CALIFORNIA ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY

Audio & Video Labs, Inc. dba HearNow (the “Company” or “we”) has developed this privacy policy out of respect for the privacy of our customers and visitors to our website. This policy describes the personal information we collect, use, and disclose about individual consumers who visit or interact with this website, purchase or inquire about any of our products or services, contract with us to provide services, or otherwise interact or do business with us.

Whenever you visit our website, we will collect some information from you automatically simply by you visiting and navigating through this site, and some voluntarily when you submit information using a form on the website, enroll in or subscribe to our newsletter or marketing communications, request information, or use any of the other interactive portions of our website. Through this website, we will collect information that can identify you and/or your activity.

Additionally, whenever you communicate, interact or do business with us, online, we will be collecting personal information from you or about you in the course of our interaction or dealings with you.

Collection of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information

Based on your specific transactions and interactions with us or our website, we will or may collect, and we have in the last 12 months collected, the following categories of personal information about you. For each category of information, the categories of third parties and service providers to whom we have disclosed the information in the last 12 months are referenced by a letter that coincides with the letter in the list of categories of service providers and third parties that follows soon after this table.

Category

Examples

Disclosed in Last 12 Months To

Sold or Shared in Last 12 Months to

Retention Period

Personal Identifiers 

Name, alias, social security number, date of birth

A, B, C, D,E, H, I

Not Sold or Shared

Duration of our relationship with you plus 6 years.

Contact Information

Home, postal or mailing address, email address, home phone number, cell phone number.

A, B, C, D, E, H, I

Not Sold or Shared

Duration of our relationship with you plus 6 years.

Account Information

Username and password for Company accounts and systems, and any required security or access code, password, security questions, or credentials allowing access to your Company accounts.

H

Not Sold or Shared

Username: permanent; Password or security code: while in use + 2 years 

Commercial Transactional Data

Information regarding products or services provided, purchasing history.

A, B, D, E, F, H, I

Not Sold or Shared

6 years after transaction, unless necessary to maintain for a longer period for Tax or other regulatory compliance.

Internet Network and Computer Activity

Date and time of your visit to this website; webpages visited; links clicked on the website; browser ID; browser type; device ID; operating system; form information downloaded; domain name from which our site was accessed; search history; and cookies; internet or other electronic network activity information related to usage of Company networks, servers, intranet, or shared drives, as well as Company-owned computers and electronic devices, including system and file access logs, security clearance level, browsing history, search history, and usage history.

H

Sold to G

Not Shared

6 years

Geolocation Data

IP address

H

Sold to G Not Shared

6 years

Mobile Device Data

Information collected when you navigate, access or use any of our websites via mobile device, including device type, software type; data identifying your device if you access our business networks and systems, including cell phone make, model, and serial number.

H

Sold to G

Not Shared 

6 years

Online Portal Access and Usage Information

Username and password, account history, usage history, file access logs, security clearance level, and any information submitted through the account.

H

Not Sold or Shared

6 years

Facility & Systems Access Information

Information identifying you, if you accessed our secure company facilities, systems, networks, computers, and equipment, and at what times, fobs, login credentials, or other security access methods.

H

Not Sold or Shared

6 years


Of the above categories of Personal Information, the following are categories of Sensitive Personal Information the Company may collect from or about consumers, independent contractors, or applicants:



  1. Personal Identifiers (social security number, driver’s license or state identification card number, passport number)
  2. Account Information (your Company account log-in, in combination with any required security or access code, password, or credentials allowing access to the account)

 

Personal information does not include:

We may collect your personal information from the following sources:

 

We may disclose, or sell, your personal information to/with the following categories of service providers, contractors, or third parties:

A.                Financial institutions

B.                 Insurance carriers, administrators and brokers

C.                 Government agencies

D.                Promotional or other fulfillment vendors

E.                 Marketing support vendors and vendors that support managing or hosting the website 

F.                  Transaction support vendors (e.g., check guaranty, payment processors)

G.                Data analytics vendors

H.                Security and risk management vendors, including IT, cybersecurity, and privacy vendors and consultants

I.                    Corporate customers (meaning an entity, as opposed to a natural person, that purchases, leases, or finances any of our products or services)

 

We may collect your personal information for the following business purposes:



  1. To fulfill or meet the purpose for which you provided the information. 
  2. To process, complete, and maintain records on transactions.
  3. To provide and communicate breach notifications to customers.
  4. To maintain records of when customers decline a service or sale.
  5. To respond to consumer inquiries, including requests for information, customer support online, phone calls, and in-person inquiries.
  6. To contact you by email, telephone calls, mail, or other equivalent forms of communication regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, services, or other information you requested or asked the Company to provide to you.
  7. To improve user experience on our website.
  8. To understand the demographics of our website visitors.
  9. To detect security incidents.
  10. To debug, identify, and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality of our website.
  11. To protect against malicious or illegal activity and prosecute those responsible.
  12. To verify and respond to consumer requests.
  13. To prevent identity theft.

 

We may disclose your personal information for any one or more of the business purposes identified above. 

 

We do NOT and will not sell or share your personal information in exchange for monetary consideration. However, we may sell or share some of your information to third parties for other valuable consideration, as noted in the table above. 

We may sell or share your personal information for the following business purposes:

  1. To improve the user experience of our Site

 

Other than these exceptions, we do not and will not disclose your personal information to any third party in exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Notice of Right of California Residents to Opt-Out of the Selling and Sharing of Your Information

While we do not sell or share your personal information in exchange for money, we may sell or share your personal information for other valuable consideration. You have the right to tell us NOT to sell or share your personal information. You have the full and free right to opt-out of our disclosure of your personal information to any third parties where the disclosure constitutes “selling” or “sharing” as defined by the California Privacy Rights Act. You may exercise your right to opt-out without fear of discrimination for doing so. To opt-out of our selling or sharing of your information, meaning, we will not disclose your information to third parties for any monetary or other valuable consideration, you can do any of the following: 



·       Click HERE to be taken to an online opt-out submission form. 

·       Visit HearNow’s website at: https://hearnow.com/. Click on “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” to be taken to an online submission form. 

·       You can use a Global Privacy Controls (GPC) signal. HearNow will process opt-out preferences from GPC signals, which are in formats commonly used and recognized by businesses, such as an HTTP field header, as requests to opt-out of sale or sharing. The GPC signal opt-out will only apply to the browser you are using on your device; it will not apply to other browsers and/or devices to which GPCs are not activated or to offline sales.

·       If you are unable to submit an opt-out through any of the above methods, please contact us at [email protected] for assistance and a representative will assist in meeting your needs. 

 

You can have an authorized agent submit a request on your behalf. To submit an opt-out through use of an authorized agent, you must provide that agent with written permission signed by you to submit an opt-out on your behalf, except when using an opt-out preference signal. The authorized agent may contact us at [email protected] to make the opt-out request and for directions for submitting the proof of authorization and the authorized agent’s proof of identification to the Company. We maintain the right to deny any request from an authorized agent that does not submit sufficient proof that they have been authorized by you to act on your behalf. 

 

A request to opt-out need not be a verifiable consumer request. However, we may deny a request to opt-out if we have a good faith, reasonable, and documented belief that a request to opt-out is fraudulent. If we deny your request to opt-out, we shall inform you of our decision not to comply and provide an explanation as to why we believe the request is fraudulent.

 

Opt-Out Preference Signals

Opt-out preference signals provide consumers with a simple and easy-to-use method by which to exercise the right to opt-out of the selling and sharing of their information. Global Privacy Controls (GPC) is a user-enabled opt-out preference signal which can communicate a user’s “Do Not Sell or Share” request on behalf of the person or device. We will process opt-out preferences from GPC signals which are in formats commonly used and recognized by businesses, such as an HTTP field header. We will treat a consumer’s use of GPCs as a valid request to opt-out of the selling and sharing of information for that browser. We currently do not connect browser use to particular consumers and, as such, you will need to use GPCs on all browsers in which you access our website and use our opt-out form to opt-out of offline sales.

Do Not Track (DNT) is a privacy preference that users can set if they do not want web services to collect information about their online activity. We do not respond to DNT signals or other mechanisms (with the exception of GPCs) that provide a choice regarding the collection of personal information about activities over time and across different websites or online services. We encourage users who have DNTs to use GPCs.

We do not and will not use or disclose your sensitive personal information for purposes other than the following: 

  1. To perform the services or provide the goods reasonably expected by an average consumer who requests those goods or services.
  2. To detect security incidents that compromise the availability, authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality of stored or transmitted personal information.
  3. To resist malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal actions directed at the business and to prosecute those responsible for those actions.
  4. To ensure the physical safety of natural persons.
  5. For short-term, transient use. 
  6. To perform services on behalf of the Company.
  7. To verify or maintain the quality or safety of a product, service or device that is owned, developed, developed for, or controlled by the Company, and to improve, upgrade, or enhance the service or device that is owned, developed by, developed for, or controlled by the Company.
  8. For purposes that do not involve inferring characteristics about the consumers, contractors, and applicants. 

 

Retention of Personal Information 

We will retain each category of personal information in accordance with our established data retention schedule as indicated above. In deciding how long to retain each category of personal information that we collect, we consider many criteria, including, but not limited to: the business purposes for which the Personal Information was collected; relevant federal, state and local recordkeeping laws; applicable statutes of limitations for claims to which the information may be relevant; and legal preservation of evidence obligations. 

We apply our data retention procedures on an annual basis to determine if the business purposes for collecting the personal information, and legal reasons for retaining the personal information, have both expired. If so, we will purge the information in a secure manner. 

Third Party Vendors

We may use other companies and individuals to perform certain functions on our behalf. Examples include administering e-mail services and running special promotions. Such parties only have access to the personal information needed to perform these functions and may not use or store the information for any other purpose. Subscribers or site visitors will never receive unsolicited e-mail messages from vendors working on our behalf.

Business Transfers

In the event we sell or transfer a particular portion of its business assets, information of consumers may be one of the business assets transferred as part of the transaction. If substantially all of our assets are acquired, information of consumers may be transferred as part of the acquisition.

Compliance with Law and Safety

We may disclose specific personal and/or sensitive personal information based on a good faith belief that such disclosure is necessary to comply with or conform to the law or that such disclosure is necessary to protect our employees or the public.

Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

Cookies are small files that a website may transfer to a user’s computer that reside there for either the duration of the browsing session (session cookies) or on a permanent, until deleted, basis (persistent cookies) that may be used to identify a user, a user’s machine, or a user’s behavior. We make use of cookies under the following circumstances and for the following reasons:

You may delete cookies from your web browser at any time or block cookies on your equipment, but this may affect the functioning of or even block the website. You can prevent saving of cookies (disable and delete them) by changing your browser settings accordingly at any time. It is possible that some functions will not be available on our website when use of cookies is deactivated. Check the settings of your browser. Below you can find some guidance: 

External Links

Our website contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. To help ensure the protection of your privacy, we recommend that you review the Privacy Policy of any site you visit via a link from our website.

Passwords

The personal data record created through your registration with our website can only be accessed with the unique password associated with that record. To protect the integrity of the information contained in this record, you should not disclose or otherwise reveal your password to third parties.

Children Under the Age of 16

We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.

How We Protect the Information that We Collect

The protection of the information that we collect about visitors to this website is of the utmost importance to us and we take every reasonable measure to ensure that protection, including:

International Visitors

We do not target, market to, or offer our products or services to consumers outside of the United States. You agree not to submit your personally identifiable information through the website if you reside outside the United States. If we become aware that a person residing inside the European Economic Area, European Union, Great Britain, or Switzerland has submitted their personal information to us, we will delete it. 

Rights Under the CCPA and CPRA 

This section of the Privacy Policy applies only to California residents who are natural persons. If you are a California resident, you have the following rights pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA): 

  1. Right to Know. The right to request, up to 2 times in a 12-month period, that we identify to you (1) the categories of personal information we have collected about you going back to January 1, 2022, unless doing so would be impossible or involve disproportionate effort, or unless you request a specific time period, (2) the categories of sources from which the personal information was collected, (3) the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing this information, (4) the categories of third parties with whom we share or have shared your personal information, (5) the categories of personal information that we have sold or shared about you and the categories of third parties to whom the personal information was sold or shared, by category or categories of personal information for each category of third parties to whom the personal information was sold or shared, and (6) the categories of personal information that we have disclosed about you for a business purpose and the categories of persons to whom it was disclosed for a business purpose;
  2. Right to Access. The right to request, up to 2 times in a 12-month period, that we disclose to you, free of charge, the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you going back to January 1, 2022, unless doing so would be impossible or involve disproportionate effort, or unless you request a specific time period;
  3. Right to Delete. The right to request, up to 2 times in a 12-month period, that we delete personal information that we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions;
  4. Right to Correct. The right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information (to the extent such an inaccuracy exists) that we maintain about you; 
  5. Right to Opt-Out. The right to opt-out of the selling or sharing of your personal information to third parties;
  6. The right to designate an authorized agent to submit one of the above requests on your behalf. See below for how you can designate an authorized agent; and
  7. The right to not be discriminated or retaliated against for exercising any of the above rights, including an applicant’s and independent contractor’s right not to be retaliated against for exercising the above rights.

You can submit any of the above types of consumer requests through the option below:

·         Submit an online request on our website at https://hearnow.com/. 

How We Will Verify That it is Really You Submitting the Request

If you are a California resident, when you submit a Right to Know, Right to Access, Right to Delete, or Right to Correct request through one of the methods provided above, we will ask you to provide some information in order to verify your identity and respond to your request. Specifically, we will ask you to verify information that can be used to link your identity to particular records in our possession, which depends on the nature of your relationship and interaction with us. For example, we may need you to provide your name, email, phone number, IP address, and/or date of your last transaction with the business.

Responding to Your Right to Know, Right to Access, Right to Delete, and Right to Correct Requests

Upon receiving a verifiable request from a California resident, we will confirm receipt of the request no later than 10 business days after receiving it. We endeavor to respond to a verifiable request within forty-five (45) calendar days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to an additional 45 calendar days, or 90 calendar days total from the date we receive your request), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. We will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. 

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

For a request to correct inaccurate personal information, we will accept, review, and consider any documentation that you provide, and we may require that you provide documentation to rebut our own documentation that the personal information is accurate. You should make a good-faith effort to provide us with all necessary information at the time that you make the request to correct. We may deny a request to correct if we have a good-faith, reasonable, and documented belief that a request to correct is fraudulent or abusive. If we deny your request to correct, we shall inform you of our decision not to comply and provide an explanation as to why we believe the request is fraudulent. 

Responding to Your Request to Opt-Out of the Selling or Sharing of Your Personal Information

We will act upon a consumer request to opt-out within fifteen (15) days of its receipt. We will notify all third parties to whom we have sold or shared personal information of your request and instruct them to comply with the request within the same time frame. We will notify you when this has been completed by mail or electronically, at your option. 

A request to opt-out need not be a verifiable consumer request. However, we may deny a request to opt-out if we have a good faith, reasonable, and documented belief that a request to opt-out is fraudulent. If we deny your request to opt-out, we shall inform you of our decision not to comply and provide an explanation as to why we believe the request is fraudulent.

If You Have an Authorized Agent:

If you are a California resident, you can authorize someone else as an authorized agent who can submit a request on your behalf. To do so, you must either (a) execute a valid, verifiable, and notarized power of attorney or (b) provide other written, signed authorization that we can then verify. When we receive a request submitted on your behalf by an authorized agent who does not have a power of attorney, that person will be asked to provide written proof that they have your permission to act on your behalf, and we will also contact you and ask you for information to verify your own identity directly with us and not through your authorized agent. We may deny a request from an authorized agent if the agent does not provide your signed permission demonstrating that they have been authorized by you to act on your behalf. 

Other California Privacy Rights

The California Civil Code permits California Residents with whom we have an established business relationship to request that we provide you with a list of certain categories of personal information that we have disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. To make such a request, please send an email [email protected], or write to us at the address listed below. Please mention that you are making a “California Shine the Light” inquiry.

Consent to Terms and Conditions

By using this website, you consent to all terms and conditions expressed in this Privacy Policy.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

As our services evolve and we perceive the need or desirability of using information collected in other ways, we may from time to time amend this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to check our website frequently to see the current Privacy Policy in effect and any changes that may have been made to them. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the revised Privacy Policy and the revised effective date on this website. Please check back here periodically or contact us at the address listed at the end of this Privacy Policy.

Consumers With Disabilities

This policy is in a form that is accessible to consumers with disabilities.

Questions About the Policy

This website is owned and operated by Audio and Video Labs, Inc. dba HearNow. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at [email protected]. 

**This policy was last updated June 27, 2022.