We are committed to protecting your privacy and the security of your personal data. This Privacy Policy is here to guide you through the ins and outs of what data we collect through our websites and mobile applications, why and how we treat it.

1. WHO WE ARE

The company responsible for your data (the “data controller”) is Vivastreet GmbH (referred to in this Policy as, “Vivastreet”, “we” and “us”), 405 Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701, USA.

If you wish to contact us to resolve any questions, please write an email to privacy@vivastreet.com

2. WHERE DOES THIS PRIVACY POLICY APPLY?

This Privacy Policy applies to our websites and apps. For simplicity, we just refer to these as “our services” in this Privacy Policy.

When you leave comments or share content on social networks through our website or app, the social network, not Vivastreet, will be responsible for the data you share. If you want to manage your data or your rights related to it, please reach out to the social network directly.

You can find more details on your data protection rights in the “What are your personal data protection rights?” section of this Privacy Policy.

3. WHAT KIND OF DATA DO WE COLLECT?

Vivastreet collects and processes personal data from users who access and use our services: This includes users who have registered on our website and applications, as well as those who, without creating an account, browse or consult them.

Data you provide us with

Account data: When you create an account, you give us the basic information for your account to be set up, such as your name, email address, username, date of birth and password.

Profile data: When you complete your profile or publish ads, you share additional data about yourself. For example, your gender, interests, preferences, contact information, approx. location, phone number, etc. Some of this data may be considered sensitive, such as details of your sexual orientation, sexual life or political and religious beliefs.

Content: When you use our services, you may post photos, videos, texts and other types of content such as your chats with other members or the information you include in your ads.

Purchase data: When you make a purchase and pay directly via our website or app (rather than through a platform such as iOS or Android), you provide us with information such as your billing address, credit, or debit card information and other financial info. We also keep the transaction details (e.g. what you purchased, the date of the transaction, the price, etc.)

Marketing, survey and research data: We occasionally conduct surveys for research purposes and promotions for marketing purposes. When you choose to participate, you provide us with information we use to manage your participation or to process your responses and feedback.

Customer support data: When you contact our customer support team, you provide us with information that may be necessary for addressing your enquiry. Other people may also submit queries or reports involving you.

Social media data: You may decide to share data with us, if you decide to create and log into your account through your accounts on other platforms (Google, Apple, Facebook).

Data automatically generated or collected

Log and usage data: When you use our services, data about how you use our services is generated. Examples include information on your activity on our website or app (e.g. when you logged in, which features you’ve used, actions taken, promotions you interacted with, etc.) and how you interact with others (e.g. communicating, searching, matching, etc.). We may also receive data related to interactions you had with our ads on third-party websites or apps.

Device data: When you use our services, we collect data about the device(s) you used to access our website or app. This includes hardware and software information, such as IP address, approximate location based on your IP address, device identification numbers, app settings, app crashes, advertising IDs and identifiers associated with cookies or other technologies that may uniquely identify a device or browser. For more information about cookies, see our consent management tool (click on “Privacy Settings” in the footer of our website).

Other data we collect only with your permission

Precise device geolocation data: If you permit us, we can collect the geolocation (latitude and longitude) from your device. If you decline permission, features that rely on precise location information may not be available to you.

Access to features on your device: We might request access to other features of your device for you to be able to use certain features of our website or app (e.g. camera, photo gallery, microphone, etc.). If you decline permission, features that require this access may not be available to you.

You can find more information on how to access, review, update, delete data and withdraw consent in section 9 of this Privacy Policy.

4. WHY DO WE COLLECT AND FOR WHICH PURPOSE DO WE USE YOUR DATA?

To enable our service

This includes:

  • creating and maintaining your account and profile,
  • operating and maintaining various features (including user-to-user communications),
  • sending you administrative information,
  • recommending other members or listings to you and recommending you/yours to them,
  • organising contests,
  • responding to your enquiries and questions,
  • monitoring the well-functioning of our services (to diagnose and fix problems in our services).

Legal basis: Provision of services/performance of our contract with you; Consent (where sensitive data or other type of data that requires consent is processed).

Categories of data processed: Account data, Profile data, Content, Purchase data, Marketing, survey and research, Customer support data, Social media data, Log and usage data, Device data, Geolocation data.

To enable your purchases on our service

This includes:

  • processing payments and managing your orders,
  • offering discounts, promotions and customising prices.

Legal basis: Provision of services/performance of our contract with you.

Categories of data processed: Account data, Profile data, Purchase data, Log and usage data, Device data.

To operate advertising and marketing campaigns

This includes:

  • delivering and displaying content that’s relevant and personalised for you,
  • determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns,
  • communicating with you about products, features and offers we believe may interest you.

Legal basis: Consent (where required under applicable law); Legitimate interest (It is in our legitimate interest to promote our service and show ads that are tailored to your interest as a way to improve your experience and help fund the free parts of our service).

Categories of data processed: Account data, Profile data, Content, Purchase data, Marketing, survey and research, Log and usage data, Device data.

To improve our service and create new features

This includes:

  • running focus groups and studies, as well as requesting feedback,
  • conducting research and publishing papers,
  • analysing how our services are used and identifying usage trends,
  • developing and improving new features and services, including through machine learning and other technologies, and testing them out,
  • reviewing interactions with customer support to improve the quality of our service.

Legal basis: Provision of services/performance of our contract with you; Legitimate interest (it is in our legitimate interest to improve our services); Consent (where sensitive data or other type of data that requires consent is processed).

Categories of data processed: Account data, Profile data, Content, Purchase data, Marketing, survey and research, Customer support data, Social media data, Log and usage data, Device data.

To protect you, other members and our services

This includes:

  • preventing, diagnosing and fighting violations against our Terms of Use, fraudulent, illegal or prohibited activities, as well as
  • developing and improving tools for this purpose,
  • preventing recurrences and preventing individuals who violated our Terms of Use from creating new accounts or publishing new content,
  • letting users who submitted a report know what we’ve done about it,
  • securing payments and fighting against fraud,
  • verifying your identity.

Legal basis: Provision of services/performance of our contract with you; Legitimate interest (it is in our legitimate interest to improve our services); Protection of your vital interests; Compliance with legal obligations; Consent (where sensitive data or other type of data that requires consent is processed).

Categories of data processed: Account data, Profile data, Content, Purchase data, Customer support data, Log and usage data, Device data.

To comply with applicable law, establish, exercise and defend legal claims and rights

This includes:

  • preserving data to comply and evidence compliance with applicable law,
  • supporting investigations and defending potential or ongoing litigation, regulatory action or dispute,
  • responding to lawful requests from law enforcement, regulatory authorities, courts or other third parties, as well as reporting illegal or prohibited content to those,
  • establishing, exercising or defending ongoing or threatened claims,
  • sharing data with law enforcement or partners to combat abusive or illegal behaviour.

Legal basis: Legitimate interest (it is in our legitimate interest to comply with applicable law and protect our members, our services and others); Protection of your vital interests; Compliance with legal obligations; Consent (where sensitive data or other type of data that requires consent is processed).

Categories of data processed: The categories of data vary based on the specific circumstances.

To send you communications and notifications

This includes:

  • sending push notifications and emails about essential account information (e.g. new message alerts, account-related updates, etc.),
  • sending marketing content (e.g. newsletters, etc.).

Legal basis: Provision of services/performance of our contract with you (for essential notifications); Consent (for marketing notifications, alerts and newsletters).

Categories of data processed: Account data, Profile data, Content, Marketing, survey and research, Customer support data, Social media data, Log and usage data, Device data.

You can manage your push notification preferences through your device settings or by adjusting your preferences on our website or app. You may also unsubscribe from non-essential email at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email.

Profiling and automated-decision making

What is automated decision-making and profiling? The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) contemplates the following definitions:

  • Automated-decision making is the process of deciding by automated means without any human involvement (e.g. using computers or algorithms). These decisions can be based on factual data, as well as on digitally created profiles or inferred data.
  • Profiling means any form of automated processing of personal data, consisting of the use of it to evaluate certain aspects relating to an individual (interests, preferences or behaviours), e.g. using computers and algorithms to determine a person’s interest based on their behaviour.

Purposes:

  • To help you connect with others: We use the information you provide us with (e.g. gender, distance, age, hashtags, etc.) together with the information we collect about how you use our service (your activity, etc.) to power our matching algorithm and recommend and/or prioritise compatible people. We use the same process to recommend you to other people. Sensitive information such as religion or political views you may have added to your profile doesn’t play a role in our algorithm. You can always change your search settings on the Match page to filter which profiles are shown to you.
  • To prevent fraudulent payment transactions, as a part of our anti-fraud processes: If a transaction meets certain criteria that demonstrate our Terms of Use or any legislation are likely to have been breached, the relevant account might be subject to warnings, restriction or banning.
  • To show you relevant ads and offers that may be of interest: We use information about you and how you use our services to show useful and relevant ads, promotions, deals and discounts tailored to your profile on and off our services and measure the effectiveness of these.
  • To moderate content: We use a combination of automated systems and a team of moderators to review accounts, information in user profiles, messages and content. This makes it easier to prevent illegal or prohibited actions, as well as detect and fight those actions when they occur. If an account, message or content meets certain criteria that demonstrate our Terms of Use or any legislation are likely to have been breached, the relevant transaction may automatically be blocked, and the account might be subject to warnings, restriction or banning.

Legal basis: Provision of services/performance of our contract with you; Legitimate interest (it is in our legitimate interest to comply with applicable law and protect our members, services and others, as well as generate more personalised and relevant recommendations for you); Protection of your vital interests.

5. WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE DATA?

Our goal is to bring people together and to fulfil it, some of your information is visible to other users of the service. We also need to share data with service providers and partners that support us in the services we offer you.

We don’t share your data with third parties for purposes other than the provision of the service unless we have your explicit consent and or we have complied with your right to information. Only when you provide us with your consent through our consent management tool, we share some personal data with partners for strict marketing, measurement and advertising purposes.

Under no circumstances do we sell your data to any third parties.

Other members and people outside the service

Reason: You share data with other members and people outside the service when you voluntarily disclose information on our service for others to see (e.g. your public profile, your ads, etc.). You might also share other member’s profiles or content and they may share yours outside our services.

If a member flags any content involving you (e.g. violation of our Terms of Use), we may let the person know which actions were taken due to the report.

Categories of data processed: Profile data, Content, Customer support data.

Service providers and partners

Reason: We share data with partners and vendors who support us in operating, promoting and improving our service.

Recipients: For example, to provide our services to you, we typically use the following suppliers:

  • Authentication services: So you can verify your account using your phone number (for example, Telesign)
  • Social media providers: So you can create/log in to our service using your account on such platform (for example, Facebook or Google)
  • Product improvement and market research: To carry out customer surveys and research to improve our products and services (for example, Hotjar)
  • Marketing services: We share a limited amount of data with our partners to help us market and advertise our services to existing and potential customers, exclude you from advertising campaigns aimed at finding new users (if you already have an account), show adverts to users who have visited our app or sites but haven’t yet created an account, create lookalike audiences or custom audiences (for example, Facebook)
  • IT services: To protect and be able to provide you with our services (for example, Cloudflare)
  • You can see the full list of service providers and gather further information about how they process your data in their Privacy Policies, linked in our consent management tool (click on “Privacy Settings” in the footer of our website)

Categories of data processed: Account data, Profile data, Content, Purchase data, Marketing, survey and research data, Customer support data, Social media data, Usage data, Device data, Geolocation data.

Payment providers

Reason: When you make a purchase, the payment is processed by one of our payment-processing partners and, therefore, we might share the data with the vendors listed below. You can gather further information about how they process your data in their own Privacy Policies, linked below.

Recipients:

Categories of data processed: Purchase data.

Law enforcement authorities

Reason: We may disclose your data to comply with a legal process (such as government/law enforcement investigation or other legal requirements), assist in the prevention or detection of crime, protect the safety of any person and establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Categories of data processed: The categories of data shared vary based on the specific circumstances.

In the context of mergers and acquisitions: Affiliate(s) or new owner(s)

Reason: We may transfer your data if we are involved, whether in whole or in part, in a merger, sale, acquisition, divestiture, restructuring, reorganisation, dissolution, bankruptcy or other change of ownership or control.

Categories of data processed: The categories of data shared vary based on the type of transaction. It may include all categories or only a specific subset.

6. DATA TRANSFERS

Our servers are primary based in secure processing hubs within the United States.

We only select third-party service providers that offer adequate guarantees:

  • We engage to ensure they have adequate data protection and information security measures in place and only provide them with the personal data necessary for the service they are providing.
  • Our partners are also subject to extensive obligations under our contractual arrangements and data processing agreements to ensure compliance with modern privacy standards.

7. SECURITY MEASURES WE HAVE IN PLACE TO PROTECT YOUR DATA

We have implemented strong security measures to protect you, your confidentiality and prevent the loss, misuse and unauthorised access, disclosure or alteration of the information under our control, including your data.

For instance, these are some of the measures we have in place:

  • We use SSL/TLS technology to protect data during transmission. SSL is a recognised encryption method that secures communication between your device (as long as your browser supports it) and our servers.
  • We use firewall protection to protect our IT systems against unauthorised access.
  • Permanent monitoring of access to IT systems to identify and prevent misuse of personal data.

8. OUR POLICY TOWARDS AGE

You have to be at least 18 years old to use our services.

We do not knowingly collect any information about or market our services to children, minors, or any person under the age of majority.

If you suspect that a member is under the age of 18, please use the reporting mechanism available on the service.

If we become aware that a child, a minor or anyone under the age of majority has registered and provided us with personal data, we will take appropriate measures to terminate the registration. We will also delete the information from our website or app. We may retain certain data, such as email or IP address, to prevent any attempts to bypass our rules by creating a new profile or account.

9. WHAT ARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS

We want you to be in control of your data. Please note, depending on where you live, you might not have the same rights or they may have a different denomination.

Privacy laws applicable in your country may give you the following rights:

  • Information, access, portability: The right to know what personal data we process, why (this Privacy Policy) and to request a copy of your data in a machine-readable form that can be transferred to another provider.
  • Rectification or correction: The right to correct or update your personal data if it’s inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Erasure or deletion: In certain circumstances, the right to delete your personal data in certain circumstances.
  • Objection or restriction of processing: In certain circumstances, the right to request that we temporarily or permanently stop processing your personal data.
  • Consent withdrawal: Right to withdraw consent you’ve given us to process your data for a specific purpose.
  • Rights related to automated decision-making and profiling: In certain circumstances, the right to request that there is human intervention in the decision-making process. This applies when processing carried out on a solely automated basis results in a decision which has legal or significant effects for you.

How to exercise your rights?

Depending on the data, you can directly access, review, update, delete some information, and withdraw consent you’ve given us by logging in to your account, removing device permissions and via our consent management tool (click on “Privacy Settings” in the footer of our website). You can also close your account and we’ll delete your data as explained in this Privacy Policy.

If you wish to request a copy of your data, rectify other data, have questions or in any other event, you can always contact us by email (provided you have JavaScript enabled for spam protection) or by post at the following address: 405 Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701, USA.

For your protection and the protection of all of our members, we may ask you for information to verify your identity or authority to act on behalf of a member before we can answer the above requests. We don’t want someone else to get in control of your data!

If you have any concerns about how we have processed your request or your data, you shall contact us in the first instance via the contact details above.

If you live in a region with regional privacy regulators, you may also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local privacy or data protection authority.

10. PRIVACY POLICY CHANGES

We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most current version of the policy will govern our use of your data and will always be accessible on our services.

If we make any change to this policy that, in our sole discretion, is material, we will notify you, for example, via email, push notification or by posting a notice on our websites/app.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy from time to time in case there are minor changes or we introduce any improvements.

11. HOW TO CONTACT US FOR PRIVACY REQUESTS

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how Vivastreet collects and uses your data, you can always contact us by email (provided you have JavaScript enabled for spam protection) or by post at the following address: 405 Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701, USA.