Privacy Policy

Effective Date: December 19, 2022

Last Updated: December 19, 2022

Hostess Brands, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“Hostess,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respect your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes the processing of Personal Information (defined below) that is provided, collected, or shared on www.hostessbrands.com, applications, social media pages, or other platforms that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Site”). It also describes your choices about the collection, sharing, and use of your Personal Information.

1. Personal Information We Collect

We may collect a range of Personal Information. “Personal Information” means information that uniquely identifies, relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated with or linked to you.

The types of Personal Information we collect may include:

Contact Information: If you submit an inquiry through our Contact Form, register for an account, subscribe to receive our e-mail alerts, or provide information on our Site, we may collect your contact information. This may include your name, email address, address, demographic information, and phone number.
Location Data: While navigating our Site, your mobile device or browser may share your location data, both through WiFi and GPS. We will collect this information based on the settings of your phone and browser, or if you decide to use certain features on our Site which utilize your location.
Usage Information: When you use our Site, our servers may automatically record information, including your Internet Protocol address (IP Address), browser type, referring URLs (e.g., the site you visited before coming to our Site), domain names associated with your internet service provider, information on your interaction with the Site, and other such information.
Prospective Employment Information: If you apply for employment and/or become an employee, we will collect your employment and work history, as well as other Personal Information related to your potential employment. This may include your education and employment history, address and contact information, demographic information, references, and any other information included in your resume, cover letter or application. This may also include EEOC demographic workforce and related data.
Websites and Log Information: We may collect information such as your username and password to enter certain sections of our websites, unique identifiers, preference information (such as marketing preferences), browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, the files viewed on our site, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data and other pieces of information. The collection of this information is further described in the “Cookies and Tracking Technologies” subsection below. We may also collect, the date of your last login, the type of content that you viewed or accessed, the search terms you enter, pages you viewed, features you use, your browser and device type, error reports, and any links you click on to leave or interact with the Site. We may also create usage statistics and monitor the traffic from your use or interaction with our Site.
Communication Information: We may collect audio, electronic, or visual information, which includes screen sharing views; any data in any files uploaded, emailed or otherwise provided by customers; the contents of your communications with us, whether via e-mail, social media, telephone or otherwise, and inferences we may make from other Personal Information we collect.
Social Media: Our Site may link to our pages or accounts on third party social media networks (“social media”), but our Site does not use social media plug-ins. If you choose to interact with us on social media, we may collect the information you publish or submit. Note that this information is also governed by the privacy policies of the respective companies offering the social media service.

2. How We Collect Your Personal Information

Directly From You: For example, subscribing to receive our e-mail alerts, registering for a webcast, logging into the employment portal, sharing your experience with our products, or requesting information from us.
Third Parties: For example, we may work with business partners, subcontractors, advertising networks, consultants, analytics providers, and search information providers, who may provide us with Personal Information about you.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies: Our Site may incorporate the following tracking technologies to provide you with certain functionalities, which collect or generate Personal Information about you when you interact with us:
- Cookies: A cookie is a small file placed on your hard drive by some of our web pages. HTML5 local stored objects may store larger amounts of information on your browser. When you access the Site, either through our website, certain information (including computer and connection information, mobile application use, browser type and version, operating system and platform details, and the time of accessing the Site is automatically collected. We, or third parties we do business with, may use cookies to help us analyze our web page flow, customize the Service, content and advertising, measure promotional effectiveness, and promote trust and safety. Most browsers provide you with the ability to block, delete, or disable cookies, and your mobile device may allow you to disable transmission of unique identifiers and location data. If you choose to reject cookies or block device identifiers, some features of the Site may not be available, or some functionality may be limited or unavailable. Please review the help pages of your browser or mobile device for assistance with changing your settings. You may also adjust your cookie preferences in the cookies banner.
- Tags: Pieces of code, or tags, which gather information about users. For example, tags are used on our websites to better understand online usage patterns and trends. We may also use tags in our emails or newsletters to count how many of those messages are read.
- Widgets: Small components embedded within our Site which enable you to use certain functionalities.
- Web Beacons: Web beacons are electronic images placed in the code of a webpage, application or email that allow us to monitor things such as user activity and site traffic. Web beacons may be used to track the traffic patterns of users from one page to another in order to maximize web traffic flow.
- Advertising: We may engage third party service providers who utilize tracking technologies to serve you advertisements that you may be interested in. Some of these advertisements may be personalized to you, meaning that the advertisements are intended to be relevant to you based on what we, or the third party service providers, know about you.
- Through Analytics: We use analytics services, including Google Analytics, to assist us with analyzing our website traffic through cookies and similar technologies. For more information on Google Analytics’ processing of your Personal Information, please see https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites?hl=en-US. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
- Do Not Track Signals: Currently, we do not respond to Do Not Track signals.

3. How We Use Personal Information

To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may use Personal Information to:

operate the Site and provide support to our business functions;
protect against criminal activity, claims and other liabilities;
send you information about our company, products, services, and promotions;
respond to reviews, comments, or other feedback provided to us;
support and personalize the Site and our advertising efforts;
protect the security and integrity of the Site;
provide customer support;
the extent required for benchmarking, data analysis, audits, developing new products, enhancing the Site, facilitating product, software and applications development, improving the Site or our services, conducting research, analysis, studies or surveys, identifying usage trends, as well as for other analytics purposes;
meet our contractual requirements;
comply with applicable legal or regulatory requirements and our policies;
respond to inquiries related to employment opportunities;
for recruitment activities
market, advertise, and provide the Site and our services;
the extent necessary for any other lawful purpose for which the Personal Information is collected; and
to extend credit and to evaluate credit standing.

4. Sharing of Personal Information

We may share your Personal Information in the following circumstances:

For Legal Obligation or Safety Reasons – When we have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of Personal Information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy or comply with any requirement of law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce or investigate a potential violation of the Terms of Use, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise respond to fraud, security or technical concerns, (d) support auditing and compliance functions, or (e) protect the rights, property, or safety of Hostess its users, or the public against harm.
In the Case of a Merger or Sale – If and when we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of transfer or sale of some or all of its business, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, Personal Information may be transferred along with the business. Where legally required we will give you prior notice and if you have a legal right to do so, an opportunity to object to this transfer.
To Service Providers – When we hire a service provider to help operate the Site or our business, we may give access to Personal Information as necessary to perform the service for Hostess. This may include service providers that operate our Site, send our communications, or run our promotions.
To Third Parties for Marketing Purposes – We may share your Personal Information with third parties for their marketing purposes. This may include third parties whose services we believe you may be interested, or who are interested in providing you with services.
Affiliates. We may share your personal information with our corporate parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates, for purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy.
Professional Advisors. We may disclose your personal information to professional advisors, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors, and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.
To Business Partners – We may share Personal Information with our trusted business partners. For example, we may share your Personal Information with a company when we co-sponsor a promotion or service. These partners and affiliates may use your Personal Information to, among other things, send you information or contact you about their services and products.

5. How We Protect Your Personal Information

We use our commercially reasonable efforts to protect the confidentiality and security of Personal Information we process. However, despite these efforts to store Personal Information in a secure operating environment, we cannot guarantee the security of Personal Information during its transmission or its storage on our systems. Further, while we attempt to ensure the integrity and security of Personal Information, we cannot guarantee that our security measures will prevent third parties such as hackers from illegally obtaining access to Personal Information.

6. Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have certain rights regarding your Personal Information. We will handle any request to exercise your rights in accordance with applicable law, but please note that these rights may not be absolute and may not apply to you, depending on the circumstances and where you are located:

Right to Access your Personal Information
Right to Delete your Personal Information
Right to Correct or Revise your Personal Information
Right to Object or Withdraw Consent to Process your Personal Information
Right to Opt-Out of the Sale of your Personal Information

To exercise your Personal Information rights please contact us using the information in Section 15 below. If you are a resident of California, please see additional information in Section 13 regarding your California specific rights and how you can exercise those California specific rights.

8. Your Choices & Preferences

We offer choices for you to request to update or change your Personal Information and how we communicate with you. Here are some of the ways you can opt-out of receiving emails from us:

Follow the opt-out instructions in promotional emails we send you.
Send an email to HostessUnsubscribe@hostessbrands.com
Send us a postcard with your email address to:

Hostess Brands, LLC
Attn: Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 15002
Lenexa, KS 66285-5002

9. International use of the Site

If you are visiting this Site from outside of the United States, please note that by providing your Personal Information through this Site, it is being transferred to, stored, collected, or processed in the United States where our data center and servers are located and operated.

The Personal Information that we collect and generate about you may be transferred, stored, or accessed in a destination outside of your country which may have less strict, or no, data protection laws, when compared to the laws in your country. Any transfers of Personal Information to Hostess affiliates or third parties outside your local country will be conducted in compliance with the international data transfer restrictions that apply under applicable data protection laws.

You may contact us for more information about the safeguards that we have put in place to protect your Personal Information and your privacy rights when we make cross-border transfers of your Personal Information.

10. Children’s privacy

We do not knowingly collect or solicit any Personal Information from children under the age of 13. In the event that we learn that we have collected Personal Information from a child, we will promptly take steps to delete that information. If you are a parent or legal guardian and think your child has given us their Personal Information, please contact us using the information listed in the “Contact Us” section.

11. Links to third-party websites

We are not responsible for the practices employed by any websites or services linked to or from the Site, including the information or content contained within them. We encourage you to investigate and ask questions before disclosing Personal Information to third parties, since any Personal Information disclosed will be subject to the applicable third party’s privacy policy.

12. Notice for California Residents

This California Privacy Notice to Personnel Applicants (“Applicant Notice”) supplements the Privacy Policy of Hostess Brands, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively, “Hostess”) and applies only to individuals that reside in the State of California who are job applicants (“Applicants”) of Hostess. This Notice is intended to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended from time to time including by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, and any implementing regulations adopted thereunder (collectively referred to as “CCPA”). Terms (including defined capitalized terms) used in this California Privacy Notice have the same meanings given in the CCPA, unless otherwise defined.

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Hostess does not sell or otherwise engage in activities constituting the sale, lease, exchange, or disclosure of the Personal Information we collect for cross-context behavioral advertising.

We may collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular Applicant or device ("Personal Information"). In particular, we may collect the following categories of Personal Information from Applicants who are subject to this Applicant Notice within the last twelve (12) months:

Category of Personal Information Collected
Identifiers and demographic data. This includes data like name, address, email, marital status, birth date, gender, educational data, etc.
Sensitive Personal Information. This includes data like social security or government identification, information about race, national origin, vaccination status, health, and disability status, etc.
Medical Information. This includes information about existing and pre-existing health and physical condition collected in order to determine physical capacity necessary to perform a certain job or respond to a medical emergency.
Location data. This can include location data collected through your use of a website to apply for Hostess positions.
Professional or employment-related information. This may include evaluations, membership in professional organizations, professional certifications, and employment history.
Non-public education information. This is information related to your education including academic credentials such as what school you went to, what your GPA was, what activities or sports you did in school, or other similar background information.
Background Screening Information: This includes results of the following types of background screening: criminal history; sex offender registration; motor vehicle records; credit history; employment history; drug testing; and educational history.

Sensitive Personal Information is a subtype of personal information consisting of specific information categories. While we collect information that falls within the Sensitive Personal Information categories listed in the table below, the CCPA does not treat this information as Sensitive Personal Information because we do not collect or use it to infer characteristics about Applicants.

Sensitive Personal Information Category	Business Purpose
Government identifiers, such as your Social Security number, driver's license, state identification card, and passport and visa information, and immigration status and documentation.	· Recruit and process employment applications, including verify eligibility for employment and conducting background and related checks. · Comply with applicable state and federal labor, employment, tax benefits, workers' compensation, disability, equal employment opportunity, workplace safety, and related laws.
Complete account access credentials, such as user names, account numbers, or card numbers combined with required access/security code or password.	· Recruit and process employment applications, including verify eligibility for employment and conducting background and related checks. · Prevent unauthorized access to or use of Hostess’ information systems, electronic devices, network, and data.
Racial or ethnic origin	· Comply with federal and state equal employment opportunity laws. · Design, implement, and promote Hostess' diversity and inclusion programs.
Health information, including job restrictions and workplace illness and injury information.	· Conduct and process pre-employment health testing and qualification assessments.

Hostess obtains the categories of Personal Information listed above from the following categories of sources:

Directly from you. For example, when you submit your Personal Information to us through job applications.
Indirectly from you. For example, from location-tracking enabled devices connected to Hostess assets you may use as part of the application process with Hostess.
From independent third parties related to your eligibility for employment, or our ongoing management of our business.
Hostess personnel, as part of Hostess’s management, evaluation, and hiring processes.

PURPOSES AND LEGAL GROUNDS FOR WHICH WE COLLECT AND USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Hostess will typically collect and use the Personal Information that it collects from Applicant for one or more of the following business purposes:

To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information. For example, if you share your name and contact information to apply for a job at Hostess.
To provide, support, personalize, and develop our application process.
To provide you with support and to respond to your inquiries.
To comply with legal obligations including the reporting requirements of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Act, the federal Office of Contracting Compliance Programs (applicable to government contractors), and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, and the contractual requirements of Hostess’ clients.
To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
To protect the security of Hostess’s physical locations and information systems.
Disclosures made in an effort to prevent or halt violations of Hostess policies, illegal activities, or as required by law.
Disclosures that we reasonably believe are necessary to defend against or prevent us from incurring liability to third parties.

We may disclose your Personal Information to a third party for a business purpose. When we disclose Personal Information for a business purpose, we enter into a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that Personal Information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract. These third parties are “Service Providers” as defined by applicable law. We do not share Personal Information with any third parties who are not Service Providers where Hostess may receive a financial benefit from such sharing.

We may also disclose your Personal Information to another company as part of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets to that company; or where required by Hostess policy, law, or in response to valid legal process compelling disclosure.

We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.

EXERCISING YOUR CALIFORNIA RIGHTS AND CHOICES

The following rights that apply solely to Applicant are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests, wholly or partly, where exceptions under applicable law apply.

Right to Know and Data Portability

You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your Personal Information over the past 12 months (the "Right to Know"). Once we receive your request and confirm your identity, we will disclose to you:

The categories of personal information we collected about you.
The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information.
The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.
If we sold or disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, two separate lists disclosing:
- sales, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and
- disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained.
The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).

In order to have us provide specific pieces of Personal Information, we may require a signed declaration under penalty of perjury that you are the Applicant whose Personal Information is the subject of the request. We will not provide you specific pieces of information that include the Personal Information of other persons, nor will we disclose certain pieces of information that the law requires us not to or that we determine is a high security risk, including your social security number, driver’s license number, financial account number, health insurance or medical information number, account passwords, security questions and answers, or unique biometric data, as applicable.

Right to Delete

In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete any of the Personal Information we collect and retain from you, subject to several exceptions (the "Right to Delete"). Once we receive your request and confirm your identity, we will review your request to see if an exception allowing us to retain the information applies and, when applicable, delete or deidentify your Personal Information from our records, and instruct any service providers or contractors to take similar action.

Right to Correct

In certain circumstances, you have a right to request that we correct inaccurate Personal Information we hold about you (“Right to Correct”). Once we receive your request and confirm your identify, we will review your request to evaluate the contested Personal Information’s accuracy, and, when applicable, correct your Personal Information from our records (or delete the Personal Information if it does not negatively impact you or you consent to deletion), and instruct any service providers or contractors to take similar action.

Exercising your Rights to Know, Delete, and/or Correct

To submit a request to know, delete or correct, you, or an authorized agent, may: submit your request at either: https://www.hostessbrands.com/contact or by calling us at 866-810-3576.

When you exercise your Right to Know, Right to Delete, and/or Right to Correct, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity based upon the information you provide and the type of request you are making.

Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may make a request to know, delete, and/or correct related to your Personal Information. You may only submit a request to know twice within a 12-month period.

Your request to know, delete, and/or correct must:

Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative, which may include:
Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We may require you to log into your internal employee account or provide your unique employee ID, however, you do not need to create an account with us to submit a request to know, delete, and/or correct. We may also need to ask you to provide us with additional information to verify your identity and fulfill your request. We will only use any such information to verify your identity or authority to make the request. If we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the Personal Information relates to you, we cannot process the request or provide you with Personal Information.

Authorized Agents

You may elect to use an agent to submit a request to delete, request to correct, or a request to know on your behalf. If you choose to do so, your agent must follow the instructions below to make the request. You may also make a request on behalf of your minor child; provided that only a parent or legal guardian can make request to know, delete, or correct Personal Information about a child under the age of 13. When your authorized agent submits a request on your behalf, we will request written permission signed by you and authorizing your agent to make the request on your behalf. The written permission must state your full legal name as the subject of the request, the full legal name of the individual who is acting as your agent, and must be clear about the scope of permission granted. Alternatively, your agent may, but is not required to, submit a copy of a power of attorney under Probate Code sections 4000-4465. In either case, your agent should also indicate in their email the nature of the request. Your identity, in addition to your agent’s identity and authorization, will need to be independently verified in order for us to be able to fulfill the request. We may also ask you to directly confirm with us that you provided your agent permission to submit a request. Please keep in mind that if we do not receive adequate proof that your agent is authorized to act on your behalf, we will deny the request.

Right to Non-Discrimination for the Exercise of Your Privacy Rights

Applicants have the right to not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising CCPA rights. We will not discriminate or retaliate against you for exercising your CCPA rights.

Data Retention

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, as required to satisfy any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, or as necessary to resolve disputes. In determining how long we retain your Personal Information; we take into account our Records Retention Policy, legal and regulatory obligations (such as legal requirements to retain your information, financial reporting obligations, and equal opportunity or anti-discrimination reporting obligations), the nature and sensitivity of the Personal Information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of the Personal Information, and whether we may need to retain the Personal Information to resolve disputes, make and defend legal claims, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes and/or enforce our agreements.

Under some circumstances we may anonymize your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you. We reserve the right to use such anonymous and de-identified data for any legitimate business purpose without further notice to you or your consent.

If you are offered and accept employment with Hostess, the personal data we collected during the application and recruitment process will become part of your employment record, and we may use it in connection with your employment consistent with our employee personal data policies. If you do not become an employee, or, once you are no longer an employee of Hostess, we will retain and securely destroy your personal data in accordance with our document retention policy and applicable laws and regulations.

Personal Information Not Related to Your Job Application Process with Us

We may collect Personal Information from you visit www.HostessCakes.com in your individual capacity and outside the context of your job application process. Personal Information we collect from you at that time is not subject to this California Privacy Notice. We will collect, use, store, disclose, and/or otherwise handle Personal Information collected outside the context of your job application process with us as we describe in our consumer privacy policy, found at https://www.hostesscakes.com/privacy-policy/. If you wish to make a California consumer request in connection with such Personal Information, you must do so using the methods shown in the California privacy notice to consumers also found here.

Changes to our Applicant Notice

Hostess reserves the right to amend this Applicant Notice at our discretion at any time.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Notice or need to access this Notice in an alternative format due to having a disability, please contact corphrops@hostessbrands.com

13. Retention of Your Personal Information

We will keep your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is permitted or required by law.

In specific circumstances, we may store your personal information for longer periods of time so that we have an accurate record of your dealings with us in the event of any complaints or challenges, or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation relating to your personal information or dealings.

14. How to Contact Us

Hostess Consumers and Website Visitors: Please contact us by phone at: 1-800-483-7253, by email at: consumeraffairs@hostessbrands.com or write to us at:

Hostess Brands, LLC
Attn: Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 15002
Lenexa, KS 66285-5002