Privacy Policy

Blue Ridge’s Privacy Policy: Updated October 2022

Blue Ridge is strongly committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information and understands the concerns about how information about you is used. This privacy policy (the “Policy”) explains how we collect, use and disclose information pertaining to businesses and business people that we have collected through our website and online services (collectively, the “Site”), as well as how you can manage the way personal information about you is handled by us. By using this site and submitting any personal information, you agree to the use by Blue Ridge Global, Inc. (“Blue Ridge” or “we” or “us”) of such data in accordance with this privacy statement.

Regulatory Compliance
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a data privacy regulation that went into enforcement to control EU personal data on May 25, 2018. To find out more about what Blue Ridge is doing to ensure GDPR compliance, please visit our dedicated GDPR page.

For more information on our Data Processing, please visit our Data Processing Annex page.

For a list of our Subprocessors and Infrastructure Vendors, please visit our Subprocessor and Vendor page.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a data privacy regulation that went into enforcement to control certain California household information on January 1, 2020. To find out more about what Blue Ridge is doing to ensure CCPA compliance, please visit our dedicated CCPA page.

Data Collection

Blue Ridge collects information directly from individuals, from third parties, and automatically via usage of our Site.

Profiles. Blue Ridge creates profiles of business people and companies, which we call “Profiles,” by collecting and combining data from different sources. For example, users may submit to us information about themselves or other people and companies, and we may collect information about companies and individuals at trade shows. We also collect and license information from third party sources. The information we collect, generally, includes:

• Company information We collect information about a company, including their name, size, sector and industry information
• Business contact information We collect business contact information, including name, contact details, current and former companies, job title and job description.
• Other information Information about the software, systems or services that company uses, as well other information that we may obtain from third party source.

Once we have collected information about a person or company, we may combine multiple mentions of the same person or company into a “Profile.” Certain information from the Profiles (the “Directory” information) is then made available to registered users of the Site and our customers and strategic partners. Directory information includes (but is not limited to): name; photo; position; company; location; country; industry; education; summary; skills; interests; email; and employment history.

• Site Data We also collect information from users of or visitors to our Site, as described below.
• Usage information We may automatically collect the following information about your use of our Site through cookies, web beacons, and other technologies: your domain name; your browser type and operating system; web pages you view; links you click; your IP address; the length of time you visit our Site and or use our Services; and the referring URL, or the webpage that led you to our Site; access time; and device ID. We may combine this information with other information that we have collected about you, including, where applicable, your user name, name, and other personal information.  Please see the section “Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms” below for more information.

Use of Data

Blue Ridge uses your information, including personal information, for the following purposes:

• To provide our Site, including to make available our services, which include the Directory, Profile information and other reports, to our users, customers and business partners.
• To communicate with you about your use of our Site, to respond to your inquiries, to fulfill your orders, and for other customer service purposes.
• To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you, to offer location customization, and personalized help and instructions, and to otherwise personalize your experiences while using the Site.
• For marketing and promotional purposes. For example, we may use your information, such as your email address, to send you news and newsletters, special offers, and promotions, or to otherwise contact you about products or information we think may interest you. We also may use the information that we learn about you to assist us in advertising our Services on third party websites.
• To better understand how users access and use our Site, both on an aggregated and individualized basis, in order to improve our Site and services, develop new services or products, to respond to user desires and preferences, and for other research and analytical purposes.

Third Parties

Blue Ridge may share the information we collect, including personal information, as follows:

Disclosure of Profiles.  We may make Directory information available to users of the Site, to our strategic partners and to our customers.  Further, if you provide information as part of your Profile, that information may be included in the Directory and viewed by third parties.

Disclosures to Service Providers. Blue Ridge may from time to time disclose information to service providers, third party vendors, contractors or agents who perform functions on our behalf, such as credit card processors, and software hosting or cloud services provider.

Disclosures for Legal Reasons. We may disclose information to a third party (i) in order to comply with a law, regulation, governmental or securities exchange requirement, court order, judicial proceeding or legal process, such as a subpoena or a search warrant, (ii) to address a violation of the law, this Policy or our Terms of Use, (iii) to protect the rights, property or safety of Blue Ridge, its users or the public, or (iv) to allow Blue Ridge to exercise its legal rights or respond to a legal claim, including as evidence in litigation in which we are involved, (v) in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

Business Transfers. If our company or substantially all of our assets are acquired, or in the event of a merger or bankruptcy, your information may be among the transferred assets.

Other Disclosures. If you register for a Blue Ridge event with a third-party speaker, your information will generally be shared with the speaker.  With permission, we post customer testimonials on our Site which may contain the customer’s name.  If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, you can contact us at info@blueridgeglobal.com.

Aggregate and De-Identified Information. We may share aggregate or de-identified information about users with third parties for marketing, advertising, research or similar purposes.

Disclosures & Accountability for Onward Transfers. Blue Ridge may transfer personal information to third parties, including transfers from one country to another.  Blue Ridge does not collect, store or process non-public data, however in the event non-public data is processed by Blue Ridge, we will only disclose an individual’s non-public personal information to third parties under one or more of the following conditions:

1. The disclosure is to a third party providing services to Blue Ridge, in connection with the operation of our business, and as consistent with the purpose for which the personal information was collected. We maintain contracts with these third parties and require that these third parties provide at least the same level of privacy protection and security as required by applicable law and regulation.
2. With the individual’s permission to make the disclosure;
3. Where required to the extent necessary to meet a legal obligation to which Blue Ridge is subject, including a lawful request by public authorities and national security or law enforcement obligations and applicable law, rule, order, or regulation.
4. Where reasonably necessary for compliance or regulatory purposes, or for the establishment of legal claims.

Online Identification Technologies: Cookes and Other Tracking Mechanisms

We and our third-party service providers use cookies, clear GIFs, log files and other tracking mechanisms to collect information about your use of our Sites and Apps, as described above.  We may combine this information with other personal information we collect from you.

Cookies.  Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser for record-keeping purposes.  When you visit our Site, our servers and/or those of our service providers automatically record certain information that your web browser sends, such as your web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, referring/exit pages and URLs, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, time and date of use and other information. Some cookies enable a faster log-in process, and some allow us to track your activities at our Site.  Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can edit your browser options to block them in the future.  The “Help” portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to disable cookies or change your cookies settings.

Third Party Cookies. We work with partners, affiliates, tracking utility company and service providers who set cookies on our Site in order to help us personalize your experience; analyze which pages our visitors visit; provide website feature such as social sharing widgets; measure advertising effectiveness; track which areas of our site you visit; and to display advertising to users after they leave our Site.  We do not allow these third parties to collection personal information about you on or through our Site, but they may to combine the information collected on our Site with other information they have collected. The use of cookies by our third party partners and service providers is not covered by our privacy statement. We do not have access or control over these cookies.

Web beacons (a.k.a clear GIFs and pixel tags).  Web beacons are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, which are embedded invisibly on web pages and within emails. We use these on our Site, along with cookies, to compile aggregated usage statistics and to analyze how our site is used.  We may also use Web beacons in the HTML emails we send, to help us track email response rates, identify when our emails are viewed, and track whether our emails are forwarded. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of our customer communications and marketing campaigns.

Third-Party Analytics.  We also use automated devices and applications, such as Google Analytics, to evaluate usage of our Sites and the services we provide.  We use these tools to gather non-personal information about users to help us improve our services, performance and user experiences.  These analytics providers may use cookies and other technologies to perform their services, and may combine the information that they collect about you on our Sites with other information that they have collected.  This Policy does not cover such third parties’ use of the data.

Change or Delete Your Information

We allow you to update, and in some cases request that we delete, or remove from our Directory your personal information.  However, please note that we may maintain a copy of any such information as part of our business records.

Registration Information. If you register for a Blue Ridge account and your information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may update or delete your account registration information by logging in with your username and password and making the change. 

Profile Information. If you are an individual and would like us to remove or update the personal information in your public Profile, you can send an email to info@blueridgeglobal.com with your request and the web address of your Profile. Once we have received your request, we will remove your information from the publicly accessible portion of our Directory.  We will maintain a copy of your information for a time as part of our business records, and as needed in order to continue to honor your removal request.

NOTE: Blue Ridge collects much information from a variety of sources, on an ongoing basis.   We recommend that you check back periodically to ensure that our Directory contains only the personal information you would like included.

Opt-Out

Blue Ridge Marketing. We may send marketing or promotional emails to you about our products and services, third party products and services, and our newsletter and other information we think may interest you.  If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by sending notice to info@blueridgeglobal.com. Please note that it may take up to 10 business days for us to process opt-out requests. If you opt-out of receiving emails about recommendations or other information we think may interest you, we may still send you e-mails about your account or any Services you have requested or received from us.

Third Parties may access your information in the Directory.  If you don’t want your information shared with such third parties, you should delete your account as set forth above.

Security

We have implemented security measures to protect the information we collect from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Please be aware that despite our best efforts, no data security measures can guarantee 100% security.

Links to Other Sites

This Site contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by Blue Ridge. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites.  We encourage when you leave our Site to be aware and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies only to information collected by this Site.

Social Media Widgets

This Site contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by Blue Ridge. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites.  We encourage when you leave our Site to be aware and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies only to information collected by this Site.

Children Under 13

The products and services of Blue Ridge are not targeted to or intended for children under the age of 18. If we discover that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will delete such information from our systems.

Policy Changes

Blue Ridge reserves the right to modify this privacy policy from time to time, so please review it regularly. If we make material changes to this policy, which materially affect our practices with regard to the personal information we have previously collected from you, we will endeavor to provide you with notice in advance of such change by highlighting it on our Site or by notifying you by email.