Costco Wholesale Korea, Ltd.
Privacy Policy
March 2010
This privacy policy explains the privacy practices of Costco Wholesale Korea, Ltd. (“Costco Korea” or “we”) for those who: (1) visit or purchase from our Costco warehouses in Korea, (2) use our website, www.costco.co.kr, or (3) otherwise provide information to Costco Korea.
Costco's Commitment to Privacy We respect your right to privacy.Your ability to make informed choices about the uses of your information is important to us.This privacy policy explains our policy regarding the collection, use, disclosure and protection of personal information. The terms of this privacy policy apply to personal information collected from you.These terms apply unless otherwise specified.
This privacy policy applies to both members and non-members who provide Costco Korea with personal information.Costco Korea treats non-member information in the same manner and under the same policy stipulated below.
See below for more detailed information about our privacy practices:
A. What is Personal Information? B. Collection of Personal Information 1. Items of Personal Information to be Collected 2. Purpose of Collection and Use of Personal Information 3. Collection of Personal Information C. Retention and Use Period for Collected Personal Information D. Entrustment of handling Personal Information for Order Fulfillment etc. 1. Authorized Service Providers 2. Services to be Entrusted 3. Items Disclosed to Service Providers E. Provision of Personal Information to Third Parties 1. Authorized Third Parties 2. Third Parties’ Use of Personal Information 3. Items of Information to be Provided 4. Retention and Use Period F. Other Uses and Disclosures G. Method and Process of Disposal of Personal Information H. Installation, Management and Refusal of Automatic Information Collection I. Withdrawal of Consent, Inspection, Requests for Correction and the Rights of Attorney-In-Fact J. Privacy Officers K. Changes to this Policy A. What is Personal Information? Personal information is information that relates to living individuals and which can be used to identify specific individuals by name, date of birth, or other description (including that which can be easily compared with other information and thereby used to identify specific individuals). Personal information also includes information such as the information for processing of Member Services (see Section D.2. Services to be Entrusted, and E.2. Third Parties’ Use of Personal Information) when you use those services.As a convenience to our members, we allow the primary cardholder to add his/her household members or others to membership.In all circumstances, reference in this policy statement to "you" or "your" also includes your household members and the others added-on to your membership by you.Reference in this policy to "information you provide" includes information provided by you, your household members or others added on.
Our definition of personal information does not include "aggregate" information. Aggregate information is data we collect concerning a group or category of products, services or customers, from which individual identities have been removed. In other words, information about how you use a service may be collected and combined with information about how others use the same service, but no personal information will be included in the resulting data. Likewise, information about the products you purchase may be collected and combined with information about the products purchased by others. Aggregate data helps us understand trends and costumer needs so that we can better consider new products and services, and tailor existing products and services to customer desires.
B. Collection of Personal Information 1. Items of Personal Information to be collected To become a member you need to provide us the following:
- Name
- Address
- E-mail address
- Telephone number
- Personal Identification Number (Resident Registration Number, Driver’s License Number, Passport Number)
- Business category
- For Business Member :
- Company name
- Company address
- Business Registration number
- Business Type
- Business Contents
2. Purpose of Collection and Use of Personal Information The personal information we collect is mainly collected and used to process your requests or transactions, provide you with high-quality service, tell you about opportunities we think will be of interest, and understand your needs so that we can serve you better.For example, we may use your telephone number, your email or your postal address to: (1) alert you about product recalls or safety issues; or (2) communicate membership opportunities and programs.We also may use personal information we collect to provide you with promotional information, which is information we believe will add value to your membership, such as coupon savings booklets, promotions, or information about Member Services ("Promotional Information").
3. Collection of Personal Information We collect the personal information that you provide us, such as when you:
- sign up for or renew your Costco membership;
- place an order or purchase products or services at our warehouse locations by telephone, mail or facsimile;
- contact us for any reason, such as by replying to inquiries by mail, fax or through our website, by telephone through customer service, or in person at one of our locations or promotional events;
- sign up for or participate in our various Member Services (see Section D.2. on Provided Services and E.2. Third Parties’ Use of Personal Information); or
- visit or shop at Costco Korea as a member or non-member.
We also receive information from third parties who provide Member Services or special promotions or products (see Section D.2. on Provided Services and E.2. Third Parties’ Use of Personal Information) and we may combine this information with the other personal information we maintain about you. In either case, this policy statement governs this information. Unless Costco Korea obtains the member’s consent or collection of certain personal information is explicitly allowed under another law, Costco Korea does not collect personal information that is likely to significantly violate a person’s rights or privacy including information on ideals, beliefs, medical history etc. Whenever Costco Korea collects personal information, it will do so minimally and will not refuse service for not providing personal information beyond the basic minimum amount.
C. Retention and Use Period for Collected Personal Information Our main policy is to dispose of personal information once the purpose for its collection and use has been fulfilled.The period of use for personal information is “from date of membership subscription to date of termination of membership,” and the period of possession is “from date of membership subscription to 5 years (according to relevant commercial and tax laws) from date of termination of membership.”
D. Entrustment of Handling Personal Information for Order Fulfillment etc. We do not sell, rent, share or disclose personal information to parties other than the Service Providers described herein without your prior consent, except in the limited circumstances described below:
1. Authorized Service Providers
- DM (Direct Mail) Vendor: Samil M&C, Dongwha P&M, MiraeEPost, Design BQ
- ASP vendor of e-tax invoice issuing: LG Dacom
- Vendors for delivery requests or kiosk special order
2. Services to be Entrusted We offer special products and services to our members that are provided by third parties.We may provide your name, postal address, email address and membership status, number and type ("Member Information") to these third parties in order to notify you of the special products and services they offer, to determine whether you qualify for such products or services, and to evaluate new and existing products or services.
However, if you apply for or request certain products or services, information you provide will be shared directly with the third parties who will be providing the requested products or services.
We may provide to a third party the information that is necessary to fulfill an order you have placed with us. For example, if you request shipment for a purchase, we may provide your address to the shipping carrier, or we may also provide your address to the necessary mailing agencies to provide you with information on product recalls or Promotional Information which we believe will add value to your membership. To issue e-tax invoice, we may provide tax invoice information to the ASP vendor of e-tax invoice issuing. However, we give suppliers, and others involved in the commerce distribution chain only the information needed to provide you the products or services you order, such as shipping and/or billing address, email address, telephone number and product orders. Moreover, we require them to keep the information confidential and not to use it for other purposes. We are not responsible for any additional information you provide directly to these parties, and we encourage you to become familiar with their privacy policies before disclosing information directly to them.
3. Items Disclosed to Service Providers
- Name
- Address
- Telephone No.
- Email Address
- Membership Information (Membershio No., Status and Type)
E. Provision of Personal Information to Third Parties We do not sell, rent, share or disclose personal information to third parties without your prior consent, except in the limited circumstances described below:
1. Authorized Third Parties 2. Third Parties Use of Personal Information (1) Samsung Card If you apply for a Samsung Card through us, we will provide Samsung Card with all of the information you provide on the application and membership information. If you pay for your purchases by a credit card, your card number and sales transaction information may be passed on to the card processor and/or issuer.
These third parties are required not to use personal information we provide for any purposes other than providing the requested services.We are not responsible for any additional information you provide directly to these parties, and we encourage you to become familiar with their privacy and security practices and policies before disclosing information to them.If you provide additional information to third parties, they, subject to applicable laws and their privacy policies, may share with us the information you provided and information about your use of the services.If we terminate our relationship with a third party, information you provided to them may be returned to us, and we may provide that information to a new third party offering the same or similar services.
(2) Foreign Affiliates and Branch Offices of Costco Group We may provide personal information to our affiliates and branch offices to the extent reasonably necessary to achieve the purposes of use as described above.
3. Items of Information to be Provided
- Samsung Card
- Name
- Address
- Personal Identification No. (Resident Registration No., Driver’s License No., Passport No.)
- Telephone No.
- Date of Issuance of Resident Registration Card
- Bank Account No., Name of Owner and Bank Name
- Foreign Affiliates and Branch Offices of Costco Group
- Membership Information (Member Name, Number, Status and Type)
4. Retention and Use Period
Our main policy is to dispose of personal information once the purpose for its collection and use has been fulfilled.
F.
Other Uses and Disclosures In addition, we may use or disclose personal information when we are lawfully authorized to do so, to comply with legal process or authorities, to protect the rights, property or personal safety of us, our members, our employees or the public, or in the good faith belief that we are required under relevant laws and regulations to do so.Information about our members, including personal information, may be disclosed or transferred as part of, or during negotiations of, any merger or sale of company assets or acquisition. Personal information can be transferred under relevant laws and regulations when and if rights and obligations of our business are assigned, merged or inherited.
G. Method and Process of Disposal of Personal Information
We safely manage your information, and dispose personal information in the following method to prevent any leaks.
- Personal information printed on paper is shredded or burned.
- Digital information is deleted with non-recoverable technology.
H. Installation, Management and Refusal of Automatic Information Collection We may automatically collect some information when you visit our website, such as your computer's network address and operating system, the site from which you linked to us and the time and date of your visit.This information is used only for the collection of aggregate information.This information may be collected through the use of "cookies," which are small files that are stored on your computer. We use cookies to help optimize your shopping experience. We do not store in cookies any personal information.You may refuse automatic collection of information through cookies by changing the setup options on your web browsers.Such actions will not interfere with any services provided by us.
We maintain safety measures to protect your information from loss, misuse or contamination.The information we collect may be digitally saved and combined with the information of other members.We constantly strive to protect your information from any unauthorized access through technological, contractual, administrative and physical measures.
I. Withdrawal of Consent, Inspection, Requests for Correction and the Rights of Attorney-In-Fact
- You can withdraw your consent to collection and use of personal information or for supply of the same to third parties that may significantly infringe upon the personal rights to privacy at any time through e-mail or mail to our Privacy Officers (see J. Privacy Officers below).
- You can request an opportunity to inspect or use its own personal information or see information provided to third parties by contacting the Privacy Officers through e-mail or mail.If the member’s personal information contains any error, the member may request corrections to be made.In order to confirm the identity of the member making the request (or its Attorney-in-fact), we may request presentation of resident registration card, driver’s license, passport or any other picture identification card along with Costco membership card.If the member refuses to provide such proof, we may refuse to allow use, inspection of information provided to third parties or reject request for corrections.
- We shall obtain the consent of the Attorney-in-fact when it wishes to collect, use or supply personal information of children under the age of 14.We may request the child for information on the name of the Attorney-in-fact in order to obtain consent of such Attorney-in-fact.In such a case, the Attorney-in-fact may withdraw its consent or request correction of errors in personal information through e-mail or mail to our Privacy Officers (see J. Privacy Officers below).
J. Privacy Officers
If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy or would like to contact us for any reason, please contact our Privacy Protection Representatives.
<Privacy Officer>
Name : O.Y. Ahn
Department/Job title : MIS/Vice President
<Contact person>
Name : Sungwon Pae
Department/Job title : Marketing/Manager
Telephone : 82-2-2630-2700
E-mail : member@costcokr.com
Address : 65, 3-Ga, Yangpyung-dong, Youngdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea
K. Changes to this Policy
We reserve the right to change this privacy statement at any time.We will alert you of any additions, deletions or revisions by indicating the last update at the top of the privacy policy, and disclosing them on our website immediately according to the relevant laws.Such changes will come to effect of the date of such post. We encourage you to review our privacy policy to make sure you understand how information you provide will be used. If there is ever a material change to how we use information you provide and the new uses are unrelated to uses we disclose in this policy, we will communicate the changes in advance. |
