Privacy Policy

Effective Date: May 15, 2023

We at Hotzapp Company (together with our affiliates, “Hotzapp”, “we”, “our” or “us”) respect your privacy and are strongly committed to keeping secure any information we obtain from you or about you. This Privacy Policy describes our practices with respect to Personal Information we collect from or about you when you use our website, chrome extension, applications and services (collectively, “Services”), as well as through social media, our marketing activities, and other activities described in this Privacy Policy.

1. Personal information we collect

We collect information that alone or in combination with other information in our possession could be used to identify you (“Personal Information”) as follows:

Personal Information You Provide: We may collect Personal Information if you create an account to use our Services or communicate with us as follows:

  • Account Information: When you create an account with us, we will collect information associated with your account, including your name, contact information, company name, account credentials, payment card information, and transaction history, (collectively, “Account Information”).
  • User Content:  such as profile pictures, photos, images, music, videos, comments, questions, messages, groups and group names, works of authorship, and other content or information that you generate, transmit, or otherwise make available on the Service, as well as associated metadata (collectively, “Content”).
  • Communication Information: If you communicate with us through the Service, social media, or otherwise, we may collect your name, contact information, and the contents of any messages you send (“Communication Information”).
  • Marketing data: such as your preferences for receiving our marketing communications and details about your engagement with them.
  • Social Media Information: We have pages on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Medium, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. When you interact with our social media pages, we will collect Personal Information that you elect to provide to us, such as your contact details (collectively, “Social Information”). In addition, the companies that host our social media pages may provide us with aggregate information and analytics about our social media activity.

Data about others: we may offer features that help users invite their friends or contacts to use the Service, and we may collect contact details about these invitees so we can deliver their invitations. Please do not refer someone to us or share their contact details with us unless you have their permission to do so.

Personal Information We Receive Automatically From Your Use of the Services: When you visit, use, and interact with the Services, we may receive the following information about your visit, use, or interactions (“Technical Information”):

  • Log Data: Information that your browser automatically sends whenever you use our website (“log data”). Log data includes your Internet Protocol address, browser type and settings, the date and time of your request, and how you interacted with our website.
  • Usage Data: We may automatically collect information about your use of the Services, such as the types of content that you view or engage with, the features you use and the actions you take, as well as your time zone, country, the dates and times of access, user agent and version, type of computer or mobile device, computer connection, IP address, and the like.
  • Device Information: Includes name of the device, operating system, and browser you are using. Information collected may depend on the type of device you use and its settings.
  • Cookies: We use cookies to operate and administer our Services, and improve your experience on it. A “cookie” is a piece of information sent to your browser by a website you visit. You can set your browser to accept all cookies, to reject all cookies, or to notify you whenever a cookie is offered so that you can decide each time whether to accept it. However, refusing a cookie may in some cases preclude you from using, or negatively affect the display or function of, a website or certain areas or features of a website. For more details on cookies please see below How We Use Cookies and Similar Technologies section.
  • Local storage technologies: they provide cookie-equivalent functionality but can store large amounts of data on your device outside of your browser in connection with specific applications.
  • Analytics: We may use a variety of online analytics products that use cookies to help us analyze how users use our Services and enhance your experience when you use the Services.

2. How we use cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small files of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer. They contain information that is transferred to your computer‘s hard drive.

Our Services uses Cookies to collect information about your browsing activities and to distinguish you from other users of our Services. This aids your experience when you use our Services and also allows us to improve the functionality of our Services.

We use the following cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies: Some cookies are strictly necessary to make our Services available to you; for example, to perform your login functionality and for user authentication and security. We cannot provide you with the Services without this type of cookie.
  • Functional cookies : These are used to recognise you when you return to our Website. This enables us to personalize our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
  • Analytical or performance cookies. We also use cookies for analytics purposes in order to operate, maintain, and improve our Services. We use third party analytics providers, including Google Analytics and Mixpanel, to help us understand how users engage with the Services. Google Analytics uses first-party cookies to track user interactions which helps show how users use our Services. This information is used to compile reports and to help us improve our Services. The reports disclose Website trends without identifying individual visitors. You can opt out of Google Analytics without affecting how you visit our Website by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout or via Google‘s Ads settings.

 

You can block cookies by setting your internet browser to block some or all cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to use our Services.

Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire after a maximum of 2 years.

3. How we use personal information

We may use Personal Information for the following purposes:

  • To provide, administer, maintain and/or analyze the Services;
  • To improve our Services and conduct research;
  • To communicate with you;
  • To develop new programs and services;
  • To facilitate your invitations to friends who you want to invite to join the Service;
  • To prevent fraud, criminal activity, or misuses of our Services, and to ensure the security of our IT systems, architecture, and networks; and
  • To comply with legal obligations and legal process and to protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you, or other third parties.
  • To provide support for the Service, and respond to your requests, questions and feedback.

 

Aggregated or De-Identified Information. We may aggregate or de-identify Personal Information and use the aggregated information to analyze the effectiveness of our Services, to improve and add features to our Services, to conduct research and for other similar purposes. In addition, from time to time, we may analyze the general behavior and characteristics of users of our Services and share aggregated information like general user statistics with third parties, publish such aggregated information or make such aggregated information generally available. We may collect aggregated information through the Services, through cookies, and through other means described in this Privacy Policy. We will maintain and use de-identified information in anonymous or de-identified form and we will not attempt to reidentify the information

Marketing and advertising. We, our service providers and our third-party advertising partners may collect and use your personal information for marketing and advertising purposes:

  • Direct marketing. We may send you direct marketing communications. You may opt-out of our marketing communications.
  • Interest-based advertising. Our third-party advertising partners may use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about your interaction (including the data described in the automatic data collection section above) with the Service, our communications and other online services over time, and use that information to serve online ads that they think will interest you. This is called interest-based advertising. We may also share information about our users with these companies to facilitate interest-based advertising to those or similar users on other online platforms.

4. Disclosure of personal information

In certain circumstances we may provide your Personal Information to third parties without further notice to you, unless required by the law:

  • Vendors and Service Providers: To assist us in meeting business operations needs and to perform certain services and functions, we may provide Personal Information to vendors and service providers, including providers of hosting services, cloud services, and other information technology services providers, event management services, email communication software and email newsletter services, and web analytics services. Pursuant to our instructions, these parties will access, process, or store Personal Information only in the course of performing their duties to us.
  • Business Transfers: If we are involved in strategic transactions, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, or transition of service to another provider (collectively a “Transaction”), your Personal Information and other information may be disclosed in the diligence process with counterparties and others assisting with the Transaction and transferred to a successor or affiliate as part of that Transaction along with other assets.
  • Payment processors. Any payment card information you use to make a purchase on the Service is collected and processed directly by our payment processors, such as Pagar.me. 
  • Legal Requirements: If required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (i) comply with a legal obligation, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements, (ii) protect and defend our rights or property, (iii) prevent fraud, (iv) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the Services, or the public, or (v) protect against legal liability.
  • Advertising partners. Third-party advertising companies for the interest-based advertising purposes described above.
  • Affiliates: We may disclose Personal Information to our affiliates, meaning an entity that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with Hotzapp. Our affiliates may use the Personal Information we share in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy.

5. Your rights

Depending on location, individuals in the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK, and across the globe may have certain statutory rights in relation to their Personal Information. For example, you may have the right to:

  • Access your Personal Information.
  • Delete your Personal Information.
  • Correct or update your Personal Information.
  • Transfer your Personal Information elsewhere.
  • Withdraw your consent to the processing of your Personal Information where we rely on consent as the legal basis for processing.
  • Object to or restrict the processing of your Personal Information where we rely on legitimate interests as the legal basis for processing.

Please send your request to [email protected].

6. Children

Our Service is not directed to children who are under the age of 16. Hotzapp does not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 16. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 16 has provided Personal Information to Hotzapp through the Service please email us at [email protected]. We will investigate any notification and if appropriate, delete the Personal Information from our systems. If you are 16 or older, but under 18, you must have consent from your parent or guardian to use our Services.

7. Links to other websites and services

The Service may contain links to other websites not operated or controlled by Hotzapp, including social media services (“Third Party Sites”). The information that you share with Third Party Sites will be governed by the specific privacy policies and terms of service of the Third Party Sites and not by this Privacy Policy. By providing these links we do not imply that we endorse or have reviewed these sites. Please contact the Third Party Sites directly for information on their privacy practices and policies.

8. Security and Retention

We implement commercially reasonable technical, administrative, and organizational measures to protect Personal Information both online and offline from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no Internet or email transmission is ever fully secure or error free. In particular, email sent to or from us may not be secure. Therefore, you should take special care in deciding what information you send to us via the Service or email. In addition, we are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Service, or third party websites.

We’ll retain your Personal Information for only as long as we need in order to provide our Service to you, or for other legitimate business purposes such as resolving disputes, safety and security reasons, or complying with our legal obligations. How long we retain Personal Information will depend on a number of factors, such as the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure, our purpose for processing the information, and any legal requirements.

We may also anonymize or de-identify your Personal Information (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, as described above, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

9. International data transfer

We are headquartered in Brazil and we may use service providers that operate in other countries such as the United States. Your personal information may be transferred to Brazil and the United States or other locations where privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your state, province, or country.

10. Changes to the privacy policy

We may change this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do, we will post an updated version on this page, unless another type of notice is required by applicable law. By continuing to use our Service or providing us with Personal Information after we have posted an updated Privacy Policy, or notified you by other means, you consent to the revised Privacy Policy.

11. How to contact us

Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns not already addressed in this Privacy Policy.

12. Notice to European users

This section applies only to individuals in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the European Economic Area. 

Personal information. References to “personal information” in this Privacy Policy are equivalent to “personal data” governed by European data protection legislation. 

Controller. Hotzapp is the controller of your personal information covered by this Privacy Policy for purposes of European data protection legislation and can be contacted at [email protected].

Legal Bases for processing. The legal bases of our processing of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy will depend on the type of personal information and the specific context in which we process it. However, the legal bases we typically rely on are set out in the table below. We rely on our legitimate interests as our legal basis only where those interests are not overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or our processing is otherwise required or permitted by law). If you have questions about the legal basis of how we process your personal information, contact us at [email protected].

 

Processing Purpose

Legal Basis

Service delivery

Processing is necessary to perform the contract governing our provision of the Service or to take steps that you request prior to signing up for the Service.   


Where we cannot process your personal data as required to operate the Service on the grounds of contractual necessity, we process your personal information for this purpose based on our legitimate interest in providing you with the Service you access and request.

Marketing and advertising

Processing is based on your consent where it is required by applicable law. 


Where such consent is not required by applicable law, we process your personal information for these purposes based on our legitimate interests in promoting our business.

Research and development

Our legitimate interests in conducting these activities.

Compliance and protection

Our legitimate interests in conducting these activities.

Compliance with legal obligations

Processing is necessary to comply with our legal obligations.

Actions we take with your consent

Processing is based on your consent.  Where we rely on your consent you have the right to withdraw it any time in the manner indicated when you consent or in the Service.

 

Use for new purposes

We may use your personal information for reasons not described in this Privacy Policy where permitted by law and the reason is compatible with the purpose for which we collected it. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the applicable legal basis.

Sensitive personal information

We ask that you not provide us with any sensitive personal information (e.g., social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership) through the Service or otherwise. If you do not consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal information, you must not provide it to us.

Retention

We retain personal information where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested; to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements; to establish or defend legal claims; or for fraud prevention). When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

Your rights

European data protection laws give you certain rights regarding your personal information. You may ask us to take the following actions in relation to your personal information that we hold:

  • Access.  Provide you with information about our processing of your personal information and give you access to your personal information.
  • Correct.  Update or correct inaccuracies in your personal information.
  • Delete.  Delete your personal information.
  • Transfer.  Transfer a machine-readable copy of your personal information to you or a third party of your choice.
  • Restrict.  Restrict the processing of your personal information.
  • Object.  Object to our reliance on our legitimate interests as the basis of our processing of your personal information that impacts your rights or opt-out of our direct marketing communications.  

 

Cross-Border Data Transfer

We may transfer your personal information to Brazil and the United States and other countries even though the European Commission has not determined that they provide adequate protection for personal data. Where we are required by European data protection laws to apply additional safeguards to such personal information, we will do so by applying the Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission or other appropriate safeguards. Please contact us for further information about any such transfers or the specific safeguards applied.

13. Your Brazilian Privacy Rights

Users residing in Brazil are afforded certain additional rights with respect to their personal information under the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (Law No. 13,709/18 or “LGPD”). If you are a Brazilian resident, You have certain rights in connection with your personal data according to LGPD:

  • Confirm the existence of processing of your personal data that we lawfully make. 
  • Access your personal data, and request a full simplified or full report about the personal data that we are lawfully processing about you.
  • Request correction of any incomplete, outdated or inaccurate personal data we hold about you, although we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
  • Request anonymization, blocking or deletion of unnecessary or excessive data, or data processed in non-compliance with the applicable law.  
  • Revoke your consent at any time, where we rely on your consent to process your personal data. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. 
  • Request deletion of your lawfully processed personal data that was processed based on your consent.
  • Request information about public and private entities with which Evernote has shared your personal data. 
  • Request data portability or the transfer of your personal data, in certain circumstances, pursuant to applicable laws. 

 

You may also contact us at any time if you have queries, as indicated below, and you also have a right to lodge a complaint with the applicable supervisory authority.