Dentsu International (referred to as “our”, “us” and “we” in this notice) is an advertising agency that is part of a global media group. Merkury is part of Dentsu International. We help our clients to improve how they advertise and market, whether by print, post, email or on websites. We believe that the responsible use of data supports business growth and builds strong relationships between brand and consumer. As a business, we are committed to respecting and protecting the privacy of all individuals with whom we interact. We are committed to being transparent in our handling and processing of personal data at all times in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection laws.

This Privacy Notice explains in detail the types of personal data we may collect about you when you interact with us solely on this website.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”), the Colorado Privacy Act (“CPA”), the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (“CTDPA”), the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (“UCPA”) and similar state privacy laws provide residents of their respective states with additional rights with respect to their personal data. Those rights are explained below in Section 6 (Your Privacy Rights).

This Privacy Notice includes certain disclosures required under applicable U.S. privacy laws. Please note that the rules implementing some of these laws have not yet been finalized. We are committed to continual compliance with these laws and will update our processes and this notice as the rules are finalized and the law requires.

In this Privacy Notice, the term “personal data” has the meaning ascribed to it under applicable U.S. privacy laws, and includes the term “”personal information” as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended.

Personal data does not include de-identified or aggregate data or publicly available data.

1. Information We May Collect

The type of information we collect will depend on the circumstances and the service you are using. Generally speaking, we will collect information relating to you and/or your use of our services in the following ways:

Information relating to your use of the website

We and our third-party service providers use cookies and other tracking tools to automatically collect information about how you use our website. This includes information relating to the pages you visit on our website, the services or information you search for and the links and content you choose to access on our website. We may use this information to provide you with relevant content and to inform our marketing strategy. 

Contact data

We collect information when you enter into an agreement, participate in a promotion, contact us or sign up for our marketing communications and newsletters. We also collect any personal data you provide if you post a comment, make a request, or complete a survey.

Commercial and Preference Information

We may collect information about our contact history with you and your other transactions and preferences. We may also collect responses to surveys you complete. We may collect information about your job and title, details of your attendance at our events, and your interest in our services.

Marketing and Communications preferences

We collect information about your preferences in receiving marketing information from us and your communication preferences.

Location Information

We may infer a location based on your IP address. We automatically collect your precise GPS location when you access our apps or the mobile version of our websites. We also collect information about your general location, using your zip code or postcode and IP address.

Online Analytics

As explained in our Cookies Notice, we may use third-party analytics services on our website (e.g. Google Analytics) to collect information to help us understand how users arrive at and use our websites.

Please see our Cookies Notice for further information regarding declining out of any or all of the cookies we set.

Social Media Platforms

If you post to one of our pages on a social media site or connect to a social media platform from our website, we may receive information, including information contained in your social media profile. You acknowledge and understand that we can access this information even when you are not actively using the Services. We may also receive information about you if other users of social media give us access to their profiles and you are one of their “connections.”

Combining Information

We combine information collected offline with information we collect online. Or we may combine information we get from another party with information we already have. We may also aggregate your information with other consumers’ information to understand preferences and trends over time. We also combine information collected across devices, such as computers and mobile devices.

2. How We Use This Information

Except where prohibited by law or court order, we may use your personal data for the following purposes:

• to deliver the specific information or services you have requested;
• to enable the download of our content;
• to send you newsletters and advertising messages (these may contain information relating to our brands and services);
• to respond to your requests and feedback;
• to analyze and/or improve our websites and services;
• to recognize you across multiple touchpoints by creating a single record for you; 
• other purposes for which we seek your consent; and
• to protect us, our websites, customers, employees, and business partners from fraud or other malicious activity.

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) requires us to provide you with the following additional information about: (1) the purpose for which we use each category of “personal information” (as defined in the CCPA) we collect; and (2) the categories of third parties to which we (a) disclose such personal information for a “business purpose,” (b) “share” personal information for “cross-context behavioral advertising,” (also known as “targeted advertising”) and/or (c) “sell” such personal information.

As noted above, in this Privacy Notice, the term “personal data” has the meaning ascribed to it under applicable U.S. laws, and includes the term “personal information” as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended.

In the table below we set out further information about the purposes for which we use your personal data and the categories of third parties that we disclose, “sell,” or share the personal data. The term “share” has the meanings ascribed to it under applicable U.S. privacy laws, including for “cross-context behavioral advertising” or “targeted advertising.” The term “sell” has the meanings ascribed to it under applicable U.S. laws, meaning the sale of your personal data to an outside party for monetary or other valuable consideration, subject to certain exceptions. In the second column, we also specify how such personal data is categorized under applicable U.S. privacy laws. For more information about the categories of personal data under applicable U.S. privacy laws, see Your Privacy Rights.

We may use personal data to create deidentified or aggregated data does not identify you or any other individual. We may use and disclose this anonymous or aggregated data as we choose.

3. Information Sharing and Disclosing

Information shared within our group of companies 

We are a globally operating media group consisting of multiple companies. Therefore, we may from time to time disclose your personal data within our group of companies.

Information shared with our third-party service providers

We use a number of third parties to perform business functions on our behalf, such as sending our newsletters and hosting our online services and customer relationship management. We will disclose personal data to these vendors and service providers to enable them to provide their services.

Information shared with our business partners and marketing companies

We might share information with third parties who help us with our marketing efforts, including social media platforms, advertising networks, and ad tech companies. For example, we may share email addresses or other Contact Information with social media platforms so they can serve our advertising to you on their platform. Personal data received by our partners may also be subject to their privacy policies.

Information shared due to corporate mergers or restructuring

We may disclose personal data with any successor to all or part of our business. For example, if part of our business is sold, we may give our customer list as part of that transaction.

Information shared with other parties as required by law or to prevent or investigate illegal activities

Where required or permitted by law, personal data may be provided to others, such as regulator and law enforcement agencies, for example in response to a court order or a subpoena, or in response to a law enforcement agency’s request, or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities or to protect us, our websites, customers, employees, and business partners from fraud or other malicious activity, and as otherwise required by law. We might share your personal data in order to enforce our agreements and to protect our rights and/or the rights of others. We might share your personal data when we are investigating potential fraud. This might include fraud we think has happened during a promotion. Where we have a legal requirement to do so, if you are the winner of a sweepstakes or contest, we may also share your certain Contact Information with anyone entitled to request a winner’s list.

We may use and share personal data as otherwise disclosed to you from time to time when collecting your personal data or as otherwise permitted by law. We do not sell or share any personal data collected from this website about you to any third party.

4. Where and When We Send Information

We are a globally operating media group consisting of multiple companies. Therefore, we may from time to time disclose your personal data within our group of companies. Some of our group companies are located inside the European Union (“EU”) or European Economic Area (“EEA”), and we implement and maintain policies designed to ensure the security of such disclosures and transfers in accordance with the applicable privacy and data protection laws.

If you reside in the EU or EEA, we will only transfer your personal data outside the EU or EEA where we are satisfied that adequate levels of protection are in place designed to protect the integrity and security of any information being processed in compliance with applicable privacy and data protection laws. These measures may include, as applicable, the use of standard contractual/data protection clauses adopted by the European Commission and where transfers are to the United States of America, the EU-US Privacy Shield, Swiss-US Privacy Shield or your consent. Where we transfer personal data between our group companies we have covered these transfers by entering into standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission.

You may request further information on the measures used for such transfers via the contact details given in this Privacy Notice.

5. Retention of your Information

We retain information for different periods of time depending on the purposes for which we collect and use it, as described in this Privacy Notice. We will delete or de-identify information when it is no longer needed to fulfill these purposes unless a longer retention period is required to comply with applicable laws. There may be technical or other operational reasons where we are unable to fully delete or de-identify your information. Where this is the case, we will take reasonable measures to prevent further processing your information.

6. Your Choices

You have certain choices about how we use your information. 

You can control cookies and tracking tools. To learn more about your choices related to cookies, please see our Cookie Notice. 

You may choose not to receive marketing communications from us. You can ask us to stop such messages at any time by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the message. Please note that even if you choose not to receive marketing communications from us, you still may receive non-marketing communications, such as responses to your inquiries or notices regarding your account or our relationship with you.

Notice Concerning Do Not Track

Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. We are committed to providing you with meaningful choices about the information collected on our websites for third-party purposes, and that is why we provide the variety of opt-out mechanisms listed above, and in our Cookies Notice. Some web browsers offer users a “Do Not Track” privacy preference setting or similar universal opt-out mechanisms in the web browser. We do not currently recognize or respond to browser initiated Do Not Track signals or universal opt-out mechanisms.

While we do not currently respond to Do Not Track signals or accept universal opt-out mechanisms, when our systems detect the presence of our opt-out cookie or a mobile o/s opt-out indicator, our solutions will stop engaging in IBA for the opted out browser or device. And if we have linked two or more browsers or devices as described above, our systems will attempt to sever the link for the opted out browser or device.

Your Privacy Rights

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), as amended, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”), the Colorado Privacy Act (“CPA”), the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (“CTDPA”), the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (“UCPA”) and similar state privacy laws provide residents of their respective states with additional rights with respect to their personal data.

Depending on where you live and what you are asking us to do, we may or may not be obligated to comply with your request, and/or the time required to complete a request may vary. Based on how we collect and utilize your personal data, you may have the following rights:

• Right to Access – You have the right to request that we provide you with a copy of the specific pieces of personal data we collected about you.
• Right to Delete – You have the right to request that we delete your personal data that we maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions.
  • If you were known by another name or lived at another address, we may not be able to locate all information which relates to you if you do not include it in the form below. Please provide as much information as possible so that we can try to identify all records which relate to you. We may keep certain personal data in accordance with our legal obligations and rights, such as keeping sufficient information about you to recognize that you have made a personal data request and to keep a record of that request.
  • However, if we lawfully receive your personal data after fulfilling your deletion request, that new information may be included in future data products unless/until you submit a new deletion request. However, if one of our clients separately has your personal data and they provide it to us, along with specific instructions on how we are to use it on their behalf, you may still receive their advertising. (We do not add our clients’ data to our own data products unless allowed to by our clients)
• Right to Correct – You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal data that we maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Data – You have the right to request that we do not process or share your sensitive personal data.
• Right to Non-Discrimination – You have the right to not receive discriminatory treatment for the exercise of your privacy rights.

You can make these requests online by e-mailing us at Americas.DPO@dentsu.com or by calling us at (+1) (877) 570-5939. For any employment related requests, you can make these requests online by clicking here. If you are an EU resident, please email us at

dpo@dentsu.com. We may deny certain requests, or fulfill a request only in part, based on our legal rights and obligations. For example, we may retain personal data as permitted by law, such as for tax or other record keeping purposes, to maintain an active account, and to process transactions and facilitate customer requests. Note that for purposes of these requests under this Privacy Notice, personal data does not include information we have collected as a service provider to our clients. Finally, please note that we are required by California Civil Code section 1798.105(d) to keep a record of your request.

Only you, or a person or business entity that you authorize to act on your behalf (an “Authorized Agent”), may make the requests set forth above. You may also make a request on behalf of your minor child. For California residents, Authorized Agents must be a person or entity registered with the California Secretary of State.

The request should include your contact information and describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it. In addition, you should provide sufficient information (including information that reasonably enables us verify the identifying information we currently maintain about you) that allows us to reasonably verify that you are the person about whom we collected the personal data or an authorized representative.

We will respond to consumer requests in a reasonably timely manner. If we require extra time to respond, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. In order to protect the security of your personal data, we will not honor a request if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal data relates to you. The method used to verify your identity will depend on the type, sensitivity and value of the information, including the risk of harm to you posed by any authorized access or deletion. Generally speaking, verification will be performed by matching the identifying information provided by you to the personal data that we already have. 

Any disclosures we provide for California residents will only cover the 12-month period preceding our receipt of your request (and will not be made more than twice in a 12-month period). If we cannot comply with a request, or cannot fully comply with a request, the response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply. If we deny your request in whole or in part, you may have the right to appeal the decision. In such circumstances, we will provide you with information regarding the appeals process.

7. How We Protect Your Personal Data

We have reasonable security measures in place to help protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

We have implemented reasonable, industry-standard security policies, standards and practices designed to protect information from internal and external threats. The degree of protection for each piece of information is based on the risk and consequences associated with having that information compromised. While no security measures will provide for absolute security, all of our employees responsible for the management of information have the responsibility to adhere to our documented security controls, which are developed commensurate with the understood risk.

8. Our Responsibility for Website Links

This Privacy Notice is limited to the personal data collected by us. We do provide links within this site to other websites, including social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you follow these links, your use of these sites will be governed by their applicable user and privacy notices since their data practices fall outside the scope of this Privacy Notice. Further, we have no responsibility for or control over the information collected by any third-party website and we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you may provide on such websites.

9. Children

This website is not intended for children aged 16 or under. We do not actively seek to collect personal data about children aged 16 or under. If you have any concerns about your child’s privacy in relation to our services, or if you believe that your child under the age of 16 may have entered personal data onto our website, please contact us at Americas.DPO@dentsu.com. We will delete such personal data from our records or seek verifiable parental or legal guardian consent to retain such information within a reasonable time.

10. Updates

This Privacy Notice may be updated from time to time to reflect changes in law, best practice or a change in our practices regarding the treatment of personal data. The date of the most recent revision will appear at the top of this page. If you do not agree to the changes, please do not continue to use our services and please refrain from sharing your personal data with us. You should check this notice frequently for updates.

This Notice is effective as of April 25, 2024.

11. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or our approach to privacy, you can contact our Data Protection Officer in any of the following ways:

Telephone:

(+1) (877) 570-5939 (U.S. toll-free)

Or by email at: Americas.DPO@dentsu.com (Americas) or dpo@dentsu.com