Privacy Policy

BIC Inc. (BIC) respects your privacy when visiting our websites and/or placing an order. The purpose of this policy is to inform you about the types of information we gather about you when you visit our websites and/or place an order (whether by email or over the phone), or otherwise provide us with personal information, how we use that information, whether we disclose it to anyone, and the choices you have regarding our use of the information.

By using a website BIC links to this Privacy Policy, by placing an order, or by otherwise choosing to submit personal information to BIC, you signify your consent to all of the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use this website, place an order, or submit any personal information to BIC.

Some of the BIC websites are directed to adults and not those under the age of majority. To place an order on the https://calogolighter.bic.com/ and/or for BIC lighters, you must have reached the age of majority where you reside, and must be acting for business or commercial purposes, not personal, family, household, or other consumer purposes. BIC requires personal information from visitors to fulfill orders for BIC products. When you create an account or make a purchase over the phone, via email or if available on our website, we may ask you for personal information such as name, email, birth month and year, billing and shipping address, phone number, credit card information and password (for account holders). Where the order information you provide relates to a business or corporation rather than an individual, it is not personal information. When you purchase a product, we use the information you provide and, if applicable, artwork you submit to process your order. In addition, we may contact you via e-mail, phone, or regular mail, if we have questions or comments regarding your order. In order to purchase lighter products, you may be asked for your birth month and year to confirm you are at least the age of majority where you reside. When you set up an account, we use your information to create and manage your account. Your credit card information will be processed by our third party payment processor and used only to process your payments in accordance with your order.

If you contact us via our CONTACT US link, you may be asked to provide personal information including your first name and e-mail address so that BIC, or an agency working on BIC’s behalf, may contact you to respond to your comments, questions or requests for information. Aside from a reply to an e-mail received by us, it is not our intent to contact you unless you request particular information, or it is necessary as part of the order confirmation process. For example, if you seek to place an order, we may contact you to provide you with a quote in respect of the order, to facilitate payment, to confirm or reject your submitted artwork, or to provide you with information regarding shipping. Although we will retain your contact information in our database, we will use it only to respond to your requests. If you participate in BIC-sponsored on-line surveys, product reviews or promotions, including but not limited to: on-line coupons, rebates, sweepstakes, contests or re-occurring email communications from us, we may collect your name, address, postal code, phone number, age, date of birth, e-mail address, product preferences, hobbies and interests. We may use the information we collect for BIC business purposes such as creating a better user experience on our websites; processing your order; entering you in our promotions and contacting you to respond to inquiries and/or if you are eligible to receive a prize pursuant to the promotion terms, rules or entry guidelines; and for internal research purposes. When you submit a product review through our online review platform, you become subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy of our third party online review platform, and your name and the review you submit may be posted on our website and on other third party websites.

If you visit any of our websites or participate in any BIC sponsored activities or on-line promotions, you may be asked whether you wish to receive future information from BIC and you may opt-in to receive this information by entering your email address and/or checking the appropriate opt-in box. If you choose to opt-in, your personal information will be kept in our database and will be used to send you future information relating to BIC and other information we think may be of interest to you. Also, in order to access coupons and deals, you may need to sign up to receive email communication from BIC. You will have the option to opt-out of receiving future e-mails from BIC by using the unsubscribe feature in each commercial e-mail.

Some BIC websites may allow you to send, from the website, an e-mail inviting a friend to visit the Website (hereinafter "Electronic Messages"). Any names and/or e-mail addresses collected for Electronic Messages (data collected to deliver the Electronic Message to the recipient's e-mail addresses) are stored temporarily in a transaction log file for security purposes, and are deleted after a holding period. After that, all personally identifiable information relating to the transaction is deleted from our system. You may only send an Electronic Message to someone with whom you have had two way communications, and with whom it is reasonable to conclude you have a personal relationship considering shared interests, experiences, opinions and other relevant factors, or to whom you are related by marriage, a common-law partnership, or parent-child relationship. You must have the permission of your friend or family member to send an Electronic Message to them.

We may also use your information, or disclose it to third parties, if we have reason to believe that using or disclosing such information is necessary to: (i) conduct investigations of possible breaches of law; (ii) identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be violating an agreement they have with us; (iii) investigate security breaches or cooperate with government authorities pursuant to a legal matter; or (iv) to protect our rights, safety or property. Lastly, we may use or disclose your personal information for any other purpose to which you consent, or which is permitted or required by applicable law.

We may use Google Analytics or other third party analytic tools to analyze user behavior which allows us to measure visitor interest in the various areas of our websites for product and website development purposes. These third party analytic tools tell us aggregate and collected information, such as, how the site was accessed and how long visitors stayed. This information is used for our own internal purposes to improve the content of the website, to enhance users’ experience when visiting our website, and to customize the content and/or layout of our pages. All information of user behavior described herein will be recorded on a group basis, and such analysis may be shared with our website development consultants. This information is aggregated and not personally identifiable.

We limit access to the personal information collected to only those employees and representatives of BIC or an agency working on BIC’s behalf who need to use it in the course of their assigned responsibilities and to companies that perform services for us (for example, our third party online payment gateway). These companies are obligated to keep the information confidential and use it to provide only the services we have asked them to provide. Third party providers maintain the information they need to perform their designated functions and we do not authorize such parties to use or disclose personal information for their own marketing purposes.

We protect your personal information by maintaining physical, organizational and technological safeguards. Personal information we collect is maintained at United States, Dulles, VA and Lansing, MI.

We reserve the right to transfer any personal information we have about you in the event that we merge with or are acquired by a third party or should any such transaction be proposed.

Please note that your personal information may be maintained and processed by service providers located in foreign jurisdictions, including the United States, whose data protection laws may differ from the jurisdiction in which you live. As a result, this information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in those jurisdictions according to laws in those jurisdictions.

The BIC websites may contain links to other websites and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. BIC has no control over and assumes no responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of these websites and social media platforms. You should review the privacy policies of each website you visit. We may offer links to other sites; for example, coupons for BIC may be made available through a link to an agent that specializes in the distribution of on-line coupons. We are not responsible for the content or information collection policies of other sites. If you visit another site, you should review their privacy and other policies.

Like many other commercial sites, our websites may utilize a standard technology called a "cookie" to collect information about how our websites are used. Cookies were designed to help a website recognize a user's browser as a previous visitor and thus save and remember any preferences that may have been set while the user was previously browsing the site. Our cookies cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive or pass on a computer virus. Our websites may use cookies to enhance your visit. Cookies can securely store a user's password, personalize home pages, identify which parts of a site have been visited or keep track of your preferences. Our cookies may collect a domain name and track a path through our web pages.

BIC uses so called permanent cookies which will be saved on your browser for an extended period of time, unless you delete them sooner, and so called session cookies which will be deleted when your browser is closed. We only use cookies to gather the information indicated in this policy and do not use cookies to gather personal identifying information about you without your consent. Most browsers include an option to clear existing cookies or reject new ones. If you elect to do this, portions of this website may not function as intended, such as the ability to add products to the shopping cart. By using our website without deleting or rejecting some or all cookies, you agree that we can place those cookies that you have not deleted or rejected on your device.

We may collect information about the services that you use and how you use them, like when you visit different parts of our site or applications and what selections you make on the services. We may also automatically collect certain technical information such as:

• Device information

  We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile information if you use a mobile device to access the site).

• Log information

  When you use our services or view content provided by us, we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This information may include:

  • details of how you used our service, such as your navigation paths and search queries.
  • mobile related information if you access our website or application using your mobile device.
  • device event information such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL.
  • cookies that may uniquely identify your browser, mobile device, or your account.
  • Browser type, operating system, and other technical information.

Some browsers have a “do not track” feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. These features are not yet uniform, and our website is not currently set up to respond to those signals for tracking on our website.

We may also use cookies, pixels, beacons, or other web tracking technologies to track the amount of time spent on our websites or social media platforms and whether or not certain content, such as a video, was viewed. We may work with a trusted third party to collect and process this information for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy. We may also participate in interest-based advertising using similar technology. This means that you may see advertising on our website tailored to how you browse or shop, or you may see advertising for BIC on other websites based on your browsing behavior across websites. Some websites where we may advertise belong to ad networks that use your web browsing history to choose which ads to display on their network websites; these ads include advertising for BIC, but no personal information about you is shared with those third party ad networks. Other websites where you see our ads, such as Facebook, may use interest preferences that you have chosen on those sites, as well as registration and other information about you, to choose which ads to display to you. Some internet browsers, websites such as Facebook and mobile devices offer opt-outs for interest-based advertising. Please refer to the website that you are visiting, your browser and/or your device settings for additional information.

You can opt-out of receiving interest-based ads from third parties who are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) or who follow the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising by visiting the opt-out pages on the NAI website and DAA website. (http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/) and (http://www.aboutads.info/choices/).

You may also avoid cookie based tracking by BIC by adjusting your browser settings to clear existing cookies and reject new ones. However, if you elect to do this, portions of this website may not function as intended.

You may have the opportunity to utilize third party applications, plugins and buttons on our websites, social media pages or on social media platforms. Consequently, your personal information may be shared with that third party social media platform and they may share data with us. We (or an agency working on BIC’s behalf) may use your information only as necessary to operate our websites, pages, platforms and applications and will only have access to your information during your use of the applicable third party application, plugin or button unless you contact us with questions regarding the such application. In the event that you choose to provide your information to a third party social media platforms, your information will be governed by the policies of those third party social media platforms. We don’t exercise control over third party social media platforms. Those social media platforms may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, solicit personal information from you and follow different rules regarding the use of the information you submit to them. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other social media platforms you visit.

BIC websites are primarily designed and intended for adults. In accordance with the applicable law, we do not knowingly collect or store any personal information about children, and the BIC websites are not designed to collect personal information from children. If a child has provided us with personal information, his or her parent or guardian may contact us for the purpose of deleting this information.

BIC and its service providers may provide your personal information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order, or to an investigative body in the case of a breach of an agreement or contravention of law, or as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law. We may also disclose personal information where necessary for the establishment, exercise or a defense of legal claims, or as otherwise permitted by law.

You have a right to request access to your personal information and to request a correction to it if you believe it is inaccurate. If you have submitted personal information to BIC and would like to have access to it, or if you would like to have it corrected, please contact us using the contact information provided below. We will use reasonable efforts to comply with your request; however, in some cases we may not be able to allow you to access certain personal information in certain circumstances, for example if it contains personal information of other persons, or for legal reasons. We may require you to verify your identity before allowing you to access or correct your personal information.

Questions regarding this Privacy Policy, the accuracy of your personal information, the use of the information or any other questions regarding the BIC websites or applications may be directed to:
BIC USA Inc. Attn : Privacy Officer
155 Oakdale Road
Toronto, ON M3M 1W2
PrivacyOfficer.Toronto@bicworld.com