Privacy Policy
Last Updated: April 3, 2025
At Lee Valley, the information we collect is used to support our operations and help us provide you with a positive experience. Since our business began in 1978, we have never sold the personal information of our customers to others, as those terms are defined under applicable law, and we never will.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you about how Lee Valley Tools Ltd., and its affiliates, subsidiaries, divisions and brands (“Lee Valley,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collect, use and share information collected from you. This Privacy Policy applies to interactions with our customers and visitors of our website. We respect and protect the personal information we collect by:
- Limiting collection, use, disclosure, and retention
- Establishing procedures to receive and respond to inquiries and complaints
- Ensuring accuracy and accountability through staff training
- Safeguarding sensitive information using up-to-date security systems and practices
- Providing choices about how personal information may be used
If you have questions regarding the handling of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer by e-mail at privacy@leevalley.com or in writing at:
1090 Morrison Drive
Ottawa, ON
K2H 1C2
Attn: Privacy Officer
INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We collect and process the following kinds of personal information. The data that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us:
- Personal identifiers and contact information:
We collect names, usernames, purchase history, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and other digital contact information. This information is collected when you engage in a transaction with us and when you register for seminars, surveys, forums, newsletters or other marketing programs.
Payment information:
If you make a purchase or pick up an order, we collect your payment information, including information from your credit or debit card or other payment options, including authentication information. Lee Valley does not store payment card data.
- Internet or other electronic network activity information:
We collect data from your IP address, including location, browser type, operating system, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, connection speed, read time, display time and number of clicks.
- Precise geolocation information:
We collect precise geolocation (aka GPS) data when permitted when you choose to allow it through your mobile device’s operating system and otherwise with your consent, where required.
Certain categories of personal information may be classified as sensitive personal information under applicable data protection laws, depending on the processing circumstances. We will adhere to any applicable data protection requirements in such circumstances.
HOW INFORMATION IS COLLECTED
We collect the personal information set out above:
- Directly from you;
Automatically as you navigate through our website, which may include collecting information using browser cookies, flash cookies and web beacons. Please see the “Cookies” section below for more information about our use of cookies;
From third parties, including publicly available sources, and to the extent permitted by applicable laws. For example, we may collect information you submit to a forum or social network such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or Google, or on a blog or forum.
HOW WE USE INFORMATION
We use information we collect for our business purposes, including:
To process and service your requests
We use your information to process and ship your orders or respond to a request or review, including creating your account. We may also contact you to tell you about issues with a past order, such as a product recall.
If you place an order on our website, you have the option of shopping as a guest or registering with us. To register, you must select a username and password that can be used for subsequent visits, order inquiry purposes, or certain activities that require registration, such as Wish Lists.
To improve our products and services and understand customer interests
We may use your information independently or combined with other information from third-party sources to understand customer interests and improve your shopping experience.
To detect and prevent fraud
We may use your information to protect our company, our customers and our websites.
For marketing and targeted advertising
If you have previously purchased from us or asked to receive marketing materials (such as registering for our seminars, surveys, forums, or newsletters), or if your name was provided to us by another customer, we may send you marketing materials that we believe are relevant to you.
You can opt out of any of our direct marketing activities by changing your Account Preferences on our website, by selecting the Unsubscribe option available on each email that we send, or by contacting us at privacy@leevalley.com.
HOW WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may share your information to third parties for business purposes, including:
Business partners who perform services on our behalf
For example, if you place an order with us, we will provide the information necessary for shipping companies and credit card processing companies to ship and deliver your order and process your payment. We do not provide any more information than is necessary for the function that the third party is performing, and we require that these companies do not use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes, unless required by law. Types of service providers we may use include but are not limited to credit card processing, website hosting, email delivery, location mapping, postal mail processing, delivery services and analytics services.
As required by law
We may be required to disclose information in order to comply with the law. We may disclose such information to a government agency, investigatory body or as otherwise required or permitted under applicable Canadian, U.S., or foreign laws.
Information that you have posted publicly
When you post information on our website or one of our social media platforms, the information you post, including your username, may be seen by other visitors.
HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Your personal information will be retained only for as long as the information is needed to fulfill the purposes for which it is collected and processed or where you withdraw your consent (where applicable). Lee Valley reserves the right to retain and use personal data for as long as necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations and business requirements and/or to resolve any ongoing disputes and enforce our agreements. For the avoidance of doubt, data will not be destroyed before any regulatory retention period expires, or during a pending investigation, whether legal or regulatory.
To support us in managing how long we hold personal data and our record management, we maintain a data retention policy which includes clear guidelines on retention and deletion. We consider the following criteria when determining how long a particular record will be retained, including any personal data contained in that record:
- How long the record is needed to provide you with the products and services you request
- How long the record is needed to support and enhance our operational processes
- How long the record is needed to protect our rights and legal interests
- How long the record must be retained to comply with applicable laws and regulations
The same personal data about you may be included in more than one record and used for more than one purpose, each of which may be subject to different retention periods based on the factors listed above.
PROTECTION OF INFORMATION
We have taken every reasonable precaution to protect our customers' information. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards designed to protect your personal information.
You are responsible for protecting your passwords and maintaining the security of your devices and maintaining the security of your account credentials. Lee Valley treats access to your account through your account credentials as authorized by you.
YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Depending on your state of residency, you may be entitled to the following rights with respect to personal information about you:
- Right to access/know. You have the right to know and request information about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you within the last 12 months, as well as the categories of sources from which such information is collected, the purpose for collecting such information, and the categories of third parties, or specific third parties, depending on your jurisdiction, with whom we share such information.
Right to correct. You have the right to request correction of any inaccurate information we hold about you. We may not be able to accommodate your request if we believe it would violate any law, any legal requirements, or cause the information to be incorrect. Information solely retained for data backup purposes is generally excluded.
Right to delete. You have the right to request the deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
Right to portable data. You have the right to obtain personal information about you in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit the information to another entity without hindrance.
Right to non-discrimination. You have the right to not be discriminated against for exercising any of the above-listed rights.
Right to opt-out of targeted advertising. Depending on your jurisdiction, to the extent we share personal information with for purposes of targeted advertising, you have the right to opt-out.
We do not discriminate against you if you choose to exercise these rights.
Data solely retained for data backup purposes is principally excluded from these rights until it is restored to an active system or next accessed or used for a sale, disclosure, or commercial purpose. These rights also do not apply to pseudonymous data if the information necessary to identify the individual is kept separately and is subject to controls that prevent access to the information. Pseudonymous data is personal data that can no longer be attributed to a specific individual without the use of additional information, if the additional information is kept separately and is subject measures to ensure that personal data is not attributed to the specific individual.
Exercising Your Rights
If you would like to exercise any of the privacy rights outlined above, please call us at 1-800-267-8735 or email us at privacy@leevalley.com.
You also may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. If you are submitting a request through an authorized agent, the authorized agent must provide us with your signed written permission stating that the agent is authorized to make the request on your behalf. Alternatively, your authorized agent may provide evidence of having power of attorney or acting as a conservator for you. We may also request that any authorized agents verify their identity and may reach out to you directly to confirm that you have provided the agent with your permission to submit the request on your behalf.
When you exercise these rights and submit a request to us, we will verify your identity by asking you for the following pieces of information: your relationship with us, first and last name, email address, telephone number, postal address, or account information.
We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will use the personal information you provide to us when submitting a consumer request only to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.
Depending on your jurisdiction, we have 45 days to respond to your request. We may extend this timeline by 45 days for complex cases.
There may be circumstances where we will not be able to honor your request, in which case, we will notify you. For example, if you request deletion, we may need to retain certain personal information to comply with our legal obligations or other permitted purposes. Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to appeal this decision or to contact your Attorney General if you have concerns about the results of the appeal.
Please note that depending on your jurisdiction, we are only obligated to respond, free of cost, to personal information requests from the same consumer up to two times in a 12-month period. Depending on your jurisdiction, after you have exceeded the applicable number of requests, we have the right to charge a reasonable fee for fulfilling the request. In addition, under the applicable state privacy law, and for the protection of your personal information, we may be limited in what personal information we can disclose.
Depending on your jurisdiction, we may maintain your rights requests for at least 2 years. This information will not be used for any other purpose except to review compliance processes; it will not be shared except as necessary to comply with a legal obligation.
California Shine the Light Law
California residents that have an established business relationship with us have the right to know how their personal information is disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes under California’s “Shine the Light” law, or the right to opt out of such practices.
COOKIES
You can manage your cookie preferences through our website.
We collect information about how you use our website by using cookies. A cookie is a small text file, generated by a website that is stored in the website user’s internet browser or computer or mobile device hard drive, on a temporary or permanent basis. Cookies allow a website to identify a user’s device whenever that user returns to the website. This provides the user with a more stable and enriching experience and allows a website owner to gather usage information. You can find more detailed information about cookies and how they work at www.aboutcookies.org/.
You can configure your internet browser preferences to limit the acceptance and storage of cookies, but blocking all cookies may limit your browsing experience on our and other websites.
The cookies we use vary. Some of the cookies we use are necessary to allow users to navigate our website. We also use functional cookies to gather information about user choices such as language, region, or other settings. Information gleaned from these functional cookies is usually anonymized and not used for non-functional purposes.
We use analytical services to determine the effectiveness of our content, what interests our users, and the functionality of our services. We also use web beacons, tracking pixels, and similar technologies to understand more about website visitors and count visitor numbers.
We utilize performance cookies to track how many individual users visit our website and how often they do so.
While the website does generally utilize targeting cookies, which deliver targeted advertising, third-party websites on which we may advertise may use such cookies to track the success of those advertising campaigns. We may use web beacons to decipher which users arrived at our website after viewing an advertisement on such a third-party website. Web beacons may also work in concert with cookies on your device to monitor activity. You cannot block web beacons, and because they are not installed on your device, you cannot remove them.
We may also utilize web beacons and similar tracking technologies to gather information about your interactions with our website. A web beacon is a one-pixel usually transparent electronic image inserted in web content or email messages. It passes information about pages and content viewed by our wesbite users.
DO NOT TRACK SIGNALS
We recognize your use of a universal opt-out mechanism for the purpose of targeted advertising or sale of your personal data. If there is a conflict between the opt-out request received via a universal opt-out mechanism and your existing privacy setting, we will comply with your opt-out preference and notify you of the conflict. The notification will provide you with the option to confirm either the privacy setting or participation in the program.
CHILDREN
Our website is not intended for use by children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 16, without verifiable parental consent. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under the age of 16, we will delete such information from our records. If a parent, guardian, or anyone else becomes aware that we have collected personal information from an individual under the age of 16, please contact us.
LINKS
This website may contain links to other sites. This privacy and security statement applies only to information collected by our website. We are not responsible for the privacy and security practices and policies of these third parties.
NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES
From time to time, we may change our privacy policies. We will post changes on our website so our customers are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We recommend that you check the website regularly for updates to such policies. If we make changes to our policies, we will update the “Last Updated” date.
CONTACT US
If you have additional questions or would like to access, update or correct inaccuracies in your personal information, you can contact us by email, mail or phone.
E-mail: privacy@leevalley.com
U.S. Mail:
Lee Valley Tools Ltd.
Internet Security
P.O. Box 20700
Reno Nevada 89515
Phone: 1-800-267-8735
Fax: 1-800-513-7885
Canada Mail:
Lee Valley Tools Ltd.
Internet Security
P.O. Box 6295, Stn J
Ottawa, ON K2A 1T4
Phone: 1-800-267-8761
Fax: 1-800-668-1807