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Whirlpool Corporation
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Privacy Statement to our Customers in the United States
Updated October 26, 2012
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Whirlpool Corporation is the world's leading manufacturer
and marketer of major home appliances, with annual sales of
approximately $17 billion in 2009, 67,000 employees, and 67
manufacturing and technology research centers around the
world. Major brand names used in the United States include
Whirlpool®, Maytag®, KitchenAid®, Jenn-Air®, Amana®,
Gladiator®, Roper®, Estate®, Admiral®, Laundry 1-2-3™,
Affresh® and Inglis™ by Whirlpool Corporation.
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We understand that visiting a company's web site or
doing business by email, phone, fax or direct (postal)
mail requires trust on your part. We value this trust,
and if we collect or use information about you, we will
do so in a responsible manner consistent with this
Statement.
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This page describes how Whirlpool Corporation and its brands
handle information we learn about customers in the United
States. |
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Your consent and preferences
What kind of information does Whirlpool Corporation collect?
What are cookies, web beacons, and log files?
How does Whirlpool Corporation use and disclose information about me?
California Residents: Your California Privacy Rights
How will Whirlpool Corporation make changes to this policy?
How does Whirlpool Corporation secure my personal information?
What about the security of linked sites?
Does Whirlpool Corporation intentionally market to children?
Can I update or change my information?
Your acceptance of Whirlpool Corporation's privacy practices.
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Your Consent and Preferences
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Whirlpool Corporation may, from time to time, contact
you with communications regarding our products or
services. These communications may come from Whirlpool
Corporation or one of its brands, and may involve
product information, marketing or promotions, research,
and/or other topics. To contact you, Whirlpool
Corporation and its brands may use the information you
provide to us, including e-mail, direct (postal) mail,
fax or phone. You may, at any time, inform us that you
do not want Whirlpool Corporation and its brands to
contact you by sending your request to our Privacy
Officer using the contact information below. You may
also opt-out of promotional e-mail communications from
one of our brands by clicking on a link provided in that
brand's promotional e-mail message. However, please note
that you cannot opt-out from all communications, as
Whirlpool Corporation and its brands may need to send
you information related to our products (e.g.
warranties, service reminders, etc.), your orders or
accounts, etc.
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What Kind of Information does Whirlpool Corporation Collect?
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Whirlpool Corporation collects two types of information:
Personal information and aggregate or "combined"
information. Personal information is data specifically
about you, which you typically provide on a voluntary
basis. Aggregate or combined information includes data
that is related to you but studied as a group and does
not identify you specifically. You cannot “opt-out” from
having aggregate information collected. |
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What are cookies, web beacons, and log files?
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Cookies – cookies are small text files that we
may store on your computer to help us identify your
computer the next time you visit or to enable some
functions on our web sites. Whirlpool Corporation's
third party service providers and business partners may
also use cookies to collect non-personal information
from visitors to our sites. We may use such information
to measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns
and web sites. If you are not comfortable with our use
of cookies, please review your browser software to learn
how it may be set to notify you when you receive a
cookie or to reject all cookies. However, disabling
cookies may limit some functionality and your
experiences on our web sites.
Web beacons – web beacons are miniscule
electronic image files that can be embedded within a web
page or included in an e-mail message, and are usually
invisible to the human eye. When used, web beacons (also
known as “clear GIFs” or “tracking pixels”) may tell us
such things as: how many people are coming to our web
sites, whether they are one-time or repeat visitors,
which pages they’ve viewed and for how long, how well
certain online advertising campaigns are converting, and
other similar web site usage data. When used in an
e-mail, web beacons can tell us the time the e-mail was
opened, if and how many times it was forwarded, and what
links users click on from within the e-mail message.
Based on this information, we can adjust the content,
products, services, and promotions we provide you to
better meet your interests, as well as make you aware of
Whirlpool Corporation products, services, and/or special
offers in which you may be interested.
Log Files – these are files that record web
activity and gather non-personal statistics about your
visit to or use of our web sites. Log files may help us
capture, among other things: (i) your IP Address, which
is a unique set of numbers assigned to your computer by
your Internet Service Provider (ISP) (note that,
depending on your ISP, the number assigned to your
computer can be different every time you connect to the
Internet); (ii) the type of browser and operating system
you use; and, (iii) other information about your online
session, such as the URL you came from to get to our web
site and the date and time you visited our web site. In
addition to using this information to better understand
how our web sites are used, we may use information
captured through log files such as an IP Address
(together with your personal information) to
troubleshoot technical problems, maintain online safety
and security, and if necessary, prohibit or restrict
access to our Online Services by certain users.
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How does Whirlpool Corporation Use and Disclose Information about ME?
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Unless otherwise stated at the point of collection,
Whirlpool Corporation may use your personal information
for several reasons, including but not limited to,
fulfilling orders, informing you about product service
and warranty issues, sending you marketing
communications, auditing and improving upon the level of
service we provide to our customers, etc. Regardless of
what may be said at the point of information collection,
Whirlpool Corporation reserves the right to contact you
in the event of a service notification for your
registered appliance, or to issue other notices
concerning the safety of your appliance regardless of
your stated privacy preferences. Whirlpool Corporation
uses aggregate information only as anonymous grouped
data to better understand how visitors use our site,
such as the pages most frequently viewed, the paths
visitors use while navigating the site to optimize the
experience, and to count the number of visitors. |
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Whirlpool Corporation may disclose your information
to third parties acting on our behalf, such as call
center operators, shippers, servicers, people who
analyze data for us, etc. While these third parties have
access to some of the information Whirlpool Corporation
may have about you, the information is limited to what
they need to know to do their jobs. Whirlpool
Corporation may disclose and share your information with
our brands, such as the ones listed at the beginning of
this policy. If Whirlpool Corporation sells an
affiliated company or other business asset, we reserve
the right to transfer your personal information in
connection with such a sale. Also, Whirlpool Corporation
may disclose your information as necessary (1) if we
determine a web site or policy violation has occurred;
(2) if we believe such disclosure is necessary to
identify, contract or bring legal action regarding
injury or interference with the rights and property of
Whirlpool Corporation; (3) to respond to judicial
process and in cooperation with law enforcement
agencies, or as otherwise required by law; and (4) to
assist us in fraud prevention or investigation. |
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California Residents: Your California Privacy Rights
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If you are a California resident, you may have the right to
request and receive certain information about our disclosure
of your personal information to third parties for their
direct marketing purposes, and your choices with respect to
such disclosures. Because it is our policy not to share your
personal information with third parties unless you are first
given the opportunity to opt-out from such sharing, we are
exempt from having to meet this requirement. If you still
wish to learn more about our compliance with this
requirement, please contact us using the contact information
provided in this Policy.
. If we are bought or acquired
by another company (either fully or partially), merged with
another company, or experience a reorganization, bankruptcy,
or other similar event, your information may be shared with
our successor or assign (the new company or the company that
takes over), subject to the notification procedures set
forth below.
. If we are required to share your information
because such action is reasonably necessary to comply with
legal-related processes, enforce contract terms, respond to
or resolve any claims (including valid consumer complaints),
or otherwise protect or enforce the safety or rights
(including intellectual property rights) of Whirlpool
Corporation our business customers and partners, our
consumers, or the general public.
. If we wish to generally assess (with the help
of a third party company) how our Online Services are
performing in the Internet marketplace, their popularity or
use amongst certain consumer demographics or profiles, and
other similar performance metrics. The information disclosed
for these purposes will be in aggregate form and limited to
demographic or other anonymous data; no personal information
will be shared.
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How will Whirlpool Corporation make changes to this policy?
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From time to time, we may update this Policy. If we do,
we will note near the top of this page the date that any
changes are made and/or when they become effective. If
the changes being made are material (that is, we make a
major change in the important points of the policy), we
may alert you to the changes in a more prominent way.
For example, we may temporarily highlight the new or
revised sections in this Policy, temporarily post a
prominent notice on our home page or registration/login
page, or temporarily add the word “Updated” to the title
of this Policy and any hypertext links pointing to this
Policy. In some instances, we may also send you an
e-mail message or other communication telling you about
the changes and any choices you may have or actions you
can take before they go into effect. Your inaction or
continued use of our Online Services after any such
alerts or notices, or your acceptance of any changes for
which we require your prior approval, will tell us that
you agree to these changes. If any changes we make will
affect, in a material way, the way we treat any personal
information collected directly from children/students,
we will first contact parents (or, in the school
context, the appropriate educators) and obtain the
required form of consent.
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How does Whirlpool Corporation Secure my Personal Information?
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Whirlpool Corporation is committed to maintaining the
security of the data you provide us and will take
reasonable precautions to protect your personal
information from loss, misuse or alteration. Please note
that there is always some risk in transmitting
information over the Internet. We do use secure
connections on our web sites to protect credit card
information during its transmission.
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WHAT ABOUT THE SECURITY OF LINKED SITES?
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Some of our web sites may contain links to web sites
owned by other companies. Because Whirlpool Corporation
has no control over the privacy practices or content of
these linked sites, we recommend that you carefully
review the privacy statement of each site you visit.
Whirlpool Corporation is not responsible for the content
or privacy practices of sites owned by other companies.
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DOES WHIRLPOOL CORPORATION INTENTIONALLY MARKET TO CHILDREN?
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This Privacy Statement addresses Whirlpool
Corporation's procedures for handling the personal
information of customers in the United States whom are
at least 13 years old. We do not seek to, nor do we
knowingly collect, information from children. If a child
has provided us with personal information, a parent or
guardian of that child may contact us to have the
information deleted from our records. To do so, contact
our Chief Privacy Officer.
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CAN I UPDATE OR CHANGE MY INFORMATION?
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If you are a registered user of this site, you may
review, revise, correct or update your information at
any time by updating your profile. You may also submit a
request to our Chief Privacy Officer if you would like
to update or change personal information that Whirlpool
Corporation has about you.
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For more information, contact our Chief Privacy Officer.
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By Postal Mail:
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Chief Privacy Officer Whirlpool Corporation 2000 N. M-63
MD 8522 Benton Harbor, MI 49022
By E-mail:
whirlpool_privacy@whirlpool.com
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If we make photocopies of information related to your request, we reserve the right to recover related photocopy charges.
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YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF OUR PRIVACY PRACTICES
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By using this web site or any other Whirlpool
Corporation web site, you agree to the terms of this
Privacy Statement. This Privacy Statement applies only
to information provided by or collected from customers
in the United States and is not intended to describe
data handling procedures for information collected by
other linked web sites or business partners.
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We reserve the right to change or update this Privacy Statement at any time.
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