Privacy Policy
Rapid Ratings International Inc., together with its subsidiaries (“RapidRatings”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) recognize the importance of protecting your privacy.
Many countries have data protection laws that protect the privacy of individuals by regulating the way in which businesses handle personal information. Among other things, data protection laws require businesses that handle personal information to be open and transparent about why and how they handle personal information.
This policy describes how we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information that you provide us, is provided on your behalf or is collected by us (including through any online portal or website where this policy is posted (“Site”)).
What personal information do we collect?
We collect and process the following personal information:
- Personal information you give us. You give us information about you by filling in forms on our Site or by corresponding with us. The information you give us includes your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, financial and credit card information (where you purchase a Rapid Ratings service/product). This also includes personal information you provide when you register to use our Site, subscribe to our service, use our products and services, place an order on our Site, participate in discussion boards or other social media functions on our Site, enter a competition, promotion or survey, apply for a vacancy advertised on our Site, and when you report a problem with our Site.
- Personal information we collect about you. With regard to each of your visits to our Site we automatically collect the following information:
- technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
- information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our Site (including date and time); products you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page.
- Personal information we receive from other sources. We receive personal information about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. We also work closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, credit reference agencies) and receive personal information from them.
- Financial data. We receive, through supplier submissions, supplier lists, and other mechanisms, financial data used in our products and services, including data used for measuring the financial health of public and private companies. Financial data relates to company information and is not particularized to a specific person. Our Terms of Use applicable to each product and service we offer will govern our collection and use of financial data related to those products and services.
How we use personal information
We, and our subsidiaries, use personal information held about you in the following ways:
- Personal information you give to us. We will use this personal information:
- to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us;
- to provide you with information about other goods and services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about;
- to provide you, with information about goods or services we feel may interest you. If you are an existing client, we will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale or negotiations of a sale to you.
- to notify you about changes to our service;
- to ensure that content from our Site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
- to prevent fraud;
- to ensure network and information security;
- to report criminal acts or threats to public security; and
- to administer our Site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes.
- Personal information we collect about you. We will use this personal information:
- to provide or improve our products and services
- to administer our Site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
- to improve our Site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
- to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
- as part of our efforts to keep our Site safe and secure;
- to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
- to prevent fraud;
- to ensure network and information security;
- to report criminal acts or threats to public security; and
- to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our Site about goods or services that may interest you or them.
- Personal information we receive from other sources. We combine personal information you give to us with information we separately collect about you. We use this combined personal information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of personal information we receive).
Lawful grounds for using your personal information
We process personal information in accordance with one or more of the following lawful grounds:
- Performance of a contract. The use of your personal information may be necessary to perform the contract that you have with us so that we can provide the services and projects that you have engaged us to provide to you.
- Compliance with legal obligations. The use of your personal information may be necessary to comply with legal and regulatory obligations.
- Legitimate interests. We may use your personal information when it is in our legitimate interests to do so and when these interests are not overridden by your rights. For example, we process data for: preventing fraud; sharing data among subsidiaries for internal purposes; ensuring network and information security; reporting criminal acts or threats to public security; direct marketing; establishing legally binding agreements with third parties; billing third parties; and taking internal measures to improve Site functionality and analyze usage.
- Consent. To the extent that processing of your personal information is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw consent at any time (see the Your personal information rights section of this policy). This legal basis is only used by us in relation to processing of personal information that is entirely voluntary – it is not used for processing that is necessary or obligatory in any way.
In some limited circumstances, we may be required to process personal information when it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interest of another person or if processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest as governed by law.
Storage of your personal information
The personal information that we collect may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff will be engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal information, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
To help prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your information from unauthorised access, use, or disclosure. While RapidRatings’ takes all due care in ensuring the privacy and integrity of the information that you provide, we recognise that no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. The possibility exists that this information could be unlawfully observed by a third party while in transit over the Internet. RapidRatings accepts no liability should this occur.
In accordance with our data retention schedule, we will process and store relevant personal data for the duration of our services or for the duration of the business relationship. We may also store the personal data for as long as it is necessary or required in order to fulfil legal, contractual or statutory obligations or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, and in general where we have a legitimate interest for doing so.
What is RapidRatings approach to disclosing personal information
We may share your personal information with any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries for uses pursuant to this Privacy Policy.
We share your information with selected third parties including:
- Business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you.
- Advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others.
- Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimization of our Site.
- Partners for the purposes of determining whether to enter into contracts with you.
We also disclose your information to third parties:
- In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may need to disclose your information to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
- If Rapid Ratings International Inc., or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal information held by it about its clients will be one of the transferred assets.
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your information in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Rapid Ratings International Inc., our clients, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
International transfer of personal information
The sharing of personal information with the third parties set out above may involve the transfer of data to jurisdictions outside the EEA. Such jurisdictions may not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction. However, RapidRatings shall ensure that transfer (export) of data by RapidRatings outside the EEA (where applicable) is subject to a contract incorporating standard contractual clauses in the form adopted by the European Commission under Decision 2021/914/EU of 4 June 2021 or an equivalent or replacement decision (including, where applicable, suitable supplementary technical and organizational measures as may be required in accordance with European Data Protection Board or other relevant supervisory authority guidelines) or permitted to an adequacy decision.
You have various rights relating to your personal information. We will assist you if you choose to exercise any of your rights, including:
- Withdrawing your previously granted consent; however, this will not invalidate any previously consented processing
- Providing confirmation as to whether or not personal information is being processed and access to personal information that we hold or process
- Correction of any personal information that is incorrect
- Erasure of any personal information that we process in certain circumstances
- Restrict processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
- Asking us to provide you or another company you nominate with certain aspects of your personal information, often referred to as ‘the right to portability’
- The ability to object to any processing of personal information where we are processing the data for our legitimate interests
- As applicable, the ability to contest a decision made entirely by automated processing, to express your point of view and to request that a human review the decision
For more information on these rights, you can contact legal@rapidratings.com.
RapidRatings and the application of the CCPA
If you are a California resident and the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act)(“CCPA”) applies to our processing of your personal information, we provide this additional information so you can understand and exercise your rights under the CCPA.
We do not “sell” our client’s personal information (as defined under the CCPA), meaning that we also do not rent, disclose, release, transfer, make available, or otherwise communicate that personal information to a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration. We may share aggregated and/or anonymized information regarding use of the service(s)—which is not considered personal information under the CCPA—with third parties to help us develop and improve the services and provide our clients with more relevant content and service offerings as detailed in our client agreements.
Notification of Appointment under the GDPR
As part of our EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”) compliance measures, we have formally appointed a data protection officer to our RapidRatings entity located in Ireland.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy. Your continued use of the Site following any such change constitutes your agreement to be bound by such changes to the privacy policy.
Contact
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to RapidRatings Legal Department at legal@rapidratings.com. Our Data Protection Officer also can be reached at legal@rapidratings.com.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with data protection authorities. You may contact the relevant Data Protection Authority in your country of residence.
Updated: July 2024
