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Privacy Policy

ThoughtWorld, Inc. (“ThoughtWorld”), the provider of the thoughtworld.com online user community and related websites and digital properties (the “Platform”) permits only real people to contribute thoughts or vote on the Platform.

 A.  Information we collect from you

In using the Platform, you will provide us with information about yourself, and we value and respect your privacy.  Here is a summary of information we collect from you:

1.  Your Thoughts.

While using the site, we expect that you will vote on thoughts, submit new thoughts, and comment on the thoughts of others.  Part of our purpose is to help people understand what other people think about things, so we will show others information about your votes and thoughts, but only in an aggregated manner.  ThoughtWorld will group your opinions with the opinions of others so that other people can see and understand trends about public opinion in various groups.  We will never share your opinions with anyone without your express permission. Protecting your privacy is one of our core values.

2.  Your Identity.

To maintain the integrity of the Platform, we must ensure that people cannot use multiple aliases to skew voting results, and that bots cannot pose as real people to manipulate the system. Accordingly, we may use various methods such as multi-factor authentication, third party database verification, or other verification techniques to ensure that each human user has only one ThoughtWorld alias at a time.  So, ThoughtWorld may collect the following information from you:

  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • Your mobile telephone number
  • Your physical residence address
  • Other information you voluntarily give us on your “My Account” page to help us customize your experience.  You can select which information you choose to provide, which may include a wide variety of topics including your age, race, gender, ethnicity, political preferences, income bracket,

        We refer to the information above as your “Personally Identifiable Information” or “PII”.  We use this PII:

  1. To validate you as a real person.
  2. To customize your feed.
  3. To give you an experience that is tailored to the size of screen and device or location you use to connect.
  4. To show you thoughts from others in your geographic area.

3. Technical Information.

Like many other websites, we store small pieces of information on your computer or mobile device (“cookies”) so that our system can remember who you are and how you are interacting with the Platform.  Our Platform will not function correctly without some essential cookies.  If you want to use the platform, these basic cookies must be accepted.  In addition to cookies, we also collect the following technical information:

  • The IP address and device settings from the device you used to log in
  • The type of browser you are using
  • The website you came from or the ad you clicked on to find us
  • The country of origin where your internet connection originates

We use this information to format our pages for your device and browser, to give you customized content, and to improve the site by studying how you use the site.

B.  Information we DO NOT provide to Advertisers

Most advertising you view on the internet tracks the users who view the ad and collect various other kinds of information from you.  At ThoughtWorld, we believe this practice violates a user’s privacy so we do not permit the display of ads on the site.  We may allow retailers or others to purchase the right to display images or logos in the world (“digital artifacts”), but we will never allow those digital artifacts to track the identity of users who view them.

We may purchase advertising on other platforms to tell people about thoughts appearing on ThoughtWorld.  If we do, those sites may provide us with information about people who click on those ads.  If we receive any of that information, we may use it to enhance our profile information for you, but we will not disclose it to any third party.

C. Information We Give Others

1.  Our Service Providers.

ThoughtWorld uses various service providers to support the Platform. All of these service providers are under confidentiality obligations to ThoughtWorld and have agreed to keep your information confidential and not to use it except when necessary in providing services for us. Our vendors include:

  • Hosting companies
  • Internet service providers
  • Authentication services
  • Identity verification services

2. Connection Invitations.

ThoughtWorld customers may request to be connected with people who like a particular thought or combination of thoughts. In those circumstances, ThoughtWorld may offer you the opportunity to be connected with its customer. If you refuse the invitation, neither your identity nor the fact that you refused the invitation will be revealed to the customer. If you accept the connection invitation, the customer will be given your email address and real name, but not your screen name or alias.

3. Aggregated Information

The primary product we sell is a set of online dashboards that allow our customers to understand what groups of people think.  These dashboards allow customers to compare trends between thoughts and target people within certain demographic categories.  We will never disclose your information on dashboards without aggregating your information with others so that your identity is protected.

 4. Developers and Contractors

We use the services of third party developers located both in the United States and in other countries to assist us with developing the Platform.  In each case, those developers provide services under a written agreement with ThoughtWorld that requires that they keep all of your information confidential and not use or disclose it for any purpose other than fulfilling the engagement.

D.  Managing Your Data

1. Deletion of Your Data

If you would like us to permanently delete your PII, please send a request to [email protected] and we will purge the PII you have provided us from the Platform.

2. Consumer Information Requests

Requests for a copy of the information ThoughtWorld has about you—including EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) data subject access requests and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) consumer information requests—can be submitted by sending an email request to info@ thoughtworld.com.  Before we process a request from you about your personal information, we need to verify the request via your access to your ThoughtWorld account or to a verified email address associated with your ThoughtWorld account. You may also designate an authorized agent to exercise these rights on your behalf.

3. Additional Information for EEA Users

Users in the European Economic Area have the right to request access to, rectification of, or erasure of their personal data; to data portability in certain circumstances; to request restriction of processing; to object to processing; and to withdraw consent for processing where they have previously provided consent. These rights can be exercised by contacting us at [email protected].  EEA users also have the right to lodge a complaint with their local supervisory authority.

As required by applicable law, we collect and process information about individuals in the EEA only where we have a legal basis for doing so. Our legal bases depend on the Services you use and how you use them. We process your information on the following legal bases:

  • You have consented for us to do so for a specific purpose;
  • We need to process the information to provide you the Services, including to operate the Platform, provide customer support and personalized features and to protect the safety and security of the Services;
  • It satisfies a legitimate interest (which is not overridden by your data protection interests), such as preventing fraud, ensuring network and information security, enforcing our rules and policies, protecting our legal rights and interests, research and development, personalizing the Services, and marketing and promoting the Services; or
  • We need to process your information to comply with our legal obligations.

4. Additional Information for California Users

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) requires us to provide California residents with some additional information about the categories of personal information we collect and share, where we get that personal information, and how and why we use it.

In the last 12 months, we collected the following categories of personal information from California residents, depending on the Services used:

  • Identifiers, like your ThoughtWorld alias, email address, IP address, and cookie information;
  • If you received compensation from us, or purchased services or products from us, information regarding your financial account, such as your account number, financial institution, or other related information necessary for us to process the related transaction;
  • Geolocation information based on your IP address, or more specific location information if you authorize your device to provide it to us;

You can find more information about (a) what we collect and sources of that information, (b) the business and commercial purposes for collecting that information, and (c) the categories of third parties with whom we share that information in the “Information We Give Others”section above.

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the CCPA, including the right to request access to or deletion of your personal information, and information about our data practices, as well as the right not to be discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights. These rights can be exercised by contacting us at [email protected] as described above.

E. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most current version of the policy will govern our processing of your personal data and will always be located at thoughtworld.com/privacy. If we make a change to this policy that, in our sole discretion, is material, we will notify you through the Platform, or by sending an email to the email address associated with your account. By continuing to access or use the Services after those changes become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Policy.

 

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