PRIVACY POLICY VdA
Privacy Policy Last Updated and Effective Date: March 25, 2024
This Privacy Policy (the “Privacy Policy”) is incorporated by reference into the Terms of Use and End User License Agreement (the “Terms”) for the VdA social media platform, including the website located at vda.honeycommb.com and the VdA mobile applications offered, hosted, or operated by Honeycommb llc or their affiliates (“Honeycommb”), and domains and/or content associated with and/or contained in the foregoing (such website, applications, domains and content, collectively, the “VdA”).
The terms “we” and “us” refer to Honeycommb. The Privacy Policy explains how we: collect, use, and disclose information we obtain through the VdA and information you give us (e.g., when you search, buy, post or participate in a contest or questionnaire on the VdA or communicate with customer service), but does not apply to our collection of information from other sources. Capitalized terms used in this Privacy Policy shall have the meaning set forth in this Privacy Policy or, if not defined herein, in the Terms.
We generally keep this Privacy Policy posted on VdA and you should review it frequently, as it may change from time to time without notice. Any changes will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Privacy Policy.
WHEN YOU ACCESS VdA, YOU AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY, OR TO ANY CHANGES WE MAY SUBSEQUENTLY MAKE, THEN IMMEDIATELY STOP ACCESSING VdA.
“Personal Information” means information that alone or when in combination with other information may be used to readily identify, contact, or locate you, such as: name, address, email address, or phone number. We do not consider Personal Information to include information that has been anonymized so that it does not allow a third party to easily identify a specific individual.
By accessing and/or using VdA, you authorize us to gather, parse, and retain data related to the provision of VdA and collect, use and disclose information as described in this Privacy Policy. VdA is not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and we request that children do not provide Personal Information through VdA.
COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
VdA collects Personal Information: when you register, during use, when you communicate with us or VdA, and from other users. VdA also collects information, such as anonymous usage statistics, by using cookies, server logs, and other similar technology as you use VdA.
You must register to use VdA. To register, you may need to provide Personal Information, such as your e-mail address, a user name, birth date and password. You may also provide other optional information.
Social Sign-On
VdA collects Personal Information from social media websites/services when you use that social media website or service credentials to log in. For example, when you log in with your Facebook credentials, VdA may collect the Personal Information you have made publicly available in Facebook, such as your name and profile picture. Using VdA, VdA collects information from you and about you from other users through VdA. For example, when you interact with other users or make purchases, VdA collects provided information, including any Personal Information. In certain circumstances, we may request, allow or otherwise provide you with an opportunity to submit your Personal Information in connection with a feature, program, promotion or some other aspect of VdA. For instance, you may:
(a) provide your name, mail/shipping address, e-mail address, credit card number and phone number when registering with VdA or in connection with a sweepstakes or contest entry or a purchase;
(b) provide certain demographic information about you (e.g., age, gender, purchase preference, usage frequency, etc.) when participating in a survey or poll or joining a club or group; or
(c) post a rating and recommendation on VdA.
Certain information may not be personally identifiable when standing alone (e.g., your age), but may become so when combined with other information (e.g., your age and name). Whether or not you provide this information is your choice; however, in many instances this type of information is required to participate in the particular activity, realize a benefit we may offer, or gain access to VdA or certain content on VdA.
Making Payments
When you make payments through VdA, you may need to provide Personal Information to our third-party service providers, such as your name, billing address, and credit card number.
Customer Support
VdA may collect Personal Information through your communications with VdA or any of our customer-support team members.
Location and Device Information from Your Mobile Device
VdA may collect and store your location and device information. Collection of this information may improve the provision of the VdA and provide you with access to customized offers. Cookies, Automatic Data Collection, and Related Technologies The VdA collects and stores information that is generated automatically as you use it, including your preferences and other Personal Information and anonymous usage statistics. When you use, visit or interact with VdA, we and our third-party service providers, including analytic service providers, may use a variety of technologies, now known and hereafter devised, that automatically collect certain information. We and our third-party service providers receive and record information on our server logs from your browser, including your IP address, and from cookies and similar technology, for various purposes including system administration, reporting non-personal aggregate information to others, and tracking the use of VdA. Cookies are small text files placed in a user’s computer browser to store the user’s preferences. Most browsers allow you to block, refuse to accept and/or delete cookies. However, if you do that, then the service may not work properly and/or some parts of VdA will not function properly or be available to you. You can usually find out information about how to delete cookies on your browser through a “help” menu.
Analytics Services
We use third-party tools to collect and aggregate anonymous information about how users interact with VdA by their use of cookies, web beacons (discussed below), and other technologies, and we use this aggregated information to adapt, modify and/or improve VdA for the benefit of our users and partners. If you do not wish to have these tools collect anonymous information about your activities on VdA, then you should not use VdA.
HOW WE USE AND SHARE YOUR INFORMATION
We use Personal Information to: facilitate and improve VdA, suggest other topics, groups, or sites that you may like, communicate with you, and for other purposes contemplated in this Privacy Policy. We may use information, including Personal Information and aggregate information, to operate VdA, to communicate with you, and for other purposes. We may share any information collected about you on the VdA, including your Personal Information, with third party partners (for example, content planning and creation agencies, new features creation), and may use Personal Information to: facilitate and improve VdA, plan and create content and features, suggest other topics, groups, or sites that you may like; and communicate with you, as well as users and our business partners.
Internal and VdA-Related Usage
We use information, including Personal Information, for internal and VdA-related purposes and may provide it to third parties. We may use and retain any data we collect to make and provide improvements.
Communications
We may send email to the email address you provide to us to verify your account and for informational and operational purposes, such as account management, customer VdA support, or system maintenance. We may also email or otherwise communicate with you in response to activity on VdA, such as when someone comments on a post you made, follows you, or sends you a message. If you send us an email or message with questions or comments, then we may use your Personal Information to respond to your questions or comments, and we may save your questions or comments for future reference. For security reasons, we do not recommend that you send non-public Personal Information, such as passwords, social security numbers, or bank account information, to us by email. We may also send you an email or message if
(a) you request a particular service or sign up for a feature that involves communications;
(b) it relates to purchases you have made with us (e.g., product updates, customer support, etc.); (
c) we are sending you information about our other products, services, giveaways, contest or sweepstakes; or
(d) you consented to being contacted by email for a particular purpose.
In certain instances, we may (at our discretion) provide you with the option to set your preferences for receiving email communications from us (that is, agree to some communications but not others). You may “opt-out” of receiving future commercial email communications from us as provided in “Opt-Out Information” below. Note, however, if you opt-out, then in some cases you may not receive notifications advising you that you have won a giveaway or prize, and thus would forfeit that giveaway or prize. Even if you opt-out, we reserve the right to send you transactional e-mails such as customer service communications.
Non-Personal Information
We use non-personal information in a variety of ways, including to help analyze site traffic, understand user needs and trends, carry out targeted promotional activities and to improve our services. We may use your non-personal information by itself or aggregate it with information we have obtained from others or other sources. We may share your non-personal information with our affiliated companies and third parties to achieve these objectives and others. We also reserve the right to use IP addresses to
(a) identify a visitor when we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with VdA rules;
(b) fulfill a government request;
(c) conform with the requirements of the law or legal process;
(d) protect or defend our legal rights or property, VdA, or other users; or
(e) in an emergency to protect the health and safety of VdA’s users or the general public.
VdA usage information may be collected using various methods, such as the following: Cookies, etc. These text files make using VdA more convenient by, among other things, saving your passwords and preferences for you. We may analyze the information derived from these cookies and other technological tools we employ (such as clear gifs/web beacons) and match this information with data provided by you or another party. We may provide our analysis and certain non-personal information to third parties (who may in turn use this information to provide advertisements tailored to your interests), but this will not involve disclosing any of your personally identifiable information. Please note that advertisers that serve advertisements on VdA may also use their own cookies and other technological tools which are subject to the advertiser’s privacy policies, not this Privacy Policy. Web Beacons Small graphic images or other web programming code called web beacons (also known as “1x1 GIFs” or “clear GIFs”) may be included in our web pages and e-mail messages. Web beacons may be invisible to you, but any electronic image or other web programming code inserted into a web page or e-mail can act as a web beacon. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including to count visitors to VdA, to monitor how users navigate VdA, to count how many e-mails that were sent were actually opened or to count how many particular articles or links were actually viewed.
Mobile Device Identifiers
Certain mobile service providers uniquely identify mobile devices and we or our third-party service providers may receive such device information if you access VdA through mobile devices. Certain features of VdA may require collection of mobile phone numbers, and we may associate that phone number to mobile device identification information. Additionally, some mobile phone service providers operate systems that pinpoint the physical location of devices that use their service. Depending on the provider, we or our third-party service providers may receive this information.
Embedded Scripts
An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with VdA, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your computer from our web server or a third-party service provider, is active only while you are connected to VdA, and is deactivated or deleted thereafter.
WE MAY DISCLOSE AND SHARE YOUR INFORMATION
We may share your information:
• with third-party service providers;
• to comply with legal obligations;
• to protect and defend our rights and property or the safety of other users;
• with your permission; and as discussed in Section 2 above.
We Use Vendors and Service Providers
We may share any information we receive with vendors and service providers retained in connection with the provision of VdA.
Displaying to Other Users
The protections described in this Privacy Policy do not apply when you provide information (including Personal Information) in connection with your use of VdA, its chat rooms, message boards, bulletin boards and/or similar public forums on VdA. The content you post to VdA may be displayed in any location on VdA, including, from time-to-time, as featured content. Other users and nonusers may be able to see some information about you, such as information or photos that you have posted in your profile or in comments or posts, or your location if you enable your computer or mobile device to send us location information. We may use Personal Information and non-personal information about you to identify you with a posting in a public forum. Any information you share in a public forum like VdA is public information and may be seen, used or collected by anyone, including third parties that do not adhere to our Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for privacy practices of the other users or third parties, including those who view and use the posted information you choose to make available on or through VdA, or for events arising from the distribution of any information you choose to publicly post or share through VdA. As contemplated in the Terms, when you post content to VdA, you irrevocably give us the worldwide, perpetual, unlimited, royalty-free right to use such content in any manner, for any purpose and in any medium (now known or later developed). We can also do anything else with it – for example, we might develop new features on VdA, or even develop commercial products for sale, that are based on ideas or suggestions contained in posts by you or other users, and we have no obligation to compensate or notify you. We might also highlight your content, change it, incorporate it into other content, and/or post or use it in any medium (inside and outside of VdA).
Social Networking and Other Websites
VdA allows you to share information, including Personal Information, with social networking websites/services, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. A third party site’s use of any information you disclose or authorize for sharing will be governed by the third party site’s privacy policies, and you may be able to modify your privacy settings on those third party sites.
Marketing
We do not rent, sell, or share your Personal Information with other people or nonaffiliated companies for their direct marketing purposes, unless we have your permission. As Required By Law and Similar Disclosures Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, we reserve the right to, and we may, access, preserve and/or disclose your Personal Information, other account information, non-personal information and content if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to:
(a) comply with government or law enforcement requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena;
(b) respond to your requests;
(c) protect or defend yours’, ours’ or others’ rights, property or safety of VdA;
(d) with respect to notices and counter-notices pursuant to our DMCA notice and takedown policy and procedures;
(e) if we believe that such action is necessary to conform with the requirements of the law or legal process; and/or
(f) in an emergency to protect the health and safety of VdA users or the general public.
Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers
If any of us or VdA is involved in a change in control, merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership and/or sale assets, or if the event of a transition of VdA to another provider, then your information (including Personal Information) may be sold or transferred as part of such a transaction as permitted by law and/or contract. The use of your information following any of the foregoing events will be governed by the provisions of the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information was collected by us.
Permission
We may also disclose your Personal Information with your permission. Sweepstakes Contests and Promotions. We may offer giveaways, sweepstakes, contests and other promotions through VdA which may require registration. By entering any sweepstakes, contest or promotion, you are agreeing to the official rules that govern that sweepstakes, contest or promotion, which may contain specific requirements of you, including, except where prohibited by law, allowing the sponsor(s) of the sweepstakes, contest or promotion, or others, to use your name, voice and/or likeness in lists, disclosures, advertising or marketing associated with the sweepstakes, contest or promotion. If you choose to enter a sweepstakes, contest or promotion, then Personal Information may be disclosed to third parties or the public in connection with the administration of such sweepstakes, contest or promotion, including, without limitation, in connection with winner selection, prize fulfillment and as required by law or permitted by the promotion’s official rules, such as on a winners list. In addition, we may conduct programs that do not require registration, in which we provide you with a gift or giveaway, for example, as a “thank you” for a post. Please refer to the “Displaying to Other Users” section above and the Terms for more information regarding the uses of your User Content.
OTHER INFORMATION; CONTACT US
Security Unfortunately, the Internet cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you provide or transmit to us. We do not accept liability for, and you agree that we are not liable or responsible for, the inadvertent, unintentional disclosure, theft or destruction of your Personal Information or other information. Do not share any information on or through VdA if you are concerned about the unauthorized access to such information by a third party. By using VdA or providing Personal Information to us, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of VdA. If we learn of a security system’s breach, then we may attempt to notify you electronically by posting a notice on the VdA, by sending an in-app notification or sending an email to you (at the last e-mail address you have provided us); provided, however, delays in notification may occur while we take necessary measures to determine the scope of the breach and restore reasonable integrity to the system as well as for the legitimate needs of law enforcement if notification would impede a criminal investigation. You may have a legal right to receive this notice in writing. To receive free written notice of a security breach (or to withdraw your consent from receiving electronic notice), please notify us at Honeycommb support@honeycommb.com.
Children’s Privacy
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, as that term is defined in rules implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. No part of VdA is directed to children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 and learn that such child has provided us with Personal Information without your consent, then you may alert us at Honeycommb support@honeycommb.com. A parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 may review and request deletion of such child’s Personal Information as well as prohibit the use thereof. If we learn that we have collected any personal information from children under 13, then we will promptly take steps to delete such information and terminate the child’s account. International Users By using VdA, you will transfer data to the United States. By choosing to visit VdA or otherwise provide information to us, you agree that any dispute over privacy or the terms contained in this Privacy Policy will be governed by the law of the State of New York and the dispute resolution provisions set forth in the Terms. If you are visiting from the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use, then please note that you are agreeing to the transfer of your information to the United States and processing globally. By providing your information you consent to any transfer and processing in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you wish to withdraw your consent for the use and sharing of your Personal Information pursuant to this Privacy Policy, then you will need to terminate your account and cease all use of VdA. You can delete your account through your settings in VdA mobile and web applications and by sending an e-mail to Honeycommb support@honeycommb.com. Your California Privacy Rights Under the California “Shine The Light” law, California residents may opt-out of our disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. You may choose to opt-out of this sharing at any time by submitting a request to Honeycommb support@honeycommb.com. This opt-out does not prohibit disclosures made for non-marketing purposes or for marketing by VdA or Honeycommb. If you are a resident of California, then, pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1798.83, you may request information regarding our disclosure of your personal information to a third party for that party’s direct marketing purposes. Any such disclosure made to a third party by us would be otherwise in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. To make such a request please send an email to Honeycommb support@honeycommb.com or write to us at: Honeycommb llc, Attn: Privacy Policy, 43 Broad Street, Suite B201, Hudson, MA 01749 and/or Email: support@honeycommb.com
Update Your Information Or Pose A Question Or Suggestion
If you would like to update or correct any information that you have provided to us through your use of VdA or otherwise, or if you have questions about or suggestions for improving this Privacy Policy, then please send an email to Honeycommb support@honeycommb.com.
Changes To Our Privacy Policy And Practices
We may revise this Privacy Policy, so review it periodically. Posting of Revised Privacy Policy We will post any adjustments to the Privacy Policy on this page and in VdA, and the revised version will be effective when it is posted unless otherwise specified as set forth at the top of this Privacy Policy. If you are concerned about how your information is used, then bookmark this page and read this Privacy Policy periodically. You are responsible for ensuring your continued acceptance of this Privacy Policy and your continued use of VdA following a change in the Privacy Policy will subject your use of the VdA following any such change to the new provisions of this Privacy Policy.
New Uses of Personal Information
From time to time, we may desire to use Personal Information for uses not previously disclosed in our Privacy Policy. If our practices change regarding previously collected Personal Information in a way that would be materially less restrictive than stated in the version of this Privacy Policy in effect at the time we collected the information, then we will make reasonable efforts to provide notice and obtain consent to any such uses as may be required by law.
Opt-Out Information
You may notify us using the link provided in our email correspondence if you want to opt-out from receiving future commercial correspondence, including e-mails, from us or our affiliated companies. We will respond to your request and, if applicable and appropriate, make the requested change in our active databases as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that we may not be able to fulfill certain requests while allowing you access to certain or all benefits and features of VdA. You may also modify your notification settings by navigating to “Settings → Email Settings" and "Settings → Notifications” within the VdA mobile application. We may also, at our discretion, provide you with other opportunities to opt out.
Contact Information: You can contact us at; Via Postal Delivery: Honeycommb llc, Attn: Privacy Policy, 43 Broad Street, Suite B201, Hudson, MA 01749 USA - and Email: Honeycommb at support@honeycommb.com