Privacy Policy

A. What is Personal Information?

Personal information is information that identifies an individual or that can be reasonably associated with a specific person or entity, such as a name, contact information, Internet (IP) address and information about an individual's purchases and online shopping. Personal information also includes medical information collected through our pharmacies, hearing aid centers and optical centers (see Health Care Centersbelow). As a convenience to our Members, we allow the primary cardholder to add his/her spouse or others to a membership account.

B. Collection of Personal Information

We collect the personal information that you provide us, such as when you:

  • sign up for or renew your Costco membership;
  • register to use costco.com or sign up for news or notifications of specials or other promotions on costco.com;
  • place an order or purchase products or services, online or otherwise;
  • contact us for any reason;
  • participate in a survey or promotion; or
  • sign up for or participate in our various Member Services (see Member Services below).

We may automatically collect some information when you visit our website, such as your computer's IP address and operating system, the site from which you linked to us, your site activity, the time and date of your visit, and your purchases. This information may be collected through the use of "cookies" and web beacons (see Online Specifics below). We also receive information from third parties who help us correct our records, prevent fraud, and provide Member Services or special promotions or products (see Member Services below). We may combine any of this information with the other personal information we maintain about you.

C. Use of Personal Information by Costco

The personal information we collect is generally used to process your requests or transactions, provide you with high-quality service, tell you about opportunities we think will be of interest and administer your account, including distribution of our own surveys and publications. For example, we may:

  • Alert you about product recalls or safety issues;
  • Communicate membership opportunities and programs; and
  • Provide you with promotional information, such as coupons, offers and product recommendations, or information about Member Services ("Promotional Information"). If you prefer not to receive Promotional Information from us, we make it easy for you to let us know. You may contact us at any time to decline Promotional Information (see Choice below).

D. Sharing of Personal Information

We share information in these circumstances:

 

    1. Order Fulfillment
      We may provide to a third party information as necessary to fulfill an order you have placed with us. For example, we may provide your address to a shipper, and if you pay by a credit or debit card, your card number and sales transaction information are passed to the card processor and/or issuer (including their service providers such as fraud verification services). However, we give suppliers, and others involved in the distribution chain only the information needed to provide you the products or services you order, and we require them to keep the information confidential and not to use it for other purposes. We are not responsible for any information you provide directly to these parties, and we encourage you to become familiar with their practices before disclosing information directly to them.

 

    1. Member Services
      We offer special products and services to our members through third parties, such as rebates, financial, travel, insurance and other business and consumer services ("Member Services"). We may share your name, postal address, email address and membership status, number and type ("Member Information") with these third parties in order to notify you of their offerings, to determine whether, or at what level, you qualify for the products or services, and to evaluate new and existing products or services. If you prefer that we not share Member Information with third parties, you can contact us at any time (see Choice below).

      However, if you apply for products or services, the information listed above, plus other relevant information you provide will be shared directly with the third parties who will be providing the requested products or services. If you apply with Citi for a Costco Anywhere VISA card we may also share the aggregate amount of your Costco expenditures.

      These third parties are required to use personal information we share only to provide the requested services. We are not responsible for any additional information you provide directly to these parties, and we encourage you to become familiar with their privacy practices and policies before disclosing information to them. Information you provide to third parties, may in turn be shared with us along with information about your use of the services. In some cases, these third parties may require as a condition of providing services to you that you authorize them to share information with us. If we terminate our relationship with a third party, information you provided to them may be returned to us, and we may provide that information to a new third party offering the same or similar services.

 

    1. Our Contractors
      We may contract with others to perform services on our behalf. For example, we might retain a company to process credit card payments, ship merchandise, distribute emails, process rebates or analyze data. If any of these service providers need access to your personal information, we require them to use it only to perform the services for us. We also require that they maintain the confidentiality of the information and/or return the information to us when they no longer need it.

 

    1. Primary Account Holder
      Each membership account has an individual primary account holder who is authorized to designate and remove add-on members and make other account management decisions. We may disclose personal information that relates to activities occurring under the account to the primary account holder.

 

  1. Tobacco Rebates for Business Members
    As a service to our Business Members who purchase tobacco products for resale, we provide information to the tobacco manufacturers' representative to process retail incentives. The information we provide is the business Member's name, address, the brand name, and the amount of tobacco products purchased. Pursuant to California law, if you are a Business Member in California and you do not want us to disclose this information on your behalf, you can notify us (see Choice below).

E. Other Uses and Disclosures

In addition, we may use or disclose personal information in the good faith belief that we are lawfully authorized to do so, or that doing so is reasonably necessary to protect you, to comply with legal process or authorities, to respond to any claims, or to protect the rights, property or personal safety of Costco Wholesale, our Members, our employees or the public. If your membership was purchased for you as an employee benefit, we may share your name, address and membership level (Gold Star, Business or Executive), but no other personal information, with your employer. Information about our Members, including personal information, may be disclosed or transferred as part of, or during negotiations of, any merger or sale of company assets or acquisition.

F. Protection of Personal and Credit Card Information

We have physical, administrative and technical security measures in place to protect personal information from loss, misuse or alteration while it is under our control. We are required to collect, process and maintain payment card information in accordance with the data security rules adopted by credit card companies such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express. This means that we do not retain debit card PINs or credit card security codes, and that any time we maintain a credit card number, such as when you create an online account, we must limit access to it and use strong encryption to protect it. Further, when you enter personal information online, that information is encrypted prior to transmission using a security protocol called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). We also use SSL to allow you to securely view your online account and registration information.

Online account information is accessible only by using a password. You must keep your password confidential. You are responsible for all uses of www.costco.com by anyone using your password. Please advise us immediately at customerservice.costco.com if you believe your password has been misused.

G. Choice

We give you choices related to your personal information, and numerous methods to inform us of your decision. Your choice to opt-out will not apply to your spouse and any add-on members.

 

    1. If you do not want us to share Member Information (see Member Services) with third parties, you can: (a) check the opt-out box on our membership applications; (b) follow the opt-out instructions on your renewal notices; (c) visit us at any Membership desk at any U.S. or Puerto Rico Costco warehouse location; (d) call our Membership Services representatives at 1-800-774-2678; (e) email us at customerservice@contactcostco.com; or (f) write us at:Customer Service, P. O. Box 34622, Seattle, WA 98124.

 

    1. If you do not want to receive Promotional Information (see Use of Personal Information by Costco) or information about Member Services, you can: (a) visit us at any Membership desk at any U.S. or Puerto Rico Costco warehouse location; (b) call our Membership Services representatives at 1-800-774-2678; (c) email us at customerservice@contactcostco.com; or (d) write us at: Customer Service, P. O. Box 34622, Seattle, WA 98124.

 

    1. If you are a Business Member in California and you do not want us to disclose information about your tobacco purchases, you can: (a) visit us at any Membership desk at any U.S. or Puerto Rico Costco warehouse location; (b) call our Membership Services representatives at 1-800-774-2678; (c) email us at customerservice@contactcostco.com or (d) write us at: Customer Service, P. O. Box 34622, Seattle, WA 98124.

 

    1. If you do not want to receive promotional emails, you can: (a) call our Membership Services representatives at 1-800-774-2678; (b) email us at customerservice@contactcostco.com; (c) write us at: Customer Service, P.O. Box 34622, Seattle, WA 98124; (d) click the provided "unsubscribe" link in any email to unsubscribe; or (e) access "My Account" if you are a registered user of costco.com, and check the opt-out box. If you have more than one email address, you will need to specifically opt-out for each email address. If you receive emails from the online Photo Center or one of our services providers (see Member Services) you will need to specifically opt out of these special purpose emails. There will be an opportunity to do this on the email itself, and you may opt out of Photo Center emails by logging into your Photo Center account.

 

  1. If you do not want us to track your activity on Costco.com, you can access "My Account" if you are a registered user and check the opt-out box. If you have more than one email address, you will need to specifically opt-out for each email address.