Effective Date: November 16th, 2009
At General Mills, we are very sensitive to the privacy concerns of visitors to all
of our websites, including this one. We know that maintaining your trust requires
that we protect your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains our online information
practices at this website and the choices that you, as a visitor to this site, can
make about the collection and use of your information.
Personal information we may ask you for and how we might use it
When you visit our website, we only collect personal information from you (such
as your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, etc.) if you voluntarily provide
it to us. Depending on the purpose for which the information was provided, we may
use the information to communicate with you regarding our products, services, and
promotions, to provide you with other information or materials that you request,
to customize your interactive experience, and/or to improve our product and service
offerings.
Here are the circumstances in which we might ask for personal information from our
consumers though our site, the types of information we obtain, and how we might
use the information:
• If you contact one of our Consumer Services Representatives through our site,
we may ask you for personal information such as your name, address, phone number,
or e-mail address so that we can respond to your questions or comments. (Of course,
if you send us an e-mail, we will at a minimum obtain your e-mail address.)
• You may be asked to provide personal information if you:
o register as a user of our site or to post
content to our site;
o agree to receive an online newsletter or other
information or material from us;
o register for a sweepstakes, contest, or other
promotion;
o register to receive coupons through our site;
o participate in a survey, a consumer research
panel, or similar type of activity; or
o ask to receive an online newsletter or other
information or material from us; or
o otherwise participate in features of our website
that ask for personal information.
• If you purchase or otherwise request a product, publication, or promotional offering
from us or take advantage of a rebate or similar offer, you may be required to provide
your contact and/or payment information (such as a credit card number) in order
for us to process your request.
Your participation in any of these activities (and therefore your provision of personally
identifiable information) is entirely voluntary. We may use the information you
provide to respond to your questions or comments, to administer our promotions and
sites, to fulfill your request, subscription, or order, to provide you with a customized
interactive experience, or to otherwise provide or improve our products and services.
Based on the information you provide, we also may obtain additional information
about you, such as U.S. Postal Service address change data or demographic information,
from commercially available sources.
We will not send you any online newsletter or similar e-mail communication unless
you expressly consent to receive such a communication from us. And if you do choose
to receive any such e-mail communication from us, you will always have the opportunity
to “unsubscribe” from receiving the e-mail at any time.
How do we use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies?
We may employ cookie technology, web beacons, transparent GIF images, and similar
devices to facilitate site administration and navigation and to provide an enhanced
online experience for our visitors. Information tracked through these mechanisms
includes but is not limited to (1) a user’s IP address (e.g., yahoo.com - 192.168.1.1),
(2) the type of web browser (e.g., Microsoft Explorer) and operating system (e.g.,
Windows or Linux) being used, (3) the pages of the site a user visits, and (4) other
websites a user visited before visiting our site. These devices may also be used
on our behalf by third parties managing our advertising on other websites to enable
us to learn which advertisements bring visitors to our websites and to otherwise
improve our online advertising.
Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but can be configured not to do so or
to notify the user when a cookie is being sent. If you wish to disable cookies,
refer to your browser help menu to learn how to disable cookies. Please note that
if you disable cookies, you may be unable to access some customized features on
our site.
Devices like web beacons and transparent GIF images are tiny or transparent graphics
that allow us to count the number of users who have visited a particular web page
or to access certain cookies. We may use these graphics on our websites to count
users and to recognize users by accessing our cookies. Being able to access our
cookies allows us to personalize our website and improve your experience at our
website. We may also include these graphics in HTML-formatted e-mail messages that
we send to determine which e-mail messages were opened.
When we might provide other parties with your personal information
If you give us your explicit consent to do so, we may share your personal information
with other marketers at unaffiliated companies. If you do not affirmatively consent
to this, we will not share your information with such other marketers.
We may provide your personal information to third parties who provide services on
our behalf. These parties may use the information solely in conjunction with the
specific services they provide for us (e.g., fulfillment of an order, responding
to your question or comment, providing a sweepstakes prize, deployment of a consumer
survey, investigation of a complaint, etc.). Some of these third parties may be
involved in administering or supplementing our databases and will need to have access
to the information in order to do so. For example, we may retain a third party to
verify the accuracy of information within our databases or to gather additional
information about individuals within our databases from commercially available sources.
We reserve the right to transfer any information we have about you in the event
that we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets to a third party.
We also reserve the right to share information within General Mills amongst our
various businesses.
We reserve the right to disclose any personal information as needed if such information
is requested by law enforcement agencies or if we are required to do so by law,
regulation, subpoena, court order, or by a government entity. We also may disclose
personal information to third parties if we have reason to believe that disclosing
such information is necessary to conduct investigations of possible breaches of
law or legal rights, to cooperate in any legal investigation, or to identify, contact,
or bring legal action against someone who may be violating the terms of use of our
site or any other terms applicable to any activity or feature of our site.
Security for credit card data and transaction information
At General Mills, we are committed to keeping your online transactions safe and
secure. In order to reasonably assure the privacy and security of your credit card
and other personal data when making an order, we use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
technology. SSL uses encryption technology to create a secure connection between
your computer and ours. We have also put procedures in place to safeguard the information/data
we collect from you. We cannot absolutely guarantee the security of any information
you provide online; you provide it at your own risk.
Links to other sites
Our site may contain links to the websites of our subsidiaries and affiliates, and
to websites that are owned and operated by third parties. These other websites may
have their own privacy policies and are not be governed by this Privacy Policy.
We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of websites owned
and operated by any such third parties. Other websites may collect and treat information
collected differently, so we encourage you to carefully read and review the privacy
policy for each website you visit.
User-generated content and public profile features
This site may, from time to time, contain interactive areas where site users might
submit comments or other content (including information about the user that might
be displayed in the user’s public profile within an online community) that may be
posted on the site or otherwise published. Users who do this should be aware that
when they voluntarily disclose personally identifiable information (e.g., name,
e-mail address, etc.) in content submitted for posting or publication, the information
can be read and used by others. This may result in unsolicited messages from other
posters or parties. We make no representations and undertake no obligations as to
the security or use of information you voluntarily include when submitting content.
Send-to-a-friend tools
This site may, from time to time, include a send-to-a-friend application that makes
it easy for you to forward information or materials from our site to friends or
family by e-mail. In order to address your e-mail message, the application may ask
you to input the recipient’s e-mail address and/or similar information (including
your e-mail address). This information is only used by the application to address
your message so that it can be properly sent. General Mills does not retain any
of this information for any purpose.
Children's privacy
This site is not directed to children and we will not request any information from
children under 13 at this site. General Mills does have other websites that are
geared in whole or in part to a child audience. Our commitment to the privacy of
children is described more fully in the privacy policies of those websites. General
Mills and its affiliated companies take special care to protect the privacy of children
under the age of 13. We have developed our privacy practices as they relate to children
from guidelines established by the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) and
in compliance with the requirements established by the Children’s Online Privacy
Protection Act of 1998 (“COPPA”). We also recommend that parents monitor their children’s
Internet activities and learn and employ software or other tools which can help
their children enjoy the fun and entertainment of an on-line experience without
compromising their personal safety or allowing them to use the Internet in a manner
inconsistent with their parents’ preferences.
United States only
This website is intended for use by residents of the United States of America only.
All matters relating to this site are governed by the laws of the State of Minnesota
in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States and you contact
us, please be advised that any information you provide to us will be transferred
to the United States and that by submitting information you explicitly authorize
this transfer and the processing of this information within the United States.
Changes in our online privacy policy
We reserve the right to change or replace this Privacy Policy at our sole discretion
at any time. Please check back from time to time to ensure that you are aware of
any updates or changes in this Privacy Policy. Unless stated otherwise, our current
Privacy Policy applies to all information gathered via this site.
Your consent to the terms of this privacy policy
By using this website, you signify your assent to all of the terms of this Privacy
Policy and this website's
Terms of Use. If you do not agree
with any term of this Privacy Policy or our
Terms of Use,
please do not use this site or submit any personally identifiable information.
How To Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or about our collection
or use of information, please
Contact Us. You may also
reach us by telephone at 1-800-248-7310 weekdays from 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Central
Time.