Privacy Notice for California Residents

Last Updated: February 2024

This Privacy Notice for California Residents (this "Notice") supplements the information contained in the Privacy Policy of SOUTHERN GARDEN SOLUTIONS, LLC, a South Carolina limited liability company (the "Company") and applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California ("User" or "you") on www.southerngardensol.com including mobile or localized versions and related domains / sub-domains (the“Platform”). We adopt this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this Notice. This Notice forms an inseparable part of the Company’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

This Notice does not apply to employment-related personal information collected from California-based employees, job applicants, contractors, or similar individuals.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer, household, or device ( "personal information"). Personal information does not include:

  • Publicly available information from government records.

  • Deidentified or aggregated consumer information.

  • Information excluded from the CCPA's scope, like:

    1. health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data;

    2. personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

Based on User inputs into the Platform, the Platform may collect any of the following information from Users about such User or about clients or vendors of Users in the following categories of information:

CategoryExamplesA. IdentifiersA. Identifiers A real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, Social Security number, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers.B. Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)).B. Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)). A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver’s license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories.C. Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law.Age (40 years or older), race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information).D. Commercial information.Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.E. Biometric information.Genetic, physiological, behavioral, and biological characteristics, or activity patterns used to extract a template or other identifier or identifying information, such as, fingerprints, faceprints, and voiceprints, iris or retina scans, keystroke, gait, or other physical patterns, and sleep, health, or exercise data.F. Internet or other similar network activity.Browsing history, search history, information on a consumer’s interaction with a website, application, or advertisement.G. Geolocation data.Physical location or movements.H. Sensory data.Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information.I. Professional or employment-related information.Current or past job history or performance evaluations.J. Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)).Education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, such as grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records.K. Inferences drawn from other personal information.Profile reflecting a person’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.

We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:

  • Directly from you. For example, when you create an account to access or utilize our Platform.

  • Indirectly from you. For example, behavior data collected when you use or utilize our Platform.

  • From third parties.

  • Indirectly from our clients or their agents. For example, through information we collect from our clients in the course of providing services to them.

  • Directly and indirectly from activity on the Platform. For example, from submissions through our Platform usage details collected automatically.

  • From third-parties that interact with us in connection with the services we perform. For example, from government agencies when we prepare readiness assessments for projects that receive government funding.

2. Use of Personal Information

We may use or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following purposes:

  • To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information. For example, if you share your name and contact information to ask a question about our products or services, we will use that personal information to respond to your inquiry. If you provide your personal information to purchase a product or service, we will use that information to process your payment.

  • To provide, support, personalize, and develop our Platform.

  • To create, maintain, customize, and secure your Account with us.

  • To process your requests, purchases, transactions, and payments and prevent transactional fraud.

  • To provide you with support and to respond to your inquiries, including to investigate and address your concerns and monitor and improve our responses.

  • To personalize your our Platform experience and to deliver content and product and service offerings relevant to your interests, including targeted offers and ads through our Platform, third-party sites, and via email or text message (with your consent, where required by law).

  • To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Platform, the related databases and other technology assets, and business.

  • For testing, research, analysis, and product development, including to develop and improve our Platform.

  • To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.

  • As described to you when collecting your personal information or as otherwise set forth in the CCPA.

  • To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our Users is among the assets transferred.

We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.

3. Sharing Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information to a third party for a business purpose. When we disclose personal information for a business purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

We share your personal information with the following categories of third parties:

  • Service providers we disclose at https://www.southerngardensol.com/help/third-parties and any third-party payment processors.

  • Third party services, if we grant you the option to access or register for our Platform through the use of your user name and passwords provided by third parties (such as through the use of your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google account).

4. Disclosures of Personal Information for a Business Purpose

In the preceding twelve (12) months, the Company has not disclosed any data collected.

We expect to disclose your personal information for a business purpose to the following categories of third parties:

  • Service providers and any third-party payment processors.

  • Third party services, if we grant you the option to access or register for our Platform through the use of your user name and passwords provided by third parties (such as through the use of your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google account.

5. Sales of Personal Information

In the preceding twelve (12) months, The Company had not sold any personal information.

6. Your Rights

The CCPA provides California residents with specific rights to request information about the Company's collection, use and disclosure of your personal information over the prior twelve (12) months, and ask that we provide you with the following information:

6.1 Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights

You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will disclose to you:

  • The categories of personal information we collected about you.

  • The categories of sources from which we collect personal information.

  • Purpose for collecting, using or selling personal information.

  • The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.

  • The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you ( "data portability request").

If applicable, categories of personal information sold about you and the categories of third parties to which the personal information was sold.

6.2 Deletion Request Rights

You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.

We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:

  • Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.

  • Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.

  • Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.

  • Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.

  • Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).

  • Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information's deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research's achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.

  • Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.

  • Comply with a legal obligation.

  • Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

6.3 Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights

To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by emailing us at: [email protected] .

Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.

You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:

  • Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative, which may include:

    • First Name, Last Name, Email used to register with the Company, and Phone Number

  • Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you.

Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. However, we do consider requests made through your password protected account sufficiently verified when the request relates to personal information associated with that specific account.

We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor's identity or authority to make the request.

Response timing and format

We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request's receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

Non-discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:

  • Deny you goods or services.

  • Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.

  • Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services.

  • Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

7. Personal Information Sales Opt-Out and Opt-In Rights

We do not sell the personal information of Users or any personal information provided by Users of their clients and customers, including of those we actually know are less than 16 years of age. Since we do not sell your personal information, you do not have to go through steps to opt-out or opt into the sale of your information.

8. Changes to Our Privacy Notice

We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice at our discretion and at any time upon reasonable notice. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will post the updated notice on our Platform and update the notice's effective date. Upon reasonable notice, your continued use of our Platform following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.

9. Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this Notice or information we hold about you, you may contact us at[email protected] . In order for us to take the appropriate action, please describe in reasonable detail the nature of your request or inquiry.