Privacy Policy

Last updated December 18, 2022

Thank you for using Our Social Symbio!

Our Social Symbio (“Our Symbio”) is a new type of social network that aggregates your journaling of stories.  Currently, are a beta site being used in the U.S. and so our website is our only product (our "Product”). The website allows you use your stories to interact with each other in real time, and to share those interactions for others to enjoy later. We help people around the world come together to learn and gather people’s best stories. We provide a place to meet with friends and with new people to tell stories, ask questions, debate, learn, have impromptu conversations, and share them with others.

 

When you use our Product, you provide personal information to us. We wrote this privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy” or “Policy”) to help you understand what personal information we collect, how we use it and disclose it, how long we retain it, and what choices you have about it. This Policy does not cover information that does not identify you. Nor does it cover the practices of Our Symbio users. Users who read your stories, or view information you share on Our Symbio, might save that information outside of our Products using other tools.

You may have specific privacy rights in your state or region. In the United States, residents of California and other states have specific privacy rights. 

• Residents of California can find our California Consumer Privacy Act disclosures here .

These additional disclosures supplement, and should be read together with, this Privacy Policy.

Table Of Contents

Information We Collect

How We Use The Information We Collect

How We Disclose The Information We Collect

How Long We Keep Information

Managing Your Information

Transferring Information

Revisions

Contact Us

California Consumer Privacy Act Disclosures

 

1. Information We Collect

A. Information You Provide

When you use Our Symbio, we collect personal information that you provide to us. This includes:

Account Data

When you set up an account, we may ask you to provide information about yourself, including your name, phone number, email address, address, and date of birth.

Biographical Information

We may also ask you to provide us with some additional personal information about you that will be visible in our Product, such as a profile picture, and a bio in your profile to tell other Our Symbio users more about you. When you change your profile picture we store a copy of the new picture you upload and retain all profile pictures you uploaded previously for trust and safety purposes and in accordance with our data retention policies.

Interests

You have the option of choosing topics you’re interested in to help us better personalize our Product to you. You can decide whether your interests are shared with other users as part of your profile or hidden. You can add, remove, or hide interests whenever you want.

B. Information We Get When You Use Our Product

When you use our Product, we collect additional personal information based on your activity and other personal information you might choose to provide. This includes:

Usage And Activity Information

We collect information about when and how you use our Product. This includes information about the stories you create and what kind of content you’re interested in, and new profile pictures you might add.

Messages

We store the messages you send to and receive from other users and information about those messages, including the messages you send via Backchannel or other messaging features in the Product. We review the contents of these messages if a user reports, or we otherwise detect, a potential trust and safety violation or potentially illegal or illicit activity.

Other Communications

We collect information about the messages you send us when you contact us with questions or feedback, including the contents of those messages.

not collect names, email addresses, or any other information associated with your contacts.

Log Data And Device Information

We may collect information from and about the devices you use. In particular, we may collect information about your hardware and software, such as the hardware model, operating system version, device memory, unique application identifiers, apps installed, unique device identifiers, browser type, and information about your wireless and mobile network connections, such as mobile phone number, service provider, IP address, and signal strength.

Cookie Information

We use cookies (small text files sent by your computer each time you visit our website, unique to your Our Symbio account or your browser) to get log data. Some of these cookies are used to help us understand how many people use our service, and how they use it. Other cookies are used to help us track the efficiency of our advertising campaigns on other platforms.

C. Information From Third Parties

Service Providers

We may also receive information about you from our service providers.

2. How We Use The Information We Collect

We use the personal information we collect to provide our Products to you and to improve them. Specifically, we use the data we collect to:

• Register your account, verify your identity, and verify the accuracy of your information.
• Develop, operate, improve, maintain, and protect our Product.
• Personalize our Product by showing you relevant content, and other content we think you might like, and to help you and your friends connect with one another on Our Symbio.
• Send you communications. For example, we may use email or text messages to respond to support inquiries, share information about our Product, and tell you what’s happening on Our Symbio.
• Monitor and enhance the safety and security of our Product.
• Monitor and analyze user engagement, trends, and usage.
• Assess the efficiency of our advertising campaigns on other platforms.
• Handle and record user rights requests, including opt-ins and opt-outs.
• Prevent fraud or other unauthorized or illegal activity.
• Enforce, investigate, and report conduct violating our Terms of Use, or other policies.
• Respond to requests from law enforcement agencies or other government agencies, and comply with legal or regulatory requirements.

3. How We Disclose The Information We Collect

We do not sell personal information about our users. We may, however, disclose that information to:

Services we use to market Our Symbio

When we market our Product, we may disclose information to the websites and apps we use to market our Products, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Trade Desk, or others.

Service providers and other third parties

We employ third parties to process information on our behalf based on our instructions and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including providers of services relating to cloud computing, analytics, security, enforcement of content policies, and user support.

Law enforcement or governmental or non-governmental organizations

If we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation or legal request; to protect the safety, rights or property of the public, any person or Our Symbio; or to detect, prevent or otherwise address illegal conduct, fraud, security or technical issues, we may disclose information to law enforcement agencies, other governmental agencies, or private parties as needed.

Our wholly owned subsidiaries and affiliates

If we were to engage in a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, or similar transaction or proceeding that involves the transfer of the information described in this Policy, we would disclose your information to a party involved in such a process (for example, a purchaser).

4. How Long We Keep Information

We keep your personal information only for as long as we reasonably need it to provide our Product to you and fulfill the purposes described in this Policy. This is also the case for anyone that we disclose your personal information to and who carries out services on our behalf. In general, this means we will retain your personal information for as long as you have an Our Symbio account. We may delete some personal information earlier based on changes to your account settings, such as if you instruct us to delete your contacts. When we no longer need to use your personal information and there is no need for us to keep it to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations, we’ll remove any information that can identify you from our systems.

 

As explained above, we monitor for violations of our Terms of Use or for otherwise illegal or illicit activity. If a user or our automated systems flag potential violations, we will retain the information as reasonably necessary to investigate the potential violation. Otherwise, we will delete the posting after its created.

5. Managing Your Information

There are a variety of ways you can manage the personal information we have about you. Specifically, you can:

• Request access to the information we collect and hold about you. We'll aim to provide this to you within 30 days after you submit your request to our email:  info@oursymbio.com.
• Have your information corrected or deleted. You can update your information on your profile or delete your data by closing your account.
• Protect your profile. If you want to restrict the availability of certain information in your Our Symbio profile, you can do so in your account settings page. 
• Opt out of marketing communications. You may opt out of marketing-related emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions contained in the communications we send you. You may also opt out of marketing-related emails in your account settings page.
• Opt out of push notifications. If you opt in to receive push notifications within the Product, we may send push notifications or alerts to your mobile device from time to time. 
• Pause or reduce notifications. If you want to pause notifications for a while, or reduce the number of notifications Our Symbio sends you, you can do so in your account settings page.
• Revoke consent you have given or object to us processing your information. You can revoke any consent you have given us by adjusting your settings, or object to processing personal information in certain circumstances.

6. Transferring Information

We are based in the United States and rely on cloud storage providers that store user data on our behalf in the United States. When you use our Product, your personal information may be transferred and stored outside your home country, including in the United States, for the purposes described in this Policy. The privacy protections and the rights of authorities to access your personal information in such countries may not be equivalent to those of your home country.

7. Revisions

We may change this Policy from time to time. If we do, we’ll post any changes on this page. We will provide a more prominent notice or get your consent where required by law.

8. Contact Us

The best way to manage personal information about you as described above or get in touch with us is through your account settings. MyAboutYou, Inc. (doing business as Our Social Symbio) is responsible for your information. You can contact Our Social Symbio at [PO BOX].

California Consumer Privacy Act Disclosures

Last Modified: May 16, 2022

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requires us to disclose categories of Personal Information we collect and how we use it, the categories of sources from whom we collect Personal Information, and the third parties with whom we share it, which we have explained above. This notice supplements information contained in our Privacy  Policy and applies solely to residents of the State of California (“consumers” or “you”). Any terms defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended from time to time (“CCPA”) have the same meaning when used in this notice and policy. This notice and policy does not reflect our collection, use, or disclosure of California residents’ personal information, or data subject rights, where an exception under the CCPA applies. You can download a pdf version of the notice and policy here .

1. Your Rights To Access And Deletion

Access. You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we collect, use, or disclose about you. You can submit a request for this information via email: info@oursymbio.com.

Deletion. You also have the right to request the deletion of personal information. You can submit a request for the deletion of personal information via email: info@oursymbio.com.

Verification. Our Symbio may ask you to provide certain information to verify your identity. The information that we ask you to provide to verify your identity will depend on your prior interactions with us and the sensitivity of the personal information at issue. Our Symbio will respond to your request in accordance with the CCPA. If we deny your request, we will explain why.

Exceptions. In accordance with the CCPA, Our Symbio will not provide the following information in response to access requests for the following reasons:

• Account data such as account passwords and identity verification codes, unmasked phone numbers, or email addresses, because of the sensitive nature of the information.
• Other users’ and employees’ personal information, including the names and account information of individuals who may have invited you to the app, other users’ feedback, and employees’ comments because the information belongs to other persons and disclosing it may impact their rights.
• Internal proprietary attributes that enable us to provide various aspects of our app, including channel and room customization, suspension decisions, and content suggestions, because the information is protected by federal and state trade secret law.
• Server logs that are older than 30 days because we use these to ensure the security and integrity of our app.

Our Symbio does not sell the personal information of its users. When a business sells your personal information, you have a right to opt out. Our Symbio does not sell, and in the preceding 12 months did not sell, California residents’ personal information. Our Symbio does not have actual knowledge that it sells the personal information of minors under 16 years of age.

2. Personal Information Handling Practices

Below you will find a list of the categories of personal information we collect about California residents and have collected in the preceding 12 months. For each category of personal information we have collected, we reference to the enumerated category or categories of personal information in the CCPA that most closely describe the personal information.

 

Personal Information Handling Practices

CCPA Category	Category Of Personal Information We Collect
Identifiers	Name, username, telephone number, e-mail address, IP address, profile picture, address, information provided in user’s profile or bio
Categories listed in the California Customer Records Act (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e))	Name, username, date of birth, telephone number, e-mail address, IP address, profile picture,  messages sent and received from other Our Symbio users, questions or feedback sent to Our Symbio
Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law	Age, Date of Birth
Commercial information	Purchase or transaction history, interests, app usage and activity information, following and follower lists, contact lists (hashed telephone numbers only), questions or feedback sent to Our Symbio
Internet or other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, browsing history, search history, and information regarding a consumer’s interaction with an Internet Web website, application, or advertisement	IP address, domain name, browsing history, browser type and settings, operating system, network information, service provider, signal strength, device type, device memory, device’s call log data, unique application identifier, unique device identifier, apps installed on device, time of visit, duration of visit, date and time stamps of actions
Geolocation data	IP address
Professional or Employment related information	Information that may be supplied in user’s bio
Education Information	Information that may be supplied in user’s bio
Inferences drawn from the information above	Information about user activity used to personalize recommendations or other content a user might enjoy on Our Symbio.

Our Symbio collects this personal information from the following sources:

 

• Information Provided By You. When you use Our Symbio, we collect personal information that you provide to us. When you set up an account, we may ask you to provide information about yourself, including your name, phone number, email address, and date of birth. “Account Data.” We may also ask you to provide us with some additional personal information that will be publicly visible in our Products, such as a profile picture, a bio in your profile to tell other Our Symbio users more about you, and topics you’re interested in.
• Information We Get From You When You Use Our Product. When you use our Product, we collect additional personal information based on your activity and other personal information you might choose to disclose. As discussed in our Privacy Policy, this may include usage and activity information, other communications, transaction data, contacts, log data and device information, and cookie data. Our Symbio may collect information from the computer, tablet, phone or other device that you use to access our Product, or that you use to open an email or click on an advertisement from Our Symbio. Our Symbio does not respond to “do not track signals.”

 

Our Symbio collects, uses, retains, and discloses this personal information for the following purposes:

• Register your account, verify your identity, and verify the accuracy of your information.
• Develop, operate, improve, deliver, maintain, and protect our Product.
• Personalize our Products by showing you relevant content.
• Send you communications via email or text message. For example, we may use email or text messages to respond to support inquiries, share information about our Products, highlight content we think you might like, tell you about features we think you might like to hear about, or suggest ways to improve your Our Symbio experience.
• Monitor and enhance the safety and security of our Product.
• Monitor and analyze user engagement, trends, and usage.
• Assess the efficiency of our advertising campaigns on other platforms.
• Handle and record consumer rights requests, including opt-ins and opt-outs.
• Prevent fraud or other unauthorized or illegal activity.
• Enforce, investigate, and report conduct violating our Terms of Use or other policies.
• Respond to requests from law enforcement agencies or other government agencies, and comply with legal or regulatory requirements.
•  

3. Sharing Of Personal Information

In the preceding 12 months, Our Symbio disclosed the above categories of personal information to the following categories of third parties for a business purpose, in some cases as directed by you:

• Third parties and service providers that provide products or services to us. In particular, companies that help us support our Products or provide services to you. Our Symbio may use third parties or service providers to process information on our behalf based on our instructions and for the purposes described in the Privacy Policy, audit interactions and transactions with you, address security, fix errors, assist with our advertising or marketing, maintain accounts and provide customer service, assist with our internal research, and verify service quality or safety.
• Other online services you connect to your Our Symbio account. If you link your Our Symbio account to Twitter, Instagram, or any other services, we may disclose your information to those other services at your direction when using our Products.
• Government regulatory authorities. We may disclose your personal information to relevant government regulatory authorities if we believe the disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation; protect the safety, rights or property of the public, or any person or Our Symbio; or to detect, prevent or otherwise address illegal conduct, fraud, technical or security issues.

4. Non-Discrimination

Our Symbio will not discriminate against you if you exercise your privacy rights.

5. Authorized Agent

In addition to exercising your rights yourself, you may also designate an authorized agent to make these requests under the CCPA on your behalf. In order to do this, we may ask you to verify the request directly using the phone number or email address connected to your account, or via other means. The information Our Symbio asks you to provide to verify your identity may depend on your prior interactions with us and the sensitivity of the personal information at issue.

6. Contact Information

If you have any questions or comments about this notice and policy, the ways in which we collect and use your personal information, or your choices and rights regarding such use, please do not hesitate to contact us via our Knowledge Center, or at the following address:

Our Social Symbio

[ADDRESS]

E-mail: info@oursymbio.com

 

Thank you for using Our Social Symbio!