Privacy Policy
Effective Date: April 2, 2010 The website has two sections: a section that is available to the general public, and a section that is restricted to our customers, which we refer to as the GFS Experience section of the website. While this policy applies generally to both parts of the website, please note that there are sections of this policy that apply only to the GFS Experience section. How We Collect Information The public section of the GFS.com website is primarily an information website that tells you about our company and our products and services. You do not need to provide any personal information if you simply want to browse the public section of our website and learn about what we have to offer. When we ask for your personal information, it is so that we can provide a service to you and to communicate with you about our products and services. For example, if you want to register as a customer of GFS, we will ask for your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address, and we will provide that information to someone in our customer relations department who will follow up with you about our products and services. When you visit GFS.com, we may record information that your web browser routinely shares with websites. This information may include your browser type, browser language, Internet Protocol address, and the date and time of your visit. This information is collected on an anonymous basis, and we do not try to connect it with your personal information. The GFS Experience section of the website is only available to our registered customers. In order to establish access to the GFS Experience, GFS requires personal information associated with your account. This will generally include your name, the company that you work for and your contact information. In order to make purchases, Gordon Food Service may also need credit card or bank account information. When you visit our website, we may give you an opportunity to sign up to receive a newsletter or other marketing materials, or to have your information shared with other companies whose goods we carry. We may also ask for your personal information in connection with certain customizable tools and features, surveys, or contests that we may operate from time to time on our website. It will always be your choice whether to provide your personal information in order to take advantage of these features. If you elect to receive our newsletter or other marketing materials, you may subsequently elect to stop receiving those items by checking on the opt-out link included in every email newsletter we send or by contacting info@gfs.com. If you have chosen not to receive emails from us prior to your participation in a contest, sweepstakes, promotion or survey, you may still receive information from us in connection with such activity if you register for or participate in it. You may also choose not to participate in contests, sweepstakes, promotions or surveys if you do not wish to receive information about us or share your information with us and the other companies sponsoring such activities at any time by contacting us by either email, phone or post mail. If you access the GFS Experience section of the website, you will be given the opportunity to "opt-in" to having your information used for purposes not directly related to our website at the point where we ask for the information. Users of our website will always be notified if their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this to ensure that our users can make an informed choice as to whether or not they should proceed with services that require an outside party. Refer a Friend/Forward-to-a-Friend Functionality If you feel that information about GFS could be useful for a third party you know (e.g. your friends or family members etc.), you may use our forward-to-a-friend functionality. If you choose to use our referral service to tell a friend about GFS, we will ask you for your friend's email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the site. We store this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of our referral program. Blog and other Social Networking Mediums If you use the blog feature on our website or if you communicate with us through any other social networking forum (for example, Twitter or Facebook), you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit through comments or posts to the blog or other social networking forum can be read, collected, or otherwise used by anyone with access to the forum or who visits the URL of the web page on which the post or comment is posted. We are not responsible for non-GFS use of this information. Testimonials We post video customer testimonials on our website which may contain personally identifiable information such as the customer's name. We obtain the customer's consent prior to posting the testimonial to post their name along with their testimonial. Use of Cookies As is commonly done on websites, we may use cookies and similar technology to keep track of our customers and the services they have elected. A "cookie" is a small text file containing alphanumeric characters that is stored on your computer and uniquely identifies your browser. We may also use cookies in connection with web beacons to help us track how visitors navigate through our website. If we allow a third party to place banner ads on our website, when you click on the ad, the third party may use a cookie to help it track the effectiveness of its advertising. If you are a registered user of the GFS Experience section of our website, we may use a cookie to help us remember who you are. If you use the GFS Experience to purchase goods, we may use cookies to keep track of the items in your shopping cart. If you do not wish to accept cookies, the "help" selection on your browser's toolbar will likely tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting cookies, how to have the browser alert you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. If you disable cookies, however, you may not be able to take advantage of all of the features on this website. What We Do with the Information We Collect We will generally use the information that we collect to (i) provide requested services; (ii) monitor and analyze visitor activity on our website; (iii) improve the features and operation of our website; (iv) develop a knowledge base regarding our website visitors and their preferences; (v) improve our products and services; and (vi) develop new products and services. In order for us to operate our website, we may need to share information with our business partners. For example, we may use contractors to help provide on-line services to help us collect, analyze and evaluate our information, or to provide other support services for the website. Often, the information that we share will be aggregate data that is anonymous in nature. If we provide any individually identifiable information, it will be on terms that prohibit our business partners from making any independent commercial use of the information and from sharing the data with third parties or otherwise making it publicly available. When you use the GFS Experience website to order products, we will use the information that you submit to process your order, receive payment, and ship your transaction. This may require us to share information with third parties, such as your financial institution, the company that processes credit card transactions, or an organization involved in shipping your order. We may also contact the registered users of the GFS Experience website about important functionality changes to the Website, new GFS services and special offers. The website may include tools that you may find helpful. To use these tools, you may need to provide information about your business. The site will use your information to provide the service that the tool offers, for example to help you order products for your business. Except as otherwise disclosed in this privacy notice, we will not use the information from these tools for any other purpose without your permission. We may elect to disclose personal information without prior notice in response to law enforcement activity or other governmental request; to respond to subpoenas, court orders or administrative agency requests for information; to enforce our contract or property rights; to protect ourselves or others; or when required or otherwise permitted by law. For example, we may share information to reduce the risk of fraud or if someone uses or attempts to use our site for illegal reasons. Information we collect may also be transferred in connection with any sale or merger of the company or any division or business line of the company to which the information relates. How We Protect Your Data We use commercially reasonable means to protect the integrity of our websites and the confidentiality of collected data. The GFS Experience section of our site uses a secure server, and the 128-bit secure socket layer (SSL) in the server software encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. We also limit access to personal information that we collect about our visitors and customers to employees who have a need to use the information. Employees who violate these policies may be subject to discipline. Protecting your information also requires you to do your part. If you are a registered user of the GFS Experience, you must take steps to protect your access code and password. We will not be liable if you have not taken reasonable steps to protect this information. Data Integrity and Retention We use the information that we collect about you only for the purposes for which it is collected and consistent with this policy. If you provide us with contact information on the public section of our site, we normally keep this information for only a short time period, at which point it will be automatically deleted from our system. Information collected in connection with the GFS Experience section of our website will be retained for a longer period as a record of our business activities. If you have any questions or complaints about our practices, would like to request having your information removed from our database, or would like to opt out of receiving any future communications, please let us know at info@gfs.com. Website Visitors under Age 18 The GFS.com website is intended to be used by customers and potential customers of GFS. The site is available for anyone to view, but please do not submit any personal information if you are not 18 years of age or older. Links to other Websites This site may contain links to other websites not affiliated with GFS. Also, you may have come to this website from a website that is not operated by GFS. We are not responsible for the operation of these other sites or the information that they collect from their visitors. If you'd like to know how another site collects and uses your information, please review its privacy policy. Updates to this Policy Our business and the laws that regulate us change from time to time, and we reserve the right to change this policy. If we do change this policy, we will post the revised version on this site. If we propose to change our policy in a way that would permit us to make additional uses of information that we had previously collected about you, we will provide you with a meaningful way to opt out of those additional uses. Your use of the site constitutes your acceptance of the privacy policy in effect at the time of your visit.
