Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy covers firstussteel.com, its local inquiry assistant and business inquiries addressed to FIRST US STEEL TRADE COMPANY INC. It explains what happens when you browse the website, prepare a product inquiry or supply offer, or contact us.

The website presents our steel trading and project supply services. It has no online shop, checkout, customer account or online payment function. It does not use Google Analytics, advertising pixels or behavioral analytics.

“Personal data” means information that identifies a person or can reasonably be linked to them. A business email address, a named contact or a signature on a technical document can be personal data. Information relating only to a company is not necessarily personal data.

This Policy does not describe the internal practices of your own browser, email service or telephone provider. Their notices apply when you choose to use those services.

The organization responsible for the processing described here is:

Privacy email: info@firstussteel.com
Telephone: +1 941 870 9848
Business contact: Jason B. Cooper

Please use the privacy email for questions, objections and requests concerning your personal data. Jason B. Cooper is identified as a business contact, not as a designated data protection officer or European representative.

The relevant information falls into three groups:

Technical connection information

Information needed to deliver pages and files, such as an IP address, requested resource, request time and technical request or error information.

Information you choose to send

Your name, company, business email, optional telephone number, message and any specifications, quantities, destinations, schedules or documents you include in a business inquiry.

Project-related contact information

Where an inquiry develops into a project, contact details and correspondence provided by your colleagues or the buyer, supplier or delivery partner involved in that project.

Typing into the local assistant is different from sending information to us. The assistant does not transmit field values to our server. Section 7 explains the handoff to your email application.

We ask for information relevant to the business request, not passwords, payment-card details, medical information or identity documents through the website.

We use information to deliver and protect the website, respond to requests, assess proposed products or supply arrangements, coordinate agreed services and maintain necessary business records.

Where the EU General Data Protection Regulation applies, the relevant grounds depend on the activity:

Legitimate interests — Article 6(1)(f)

Website reliability and security, answering business correspondence, communicating with employees or representatives of customers and suppliers, and establishing or defending claims. These interests must be weighed against the individual’s rights.

Contract or requested pre-contractual steps — Article 6(1)(b)

Processing necessary for a contract with you personally or steps you request before entering one. A contract with your employer does not by itself make this the legal basis for processing your employee contact details.

Legal obligations — Article 6(1)(c)

Recordkeeping or disclosures where an applicable legal obligation qualifying under the GDPR requires them. A foreign legal requirement is not automatically a sufficient basis under this provision.

Consent — Article 6(1)(a)

Only where a specific activity actually relies on your separate, informed consent. Reading this Policy or contacting us is not blanket consent to unrelated processing.

Where other privacy laws apply, we handle the same activities under the grounds and safeguards those laws require. We do not use an inquiry as permission for behavioral tracking.

When you open a page, your browser connects to the infrastructure hosting the website. That connection necessarily involves technical information, including your IP address and the requested page or file, even though the website does not use analytics.

Access, error and security logs may include the request time, IP address, resource path, response status, data volume, browser information and security events. A referring page may be available where transmitted. The exact fields depend on the hosting and security configuration.

Purpose: providing pages, diagnosing faults, preventing misuse and investigating security incidents. The corresponding interest is a functional and secure website, not advertising or visitor profiling.

The hosting service and any infrastructure provider involved in delivery may process this information. Log retention is governed by operational troubleshooting needs, security investigations and applicable recordkeeping requirements. Section 11 explains the retention criteria. A website without analytics is not a website without any technical data processing.

The website application does not set cookies or store inquiry drafts in localStorage, sessionStorage or an application database in your browser. It does not load Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, advertising pixels, session-replay tools or social-media tracking widgets.

Images, styles, scripts and the embedded typeface are supplied with the website. Opening a page does not require a connection to Google Fonts, an external map service or a third-party video player. The route illustration and hero animation run locally; their controls do not send usage events to us.

Your browser can still cache ordinary website resources, manage autofill or restore a page. Those browser functions are not a tracking profile created by this website.

There are no optional analytics or advertising technologies for which this website asks you to make a consent choice. Necessary technical delivery is separate from optional tracking. Any future addition of optional technologies requires a fresh privacy assessment and, where legally required, consent before activation.

The assistant helps buyers and suppliers assemble a business inquiry. It is an email-draft tool, not a server submission form.

While you enter information

Values are used in the current page’s working memory to build a draft. Buyer and supplier drafts remain separate during that session. There is no background transmission of your field values and no upload of documents.

When you open an email draft

The page passes the recipient, subject and draft text to your configured email application. That application may save or synchronize the draft under its own settings. FIRST US STEEL does not receive the message merely because you open it; you choose whether to send.

When you copy or save

Copying places the text on your device’s clipboard. Saving creates a text file on your device. Clipboard history, device synchronization and storage settings can retain these copies independently of the website.

When the message is long

The assistant offers the full text to copy or save and opens an email without inserting the long body. It does not silently shorten your inquiry.

There is no persistent draft store operated by the website. Nevertheless, browser autofill, back/forward caching and session recovery may restore information. Starting a new draft resets the active buyer or supplier fields; it is not a secure-erasure function and does not erase copies already placed in your email app, clipboard or files, or a draft in the other mode.

The website cannot verify whether your email application opened or whether an email was delivered. Attach documents only in the email application when you are ready to send.

When you send an email, we receive its content and the associated sender, recipient, date and technical message information. Email delivery and security services also handle that communication. Telephone contact can involve your number and the information you provide during the conversation.

We use these details to answer you, clarify requirements, prepare an offer or follow up on the relevant business matter. Where a project proceeds, the necessary correspondence can become part of the project record. This website has no newsletter signup and does not automatically subscribe you to a mailing list.

Drawings, specifications and shipping documents sometimes include names, signatures or contact details. Please share only what is necessary and what you are authorized to disclose. Remove unrelated personal information before sending, particularly sensitive information. For highly confidential material, contact us to agree a suitable exchange method.

Where another person gives us your details in connection with a project, we use them for that context and provide any additional notice required by applicable law. You may ask us about the source of your information.

Information is shared according to the relevant purpose and need, rather than making an entire inquiry available to every party. Depending on the matter, the relevant recipients may include:

• Authorized personnel handling your inquiry and business relationship.
• Website hosting, email, IT maintenance and security providers supporting those services.
• Suppliers, mills, manufacturers, inspection companies, freight forwarders, carriers or customs representatives, where necessary to assess or carry out the relevant project.
• Professional advisers, accountants, insurers or public authorities where relevant to the transaction, a legal requirement or a claim.

Service providers acting on our behalf are subject to the contractual and data-protection requirements applicable to that role. Partners and authorities acting for their own purposes are responsible for their own processing. Technical specifications need not include personal contact details unless the task requires them.

The website does not sell personal data or disclose it through advertising integrations for cross-context behavioral advertising.

FIRST US STEEL TRADE COMPANY INC. is based in the United States. Information you send us may be handled there. Where a specific project involves a supplier in China or a customer or logistics partner in Europe, necessary project contact information may also be handled in those locations. We do not send website browsing events to suppliers.

Website and email service providers may process information in the countries where their infrastructure or authorized support operates. Those locations must be distinguished from our U.S. company address; the company address does not establish where the web server is located.

Where a disclosure is a restricted international transfer under applicable law, a valid transfer mechanism is required. Depending on the law, destination and recipient, this can be a relevant adequacy decision or appropriate contractual safeguards, together with any required additional measures. An individual’s direct communication with us and a later disclosure between organizations are not necessarily the same legal situation.

This Policy does not assert that FIRST US STEEL is certified under the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework. It also does not treat sending an inquiry as consent to every later international disclosure. Contact info@firstussteel.com for the destinations and safeguards relevant to your information, including a copy or description where applicable. Laws and government-access protections can differ between countries.

Retention depends on the purpose and category of information. We use the following criteria rather than applying one arbitrary period to every record:

Local inquiry drafts

The website does not create a persistent server-side or browser-storage record of your draft. Page memory and copies held by your browser, email application, clipboard or downloaded files are different; see Section 7.

Technical logs

For the period needed to diagnose delivery problems, identify misuse and investigate security events under the actual hosting configuration. Information related to an identified incident or legal obligation may need separate preservation.

Ordinary inquiries

While the request and relevant follow-up remain open. After resolution, retention is limited to a continuing business, evidentiary or legal need, rather than keeping correspondence indefinitely without a purpose.

Project and business records

For the business relationship and any applicable statutory recordkeeping or limitation period. The necessary period depends on the document, jurisdiction and legal obligation.

Privacy requests and protected copies

Minimal records as needed to handle a request, honor an objection and demonstrate the response. Backup or incident copies may follow a separate lifecycle and must not become a basis for renewed unrelated use.

When no purpose or lawful retention requirement remains, we delete or anonymize the personal data. Where an obligation prevents immediate deletion, use is restricted to the relevant retained purpose. You may ask which retention period or criterion applies to a particular record.

The website’s design reduces collection: inquiry values are not submitted in the background, attachments are not uploaded, and third-party tracking scripts are not included. The published website is intended to be delivered over HTTPS.

Protection of received correspondence also depends on access controls, secure provider configurations, maintenance and the people handling it. A privacy notice or an encrypted web connection is not, by itself, a guarantee about the security of every email system or recipient.

No transmission or storage method is risk-free. Avoid sending passwords, payment-card information or unnecessary sensitive data. Where you believe information has reached us in error or may be at risk, contact us using the details in Section 2.

Your rights depend on the law applicable to the processing. Where the GDPR applies, they can include access to your data and a copy, correction, erasure, restriction and portability where its conditions are met. Legal retention requirements and other statutory exceptions can limit a request.

Where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw that consent for the future. Withdrawal does not change whether earlier processing was lawful. There are currently no optional website analytics or advertising settings to withdraw.

Where another applicable privacy law provides additional access, correction, deletion, opt-out, representative or appeal rights, you may raise those in your request. We do not assume that every jurisdiction’s law applies to every business contact, and we will not penalize you for exercising an applicable statutory privacy right.

Email info@firstussteel.com with the subject “Privacy request”. Describe the information or activity concerned and the outcome you are requesting. You may also write to the address in Section 2.

We may ask for proportionate information to verify your identity or authority before disclosing or changing a record. Please do not send an identity-document copy unless a justified request makes it necessary. An authorized representative may contact us where applicable law allows it.

We respond within the period required by the applicable law. Under the EU GDPR, this is normally within one month; where a permitted extension is necessary, we must explain it within that first month. Requests are generally free of charge, subject to the law’s limited exceptions.

Where a request cannot be granted in full, we explain the reason and available review options. Where the law provides an appeal, reply with the subject “Privacy request appeal” and explain why you would like the decision reviewed.

You may contact us about a privacy concern, but you do not have to contact us before exercising a right to complain to a competent supervisory authority.

Where the GDPR applies, a complaint can in particular be made to the supervisory authority in the place of your habitual residence, work or the alleged infringement. The European Data Protection Board lists national authorities (opens in a new tab).

Where UK law applies, the Information Commissioner’s Office (opens in a new tab) provides complaint information. Elsewhere, the relevant data-protection or consumer-protection authority depends on the applicable law. Following one of these links opens an external website; it does not automatically send your inquiry draft there.

You may browse without providing your name or business contact details. Some technical connection information is necessary to deliver the page.

The assistant marks the information it needs to assemble a useful inquiry. Providing a message remains voluntary. Without enough product, destination or contact information, we may be unable to assess the request or reply. You can use the direct email contact instead of the assistant.

The website does not score visitors, build behavioral profiles or make solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. Checking whether an email field is complete, switching a route or assembling text is not an automated commercial acceptance. An inquiry prepared on the website is not an order confirmation.

This is a business-to-business website, not a service directed at children. It does not invite children to create accounts or submit personal information.

If you believe a child has sent personal data to us inappropriately, please contact us so that we can review it and take the action required by applicable law. Likewise, let us know if a document contains personal information that was unnecessary for the business matter.

We update this Policy when the website, inquiry process, service providers or relevant data-handling practices change. A change to a server-side form, file-upload function or optional tracking technology requires this description to be reviewed before that feature is introduced.

Where a change requires additional notice or consent, updating the text alone does not replace that requirement. The revision date below identifies this version.