Introduction

Northern Technologies International Corporation (NTIC) respects and protects the privacy of our customers and those who use our websites, products and services, and software applications for mobile devices (Services). As we build these Services, we are committed to the principles of respecting your privacy, keeping your data safe, and improving our products and services for our customers. This privacy statement provides details about how your personal information is collected and how it is used. “Personal information” is any information that identifies you or would enable someone to contact you, such as your name, email address, phone number, and other non-public information that is associated with the foregoing. This privacy statement applies to (1) the www.ntic.com, www.zerust.com, www.naturtec.com, and www.naturbag.com websites, and other websites that may be added by NTIC in the future, (2) products and services that are located in such domains and any other sites owned or operated by NTIC, and (3) NTIC’s software applications for mobile devices, and other applications that may be added in the future. NTIC is located at 4201 Woodland Road, P.O. Box 69, Circle Pines, MN 55014 USA, and is the controller of the data processing described in this Privacy Policy. EU citizens may contact the local representative at Frank Hoebener. Phone: +49 178 88 66 913. Email: fhoebener@ntic.com.

Before using or submitting information to our Services, please read this entire Privacy Policy. By using our Services, you agree that you have read and understand this Privacy Policy. Whenever you submit information via our Services, you will be asked to consent affirmatively consent to the collection, use, processing, and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. “Processing” means using cookies on a computer/handheld device or using or touching information in any way, including, but not limited to, collecting, storing, deleting, using, combining, and disclosing information, all of which activities will take place in the United States.

Unsubscribing

NTIC takes your preferences into account as much as possible in the provision of our Services. If you no longer want to receive information about (new) products and services (by post, email, etc.), you can unsubscribe by sending an email to marketing@ntic.com or in writing to NTIC’s marketing group at 4201 Woodland Road, P.O. Box 69, Circle Pines, MN 55014 USA. If you want any Personal Information previously provided to be erased from our systems, you can make a request through these same channels.

You can stop all collection of information by the mobile applications easily by uninstalling the application. You may use the standard uninstall processes as may be available as part of your mobile device or via the mobile application marketplace or network.

Personal Information

Our Services may collect both personally identifiable information (Personal Information) and information about your use of our Services that is not identifiable to you personally (Non-personal Information). Some features of our Services allow you to provide content.

We may collect Personal Information from you in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to, when you visit our site, register on the site, fill out a form, respond to a survey, and in connection with other activities, services, features or resources we make available on our Services. You may be asked for Personal Information, as appropriate, such as, name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and you will be asked to consent to the collection of your Personal Information. Consent is not a precondition to accessing our websites. You may, however, visit our sites anonymously without providing any Personal Information. We will collect personal identification information from you only if you voluntarily consent and submit such information to us. You can always refuse to supply Personal Information, except that it may prevent you from engaging in certain service-related activities.

Rights Over Collected Personal Information

You are entitled to know what information is collected about you, how that information is processed, what information is shared or sold, and who that information may be shared with or sold to. You have the right to request access to your Personal Information and to change inaccurate or incomplete data. You have the right to withdraw your consent and request the deletion of your Personal Information at any time. You have the right to object to the use of your Personal Information for certain processing activities and/or request that specific processing activities be blocked.
You have the right to request that NTIC retain and reuse your Personal Information for other services. You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects that may affect you. You may exercise any of the foregoing rights by filling out a data request form online, sending an email to marketing@ntic.com, or in writing to NTIC’s marketing group at 4201 Woodland Road, P.O. Box 69, Circle Pines, MN 55014 USA.

If you would like to correct, delete or retrieve any personal information currently saved on our sites on this site. Please click here and fill in the data request form.

Non-personal Information

We may collect non-personal identification information about you whenever you interact with our Services. Non-personal identification information may include the browser name, the type of computer, and technical information about your means of connection to our sites, such as the operating system and the Internet service providers utilized and other similar information.

Processing Personal Information

Personal Information may be collected or provided to us through may include your name, address, email address, telephone number, and place of business. You may also have the opportunity to provide us with other Personal Information through certain sections of our Services, such as registration forms and surveys. Your Personal Information details are stored when you register for our services. The Personal Information we hold store is restricted to contact details and/or where you have registered an interest in a product or service. We may use process your Personal Information for legitimate interests, i.e., to respond to your requests and questions, to personalize your access to our Services, to contact you with information that might be of interest to you, to fulfill the purpose for which you provide the Personal Information, for any purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information, and for our internal business purposes. Another legal basis for this processing is based on contractual necessity, i.e., the performance of a contract with our customers and on the legitimate interests pursued by us to contact our former customers, prospects, and persons interested in our products, services, and activities. Your Personal Data Information will be deleted immediately upon request, or after the minimum retention period dictated by rules for professional conduct, a legal obligation, or in the absence thereof, within two years after the termination of the purpose of our relationship, such as ending the customer relationship.

Personal Information is held in strict confidence by NTIC, and access is limited to those who have a need to know such information in the rendering of services to you.
NTIC does not engage in the selling, sharing, trading, or otherwise transferring of Personal Information received from you.

Processing Non-personal Information

Non-personal Information may include technical information such as the type of Internet browser you use, the date and time you access our Services, your Internet protocol address, and which pages you view on our Services. Like many other websites and mobile applications, our Services may collect some information passively as you navigate through the Services (that is, without you actively providing the information) using various technologies and means, such as navigational data collection. General information on visits to our Services is captured and stored without visitors being identified. In addition, our mobile applications may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device’s unique device ID, the IP address of your mobile device, and your mobile operating system. The purpose of this is to improve the quality of our Services, your browsing experience, and for other management and business purposes. We also use your computer’s IP address for this purpose. The IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you browse the Internet. This information can also be used to see how our Services are being used and for analysis and reporting purposes. In principle, IP addresses are not linked to information that would identify you, unless you have given your explicit permission for this. We may share Non-personal Information with third parties, but never in a way that directly connects you to the Non- personal Information.

How we use collected information

Unless you unsubscribe or opt out, We may collect and use your Personal Information for the following purposes:

  • To run and operate our Services
    We may need your information display content on the Services correctly.
  • To improve customer service
    Information you provide helps us respond to your customer service requests and support needs more efficiently.
  • To personalize user experience
    We may use information in the aggregate to understand how our site visitors as a group use the services and resources provided on our Services.
  • To improve our Services
    We may use feedback you provide to improve our products and services.
  • To run a promotion, contest, survey or other Service feature
  • To send you information you agreed to receive about topics we think will be of interest to you
  • To send periodic emails
    We may use the email address to send you information and updates pertaining to your order. It may also be used to respond to your inquiries, questions, and/or other requests.

Product Information

We may contact you by email, mail, or telephone regarding our products and services, but only if you have indicated a preference and consented to receive this information. In the event that we decide to contact you regarding our products and services, we will provide a link for you to unsubscribe or opt out from such communications and change your preferences.

How we protect your information

We take appropriate technical and organizational measures and reasonable steps to protect your Personal Information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction, but we do not and cannot guarantee such protection. Please bear in mind that transmissions over the Internet are not completely secure, and any information you send to or from our Services may be accessible by others. More specifically, emails sent to or from our Services may not be secure. As a result, you should take particular care in deciding what information you send via email. Any passwords, ID numbers, or other special access numbers you might use to access any part of our Services are your responsibility; take care to safeguard them.

Data Breaches

In the case of a personal information breach, NTIC shall, without undue delay and where feasible, not later than 72 hours after becoming aware of the data breach, notify the breach to supervisory authorities and affected individuals. The notification shall include a description of the breach, the number of people that were affected, the data that was accessed, contact details of the company’s data protection officer, any possible consequences of the data breach, and what actions are taken by the company to mitigate the consequences.

Sharing your Personal Information

Protection of your Personal Information is prioritized by NTIC. We do not sell, share, trade, or rent, or otherwise transfer your Personal Information to others. We may disclose your Personal Information to our subsidiaries and affiliates; to contractors, service providers, or other third parties we use to support our business and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep Personal Information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them. We may transfer your Personal Information to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of NTIC’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which Personal information is among the assets transferred. We may disclose your Personal Information to third parties if we believe that the disclosure is necessary to enforce this Privacy Policy or the terms governing your use of our Services, to protect the rights or property of NTIC or another party, or to protect the confidentiality of another party. We may disclose your Personal Information to comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including in response to a government or regulatory request or when we believe that an applicable law, regulation, or legal process requires it. We also may create aggregate information from your Personal Information that does not identify any individual. We may use such aggregate information for our management and business purposes and may share this aggregate information with third parties. This aggregate information will not identify you or your Personal Information.

Electronic newsletters

If you decide to opt-in to our mailing list, you will receive emails that may include company news, updates, related product or service information, etc. We may use third-party service providers to help us operate our business and the

Services or administer activities on our behalf, such as sending out newsletters or surveys. We may share your information with these third parties only for those limited purposes, provided that you have given us your permission to do so.

NTIC does not support DNT

At this time, NTIC websites do not recognize automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include ‘do not track’ instructions. However, you can change your privacy preferences regarding the use of cookies and similar technologies through your browser. You may set your browser to accept all cookies, block certain cookies, require your consent before a cookie is placed in your browser, or block all cookies. Please consult the ‘Help’ section of your browser for more information.

Special Notification for California Residents

Individual users of our Services who reside in California and have provided their personal information to us may request information about our disclosures of certain categories of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Such requests must be submitted to us at one of the following addresses: email to marketing@ntic.com or in writing to NTIC’s marketing group at 4201 Woodland Road, P.O. Box 69, Circle Pines, MN 55014 USA.

Within thirty days of receiving such a request, we will provide a list of the categories of personal information disclosed to third parties for third-party direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year, along with the names and addresses of these third parties. This request may be made no more than once per calendar year. We reserve our right not to respond to requests submitted other than to the address specified in this paragraph.

Use of cookies by NTIC

A cookie is a small amount of data (a small file) sent to your computer/device by a website. The website tells your web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer) to store these cookies on your computer/device. There are two types of cookies. Session cookies are deleted from your computer/device when you close your web browser. Persistent cookies remain stored on your computer/device even after your web browser is closed.

NTIC uses persistent cookies to make navigating our Services easier, to analyze the use of our Services, and to improve the quality of our Services. Session cookies are also used in this process. Your user name may also be stored in a cookie if you are logged on to our Services.

Access and correction rights

You can request access to and have the opportunity to correct, delete or export your personal data by contacting us on e-mail to marketing@ntic.com or in writing to NTIC’s marketing group at 4201 Woodland Road, P.O. Box 69, Circle Pines, MN 55014 USA. You may also restrict or object to the processing of your personal data. For security reasons, we will take steps to authenticate your identity before providing access to your personal data. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a Data Protection Authority.

Refusing cookies

You can refuse cookies by adjusting your browser settings (e.g., Internet Explorer) to disable all or certain cookies (see your web browser manual or help function). If you disable cookies, some Services may not be available to you.

Google Analytics Features

Our Services have implemented the Google Analytics Advertising Features, “Display and Search Remarketing ” and “Advertising Reporting Features,” in order to advertise online (which we do) via Google’s “Remarketing” feature. Third-party vendors, including Google, may show our ads on websites across the Internet. We and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on someone’s past visits to our websites. See Google Analytics Terms of Service for more information: https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html.

Visitors can opt out of Google’s use of Cookies and Google Analytics for Display Advertising by using the Ads Settings found here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

No Error-Free Performance

We do not guarantee error-free performance under this Privacy Policy. We may not always catch an unintended privacy issue, despite our efforts to do so. We will use reasonable efforts to comply with this Privacy Policy and will take prompt corrective action when we learn of any failure to comply with it. Accordingly, we welcome your feedback regarding any privacy concerns.

Third party websites

NTIC Services may contain some links to other websites. When you click on one of these links, you are being transferred to a website operated by someone other than NTIC, and the operator of that website may have a different privacy policy. We do not share your Personal Information with these websites, and we are not responsible for their individual privacy practices. We cannot accept any liability for the handling of your information by these parties. For further information, please read the privacy statement (if available) of the website you are visiting.

Compliance with children’s online privacy protection act

Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important. Our Services are not intended for children under the age of 16. We do not intentionally collect or use any Personal Information from children who identify themselves as being under the age of 16. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with information without their consent, he or she should contact us, and we will delete such information from our files within a reasonable time.

Changes to this privacy policy

NTIC has the discretion to update this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do, we will post a notification on the main page of our website. We encourage you to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the Personal Information we collect. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this Privacy Policy periodically and become aware of modifications.

Your acceptance of these terms

By using our Services, you signify your acceptance of this policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our Services. Your continued use of the Services following the posting of changes to this policy will be deemed your acceptance of those changes.

Contacting us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of our Services, or your dealings with this Service, please contact us.

This document was last updated on May 17, 2023