The following paragraphs describe the various purposes and features for which we might collect and use your information, and the different types of information that might be collected for each. Please note that not all of the uses listed below will be relevant to every customer.
Order fulfillment
We may collect and use your information to process and ship your orders, to inform you about the status of your orders, and to follow up with you about your satisfaction with the ordered products. Depending on how you make a purchase (e.g., online, in-store, call center, etc.), this could involve the collection and use of certain personal contact information, payment information, account login information, and/or information related to your purchase (such as products ordered). This could also involve the ongoing storage of your payment information to allow for easier checkout on future purchases.
Please note that there are many independent e-commerce sites that sell BE products but that are not controlled or operated by BE. Because these sites may have different privacy and security practices than we do, we recommend that you read their privacy policies before making any purchases on those sites.
Account maintenance
We may use your information to maintain your accounts with us, including administering any customer loyalty or rewards programs associated with such accounts (e.g., Friends and Benefits). This typically involves the use of the information that was originally collected to set up your account (e.g., personal contact information, payment information, account login information, demographic information, etc.).
Customer service
We may collect and use your information to provide you customer service, including responses to your inquiries. This typically requires the collection and use of certain personal contact information (such as your name, email address) and information regarding the reason for your inquiry (e.g., order status, technical issue, product question, general question, etc.). Customer service may be provided through various forms of communication, such as email correspondence and call center support.
Product improvement and customization
We may collect and use your information so we can constantly improve our products, tailor them to your needs, and come up with new product ideas. This mostly involves the collection and use of demographic information and customer feedback.
Personalized product recommendations
We may use your information to provide you with BE product recommendations, offers, and rewards that are tailored to your interests and profile (for example, as part of our Friends and Benefits Program). This mostly involves the use of your previous order history (including online, boutique, and call center purchases), as well as certain demographic information (such as your favorite look, unique facial attributes, birth date, etc.).
Contests and Promotions
We may collect and use your information to administer a contest, sweepstakes, giveaway, competition, or other similar marketing campaign or promotion. These events typically require the collection and use of personal contact information (for prize fulfillment), limited demographic information (for eligibility), and, in some cases, customer-generated content. Some promotions with customer-generated content or a social networking component will be run on third party social networks such as Facebook (e.g., on BE’s Facebook fan page or application). To comply with sweepstakes laws, we may publish or share limited information about promotion winners (such as name and city of residence). For more information about our contests and other promotions, please see the official rules or details posted with each promotion.
Marketing Communications
We may collect and use your information to send you marketing communications, such as email communications, mobile messages (including text and/or push notifications), and postal mailings. These communications may inform you about new products, store events, special discounts and coupons, beauty tips, and other news and special offers. On occasion, these communications may also contain information or offers about third party products.
Sending you marketing communications mostly requires the collection and use of certain personal contact information and/or demographic information. In some instances (such as for mobile messages), this may involve the use of technical information or precise geo-location information obtained from your mobile device. This allows us to send you messages directly to your mobile device, including offers and coupons based on your location.
You can always opt-out from receiving marketing communications either by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in each such communications or by updating your device settings for mobile messages. If you have an online account with us (e.g., Friends and Benefits account, Club/Auto-Renewal account, Shopping/Community account, etc.), you may be given the option to change some of your communication preferences under the relevant “My Account” section of our site or by calling Customer Service. Please note that even if you opt out from receiving marketing communications, you may still receive other communications from us, such as order confirmations, notifications about account activities (e.g., account confirmations, password changes, website community postings, etc.), and other important announcements (e.g., product recalls, privacy policy changes, etc.).
Website personalization and convenience
We may collect and use your information to personalize your experience and save you time when you visit our websites and applications. This is typically done through the use of automated technologies (such as cookies) that collect and remember certain account login information, technical information, and/or previous website usage information. For example, we might remember your login ID or username so you can quickly login the next time you visit our site or so you can easily retrieve the items you previously placed in your shopping cart. Based on this type of information, we might also show you specific BE content or offers that are more relevant to your interests.
Website community features
We may collect and use your information to give you access to our website community features, such as features that may allow you to upload and share ratings, reviews, questions/answers, stories, pictures, videos, or other content. This typically involves the collection, use, and (in some instances) public display of certain personal contact information, account login information, demographic information, and/or customer-generated content. Because these types of features are “communal” in nature, information you post in these areas may be visible to others. Please use caution when using these features or uploading content to a BE site or application. For some community features, you may have the ability to control whether some parts of your profile can be seen by others and whether we send you notifications about certain community activities (like the fact that one of your questions has been answered). To access these settings, go to the “My Account” section of our site and login to the relevant community account. For community features that are integrated with third party social networks such as Facebook, see separate paragraph on “Third party social networking” below.
Website viral features (e.g., tell-a-friend)
We may request and use your information so you can use our website viral features, such as tell-a-friend. These features allow you to easily share certain Bare Escentuals’ news, product information, promotions, wish list items, or other content with family members and friends. These features typically require the collection and use of certain personal contact information (such as email addresses and names) so that the selected message or content can be delivered to the proper recipients. In some instances, this information may be stored in our records so we can track and reward our customers for their referrals. For tell-a-friend or other viral features offered by third party social networks (such as Facebook “Share” and “Like” features), see separate paragraph on “Third party social networking” below.
Third party social networking
We may collect and use your information when you interact with third party social networking features, such as Facebook Connect, Facebook Like, Pinterest, and Instagram. These tools may be embedded into our sites or applications for the purpose of running contests, allowing you to share content (such as beauty tips, articles, stories, etc.), allowing you to sign up for certain BE accounts, or for other stated purposes. If you use these tools, we may have the ability to obtain certain information about you from your social networking profile (see “Social network information” under Section 2). You can learn more about how these features work, and the profile data we may obtain about you, by visiting the website of the relevant third party social network.
Third party online advertising
We may allow third party ad networks to collect and use your information to show you targeted ads (including Bare Escentuals’ ads) on our sites or on other sites. Some of these ads may entice you to come back and revisit our site for new offers and promotions. This type of advertising typically involves an ad network collecting and tracking certain technical information (such as your IP address) and website usage information (such as your browsing history) on our sites and across many other sites on the Internet. This does not involve the collection, use, or sharing of your personal contact information, such as your name or email address. You can opt-out from this type of third party tracking at any time by going to: https://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.
Other general purposes (e.g., website security, internal research)
We may collect and use your information for other general business purposes, such as to maintain the day-to-day operation and security of our websites and applications and to conduct internal marketing and demographic studies. These activities mostly require the collection and use of certain personal information, demographic information, technical computer information, website usage information, and customer feedback.