Effective as of August 1st, 2022.
These are the ground rules for using Circles. All content posted in communities or events matching any of the Prohibited Categories below will be moderated and removed.
This Privacy Policy describes how Circles Dot World, Inc. (collectively, “Circles”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses and shares your personal information if you visit the Circles platform, including iOS & Android apps, the website https://circles.world/ (and subdomains), email distribution lists using the domain @circles.world, or @team.circles.world our other websites, apps, or services that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Services”), contact us, receive our communications, or attend our events.
Information you provide to us. Personal information you provide to us through the Services may include:
This information is used only to operate and improve the service. We do not use third party tracking or analytics, or collect data for the purposes of user tracking or advertising. See our Cookie Policy for more information.
We use your personal information for the following purposes and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy or at the time of collection:
To operate the Services. We use your personal information to:
For research and development. We analyze use of the Services to improve the Services and to develop new products and services.
For compliance, fraud prevention, and safety. We may use your personal information and disclose it to law enforcement, government authorities, and private parties as we believe necessary or appropriate to: (a) protect our, your, or others’ rights, privacy, safety, or property (including by making and defending legal claims); (b) enforce the terms and conditions that govern the Services; and (c) protect, investigate, and deter against fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical, or illegal activity.
With your consent. In some cases we may specifically ask for your consent to collect, use, or share your personal information, such as when required by law.
To create anonymous data. We may create aggregated and other anonymous data from your personal information and other individuals whose personal information we collect. We make personal information into anonymous data by removing information that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We may use this anonymous data and share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes, including to analyze and improve the Services and promote our business.
Sensitive personal information. We ask that you not provide us with any sensitive personal information (e.g., social security number, government-issued identification, payment card information, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, or criminal background) on or through the Services, or otherwise to us. It is not the purpose of the platform to provide a place for political opinions, but you may do so.
We do not share your personal information with third parties without your consent, except in the following circumstances or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy:
Other Users of the Services. Other users, Admins and Super Admins in your communities & events will see the content you submit, such as posts, comments, and photos. We will display some information, such as your name and a link to your user profile along with the content you submit.
Community/Event Admins. Super Admins and Admins of communities & events may choose to export emails or other information in order to provide a better group experience for their members. Admins state for each community if they will be sharing this information outside their organization, and if so with whom. This information provided by the admins constitutes a legal representation, and can be found in the welcome email you received, and/or the About Section of the community/event.
Service providers. We may share your personal information with third-party companies and individuals that provide services on our behalf or help us operate the Services (such as user support, hosting, analytics, email delivery, marketing, and database management services). These third parties may use your personal information only as authorized by their contracts with us. For example, our hosting company is currently AWS and our payment processor is currently Stripe. Their privacy policies are here and here .
Third-party platforms and social media networks. If you have enabled features or functionality that connect the Services to a third-party platform or social media network (such as by connecting your account with a third party to the Services or sharing content via a third-party platform), we may disclose the personal information that you authorized us to share. We do not control the third party’s use of your personal information.
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.
For compliance, fraud prevention and safety. We may share your personal information for the compliance, fraud prevention and safety purposes described above.
Government Requests. Law enforcement will have access to data only as ordered by a duly-authorized warrant. Nothing in this policy is intended to limit any legal defenses or objections that you may have to a third party or government request to disclose your information.
Business transfers. We will not sell, transfer, or otherwise share your personal information in connection with a (potential) business transaction such as a corporate divestiture, merger, consolidation, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy or dissolution.
For example, in the event that Circles Dot World, Inc. is acquired by another company, the acquiring company will not gain access to your personal information unless you specifically opt-in to such access.
By posting content on the platform you are asserting that you are the creator of the content or that you have a legal right or license to use it; please do not post content to which you do not have such rights. Other users of the platform will see the content, but do not have a right to redistribute it unless otherwise indicated by the poster (please indicate ‘For distribution’ or ‘Public domain’ in your post if you wish to grant such a license).
Communities & Events have a ‘Sponsor’, which is an individual or organization responsible for that community or event. By posting platform content in a community or event, you agree to grant the Sponsor an unlimited, transferable right to that content. Details of the Sponsor are shown to you when you join a community or sign up for an event, and are available for reference in the About Section in each community/event.
In this section, we describe the rights and choices available to all users.
Access, or delete your information. You may access or delete your information by emailing your request to: privacy-requests@circles.world .
Cookies & browser web storage. For information on how to disable cookies and similar technologies used in the Services, see our Cookie Policy.
Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We do not track users between sites for any users regardless of your DNT setting.
Choosing not to share your personal information. Where we are required by law to collect your personal information, or where we need your personal information to provide the Services to you, if you do not provide this information when requested (or you later ask to delete it), we may not be able to provide you with the Services. We will tell you what information you must provide to receive the Services by designating it as required at the time of collection or through other appropriate means.
Third-party platforms. If you choose to connect to the Services via a third-party platform, you may have the ability to limit the information that we may obtain from the third party at the time you connect your third-party account to the Services. Subsequently, you may be able to control your settings through the third-party platform. If you withdraw our ability to access certain information from a third-party platform, that choice will not apply to information that we have already received from that third party.
Examples:
In addition, we developed, implemented, and maintain a written organizational information security policy, implemented employee training regarding safeguarding personal information, conduct risk assessments and use readily available security measures to periodically monitor systems and assets to identify data security events, imposed reasonable data access controls, do not store consumers' personal information on its network in clear text, and have a process to secure and inventory devices with access to personal information.
We retain personal information where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested; to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements; to establish or defend legal claims; for fraud prevention; or to identify and report security incidents). When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.
Examples of Specific Practices:
Platform Content: Until the content is deleted in the Services
User Details: As long as that user account exists
Device Information: As long as that device remains logged into the Circles platform
Usage Information: 90 days in complete form; long term in aggregated statistics
We are headquartered and store data in California, and have service providers all in the United States as of the date of this policy; your personal information may be transferred to the United States from your province or country where privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your province or country.
The Services are not directed to, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 16. If we learn that we have collected personal information of a child without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian, we will delete it. We encourage parents with concerns to contact us.
We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the amended version on the Services and indicating the effective date of the amended version. We may announce any material changes to this Privacy Policy within the app for all iOS and Android users. Email users will be sent policy updates by email. In all cases, your continued use of the Services after the posting of any modified Privacy Policy indicates your assent to the amended Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions or comments about this Policy or Circles Dot World, Inc.'s privacy practices or to exercise your rights under applicable law, email us at privacy-requests@circles.world .
Under California law, California residents are entitled to ask us for a notice identifying the categories of personal customer information that we share with certain third parties for their direct marketing purposes, and providing contact information for such third parties. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to us via email at privacy-requests@circles.world . You must put the statement "Your California Privacy Rights" in your request and include your name, street address, city, state, and ZIP code. We are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or do not have complete information.
California has recently passed legislation known as the California Consumer Privacy Act regarding privacy rights. That law is still evolving and the terms of this section will be updated to reflect changes in the law.
We are making our best attempt at interpreting it as of the date of this policy. If the CCPA is applicable to you in its current form, you have the right to:
“Personal Information” is defined to include information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is capable of being associated with a particular consumer or household. This includes (among other types of personal information) IP addresses, geolocation data, biometric information, and “unique identifiers” such as device and cookie IDs, Internet activity information like browsing history, commercial information such as products or services purchased or consuming histories or tendencies, and characteristics concerning an individual’s race, color, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), age (40 or older), religion, genetic information, sexual orientation, political affiliation, national origin, disability or citizenship status. Inferences drawn from personal information “to create a profile about a consumer reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, preferences, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes” are also considered “personal information.”
Contact us at privacy-requests@circles.world or via the link on our website at https://circles.world to exercise your CCPA rights.
Thank you for reading this privacy policy. Please send any questions or comments to privacy-feedback@circles.world.
Effective as of July 1st, 2021.
This Cookie Policy explains how Circles Dot World, Inc. and our corporate subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively, “ Circles ”, “ we ”, “ us ” or “ our ”) uses cookies, browser web storage and similar technologies in connection with the Circles platform and any other service or website that we own or control and which posts or links to this Cookie Policy (collectively, the “ Services ”).
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies serve different purposes, like helping us understand how a site is being used, letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences and generally improving your browsing experience.
Browser web storage, also known as locally stored objects (“LSOs”), is used for similar purposes as cookies. Browser web storage enables the storage of a larger amount of data than cookies.
Your web browser will provide functionality to clear your cookies and web storage.
The Services use only essential session cookies, which expire once you log out or close your web browser. The Circles platform uses browser web storage to cache Platform Content to improve your browsing experience. This cached content is not shared with or available to third parties.
Parts of the Services that integrate with third-party online services and are clearly offered to users as such, including Single Sign-On using a user identity from another service, may require cookies from that third-party service. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of such online services.
We do not use third-party tracking or analytics cookies, or engage in data collection for the purposes of advertising or user commodification.
Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies and browser web storage. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. Please note that if you set your browser to disable cookies, the Services may not work properly.
For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your computer or mobile device and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org . If you do not accept our cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of our Services.
For more information about how we collect, use, and share your information, see our Privacy Policy.
Information about the cookies we use may be updated from time to time, so please check back on a regular basis for any changes.
If you have any questions about this Cookie Policy, please contact us at privacy-requests@circles.world .