Privacy Policy

THE FOLLOWING DESCRIBES THE INFORMATION THAT MERCHANTSERVICES.ORG COLLECTS AND HOW WE USE SUCH INFORMATION. PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY BEFORE USING OUR SITE AND SERVICES. BY USING OUR SERVICES OR SUBMITTING INFORMATION THROUGH OUR WEBSITE, YOU EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO THE PROCESSING AND USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION ACCORDING TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY.

Privacy Statement

MerchantServices.org and its subsidiaries (collectively “MerchantServices”) are committed to safeguarding your privacy online. This privacy policy applies to Your information that MerchantServices collects and receives. By using this website (“Website”) You agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. Please read the following policy to understand how Your Personal Information will be treated as You use MerchantServices’ Services. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices. All capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy have the same meaning as defined in our Terms of Use.

Personal Information Defined

For this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means information that is personally identifiable such as names, addresses, e-mail addresses, or phone numbers, as well as other non-public information that is associated with a User. MerchantServices collects and uses Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy from the Users of our Services.

Personal Information MerchantServices Collects

MerchantServices collects Personal Information upon Your consent. This information might be used to send you product recommendations, articles via a newsletter, or more information about a particular technology vendor, depending on the form you fill out and the consent you provide at the time you fill out that form.

Product Recommendations: MerchantServices collects Personal Information from You in order to connect You with sellers of services that You are searching for. When You give us access to Personal Information for this purpose, You consent to receive product recommendations and advice from MerchantServices via email or phone call, and with your consent the Website may pass your data along to technology vendors who meet your requirements.

Email Newsletters: MerchantServices collects email addresses to provide readers of our blogs with updates via email newsletters. These email newsletters contain links to blog posts, product recommendations, and links to research white papers that match your technology or industry interests.

Get Pricing: Should You request pricing details for a particular technology listed on the site, MerchantServices will collect Personal Information such as:

Email address
Name
Phone number
Industry
Company demographics

When You consent to receive pricing details for a technology, MerchantServices will contact you with those pricing details. With your consent, the Website may pass your data along to technology vendors who meet your requirements.

Product Reviews: MerchantServices uses your personal information to verify Your identity and to ensure you are not a current or previous employee of the technology company or their direct competitors.

MerchantServices collects the following Personal Information that You submit voluntarily. You may provide us with additional information about You as You use the Services such as:

Physical addresses
Telephone numbers
Information regarding Your business (e.g., business name, revenue thresholds, etc.)
Information regarding Your business needs and technology requirements
Other personally identifiable information You affirmatively provide to us such as LinkedIn profile information

When You contribute posts and reviews, participate in MerchantServices surveys (either directly, or through third party service providers), or provide any other Content to the Services through other means, MerchantServices will collect all the information You provide. In connection with reviews, posts, and surveys, MerchantServices (and/or its third party service providers) may collect a wide variety of product- and vendor-related information.

Please be aware that while some pieces of information that You provide to MerchantServices would not be sufficient to identify You when seen by another User without any context, the combination of different pieces of information that You have provided for viewing by other Users, or any contextual information, may allow other Users and MerchantServices to identify You.

When You contact MerchantServices by sending us an e-mail or when You use any of our contact forms, we will collect any information that is contained in (and/or attached to) Your e-mail, text message, or that You enter into such forms.

MerchantServices does not collect, process or control any sensitive personal information such as Physical or Mental Health, Political Beliefs or Genetics, etc.

Legal Grounds for Processing Information under GDPR

For our direct marketing activities, we employ Legitimate Interest as legal grounds for processing data.

Browsing the Website

If You browse through the Website without entering any Personal Information, MerchantServices will automatically gather and store certain information about Your visit. This information does not identify You personally and cannot be linked back to You unless You decide at some point to identify Yourself. If You are only browsing, MerchantServices may collect the following information (whenever possible): IP address, domain name, the type of browser and operating system used to access the Website, the date and time You access the Website, the pages You visit (click-through), and if You linked to the Website from another website, the address of that website as well as additional information related to Your visit. MerchantServces uses Your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer the Website.

Cookies

MerchantServices may place “cookies” on Your personal computer. “Cookies” are small identifiers sent from a web server and stored on Your computer’s hard drive, similar to a license plate, that help MerchantServices to recognize You if You visit the Website again. MerchantServices use cookies to record session information, such as record user-specific information on what pages You access or visit, record past activity in order to provide better service when You return to the Website, ensure that You are not repeatedly sent the same banner ads, to customize Website content based on Your browser type, and to track how You found the Website. Cookies are not designed to be used to get data from Your hard drive, Your e-mail or any other personal data about You.

To protect Your privacy, MerchantServices does not use cookies to store or transmit any Personal Information about You on the Internet. You can reject cookies by changing Your browser settings. Please note, however, that if You reject our cookies, it is possible that some web pages may not properly load, Your access to certain information might be denied or You might have to enter information about Yourself more than once.

Minors

MerchantServices does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information by anyone under the age of 18. Do not fill out any forms on the site if You are under the age of 18 and do not provide MerchantServices with any information regarding any individual under the age of 18.

Use of Personal Information

Personal Information You submit to MerchantServices, or to third parties that support us in collecting information, is used by us to provide You and other Users with the Services, to respond to requests that You make, to improve our Services, and to operate, maintain, and improve the features, functionality, performance, and support of the Services.

MerchantServices uses the Personal Information that it gathers about You for the following purposes:

To provide our Services to You, to communicate with You about Your use of the Services, to respond to Your inquiries, to fulfill Your orders, and for other customer service purposes, which may include communicating with You via email
To tailor the content and information that MerchantServices may send or display to You, personalized help and instructions, and to otherwise personalize Your experiences while using the Website or the Services
For customer loyalty programs
To share with website affiliates, and/or vendors of products You have given us consent to contact You regarding products or services as a means of establishing communication between both You and such vendors or affiliates.
For marketing and promotional purposes. For example, MerchantServices may use information You provide to contact You in the manner(s) You request at the time that data is collected. MerchantServices may collect your email address to send You news and newsletters, special offers and promotions, or to otherwise contact You about products or information You expressed interest in. MerchantServices also may use the information that MerchantServices learns about You to assist us in advertising our Services on third party websites.
To better understand how users access and use the Website and Services, both on an aggregated and individualized basis, to improve the Website and Services and respond to user desires and preferences, and for other research and analytical purposes

Public Postings

One of the purposes of the Services is for Users to share product- and vendor-related information with other Users. Therefore, You should assume that any information (including any Personal Information You may choose to provide, but excluding Your registration information) that You post will be made available to other Users of the Services. MerchantServices may provide You the ability to anonymously post certain comments, in which case MerchantServices will not include Your contact information (i.e., name, username, email address, or postal address) on the Website in connection with such comments. However, You should know that MerchantServices’ internal records may associate Your contact information with such comments.

Feedback

If You provide feedback about the Services, MerchantServices may use and disclose such feedback for any purpose, provided MerchantServices does not associate such feedback with Your Personal Information. MerchantServices will collect any information contained in such feedback and will treat the Personal Information in it in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Disclosure of Personal Information

Except as otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy, MerchantServices does not disclose to or share Your Personal Information with third parties, unless You ask or authorize MerchantServices to do so. MerchantServices may provide Your Personal Information to third party service providers and suppliers who work on behalf of or with MerchantServices to provide You with some of the services and features of the Services and to help us communicate with Users. However, these service providers and suppliers do not have any independent right to use this information except to help MerchantServices provide the Services. MerchantServices may share some or all of Your Personal Information with any parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under a common control (collectively, “Affiliates”), in which case MerchantServices will require Affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy.

Data Retention

Unused data and data that falls outside of categories we deem commercially viable will be deleted. To ensure the accuracy of our recommendations and the privacy of Personal Information, MerchantServices analyzes all records annually and deletes any that have gone untouched, unprocessed, and unreferenced in a timespan of 5 years. Data that has been requested to be forgotten will be deleted promptly.

Mergers

In the event MerchantServices goes through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, Your Personal Information will likely be among the assets transferred. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of MerchantServices or its assets may continue to use Your Personal Information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

Legal Obligation to Disclose

MerchantServices may (and You authorize us to) disclose information MerchantServices has collected from and about You (including Personal Information) if MerchantServices believes in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to (a) comply with relevant laws or to respond to subpoenas or warrants served on us; (b) to enforce our MerchantServices Terms of Use and Privacy Policy; or (c) to protect and defend the rights or property of us, the users of our Services, or third parties.

Data Compliance

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

MerchantServices adheres to rights of data subjects set out by the GDPR standards. Under these standards individual citizens of the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA) have the right to:

Be forgotten. At any time you may contact MerchantServices’ Data Protection Officer and request that your data be fully removed from all of our databases.
Update or change your Personal Information
Transfer your Personal Information to another data processor or controller
Object to the processing of your personal information

If You would like to make a subject access request (SAR) to view, delete, or otherwise change the data stored in the MerchantServices database, please contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing contact@merchantservices.org.

CCPA(California Consumer Privacy Act)

Through our site and partners, we receive data that you actively submit, as well as data that we track when you request information, or otherwise actively send us data. We usually collect data such as your name, email address, business address, telephone number, and other information related to the business you represent.

MerchantServices adheres to rights of data subjects set out by CCPA. Residents of California upon verification have the right to

The right to know which personal information is being collected
The right to know if personal data is being sold or shared, and to whom
The right to object to the sale of personal data
The right to access one’s own personal information
The right to equal service and price, even for consumers who exercise their privacy rights

We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service providers to:

Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 seq.).
Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
Comply with a legal obligation.
Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

To exercise these rights listed above you can contact us by
Email us at contact@merchantservices.org.

Only you or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.

You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:

Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative.
Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it. We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

Security

MerchantServices works hard to protect Information You provide from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access or disclosure. These steps take into account the sensitivity of the Other Information we collect, process and store, and the current state of technology. MerchantServices has deployed all of these requirements in our systems and processes both internally as well as with upstream data providers to ensure the security of Personal Information:

Hardware-level and/or software-level encryption
Data minimization
Data pseudonymization
Data encryption at rest
Data encryption in transit

Information Sharing

On occasion MerchantServices will make available to potential advertisers, research firms, and business partners aggregated results from research it has conducted regarding visitors to the Website. MerchantServices may count, track, and aggregate visitor activity into our analysis of general traffic flows to the Website and may merge this information into group data, which may then be shared on an aggregated basis with potential advertisers, research firms, and business partners. In such case, MerchantServices will only provide demographic information on an aggregated basis and does not disclose individual reader information. We improve our products and advertising by using Microsoft Clarity to see how you use our website. By using our site, you agree that we and Microsoft can collect and use this data.

Links to Other Web Sites

The Website may contain links to Third Party Sites that are not owned or controlled by MerchantServices. The provision of such links is for Your convenience and does not signify MerchantServicess endorsement of such web sites or location or its contents. MerchantServices has no control over, does not review and is not responsible for the privacy policies of or content displayed on Third Party Sites. Please be aware that the terms of this Privacy Policy do not apply to Third Party Sites.
DISCLOSURE: MerchantServices may have affiliate marketing agreements set up with a portion of the products mentioned in blog posts or other pages on the site. If a user clicks through to a product from this Website and makes a purchase, MerchantServices may be entitled to a portion of the revenue generated from this purchase.

Notification of Privacy Statement Changes

From time to time, MerchantServices may use Personal Information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in this Privacy Policy. If MerchantServices’ information practices change at some time in the future MerchantServices will post the policy changes to this Website to notify You of these changes and provide You with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If You are concerned about how Your information is used, You should check back at this Website periodically.

Contacting the MerchantServices

If You have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Website, or Your dealings with this Website, please contact us at contact@merchantservices.org.