Privacy Policy

FlintHillsGroup.com INC (referred to as “Flint Hills Group,”, “The Flint Hills Group”, “we,” “us,” “our” and other similar pronouns) makes available this Web site and all site-related services (collectively, the “Site” or “Web site”). We are committed to protecting the privacy of the information of our Site visitors (individually and collectively referred to herein as “you”). We also want to provide you with a more rewarding Internet experience by making the advertising and content you see on the Site relevant to you, based on who you are and where your interests lie. Your loyalty as a visitor is important, and we hope that our concerns regarding your privacy, as described in this policy (the “Privacy Policy” or “Policy”), demonstrate our commitment to making your Flint Hills Group experience an enjoyable and useful one.

Note that, by using the Site, you confirm your agreement to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Policy, you may not use the Site. Your continued use of the Site subsequent to changes to this Policy will mean that you accept the changes; therefore, please bookmark this page and review it frequently. If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, the Site, or Flint Hills Group, please go to the Contact Us page. If we change the way we use your personally identifiable information in a material, adverse, retroactive manner, we will notify you by email and await your response for 20 days before making the change.

We will not share your personal information with third parties for their marketing use, except when you participate in career searches with Flint Hills Group and consent to have your personal information made available to participating employers, recruiters and sponsors. Please see the “Opt-In Services Involving Third Parties” and “Choice/Opt Out” sections below for more information about how to opt out of the information sharing involved therewith.

  1. The Information We Gather
  2. Personally Identifiable Information

Although many parts of the Site do not require you to submit any “personally identifiable information,” some areas of the Site may, including, for example and without limitation when participating in various activities on or in connection with the Site, such as surveys. As used herein, “personally identifiable information” means information that relates to an identified individual or can be used to identify or contact an individual, including, for example, an individual’s name, home address, email address, telephone number, text message address, email address of a wireless device, credit card information, age, gender and other demographic information, or any other information that can be used to identify or contact an individual, whether online or offline. We also collect educational, employment and/or occupation-related information (but we generally do not consider such information to be “personally identifiable information” where it is not identifiable to an individual user or associated with any other information that would cause it to be identifiable to an individual).

Your personally identifiable information may be used to contact you when necessary. You may opt out of receiving future promotional mailings, and for more information about how to do so, see the “Choice/Opt Out” section below. We also may use this data to tailor your experience at our Site, showing you content that we think you might be interested in, and displaying the content according to your preferences. We also may use demographic information to target advertisements to users from specific demographics.

1. Other Information

Flint Hills Group may collect non-personally identifiable information (that is, information that does not identify a specific individual), such as aggregate use statistics for the Site, for both Site visitors and Members. We collect such non-personally identifiable information through various means, as further explained below. Additionally, any or all of the below-described activities with respect to non-personally identifiable information may be performed on our behalf by our services providers.

2.  Cookies

We collect non-personally identifiable information in part through the use of “cookies” – that is, small data files placed on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies track where you travel on the Site and what you look at or purchase. They may store the information in your shopping cart, and/or your screen name and/or password. Cookies may enable us to relate your use of our Site to other information about you, including your personally identifiable information. Most Web browsers can be set to inform you when a cookie has been sent to you and provide you with the opportunity to refuse that cookie. However, refusing a cookie may, in some cases, preclude you from using, or negatively impact the display or function of, the Site or certain areas or features of the Site.

3. Clear GIFs

We may use “clear GIFs” (aka, “Web beacons” or “pixel tags”) or similar technologies, in the Site and/or in our communications with you to enable us to know whether you have visited a Web page or received a message. A clear GIF is typically a one-pixel, transparent image (although it can be a visible image as well), located on a Web page or in an email or other type of message, which is retrieved from a remote site on the Internet enabling the verification of an individual’s viewing or receipt of a Web page or message. A clear GIF may enable us to relate your viewing or receipt of a Web page or message to other information about you, including your personally identifiable information.

4.  IP Address and Clickstream Data

We collect some basic information about your computer and Internet connections, including:

  1. your IP address (i.e., a number that’s automatically assigned to your computer by your Internet service provider whenever you’re on the Internet);
  2. your operating system (e.g., Windows or Mac);
  3. your browser software (e.g., Netscape or Internet Explorer);
  4. your Internet Service Provider (e.g., AOL or AT&T); and
  5. your geographic location (e.g., New York, NY).

Our servers may also record the referring page that linked you to us (e.g., another Web site or a search engine); the pages you visit on this Site; the Web site you visit after this Site; the ads you see and/or click on; any search terms you have entered on this Site or a referral site; and other Web usage activity and data logged by our Web servers. Collecting this information helps us streamline your experience on the Site – for example, helping us diagnose problems with our server, administering our Web site, by “automatically” filling out forms for you, or keeping track of the contents of your online shopping cart. We may also link this information with your personally identifiable information for various purposes.

5. Third-Party Advertisers

The Site includes banner advertising that links to third-party sites. Our advertisers and their designees, as well as other third parties, may collect information about you through cookies or other technologies when you visit their Web site(s) through their ads. Third-party advertising companies also may employ clear GIF technologies (as described above) to measure and improve the effectiveness of ads for their clients. To do so, these companies may use anonymous information about your visits to our Site and other Web sites. This information can include: date/time of banner ad shown, the banner ad that was shown, their cookie, and the IP address. This information can also be used for online preference marketing purposes.

II. Where We Collect Information

Flint Hills Group collects various types of information from users in various areas of the Site, including, for example and without limitation, in connection with the following areas and activities on the Site:

A.  Site-Wide

Throughout the Site, including, for example, on message board postings, we may collect your IP address, as well as other personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information, depending on the nature of your use and the types of services and activities in which you may participate.

B.  Employment Submission

As part of the employment submission process, information such as email address, ZIP code, current industry and current occupation (as well as other personally identifiable information) may be requested from those who wish to pursue working with or for Flint Hills Group. This information may be accessed and modified by you at any time by contacting Flint Hills Group. Employers and managers who wish to take advantage of Flint Hills Group recruiting services are also asked to provide information about their company, such as company size and name.

C.  Contracting or Consulting Requests

As part of the request for contracting and/or consulting process, information such as email address, ZIP code, current industry and current occupation (as well as other personally identifiable information) may be requested from those who wish to pursue services or partnerships with Flint Hills Group. This information may be accessed and modified by you at any time by contacting Flint Hills Group.

D.  Newsletter subscription

At times, users may be able to submit their email addresses to receive free Flint Hills Group newsletters. Typically, a user must register to receive such newsletters, but it also may be possible to request newsletters by just submitting your email address with no other information required.

1. Flint Hills Group Reviews

Users who opt to submit employer, profession and school reviews may be asked for varied information depending on the review type, including both personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information.

III. Third Parties

A.  Third-Party Linked-To Websites

The Site may contain links to other third party Web sites, including co-branded or other affiliated sites which may or may not be owned or operated by or in conjunction with Flint Hills Group. You acknowledge that we do not monitor or control the information collection or privacy practices of any third parties, and are not responsible for their practices or the content of their Web sites, including their use of any information (such as IP address, browser type, or operating system) collected when visitors or Members follow links to their sites or view advertisements served by them on their behalf. Even though certain information collected by such third parties might not identify you personally, we strongly encourage you to become familiar with their privacy practices, and to contact such third parties if you have any questions about their respective privacy policies.

B.  Opt-In Services Involving Third Parties

For certain opt-in services, user information may be shared with third parties. These services and third parties include:

  • Billing information may be shared with a company fulfilling magazine subscriptions or other product purchases as required to ship the item purchased to you.
  • Billing information may be sent to third-party payment processors for verification.
  • Contact information may be sent to featured vendors as a user requests for shipping purposes and otherwise in connection with such transactions (as further described in Section IV(c)(3) of this Privacy Policy.
  • Job description information, (industry, location, nature of job, etc.), and contact information (email or fax required, other contact information optional) are sent to job posting media.

IV.  How We Use (and do not use) the Information We Gather

Please take some time to familiarize yourself with the different ways we may use the information we gather on or in connection with the Site.

A.  Choice/Opt Out

Flint Hills Group provides you the opportunity to opt out of receiving most communications and/or, if applicable, its affiliates, advertisers, and other business partners. You have the option to remove your information from our database and to not receive future promotional communications from Flint Hills Group or to no longer receive our service altogether. We also give you the option to change or modify the information you have previously provided to us. To exercise any of the foregoing options, you can use the Contact Us page to communicate your intentions. You may also send mail to the following postal address: Flint Hills Group, 6505 E Central, Suite 273, Wichita, KS 67206.

Note that, because Flint Hills Group will occasionally need to send you certain email messages in connection with your use of the Site, such as announcements, system status updates or order confirmations, you will not be able to opt out of receiving such types of messages (unless you cancel your membership altogether). Also, if you have granted us permission to share your personally identifiable information with third parties for their marketing use, such third parties’ practices with respect to such information will be subject to their privacy policies. You should contact those entities directly regarding any communications you may receive from them, including if you later decide that you no longer want that third party to use your information.

B.  How We Use (and do not use) Non-Personally Identifiable Information

We use non-personally identifiable information in aggregate form to build higher-quality, more useful services by performing statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behavior of our visitors and Members, and by measuring demographics and interests regarding specific areas of the Site. We may provide such aggregate, statistical information based on this data to advertisers, other current and potential business partners and other third parties.

C.  How We Use (and do not use) Personally Identifiable Information

1. Flint Hills Group Uses in General

Flint Hills Group uses your personally identifying information in several ways:

  • to help customize various aspects of the Site to your preferences;
  • to help determine which advertisements or sponsor messages will appear during your Site visits;
  • to send you Flint Hills Group solicitations, product announcements, and the like that we feel may be of interest to you (you may opt out of receiving these materials, as described above in the “Choice/Opt Out” section); and
  • as may be necessary to support the operation of the Site, such as for billing, account maintenance, and record-keeping purposes.

 2.  Communication with Users

Flint Hills Group communicates with its users primarily through email, and for a variety of purposes. These communications include opt-in subscription services, such as emailed newsletters, emailed job postings, and other notifications of personalized content. You can opt out of our promotional emails by following the directions in the “Choice/Opt Out” section of this Privacy Policy. We also may send the following types of communications:

  • Emailed confirmations upon successful registration as Members.
  • Emailed notifications that job listings a user has posted are about to expire.
  • Emailed confirmations about orders users have placed on our site through our store.
  • Occasional emails to be informed of changes and new features at Flint Hills Group.
  • Invitations to complete registration if a user began registration but did not complete it.

 3.  Sharing with Third Parties

In addition to other circumstances as described in this Privacy Policy, Flint Hills Group may disclose your personally-identifiable information to third parties as follows:

Flint Hills Group reserves the right to disclose personally identifiable information submitted by or concerning any visitor or Member as we reasonably feel is necessary to protect our systems or business. Specifically, but without limitation, we reserve the right to disclose such information when a visitor or Member is in violation of our Terms of Use or other published guidelines, or partakes (or is reasonably suspected of partaking) in any harmful, infringing or illegal activity, even without a subpoena, warrant, or other court order, and to disclose such information in response to court and governmental orders, civil subpoenas, discovery requests, and as otherwise required by law, as well as in response to allegations of infringement.

We will cooperate with law enforcement agencies in identifying those who may be using our servers or services for illegal activities. We also reserve the right to report any suspected illegal activity and disclose personally identifiable information to law enforcement bodies for investigation or prosecution, or to suspend or terminate your membership in connection with any suspected illegal or infringing activity.

We may use third parties to help operate our Site and deliver the Site, and we may share your information with our affiliates, service providers and other third parties that provide products or services for or through this Site or for our business (such as Web site or database hosting companies, address list hosting companies, email service providers, analytics companies, distribution companies, fulfillment companies, and other similar service providers that use such information on our behalf). Similarly, Flint Hills Group may disclose personally identifiable information to our contractors and consultants and professional advisors who help us operator the Website and our business (such as attorneys, accountants), but only to the extent necessary for them to perform services on our behalf, and only under reasonable disclosure restrictions.

In the event that Flint Hills Group, or a substantial portion of its assets, are acquired by one or more third parties as a result of an acquisition, merger, sale, reorganization, consolidation or liquidation, personally identifiable information may be one of the transferred assets.

With your authorization, such as when you click on a “submit order” or similar button when placing an order, your personally identifiable information may be shared with the merchant advertising the good or service you wish to purchase, so that such merchant may complete the transaction and ship the items(s) you have purchased.

4. Credit Card Information

If you provide us with your credit card information, we will not release that information to third parties unless necessary to complete a transaction between you and such a third party. (Credit card transactions may be handled by a third-party financial institution, which receives the credit card number and other personal identifying information only to verify the credit card numbers and process transactions.)

5. International Transfers

Flint Hills Group (or third parties acting on our behalf) may also store or process your information in countries outside the European Economic Area, which may have different standards of data protection. However, we will use reasonable efforts to ensure that this information is held securely.

V.  Surveys and Sweepstakes

Occasionally, Flint Hills Group may conduct surveys in order to better deliver service, advertisements and content and to better understand your needs relating to the Site. We will not share your survey information with any third party, except in aggregate form. Also, if and when we sponsor sweepstakes or other promotions, or third parties sponsor such promotions in conjunction with us, either we or the third party co-sponsor will post relevant privacy information in the official rules and/or registration area for the sweepstakes or promotion. That privacy information, to the extent it conflicts with this Policy, will govern that particular promotion or sweepstakes – please remember to read it carefully. These surveys and sweepstakes are always optional.

VI.  Public Forums

Flint Hills Group makes message boards (“Discussions”), blogs, chat services, commenting functionality (“Comments”), Forums and other community areas and interactive features available to its users. Please remember that because of the nature of these types of areas and activities, any information that is disclosed in these areas may become public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal or confidential information, or that of any other person. Flint Hills Group reserves the right (but does not have an obligation) to monitor and read any or all Discussions, Comments and other user-generated content.

VII. Age

Flint Hills Group web site does not target children under the age of 13. In the event that we discover that personally identifiable information has been collected from a child under 13, we will delete that information from our systems.

VIII. Accessing, Changing or Deleting Personal Information

You may view and, if you wish, change certain personally identifiable information by contacting Flint Hills Group. For security reasons, we obscure your credit card number (if you have supplied one) and password and you will therefore not be able to see passwords or credit card numbers. You may also view and, if you wish, change information you submitted as part of the registration process, while navigating the site and using the “Save” feature. If you are in the European Union, you also have the right to ask us what information we hold about you (for which we will charge you an administration fee) and to ask us to remove or correct any inaccurate information.

IX.  Contacting the Web Site

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Site, or your dealings with this Site, contact us through our site using the Contact Us link or write to us at:

Flint Hills Group, INC
6505 E Central Ave
Suite 273
Wichita, KS 67206
United States

X.  Security

While Flint Hills Group will endeavor to protect the security and integrity of sensitive personally identifiable information provided to this Site, due to the inherent nature of the Internet as an open global communications vehicle, we cannot guarantee that information, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our system or otherwise in our care, will be absolutely safe from intrusion by others, such as hackers. If you contact us by email or a “contact us” form or similar feature on our Site, you should be aware that your transmission might not be secure. If you create an account on our Site with a password, you are responsible for maintaining the strict confidentiality of your account password, and you shall be responsible for any access to or use of the Services by you or any person or entity using your password. You agree to immediately notify Flint Hills Group of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security. We will have no liability for disclosure of your information due to errors or unauthorized acts of third parties during or after transmission.

In the unlikely event that we believe that the security of your personally identifiable information in our possession or control may have been compromised, we may seek to notify you of that development. If a notification is appropriate, we would endeavor to do so as promptly as possible under the circumstances, and, to the extent we have your email address, we may notify you by email. Unless you notify us and provide us with alternative contact information (which you are free to do at any time through the Contact Us page), you consent to our use of email as the means of such notification.

XI.  Consent to Processing

By providing personally identifiable information to this Site, you understand and consent to the collection, maintenance, processing and transfer of such information in and to the United States and other countries and territories.

Updates

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time and all updates will be posted on this page.

If you feel that we are not abiding by this privacy policy, you should contact us immediately via email at contact@flinthillsgroup.com.

Effective Date: November 10, 2016.