Privacy Policy
Last Updated: October 18th, 2021
For members of the media, Qwoted’s mission is to facilitate connections with experts instantly, sparing your inbox from PR spam and diversifying your sources all in one place. Qwoted also helps PRS and Sources build relationships with the media, including by reviewing questions from media members, and by pitching themselves or their clients as experts.
Our Commitment to User Transparency
All active profiles on Qwoted are public and transparent.
To deliver value to our community and protect it against spam, it is essential for Qwoted platform users to know with certainty the identity of other users with whom they interact. Users who elect to change their profile to a private setting will no longer be visible to the Qwoted community and thus the majority of the features that Qwoted provides will no longer be available to those users.
Our Privacy Practices
Qwoted may collect personal information from users who interact with our services, including website visitors, individual experts and their representatives, and brands, registered media users, and other demand-side clients who are looking to retain experts. These individuals may provide information about themselves (for examples, experts who sign up for the platform) and about each other (for example, PR professionals who represent experts and provide information about their clients). We may also collect information from third parties and combine with it with the information provided by platform users.
Information We Collect About Experts
- Contact details, such as name, age, email address, state, and phone number;
- Expertise qualifications, such as education, employment history, years of experience in a particular field, speaking and writing engagements, industry affiliations, and references;
- Account data, such as connections and interactions on our platform, including interactions between experts, their representatives and demand-side clients that engage with the experts, transaction history, other statistics about experts’ profiles and use of the platform, and feedback from demand-side clients on experts’ engagement with them;
- Communications that we exchange with experts, including when they contact us with questions, feedback, or otherwise;
- Marketing data, such as experts’ preferences for receiving our marketing communications, and details about their engagement with those communications; and
- Other information experts may choose to provide on our platform.
Information We Collect About PR Professionals and Representatives of PR Agencies, Registered Media Users, and Other Demand-Side Clients
- Business contact details, such as name, employer, and other business contact information;
- Account data, such as connections and interactions on our platform, including interactions between these users, experts and demand-side clients, services usage history, other statistics, and feedback from other users;
- Communications that we exchange with users, including when they contact us with questions, feedback, or otherwise;
- Marketing data, such as users’ preferences for receiving our marketing communications, and details about their engagement with those communications; and
- Other information demand-side clients choose to provide on our platform.
Automatic Data Collection
We, our service providers, and our advertising partners may automatically log information about users’ interactions with our services and communications, such as:
- Device data, such as computer or mobile device operating system type and version, manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, RAM and disk size, CPU usage, device type (e.g., phone, tablet), IP address, unique identifiers (including identifiers used for advertising purposes), language settings, mobile device carrier, radio/network information (e.g., WiFi, LTE, 3G), and general location information such as city, state, or geographic area.
- Online activity data, such as pages or screens viewed, how long users spend on a page or screen, the website they visited before browsing to our website, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about activity on a page or screen, access times and duration of access, and whether users open our marketing emails or click links within them.
We also may allow our advertising partners to collect this information through our website.
We use the following tools for automatic data collection:
- Cookies, which are text files that websites store on a visitor‘s device to uniquely identify the visitor’s browser or to store information or settings in the browser for the purpose of helping users navigate between pages efficiently, remembering their preferences, enabling functionality, helping us understand user activity and patterns, and facilitating online advertising.
- Local storage technologies, like HTML5, that provide cookie-equivalent functionality but can store larger amounts of data, including on the device outside of the user’s browser in connection with specific applications.
- Web beacons, also known as pixel tags or clear GIFs, which are used to demonstrate that a webpage or email was accessed or opened, or that certain content was viewed or clicked.
How We Use Personal Information
We use the personal information for the following purposes:
Service delivery, including to:
- Help to facilitate connections between our experts, their representatives, and demand-side clients,
- Provide, operate, and improve our services and our business;
- Communicate about our services, including by sending announcements, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
- Understand users’ needs and interests, and personalize their experience within the services and communications; and
- Provide support, and respond to requests, questions, and feedback.
Research and development, including to:
- Develop new features, products, and services; and
- Create aggregated, de-identified, or other anonymous data or analytics
Marketing and advertising, including to:
Market our services and other services that we believe may be of interest to our users; users may opt out of our marketing communications as described in the “Opt out of marketing communications” section below.
Interest-based advertising. We engage our advertising partners, including third
party advertising companies and social media companies, to advertise our and our customers’ and partners’ services. We
and our advertising partners may use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about users’ interaction
(including the data described in the “Automatic data collection” section above) over time across the web, our
communications, and other online services, and use that information to serve online ads. To learn more about choices for
limiting interest-based advertising, see the “Online tracking opt out” section below.
Compliance and protection, including to:
- Comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities;
- Protect our, our users’, or others’ rights, privacy, safety, or property (including by making and defending legal claims);
- Audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements and internal policies;
- Enforce the terms and conditions that govern our website and services; and
- Prevent, identify, investigate, and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical, or illegal activity, including cyberattacks and identity theft.
How We Share Personal Information
We may share personal information with:
Service providers. Companies and individuals that provide services on our behalf or help us operate our services or our business (such as hosting, information technology, customer support, email delivery, and website analytics services).
Managing entities. When users participate on our platform on behalf of their employer or another entity, that entity has access to the users’ account information and personal information.
Advertising partners. Third party advertising companies, including for the interest-based advertising purposes described above, that may collect information on our website through cookies and other automated technologies.
Professional advisors. Professional advisors, such as lawyers, auditors, bankers, and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.
Authorities and others. Law enforcement, government authorities, and private parties, as we believe in good faith to be necessary or appropriate for the compliance and protection purposes described above.
Business transferees. Acquirers and other relevant participants in business transactions (or negotiations for such transactions) involving a corporate divestiture, merger, consolidation, acquisition, reorganization, sale, or other disposition of all or any portion of the business or assets of, or equity interests in, Qwoted or our affiliates (including in connection with a bankruptcy or similar proceedings).
How Platform Users May Share Personal Information on Qwoted
The goal of our platform is to allow experts, their representatives, and demand side clients to interact. In this interaction, users will share information with each other. We facilitate that data sharing, so when individuals use our services, these individuals direct us to share information about themselves. Depending on how users use the services, they may share personal data with
- Other users, such as PR professionals and demand-side clients;
- The public, through profiles and other details that visible to others on the platform, including through our directories; this information may become publicly available and can be collected, viewed and used by anyone; and
- Third-party social media platforms, including when users choose to connect their accounts on those services with Qwoted.
Privacy Choices
Make certain aspects of the user’s profile private. To deliver value to our community and protect it against spam, it is essential for Qwoted platform users to know with certainty the identity of other users with whom they interact. Users who elect to change their profile to a private setting will no longer be visible to the Qwoted community and thus the majority of the features that Qwoted provides will no longer be available to those users.
Opt out of marketing communications. You may opt out of marketing-related emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the emails you receive from us. You may continue to receive service-related and other non-marketing emails.
Online tracking opt-out. There are a number of ways to limit the tracking of your online activity and collection of device data through automated means, which we have summarized below:
Blocking cookies in your browser. Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies, including cookies used for interest-based advertising. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your device and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
Blocking advertising ID use in your mobile settings. Your mobile device settings may provide functionality to limit use of the advertising ID associated with your mobile device for interest-based advertising purposes.
Using privacy plug-ins or browsers. You can block our websites from setting cookies used for interest-based ads by using a browser with privacy features, like Brave, or installing browser plugins like Privacy Badger, Ghostery, or uBlock Origin, and configuring them to block third party cookies/trackers. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Platform opt outs. The following advertising partners offer opt-out features that let you opt-out of use of your information for interest-based advertising:
- Google: adssettings.google.com
Advertising industry opt-out tools. You can also use these opt-out options to limit use of your information for interest-based advertising by participating companies:
- Digital Advertising Alliance for Websites: optout.aboutads.info
- Digital Advertising Alliance for Mobile Apps: www.youradchoices.com/appchoices
- Network Advertising Initiative: optout.networkadvertising.org/
Note that because these opt-out mechanisms are specific to the device or browser on which they are exercised, you will need to opt-out on every browser and device that you use.
Please note that some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” or similar signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit www.allaboutdnt.com.
Notice to California Consumers
The CCPA requires us to provide this supplemental privacy notice to our consumers in California.
Business users. This CCPA Notice and the rights it describes do not apply to any individuals who interact with us in their capacity as representatives of businesses to which we may provide services or which may provide services to us. This means that if user engages with Qwoted on behalf of the user’s employer or any business (including your sole proprietorship), this notice and the CCPA rights do not apply to you.
The CCPA grants California residents the following rights.
- Information. This Privacy Policy explains how we use and share personal information through the services during the past 12 months. We describe the sources through which we collect personal information and the types of personal information collected in the “Personal Information We Collect” section above. We describe the purposes for which we use and share this information in the “How We Use Personal Information” section above and the “How We Share Personal Information” section above.
- Access. Users can request a copy of the personal information that we maintain about them.
- Deletion. Users can ask to delete the personal information that we maintain about them.
- Opt out of sale of your personal information. We do not sell personal data. As we explain in this Privacy Policy, we use cookies and other tracking technologies to analyze website and application traffic and use, and to facilitate advertising. To limit use of cookies and other tracking technologies, please review the instructions provided in the “Online tracking opt out” section below.
Please note that the CCPA limits these rights by, for example, prohibiting businesses from providing certain sensitive information in response to an access request and limiting the circumstances in which they must comply with a deletion request.
Users are entitled to exercise the rights described above free from discrimination.
To request access to or deletion of personal information collected via the services, users may email us at support@qwoted.com or call us at +1 (917) 765-9411.
To verify the user’s identity prior to responding to a request, we may ask the user to confirm information that we have on file about the user or the user’s interactions with us. We may ask for additional personal information to verify the user’s identity or to establish the authority of an authorized agent to submit a requests on behalf of the user.
Users may submit complaints about our use of personal information or our response to their requests by contacting us.
Notice to European Residents
Users who are residents of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland (collectively, “Europe”) may have additional rights described in this Notice to European Residents, to the extent the General Data Protection Regulation or the UK GDPR (collectively, the “GDPR”) apply to our interactions with those users.
Controller and European Representatives. Qwoted Inc. is the controller of your personal data processed in connection with the services. Our contact information is as follows:
Qwoted Inc.
31 E 17th St
New York, NY 10010
+1 (917) 765-9411
support@qwoted.com
We have appointed DataRep as our representative in the European Union and the UK for data protection matters, pursuant to Article 27 of the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union and UK Privacy Law. As described in more detail in the “Data rights” section below, GDPR and UK Privacy Law gives you certain rights regarding our processing of your personal information. If you want to pose a question regarding our processing of your personal information or otherwise exercise your rights in respect of such processing, you can contact DataRep by:
- Sending an email to qwoted@datarep.com,
Using the online webform available at www.datarep.com/qwoted
Sending a letter to one of the addresses listed below. Please note:
- We also have addresses in all other EU member countries and in the UK which can be provided upon request by sending an email to support@qwoted.com.
- When sending letters, it is essential to address them to “DataRep,” and not to “Qwoted, Inc.,” or your inquiry may not reach us.
| Ireland | DataRep, The Cube, Monahan Road, Cork, T12 H1XY, Republic of Ireland |
| United Kingdom | DataRep, 107-111 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2AB, United Kingdom |
On receiving your communication, DataRep may request evidence of your identity, to ensure your personal information is not provided to anyone other than you. If you have any concerns over how DataRep will handle your personal information required to undertake its services, please refer to www.dpr.eu.com/legal-privacy.
Data rights. Users may have the following rights with respect to data for which we are the “data controller”:
- Access. Request that we provide the user with information about our processing of the user’s personal information and give the user access to their personal information.
- Deletion. Request that we delete the personal information that we maintain about the user.
- Correction. Request that we update or correct inaccuracies in the user’s personal information.
- Transfer. Request that we transfer a machine-readable copy of the user’s personal information to the user or a third party the user designates.
- Restriction. Request that we restrict the processing (including sharing) of the user’s personal information, including the sharing of the data with our customers.
- Objection. Object to our reliance on our legitimate interests as the basis of our processing of the user’s personal information that impacts their rights.
Applicable law may limit these rights by, for example, by prohibiting businesses from providing certain sensitive information in response to an access request and limiting the circumstances in which they must comply with a deletion request. If we decline a request, we will explain why we took that action, subject to legal restrictions.
Users are entitled to exercise the rights described above free from discrimination.
Legal Bases for Processing
The “How We Use Personal Information” section above sets out our data processing purposes. We will only process personal information if we have a lawful basis for doing so. Lawful bases for processing include consent, contractual necessity, and our “legitimate interests” or the legitimate interest of others, but 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 for each category of processing activity are set out below.
Our legal bases for processing the personal information described in this Privacy Policy are described in the table below.
| Processing Purpose | Legal Basis |
|---|---|
| Service delivery | Processing is necessary to perform the contract governing our provision of services in connection with the services or based on our legitimate interest in providing the services you access and request in connection with the services. These services include facilitating users’ ability to share information on our platform. |
| Research and development | These activities constitute our legitimate interests. We do not use personal information for these activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on the individual (unless we have the individual’s consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). |
| Compliance and protection | These activities constitute our legitimate interests. We do not use personal information for these activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on the individual (unless we have the individual’s consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). Processing is also necessary to comply with our legal obligations. |
| Marketing and advertising | These activities constitute our legitimate interests. We do not use personal information for these activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on the individual (unless we have the individual’s consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). |
| With user’s consent | Processing is based on your consent. Where we rely on the user’s consent, the user has the right to withdraw it any time. |
Processing Personal Information in the US
We are headquartered in the United States. To provide our services and operate our website, it is necessary for us to process personal information in the United States.
If we transfer personal information across borders such that we are required to apply appropriate safeguards to personal information under applicable data protection laws, we will do so. Please contact us for further information about any such transfers or the specific safeguards applied.
Platform Users and Third-Party Services
Our platform contain links to websites and other online services operated by third parties. For example, the platform features links to certain media brands, PR agencies, and others. In addition, our content may be integrated into web pages or other online services that are not associated with us. These links and integrations are not an endorsement of or representation that we are affiliated with any third party. We do not control websites or online services operated by third parties, and we are not responsible for their actions.
Information Security
We employ a number of technical, organizational, and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information we collect. However, no security measures are failsafe and we cannot guarantee the security of personal information.
Please note that we cannot prevent users or third parties from collecting information on Qwoted, including by automated means, scraping, etc. We are not responsible for the actions of these users or third parties. Additionally, some of our users may retain third parties to use our platform on their behalf. In such case, and as described in our Terms of Service — users are responsible for the actions of any third parties they authorize to use the platform on their behalf.
Children
Our services are not intended for use by children under 18 years of age. If we learn that we have collected personal information through our services from a child under 18 without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian as required by law, we will delete it.
Retention
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, to establish or defend legal claims, or for fraud prevention purposes. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of personal information, the purposes for which we process personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will provide a notification by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on the website.
How to Contact Us
You can reach us by email at support@qwoted.com or at the following mailing address:
Qwoted Inc.
31 E 17th St
New York, NY 10010
