Birdcalls Privacy Policy

Birdcalls utilizes state-of-the-art security and encryption. Your messages and data are always encrypted, so they can never be shared or viewed by anyone but yourself and the intended recipients. 

Birdcalls has taken additional steps to collect as little info from you as possible. For that reason, we do not require a phone number, or email address to sign up and use our services. However, if you wish to receive newsletters and/or blog notifications, you are welcome to opt-in to those separately and you will need to provide an email to do so. 

Information you provide

Account Information. You register a username when you create a Birdcalls account. Usernames are used to provide our Services to you and other Birdcalls users. You may optionally add other information to your account, such as a profile name and profile picture. This information is encrypted.

Messages. Birdcalls cannot decrypt or otherwise access the content of your messages or data. Birdcalls queues encrypted messages on its servers for delivery to devices that are temporarily offline (e.g. a phone whose battery has died). Your message history is stored on your own devices.

Additional technical information is stored on our servers, including randomly generated authentication tokens, keys, push tokens, and other material that is necessary. Birdcalls limits this additional technical information to the minimum required to operate the Services.

User Support. If you contact Birdcalls User Support, any personal data you may share with us is kept only for the purposes of researching the issue and contacting you about your case.

Managing your information. You can manage your personal information in Birdcalls’ application Settings. 

Information we may share

Third Parties. We work with third parties to provide some of our Services. For example, our Third-Party payment providers process your payment info. These providers are bound by their Privacy Policies to safeguard that information. 

Other instances where Birdcalls may need to share your data

  • To meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.

  • To enforce applicable Terms, including investigation of potential violations.

  • To detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues.

  • To protect against harm to the rights, property, or safety of Birdcalls, our users, or the public as required or permitted by law.

Birdcalls is designed to collect or store as little sensitive information as possible.  The information we are capable of sharing includes: 

  • IP address

  • Date/time you signed up

  • Date/time you last accessed the service

  • Amount of encrypted data you store

  • Payment info

  • Account balance

Your rights and choices

Special terms related to the EEA/UK

If you reside in the EEA or the UK, the following terms apply to you.

Legal basis for processing

We may process your personal data because you have given us permission to do so (e.g., by sending data through our Platform’s contact or signup forms), because the processing is in our legitimate interests and it is not overridden by your rights, or because we need to process your personal data to perform a contract with you or comply with the law.

Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws concerning your personal data. Your rights may include the following:

  • Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

  • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

  • Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully, or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons that will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party), and there is something about your particular situation that makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information that override your rights and freedoms.

  • Request restriction of processing your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful, but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data, but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information that you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

  • Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at [email protected].

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made several requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Withdrawing your consent. Where you have provided your consent to the collection, use, and transfer of your personal data, you may have the legal right to withdraw your consent under certain circumstances. To withdraw your consent, if applicable, contact us at [email protected]. Please note that if you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with a particular product or service. We will explain the impact to you at the time to help you with your decision.

Special terms related to California Residents

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 (see Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights), 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 (see Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights), 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 our service providers or us to:

  1. 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, fulfill the terms of a written warranty or product recall conducted under federal law, or otherwise perform our contract with you.

  2. Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.

  3. Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.

  4. Exercise free speech. Ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.

  5. Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).

  6. 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.

  7. Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.

  8. Comply with a legal obligation.

  9. 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:

Only you, or someone legally authorized 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. However, we do consider requests made through your password-protected account sufficiently verified when the request relates to personal information associated with that specific account.

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 45 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 useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.


Non-Discrimination

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.

However, we may offer you certain financial incentives permitted by the CCPA that can result in different prices, rates, or quality levels. Any CCPA-permitted financial incentive we offer will reasonably relate to your personal information’s value and contain written terms that describe the program’s material aspects. Participation in a financial incentive program requires your prior opt-in consent, which you may revoke at any time.

Other California Privacy Rights

California’s “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our Website that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make that request, please send an email to [email protected].


Updates

We will update this privacy policy as needed so that it is current, accurate, and as clear as possible. Your continued use of our Services confirms your acceptance of our updated Privacy Policy.

Terms

Please also read our Terms which also governs the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Contact Us

If you have questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us at [email protected] or mail at:

Attn: Birdcalls,

5540 Centerview Dr Ste 204
PMB 73779
Raleigh, North Carolina 27606-8012 US

Effective as of October 07th, 2021