Walmart Privacy Policy
Last Updated: March 2015
At Walmart, our customers are number one - always. That's why everything we do is focused on providing excellent customer service and delivering low prices. The information you share with Walmart allows us to provide the products and services you need and want while giving you the very best shopping experience.
Our founder Sam Walton reminded us that "a promise we make is a promise we keep," and it's our promise to customers that we respect the trust you place in us and the privacy of the information you share. Part of providing superior customer service includes making sure that we're building a relationship of trust with customers. Our way of doing that is to let you know in a clear, prominent, and easily accessible way how we collect, use, share, and above all protect your personal information.
Our Policy outlines:
- How and why we collect your personal information;
- How your personal information is used and protected;
- When and with whom we share your personal information; and
- What choices you can make about how we collect, use, and share your personal information.
What Does Our Privacy Policy Include? Our Policy covers how and why we collect, use, protect, and share your personal information:
- At Walmart and Amigo retail stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, and
- On our websites and mobile services where this Policy is posted. Our Policy focuses on personal information - - information that identifies you or reasonably can be linked to information that identifies you.
Our Policy covers how and why we collect, use, protect, and share your personal information. This Policy applies to personal information we collect at Walmart and Amigo retail stores in the United States and Puerto Rico and through our websites and mobile services where this Policy is posted.
Our Policy focuses on personal information - - information that identifies you or reasonably can be linked to information that identifies you. For example, when you place an item on layaway or place an order online, we collect personal information, such as name, address, phone number, and credit or debit card information.
We have additional, specific privacy notices related to some of our specialized operations. For example, our Health Wellness operations (pharmacy and vision center) have a specific Notice of Privacy Practices for their personal information practices. Our specialized notices can be found here.
What Is Our Pledge of Accountability?
We require our associates, business partners, and service providers to manage your personal information properly.
We have designated a team of trained associates who are responsible for helping to ensure compliance with this Policy. We require all those who manage customers' personal information to do so properly and in accordance with our policies.
What Type of Information Do We Collect?
We collect two types of information: (1) information we receive from you and (2) information we receive from others. Information we receive from you includes information you share with us, such as when you create an account on one of our websites. This also includes information you provide us through technology, such as through a cookie placed on your computer when you visit our websites. We also receive information from other sources to help us supplement our records, improve the personalization of our service to you, and detect fraud. Our goal is to limit the information we collect to the information needed to support our business.
We collect information to deliver the products and services you request and to help improve your shopping experience. Our goal is to limit the information we collect to the information needed to support our business. We collect information from you in a variety of ways when you interact with our stores, websites, and mobile services. We collect information in two ways: information we receive from you and information we receive from others.
Information We Receive From You You share information with us in various ways in our stores and online. For example, you share information when you:
- Make an in-store or online purchase, or other transaction, with us;
- Create an account on one of our websites or mobile services;
- Use a gift registry or create a mobile shopping list;
- Participate in our programs, such as Savings Catcher or eReceipts;
- Conduct a transaction or request a service where we collect information (including when required by law, such as hunting and fishing licenses);
- Request customer service or contact us;
- Post a review or comment on one of our social media pages, or post a rating, review or other user-generated content on one of our websites or mobile services; and
- Participate in a contest, sweepstake, promotion, or survey.
When you engage in these activities, you may share different types of personal information with us, such as your name, email address, physical or postal address, phone number, date of birth, and payment information.
You also provide us information in other ways through technology. Some of this information may be linked to you personally. This information helps our websites and mobile services work correctly and supports our customer marketing and analytics efforts - - our work to understand our customers' needs and provide information about our products and services. Here are some examples:
Device Information: We collect technical information when you visit our websites or use our mobile applications or services. This includes information such as Internet Protocol (IP) address, the type of mobile device you use, your device operating system and browser type, a unique device identifier, the address of a referring websites, the path you take through our websites, and other information about your session on our websites.
Browsing Information: We use technologies such as cookies, web beacons, and mobile device identifiers to collect information about the use of our websites and mobile services. Cookies allow us to provide you relevant information as you use or return to our sites. Web beacons allow us to know if a certain page was visited, an email was opened, or if ad banners on our websites and other sites were effective. We use these tools to provide a continuous and more personalized shopping experience for you. See "What Are Your Choices?" below for more information.
Location Information: We may collect information about your location when your device is set to provide location information. For example, your device's GPS signal allows us to show you the nearest Walmart stores. We may be able to recognize the location of a mobile device in stores where we provide customers free WiFi access. Through mobile services, Bluetooth technology in our stores allows us to show you nearby products that may interest you. See "What Are Your Choices?" below for more information.
Cameras: We operate cameras in store for security and operational purposes, for example, to help us improve the design of our stores to better serve our customers.
Information We Receive From Other Sources
We receive information about you from other sources to help us correct or supplement our records, improve the quality or personalization of our service to you, and prevent or detect fraud. We collect personal information from consumer reporting agencies in conjunction with products or services that involve financial risk to Walmart, such as transactions in which Walmart extends you financing.
How Do We Use Your Personal Information?
We use your personal information to provide you products and services, such as to fulfill your requests for products or to help us personalize our offerings to you. We also use your personal information to support our business functions, such as fraud prevention, marketing, and legal functions.
We use your personal information to offer and provide you products and services and to support our business functions. These business functions include order and service fulfillment, internal business processes, marketing, authentication, loss and fraud prevention, public safety and legal functions. Some examples include:
- To fulfill your requests for products and services and communicate with you about those requests;
- To register and service your account;
- To administer contests, sweepstakes, promotions, and surveys;
- To provide customer service and alert you to product information, including recalls;
- To help us personalize our service offerings, websites, mobile services, and advertising;
- To help us improve your experience in our stores and through our websites and mobile services;
- To send you information about our products, services, and promotions;
- To respond to reviews, comments, or other feedback you provide us; and
- To protect the security and integrity of our websites, mobile services, and our business. To do this, we combine personal and non-personal information, collected online and offline, including information from third party sources. We also transfer or share your personal information within our corporate family of companies, such as with Sam's Club, for these purposes, as permitted by law.
How Do We Share Your Personal Information Outside of Walmart?
We will not sell or rent your personal information. We may share your personal information in limited circumstances, such as to conduct our business, when legally required, or with your consent.
We will not share your personal information outside of our corporate family of companies, except in the following circumstances:
Service Providers
We share personal information about you with service providers that help with our business activities, including shipping vendors, billing and refund vendors, payment card processors, and companies that help us improve our products and services. We require our service providers to keep your personal information secure. We do not allow our service providers to use or share your personal information for any purpose other than providing services on our behalf. Your personal information may be stored and processed by our service providers in the United States or other locations where the service providers or Walmart maintain facilities.
Products and Services Offered by Other Businesses
We will sometimes enable other businesses to make products or services available to our customers, such as through Walmart.com Marketplace retailers. You may purchase products or services from these other businesses at our stores or through our websites or mobile services. We indicate when products or services are offered by other businesses and share with these businesses personal information related to your purchase of their products and services.
Legal Requirements and Protection of Our Company and Others We may share your personal information in other special circumstances, which include situations when sharing is required by law, or we believe sharing will help to protect the safety, property, or rights of Walmart, our customers, our associates, or other persons. Examples include:
- Protecting the health or safety of customers;
- Addressing crimes committed on Walmart property;
- Identifying and addressing fraud or financial risk;
- Providing personal information from cameras to law enforcement at their written request;
- Responding to a search warrant or other valid legal inquiry; and
- Responding to an investigative body in the case of a breach of an agreement or violation of law.
Business Transfers
In the event that all or a part of our business is merged, sold or reorganized (including transfers made as a part of insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings), personal information about you could be shared with the successor business. We will use reasonable measures to help ensure that any successor treats your information in accordance with this Policy.
With Your Consent
In any circumstance other than those described above, we will ask for your affirmative consent before we share your personal information outside of our corporate family of companies, and we also will not sell or rent your personal information.
What are Your Choices? You have choices about the various ways we collect, use, and share your personal information.
- We may send you marketing communications. You can tell us your marketing preferences by visiting our Communication Preferences Alerts page.
- We also personalize your experience on our sites and mobile services by showing you advertisements from Walmart or our advertising partners that are tailored to your interests. Learn more about interest-based advertising, including how to opt out.
- Some of our mobile services use your device's location information. You can adjust the settings of your mobile device at any time to control whether your device communicates this location information. We may also offer additional controls on our use of your mobile location information.
We want to offer you choices about the different ways we collect, use, or share your personal information. These choices are described below.
Marketing Preferences When we are sending marketing communications to you, we use the following standards:
- We use an opt-in standard for phone and text messages. We use an opt-in standard for sharing personal information with companies outside our corporate family of companies for their use in direct marketing, such as sending you promotions. Opt-in means we will only conduct the activity with your affirmative consent.
- We use an opt-out standard for email or for other communications, such as postal mail. Opt-out means we may contact you, but will stop upon your request (as described below). Please note that these standards may not apply to communications regarding our Health Wellness operations, such as prescription reminders. For more information see the Health Wellness Notice of Privacy Practices.
Additionally, these standards may not apply to Walmart-branded credit card offerings because these are provided through associated financial institutions. However, you can choose to stop receiving certain prescreened offers of credit that originate from participating nationwide credit reporting agencies, including our prescreened offers, by calling the official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry organization at 1-888-567-8688 or by going to www.optoutprescreen.com.
You can provide us with your marketing preferences by visiting our Communication Preferences Alerts page. The Communication Preferences Alerts page allows you at any time to update or change your preferences about receiving marketing materials. Or you may contact the Privacy Office as described in the " Contact Us" section below.
If you contact us by email or mail, please be sure to include your full name, the types of communications you would like to receive or not receive, and your related contact information. For instance, if you would like to opt-out of mail, include your mailing address. Please allow sufficient time for your marketing preferences to be processed. It may take up to ten days to process your requests related to email and up to 30 days to process your requests related to telephone calls, text messages, and sharing information with your consent. Please note that postal mailings are often prepared many weeks in advance, and you may continue to receive mail for six to ten weeks.
Since we do not accept opt-out requests from third parties, such as catalog opt-out services, please communicate your request directly to us through one of the mechanisms mentioned above.
Please know that, even if you opted out of receiving marketing communications from us, we may still contact you for transactional or informational purposes. Some examples are contacts for customer service, product information, service or reminder notices, customer surveys, or recalls. We may also need to contact you with questions or information regarding your order.
Interest-Based Advertising Preferences
We personalize your experience on our sites and mobile services by showing you advertisements that are tailored to your interests. For example, if you browse or shop for electronics with us or on other sites, we may show you ads for electronics as you continue to browse the Internet. For more information about browsing information see "Information We Receive From You."
We show you advertisements related to Walmart or our advertising partners. We belong to ad networks that may use your browsing history across participating websites and mobile services to show you interest-based advertisements. You may also see ads for Walmart on participating websites and mobile services based on how you browse. We do not share personal information about you with companies that advertise on our websites without your consent. Learn more about interest-based advertising, including how to opt out.
Mobile Location Settings
Some of our mobile services use your device's location information. You can adjust the settings of your mobile device at any time to control whether your device communicates this location information. See your device instructions to learn more about these settings. In addition, we may offer you controls on our use of your mobile location information. See "What Types of Information Do We Collect?"above for more information on the types of location information we collect.
How Do You Access and Update Your Personal Information?
We provide you with various ways to access or update your personal information, including contact and account information. We also take reasonable steps to keep your personal information accurate and complete.
We take reasonable steps to keep your personal information accurate and complete. You can access or update your personal information, including contact or account information, in the following ways:
- If you have created an account on one of our websites, log into your account. Once you do, you will be able to enter and update your own contact information and payment information, as well as contact information for recipients you have designated.
- Contact us through one of the ways listed in the "Contact Us" section at the bottom of this Policy. Please include your current contact information, the information you are interested in accessing, and your requested changes. We will provide you the personal information requested if it is reasonably available, unless it infringes on the privacy of other individuals, and subject to reasonable limitations provided by law and internal procedures. Otherwise we will describe the types of information we typically collect. We will provide access and make the changes you request, or will provide an explanation of what actions we will be able to take with regard to the request.
- If you need to access your personal information related to a specified service provided to you by a Walmart service provider or business partner, we will refer you to the service provider or business partner. Please contact us via the "Contact Us" section below.
If you need assistance accessing records related to your Vision Center, Pharmacy, or financial services information, please visit the "What Are Your Privacy Protections for Specific Types of Personal Information?"section.
How Do We Secure Your Personal Information?
We recognize the importance of maintaining the security of our customers' personal information. We use reasonable security measures, including physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect your personal information.
We recognize the importance of maintaining the security of our customer's personal information. We have a team of associates who are responsible for helping to protect the security of your information. Whether you are shopping on our websites, through our mobile services, or in our stores, we use reasonable security measures, including physical, administrative, and technical safeguards. These measures may include security access controls or other physical security safeguards, information security technologies and policies, procedures to help ensure the appropriate disposal of information, and training programs.
Here are some examples of security measures we use to protect your personal information:
- Passwords are required to access your online account and help to protect your account information. Please keep this password confidential.
- Encryption technology, called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), helps to protect personal information in certain areas of our websites during transport across the Internet. The presence of SSL encryption may be indicated by https in the browser URL or the image of a closed lock or solid key in the browser window. These indications may not be present in mobile services that use SSL.
- For payment card information, we use secured networks, encryption or other protection of cardholder data, physical and technical access controls, monitoring and tests of security systems, and other information security practices to help to protect your information.
To learn more about measures you can take to protect the security of your personal information, please click here.
How Does Walmart Protect the Privacy of Children Online?
Our websites and mobile services are intended for a general audience and are not directed to children.
We recognize the importance of protecting children's online privacy. Our websites and mobile services are intended for a general audience and are not directed to children. In order to protect the privacy of children, Walmart websites and mobile services knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 only with prior parental consent or as permitted by law. Please Contact Us if you believe we may have collected information from your child through our websites or mobile services and we will work to delete it.
What Are Your Privacy Protections for Specific Types of Personal Information?
In addition to this Policy, we have specific privacy notices for some of our specialized operations, including a specific Notice of Privacy Practices for our Health Wellness operations and a description of privacy protections for financial products and services available in our stores.
We have additional specific notices for our personal information practices related to some of our specialized operations. For example:
- Our Health Wellness operations (Pharmacy and Vision Center) have a specific Notice of Privacy Practices for its information practices related to health information.
- Walmart makes a variety of financial products and services available to you, either directly or in connection with business partners. A description of privacy protections related to financial products and services is available here.
- This policy applies to customer personal information Walmart collects in the United States and Puerto Rico. Walmart maintains separate privacy policies applicable to its international operations.
Who Can I Contact at Walmart About the Privacy Policy?
You can contact the Walmart Privacy Office online or by postal mail.
Contact Customer Service for store experience, marketing preferences, and general feedback/questions.
Contact the Privacy Office - Please feel free to contact the privacy office with any questions or comments about this Policy or about how your personal information is handled. You can also contact us via the address below:
Mail:
Walmart Corporate
Privacy Office, MS 0160
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72716-0160
What Are Your California Privacy Rights?
Our Privacy Policy describes how we share information for marketing purposes. The Policy and rights apply to all customers, including California residents.
Our Privacy Policy describes how we share information for marketing purposes. The Policy and rights apply to all customers, including California residents:
- We share personal information with others outside of Walmart for direct marketing of their products only if we have your affirmative consent (opt in). See "How Do We Share Your Personal Information Outside Walmart?"
- We share personal information with other businesses within our corporate family, such as Sam's Club and Vudu. See "How Do We Use Your Personal Information?"
Please Contact Us with any questions, or to request a list of third parties to whom we may share personal information for their marketing purposes and the categories of information we may disclose.
How Will I Know if this Policy Changes?
We will provide additional notice of significant updates. We will post the date our Policy was last updated at the top of the Privacy Policy.
Please check our Privacy Policy periodically for changes. We will provide additional notice of significant updates. We will post the date our Policy was last updated at the top of the Privacy Policy.