Privacy Policy
Since our founding in 1912, one of our guiding principles at L.L.Bean has been to provide customers with incredible service. In today’s world, that service includes respecting your privacy rights and being transparent about how we use your information to better serve you. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use and share your personal information along with your choices and options as of June 31, 2024. It applies anytime you connect with us – by visiting our websites, stores, outlets, Outdoor Discovery Programs, or social media pages, or contacting us by phone, email, mail, or chat. By interacting with us in these and other ways, you're agreeing to our privacy policy and consenting to our collection, use, and disclosure policies described in this Policy. Occasionally we’ll ask you to agree to additional policies (for example, when you participate in an L.L.Bean Outdoor Discovery Program).
Contact Us:
U.S. and Canada (800) 341-4341 Outside the U.S. Access Code + (207) 552-3028
Email preferences@llbean.com
Mail L.L.Bean, Dept. CFM. 15 Casco St., Freeport, ME 04033
1. Information We Collect and Process
We collect certain information when you connect with us in order to personalize and improve your L.L.Bean experience, including when you:
- Visit our website
- Place an order
- Return or exchange products
- Create an online account
- Shop at our stores, outlets, and kiosks
- Sign up for events and experiences
- Subscribe to L.L.Bean promotional emails
- Participate in an Outdoor Discovery Program
- Enter a sweepstakes or contest
- Join our mailing list
- Take a survey
- Share your photos, videos, and stories
- Contact customer service via phone, email, chat, or social media
- Apply for a job
Information you choose to provide may include:
- Name
- Mailing and/or street address
- Telephone number
- Email address
- Order information
- Date of birth
- Photos or videos (please see our Content Submission Terms and Conditions for details)
- Information about gift recipients (if sending an order to someone other than yourself)
- Your correspondence if you contact us
When you visit our website, we automatically receive certain information from cookies and marketing tags, including:
- Internet protocol (IP) address
- Website interactions and browsing history
- Device information, such as location, operating system, and browser information
- For more information, please see the Cookies and Marketing tags section
Sensitive Personal Information:
For specific and limited purposes, L.L.Bean may request your sensitive personal information. For example, in order to obtain a firearm, L.L.Bean will need to collect your driver’s license information. When you sign up for an overnight Outdoor Discover Program, we ask that you share relevant health information. When information for certain programs or activities relating to children is requested, such information is gathered from their parent or guardian. This sensitive personal information is collected solely for the disclosed purpose. We do not use this information for other purposes, such as marketing. We will not process sensitive personal information without your advance consent (or, in the case of children under 13, the consent of the child's parent or lawful guardian).
Information obtained from third parties:
To correct and supplement our records, L.L.Bean obtains information from third parties. Those third-party sources include L.L.Bean's credit card issuer and data brokers. L.L.Bean will also collect your information from a gift giver when you are the gift recipient.
2. Purpose for Collection and Processing
It's necessary for us to collect certain information to allow you to complete transactions and provide you with many L.L.Bean features and services including:
- Providing You with Products and Services – Including fulfilling your orders, processing your returns and exchanges, processing your payments, providing you with experiences and events that you have registered for, and managing your account.
- Marketing and Advertising – Developing, managing, and conducting advertising and marketing campaigns. We may use personal information to serve targeted ads and analyze and measure the performance and reach of our advertising and marketing efforts (on our online services and elsewhere) based on your online activities and how you interact with our advertising and marketing. We may also use personal information to create and identify audiences that are most likely to respond to ads based on information we have already collected or infer about your interests and preferences.
- Communicating with You – Responding to your inquiries, providing customer service and technical support, sending you transactional and related communications about your purchases, Loyalty Rewards Programs, product and policy changes, and sending you communications about promotions, events, and other offers, products and services we think may be of interest to you.
- Maintain and Improve Online Services – Operating, troubleshooting, improving, and developing new online services and features, as well as learning how you and other users interact with and respond to our online services and advertisements.
- Personalize Online Content and Experiences – Personalizing online content, providing recommendations and reminders, and enhancing the quality and your overall experience with our online services (like retaining your user preferences and presenting content in the most effective manner for the browser or device you use to access our online services). We may try to establish cross-device connections and link the different browsers and devices you use to access or use our online services to help us recognize you as a customer or visitor and provide you with a seamless and consistent personalized experience when interacting with us using different browsers or devices.
- Security, Legal and Compliance – Protecting our assets and preventing fraudulent transactions, validating credentials and authenticating customers when logging into your online profile or transacting in-store, protecting the security and integrity of our stores, services and our data, assisting law enforcement and respond to legal/regulatory inquiries, maintaining and complying with our legal and regulatory obligations (such as privacy requests, preferences and choices).
3. Sharing Your Information
We sometimes use third parties to help us provide you with the best services. When those third parties need your personal information, we require that your privacy stays protected. These services include:
- Shipping
- Name and address verification
- Email and text distribution
- Processing returns and exchanges
- Surveys, market research, ratings and reviews
- Advertising and promotions
- Fraud protection and investigation
- Event and other experience planning, including registration for an Outdoor Discovery Program
- Payment processing (see PayPal’s privacy policy
- Managing and promoting the L.L.Bean® Mastercard®
- Targeted advertising on other businesses’ platforms (which may combine the information we share with information already in their possession). These other businesses have privacy policies of their own that apply to your use of their platforms and may offer you choices about which ads you see.
- Partnering with vendors such as Google Analytics to understand what content, experiences, and promotions are most relevan to you. Learn how Google Analytics collects and processes data.
- Sharing your information with other companies, via databases, whose products or services may be of interest to you.
- Shipping internationally. We partner with Global-e, sharing your order information only for the purpose of fulfilling and shipping your order. Global-e will not use your information for any other purpose and will process it according to their own privacy policy. Please contact us directly if you have any questions or concerns – we’re happy to help.
- General troubleshooting and technology support
- We may also share information in additional ways when we disclose that purpose at the time of collection
On rare occasions we may be required to share specific information. Some examples include:
- To comply with applicable law or upon the government’s request
- In response to a court order or subpoena
- When we have a good faith belief that we are required to do so by law, or where otherwise permitted by law
- In connection with any merger, financing, acquisition, or dissolution transaction or proceeding involving sale, transfer, divestiture, or disclosure of all or a portion of our company or assets. If another company acquires our company or assets, that company may possess the personal information collected by us and will assume the consents and responsibilities regarding your personal information.
- To comply with state auditing reports
Direct Relationships:
Even though a third party may perform functions on behalf of L.L.Bean, if you have a direct, independent relationship with a third party, that business's use of your information may be governed by its privacy policy based on its relationship with you (e.g. UPS).
A note on selling:
L.L.Bean does not sell personal information in the traditional sense, in exchange for monetary compensation.
4. Cookies, Marketing Tags and Other Technology
We gather information about how visitors navigate and use our website to deliver more personalized experiences and improve site performance, using tools such as “cookies”, “marketing tags” and session replay software. A cookie is a small data file stored by your web browser on your computer. Session cookies are erased when you close the web browser or browser tab. Persistent cookies remain on your computer’s storage until they expire or are deleted. Some cookies are necessary for our website to work properly and enable you to place an item in your shopping bag or checkout. Other cookies allow us to enhance or personalize your online shopping experience. Please note, if you set your browser to refuse all cookies, our website may not function properly, and you may need to contact us for assistance placing an order. Here are some examples of what cookies allow us to do:
- Remember what items are in your shopping bag
- Recognize you when you return to our website
- Enable faster checkout if you have created an account at llbean.com
- Understand how you reached our website and which products you’re looking for
- Personalize your web experience
- Apply the preferences you’ve chosen
L.L.Bean uses Google Analytics to understand what content, experiences, and promotions are most relevant to you. This information is used for:
- Remarketing audiences based on specific behavior, demographics, and interest data
- Reports based on demographic and interest data
- User segments based on demographic and interest data
- Campaign Manager 360
- Display & video 360
- Search 360
You can opt out of Google Analytics Advertising Features by adjusting the ad settings in Google Analytics Advertising Features or by submitting a Privacy Request Form on our site. We also contract with other companies to publish L.L.Bean ads across the internet. These companies collect information about your visits to our website and share advertisements for products you’re most likely to be interested in. These targeted advertisements may appear on other sites that you visit. This information is collected using a cookie or pixel tag – technology used by most websites. Certain technology used on our website allow us to view a customer’s visit to the site so we can troubleshoot and improve the site performance and experience as well as identify and reduce fraudulent activity Check out Your Privacy Options, for more information about managing your personal information. You can also limit tracking by adjusting the settings in your web browser through Global Privacy Controls. Your cookie preferences are specific to each L.L.Bean website.
5. Your Marketing Preferences
We're happy to honor changes or preferences you may have regarding your information including:
Updating Your Information
You can update your name, address, telephone number, or email address through My Account or by contacting us. To protect your privacy, we will confirm your identity before updating or reviewing your information.
L.L.Bean Catalogs
You may change your catalog preferences through My Account or by contacting us. Because catalogs are planned in advance, you may still receive mailings after we process your request.
L.L.Bean Emails
You may unsubscribe from our promotional emails using the link provided at the bottom of each email, through My Account, or by contacting us. Because emails are planned in advance, you may still receive mailings while we process your request. To serve you best, you’ll continue to receive important emails about recent transactions, including orders and returns, even if you choose not to receive promotional emails.
6. Your Privacy Options
Your privacy options are important to us, and we strive to be transparent about what information we collect, why we’re collecting it, and what we do with it. We also work hard to honor your preferences about this information.
Right to Opt-Out
You have the right to request that L.L.Bean for Business stop sharing your personal information with certain third parties that help us distribute personalized advertising (targeted or behavioral advertising) by submitting a Privacy Request Form.
We will process your Opt-Out request within 15 days and will notify third parties of your request.
L.L.Bean for Business may deny a request if it is deemed fraudulent.
You may change your mind and opt back into personal information sales or sharing at any time by contacting us.
You do not need to create an account with us to exercise your opt-out rights. We will only use personal information provided in an opt-out request to review and comply with the request.
Browser based opt-out signals, known as Universal Opt-Out mechanism(s), are available to you to disable 3rd party cookies or to prevent the sharing of personal information for targeted advertising. These settings can be used when shopping on our site, and many others, as a way to indicate your privacy intentions. Be aware, if you turn off all cookies, our site won’t function properly. To learn more about Global Privacy Control, visit https://globalprivacycontrol.org/.
Right to Confirm and Access
You have the right to request a copy of the personal information that L.L.Bean for Business maintains in its records by submitting a Privacy Request Form.
We will respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to an additional 45 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. We will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. You may make a Right to Confirm and Access request up to twice in a 12-month period. We will deliver our written response by mail or through the OneTrust portal. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your Right to Confirm and Access request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.
Right to Correct
You have the right to correct inaccurate personal information. You may make some changes through your online account, or by submitting a Privacy Request Form.
Right to Delete
You have the right to request deletion of your personal information that we maintain, subject to certain exceptions, by submitting a Privacy Request Form. Please be aware that deleting your information will remove your purchase history from our customer service database and we will be unable to provide you with records of proof of purchase.
You have the right to request deletion of your personal information that we collected or maintain, subject to certain exceptions.
Impacts of deletion include:
- Your purchase history will no longer be accessible
- We will not be able to look up your transactions for returns, previous gifts, or repairs
- You will be required to provide a proof of purchase for any future returns
- You will no longer have access to your L.L.Bean for Business account at llbeanforbusiness.com
Please note, we will continue to maintain limited information needed to comply with product recalls, fraud prevention, and other legal and business requirements.
If we are unable to verify a Request for Delete, your request will be treated as a request to Opt-Out of the sale or sharing of your personal information, and we will notify you. Once we receive and confirm your deletion request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records within 45 days, unless an exception applies.
Right to Appeal
Occasionally, L.L.Bean must deny a privacy request for a specific reason, such as the information provided during identify verification not matching the information stored in L.L.Bean’s systems. This doesn’t happen often.
You may appeal if L.L.Bean denies your request. To appeal the decision, please submit a request to appeal and we will be happy to review the decision.
Right to Not Be Discriminated Against
We will not discriminate against you for exercising one of your privacy options by (i) denying a good or service to you; (ii) charging you a different price or rate for a good or service; or (iii) providing you a different level of quality of a good or service.
About Your Request
In order to protect your information from unauthorized correction, deletion or disclosure, we will verify your request using three pieces of personal information that can be verified against data previously collected from you and in our systems.
- Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf (your designated authorized agent), may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information.
- We will request your name, mailing address, and email address from you in order to complete the verification process. We will also request some additional information, such as: last item ordered, date of last order, total dollar charge of last order, last item you returned, name of person you have shipped to in the past, or a monogram you have placed on a recent order.
- When it is not possible to match three pieces of personal information, we may engage a third-party verification service to avoid fraudulent or malicious intent.
- We will only use personal information provided to us for this purpose to verify your identity or authority to make the request.
- When we are not able to verify your request, we must deny the request, but will communicate the reason for such denial to you.
Please note: We are legally required to comply with certain state privacy laws. While we strive to honor all requests, privacy laws differ from state-to-state. Depending on where you live, some requests may take longer to fulfill than others. We also may not handle each request in the same way, as we are obligated to fulfill your request in compliance with the privacy laws of the state in which you reside.
If you are a California resident, please see additional information about your rights in Section 12 below.
Authorized Agents
You may use an authorized agent to submit a request. To use an authorized agent, you must provide the agent with signed permission to submit the request. An authorized agent should submit requests HERE and should include proof of signed permission from you to submit the request.
We may deny a request from an agent that does not submit signed permission demonstrating that it has been authorized by the customer to submit the request.
These verification steps do not apply to requests made by an opt-out preference signal.
7. Privacy of Children
We’re committed to protecting the rights of children. Our website is not intended for children's use or directed towards those under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 16. If you are a parent or guardian and think that we have unauthorized information about your child who is younger than 16, please contact us so we can help.
8. Links to Other Websites
Occasionally we link to other websites and services. These include nonprofits that we support, partners such as Hike it Baby, or enabling you to save your True Fit account. These sites have their own privacy and security policies. If you choose to navigate to another website through our links or input your personal information through these service offerings, we encourage you to review their policies to learn how they use your information.
9. Information Security
We care greatly about the security of your information and use a variety of Information Security technologies and processes to protect it against loss, misuse, or unauthorized access. For example, we use encryption or hashing when receiving or transmitting your information. Read more about our security practices, which are consistent with retail industry practices to mitigate risk.
We also encourage you to practice general internet safety guidelines, such as choosing a strong password for your llbean.com account, changing your password frequently, signing out of your account, and closing your browser when you're finished.
Please note: L.L.Bean will never ask for your password or credit card information over email.
10. Canadian Residents
If you are a resident of Canada and you would like to take advantage of any of your rights under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), please contact us.
11. European Union Residents
If you are a resident of the European Union, we ask that you please shop via our international website at global.llbean.com.
Your cookie preferences are specific to each L.L.Bean website.
If you wish to take advantage of any of your rights related to the European Union Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), such as the Right to Erasure (otherwise known as the "Right to be Forgotten"), please complete this form.
If you feel we haven’t appropriately responded to your request related to the GDPR, please contact us at dataprivacyofficer@llbean.com or send mail to Data Protection Officer, Attn: Michael K. Mahoney, 15 Casco Street, Freeport, ME 04033.
12. California Residents
This section supplements our Privacy Policy and applies solely to individuals who are California residents and provides the required information about the personal information L.L.Bean collects, how this information may be used by L.L.Bean, your privacy rights and our obligations in accordance with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 ("CCPA") and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 ("CPRA") and their implementing regulations.
You have the right to opt-out of L.L.Bean’s sale or sharing of your personal information.
You have the right to request deletion of the personal information collected or maintained by L.L.Bean. Please note that deleting your information will remove your purchase history from our records and we’ll be unable provide you with a record of your purchases.
You have the right to request that L.L.Bean disclose what personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell (does not apply if requested more than twice in a 12-month period), including:
Categories of personal information we collected about you
Categories of sources from which we collected the personal information
Business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling/sharing your personal information
Categories of third parties with whom we share the personal information
Specific pieces of personal information we collected about you
In order to protect your information from unauthorized correction, deletion, or disclosure, we will verify your request using three pieces of personal information that can be verified against data previously collected from you and in our systems.
- Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf (your designated authorized agent), may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information.
- We will request your name, mailing address, and email address from you in order to complete the verification process. We will also request some additional information, such as: last item ordered, date of last order, total dollar charge of last order, last item you returned, name of person you have shipped to in the past, or a monogram you have placed on a recent order.
- When it is not possible to match three pieces of personal information, we may engage a third-party verification service to avoid fraudulent or malicious intent
- We will only use personal information provided to us for this purpose to verify your identity or authority to make the request
- When we are not able to verify your request, we must deny the request, but will communicate the reason for such denial to you
We will not discriminate against you, by denying you goods or services, because you exercised your rights under this section of the Privacy Policy.
For purposes of exercising your California rights in addition to the information we provide throughout our Privacy Policy, please note the specific categories of personal information we collected and disclosed and the categories of third parties who received the information in the preceding 12 months:
We collect the following categories of personal information: Identifiers; personal information listed in the CA Customer Records statute (such as payment information), characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law; commercial information; professional or employment information; internet or other electronic network activity information; geolocation data; audio, electronic, or visual information; sensory data, such as audio and visual recordings; inferences drawn from other personal information, such as: your preferences and behaviors.
We disclose the following categories of personal information for a business purpose: Identifiers; personal information listed in the CA Customer Records statute (such as payment information); characteristics of protected classifications under the California or federal law; commercial information; internet or other electronic network activity information; geolocation data; inferences drawn from other personal information, such as: your preferences and behaviors.
We disclose personal information for a business purpose to the following categories of Service Providers: Shipping companies, shipment processing companies, registration platforms, printing companies, event planners and operators, data brokers, technology companies, cloud service providers, analytics companies, fraud protection and investigation companies, payment processors, credit card issuer, media companies/platforms.
Per the CCPA/CPRA’s definition of sell and share, we sell or share the following categories of personal information in order to deliver a more personalized experience and to show you products that we think you’ll be interested in: Identifiers; commercial information; Internet or other electronic network activity; geolocation data.
Per the CCPA/ CPRA’s definition of sell and share, we sell or share personal information to the following categories of vendors: Data brokers, credit card issuer, and media companies/platforms.
L.L.Bean for Business Customers
To make a CCPA/CPRA request, please email CRMDataSteward@llbean.com.
Employment Related Requests
To make a CCPA/CPRA request, please email dataprivacyofficer@llbean.com.
Right To Know
If you’d like to make a Right to Know request, click here or contact us at 1-800-979-4288.
We will respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to an additional 45 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. We will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. You may make a Right to Know request up to twice in a 12-month period. We will deliver our written response by mail or through the OneTrust portal.
We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your Right to Know request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.
Right To Delete
If you’d like to make a Right to Delete request, click here or contact us at 1-800-979-4288.
You have the right to request deletion of your personal information that we collected or maintain, subject to certain exceptions.
Impacts of deletion include:
- Your purchase history will no longer be accessible
- We will not be able to look up your transactions for returns, previous gifts, or repairs
- You will be required to provide a proof of purchase for any future returns
- You will no longer have access to your L.L.Bean account at llbean.com
Please note, we will continue to maintain limited information needed to comply with product recalls, fraud prevention, and other legal and business requirements.
In order to delete your information, the following steps are required by the law:
You submit a request to delete, and
We will separately confirm with you that you want your information deleted.
If we are unable to verify a Request for Delete, your request will be treated as a request to Opt-Out of the sale or sharing of your personal information, and we will notify you.
Once we receive and confirm your deletion request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, within 45 days, unless an exception applies.
Right to Correct
If you’d like us to correct any inaccuracies in your personal information, you have the right to request that we do so (and instruct any service providers or contractors who maintain that information for us to do so, also), taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes of the processing. To make a correction request, click here or call us at 1-800-979-4288.
Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
You have the right to opt-out of L.L.Bean’s “sale or sharing” of your personal information as specifically defined by the CCPA and CPRA. Please note that L.L.Bean does not sell your personal information in the traditional sense (in exchange for money). However, we may disclose your personal information to advertising partners and this may constitute selling or sharing within the meaning of California law.
Browser based opt-out signals, known as Universal Opt-Out mechanism(s), are available to you to disable 3rd party cookies or to prevent the sharing of personal information for targeted advertising. These settings can be used when shopping on our site, and many others, as a way to indicate your privacy intentions. Be aware, if you turn off all cookies, our site won’t function properly. To learn more about Global Privacy Control, visit https://globalprivacycontrol.org/.
If you’d like to make a Do Not Sell or Share request, click here or contact us at 1-800-979-4288.
You have the right to direct us to not sell or share your personal information at any time (the "right to opt-out").
We will process your Opt-Out request within 15 days and will notify third parties of your request.
L.L.Bean may deny a request, if it is deemed fraudulent.
You may change your mind and opt back into personal information sales or sharing at any time by contacting us.
You do not need to create an account with us to exercise your opt-out rights. We will only use personal information provided in an opt-out request to review and comply with the request.
Authorized Agents
California residents may use an authorized agent to submit a request to delete, a request to know, a request to correct, or a request to opt-out of the sale or sharing of their personal information.
To use an authorized agent, you must provide the agent with signed permission to submit the request. An authorized agent should submit requests HERE (one-trust) and should include proof of signed permission from you to submit the request.
An authorized agent may also call our toll-free number, 1-800-979-4288, to submit a request. We may deny a request from an agent that does not submit signed permission demonstrating that it has been authorized by the California resident to submit the request.
For requests to know, requests to delete, and requests to correct, California residents may also be required to verify their own identity to us and directly confirm that they have provided the authorized agent permission to submit the request; however, this requirement and the requirement that an authorized agent submit proof of signed permission will not apply to California residents if the California resident has provided the authorized agent with power of attorney pursuant to Cal. Prob. Code Sections 4121 to 4130.
In addition, the requirement for an authorized agent to obtain and provide written permission from the California resident does not apply to requests made by an opt-out preference signal.
Financial Incentive Programs
Under the CCPA/CPRA, certain L.L.Bean programs may be considered a Financial Incentive Program. This may include promotional emails and the Bean Bucks associated with your Mastercard. The personal information obtained relative to these programs is directly related to the operation of the programs and therefore the financial incentives are reasonably related to the value of the data you provide.
L.L.Bean does not generally assign monetary value to consumers’ personal information and our promotions activities change regularly. To the extent the CCPA/CPRA requires that a value be assigned to certain programs, the value of the data is dependent on a number of variable factors including the value of the offer combined with the type of information being collected, the expenses of administering the program, the difference in revenue associated with the discounted merchandise, the customer’s level of engagement overtime and their purchase history compared to those customers not participating in a specific program.
L.L.Bean uses the information it collects as part of a financial incentive program in the same way it uses personal information collected in other ways, including for the purposes of analytics and marketing. Consumers may opt-out of a financial incentive program at any time.
Retention
L.L.Bean maintains the personal information it collects for as long as it's required to serve the business purpose for which it was collected. For example, L.L.Bean maintains your information for customer service purposes, such as retaining your purchase history indefinitely for the purposes of handling product recalls, or maintaining data to analyze historical trends to better serve you. Certain information is maintained for as long as it's legally required.
13. Policy Changes
In order to stay current, we may periodically update and revise this policy. We encourage you to check it occasionally for updates and revisions. If our practices change, we will update this Privacy Policy and notify you by updating the date above.