Sweeten Privacy Policy

Revised: October 10, 2019

Scope

We at Swee10, Inc. d/b/a Sweeten (“Sweeten,” “we,” “us,” and “our”) have created this Privacy Policy (this “Privacy Policy”) because we know that you care about how information you provide to us is used and shared. This Privacy Policy applies to personal information processed in the course of our business, including, but not limited to, https://app.sweeten.com (the “Website”) and our app, which is accessible through tablets, cell phones, personal digital assistants, connected televisions, and other devices (the “App”), and our related online and offline offerings. The Website and the App are collectively referred to as the “Platform.” To make this Privacy Policy easier to read, the Platform and our related online and offline offerings are collectively called the “Services.”

Description of Users and Acceptance of Terms

This Privacy Policy applies to visitors to the Website, who view only publicly-available content (“Visitors”); end users (“Users”), who have signed up to use the Services and post their renovation projects (each, a “Project”) via the Platform; and architects, interior designers, and contractors (collectively, “Members”), who have signed up to bid on these Projects.

By visiting our Website, Visitors are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy and the accompanying Terms of Use.

By signing up, accessing, and/or using the Platform: (i) each User is agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy and the accompanying Terms of Use; and (ii) each Member is agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy and the accompanying Member Agreement.

Capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy shall have the meaning set forth in the Terms of Use (when such term concerns Users and/or Visitors) or the Member Agreement (when such term concerns Members).

Personal Information We Collect

The categories of personal information we collect depend on whether you are a Visitor, a User, or a Member, and the requirements of applicable law.

Information You Provide to Us.

• User Account Information. If you create a User account with the Services, we will collect personal information such as your name, email address, phone number, city and state. We also allow you to provide us with information about yourself and your Project, including your gender, hobbies, personal interests, household income range, number of children, address, desired renovation, and budget.
• Member Account Information. If you create a Member account with the Services, we will collect your name, email address, phone number, city and state. We will also collect information about your professional experience such as your employment information, license information, and information about previous work you have done. In addition, Members may provide us with bank account information in order to receive payments via the Services.
• Billing Information. Any electronic payments made by Users or Members via the Platform are processed by third-party vendors, such as Stripe. We do not directly collect, store, or maintain any payment card information provided via the Platform. All such payment card information is collected and processed through such third-party vendors pursuant to the terms and conditions of their privacy policies and terms of use. You can read Stripe’s Privacy Policy at:https://stripe.com/privacy.
• Communications with Us. We may collect personal information from you such as email address, phone number, or mailing address when you request information about our Services, sign up for our newsletter, request customer or technical support, or otherwise communicate with us.
• Customer Service and Support. If you call or otherwise interact with Sweeten’s customer service and support, we may collect the information you provide to our representatives. In addition, we may record telephone calls between you and our representatives for training and quality assurance purposes.
• Interactive Features. Sweeten may offer interactive features such as profile and Project pages, review features, commenting functionalities, forums, chat and messaging services, and social media pages. Sweeten and other individuals who use our Services may collect the information you submit or make available through these interactive features. Any information shared on the public sections of these channels will be considered “public” and will not be subject to the privacy protections referenced herein. By using such interactive features, you assume the risk that the personal information provided by you may be viewed and used by third parties for any number of purposes.
• Conferences, Trade Shows, and other Events. We may attend conferences, trade shows, and other events where we collect personal information from individuals who interact with or express an interest in Sweeten and/or the Services. If you provide us with any information at one of these events, we will use it for the purposes for which it was collected.
• Surveys. We may contact you to participate in surveys. If you decide to participate, you may be asked to provide certain information which may include personal information.
• Registration for Sweepstakes or Contests. We may run sweepstakes and contests. Contact information you provide may be used to reach you about the sweepstakes or contest and for other promotional, marketing and business purposes, if permitted by law. In some jurisdictions, we are required to publicly share information of winners.

Information We Collect Through Your Use of the Services.

We may collect certain information automatically when you use the Services. This information may include your Internet protocol (IP) address, user settings, hardware and processor information, camera resolution, NFC enabled, network type, IMEI, MAC address, Technologies including cookie identifiers, mobile advertising and other unique identifiers, mobile carrier, details about your browser, operating system or device, precise location information from your use of the App, inferred location based off your IP address, Internet service provider, pages that you visit before, during and after using the Services, information about the links you click, and other information about how you use the Services. Information we collect may be associated with your account and the devices you use.

• Cookies, Web Beacons, and Personalized Advertising. We, as well as third parties that provide content, advertising, or other functionality on the Services, may use cookies, pixel tags, local storage, and other technologies (“Technologies”) to automatically collect information through the Services. Technologies are essentially small data files placed on your device that allow us and our partners to record certain pieces of information whenever you visit or interact with the Services.

• Cookies. Cookies are small text files placed in visitors’ device browsers to store their preferences. Most browsers allow you to block and delete cookies. However, if you do that, the Services may not work properly.
• Pixel Tags/Web Beacons. A pixel tag (also known as a web beacon) is a piece of code embedded on the Services that collects information about users’ engagement. The use of a pixel allows us to record, for example, that a user has visited a particular web page or clicked on a particular advertisement. We may also include web beacons in e-mails to understand whether messages have been opened, acted on, or forwarded.

• Analytics. We may also use Google Analytics and other service providers to collect information regarding behavior and demographics on our Services. For more information about Google Analytics, please visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You can opt out of Google’s collection and processing of data generated by your use of the Services by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Information from Other Sources.

• Third Parties.We may obtain information about you from other sources, including through third-party services and other organizations. For example, if you access or use our Services through a third-party application, such as a social networking service (e.g., Facebook, Google, etc.) or a third-party login service, we may collect information about you from that third party that you have made available via your privacy settings. Such information may include, without limitation, your first and last name, username, profile picture, unique social media identifier and access token, and e-mail address. In addition, we may also obtain location information about you from your wireless carrier and/or certain third-party service providers.
• Other Members and Users.We may receive information from other Members and Users about their interactions and transactions with you.

How We Use Your Information.

We process personal information for a variety of business purposes, including:

To provide the Services, Products, or Information Requested.

• Fulfill our contract with you;
• Manage your information;
• Process your payment card and/or other financial information to facilitate your use of the Services;
• Respond to questions, comments, and other requests;
• Provide access to certain areas, functionalities, and features of our Services; and
• Answer requests for customer or technical support.

Administrative Purposes.

• Pursue legitimate interests, such as direct marketing, research and development (including marketing research), network and information security, and fraud prevention;
• Measure interest and engagement in the Services;
• Develop of new products and services;
• Improve our products and Services;
• Ensure internal quality control and safety;
• Verify individual identity;
• Carry out audits;
• Communicate with you about activities on the Services and changes to our agreements;
• Prevent and prosecute potentially prohibited or illegal activities;
• Enforce our agreements; and
• Comply with our legal obligations.

 

Marketing Our Products and Services. We may use personal information to tailor and provide you with content and advertisements. We may provide you with these materials as permitted by applicable law.

If you have any questions about our marketing practices or if you would like to opt out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes, you may contact us at any time as set forth below.

De-identified and Aggregated Information Use. We may use personal information and other information about you to create de-identified and/or aggregated information, such as de-identified demographic information, de-identified location information, de-identified or aggregated trends, reports, or statistics, or other analyses we create. De-identified and aggregated information is not personal information, and we may use and disclose such information in a number of ways, including research, internal analysis, analytics, and any other legally permissible purposes.

Your Communications on the Services. We may, either directly or through third party service providers, review, scan, or analyze your communications with other users exchanged via the Platform for fraud prevention, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, investigation, and customer support purposes. We may also scan, review or analyze messages for research and product development purposes to help make matching, bidding and user communications more efficient and effective, as well as to debug, improve and expand product offerings. We will not review, scan, or analyze your communications for the purpose of sending third party marketing messages to you. We will use automated methods to carry out these reviews or analyses where reasonably possible. However, from time to time we may have a human manually review these communications. By using the Services, you agree that Sweeten, in its sole discretion, may, either directly or through third party service providers we engage to provide services to us, review, scan, analyze, and store your communications, whether done through automated means or manually by a human.

Sharing Content with Friends or Colleagues. Our Services may offer various tools and functionalities. For example, we may allow you to provide information about your friends through our referral services. Our referral services may allow you to forward or share certain content with a friend or colleague, such as an email inviting your friend to use our Services.

Technologies. Our uses of such Technologies fall into the following general categories:

• Operationally Necessary. This includes Technologies that allow you access to our Services that are required to identify irregular behavior, prevent fraudulent activity and improve security or that allow you to make use of our functions;
• Performance Related. We may use Technologies to assess the performance of our Services, including as part of our analytic practices to help us understand how our visitors use the Services;
• Functionality Related. We may use Technologies that allow us to offer you enhanced functionality when accessing or using our Services. This may include identifying you when you sign into our Services and keeping track of your specified preferences or past pages viewed;
• Advertising or Targeting Related. We may use first-party or third-party Technologies to develop and deliver content, including ads relevant to your interests, on our Services or on third-party sites.

Consent. Sweeten may use personal information for other purposes that are clearly disclosed to you at the time you provide personal information or with your consent.

How We Disclose Your Information.

We may share any of the personal information we collect as set forth below:

Sharing with Other Members and Users. We may share personal information with other Members and Users of Sweeten in order to provide the Services. For example, if a User submits a Project, we will share a list of Members that the User may review and contact. Similarly, if a Member and a User enter into an agreement, we may share personal information about each party with the other. In addition, if you are a Member using an account that is shared by your organization, we may share your information with other members of that organization.

Service Providers. We may share any personal information we collect about you with our third-party service providers. The types of service providers to whom we entrust personal information include service providers for: (i) the provision of the Services; (ii) the provision of information, products, and other services you have requested; (iii) marketing and advertising; (iv) payment processing; (v) customer service activities; and (vi) the provision IT and related services.

Third Party Services. With your permission, third party services and/or applications may access your personal information. We use standard OAuth (open authorization) to enable you to give permission to share your personal information with other services and applications, such as Facebook and LinkedIn (e.g., when you agree to a pop-up requesting you to allow another application to access your account information). We also use OAuth to allow us to share information about you that is stored by us without sharing your security credentials.

Affiliates. We may share personal information with our affiliated entities.

Business Partners. We may provide personal information to our relevant business partners. For example, if a business partner refers you to our Services and you make a purchase, we may share your personal information with that business partner. We may also provide your personal information to our business partners to provide you with a product or service you have requested. In addition, we may provide personal information to business partners with whom we jointly offer products or services.

Rewards, Contests, and Promotional Programs. If you participate in our rewards, contests, sweepstakes, competitions, and promotional programs we may share your personal information with our various third-party promotional and marketing partners, including without limitation, businesses participating in our various programs.

Interest-Based or Personalized Advertising. Through our Services, Sweeten may allow third-party advertising partners to set Technologies and other tracking tools to collect information regarding your activities and your device (e.g., your IP address, cookie identifiers, page(s) visited, location, time of day). These advertising partners may use this information (and similar information collected from other services) for purposes of delivering personalized advertisements to you when you visit third party services within their networks. This practice is commonly referred to as “interest-based advertising” or “personalized advertising.” If you prefer not to share your personal information with third party advertising partners, you may follow the instructions below.

APIs and Software Development Kits. We may use third party APIs and software development kits (“SDKs”) as part of the functionality of our Services. APIs and SDKs may allow third parties including advertising partners to collect your personal information to provide content that is more relevant to you. For more information about our use of APIs and SDKs, please contact us as set forth below.

Disclosures to Protect Us or Others. We may access, preserve, and disclose your personal information if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to: (i) comply with law enforcement or national security requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; (ii) protect your, our or others’ rights, property, or safety; (iii) to collect amounts owed to us; (iv) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent financial loss or in connection with an investigation or prosecution of suspected or actual illegal activity; or (v) if we, in good faith, believe that disclosure is otherwise necessary or advisable.

Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers. If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, purchase or sale of assets, or transition of service to another provider, then your information may be sold or transferred as part of such a transaction as permitted by law and/or contract.

International Data Transfers.

All information processed by us may be transferred, processed, and stored anywhere in the world, including but not limited to, the United States and other countries.

Your Choices.

General. You may have the right to object to or opt out of certain uses of your personal information. Where you have consented to the processing of your personal information, you may withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us as described below.

Email Communications. If you receive an unwanted email from us, you can use the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of the email to opt-out. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to process such requests. However, you should be aware that it is not always possible to completely remove or modify information in our subscription databases. In addition, you will continue to receive transaction-related emails regarding products or Services you have requested. We may also send you certain non-promotional communications regarding us and our Services, and you will not be able to opt out of those communications (e.g., communications regarding the Services or updates to this Privacy Policy).

SMS Messages. You can opt-out of receiving text messages from Sweeten by replying to a text message and stating that you wish to opt-out or emailing [email protected].

Mobile Devices. We may send you push notifications through the App. You may at any time opt-out from receiving these types of communications by changing the settings on your mobile device. We may also collect location-based information if you use the App. You may opt-out of this collection by changing the settings on your mobile device. Please note that in some cases, opting out of the collection of location information will prohibit us from providing certain features of the Services.

Technologies and Personalized Advertising. If you would like to opt-out of the Technologies we employ on the Services, you may do so by blocking, disabling, or deleting them as your browser or device permits. Please note that cookie-based opt-outs are not effective on mobile applications. However, you may opt-out of personalized advertisements on some mobile applications by following the instructions for Android and iOS.

The online advertising industry also provides websites from which you may opt-out of receiving targeted ads from advertisers that participate in self-regulatory programs. You can access these, and also learn more about targeted advertising and consumer choice and privacy, at https://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/, https://www.youronlinechoices.eu/ and www.aboutads.info/choices/.

Please note you must separately opt out in each browser and on each device.

“Do Not Track”. Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. Please note that we do not respond to or honor DNT signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers.

Individual Rights in Personal Information.

For purposes of the California Consumer Privacy Act, Sweeten does not “sell” your personal information.

In accordance with applicable law, you may have the right to: (i) request confirmation of whether we are processing your personal information; (ii) obtain access to or a copy of your personal information; (iii) receive an electronic copy of personal information that you have provided to us, or ask us to send that information to another company (the “right of data portability”); (iv) restrict our uses of your personal information; (v) seek correction or amendment of inaccurate, untrue, incomplete, or improperly processed personal information; and (vi) request erasure of personal information held about you by Sweeten, subject to certain exceptions prescribed by law. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us as set forth below.

We will process such requests in accordance with applicable laws. To protect your privacy, Sweeten will take steps to verify your identity before fulfilling your request.

Data Retention.

We retain the personal information we receive as described in this Privacy Policy for as long as you use our Services or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our Services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws.

Security Of Your Information.

We take steps to ensure that your information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Unfortunately, the Internet cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you provide to us. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we do not accept liability for unauthorized disclosure.

By using the Services or providing personal information to us, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of the Services. If we learn of a security system’s breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically by sending a notice through the Services or by sending an e-mail to you.

Third Party Websites/Applications.

The Services may contain links to other websites/applications and other websites/applications may reference or link to our Services. These third-party services are not controlled by us. We encourage our users to read the privacy policies of each website and application with which they interact. We do not endorse, screen or approve, and are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other websites or applications. Visiting these other websites or applications is at your own risk.

Children’s Information.

The Services are not directed to children under 13 (or other age as required by local law), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you learn that your child has provided us with personal information without your consent, you may contact us as set forth below. If we learn that we have collected any child’s personal information in violation of applicable law, we will promptly take steps to delete such information.

Supervisory Authority.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you believe our processing of your personal information violates applicable law.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy.

We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time in our sole discretion. If there are any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you as required by applicable law. You understand and agree that you will be deemed to have accepted the updated Privacy Policy if you continue to use the Services after the new Privacy Policy takes effect.

Contact Us.

If you have any questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

[email protected]

+1 (212) 671-1713