PRIVACY POLICY

Effective as of January 1, 2020

Last updated January 1, 2023

Introduction

Guardian Storage Centers, LLC; StorAmerica; parent companies; subsidiaries; and affiliates (“The Company”), respects the privacy of your information. This Privacy Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect, use, share, and safeguard your information. This Privacy Policy applies to individuals who access our website www.castorage.com (“Site”) and the services provided through our Site (collectively, “Services”).

From time to time, we may change this Privacy Policy. If we do, we will post an amended version on this webpage. Please review this Privacy Policy periodically.

About The Company

StorAmerica Management specializes in managing self-storage properties and mixed-use retail locations. StorAmerica is a subsidiary of Guardian Storage Centers, a privately held corporation based in Irvine, California. The company and its affiliates currently own and operate over 100 properties located in California, Arizona, and Nevada, totaling nearly 5 million square feet.

This Privacy Policy covers the following topics:

1. Information We Collect Online

2. How We Use Your Information

3. How We Share Your Information

4. Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

5. “Do Not Track” Signals

6. Marketing Communications

7. Security

8. Third Party Links

9. Children’s Privacy

10. Notice to Nevada Residents

11. Notice to California Residents

12. Accessibility

13. How to Contact Us

Topics

1. Information We Collect Online

We may collect Personally Identifiable Information from you through your use of the Site and Services. “Personally Identifiable Information” is individually identifiable information about an individual consumer that we collect online and that we maintain in an accessible form. We collect the following types of Personally Identifiable Information.

Information You Provide

We may collect the following Personally Identifiable Information that you voluntarily provide to us in using our Site and Services:

  • Reserve or Rent a Unit . If you use our reservation feature, we will collect your first and last name, email address, and telephone number. If you use our online leasing feature, we will collect your first and last name, email address, postal address, telephone number, credit card number, military or veteran status, driver’s license number, initials and electronic signature, and insurance policy number or other evidence of insurance if you do not participate in our tenant protection or tenant insurance program.
  • Chat . If you use our chat feature, you will provide your name, telephone number, location, and any information you chose to provide in your message. Our chat feature is provided by Birdeye. Birdeye may collect, record, and store the information you provide in the chat. Please review Birdeye’s privacy policy here.
  • Careers. If you apply for a job, you will be directed to a third-party website hosted by JazzHR and asked to provide your first and last name, postal address, email address and telephone number. You also will be asked to provide other information such as your resume, cover letter, and employment-related information. You may also voluntarily disclose other information such as gender, race and ethnicity. JazzHR’s privacy policy is available here.
  • Pay Bill Online. If you use our Pay a Bill online feature, you will be directed to portal within our website. To create an account, you will provide your phone number and the facility from which you rent a unit.
  • Contact Us . If you contact us through the Site, we will collect your name, email address, and telephone number. You also have the option of sending us a message, which may result in you providing additional Personally Identifiable Information.

Information as You Navigate Our Site

We automatically collect certain Personally Identifiable Information through your use of the Site and Services, such as the following:

  • Usage Information . We collect information such as which of the pages on the Site that you access, the frequency of access, and what you click on while on the Site.
  • Device Information. We collect information about the device you are using, such as hardware model, operating system, application version number, and browser.
  • Mobile Device Information . In addition to the Device Information listed above, when you access our Site via a browser on your mobile device, we collect and aggregate information about whether you are accessing the Site via a mobile device or tablet, device type, and carrier.
  • Location Information . We collect location information from Site visitors on a city-regional basis.

Third Party Information

In some cases, we may receive certain Personally Identifiable Information from you about a third party. For example, to reserve a storage unit, you may provide the name, email address, and personal phone number of a third party. If you submit any Personally Identifiable Information about another individual to us, you are responsible for making sure that you have the authority to do so and to allow us to use their Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the Personally Identifiable Information we collect to provide the Services to you, to improve our Site and Services, and to protect our legal rights. In addition, we may use the Personally Identifiable Information we collect to:

  • Lock-in your online rate for, or complete, a storage unit rental;
  • Help you to find a storage unit near you;
  • Update the availability of our storage-unit inventory;
  • Contact you regarding our products and services that we feel may be of interest to you;
  • Communicate with you about our Site or Services or to inform you of any changes to our Site or Services;
  • Review your job application;
  • Provide support;
  • Maintain and improve our Site and Services;
  • Protect the security and integrity of our Site and Services;
  • Investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, or violations of our lease agreement, and to otherwise fulfill our legal obligations;
  • Monitor compliance with and enforce this Privacy Policy and any other applicable agreements and policies;
  • Defend our legal rights and the rights of others;
  • Fulfill any other purposes for which you provide it, or any other purpose we deem necessary or appropriate;
  • Efficiently conduct, maintain and operate our business; and
  • Comply with applicable law.

3. How We Share Your Information

We may share the information that we collect about you in the following ways:

  • With vendors to allow us to provide our services to, or communicate with, you (such as technology providers that provide software to store and process customer information);
  • With vendors who perform data or Site-related services on our behalf (such as email, hosting, maintenance, backup, analysis, etc.);
  • With vendors to prepare, deploy and analyze advertising content;
  • To the extent that we are required to do so by law;
  • With vendors who perform services on our behalf relating to the management and operation of our business;
  • With vendors who perform services on our behalf relating to prospective employees;
  • In connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings;
  • To establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights, including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention;
  • With any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that Personally Identifiable Information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that Personally Identifiable Information;
  • With any other person or entity as part of any business or asset sale, equity transaction, merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, or in preparation for any of these events;
  • With any other person or entity where you consent to the disclosure; and
  • For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the Personally Identifiable Information or for any other purpose we deem necessary, including to protect the health or safety of others.

The above excludes text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

4. Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

Like many other companies, we use cookies and other tracking technologies (such as pixels and web beacons). To learn more about how we use cookies and to change your cookie settings, please see our Cookie Policy.

The Site uses cookies to help keep track of items you put into your shopping cart including when you have abandoned your cart and this information is used to determine when to send cart reminder messages via SMS.

5. “Do Not Track” Signals

Some internet browsers incorporate a “Do Not Track” feature that signals to websites you visit that you do not want to have your online activity tracked. Given that there is not a uniform way that browsers communicate the “Do Not Track” signal, the Site does not currently interpret, respond to or alter its practices when it receives “Do Not Track” signals.

6. Marketing Communications

To unsubscribe from our marketing emails, please click the unsubscribe link included in the footer of our emails. You also may submit a request to us at contactus@guardiansc.com.

7. Security

We maintain commercially reasonable security measures to protect the Personally Identifiable Information we collect and store from loss, misuse, destruction, or unauthorized access. However, no security measure or modality of data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. Although we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personally Identifiable Information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Third Party Links

The Site and Services may contain links that will let you leave the Site and Services and access another website. Linked websites are not under our control. Except as stated below, this Privacy Policy applies solely to Personally Identifiable Information that is acquired by us on this Site and Services. We accept no responsibility or liability for these other websites.

9. Children’s Privacy

The Site and Services are not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect, use, or disclose personal information from children under 13.

10. Notice to Nevada Residents

Nevada law allows Nevada residents to opt-out of the sale of certain types of personal information. Subject to several exceptions, Nevada law defines “sale” to mean the exchange of certain types of personal information for monetary consideration to another person. We do not currently sell personal information as defined in the Nevada law. However, if you are a Nevada resident, you still may submit a verified request to opt-out of sales and we will record your instructions and incorporate them in the future if our policy changes. You may send opt-out requests to saprivacyinforequest@guardiansc.com.

11. Notice to California Residents

The California Privacy Rights Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2023 (“CPRA”) requires that we provide California residents with a privacy policy that contains a comprehensive description of our online and offline practices regarding the collection, use, sale, sharing, and retention of personal information and of the rights of California residents regarding their personal information. This section of the Privacy Policy is intended solely for, and is applicable only as to, California residents. If you are not a California resident, this section does not apply to you and you should not rely on it.

The CPRA defines “personal information” to mean information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular California resident or household. Personal information does not include publicly available, deidentified or aggregated information or lawfully obtained, truthful information that is a matter of public concern. For purposes of this “ Notice to California Residents” section we will refer to this information as “Personal Information.”

If you are California resident and a current or former employee, job applicant, or independent contractor of ours, please see our privacy notice available here for more information on our collection and use of your Personal Information in that capacity.

Notice at Collection of Personal Information

We currently collect and, in the 12 months prior to the Last Updated Date of this Privacy Policy, have collected the following categories of Personal Information from individuals in a consumer capacity:

  • Identifiers (name, email address, postal address, internet protocol address, and driver’s license number and, if storing a vehicle, license plate number)
  • Telephone number
  • Signature and initials
  • Date of birth or age
  • Records of products purchased
  • Military or veteran status
  • Imagery of face (driver’s license picture and CCTV)
  • Credit card number
  • Bank account number (if a customer pays by check, we hold this information until the check is deposited)
  • Insurance policy number / other financial information (we collect a copy of a certificate/ evidence of insurance carried if the customer does not participate in our tenant insurance program or tenant protection program; if the customer is storing a vehicle; we also may collect this when we obtain evidence of auto insurance)
  • Medical and financial information collected during litigation
  • Customer number (account ID or tenant ID)
  • Audio and/or video (CCTV/photographs and recordings of phone calls or voice mail messages)
  • Unique personal identifiers (device identifier; cookies, beacons, pixel tags, mobile ad identifiers, or other similar technology; customer number, unique pseudonym or user alias; telephone numbers, or other forms of persistent or probabilistic identifiers that can be used to identify a particular consumer or device)
  • Geolocation data
  • Internet or other electronic network activity information (browsing history; search history; and information regarding consumer’s interaction with website, application or advertisement)
  • Professional or employment related information (including employment history)

We collect Personal Information directly from California residents and from advertising networks, internet service providers, data analytics providers, and operating systems and platforms.

In addition, if we engage in acquisition due diligence with a potential seller or business partner, we may collect renter names (from rent rolls) of California residents from the seller or business partner. We also may collect the following categories of Personal Information about the seller or business partner for purpose of the transaction:

  • Identifiers (name, postal address, phone number, email address, Social Security number or federal employer identification number)
  • Signature
  • Financial information (including income and expense statements, bank statements, real estate tax bills and information on any mortgages or loans the seller or business partner may have outstanding, income tax returns which may include their federal employer identification number or Social Security number, certificates of insurance, insurance loss runs (showing insurance claims history), affidavits confirming that the seller or business partner is not a foreign person (and identifying their federal employer identification number or Social Security number and their postal address).

In addition to the purposes stated above in the Section “ How We Use Your Information,” we currently collect and have collected the above categories of Personal Information for the following business or commercial purposes:

  • Auditing related to counting ad impressions to unique visitors, verifying positioning and quality of ad impressions, and auditing compliance with this specification and other standards
  • Helping to ensure security and integrity to the extent the use of the consumer’s Personal Information is reasonably necessary and proportionate for these purposes
  • Debugging to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality
  • Short-term, transient use, including, but not limited to, nonpersonalized advertising shown as part of a consumer’s current interaction with us, provided that the consumer’s Personal Information is not disclosed to another third party and is not used to build a profile about the consumer or otherwise alter the consumer’s experience outside the current interaction with us
  • Maintaining or servicing accounts
  • Processing or fulfilling orders and transactions
  • Providing customer service
  • Verifying customer information
  • Enabling or effecting, directly or indirectly, a commercial transaction
  • Providing advertising or marketing services (except for cross-context behavioral advertising to the consumer)
  • Providing analytic services
  • Acquiring and selling self storage facilities and related properties, including identifying and conducting due diligence on such facilities and properties and negotiating transaction agreements

Sale, Sharing, and Disclosure of Personal Information

The CPRA defines “sale” as the transfer of Personal Information for monetary or other valuable consideration. Although we do not “sell” Personal Information as that term may be commonly interpreted, we engage in online activities that may constitute a sale or a share of Personal Information under California law. This may include showing you advertisements on other websites and providing analytics on our Site. For more information on how we use cookies and other tracking technologies, please see our Cookie Policy.

The following table identifies the categories of Personal Information that we sold or shared to third parties in the 12 months preceding the Last Updated Date of this Privacy Policy and, for each category, the categories of third parties to whom we sold or shared Personal Information:

Category of Personal InformationCategories of Third Parties
Cookies, beacons, pixel tags, mobile ad identifiers, or other similar technology; IP address; geolocation; information regarding consumer’s interaction with website, application or advertisementAdvertising networks; data analytics provider

The following table identifies the categories of Personal Information that we disclosed for a business purpose in the 12 months preceding the Last Updated Date of this Privacy Policy and, for each category, the category of recipients to whom we disclosed Personal Information.

Category of Personal InformationCategories of Recipients
Identifiers (name, email address, telephone number, postal address and driver’s license number and, if storing a vehicle, license plate number); telephone number; signature and initials; records of products purchased; military or veteran status; imagery of face (driver’s license picture)
  • Service providers to allow us to provide our services to you or communicate with you (such as technology providers that provide software to store and process customer information)
  • Service providers to allow us to conduct and manage our business, including human resources services providers
  • Government entities
  • Litigants
  • Insurance companies and adjusters

*See also below

Bank account number (if a customer pays by check, we hold this information until the check is deposited); credit and debit card numberFinancial institutions
Insurance policy number / other financial information (we collect a copy of a certificate/ evidence of insurance carried if the customer does not participate in our tenant insurance or tenant protection program; if the customer is storing a vehicle; we also may collect this when we obtain evidence of auto insurance); customer number (account ID or tenant ID)
  • Service providers to allow us to provide our services to you or communicate with you (such as technology providers that provide software to store and process customer information)
  • Service providers to allow us to conduct and manage our business, including human resources services providers
  • Government entities
  • Litigants
  • Insurance companies and adjusters

*See below

Audio and or video (CCTV/photographs) and recordings of phone calls or voice mail messages
  • Service providers to allow us to conduct and manage our business
  • Government entities
  • Litigants
  • Insurance companies and adjusters
Professional and employment related information (including employment history)Service providers to allow us to conduct, administer and manage our business, including human resources services providers

* For customers participating in our tenant protection plan, we do not share this customer information with the entity we utilize to provide tenant protection at the time of collection (i.e., when a customer signs up for our tenant protection plan). However, if a customer files a claim as part of our tenant protection program, we will share the customer’s name, telephone numbers, email address, postal address and claim forms with the entity we utilize to provide tenant protection. This is done at the specific direction of the customer making the claim.

We disclosed Personal Information for the following business or commercial purposes:

  • Maintaining or servicing accounts
  • Processing or fulfilling orders and transactions
  • Providing customer service
  • Verifying customer information
  • Enabling or effecting, directly or indirectly, a commercial transaction
  • Acquiring and selling self storage facilities and related properties, including identifying and conducting due diligence on such facilities and properties and negotiating transaction agreements

We do not knowingly collect or sell the Personal Information of minors under 16 years of age. We do not use Sensitive Personal Information for purposes other than those the CCPA and its regulations allow for.

Retention of Personal Information

We retain your Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collect it, such as to provide you with the service you have requested, and for the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting, contractual, or reporting requirements that apply to us.

Your Rights

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights with respect to your Personal Information:

(1) The right to know what Personal Information we have collected about you, including the categories of Personal Information, the categories of sources from which we collected Personal Information, the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling or sharing Personal Information (if applicable), the categories of third parties to whom we disclose Personal Information (if applicable), and the specific pieces of Personal Information we collected about you;

(2) The right to delete Personal Information that we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions;

(3) The right to correct inaccurate Personal Information that we maintain about you;

(4) If we sell or share Personal Information, the right to opt out of the sale or sharing;

(5) If we use or disclose sensitive Personal Information for purposes other than those allowed by the CCPA and its regulations, the right to limit our use or disclosure; and

(6) The right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of privacy rights the CCPA confers.

How to Submit a Request to Know, Delete, and/or Correct

You may submit a request to know or delete by completing our webform available here, submitting a form in person at one of our locations, or by calling us at 1-877-848-7751.

If you are submitting a request on behalf of a California resident, please submit the request through one of the designated methods discussed above. After submitting the request, we will require additional information to verify your authority to act on behalf of the California resident.

Our Process for Verifying a Request to Know, Delete, and/or Correct

We will comply with your request upon verification of your identity and, to the extent applicable, the identity of the California resident on whose behalf you are making such request. We will verify your identity either to a “reasonable degree of certainty” or a “reasonably high degree of certainty” depending on the sensitivity of the Personal Information and the risk of harm to you by unauthorized disclosure, deletion, or correction as applicable.

For requests to access categories of Personal Information and for requests to delete or correct Personal Information that is not sensitive and does not pose a risk of harm by unauthorized deletion or correction, we will verify your identity to a “reasonable degree of certainty” by verifying at least two data points that you previously provided to us and which we have determined to be reliable for the purpose of verifying identities.

For requests to access specific pieces of Personal Information or for requests to delete or correct Personal Information that is sensitive and poses a risk of harm by unauthorized deletion or correction, we will verify your identity to a “reasonably high degree of certainty” by verifying at least three pieces of Personal Information previously provided to us and which we have determined to be reliable for the purpose of verifying identities. In addition, you will be required to submit a signed declaration under penalty of perjury stating that you are the individual whose Personal Information is being requested.

Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing of Personal Information

You may submit a request to opt out of sales or sharing through our interactive webform available by clicking on this link: “ Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.” If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we will also treat that as a valid request to opt out.

Shine the Light Law

We do not disclose personal information obtained through our Site or Services to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Accordingly, we have no obligations under California Civil Code § 1798.83.

12. Accessibility

We are committed to ensuring the Site, including this Privacy Policy, is accessible to individuals with disabilities. To find out more about what we are doing to ensure digital accessibility, please visit https://www.castorage.com/accessibility. Alternatively, please contact us as described below if you wish to access this Privacy Policy in an alternative format.

13. How to Contact Us

To contact us for questions or concerns about our privacy policies or practices please email us at contactus@guardiansc.com