Privacy Policy 2023

Privacy Policy & Notice

Effective Date: January 1, 2023

Please click here for the prior version of our Privacy Policy

California Privacy Notice

Job Applicants’ Notice

Mansueto Ventures LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our”), adopted this privacy policy and notice (“Privacy Policy”) to reflect our commitment to protecting the privacy of your Personal Information. Please carefully read this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use before you provide any Personal Information to us.

1. HOW THIS PRIVACY POLICY APPLIES

Mansueto Ventures is the publisher and parent of both Inc. and Fast Company.com and their related branded web pages, including Inc. Plus and Inc. Verified Profile (“Websites”).

This Privacy Policy applies to the Services, including our Websites, and your interaction with them. But if a particular Service refers or links to a different privacy policy — not this Privacy Policy — then that privacy policy applies.

The Services may include links to websites and services that are not operated by us. A link to a third-party website or service does not mean that we reviewed or endorsed its privacy practices. If you visit a third-party website or service, activities there may be subject to its privacy practices and policies, not ours. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any Personal Information that you provide to these other websites and services.

2. CONTACT US

If you have any questions regarding the Services or our Privacy Policy or privacy practices, please contact us at:

  • E-mail: privacyofficer@mansueto.com; or
  • Toll-free number: 1-800-248-0308; or
  • In writing to: Mansueto Ventures, LLC, Attn: Privacy Officer, 7 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007.

For more information about how to exercise your privacy rights, please see Section 12, EXERCISING YOUR RIGHTS below.

3. DEFINITIONS

In this Privacy Policy, the following capitalized terms have the following meanings:

  •  “Awards Programs” means our awards and recognition programs, such as the Inc. 5000 List and Fast Company’s Innovation by Design.
  • “Community Programs” means programs organized for companies and/or individuals recognized by an Awards Program or otherwise organized around another set of criteria.
  • Device” means any electronic device, such as a computer or mobile phone, that you use to access the Services.
  • Events” means conferences, festivals, or other events (including virtual events and webinars) organized by us, such as the Inc. 5000 Conference or the Fast Company Innovation Festival.
  • Job Applicant Information” means the Personal Information voluntarily submitted by an individual seeking employment with us for the limited purpose of applying for our open position(s) through a third-party service provider.
  • Magazine(s)” means Inc. Magazine and Fast Company Magazine.
  • Personal Information” (also referred to as “personally identifiable information” (PII) or “personal data” by certain laws) is information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, you or your household.
  • Services” means our Websites and mobile applications that make available the Magazines, information about our Awards Programs, our Community Programs, our Events, and our surveys, contests and sweepstakes, and our other general customer interactions, including those detailed in Section 8.
  • Suppliers” means suppliers of products and services that help us make the Services available for you, such as web hosting, advertising technology, data analytics and forensics, virtual event hosting, marketing and information security.
  • Websites” means Inc.com, Fastcompany.com and their related branded web pages, including Inc. Plus and Inc. Verified Profile.
  • User” means any individual who accesses and uses the Services.

 

4. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

The Effective Date at the top of this page indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Unless applicable law prevents or a revision is needed to protect the privacy or security of our Users, we will notify you via email about any material change that reduces your privacy right in advance so that you have time to review the changes before they are effective. The previous version of this Privacy Policy will apply until the Effective Date. Your use of the Services after the Effective Date means that you accept the Privacy Policy as revised.

5. GENERAL PRIVACY STATEMENT

To comply with certain data protection laws, we are required to disclose specific information regarding the categories of Personal Information we collect, and your rights with regard to that Personal Information. The following Table 1 identifies the categories of Personal Information we collect, and specific information as required by those laws.

 

Table 1

Category of PI

Examples

Do we collect PI from this category?

Purposes for which the PI is collected
or used/processed

Our retention period for this PI

Do we sell this PI?

Do we share this PI for targeted
advertising?

Do we share this PI with third
parties?

If yes, we share this PI with the
following categories of third parties

Identifiers

See
Table 2, Line 1

Yes

See
§ 7

See
§ 11

No

No

Yes

See
§ 8

Characteristics
of protected classifications

See
Table 2, Line 2

No

N/A

N/A

No

No

No

N/A

Commercial
information

See
Table 2, Line 3

Yes

See
§ 7

See
§ 11

No

No

Yes

See
§ 8

Biometric
information

N/A

No

N/A

N/A

No

No

No

N/A

Internet
activity information

See
Table 2, Line 4

Yes

See
§ 7

See
§ 11

No

No

Yes

See
§ 8

Location
information

See
Table 2, Line 5

Yes

See
§ 7

See
§ 11

No

No

Yes

See
§ 8

Sensory
Information

N/A

No

N/A

N/A

No

No

No

N/A

Professional
or employment-related information

See
Table 2, Line 6

Yes

See
§ 7

See
§ 11

No

No

Yes

See
§ 8

Inferences
drawn from other Personal Information (Profile Information)

See
Table 2, Line 7

Yes

See
§ 7

See
§ 11

No

No

Yes

See
§ 8

Sensitive
information

See
Table 2, Line 8

No

N/A

N/A

No

No

No

 N/A

 

6.  PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT

When you use the Services, we may collect the Personal Information shown in Table 2, below.

Table 2

 

Category of Personal
Information

Specific Personal
Information We Collect from Users

1 

Identifiers

Such as your name;
e-mail address; account name; telephone number; postal address; unique
personal identifier; online identifier; Internet Protocol (IP) address; MAC
address; signature; social media account information; or other similar
identifiers. 

2

Characteristics of protected classifications

We do not purposefully
ask for nor collect this type of Personal Information. If you choose to
provide such information to us, we cannot guarantee any protections of your
Personal Information other than what is described in this Privacy Policy.

3 

Commercial Information

Such as your use of our
Services; records of personal property; products or services purchased,
obtained or considered; or other purchasing or consuming histories or
tendencies.

4

Internet Activity
information

Such as mobile network
information; browsing history and search history on the Websites and
information on a consumer’s interaction with the Websites, Events and our
mobile applications and digital advertisements; search history; metadata
stored on the Device including your metadata associated with your online
identifiers stored on your Device; the make, model and operating system
version of the computer or mobile device (“Device”) you use to access the
Services; browser type and language; mobile network information; Internet
Protocol (IP) address; MAC address; country and time zone in which the Device
is located; mobile network information; internet service provider; and
metadata stored on the Device.

5

Location Information

Such as the country and
time zone from which you are accessing the Services; general location
information collected through IP address and WiFi.

6

Professional Information
or employment-related information

Such as your business
name and title; your employer’s information (if applicable); your business
information (if applicable); current or past job history.

7

Inferences drawn from
other Personal Information (Profile Information)

Preferences,
characteristics and online behavior used to create a User profile.

8

Sensitive Information

We do not collect
sensitive information. The financial information you may provide through
other websites the Websites may link to for our Services will not be
collected by us, but rather by third-party financial service gateways. The
information you provide to the third-party financial service gateways may be
subject to their privacy policy, as applicable. Please see Section
1 of this Privacy Policy.

9

Job Applicant
Information

Such as your Identifiers
(name, e-mail address, phone number) and Location Information (state and zip
code) that you voluntarily provide for the purpose of seeking employment with
us by applying to our open positions.
For more details, see Section 16 below.

 

7. SOURCES FROM WHICH WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect Personal Information from a variety of sources, which include:

  • Directly from you, such as when you:
  • subscribe to a Magazine;
  • create an account;
  • register for an Event;
  • purchase a subscription as a gift;
  • choose to participate in an Awards Program;
  • choose to participate in a Community Program
  • choose to enter one of our contests or sweepstakes;
  • complete a survey;
  • request customer support;
  • From your social media account when you connect with us through a social media platform;
  • From your browser or Device (see Section 10 below);
  • Our suppliers; and
  • Third parties that you direct to share information with us.
8. PURPOSES FOR COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

Generally, we use the Personal Information we collect from or about Users to provide more meaningful editorial and advertising content, to advertise products and services that we think may interest you, to maintain and improve the Services and for other lawful purposes. More specifically, we use Personal Information to:

Administer the Services

  • Provide you with customer support
  • Respond to your requests and inquiries
  • Create and manage your account
  • Fulfill orders for the services or merchandise that you purchase through the Services or communicate with the Suppliers that help us complete these transactions

Market and operate our Awards Programs, Community Programs, promotions and Events

  • Evaluate your submission for ranking in our Awards Programs, such as the Inc. 5000
  • Promote and administer sweepstakes, contests or other promotions that we and our customers make available for Users
  • Advertise and operate the Events that we organize
  • Advertise and operate the Community Programs we organize

Advertise the Magazines and other products and services that we and our customers offer

  • Ensure that our advertising is properly displayed on the Services and other websites
  • Identify advertising that we think may interest you
  • Track advertising tailored to your interests on the Services and other websites

Perform services for our customers

  • Help our customers develop content based on inferred User interest
  • Display advertisements in the Magazines and Websites
  • Fulfill sponsorships that our customers purchase for our Events, Awards Programs, and Community Programs, including marketing to registrants at Events, applicants to Awards Programs, and members of Community Programs.

Improve the Services and develop new ones

  • Administer focus groups and surveys
  • Conduct research and analysis of Users’ behavior to improve the Services
  • Identify and repair bugs in the Services
  • Develop new features

Prevent, detect and fight illegal or unauthorized activities

  • Address suspected or detected unauthorized and illegal activity on or through the Services, such as scraping, spam or fraud
  • Analyze data related to fraudulent activities to prevent against recurrences and design countermeasures
  • Detect security incidents

For legal compliance

  • Enforce or exercise our rights, for example as provided in our Terms of Service
  • Audit our and our Suppliers’ compliance with applicable law
9. HOW WE DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION

Generally, we disclose information, including your Personal Information that you provide us, to both our Affiliates and Suppliers to improve your experience with the Services. We may also disclose your information, as detailed below, to our customers who may wish to market and/or advertise their products or services to you as detailed below. In addition, we may provide your Personal Information to the following entities for the purposes listed.

With our Suppliers

Our Suppliers help us to operate and improve the Services. Our Suppliers support technical processing operations, such as data hosting and maintenance, virtual event hosting, analytics, customer care, securing our data and systems, marketing and detecting and preventing spam and intellectual property infringement.

With customers, sponsors and advertisers for Events, Awards Programs, and Community Programs

We provide co-branded Events and promotions with certain customers and we also offer customers the opportunity to sponsor certain aspects of our Events, Awards Programs, and Community Programs. As a part of these Events, Awards Programs, and Community Programs, we request Personal Information for participation and/or registration and we may share this participation and registration information with the customer. For example, we may share your contact information and attendee lists with our Event sponsors and advertisers. We may share information collected though our Awards Programs and Community Programs with providers of products and services that we believe will interest participants in the Awards Program or Community Program.

With order fulfillment vendors

For the convenience of our Users, we may provide the opportunity to purchase certain goods and services through the Services. We partner with order fulfillment vendors for payment processing and order fulfillment. These vendors will request information from you and process it according to their own privacy policy and other terms. Some of the vendors also may share your information with us. We are not responsible for the processing of your personal information or the fulfillment of your order when a vendor’s own privacy policy and terms apply.

With advertising technology providers

Third-party advertising technology (“Ad Tech”) providers (some of which are Suppliers) helps us to serve and track digital advertisements through the Services and on third-party digital services. Ad Tech providers use cookies and other data collection tools to collect information about your interaction with the Services and digital advertisements and combine this information from other sources in order to deliver digital advertisements about goods and services that are targeted to your interests (as inferred from your online activity). You can unsubscribe from these advertisements by e-mailing our Privacy Officer (privacyofficer@mansueto.com) or clicking the “unsubscribe” button at the footer of the advertisement emails.

For corporate transactions

We may transfer your personal information if we are involved, whether in whole or in part, in a merger, sale, acquisition, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, bankruptcy or other change of ownership or control.

When required by law

Applicable law may require us and Suppliers to disclose your personal information when we believe necessary to (i) comply with a legal process, such as a court order, subpoena or search warrant, government investigation or other legal requirement, (ii) help prevent or detect crime and (iii) respond to lawful requests from law enforcement and government regulators.

To enforce legal rights

We also share information: (i) if we believe that disclosure would mitigate our liability in an actual or threatened lawsuit; (ii) as necessary to protect our legal rights and legal rights of our Users or other interested parties; (iii) to enforce our agreements with you; and (iv) to investigate, prevent, or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing.

With your consent or at your request

We may ask for your consent to share your personal information with third parties. When we do, we will make clear why we want to share the personal information.

10. OUR USE OF COOKIES AND TRACKING TOOLS

We use cookies and other data tracking technology to collect and use Personal Information about you. We also may allow others to use cookies and similar technologies (e.g., pixels) to recognize you and/or your device(s) when you use the Websites.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are sent to or accessed from your web browser or your computer’s hard drive. A cookie typically contains the name of the domain (internet location) from which the cookie originated, the lifetime of the cookie (i.e., when it expires) and a randomly generated unique number or similar identifier. A cookie also may contain information about your computer, such as User settings, browsing history and activities conducted while using the Websites and certain Services.

We also use “pixels” (also known as web beacons). Pixels are transparent images that are used in collecting information about website usage across websites and over time.

Cookies that we set on the Websites are called first-party cookies. Cookies set by any other party are called third-party cookies. Third-party cookies enable third-party features or functionality on or through the Websites, such as analytics, marketing automation and customer support. The parties that set third-party cookies can recognize your computer both when it visits the Websites and also when it visits certain other websites.

Most browsers accept cookies automatically but allow you to disable them. You also can opt-out of certain cookies using the following link: http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Some features of the Websites may not work properly without cookies. To learn more about cookies generally, visit www.allaboutcookies.org and http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2&lang=EN.

Some web browsers (including Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome) incorporate a “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) or similar feature that signals to websites that a User does not want to have his or her online activity and behavior tracked. If a website that responds to a particular DNT signal receives the DNT signal, the browser can block that website from collecting certain information about the browser’s User. Not all browsers offer a DNT option and DNT signals are not yet uniform. For this reason, many website operators, including us, do not respond to DNT signals.

Why do we use cookies and other tracking technology?

Some cookies are required for the Websites to operate. Other cookies enable us to track the interests of Users, to enhance the experience of the Websites and to target advertising.

The types of cookies used on the Websites and why they are used is as follows:

  • “Strictly necessary” cookies are required to allow us to deliver the Websites to you.
  • “Performance” or “Analytics” cookies help us to collect information about how Users interact with the Websites and help us analyze and improve the Websites. Performance or analytics cookies remain on your computer after you close your browser until you delete them.
  • “Advertising” cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They help to display advertisements that are based on your inferred interests, prevent the same ad from appearing too often and ensure that ads are properly displayed.

Pixels and similar data collection technology enable us to monitor the traffic patterns of visitors from one page of the Website to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you visit the Websites after seeing our online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, to improve performance of the Websites and to measure the success of our email marketing campaigns.

We serve targeted advertisements on the Websites. We may use information about your visits to the Websites to provide relevant advertisements on other websites about goods and services that may interest you. We and Ad Tech providers also may deploy technology that the effectiveness of advertisements by using cookies or web beacons to collect information about your visits to the Websites and other websites to provide relevant advertisements on other websites about goods and services that may interest you. The information collected through this process does not enable us or the third parties to identify your name, contact details or similar directly-identifying details unless you choose to provide them.

11. HOW WE PROTECT AND RETAIN PERSONAL INFORMATION

Our Protection of your Personal Information

We take measures, including physical, technical and organizational measures, designed to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, unavailability and destruction. In determining these measures, we take into account the risks involved in the processing and the nature of the Personal Information. We restrict access to your Personal Information to those employees who need access to service your account or perform their job functions. We have procedures to manage personal data breaches and will notify you and any applicable regulator when we are required to do so under applicable security breach laws.

Although we take precautions intended to help protect the personal information that we process, no system or electronic data transmission is completely secure. Any transmission of your personal information is at your own risk and we expect that you will use appropriate security measures to protect your personal information.

We may suspend your use of all or part of the Services without notice if we suspect or detect any breach of security. You understand and agree that we may deliver electronic notifications about breaches of security to the email address that you provided to us.

If you create an account, you are responsible for maintaining the security of and the information in your account. If you believe that your account or Personal Information is no longer secure, please notify immediately using one of the mechanisms in the Contact Us Section 2 above.

Our Personal Information Retention Policy

We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected and as outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

The criteria used to determine our Personal Information retention periods include:

  • The length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide Services to you (for example, for as long as you have an account with us or keep using the Websites);
  • Whether we have a legal obligation to retain the personal information (for example, certain laws require us to keep records of your transactions for a certain period of time before we can delete them);
  • Whether retention is advisable considering our legal position (such as for statutes of limitations, litigation or regulatory investigations).

12. EXERCISING YOUR RIGHTS

If you would like to exercise one or more of your privacy rights, please:

  1. Fill out our online form; or
  2. Call us at 1-800-248-0308. Please tell our customer service team in which US state you are a resident and that would like to exercise your privacy rights; or
  3. Send an email to privacy@mansueto.com. Please include Privacy Rights in the subject line.

We are committed to providing you control of your Personal Information we collect and maintain to the fullest extent of your privacy rights under applicable law. If you exercise any of your privacy rights explained in this Privacy Policy, you have the right to not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your privacy rights.

If you wish to opt out of our selling your Personal Information or sharing your Personal Information for targeted advertising, please submit your request to opt out of such sharing at the “DO NOT SELL OR SHARE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION” link at the bottom of our Website or by reaching out to us via one of the methods in the Contact Us Section 2 above.

13. CROSS BORDER DATA TRANSFERS

Our Websites are based in the United States and operates under United States law. We make no representation that information provided by the Websites are appropriate or available for use outside the United States or complies with laws outside of the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, the information we collect may be transferred to and processed in the United States and in other countries where the privacy laws may not be the same as the laws where you reside. Those who choose to access the Websites from outside the United States do so on their own initiative and at their own risk and are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws and regulations outside the United States. By using the Websites, you hereby consent to having any information you provide to us transferred to and processed in the United States.

14. CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

We respect the privacy of your child and we want to share with you our policies regarding children under the age of sixteen (16). Although Users of all ages may navigate through the Services, we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of sixteen (16). If we learn that a child under the age of sixteen (16) has improperly provided us with information, we will notify the child’s parent or legal guardian and thereafter delete the child’s personal information from our records.

15. CALIFORNIA CONSUMERS

This section provides information about your privacy rights about the Personal Information we collect from you as a California consumer when you use the Services, and the choices you can make regarding your rights.

California Privacy Rights

If you are a California consumer, in addition to the rights outlined above, you may be entitled to the privacy rights described below under the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”). California consumers under the CPRA have the right to:

  • Request the—
    • Categories of Personal Information collected
    • Categories of sources from which PI is collected
    • Business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling or sharing (for targeted advertising) Personal Information
    • Categories of third parties to whom Personal Information is disclosed
    • Categories of Personal Information sold or shared (for targeted advertising), if any
    • Categories of third parties to whom Personal Information was sold or shared (for targeted advertising)
    • Categories of Personal Information disclosed for a business purpose
    • Categories of persons to whom Personal Information was disclosed for a business purpose
  • Opt-out (or opt-in for children under 16) to the sale or sharing (for targeted advertising) of Personal Information
  • Equal service (no retaliation or discriminatory practices for exercising your CPRA rights)
  • Limit use of sensitive Personal Information to that necessary to perform the services or provide the goods reasonably expected by an average consumer

 

How to Submit Your Request to Exercise Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident and would like to exercise one or more of your privacy rights, please:

  1. Fill out our online form; or
  2. Call us at 1-800-248-0308. Please tell our customer service team that you are a California resident and would like to exercise your privacy rights; or
  3. Send an email to californiaprivacy@mansueto.com. Please include California Privacy Rights in the subject line.

A different California law permits California residents to request a notice disclosing the categories of personal information about you that we have shared with third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. To request this notice, please submit your request by mail to Mansueto Ventures LLC, Attn: Privacy Officer, 7 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007 or by email to CaliforniaPrivacy@mansueto.com. Please include “California Privacy Rights” in the subject line.

16. JOB APPLICANTS

If you are a job applicant seeking employment with us and apply for an open position, you will be redirected to Paycom’s website—a third-party employment-related service provider—to complete your job application. In so doing, your provision of your Job Applicant Information to Paycom will be subject to Paycom’s privacy practices and policies. Please see Section 1 above for more details.

Our use of and access to your Job Applicant Information is for the legitimate business purpose of discussing and evaluating your job application, which may include direct communication with you and/or your references regarding your job application. For this use of your Job Applicant Information, we provide it only to our personnel who need the information to discuss and evaluate your job application.

We do not use, sell, share, or otherwise disclose your Job Applicant Information for any other purposes outside of your job application discussion and evaluation, and direct communication with you and/or your references about it. If you have any questions regarding your Job Applicant Information, please contact us using one of the mechanisms in the Contact Us Section 2 above.

17. NON-US CONSUMERS

Any Users located in or resident of a member of the European Union and Switzerland who wishes to inquire or submit a complaint regarding their Personal Information collected and maintained by us should first contact our Privacy Officer at PrivacyOfficer@mansueto.com with “GDPR Privacy Rights Inquiry/Complaint” in the subject line.

If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint regarding your privacy rights under the GDPR, or if your complaint is not satisfactorily addressed, please visit http://www.bbb.org/EU-privacy-shield/for-eu-consumers for more information and to file a complaint. This service is provided free of charge to you. If your Privacy Shield complaint cannot be resolved through the above channels, under certain conditions, you may invoke binding arbitration for some residual claims not resolved by other redress mechanisms.