your preferences for our products and services so we may better serve you.
C. Example Types of Data Collected
1. Personal Data Provided
2. Data Automatically Collected
Blue Hill Co-op collects some data automatically when you use our Sites. We may obtain information by automated means, such as through cookies, web server logs, pixels, and other technologies described below.
a) Owners
- General
In order to apply owner benefits, sale prices, patronage, equity investments, information about subscriptions to our newsletter or promotional materials, and/or voting history to an owner’s record, our employees may ask customers to provide their owner number or the name of the primary owner on the account for record lookup. When an owner number is provided to an employee verbally, employees may confirm the owner record by asking or stating the name of the owner themselves and/or the additional person(s) named on their ownership account. - Purchase Records
Our ownership database not only maintains a record of each owner’s contact information but also owner purchases. We use aggregated purchase data and owner information to improve and enhance our services and product selection. Use of individual purchase data includes, and is not limited to, providing reminders when owner equity payments are due, tracking when owner equity is invested in full, looking up receipts for an owner upon their or an employee’s request, preparing contact lists in the event that we need to contact owners about product they purchased, providing digital purchase receipts, tracking coffee purchases for the big sipper program, and preparing patronage dividends. - Voting Records
Our ownership database also maintains records of voting history, and voting history is purged annually. An owner’s record only contains information about whether they participated in the most recent owner vote, it does not maintain information regarding the way an owner voted. - Subscriptions & Contact with Owners
Each owner record maintains information about how an owner prefers to receive our newsletter and promotional materials (by mail or email); these preferences may be changed by the primary owner on the ownership account at any time by submitting a request in-person or online here. Items such as newsletters, annual reports, patronage refunds, product recalls, or other notices that are sent to a wide group of owners may be sent via a third party. When we use a third party to contact owners, they do receive owner contact information, but they are not permitted to share or sell your data.
a) Cookies & Other Technologies
Our Sites, advertisements, email messages, text alerts, and other communications may use cookies and other technologies such as pixel tags and web beacons. These technologies help us (1) remember your information so you do not have to re-enter it, (2) enhance our Sites and product offerings, (3) tailor our Sites and advertisements to your preferences, (4) manage and measure the usability of our Sites, (5) understand the effectiveness of our content, (6) track and understand how you use and interact with our Sites, and (7) protect the security and integrity of our Sites.
We use Google Analytics cookies to monitor performance of our Sites. You can learn more about how Google Analytics processes information here: Google Analytics Terms of Use and Google Privacy Policy.
If you prefer not to accept cookies, you can change your browser settings to notify you when you receive a cookie, so you can choose whether or not to accept it, or you can set your browser to automatically reject any cookies. Please be aware that some features and services on our Sites may not work properly if you do this. To learn more about cookies, please visit allaboutcookies.org.
b) Device Identifiers
We and our third-party service providers may automatically collect an IP address or other unique identifier information (“Device Identifier”) for the computer, mobile device, or other technology (collectively, “Device”) you use to access our Sites or third-party websites that publish our advertisements. A Device Identifier is a number that is automatically assigned to your Device when you access a web site or its servers, and our computers identify your Device by its Device Identifier. Some examples of how we may use a Device Identifier include the following: administering our Sites, analyzing trends, tracing web page movements, helping identify you and your shopping cart, gathering broad demographic information, and helping to diagnose problems with our Sites.
c) Pixels
In emails and text messages, we use click-through URLs that will take you to content on our Sites. We also use pixels to understand whether our emails and texts are read or opened. We use this information to improve our messages, to change the frequency at which our messages are sent to you, and to determine your interest in our content.
d) Data from Third Parties
We receive information from third-party partners, such as publishers that run our advertising or companies that provide services on our behalf. This information that we receive includes marketing and demographic data, analytics, and offline records. We may also receive information from companies that collect or aggregate information from publicly available databases. This could include information about purchasing patterns, the general locations of shoppers, and other sites that are of interest to you. We also collect information about users who share interests or attributes (e.g., Natural Remedies, Organic Foods, etc.) to create “segments.” These help us better understand and market to our shoppers.
IV. Why We Use Data
Blue Hill Co-op collects and uses data for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to:
- Responding to questions or requests
- Verifying your identity and preventing fraud
- Providing you with news, emails, and other communications
- Managing your owner account
- Fulfilling product purchases
- Contacting you
- Improving the effectiveness of our Sites, stores, customer service, and product selection
- Providing tailored content, services, advertisements, and offers
- Conducting research and analytics
- Posting your content and consumer reviews on our Sites, social media pages, and related third party sites that retail or feature our brands and products
- Sending you notices of changes to Blue Hill Co-op policies
- Enforcing our policies and complying with applicable laws
V. How Long We Retain Data
We retain the information we collect as long as your owner account is active, as needed to provide you services, and as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
If you wish to request a refund of your ownership equity share or that we no longer use your information to provide you services, please contact us.
We do not control certain privacy settings and preferences maintained by our social media partners including Facebook and Instagram. If you wish to make changes to those settings and preferences, you may do so by visiting the settings page of the appropriate social media platform.
VI. How We Share Data
We will not sell your information to third parties, but some information may be shared with third parties as described below.
A. Legal Disclosure
Blue Hill Co-op may transfer and disclose information, including your personal information and usage information and Device Identifier (including IP address), to third parties to comply with a legal obligation; when we believe in good faith that the law requires it; at the request of governmental authorities conducting an investigation; to verify or enforce our applicable policies; to respond to an emergency; or otherwise to protect the rights, property, safety, or security of third parties, visitors to our Sites or the public.
B. Contact, Sales, & Survey Information
Blue Hill Co-op and its employees may not share or sell customer or owner information. This includes customer or owner names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, financial information, or any other sensitive data about specific customers or owners with other customers, owners, nor any third parties who are not contracted with us to conduct business and have not signed a non-disclosure agreement.
We and our employees may share aggregated data, information, and survey responses that do not identify individuals with the public or other entities at the discretion of management. If a customer, owner, or third party who is not contracted with us to conduct business requests information that includes any of the information or data cited above as prohibited to distribute, we will ask affected customers and owners to opt-in and provide documented consent prior to sharing any of the information, data, or survey responses requested. Employees may pass on messages from customers, owners, or third parties to other customers, owners, or third parties upon request. Customers, owners, or third parties that wish to share sensitive information or data among each other are welcome to do so upon their own consent.
C. Security Cameras
All Blue Hill Co-op locations have or may have security cameras, and the images captured are used solely to improve the safety and security on our premises. Information and images captured may be shared internally with our employees for the purposes of training, safety, or theft prevention; and/or with authorities; and/or with insurance companies for the purposes of processing claims; and/or by court order.
D. Customer Comments
Customer comments submitted in writing, through our Sites, or via social media messages may be made available for review in-store by the public, published in our newsletter, or listed on our Sites. Content on customer comments made available to the public is not edited for grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Owner contact information is also logged for employees and removed from any comments or responses publicly posted.
E. Owner Meeting Participation
Owner attendance is recorded for all meetings held in accordance. Minutes from meetings are available to owners to review and may include attendance records.
F. Third Parties Providing Services on our Behalf
We share information with third-party service providers that host or assist with the technical operation of our Sites, provide analytics, process orders, transactions and payments, and provide customer service; or other third parties that participate in or administer our promotions, contests, sweepstakes, and surveys or provide marketing or promotional assistance. We may also share information with third parties to help us identify your online preferences, including the advertisements with which you interact. This data may be matched with information that we collect and process about you to provide a better experience using our Sites and products. These third parties are not permitted to use your information for their own independent marketing or business purposes. We may also share non-identifying information, such as aggregate statistics or usage information, with third parties.
G. Third-Party Requests to Share Data
When viewing our advertisements or our Sites or participating in promotions, contests, sweepstakes, or surveys, you may be asked to consent to the sharing of your information with a third party, including social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. If you agree to have your information shared with a third party, it is subject to the privacy policy of that third party.
H. Interest-Based Advertising & Advertisement Choices
We use third-party companies to serve advertisements, to measure the performance and engagement of our advertisements, and to provide analytic, preference, and interest information.
These advertising network providers, social media platforms, sponsors, and/or analytics service providers may sometimes use their own tracking technology to capture information about your Device, use, and engagement online. This means that we may recognize your information across different devices that you use or log in from (i.e. computers or mobile devices). We may also recognize that one cookie ID (i.e. from a mobile device) may be connected to another Device (i.e. a computer) by the Device Identifier or log in. This may result in you searching for one of our products on one Device but seeing an advertisement later for that product on another Device. Knowing what devices are being used helps us limit the number of times you may see the same advertisement across different devices.
You can opt out of receiving targeted advertising through the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) Opt–Out Page. Opt-out options are device-specific, so if you use multiple devices, each one must be opted out. You can also opt out of certain targeted advertising programs by clicking on the AdChoices icon that may appear on our advertisements.
Please keep in mind that even if you opt out of targeted advertising, you may still see our advertisements while you are browsing, but they may not be targeted to you based on your interests. Some social media platforms allow you to exercise advertisement choices, clear your history, or limit data collection on that platform as well.
I. SMS/Text Messaging
If you choose, you can subscribe to text message alerts from us by going to https://mailchi.mp/edffd6e847c3/sms-signup and opting in. When you do, you will receive notifications about hour changes and store closures due to inclement weather or other unforeseen circumstances. You agree that by providing your mobile phone number you expressly consent to receive automated marketing text messages from us to the mobile phone number provided. Consent is not required to purchase goods or services. Message and data rates will apply, and you should check the rates of your mobile carrier. You can opt out from text marketing communications at any time by texting STOP or by emailing us bluehillcoop@bluehill.coop.
We may share your mobile phone number with the service providers with whom we contract to send text alerts, but we will not share your mobile phone number with third parties for their own marketing purposes without your consent.
Text messages are distributed via third party mobile network providers and, therefore, we cannot control certain factors relating to message delivery. Depending on your mobile carrier, it may not be possible to transmit text messages to you successfully, nor is content available on all carriers. We do not claim or guarantee the availability or performance of this service, including liability for message failures or transmission delays.
J. Links to Other Sites
Our Sites, email messages, text messages, and other communications may contain links to other websites that are maintained by third parties. These links are provided as a convenience to you, and Blue Hill Co-op has no control over and is not responsible for any products, services, or content offered by or found on third-party websites or their privacy policies. Links to third-party sites do not constitute an assumption of liability for or approval, endorsement, or sponsorship of these websites or their content.
VII. Your Choices
A. How to Opt Out
You may opt out from allowing our Sites to access location data at any time by adjusting the permissions in your mobile device’s browser settings.
You may change your preferences and/or unsubscribe from email communications from us by: (i) clicking the “Unsubscribe” button in the email communication that you received or (ii) sending a request via email to bluehillcoop@bluehill.coop.
You may opt out of text message alerts at any time by texting STOP or emailing us bluehillcoop@bluehill.coop.
In accordance with our routine record keeping, we may delete certain records that contain information you have submitted through our Sites. We are under no obligation to store such information indefinitely and disclaim any liability arising out of, or related to, the destruction of such information. In addition, please be aware that it is not always possible to completely remove or delete all of your information from our databases without residual data due to backups and other reasons.
B. Access to Data Collected
You have the right to request that we disclose information about our collection and use of your personal information over the past twelve months, including:
- The categories of personal information we collected
- The categories of sources for the personal information we collected
- Our business’s purpose for collecting personal information
- The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information
- The specific personal information we collected about you
C. Deletion
You have the right to request that we delete any of the information that we collected from you and retained. These requests are, however, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable request, we will delete (and/or direct our third-party service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.
We may deny a deletion request where retaining the information is necessary for us or our service providers. For example, data may need to be kept to:
- Complete a sales transaction for which we collected the personal information
- Detect security incidents or protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity
- Comply with a legal obligation
- Track complaints or product issues
- Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with expectations based on your relationship with us
D. Submitting a Request
Only you, or a person authorized to act on your behalf, may make a request related to your personal information, or you may also make a request on behalf of your minor child. The verifiable request must provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify that you are the person about whom we collected personal information or that you are an authorized representative of the person who wishes to make a request.
We may not be able to respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make such a request and confirm the personal information relates to you. When responding to your request, we will ask you for the email information that you used to interact with us in order to help verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm that your information is in our system. Information provided to submit a request will only be used for request purposes.
E. Timing
We will do our best to respond to verified requests within 30 days. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension in writing. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to verified requests unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will provide an explanation and a cost estimate prior to completing the request. You may only make a request for data twice within a 12-month period.
F. Minors
Our Sites are not directed to children under the age of majority in any state. We do not knowingly collect, use, or disclose personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of majority. If we determine upon collection that a user is under this age, we will not use or maintain his/her/their personal information without the parent or guardian’s consent. If we become aware that we have unknowingly collected personally identifiable information from a child under the age of majority, we will make reasonable efforts to delete such information from our records. If you believe that we may have any information from or about a child under the age of majority, please contact us.
Minors under the age of majority in their state must ask their parent or guardian for permission to use any Blue Hill Co-op properties. On our eCommerce website, you may only make purchases if you are the age of majority in your jurisdiction of residence or older.
VIII. Changes & Policy Updates
Please note that we may change information on our Sites and/or in this privacy policy at any time, and any changes will be effective immediately upon the publication of revisions.
IX. Contact Information
If you have any questions about privacy, please contact us at:
Re: BLUEHILL.COOP Privacy & Cookie Notice
Blue Hill Co-op
70 South Street
Blue Hill, Maine 04614
(207) 374-2165
X. Date of Last Update
This privacy policy was last updated on February 14, 2024.
