Privacy Policy
Flowers Foods, Inc., its subsidiaries and affiliates, and their employees, officers, directors, and agents (collectively, “Flowers Foods”, “we”, “our” or “us”) understands the importance of maintaining the confidentiality and security of your information and seeks to secure your privacy during your visit to our web sites that include, but are not limited to, www.flowersfoods.com, www.tastykake.com, www.naturesownbread.com, www.mrsfreshleys.com, www.cobblestonemill.com, www.holsumaz.com, www.naturesowndistributors.com and www.derst.com (collectively, “our web sites”). This privacy policy outlines our practices for collection, use, and disclosure of your information that you provide to us and when you use our web sites. By using our web sites, you consent to the procedures and practices discussed in this policy. We may, from time to time, change this privacy policy, so please check it regularly for any changes or updates. The most recent version of this privacy policy is reflected by the version date located at the bottom of this privacy policy.
Key Terms
Throughout this privacy policy, we use several specialized terms. When we use the term “Personally Identifiable Information” in this privacy policy, we mean information that is specific to you as an individual, like your name, postal address, email address, or telephone number. The term “User Information” incorporates all of your Personally Identifiable Information and any other forms of information discussed in this privacy policy. We use the term “aggregate” when we combine information from various persons or users. Information is said to be “anonymized” if it does not identify individual persons or entities, or associate a particular person or entity with such information.
Our Information Collection, Use, and Disclosure Practices
When you visit our web sites to browse, we may collect, use, and store information such as the type of operating system, computer modem, and Internet browser you are using, the number of times you visit our web sites, the particular pages you view, the date and time you access our web sites, and the length of your visits to our web sites. We may use this information to improve our web sites and user experience, and we may share this information with third parties if we choose to aggregate and disclose site traffic information for marketing or commercial purposes.
When you visit our web sites to browse, you may choose certain on-line options such as (i) obtaining information about us or our products or services; (ii) completing our on-line resume form; (iii) contacting us; (iv) entering a contest or sweepstakes; or (v) signing up for various investor services. When you engage in any of the foregoing activities, or use any other features or services of our web sites, you may provide us certain Personally Identifiable Information. We collect and store this Personally Identifiable Information, any updates to such information that you send us, and any modifications that we make to such information. Except as set forth in this policy, we will not reveal any such Personally Identifiable Information to any other third party without your consent, except that we may share User Information with our business associates who assist us in administering our products, services, or web sites. Except as set forth in this policy, we will not use, disclose, or transfer your User Information unless (1) you expressly authorize us to do so; (2) it is necessary to allow our service providers or agents to provide services for us, (3) it is necessary in order to provide our products or services to you (and contacting you when necessary), (4) we are sending you other information that may be useful to you, (5) subject to applicable contractual or legal restrictions, it is disclosed to entities that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other entities with whom we have joint marketing agreements, (6) it is necessary to protect the confidentiality or security of your records, (7) subject to applicable contractual or legal restrictions, it is necessary in connection with a sale of all or substantially all of the assets of Flowers Foods or the merger of Flowers Foods into another entity or any consolidation, share exchange, combination, reorganization, or like transaction in which Flowers Foods is not the survivor, (8) it is necessary in connection with other business purposes including, without limitation, customer care, service quality, business management and operation, risk assessment, security, fraud and crime prevention/detection, monitoring, research and analysis, marketing, customer purchasing preferences and trends and dispute resolution, (9) it is necessary to comply with law enforcement, governmental mandate, or other legal requirement, if appropriate, for your protection or in connection with an investigation or prosecution of possible unlawful activity; (10) it is necessary for us to provide it to our attorneys, accountants, regulators, auditors or other advisors; or (11) it is otherwise necessary for us to disclose it as required or permitted by law.
In addition, any anonymized information that you send us, such as your questions, suggestions, information, ideas, or other creative material (“Feedback”) belongs to us and will not be treated as confidential. You acknowledge and agree that we may use, reproduce, adapt, distribute, display, disclose, or create derivative works from Feedback without acknowledgement or compensation to you.
We use various web site analytics tools and technologies regarding activities on our web sites that require storage of web session data. The overall aim of these tools is to aid in making our web sites easy to use, to proactively identify and correct error conditions and to provide more relevant advertising and content to you. These tools and technologies are also used to assist web site visitors who report problems in the use of our web sites. Stored web session data is used in accordance with this privacy policy.
Cookies and Web Beacons
We may employ cookies (i.e., small text files) that our web sites may send to your browser for storage on your hard drive. We may use such cookies to make use of our web sites easier by saving your status and preferences upon visits to our web sites. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies, but you may be able to change the settings to refuse cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. We may also employ web beacons, or site instrumentation, to monitor the behavior and visitors to our web sites and activity of our web sites, such as the number of visitors to our web sites.
We may also employ third party service providers to place and administer such cookies and web beacons on our web sites. Such third parties may also collect your anonymized information and perform web site analytics as described in this privacy policy. We may reproduce work product created by such third parties based upon web analytics data or other similar data collected from visitors to our web sites in order to facilitate the serving of data or content in connection with providing you with more relevant advertising and content.
Opting Out
We may use anonymized information to provide more relevant advertising and content to you. If you’d like to stop our web sites from collecting certain types of information that could be used to provide you with more tailored online ads and messages, then you may contact Flowers Foods Customer Service here. If you delete your cookies, install a new browser or use a different computer, you will need to send us a new opt out request.
Revise Your Information
If you use our products, services, or web sites, then you have voluntarily consented to our practices and procedures regarding your information as described in this privacy policy, our web sites´ Terms and Conditions of Use, and other written documentation that may be provided to you regarding our products, services, or web sites. If you do not want us to use your information as described herein, or would either like to modify your information, or remove your information from our databases for marketing purposes, then please send an email to the Flowers Foods Webmaster. Without the use of your information, however, we may not be able to provide you the products, services, or information you request. We will promptly comply with your information revision requests, but may retain copies of such information as necessary for us to comply with governmental orders, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, enforce any agreement you have entered into with us, and as otherwise reasonably necessary for our business purposes.
Contests, Sweepstakes and Other Promotions
On our web sites, you may wish to participate in contests, sweepstakes and other promotions that we may offer from time to time. Through these promotions, you may choose to participate in activities such as sharing information found on our web sites with others and sending e-mail invitations. In connection with any contests, sweepstakes and other promotions that we may offer from time to time via our web sites, we use the information you provide to administer the contests, sweepstakes and other promotions. Subject to applicable contractual or legal restrictions, we also may use the information to communicate with you, or the other people you select, about our products and services or our partners may use such information to communicate with you about the contests, sweepstakes or other promotions or their products and services. If you choose to participate in these promotions, and are eligible to do so, we may ask you for information such as your name, e-mail address, date of birth and telephone number.
Social Media Platforms and Web sites
Any information, communications, or material of any type or nature that you submit to our web sites (including, but not limited to any of our pages contained on a social media platform or web site such as Facebook or Twitter) by e-mail, posting, messaging, uploading, downloading, or otherwise (collectively, a “Submission”), is done at your own risk and without any expectation of privacy. We cannot control the actions of other users of any social media platform or web site and we are therefore not responsible for any content or Submissions contained on such sites and platforms. By visiting any of our pages or web sites that are contained on a social media platform or web site, you are representing and warranting to us that you have reviewed the applicable privacy policy and terms of use of such platform or web site and that you will abide by all such provisions contained therein.
Additionally, in the event that we offer a message board or any other interactive or social-type feature on a web site administered directly by us, please be aware that these areas may allow you to publicly post, and share with other users, certain messages, content, or other information (e.g., stories, pictures, ingredients, tips, etc.). Although we may take certain precautions to protect those who use these areas of one of our web sites, we encourage you to be wary of giving out any Personally Identifiable Information in such public forums. The information you post can be collected and used by people you don’t know. We cannot guarantee the privacy and safety of these areas and are therefore not responsible for any information you choose to post. Your use of these features is fully at your own risk.
We appreciate your questions and comments about our web sites and services and welcome your e-mail messages to mailboxes listed on our web sites including e-mails provided to our customer hotline. We will share your e-mail messages with those within our organization who are most capable of addressing the issues contained in your message. We may archive your message for a certain period of time or discard it, but your e-mail address and e-mail will only be used in accordance with this privacy policy.
Promotional E-mails
We may send you e-mails with promotional offers only if you opt-in to receiving such e-mails. If you would no longer like to receive e-mailed special event information, sales notifications or other messages from us, please send an e-mail to the Flowers Foods Webmaster or follow the “Unsubscribe” instructions on such e-mails. Your e-mail address will be removed from our marketing list. Please allow us a reasonable period of time in order to satisfy your request, as some promotions may already be in process.
Security
We employ and maintain technology and security measures designed to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information on our web sites, that information is subject to a variety of protections, including firewalls and password protected features for certain web site options. However, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed as 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or receive from us.
Third Party Web Sites
You may have the option to enter third party web sites through our web sites, or you may have the option to enter our web sites from another third party web site. Since we cannot be assured that such third party web sites follow our privacy policies, we encourage you to ask questions and review the privacy policies of these third parties. We have no responsibility or liability for the actions or policies of these independent sites, do not endorse any product or service that may be mentioned or offered in such sites, and are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such sites.
Children’s Privacy
We are sensitive to privacy issues and look to protect your child’s information. We also strive to be fully compliant with the Children´s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We strongly encourage parents and guardians to regularly monitor and supervise their children’s online activities. We do not knowingly collect Personally Identifiable Information from children under 13 on our web sites without first obtaining verifiable consent from the child´s parent or guardian. Some of our sweepstakes will collect e-mail addresses only without requesting the age of the entrants. All winners will be requested to provide their age. If your child under 13 is a winner, we will contact your child one time by e-mail to request that you or your child provide by mail the information we need for prize fulfillment purposes.
We do not require your child to provide more Personally Identifiable Information than is reasonably necessary to participate in an activity.
Please also note that we do not offer activities that require the ongoing collection and use of Personally Identifiable Information provided by children, so we will seek your permission each time we need to collect Personally Identifiable Information from your child.
If you would like to review Personally Identifiable Information about your child that we have on file, or request that certain information be changed or deleted, please send an e-mail to the Flowers Foods Webmaster.
NOTICE: Visit www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0031-protecting-your-childs-privacy-online for information from the Federal Trade Commission about protecting children´s privacy on-line.
If a child under the age of 13 has provided Personally Identifiable Information on one of our web sites without the consent of his or her parent or guardian, we ask that a parent or guardian send an e-mail to the Flowers Foods Webmaster, and we will delete the child´s Personally Identifiable Information from our files.
Special Statement for Job Applicants
Any Personally Identifiable Information you provide to us when applying for a career position with one of our companies will be used solely to consider and act upon your application. We may retain your Personally Identifiable Information for a period of time, but only for as long as necessary for such purposes or as otherwise required by law. We may disclose your Personally Identifiable Information to our agents for the purpose of evaluating your qualifications for the particular position you applied for, for other available positions or as otherwise required by law. We may also disclose your Personally Identifiable Information to third parties hired by us to collect, maintain, and analyze candidates for career positions or as otherwise required by law.
Visiting our Web sites from Outside of the United States
If you are visiting our web sites from outside of the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored or processed in the United States, where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country, but please be assured that we take steps to protect your privacy. By using our web sites, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this privacy policy.
Your California Privacy Rights
Under California Law, California residents have the right to request in writing from businesses with whom they have an established business relationship, (a) a list of the categories of Personally Identifiable Information, such as name, e-mail and mailing address and the type of services provided to the customer, that a business has disclosed to third parties (including affiliates that are separate legal entities) during the immediately preceding calendar year for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes and (b) the names and addresses of all such third parties. To request the above information, please contact Flowers Foods Customer Service here or write to us at (with a reference to California Disclosure Information):
Flowers Foods, Inc.
Attn: Counsel
1919 Flowers Circle
Thomasville, GA 31757
We will respond to such requests to information access within 30 days following receipt at the e-mail or mailing address stated above. If we receive your request at a different e-mail or mailing address, we will respond within a reasonable period of time, but not to exceed 150 days from the date received. Please note that we are only required to respond to each customer once per calendar year.
California law provides that California residents are entitled to know how the site responds to “Do Not Track” browser settings. Like many other websites and online services, our site does not currently alter its practices when it receives Do Not Track signals because there is no consensus among industry participants as to what “Do Not Track” means in this context. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” you may wish to visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com. In addition, California residents are entitled to know that third parties may collect personal information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you visit the site. To opt out of receiving targeted advertising, you can go to www.aboutads.info.
Contact Us
If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, then you may contact Flowers Foods Customer Service here.
This document was last updated on October 28, 2015.