Privacy Notice

Short version: We collect your contact information, information regarding your order and your computer's internet address (also called "IP address", which is a number that looks like this: 123.456.789.0) when you use and order from our site. We dont share it with anyone, with the exception of law enforcement. Even then, we'd likely require a warrant from a recognized law enforcement agency.

That said, our friend Steve the lawyer will once again get cranky at me if I dont provide you with the official "for lawyers" version, which is of course, the official privacy policy of MontanaMerc.com:

What Personal Information About Customers Does Montana Mercantile Gather?

The information we learn from customers helps us personalize and continually improve your shopping experience at montanamerc.com. Here are the types of information we gather.

• Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our Web site or give us in any other way. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests, customizing future shopping for you, improving our stores, and communicating with you.
• Automatic Information: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, like many Web sites, we use "cookies," and we obtain certain types of information when your Web browser accesses montanamerc.com. A number of companies offer utilities designed to help you visit Web sites anonymously. Although we will not be able to provide you with a personalized experience at montanamerc.com if we cannot recognize you, we want you to be aware that these tools exist.
• Information from Other Sources: We might receive information about you from other sources and add it to our account information, however this will generally be quite rare and would most likely be a phone number that we tracked down so that UPS or Fedex could deliver a package (they wont accept packages without a delivery phone number).

• Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and to provide personal greetings, as well as storage of items in your Shopping Cart between visits.
• Cookies allow you to take full advantage of some of montanamerc.com's coolest features, and we recommend that you leave them turned on.

Information about our customers is an important part of our business, and we are not in the business of selling it, renting it or loaning it to others. We share customer information only as described below and with subsidiaries montanamerc.com, Inc. controls that either are subject to this Privacy Notice or follow practices at least as protective as those described in this Privacy Notice.

• Third-Party Service Providers: We employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and e-mail, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, providing search results and links (including paid listings and links), processing credit card payments, and providing customer service. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes. We are very careful about selecting these vendors.
• Promotional Offers: Sometimes we send offers to selected groups of montanamerc.com customers on behalf of other businesses. When we do this, we do not give that business your name and address. Instead, we would send the offer ourselves.
• Business Transfers: As we continue to develop our business, we might sell or buy stores, subsidiaries, or business units. In such transactions, customer information generally is one of the transferred business assets but remains subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Notice (unless, of course, the customer consents otherwise). Also, in the unlikely event that montanamerc.com, or substantially all of its assets are acquired, customer information will of course be one of the transferred assets.
• Protection of montanamerc.com and Others: We release account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our conditions of use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of montanamerc.com, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. Obviously, however, this does not include selling, renting, sharing, or otherwise disclosing personally identifiable information from customers for commercial purposes in violation of the commitments set forth in this Privacy Notice.
• With Your Consent: Other than as set out above, you will receive notice when information about you might go to third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information.

• We work to protect the security of your information during transmission by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts information you input.
• We reveal only the last four digits of your credit card numbers when confirming an order. Of course, we transmit the entire credit card number to the appropriate credit card company during order processing, noting that this information is encrypted according to the rules agreed upon by your card company (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover).
• It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when finished using a shared computer.

Which Information Can I Access?

montanamerc.com gives you access to a broad range of information about your account and your interactions with montanamerc.com for the limited purpose of viewing and, in certain cases, updating that information.

• As discussed above, you can always choose not to provide information, even though it might be needed to make a purchase or to take advantage of montanamerc.com site features.
• You can add or update certain information on pages such as those listed above.
• The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether.
• The Federal Trade Commission provides useful information about online privacy on its own Web site, Site Seeing on the Internet.

montanamerc.com does not sell products for purchase by children. We sell children's products for purchase by adults. If you are under 18, you may use montanamerc.com only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

If you choose to visit montanamerc.com, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Notice and our conditions of use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of the law of the state of Montana. If you have any concern about privacy at montanamerc.com, please contact us with a thorough description, and we will try to resolve it.

Our business changes constantly, and our Privacy Notice and the conditions of use will likely change also. We may e-mail periodic reminders of our notices and conditions, unless you have instructed us not to, but you should check our Web site frequently to see recent changes. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Notice applies to all information that we have about you and your account. We stand behind the promises we make, however, and will never materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of customer information collected in the past without the consent of affected customers.