Privacy Policy

Dakota Instruments, Inc. ("Dakota") Privacy Policy

Dakota is committed to protecting your privacy. That is because we base our business on the trust you place in us. This policy describes our practices regarding personal and account information collected through our Web site. In this policy, "personal and account information" means your name, company name, account number, address, telephone number, and e-mail address plus other information that personally identifies you, including your industry, the number of employees at your company, and purchase history, and "we" and "us" means Dakota as well as its affiliated companies.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy from time to time. You should visit our Web site periodically to review any changes.

How much information must I share?

The amount and type of information we collect from you depends on your activities and use of our Web site. Below, we explain what information we collect.

When you browse our Web site

  • IP address - We collect your IP address to measure our Web site traffic and to help provide a relevant shopping experience. [IP addresses are the way computers are identified over networks, including the Internet. They are unique 32-bit numeric addresses. You'll see them written as groups of four numbers with periods separating each set. IP addresses act as unique identifiers of individual computers.]
  • Referral Web site - If you come to our Web site via a link, we collect the location of the link that referred you.
  • Browser type - We collect information about the browser you are using to help optimize our Web site for visitors.
  • Movements through our Web site - We keep track of pages you visit to help provide you with a more personalized shopping experience.

When you make purchases through our Web site

  • We collect your name, address and payment information to process your order. However, you may provide credit card and purchase order numbers by telephone.
  • We collect information contained in "cookies", such as your purchases and log in data, to personalize your shopping experience. Your browser must be set to accept cookies if you wish to add items to a shopping cart.

When you create an web-account on our Web site

  • We collect your user name, password, and e-mail address to protect your web-account.
  • We use this information to identify you as the account user if you have forgotten your password. You can help us ensure your privacy by not sharing your user name or password.

When you e-mail product information to a friend or colleague through our Web site

  • We collect your e-mail address and the e-mail address of the person to whom you are sending the product information.

When you request a catalog through our Web site

  • We collect your name, address and telephone number along with other optional information to help us offer you the best assistance with our products and services.

When you communicate with us through our Web site

  • We collect your e-mail address and the other information that you provide in order to respond to your communication.

When you enter contests, participate in surveys, or register for other activities on our Web site

  • We collect your name, e-mail address and telephone number, and the other information that is required for entry or participation, which varies depending on the activity.

Is my personal or account information used for any other purpose?

We may use your personal and account information to provide products or services you have requested, respond to a communication from you, contact you, and as otherwise described in this policy.

We may occasionally send you promotional or product information. If you do not wish to receive promotional or product information, you may opt out of future communications by following the instructions in the e-mail communication or contacting your account manager.

We may also analyze and act upon your personal and account information as part of our standard business practices. We occasionally purchase from third parties commercial information such as company size, number of employees and annual sales of other companies. We may use this commercial information along with your personal and account information to customize our offerings to you, as well as for our internal use.

In addition, in order to measure how we are doing and to better understand how we can improve our product offerings, we or one of our service providers or strategic partners may contact you by telephone or e-mail and solicit your participation in research.

If you become our customer, we may send you updates on important information about our company and services.

Will my personal and account information be provided to any other party?

We restrict access to your personal and account information to those who need access to use it as set forth in this policy. Only authorized personnel are permitted to see your web-account password. Your other personal and account information may be disclosed to third parties in limited circumstances. For example, we may share your personal and account information with our service providers and strategic partners and with suppliers and other entities involved in transactions you have initiated. We may disclose your personal and account information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process, as required by law, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims. Your personal and account information may also be disclosed in connection with a sale of some or all of our business or a merger with another company.

How do you protect my personal and account information?

We use 128-bit encryption technology and Secure Socket Layers (SSL) in all areas where your personal and account information is required. Our Web site is certified by , which verifies that our Web site is authentic and that we use SSL security. To view our Thawte certificate, click on the image of the closed lock or the solid key at the bottom of your browser window. Our Web site security information will appear.

In addition, your personal and account information and transaction history are kept behind our firewall on our servers.

How can I correct inaccurate information?

You may correct some personal and account information maintained in your web-account through your web-account. To correct other information, please contact your account manager.