Data privacy policy for the use of the passbrains platform and services by passbrains members

Effective starting: May 25, 2018

Data privacy was previously discussed in our General Terms & Conditions. This is the first separate version of our data privacy policy.

What this policy covers

Your privacy is important to us, and so is being transparent about how we collect, use, and share information about you. This policy is intended to help you understand:

• What information we collect about you
• How we use information we collect
• How we share information we collect
• How we store and secure information we collect
• How to access and control your information
• How we transfer information we collect internationally

“passbrains”, “we” and “us” refers to passbrains ag (Switzerland) and any of our corporate affiliates. Passbrains is owner and administrator of the web platform https://platform.passbrains.com (further referred to as “Platform”) for crowdsourced research, ideation and testing (further referred to as “Services”). This document specifies passbrains’ policy on data privacy applied for the Platform and Services (further referred to as “Policy” or “Privacy Policy”). The use of passbrains websites outside of the Platform is governed by a separate privacy policy which is provided on the specific passbrains website.

Passbrains offers free Membership to you, once you register and create a personal account on the passbrains platform with the intention to allow you to offer services to passbrains and/or our Customers, specifically to participate in our projects for our customers or in projects we conduct for internal purposes (e.g. to qualify your skills or to test our own products and services). This Policy covers the information we collect about you during your registration, profile updates and during your use of the passbrains platform as a Member, unless a different policy is displayed.

This Policy also explains your choices about how we use information about you. Your choices include how you can object to certain uses of information about you and how you can access and update certain information about you.

What information we collect about you

Information you provide to us

We collect information about you when you input it into the Services or otherwise provide it directly to us.

Account and profile information: We collect information about you when you register for an account, create or modify your profile, or during recruitment surveys (further called ‘Personal Data’). For example, you provide your contact information, details on your background and skills, the digital devices you own, and your PayPal account information for receiving payments from us.

Deliverables content: We collect Project Deliverables you submit through the platform or through other means to us, such as issue report tickets, test results, screenshots, video recordings, and feedbacks in our online surveys.

Content you provide through other websites or social media: Our Services might require the use of third party websites not owned nor operated by us. We collect other content that you submit through these websites, which include social media or social networking websites operated by us. For example, you provide content to us when you provide feedback or when you participate in any interactive features, surveys, contests, promotions, or other activities.

Information you provide through our support channels: The Services also include our Member support, where you may choose to submit information regarding a problem you are experiencing with a Service. Whether you designate yourself as a technical contact, open a support ticket, speak to one of our representatives directly or otherwise engage with our support team, you will be asked to provide contact information, a summary of the problem you are experiencing, and any other documentation, screenshots or information that would be helpful in resolving the issue.

Information we collect automatically when you use the Services

Your use of the Services: We collect which Services you use and which specific actions you take in our Services. This information will be only temporarily stored and automatically overwritten after a specific number of recordings.

Connection Information: We keep track of certain information about you when you visit and interact with any of our Services. This information includes your IP address when you log in to use our Services, the Platform tools you use, time and date when you use them. We also keep track of the projects you participated in, the financial rewards you earned and the rating points you collected.
We do not collect information about your computer, phone, tablet or other devices you use to access the Services.

Cookies: We strictly only use session cookies for authentication, authorization and validation of accesses to your account when you log in to our platform. This is for example to avoid CSFR vulnerabilities. We do not use cookies or any other technology for tracking purposes.

How we use information we collect

How we use the information we collect depends in part on which Services you use, how you use them, and any preferences you have defined. Below are the specific purposes for which we use the information we collect about you.

To provide the Services: We use information about you to provide the Services to you and our Customers, including to process transactions with you, authenticate you when you log in, and to provide member support. For example, we use the name and picture you provide in your account to identify you to other Service users.

Specifically, your Personal Data is required for the purpose of engaging you in our projects and collaboratively delivering our Services to our Customers to:

• allow us to select participants for our Projects based on their profile details and performance track record
• allow us and our customers to communicate with you via the platform to share important information, project announcements and invitations with you, and to interact with you during project delivery
• allow us to calculate your rating points and remuneration for your project participations and delivered services
• allow you to use our Platform tools and to communicate with other Members, with our project managers and support teams
• allow you to validate our accounting and receive payments for your contribution in our Projects

To communicate with you about the Services: We use your contact information to send transactional communications via email and within the Services, including job- or crowdworking opportunities, project invitations, project task assignments, reminders on agreed project tasks, clarification inquiries on your Deliverables such as issue report tickets or feedbacks in online surveys, responses to your comments, questions and requests, support emails, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and administrative messages. These communications are part of the Services and in most cases you cannot opt out of them. If an opt out is available, you will find that option within the communication itself or in your account settings.

Member support: We use your information to resolve technical issues you encounter, to respond to your requests for assistance, and to repair and improve the Services where necessary.

For safety and security: We use information about you and your Service use to verify accounts and activity, to monitor suspicious or fraudulent activity and to identify violations of Service policies.

To protect our legitimate business interests and legal rights: Where required by law or where we believe it is necessary to protect our legal rights, interests and the interests of others, we use information about you in connection with legal claims, compliance, regulatory, and audit functions, and disclosures in connection with the acquisition, merger or sale of a business.

With your consent: We use information about you where you have given us consent to do so for a specific purpose not listed above. For example, we may publish testimonials or featured Member stories to promote the Services, with your permission.

Legal bases for processing

We collect and process information about you only where we have legal bases for doing so under applicable EU laws. The legal bases depend on the Services you use and how you use them. This means we collect and use your information only where:

• We need it to provide you the Services, including to operate the Services, provide Member 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 for research and development, to market and promote the Services and to protect our legal rights and interests;
• You give us consent to do so for a specific purpose; or
• We need to process your data to comply with a legal obligation.

If you have consented to our use of information about you for a specific purpose, you have the right to change your mind at any time, but this will not affect any processing that has already taken place. Where we are using your information because we or a third party (e.g. your employer) have a legitimate interest to do so, you have the right to object to that use though, in some cases, this may mean no longer using the Services.

How we share information we collect

We provide different kinds of crowdsourcing Services, and we want them to work well for you. This means sharing information through the Services and with certain third parties. We share information we collect about you in the ways discussed below, including in connection with possible business transfers, but we are not in the business of selling information about you to advertisers or other third parties.

For collaboration: Depending on the type of project or activity you might want or need to communicate and collaborate with other Members, our project managers or our Customers. Information about you will only be shared with other participants of the same project. Your profile picture and user name will become visible in our public and private (project-specific) chatrooms to all other users of the same chatroom once you share posts in such chatrooms.

Sharing with other Service users: In specific cases we might need to share certain information about you with other Service users, but would always inform you up front allowing you to opt in.

Sharing with third parties

We share information with our Customers, with our Partners who manage the Services on our behalf and our licensees who operate the Platform in their own responsibility and eventually under their own brand. If a Partner or Licensee needs to access information about you to perform services on our behalf or in their own responsibility, they do so under close instruction from us, including policies and procedures designed to protect your information.

Third Party Apps: You may choose or be requested during our projects to use certain third party apps. Third-party app policies and procedures are not controlled by us, and this privacy policy does not cover how third-party apps use your information. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of third parties before connecting to or using their applications or services to learn more about their privacy and information handling practices. If you object to information about you being shared with these third parties, please uninstall the app.

Links to Third Party Sites, Social Media Widgets: The Services may include links that direct you to other websites or services whose privacy practices may differ from ours. If you enter or submit information to any of those third party sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies, not this one. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of such websites before you use them.

With your consent: We share information about you with third parties when you give us consent to do so. For example, we often display personal testimonials of satisfied customers on our public websites. With your consent, we may post your name alongside the testimonial.

Compliance with Enforcement Requests and Applicable Laws; Enforcement of Our Rights: In exceptional circumstances, we may share information about you with a third party if we believe that sharing is reasonably necessary to (a) comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, including to meet national security requirements, (b) enforce our agreements, policies and terms of service, (c) protect the security or integrity of our products and services, (d) protect passbrains, our customers or the public from harm or illegal activities, or (e) respond to an emergency which we believe in good faith requires us to disclose information to assist in preventing the death or serious bodily injury of any person.

Sharing with affiliated companies

We share information we collect with affiliated companies. Affiliated companies are companies owned or operated by us. The protections of this privacy policy apply to the information we share in these circumstances.

Passbrains companies: We share information we have about you with other passbrains corporate affiliates in order to operate and improve products and services.

Business Transfers: We may share or transfer information we collect under this privacy policy in connection with any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company. In such an event, we will notify you, when your information will be transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

How we store and secure information we collect

Information storage and security: We use data hosting service providers in Germany and Switzerland to host the information we collect, and we use technical measures to secure your data. While we implement safeguards designed to protect your information, no security system is impenetrable and due to the inherent nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee that data, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our systems or otherwise in our care, is absolutely safe from intrusion by others.

How long we keep information
How long we keep information we collect about you depends on the type of information, as described in further detail below. After such time, we will either delete or anonymize your information or, if this is not possible (for example, because the information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your information and isolate it from any further use until deletion is possible.

Account information: We retain your account information for as long as your account is active and a reasonable period thereafter in case you decide to re-activate the Services. We also retain some of your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, to resolve disputes, to enforce our agreements, to support business operations, and to continue to develop and improve our Services. Where we retain information for Service improvement and development, we take steps to eliminate information that directly identifies you, and we only use the information to uncover collective insights about the use of our Services, not to specifically analyze personal characteristics about you.

Information you share on the Services: If your account is terminated, some of your information and the content you have provided will remain in order to allow other users to make full use of the Services. For example, your deliverables and posts may remain but will be anonymized after you terminate your account.

How to access and control your information

You have certain choices available to you when it comes to your information. Below is a summary of those choices, how to exercise them and any limitations.

Your Choices:
You have the right to request the deletion of your information, or to request a copy of your information in a structured, electronic format by sending such request by email to support@passbrains.com.
Your request and choices may be limited in certain cases: for example, if fulfilling your request would reveal information about another person, or if you ask to delete information which we are permitted by law or have compelling legitimate interests to keep. Where you have asked us to share data with third parties, for example, by installing third-party apps, you will need to contact those third-party service providers directly to have your information deleted or otherwise restricted. If you have unresolved concerns, you may have the right to complain to a data protection authority in the country where you live, where you work or where you feel your rights were infringed.

Access and update your information: Our Services give you the ability to access and update certain information about you from within the Service. For example, you can access your profile information from your account and search for content containing information about you using key word searches in the Service. You can update your profile information within your profile settings and modify content that contains information about you using the editing tools associated with that content, except for Deliverables which have been reviewed and accepted during a project.

Deactivate your account: If you no longer wish to use our Services, you may choose to deactivate your Account at any time. All your Personal Data, except any data which might be used for remuneration of your financial rewards and related accounting, will be deleted or anonymized upon your request. We will keep all Deliverables and performance data collected through your project participations and other activities on the Platform, while all of this data will be associated with your anonymized account. If you have never participated in any project or activity on the Platform, your account will be completely deleted.

How we transfer information we collect internationally

International transfers of information we collect: We collect information globally and primarily store that information in Germany and/or Switzerland. Depending on the Project requirements we might transfer, process and store your information in another country, to wherever we or our Customers, third-party service or delivery Partners and Licensees operate. Whenever we transfer your information, we take steps to protect it.

International transfers within passbrains companies: To facilitate our global operations, we transfer information to other countries and allow access to that information from countries in which the passbrains owned or operated companies have operations for the purposes described in this policy. These countries may have different privacy and data protection laws. When we share information about you within and among passbrains corporate affiliates, we make use of standard contractual data protection clauses, which have been approved by the European Commission.

International transfers to third parties: Some third parties, which provide services to us under contract, are based in other countries that may have different privacy and data protection laws. When we share information about you within and among passbrains corporate affiliates, we make use of standard contractual data protection clauses, which have been approved by the European Commission.

Other important privacy information

Our policy towards children
The Services are not directed to individuals under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If we become aware that a child under 16 has provided us with personal information, we will take steps to delete such information. If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at support@passbrains.com.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. We will post any privacy policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a notice on the Services homepages, login screens, or by sending you an email notification. We will also keep prior versions of this Privacy Policy in an archive for your review. We encourage you to review our privacy policy whenever you use the Services to stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy. The modified Policy will be available to you no later than one week before they enter into force.
If you disagree with any content in this privacy policy, you will need to stop using the Services and deactivate your account, as outlined above.

Questions, Complaints
This policy was written with transparency, accuracy and clarity in mind; however it does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of our collection and use of personal information. We are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Requests or complaints should be sent to the following address:

passbrains ag
Eichwatt 3
CH-8105 Regensdorf

Attention: Data Privacy Officer

Email: privacyofficer@passbrains.com