We Care About Your Privacy and Data

The reFocus Awards competition (the “Competition”) is operated by Creative Resource Collective, LLC (“CRC,” “we,” “us,” or “our,” as applicable). We respect the privacy of those who participate in the Competition and those who visit the Competition website (the “Site”). We encourage you to contact us with any questions about this policy or about your participation in the Competition.
 
This privacy policy (this “Privacy Policy”) describes how we collect and use your information, including what kind of information we collect or that you may provide when you visit the Site or enter the Competition. If you do not wish to be bound by this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Site or enter the Competition. By accessing and using the Site or by entering the Competition, you agree to this Privacy Policy. We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, and the latest version will always be posted on the Site.
 
This privacy policy (this “Privacy Policy”) describes how we collect and use your information, including what kind of information we collect or that you may provide when you visit the Site or enter the Competition. If you do not wish to be bound by this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Site or enter the Competition. By accessing and using the Site or by entering the Competition, you agree to this Privacy Policy. We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, and the latest version will always be posted on the Site.
 
Your use of the Site and any entry into the Competition is also subject to our Terms of Use, which can be found at https://refocus-awards.com/terms-of-use (“Terms of Use”).
 
This Privacy Policy applies to all information we collect from you, including on the Site, by email, text, or other electronic messages, and when you interact online in any other way with an employee, agent, or other representative of CRC about the Competition or the Site (including any affiliate or subsidiary of CRC).
 
This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by any third party (other than our affiliates or subsidiaries acting in connection with the Competition).

What Do We Collect?

Our web server automatically collects certain details about your visit to the Site to help diagnose problems, administer our website, track usage statistics, and otherwise improve the Site and deliver a better and more personalized service.
 
These details include:
 

• Your internet service provider's address.
• The referring URL and information on the pages you access on the Site.
• Information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access the Site, and usage details.

• Information you provide when you register on the Site or enter the Competition (such as your name, your email address, your telephone number, your mailing address, and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us).
• Records and copies of your correspondence with us.
• Your responses to surveys about the Site or the Competition.
• Details of transactions you carry out through the Site (including financial information that you may provide).

How Do We Use Your Information?

We use the information we collect to communicate with Competition entrants and other Site visitors, notify and promote Competition winners, improve our content and offerings, analyze Site usage, troubleshoot problems, resolve disputes, comply with laws, present relevant advertising to Site visitors, enforce our Terms of Use, to fulfill any other purpose for which you provide information, and for any other purpose with your consent.
 
If you are nominated for judging in the Competition, or if you are selected as a winner, your name, photo submission, and other Competition entry information may be displayed on the Site and in other promotional materials around the world. As discussed in our Terms of Use, we will always include a credit or attribution to show that you are the owner of the photo(s) you submit to the Competition.

Information Sharing and Third Parties

We contract with third-party service providers and data aggregators to operate our business, including operating the Site, and such service providers may need access to your information to perform relevant services. For example, we partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising (for more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement) to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay to improve and market our products/services. These are in addition to other third parties and we can provide contact information to you about how to understand how those parties collect and use your data)
 
We do not provide contact information to third party marketers without your permission. We share your information with third parties only in limited circumstances where we believe such sharing is (1) reasonably necessary to offer the service, (2) legally required, or (3) permitted by you.
 
We may also share your personal information with CRC’s parent companies, subsidiaries, sister companies, and affiliates, including for marketing purposes.
 
We may also share certain information when required by law or legal order; however, we will endeavor to limit such sharing only to the information we must disclose to comply with legal requirements.
 
We may share your information with a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of CRC’s assets in which personal information held by CRC about our Site users is among the assets transferred.
 
Additionally, we use information collected for site optimization, fraud/security purposes, and advertising.

Securing Your Information

We strive to maintain strong digital security protections in place in our facilities and in connection with our collection and processing of your personal information. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet can never be completely secure. Although we work hard to protect your personal information, no one can guarantee complete data security when information is transmitted online.

Payment Processing

All our financial transactions are handled through our payment services providers, Stripe and Paypal. We will share information with our payment services provider only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments between you and CRC. These providers have their own privacy policies that will apply to your use of their service.

Automated Tracking Technologies

Most internet sites, including this Site, collect data about visitors through the use of "cookies.&qot;` Cookies are small files placed on the hard drive of your computer that help sites recognize repeat visitors, connect a computer to information stored in another location, and track content preferences, traffic patterns, and user behavior. Website usage data is captured using those cookies, including first and third-party cookies, and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of products/services and online activity.
 
Some pages of the Site may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit us or our service providers to count users who have visited those pages and for other related Site statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain Site content and verifying system and server integrity).

Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We believe it is important to provide you with choices regarding your personal information. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:
 

• Tracking Technologies and Advertising. The “help” portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you are to receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. However, if you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the Site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
• Disclosure of Your Information for Third-Party Advertising. If you do not want us to share your personal information with unaffiliated or non-agent third parties for promotional purposes, you can opt-out by e-mailing us at [email protected].
• Targeted Advertising. If you do not want us to use information that we collect or that you provide to us to deliver advertisements according to our advertisers' target-audience preferences, you can opt-out by e-mailing us at [email protected]. For this opt-out to function, you must have your browser set to accept all browser cookies.

Additional Ways to Control Your Information

You have the right to review and change your personal information in our possession. We will provide a copy of your personal information, and you may inform us of any required updates, corrections, or changes to such information.
 
You may also request deletion of any personal information that you have provided to us. We may not be able to delete your personal information except by also deleting your user account and Competition entry. We may not accommodate a request to change or delete information if we believe the change or deletion would violate any law or legal requirement, cause the information to be incorrect, or for other good reason permitted by applicable law.
 
To exercise these rights, you may contact us at [email protected] or you may call 843-936-3592. You should provide information to verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative. You should also describe your request with detail to allow us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, California law may provide you with additional rights regarding our use of your personal information.
 
California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of the Site that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to [email protected] or write us at: 58 Eastlake Rd., Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464.

Your European Privacy Rights

You may have certain additional rights if you are a resident of a jurisdiction subject to the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (“GDPR”).
 
To exercise your rights under the GDPR, including, without limitation, the right to object to the processing of your data, the right to erasure, rectification, or access to your data, and the right to withdraw any consent previously provided to us, please e-mail us at [email protected].
 
Note, personal information provided to or collected by us is processed at 58 Eastlake Rd, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina 29464 and may also be stored at our service providers’ premises.
 
The individual responsible for personal information processing at CRC is Lily Fierman.

Children’s Privacy

This Site and the Competition are not designed to attract the attention of persons under the age of 18. If we learn that we have collected or received personal information from a child under 18, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at [email protected].

Contact Us

As discussed above, we respect your privacy rights, and we are happy to discuss this Privacy Policy with you. To contact us for any reason, please e-mail [email protected].

Governing Law

This Privacy Policy is governed by and shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of South Carolina. You consent to the sole and exclusive venue and jurisdiction of the federal and state courts located in Charleston, South Carolina. Any case, controversy, action, or dispute relating in any way to this Privacy Policy shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state or federal courts located in Charleston, South Carolina. You agree that you may bring claims against CRC only in your individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative action.

Change in Policy

From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about our use of the information we collect. We will indicate near the top of this page the date this Privacy Policy was last revised. Your continued use of the Site or entry into the Competition after we have revised this Privacy Policy constitutes your agreement to the revised version.