Privacy Notice Archive

Click on one of the links below to jump to the listed section:

• Information We Collect
• Use of Personal Information
• Disclosure of Information
• Cookies, Analytics and Targeted Ads
• Interest-Based Advertising
• Direct Marketing
• International Transfers
• Security
• Retention
• Third-Party Sites
• Use of Website by Children
• Your Rights
• Your California Privacy Rights
• Changes to this Privacy Notice
• Contact Us
• Gore Entities

Click on one of the links below to jump to the listed section:

• Information We Collect
• Use of Personal Information
• Disclosure of Information
• Cookies, Analytics and Targeted Ads
• Interest-Based Advertising
• Direct Marketing
• International Transfers
• Security
• Retention
• Third-Party Sites
• Use of Website by Children
• Your Rights
• Changes to this Privacy Notice
• Contact Us
• Gore Entities

Information We Collect

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. and our affiliated companies (“Gore”, “we”, “us", “our”) may collect personal information directly from you, such as when you register for news and information, contact us online or submit forms through our sites. W. L. Gore & Associates (555 Paper Mill Road, Newark, DE, 19711, USA) is the controller of your personal information and where the processing of personal information is also undertaken by other Gore entities (set out at the end of this Notice) they are joint controllers with W. L. Gore & Associates for your personal information. We may also collect personal information from third parties or automatically through your use of the sites.

For the purpose of this Privacy Notice (“Notice”), “personal information” means any information that identifies or could be used to identify an individual person, including similar terms such as “personal data” or “personally identifiable information” and "sensitive personal information" means any personal information unauthorized disclosure or misuse of which may jeopardize the rights or property of, or is likely to damage the reputation or physical mental health or lead to discriminatory treatment of the individual concerned, or as otherwise defined under applicable law.

Please also be sure to check the end of this Notice for country-specific information that are providing to as required by the relevant applicable law.

Information Collected Directly

We collect information (including sensitive personal information, where applicable) that you provide to us or share on the sites, including:

• Registration Information and Requests. Many of our sites and other information available on our sites can be accessed without registering. However, you will be required to register in order to use or access some of our services. The information that we collect will vary depending upon the context of your request, but for general inquiries, we require your first and last name and contact information, such as address, telephone number and email address and other relevant information relating to your request. Generally, fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory for processing your inquiry or your registration, other details are optional.
• Communications. When you email us, call us or contact us, we maintain records about our interactions and communications with you.
• Customer Service and Support. We also maintain records related to customer support and customer service-related requests, including the nature of the request, in order to process questions or comments directed to our customer service team, or to settle complaints. For questions or comments directed to our customer service team relating to an order or invoice, or in the event of a product complaint, we may require additional information about the product, for example, product size, gender, time and place of purchase and additional information about previous inquiries.
• Comments and Content. Some areas of the sites may allow you to comment, share or post other content. When you view this content, we keep a record of our content and it may be viewable by other users of the sites. You may ask us to remove such content as set out below.
• Marketing and Surveys. If you participate in our direct marketing activities, for example if you fill out a participation or answer card or register for a Gore newsletter, we will process the personal information required for each of these. If you used our online store and a purchase process is not completed, we may send you a reminder email. If you have signed up to participate in a competition or similar advertising campaign, we may use the personal information provided by you to process your participation. For more information, please refer to the conditions of participation for the respective campaign. Where required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent prior to sending you any direct marketing. If you have given consent to receive direct marketing email communications Gore will use the personal information provided by you to further discuss your interest in the company or our products and services; and to send you information that may be of interest regarding the company, its affiliates, and its partners, such as information about special offers, events, e-commerce activities, market research, consumer or customer surveys, competitions and similar advertising campaigns.
• E-Commerce. If you purchase products from us directly, for example from our online stores for GORE® Wear or ELIXIR® Strings, we will require additional information, such as billing and delivery address, and bank and/or credit card details. When you use our online store, we will use personal information to process contracts and orders that you have placed through our website, any inquiries relating to contracts and orders, as well as assess your creditworthiness when purchasing a product, for which we may contract a third-party service provider. When you purchase a product, we may contact you in order to ask you for your opinion on the purchase or the product.
• Business Relationship Information. We work with external professionals, contractors, suppliers, experts, consultants and others in the operation of our business. For example, when we deliver our services and otherwise make our products and services available, we may engage with suppliers, contractors, consultants and others who provide services or products to us. We also engage with customers and partners related to the provision of our products and services. We may collect information through these third parties. We collect information such as business contact information, accounting and payment related information and other information related to our business relationship with a third party. We may also conduct due diligence and background checks subject to applicable law to ensure the reliability of third parties with whom we conduct business.

Automatically-collected Information

When you visit the sites, some data is automatically transferred from your browser to our server, in order to offer you a better service with personalized information and to make it easier for you to use our sites. We use cookies, pixel tags, web beacons and similar technologies to automatically collect information when users access or use the sites. This data is collected and processed by us or by external service providers on our behalf and includes: information about you collected through your use of our services, including log files, IP address, app and device identifier, advertising ID, location info, browser type and operating system, device type, domain name, the website that led you to our services, the website to which you go after leaving our services, the dates and times you access our services, and the links you click and your other activities within the services. For more information, please refer to the Cookies section below.

Monitoring of Communications

With your consent and subject to applicable laws we may monitor and record your calls, emails and other communications with us. We do this for a variety of purposes which include the following: to maintain the security of our communications systems and procedures, for quality control and staff training purposes, fraud detection and prevention, and when we need to see a record of what has been said between us. We will also monitor for regulatory compliance (where applicable) as well as crime prevention and detection purposes.

Use of Personal Information

In the course of conducting our business, we use (with your consent where required by applicable law) personal information (and sensitive personal information, where applicable) to provide and improve our services, to process employment inquiries, to provide information about our products and services, to respond to requests and to otherwise communicate with you and others.

• Providing Support and Services: to provide and operate our services and the sites, communicate with you about your use of the sites, respond to your inquiries, provide troubleshooting, fulfill your orders and requests, process your payments, and complaints and inquiries, provide technical support, and for other customer service and support purposes.
• Operating our Business: we may use your information to identify usage trends in the use of our sites and analyze the effectiveness of our communications; to detect, prevent, investigate fraud and including (cyber) security monitoring and prevention; to validate your ability to access or use certain products or services; to operate and expand our business activities; where necessary to the administration of our general business, accounting, record keeping and legal functions; and as part of our routine business administration, such as training, compliance auditing and similar internal activities.
• Research, Development and Reporting: we may use information to develop, enhance, improve or modify our products and services; to better understand how our products and services impact you and those for whom you care; to track and respond to concerns, including engaging in regulatory monitoring and reporting obligations related to adverse events, product complaints and patient safety, or to conduct data analysis and audits.
• Personalization: to tailor content we send or display on the sites in order to offer location customization and personalized help and instructions, and to otherwise personalize your experiences.
• Analytics and Improvement: to better understand how users access and use the sites and other products and services, and for other research and analytical purposes, such as to evaluate and improve our services and business operations and to develop additional products, services and features.
• Evaluating and Engaging With Third Parties: to identify, evaluate and engage with third parties such as contractors, suppliers and business partners; to conduct due diligence, such as background checks on contractors and suppliers in accordance with applicable law.
• General Business Operations: where necessary for the administration of our general business, accounting, record keeping and legal functions.
• Anonymous and De-identified Information: We may de-identify information and create anonymous and aggregated data sets and reports in order to assess, improve and develop our business, products and services, prepare benchmarking reports on our industry, and for other research and analytics purposes.
• Marketing, Surveys and Promotions: for direct marketing and promotional purposes, to send you newsletters, special offers or promotions, and contact you about our products or services, or information we think may interest you. If you are located in a jurisdiction that requires opt-in consent to receive electronic marketing messages, we will only send you such messages if you opt-in to receive them.
• Protect Our Rights: to protect the sites and our business operations; to prevent and detect fraud, unauthorized activities and access, and other misuse; where we believe necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety or legal rights of any person or third party, or violations of our Terms of Use or this Notice.
• Legally Required: to comply with the law or legal proceedings, such as subpoenas, court orders, and other lawful requests by regulators and law enforcement, including responding to national security or law enforcement disclosure requirements.

We will, where required by applicable law, obtain consent from you if we wish to use your personal information for purposes other than those stated in this Notice.

Disclosure of Information

Gore is a global enterprise that consists of numerous and various entities worldwide. For more information, see the list of Gore affiliates. To facilitate Gore’s global operations, personal information may need to be shared with and transferred between Gore affiliates. With your consent, Gore affiliates may access and use your personal information as described in this Notice. We do not sell your personal information to third parties. In general, we disclose the personal information we collect as follows:

• Gore Affiliates. As a global company, your personal information may be shared amongst our affiliated and subsidiary companies, who are subject to this Notice when processing your personal information.
• Service Providers. We may share your information with third party service providers, whose services we use for data storage and analytics, for web hosting, data analysis, IT technology, infrastructure and security, including without limitation with third parties whose services we use to provide customer services, for example for communicating with you by email or phone, for market research, carrying out surveys, handling payment transfers, advisory services, maintenance and other similar services. We take steps to confirm that our service providers are capable of providing appropriate security and protection and will agree to adequate privacy and security contractual terms.
• Third-Party Advertising and Marketing. Third-party companies that we work with to display online advertising that is more relevant may collect cookie IDs, IP address and other identifiers as well as information about the pages you visit on our sites and other websites, to enable them to display advertising for products and services that may be of interest to you when you visit our website or other websites.
• Business Transfers. We may disclose or transfer information, including personal information, as part of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock (including without limitation in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings), including related to due diligence conducted prior to such event where permitted by law.
• Legally Required. We may disclose your information if we are required to do so by the law (e.g., to law enforcement, courts or others, e.g., in response to a subpoena or court order) of any jurisdiction.
• Protect our Rights. We may disclose information where we believe it necessary to respond to claims asserted against us or, comply with legal process (e.g., subpoenas or warrants), enforce or administer our agreements and terms, for fraud prevention, risk assessment, investigation, and protect the rights, property or safety of Gore, our customers, or others.
• Anonymized and Aggregated Data. We may share aggregate or de-identified information with third parties for research, marketing, analytics and other purposes, provided such information does not identify a particular individual.

Cookies, Analytics and Targeted Ads

We and our service providers use cookies, pixels, java script and other tracking mechanisms to track information about your use of our sites and services, and we may combine this information with other information, including personal information, we collect about you. We may also work with third party ad networks, analytics companies, measurement services and others to display advertising on our sites, and to manage our advertising on third party sites, mobile apps and online services.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer or mobile device. Cookies are used in order to make websites work, or work in a better, more efficient way or to allow us to track your activities while using our Site. We use “session cookies” which are deleted as soon as you close your browser, and temporary/permanent cookies, which are stored on your computer or mobile end device for a longer period, until they expire, or are deleted. This helps us to recognize you and remember important information that will make your use of a website more convenient (for example by storing preference settings).

In general, the use of cookies is activated by your browser; however, you can turn off this function. If you do not want information to be collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to decline the use of cookies or to delete them.

To learn more about cookies, please click here. If you choose to decline cookies, then some or all of the features, functionality and promotions available through the website may not be available to you.

Clear GIFs, Pixel Tags and Other Technologies

Clear GIFs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. Unlike cookies, which are stored on your computer’s hard drive, clear GIFs are embedded invisibly on web pages. We may use clear GIFs (also referred to as web beacons, web bugs or pixel tags), in connection with our sites to, among other things, track the activities of our site users, help us manage content, and compile statistics about usage of our sites. We and our third-party service providers also use clear GIFs in HTML emails to our customers, to help us track email response rates, identify when our emails are viewed, and track whether our emails are forwarded.

Log Files 

Most browsers collect certain information, such as your IP address, device type, screen resolution, operating system version, and internet browser type and version. This information is gathered automatically and stored in log files. 

Third-Party Analytics

We use third-party services, such as Google Analytics (more information or opt-out) and Adobe Analytics (opt-out) to analyze the usage of our website. We utilize these tools to gather information about users to help enhance the user experience and to improve our sites. These analytics providers may use cookies and other technologies to perform their services, and may combine the information they collect about you on our sites with other information they have collected for their own purposes. Please review these third party's privacy policies, as this Notice does not cover such uses of data by third parties.

Do-Not-Track Signals

Our sites do not currently respond to do-not-track signals. For more information about do-not-track signals, please click here. However, you may choose to, disable certain tracking mechanisms (such as cookies) as discussed above.

Interest-Based Advertising

On some of our sites, we may work with third party ad networks, analytics companies, measurement services and others (collectively “ad companies”) to display advertising on our sites, and to manage our advertising on third party sites, mobile apps and online services. We and these third party ad companies will, and by using our sites you consent that they may use cookies, pixels tags, and other tools to collect activity information on our sites (as well as on third party sites and services), as well as IP address, device ID, cookie and advertising IDs, and other identifiers, general location information, and, with your consent, your device’s geolocation information; we and these third party ad companies use this information to display you more relevant ads and content and to evaluate the success of such ads and its content.

You may also obtain more information about targeted or “interest-based advertising” and opt out of many ad networks at the industry websites below:

Canada: youradchoices.ca
U.S.: www.aboutads.info

You may also manage your cookie preferences in your browser settings. If you wish to do so please visit:

• Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
• Cookie settings in Firefox
• Cookie settings in Chrome
• Cookie settings in Safari

Direct Marketing

From time to time, we may send periodic promotional emails to you that we think may be of interest to you, including newsletters, special offers or promotions, in relation to our products or services. We would also like to share your name and email address with other entities within Gore so that we or they may send you information that may be of interest regarding them and their special offers, events, e-commerce activities, market research, consumer or customer surveys, competitions and similar promotional campaigns, but we also cannot do so without your consent. You may opt-out of these communications at any time, and where required by law we will obtain your prior consent to send you such communications.

If you would like to opt-out of receiving further electronic communication from Gore, and/or wish to stop Gore from disclosing your personal information for marketing purposes you may opt-out of such communications by following the opt-out instructions contained in the email, or you can contact us to withdraw your consent. If you opt-out of receiving emails about recommendations or other information we think may interest you, we may still send you emails with information relating to your account or any services you have requested or received from us.

International Transfers

As a global company, we may transfer your personal information to, access or store it in the United States, the European Union, and other jurisdictions (see Gore entities) in which we (or our service providers) operate and subject to requests from law enforcement from other jurisdictions. Some of these jurisdictions, including the United States may not provide equivalent levels of data protection as your jurisdiction. We will take steps to ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection comparable to the protection under applicable law in the jurisdiction from which we collect such personal information, including through appropriate written data processing terms and/or data transfer agreements. Where required by law we will obtain your consent prior to such transfer. If you are located in China, please note that Gore will only transfer your personal information (and sensitive personal information, where applicable) outside of China as permitted by applicable law and where Gore is satisfied that adequate levels of protection are in place to protect the integrity and security of your personal information or adequate security measures (such as written data processing/transfer agreements) are adopted and compliant with applicable privacy and data protection law. 

Security

We have implemented specific organizational, technical, and administrative measures to protect personal information under our control from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, including, as appropriate, encryption of personal information (and in particular, sensitive personal information), privacy and security impact assessments, and secure access controls among other things. While the security safeguards we have put in place are routinely reviewed and updated, the security of any data transmissions and data storage systems cannot be completely guaranteed.

Retention

As a general rule, we will retain your personal information as long as needed to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Notice, and as otherwise necessary to fulfill our legal obligations, resolve disputes, maintain appropriate business records, enforce our agreements or for such longer period as required by applicable law. The retention period depends on the information and the reason for which we have collected it. For example, we generally retain personal data records related to technical support and customer service requests for seven years, unless a longer or shorter retention period is required by law, is necessary in the course of legal obligations, to resolve disputes, maintain appropriate business records, and enforce our agreements proceedings or is otherwise needed for a particular purpose under applicable law.

Third-Party Sites

This Notice does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties. The inclusion of a link on the website does not imply endorsement of the linked site by us or by our affiliates. In some cases, we may permit you to use third-party payment services to make payments. If you wish to make a payment using a payment service, you will be directed to a webpage that is hosted by the payment service and not by us. Any information that you provide through this page will be subject to the applicable payment service’s privacy policy, rather than this Notice. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, any payment service’s use of information collected through any payment service page.

Use of Website by Children

Our sites are not directed towards children and we do not encourage children to participate in providing us with any personal information. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of fourteen (14). If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 14, without a parent or guardian's consent, has provided personal information to us through the sites, please contact us at DataPrivacyOffice@wlgore.com. We will take steps to delete the information as soon as possible should we learn that we have collected the personal information of a child without first receiving verifiable parental consent.

Your Rights

Gore takes reasonable steps to keep your personal information accurate, up to date and complete. You may have a right to request access to, correction of, and deletion under certain circumstances of, your personal information, subject to applicable law. Subject to applicable law, you may also have the right to withdraw your consent or change your scope of consent. If you wish to exercise these rights, please contact us at DataPrivacyOffice@wlgore.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with us and with a supervisory authority if you consider that the processing of your personal information infringes applicable law.

To the extent required by applicable law, you may be able to request that we inform you about the personal information we maintain about you and, where appropriate, request that we update, correct and/or suppress personal information about you that we maintain in our active database. We will make all required updates and changes within the time specified by applicable law and, where permitted by law, may charge an appropriate fee to cover the costs of responding to the request. In addition, in some circumstances based on applicable law, you may request that we cease using or sharing personal information about you with our business partners or Gore Affiliates, by contacting us as explained below We will seek to honor those requests consistently with applicable law.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Notice from time to time to reflect changes, and will post changes by updating the Notice (and effective date) on this page. If we make any material changes that affect how we treat your personal information, we will attempt to notify you in advance, such as by prominently posting a notice on this website or by sending you a notification and seeking your consent to any material changes as required by applicable law. We encourage you to periodically review this website and our Notice to understand how Gore protects your personal information.

Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns regarding this Notice or complaints regarding the processing of your personal information, please contact the Gore Privacy Office at DataPrivacyOffice@wlgore.com.

Gore Entities

The following Gore entities may process your personal information as joint controllers:

• W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. 555 Paper Mill Road, Newark, DE, 19711, USA
• W. L. Gore & Associates (Hong Kong) Ltd., Unit 1101-09 & 16-18, Level 11, Tower 1, Kowloon Commerce Centre, No. 51 Kwai Cheong Road, Kwai Chung, Hong Kong
• W. L. Gore & Associates G.K. (Nihon Gore Godo Kaisha), W Building, 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 1080075 Japan

In addition, if you engage directly with one of our other Gore companies (see list here: www.gore.com/affiliates) they will also be joint controllers of your personal information.

Responsibility

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., 555 Paper Mill Road, Newark, DE, 19711, USA, W. L. Gore & Associates GmbH, Hermann Oberth-Str. 22, 85640 Putzbrunn, Germany, W. L. Gore & Associates (Hong Kong) Ltd., Unit 1101-09 & 16-18, Level 11, Tower 1, Kowloon Commerce Centre, No. 51 Kwai Cheong Road, Kwai Chung, Hong Kong, and W. L. Gore & Associates G.K., W Building, 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 1080075 Japan, (hereinafter referred to as “Gore”, “we” and “us”) are responsible for the processing of the personal data that we collect through this website. The responsibility of the individual Gore entity for the processing of your personal data will depend on where you are located and on how you interact with Gore or our websites.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the collection or processing of your personal data or regarding this Privacy Policy, you can contact the Gore Data Protection Team at any time:

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
Global Privacy Office
555 Paper Mill Road
Newark, DE 19711, USA
dataprivacyoffice@wlgore.com
Contact us

W. L. Gore & Associates GmbH
Data Protection Team
Hermann-Oberth-Str. 22
85640 Putzbrunn,
Germany
dataprivacyoffice@wlgore.com
Contact us

W. L. Gore & Associates (Hong Kong) Ltd.
Data Protection Team
Unit 1101-09 & 16-18, Level 11, Tower 1
Kowloon Commerce Centre
No. 51 Kwai Cheong Road
Kwai Chung, Hong Kong
dataprivacyoffice@wlgore.com
Contact us

W. L. Gore & Associates G.K.
Data Protection Team
W Building, 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-Ku
Tokyo 1080075 Japan
dataprivacyoffice@wlgore.com
Contact us

This Privacy Policy describes the way in which we collect, use and disclose personal data through this website.

This Privacy Policy does not address the collection, use or disclosure of information by any third parties, on other websites or offline. In such cases, please refer to the respective privacy policy of such third parties.

By providing your personal data, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. We may change the Privacy Policy at any time by publishing a new version on this website and, if necessary, by adding a note to the homepage. You can determine when this Privacy Policy was last revised by referring to the “LAST UPDATED” legend at the top of this page. Any changes to the Privacy Policy will become effective upon our posting of the revised Privacy Policy on this website. If you use the website after we have published the updated version, you will be deemed to have accepted the Privacy Policy.

Personal Data

For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, Personal data means, unless superseded by local laws, detailed information regarding personal or material circumstances relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (for example, name, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address, credit card number).

Use of the Website by Minors

This website is not directed at individuals under the age of eighteen (18) and we request that these individuals refrain from providing any personal data on this website.

How Gore Collects Personal Data

Usage Data

When you visit our websites, data is automatically transferred from your browser to our server, in order to offer you a better service with personalized information and to make it easier for you to use our website. This data is collected and processed by us or by external service providers on our behalf and includes, in particular, the following information:

Your IP address, browser type, the time spent on the website, pages you have visited and products you have viewed, preferred languages, as well as information that we have collected using cookies, pixel tags, web beacons and similar technologies. For more information, please refer to the Cookies section.

Contact Form

If you contact us directly through our website, for example if you have a general inquiry, are interested in our products or services or have a question or comments relating to an order, we will require your personal data to process and answer your inquiry. You will be required to register in order to use some of the services on this website.

Fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory for processing your inquiry or your registration; all other details are optional.

You provide true, accurate, current, and complete information about yourself as requested during the registration process for this Website and agree to update your information in case of any changes. You agree to treat your login credentials provided by Gore as confidential and not disclose it to any third party and not to use anyone else's login credentials. We reserve the right to disable your access at any time, if we believe that you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms of Use.

For general inquiries, we require your first and last name and contact information, such as address, telephone number and email address.

For questions or comments directed to our customer service team relating to an order or invoice, or in the event of a product complaint, we may require additional information about the product, for example, product size, gender, time and place of purchase and additional information about previous inquiries.

If you purchase products from us directly, for example from our online stores for GORE BIKE WEAR® or GORE RUNNING WEAR® products or ELIXIR® guitar strings, we will require additional information, such as billing and delivery address, and bank and/or credit card details.

If you participate in our direct marketing activities, for example if you fill out a participation or answer card or register for a Gore newsletter, we will need the personal data required for each of these.

If you apply for a job posting online, please refer to the privacy notice on our recruitment platform.

Registration

You will be required to register in order to use some of the services.

When registering, you agree to provide true, accurate, current, and complete information about yourself as requested during the registration process for this Website and agree to update your information in case of any changes. You agree to treat your login credentials provided by Gore as confidential and not disclose it to any third party and not to use anyone else's login credentials. We reserve the right to disable your access at any time, if we believe that you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms of Use.

Cookies

Which cookies are used on this website?

Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer or mobile device. Cookies are used in order to make websites work, or work in a better, more efficient way.

We use “session cookies” which are deleted as soon as you close your browser, and temporary/permanent cookies, which are stored on your computer or mobile end device for a longer period, until they expire, or are deleted. This helps us to recognize you and remember important information that will make your use of a website more convenient (for example by storing preference settings).

Managing cookies

In general, the use of cookies is activated by your browser; however, you can turn off this function. If you do not want information to be collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to decline the use of cookies or to delete them.

To learn more about cookies, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/. If you choose to decline cookies, then some or all of the features, functionality and promotions available through the website may not be available to you.

Service cookies

Service cookies are essential to the website and enable you to move around it and to use its services and functions. We use the information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, remember you when you return to the website and display information more effectively. Without these absolutely necessary cookies, the website will not perform as smoothly for you as we would like it to and we may not be able to provide the website or certain services or functions you request.

These cookies include

Cookies used to store the user’s session ID, which are integral for basic eCommerce functionality and keeping track of users and their shopping cart when switching between different pages, as well as cookies used to record geolocation data of the customer to serve default content based on that user’s country.

Tracking and analytics cookies

We also gather statistical data about the usage of the website in order to continually improve its design and functionality, understand how customers use the website and to assist us with resolving questions regarding the website.

We use analytics cookies to show us which are the most frequently visited pages on the website, help us record any difficulties you have with the website, and show us whether our advertising is effective or not. This allows us to see the overall patterns of usage on the website, rather than the usage of a single person.

We also use analytics cookies to personalize your visit to this website and to memorize your preferences, such as language and region selection. This includes being able to recommend products and offers to you based on your previous usage of the website. Furthermore, these cookies enable us to identify which of our adverts are most likely to appeal to you and to display these while you are visiting the website. We can also use cookies in online advertising in order to track consumer reactions to our adverts, and can use cookies or other files to track your use of other websites.

Targeting cookies

These cookies record your use of our websites, the pages you visit and links you follow. The use of these cookies helps us and our advertising partners to provide advertising or notifications that are relevant to you and your interests. We may also share this information with third-party providers for this purpose. These cookies enable us to identify items you have left in your shopping cart and send to you information related to those items, as well as offering other purchase recommendations, for example.

Where the Cookies are Stored

The cookies collected on this website are stored by us or by third party service providers on our behalf that we have retained to provide web operating and data hosting services for this website. Information generated by the cookies is transferred to a server in the USA and stored there. We have taken steps to ensure that this service provider protects the confidentiality and security of personal data, and to ensure that personal data is processed only for the provision of services and in compliance with applicable law.

For more information about these procedures and your rights, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ and http://www.aboutads.info/.

Google DoubleClick

Google DoubleClick is a service provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). Google DoubleClick uses cookies to present advertising that is relevant to you. For this, your browser is allocated a pseudonym ID number to check which adverts have been viewed and which have been displayed in your browser. The cookies do not contain any personal data. The use of DoubleClick cookies only enables Google and its partner websites to display adverts based on previous visits to our or other websites on the Internet. Information generated by the cookies is transferred by Google to a server in the USA and stored there for analysis. Google only transfers data to third parties if required by law or as part of contract data processing. Under no circumstances will Google integrate your data with other data collected by Google.

By using our websites, you agree to the processing of your personal data collected about you by Google and its purpose as described above.

You can prevent cookies from being stored by adjusting the settings of your browser software accordingly. If you do this, you may not be able to use all the functionality of this website. You can also prevent the collection of data generated by cookies (including your IP address) and its processing by Google by downloading and installing the following browser plugin.

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Web Analytics

In order to analyze the usage of our website, we use, for example, the services of Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics. We may use services from other service providers at any time by making reference to the respective vendor on this website.

Adobe Analytics

Adobe Analytics is a web analytics service from Adobe Inc. (“Adobe”). Adobe Analytics uses cookies to analyze your use of the website. The information generated by cookies is generally transferred to Adobe servers in the EU and stored there. Data is only transferred to countries outside of the EEA in exceptional cases. IP anonymization has been activated on this website, which means that Adobe anonymizes your IP address in an EU member state by abbreviating it.

Adobe will use this information to analyze your website activity and to draw up reports for us regarding general use of the website as well as to provide further services with regard to website and Internet usage.

The IP address transferred by your browser as part of Adobe Analytics is not integrated with other Adobe data.

You can prevent cookies from being stored by adjusting the settings of your browser software accordingly. If you do this, you may not be able to use all the functionality of this website. You can also prevent the collection of data generated by cookies (including your IP address) and its processing by Adobe by following the instructions on the following Adobe webpage:

http://www.adobe.com/en/privacy/opt-out.html

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service from Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies to analyze your use of the website. The information generated by cookies is generally transferred to Google servers in the USA and stored there. IP anonymization has been activated on this website, which means that Google anonymizes your IP address by abbreviating it. This abbreviation generally takes place within the European Economic Area (EEA). The full IP address is only transferred to Google servers in the USA and abbreviated there in exceptional cases.

Google will use this information to analyze your website activity and to draw up reports for us regarding general use of the website as well as to provide further services with regard to website and Internet usage. The IP address transferred by your browser as part of Google Analytics is not integrated with other Google data.

You can prevent cookies from being stored by adjusting the settings of your browser software accordingly. If you do this, you may not be able to use all the functionality of this website. You can also prevent the collection of data generated by cookies (including your IP address) and its processing by Google by downloading and installing the following browser plugin

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

We also use Google Analytics to analyze data from AdWords and the DoubleClick cookie for statistical purposes. If you do not want this to take place, you can deactivate this via the Ads Preferences Manager. To do this, click on the following link:

https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated?hl=en

Social Plugins from Social Networks

Our website uses social plugins from various social networks, for example Facebook and Google+, Twitter and Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Facebook is operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.

Follow this link for an overview of the Facebook plugins and their appearance: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins

Google+ and YouTube are operated by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

Follow this link for an overview of the Google plugins and their appearance: https://developers.google.com/youtube/youtube_subscribe_button

Twitter is operated by Twitter Inc., 1355 Market St, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA.

Follow this link for an overview of the Twitter buttons and their appearance: https://twitter.com/about/resources/buttons

Instagram is operated by Instagram LLC., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.

Follow this link for an overview of the Instagram buttons and their appearance: http://blog.instagram.com/post/36222022872/introducing-instagram-badges

LinkedIn is operated by LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

Follow this link for an overview of the LinkedIn plugins and their appearance:

https://developer.linkedin.com/plugins

Pinterest is operated by Pinterest Inc., 808 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA

Follow this link for an overview of the Pinterest plugins and their appearance: https://developers.pinterest.com/tools/widget-builder/

We may use social plugins from other social networks at any time by making reference to the respective operator on this website.

When you visit one of our websites with integrated social plugins, your browser establishes a direct connection with the servers of the respective social network.

The plugin content is transferred directly to your browser by the respective provider and integrated into the page. By integrating the plugins, the providers are informed that your browser has visited the corresponding page of our website, even if you do not have a profile or have not yet logged in. This information (including your IP address) is transferred by your browser directly to a server belonging to the respective provider in the USA and stored there. If you are logged into a social network while visiting our website, the social network adds this information to your profile. If you interact with plugins, for example by pressing the “like”, “+1”, “tweet” or “Instagram” buttons, the corresponding information is transferred directly to one of the provider’s servers and stored there. The information is also published on the social network, on your Twitter and/or Instagram account and displayed to your contacts there. If you would prefer that such a data transfer does not take place, log out of your social networks before you visit our website. You can also completely prevent plugins from loading using add-ons for your browser, e.g. using the script blocker “NoScript” (http://noscript.net/).

For more information regarding the collection, use and disclosure of data by social networks, regarding your rights and options for protecting your personal data, please read the privacy policies of the respective networks:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/privacy

Google+: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/

YouTube: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/

Pinterest: http://about.pinterest.com/privacy/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

Social Login via Facebook Connect

We provide you with the option to register with us directly using your existing Facebook profile via Facebook Connect.

If you want to use this function by clicking on the Facebook Social Plugin, you will be directed to Facebook. Unless you are already logged in and you will be required to log in using your username and password. We will not collect your login details.

Facebook will then provide to you information about the personal data that Facebook will sent to us (public profile, list of friends, email address and current place of residence). If you consent to this transfer by using the “OK” button, we will create or update your customer account using the transferred personal data. There is no permanent link between your customer account and your Facebook account beyond what is required to create your account with us.

For information regarding the purpose and scope of data collection and the further processing and use of the data by Facebook as well as your rights in this regard and settings to protect your privacy, please refer to the Facebook Inc. privacy policy.

https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/

Facebook is operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.

How Gore uses Your Personal Data

To process general inquiries regarding our company or our products and services. For example, if you fill out a Contact Web form, Gore will use the information provided to contact you about your interest in our company, our products and services.

To process contracts and orders that you have placed through our website.

To process any inquiries relating to contracts and orders.

To assess your creditworthiness when purchasing a product, for which we may contract a third-party service provider.

When purchasing a product, we may contact you in order to ask you for your opinion on the purchase or the product.

If a purchase process is not completed, we may send you a reminder email.

To process questions or comments directed to our customer service team, or to settle complaints.

To send information about this website, changes to general terms and conditions of sale, the privacy policy or website terms of use, or other administrative information. If this information is important, you may not opt out of receiving it.

If you have given consent to receive email communication Gore will use the personal data provided by you to further discuss your interest in the company or our products and services; and to send you information regarding the company, its affiliates, and its partners, such as information about special offers, events, eCommerce activities, market research, consumer or customer surveys, competitions and similar advertising campaigns.

If you have signed up to participate in a competition or similar advertising campaign, we may use the personal information provided by you to process your participation. For more information, please refer to the conditions of participation for the respective campaign.

In order to personalize the design of our website and send product recommendations which match your interests may use data about your usage of the website alone or in combination with other personal data.

For internal purposes, such as data analyses, product development, improvement of our pages and services, identification of user behavior and users’ needs and to check the effectiveness of our advertising activities.

Where required, we will ask for your consent to use your personal data. You may not be able to access some of our information on this website or obtain some of our information if you choose not to provide us personal data.

How Gore Shares Personal Data

We may share personal data with third parties for the following purposes:

With Gore Affiliates. Gore is a global enterprise that consists of numerous and various entities worldwide. For more information, see the list of Gore affiliates. To facilitate Gore’s global operations personal data may need to be shared with and transferred between Gore affiliates. Gore affiliates may access and use your personal data as described in this Privacy Policy. With third-party service providers, whose services we use, for example, for web hosting, data analysis, IT technology, infrastructure and security.

With third parties whose services we use to provide customer services, for example for communicating with you by email or phone, for market research, carrying out surveys, handling payment transfers, advisory services, maintenance and other similar services.

With third parties to allow them to send you information regarding their products, programs, services, information and promotions that they believe may be of interest to you.

With third-party advertising companies, to allow them to display advertising for products and services that may be of interest to you when you visit our website or other websites, based on information available from your visit to this website or other websites. For this, these companies may store or activate a unique cookie on your browser.
For more information on these procedures and regarding your rights in the event that you do not agree with this, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ and http://www.aboutads.info/.

With third party sponsors of events, competitions and similar promotions, in which you participate.

For services (for example, message boards, chat functionality, profile pages and blogs, community sites) to which you may post information and materials. Please note that the use of these services is subject to additional terms of use and any information you post or disclose through these services (for example, personal data contained in photos, stories, comments and videos) will become publicly accessible and may be available to visitors to the website and to the general public.

With third parties, in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock (including without limitation in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

With third parties, in order to fulfill legal obligations, including under jurisdictions outside of your place of residence, to respond to requests from the authorities, to secure and enforce our rights, to protect our company, including our information and our assets and/or those belonging to you or other individuals, and to take appropriate measures for this.

Personal data is only shared with third parties to the extent required by those third parties for the respective purpose.

Where is Personal Data Stored and Processed Abroad?

Your personal data that is collected through this website may be stored and processed in any country in which we have facilities and operations. This may, for example, be because our servers or those belonging to our service providers are located outside of the European Economic Area. By providing any personal data, you consent to the transfer of such personal data to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have different data protection rules from your country of residence. For more information, see the list of affiliates.

Third-Party Sites

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties. The inclusion of a link on the website does not imply endorsement of the linked site by us or by our affiliates.

In some cases, we may permit you to use third-party payment services to make payments. If you wish to make a payment using a payment service, you will be directed to a webpage that is hosted by the payment service and not by us. Any information that you provide through this page will be subject to the applicable payment service’s privacy policy, rather than this Privacy Policy. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, any payment service’s use of information collected through any payment service page.

Security

We use reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect personal data under our control. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or data storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

Access to Your Information

If you would like to opt out of receiving further electronic communication from Gore, and/or wish to stop Gore disclosing your personal data for marketing purposes, you can contact us to withdraw your consent.

If you would like to access, review, ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, update, delete or otherwise limit our use of your personal data, please contact us.

In your request, please make clear what information you would like to have changed, what you are opting out of, whether you would like to have your personal data removed from our database or otherwise let us know what limitations you would like to put on our use of your data.

Retention Period

We will retain your personal data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy until all such purposes cease to exist, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. If you have given consent to receive email communication we will keep your personal data for two years from your last interaction with Gore, unless a longer or shorter retention period is required by law, is necessary in the course of legal proceedings or is otherwise needed for a particular purpose under applicable law.

Sensitive Information

Please do not send us, or disclose, any sensitive information (e.g. information related to ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, information relating to sexual orientation, health, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through this website.

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. and our affiliates (referred to below collectively as “Gore”) are concerned about privacy issues and want you to be familiar with how we collect, use. and disclose personal information (“PI,” as defined below). This Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with PI that we collect through this website ("Site"). This Privacy Policy does not address the collection, use, or disclosure of information by any third parties, on other websites or offline.

By providing PI to us, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. We may change this Privacy Policy by posting a new privacy policy on the website. You can determine when this Privacy Policy was last revised by referring to the "LAST UPDATED" legend at the top of this page. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will become effective upon our posting of the revised Privacy Policy on the Site. If you use the Site after we make changes, you will be deemed to accept the Privacy Policy.

Personal Information

“PI” is information that identifies an individual, which we collect when you use the Site such as, name, postal address (including billing and shipping addresses), telephone number, fax number, email address, credit and debit card information.

If you provide PI of another person, please make sure that you have the right to share that information with us.

How Gore Uses PI

Gore uses PI primarily to do business with you. We may also use PI for the following purposes:

• fulfill your requests, such as to respond to a question regarding our products, to help you locate a store near you, fulfill your order, process your payment card, and/or to provide you with customer service.
• send you important information regarding the Site, changes to our terms, conditions, and policies and/or other administrative information. Because this information may be important, you may not opt out of receiving such communications.
• inform you of products, programs, services, and promotions that we believe may be of interest to you.
• allow you to send email to others through our “send to a friend” type functionality. (By using this functionality, you are telling us that you are entitled to use and provide us with your friend’s name and email address.)
• register you for a seminar.
• allow you to participate in sweepstakes, contests, and similar promotions and to administer these activities. Some of these activities have additional rules which could contain additional information about how we use and disclose your PI.
• customize content for you on our Site and provide you with customized offers.
• facilitate our internal business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, developing new products, enhancing our website, improving our services, identifying usage trends, and determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns.

How PI is Shared

We may share PI with third parties for the following purposes:

• to third-party service providers for web hosting, data analysis, IT services, e-mail delivery services, survey fulfillment, social media applications and postings, payment and credit card processing, order fulfillment, and other similar services.
• to third parties to allow them to contact you regarding products, programs, services, information, and promotions that they believe may be of interest to you.
• to identify you to any person to whom you send messages through the Site.
• to third-party sponsors of sweepstakes, contests, and similar promotions, if you participate.
• by you, on services (for example, message boards, chat functionality, “profile pages” and blogs, community sites where you can “share your story” and review products, among other services) to which you are able to post information and materials. Please note that any information you post or disclose through these services (for example, PI contained in the photos, stories, comments, and videos that you submit) will become public information and may be available to visitors to the Site and to the general public.
• in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets, or stock (including without limitation in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).
• as we believe to be appropriate (a) under applicable law including laws outside your country of residence; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions; (e) to protect our operations; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of you or others; and (g) to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

Other Information

We and our third-party service providers may collect Other Information from you, including your IP address, MAC address, your computer type, screen resolution, OS version, and Internet browser as well as information collected through the use of cookies, pixel tags, web beacons, and other similar technologies to better serve you with more tailored information and facilitate your ongoing use of the Site. We and our third-party service providers may also collect Other Information such as demographic data (for example, your city or state) as well as aggregate PI in a manner such that the end product does not personally identify you or any other user of the Site (for example, by using PI to calculate the percentage of our users who have a particular telephone area code).

Cookies

Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the Site, pages visited, language preferences, navigation path, and products browsed. We and our service providers use the information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, remember you when you come back to the Site, display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience while visiting the Site (including to recommend products and offers to you based on your use of the Site), as well as for online tracking purposes. We can recognize your computer to assist your use of the Site. We also gather statistical information about the usage of the Site in order to continually improve the design and functionality, understand how customers use the Site, and to assist us with resolving questions regarding the Site. Cookies further allow us to select which of our advertisements or offers are most likely to appeal to you and display them while you are on the Site. We may also use cookies in online advertising to track consumer responses to our advertisements and we may use cookies or other files to track your use of other websites.

If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to decline the use of cookies. To learn more about cookies, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/. If you choose to decline cookies, then some or all of the features, functionality, and promotions available through the Site may not be available to you.

Because Other Information does not personally identify you, we may use Other Information for any purpose or share it with third parties. In some instances we may combine Other Information with PI, such as combining your zip code with your name. If we do combine any Other Information with PI, the combined information will be treated by us as PI as long as it is combined. If local law requires us to treat any of the Other Information as PI, we will comply with those laws.

Third-Party Sites

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of any third parties. The inclusion of a link on the Site does not imply endorsement of the linked site by us or by our affiliates.

In some cases we may permit you to use third-party payment services to make payments. If you wish to make a payment using a Payment Service, you will be directed to a webpage that is hosted by the Payment Service and not by us. Any information that you provide through a Payment Service Page will be subject to the applicable Payment Service's privacy policy, rather than this Privacy Policy. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, any Payment Service's use of information collected through any Payment Service Page.

Third-Party Advertisers

We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads about goods and services that may be of interest to you when you visit our Site and other websites, based on information about your visit to this Site and other websites. To do so, these companies may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ and http://www.aboutads.info/.

Security

We use reasonable organizational, technical, and administrative measures to protect PI under our control. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or data storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

Choices and Access

If you would like to opt out from receiving electronic communications from Gore and/or from Gore’s sharing of your PI with third parties for their marketing purposes, please contact us.

If you would like to review, correct, update, suppress, delete, or otherwise limit our use of your PI that has been previously provided to us, you may please contact us.

In your request, please make clear what information you would like to have changed, what you are opting out from, whether you would like to have your PI suppressed from our database, or otherwise let us know what limitations you would like to put on our use of your PI. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable.

Retention Period

We will retain your PI for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or allowed by law.

Use of Site by Minors

The Site is not directed to individuals under the age of eighteen (18) and we request that these individuals not provide PI through the Site.

Cross-Border Transfer

Your PI may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities and operations, and by providing any PI to us, you consent to the transfer of such PI to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have different data protection rules from your country of residence.

Jointly-Used PI

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. and the local Gore affiliate running the Site are the party responsible for the management of PI that is jointly used by Gore.

Sensitive Information

Please do not send us, or disclose, any sensitive Personal Information (e.g., social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, criminal background, or trade union membership) on or through the Site.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us, or write to the following address:

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
555 Paper Mill Road
Newark, DE 19711, U.S.A.

• Legal Information of Use of Website

Effective Date: 8/5/2009

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. (referred to below as 'Gore') respects your privacy. The only personally identifiable information Gore collects about you is what you provide to Gore, for example by completing a Gore “contact us” form, participating in a Gore contest or by some other interactive channel.

Information Collection, Use and Disclosure

Gore collects personally identifiable information, such as email address, name, mailing address, phone number and birthday, only if individual Web site visitors wish to give Gore this information. Gore uses personally identifiable information to improve its product offerings, analyze Web site usage, improve and customize its Web sites, and for general customer relationship and service purposes, such as responding to a question about a product.

As part of Gore’s normal business operations, Gore may share a user’s personally identifiable information with certain third-party service providers. For example, Gore discloses personally identifiable information to third parties when it is reasonably necessary in order to enable Gore to provide services that have been requested by users, to provide information that has been requested by users or to provide products that have been ordered by users. Additionally, some of Gore’s Web site operations, product fulfillment operations, marketing programs, data processing and data analysis may be managed and/or conducted by Gore’s affiliates and/or third-party service providers. Gore may provide access to your profile and personally identifiable information to such affiliates and/or third-party service providers for the purpose of providing services to you on behalf of Gore or to enable such affiliates and service providers to provide services to Gore.

Gore can (and you authorize Gore to) disclose any information about you as required by law, including voluntary disclosures to law enforcement agencies and government officials, as Gore, in its sole discretion, believes necessary or appropriate.

Gore may also disclose or use personally identifiable information to investigate and respond to any third party complaints or violations of Gore’s rights.

Gore also collects aggregate statistical information regarding general Web site traffic patterns. In order to do so, Gore's Web site uses cookies. Gore also uses third-party service providers to track and analyze non-personally identifiable usage and volume statistical information from Web site users.

Access to Personally Identifiable Information

If your personally identifiable information changes or if you no longer desire to receive any of Gore’s services, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate your information by contacting Gore using our Contact Us form.

Choice/Opt-Out

If you provide Gore with your email address or mailing address, Gore may send you newsletters, information on products, services and promotions or offer you the opportunity to participate in Gore marketing and promotions, such as surveys or contests. With respect to any such emails, within the emails Gore will provide you with the opportunity to "opt-out" of having your personally identifiable information used for such purposes by the Gore division that sent the email.

Governing Law and Data Storage

This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of the United States of America, which is where this Web site is hosted. You should be aware that when you submit your personally identifiable information to Gore through this Web site, your information will be deemed sent to Gore from the United States of America, that your information may go to a country that has different privacy laws than your home country and that your information will be handled in accordance with the laws of the United States of America. By providing any personal information to Gore through this Web site, all users, including without limitation users in the member states of the European Union, fully understand and unambiguously consent to the submission, collection and processing of such information in the United States of America. Some of Gore’s Web sites are targeted towards countries other than the United States and are intended for visitors from those countries. If you are a resident of a country other than the United States and you give Gore personal information through a Gore Web site targeted towards your country of residence, that information will be stored and used in accordance with the laws of the country in which the Web site is maintained.

Transfer of Information

In the event Gore or one of its divisions is ever sold to or acquired by another company, Gore reserves the right to transfer ownership of the customer information to the acquiring company.

Changes in this Privacy Policy

If Gore decides to make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, Gore will notify users by posting any such material changes on this page in this section. Gore reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Your use of this Web site after changes to this Privacy Policy have been made constitutes acceptance of those changes going forward.

Notification of Material Changes since the Effective Date

1. August 5, 2009:  Information Collection, Use and Disclosure - clarification of nature of personally identifiable information collected and shared and clarification of purpose for sharing such information.
2. August 5, 2009:  Access to Personally Identifiable Information and Choice/Opt-Out – explains  how to contact Gore to correct, update, delete or deactivate a user’s personally identifiable information and how to opt-out from within unsolicited commercial email correspondence.
3. August 5, 2009:  Governing Law and Data Storage - explains that the laws of the United States of America, which is where this Web site is hosted, will govern this Privacy Policy and that user information may be stored in a country that has different privacy laws than the user’s home country. Clarifies that other Gore Web sites targeted towards non-U.S. residents will store information in accordance with the laws of the country in which that Web site is maintained.

Comments or Questions

We welcome any questions, concerns or comments which you may have in relation to our company, products, Web site or Privacy Policy. For general questions about our company and any comments on our Web site and/or our Privacy Policy, please contact Gore using our Contact Us form.

For More Information

Gore Information Center, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., 201 Airport Road, Elkton, MD 21921, USA. (Tel.: 888 / 914-4673).

Effective Date: 12/15/2004

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. (referred to below as 'Gore') respects your privacy. The only information we collect about you is what you yourself tell us, for example by registering when placing an order, or by some other interactive channel.

You can let us know at any time if you no longer wish to receive information from us, or if you would like your data to be deleted.

Visitors to Gore Web Sites

Gore only collects personal information such as email addresses, names or mailing addresses for its own use and only if individual Web site visitors wish to give us this information. We collect only aggregate statistical information regarding general web site traffic patterns. In order to do so, Gore's Web site uses cookies. Gore is also using third-party suppliers in order to track and analyze non-personally identifiable usage and volume statistical information from our visitors. Information is kept only for as long as is necessary for order processing and to comply with legal obligations to keep records.

Comments or Questions

We always welcome any questions, concerns or comments which you may have in relation to our company, products, Web site or data protection policy. For general questions about our company and any comments on our Web site and/or our data protection policy, please contact the Gore Information Center at (888) 914 4673.

For More Information

• For North and South America: Gore Information Center, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., 201 Airport Road, Elkton, MD 21921, USA. (Tel.: 800 / 455-4184).
• For Europe: Gore Corporate & Legal, W. L. Gore & Associates GmbH, Hermann-Oberth-Straße 22, 85640 Putzbrunn, Germany (Tel.: +49 / 89-4612-0).
• For Asia and the Pacific region: Gore Corporate Services, W. L. Gore & Associates Hong Kong, Ltd. 12F, Tower 2, Grand Century Place, 193 Prince Edward Road, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. (Tel.: +852 / 2622-9622).