Privacy Policy
Effective Date: May 8th, 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:
- register as a user of our site or to post content to our site;
- agree to receive an online newsletter or other information or material from us;
- register for a sweepstakes, contest, or other promotion;
- register to receive coupons through our site;
- participate in a survey, a consumer research panel, or similar type of activity; or
- ask to receive an online newsletter or other information or material from us; or
- 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, or 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.
Your control over your information
You always have the right to review and update the information that you previously provided to us at this website. You may contact us as described immediately below in order to arrange this or to ask us to remove you from our list of email addresses to which we send email newsletters. All of our email newsletters also contain an “unsubscribe” link that you can click through to unsubscribe from future emails.
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.
