Privacy Policy

Last updated October 3, 2019

This policy describes the personal information Country Life Vitamins, LLC and our brands, which include but are not limited to Country Life Vitamins, Biochem Protein, Desert Essence (collectively, ” Country Life Vitamins, LLC “) collect about you, why we collect it, how we use it, and when we share it with third parties.

I. INFORMATION COLLECTED

Country Life Vitamins obtains the following types of information about you, via our Online Services and through our service providers, including our advertising partners. When you use the Online Services, you may be asked to provide certain personal information. For example, if you subscribe to a mailing list participate in special offers, sweepstakes or other promotions send questions or comments to us via email; post User Content on the Online Services, our Facebook page or other social media sites; purchase products via the Online Services; or otherwise submit information to us through our Online Services, we will collect personal information which may be used to fulfill your order and for other purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy.

In order to use some features provided through the Online Services, you may submit personal information about other individuals. For example, emailing an article from the Online Services or providing product information to a friend requires an email address, and completing a purchase sent directly to a friend requires a name and address. Country Life Vitamins will use and store this information for such purposes as to fulfill your request or order, marketing, and other purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Information Obtained from Job Applicants

In connection with a job inquiry or application on our careers pages, you may provide login credentials; information regarding your work authorization status and citizenship, education history, employment history and professional designations; and other information about your qualifications and work-related skills. We also may obtain information regarding your political contributions, and government-issued identification numbers. In addition, where legally permissible, you may provide information regarding your gender, race and ethnicity, and your veteran and disability status.

By submitting job application to us online, you are sending your personal data to the United States, where the data will be subject to the protections afforded under United States, which may be different from the laws in your country and may be considered not sufficient in your country. If you do not agree that your job application be governed under the laws of United States, we cannot accept your application.

Information Obtained from Social Media and Other Third Parties

If you register for an account with or otherwise use the Online Services through Facebook Connect or another social media website or mobile app, or use the third-party social media features through the Online Services (such as apps, tools, payment services, widgets and plug-ins) we also may receive certain personal information from these social media platforms, such as social media handles, content and other data provided.

We may collect or purchase demographic information (such as gender or age) or information about your interests and preferences from third parties. If we link any demographic or preferences information to the personal information you provide us, we will treat such linked information as personal information under this Privacy Policy.

Information Obtained by Automated Means


Online Activity Information. We may collect your IP address, Internet service provider, browser type and language, referring and exit pages and URLs, date and time, amount of time spent on particular pages and sections of the Online Services, number of links you click while using the Online Services, search terms, operating system, website traffic and related statistics, keywords and other data about your device and use of our Online Services.

Geolocation Information. We may collect information regarding your location (e.g., by IP address, latitude/longitude, or zip code) when you use the Online Services. In order to provide certain Online Services, we may, with your consent, collect information about precise geolocation from your mobile device, wireless carrier or third-party service providers. Your mobile device also may permit you to turn off the location services. Please note that if you decline to allow the Online Services to collect your precise geolocation, you may not be able to use all of the Online Services’ features or the offers available through the Online Services.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies. When you use the Online Services, cookies or other tracking technologies may be placed on your devices. A “cookie” is a small amount of information that a web server sends to your device to uniquely identify your browser. We may use cookies to collect information about your account, preferences and use of the Online Services. Cookies allow us to recognize you when you return to use the Online Services and track and target your interests in order to provide a customized experience. They also help us to detect certain kinds of fraud. We use cookies to store preferences; record session information; record user-specific information on what pages are accessed or visited; alert you to new areas and features of the Online Services; customize web page content, services and advertisements based on browser type or other information that the tracking technologies provide; and for other purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

“Session” cookies are temporary cookies used for various reasons, such as managing page views and your shopping cart. Typically, your browser will erase session cookies once you exit the browser. “Persistent” cookies are more permanent cookies that are stored on your computer or mobile device after you exit the browser. Persistent cookies allow us to retrieve certain information that you have previously provided to us (e.g., your user ID if you ask to be remembered). The Online Services may use both session and persistent cookies.

The Online Services may also use “tracer tags,” which are tiny graphic images placed on the Online Services or in our emails that allow us to determine whether you have performed certain actions. When you access these pages or open email messages, the tags generate a notice of that action to us or our service providers. These tools allow us to measure response to our communications and improve our web pages and promotions.

Country Life Vitamins has relationships with third party advertising companies to place advertisements on this website and other websites, and to perform tracking and reporting functions for this website and other websites. These third party advertising companies may place cookies on your computer when you visit our website or other websites so that they can display targeted advertisements to you. These third party advertising companies may collect Personal Data in this process. However, these collections are independent from Country Life Vitamins and are covered by these companies’ own privacy policy. We do not give any Personal Data to them as part of this process. This Privacy Policy does not cover the collection methods or use of the data collected by these third party advertising companies. For more information about third party advertising, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) at www.networkadvertising.org.

You may manage, block or delete cookies and other tracking technologies by adjusting your browser’s security and privacy settings but, if you do so, you may not be able to use particular features of the Online Services. The Online Services are not designed to respond to “do not track” signals received from browsers. Back to Top

II. HOW YOUR INFORMATION IS USED

We may use your personal information in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy. We may use the personal information we obtain about you to:

  • process and fulfill orders and purchases via the Online Services and keep you informed about the status of your order;
  • operate, administer, evaluate, develop, manage and improve our business and the Online Services (including operating, administering, analyzing and improving our products, services and Online Services; developing new products and services; managing and evaluating the effectiveness of our communications; performing accounting, auditing, billing reconciliation and collection activities and other internal functions);
  • establish and manage your account;
  • identify and authenticate you so you may order our products and access and use the Online Services;
  • provide customer and technical support and respond to inquiries;
  • upload User Content that may include your personal information;
    communicate with you by email, telephone, postal mail or through other methods regarding news updates, notices, special promotional offers, advertisements and marketing materials, our products and services, or other information which may be of interest to you;
  • communicate about, and administer participation in, special events, programs, promotions, offers, surveys, focus groups and market research;
  • perform data analytics (including market research, trend analysis, financial analysis, and anonymization and aggregation of personal information);
  • manage career opportunities, including for recruitment purposes, employee onboarding and other Human Resources purposes;
  • increase and maintain the safety and security of our products and the Online Services and prevent misuse;
    notify you about product safety and recall information, such as reporting adverse event, communicating product recall;
  • protect against, identify and prevent fraud and other criminal activity, claims and other liabilities; and
    comply with and enforce applicable legal requirements and relevant industry standards and policies, such as this Online Privacy Notice and our Terms of Use.

We also may use the information we collect about you in other ways for which we provide specific notice at the time of collection and obtain your consent if required by applicable law.

If you wish to opt-out of receiving promotional communications from us at any time, simply follow the “Opt-Out” instructions in this Privacy Policy.

Country Life Vitamins may link or combine your personal information with other information (such as transaction history) that is available from our records and other sources. We may use this combined information for purposes such as marketing and advertising programs; to enforce the Online Services’ policies; to protect the Online Services, our customers and others; to comply with applicable law; and for other purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

  • Third-Party Analytics Services

We may use third-party web analytics services in connection with the Online Services, such as Google Analytics and other analytics providers. These service providers use automated technologies to collect data (such as IP addresses) to evaluate use of the Sites. To learn more about Google Analytics’ privacy practices, please visit https://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/learn/privacy.html.

III. HOW YOUR INFORMATION IS SHARED

Country Life Vitamins may share your personal information with third parties under the following circumstances:
Affiliates and Subsidiaries
We may share your information with any of our parent companies, subsidiaries, or other companies under common control with us.

Service Providers

When we engage a service provider to perform certain business-related functions, we provide them only with the information that they need to perform their specific function. We do not authorize our service providers to use or disclose the information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or comply with legal requirements.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required to do so by law, or in the good faith belief that such action or disclosure is necessary or appropriate to (i) operate the Online Services, (ii) comply with any legal obligation, report unlawful activity, cooperate with law enforcement, or protect against legal liability, (iii) protect and defend our legal rights, property, personnel, suppliers, sponsors, agents or licensors, or (iv) protect the personal safety of users of the Online Services or the public.

Business Transfers

We reserve the right to transfer any information we have about you in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a corporate sale, asset sale, merger, acquisition, reorganization, joint venture, divestiture, dissolution, liquidation or similar event).

Third-Party Marketers

Country Life Vitamins may disclose your personal information to third-party marketers (who may combine such personal information with their own records, and records available from other sources), for their own direct marketing purposes, and the direct marketing purposes of other third-party marketers. If you wish to opt-out of sharing your personal information with third-party marketers for their own and third-party direct marketing purposes, please unsubscribe by emailing ConsumerAffairs@CountryLifeVitamins.com.

IV. ADVERTISING

The Country Life Vitamins may directly, or indirectly through service providers, serve personalized advertisements for Country Life Vitamins products, services and programs when you use the Online Services and other sites. Country Life Vitamins and our service providers may use your personal information collected during your use of the Online Services to select advertisements, perform cookie syncs, and otherwise combine and compare your information with other databases for Country Life Vitamins commercial purposes. You may opt-out of the tailoring of advertising based on information we obtain. To learn more about the use of your information, or to choose to not have your information used by our third-party advertising partners, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices,www.networkadvertising.org/choices/and http://preferences-mgr.truste.com/. In the European Union, please visit http://www.youronlinechoices.eu

V. OPT-OUT

You may opt out of receiving promotional emails from us regarding new products and special offers when registering for an account by unchecking the box that asks whether you would like to receive email updates.

  • You may unsubscribe from receiving promotional emails at any time by using the Unsubscribe link on the bottom of the email, or updating your communication preferences in the “account” section of our website..
  • When you receive a promotional email from Country Life Vitamins , it may contain a link that allows you to unsubscribe. If you decide to use this opt-out link, you may no longer receive special offers, new product introductions, coupons and email newsletters from The Country Life Vitamins via email or direct mail; however, you will continue to receive non-promotional emails and direct mail from us, such as order confirmations.
  • You may also opt-out from promotional emails from us by calling Customer Care at 800.645.5768 and advising an associate that you wish to opt-out.

VI. SECURITY

We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure or use. When creating an account with the Online Services, you are required to establish a password. We recommend that you not disclose your password to any other person. You are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your password and account information, and for all activities that occur under your password or account.

VII. ACCESS AND CORRECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

As required by law, you may (1) have the right to access certain personal information we maintain about you; (2) request that we update or correct your personal information; (3) object to the processing of your personal information or withdraw your prior consent, if applicable; and (4) ask us to block or delete your personal information from our database; and (5) ask us to transfer your personal information to another entity as you specify. You can access and correct certain personal information by logging into your account and accessing the “My Account” section of the Online Services. If you wish to cancel your account, please visit the My Account page of our website. If you also wish to opt-out of receiving emails from us after your account is cancelled, please follow the steps described under the “Opt-Out” section of this Privacy Policy.

VIII. RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

To the extent permitted by applicable law, we retain personal information that we obtain about you as long as (1) it is needed for the purposes for which we obtained it, in accordance with the provisions of this Privacy Policy or (2) we have another lawful basis for retaining that data beyond the period for which it is necessary to serve the original purpose for collecting the data.

IX. LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING EUROPEAN INDIVIDUAL’S PERSONAL DATA

The applicable legal basis for which we process your Personal Data includes:

Based on your consent

In some cases, we may ask you for your consent to collect and process your Personal Data. If you choose to provide us with your consent, you may later withdraw your consent by contacting us as described in the “contact us” section below

Compliance with applicable laws or performance of a contract

In specific circumstances, we may need to process your Personal Data to comply with a relevant law/regulation or to fulfill our obligations under a contract to which you are subject. Where we process your Personal Data to meet our legal obligations, you will likely not be permitted to object to this processing activity, but you will usually have the right to access or review this information unless it would impede our legal obligations, for example, alerting you about product safeties in compliance with applicable food, daily supplement, drug, etc. related laws and regulations. Where we are processing to fulfill our contract obligations under a contract where you are a party, you might not be able to object to this processing, or if you do choose to opt-out or object to our processing, you voluntarily forfeit the relevant contractual obligations that you are owed.

Our legitimate interest

We may process your Personal Data based on our legitimate interests in communicating with you and managing our interactions with you regarding our products and services, scientific research, and education opportunities. You have the right to object to such processing of your Personal Data. You can inform us your objection by contacting us as described in the “contact us” section below

X. COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION FROM CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 13

The Online Services are not intended for use by children under the age of 13. Country Life Vitamins does not knowingly collect or use any personal information from such children. If you are under the age of 13, do not submit any information through our websites or any of Country Life Vitamins online service. If we learn that we collected personal information from children under the age of 13 we will take steps to promptly delete that information. If you believe that a child under age 13 may have provided us with personal information, please contact us at ConsumerAffairs@CountryLifeVitamins.com

XI. CHANGES TO PRIVACY POLICY

Country Life Vitamins may, in its sole discretion, change this Privacy Policy from time to time without prior notice. We will notify you of any material changes to this Privacy Policy by changing the “Last Updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy. If you use the Online Services after a change to this Privacy Policy is posted , you will be bound by such change. Please refer back to this Privacy Policy on a regular basis. If you object to any of the terms in our revised Privacy Policy, you have the right to cease using the Online Services. If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at ConsumerAffairs@CountryLifeVitamins.com

XII. PRIVACY PRACTICES OF THIRD PARTIES

The Online Services may contain links to third-party websites, products, and services, including social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, Linkedin, etc. These third-party websites may place cookies or other tracking technologies on your computer or personal device. Information collected by these third-party websites is governed by their privacy practices and is not subject to this Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for how these third-party websites collect, use, disclose, distribute, or maintain your personal information. If you visit a third-party website linked from the Online Services, you do so at your own risk. We encourage you to learn about the privacy practices of those third parties prior to providing them with any information or taking advantage of an offer or promotion. Country Life Vitamins expressly disclaims any and all liability for the actions of third parties, including, but without limitation to, actions relating to the use and/or disclosure of your personal information by third parties.

XIII. DATA TRANSFERS

We may transfer the personal information we obtain about you to the United States and other countries, other than the country in which the information originally was collected. Those countries may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the information. To the extent required by applicable law, when we transfer your personal information to the United States [or other countries], we will take measures to protect that information as described in this Privacy Policy.

By submitting personal information to us, you understand that this information will be transferred to Country Life Vitamins in the United States [or other countries]. If you do not want your personal information transferred to the United States [or other countries], please do not submit any information to us or otherwise use our products or services.

By interacting with this Site, you are consenting to the transfer of your Personally Identifiable Information and you understand that Country Life Vitamins, LLC may transfer that information to its affiliates and subsidiaries or to other third parties, across borders, and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world.

XIV. EU-US PRIVACY SHIELD

Country Life Vitamins complies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union to the United States. Country Life Vitamins has certified to the Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/.

Country Life Vitamins is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with respect to its adherence to the Privacy Shield Principles.

As discussed above, we may share your personal information with our service providers who are bound by law and/or contract to protect your personal information and may only use your personal information in accordance with our instructions. Also discussed above, we may disclose your personal information when requested under legal process or as otherwise required by law, such as in response to a subpoena, including to meet national security and/or law enforcement requirements in the United States and other countries where we operate. Under certain circumstances, Country Life Vitamins may remain liable for the acts of these third parties, if they subsequently process the data in a manner that is inconsistent with the Privacy Shield Principles.

XV. EUROPEAN PRIVACY RIGHTS

Right to update and access your information

You have the right to update your personal information at any time by logging into your online account or contacting us at ConsumerAffairs@CountryLifeVitamins.com. You have the right to request a report concerning what personal information we collected and whether we shared any of your personal information with a third party for what purpose thereof. To request such a report please contact us at ConsumerAffairs@CountryLifeVitamins.com.

Right to limit the use and disclosure of personal information

You have the right to limit the use and disclosure of your personal information. As previously disclosed, you may opt-out from receiving promotional emails from us regarding new features, services and special offers when registering for an account by unchecking the box that asks whether you would like to receive email updates. You may unsubscribe from receiving promotional emails of certain types (or a company-wide unsubscribe) at any time by using the unsubscribe link on emails or emailing ConsumerAffairs@CountryLifeVitamins.com . You may opt-out from promotional emails from us by calling Consumer Affairs or emailing Consumer Affairs and advising an associate that you wish to opt-out.

Consumer Affairs: 800.645.5768
Consumer Affairs Email: ConsumerAffairs@CountryLifeVitamins.com

You have the right to have us delete all the personal information about you. You also have the right to have us transfer your personal information to a third party you so designated. Please submit such requests to ConsumerAffairs@CountryLifeVitamins.com.

Dispute resolution

In compliance with the Privacy Shield Principles, Country Life Vitamins commits to resolve complaints about our collection or use of your personal information. EU and Swiss individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding our privacy policy should first contact Country Life Vitamins at customercare@vitaminshoppe.com or as provided in the “Contact Us” section below.
If we cannot resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you may invoke binding arbitration, as described in Annex I to the Privacy Shield Principles.

Country Life Vitamins has further committed to cooperate with the panel established by the EU data protection authorities (DPAs) and to Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) with regard to unresolved Privacy Shield complaints concerning data transferred from the EU and Switzerland. If you do not receive timely acknowledgement of your complaint from us, or if we have not addressed your complaint to your satisfaction, you can contact the European Union and/or Swiss DPAs for more information or to file a complaint. The services of the European Union and Swiss DPAs are provided at no cost to you.

XVI. CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

California residents have the right to request one Notice of Information-Sharing Disclosure per year that will identify the third parties with whom Country Life Vitamins or any of our affiliates has shared your Personal Information. You may request the Notice of Information-Sharing Disclosure by writing to us at: Country Life Vitamins Consumer Affairs Department 180 Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, Hauppauge, NY 11788 or by emailing us at ConsumerAffairs@CountryLifeVitamins.com

XVII. CONTACT US

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, you may email us at ConsumerAffairs@CountryLifeVitamins.com with “PRIVACY POLICY” in the subject line, or send us a letter addressed to:

Country Life Vitamins Consumer Affairs Department
180 Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, Hauppauge, NY 11788