GENERAL SHALE PRIVACY POLICY

General Shale and its brands and/or subsidiaries, which include Canada Brick, have created this Privacy Policy in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to protecting your personal information. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices relating to our websites. The information you provide on them will not be shared other than as outlined in this privacy policy.

Please carefully read our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions

The Websites

The Websites present information and content that is owned, licensed, or provided by General Shale. The Sites may also include services provided by third parties and distributed through the Sites by virtue of a license, grant or some other form of agreement between the third party and General Shale. When used in this Privacy Policy, “we,” “us” and “our” mean General Shale.

Visiting Our Websites

You can browse our Websites without providing any personal or individually identifiable information. You also may be able to set your browser to reject cookies. If you do that, the Websites may be less functional for you.

There are times when you may choose to give us personally identifiable information about you. For example, you may wish to register to post entries or articles on the Websites, receive e-mails from us, receive invitations, attend events, or preview new content. We need certain information from you to register you, authenticate you, and process your entries, where necessary.

Kinds of Information We Collect

We collect information that you voluntarily give us, as well as site visitor data, on the Websites.

Personally Identifiable Information

In order to utilize certain features of the Websites, you may be asked to provide personally identifiable information such as your e-mail address, name, mailing address, telephone number, or persistent identifier (such as a customer number held in a cookie) which is associated with personally identifiable information, as well as other information, which you may provide voluntarily. We collect such personally identifiable information that you give us so that we may:

• Provide information about General Shale and the Sites;
• Tell you about products and services, and provide information to our third-party marketing partners;
• Notify you about new content and upcoming events, games, tools and other features available on the Sites;
• Respond to your requests for information;
• Process survey results and contest entries;
• Process online purchases and payments you request;
• Filter the products and services we provide;
• Authenticate registered customers; and
• Post your comments and content.

By providing any personally identifiable information to the Websites, you fully understand and unambiguously consent to the collection and processing of such information in the United States of America and in Canada. We will provide you reasonable access to information that you provided through the Websites and the reasonable ability to review and correct it. To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity, such as requiring a password and user ID, before granting access to your data, where applicable.

Site Visitorship Data

Site visitorship data is information about the way a website is used that is not associated with an individual’s identity. We use aggregate anonymous data regarding online behavior to better understand how people use our Websites. To that end, we may use aggregated, anonymous online traffic behavior along with information from third parties to track usage trends and thereby improve our Websites. We may also use this aggregated, anonymous information to develop reports that we may share with third-party marketing partners and customers. The kind of information we may collect includes:

• Your Internet Protocol (IP) address;
• The pages visited on our sites;
• The links clicked on our sites;
• Any products or services you review;
• The features used;
• How long a visitor stays; and
• The domain name of the sites from which visitors connect to our sites and the sites to which visitors connect through our service.

Most Site Visitorship Data is collected using data collection tools such as web beacons, cookies, embedded web links, and other commonly used information-gathering tools. We use Site Visitorship Data to develop, manage, and improve the Websites. Sometimes we may aggregate Site Visitorship Data with personally identifiable information from registered members. We may use that information to:

• Manage the Websites;
• Help resolve problems;
• Analyze use of the sites; and
• Notify you about products or services that we, our third-party marketing partners, and members may offer from time to time.

 

Information Security

We may recommend or require the use of encryption technologies for certain types of communications conducted through the Websites. While we may provide those technologies and use other reasonable precautions to protect confidential information and provide suitable security, we do not guarantee that information transmitted through the Internet is secure, or that such transmissions will be free from delay, interruption, interception or error.

Disclosure of Information

General Shale will not release any personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent except as follows:

• Anyone providing us their personally identifiable information grants General Shale and its affiliates the right to use their information internally without restrictions for the purposes of, but not limited to, research, marketing, and content and lead development.
• General Shale may share information we collect with our third-party marketing partners. If we do so, we will request that they treat this information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, including

the “opt-out” procedures described below, and to refrain from disclosing or using your personally identifiable information for purposes other than for the provision of services to you or for the benefit of General Shale. Our third-party marketing partners may also send you special promotions and offers for related services, at their sole discretion.

We may disclose information collected on the Sites, including personally identifiable information, to third parties as required or permitted by law. For example, we may disclose information:

• To regulators;
• To law enforcement authorities who subpoena it;
• To vendors who provide us with service; or
• To companies that may acquire part or all of an affiliated company.

General Shale is not responsible for the protection of the information you provide to other websites. You should be aware that when you voluntarily disclose personally identifiable information on other websites, such information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited communications.

Communications

From time to time, we may send email to users regarding current projects, special offers, invitations to events, product testing opportunities and updates to the Sites, press releases and announcements concerning the services and products we provide, as well as important changes in our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. By providing us your e-mail address, you consent to receiving such communications via e-mail. If at any time you decide for any reason that you no longer wish to receive such communications, including communications from our third-party marketing partners, you may opt out of receiving them by using one of the following methods:

• Select the e-mail “opt out” or “unsubscribe” link, or follow the opt-out instructions included in each subscription communication.
• Where applicable, return to the Web page(s) where you originally registered your preferences and follow the opt-out instructions.
• Email us. Be sure to provide your name, email and postal address, and specific relevant information about the particular service you no longer wish to receive.

Please be aware that when you opt out of receiving communications, it may affect the services you have chosen to receive from us where accepting the communications is a condition of receiving the services.

Hyperlinks and Referrals

Websites accessible via our Websites (through hyperlinks, banner advertisements or otherwise) have their own privacy policies and data collection, use and disclosure practices. Please consult each site’s Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy prior to use. When you click on a hyperlink, sponsored link or banner advertisement, a new browser window or frame containing a third party’s website may appear in the foreground with a General Shale Website remaining in the background. Any time that you have moved to a new window or frame containing a third party’s website, you will no longer be on the General Shale Website, and are no longer protected by this Privacy Policy or our Terms and Conditions.

Do-Not-Track

We support Do Not Track browser settings. Do Not Track (or DNT) is a preference you can set in your browser to let the websites you visit know that you do not want them collecting certain information about you.

For more details about Do Not Track, including how to enable or disable this preference, visit this Do Not Track webpage.

Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly collect or distribute personally identifiable information from minor children. If you are the parent or guardian of a minor child and believe that they have disclosed personally identifiable information to us, please contact us by email so that we may delete the minor’s information. You can learn more about children’s privacy and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) at the Federal Trade Commission’s website at: http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/privacyinitiatives/childrens.html

Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents (PIPEDA)

Canada Brick is committed to protecting the personal information that is gathered via the internet and paper forms. Canada’s PIPEDA, or the Personal Protection and Electronic Documents Act, addresses the way organizations collect, use and manage personal information. Personal information may be defined as “any factual or subjective information, recorded or not, about an identifiable individual”. For more information about PIPEDA, go to http://www.priv.gc.ca/leg_c/leg_c_p_e.asp.

Safe Harbor Data Privacy Notice

The United States Department of Commerce and the European Commission have agreed on a set of data protection principles and frequently asked questions (the “Safe Harbor Principles”) to enable U.S. companies to satisfy the requirement under European Union law that adequate protection be given to personal information transferred from the EU to the United States. General Shale adheres to the Safe Harbor Principles with respect to personally identifiable information it receives from the European Union.

This notice outlines our general policy and practices in compliance with the Safe Harbor Principles, including the type of information to which this notice applies, how we use information, and your choices regarding our use of, and your ability to correct, your personally identifiable information. For purposes of this notice, “personally identifiable information” includes information (a) transferred from the European Union to the United States; (b) recorded in any form by us; and (c) pertaining to a specific individual who is identified in, or is identifiable from, the data. This notice applies to all personally identifiable information we handle, including online (except as noted below), off-line and manually processed data. If there is any conflict between this Privacy Policy and the Safe Harbor Principles, the Safe Harbor Principles will govern.

Disclosure

The privacy principles in this policy are based on the Safe Harbor Principles. General Shale will not disclose personally identifiable information in any manner that is inconsistent with this policy.

Notice and Choice

We obtain personal information only as permitted by the Safe Harbor Principles or with the consent of the individual affected. We may ask for your consent to collect, use and/or disclose personal information in certain ways, and you may be required to give your consent in order to use the website or our services. Individuals will be provided clear and conspicuous, readily available, and affordable mechanisms to exercise choice. To the extent permitted under the Safe Harbor Principles, we reserve the right to process personal information in the course of providing services through the Website without the knowledge of individuals involved.

Transfers

General Shale will obtain assurances from its agents that they will safeguard personal information consistently with this Privacy Policy. If General Shale learns that an agent is using or disclosing personal

information in a manner contrary to this Privacy Policy, General Shale will take reasonable steps to prevent or stop the use or disclosure. Transfers of information permitted under this notice, either to third parties or within General Shale, may include the transfer of data from one jurisdiction to another, such as transfers to and from the United States of America and Canada.

Security & Enforcement

General Shale will take reasonable precautions to protect personal information in its possession from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction, and it will conduct compliance audits of its relevant privacy practices to verify adherence to this Privacy Policy. Any questions or concerns regarding the use or disclosure of personal information should be directed to General Shale at the address given below. General Shale will investigate and attempt to resolve complaints and disputes regarding use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with the principles contained in this Policy. For complaints that cannot be resolved between the Company and the complainant, the Company has agreed to participate in the dispute resolution procedures of the American Arbitration Association to resolve disputes pursuant to the Safe Harbor Principles.

Business Transfers

Information about General Shale’s users, including personal information, may be disclosed as part of any merger, acquisition, sale of company assets, or transition of service to another provider, as well as in the unlikely event of insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which personal information would be transferred as one of the business assets of the company.

Effective Date

This Privacy Policy is effective as of Nov. 30, 2013. We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. If we change it, we will post the then-current Privacy Policy on this page. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective as of the day they are posted.

General Shale
P.O. Box 3547
Johnson City, TN 37602 1-800-414-4661
www.generalshale.com

Michigan Brick
Johnson City, TN 37602 1-800-414-4661
Michiganbrick.com