How We Collect Your Information
What Personal Information We Collect
Here are the categories of personal information we may collect from you or about you. All categories may not be collected about every individual.
- Unique Personal Identifiers that may include but are not limited to your legal name or preferred alias, online identifiers like user account names, state and federal government ID number (where required), and your signature
- Demographic information like your level of education, type of employment or other demographic information shared with us through third parties, such as social media or publicly available sources
- Contact Information such as your email or postal address and phone number
- If you are a customer of one of our health care operations, we may collect health and health insurance information, such as prescription numbers and health insurance identification numbers; please refer to the section below titled “Protected Health Information”
- Financial and payment Information such as credit and debit card numbers; credit history may be collected if you are applying for a Kroger branded credit card.
- Behavioral Information such as your purchase and transaction histories, geolocation data, IP Address collected from your computers and mobile devices, and information about what you do online, including your interactions with our social media posts
- Inferences we make about you like demographic interest segments that we believe are relevant to you and your household based on analysis of other information we have collected
- Video, CCTV recordings and cameras from inside our facilities for use in fraud investigations, security purposes and for operational purposes such as measuring traffic patterns and tracking in-stock levels
- Characteristics of protected classifications under state or federal law, such as gender and nationality
- Call center recordings or monitoring records from our customer contact centers
- Other types of personal information that we may disclose to you prior to the point of first collection
There is also some personal information that you voluntarily share with us. This includes information used to register for our Loyalty program, to create an account on our websites, or where required by law. For example:
- Name, address, phone and email
- Payment information
- Communication and shopping preferences
- An encrypted version of your password
- Driver’s license number for certain types of sales and for ID verification
If you are an employee or job applicant, we may collect additional information, including employment information, such as occupation, title, licenses, professional memberships and other information to perform basic employment and management functions, including distributing payroll and providing benefits. If you are applying for a job, we may collect contact information about you during the course of your application for employment such as contact information to correspond with you concerning potential employment opportunities and other information such as background information and your employment qualifications and history.
Protected Health Information
We understand the importance of securing your health information. Therefore, we have special procedures in place to protect your healthcare records. In some circumstances, such as submitting personal health information for prescription refills, or providing online information during a visit to The Little Clinic, the use of your information will be subject to the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Our Notice of Privacy Practices can be found here.
Children’s Privacy
Our websites are for a general audience and are not geared toward children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16 without prior consent of a parent or guardian. If you believe your child may have disclosed personal information to us, please call 1-800-KROGERS (1-800-576-4377) and we will remove it.
Sources of Personal Information
We collect some information when you visit our stores, websites or use our mobile apps, or when you use our online services or view our online advertisements. The information we may collect falls into three different main categories: (1) information you give us; (2) information we collect from you automatically; and (3) information we collect from other sources. These other sources may be service providers, data brokers, consumer research firms, publicly available sources, or other third parties with whom you interact or do business. For example, when you connect to one of our websites or mobile apps through a third-party, we may collect information from their website. For example, if you choose to associate your social media identity with The Kroger Co., the site may provide us with certain information from your social media account as permitted by your account settings.
Associating Personal Information from Multiple Sources
We may collect this information and link it to other information we already know about you. For example, when you sign up for our Loyalty program, we may associate your in-store shopping activity with your online activity when you engage with our websites or mobile apps. Additionally, when you are logged in to our websites or use our mobile apps, we may link the device IDs or types to your account to understand your online activity so we can provide a better experience.
This includes pages you visit on our websites, items you add to your online shopping list, coupons you download and redeem from us, and purchase information. In addition, we may collect information when you use our mobile apps, including device location (if you choose to turn this feature on). If you choose to connect to our in-store wireless service, we may collect websites you visit and your mobile device identifier so you can automatically be connected.
Cookies, Web Beacons, and Other Technologies
When you visit our websites, access our mobile apps or open one of our emails, we may automatically collect information about you using device identifiers, cookies and other technologies, including:
- Internet Protocol address
- Unique device or user ID
- System and browser type
- Referring website address
- Content and pages you access on our websites or mobile apps
- Dates, times and locations when actions take place
Like other online advertising providers, we use this technology for system administration and troubleshooting, to identify you so we can enhance your online experience, and to deliver interest-based advertising. Our sites do not respond to browser Do-Not-Track signals. These cookies are often collected by or otherwise shared with service providers as well as third-party advertising partners, as described further in our About Advertising section below.
Third-Party Technology
We use third-party technology to better understand your online behavior. By doing so, we can present relevant content online and send you relevant emails. Our Privacy Policy does not cover the use of cookies by others, including third parties whose services or sites may be linked to from our sites and services, or third-party analytics or online tracking companies. We provide links to third-party websites in order to provide additional goods, services or information to our customers. The Kroger Co. is not responsible for information you provide directly to a third-party. Any information or Kroger-specific information, such as Loyalty program data, that you provide when accessing a third-party website is subject to that company’s privacy policy. If you register for or use such third-party websites, both The Kroger Co. and the third-party may receive information collected through use of the websites, as described in the privacy policies on those websites. As with all website owners, we also do not have access or control over the cookies placed on your computer by other websites you may visit.