The Sherwin-Williams Company Privacy Policy

Your right to privacy is very important. The Sherwin-Williams Company ("Sherwin-Williams") recognizes that when you choose to provide us with information about yourself, you trust us to act responsibly. That's why we have prepared this Privacy Policy to describe the types of personal and non-personal information we collect through our various Web sites (collectively, "Web Sites"), how we use such information, and to whom and under what circumstances we disclose such information. Below is a summary of our Privacy Policy. By using our Web Sites, you signify your assent to this Privacy Policy and to the Web Sites' Terms of Use. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy or our Web Sites' Terms of Use, please do not use our Web Sites.

What information do we collect?

Personal Information
In general, Sherwin-Williams collects personal information from you when you voluntarily provide it to us by (1) registering on any of our Web Sites; (2) signing up to enter a promotion, participate in an event or survey, receive newsletters or other literature; (3) making product, project, or service inquiries; and (4) contacting us (including our webmaster, customer service representatives, or other employees) by e-mail. In connection with these activities, we may collect personal information from you, including, but not limited to, your name, physical address, e-mail address, age, gender, telephone number, fax number, user name and/or password associated with the use of any of our Web Sites or web portal(s), occupation, company name, name of position within company, whether you are a Sherwin-Williams customer, your primary field of expertise, the type of product you are seeking, the type of project you are or will be working on, the time frame for starting your project, where you typically shop for paint and coatings products, the number of paint/coatings products you purchased in the past year, how you heard about Sherwin-Williams, and other demographic information.

Non-personal information
As part of the standard operation of our Web Sites, we may collect/obtain certain non-personal information from you including, but not limited to, your browser type (e.g., Netscape or Internet Explorer), operating system (e.g., Windows or Macintosh), Internet service provider, IP address, web sites visited, and the domain name from which you accessed the Web Sites (e.g., yahoo.com).

In addition, we may collect information about your browsing behavior, such as the date and time you visit our Web Sites, the areas or pages of our Web Sites that you visit, the amount of time spent viewing our Web Sites, the number of times you return to our Web Sites, and other click-stream data. We may use cookies to collect this information, which may be combined with your personal information. A cookie is a small text file that may be stored on the hard drive of your computer which enable us to recognize your computer when you return to our Web Sites.

You are always free to decline cookies, but in doing so you may not be able to use certain features on our Web Sites. The "help" segment of the toolbar on most browsers explains how to configure a browser to not accept new cookies, how to have the browser inform a user when they receive a new cookie, and how to erase cookies from a computer's hard drive.

We may use web beacons to assist us in understanding how visitors to our Web Sites use such sites and/or to collect information regarding users activities on the web. We may utilize the services of a third party to collect such information for us.

How do we use your information?
We may use the information we collect from you for any of the following purposes: (1) to facilitate your use of our Web Sites and better understand your needs; (2) to fulfill your requests for information about certain products, services, and projects; (3) to send you information, promotional materials, and offers from our company as well as from our subsidiaries and affiliates; (4) to contact visitors to our Web Sites when necessary; (5) to help address problems with our Web Sites; (6) to administer our Web Sites; (7) to conduct internal reviews of our Web Sites (e.g., to determine the number of visitors to specific pages within the site); (8) to help us better understand visitors' use of our Web Sites; (9) to protect the security or integrity of our Web Sites; and (10) for such other purposes provided in this Privacy Policy. Non-personal information will be used for these purposes as well to monitor our Web Sites and provide a greater online experience for our visitors.

Will we disclose information we collect from you?
Sherwin-Williams may transfer or otherwise disclose information collected from you to the following entities for the following purposes: (1) to Sherwin-Williams' employees, independent contractors, subsidiaries, affiliates, consultants, business associates, service providers, and suppliers, if the disclosure will enable that entity to perform a business, professional, or technical support function for Sherwin-Williams; (2) to employees, independent contractors, service providers, and suppliers of Sherwin-Williams to fulfill a product or service request; and (3) to respond to judicial process and provide information to law enforcement agencies or in connection with an investigation on matters related to public safety, as permitted by law. In addition, we may disclose such information to our third party marketing or service providers who may use such information in their business operations or who may contact you with information they feel may be useful to you. By browsing any of our Web Sites, you consent to your receipt from us and/or from any of our third party marketing or service providers of information and data we believe may be of interest to you.

Do we collect information from children?
We do not direct our Web Sites to, nor do we knowingly collect any personal information from, children under the age of 13.

Does this Privacy Policy cover practices on third party web sites?
Our Web Sites may contain links to other third party Web sites (such as those of our marketing partners), which may have privacy policies that differ from our own. We are not responsible for the activities and practices that take place on these Web sites. Accordingly, we recommend that you review the privacy policy posted on any Web site that you may access through our Web Sites.

What happens to your information in the event of unforeseen circumstances?
In the event that Sherwin-Williams or any of its assets are acquired by a third party, personal information acquired by us may be one of the assets transferred.

Will there be changes to this Privacy Policy in the future?
We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time. We recommend that you revisit this Privacy Policy periodically to ensure that you are aware of our current privacy practices. Your continued use of our services following any changes signifies your acceptance of these changes.

Can I access my information?
If you would like to access or change any contact information you have provided to us, please contact us.

How can I contact Sherwin-Williams?
If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us.