US Privacy Notice

Last Updated: August 2023.

1       PURPOSE OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

This US Privacy Notice (“Privacy Notice”) sets out how Portland Inc. (“we”, “us” or “our”) processes your personal information in connection with our business, including the provision of our website at https://portland-communications.com/(“Site”) and the services we offer (“Services”).

In particular, this Privacy Notice explains our approach to any personal information that we might collect from you (i) when you use our Site or Services (ii) during any other interactions with us, or (iii) which we might otherwise process when providing Services to our clients (including the personal information we collect, why we collected it and your rights in respect of our processing of your personal information).

This Privacy Notice is intended to assist you in making informed decisions when using the Site and our Services. Please take a moment to read and understand this Privacy Notice. It is intended to be read in conjunction with our Terms of Use.

This Privacy Notice applies to the processing of personal information by Portland PR Inc. in the United States.

If you are a California consumer and would like information about our online and offline privacy practices and your privacy rights, please see the section of this Privacy Policy called “California Consumer Privacy Statement”.

Where the GDPR applies to our processing of personal data, please see our EU/UK Privacy Notice.

2       SCOPE OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

This Privacy Notice only applies to the use of your personal information obtained by us, whether from you directly or from a third party. It does not apply to personal information collected by third parties during your communications with those third parties or your use of their products or services (for example, where you follow links on our Site to third party websites over which we have no control).

3       CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We will update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect any changes or proposed changes to our use of your personal information, or to comply with changes in applicable law or regulatory requirements. We may notify you by email of any significant changes to this Privacy Notice, but we encourage you to review this Privacy Notice periodically to keep up to date on how we use your personal information. If we update this Privacy Notice, we will update the effective date at the top of the page.

4       ABOUT US

Portland Inc. are a US corporation with a registered office at CSC, 251 Little Falls Drive, Wilmington, New Castle, DE 19808, United States

5       HOW TO CONTACT US

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or want to exercise your rights as set out in this Privacy Notice, you can contact us using the following methods:

Email: Send us an email at: [email protected]

Post: Write to us at: Portland Inc., CSC, 251 Little Falls Drive, Wilmington, New Castle, DE 19808, United States.

6       TYPE OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT/PROCESS

When we talk about information we mean any information which relates to an identified or identifiable living individual. Individuals might be identified by reference to a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier (such as an IP address) or to other factors that are specific to them, such as their physical appearance. Categories of information we may collect and process about you include:

For more information about the information we collect please refer to the ‘How we use information’ section.

7       HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION

We may collect and receive your information using different methods:

8       WHO WE COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT

We collect and process information from the following people:

9       HOW WE USE INFORMATION

A: OPERATION OF SITE, PROVISION OF SERVICES AND MARKETING

I. Operation of the Site

If you browse our Site

When you browse our Site, we may process Technical Data, including through our use of essential cookies and other similar technologies, to provide our Site to you.  

If you link to social media sites and interact with our social media pages

If you click on one of the social media links on our Site or otherwise interact with our social media pages such as on Facebook or Instagram (including interacting with any ‘like’ or similar embedded features on our Site), we and the relevant social media platform may receive information relating to such interaction and may share your information in connection with this purpose. Where that data is collected through your use of our Site, the data may include certain Behavioural Data and Technical Data. For more information about how we use this information, please see the ‘Website insight and analysis’section.

The relevant social media platform may also be a controller in respect of the information that is collected via your use of our social media pages and may use that information for additional purposes. For details of how the relevant social media platform uses your information, please see the privacy notice of the relevant social media platform.

Website insight and analysis

We and our third-party partners use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags and other similar technologies (which we generically refer to as “Cookies”) to collect data from the devices that you use to access our Site. The data that is collected includes Behavioural Data and Technical Data, and certain Profile Data. Please see our Cookie Notice for further information, including details of our third-party partners.

We and our third-party partners use this data to analyse how you use our Site and our Services and the effectiveness of our Site and Services, including:

• to analyse how you use, and the effectiveness of, our Site and Services;
• to improve our Site and Services;
• to count users who have visited our Site and collect other types of information, including insights about visitor browsing habits, which helps us to improve our Site and Services;
• to measure the effectiveness of our content;
• to learn what parts of our Site are most attractive to our users, which parts of our Site are the most interesting and what kind of features and functionalities our visitors like to see;
• to help us understand the type of marketing content that is most likely to appeal to our visitors and customers.

II. Provision of our Services

Client administration.

We may collect information about our client and potential client contacts to enable us to respond to client requests, to administer client accounts with us, to conduct credit checks (if permitted by applicable law), and to verify and carry out financial transactions for payments made to us. The data that is processed includes Identity Data and Contact Data, and certain Transaction Data.

Market research and focus groups.

As part of our Service to our clients, we may collect an individual’s data including Identity Data, Contact Data, Profile Data, Image Data, records of communications, and opinion data for the purposes of carrying out market research through focus groups, interviews and user testing. We may do this on behalf of our clients or for our own purpose.

Media monitoring.

As part of our service to our clients, we may monitor media sites (including social media sites) and collect information about individuals (including Identity Data, Contact Data, Profile Data and Publicly Available Data) from these sites directly or using a third party social listening provider including their opinions on how a particular client campaign was received or a client offering or on a topic that is relevant to our client more generally.

Campaign reporting.

As part of our Service to our clients, we may collect information about individuals through third party providers or directly from the individual or through social media or other media outlets such as their Contact Data, Publicly Available Data and opinions on how a particular client campaign was received or other feedback they may have about a campaign or a client offering.

Surveys and voting.

We may collect information from individuals (including Identity Data and certain Profile Data) via surveys or voting polls for the purposes of obtaining feedback on our own or our clients’ products and surveys. Participation in such polls is voluntary and individuals will have the opportunity to decide whether or not to disclose information. Certain information such as Contact Data may be required to register to vote or to take part in a survey. We would only use that information to report the results of the survey or vote.

Industry Mapping.

We collect, and maintain data bases containing, information about journalists, talent, social media influencers, social media users and other professionals in the public relations, news or media industry collected by us or by our trusted third party media analytics service providers. Such information may include an individual Identity Data, Contact Data, professional interests and affiliations. This information may be information that is voluntarily supplied to us by those individuals through our Site or in other situations (such as public speaking events), or information that is public or available in third party databases or via third party content platforms (including social media platforms). Further we may collect and/or review other publicly available news stories and other journalistic content including content made available through public news sites and social media sites to understand what people are saying about us and our clients. We use this Publicly Available Data to provide our Services to our clients including ensuring we and our clients are fully up to speed on public opinion in any particular area and are fully briefed when it comes to dealing with the press. We may also use this information to contact those individuals to discuss our clients’ goods and services. We may also use this information for our own internal administrative and promotional purposes.

Social media.

We may collect or process individuals’ information (Identity Data, Contact Data and certain Profile Data and Publicly Available Data) who engage with us through our social media channels (including by visiting our social media pages or otherwise communicating with us via social media). We may also operate our client’s social media pages, accounts or channels acting on their behalf.

Interactive areas and fan pages.

We may provide interactive areas, such as message boards, fan pages, chat rooms or other forums or other closed communities. Participation in these areas by users is voluntary. We may provide these interactive areas (including fan pages) in conjunction with third parties such as Facebook or other social media platforms. Although we discourage individuals from submitting any information that may identify them personally when participating in these areas, we may inevitably process their information in connection with these interactive areas.

Events.

From time to time, we may organise and host road shows and other industry events to promote our Services or on behalf of clients. For this purpose we may process data including Identity Data and Contact Data (including email address, postal address and telephone number) to communicate with them about such events where they have specifically requested information about such events or where we have another lawful basis for sending that information to them.

If you attend one of our events, we may use your Identity Data and Contact Data to record your attendance at the event and for related record-keeping purposes and, if relevant, we may collect and process certain Profile Data including any dietary or other requirements you may have. You may also feature in photographs taken at our events and such photographs may appear in publications we send to our clients and/or publish on our Site, in print or other media.

III. Marketing and Media Enquires

Marketing.

We may use your Identity Data, Contact Data and Marketing and Communications Data to send you (or the organisation you represent) marketing communications by email or via phone. Our marketing will include press releases and information about us.

Media and informational inquiries.

We may collect information (including Identity Data, Contact Data and Publicly Available Data) about journalists, client contacts or industry contacts for interview requests, for media questions, or requests for information about Portland. We may also provide individuals with the opportunity to sign up for newsletters or to receive copies of blogs and other information that we make available.  Where an individual signs up to receive such information, Contact Data may be requested in each case, together with details of other information that is relevant to these inquiries. This information is used in order to enable us to respond to individual requests or media requests.

Media monitoring.

As part of our service to our clients, we may monitor media sites (including social media sites) and collect information about individuals (including Identity Data, Contact Data, Profile Data and Publicly Available Data) from these sites directly or using a third party social listening provider including their opinions on how a particular client campaign was received or a client offering or on a topic that is relevant to our client more generally.

B: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, FINANCIAL AND LEGAL

Receipt of services

If we have engaged an organisation to provide us or our clients with services (for example, IT support or financial advice), we will collect and process your information (including Contact and Identity Data) if you are a contact within the relevant organisation in order to manage our relationship or our clients with the organization, to receive services from the organisation and, where relevant, to provide our services to others including our clients.

Recruitment

If individuals apply for a job with us or otherwise express an interest in working for us, we will collect contact details and CV or resume information from the individual.  We use such information for the following purposes: a) to assess the individual’s suitability for any position for which they applied (or future positions for which we think the individual may be suitable) including employment or freelancer positions, summer placements or internships and also any business support or services role whether such application has been received by us online, via email or by hard copy or in person application; b) to take any steps necessary to enter into any contract of employment (or otherwise) with the individual; c) to comply with any regulatory or legal obligations in relation to any such application; and d) to review our equal opportunity profile in accordance with applicable legislation. We do not discriminate on the grounds of gender, race, ethnic origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability or any other basis covered by local legislation. 

Visiting our premises

If an individual visits any of our premises we may collect information including Identity or Contact Data as part of our sign in process.  We may also capture their image on our surveillance camera or CCTV.

If an individual registers as a guest user for free Wi-Fi access at any of our premises, we may collect information including Identity and Contact Data as part of the registration process. We may also process Behavioural and Technical Data in connection with any use of this free Wi-Fi service for monitoring and record-keeping purposes, including to identify the source of service requests, optimise and maintain performance of the Wi-Fi service, and investigate and prevent system abuse.

Business administration, finance, and legal compliance.

We may use an individual’s information (including Identity Data, Contact Data, Financial Data, Transaction Data, Publicly Available Data) for the following business administration and legal compliance purposes:

• to facilitate the operation or effective management of our group of businesses;
• for financial, accounting and tax purposes;
• to comply with our legal obligations;
• to enforce or protect our legal rights;
• to deal with complaints;
• to protect the rights of third parties (including where health or security of an individual is endangered (e.g. a fire); and
• in connection with a business transition or sale such as a merger, re-organisation, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of our assets.

10       IF YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE YOUR INFORMATION

Where we are required by law to collect your information, or we need to collect your information under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that information when we request it, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. This may apply where you do not provide the information we need in order to provide the Services you have requested from us or to process an application for employment with us. In this case, we may have to cancel your application or the provision of the relevant Services to you, in which case we will notify you.

11       SHARING YOUR INFORMATION

We only share information with others when we are legally permitted to do so. When we share information with others, we put contractual arrangements and security mechanisms in place to protect the information shared and to comply with our data protection, confidentiality and security standards and obligations.

We are part of the Omnicom Group of marketing and advertising firms and (subject to the above) may share data within Omnicom Group companies, Omnicom Networks, or with our partner agencies. For more information about the Omnicom Group, please see here: Advertising and Marketing Agencies | Omnicom Group.

Further (again subject to the above) we may share your information with third parties, as set out in the table below. This list is non-exhaustive and there may be circumstances where we need to share information with other third parties.

12       ONWARD TRANSFERS

Transfers by us – where we disclose information

As we are a company located in the United States, you acknowledge and agree that any data that is provided directly to us may be stored in those countries. We may also transmit your personal information to other third parties outside of those countries (as listed above in ‘SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION’ and more specifically to the offices of other global Omnicom Group entities, networks, or partners agencies.

13       OBTAINING YOUR CONSENT

Where our use of your information requires your consent, you can provide such consent:

• at the time that we collect your information following the instructions provided; or
• by informing us by e-mail, post or phone using the contact details set out in this Privacy Notice.

Please note that if you specifically consent to additional uses of your information, we may use your information in a manner consistent with that consent.

14       CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION

We are committed to keeping the information you provide to us secure and we have implemented information security policies, rules and technical measures to protect the information under our control from unauthorised access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification and unlawful destruction or accidental loss. In addition, all our employees and data processors (i.e. those who process your information on our behalf) are obliged to respect the confidentiality of the information of all users of our Site and those who purchase our Services.

15       ACCESS

To the extent required by applicable law, we will provide you with reasonable access to the personal information maintained about you and a reasonable opportunity to correct, amend or delete the information where it is inaccurate or has been processed erroneously, as appropriate. We may limit or deny access to personal information where permitted by law (such as where the burden or expense of providing access would be disproportionate or where the rights of third parties would be violated).

You may exercise these rights verbally or in writing by using our contact information provided in the section entitled ‘How to contact us’ above. We will endeavor to promptly respond to your requests and will respect time frames set by local legislation where applicable.

Please note that in order for you to assert these rights we may need to verify your identity to confirm your right to access your personal information. This is a security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. In order to verify your identity, we may need to gather more personal information from you than we currently have.

16       OPT OUT AND UNWANTED COMMUNICATIONS

To opt-out of any future promotional or marketing communications or any other commercial communications from us, you should send a request to us at the contact information in the ‘How to contact us’ section.

17       ENFORCEMENT RIGHTS AND MECHANISMS

We will ensure that this Policy is observed and duly implemented. If at any time you believe that your personal information has been processed in violation of this Policy, or if you have any inquiries or complaints about the use or limitation of use of your personal information, you may send a request to us at the contact information in the section entitled ‘How to contact us’ above .

18       THIRD PARTY LINKS AND SERVICES

This Site contains links to third party websites and services. Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Site to another website or you request a service from a third party, this Privacy Notice no longer applies to these third-party websites and third-party service providers unless we are acting as joint controllers in respect of your information with such third party.

Your browsing and interaction on any other websites, or your dealings with any other third-party service provider, is subject to that website’s or third-party service provider’s own rules and policies. We do not monitor, control, or endorse the privacy practices of any third parties.

This Site may integrate with social networking services. You understand that we do not control such services and are not liable for the manner in which they operate.  While we may provide you with the ability to use such services in connection with our Site, we are doing so merely as an accommodation and, like you, are relying upon those third-party services to operate properly and fairly.

19       HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

We retain information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice, after which it is deleted from our systems.

If any information is only useful for a short period (e.g. for a specific event or marketing campaign or in relation to recruitment), we will delete it at the end of that period.  Please note that if you are an unsuccessful candidate we may keep your information for a short period.

If you have opted out of receiving marketing communications from us, we will need to retain certain information on a suppression list so that we know not to send you further marketing communications in the future.

20       INFORMATION OF MINORS

Our Site is not intended for use by, or targeted at, minors (individuals under the age of 18) and we do not knowingly collect information of minors. However, due to the nature of our organisation and the Services we provide, we may from time to time collect and process information relating to minors. If we do collect information of minors, we will comply with all applicable laws and regulations relating to the processing of information of minors.

21       CALIFORNIA CONSUMER PRIVACY STATEMENT

This California Consumer Privacy Statement (“Statement”) supplements the Portland US Privacy Notice. It applies solely to California consumers and addresses personal information we collect online and offline. This Statement does not apply to Portland personnel. Sections 2-5 of this Statement do not apply to job applicants.

This Statement uses certain terms that have the meaning given to them in the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 and its implementing regulations (the “CCPA”).

1. Notice of Collection and Use of Personal Information 

We may collect (and may have collected during the 12-month period prior to the effective date of this Statement) the following categories of personal information about you: 

• Identifiers: identifiers such as a real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier (such as a device identifier; cookies, beacons, pixel tags, mobile ad identifiers and similar technology; customer number, unique pseudonym, or user alias; telephone number and other forms of persistent or probabilistic identifiers), online identifier, internet protocol address, email address, account name, Social Security number, driver’s license number, passport number, and other similar identifiers
• Additional Data Subject to Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80: signature, physical characteristics or description, state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, and other financial information, medical information, and health insurance information
• Protected Classifications: characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law, such as race, color, national origin, religion, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, genetic information, disability, citizenship status, and military and veteran status
• Commercial Information: commercial information, including records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, and other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies
• Online Activity: Internet and other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, browsing history, search history, and information regarding your interaction with websites, applications or advertisements 
• Sensory Information: audio, electronic, visual, and similar information 
• Employment Information: professional or employment-related information 
• Education Information: education information that is not publicly available personally identifiable information as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g; 34 C.F.R. Part 99)
• Inferences: inferences drawn from any of the information identified above to create a profile about you reflecting your preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.

We may use (and may have used during the 12-month period prior to the effective date of this Statement) your personal information for the purposes described in our online Privacy Notice and for the following business purposes specified in the CCPA:

• Performing services, including maintaining or servicing accounts, providing customer service, processing or fulfilling orders and transactions, verifying customer information, processing payments, providing advertising or marketing services, providing analytics services, or providing similar services
• Auditing related to a current interaction with you and concurrent transactions, including, but not limited to, counting ad impressions to unique visitors, verifying positioning and quality of ad impressions, and auditing compliance
• Short-term, transient use, including, but not limited to, the contextual customization of ads shown as part of the same interaction
• Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity
• Debugging to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality
• Undertaking internal research for technological development and demonstration
• Undertaking activities to verify or maintain the quality or safety of a service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by us, and to improve, upgrade, or enhance the service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by us.
• Managing career opportunities with Portland

2. Source of Personal Information

During the 12-month period prior to the effective date of this Statement, we may have obtained personal information about you from the following categories of sources:

•  Directly from you, such as when you contact us with a question   
•  From your devices, such as when you visit our Site
•  Vendors who provide services on our behalf
•  Social networks
•  Government entities

3. Sale of Personal Information

We do not and will not sell your personal information.

4. Sharing of Personal Information

During the 12-month period prior to the effective date of this Statement, we may have shared your personal information with certain categories of third parties, as described below. We may have disclosed the following categories of personal information about you for a business purpose to the following categories of third parties:

In addition to the categories of third parties identified above, during the 12-month period prior to the effective date of this Statement, we may have shared personal information about you with the following additional categories of third parties: Government entities.

5. California Consumer Privacy Rights 

You have certain choices regarding our use and disclosure of your personal information, as described below.

Access: You may have the right to request, twice in a 12-month period, that we disclose to you the personal information we have collected, used, disclosed and sold about you during the past 12 months.  

Deletion: You have the right to request that we delete certain personal information we have collected from you.

How to Submit a Request: To submit an access or deletion request (or to submit a request as an authorized agent on behalf of a consumer), email us at the address provided in the section entitled ‘How to Contact Us’ above.  For questions or concerns about our privacy policies and practices, please contact us as described in the section entitled ‘How to Contact Us’ above.

Verifying Requests: To help protect your privacy and maintain security, we will take steps to verify your identity before granting you access to your personal information or complying with your request.  If you request access to or deletion of your personal information, we may require you to provide any of the following information:  your email address, the name of the Portland representative with whom you typically interact, and the date of your last interaction with a Portland representative.  In addition, if you ask us to provide you with specific pieces of personal information, we will require you to sign a declaration under penalty of perjury that you are the consumer whose personal information is the subject of the request.   

Additional Information: If you choose to exercise any of your rights under the CCPA, you have the right to not receive discriminatory treatment by us.  To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may charge a reasonable fee to comply with your request.