Privacy Policy

Visit or interact with a Hot Topic Brands website (“Sites”);

Use a Hot Topic Brands mobile application (“Apps”);

Interact with us online, such as through our social media (“Online Interactions”); or

Interact with us offline, such as in our physical retail stores, by telephone, or at in-person events (“Offline Events”).

I. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

Personal identifiers, such as your name, date of birth, gender, phone number, email address, and postal address. If you have created or enrolled in one of our loyalty programs, we also collect your account number, username and password, and similar data.

Financial and commercial information, such as your payment card number, billing address, expiration date, and related financial information. We also collect transaction information such as purchasing history.

Audio, electronic, and visual information, such as photos and other information you post on our Sites or Apps. This also includes information you provide from your social networking sites, such as social media account ID, profile photo, and other data made available when you choose to link your social media accounts or loyalty accounts. We also collect communications between you and any Hot Topic Brands.

Communications between you and any Hot Topic Brands (whether in written, audio, or video format), including, but not limited to, questions or comments submitted by you to our customer service departments (through phone, email, live chat, automated chat, or otherwise), as part of an interactive event or feature, or in connection with product reviews (including any photographs you submit as part of a product review).

Internet and other electronic network activity information, such as how you use our Sites or Apps, the products you have viewed, and what website you visit when you leave. We also collect information through Cookies and similar technologies that may capture your internet protocol (IP) address, personal device identifiers, the type of browser you are using, your operating system, ISP information, and similar online identifiers. See Section V below on Cookies for more information about how we collect information about your online activity.

Geolocation information from your IP address, which links to the region from which you are accessing the Sites or Apps.

Inferences. We may use information from the categories of personal information described above in order to create a profile about you, to reflect your preferences, characters, behavior and attitude.

II. WHERE DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM?

You, when you buy something; register or create an account; enroll in one of our loyalty programs; maintain a Wish List; request information from us; sign up for our newsletters, email list, or text message list; participate in a contest, sweepstakes, or other promotion; fill out a survey; submit a product review; connect with us on social media; request or contact customer service; communicate with or contact us through any means (for example, phone, email, text message, live chat, automated chat, or app); or otherwise use the Services.

Cookies and similar website interaction technologies, when you use our Sites or Apps.

Third-party analytics scripts, which facilitate features on our Sites or Apps, including, but not limited to, video and streaming functionality, social features such as embedding links to our social media, session replay technology which reconstructs a user’s experience to help us improve website functionality, customer support solutions such as live and automated chat features, developer utilities like site monitoring and fraud detection, and other similar services.

Social media platforms, when you interact with us on social media. For example, the Services may give you the option to link to your Facebook or other social media account, follow us, or share content on our account, your account, or your friends’ account. Based on the way you have set your privacy settings on your social media accounts, most social media platforms, like Facebook, analyze data about how you interact with our Services and combine it with information on other users to provide us information about your name, profile name, demographic information, contact information, region, interests, and usage data. In addition, we may receive information about you if other users interact with us on social media and information about you is visible to us, for example the fact that you are “friends” or other public-facing profile information.

From third parties, including our vendors and service providers.

From security devices, such as security cameras when you visit our stores. We collect audio, electronic, and visual information.

Business partners, if they either have your consent or another legal basis to share your information with us. If you provide your Personal Information to other businesses, we do not control how they treat your information and are not responsible for their conduct. Instead, you should look to those businesses’ policies and notices to understand how they treat your information and how to exercise your rights.

III. HOW DO WE USE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT?

For transactional purposes. Transact business with you, including to (i) provide products, information, or services that you have requested or agreed to receive, such as processing and delivering your orders; (ii) communicate with you; (iii) provide you with customer assistance; (iv) process payments; and (v) provide supporting business activities such as billing and collections, procurement, and tax related activities.

For Sites and Apps functionality. Enable you to: (i) participate in a variety of features on our Sites or Apps, such as sweepstakes, message boards, customer support, other communication features like live and automated chat, user-generated content functions, and interactive features; and (ii) invite friends to use our Services, for example when you send someone else a communication through the Services, like an invitation to a friend, we use the information you provide (e.g., your friend’s name and e-mail address) to send the invite.

For analytical purposes. Analyze preferences, trends, and statistics.

For our loyalty programs. Process your registration and/or enrollment in any loyalty programs, including by verifying that your email address is active and valid.

For marketing and promotional purposes. Improve our marketing efforts, conduct market research, provide you with information about us including personalized marketing communications, and contact you with information, newsletters, and promotional materials from Hot Topic Brands or on behalf of our third-party partners and affiliates.

For maintenance and improvement of our Sites, Apps, and systems. Improve our Sites, Apps and systems; provide and maintain functionality on our Sites, Apps and systems; and help us diagnose technical and service problems and administer our Sites, Apps, and systems.

To develop and improve our products and services. Analyze and understand how you use and interact with our Services to develop new products or services, or enhance or improve our existing content, products, and services.

For security and fraud prevention. Conduct vendor due diligence and protect our Sites, Apps, premises, networks, assets, systems, products, Services, and intellectual property from fraud, theft, and other misconduct.

For legal purposes. Comply with our legal obligations, including reporting requirements; defend ourselves in legal proceedings; and protect our company and our property, employees, and others through legal proceedings.

For other purposes. For other reasons we may describe to you.

Payment Processing. We use third party payment processors to assist with securely processing your payment information. If you pay with a credit card or other form of electronic payment, the payment information that you provide through the Services is encrypted and transmitted directly to the payment processor. We do not store your payment information and do not control and are not responsible for the payment processor or its collection or use of your information. You may find out more about how payment processors store and use your payment information by accessing the privacy policy for the payment processor’s services.

Hot Topic Brand Ambassador Program. If you participate in Hot Topic’s “HT Fanatic” brand ambassador program (an overview of which can be found here: https://www.hottopic.com/htfanatic/), in addition to the information set forth in Section I, we may also collect Protected Classification Characteristics. These Protected Classification Characteristics include age, race, ethnicity, sex (including gender, gender identity, and gender expression), or sexual orientation. Hot Topic Brands uses this information to maintain a diverse group of program ambassadors.

Modernization of Cosmetic Regulations Act. If you submit a complaint of a potential Serious Adverse Event related to a cosmetic product purchased from any Hot Topic Brands, in addition to the information set forth in Section I, we may also collect (i) Protected Classification Characteristics, such as age, sex/gender, race and ethnicity, and (ii) medical or health information, such as details of any adverse health events you experienced in connection with the cosmetic product, the nature of the adverse health event, and any medical treatment received in connection with the event. We collect and use this information only for purposes of complying with our obligations under the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulations Act (MoCRA). All information collected will be kept confidential and used in compliance with applicable laws, rules, and regulations. Under certain circumstances, this information may be shared with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as required under MoCRA.

IV. WHEN DO WE SHARE INFORMATION?

With service providers, including businesses, professionals, or technical support providers to help us operate our business and the Services by doing things like processing your payment and shipping your order, facilitating chat functions, automating the process to enter into sweepstakes, or analyzing sales data to help us develop new products.

With third parties promoting sweepstakes, contests, and other promotions, if you choose to enter one of our promotions, we may disclose your information to third parties or the public in connection with running the promotion or announcing winners.

With Affiliates. We may share personal information with and among our parent company, subsidiaries, affiliates, or their successors or assigns.

With co-sponsors, when you use certain areas of our Sites and Apps, you may be interacting with third parties, such as advertisers that provide products and services or rewards programs. We may share information with these third parties if you participate in a co-branded, co-sponsored, or jointly presented promotion, contest, survey, voting feature, or service.

With marketing partners, such as vendors who help us place ads, customize them to certain audiences or users, understand whether those ads are successful, and improve our marketing efforts. We may also share with our marketing partners that may have offers of interest to you.

For legal matters; safety. We may be permitted or required by law to access and disclose your information to respond to subpoenas, judicial processes, or government requests and investigations, or in connection with an investigation on matters related to public safety. We may disclose your information to protect the security of our Sites and Apps, servers, network systems, and databases. We also may disclose your information as necessary, if we believe that there has been a violation of our Terms of Use, any other legal document or contract related to our Services, or the rights of any third party.

Upon a sale or transfer of our business or assets, if we sell or purchase assets during the normal course of our business. If another entity acquires us or any of our assets, information we have collected about you may be transferred to such entity. In addition, if any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding is brought by or against us, such information may be considered an asset of ours and may be sold or transferred to third parties.

If it is in aggregate, anonymous, or deidentified form. We may aggregate, anonymize, or de-identify your Personal Information and share it with third parties for marketing or analytics. Data that is aggregated, anonymized or de-identified is not Personal Information as that term is defined under California law.

Elsewhere at your direction. At your direction or request, or when you otherwise consent, we may share your information.

V. COOKIES

VI. YOUR CHOICES AND OPT-OUTS

Email Offers. If you do not want to receive marketing emails from us, click the unsubscribe link in the footer of the marketing email. You may also opt-out of receiving emails from us by sending an email to internetadministrator@hottopic.com with “Do Not Email” in the subject line.

Direct Mail Offers. If you do not want us to send you any promotional offers through US mail, you may email us at internetadministrator@hottopic.com with “Do Not Mail” in the subject line. You can also opt-out of having direct mail materials sent to you by visiting http://optout.hottopic.com.

Telemarketing. If you do not want to receive marketing phone calls or text messages from us, please inform us that you no longer want to receive calls from Hot Topic Brands when you receive a call from us or reply STOP to a text message from us. You can also opt-out of telemarketing by contacting our customer service department.

Marketing Communications From Other Hot Topic Brands. If you do not want to receive marketing communications from one or more brands within the Hot Topic Brands family, you must opt-out individually from each of the brands from which you are receiving brand-specific marketing communications. Your instructions to limit the use of your information for these purposes will be processed as soon as reasonably practicable. Additionally, we are not responsible for informing third parties (including without limitation our third-party service providers or partners) with whom we have already shared your Personal Information of any changes requested pursuant to this section.

Updating Your Hot Topic Account. You can verify, correct, or update certain information associated with your account by logging into your profile. You are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of this information.

Deactivating Your Hot Topic Account. You may deactivate your account, however we may still retain certain information for analytic purposes and recordkeeping integrity, as well as to prevent fraud, resolve disputes, enforce our Terms of Use or other policies, take actions we deem necessary due to technical and legal requirements, and as dictated by constraints related to the security, integrity, and operation of our Sites and Apps.

VII. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS/NOTICE AT COLLECTION

Request that we tell you (i) the categories of “personal information” (as that term is defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and/or the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA)) we have collected, sold, or shared about you and other consumers, (ii) the sources of that information, (iii) the business or commercial purposes for collecting, selling or sharing the personal information; and (iv) the categories of third-parties to whom we have disclosed, sold or shared personal information.

Request that we provide you with a copy of your personal information.

Request that we delete personal information that we have collected from you. We may not delete all of your personal information if one of the exceptions to the CCPA or CPRA applies.

Opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information.

Direct us to limit the use or disclosure of your sensitive personal information to only the purposes specified in the CCPA or CPRA.

Correct inaccurate personal information that we hold about you.

Opt-out of automated decision-making, including profiling, that we use to evaluate certain qualifications as part of the recruitment process.

Not be discriminated against for exercising any of your rights. We will not discriminate against you, deny you services, charge you a different price, or provide you with a lesser quality of services if you exercise any of your rights.

NUMBER: (844) 325-9138

WEBFORM: Click Here.

Categories of Third Parties

Personal Information Category	Category of Third Parties to Whom It Was Disclosed	Category of Third Parties to Whom It Was Sold	Category of Third Parties to Whom It Was Shared
Personal identifiers	Payment processors, marketing, analytics, and advertising partners, professional advisors, operating systems and platforms, customer relationship management service providers, security and fraud detection service providers, web hosting service providers, and data storage providers.	None	None
Financial and commercial information	Payment processors, marketing, analytics, and advertising partners, professional advisors, operating systems and platforms, customer relationship management service providers, security and fraud detection service providers, web hosting service providers, and data storage providers.	None	None
Audio, electronic, and visual information	Marketing, analytics, and advertising partners, professional advisors, operating systems and platforms, customer relationship management service providers, security and fraud detection service providers, web hosting service providers, and data storage providers.	None	None
Communications	Marketing, analytics, and advertising partners, professional advisors, operating systems and platforms, customer relationship management service providers, security and fraud detection service providers, web hosting service providers, and data storage providers.	None	None
Internet network activity	Marketing, analytics, and advertising partners, professional advisors, operating systems and platforms, customer relationship management service providers, security and fraud detection service providers, web hosting service providers, and data storage providers.	Marketing, analytics, and advertisings partners.	Marketing, analytics, and advertisings partners.
Geolocation information	Marketing, analytics, and advertising partners; operating systems and platforms, and data storage providers.	Marketing, analytics, and advertisings partners.	Marketing, analytics, and advertisings partners.
Protected classification characteristics	Hot Topic Brand Ambassador program partners, and operating systems and platforms.	None	None

Unless otherwise expressly stated, this Site is provided without charge.

To file a complaint regarding this Site or to receive further information regarding use of this website, please contact us via email at privacy@hottopic.com. You also may contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of California’s Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at 400 R Street, Suite 1080, Sacramento, California 95814 or by telephone at (916) 445-1254 or (800) 952-5210.

VIII. NEVADA PRIVACY RIGHTS

IX. COLORADO, CONNECTICUT, MONTANA, OREGON, TEXAS, AND VIRGINIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

You have the right to request that we confirm whether or not we are processing your personal data and to access your personal data.

You have the right to obtain a copy of your personal data in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows for data portability.

You have the right to correct inaccurate personal data that we hold about you, taking into account the nature of the personal data and the purposes of the processing of the data.

You have the right to request that we delete personal information that we have collected from you or obtained about you.

You have the right to opt out of the processing of the personal data for purposes of (i) targeted advertising, (ii) the sale of personal data, or (iii) automated decision-making and profiling that is done in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning you.

X. UTAH PRIVACY RIGHTS

You have the right to request that we confirm whether or not we are processing your personal data and to access your personal data.

You have the right to obtain a copy of your personal data in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows for data portability.

You have the right to request that we delete personal information that we have collected from you or obtained about you.

Sub Total:

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PRIVACY POLICY

CONTENTS

I. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

II. WHERE DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM?

III. HOW DO WE USE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT?

IV. WHEN DO WE SHARE INFORMATION?

V. COOKIES

VI. YOUR CHOICES AND OPT-OUTS

VII. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS/NOTICE AT COLLECTION

Personal Information Category

Category of Third Parties to Whom It Was Disclosed

Category of Third Parties to Whom It Was Sold

Category of Third Parties to Whom It Was Shared

VIII. NEVADA PRIVACY RIGHTS

IX. COLORADO, CONNECTICUT, MONTANA, OREGON, TEXAS, AND VIRGINIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

X. UTAH PRIVACY RIGHTS

XI. THIRD-PARTY CONTENT, LINKS, AND PLUG-INS

XII. PUBLIC FORUMS

XIII. CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

XIV. DATA STORAGE, RETENTION, AND SECURITY

XV. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

XVI. HOW TO CONTACT US

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