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    Widowed Connect Privacy Policy

    Welcome to the Widowed Connect Privacy Policy (“Policy”)! This explains how we collect, store, protect, and share your information, and with whom we share it. We suggest you read this in conjunction with our brilliant Terms and Conditions of Use. Whilst you’re enjoying the Widowed Connect mobile application (“App”), we collect some information about you. In addition, you may choose to use the App to share information with other Widowed Connect users, including your friends and contacts (“Users”). We may also need to share your information sometimes.

    Widowed Connect is a global app, and your information will be sent to and used in the United States regardless of the country you reside in. This Policy explains how we protect your personal data when we transfer it overseas, so please read very carefully!

    If you have any questions or comments about this Policy, please feel free to contact us at info@widowedconnect.com.

    1. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.

    Registration Information

    When you download the App and create an account (“Account”), we may collect certain information (“Registration Information”) about you, such as:

    • Name;
    • Username;
    • Email address;
    • Cell phone number;
    • Gender identity;
    • Date of birth;
    • Sexual preference;
    • Photographs;
    • Location; and
    • Login information and friend lists for social media accounts that you connect to your Widowed Connect Account (this could include, for example, your Facebook and Instagram accounts (“Social Media Accounts”).

    You will also be required to create a password in connection with the registration of your Account. Once you register, you will be able to review and change this information at any time by accessing your “Profile” page! You control your user profile and are able to correct or update (other than your email address, cell phone number, date of birth, gender and location (which is automatically updated)) your information at any time by just logging in to Widowed Connect.

    The information we collect helps to enhance the App and verify our Users (robots are not welcome!!). Registration Information such as your name and username may be visible to the public on your profile page.

    Additional Information

    We may ask you to provide your full name, address and email address. Such details may be shared with third parties for purposes relating to, for example, any of our loyalty programs, sending gifts or delivery of merchandise.

    We may also collect additional information in connection with your use of Widowed Connect, for example if you use our super cool electronic messaging function.

    If you contact our Customer Support team, we will receive your email address, and may track your IP address as well as the information you send to us to help resolve your query. We will keep records of our communications with you, including any complaints that we receive from you about other Users (and from other Users about you).

    We recommend and encourage you (and all our members) to think carefully about the information you disclose about yourself. We also do not recommend that you put email addresses, URLs, instant messaging details, phone numbers, full names or addresses, credit card details, national identity numbers, drivers’ license details and other sensitive information on your profile which is open to abuse and misuse.

    Please be careful about posting sensitive details about yourself on your profile such as your religious denomination and health details. You may also choose to add sensitive information about yourself when you add certain Bumble Badges to your profile, such as your religion and political leanings. While you may voluntarily provide this information to us when you create your profile, including your sexual preferences, there is no requirement to do so. Please remember that photographs that you post on Widowed Connect may reveal information about yourself as well. Where you do upload and choose to tell us sensitive information about yourself, including through adding certain Badges to your profile, you are explicitly consenting to our processing of your information and making this public to other users.

    When you post information about yourself or use the messaging function, the amount of personal information you share is at your own risk. Please see Section 4 below for more information on who can access what you post on Widowed Connect. If you post anything that is inconsistent with our Terms and Conditions of Use, we reserve the right to terminate your Account – we really don’t want to have to do this so please play by the rules!

    For safety and security and to ensure you have the best possible user experience, we require users to verify their accounts and might ask for your phone number. We want to make sure you are not a robot! And we also want to avoid fake Bumble accounts being created which can be used for malicious activities and cybercrime – they threaten the Widowed Connect network and spoil things for everyone. We use a third party provider for account verification who will keep your phone number for up to 90 days for fraud identification purposes. We collect and use your phone number on the basis of our legitimate interests identified in section 11 below and for the prevention of fraud.

    It is your responsibility to ensure that your account details are kept up to date. If your phone number changes, please ensure that you update this in your account.

    To prevent abuse of the app/site, Widowed Connect uses automated decisions to block accounts as part of its anti-spam procedures. In order to do this, our systems check accounts and messages for content that indicates breaches of our Terms and Conditions of Use. If an account or message meets certain criteria that demonstrate that the Terms and Conditions of Use are likely to have been breached, the relevant account will automatically be blocked. All users of accounts that have been blocked will be notified that their account has been blocked and affected users can contact Widowed Connect to contest the decision.

    Widowed Connect also uses automated decisions to prevent fraudulent payment transactions being processed as part of its anti-fraud procedures. In order to do this, our systems check payment transactions for behavior that indicates breaches of our Terms and Conditions of Use. If a transaction meets certain criteria that demonstrate that the Terms and Conditions of Use are likely to have been breached and the transaction is likely to be fraudulent, the relevant transaction may automatically be blocked. Where a transaction is blocked, the user will be notified that their transaction cannot be processed and affected users can contact Widowed Connect to contest the decision.

    Please note that if your account is blocked, any account(s) that you have on our other group platforms/applications may also be blocked as part of our anti-spam and anti-fraud procedures.

    If you decide to purchase any of our premium services, we will process your payment information and retain this securely for the prevention of fraud and for audit/tax purposes.

    We process some limited data (demographics and information that you have optionally provided us with via Widowed Connect Badges) to drive targeted advertising in our legitimate interest, via promo cards and ads on our App. We also process limited data (device identifiers) and share this with third party advertising networks which host our ads. You can stop targeted advertising within the “Contact & FAQ” page accessible via your profile. If you opt-out of targeted advertising you will still see adverts though they will be less relevant to you. Through your device’s security settings you also have the option to prevent or limit device identifiers being shared with third party advertisers and what use is made of the device identifiers. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please visit this page.

    Finally, we want to keep in touch with you to make sure you know about the great promotions and offers we have available. If you’ve told us it’s OK, we will use your email address and phone number to send you information on these. You can withdraw this consent at any time via Settings in the App.

    For users who are California residents, the data we may collect falls within the following categories of “personal information,” as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

    1. Identifiers, such as name and location;
    2. Personal information, as defined in the California customer records law, such as contact (including email and telephone number) and financial information;
    3. Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law (if you choose to provide them), such as age, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, race, ancestry, national origin, religion, and medical conditions;
    4. Commercial information, such as transaction information and purchase history;
    5. Biometric information (not relevant here);
    6. Internet or network activity information, such as browsing history and interactions with our websites and apps;
    7. Geolocation data, such as mobile device location;
    8. Audio, electronic, visual and similar information, such as photos and videos;
    9. Professional or employment-related information, such as work history and prior employer;
    10. Non-public education information; and
    11. Inferences drawn from any of the personal information listed above to create a profile or summary about, for example, an individual’s preferences and characteristics.

    Data Storage

    By using the App, you acknowledge that Widowed Connect is a global app operating through servers located in a number of countries around the world, including the United States. If you live in a country with data protection laws, the storage of your personal data may not provide you with the same protections as you enjoy in your country of residence.

    Geolocation Information

    If you turn these features on, when you use your cell phone, we will collect information about WiFi access points as well as other location information about your longitude and latitude and may save your device’s coordinates to offer certain features to you. This information helps us identify your physical location and we may use it to personalize the App and make it easier for you to interact with other Users, by enabling the information to be displayed and shared with other members choosing to view “nearby” posts.

    If you have enabled location services, but wish to turn it off, you can do so by the following methods:

    1. iPhone app — settings, privacy, location services, Widowed Connect
    2. Android — settings, location, Widowed Connect, permissions, location

    Log and Usage Data

    We keep your personal information only as long as we need it for legitimate business purposes (as set out in Section 11 below) and as permitted by applicable law.

    In practice, we delete or anonymize your information upon deletion of your account (following the safety retention window), unless:

    1. we must keep it to comply with applicable law (for instance, some “traffic data” is kept for one year to comply with statutory data retention obligations);
    2. we must keep it to evidence our compliance with applicable law (for instance, records of consents to our Terms, Privacy Policy and other similar consents are kept for five years);
    3. there is an outstanding issue, claim or dispute requiring us to keep the relevant information until it is resolved; or
    4. the information must be kept for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud prevention and enhancing users’ safety and security. For example, information may need to be kept to prevent a user who was banned for unsafe behavior or security incidents from opening a new account.

    Where Widowed Connect uses machine learning, for example, to help us detect and prevent fraudulent card transactions, and to detect and prevent spam communications on the App (as explained above), we may need to keep personal information for a longer period than the retention periods explained above, to enable the machine learning to work properly. Where this is the case, we always seek to minimize the amount of personal information that is used and we ensure that it is ring-fenced and kept securely from other user personal information. We regularly review the period for which personal information is required for machine learning purposes and delete any identifiable information when it is no longer required.

    Device Information

    We may collect information about your device when you use the App including the unique device identifier, device model, operating system, and MAC address. In addition, if you permit us to do so, the App may access your device’s address book solely in order to add someone to your contacts.

    Links

    We may keep track of how you interact with links available on Widowed Connect including third party services and clients by redirecting clicks or through other means. We may share aggregate click statistics such as how many times a particular link was clicked on.

    Cookies

    Unlike the chocolate chip kind, these cookies have no calories! They are small data files that are transferred to your computer’s hard disk and are basically a tool that stores information about website visits, recognizes you and your preferences each time you visit Widowed Connect, and ensures site functionality and enables us to provide the services our members request.

    The cookies we collect enable us to learn how people interact with Widowed Connect, which in turn helps us make a better product for you! Cookies store information about your website visits and can recognize you and your preferences each time you visit the Widowed Connect site. They help us to provide a better service to you!

    Widowed Connect’s use of cookies and local storage devices is basically related to the performance of Widowed Connect’s site, such as analytics that help us determine how our site is performing and ensuring a smooth and trouble-free experience for our members and visitors.

    Below is a table to explain Widowed Connect’s cookie functions and why they’re used.

    If for any reason you decide that you do not want all of your Widowed Connect activities to be stored you may set your browser and mobile settings to block cookies and local storage devices, but please remember that if you do so, you may not be able to access all of the features Widowed Connect offers!

    We use the following types of cookies:

    Cookie FunctionsCookie Purposes
    Analytics and researchWe use Google Analytics to collect information about how visitors use the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the App, where visitors have come from and the pages they visited. For more information about Google’s Privacy Policy, please visit http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/.
    PerformanceWe need to use certain cookies and save data to your local storage devices to ensure our members have the best possible experience. They assist with your navigation of our site, ensuring pages load quickly and respond promptly to your requests – no one likes snail pace technology!

    Our use of cookies and local storage devices, including the specific cookie names, may change over time, but will generally fall into the above categories. We will notify you of any important changes to our use of cookies and local storage devices. Please visit this page regularly so that you are aware of any changes.

    If you would like to know more about these clever and calorie free cookies, including flash cookies/local storage devices, the following websites provide useful information:

    2. USE OF INFORMATION.

    Our main goal is to ensure your experience on Widowed Connect is an enjoyable one and you don’t end up getting stung! In order to deliver an enjoyable experience to you, we may use your Registration and other information to:

    • offer you our services and features;
    • contact you with information about the App (e.g., updates and new offerings);
    • personalize the App and the content we deliver to you;
    • conduct research and analytics about how you use and interact with the App;
    • resolve disputes between you and other Users; and
    • investigate fraud, protect our legal rights, and to enforce our Terms & Conditions.

    3. DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION.

    Our policy is to not disclose your Registration Information, except in the limited circumstances described here:

    Circumstances where data may be disclosedDisclosed data
    Your Consent – If you consent, we may share or disclose your Registration Information, such as when you use a third party web client or application to access your Account.This could include all data, including all CCPA Categories listed above
    Service Providers – We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us. We may share your Registration Information with these third parties, but only for the purposes of performing these functions and providing such services e.g. information technology companies (hardware and software) which provide services to support our productsThis could include all data, including all CCPA Categories listed above
    Moderators – To monitor activity on the apps and approve content.Name and user registration details, profile information, content of messages and photographs (CCPA Categories A, B, C, E, and H)
    Payment Processing and Telecommunications Companies – To facilitate payments for our premium services.Cardholder name, cardholder address, card number, payment amount, transaction date/time (CCPA Categories A, B, and D)
    Law and Harm – As we mentioned in the Terms & Conditions, we think it is very important that all Widowed Connect users behave while using the App. We will cooperate with all third parties to enforce their intellectual property or other rights. We will also cooperate with law enforcement inquiries from within or outside your country of residence where we are required to by law, where there is an investigation into alleged criminal behavior or to protect the vital interests of a person. This may include preserving or disclosing any of your information, including your Registration Information, if we believe in good faith that it is necessary to comply with a law or regulation, or when we believe that disclosure is necessary to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal request; to protect the safety of any person; to address fraud, security or technical issues e.g. through anti-spam providers to protect the service from criminal activity or to protect our rights or property or those of third parties. In such cases we may raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us.This could include any personal data that Widowed Connect holds about you, depending on the nature of the request or the issue that we are dealing with, including all CCPA Categories listed above
    Business Transfers -In the event that Bumble or any of our affiliates undergoes a business transition or change of ownership, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, re-organization, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, or in the event of insolvency or administration, we may be required to disclose your personal data.This could include all personal data that Bumble holds about you, including all CCPA Categories listed above
    Advertising Partners – To serve targeted advertisements to users.Device ID, geo-location data, demographic data (CCPA Categories C, F, and G)
    Anti-Spam and Anti-Fraud -Your data may be shared with other Widowed Connect companies, for example, to block accounts and suspected fraudulent payment transactions as part of our anti-spam and anti-fraud procedures.Email address, phone number, IP address and IP session information, social network ID, username, user agent string, and transaction and payment data (CCPA Categories B, F and D).

    Aggregated Information – We may share aggregated information with third parties that includes your personal data (but which doesn’t identify you directly) together with other information including log data for industry analysis and demographic profiling. You may opt-out of receiving marketing messages by using the opt-out mechanisms and links provided in each email.

    We ensure these parties must adhere to strict data protection and confidentiality provisions that are consistent with this Policy. Measures are taken to ensure that the data shared is non-attributable to the greatest extent possible.

    Widowed Connect does not sell your data and has not sold your personal data in the previous 12 months.

    4. WHAT OTHERS MAY SEE ABOUT YOU.

    We think our Widowed Connect users are awesome, and we want you to share how awesome you are with the world, so we have built certain features to enable this. Our App is designed to make it easier for you to connect with other Users and to interact with them. If you register or log in to the App using your Facebook account, you are authorizing us to access certain Facebook account information, including information you make available via Facebook, your friends list, current location and those friends you have in common with other Widowed Connect users. You also understand that your Widowed Connect profile and other information you make available via the App, including information you provide directly or indirectly through Facebook (i.e., your Facebook photos, your name, age, approximate location, friends you have in common with other Widowed Connect users and other profile information), may be viewed and shared by Widowed Connect users with individuals who may or may not be Users or via third party applications in such Widowed Connect users’ discretion. For example, a User may recommend you as a match to his or her Facebook friends by sharing your picture, regardless of whether such friend(s) is also a User of the App. You might share information like the photos and messages you send or upload and any metadata provided with those messages, along with any comments or information you provide in connection with your photos.

    When using Widowed Connect, you should assume that anything you post or submit on the App may be publicly-viewable and accessible, both by Users of the App and non-Users of the App. We want our Widowed Connect users to be careful about posting information that will eventually be made public.

    If you log in to or access Widowed Connect through your Facebook profile, remember to log off Facebook when you leave a device in order to prevent other users from accessing your account.

    5. MODIFYING YOUR REGISTRATION INFORMATION.

    You may access or modify the Registration Information you provided at any time or permanently delete your Account (although we really hope you don’t!)

    When your Account is deactivated, we take reasonable efforts to make sure it is no longer viewable on the App. For up to 30 days it is still possible to restore your Account if it was accidentally or wrongfully deactivated. After 30 days, we begin the process of deleting your Account from our systems. We are not responsible for any information, pictures, comments, or other content that is deleted from our systems resulting from the deactivation of your Account.

    To prevent abuse and/or misuse of Widowed Connect by a User following termination or deletion of a profile/Account we shall retain such information as we deem in our sole discretion may be necessary to ensure that User does not open a new Account and profile in breach of our Terms and Conditions of Use and to ensure compliance with all laws and regulations.

    Warning: Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your Account, copies of that information may still be viewable and/or accessed to the extent such information has been previously shared with others, or copied or stored by other Users or to the extent such information has been shared with search engines. We cannot control this, nor do we accept any liability for this. If you have given third party applications or websites access to your personal information they may retain such information to the extent permitted under their terms of service or privacy policies.

    Removed and deleted information may persist in backup copies for up to 30 days to enable restoration, but will not be available to others in the meantime.

    6. OUR POLICY TOWARDS AGE.

    Although we want as many people as possible to enjoy our creation, you have to be at least 18 years old to use the App – sorry kids, we knowWidowed Connect is cool, but you’ll have to come back when you’re old enough!

    Widowed Connect does not knowingly collect any information about or market to children, minors or anyone under the age of 18. If you are less than 18 years old, we request that you do not submit information to us. If we become aware that a child, minor or anyone under the age of 18 has registered with us and provided us with personal information, we will take steps to terminate that person’s registration and delete their Registration Information from Widowed Connect. If we do delete a profile because you violated our no children rules, we may retain your email and IP address to ensure that you do not try to get around our rules by creating a new profile.

    7. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY.

    As Widowed Connect evolves, we may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most current version of the policy will govern our use of your information and will always be at widowedconnect.com/privacy/. If we make a change to this policy that, in our sole discretion, is material, we will notify you, for example, via an email to the email associated with your Account or by posting a notice within Widowed Connect. By continuing to access or use the App after those changes become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Policy.

    8. SECURITY.

    Here at Widowed Connect we pride ourselves on taking commercially reasonable security measures to help protect your information against loss, misuse and unauthorized access, or disclosure. We use reasonable security measures to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information such as secured servers using firewalls.

    Unfortunately no website or Internet transmission is ever completely 100% secure and even we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss or other breaches will never occur, but here are some handy tips to help keep your data secure:

    1. Please make sure you log out of your Account after use as you never know who may stumble onto your Account!
    2. Please don’t share your social media password with anyone else!
    3. Change your social media password periodically.

    If you ever think someone has had access to your social media password, please report it to the relevant social media platform and change your password immediately. We cannot guarantee the security of your personal data while it is being transmitted to our site and any transmission is at your own risk.

    WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO ANY BREACHES OF SECURITY, DAMAGE TO YOUR DEVICE, OR ANY LOSS OR UNAUTHORIZED USE OF YOUR REGISTRATION INFORMATION OR OTHER DATA.

    9. THIRD PARTY ACCOUNTS.

    If you have registered with Widowed Connect using a third party social media platform, such as Facebook, your Widowed Connect profile will be available to all Users of Widowed Connect whether via our App or our partners’ websites.

    Remember that when you register with a third party, you are also giving them personal information, so we recommend that you read their privacy policies as Widowed Connect does not control how they use their information.

    If you have registered on one of these third party websites, such as Facebook, or you have verified your Account via a third party website, we may connect your Widowed Connect profile with your profile on such website. We may do this by way of new products and applications which we introduce from time to time, including new products powered by our group companies.

    If you have created a Widowed Connect profile through a third party website and you do not want to link your Pursue profile to your profile on the third party website, Widowed Connect cannot amend these settings. Please visit the application settings on your third party website profile and follow the instructions to remove the Widowed Connect access permissions.

    We only use the APIs, OAuth Tokens, Widgets, or other means provided by the applicable Social Media Account to integrate your Social Media Account with our App. As such, we only receive the limited information that each Social Media Account permits to be transferred.

    10. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS.

    For users who are California residents, you have the following rights (in addition to those listed at section 11 below) under the California Consumer Privacy Act, and you have the right to be free from unlawful discrimination for exercising your rights under the Act:

    1. You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you and explain how we have collected, used and shared your personal information over the past 12 months.
    2. You have the right to request that we delete your personal information that we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.

    California’s “Shine the Light” law, Civil Code section 1798.83, requires certain businesses to respond to requests from California customers asking about the businesses’ practices related to disclosing personal information to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. If you wish to find out about any rights you may have under California Civil Code section 1798.83, you can write to us at info@widowedconnect.com.

    From time to time we may disclose your contact information to third parties to allow them to market their products or services to you or for other marketing purposes. This may be information we received from you offline and online. If you want us to stop further sharing your email contact information with third parties (if we have your email contact information), you may notify us at info@widowedconnect.com. Please follow the instructions provided to you by third parties to unsubscribe from their messages. If you have opted-out as described above, and thereafter you choose to use a service or promotion that requires us to contact you or share your information with a third party, then your previous opt-out preferences will not apply to such service.

    In addition, under California law, operators of online services are required to disclose how they respond to “do not track” signals or other similar mechanisms that provide consumers the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of personal information of a consumer over time and across third party online services, to the extent the operator engages in that collection. At this time, we do not track our Users’ personal information over time and across third-party online services. This law also requires operators of online services to disclose whether third parties may collect personal information about their users’ online activities over time and across different online services when the users use the operator’s service. We do not knowingly permit third parties to collect personal information about an individual User’s online activities over time and across different online services when using the App.