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Hometalk Privacy Policy

Welcome to hometalk.com and the products and services offered by Hometalk, Inc, together with its Affiliates ("Hometalk") including but not limited to its web site, applications and features (collectively, the “Site”).  We value your privacy, and have posted this Privacy Policy to explain what information we collect from you, how we use it, and your rights in connection with that information. If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your Personal Information, you may contact us at support@hometalk.com
 

 This Privacy Policy was last updated as of January1st, 2020. 
 

What Information We Collect From You
 

Any time you visit the Site, and depending on your activities on the Site, we collect certain Personal Information from you.   

1.       When registering to the Site you shall be required to provide us with:

1.1.    Your name, address and e-mail address. If you choose to login with your Facebook or Google account, we shall receive the following information from Facebook or Google: name, email address.

2.       When editing your Hometalk account, you may choose to provide us with the following information:

2.1.    Upload a picture or import one from your social media profile

2.2.    Country of residence

2.3.    Zip Code

2.4.    Your website domain

2.5.    Any other information you choose to share with us in a form of free text on your Hometalk account page. We strongly advise you do not include any personal data in such content.

3.       When using the Site you may choose to provide us with the questions and/or description of your project in a form of free text, upload pictures, videos, links and. We strongly advise you do not include any personal data in such content.

4.       When registering to the Site with one of your social media profile and/or linking your Hometalk account with your social media profiles, the Persona Information items provided to Hometalk shall be determined and governed by the terms of use and privacy policy of the applicable social network. We urge you to review carefully terms of use of such social network for more details.

5.       When you are using the Site and functions available to you through the Site, we collect information automatically about your use of the Site, including – your operating system, browser type and version, browser window size, ISP name and IP address, referring and exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp of browsing/logging in/out, number of clicks through our site and where you clicked.  You may exercise choices regarding the use of cookies from Google Analytics by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. For more information on this type of data that is collected please see our Cookie Notice below.

 

You are not obligated to provide us with any of the above information under any applicable law. You may browse the site without providing any information to us and in this case we shall collect only the information as per Section ‎5 above, however you may not be able to enjoy all of the features and functionalities of the Site and your browsing experience may be compromised, if you do not  provide these data items. .  

How We Collect Your Information

We collect Personal Information: (a) directly from you,  when you register to use the Site, uploading your projects fill out forms and interacting with other Hometalk users; (b) using third party services such as cookies. For more information please look at the Cookie Notice section below.
 

How We Use Your Information
 

 1.       We use your Personal Information for the following purposes:

1.1.    Operate, maintain, and provide to you with the Site and its features and functionality.

1.2.    We use the e-mail address to identify you as a user, establish your Hometalk account, and let you manage your account through the Site.

1.3.    We use your information to send you emails with regards to your operation on the Site (e.g., account verification, notify you of changes/updates to features, alerts about your activity (as you define in your account settings), credentials change, technical and security notices), as well as to send you marketing communications and newsletters by Hometalk Inc. sites (please see more details regarding this under “Marketing Messages” section below).

1.4.    We may use the above information to respond to your requests and messages, including with respect to your rights as data subject, as well as to initiate contact with you on issues related to the Site or support and maintenance issues.

1.5.    To prevent, detect and fight fraud or other illegal or unauthorized activities, including in contrary to the Site terms of use, guidelines, acceptable use policy and the like

1.6.    To open a ticket on our customer support system and provide you with customer service and support.

1.7.    We use the data we gather in an aggregated manner, in order to gain insight on how you and other users use the Site and try and improve our Site as well as to plan our marketing and advertisements.

1.8.    To ensure legal compliance – from our side (to legal requirements that apply to us and to our obligations under the Terms of Use) and from your side (Compliance with laws applicable to you and with the Terms of Use) and to the extent applicable, are required to conduct any litigation in relation to the use of the Site by you.

1.9.     We transfer this information to third parties for valuable consideration as part of our business model.

1.10.                      We use this information to facilitate the use of the Site according to its functionality, to allow other users to interact with you based on your actions in the Site, to encourage you to use the Site, to establish a community of Hometalk users, increase visibility of users on the Site, encourage discussion and communication between the users of the Site.

1.11.                      We use this information for the purpose of providing, developing, enhancing, customizing and improving the Site, based on users’ preferences and usage patterns and interactions with the Site; perform research, as well as for analytical and statistical purposes (such as analyze trends, optimize user interface flow); detecting, preventing, or otherwise addressing fraud, security or technical issues. To provide offers and improve the content of the Site for each user
 

2.       Our legal Bases for processing

We will only process your Personal Information where we have a legal basis to do so. The following are the legal bases under which we process your information in the manners specified above:

2.1. Performance of a contract to which Hometalk and you, the data subject, are parties. Many of the uses described above are actions that involve processing of your information in order to meet our undertakings to you and respond to your requests and indications within the services provided by the Site.

2.2. Legitimate interests: We may use your information where we have legitimate interests to do so. For instance, we analyze users’ behavior on the Site to continuously improve our offerings, and we process information for administrative, fraud detection and other legal purposes.

2.3. Consent – some of the information you provide is based on your consent and will to provide it. In addition, we may ask you from time to time, through the Site interface, to provide your consent for specific uses (for example, to provide your data to third parties for their purposes, add you to our newsletter or send marketing communications to you in case we have never had any commercial relations regarding the products or services subject matter of such communication)
 

How We Share Your Personal Information
 

1.         Sale to Third Parties:  we provide third parties with the following personal data 1. Hashed email addresses 2.  the fact that you have visited a DIY site and thus may be interested in related content,  in exchange for valuable consideration; as part of our business model. These third parties make use of that data for their own commercial purposes, such as,  further resale and/or re-targeting (which means generally, offering you advertisements or content based on your past visits or clicks) 

2.        Service Providers: we employ other companies and people to perform tasks on our behalf or to fulfill certain services and features on the Site and need to share your information with them in order to provide the Services. The categories of third party recipients of the Personal Information from us are as follows: email campaign automation, marketing automation, social media advertisement, CRM platform, analytics tools providers, web page building tools, cloud services, support and maintenance operation tools. Where we use a third party to process any Personal Information in any way, that third party is under contractual obligations not to use your Personal Information in any way except to provide us with the services.

3.         Compliance with the Law: We may disclose your information if we believe it’s necessary in order to comply with the law, such as to comply with a subpoena, regulation or legal request, respond to a government request, to address fraud or security issues, to protect the safety of any person, to enforce our agreements with you; to investigate, prevent, or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing or to protect our own rights or property. If you are located in the EU, we may only do so based on legal requirements specified above of EU.

4.         Business Transfers: If we are in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction to a successor in interest and to the applicable legal authorities as well as legal counsels and other professional counsels involved such as accountants, and other officers of the government or of the applicable judiciary instance.

5.         Anonymized Information: We may provide third parties with aggregated anonymized information and analytics about our customers and, before we do so, we will make sure that it does not identify you.

6.         Advertising and Analytics: We may use third parties to serve ads on the site. Certain third parties may automatically collect information about your visits to this and other websites, your IP address, the browser you use to visit the site, and in our emails/communications. The personally identifiable information (PII) that we capture is an IP address and an email address. When we share information with advertisers or data partners, the shared information includes hashed email addresses and cookie data. Our partners may link the information we share with them to the cookie stored on your browser or device. Our partners use this information to recognize you across different channels and platforms over time for advertising, analytics, attribution, and reporting purposes.  To opt out, please visit here. To opt-out of LiveRamp’s targeted advertising, please go here: https://liveramp.com/opt_out/. However, for users for whom GDPR regulation applies (i.e. European Economic Area users), we will not sell their information to advertisers and/or data partners.

The Site may use Google Analytics, Looker, or other service providers for analytics services. These analytics services may use cookies and other tracking technologies to help us analyze users and how they use the Site. The information generated by these services may be transmitted to and stored by these service providers on servers in the U.S. (or elsewhere) and these service providers may use this information for purposes such as evaluating your use of the Site, compiling statistic reports on the Site’s activity, and providing other services relating to Site activity and other Internet usage.
 

Data Transfers and Global Processing 
 

Why Personal Data is Transferred?

1.   As we operate globally, we may on occasion allow your personal data to be accessed and/or processed and from and/or transferred to countries other than your own location.  We may do this where data is accessed/processed:

1.1. By companies within Hometalk for operational, administrative and compliance purposes; by our sales, operational or global customer support teams (located in US and Israel);

1.2. By our service providers, for the purposes we specified above under the chapter “How we Share Your Personal Information”.

2.   By consenting to the collection and use of your personal information, you agree to your personal information being transferred and stored in this manner and for the specified purposes.
 

Our Legal Basis for performing such transfers across boundaries (when we act as Controllers):
 

1.   Model Clauses. With some of our processors, we use standard contractual clauses that are binding standards of processing of personal data committed to contractually by third parties processing information for us and on our behalf, such standard clauses are approved by the European Commission.

2.   Consent. In the absence of Model Clauses, Your consent. By using the Site, you agree and understand that your information may be transferred from the EEA or other countries  in which you may be using the Site, to other countries outside your own location (including outside the EEA), and specifically to the USA and Israel. The transfer will be to such third parties as described under “How we Share Your Personal Information”. You agree to such transfer, and you understand that data processed in these countries/regions is subject to different data protection laws, which may sometimes grant lesser degree of protection that the privacy laws and regulations applicable within the EEA for example.
 

How Long We Hold Your Personal Data 
 

For Personal Information gathered for specific purposes (such as service requests), we will keep Personal Information only for as long as it takes us to fulfil the purpose for which the data was collected and processed.  Other Personal Information you submit may be kept until you request its deletion. Please note that de-activating your account does not automatically delete your data.
 

 If you are an (1) EEA User, (2)California, USA user,  you can request that your Personal Information be deleted, subject to the GDPR or CCPA provisions (e.g., to the extent you have the right under the circumstances in accordance with the laws applicable to you) by contacting us as described in the section “Your Rights Regarding Your Information”.

We may however retain and use Personal Information as necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, to resolve disputes and to enforce our agreements, and we may retain and use anonymous and aggregated information for performance reporting and analytic purposes and for product and service improvement.
 

Marketing Messages 
 

You can stop receiving marketing messages from us at any time. You can do this by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any email, and by personalizing and modifying "Email Settings" in your Hometalk account.
 

Your Rights Regarding Your Information 
 

You may have the rights prescribed below in relation to personal data processed by us, subject to the specific laws applicable to your personal data, certain limitations and restrictions as set forth in applicable law, and depending on the lawful basis upon which the processing of your personal data is based.

If you are a resident of California USA, please see a separate section related to you.

If you are an European Economic Area data subject, all of the following rights may apply to you.

1.       The right to be informed about how your personal information is being used.

2.       The right to access the personal information we hold about you.

3.       The right to request the correction of inaccurate personal information we hold about you.

4.       In some circumstances, the right to request that we delete your data

5.       The right to Restrict processing your personal data

6.       The right to object to processing activities, if the processing is based on our legitimate interest;

7.       The rights to withdraw consent at any time, if the processing is based on consent

8.       The right to object to processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes

9.       In some circumstances, the right to request that we transfer or port elements of your data either to you or another service provider – if the processing is based on your consent, and is made by automated means.

10.   The right to file a complaint with your Supervisory Authority (in the EEA, as prescribed by GDPR). 
 

You may exercise these rights to the extent these rights apply to you by emailing Hometalk via support@hometalk.com or use any of the contact information listed below. We will undertake to respond to your request within the applicable time frame prescribed by applicable law, and in any event we will make efforts to respond within 30 days of receipt of your request. Although Hometalk will make reasonable efforts to accommodate your requests, in some circumstances we may deem your request unfounded or not eligible under applicable law. If that should happen, Hometalk expressly reserves the right to refuse your request. Before Hometalk is able to accommodate any request, provide you with any information or correct any inaccuracies we shall require to verify your identity by providing us with certain information or identification to ensure that all data subjects’ privacy is protected.
 

Changes To This Privacy Policy
 

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, to reflect how we are processing your data, including following any regulatory changes or our internal policies.

If we make significant changes, we will make that clear on the Site or other services, or by some other means of contact such as email, so that you are able to review the changes before you continue to use the Site. 
 

Cookie  Notice 
 

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first party cookies. We also use third party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts.

More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

  • Assisting you in navigation;

  • Assisting in, login and your ability to provide feedback;

  • Analyzing your use of our products, services or applications;

  • Assisting with our promotional and marketing efforts. (including behavioral advertising)

Below is a link in which you can review a detailed list of the cookies we use on our Website.

You can opt-out of each cookie category (except strictly necessary cookies ) by clicking on the “cookie settings” button here, however, please note that If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience all the features of the Website
 

Notification and Rights of Users who are California Residents Under CCPA
 

1.       Definitions:

1.1.     Business Purpose means a use of your Personal Information for our operational purposes and such other purposes as disclosed in section 1 hereinabove, which are (1) reasonably necessary and proportionate to achieve the operational purpose for which the personal information was collected or processed, or (2) for another operational purpose that is compatible with the context in which the personal information was collected. For the avoidance of doubt, using your personal information for marketing to you is not a Business Purpose.

1.2. CCPA means California Consumer Privacy Act OF 2018.

1.3.     Personal Information means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household, of California Residents, as more fully defined by CCPA.

2.       The categories of Personal Information we have collected about Site's users in the preceding 12 months are as follows: the categories listed under CCPA sections: 1798.140 (o)(1)A, F, G, H, K

3.       The categories of Personal Information we have sold in the preceding 12 months are as follows: the categories listed under CCPA sections: 1798.140 (o)(1)A, F, G, K

4.       The categories of Personal Information we disclosed for a business purpose within the preceding 12 months are as follows: the categories listed under CCPA sections: 1798.140 (o)(1)A, F, G, H, K

5.       As of January 1st, 2020, Users who are California residents have the following rights:

5.1.1.  To request are entitled to request a disclosure of information collected about them

5.1.2.  To request a disclosure of information sold about them

5.1.3.  To not be discriminated on the grounds of exercising CCPA rights

5.1.4.  To opt out of processing of their personal data (excluding for a Business Purposes, as defined above).

5.1.5.  To opt out of sale of Personal Information to third parties (you can opt out right here). 

5.1.6.  To request that we delete personal information that we collected about the User (subject to certain exemptions prescribed under the CCPA).
 

6.       You may exercise any of the foregoing rights by submitting a request to us in one of the following ways: by here.; or by contacting out toll-free number here: (833) 680-0389 you can also write to us at legal@hometalk.com

7.     Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1798.83, residents of the State of California have the right to request from companies conducting business in California a list of all third parties to which the company has disclosed certain categories of personal information during the preceding year, and the categories of personal information the company shares with its service providers. To make such a request, California residents can write to us at legal@hometalk.com, and include your name and the address to which you would like us to respond.

8.       Generally, We shall respond to your request within 45 days, which may be extended by an additional 45 days upon notice to You, accompanied by an explanation of the reasons for the delay.

 

California and Delaware “Do Not Track” Disclosures

California and Delaware law require to indicate whether We honor “Do Not Track” settings in your browser concerning targeted advertising. Hometalk adheres to the standards set out in this Privacy Notice and does not monitor or respond to Do Not Track browser requests.

Links to other sites

The Site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that Hometalk is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage users to be aware when they leave the Site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected and processed by this Hometalk.

How to Contact Hometalk

You can contact us any time by email: support@hometalk.com.

We can also be reached by post: 

Hometalk 

137-139 West 25th St.

10th Floor

New York, NY 10001

United States of America

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