Privacy Statement
LAST UPDATED ON: June 1, 2024
Protecting your privacy is important to Birks Group Inc., its affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively, “Birks”, “we” or “us”). This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) explains how Birks collects, uses, and discloses the personal information you may provide while using:
- maisonbirks.com
- birks.com
- brinkhaus.com
- birksgroup.com
- birkscareers.com
- birksgoldexchange.com
- birksechangedor.com, and
other websites operated by Birks (individually, the “Website” and collectively, the “Websites”), through our online contact form, electronic publications, newsletters, and announcements (“Electronic Communications”), as well as in our stores. Any personal information that you provide to us will be treated with care and will not be used or disclosed in ways to which you have not consented or which are not otherwise permitted or required by law.
Personal information means any information which relates to a natural person and allows that person to be identified directly, or indirectly in combination with other information. It does not include information from which all references to the identity of the relevant individual have been removed (i.e., anonymous information or non-personal information).
Please be sure to read this Policy before submitting your personal information to us. By submitting your personal information to us, you give your consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Policy, as amended from time to time. If you do not agree with this Policy, please do not submit your personal information to us.
Contents
1) INFORMATION AUTOMATICALLY COLLECTED
2) PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU SPECIFICALLY PROVIDE TO BIRKS
3) DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
4) STORING AND SECURING YOUR INFORMATION
1) INFORMATION AUTOMATICALLY COLLECTED
Birks may automatically collect the following categories of personal information:
Technical Information – The Website may automatically collect certain technical information regarding website users, such as the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address of your computer, the IP address of your Internet Service Provider, the date and time you access the Website, the internet address of the Website from which you linked directly to the Website, the operating system you are using, the sections of the Website you visit, the Website pages read and images viewed, and the materials you post to or download from the Website. This technical information is used for website and system administration purposes, for statistical purposes and to improve the Website. Your technical information may be disclosed to third parties (including current and prospective business partners and advertisers) and anonymized to be permanently archived for future use.
Cookies – The Website may use “cookies”, a technology that installs small text files on a user’s computer to permit the Website to recognize future visits using that computer. Cookies enhance the convenience and use of the Website and allow us to provide you with more personalized content. Most browsers are set to automatically accept cookies, but you may also use the settings of your browser to activate the transmission of cookies if that function is currently disabled for you. If you do not wish to accept cookies, you may set your browser to refuse cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. You may choose to decline cookies if your browser permits, but doing so may affect your use of the Website and your ability to access certain features or areas of the Website.
Display Advertising – Birks uses Google Analytics and cookies to implement and use display advertising on the internet. Display advertising is a type of online advertising that can include banner ads, text, logos, pictures, or rich media.
Remarketing – Birks uses remarketing with Google Analytics to advertise online. Remarketing is a feature that allows Birks to reach people who have previously visited our Website, and show them relevant ads when they visit other sites on the Google Display Network. Third-party vendors, including Google, show our ads on sites across the internet. Moreover, Birks and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on your past visits to our Website.
2) PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU SPECIFICALLY PROVIDE TO BIRKS
Collection of Your Personal Information – You may be asked to voluntarily provide certain personal information (such as your name, email address, postal address, telephone number, credit card information, and user identification) for a variety of specific purposes during your use of the Website, via Electronic Communications and/or in store. If you choose not to provide the personal information requested, you may not be able to access certain features or areas of the Website, and/or Birks may not be able to communicate with you, or process your request or order.
Use of Your Personal Information – Birks may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- to contact and correspond with you, to respond to your inquiries, and/or to provide you with information regarding products, services and events, which may be of interest to you;
- to process your online or in-store order for Birks products and/or services;
- to open and maintain an online Birks account and/or Birks bridal registry, where requested by you;
- to process your order for a kit to sell your precious metals;
- to provide you with information regarding job openings, where requested by you;
- to process your job resume;
- to process your credit card application, including conducting credit checks;
- to administer surveys, polls, contests and/or other promotions, in which you participate;
- to engage in business transactions, including the purchase, sale, lease, merger, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition, disposal, securitization or financing involving Birks; and
- as otherwise permitted or required by law.
Generally, Birks will consider the fact that you have voluntarily provided Birks with contact information to signify your consent for Birks to use your contact information for the purpose of tracking our communications with you, and providing you with information about Birks, its products and services, and other matters, which we think may be of interest or use to you. At any time, you may ask Birks to stop sending you such information by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link therein, or by contacting us at 1-800-758-2511.
Tracking Information – Birks may use technical information to create aggregate tracking information reports regarding Website user demographics and Website traffic patterns. None of the tracking information in the reports can be connected to the identities or other personal information of individual users. To the extent Birks makes a link between tracking information and Website users’ personal information, all of the linked information will be treated as personal information and will be used and disclosed only in accordance with this Policy, as amended from time to time, and in accordance with applicable law. Note that Birks uses a personalization engine to dynamically customize Website content for each online user in real-time. Not only does this apply to our products and services, but it also applies to audio, video and written content on the Website. In order to tailor the Website to your preferences, Birks collects information from a variety of sources, such as customer service channels, registration forms, order forms, surveys, and contests, where applicable.
3) DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Birks may disclose or transfer your personal information in the following circumstances:
Disclosure to Service Providers – In order to process orders and transactions, Birks must disclose some of your personal information to certain service providers, including, without limitation, your credit card issuer, the product handler and the delivery service;
Disclosure to Business Partners and Suppliers – Birks may disclose your personal information to its business partners and to the suppliers of products and services that you purchase at Birks so that they may offer you information regarding products and services that may be of interest to you and to administer the partners’ and suppliers’ respective programs. Moreover, Birks may exchange your personal information with the administrators of certain loyalty and reward programs in order to (i) allow you to accumulate and/or redeem “miles”, “points” or other similar units under the programs, of which you are or may want to become a member, and (ii) allow Birks and the program administrators to administer and assess the performance of their respective programs;
Disclosure in Business Transactions – If Birks is involved in the sale or transfer of some or all of its assets, shares and/or business, Birks may disclose your personal information to the acquiring or resulting organization;
Disclosure to Government and Law Enforcement and Legal Disclosure – Birks may disclose your personal information to a government institution that has asserted its lawful authority to obtain the information or where Birks has reasonable grounds to believe the information could be useful in the investigation of unlawful activity, or to comply with a subpoena or warrant or an order made by a court, person or body with jurisdiction to compel the production of information, or to comply with court rules regarding the production of records and information, or to Birks’ legal counsel; and
Disclosure Where Permitted or Required by Law – Birks may also disclose your personal information as otherwise permitted or required by law.
By providing us with personal information, you acknowledge and agree that such personal information may be transferred to other jurisdictions for processing and storage, including in servers located across Canada and in the United States, where laws regarding the protection of personal information may be less stringent than the laws in your jurisdiction. Further, such personal information may be accessible to law enforcement, national security authorities, and the courts of such jurisdictions. Where necessary to make such transfers, we will comply with our legal and regulatory obligations in relation to the personal information.
4) STORING AND SECURING YOUR INFORMATION
Only Birks employees and service providers with proper authorization will have access to your personal information, and only to the extent necessary to achieve the purposes described in this Policy, as amended from time to time. To help protect the confidentiality of your personal information, Birks employs security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.
We only keep personal information for as long as necessary and for the reasons it was collected, or for as long as required to comply with any applicable legal obligation and our documents retention policies. The length of time personal information is kept varies according to the nature of the information, and it may extend beyond the end of the relationship between an individual and us.
When the personal information collected is no longer required by us, the necessary procedures for destroying, deleting, erasing, or converting it into an anonymous form are applied.
5) YOUR RIGHTS
Subject to certain exemptions, to the extent permitted by applicable law, you have the following rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you:
Your right of access – At your written request we will inform you whether we hold personal information relating to you and if we do, you have the right to receive a general account of our processing of such personal information. If your request is made in writing, subject to applicable laws and the provisions of this Policy, we will also provide you with access to your personal information that is in our possession. A reasonable fee may be levied if you request the transcription, reproduction or transmission of such information and you will have to provide information or documentation to verify your identity. We will inform you of the approximate cost before proceeding to respond to your request. Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute. Access can be denied for several different reasons under applicable legislation. If we deny your request for access to your personal information, we shall explain why.
Your right to rectification – If we hold personal information about you and you believe that it is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, you can request to have it rectified (or rectify it yourself via your account information page). If we discover that information is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, we will take reasonable steps to rectify it. We will also send any information that has been amended, where appropriate, to any third parties that have access to the information. If we refuse a request to rectify information, we shall explain why and we will make a note of this in your file (and forward such note to anyone else who received the earlier information).
Your right to withdraw consent – If we rely on your implicit or explicit consent as our legal basis for processing your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain benefits, products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
6) CHILDREN UNDER 14
Birks will NOT knowingly collect, use, and/or disclose personal information concerning a child under 14 years of age without the consent of the child’s parent or legal guardian.
7) ROLEX
While navigating on the Rolex section of our website, some cookies are controlled by Rolex SA which applies the following Cookies Policy.
8) OTHER MATTERS
Other Websites – The Website may contain links to other websites or internet resources. When you click on one of those links, you are contacting a third party website or internet resource that may collect information about you, whether voluntarily or through cookies or other technologies. Birks has no responsibility or liability for, or control over those third party websites or internet resources or their collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of the third party website you visit. When you follow a link and leave the Website, you do so at your own risk.
Website Terms and Conditions of Use – The terms and conditions governing your use of the Website contain important provisions disclaiming and excluding the liability of Birks and others regarding your use of the Website and provisions determining the applicable law and exclusive jurisdiction for the resolution of any disputes regarding your use of the Website. Each of those provisions also applies to any disputes that may arise in relation to this Policy and the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information, and are of the same force and effect as if they had been reproduced directly in this Policy. You can access such terms and conditions on the Websites.
Contests and Other Promotions – If contests or other promotions are made available through the Website and/or in our stores, the applicable contest or promotion rules may include rules regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. To the extent those specific rules conflict with this Policy, the particular contest or promotion rules will govern the personal information collected in connection with the contest or other promotion.
Sharing Webpages – If you choose to share a webpage of the Website with another person, you will be asked to provide that person’s email address as well as your own. By doing so, you represent that you have obtained that person’s authorization to do so. Birks will automatically send that person a link to the webpage in question and invite them to visit the Website. We will store the email address provided in our database for that one-time sending only. We will not send any additional messages to such email address.
Former Users – If you stop using the Website or your permission to use the Website is terminated by Birks, Birks may continue to use and disclose your personal information in accordance with this Policy, as amended from time to time, and subject to compliance with applicable law.
Privacy Policy Changes – This Policy may be changed by Birks from time to time in Birks’ sole discretion and without any prior notice or liability to you or any other person. The collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information by Birks will be governed by the version of this Policy in effect at that time. New versions of this Policy will be posted here. Your continued use of the Website, your request of any Electronic Communication, and/or your voluntary disclosure of your personal information to Birks subsequent to any changes to this Policy will signify that you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with the changed Policy. Accordingly, when you use the Website, request any Electronic Communication or voluntarily provide Birks with your personal information, you should check the date of this Policy and review any changes since the last version. You should also bookmark this page and periodically review this Policy to ensure that you are familiar with the most current version.
9) YOUR COMMENTS
If you have any comments or questions about this Policy or your personal information, please contact our Chief Privacy Officer:
- By Mail:
2020 boul. Robert-Bourassa, Suite 200
Montréal, QC
H3A 2A5
ATTN: Chief Privacy Officer
- By email: [email protected].