The Republic of Tea Privacy Policy

What We Collect

If you opt in to receive SMS or MMS from us, we will send you information about promotional offers and reminders about your cart. We may use information collected based on your actions while on our sites and may send messages such as cart abandon messages by using cookies.

If you choose to send a product to a different recipient, we will also collect that person's name, shipping address, phone number, and email address. We store this information for the sole purpose of completing your order and will not use this collected third party information for any other purpose. That different recipient may contact us at citizenhelp@republicoftea.com , or any of the other methods provided in this Privacy Policy, to request that we remove this information from our database, unless we are required to keep it for regulatory or safety purposes.

Information Sharing

We will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy. We will not share your information with third parties for a purpose that is materially different from the original purpose(s) without your consent.

We will not share your opt-in to an SMS campaign with any third party for purposes unrelated to providing you with the services of that campaign. We may share your Personal Data, including your SMS opt-in or consent status, with third parties that help us provide our messaging services, including but not limited to platform providers, phone companies, and any other vendors who assist us in the delivery of text messages.

We may provide your personal information to companies that provide services to help us with our business activities such as shipping your order or offering customer service. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us. We share personal information with third party marketing partners for commercial purposes. You may request that your personal data not be shared with third parties by emailing Customer Support at citizenhelp@republicoftea.com.

How does The Republic of Tea safeguard my personal information?

The Republic of Tea has implemented a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information. The Republic of Tea has implemented internal policies and controls to restrict access to your information to employees who have special secured access rights. When you place orders or access your personal information, your session will take place on a server utilizing security access controls. All sensitive/credit information supplied by you is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and securely stored in The Republic of Tea's database. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure.. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our Website, you can contact us at citizenhelp@republicoftea.com.

Security

Our Website is secured by Digicert.

Does The Republic of Tea provide a way to update or remove personal information?

Upon request, The Republic of Tea will provide you with information about whether we hold, or process on behalf of a third party, any of your personal information. The Republic of Tea provides a "My Account" feature on our Website that allows you to modify, delete, and/or restrict the use of your personal information. This page can be accessed by clicking the “My Account” link at the top and bottom of every page on the Site, by emailing our Customer Support at citizenhelp@republicoftea.com or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below. We will respond to your request to access within 10 business days. For information regarding further rights related to California, EU/EEA, or UK residents see the additional sections below.

How does The Republic of Tea use my email address?

Your e-mail address is used to create and identify your account on The Republic of Tea Website. Your e-mail address is also used by The Republic of Tea to correspond with you about any orders that you may place or to notify you with the results of any contests you may have entered. We may also use your e-mail address to notify you about important functionality changes to the Website, new tea products and special offers or promo code coupons that we think you'll find valuable.

If you would rather not receive this information, or would like to opt-out of receiving email of this kind, simply click on the "Unsubscribe" link that appears at the bottom of any email and follow the simple instructions to have your email address removed from the list of Citizens who receive notices of new functionality, services, special offers, newsletters, and promotions. You may also unsubscribe from this kind of email by visiting our unsubscribe page and entering your email address.

Tracking Technologies

We, The Republic of Tea and our partners, use technologies such as cookies or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the Website, track and record Citizens' movements, behaviors, and devices around the Website, and to gather demographic information about our Citizen base as a whole. Citizens can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. Please note that if you choose to disable cookies, it may limit your use of certain features or functions on our Website. We use third parties to improve our ability to identify visitors to our Website. As part of this service, we may make available identifiers to these third parties including our visitors' IP addresses, cookies, hashed versions of email addresses, and/or certain HTTP header fields captured from your visit. We, and third parties, use this information to obtain more information about our visitors and reach out to them through other channels, such as email, direct mail, sms, mms, digital, and/or other marketing channels. You have the right to opt-out of this activity. To opt-out, please email Citizen Services citizenhelp@republicoftea.com.

The Republic of Tea uses cookies to help keep track of items you put into your shopping cart including when you have abandoned your cart and this information is used to determine when to send cart reminder messages via SMS.

The Republic of Tea uses a number of analytics tools for the purposes of marketing and improving the services. Be advised that choosing to opt-out may impact your ability to use some of the services where those tools are directly necessary for said services. Below is a list of general opt out tools which can opt you out of a wide variety of tracking and behavioral targeting across the internet, and an additional list of specific opt out tools certain companies offer for their own tracking, such as Google, Hotjar, LS Direct, and Facebook.

Log Files

Behavioral Targeting/Retargeting

Widgets

Links to 3rd Party Sites

Blogs

How can you remove your name from our direct mail or email list?

How to Unsubscribe from The Republic of Tea's Direct Mail (Physical Mail) Program:

How to Unsubscribe from The Republic of Tea's SMS Text Messages:

Data Retention

Legal

Children's Privacy

Compliance With California Online Privacy Protection Act.

Compliance With California “Shine the Light” Law.

Rights Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”)

You may request that we disclose to you the following information covering the preceding 12 months:

Right to Know Requests

Right to Delete Requests

Right to Opt-Out Requests

Authorized Agents

Republic of Tea Personal Information Collection Practices

In the preceding 12 months, we have sold the following categories of personal information about California residents to the following categories of third parties

In the preceding 12 months, we have disclosed for a business purpose the following categories of personal information about California residents to the following categories of third parties (to the extent the disclosure was made to a third party).

We will not discriminate against you because you exercised any of your rights under this section, including, but not limited to, by:

• Denying goods or services to you;
• Charging different prices or rates for goods or services, including through the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties;
• Providing a different level or quality of goods or services to you; or
• Suggesting that you will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

However, we may charge you a different price or rate, or provide a different level or quality of goods or services, if that difference is reasonably related to the value provided to us by your data. In addition, we may offer financial incentives, including payments to you as compensation, for the collection of personal information, the sale of personal information, or the deletion of personal information. We will notify you of such financial incentives. We will enter you into a financial incentive program only if you give us prior opt-in consent which clearly describes the material terms of the financial incentive program, and which may be revoked by you at any time. We will not use financial incentive practices that are unjust, unreasonable, coercive, or usurious in nature.

Rights of EEA/EU and UK Residents

The Republic of Tea respects the privacy rights of EU and UK residents, and has several processes in place to address those rights. This section will outline your rights and The Republic of Tea’s practices and policies related to those rights. To see a list of what personal data we collect, how we collect it, and how we use it, please see the chart above.

First and foremost, The Republic of Tea complies with the provisions and requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), and will comply with UK GDPR as it continues to develop.
We process your data according to the principles of GDPR Article 5:

• Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency;
• Limitation of processing to legitimate purposes;
• Data minimization;
• Accuracy;
• Limitation on time period of storage;
• Integrity and confidentiality.

Second, with respect to international data transfers subject to GDPR, The Republic of Tea does have some limited situations where data is transferred internationally. This usually arises where an international Citizen purchases products from us. In those situations, The Republic of Tea complies[comply] with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Republic of Tea has[have] certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (EU-U.S. DPF Principles) with regard to the processing of personal data received from the European Union in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the EU-U.S. DPF Principles, the Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) program, and to view our certification, please visit Data Privacy Framework.

The Republic of Tea is responsible for the processing of personal data it receives, under the EU-U.S. DPF, and subsequent transfers to a third party acting as an agent on its behalf. The Republic of Tea complies with the EU-U.S. DPF Principles for all onward transfers of personal data from the EU, including the onward transfer liability provisions, and performs those transfers subject to additional Safeguards as appropriate.

With respect to personal data received or transferred pursuant to the Data Privacy Framework, The Republic of Tea is subject to the regulatory enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. In certain situations, The Republic of Tea may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. In compliance with the EU-U.S. DPF, The Republic of Tea commits [commit] to refer unresolved complaints concerning our handling of personal data received in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF to TRUSTe, an alternative dispute resolution provider based in the United States. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your DPF Principles-related complaint from us, or if we have not addressed your DPF Principles-related complaint to your satisfaction, please visit https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request for more information or to file a complaint. These dispute resolution services are provided at no cost to you. For complaints regarding EU-U.S. DPF compliance not resolved by any of the other DPF mechanisms, you have the possibility, under certain conditions, to invoke binding arbitration. Further information can be found on the official DPF website: https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/s/article/ANNEX-I-introduction-dpf?tabset-35584=2

Finally, The Republic of Tea does not engage in automated decision making or profiling in relation to the personal data it collects and/or processes.

The Republic of Tea would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Citizens who reside in the EEA/EU or UK have the legal right to request the following:

• The right to access - You have the right to request The Republic of Tea for copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
• The right to rectification - You have the right to request that The Republic of Tea correct any personal information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request The Republic of Tea to complete the personal information you believe is incomplete.
• The right to restrict processing - You have the right to request that The Republic of Tea erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to object to processing - You have the right to object to The Republic of Tea’s processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to data portability - You have the right to request that The Republic of Tea transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you want to exercise any of your rights, or have any questions or concerns about how we process your data, you can contact us at citizenhelp@republicoftea.com, and we will address your requests and concerns in compliance with the applicable privacy laws. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Legal Basis

Where The Republic of Tea processes your data, it does so on a number of legal bases. Depending on the type of information processed, our basis for processing can include:

Where The Republic of Tea processes your data, it does so on a number of legal bases. Depending on the type of information processed, our basis for processing can include: (1) your consent; (2) where necessary to perform a contract with you such as the sale of tea; (3) where necessary for legal compliance purposes; (4) where such processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of you or another person; (5) where the processing is necessary to carry out a task of public interest; and (6) where the legitimate interests of The Republic of Tea or a third party allow it.

The vast majority of the processing done by The Republic of Tea is done for the purpose of fulfilling a contract to deliver products to our Citizens, by the consent of our Citizens, and/or to fulfill legal obligations (such as keeping records in case of a product recall).

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at citizenhelp@republicoftea.com.

You have the right to complain to your local data protection authority if you are unhappy with our privacy practices.

1) number of CCPA requests received; 3 2) number of requests complied with in whole or in part; 3 3) number of requests denied; 0. 4) median or mean number of days to respond to requests: 1.

Contact Information