Straight answers about your data
This policy explains the personal information handled through the public ALCO website. It does not hide optional analytics inside “necessary” storage, and it does not turn a website enquiry into permission for unrelated marketing.
- We sell personal information
- No
- ALCO targeted advertising
- No
- Optional analytics before consent
- No
- Privacy request fee
- Normally none
Scope and who is responsible
This Privacy Policy applies to alcohq.com, legacy public pages on alcousa.org, and other public ALCO USA Inc. pages that link to it (the “Site”). ALCO USA Inc. (“ALCO,” “we,” “us” or “our”) is responsible for the personal information described here.
ALCO USA Inc.Attn: Privacy
PO Box 204
Caldwell, ID 83606
United States
You can reach us at [email protected], at +1 (208) 813-0531, or through our contact form. Privacy requests are reviewed by ALCO and routed to the appropriate person.
Information we collect
| Category | Examples | When it is collected |
|---|---|---|
| Contact and business details | Name, work email, organization, telephone number, subject and message | When you contact us or ask about services |
| General-interest career information | Name, contact details, role of interest, professional links, work history and information in your message | If you send a general-interest or future-role enquiry; this does not mean ALCO is currently hiring |
| Communications | Your enquiry, our replies, call notes and related service or scheduling information | When we correspond with you |
| Technical and security data | IP address, date and time, requested URL, referrer, browser, device, network and anti-abuse signals | When your browser requests a page or submits a form |
| Approximate region | City, state or region and country inferred from IP address | When the Site selects regional content; this feature uses a database on our server and does not store its lookup result |
| Optional usage data | Pages viewed, session duration, navigation, clicks, scrolling, device and browser characteristics and approximate location | Only after you accept optional analytics |
| Preference data | Your analytics choice, consent-policy version and decision time | When you accept or decline optional analytics |
We do not ask for passwords, private keys, payment-card data, protected health information or similarly sensitive material through public forms. Please do not place that information in a general website form. Ask us for an approved secure delivery method if it is genuinely needed.
Where the information comes from
- Directly from you, when you submit a form, call us or otherwise communicate with ALCO.
- Automatically from your browser or network, through normal web requests, security logs, form-protection controls and—only with consent—analytics technology.
- From your organization or an authorized colleague, when they introduce you, include you in a request or identify you as a business contact.
- From public professional sources, such as an organization website or professional profile, when reasonably relevant to an enquiry or business relationship.
If you provide personal information about another person, you should have authority to do so and should direct them to this Policy when appropriate.
How and why we use information
Respond and scope
Answer inquiries, schedule conversations, understand requirements, prepare quotes and take steps requested before an engagement.
Operate and secure
Deliver pages, diagnose errors, prevent spam and abuse, enforce rate limits, protect systems and maintain reliable records.
Handle future-role interest
Review an unsolicited or general-interest careers message and communicate about a future opportunity if one becomes available.
Improve the Site
With consent, understand which pages are useful and where the Site is confusing so we can improve design and content.
Run the business
Maintain business correspondence, establish or defend legal claims, complete audits and manage corporate transactions.
Comply with law
Meet legal, tax, accounting, regulatory and lawful government-request obligations.
For visitors in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom, the legal bases we rely on are: your consent for optional analytics; steps at your request before entering a contract and performance of a contract; our legitimate interests in operating, securing and improving a business website and managing business relationships; and compliance with legal obligations. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider the effect on your rights and do not use that basis when your interests override ours.
Cookies, analytics and form protection
The Site uses Google Analytics 4 and Microsoft Clarity to understand traffic and user experience. Their scripts are not requested and their analytics cookies are not set unless you choose Accept analytics. We instruct the tools that advertising storage is denied and do not use the Site to serve targeted ads.
Clarity can capture page interactions and generate session replay and heatmap information. Microsoft operates Clarity under its own terms and may process Clarity data for the purposes described in its privacy materials. This is one reason it remains optional and blocked until consent.
Google reCAPTCHA may operate on contact and careers forms as a security control. It receives technical and risk information, including an IP address and a form-verification token, and may set the necessary _GRECAPTCHA cookie when executed. This protection is separate from optional analytics because it is used to distinguish legitimate submissions from automated abuse.
Our Cookie Policy lists the technologies, explains their purpose and gives you controls to accept, decline or later change optional analytics. We also treat an enabled Global Privacy Control signal as a request to decline optional analytics.
When we disclose information
We disclose personal information only as reasonably necessary for the purposes described above:
- Within ALCO, to personnel and authorized contractors who need it for their work and are subject to confidentiality obligations.
- To infrastructure and security providers, including website hosting, content delivery, anti-abuse, backup and network-security providers that process request and security data.
- To communications and business-system providers, which help route inquiries, maintain correspondence and schedule meetings.
- To analytics providers, Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, only after you consent.
- To Google reCAPTCHA, when a protected form is displayed or submitted, for fraud and abuse prevention.
- For legal and safety reasons, if reasonably necessary to comply with law or lawful process; protect rights, safety or systems; investigate fraud or abuse; or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
- In a corporate transaction, such as a financing, reorganization, merger, acquisition or sale of assets, subject to appropriate confidentiality and use restrictions.
- At your direction or with your consent.
Service providers may use information only to provide contracted services to ALCO or as otherwise permitted by their governing terms and applicable law. We do not publish client names, internal system names or private service information through this Policy.
No sale or targeted advertising
ALCO does not sell personal information for money. We do not use the Site to serve targeted advertising or profile visitors in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.
We instruct our analytics tools that advertising storage is denied, keep them off until consent and honor supported Global Privacy Control signals by keeping them off. Some privacy laws use broad definitions of “sale” or “sharing”; you may use the privacy-request process below if you have a question about how a law applies to your information.
How long we keep information
| Record | Retention approach |
|---|---|
| Contact and business correspondence | For as long as the enquiry or relationship is active, then for the period reasonably needed for follow-up, business records, legal obligations and claims. |
| General-interest career records | For a reasonable period to respond, document the interaction and consider a future opportunity, unless you ask us to delete them or a longer period is authorized or required. |
| Form rate-limit record | An IP-derived one-way hash and timestamp are used in a rolling one-hour window to enforce the submission limit. Old event timestamps are ignored; a minimal hashed guard record may remain until routine security-file cleanup. |
| Web and security logs | For the period reasonably needed to operate, diagnose and secure the Site, after which they are deleted, de-identified or aggregated under operational retention schedules. |
| Consent preference | On your device for up to 180 days, until you change it, clear site data or the Site replaces it with a newer consent version—whichever comes first. |
| Google Analytics | According to ALCO’s analytics configuration and Google’s applicable retention controls; browser identifiers such as _ga are typically set for up to two years, subject to browser limits. |
| Microsoft Clarity | Session playback is generally retained for 30 days; click and heatmap information, and selected sessions, may be retained for up to nine months under Microsoft’s published schedule. |
We may retain information longer when reasonably necessary for litigation holds, security investigations, contractual requirements or legal obligations. We may retain aggregated or de-identified information that can no longer reasonably identify you.
How we protect information
We use administrative, technical and physical safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information and the risks involved. These include encrypted transport, access controls, least-privilege practices, logging, rate limiting, anti-abuse controls, maintenance and protected backups where appropriate.
No website, network or storage method can be guaranteed completely secure. If a security incident affects personal information, we will investigate, contain and provide notices as required by applicable law.
Your privacy rights and choices
Depending on where you live and the law that applies, you may have a right to:
- know whether we process your personal information and obtain access to it;
- receive information about categories, sources, purposes and recipients;
- correct inaccurate personal information;
- request deletion, subject to lawful exceptions;
- receive certain information in a portable format;
- withdraw consent, including consent to optional analytics;
- object to or request restriction of certain processing;
- opt out of sale, targeted advertising or certain profiling;
- appeal a decision on a privacy request where applicable; and
- not be discriminated against for exercising a privacy right.
ALCO offers access, correction and deletion requests to individuals even when a particular comprehensive state privacy law does not apply, subject to identity verification and legitimate retention needs.
How to submit a request
Use our contact form and write “Privacy request” in the subject or message, call +1 (208) 813-0531, or send mail to the address in Section 1. Describe the right you want to exercise and the information or interaction involved.
We may request information reasonably necessary to verify your identity and protect the person whose data is involved. An authorized agent may submit a request when permitted by law; we may verify the agent’s authority and, where allowed, confirm the request directly with you. We respond within the period required by applicable law and normally do not charge a fee. If we deny a request, we will explain why and provide appeal instructions when required.
International visitors and transfers
ALCO is based in the United States. If you visit from another country or submit information through the Site, your information may be processed in the United States and in other countries where our service providers operate. Privacy laws in those locations may differ from the laws where you live.
Where applicable law requires a transfer mechanism or additional safeguard, we use appropriate contractual or other lawful measures. EEA and UK visitors may also complain to their local data-protection authority, although we encourage you to contact us first so we can address the issue directly.
Children’s privacy
The Site is a general business website, is not intended for people under 18 and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from a child under 13. If you believe a child has submitted personal information to the Site, contact us and we will investigate and delete it where required.
Third-party sites
The Site links to external websites and services. Their operators decide how they collect and use information, and their privacy notices—not this Policy—govern their practices. A link does not mean ALCO controls or endorses every practice of the destination.
Changes to this Policy and how to contact us
We may update this Policy to reflect changes in the Site, our practices or applicable law. The effective and last-updated dates at the top identify the current version. We will provide a more prominent notice before a material change takes effect when required or appropriate.
Talk to a person
Questions, concerns and privacy-rights requests are reviewed by ALCO—not routed to an unattended inbox.