Hardware Connection Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how The Hardware Connection (“we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, stores, and shares information about you when you visit our website, subscribe to our publications, or use any of our services. It also describes your rights regarding your personal information and how you can exercise them.

This policy does not apply to the practices of third-party companies, websites, or services that we do not own or control.

Information We Collect

We collect personally identifiable information when you subscribe to The Hardware Connection, use our products or services, or visit our website or digital magazine issues. We may also receive information about you from our business partners.

When you sign up for a subscription, we collect:

• Company name
• Mailing address
• Email address
• Phone number
• Additional business-related information relevant to your subscription

We also collect certain information automatically when you visit our website, including device identifiers, browser type, IP address, pages visited, and browsing activity. This information is collected through cookies and third-party tracking technologies as described below.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Deliver our digital magazine, newsletters, product guides, and other hardware industry content to you
• Send marketing emails and promotional materials related to The Hardware Connection and our partners’ products and services
• Measure and analyze traffic and browsing activity on our site
• Show advertisements for partner products and services on third-party sites
• Measure and analyze the performance of our advertising campaigns
• Improve and personalize your experience with our services
• Maintain our suppression list to ensure we do not contact individuals who have unsubscribed

Legal Bases for Processing (GDPR) If you are located in the European Union or United Kingdom, our legal bases for processing your personal data are: your consent (where obtained at the point of subscription or opt-in), the performance of a contract with you (to fulfill your subscription), our legitimate interests (such as analytics, fraud prevention, and improving our services), and compliance with legal obligations.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell, rent, or loan your personal information to third parties for their own independent marketing purposes.

However, we do share certain data with trusted third-party partners to operate our advertising and analytics services. Specifically:

• NextRoll and Meta (Facebook): We may share hashed email addresses and other online identifiers collected on our site with these partners. This allows them to recognize your device across browsers and platforms and to deliver interest-based advertising on our behalf. These partners collect information about your activity on our site to help us measure ad performance and reach relevant audiences.

We may also disclose your information if required to do so by law, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our website. Cookies are small text files stored on your device that help us recognize you and understand how you use our site.

We use the following categories of cookies:

• Strictly Necessary Cookies: Required for the website to function properly. These cannot be disabled.
• Analytics Cookies: Used to measure and analyze traffic and user behavior on our site so we can improve content for our readers.
• Advertising/Targeting Cookies: Used by our third-party partners (NextRoll and Meta/Facebook) to deliver interest-based advertising and measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

Advertisers or other companies do not have access to our first-party cookies.

You can manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings. However, please note that some third-party tracking technologies used by our partners may not be controlled through browser cookie settings alone. See the Opting Out section below for additional options.

Opting Out of Interest-Based Advertising

Our partners (such as NextRoll and Meta/Facebook) may use non-cookie technologies that are not impacted by standard browser cookie settings. You can use the following industry opt-out tools to decline the collection and use of your information for interest-based advertising:

• NAI Opt-Out Platform: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/
• EDAA Opt-Out Platform: http://www.youronlinechoices.com/
• DAA Opt-Out Platform: http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2&lang=EN

For California residents and NextRoll specifically, please visit: https://www.nextroll.com/privacy#service-13

Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your subscription is active and indefinitely thereafter, unless you specifically request that we delete your data (see Your Rights below).

If you unsubscribe from The Hardware Connection, we will cease sending you communications. However, we retain your information in our records to maintain an accurate suppression list — this ensures we do not inadvertently contact you again in the future.

If you submit a deletion request, we will remove your personal information from our active systems within 30 days, except where we are required to retain certain records by law or for legitimate business purposes (such as billing records or legal compliance). Please note that residual data may persist in encrypted backup archives for a limited period before being purged.

Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right to Access: You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to Correction: You may request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Right to Deletion: You may request that we delete your personal information. See the Data Retention section above for how this applies to our suppression list.
• Right to Restrict Processing: You may request that we limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to Object: You may object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
• Right to Data Portability: You may request a copy of your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at craig@thehardwareconnection.com. We will respond to all requests within 30 days.

California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have specific rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

Categories of Personal Information We Collect:

• Identifiers (name, email address, mailing address, phone number, IP address, device identifiers)
• Commercial information (subscription records)
• Internet or electronic network activity (browsing activity on our site)
• Inferences drawn from the above (interests and preferences used for ad targeting)

Purposes for Collection: As described in the “How We Use Your Information” section above.

Categories of Third Parties with Whom We Share Information: Advertising technology partners (NextRoll, Meta/Facebook) as described in the “Information Sharing” section above.

Your California Rights:

• Right to Know: You may request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
• Right to Delete: You may request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale/Sharing: We do not sell your personal information in the traditional sense. However, sharing data with advertising partners for cross-context behavioral advertising may constitute “sharing” under CPRA. You may opt out of this by using the tools listed in the Opting Out section above.
• Right to Correct: You may request correction of inaccurate personal information.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your California privacy rights.

To submit a California privacy rights request, contact craig@thehardwareconnection.com.

Children’s Privacy

Our website and services are not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact craig@thehardwareconnection.com and we will promptly delete that information.

Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Your subscription information is transmitted using industry-standard SSL/TLS encryption. We also maintain internal access controls to limit who can access personal data.

No method of data transmission or storage is 100% secure. In the event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify affected users as required by applicable law and without undue delay.

International Data Transfers

Our services are operated in the United States. If you are located outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to and processed in the United States or other countries where our third-party partners (such as NextRoll and Meta/Facebook) operate. We rely on appropriate safeguards — such as Standard Contractual Clauses — where required by law for such transfers.

Subscription Cancellation

You may request cancellation of your subscription by emailing craig@thehardwareconnection.com. Upon cancellation, we will stop sending you subscription communications. As noted in the Data Retention section, we retain your contact information to maintain our suppression list unless you also submit a deletion request.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any material changes to how we collect, use, or share your personal information, we will notify you by both posting an updated policy on our website and sending a direct email notification to subscribers. The “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy will always reflect the most recent revision. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued use of our services after the effective date of any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

Email: craig@thehardwareconnection.com

Mail: Craig Cope, Publisher
The Hardware Connection 92300 Overseas Hwy, Unit 307, Tavernier, FL 33070

We will respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 30 days.

© The Hardware Connection. All rights reserved.