UsePencil, Inc. Privacy Policy
Effective Date: January 1, 2020
Last Reviewed: January 1, 2020
Introduction
What Does This Policy Cover?
Information We Collect
How We Use Your Information
How We Share Your Information
How We Protect Your Information
Giving You Choice and Control: Your Preferences
What Information of Mine Can I Access?
What Rights Do I Have Regarding my Information?
How Can I Have My Information Deleted?
Additional Information for European Union Residents
Changes to This Privacy Policy
How to Contact Us
1. Introduction
At UsePencil, Inc., we are committed to protecting your privacy and keeping your information safe. This Privacy Policy describes how UsePencil, Inc.. and its affiliates (“Company” or “we” or “our” or "Commaful" or "Spellbinding" or "Commaful Platform") treat information collected or provided in connection with an end user’s (“you” or “your or “user”) use of the services provided via our website at www.commaful.com (the “Site”) or any other services provided ancillary to that use.
2. What Does This Privacy Policy Cover? Personal Information This Policy sets out the essential details relating to your personal data relationship with UsePencil, Inc.. It specifically covers the treatment of personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) gathered when you are using or accessing the Site. In addition, it covers our treatment of any Personal Information that our business partners share with us or that we share with our business partners. This Policy aims to:
Third Parties This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that we do not own or control, including but not limited to any third-party websites, services, and applications (“Third Party Services”). The Site may contain, and we may send to registered users, offers from third parties or links to third-party websites. We encourage you to request that such third parties provide you with their applicable privacy policies and other terms and conditions before engaging with or making a purchase from them. 3. Information We Collect |
Account and Profile Information.
When you use the Commaful Platform, we collect the information you provide in any applicable form. If you create an Account or sign up to receive emails, you may provide information that could be Personal Information, such as your username, password, email address, financial information, or photo. In addition to using your contact information to send you any emails you have signed up to receive, we may also use your contact information to send you information about our services, but only rarely when we feel such information is important.
Your name, photo, and any other information that you choose to add to your public-facing profile will be available for viewing to users of the Site. Once you create a profile, other users will be able to see in your profile and certain information about your activity on the Commaful Platform, such as text, stories, and poems that you post, your followers and who you follow, topics of interest to you, the information you list as credentials, and your edits to your Content.
User Content.
We collect and store the information and content that you post to the Commaful Platform, including your reactions, shoutouts, photos, and comments. Unless you have posted certain content anonymously, Your Content, date and time stamps, and all associated comments are publicly viewable on the Commaful Platform, along with your name. This also may be indexed by search engines and be republished elsewhere on the Internet per our Terms of Service. For more information about what you can change, see the below section on Your Choices.
Integrated Service Provider and Linked Networks.
You can elect to sign in or sign up to the Commaful Platform through a linked network (i.e., Facebook or Twitter), and you can connect your existing Commaful account with certain third party networks like Facebook, Twitter (each a "Linked Network"). If you elect to sign up through or connect a Linked Network, we receive certain profile and account information about you from the Linked Network. These Linked Networks may also appear in your profile so that people can find you on these Linked Networks. You should consult their respective privacy policies for information about their practices.
You may elect to use information from the Linked Network to populate your profile on the Commaful Platform and help you find and follow your contacts. You may also elect to connect, make and receive payments through third party networks ("Integrated Service Provider"); if you do so, you will be allowing us to passively receive from the ISP your login information and other user data for payment purposes.
Communications.
When you communicate with us (via email, phone, through the Commaful Platform, or otherwise), we may maintain a record of your communication.
IP Address Information and Other Information:
We collect browsing information - such as IP address and location, date and time stamp, user agent, Commaful cookie ID (if applicable), URL, unique advertising or content identifiers (if applicable) and time zone, and other information about user activities on the Commaful Platform, as well as on third party sites and services that have embedded our Commaful pixels ("Pixels"), widgets, plug-ins, buttons, or related services. We may also receive information about you from third parties, such as other users, partners (including ad partners), or our affiliated companies.
Information Collected Automatically About your activity.
When you use the Site, we automatically gather certain non-personally identifiable information from you. We and our third-party providers use cookies, pixel tags, local storage objects, and other tracking technologies to automatically collect information about your activities, such as your searches, page views, date and time of your visit, and other information about your use of the Commaful Platform. We also receive information when you view content on or otherwise interact with the Commaful Platform, even if you have not created an account. This includes usage information, such as when, how often, and for how long you use the Site and the content you submit and view. Below, we provide a summary of these activities.
Cookies. These are small files with a unique identifier that are transferred to your browser through our websites. They allow us to remember users who are logged in, to understand how users navigate through and use the Commaful Platform, and to display personalized content and targeted ads (including on third party sites and applications).
Pixels, web beacons, clear GIFs. These are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, which we use to track the online movements of users of the Commaful Platform and the web pages of users of our Ad Services and to personalize content. We also use these in our emails to let us know when they have been opened or forwarded so that we can gauge the effectiveness of our communications.
Most browsers have an option for turning off the cookie feature. We strongly recommend that you leave cookies active because they enable you to take advantage of the most attractive features of the Site.
Analytics Services & Third Parties.
We use certain third party services to assist us in analysis, auditing, research, and reporting regarding the Site (like Google Analytics). These third parties may use web logs or web beacons, and they may set and access cookies on your computer or other devices. The third-party analytics companies we work with may combine the information collected with other information they have independently collected from other websites or other online products and services. We do not control when or how third parties place cookies on your computer. Their collection and use of information is subject to their privacy policies.
Analytics Services Available Opt Out Links:
○ Mixpanel
■ https://mixpanel.com/optout/
○ HotJar
■ https://www.hotjar.com/opt-out
○ AppsFlyer
■ https://www.appsflyer.com/optout
○ Google Analytics and Google Optimize
■ https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
○ Adjust
■ https://www.adjust.com/forget-device/
4. How We Use Your Information
We do not sell your data, such as your name and contact information to third parties. We may use or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following purposes:
To provide the features and functionality of the Site to you.
To send you e-mails regarding updates or modifications to the Site.
To process your purchases of or requests for products and services;
To send you marketing and promotional emails concerning our products and services (to the extent you do not opt out of such emails).
To analyze collected information relating to your use of the Site to help us improve the Site and develop and improve other products and services.
To help troubleshoot problems, provide you with required notices, enforce our Terms of Service or to alert you to changes in our policies or agreements that may affect your use of the Site.
To tailor the content and information that we may send to you in the Commaful Platform, to suggest followers and content, to offer location customization, and personalized help and instructions, and to otherwise personalize your experiences.
To gather metrics to better understand how users’ access and use the Commaful Platform; to evaluate and improve the Commaful Platform, including the Ad Services and personalization, and to develop new products and services.
To comply with legal obligations, as part of our general business operations, and for other business administration purposes.
Where we believe necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, or violations of our Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy.
We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collect for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.
5. How We Share Your Information
We disclose the personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information that we collect about you as follows:
We may provide advertisers and other third parties with aggregated, non-personally identifiable information about our user base and its usage patterns. The Company uses contractors and third-party service providers to provide the Site to our users and to help us provide services in connection with the Site. Such third parties may receive information from us for use for such purposes.
We may report aggregated, de-identified data relating to activity on this Site to third parties or the general public. We may combine such data with data obtained from third-party sources to generate such reports.
We will use and disclose information where we, in good faith, believe that the law or legal process (such as a court order, search warrant or subpoena) requires us to do so; to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, or violations of our terms and conditions; or in other circumstances where we believe is necessary to protect the rights or property of Company, our users, and third parties.
We may disclose or transfer information, including personal information, as part of any merger, sale, and transfer of our assets, acquisition, or restructuring of all or part of our business, bankruptcy, or similar event.
Your Content, including your name, profile picture, profile information, and certain associated activity information, is available to other users of the Commaful Platform and may be viewed publicly. Public viewing includes availability to non-registered visitors and can occur when users share Your Content across other sites or services. Also, Your Content may be indexed by search engines.
See the section below about Giving You Choice and Control for information about how you may change how certain information is shared or viewed by others.
6. How We Protect Your Information
We follow generally accepted standards to protect the personal information submitted to us both during transmission and after it is received. The information we collect about you is stored in limited-access servers, and we maintain reasonable safeguards to protect the security of these servers and your information.
Your personal information is important to you, and protecting that information is important to us. While we have implemented safeguards to protect the information we collect, no website or Internet transmission is completely secure, so we urge you to take steps to keep your personal information safe. Be sure to always choose a strong password and keep it private, log out of your user account, and always close your web browser when finished using the Commaful Platform on a shared or unsecured device
7. Giving You Choice and Control: Your Preferences
You may always control the types of notifications and communications we send, limit the information shared within the Site about you, and otherwise amend certain privacy settings. Here is further information about some of your choices:
Your Content. You may edit or delete the stories that you post at any time. Any deleted content will be removed from third party sites from which it has been shared via Commaful’s standard sharing features; however, we have no control over deletions or changes to Your Content if it has been shared manually by others or as a video. When you make edits to Your Content, other users will be able to see the history of those edits in your profile activity and on content edit logs.
Access and Amend Your Information You may update or correct your account information at any time by logging in to your account.
Emails and Communications. When you join the Commaful Platform by signing up for an account or creating a profile, as part of the service, you will receive the Commaful digest containing content that we believe may match your interests. You can manage your email and notice preferences in your account profile settings, under your Emails and Notifications settings. If you opt-out of receiving emails about recommendations or other information we think may interest you, we may still send you transactional e-mails about your account or any services you have requested or received from us. Third parties may comment on your postings within the Commaful Platform. In your profile, under your Privacy Settings, you can adjust whether to allow people to comment on your answers and posts.
Topics. You can change topics that you follow or that your profile lists as areas that you know about.
Delete Your Account. If you choose to Delete Your Account by emailing admin@commaful.com, then all of Your Content will be removed from public visibility on the Commaful Platform, and it may not be restored by us, even if you change your mind.
Linked Networks. You may connect or disconnect your Linked Networks, such as Facebook, through the settings, and you may access, amend, and delete much of your profile information through your profile settings. Once you disconnect a Linked Network, we will not receive information from that Linked Network going forward; unless you choose to reconnect it. You may also control whether the Linked Network is visible in your profile.
Transferring your Data Commaful is headquartered in the United States and has operations, entities, and service providers in the United States and throughout the world. As such, we and our service providers may transfer your personal information to, or access it in, jurisdictions (including the United States) that may not provide equivalent levels of data protection as your home jurisdiction. We will take steps to ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection in the jurisdictions in which we process it.
Children Under 13. If you are a parent and believe that your child under the age of 13 has used the Site and provided personally identifiable information to us through the Site, please contact us at admin@commaful.com, and we will work to delete that Site account and any such personally identifiable information.
Links to Other Websites. The Commaful Platform may contain links to third party sites or online services. We are not responsible for the practices of such third parties, whose information practices are subject to their policies and procedures, not to this Privacy Policy.
Choices Regarding Third-Party Offers. To the extent we send you commercial e-mails regarding third-party marketing or promotional materials, we will give you the ability to opt-out of receiving such e-mails in accordance with applicable law. We will not provide your personally identifiable information to third parties for their own marketing purposes without your consent.
8. What Information of Mine Can I Access?
If you are a registered user, you can access information associated with your Account by logging into the Site. Registered and unregistered users can access and delete cookies through their web browser settings.
California Residents -. If you are a resident of California, you have the right to request a list of third parties to whom we have disclosed your personally identifiable information for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding year, pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1798.83.
To make such a request, please send an email to admin@commaful.com or write to us at 1259 El Camino Real #158 Menlo Park, CA 94025. We are only required to respond to one request per customer each year.
9. What Rights Do I Have Regarding My Information?
You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.
We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) 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.
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 et. 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.
Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.
Please be aware to the extent you decline to share certain personally identifiable information with us, and we may not be able to provide some or all of the features and functionalities found on the Site.
10. How Can I Have My Information Deleted?
To delete all data associated with your account, please e-mail us at admin@commaful.com
You can opt-out of cookies by going to https://commaful.com/cookies/
You can delete your account by logging into Commaful and going to https://commaful.com/account/
Please note that while changes to your profile information are reflected promptly in active user databases, our servers may retain previously provided information for a short period of time. You may also make several other adjustments to settings or the display of information about you, as described in more detail in the previous section about Your Choices.
Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you.
Response Timing and Format
We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.
Non-Discrimination
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights. Unless permitted by law, 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 a different level or quality of goods or services.
11. Additional Information for European Union Residents
Payment Processors
Commaful provides Services in conjunction with several payment processors, including Stripe, Paypal, Google Play, and Apple Pay, through which users may pay for Commaful memberships or receive payment based on participation in our Partner program. Those companies acting as payment processors may collect and store personal data related to your billing information and history to provide their services and may collect and store personal data and business data href prevent fraud and other abuse.
When you delete your Commaful account, Commaful deletes your data as outlined in this document. However, to delete your payment or billing information, you will need to do so with your payment provider, as Commaful only has minimal secure access to those records as needed to provide the services.
Potential Consequences of Processing
By creating an account on Commaful, users may make certain personal data about themselves public and accessible to others on their profile and through network interactions. This may, in some cases, constitute special category protected data which is considered manifestly made public by the user. Due to the public nature of information posted to Commaful, it may be possible for third parties to derive identifying personal data from posts, whether by reading, inference, supplemental research, or automated extraction and analysis.
Users are free to use their real name and information, or a pseudonym of their choosing, for their account. Users may also choose to use the service without posting data or engaging in network interactions. However, if you do not agree with and accept the risks of such usage, you may not use the services.
Cross-border Transfers
Commaful is hosted in the United States. By using Commaful Services, you authorize Commaful to transfer, store, and use your information in the United States and any other country where we operate. Where your data is disclosed to our processors, it is subject by contract to at least the same level of data protection as that set out in this statement.
Retention
Commaful retains personal data associated with your account for the lifetime of your account. If you would like to delete your personal information, you can delete your account at any time by emailing admin@commaful.com. Deleted account profile pages will yield an error 404 “file not found” page, immediately upon initiating deletion, and will become unrecoverable in our system after a period of fourteen days. It may take several additional days for your data href be de-indexed from search engines, depending on those search engines’ practices, over which Commaful may have limited or no control. To delete your payment or billing information, you will need to do so with your payment provider, as Commaful only has minimal secure access to those records as needed to provide the services.
Rights of Data Subjects
If you sign up for a Commaful account, you may, at any time request an export of your personal information by emailing admin@commaful.com .
You may correct information associated with your account from the Settings page, and the Customize Your Interests page to update your interests. You may withdraw consent by deleting your account at any time through emailing admin@commaful.com , which will erase your personal information completely within 14 days (except to the extent Commaful is prevented by law from deleting your information).
You may object at any time to the use of your data by contacting admin@commaful.com .
If your complaint relates to alleged misuse of your personal data by a third party, it may result in the suspension of that post or account in keeping with relevant law, public interest, our contractual obligations, and the rights of expression and access to information of others.
For (i) data access and portability; (ii) data correction; (iii) data deletion; and (iv) withdrawal of consent or objection to processing, including, in limited circumstances, the right to ask Commaful to stop processing your personal data, with some exceptions, please email admin@commaful.com
You may, at any time lodge a complaint regarding the processing of your personal data by Commaful with the Supervisory Authority of your EU member state.
12. Changes to Our Privacy Notice
We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will post the updated notice on the Website and update the notice’s effective date. Your continued use of our Website following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.
13. Contact Information
If you have any questions or comments about this notice, how UsePencil, Inc. and its affiliates collect and use your information as described in the Privacy Policy, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under the law, you may contact us at:
Email: admin@commaful.com
or
Postal Address:
UsePencil, Inc.
Attn: Commaful Team
1259 El Camino Real #158
Menlo Park, CALIFORNIA (CA) 94025