BOC U.S.A.’s California Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy for California Residents (“California Privacy Policy”) supplements the information contained in the BOC U.S.A.’s. Privacy Policy, described above, and it applies solely to all individuals who are California Residents, which includes Customers, visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California. BOC U.S.A. adopts this California Privacy Policy to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 and implementing regulations. Any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this California Privacy Policy. If you are a resident of California, the CCPA provides you with rights regarding your Personal Information. This California Privacy Policy describes the categories of Personal Information we collect about you, how we use and disclose it, and how you can exercise your privacy rights under the CCPA. Unless we otherwise agree in writing, this California Privacy Policy applies to Personal Information we collect from California Residents, including when they visit any page of this Website, including any material made available for download. 

By accessing or using this Website, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be legally bound by and comply with this California Privacy Policy, the BOC U.S.A. Privacy Policy, and this Websites Terms and Conditions of Use. If any of the terms or conditions in this California Privacy Policy are unacceptable to you, please do not use this Website or provide BOC U.S.A. any Personal Information as defined in this California Privacy Policy.

Information We Collect About You

In the course of our business, BOC U.S.A. collects information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer, household, or device (collectively, “Personal Information”).  Depending on how you have interacted with us, we may have collected certain information within the following categories of Personal Information from you in the last twelve (12) months. The categories below are those identified in the CCPA. Please note that we have not collected every type of Personal Information identified in the examples below, and the categories of Personal Information we collect may vary for each California Resident.

In the last twelve (12) months, we may have collected the following categories of Personal Information about you marked ‘YES’ under column ‘Collected’:

Categories of Sources from which BOC U.S.A. Collects Personal Information

BOC U.S.A. collects this Personal Information: (a) directly from you when you provide it to us online (on this Website and in our mobile application); (b) over the phone, or in one of our branches; (c) automatically as you navigate through and use this Website (e.g., using cookies and similar tracking technologies); (d) from third party sources to help us provide our Products and Services (such as credit reporting agencies); or (e)  in limited circumstances, when you provide it to one of our affiliates.

Your privacy rights under the CCPA do not apply to all information that we might collect, use, or disclose. For example, the CCPA does not apply to publicly available information from government records, de-identified or aggregated consumer information, and personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the California Financial Information Privacy Act. The CCPA also excludes other categories of information. When we collect, use, or disclose information not covered by the CCPA, we do so as described in the BOC U.S.A. Privacy Policy.

Use of Personal Information

BOC U.S.A. uses your Personal Information to provide our Products and Services, and to accomplish our business purposes and objectives. To that end, Personal Information may be used:

• To perform services, including maintaining or servicing accounts, providing Customer service, processing or fulfilling orders and transactions, verifying Customer information, processing payments, providing financing, providing advertising or marketing services, providing analytic services, or providing similar services.
• To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information. For example, if you provide your Personal Information to purchase Products and Services, we will use that information to process your payment and facilitate delivery of the Products and Services. We may also save your Personal Information to facilitate new Products and Services purchases.
• To provide you with support and to respond to your inquiries, including to investigate and address your concerns and monitor and improve our responses.
• To personalize your Website experience and to deliver content and Products and Services offerings relevant to your interests, including targeted offers and ads through our Website, third-party sites, and via email or text message (with your consent, where required by law).
• To detect security incidents, to protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and to prosecute those responsible for that activity.
• To conduct health and safety assessments and record keeping; and compliance with related legal obligations.
• To undertake activities to verify or maintain the quality or safety of Products and Services controlled by us, and to improve, upgrade, or enhance the Products and Services controlled by the business.
• To debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
• To undertake internal research for technological development and demonstration.
• To comply with laws, regulations, and other legal process and law enforcement requirements (including any internal policy based on or reflecting legal or regulatory guidance, codes, or opinions).
• To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
• To establish, exercise, or defend legal rights in legal proceedings.
• To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information held by us about our Website users is among the assets transferred.

BOC U.S.A. does not share the non-public personal information of current or former Customers with anyone except as permitted or required by law. In the last twelve (12) months, we have disclosed only when necessary certain categories of information set out below to third parties for a business or operational purpose:

Categories of Third Parties with Whom BOC U.S.A. Shares Personal Information 

Identifiers

• Service providers who provide professional or technical support functions, such as external auditors, law firms or analytic providers; and
• Law enforcement agencies (only when required by law).

California Customer Records Personal Information

• Service providers who provide professional or technical support functions, such as external auditors, law firms or analytic providers; and
• Law enforcement agencies (only when required by law).

Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law

• Service providers who provide professional or technical support functions, such as external auditors, law firms or analytic providers; and
• Law enforcement agencies (only when required by law).

Commercial information

• Service providers who provide professional or technical support functions, such as external auditors, law firms or analytic providers; and
• Law enforcement agencies (only when required by law).

Internet or other similar network activity

• Service providers who provide professional or technical support functions, such as external auditors, law firms or analytic providers; and
• Law enforcement agencies (only when required by law).

Geolocation data

• Service providers who provide professional or technical support functions, such as external auditors, law firms or analytic providers; and
• Law enforcement agencies (only when required by law). 

Professional or employment-related information

• Service providers who provide professional or technical support functions, such as external auditors, law firms or analytic providers.

Non-public education information

• Service providers who provide professional or technical support functions, such as external auditors, law firms or analytic providers.

Inferences drawn from other personal information

• Service providers who provide professional or technical support functions, such as external auditors, law firms or analytic providers; and
• Law enforcement agencies (only when required by law).

BOC U.S.A. does not sell your Personal Information. 

California Resident Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights:

Right to Know: You have the right to request that we provide certain information to you about our collection and use of your Personal Information over the past twelve (12) months. Upon verifying your identity, we will provide you: (a) with the specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you, subject to certain exceptions under applicable law; (b) the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you and purposes for doing so; (c) the categories of sources of that data; (d) the categories of third parties with whom we shared it for a business purpose and our purposes for doing so; and (e) the categories of third parties to whom we sold Personal Information and our purposes for doing so. 

Right to Deletion: You have the right to request that we delete the Personal Information we collect and maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will conduct a reasonable search of our records in order to locate any Personal Information we have collected about you that is eligible for deletion, and delete such Personal Information. To the extent we have shared any Personal Information collected about you with service providers that is eligible for deletion, we will direct those service providers to delete that Personal Information as well. We are not required to delete any Personal Information we have collected about you that is necessary for us and our service provider(s) to:

• Complete the transaction for which the Personal Information was collected, fulfill the terms of a written warranty or Products and Services recalls conducted in accordance with federal law, provide a good or service requested by you, or reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform a contract between BOC U.S.A. and you.
• Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
• Debug Products and Services to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
• Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act pursuant to Chapter 3.6 (commencing with Section 1546) of Title 12 of Part 2 of the Penal Code.
• Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when our deletion of the information is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of such research, if you have provided informed consent.
• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with your expectations based on your relationship with us.
• Comply with a legal obligation, such as retaining records for a period of time as set out in local, state, or federal laws. For example, we are generally required by applicable law to retain records for a period of 7 years, which under certain circumstances may be extended.
• Otherwise use your Personal Information, internally, in a lawful manner that is compatible with the context in which you provided your information.

Following a deletion request, any Personal Information about you that was not deleted from our systems due to the above exceptions will only be used for the purposes provided for by the applicable exceptions. Thus, all Personal Information about you that is not subject to a deletion exception will either be (a) permanently deleted on our existing systems (with the exception of archived or back-up systems maintained for emergency disaster recovery and business continuity purposes); (b) de-identified; or (c) aggregated so as to not be personal to you. 

Right to Opt-out of the Sale: Under the CCPA, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your Personal Information; however, BOC U.S.A. does not sell your Personal Information.

Right to Non-Discrimination: BOC U.S.A. will not  discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights under the CCPA or applicable law, including discrimination in the form of: (a) denying you goods or services; (b) charging you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties; (c)  providing you a different level of quality of goods or services; or (d) suggesting that you will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level of quality of goods or services.

How to Exercise Your Privacy Rights

To submit “Right to Know” and “Right to Deletion” requests, e-mail us at [email protected] or click here [RPJ1] to fill out a request form. To process these requests, we must verify your identity and confirm the Personal Information relates to you. To do so, we collect your name, e-mail address, phone number to verify your identity. We also may contact you by e-mail or by telephone to verify your identity and ask you additional questions so that we can match your identity with the data we have about you. In some instances, we may ask you to declare under penalty of perjury that you are the California Resident whose Personal Information is the subject of the request.

However, inquiries and requests should not include sensitive personnel information, such as account numbers, SSN and passwords, unless and until BOC U.S.A. provides you with separate instructions for transmitting that information to BOC U.S.A.

You also may designate an authorized agent to make a request for you. To use an authorized agent, you or your authorized agent must:

• Submit proof that the authorized agent is registered with the California Secretary of State and that you have authorized that agent to act on your behalf;
• Submit evidence that you have provided the authorized agent with power of attorney pursuant to the California Probate Code; or
• Provide the authorized agent written and signed permission to act on your behalf, verify your identity with us, and directly confirm with us that you have provided the authorized agent permission to submit the request.

We may deny a request from an authorized agent who does not submit sufficient proof to act on your behalf.

Response Timing and Format

BOC U.S.A. will make our best effort to respond to a verifiable request by a California Resident within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to an additional 45 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. Within ten (10) days of receiving the request, we will confirm receipt and provide information about its verification and processing of the request. We will maintain records of consumer requests made pursuant to the CCPA as well as our response to said requests for a period of at least twenty-four (24) months.

We will deliver our written response electronically, at the email you provided us when you submitted your request. Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding our receipt of your request. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your Personal Information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

Non-Discrimination and Non-Retaliation Policy 

BOC U.S.A. will not unlawfully discriminate or retaliate against you for exercising your rights under the California Privacy Rights Act. 

Changes to Our Privacy Policy for California Residents

BOC U.S.A. reserves the right to amend this California Privacy Policy at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this California Privacy Policy, we will post the updated notice on this Website and update the notice's effective date. Your continued use of this Website following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.

Other California Privacy Rights

In addition to your rights under the CCPA, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request information regarding our disclosure, if any, of their Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. If this applies, you may obtain the categories of Personal Information shared and the names and addresses of all third parties that received Personal Information for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately prior calendar. To make such a request, please send an email to [email protected]. Please provide sufficient information for us to determine if this applies to you, attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for our response.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns with this Policy, you may contact BOC U.S.A. by making an inquiry at [email protected]. However, inquiries should not include sensitive personal  information, such as account numbers, SSN and passwords, unless and until BOC U.S.A. provides you with separate instructions for transmitting that information to BOC U.S.A.

California Privacy Policy last updated: April 8, 2024.