Privacy Policy

Golden Corral Franchise takes privacy very seriously. This Privacy Policy applies to the web site at www.goldencorralfranchise.com (the “Site”). We are providing this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information that we collect and receive from you in connection with your use of the Site.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to: (1) activities that occur offline; or (2) to information we collect outside of the Site.

Information We Collect

When inquiring about use of or using the Site, you may be required to provide certain personally identifiable information necessary for use of the Site and for communicating with you. The data collected includes information about you that can be used to contact or identify you, and information related to your use or potential use of the Site (collectively, “Personal Information”). Personal Information that we collect may include, for example, name, email address, phone number, mailing address, birth date (month and day), age and geolocation.

Privacy Notice (Updated December 30, 2019) / Your California Privacy Rights: For example, we may collect Personal Information from you when you perform the following activities on the Site:

• Apply for a franchise,
• Request franchise opportunity information; and
• Contact us

Use of Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We may use “cookies” to recognize you as you use or return to our site.  A cookie is a piece of data stored on a site visitor’s hard drive to help us improve your access to our site and identify repeat visitors to our site.  Cookies can also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any Personal Information you submit while using the Site.

We may use session ID cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our Site. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. If you reject cookies, you may still use our Site, but your ability to use some areas of our Site will be limited.

We also may use web beacons and other similar technologies to track your use of the Site. We also may include web beacons in advertisements or email messages to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon. The information we obtain in this manner enables us to customize the Site and to measure the overall effectiveness of our Site’s content, programming and other activities.

Use of Information

We do not sell, rent, use or share your personal information with others except as indicated in this Privacy Policy.

We may use your Personal Information to provide the features on the Site, including, for example:

• communicating information to you that you have requested;
• for our marketing, research and development purposes; and
• for other purposes specified in this Privacy Policy or at the time information is requested from you.

Comments or questions sent to us using email or other messaging tools will be shared with our staff that is most likely to be able to address your concerns. We may archive your messages once we have provided you with a response.  Please note that email communications will not necessarily be secure; accordingly, you should not include sensitive information in email correspondence with us.

Golden Corral may aggregate your information with other users’ information to determine and distribute aggregated statistics and information about the Site and its use and users. This aggregated information will not identify any specific user.

Disclosure of Information to Third Parties

We may disclose or share your Personal Information with third parties as described in this Privacy Policy and for our business purposes, including, for example:

• To our affiliates, franchisees, business units, suppliers, consultants and agents to support our franchise network;
• To our suppliers who are performing services for us or on our behalf, including, without limitation, companies that host the Site or our information systems, deliver communications, sell gift cards or other products or services, take surveys, collect job applications and resumes, conduct promotions and sweepstakes, or otherwise assist us with providing the services available on the Site;
• To third parties that operate plug-ins on the Site or on websites linked to the site (such as the Facebook “like” button and the Twitter “follow” button). Even if you do not click on these plug-ins, they may collect information about you, such as your IP address and the pages that you view.  They also may set and/or access a cookie.  These plugins are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing them.

• To suppliers and other third parties to engage in analysis, research and improvements to our products and services.  These parties may use insights gathered from such information to improve their own products or services.
• To third parties so they can tell you about their products, services, offers and programs which work with or are otherwise related to Golden Corral, its affiliates’ and/or franchisee’s products, services and offers.  For example, we may share your information with a payment processor in order for them to tell you about how their services work with Golden Corral’s services.
• To third parties in the event of a proposed or actual purchase, sale, lease, merger or any other type of acquisition, disposal or financing of all or any portion of Golden Corral or its affiliates. In the unlikely event of Golden Corral’s bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, receivership, or assignment for the benefit of creditors, or the application of laws or equitable principles affecting creditors’ rights generally, Golden Corral may not be able to control how personal information is treated, transferred, or used.

We may also disclose your information for legal, health and safety purposes, such as:

• To third parties when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to (1) comply with a legal process or law, or to respond to a subpoena, court order, or government request for information, (2) enforce Terms and Conditions of Use and/or other agreements between you and Golden Corral, or (3) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Golden Corral, its customers, or the public.
• To third parties when required or permitted to do so by law for public safety. Disclosures may be made to protect you from a serious threat to your health or safety or to protect the health or safety of another person.

To learn about opting out of the sharing of your Personal Information, see the “Your Choices and Changing Your Information” Section.

Third Parties, Transfers and Links

This Privacy Policy applies only to the Site. We may provide links to other information and sites that we believe may be of interest to our users.  We may also transfer you to third-party sites for certain services, such as purchasing gift cards or other products or services, obtaining franchise opportunity information, searching or applying for jobs and completing customer surveys. These third-party sites may collect or request personally identifiable information from you. You should review the privacy policies of these sites before providing such information, as these sites are not covered by our Privacy Policy. We cannot guarantee the standards of sites to which we link or be responsible for the contents, or privacy practices and policies, of these and other third-party sites. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every site you visit.

This Site may include social media features, including the Facebook Like button and widgets, such as the “share this” button or interactive mini-programs that run on the Site. These features may collect your IP address, where you are using this Site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on this Site. Your interactions with these features and widgets are governed by the privacy policy of the company that created the feature.

Analytics

We partner with third-party suppliers to engage in analytics, analysis, auditing, measurement, research, and reporting, including without limitation based on Personal Information collected over time, such as through your participation in the Good as Gold Club, your activity on the Site, your device’s geolocation (which may include specific longitude and latitude), and your activity on unaffiliated third-party sites or other online services. Our suppliers may use web logs or pixel tags, and/or they may set and access cookies or other tracking technologies on your computer or other device. For example, we may use Facebook, Google Analytics, Google Analytics Advertising Features and/or other third-party services to help collect and analyze certain information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including to evaluate our targeted marketing activities. Also see the “Targeted Marketing” section below. We may use this data in individual form, in a format that that does not, by itself, identify you individually and/or aggregated form, we may share information that does not, by itself, identify you individually and/or aggregated information and/or statistics with others outside of Golden Corral, and we may allow third parties to collect and aggregate other information in connection with the use of tracking technologies. You may opt out of the use of cookies by Google Analytics on websites here.

Targeted Marketing

We and our suppliers may implement and evaluate our marketing activities and programs, including to engage in targeted and personalized online advertising on the Site, on third-party websites, mobile apps, TV, or other online or offline services operated by third parties. This marketing may be targeted to you based on Personal Information collected over time, such as through your participation in the Good as Gold Club, your activity on the Site, your device’s geolocation (which may include specific longitude and latitude), your activity on unaffiliated third-party sites, mobile apps, or other online services, other marketing activities and programs, and/or from third parties with whom we work. We and our suppliers, including without limitation Facebook, may use tracking technologies (as described under “Use of Cookies and Tracking Technologies” above) to collect information for such marketing and evaluation purposes. For example, our suppliers may use the fact that you visited the Golden Corral website to deliver ads to you on non-Golden Corral websites. We and our suppliers may also identify whether our marketing activities and programs resulted in you engaging in other activities on our Site, our advertising and/or marketing, making purchases from us and/or our franchisees, visiting restaurants, or otherwise engaging with us. In addition, we and our suppliers may target Golden Corral ads to you on your TV or other online services if we or our supplier have identified you as a Golden Corral customer using information we share with them, such as your name, email address, or mailing address.

Cross-Device Technologies

We and our suppliers may use collected information to establish connections among related web browsers and devices (such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and TVs) for targeted advertising, analytics, attribution, and reporting purposes. We and/or our suppliers may match your browsers or devices if you log into the same online service on multiple devices or if your devices share similar attributes that support an inference that they are used by the same person or household. This means that your online behavior (information about your activity on websites or apps on your current browser or device and your device’s geolocation (which may include specific longitude and latitude)) may be combined with information collected from your other browsers or devices. For example, our suppliers may use this information to deliver an ad on your tablet or smartphone, to limit the number of times you see an ad across your devices, and to help measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns across devices.

 Your Choices and Changing Your Information

Golden Corral will offer you the opportunity to choose (opt-out) whether your personal information is (a) to be disclosed to a third party (other than a Golden Corral employee or contractor), or (b) to be used for a purpose other than the purpose for which it was originally collected or subsequently authorized by you.

 Opt-Out

If you wish to opt-out of receiving certain marketing communications from us, please contact us through our web form on the “Contact Us” page of the Site. In addition, all marketing e-mails from Golden Corral will provide you with the opportunity to unsubscribe from future marketing mailings.

You may opt out of certain of our supplier’s targeted marketing practices in web browsers and mobile applications by following the instructions below.  Please note that the opt-out will apply only to the specific browser or device from which you opt-out.  You will need to opt-out separately on all of your browsers or devices.  If you delete or reset your cookies or mobile identifiers, change browsers, or use a different device, any opt-out cookie or tool may no longer work and you will have to opt out again. Note that some suppliers may also make their own opt-out process available. Please note that even if you choose to opt-out of receiving targeted advertising, you may still receive advertising about Golden Corral – it just will not be tailored to your interests.

• Web Browser Opt-Out. To opt out in web browsers, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative Consumer Opt-Out Page at networkadvertising.org/choices and the Digital Advertising Alliance Consumer Choice page at www.aboutads.info/consumers. Our Site currently does not respond to Do Not Track browser signals, but some of our third-party suppliers may permit you to opt out using Do Not Track functionality.
• Location Opt-Out. If you do not want Golden Corral to use your specific longitude and latitude information for targeted marketing purposes, you may adjust your location preferences on your computer, browser, or mobile device. You can also stop our collection of location information by uninstalling our mobile application from your device.

If you would like to request that Golden Corral limit the use or sharing of your Personal Information for other targeted marketing purposes, such as to deliver targeted ads to you on your TV (where available), or other online service based on your Personal Information, please contact us through our web form on the “Contact Us” page of the Site. If your Personal Information has previously been shared with our suppliers or other third parties, any request to limit such sharing may not be effective with respect to such previously shared Personal Information. Some of the suppliers that display our ads on their services may provide you with additional choices to opt out of targeted advertising. For example, social media and TV providers may allow you to control your advertising preferences directly through their services. Please review the privacy policies of the third-party services you use for more information.

 Legal Requirements

We intend to protect your privacy to the fullest extent possible as described in this policy while also fulfilling our responsibility to uphold all applicable laws and regulations. Due to potential legal requirements and other possible circumstances, we cannot ensure that all of your private communications and other personally identifiable information will never be disclosed or accessed in ways not otherwise described in this policy. We may be compelled under law to disclose information to government or third parties under certain circumstances or third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. Further, we can, and you hereby authorize us to, disclose any information to law enforcement or other government officials that we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate in compliance with the law and/or government requests.

 United States

Golden Corral and its franchisees operate restaurants only in the United States.  As such, this Site is intended for U.S. citizens and residents only. If you are outside the United States, or if you are not a U.S. citizen, do not provide your Personal Information on this Site.

If you are accessing this Site from outside the United States, please be advised that through your continued use of the Site, which is governed by U.S. law and this Privacy Policy, you are transferring your Personal Information to the United States and you consent to that transfer, subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

 Security Measures

We have implemented reasonable and industry standard security measures on the Site to help protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the Personal Information under our control. We take reasonable measures to ensure that our third-party business partners, including our hosting partners and service providers, provide sufficient protection for Personal Information. We will promptly make any legally required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored personal data; provided, however, delays in notification may occur while we take necessary measures to determine the scope of the breach and restore reasonable integrity to the system as well as for the legitimate needs of law enforcement if notification would impede a criminal investigation.  In the unfortunate event that your “personally identifiable information” (as the term or similar terms are defined by any applicable law requiring notice upon a security breach) is compromised, we may notify you by e-mail (at our sole and absolute discretion) to the last e-mail address you have provided us.

You acknowledge that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, and that we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you have any questions about security on the Site, you may contact us.

 Privacy of Children

While we are happy to have you visit our restaurants and the Site with your children, the Site is a general audience site and is not designed nor intended to collect personal information from children under the age of 13 (and in some cases, under the age of 18).  Please contact us via the “Contact Us” section of this policy if you believe we may have collected information from your child, and we will work to delete it.

 Notice to California Residents

If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits you to request information regarding the disclosure of your personal information by Golden Corral to third parties for the third parties direct marketing purposes. With respect to these entities, this Privacy Policy applies only to their activities within the State of California. To make such a request, please contact us through our web form on the “Contact Us” page of the Site.

Consent and Changes to this Privacy Policy

By using this Site and submitting the Personal Information requested, you consent to the collection and use of the Personal Information in the manner described in this policy.

This policy may be revised by us from time to time. By using this Site, you agree that we have a right to change our policy without prior notification. The revised policy will appear on the Site with the date of last revision. Your continued use of the Site following such revisions will be conclusively deemed acceptance of any changes to these Terms.

Contact Us 

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us through our web form on the “Contact Us” page of the Site.