Privacy Policy
This is the privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) for SmartBug Operating LLC (“SmartBug,” “we,” or “our”). We respect your privacy and appreciate the confidence you have placed in SmartBug. We are committed to protecting your privacy and preserving your trust. Please carefully review this Privacy Policy to learn about how we collect, use, and protect any personal information you provide us and your choices for managing your personal information. This Privacy Policy is also subject to the User Agreement.
We want to communicate with you only if you want to hear from us. If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or wish to update, access, exclude your personal information from our direct marketing purposes, or delete your personal information, please feel free to contact us at:
E-mail: legal@smartbugmedia.com
Tel: 949-236-6448
Information We Collect
SmartBug collects information for a variety of reasons necessary to perform its business operations and when you use our websites, information from our users is collected at several different points on the SmartBug websites. For example, we may collect personally identifiable information from you such as your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address when you register, subscribe to one of our services, download content or participate in other types promotions offered by or through SmartBug, and at other times.
In addition, whenever you visit a website for technical reasons your internet browser automatically transmits information that we collect. We store some of this information such as your browser type, operating system, IP address, date of access, time of access, URL of the referring website, transferred data volume, retrieved file data, and website usage information, in order to, among other things, evaluate and improve the performance of our websites and to analyze security incidents.
We do not sell, share, or rent personal information to third parties, and we will not otherwise disclose personally identifiable information to third parties, without your express permission, except as disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Why We Collect Your Information
We collect and use information for purposes, such as:
- enhancing your experience;
- enabling purchases of goods and services;
- performing administration and technical support;
- marketing communications and promotions;
- processing product or offer inquiries;
- informing you about special offers;
- conducting surveys;
- enabling you to enter sweepstakes, contests and other promotions;
- creating aggregated information about demographics and usage patterns;
- subject to your explicit permission, sharing your information with third parties.
When We Share Your Information
We may use aggregated information to measure general webiste usage patterns and characteristics of our user base, and we may include such aggregated anonymized information about our audience in reports to our commercial vendors. We may also disclose aggregated anonymized user statistics (for example, a certain percentage of our users live in a certain area) in order to describe our audience to existing and prospective advertisers or other third parties. Aggregated anonymized information does not reference names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, or other personally identifiable information, and it is not traceable to a specific recipient, user e-mail address.
We also may share personal information with companies affiliated with SmartBug. In the event that SmartBug is merged, or in the event of a transfer of our assets, we may disclose or transfer your personal information in connection with such transaction. In the event of such a transfer, we will notify you of the change of control of your personal information. You should also be aware that courts of equity, such as U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, may have the authority under certain circumstances to permit your personal information to be shared or transferred to third parties without your permission.
From time to time, we might establish a business relationship with other persons or entities whom we believe trustworthy and whom we have asked to confirm that their privacy practices are consistent with ours. For example, we may contract with service providers to provide certain services including credit card processing, data management, promotional services, etc. We provide our service providers with the information needed for them to perform these services. We have a data protection agreement with each individual service provider to keep your information safe. We use service providers to implement and operate our website for hosting services, programming services, and sales and marketing services. Each service provider must agree to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of your information in order to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification or disclosure.
Although unlikely, in certain instances we may disclose your personal information when we have reason to believe that it is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to you or to others. We may also disclose your personal information when we believe the law requires it.
The general registration area can be found on the SmartBug home page and at other locations throughout the website. To use or access certain features of the website, you may have to register or otherwise provide personal information. The decision to provide this information is optional; however, if you elect not to register or provide such information, you may not be able to access certain content or features or participate in various areas of the website.
Utilization and Transfer
To ensure we meet our contractual obligations in providing the Services, we may store, process and forward personal data to our subsidiaries and affiliates and to third parties working on our behalf.
Security
We use encryption and authentication tools when appropriate to protect the security of personal information that you share with us. However, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect personal information, we cannot and do not guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to or from our websites, and you do so at your own risk.
We may place a text file called a “cookie” in the browser files of your computer or use other technology to improve your navigation of our website. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your web browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Generally, we use cookies to remind us of who you are, tailor our products and services to suit your personal interests, estimate our audience size, track your status in our sweepstakes, contests and promotions and/or analyze your visiting patterns. The use of cookies is an industry standard; you will find them at most major websites. Cookies make web-surfing easier for you by saving your preferences while you are using our websites.
You can generally set your web browser not to accept cookies or to notify you when you are sent a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it. If you set your Web browser not to accept cookies, it may affect your ability to utilize all features on the Service.
SmartBug websites may contain links to websites operated and maintained by third parties, over which we have no control. Privacy policies on such linked websites may be different from our Privacy Policy. You access such linked websites at your own risk. You should always read the privacy policy of a linked website before disclosing any personal information on such site.
Our online chat areas, bulletin boards, other public forums and user-generated content (i.e., photos, videos) can be a useful way for you to express yourself to other online users. When you post messages or otherwise use these features, the information that you provide (including personally identifiable information) may be publicly available to, collected by, and used by third parties. We are not responsible for the content of messages or images posted by users or disclosures of personal information.
Web analytics using pseudonymised user profiles
We use web analytics tools for various purposes on our website. Please note that placing opt-out cookies can only prevent the collection and processing of your data by web analytics tools to a limited extent.
Children’s Privacy
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personally identifiable information from a user under the age of 13, we will delete such information from our records. Because we do not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13, we also do not knowingly distribute such information to third parties.
Privacy Notice for California Residents
This Privacy Notice for California residents applies solely to visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California (“consumers” or “you”). We adopt this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2019 (“CCPA”) and other California privacy laws. Any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this notice.
The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their personal information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.
Information We Collect from California Residents
We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or device (“personal information”).
In particular, in the last 12 months we have collected the following categories of personal information:
Identifiers. Name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers.
Personal information. Name, signature, address, telephone number.
Commercial information. Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.
Internet or other similar network activity. Browsing history, search history, information on a consumer’s interaction with a website, application, or advertisement.
Geolocation data. Physical location or movements.
Professional or employment-related information. Current or past job history or references.
Personal information does not include:
- Publicly available information from government records.
- De-identified or aggregated consumer information.
- Information excluded from the CCPA’s scope, like:
- health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data;
- personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994.
We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:
- You, including through the use of SmartBug websites.
- Directly from our clients or their agents. For example, from documents that our clients provide to us related to the services for which they engage us.
- Indirectly from our clients or their agents. For example, through information we collect from our clients in the course of providing services to them.
- Directly and indirectly from activity on our website (https://www.smartbugmedia.com/). For example, from submissions through our website portal or website usage details collected automatically.
- From third-parties that interact with us in connection with the services we perform.
Use of Personal Information
We may use or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following business purposes:
- To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us.
- To provide you with email alerts, event registrations and other notices concerning our products or services, or events or news, that may be of interest to you.
- To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collections.
- To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into with our clients.
- To improve our website and present its contents to you.
- For testing, research, analysis and product development.
- As necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property or safety of us, our clients or others.
- To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
- As described to you when collecting your personal information or as otherwise set forth in the CCPA.
We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.
Sharing Personal Information
We may disclose your personal information to a third party for a business purpose. When we disclose personal information for a business purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.
In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have disclosed the following categories of personal information for a business purpose:
Category A: Identifiers.
Category B: California Customer Records personal information categories.
Category C: Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law.
Category I: Professional or employment-related information.
We disclose your personal information for a business purpose to the following categories of third parties:
- Our affiliates.
- Service providers.
- Third parties to whom you or your agents authorize us to disclose your personal information in connection with products or services we provide to you.
In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have not sold any personal information.
Consumers (California Residents) Rights and Choices
The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their personal information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.
Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights
You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will disclose to you:
- The categories of personal information we collected about you.
- The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
- Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information.
- The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.
- The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).
- If we sold or disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, two separate lists disclosing:
- sales, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and
- disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained.
Deletion Request Rights
You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.
We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service providers to:
- Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
- Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
- Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
- Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
- Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 seq.).
- Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
- Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
- Comply with a legal obligation.
- Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.
Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights
To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by either:
- Emailing us at legal@smartbugmedia.com
- Visiting https://www.smartbugmedia.com/
Only you or a person that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.
You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:
- Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative.
- Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.
We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.
Response Timing and Format
We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request’s receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily usable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.
Right to Exercise CCPA Rights
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:
- Deny you goods or services.
- Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
- Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services.
- Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.
Changes to Our Privacy Notice
We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will notify you through a notice on our website or through email.
Contact Information
If you have any questions or comments about this notice, our privacy policy, the ways in which we collect and use your personal information, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under California law, or any other data protection or data privacy law, please do not hesitate to contact us at:
SmartBug Operating LLC, 4533 MacArthur Blvd., Ste A-2155, Newport Beach, CA 92660
Attn: Legal Department
Website: www.smartbugmedia.com
Email: legal@smartbugmedia.com
Phone: (844) 767-8284