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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 17 July 2024

1. Introduction

Welcome to thing-e ("us", "we", or "our"). We operate the thing-e.xyz website and the thing-e suite of applications, including hack-e, read-e, and pod-e (collectively, the "Service"). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our Service.

This policy is governed by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018. If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy notice, or our practices with regards to your personal information, please contact us at [email protected].

2. What Information We Collect

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register on the Service, express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when you participate in activities on the Service or otherwise when you contact us.

The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Service, the choices you make and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect may include the following:

  • Account Information: If you create an account, we may collect your username, email address, and password.
  • User Content: For applications that allow content creation or saving (e.g., saved articles in read-e, notes in hack-e), we store this data on your behalf to provide the Service.
  • Communications: If you contact us directly, we may receive additional information about you such as your name, email address, the contents of the message and/or attachments you may send us, and any other information you may choose to provide.

Information automatically collected:

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use or navigate the Service. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our Service and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Service, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use personal information collected via our Service for a variety of business purposes described below. We process your personal information for these purposes in reliance on our legitimate business interests, in order to enter into or perform a contract with you, with your consent, and/or for compliance with our legal obligations. We indicate the specific processing grounds we rely on next to each purpose listed below.

  • To provide, operate, and maintain our Service.
  • To improve, personalize, and expand our Service.
  • To understand and analyze how you use our Service.
  • To develop new products, services, features, and functionality.
  • To communicate with you for customer service, to provide you with updates and other information relating to the Service, and for marketing and promotional purposes (where you have given consent).
  • To process your transactions (if applicable).
  • To find and prevent fraud and for security purposes.
  • For compliance purposes, including enforcing our Terms of Service, or other legal rights, or as may be required by applicable laws and regulations or requested by any judicial process or governmental agency.

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We may share information with third parties in the following situations:

  • Service Providers: We may share your information with third-party vendors, consultants, and other service providers that perform services for us or on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. Examples include: data analytics, payment processing, and cloud computing services.
  • Legal Obligations: We may disclose your information where we are legally required to do so in order to comply with applicable law, governmental requests, a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process.
  • Vital Interests: We may disclose your information where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding potential violations of our policies, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person and illegal activities, or as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.

5. International Transfers of Your Information

Your information, including personal data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those from your jurisdiction.

If we transfer your personal information to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we will ensure that any such transfer is protected by appropriate safeguards, for example by using standard data protection clauses approved by the European Commission, or the use of binding corporate rules or other legally accepted means.

6. Data Retention and Security

We will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting or other legal requirements).

We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information.

7. Your Data Protection Rights under GDPR

Under GDPR, you have certain data protection rights. We aim to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your personal data.

  • The right to access, update or delete the information we have on you.
  • The right of rectification. You have the right to have your information rectified if that information is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • The right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data.
  • The right of restriction. You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information.
  • The right to data portability. You have the right to be provided with a copy of the information we have on you in a structured, machine-readable and commonly used format.
  • The right to withdraw consent. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where we relied on your consent to process your personal information.

To exercise these rights, please contact us at [email protected].

You also have the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority about our collection and use of your personal data. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority in the European Economic Area (EEA). In Ireland, the supervisory authority is the Data Protection Commission (www.dataprotection.ie).

8. Children's Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 16 ("Children"). We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 16. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email: [email protected].