PRIVACY POLICY 

Last Revised March 2024

DKMD Consulting (collectively, “DKMD,” “our,” or “we”) operates the https://www.dkmdconsulting.com website (hereinafter referred to as the “Site”). DKMD values and respects the privacy of its customers and visitors. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to provide you with information about DKMD’s policies regarding the collection, processing, use, storage, and disclosure of information when you use our Site. This Privacy Policy also describes the choices you can make about our use of your information. 

We may update or modify this Privacy Policy at any time, by posting the amended version including the effective date of the updated version. We will use reasonable efforts to provide you with notice of any material changes to this Privacy Policy, but it is your responsibility to review this Privacy Policy for any changes prior to each use of the Site. By using the Site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and the collection and use of information in accordance with this Policy. If you do not agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy or any subsequent modifications, you should not access or use our Site or disclose any Personal Information (defined below) through our Site.

HOW TO CONTACT US
You can update your preferences and information by updating your contact information through our Site or contacting us at the contact points below. Additionally, if you have any questions or concerns about our use of your Personal Information, please do not hesitate to contact us through any of the methods below.

Email at: [email protected]

On our website at: https://www.dkmdconsulting.com

PERSONAL INFORMATION
While using our Site, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) which may or may not be sensitive in nature. Personal Information is information about a natural person who is either identified or who can be identified from data and other information either in our possession or likely to come into our possession.  

We collect information from you both when you provide it voluntarily and also automatically when you use our Site. We may also collect Personal Information from other sources, as described below.

We collect Personal Information from you and any devices (including mobile devices) you use when you: use our Site, register for an account with us, make a purchase, provide us information on a web form, update or add information to your account; when you otherwise correspond with us, engage or connect with us through one of our social media pages, or chat with a customer support specialist. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information, and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your Personal Information.

In addition, we may also collect Personal Information about you from third parties in connection with our Site, including from the following sources:

• Service providers (including hosting providers, shipping partners, and payment processors)
• Data analytics service providers
• Email, chat and other communications service providers
• Customer service providers
• Advertising providers
• Social media platforms
• Promotional partners

INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We may collect the following categories of Personal Information from you, depending on your interactions with our Site and the choices you make, as further described in the chart below: 

• Identifiers. Your name, email address, postal address, unique personal identifier, and Internet Protocol (IP) address.
• Interactions. Records of users’ interactions with the Site.
• Internet or other electronic network activity information. For example:
  • Browse history. Data about the webpages you visit. 
  • Search history. Data about the search terms you enter.
  • Device, connectivity, and configuration data. Data about your device and nearby networks, including regional and language settings.
  • Geolocation data. Data about your device’s location, which is inferred from your IP address and your postal address.
• Professional or employment-related information.
• Demographic data. Data about you such as your age, country, preferred language and other data reflecting your consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, preferences, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.

EXCHANGE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR MARKETING MATERIALS

To facilitate access to our range of marketing materials, it is necessary for users to furnish DKMD with certain categories of personal information. This may include, but is not limited to, details such as name, company affiliation, and work-related email addresses. The process of exchanging this information for access to marketing materials is governed by this Privacy Policy.

HOW WE USE INFORMATION
We use the information we collect for our business purposes, including the following:

• To respond to your questions and requests.
• To optimize the display of the Site on your device.
• To create, maintain and personalize your account with us.
• To provide, maintain, personalize, and improve our Site. 
• To provide customer support.
• To notify you about changes to our Site.
• To monitor the usage of our Site.
• To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Site when you choose to do so.
• To gather analysis and assess trends and interests.
• To detect, prevent, and address technical issues.
• To contact you with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you.
• To provide you with advertising content in which we think you will be interested. As part of this customization, we may observe your behaviors on this Site or on other websites. We may also get information about your browsing history from our trusted business partners and vendors.
• To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Site and technology assets.
• As otherwise described at the time your Personal information is collected.

SHARING YOUR INFORMATION
We share non-Personal Information with third parties at our discretion. We do not sell Personal Information. In connection with our Site, we may share your Personal Information with certain third parties who we engage to help us run our business and perform the services, including under the following circumstances:  

• Software and service providers we use to manage and process your information, for example, providers of payment processing software (e.g., payment processing software).
• Product-related service providers, such as delivery providers, vendors, and manufacturers.
• Google Analytics, a service provided by Google, Inc., to gather information about how you and other users engage with our Site. For more information about Google Analytics, please visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. 
• Marketing service providers we use to communicate with you. 
• Advertising service providers we use to assist us in providing personalized advertising.
• Business partners, including promotional partners who are helping us run a joint promotion or who provide a product or service in partnership or collaboration with us.
• Hosting providers that provide database storage for our business.
• Other third parties that you expressly request us to share your Personal Information with.

Additionally, we will share your Personal Information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary in connection with our Site or services, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. 

Most of the third parties with whom we share your Personal Information are located and store your information in the United States, although some may be located or store your information outside of the United States. These third parties are only permitted to use your Personal Information to the extent necessary to enable them to provide their services to us and are required to follow our express instructions and to comply with appropriate security measures to protect your Personal Information. You will have a choice (opt-in or opt-out) before we share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

If we are subject to a merger or acquisition with/by another company, we may share information with them in connection with the transaction. 

HOW WE SAFEGUARD YOUR INFORMATION
The security of your data is important to us but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk.

HOW LONG WE STORE YOUR INFORMATION
We will retain your Personal Information only for as long as is necessary for the legitimate business purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your Personal Information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal, accounting, or reporting obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes and enforce our legal agreements and policies. Additionally, we may continue to store your Personal Information contained in our standard back-ups. 

We also will retain Usage Information for internal analysis purposes. Usage Information is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when Usage Information is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our Site or services, or we are legally obligated to retain Usage Information for longer periods.

YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES REGARDING YOUR INFORMATION
Marketing Preferences. You can opt out from receiving future marketing communications from us at any time by using the unsubscribe function in the email you receive from us, or contacting us as set forth under “How to contact us” above. Please allow sufficient time for your preferences to be processed. Even if you opt out of receiving marketing messages, we may still contact you for transactional purposes like confirming or following up on an order or service request or asking you to review a product or service you have ordered. If you later opt back into getting marketing communications from us, we will remove your information from our opt-out databases.

Personalized Advertising. If you do not wish to participate in our advertising personalization programs, you can opt-out by following the directions provided within the applicable advertisement, or through disabling ad cookies through your browser settings. You may also opt out of receiving interest-based ads from Amazon, Facebook and Google. You will continue to see ads on each platform, but they will not be personalized as a result of your actions on our website. Please visit the links below if you wish to opt out or update your preferences: 

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/adprefs
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences
• Google AdWords: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated?hl=en 

As noted above in “The Information We Collect About You,” you can choose whether to accept cookies by changing the settings on your browser or device. However, if you choose to disable cookies, your experience with our Site may be impaired and some features may not work as they were intended.  Additionally, Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked. You can enable or disable Do Not Track by visiting the preferences or settings page of your web browser. However, these features are not yet uniform, so we do not currently respond to such features or signals. Therefore, if you select or turn on a “do not track” feature in your web browser, we and our third-party providers may continue collecting information about your online activities as described in this Privacy Policy.

You can choose to limit the data that third party services (e.g., social media platforms) share with us using the options provided to you by the applicable third party service (for example, the options provided by a third party social media platform when you connect your social media account with our Site).  You can also disconnect your use of our Site from the third-party service at any time using the options provided to you by the applicable third-party service. Please note, however, that if you disconnect from the third-party service, that will not delete the data we may have previously collected while you were connected.

Depending on where you live, you may have certain rights with respect to Personal Information that we have collected and used under certain circumstances, which may include the following:*

• The right to request the following information regarding our use of your Personal Information:
• The categories of your Personal Information that we have collected
• The purposes for which we have collected or used such Personal Information
• The categories of sources for the Personal Information we have collected about you
• The categories of third parties with whom we have disclosed your Personal Information 
• If we have disclosed your Personal Information for a business purpose, a list identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient obtained
• If we have sold your Personal Information, a list identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient purchased
• The right to receive a copy of your Personal Information.
• The right to request us to erase your Personal Information when we no longer need such data in connection with our Site (subject to certain exceptions that may apply under applicable law).
• The right to opt out of sales of your Personal Information. To exercise the right to opt-out, you (or your authorized representative) may submit a request to us.  

* If you are a resident of a jurisdiction where one or more of these rights are granted to you under applicable law, and you wish to exercise any such rights listed above, please contact us via email at: _________________ or on our website at:  https://www.dkmdconsulting.com.

Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your Personal Information. Please understand that we are required to verify your request and may require you to provide some information to enable us to carry out such verification. 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.

Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use Personal Information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

TRANSFER OF DATA; SPECIAL NOTICE TO NON-U.S. USERS
Your information, including Personal Information, may be transferred to and maintained on computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction. If you are located outside United States and choose to provide information to us, please note that we may transfer the data, including Personal Information, to the United States and process it there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer. 

We will take all the steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Information will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other Personal Information.

If you are located in a country outside the U.S. and submit Personal Information to us, you consent to the general use and disclosure of such information as provided in this Privacy Policy and to the transfer and/or storage of that information to the U.S. and other countries outside your home country. 

INFORMATION FOR INDIVIDUALS IN THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA)

The EU General Data Protection regulation (“GDPR”), the Data Protection Act 2018, and other data protection laws (“Data Protection Laws”) require us to provide the following information related to our privacy practices. This section only applies to individuals located in “Designated Countries”.

Our Relationship with You. Your data is controlled by the entity you registered with when you signed up for or ordered our products or services. The identity of that entity (the “data controller”) depends on which country you were in when you registered.

Users from the EEA have the right to: opt out of cookies (see our Cookie Policy); access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our use of their personal data; be forgotten; and data portability. For the most part, we enable exercise of these rights directly through our services.

If you require assistance or have a specific request that is not presently covered, please contact us. We may require additional information from you to fulfil your requests. We may charge a reasonable fee if your request imposes an unreasonable cost. We will afford UK-based users with all rights available to EU users, regardless of the UK’s EU member status.

Privacy Rights. Under the Data Protection Laws, you have certain rights relating to your Personal Information which are set out below. Please note that not all these rights are absolute, and they do not apply in all circumstances. We will process your request in accordance with applicable law. When you make a request, we may require proof and verification of identity and jurisdiction of residency to protect your privacy and security.

Right to Withdraw Consent. To the extent we are relying on your consent to process your Personal Information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Please note however that this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Right of Access. You have the right to request access to the Personal Information we hold about you and certain information relating to how and why we process it.

Right of Rectification. You have the right to request that we correct or supplement inaccurate or incomplete Personal Information we process about you.

Right of Erasure (or, “Right to be Forgotten”). You have the right to request that we delete Personal Information about you.

Right to Restriction of our Processing. You have the right to request that we restrict processing of your Personal Information.

Right to Data Portability. In certain limited circumstances, you have the right to request that we provide the Personal Information which you provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and you have the right to transmit such Personal Information to another controller without hindrance.

A Right to Object to Processing. In certain circumstances, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data carried out by us or on our behalf.

Right to File A Complaint. If you think we have not complied with the requirements of the law as it applies to your personal data, you have a right to file a complaint with any data protection supervisory authority. The Supervisory Authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): [email protected] or 0303 123 1113 / +44 1625 545 700; www.ico.org.uk.

You can find details EU Supervisory Authorities here: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm

If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may contact us at the email address set forth above.

If you are a resident of the EEA and you wish to access, change or delete Personal Information we hold about you, you may contact us by completing an EEA Request Form. If we change or delete your Personal Information or if you decline to actively share certain Personal Information with us, we may not be able to provide you with our services or some of the features and functionality of our services. In addition, you may contact us to request that we not disclose your Personal Information to third parties (other than those that are acting as our agent to perform tasks on our behalf, such as data processors). Keep in mind, we may reject requests for certain reasons, including if the request is unlawful or if it may infringe on the rights and freedoms of another person. For example, we may not be able to accommodate certain requests to object to the processing of Personal Information, notably where such requests would not allow us to provide our services to you anymore. For your protection, we may require proof of identity and verification before we can answer the foregoing requests.

Legal basis for processing data. In some cases, we have a legitimate interest to process the Personal Information that we collect, such as to develop, administer and support our products and services; to operate, evaluate and improve our business; to facilitate and manage engagement programs; to promote research; to support our recruitment activities; or to facilitate a corporate transaction (including a sale of assets or merger or acquisition).

In other cases, we process Personal Information to fulfill our contracts with business partners, such as third parties that distribute our products. It may also be necessary for us to process Personal Information to establish, exercise or defend against fraud, illegal activity, and claims and other liabilities, including by enforcing our Terms and Conditions that govern the services we provide. Our processing of certain information may be necessary to comply with our legal obligations, and for reasons of public interest, such as with respect to adverse events and product safety reporting. We may also process Personal Information as specifically permitted by applicable legal requirements. If we rely on consent for the processing of your Personal Information, we will seek such consent at the time we collect your Personal Information.

INFORMATION FOR RESIDENTS OF CALIFORNIA

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) may provide you with notice and other rights regarding our use of your Personal Information that are in addition to those set forth elsewhere in this Privacy Policy. The CCPA Notice applies to “Consumers” as defined by the law. Consumers from California have the right to: request information about the categories and sources of Personal Information collected, and the associated purposes for collection and third-party disclosures; request a copy of their Personal Information; request deletion of their Personal Information; and opt out of the sale of Personal Information. This section describes your CCPA rights as a California Consumer and explains how to exercise those rights. See the above Sections to learn what information we collect from you and how it is collected, used, and shared.

As a California resident, you have certain rights, such as:

Access to Information and Data Portability Rights. You have the right to send us a request, no more than twice in a twelve (12) month period, for any of the following for the period that is twelve (12) months prior to the request date: the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you; the categories of sources from which we collected your Personal Information; the business or commercial purposes for our collecting or selling your Personal Information; the categories of third parties to whom we have shared your Personal Information; the specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you; a list of the categories of Personal Information disclosed for a business purpose in the prior 12 months, or that no disclosure occurred; and a list of the categories of Personal Information sold about you in the prior 12 months, or that no sale occurred.  Your access rights under California law are not absolute. Specifically, you have the right to make a request no more than twice in a twelve (12) month period and the information you can request is limited to Personal Information collected in the 12-month period preceding our receipt of the request.

Data Deletion Rights.  Except to the extent we have a basis for retention under CCPA, you may request that we delete your Personal Information that we have collected directly from you and are maintaining. Note also that we are not required to delete your Personal Information that we did not collect directly from you. In certain situations, and to the extent permitted by law, we may be required to keep your Personal Information to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, or for another one of our business purposes.

Non-discrimination.  You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising your rights under California law. We do not discriminate against California consumers who exercise their rights described in this section. However, we may charge a different price or rate, or offer a different level or quality of good or service, to the extent that doing so is reasonably related to the value of the applicable data. In addition, we may offer you financial incentives for the collection, sale and retention and use of your Personal Information as permitted by the CCPA that can, without limitation, result in reasonably different prices, rates, or quality levels. The material aspects of any financial incentive will be explained and described in its program terms.

Please note that not all these rights are absolute, and they do not apply in all circumstances. While we will make reasonable efforts to accommodate your request, we also reserve the right to impose certain restrictions and requirements on such requests, if allowed or required by applicable laws. Any request you submit to us is subject to an identification and residency verification process.

Exercising Your Rights. To make a request for access, portability, or deletion according to your rights under CCPA, residents of California may submit a request through the CCPA Request Form. California Consumers may exercise these rights via an authorized agent who meets the agency requirements of the CCPA. 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 that the Personal Information relates to you. Any request you submit to us is subject to an identification and residency verification process (“Verifiable Consumer Request”). The Verifiable Consumer Request must: (a) provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected Personal Information or an authorized representative; and (b) describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it. Some Personal Information we maintain about Consumers is not sufficiently associated with enough Personal Information about the Consumer for us to be able to verify that it is a particular Consumer’s Personal Information (e.g., clickstream data tied only to a pseudonymous browser ID). As required by the CCPA, we do not include that Personal Information in response to Verifiable Consumer Requests. If we cannot comply with a request, we will explain the reasons in our response. We will make commercially reasonable efforts to identify Consumer Personal Information that we collect, process, store, disclose, and otherwise use and to respond to your California Consumer privacy rights requests. We will typically not charge a fee to fully respond to your requests, but we may charge a reasonable fee, or refuse to act upon a request, if your request is excessive, repetitive, unfounded, or overly burdensome.

California’s “Shine the Light” law, Civil Code section 1798.83, requires certain businesses to respond to requests from California customers asking about the businesses’ practices related to disclosing Personal Information to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. You may make such a request by completing and submitting a STL Request Form. We do not make any representations concerning third parties that do not collect Personal Information directly through our Site. To find out more about our “do not track” practices under Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22575, see the “Do Not Track” disclosures discussion in this Privacy Policy. For additional information on your privacy choices and rights, see the discussions of “Your Rights and Choices Regarding Your Information” set forth in this Privacy Policy.

SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION
Subject to the following paragraph, and unless expressly requested on the Site, we ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any “sensitive personal information” as this term is defined under applicable data protection and privacy laws (for example, social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through the Site or otherwise to us.

If you send or disclose any sensitive personal information to us, you consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal information, you must not submit such content to our Site.

POLICY ON CHILDREN’S INFORMATION
Our Site is not created for anyone under the age of 18 (“Children” or “Child”). By using this Site, you represent that you are at least 18 years old. If you do not meet this age requirement, then you must not access or use our Site. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18, and we do not target the Site to children under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Child has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us though one of the methods listed under “How to Contact Us”, above. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Information from Children without verification of parental consent, we take reasonable steps to remove that information from our servers.

LINKS TO OTHER SITES
Our Site contains links to third-party websites. If you click on one of those links, you will be taken to websites we do not control. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the information practices of those third-party websites. You should read the privacy policies of third-party websites carefully. We are not responsible for the content, privacy policies, actions or security of third-party websites.

AMENDMENTS

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time by publishing a new version across the Site. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy. We will notify you of changes to this policy by email, via notification when you access the Site, or by other reasonable means we deem appropriate.

GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION
This Privacy Policy shall be construed and governed under the laws of the United States and State of Tennessee (without regard to rules governing conflicts of laws provisions). You agree that venue for all actions, arising out of or relating in any way to your use of our Site, shall be in federal or state court of competent jurisdiction located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, within one (1) year after the claim arises. Each party waives any objections based on forum non conveniens and waives any objection to venue of any action instituted hereunder to the extent that an action is brought in the courts identified above. Each party consents to personal jurisdiction in the courts identified above.