PRIVACY

When you use our services, you’re trusting us with your information. We understand that this is a big responsibility, and we work hard to protect your information and put you in control. This Privacy Policy is meant to help you understand what information we collect, why we collect it and how you can update and manage your information.

Effective 1 March 2024

CONTENTS

  • Collection of Information
  • Use of Information
  • Sharing of Information
  • Your Choices
  • Your California Privacy Rights
  • Additional Disclosures for Individuals in Europe
  • Contact Us

Collection of Information

Information You Provide to Us

We collect information you provide directly to us. For example, you share information directly with us when you create an account, fill out a form, submit or post content through our Services, purchase a membership, communicate with us via third-party platforms, request customer support, or otherwise communicate with us. The types of personal information we may collect include your username, email address, business information, your content, including your avatar image, photos, posts, responses, and series published by you, and any other information you choose to provide.

Information We Collect Automatically When You Interact with Us

In some instances, we automatically collect certain information, including:

  • Activity Information: We collect information about your activity on our Services, such as your reading history and when you share links, and highlight posts.
  • Transactional Information: When you purchase a membership, we collect information about the transaction, such as subscription details, purchase price, and the date of the transaction.
  • Device and Usage Information: We collect information about how you access our Services, including data about the device and network you use, such as your hardware model, operating system version, mobile network, IP address, unique device identifiers, browser type, and app version. We also collect information about your activity on our Services, such as access times, pages viewed, links clicked, and the page you visited before navigating to our Services.
  • Information Collected by Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies: We use tracking technologies, such as cookies to collect information about you. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve our Services and your experience, see which areas and features of our Services are popular, and count visits. We also work with third party analytics providers who use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers, and other technologies to collect information about your use of our Services and other websites and applications, including your IP address, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on pages or in mobile apps, and links clicked. This information may be used by us to analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver content targeted to your interests on our Services, and better understand your online activity.

Information We Derive

We may derive information or draw inferences about you based on the information we collect. For example, we may make inferences about your location based on your IP address or infer reading preferences based on your reading history.

Use of Information

We use the information we collect to provide, maintain, and improve our Services, which includes publishing and distributing user-generated content, personalizing the posts you see and operating our metered paywall. We also use the information we collect to:

  • Create and maintain your account;
  • Process transactions and send related information, such as confirmations, receipts, and user experience surveys;
  • Send you technical notices, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
  • Respond to your comments and questions and provide customer service;
  • Communicate with you about new content, products, services, and features offered by us and provide other news and information we think will interest you;
  • Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Services;
  • Detect, investigate, and prevent security incidents and other malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity and protect the rights and property of scratchygame.com and others;
  • Debug to identify and repair errors in our Services;
  • Comply with our legal and financial obligations; and
  • Carry out any other purpose described to you at the time the information was collected.

Sharing of Information

We share personal information in the following circumstances or as otherwise described in this policy:

  • We share personal information with other users of the Services. For example, if you use our Services to publish content, post comments or send private notes, certain information about you will be visible to others.
  • We share personal information with vendors, service providers, and consultants that need access to personal information in order to perform services for us, such as companies that assist us with web hosting, storage, and other infrastructure, analytics, payment processing, fraud prevention and security, customer service, communications, and marketing.
  • We may disclose personal information if we believe that disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, any applicable law or legal process, including lawful requests by public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. If we are going to disclose your personal information in response to legal process, we will give you notice so you can challenge it (for example by seeking court intervention), unless we are prohibited by law or believe doing so may endanger others or cause illegal conduct. We will object to legal requests for information about users of our Services that we believe are improper.
  • We share personal information with our lawyers and other professional advisors where necessary to obtain advice or otherwise protect and manage our business interests.

Your Choices

Cookies

Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually adjust your browser settings to remove or reject browser cookies. Please note that removing or rejecting cookies could affect the availability and functionality of our Services.

Communications Preferences

You may opt out of receiving certain communications from us, such as digests, newsletters, and activity notifications.

Mobile Push Notifications

With your consent, we may send push notifications to your mobile device. You can deactivate these messages at any time by changing the notification settings on your mobile device.

Your California Privacy Rights

The California Consumer Privacy Act or CCPA (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.100 et seq.) affords consumers residing in California certain rights with respect to their personal information. If you are a California resident, this section applies to you.

In the preceding 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information: identifiers, commercial information, internet or other electronic network activity information, and inferences. For details about the precise data points we collect and the categories of sources of such collection, please see the Collection of Information section above. We collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in the Use of Information section above. In the preceding 12 months, we have disclosed the following categories of personal information for business purposes to the following categories of recipients:

Subject to certain limitations, you have the right to (1) request to know more about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, use, and disclose about you, (2) request deletion of your personal information, (3) opt out of any sales of your personal information, if we engage in that activity in the future, and (4) not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. You may make these requests by emailing us at [email protected].

If we receive your request from an authorized agent, we may ask for evidence that you have provided such agent with a power of attorney or that the agent otherwise has valid written authority to submit requests to exercise rights on your behalf. This may include requiring you to verify your identity.

Additional Disclosures for Individuals in Europe

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have certain rights and protections under applicable law regarding the processing of your personal data, and this section applies to you.

Legal Basis for Processing

When we process your personal data, we will do so in reliance on the following lawful bases:

  • To perform our responsibilities under our contract with you (e.g., providing the products and services you requested).
  • When we have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data to operate our business or protect our interests (e.g., to provide, maintain, and improve our products and services, conduct data analytics, and communicate with you).
  • To comply with our legal obligations (e.g., to maintain a record of your consents and track those who have opted out of non-administrative communications).
  • When we have your consent to do so (e.g., when you opt in to receive non-administrative communications from us). When consent is the legal basis for our processing your personal data, you may withdraw such consent at any time.

Data Retention

We store personal data associated with your account for as long as your account remains active. If you close your account, we will delete your account data within 14 days. We store other personal data for as long as necessary to carry out the purposes for which we originally collected it and for other legitimate business purposes, including to meet our legal, regulatory, or other compliance obligations.

Questions or Complaints

If you have a concern about our processing of personal data that we are not able to resolve, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority where you reside. Contact details for your Data Protection Authority can be found using the links below:

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at [email protected].