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Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy (this “Policy”) describes how The Stellar Group, Inc. and its affiliates (“Stellar”, “we,” “us,” or “our”) collect, use, disclose, and retain personal information in connection with www.stellar.net and any other website, web form, portal, or online service that links to this Policy (collectively, the “Sites”), and in the course of our business communications with clients, prospective clients, vendors, subcontractors, and other business contacts. As used in this Policy, “Personal Information” means information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated with a particular individual, and includes information described as “personal data” under applicable law.
Stellar is a design, engineering, construction, and mechanical services firm. Our clients are businesses, institutions, and government entities rather than individual consumers, and the Sites are not directed to the general consuming public. Even so, the information we collect about the individuals who work for and with those organizations may be Personal Information under privacy laws in the states where we do business, and this Policy explains our practices with respect to that information.
This Policy does not apply to information Stellar collects about its employees, job applicants, and independent contractors in their capacity as such.
1. Personal Information We Collect
A. Information you provide to us.
- Contact and identifying information, such as your name, employer, job title, business or mailing address, email address, and telephone number.
- Business, project, and inquiry information, such as the content of the inquiries, requests for proposal, project descriptions, site information, prequalification submissions, parts and service requests, and other correspondence you send to us through the Sites, by email, or by telephone.
- Vendor and subcontractor information submitted through our prequalification process, which may include company information, references, licensing and insurance information, and the names and contact details of your personnel.
- Communication preferences, such as the newsletters, publications, event invitations, and other communications you elect to receive or decline.
B. Information we collect automatically.
Internet and network activity information, such as IP address, browser type and settings, operating system, device identifiers, referring URL, the pages and content you view, links you click, search terms you enter on the Sites, and the dates and times of your visits.
Approximate location, meaning the general geographic area (such as city, state, or postal region) inferred from your IP address. We do not collect precise geolocation through the Sites.
We collect this information using cookies, pixels, tags, and similar technologies, as described in Section 3.
C. Information we receive from third parties.
Analytics and advertising providers, which supply us with aggregated and individual-level information about how visitors reach and use the Sites.
Clients, project owners, design professionals, subcontractors, and suppliers, who provide us with the names and business contact information of individuals involved in a project.
Trade associations, conference and event organizers, publicly available sources, and commercial data providers, from which we obtain business contact information for marketing and business development purposes.
We do not intentionally collect sensitive Personal Information through the Sites. This includes Social Security numbers, driver license numbers, financial account numbers or access credentials, precise geolocation, health information, biometric identifiers, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, union membership, sexual orientation, citizenship or immigration status, and the contents of your private communications. Please do not submit information of that kind through our web forms.
2. How We Use Personal Information
We use Personal Information for the following business purposes:
To respond to your inquiries and requests, including requests for proposals, information, parts, and service.
To provide, perform, administer, and document our design, engineering, construction, refrigeration, and mechanical services, and to manage the contracts under which we perform them.
To evaluate and administer vendor and subcontractor prequalification, procurement, and payment.
To maintain and develop our business relationships, including sending newsletters, publications, project announcements, event invitations, and other marketing communications about our services.
To operate, maintain, evaluate, and improve the Sites, and to measure the effectiveness of our marketing and advertising.
To maintain our business records and internal reporting.
To protect the security and integrity of the Sites, our networks, our personnel, and our facilities, and to detect and prevent fraud and misuse.
To comply with applicable law, professional licensing and recordkeeping obligations, contractual requirements, and lawful requests from government authorities.
To establish, exercise, or defend legal claims, including in connection with construction claims, liens, and disputes.
To evaluate or carry out a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of all or part of our business.
3. Cookies, Analytics, and Advertising
The Sites use cookies and similar technologies. Some are strictly necessary to operate the Sites and to remember your preferences. Others are optional and fall into two categories:
Analytics. We use analytics tools, including Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, to understand how visitors find and use the Sites so that we can improve them.
Advertising. We use Google advertising cookies and similar technologies to deliver Stellar advertising to individuals who have visited the Sites and to measure how those advertisements perform. These technologies allow our advertising partners to recognize a browser or device across different websites over time.
You can review and change your cookie choices at any time through our cookie preference center at www.stellar.net/cookie-consent, and through the browser and industry opt-out tools identified in Section 6. We also honor the Global Privacy Control and other browser-based opt-out preference signals that we are able to detect, where required by law.
Under the privacy laws of several states, using advertising cookies in this way may be treated as a “sale” of Personal Information or as “sharing” Personal Information for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising, even though Stellar does not receive money in exchange for the information. You may opt out of this activity as described in Sections 6 and 7.
4. How We Disclose Personal Information
We disclose Personal Information in the following circumstances:
Affiliates. We share Personal Information among Stellar entities for the purposes described in this Policy.
Service providers. We engage vendors to perform services on our behalf, including website hosting, email and marketing platforms, customer relationship management, analytics, information technology and security, payment processing, document management, and professional advisory services. These vendors are permitted to use Personal Information only to perform services for us.
Project participants. In the course of a project we share business contact information with owners, developers, architects, engineers, consultants, subcontractors, suppliers, sureties, insurers, inspectors, and permitting and licensing authorities as necessary to perform the work.
Advertising and analytics partners. As described in Section 3.
Legal and safety. We disclose Personal Information when we believe it is required or permitted by law, including in response to a subpoena, court order, or other lawful request; to a regulatory, licensing, or law enforcement authority; to enforce our agreements; and to protect the rights, property, or safety of Stellar, our personnel, or others.
Corporate transactions. In connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or part of our business, Personal Information may be transferred to the counterparty or its advisors.
We do not sell Personal Information for money, and we do not disclose Personal Information to third parties for their own independent marketing purposes.
5. How Long We Keep Personal Information
We retain Personal Information for as long as it is needed for the purposes described in this Policy. Because Stellar’s relationships with clients, prospective clients, vendors, and subcontractors are long-term and episodic (a contact may not engage us for several years and then return for a new project), we do not apply a fixed deletion schedule to business contact information, and we generally retain that information for the duration of the relationship and thereafter for business development and recordkeeping purposes.
We retain project records, contract records, and related correspondence for the periods required by our contracts, by professional licensing and recordkeeping requirements, by applicable statutes of limitation and repose, and by our records retention practices. We retain information longer than we otherwise would when we are subject to a litigation hold or a legal obligation to preserve it.
You may ask us at any time to stop sending you marketing communications or to delete the Personal Information we hold about you, and we will honor that request as described in Sections 6 and 7.
6. Your Choices
Marketing communications. You may opt out of Stellar marketing emails by using the unsubscribe link in any marketing message or by contacting us as described in Section 8. We may continue to send you communications relating to an active project, a transaction, or a contractual relationship.
Cookies. You may manage optional cookies through our cookie preference center at www.stellar.net/cookie-consent and through your browser settings. You may also turn off Google advertising personalization at myadcenter.google.com, install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout, and use the industry opt-out tools at optout.networkadvertising.org and optout.aboutads.info. Opting out through these tools is device-specific and browser-specific, and you will need to repeat the process on each device and browser you use.
Access, correction, and deletion. You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of the Personal Information we hold about you as described in Section 7, regardless of where you live.
Browser signals. Our Sites do not respond to “Do Not Track” signals, which have no accepted standard. We do honor the Global Privacy Control where required by law and where we are able to detect it.
7. Your Privacy Rights
Several states have enacted comprehensive privacy laws. Whether a particular law applies to Stellar depends on the volume and nature of the data we process and on where you reside. As a matter of practice, and to the extent required by applicable law, Stellar will honor the following requests from any individual, without regard to state of residence:
To confirm whether we process your Personal Information and to obtain access to it.
To obtain a copy of your Personal Information in a portable format.
To correct inaccuracies in your Personal Information.
To delete Personal Information we hold about you.
To opt out of targeted advertising, of any processing that constitutes a sale or sharing of your Personal Information, and of profiling in furtherance of decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects.
We will not deny you goods or services, charge you a different price, or provide you a different level of service because you exercised a privacy right.
A. Submitting a request.
You may submit a request by emailing privacy@stellar.net, by calling 800.488.2900, or by writing to Stellar, Attn: Privacy, 2900 Hartley Road, Jacksonville, Florida 32257.
We will verify your identity before acting on a request, which may require you to provide additional information. We will respond within 45 days, and we may extend that period by an additional 45 days where reasonably necessary, in which case we will tell you before the initial period expires. An authorized agent may submit a request on your behalf if the agent provides proof of authorization and, where required, we are able to verify your identity directly.
If we decline to act on your request, we will tell you why. You may appeal that decision by replying to our response or by writing to the address above. We will respond to an appeal within 60 days. If we deny the appeal, we will provide you with an online method to contact your state attorney general to submit a complaint.
B. California residents.
The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended, gives California residents the rights described above. In the preceding 12 months, we have collected the following categories of Personal Information: identifiers; categories of information described in California Civil Code section 1798.80(e); commercial information; internet or other electronic network activity information; approximate geolocation data; professional or employment-related information; and inferences drawn from the foregoing. We collect this information from the sources, and use it for the purposes, described in Sections 1 and 2, and we disclose it to the categories of recipients described in Section 4.
We have not sold Personal Information for monetary consideration. We have disclosed identifiers and internet or other electronic network activity information to advertising partners for cross-context behavioral advertising, which California treats as “sharing.” You may opt out as described in Sections 3 and 6. We do not have actual knowledge that we sell or share the Personal Information of consumers under 16 years of age.
We do not collect or use sensitive personal information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about you, and we therefore do not offer a right to limit the use of sensitive personal information.
California Civil Code section 1798.83 permits California residents to request information about our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. As stated in Section 4, we do not make disclosures of that kind.
C. Texas residents.
The Texas Data Privacy and Security Act gives Texas residents the rights described above, including the right to opt out of targeted advertising and of the sale of personal data, and the right to appeal a denied request. The categories of personal data we process, the purposes for which we process them, the categories of personal data we share with third parties, and the categories of third parties with whom we share personal data are described in Sections 1, 2, and 4. We do not sell sensitive personal data or biometric data.
8. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Policy or about how we handle Personal Information, contact us at privacy@stellar.net, at 800.488.2900, or at Stellar, Attn: Privacy, 2900 Hartley Road, Jacksonville, Florida 32257.
9. Children
The Sites are intended for business use and are not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under 13 years of age. If you believe a child has provided us with Personal Information, contact us and we will delete it.
10. Security
We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect Personal Information against unauthorized access, use, alteration, and destruction. No method of transmission over the internet and no method of electronic storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a security incident affecting your Personal Information occurs, we will notify you as required by applicable law.
11. Third-Party Websites and Social Media
The Sites contain links to websites and social media pages that Stellar does not control, including our pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram. This Policy does not apply to those services, and we are not responsible for their content or privacy practices. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party service you use.
12. Individuals Outside the United States
The Sites are operated from the United States and are intended for users located in the United States. If you access the Sites or communicate with us from another country, your Personal Information will be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those of your country.
13. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last Updated” date above and post the revised Policy on the Sites. If we make material changes, we will provide additional notice as required by applicable law. Your continued use of the Sites after the revised Policy is posted constitutes your acknowledgment of the changes.