Updated as of October 1st, 2023
 

Introduction

Welcome. You have arrived at a website operated by Hof’s Hut Restaurants, Inc. (“Company” or “we,” “our” or “us”). We respect your privacy and want to protect your personal information.

This Privacy Policy governs www.hofshut.com, its subdomains, and all
portals, applications, products, goods, services, events, and any interactive features, applications, or other
services that post a link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Site”). This Privacy Policy also applies to
information (including the “Personal Information” defined below) that we may collect from you in person at our
physical restaurant locations (each “Location”), via phone calls or other communications with our personnel or in
any other instance when you contact us. We refer to all of the above as our “Goods and Services.”

We are required by law to tell you what information we collect from you, why we collect it, how we use it, under
what circumstances we may share it with third parties, how we protect that information, and how you may opt out of
the sale of that information. As a preliminary matter, we handle all information you provide us with the utmost
confidentiality. Your personal information will only be shared with members of our company who need to know this
information in order for us to provide Goods and Services to you. At times, we may need to disclose your personal
information to third parties outside the company who may be assisting us with providing Goods and Services to you,
as set forth in this Policy. If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, contact us at guestconcerns@hofshut.com.

Please note that if you provide your information in the course of interacting with our Site, visiting our
Locations, or otherwise using our Goods and Services, we will take that as your agreement to our collection, use,
and disclosure of your information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into our
Terms of Use which govern your use of this Site.

By using our Site, contacting us to inquire about our Goods and Services, or visiting our Locations, you consent to
our Privacy Policy and agree to our Terms of Use.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to any products, goods, services, websites, or content that are offered by third
parties (“Third Party Services”), which are governed by their respective privacy policies.

Contents

 

What Information We Collect

Information You Provide to Us

In connection with the Goods and Services we provide, we may ask you to provide us with certain information,
including:

  • your first and last name, email address, home or business address, telephone number, mobile number, username,
    number, and your birthdate;
  • your credit card or debit card and your payment and/or visit history;
  • your reservation, order, and delivery information, including menu items, delivery addresses, or other details
    about the orders you place (e.g., your car model and license plate to identify vehicle for pickup), and your order
    history;
  • in the case of employment applications, your current or past employment information and educational information;
  • social media information, such as social media handles, content and other data shared with us through
    third-party features that you use on our Site and other service (such as apps, tools, payment services, widgets
    and plug-ins offered by social media services like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) or posted on social media
    pages (such as our social media page or other pages accessible to us);
  • other information that could reasonably be used to identify you personally or identify your household or device
    ((i) and (ii) are collectively referred to hereinafter as “Personal Information”); and/or
  • demographic information, such as your country, state, or county of residence or business operation (“Demographic
    Information”).

Your decision to provide us with information is voluntary, but if you choose not to provide any requested
information, you may not be able to take advantage of all of the Site’s features or our Goods and Services.

We use that information to allow you to access the Site and our Goods and Services, to improve our website and to
send you marketing communications at your request.

General Browsing

In addition to information that you choose to submit to us, we and/or our service providers may automatically
collect and/or store certain information when you visit or interact with the Site (“Usage Information”). This Usage
Information may be stored and/or accessed from your personal computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone or other device
(a “Device”) whenever you visit or interact with our Site. Usage Information may include:

  • Your IP address, IDFA, Android/Google Advertising ID, IMEI, or another unique identifier (“Device Identifier”);
  • Your Device functionality (including browser, browser language, operating system, hardware, mobile network
    information);
  • Referring and exit web pages and URLs;
  • The areas within our Site that you visit and your activities there, including remembering you and your
    preferences;
  • Your Device location or other geolocation information, including the zip code, state, or country from which you
    accessed the Goods and Services;
  • Your Device characteristics; and
  • Certain other Device data, including the time of day you visit our Site.

For location information, we may use this information to provide customized Goods and Services, content,
promotional offers, and other information that may be of interest to you.

If you no longer wish for us or our service providers to collect and use location information, you may disable the
location features on your device. Consult your device manufacturer’s settings for instructions. Please note that if
you disable such features, your ability to access certain features, Goods and Services, content, promotions, or
products may be limited or disabled.

Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We may use various methods and technologies to store or collect Usage Information (“Tracking Technologies”).
Tracking Technologies may set, change, alter or modify settings or configurations on your Device. A few of the
Tracking Technologies used on the Site, include, but are not limited to, the following (as well as future-developed
tracking technology or methods that are not listed here):

  • Cookies. A cookie is a file placed on a Device to uniquely identify your browser or to store information on your
    Device. Our Site may use HTTP cookies, HTML5 cookies, Flash cookies and other types of cookie technology to store
    information on local storage.
  • Web Beacons. A Web Beacon is a small tag (which may be invisible to you) that may be placed on our Site’s pages
    and messages.
  • Embedded Scripts. An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your
    interactions with the Site, such as the links you click on.
  • ETag, or entity tag. An Etag or entity tag is a feature of the cache in browsers. It is an opaque identifier
    assigned by a web server to a specific version of a resource found at a URL.
  • Browser Fingerprinting. Collection and analysis of information from your Device, such as, without limitation,
    your operating system, plug-ins, system fonts and other data, for purposes of identification.
  • Recognition Technologies. Technologies, including application of statistical probability to data sets, which
    attempt to recognize or make assumptions about users and devices (e.g., that a user of multiple devices is the
    same user).

We may use Tracking Technologies for a variety of purposes, including:

  • To allow you to use and access the Site, including for the prevention of fraudulent activity and improved
    security functionality;
  • To assess the performance of the Site, including as part of our analytic practices or otherwise to improve the
    content, products or services offered through the Site;
  • To offer you enhanced functionality when accessing the Site, including identifying you when you sign into our
    Site or keeping track of your specified preferences or to track your online activities over time and across
    third-party sites; and
  • To deliver content relevant to your interests on our Site and third‑party sites based on how you interact with
    our content.

We’ve put our cookies into the following categories or “types,” to make it easier for you to understand why we need
them:

  • Strictly necessary – these are used to help make our Site work efficiently.
  • Performance – these are used to analyze the way our Site work and how we can improve it.
  • Functionality – these help to enhance your experience by doing things like remembering what you’ve done in our
    client portal.
  • Targeting/advertising – these are used to share some information with third parties who we advertise with, so we
    know how you’ve reached our Site. We can also use cookies to identify the parts of the Site that you are
    interested in. We then use this information to show you advertisements and pages we think may also be of interest
    to you, to tailor how we communicate with you, or to tailor the contents of the communications we send to you. If
    you prefer, you can opt out of these. Tailoring of content means it includes information reflecting the interest
    you’ve shown in the content of our web pages or offers or promotions that we think may interest you, and to
    improve how we respond to your needs.

In addition to the cookies we use on our Site, we also use cookies and similar technologies in some emails and
notifications we send to you. These help us to understand whether you have opened the email and how you have
interacted with it. If you have enabled images, cookies may be set on your computer or mobile device. Cookies will
also be set if you click on any link within the email.

Cookies and You

To use our tools or sign up for information from us, you must have cookies enabled on your internet browser. Some
of the more popular browsers (and links to manage your cookies on each) are:

If you choose not to enable cookies, you will still be able to browse our Site, but it will restrict some of the
functionality of the Site and what you can do.

Controlling Your Cookies

You can set your web browser to alert you when a cookie is being used. You can also get information on the duration
of the cookie and what server your data is being returned to. You then can accept or reject the cookie.
Additionally, you can set your browser to refuse all cookies or accept only cookies returned to the originating
servers.

You can opt in or out of cookies at any time – except strictly necessary cookies (these are used to help make our
Site work efficiently). You can access our Cookies Settings tool.

You can enable or disable cookies in your browser. If you wish to restrict or block the cookies set by any website,
you can do this through the web browser settings for each web browser you use, on each device you use to access the
internet.

Information on controlling and deleting cookies, including on a wide variety of browsers, is also available at www.allaboutcookies.org.

If you want to opt-out of cookies across different advertising networks, the Network Advertising Initiative website
www.networkadvertising.org – has more information and guidance.

If you don't wish to accept cookies from one of our emails, you can choose not to download any images or click on
any links. You can also set your browser to restrict cookies or to reject them entirely. These settings will apply
to all cookies, whether included on websites or in emails. Depending on your email or browser settings, cookies in
an email may sometimes be automatically accepted (for example, when you’ve added an email address to your address
book or safe senders list). For more information, refer to your email browser or device instructions.

Sources of Personal Information

Additionally, we may obtain Personal Information from you where you expressly provide us with the information.
Examples of sources from which we collect information include:

    • via web forms or inputs/uploads into our Site;
  • when you send an email or letter to contact us;
  • from reservation software and/or applications;
  • from food delivery or pickup software and/or applications; 
  • when you purchase products online or at our Locations;
  • when you visit one of our locations;  
  • through interviews and phone calls with you;
  • in documents you have provided to us, and
  • from employment applications.

Audiovisual Information

We may use closed circuit video surveillance cameras at some of our Locations to monitor building and parking lot
security and assist in crime prevention, detection, and investigation, and to ensure the safety of our staff and
visitors to our facilities. We may also record and store telephone calls and chat transcripts for a period of time
when you interact with our customer or technical support personnel, or if you provide us with feedback about our
Goods and Services.

Information We Collect When You Interact with Third-Party Sites

The Site may include functionality that allows certain kinds of interactions between the Site and your account on a
third-party website or application. The use of this functionality may involve the third-party site providing
information to us. For example, we may provide links on the Site to facilitate sending a communication from the Site
or we may use third parties to facilitate emails or postings to social media (like a “Share” or “Forward” button).
These third parties may retain any information used or provided in any such communications or activities and these
third parties’ practices are not subject to our Privacy Policy. We may not control or have access to your
communications through these third parties. Further, when you use third-party sites or services, you are using their
services and not our services and they, not we, are responsible for their practices. You should read the applicable
third-party privacy policies before using such third-party tools on our Site. Please see our Terms of Use for Hof's Hut for more information.

Information from Third Parties

In addition, we may collect information about you from other sources, including consumer credit reporting agencies
and state or federal agencies. We may also obtain information about you from marketers and market research firms. We
may combine the information we collect from third parties with information that we have collected from you or
through your use of the Goods and Services.

Why We Collect Information

We may use your information for various purposes, including:

  • Responding to your requests for information;
  • Providing Goods and Services to you:
  • Processing your reservation at one of our Locations;
  • Processing your takeout or delivery order at one of our Locations;
  • Verifying your identity and for fraud prevention;
  • Processing your payments;
  • Evaluating your employment application;
  • Providing you with updates and information about products and services we provide;
  • Sending you marketing information about us and our affiliated entities;
  • Sending you email communications such as electronic newsletters about our Goods and Services and events and
    promotions which may be of interest to you;
  • Improving the effectiveness of our Site, our marketing endeavors, and our product and service offerings;
  • Obtaining your feedback and reviews regarding our Site, Goods and Services, Locations, or your customer
    experience; 
  • Identifying your product and service preferences, providing personalized content and ads, and informing you of
    new or additional information, products and services that may be of interest to you;
  • Helping us address problems with and improve our Site and our products and services, including testing and
    creating new products, features, and services;
  • Providing mobile marketing messages and other communications and messages;
  • Protecting the security and integrity of the Site, including understanding, and resolving any technical and
    security issues reported on our Sites;
  • Engaging in analysis, research, and reports regarding the use of our Sites and Goods and Services;
  • For internal business purposes;
  • Complying with the law and protecting our safety, rights, property or security, Goods and Services, and the
    general public; and
  • For purposes disclosed at the time you provide your information or as otherwise set forth in this Privacy
    Policy.

When We Disclose Information

We may share your information, including your Personal Information, with our affiliates and other third parties
performing services for us, such as payment processors, food delivery services, or companies with whom we have
marketing or other relationships. If you are a California resident, you have the right to request additional
information regarding the “sale” of your information. Please see the Section entitled “Your California Privacy
Rights” below about these rights.

In addition, to the extent permitted by law and any applicable state Code of Professional Conduct, certain
nonpublic information about you may be disclosed in the following situations:

  • To comply with a validly issued and enforceable subpoena or summons.
  • In the course of a review of our company’s practices under the authorization of a state or national licensing
    board, or as necessary to properly respond to an inquiry or complaint from such a licensing board of organization.
  • In conjunction with a prospective purchase, sale, or merger of all or part of our practice, provided that we
    take appropriate precautions (for example, through a written confidentiality agreement) so the prospective
    purchaser or merger partner does not disclose information obtained in the course of the review.
  • As a part of any actual or threatened legal proceedings or alternative dispute resolution proceedings either
    initiated by or against us, provided we disclose only the information necessary to file, pursue, or defend against
    the lawsuit and take reasonable precautions to ensure that the information disclosed does not become a matter of
    public record.
  • To provide information to affiliates of the company and nonaffiliated third parties who perform services or
    functions for us in conjunction with our services to you, but only if we have a contractual agreement with the
    other party which prohibits them from disclosing or using the information other than for the purposes for which it
    was disclosed. Examples of such disclosures include using a payment processor, reservations maker, merchandise
    store, customer service provider, email marketing provider, or food delivery service.

We may aggregate, de-identify, and/or anonymize any information collected through the Site or Goods and Services
such that such information is no longer linked to your personally identifiable information. We may use and share
this aggregated and anonymized information (non-Personal Information) for any purpose, including without limitation,
for research and marketing purposes, and may also share such data with our affiliates and third parties, including
advertisers, promotional partners, and others.

Finally, we may share the information we have collected about you, including Personal Information, as disclosed at
the time you provide your information and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy.

Ads and Information About You

You may see certain ads on our Site because we participate in advertising networks administered by third parties.
These networks track your online activities over time and across third party websites and online services by
collecting information through automated means, including through the use of the Tracking Technologies described
above, and they use this information to show you advertisements that are tailored to your individual interests. The
information they collect includes information about your visits to our Site, such as the pages you have viewed. This
collection and ad targeting takes place both on our Site and on third-party websites that participate in the ad
network. This process also helps us track the effectiveness of our communications and marketing efforts.

Your Choices About the Information We Collect

If you would prefer that we not share your name and mailing address with third parties (other than with our affiliates) to receive promotional offers, you have the option to opt out of such sharing. To do so, please email us at guestconcerns@hofshut.com. Your choice will not affect our ability to share information in the other ways described in this Privacy Policy.

If you do not wish to receive e-mails about special offers, events, and other promotions from us, email us at guestconcerns@hofshut.com to opt out or click the link in the email to “unsubscribe.” If you do not wish to receive other marketing materials by regular mail from us, please write us at:

Hof’s Hut Restaurants, Inc.
2601 E. Willow St.
Signal Hill, CA 90755

Please note that certain of your personal information, such as your name or other identifying information, may
remain in our database even after a deletion request in order to maintain the integrity and historical record of our
database and systems, or to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

Children’s Privacy

We recognize the importance of children’s safety and privacy. The Site is not designed to attract children and is
not intended for use by children under the age of 16. We do not request, or knowingly collect or sell, any
personally identifiable information from children under the age of 16. If you are the parent or guardian of a child
under 16 who has provided her or his information to us, please contact us at guestconcerns@hofshut.com to request the deletion of that
information.

Do Not Track Disclosures

Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a web browser setting that requests that a web application disable its tracking of an
individual user. When you choose to turn on the DNT setting in your browser, your browser sends a special signal to
websites, analytics companies, ad networks, plug in providers, and other web services you encounter while browsing
to stop tracking your activity. Various third parties are developing or have developed signals or other mechanisms
for the expression of consumer choice regarding the collection of information about an individual consumer’s online
activities over time and across third-party websites or online services (e.g., browser do not track signals), but
there is no universally agreed upon standard for what a company should do when it detects a DNT signal. Currently,
we do not monitor or take any action with respect to these signals or other mechanisms. You can learn more about Do
Not Track at www.allaboutdnt.com.

Visitors to the Site Outside of the United States

Our Site is intended for visitors in the United States only. If you are visiting the Site from a location outside
of the U.S., your connection will be through and to servers located in the U.S. All information you receive from the
Site will be created on servers located in the U.S., and all information you provide will be maintained on web
servers and systems located within the U.S. The data protection laws in the United States may differ from those of
the country in which you are located, and your information may be subject to access requests from governments,
courts, or law enforcement in the United States according to laws of the United States. By using the Site or
providing us with any information, you consent to the transfer to, and processing, usage, sharing and storage of
your information in the United States and in other countries, as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

Updating Personal Information

We prefer to keep your Personal Information accurate and up to date. If you would like to change your contact
information, please contact us at guestconcerns@hofshut.com.

If so, we will make good faith efforts to make requested changes in our then active databases as soon as reasonably
practicable (but we may retain prior information as business records). Please note that it is not always possible to
completely remove or delete all of your information from our databases and that residual data may remain on backup
media or for other reasons, such as a legitimate business reason.

In addition, please note that if you implement a deletion request but later sign up for information or Goods and
Services, your most recent request will control our information relationship with you.

Links

For your convenience, the Site and this Privacy Policy may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible
for the privacy practices, advertising, products, services, or the content of such other websites. None of the links
on the Site should be deemed to imply that we endorse or has any affiliation with the links. Please see our Terms of Use for more information.

Security

We incorporate commercially reasonable safeguards to help protect and secure your Personal Information. However, no
data transmission over the Internet, mobile networks, wireless transmission, or electronic storage of information
can be guaranteed 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you
transmit to or from our Site, and you provide us with your information at your own risk.

Your California Privacy Rights

This Privacy Notice is for California Residents and applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in
the State of California (“Consumers”). We adopt this Notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of
2018 (“CCPA”). Any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this Section.

As described above, we collect certain types of personal information about you during your relationship with us as
a user, patron, purchaser, or visitor.

Under California law, if you are a resident of California, under certain circumstances, you have the right to
request certain information that we collect about you, including:

  1. The categories of Personal Information we have collected from you;
  2. The categories of sources from which we collected the Personal Information;
  3. The business purpose we have for collecting or sharing that Personal Information;
  4. The categories of third parties with whom we share such Personal Information; and
  5. The specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you.

In addition, you may request that we provide you with:

  1. The categories of Personal Information that we sold about you, and the categories of third parties to whom the
    personal information was sold, by category or categories of Personal Information for each category of third
    parties to whom the information was sold;
  2. The categories of Personal Information that we have disclosed about you for a business purpose;  
  3. The category or categories of consumers’ Personal Information that we have sold, or if we have not sold
    consumers’ Personal Information; and
  4. The category or categories of consumers’ Personal Information that we have disclosed for a business purpose, or
    if we have not disclosed that information for a business purpose.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will
not:

  • Deny you goods or services.
  • Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other
    benefits, or imposing penalties.
  • Provide you with a different level or quality of goods or services.
  • Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of
    goods or services.

Notice of Financial Incentives

As permitted by the CCPA, we may offer you certain financial incentives through the rewards programs at our
restaurants that can result in different prices, rates, or service levels. The information that we collect for
enrollment in the program (listed above) allows us to tailor our communications and products and services
suggestions for you. This, in turn, helps us establish a stronger relationship with you – something we truly value.

If you participate in our rewards programs, we may send you promotions or discounts on our Goods and Services. The
value of these discounts varies and depends on the type of product you are buying. For example, you could receive a
discount of a specified amount off your next visit with us, or a free food item.

In determining the value of this data to us, we consider the profit generated from your visit to us based on the
Personal Information you have provided, which is reasonably correlated to the value provided to the consumer through
personalized coupons, promotions, and other discounts or offers.

Participation in our rewards programs is voluntary and requires your prior opt-in consent, which you may revoke at
any time. If you wish to leave our rewards programs, please reach out to us using the information in the Contact Us
section below.

For full program details, please click on the “EClub” or “Preferred Guest” section on our Home Page.

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

As a California resident, you also have the right, at any time, to tell us not to sell Personal Information – this
is called the “right to opt-out” of the sale of Personal Information or “Do Not Sell.”

We do not sell Personal Information, but we recognize that some privacy laws define “personal information” in such
a way that making available identifiers linked to you for a benefit may be considered a “sale.” To opt-out of this,
please click on this link.

Separately, California law also provides you with the ability to limit the use and disclosure of your sensitive
personal information, however, we always limit our use of any sensitive personal information to only that which is
necessary to perform our services for you, as set forth above. We do not share your sensitive personal information
or use that information to infer characteristics about you as a consumer.

Right to Delete Personal Information

You also have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and
retained, subject to certain exceptions. We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary
for us or our service providers to:

  • Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you
    requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you,
    or otherwise perform our contract with you;
  • Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute
    those responsible for such activities;
  • Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
  • Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise
    another right provided for by law;
  • Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 seq.);
  • Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that
    adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information's deletion may likely render
    impossible or seriously impair the research's achievement, if you previously provided informed consent;
  • Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship
    with us;
  • Comply with a legal obligation; or
  • Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you
    provided it.

Please note that if we collected information about you for a single one-time transaction and do not keep that
information in the ordinary course of business, that information will not be retained for purposes of a request
under this section. In addition, if we have de-identified or anonymized data about you, we are not required to
re-identify or otherwise link your identity to that data if it is not otherwise maintained that way in our records.

Right to Correct Personal Information

You have the right to correct Personal Information that we collect from you. Please see the Updating Personal
Information section above.

How to Exercise Your Rights

You may make a written request to us here to request this
information. We may require you to confirm your identity and your residency in order to obtain the information, and
you are only entitled to make this request twice a year. You may call, email or write us with your request at the
contact information below. Please include “California Privacy Rights” as the subject line. You must include your
full name, email address, and attest to the fact that you are a California resident by including a California postal
address in your request. We will respond to your request within 45 days or let you know if we need additional time.

Email Address:

guestconcerns@hofshut.com

Postal Address:

c/o Hof’s Hut Restaurants, Inc.
Attention: California Privacy Inquiry
2601 E. Willow St.
Signal Hill, CA 90755

Toll-Free Number:

(888) 914-9661 (please reference PIN #234011)

Your Nevada Privacy Rights

If you are a Nevada resident, you have the right to request certain information from us regarding the collection
and sale of your personal information (as defined in Nevada Revised Statutes 603A.320) during your visit to our
websites or when you otherwise interact with us online. If you have sought or acquired, by purchase or lease, any
goods or services for personal, family, or household purposes from the Saint & Second Site, you may ask us to
disclose whether we have sold (for monetary consideration) certain information about you (including your first and
last name, physical address, email address, telephone number, social security number, an identifier that allows you
to be contacted either physically or online, or other contact information that allows us to identify you
personally).

As a Nevada resident, you may also request to opt out of us sharing such information about you. To make this
inquiry, please submit a request in writing to guestconcerns@hofshut.com with “Nevada Privacy Rights” in the
subject line. You must include your full name, email address, and attest that you are a Nevada resident by providing
a Nevada postal address in your request. Please state whether you are requesting information and/or opting out.

We will process your request within 60 days, or we will let you know if we need additional time. We may require
additional information to verify your identity before we can respond.

Questions / Changes in Privacy Policy

If you have questions or concerns with respect to our Privacy Policy, you may contact us at guestconcerns@hofshut.com. We may elect to change or amend our
Privacy Policy; in such event, we will post the policy changes in our Privacy Policy on the Site, and they will
become effective on the date posted. If you are concerned about how your personal information is used, please visit
our Site often for this and other important announcements and updates.