Privacy Policy
1.Overview
Helpfully handles product returns for items purchased from various merchants. We manage the return and exchange process, including initiating, accepting, and processing items for return to merchants. Helpfully offers our merchant customers return logistics software.
This Privacy Statement explains how and why Helpfully collects, stores, uses, and discloses Personal Information of existing and prospective merchants and shoppers when they visit our Sites, connect with us offline, or use our Services. Reading it will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. Certain capitalized terms that are not otherwise defined in the Privacy Statement are explained in Section 13 (“Definitions”).
This Privacy Statement applies to:
Existing or prospective merchant customers.
Shoppers who return products or goods to one of our merchant customers. This Privacy Statement will apply to your use of our Services. Additionally, for shoppers, the merchant’s privacy policy will also apply to any information that Helpfully collects from the merchant in order to accept and process your return.
Anyone who visits or uses our Sites or connects with us offline.
This Privacy Statement may be supplemented with additional notices depending on our websites and Services concerned.
We revise this Privacy Statement from time to time to reflect changes to our business, Services, or applicable laws. If the revised version requires notice in accordance with applicable law, we will provide you with 30 days prior notice by posting notice of the change on the "Privacy Policy" page of our website, otherwise the revised Privacy Statement will be effective as of the published effective date according to the last updated date, which appears at the beginning of this Privacy Statement.
2. Our Role as Data Controller
Helpfully is established in the United States of America. Our address is Helpfully, 13266 Byrd Dr. Suite 1103 Odessa, Fl 33556. Our contact email address is support@helfully.app. For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation and other applicable laws, we are the data controller for the Personal Information we Process in connection with our Services or prospective use of our Services. As the data controller, we are the entity which determines how and why your Personal Information is Processed (collected, used, stored, disclosed, etc.).
Some of the third parties to whom Helpfully might disclose your Personal Information are independent data controllers. Examples include merchants, authorities, and acquirers. When your data is disclosed to independent data controllers, their data policies will apply. Helpfully encourages you to read their privacy policies and know your privacy rights before interacting with them.
3. Categories of Personal Information We Collect
Personal Information that we collect will be determined by your interaction with Helpfully, our merchants, partners, and other sources. Here are the categories of Personal Information that we may collect when you create a merchant account with us or use our Services (the specifically processed categories depend on the actual services you use or the type of interaction you request):
Identifiers, such as first and last name, address, phone number, email, IP address, Device Information, information collected from cookies or similar technologies, or information necessary to establish a merchant account.
Commercial information, such as product order and return/exchange information, purchase history, return tracking, shipping information, or information about items returned by shoppers.
Internet or network activity, such as interactions with our Services and Sites, information about response time for web pages, download errors, date and time when you used the Services, statistics regarding how pages are loaded or viewed, the websites you visited before coming to the Sites, or other usage and browsing information collected through cookies.
Geolocation: We may collect your Geolocation information, with your consent. We may also collect other location information, such as your country based on the IP address.
Audio information, such as call recordings when you talk to customer service.
Professional information, such as business information, job title, contact emails, or phone numbers.
Information you provide when you contact us, such as your responses to surveys, information you provide when you contact our customer support teams, recorded conversations with our customer service, chat conversations with us, email correspondence with us, or information about others if you choose to share it with us.
Inferred data, such as information we may infer about you based on your interactions with our Sites and Services and your transactions.
Sensitive personal information: precise Geolocation information, with your consent.
Information from your device, such as language settings, browser ID, cookie preferences, time zone, operating system, platform, screen resolution and similar information about your device settings, or data collected from cookies or other tracking technologies.
4. Categories of Sources of Personal Information
We may collect Personal Information from various sources, including:
You, including your interaction with us and use of our Service.
Merchants, e-commerce, logistics and order management platforms.
Shipping carriers.
Service providers, such as companies that help us manage risk and fraud, deliver Services to you, perform data analysis, market our Services, and generate marketing opportunities
Our parent company and its affiliates and subsidiaries.
Helpfully subsidiaries.
Data brokers.
Publicly available sources.
If you have a merchant account with Helpfully, we may associate Personal Information from other sources with the account to improve your experience and for compliance, analytics, and marketing purposes.If you have a merchant account with Helpfully, we may associate Personal Information from other sources with the account to improve your experience and for compliance, analytics, and marketing purposes.
5. How Is Personal Information Used and Legal Basis for Processing
In some countries, we may process your Personal Information only when we have a valid legal basis to do so. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on the fact that processing is necessary to provide our Services or to comply with our contractual and legal obligations. We may also process your Personal Information where we pursue our or others’ legitimate interests, taking into consideration your interests, rights, and expectations. In other cases, we may rely on your prior, explicit, or voluntary consent.
Subject to the respectively applicable legal basis, we may collect and process your Personal Information for the following business and commercial purposes:
1) To provide our Services and fulfill our contractual obligations, such as to:
process and manage product returns;
communicate with you about your returns, your account, our website, our Services, or Helpfully;
set up and authenticate access to merchant accounts;
respond to your questions, comments, and other requests;
compare information for accuracy and verification purposes; or
keep merchant accounts up to date.
2) To comply with our obligations and to enforce the terms of our Sites and Services, including to comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
3) To process your data for various legitimate interests, such as to:
manage our business needs and operate our Sites;
monitor, analyze, develop, and improve our Services as well as our Sites’ performance and functionalities;
develop new products and features;
conduct customer and data analysis, research, and for statistical purposes;
help ensure security and integrity and protect from fraud and misuse;
debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
enforce our legal claims and legal defenses;
aggregate or anonymize Personal Information to provide aggregated statistical data to third parties, including our business partners, about how, when, and why customers visit our Sites and use our Services;
conduct business-to-business marketing;
4) To use cookies and similar technologies to provide a targeted display, feature, service, or offer to you and/or to work with other third parties such as retailers or analytics companies to provide these personalized services. We will obtain your consent to use cookies and similar technologies as required by applicable law.
5) To provide you with location-specific functionalities, such as pointing you to the return bars close to your location, if you elect to share your Geolocation in your browser. We do not use that Geolocation data for other purposes and do not disclose it to other parties for their own purposes.
6) To respond to your requests, for example to contact you about a question you submitted to our customer service team.
6. Do We Disclose Personal Information and Why?
We do not Sell Personal Information to third parties or Share your Personal Information for cross-context behavioral advertising, including any Sensitive Personal Information.
However, we may disclose your Personal Information to third parties to help us provide Services, protect our customers from risk and fraud, market our Services, and comply with legal obligations.
We may disclose your Personal Information to:
Our parent company and affiliates and subsidiaries, but only for purposes allowed by this Privacy Statement;
Helpfully subsidiaries, as necessary to provide our Services;
Merchants, e-commerce, logistics and order management platforms, as necessary to provide our Services and process returns;
Service providers or business partners that help us with providing our Services, processing returns, marketing, research, compliance, analytics, audits, corporate governance, communications, and security;
Third parties in an aggregate or anonymized/deidentified format that does not identify any specific person. For example, we might disclose aggregated statistical data about how, when, and why customers visit our Sites and use our Services to our business partners to improve our Services and to develop our business relationships;
Courts, governments, regulators, and law enforcement when accompanied by a subpoena or other legal documentation that requires Helpfully or members of our corporate family to respond;
Third parties, as a result of, or in connection with, a merger, purchase, or sale of part or all of our business, consolidation, change in control, transfer of assets, bankruptcy, reorganization, or liquidation;
Other third parties, for example we disclose Personal Information to third parties that help provide our Services. Please be aware that these third parties’ privacy notice applies to the Personal Information that you share directly with them. For example, Google Analytics for certain purposes as described below. Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use apply to the Personal Information you share with them;
Third parties after receiving your consent; or
Other third parties as necessary to:
o Comply with applicable laws;
o Investigate or enforce violations of our terms and conditions; or
o To prevent physical harm or illegal activity.
7. How Long Do We Store Your Personal Information?
We retain Personal Information for as long as needed or permitted in context of the purpose for which it was collected and consistent with applicable law.
The criteria used to determine our retention period is as follows:
Personal Information used in product return transactions is stored for a period of 10 years or need to keep it longer, such as:
as necessary to comply with our legal obligations. Personal Information in relation to a legal obligation to which we are subject is retained consistent with the applicable law;
as required in connection with litigations, investigations, audit and compliance practices, or to protect against or defend legal claims.
8. How We Use Cookies and Similar Technologies
We or our authorized service providers may use cookies and similar tracking technologies to collect Personal Information. These help us provide our Services, manage your preferences, analyze engagement and usage, and enhance the security of our Sites and Services.
Some cookies can be temporary (“session cookies” like those used for navigating your browser) and disappear once you close it. Others last longer (“persistent cookies,” like when you ask a site to remember your login) and are saved to your computer until you delete them.
Our use of cookies and similar technologies may fall into the following general categories:
Required or Essential: We may use cookies, web beacons, or other similar technologies that are necessary to the operation of our Sites, Services, applications, and tools. This includes technologies that allow you access to our Sites, Services, applications, and tools; that are required to identify irregular site behavior, prevent fraudulent activity, and improve security; or that allow you to make use of our Services.
Functionality and Performance: We may use cookies, web beacons, or other similar technologies that allow us to offer you enhanced functionality when accessing or using our Sites, Services, applications, or tools. This may include identifying you when you sign into our Sites or keeping track of your specified preferences, interests, or past items viewed so that we may enhance the presentation of content on our Sites.
We may also use these technologies to assess the performance of our Sites, applications, Services, and tools, including as part of our analytic practices to help us understand how our visitors use our Sites, determine if you have interacted with our messaging, determine whether you have viewed an item or link, or to improve our Sites’ content, applications, Services, or tools.
We use Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of our Sites, Services, applications, or tools, and report on activities and trends. This service may also collect information regarding your use of other websites, apps, and online resources. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/ and opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Advertising and Marketing: We may use cookies and web beacons to deliver content on our Sites that may be interesting to you based on your use of the Sites. This includes using technologies to understand the usefulness to you of the advertisements and content that have been delivered to you.
Advertising and Marketing: We may use cookies and web beacons to deliver content on our Sites that may be interesting to you based on your use of the Sites. This includes using technologies to understand the usefulness to you of the advertisements and content that have been delivered to you. We also use cookies to collect information about your activities on our Sites and other sites to display targeted advertisements based upon your interests. In some jurisdictions, you can use the cookie banner on our website to decline some cookies. If you want to disable cookies entirely, your browser or mobile device might have an option to do that. However, keep in mind that since some parts of our Sites and Services rely on cookies to work, those Services could become difficult or impossible to use.
Do Not Track (DNT) is an optional browser setting that allows you to express your preferences regarding tracking by advertisers and other third parties. At this time our Services are not designed to respond to DNT signals or similar mechanisms from browsers. To learn how to opt-out of tracking technology, visit About Ads. For more information, including instructions on disabling cookies, please visit: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/
9. Your Data Protection Rights
a) Your rights to access, correction, deletion, and restriction to use or disclose your Personal Information
Under applicable data protection law, you have certain rights to how your Personal Information is collected, stored, used, and disclosed.
We recognize the importance of your ability to control the use of your Personal Information and provide you with ways for you to exercise your rights to access (right to know), correction, deletion (erasure).
We will not discriminate or retaliate against you, deny you services, charge you different prices, or provide you with a different level of service solely for exercising your privacy rights.
Your right to request a copy of the Personal Information. If you want to make a request to know about the data we’ve collected about you, contact us and request that we provide you with the data we’ve collected.
Your right to correct your Personal Information. Contact us [email protected] and request that we correct specific information.
Your right to delete your Personal Information. Contact us [email protected] and request that we delete specific information.
If you request that we delete your Personal Information, subject to applicable law, we will delete or anonymize/deidentify any Personal Information we have. We might still need to keep some Personal Information as explained in How Long Do We Store Your Personal Information section so we can:
Complete a transaction, provide Services you requested, or comply with our promises to you in other contract you have with us.
Detect and prevent malicious, fraudulent, or illegal activity.
Protect your (or another person’s) legal rights, including the right to free speech.
Manage our internal business processes that are reasonably related to your expectations when using our Services.
Comply with laws and other legal or governmental processes.
We may also continue to store your Personal Information in an aggregated and anonymized/deidentified format that doesn’t identify you and can’t be attributed to you.
b) Additional rights for the EU, EEA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland residents
Your right to portability. Where you have provided your Personal Information to us on the basis of your consent, you have the right to ask us for a copy of this data in a structured, machine-readable format and to ask us to send this data to another data controller.
Your right to object to processing. In situations where we are processing your Personal Information based on our legitimate interest, you can object that the interest is no longer legitimate. Helpfully will stop processing that data unless we can demonstrate an overriding legitimate ground.
Your right to restrict processing. You have the right to ask us to stop any active processing of your Personal Information while we seek to verify Personal Information you claim is inaccurate, while we verify our legitimate interests, or while we cannot erase that Personal Information due to legal obligations.
Your right to object to direct marketing. If we use your Personal Information for direct marketing, you can always modify your permissions, object, and opt out of future direct marketing messages using the unsubscribe link in electronic communications.
Your right to withdraw consent. Generally, if we use your Personal Information with your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your Personal Information conducted in reliance on a lawful processing ground other than consent.
c) How do you exercise your rights?
To exercise any of these rights, you (or your authorized agent) can contact us by email at privacy@happyreturns.com. U.S. residents can also make data subject requests via toll-free number (877) 750-4888.
If you or an authorized agent submit a request, we’ll first need to verify who you are before we can respond to your request. We may ask you to provide us with information necessary to reasonably verify your identity before responding to your request. We will compare the information you submit against our internal business records to verify your identity. If we can’t verify your identity, we will not be able to fulfill your request. We reserve the right to deny your request for other reasons, such as if an exemption applies under applicable law (for example, where fulfilling your request would adversely affect other individuals, or where we have a conflicting legal obligation). If we deny your request in whole or in part, you may have the right to appeal the decision. In such circumstances, we will provide you with information regarding the appeals process.
In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how we process your Personal Information, please contact us at privacy@happyreturns.com, and we will do our best to resolve it. You can also choose to file a complaint with the relevant data protection authority as provided under the applicable law.
d) Understanding Your Choices
You can control how Personal Information is collected or disclosed, as well as how we communicate with you. Here are some of the ways you can customize your choices.
Choose how we collect Personal Information
You may choose to limit the Personal Information you provide when our Services request it. To help make choices that are right for you, it’s important to understand that Personal Information helps us provide a richer, more personalized experience for you. Also, some Personal Information is required for our Services to function at all. If you do choose not to provide us with your Personal Information or withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with our Services.
Choose how we communicate with you
Your choices about how we communicate with you differ depending on the purpose of the message and how it is delivered. Some messages are considered optional, and some are necessary for you to manage your accounts with us or for us to provide our Services. We use email, text messages, push notifications on your mobile device, and even paper mail depending on the situation and your preferences.
You can click the unsubscribe link in a marketing email, opt out of a text message by replying “STOP,” or turn off notifications on your device.
You won’t be able to opt out of messages that are considered necessary for us to provide our Services or for you to manage your account, such as receipts, updates, and emails that alert you to changes in your account’s status that require your attention. You may be able to decide how we send those messages, such as by email, text message, or a notification on your mobile device.
10. Data Transfers from the EU, EEA, Switzerland, and UK
This section only applies if you are a resident of a member state of the EU, EEA, Switzerland, and UK.
Helpfully is located in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that information that you disclose and we collect will be Processed in the United States in order to provide our Services to you. The United States does not have an adequacy decision regarding data protection from the European Commission.
a) Binding Corporate Rules and Standard Contractual Clauses
We have taken specific steps, in accordance with the data protection laws of the EU, Switzerland, and UK to protect your Personal Information. Transfers may be based on contractual protections, such as the Standard Contractual Clauses (as defined by applicable law).
b) Data Transfers
We may transfer the personal information we collect about you to 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.
When we transfer your personal information to other countries, we will protect that information as described in this Privacy Statement and in accordance with applicable law. We use contractual protections for the transfer of personal information among various jurisdictions (including, for example, the European Commission's standard contractual clauses).
If you have further questions or concerns regarding the use of your Personal Information, please contact us as set forth at the end of this Privacy Statement.
11. How Do We Protect Your Personal Information?
We maintain technical, physical, and administrative security measures designed to provide reasonable protection for your Personal Information against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, and alteration.
The security measures include firewalls, data encryption, employing pseudonymization and anonymization technique, and access controls. While we aim to protect our systems and services, we can't guarantee that your information will not be accessed, viewed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed as a result of a breach of any of our safeguards. You provide us with information and use our Services at your own risk. Additionally, you’re responsible for keeping your information private.
If you no longer use our Services, we may keep your Personal Information and other information according to our data retention policy and as required by applicable law. If we do, we’ll continue to handle it as we describe in this Privacy Statement.
12. Can Children Use Our Services?
We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from people who are not allowed to use our Sites and Services, such as children under the age of 18. Contact us if you believe that we’ve mistakenly collected Personal Information from someone not allowed to use our Services. We’ll delete or anonymize it unless we’re legally required to keep it.
We do not Sell or Share for cross-context behavioral advertising and have no actual knowledge that we have Sold or Shared any Personal Information of anyone under 16 years of age.
13. Definitions
Device Information means data that can be automatically collected from any device used to access the Services. Such information may include, but is not limited to, your device type; your device’s network connections; your device’s name; your device IP address; information about your device’s web browser and internet connection you use to access the Services; Geolocation information; and information about apps downloaded to your device.
Geolocation information means information that identifies, with precise specificity, your location by using, for instance, longitude and latitude coordinates obtained through your GPS, or your device settings.
Helpfully, “we,” “us,” and “our” means Helpfully LLC.
Personal Information (which may be otherwise known as “personal data” or “personally identifiable information” or similar term in your jurisdiction) means information that can be associated with an identified or directly or indirectly identifiable natural person.
Processing means any method or way that we handle Personal Information or sets of Personal Information, whether by automated means, such as by collection, recording, categorization, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, and consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure, or destruction of Personal Information.
Sell under applicable law is defined as the disclosure of personal information to third parties in exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration.
Services means any Helpfully products and services, including content, features, technologies, or functions, and all related websites, applications and services offered to you by Helpfully. Your use of the Services includes use of our Sites.
Sharing under California law is defined as disclosure of personal information to third parties for targeting of advertising to a consumer based on that consumer’s personal information obtained from the consumer’s activity across websites.
Sites means the websites, mobile apps, official social media platforms, or other online properties through which Helpfully offers the Services and which has posted or linked to this Privacy Statement.
14. Contact Information
If you have questions, inquiries, or complaints about this Privacy Statement or your Personal Information, you may contact Helpfully directly so we can help.
Email Inquiries to:
Postal Inquiries to:
Helpfully LLC
Attn: Helpfully Privacy
13266 Byrd Dr.
Suite 1103 Odessa, Fl 33556
United States
15. California Notice at Collection
Under the laws of California and certain other US states (e.g., Virginia), we are required to provide you with the information about: (1) categories of personal information we collect; (2) the purpose for which we use the personal information we collect; and (3) the categories of third parties to which we disclose such personal information for a business purpose.
For information about each category, purpose of use, and the third parties to which we disclose information, please see the “Categories of Personal Information We Collect,” “How Is Personal Information Used and Legal Basis for Processing,” and “Do We Disclose Personal Information and Why” sections in this Privacy Statement.
We do not Sell or Share your Personal Information, including any sensitive Personal Information. We also do not Sell or Share and have no actual knowledge that we have sold or shared any Personal Information of anyone under 16 years of age.
SMS and MMS terms of use
Helpfully is offering you the option to receive text messages (SMS) and/or multimedia text (MMS) from us so we can contact you about a listing you inquire about, notify you about updates to the information you may need in order to access properties we handle, and otherwise inform you about our services. Our text messaging program (the “Program”) is new, and we want you to fully understand the terms and conditions of participating.
Consent to Participate. By providing your phone number with the understanding that we will use it to send you text messages in accordance with these Terms & Conditions, you consent to receive such text messages and multimedia text messages from Helpfully and our service providers and agents, including Twilio (https://www.twilio.com/), that are assisting with the Program (collectively, “Helpfully”), in accordance with these Terms & Conditions. In providing such consent, you represent that you understand that: (i) the text messages will be sent to the phone number you provide; (ii) some of the Program text messages may be marketing messages; (iii) the Program text messages may be sent to you using an autodialer; and (iv) your consent to receive these text messages is not a condition for your purchase of any goods or services from Helpfully.
In providing your phone number for us to use to send you text messages, you also are representing that you are: (i) the account holder for the mobile telephone number you use to send the text; (ii) a resident of the United States; and (iii) at least 18 years of age. Providing your phone number also confirms that you understand that Program text messages sent to you (i) may contain financial information; (ii) SMS messaging is not encrypted; and (iii) it is possible that a third party could read these messages. With respect to your responses to the Program text messages, any personal information contained in those responses will be subject to the terms of our Privacy Policy (https://helpfully.pro/Company/PrivacyPolicy) as well as the Twilio Privacy Policy (https://www.twilio.com/legal/privacy).
The number of messages you receive will vary depending on how often you transact or communicate with us. The text messages will not cost you anything if you have an unlimited texting plan. If you are unsure about your phone’s texting plan, please check with your mobile phone service provider to see if any additional message and data rates may apply, including any applicable roaming charges.
Opt Out. To opt-out of the text messaging Program, text STOP in reply to any of the Program messages you receive. A text message will then be sent to your number confirming the cancellation, but no more messages will be sent after that one.
Duty to Notify. If your phone number changes and you wish to continue receiving text messages, you must notify Helpfully of your new phone number. If at any time you intend to stop using the mobile telephone number that has been used to subscribe to the Program, including canceling your service plan or selling or transferring the phone number to another party, you must complete the Opt-Out process set forth above prior to ending your use of the mobile telephone number. Your agreement to do so is a material part of these Program Terms & Conditions. You further agree that, if you discontinue the use of your mobile telephone number without notifying us of such a change, you will be responsible for all costs (including attorneys’ fees) and liabilities incurred by us, or any party that assists in the delivery of the mobile messages, as a result of claims brought by individual(s) who are later assigned that mobile telephone number. This duty and agreement shall survive any cancellation or termination of your agreement to participate in any of our Programs.
Support/Help. For support or information about the Program, reply HELP to any of the Program messages you receive.
Changes to Terms & Conditions. Helpfully may revise, modify, or amend these Terms & Conditions at any time. Any such revision, modification, or amendment will take effect when such changes are circulated to Program participants via text message. Please carefully review any changes to these Terms & Conditions should you receive them.
Termination of Text Messaging. Helpfully may suspend or terminate your receipt of Program text messages if we believe you are in breach of these Terms & Conditions. Your receipt of Program text messages is also subject to termination in the event that your mobile telephone service terminates or lapses. Helpfully reserves the right to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, all or any part of the Program text messages, with or without notice.
