Privacy policy

PRIVACY POLICY OF V‑MODA.COM

LAST UPDATED: DECEMBER 3, 2020

Your privacy is important to us at V-MODA LLC, which has its worldwide headquarters at 5100 S. Eastern Ave., Los Angeles, California 90040 USA ("V-MODA", "we" or "us"). When we refer to "personal data" or "personal information" in this Privacy Policy, which we use interchangeably, we mean information that identifies, or which could reasonably be used to identify, an individual.

In this Privacy Policy, we provide information about how we collect, use and transfer personal information about any user or visitor to our website, www.v-moda.com (the "Site"), any user of our world-class high-fidelity headphones, audio devices and other music/audio products (collectively, "Products"), and any other personal information that we process (collect, use or store) about an individual (collectively, "you" or "your"), and what rights you have regarding your personal information. This Privacy Policy also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal data and how you can access and update this information.

If you are resident (1) of California (and a natural person: a "consumer"), please also see the Supplemental Privacy Statement for California consumers below; and (2) in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), please also see the Supplemental Privacy Statement for EEA Residents below, which highlights V-MODA’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In general, "personal data" and "personal information" as defined by applicable law resides on our secure servers in the United States, and if transferred to the US from Europe, has been done in accordance with onward transfer requirements such as Data Processing Agreements. This Privacy Policy is effective upon posting.

What Personal Information/Data Do We Collect?
We collect various types of personal information so that we can provide you with our Products via the Site, and keep you informed about new Products and related offerings, as follows:

Account Information (Primarily Pre-Sales): If you create an account on the Site to facilitate your ongoing relationship with us and make Product purchases, we collect your first name, last name and email address. You choose your own password, and we never share your login information with any third parties (nor should you). We also collect information about your orders for our Products in association with your account, namely, your account preferences, which Products you order, and any requests or orders made via your account.
Pre-Sales and Purchase Information: Many of our Product users establish an account on the Site, which facilitates Product purchases as well as other sales-related contacts. To establish an account with V-MODA, the Site requires first name, last name, address and password. We collect additional personal information that allows us to complete sales to you of our Products on the Site, which generally involves your completing the requested purchase information about the Products (e.g., Product detail, model, quantity and color), which is not personal information (as defined by applicable privacy law), and then once you put the Product purchase information into your cart, providing the necessary personal contact information and purchase information, so that we can fulfill your order. Such information includes first name, last name, email address, shipping address, billing address, telephone numbers, e-mail address (and your credit card and other payment information, although V-MODA does not collect any credit card information, which is collected via our payment processors, and not accessible to us. Account information and purchase information related to order processing is handled by Shopify and subject to their privacy policy, but shipment of Products is facilitated by V-MODA. In addition, we facilitate B2B transactions like corporate gifts, which collects name, company name, email, and message information, as well as the Product information.

Newsletter: If you wish to opt-in to receive the V-MODA newsletter, which keeps you current on our Products and music-related issues, we collect your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Support Services and Warranties: We support your Product purchases by making available customer support, which may require you to provide first name, last name, email address and phone number. This service is hosted and the personal information is processed by Zendesk. In addition, every Product comes with a warranty. Warranty support requires you to provide first name, last name, email address, phone number, physical address, and Product-related information. We encourage you to register your Product for warranty purposes, and in this connection to establish an account and/or subscribe to the newsletter. Warranty support and registration are hosted and the personal information is processed by Hostek.
Post-Sales Support: We make various Product upgrades known to you through our Immortal Life Program, for which we collect first name, last name, email address, phone number and physical address. This program is hosted by Hostek.

Human Resources Data: We collect certain personal data constituting human resources data or "HR Data" both in the United States and wherever we have employees abroad, particularly from our Italian affiliate in Milan, Italy. Information may include resume of prospective employees. Some of this is stored in cloud-based Dropbox.
Location-based Data: We may collect certain location-based data about users of our Site users and purchasers of our Products.
Trade Show Information: Information collected at trade shows around the world may be stored on cloud-based Dropbox. It includes business card-type information, such as first name, last name, address, and optionally, phone number.

Website Information/Data Analytics: When you access the Site, we automatically collect your device's internet protocol (IP) address and other technical information about your computer and website usage, namely, your browser type and version, internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and the options you select, which is known as data analytics, and which is collected in the aggregate in de-identified format, to measure such items as Site traffic and campaign performance, in order to optimize operation of the Site and improve your Site experience. We also use cookies and similar tracking technologies on the Site; for more information, please see the Cookies Policy section below.
The personal information listed above, if collected in the European Economic Area, may be transferred to V-MODA in the United States in reliance upon the GDPR’s onward transfer requirements.

How Do We Use Your Personal Information/Data?
We use your personal information to fulfill your Product orders, optimize the Products that we offer, encourage sales of our Products and improve the overall Site experience. In particular, we use:

Pre-Sales and Purchase Information and Post-Sales Support: We use this information (some of which may derive from your establishment of an online account) in order to encourage and fulfill your Product orders, and recommend upgrades to your Product purchases. While we require payment information to complete a sale, we do not collect or store such payment or credit card information, which you give directly to our payment processors (and which is then subject to their privacy policies). The payment processing services we work with include Amazon Payments, Android Pay (Google LLC), Apple Pay, PayPal, and a payment service of PayPal Inc. called Braintree. Some of our contacts with you, such as our database of email contacts, phone contacts or any other contact information to communicate with you are managed by MailChimp (Rocket Science Group).
Account Information: We use this information to manage your account, communicate with you in relation to your account, fulfill your Product orders, and make you aware of new Products and offerings.

Newsletter: We use this information to communicate with you about any promotions, news about Products or services, or notices that may be of interest, subject to applicable law including anti-spam laws. As permitted by applicable law, including with your consent where required, we may use your contact information to provide you with marketing communications, promotional offers and updates on new services and benefits.
Support Services and Warranties: We use this information to ensure that you optimize use of the Products you purchase, so that you are satisfied with the Products. Support and feedback services are provided by Zendesk.

HR Data: We use your human resources data in order to hire employees, and pay and provide salary and benefits to our employees.
Advertising: We use personal information to tailor certain ads to you often based on your Product purchases or expressed preferences. We work with Google AdSense which uses the Doubleclick Cookie that tracks user behavior on the Site, and with Facebook Ads conversion tracking, Google AdWords, Google Tag Manager, and also with Criteo Dynamic Retargeting for remarketing and behavioral targeting.

Trade Show Information: This non-Site information is collected so that we can expand our customer base and database of providers, suppliers and prospective employees.
Location-based Data: This personal information is primarily used for purposes of advertising and remarketing.
Website Information/Data Analytics: We use this information in the aggregate, generally de-identified or anonymized, to monitor the performance of the Site, prevent fraudulent transactions, analyze trends and usage and activities in connection with the Site and to improve your shopping experience. We work primarily with Google Analytics. We also use Google Website Optimizer to track user responses concerning web traffic or behavior regarding changes to the Site.
Compliance and Safety: We also use your personal information as necessary to comply with our legal and contractual obligations and reserve the right to use it if necessary to protect other Site users, employees and legal interests, such as in the event of a complaint or dispute. In this regard, we may use personal information as necessary to comply with court orders, legal process, judicial or arbitral proceedings and as requested by government agencies or as necessary to protect our rights and public safety.
What Personal Information Do We Share or Disclose?
V-MODA will not disclose your personal data to third parties, except in the following circumstances and in accordance with applicable laws:

With your consent: this would apply in connection with any use of your personal information for advertising purposes if you are resident in the EEA (see Supplemental Privacy Statement for EEA Residents below).
To V-MODA's service providers, who act on V-MODA's behalf and instructions pursuant to Data Processing Agreements as necessary to fulfill Product orders, enable the purchase of corporate gifts, provide Customer support and warranties, deliver services (such as online forms that you fill out in conjunction with Product orders and warranties), provide IT support and security services, and fulfill the other purposes set forth above (an example would be that credit card information goes to our payment processors).
To or between V-MODA-owned business entities and with V-MODA’s parent corporation (Roland Corporation) for the purposes of coordinating our global enterprise's provision and development of Products and services, and to coordinate recordkeeping and efficiency with respect to our employees and service providers.
As required by applicable law, including, without limitation, in response to any government or regulatory agency request, to cooperate with law enforcement and/or investigations, to meet national security requirements or upon receipt of any court order.
To a prospective or actual purchaser or seller with respect to V-MODA's business in the context of a merger, acquisition or other reorganization or sale of V-MODA’s business or assets or a line of business. V-MODA would seek appropriate protection for information in these types of transactions. V-MODA would attempt to notify you by email and/or a prominent notice on the Site of any change in ownership and the choices you may have regarding your personal information, once it is legally permissible to do so.
To courts and public authorities to protect you, V-MODA or third parties from harm, including fraud or instances where someone’s safety is at risk.
What Security Measures and Care Do We Apply regarding Personal Information?
V-MODA takes reasonable and appropriate precautions — including administrative, technical, and physical measures — to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft, and misuse, as well as against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

In order to assure you that the webpages where you provide personal information are trustworthy and secure, such transmission of information will be encrypted and the webpages where such information is collected, such as your account pages, will be SSL-certified by a reputable Internet certification organization such as Let’s Encrypt Authority X3. Nonetheless, you provide your personal information at your own risk. We try to store your personal information securely until such time as it is no longer required or has no further use, as set forth in applicable law. We encourage you to communicate with us should you wish to know what personal information we store about you, or should any of your personal information need modification, or in the event that you wish it to be removed, at privacy@v-moda.com.

Service providers acting on V-MODA's behalf shall be obliged to adhere to confidentiality requirements no less protective than those set forth herein and will only receive access to your personal data as necessary to perform their functions.

We also perform statistical analyses of the users of the Site and Products to improve the content, design and navigation of the Site and to further improve our Products and offerings. In these cases, we use aggregate or statistical data that cannot be used to identify you.

Third-Party and External Websites
The Site may include links to third-party applications, products, services, or external websites for your convenience and information. If you access those links, you will leave our Site. V-MODA does not control these third-party websites or their privacy practices, which may differ from V-MODA's practices. The V-MODA Privacy Policy does not cover the personal information you choose to provide to or that is collected by these third parties. You are encouraged to review the privacy policies of any third-party site you interact with and use reasonable prudence before you allow them to collect and use your personal information. V-MODA shall not be liable for any damages or harm suffered while visiting or using an external website.

In some cases the Site may frame, mask or include components of third-party websites or content within our interface so that it may appear that you have not left the Site. In such cases, V-MODA will review the privacy practices of such websites, and will include such components or webpages only after determining that such websites maintain a comparable commitment to privacy as V-MODA.

V-MODA may also provide "Follow Us" links to social media websites, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, and social media features, such as the social media buttons that enable you to share information with your social networks to interact with V-MODA on various social media websites. Your use of these features may result in the collection or sharing of information about you depending on each specific social media website. This may include your IP address, which page you are visiting on the Site, and a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on the Site. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

Persons under 18
We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors under the age of 18. If we learn that we have collected the personal information of a minor under 18 years old, we will take steps to delete the information as soon as possible.

Cookies
The Site uses Cookies. To learn more about the Cookies we use and how we use them, please see our Cookies Policy here . With respect to Cookies and similar technologies that are not strictly necessary for our provision of the Site, Products and related services, V-MODA seeks consent from users of the Service in the EEA based on such Policy.

Integrity and Retention of Personal Information
V-MODA provides procedures for you to keep your personal information accurate, complete, and up-to-date. We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy and as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Access to Personal Information
You can help ensure that your contact information and preferences are accurate, complete, and up-to-date by contacting us using the information below. For other personal information, we make good faith efforts to provide you with access so you can request that we correct the data if it is inaccurate or delete the data if V-MODA is not required to retain it by law or for legitimate business purposes. We will attempt to respond to your request within 30 days or sooner where required by law. As permitted by applicable law, we may decline to process requests where the data is required to be retained by law, required for legitimate business purposes, or jeopardizes the privacy of others.

Privacy Policy Updates and Notification
V-MODA may update its Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our information management practices. Changes would become effective 48 hours from the time the modifications are posted on the Site. If we make material changes to this Policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our homepage. In addition, please check the "Last Updated" date at the top of this Policy, which will indicate when the last changes have been made to this Policy. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, your continued use of the Site after such modifications are announced on the Site constitutes your acceptance of such modifications. For European residents, please see the Supplemental Privacy Statement for EEA Residents below, which will govern rather than the prior sentence. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

Governing Law
V-MODA is based in California, and most of the servers that we use are also US-based. By accessing or using the Site, or any of V-MODA's services, or by purchasing Products on the Site, you agree that your use of the Site is governed by the laws applicable in the State of California, and you expressly consent to the processing of personal information/data in, and transfer of your personal information/data to, the United States (and any other countries where V-MODA may in the future hold such data, subject to the security representations set forth in this Policy). While we accept orders from outside of the United States, and we treat your personal information with great care, we do not purport to comply with all applicable laws in all other jurisdictions where our users may be located. However, if you are resident and located in the EEA, the Supplemental Privacy Statement for EEA Residents has been provided in addition (or in substitution for certain provisions of this Policy as required by applicable law) with respect to your use of the Site.

CONTACT US
We value your opinions. If you have any general questions or comments for V-MODA, please contact us at:

V-MODA, LLC
Attention: Privacy c/o Legal Dept.
5100 S. Eastern Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90040 USA
Or via email at privacy@v-moda.com

SUPPLEMENTAL PRIVACY STATEMENT FOR CALIFORNIA CONSUMERS
In light of California's new privacy legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, V-MODA wishes to make the following clear to our many California-based consumers who use V-MODA Products and services: similar to the rights of European residents as detailed in the Supplemental Privacy Statement for EEA Residents below, California consumers (natural persons resident in California) have the following five categories of data privacy rights with respect to their personal information:

The right to know what personal information we collect about you if you are a California consumer, and the purposes for which such information will be used, the categories of personal information that were collected in the 12 months preceding a consumer's request, and what categories of consumer personal information were sold or disclosed for business purposes, and to whom, in the 12-months preceding such a request for your information. Please request our online disclosure form at privacy@v-moda.com, or call us at our toll-free number if you wish to request this information: +1 (888) 866-3252. We will respond to you within 45 days, and will not charge for your request provided that you make no more than two data requests per year.
The right to access a copy of the specific pieces of personal information that we have collected about you, which we will deliver by mail or electronically.
The right to deletion: you can have your personal information deleted from our servers and those of our service providers, unless we are required to retain the data for data security, legal or other purposes enumerated in the law.
The right to opt out of a sale of your personal information to third parties, but since we do not sell any of your personal information to third parties, this right is not one you will be required to exercise to prevent a sale of personal information.
The right to equal service: you will not be discriminated against in any way by virtue of your exercise of your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act.
SUPPLEMENTAL PRIVACY STATEMENT FOR EEA AND SWISS RESIDENTS
As of May 25, 2018, European Union Regulation 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, known as the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), requires us as a data controller of the Site and related services to provide additional and/or different information about our data processing practices to data subjects resident in the European Economic Area ("EEA"). Switzerland has similar provisions. If you are accessing the Site from a member state of the EEA or Switzerland, this Supplemental Privacy Statement for EEA and Swiss Residents applies to you in addition to the Privacy Policy above.

Legal Basis of Processing.
(a) Contractual Basis for non-HR Data: The legal basis for V-MODA's processing of your personal data in connection with most of the personal information we gather on the Site, and the Products and services we provide, is the "contractual basis" set forth in Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR, which allows processing of personal data as necessary for the performance of a contract. We are primarily a "product" company, in the sense that we offer you state-of-the-art headphones, audio devices and other audio/music Products which you can purchase online, and have them shipped to you. Consequently, most of the personal information we gather is strictly for Pre-Sales and Sales-based contractual purposes, so that we can sell our customized Products to you, and ship them to you. When you access, use or establish an account on the Site, the overwhelming objective is to facilitate Product sales and follow-up, and we need to process your personal data to respond to your requests, provide our Products/services and satisfy our obligations with respect to the other purposes listed in the Privacy Policy above.
(b) Contractual Basis for HR Data: The collection of personal data for HR purposes from employees in Italy and elsewhere is necessary on various bases or grounds, such as in fulfillment of the employment contract between employee and employer.
(a) Legitimate Interests for Non-HR Data: When we collect minimal personal data from you so that you can establish an account on the Site and we can communicate with you, or when we make your personal data available (such as credit card information) to our payment processor and our Product fulfillment service providers such as Shopify, so that you can complete a purchase via the Site, or in situations where V-MODA needs to process your personal data to comply with applicable laws (as a U.S.-based company, V-MODA is subject to U.S. laws and must comply with them), or to provide good customer service, we rely on the "legitimate interests" basis for such personal data processing under Art. 6(1)(f) of the GDPR. For example, when we provide you with customer support services or warranty services, to the extent these may not be contractually required, they are in our legitimate interests to provide such services to you. In these cases, we will ensure that your privacy and other fundamental interests do not override our legitimate interests.
(b) Legitimate Interests for HR Data: The collection of personal data for HR purposes from employees in Italy is also to fulfill legal obligations such as tax and social welfare requirements regarding employees, and is a legitimate interest of V-MODA, the data controller.
Consent: V-MODA relies on your opt-in consent with respect to cookies that are not strictly necessary and for any direct marketing emails or purely promotional use of your personal data, per Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR; we have taken steps to meet obligations under GDPR.
Personal Data Transfers outside of the EEA AND SWITZERLAND.
V-MODA may transmit personal data you provide to the United States, and process it in the United States, where the European Commission and Switzerland have determined that the data protection laws may not provide a level of protection equivalent to the laws in your jurisdiction. As required by applicable law, V-MODA is committed to providing an adequate level of protection for your personal data using various means, including, where appropriate:

Where we receive personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) and/or Switzerland via our affiliates, we have entered into agreements with those affiliates based on language approved by the European Commission pursuant to Article 46(5) of the GDPR, such as the Standard Contractual Clauses (2010/87/EC and/or 2004/915/EC), which are available upon request at privacy@v-moda.com.
With respect to the onward transfer of personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) and/or Switzerland by V-MODA to external third parties or V-MODA’s affiliates based outside the EEA and Switzerland, we ensure that V-MODA has, in order to protect any onward transfer of data, entered into and will continue to enter into appropriate data processing and data transfer agreements based on language approved by the European Commission pursuant to Article 46(5) of the GDPR, such as the Standard Contractual Clauses (2010/87/EC and/or 2004/915/EC), which are available upon request at privacy@v-moda.com.
V-MODA is responsible for the processing of personal data/information it receives and subsequently transfers to a third party acting as an agent on its behalf. We remain liable under the Principles if our agent processes such personal data in a manner inconsistent with the Principles, unless we prove that we are not responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.
We remain committed to implementing appropriate physical, technical and organizational security measures to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, accidental loss or alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, and against all other unlawful forms of processing; and
We take other measures that we deem necessary to provide an adequate level of data protection in accordance with applicable law.

Any onward transfer is subject to appropriate onward transfer requirements as required by applicable law.

Data Retention.
V-MODA keeps personal data as required to provide our Products and services to you and comply with applicable laws. In addition, it has been our experience that customers often make purchases intermittently, returning to the Site to initiate a purchase of Products after periods of absence, and so we act in a commercially reasonable manner when we attempt to determine when personal data is no longer of use to us. In addition, if you register for an account on the Site, we retain your personal data for as long as you have an account with us and then for as long as we believe it is necessary and appropriate for us to comply with applicable laws, discharge our contractual obligations to you or act within our legitimate interests, or defend our legal interests in connection with any claim or defense we could face before any formal dispute resolution body. We take reasonable measures to ensure that personal data is deleted, erased or de-identified/anonymized once the purposes for which personal data was collected have been fulfilled.

Data Subject Rights.
You have a right to request from V-MODA access to and rectification or erasure of your personal data. You also have the right to request that processing concerning you be restricted, in which case such personal data would be marked and processed by us only for certain purposes. We will not charge a fee for this, provided the request is not excessive or unreasonable. In addition, you have the right to data portability, which allows you to receive from us personal data about you which you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, such as a CSV file, and the right to transmit such personal data to another entity without hindrance from us if it is technically feasible. We will respond to the request within 30 days, unless the request is complex or you send us multiple requests, in which case we can extend our response by another two (2) months upon notice to you.

You also have the right to object to various data processing activities, including processing activities that are based exclusively on your consent or processing for the purposes of direct marketing. You can exercise such rights by accessing the information in your account and/or by emailing us at privacy@v-moda.com. If you have provided consent for data processing or cookies that are not strictly necessary or that are primarily for promotional purposes, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

We may choose not to fulfill any request that we determine is illegal or incorrect, where we need to maintain the personal data because of our contractual or legal obligations (e.g., personal data in case files), where the burden or expense of providing access would be disproportionate to the risks to the individual's privacy, or where the rights of persons other than the individual would be violated, but our intention is to comply with opt-out requests, and other requests that seek to correct, update or delete your personal data, as fully as possible in accordance with applicable law.

You will also be given notice should we use your personal data for a purpose other than that for which it was originally collected or processed. We do not ask for, collect or knowingly receive sensitive personal data, i.e., personal data specifying medical or health conditions, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, or information relating to sex life.

Your Choices.
You are not required to provide any personal data to V-MODA, but if you do not provide any personal data to V-MODA, you may not be able to use the Site effectively or make Product purchases from us.

HR Data:
With respect to HR-related personal data about employees of V-MODA or affiliated companies located in Italy or elsewhere in the EEA, access to such data will be provided to such associates either directly or through V-MODA’s wholly owned subsidiary. Should any such employees not be satisfied with internal review procedures or applicable grievance procedures by law or contract regarding any complaint about data protection rights, their recourse would be to the national data protection authority in the jurisdiction where such employees work. We will cooperate with any such authority. Some personal data that originates in the EEA, including HR-related personal data, will be maintained at V-MODA’s secure data centers in the United States, via a transfer between data controllers within a controlled group of entities, to V-MODA’s data centers or cloud-hosted Dropbox account.

Profiling.
V-MODA does not use in connection with the Site automated decision-making in a way that produces legal effects concerning you or which significantly affects you.

Complaints and Dispute Resolution in the EU:
If you are resident in the EEA or Switzerland and have any complaint or concern regarding how we collect or process your personal data under this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@v-moda.com. We suggest that you put in the subject line of any email or communication "Privacy Policy" or "Privacy Complaint." We will respond within 45 days. If this does not resolve your concern, you have the right to raise the issue with your local Data Protection Authority in the EEA or Switzerland.

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