SCOPE 

GBT is a trademark owned by Golden Belt Telephone Association, Inc. and GBT Communications, Inc. which provide the Services under the GBT mark. 

This Privacy Policy applies to GBT’s websites, home services (home phone, home internet, home TV), and business services (business phone, business internet, business TV, and business IT solutions) (the "Services"). This privacy policy describes how GBT collects and uses the personal information of its customers, as well as information provided by customers and noncustomers who visit the Sites (www.gbta.net). It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information. Further, this Privacy Policy describes our processing activities on behalf of our business services clients who may control information about you. This Privacy Policy does not apply to third party websites, third party application providers, or to the Internet generally. GBT may make content or services from other websites available to you from links located on our Sites. GBT is not responsible for the privacy, security, or content of other websites. GBT also uses third parties to advertise its Services on the Internet and websites owned by parties that are unaffiliated with GBT. You should review the privacy policy of each third party website and application you visit to determine how that website or application protects your privacy. 

INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE 

We may collect the following personal information from you: 

  • Information we receive from customers through the use of GBT home services. If you are a home services customer of GBT, we collect certain information by and through your use of the home services we provide. This may include, but is not limited to, basic subscriber information such as your name, address, email address, phone number, Social Security number, date of birth, Account PIN, login details, and payment information (such as credit card or bank account details). We also collect information related to the use of our home services including the type and amount of usage of the services, amounts of data used on the internet, phone and/or TV, as applicable. If you are a home phone customer, we collect call detail information (such as numbers contacted by you), location information and other information used to Version G202304 provide services to you. If you are a GBT TV customer, we collect pseudonym zed data concerning viewership. We also collect information related to contact with customer care, service history, billing history, device history, and your use of our Sites and other Services.
  • Information we receive from customers through the use of GBT business services. If you are a business services customer of GBT, we collect certain information by and through use of the business services we provide. This may include, but is not limited to, business contact information such as name, title, company, email address, login details, and phone number. We also collect information related to the use of our business services such as mailbox usage, legal hold support, email security, data loss prevention, and e-discovery support. Some of our Services, like our cloud solutions, allow our business services customers to store information they control about you. When we handle information about you on behalf of our customers, we do so at their instruction as a processor. To learn about the information our business customers services have us process, please contact the business service customer (the controller) directly.
  • Information you provide through your use of the Sites. Whether you are a GBT customer or not, when you use our Sites, we collect information concerning your use of the Sites. We also automatically collect general log data information, like your IP address, your interactions with the Sites and with third-party sites, and your geographic region. Please read the "Tracking Technologies and Passive Collection" section below for more information about automatic collection practices on the Sites. If GBT seeks to collect any additional Sites-related information from you, GBT will inform you in the terms and conditions of such offerings prior to your agreement to participate in same, and provide you the ability to opt-out of our collection and use of such information.
  • Information you choose to provide. At times, we may offer you an opportunity to provide additional information to further personalize your services. If you choose to do so, you may choose to complete a profile, answer a survey and/or provide us with additional information regarding your interests and preferences. You may also choose to interact with GBT on social media and provide information via such interaction.
  • Miscellaneous. We may also collect personal information about your contacts, including email address or phone number, when you choose to refer our Services to them. When you provide us with personal information about your contacts, we will only use this information for the specific reason it was provided. Separately, we obtain address information about you from third party sources, such as the US Postal Service, to verify your address so we can properly ship your order to you and to prevent fraud. Sometimes we purchase marketing data about our customers from third parties and combine it with information we already have about you to create more tailored advertising and products. We may obtain credit information about you from an outside credit reporting agency to help us with customer authentication and credit-related decisions. 

GBT does not design its Sites to attract, nor do we knowingly collect personal information from children under thirteen (13) years of age. Ordering Services from GBT is limited to adults (eighteen (18) years of age or older or as otherwise legally defined). 

We use the data collected by the aforementioned methods to: 

  • Determine customer eligibility for our Services
  • Provide Services to our customers' home services and business services customers.
  • Fulfill your order and send order confirmation
  • Administer and maintain accounts
  • Send you information regarding our Services
  • Respond to customer service issues
  • With regard to GBT TV, provide you recommendations based for content you might enjoy
  • Send you marketing communications about our Services or the products or services of third parties, whether via regular mail, email, or SMS text
  • Administer contests and sweepstakes you have entered, and notify you if you won
  • Respond to questions and concerns
  • Conduct research and analysis
  • Display content based on your interests and/or location
  • Manage our network
  • Improve our Sites, Services, and marketing efforts 

INFORMATION SHARING 

We will share your personal information with third parties in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy. We will never sell your personal information to third parties. 

  • Service Providers. We may provide your personal information to companies that provide services to help us with our business activities such as shipping your order, offering customer service and analysis, providing and administering our Sites and Services, and/or providing software platforms for the Sites. These service providers (and in the case of our processing activities for business service customers, subservice providers) are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.
  • Legal Disclaimer. In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. We may also disclose your personal information as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process. When we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety, or the safety of others, investigate fraud or respond to government request, or if we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, you will be notified of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you have regarding your personal information.
  • To any other third party with your prior consent. 

CPNI 

Section 222 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as amended (the "Telecommunications Act") establishes certain criteria regarding the use of certain telephone customer information that we collect from our customers solely by virtue of the customer-carrier relationship, such as quantity, technical configuration, type, destination, location and amount of use of the telecommunications services you receive, as well as billing information. The Telecommunications Act refers to this type of information as "customer proprietary network information," or CPNI. GBT will disclose and/or use CPNI only as permitted by the Telecommunications Act and applicable rules and regulations. In complying with the Telecommunications Act, we may ask our customers opt in to our use of certain information for marketing purposes. You may change these preferences at any time by visiting Your Preference Profile. 

CONTACTING YOU 

We may periodically contact you regarding promotions, offers, products, or services from GBT, its affiliates, and/or third parties via email, SMS text message, and regular mail. We may also periodically contact you regarding your GBT account status, phone, or other matters relevant to GBT customers or potential customers. You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us. You also have the ability to cease receiving promotional communications at any time by contacting us [email protected], following the instructions contained within emails you receive, and by sending STOP in reply to a promotional text. 

TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES AND PASSIVE COLLECTION 

TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES/COOKIES 

Technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags, and scripts are used on the Sites by GBT and our marketing partners, affiliates, analytics, or service providers. These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users' movements around the Sites and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis. 

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user's computer. We may use both session cookies and persistent cookies on the Sites. Session cookies make it easier for you to navigate our Sites while persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of users to enhance your experience and personalization on the Sites. Session cookies expire when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personal information you submit while on the Sites. 

You can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some areas of our site may be limited. 

As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically. As discussed above, this information includes IP addresses, browser type, ISP provider, referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track users' movements around the site and to gather demographic information about the user base as a whole. 

We partner with third parties to either display advertising on the Sites or to manage our advertising on other websites. Our third-party partners use cookies and similar technologies in order to provide you with targeted advertising based on your interests. 

SECURITY 

GBT takes precautions to protect your personal information against unauthorized disclosure, theft and misuse. When you enter sensitive information (such as a credit card number) on our order forms, we encrypt the transmission of that information using a secure connection. We follow generally accepted standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee absolute security. 

We may retain personal information we control and personal information we process on behalf of our business services customers for as long as an account is active, as needed to provide you or our business services customers with Services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and/or enforce our agreements. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

With your consent, we may post your testimonial along with your name. If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, you can contact us as indicated in this Privacy Policy. 

Our Sites sometimes include social media features, widgets and plugins, such as the “Like” or “Share” Facebook buttons, or the “Tweet this” button on Twitter. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our Site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it. 

Also note that when you use third party applications or some portions of the Sites such as social networking services, any personal information you share is visible to other users and GBT cannot protect it. You are responsible for the protection of the personal information you choose to share on third party applications or open portions of the Websites. Please be careful when doing so. 

CHANGES TO PRIVACY POLICY 

We may update this privacy policy to reflect changes to our information practices. If we make any material changes, we will notify you by email (sent to the email address specified in your account) or by means of a notice on the Sites prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices. 

CONTACT US 

If you have any questions or if you would like to discuss the privacy policies and practices of GBT, you may contact us by phone, email or regular mail at the address set forth below: 

Mail to: 

103 Lincoln St. 
Rush Center, KS 67575 
Attn: Customer Service 

Contact Us: Support 24 hours of the day: 800-432-7695; 785-372-4236