Privacy Policy
Westminster Kennel Club Privacy Notice
Westminster Kennel Club (“WKC,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) knows that privacy is important to you, and we want you to know that it is important to us too. In order for us to provide you with our Services, we may collect and process certain information about you and your activities in relation to our Services, including information that is considered “personal information” or “personal data” under applicable laws (“Information”).
This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) describes how we collect, use, process and disclose your Information in connection with our website (“Site”), our WKC shows and events, and provision of our services (collectively, “Services”). This Notice also details how we protect your Information and choices you may have with respect to your Information. This Notice should be read in conjunction with our Terms of Service.
- Information We Collect and How We Collect It
- How We Use Your Information
- How and With Whom We Share Your Information
- Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
- Your Choices With Respect to Your Information
- Data Security
- Data Retention
- Children’s Privacy
- Links to Third Party Websites and Services
- Updates to this Notice
- Contact Us
Information We Collect and How We Collect It
In the course of your use of our Services, we may use different technologies and ask you to provide us with certain Information to help us provide and improve our Services, to contact or identify you, to enable you to access certain parts of our Services, or as otherwise indicated in this Notice. We may collect the following Information about you in the following ways:
(a) Information You Provide to Us
When interacting with our Services, you may provide Information to us. This may include:
- When you sign up for WKC’s newsletter, we collect certain Information, such as your name and email address.
- When you attend or participate at a WKC show or event, we collect certain Information depending on your interaction with our Services.
- For example, if you participate as a trainer, handler, or judge, we may collect your name, email address, your professional or employment related information, education details, certifications, professional association affiliations, a photograph of you and any other information you choose to provide for your media profile.
- If you participate as a competitor, we may collect your name, email address, a photograph of you and any other information you may choose to provide for your media profile. We may also ask you for your age, gender and other demographic information, such as your income bracket, for purposes of compiling aggregated data for our sponsors. Such data will be provided in aggregated form that cannot be linked to or associated with the identity of a particular individual.
- To the extent a participant requires special accommodations during a WKC event, we may collect information about your disability and/or related health condition.
- WKC may collect video recordings and/or photographs of attendees or participants at WKC events to broadcast the event or show to the public and/or for WKC’s marketing and other promotional materials.
- When you communicate with us through the Services, via email, or with our customer support, we may receive certain Information, such as your name, email address, phone number, or other information you provide or is included in such communications.
- When you participate in a WKC sweepstakes by sending us a message on social media platforms, such as X, Facebook, or Instagram, we will receive your social media handle or username. If you include any video or photograph in your message, that will also be visible to us and other users on the respective platforms, subject to your privacy settings on these platforms.
(b) Automatically Collected Information
When interacting with our Site or marketing emails, our servers automatically collect certain information from your devices, including:
- Device information: this includes Information, such as your device ID, the browser you are using and its display settings, your operating system, device type, session start/stop time, time zone and network connection (e.g., Wi-Fi, cellular).
- Internet or other electronic network activity information – our Site may collect or use your internet protocol (IP) address, unique identifiers and other information regarding your interaction with our Services.
- Geolocation Data – our Site may use information regarding your general location. We do not collect or process precise geo-location data.
- Usage Data – We also collect information regarding your interactions with our Site. This Information includes your activities on our Site (such as the links you click, the page you visited before navigating our Site, the content you view, hover or click on and search terms you enter on our Site) and usage patterns (such as the length of time you use our Site and page load times).
We and our business partners (such as our advertising partners) may collect the Information above through the use of tracking tools such as cookies, pixels, JavaScript, and web beacons. You can learn more about the tracking tools we use by visiting the Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies Section below.
(c) Information from Third Parties
You may purchase a ticket to attend a WKC event or show via Ticketmaster or Tickets 123, our ticket vendors. These parties share certain Information collected in connection with your purchase or transaction, such as name, email address, and which event you have purchased tickets for.
- Provision of Services – for the provision of our Services, including management and administration of our Site, holding of WKC shows or events, provision of technical or other customer support to resolve technical issues, and provision of a customized experience (for example, by remembering choices you make when you use the Services).
- Communications – we use your Information to communicate with you and respond to your inquiries or requests regarding our Services or WKC shows or events, including by email, about changes to our policies, customer service inquiries, to request feedback or to keep you informed of our latest updates to our Services or upcoming WKC shows and events.
- Marketing and advertising purposes – we may use your Information to send you promotional materials, such as marketing emails, concerning our Services.
- Improvement of our Services– we may conduct surveys or test features of our Site, and analyze the Information we have to develop, maintain, measure and improve our Services.
- Operate our business: to support our internal business functions, including finance, accounting and audit.
- With your consent – we may use your Information with your consent for other purposes described at the point of collection.
- Protecting our interests – we may use your Information when we believe it’s necessary in order to take precautions against liabilities, investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, investigate and protect ourselves from fraud, protect the security or integrity of our Services and protect the rights and property of WKC. We also may use your Information in order to enforce our policies and Terms of Service.
- Maintenance of security and compliance with legal and regulatory requirements – we may use your Information to detect and prevent fraud by verifying your identity, maintain the integrity and security of the Services, investigate violations, and as otherwise required by law, regulation or other governmental authority, or to comply with a subpoena or similar legal process.
How and With Whom We Share Your Information
We may disclose the Information that we collect or you provide as described below:
Vendors and Service Providers – we share your Information with third-party vendors and service providers that perform services for us or on our behalf, such as website or system hosting, data analytics, IT infrastructure services, and email delivery services.
- Advertising Partners – we may share your Information with our third-party advertising partners, who may use such information for their own purposes, including marketing products or services to you or showing you relevant advertising. We may also share your Information for data segmentation, enrichment and optimization purposes, which allow us or our advertising partners to personalize and optimize advertisements and marketing activities we or they offer you.
- Press and Media – we may share your Information to press and media outlets when we broadcast a WKC event. We may also share photographs and recordings to press and media following WKC events shows.
- Others – we may disclose your information with our professional advisors including lawyers, auditors and insurers, and other parties if you ask, authorize or direct us to do so.
- Compliance with Laws and Enforcement Entities – we may disclose your Information (i) if we are required to so by law or legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; (ii) in response to requests by government agencies, such as law enforcement authorities; (iii) to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (e.g., to enforce our Terms of Service); (iv) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical or other harm or financial loss; or (v) in connection with an investigation of an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity.
- Mergers and Acquisitions – we may share your Information if we enter into a business transaction, such as a merger, divestiture, acquisition, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, consolidation, bankruptcy, liquidation, or other sale or transfer of business transaction involving all or part of our company or assets or wind down of business, including for the purposes of determining whether to proceed with such transaction. Any party that acquires our assets as part of such transaction may continue to use your Information in accordance with the terms of this Notice.
- Deidentified and Aggregated Information – we may aggregate and/or de-identify your Information such that it is no longer able to be linked to you or your device(s). This Notice does not limit our ability to use or disclose such aggregated or de-identified information, which we may disclose in our sole discretion.
A cookie or other tracking technology is a small piece of script or code that is stored on your browser or device to help websites and applications remember you and collect information about your use of the website or application. When you interact with our Site or our marketing emails, we may use cookies or other tracking technologies, such as pixels or web beacons, to automatically collect information about you, your device and your online behavior (such as your IP address, web browser, pages viewed, time spent on pages, and links clicked). These technologies help us (i) remember your information so you do not have to re-enter it; (ii) track and understand how you use and interact with our Site; (iii) perform analytics and measure the usability of our Site and effectiveness of our marketing communications; (iv) customize the Site around your preferences; and (v) otherwise manage, enhance our Site to ensure they are working properly. For more information about these tracking technologies and how to disable them, see the Your Choices With Respect To Your Information section below.
Your Choices With Respect To Your Information
(a) Email Communication Preferences
You may opt out of receiving promotional emails from us by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email. You also may tell us that you do not want to receive our promotional messages by emailing us at [email protected] Please understand that it may take us a few days to process any opt out request and that even if you opt out of receiving promotional correspondence from us, we may still contact you in connection with your relationship, activities, and communications with us.
(b) Browser and Device Settings
Your browser may tell you how to be notified about certain types of tracking technologies and how to restrict or disable them. To learn more about how to manage cookies on different browsers, you can visit the website www.allaboutcookies.org. Note that blocking these technologies may prevent you from being able to use some or all of the features of our Site. Your browser may also permit you to send do-not-track signals or other similar signals to express your preferences regarding online tracking. Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. We do not currently respond to such signals.
Data Security
The security and confidentiality of your Information is very important to us. We have implemented administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to appropriately protect your Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. Unfortunately, no security measures can guarantee that information will never be accessed in an unauthorized way.
Data Retention
We will retain your Information as long as necessary to provide our Services, and as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our policies. Retention periods will be determined taking into account the type of information that is collected and the purpose for which it is collected, bearing in mind the requirements applicable to the situation and the need to destroy outdated, unused information at the earliest reasonable time. We may also retain your Information to investigate or defend against potential legal claims in accordance with the limitation periods of jurisdictions where legal action may be brought.
Children’s Privacy
Our Site is not intended or authorized for use by individuals under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect or solicit information from children under the age of 13. By using our Site, you are agreeing to the terms and eligibility requirements contained in the Terms of Service. If we become aware that we, through our Site, have collected information from a child under 13 on our Site, we will delete that information.
Links to Third Party Websites and Services
Our Site may contain links to other websites or other online services (such as social media platforms), and may include third party features such as apps, tools, widgets and plugins. We are not responsible for these other sites and services; their posted privacy policies (not this Privacy Notice) will govern the collection and use of your information on them. We encourage you to read those privacy policies to learn more about how your information will be used these third parties.
Updates to this Notice
We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time as our business evolves. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of this Notice and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our website or sending you a notification). We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice regularly to stay informed about our information practices and the choices available to you.
If you have any questions or complaints regarding our privacy practices, you may contact us at:
The Westminster Kennel Club
111 Broadway Suite 805
New York City, NY 10006
[email protected]
