What is a Privacy Policy?
As modern humans, we use the internet for a lot of purposes, may it be for listening to music, buying groceries, booking an appointment online, or buying your favorite piece of clothing. To get into a website, a user first needs to log in to that particular website by feeding in a few personal details sought by the website or the mobile application. To complete the login process, you need to agree to the terms and conditions flashed to you by the company. But have you ever tried to read the various policies and terms and conditions that you are going to agree to or that you would have unknowingly agreed to for getting into the website? The privacy policy is among these various policies made by a company for its customer. But what is a privacy policy, and how does it works for the company and customers? We are going to see ‘Walmart Privacy Policy’ in this article.
Walmart Privacy Policy
A privacy policy is a legal document that declares the way in which a company collects information about its clients, which may include his/ her name, address, date of birth, marital status, credit records, and preferences regarding various products which he/ she may be interested in buying in the near future. This information facilitates a company to identify clients out of the masses.
The information collected by the company is retained securely and shared with other partner companies or shared with other co-companies as per their requirements. The policy also explains whether the gathered information can be shared beyond geographical borders and whether the company retains the legal rights to do so. Every company and country has different privacy laws which define the kind of information that can be gathered from the customer and shared with other countries or companies.
How does Walmart Collect Personal Information?
Various personal information, including the customer’s name, email id, address, and mode of payment, is sought by the mobile/ web application from the customers while doing the following: –
1. When a customer makes an online purchase.
2. Creates an account online on the Walmart website.
3. Creates a wish list.
4. Requesting customer support.
5. While posting a review for a product or service availed.
6. While participating in a contest or a survey.
How Information Is Collected Passively From The Customers?
1. Device Information while visiting the website, the user unknowingly provides information like IP address, Name of the browser, Session of the website, IP address of the referring website, etc.
2. Browsing information, various tools like cookies and web beacons are used for collecting information. Cookies help the company in providing a personalized shopping experience to the customers. Web beacons let the company know when a certain page was accessed when a mail was accessed, or whether the posted advertisement on the website was active or not.
3. Location of the Device The GPS of the mobile phone helps a customer in locating a nearby Walmart store. When a customer enters a retail store, the retail store owner gets to know the location of the customer with the help of the GPS. This also enables Walmart to provide WiFi services to the customer and recommend other products available at the store.
How The Gathered Information Is Used By Walmart?
The information gathered from customers online and offline is shared with other companies and companies that are a part of the corporate family for the following purposes: –
1. Carrying out research and development operations.
2. For fulfilling legal obligations.
3. Maintaining a user profile.
4. For providing personalized advertisements
5. For monitoring transactions.
6. For identifying areas of improvement in business operations.
How Is The Information Secured By Walmart?
Walmart has a team dedicated to safeguarding the personal information of their customers, whether they are shopping online or in a retail store. The measures applied by the team may be physical and technical security access control.
With Whom Customer Information Is Shared Outside Walmart
1. Other businesses in Walmart corporate family
2. Service Providers are the retailer who assists Walmart in shipping, billing, and refund vendors, advertising firms, and firms that carry out research and development tasks.
3. Other Businesses Walmart offers other firms to make available services and products to their customers looking for a specific product on their website online. When a customer orders any product from the website, the demand for the specific product, along with the details of the customer, is forwarded to the other business owner.
4. Co-branded Products Businesses that offer co-branded products like Walmart credit cards. However, the business is only allowed to make use of the personal information for making offers to the customers and administering the use of their products.
5. Legal Obligation and Safety of Customers
(a) When a crime is committed on Walmarts property.
(b) Video footage of the Walmart premises on written orders.
(c) In case of breach of an agreement.
6. Suppliers Walmart consolidates the shopping history of all the customers by sending it to bulk suppliers, which helps them to identify the most demanded items and predict future requirements.
7. Publishers, advertisers, and analysts Walmart shares data of previous purchases made through their website with these companies. These companies help Walmart understand the shopping patterns and choices of a customer and send personalized advertisements.
How Long Is The Data Retained With Walmart?
Walmart retains the data for providing services and products, research, satisfying legal obligations, and providing marketing. The data is retained as long as it serves the mentioned purposes. The data is disposed of off if it is not required anymore.
How Can A Customer Update His Personal Information?
1. By creating an account online on the Walmart website or mobile application. Once the account is created, then the customer may log into his/ her account and update the desired information, which includes contact information, payment methods, address, phone number, etc
2. If the customer wants to access his personal information regarding a specific service taken from a Walmart service provider, then the customer may contact Walmart through the “who can I contact on Walmart about the privacy policy” section on their website.
3. To delete all the information, the customer may delete his/ her account at any time by visiting the “Account” section and selecting “request to delete account.”
4. Health and financial services have other ways of accessing the privacy policy. The information collected by the Vision Centers, Clinics, and Walmart Pharmacies provides access to customers for amending the information gathered by them through various operations. The customer may visit the “What Privacy Protection Apply to Specific Types of Personal Information” section if he/ she requires any assistance in accessing the records created by health and financial service providers.
Does Walmart Protect The Privacy Of Children?
The website does not collect any information from children under the age of 13 years. The website that directs services to children under the age of 13 years will state that it collects information from children. The website will have a specific privacy policy formulated and displayed as a separate notice the website, which will comply with the online children’s privacy protection act.
How Walmart Can Be Contacted For Privacy Policy?
The customers can visit their offline stores or visit their corporate feedback page and select “company feedback and questions” from the menu to contact customer support regarding the policy or write directly to the Walmart privacy office about the privacy policy and related questions regarding the handling of personal information.
Conclusion
The information collected by Walmart from its customers is for providing better services and products, personalized advertisements, carrying out business operations without hindrances, and for research and development purposes. The data is shared with other co-owned companies and service providers that assist Walmart in supplying products and services to their customers. Walmart ensures that the data of its customer stays secure and shared while keeping in mind the privacy of its customer. The data is retained at Walmart until it is useful for providing products and services. If the customer desires to change his personal information may visit the official page of Walmart.
Frequently Asked Question
1. How does the customer know when the policy is reviewed?
Ans. If you have registered with Walmart, then the policy updates are shared by Walmart with its users through the mail and on the official website.
2. Does Walmart check his security camera?
Ans. Walmart carries out regular maintenance checks of its security cameras.
3. Has Walmart been hacked?
And The web/ mobile application has not been hacked till now.
4. Can a customer have multiple accounts?
Ans Yes, the customer, can have more than one account.
