Geekbidz Privacy Policy

Effective from September 21, 2020

 

1. Please read carefully!

Geekbidz cares deeply about the privacy of its visitors and users. To that end, this Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes how Geekbidz LLC, collect, use, and share your Personal Information, as well as an explanation of the data rights you may have in that Personal Information. This Privacy Policy applies to all Geekbidz users, including unregistered visitors, registered users, and premium users (collectively, “Users”, “you”, or “your”), and to all Geekbidz services, including our web applications (“Geekbidz Apps”), mobile applications (“Mobile Apps”), and related services (collectively, the “Services”). This Privacy Policy is not intended to override the terms of any contract you have with us, nor any rights you may have under other applicable data privacy laws.

Prior to accessing or using our Services, please read this policy and make sure you fully understand our practices in relation to your Personal Information.  If you read and fully understand this Privacy Policy, and remain opposed to our practices, you must immediately leave and discontinue all use of any of our Services.  If you have any questions or concerns regarding this policy, please contact at .

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By accessing or using any of our Services, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy.

 

2. What Personal Information do we collect

 

2.1. User Information:

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To provide you the Services, we must collect Personal Information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“Personal Information”). We collect Personal Information you provide us, from your use of the Services, and from other sources. Here are the types of Personal Information we collect about you:

1. Information you provide us. When you register for our Services, purchase and/or use any of our Services; and/or when you contact us directly by any communication channel (e.g., Geekbidz support tickets, emails), you may provide us Personal Information, such as name, email address, phone number, payment information (for Users with Paid Services), information you include in your communications with us, and Personal Information contained in scanned identification documents (such as an ID card, driver’s license, passport, or official company registration documents).    

2. Information we collect when you use the Services. When you visit, download, and/or use any of our Services, we may collect aggregated usage Personal Information, such as Visitors’ and Users’ browsing and ‘click-stream’ activity on the Services, session heatmaps and scrolls, non-identifying Personal Information regarding the Visitor’s or User’s device, operating system, internet browser, screen resolution, language and keyboard settings, internet service provider, referring/exit pages, date/time stamps, etc.

3. Information we collect from other sources. We may receive Personal Information about you from third-party sources, such as i) security providers , fraud detection and prevention providers for example to help us screen out users associated with fraud, ii) social media platforms, when you log-in or sign-up using your social media account, we may receive Personal Information from that service (e.g., your username, basic profile Personal Information) and in some cases, we may collect Personal Information from lead enhancement companies which help us to improve our service offering; iii) advertising and marketing partners in order to monitor, manage and measure our ad campaigns.

 

To provide our Services, we collect Personal Information about our Users.

The Personal Information comes from you when you visit or use our services, Personal Information we collect automatically, and Personal Information we collect from other sources.

 

2.2. Users of Users Personal Information

We may also collect Personal Information pertaining to visitors and users of our User’s services (“Users-of-Users”), solely for and on our Users’ behalf (as further described in Section ‎6 below).

 

3. Why do We collect such Personal information

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We use your Personal Information for the following purposes:

 

1. To provide and operate the Services;

2. To further develop, customize, expand, and improve our Services, based on Users’ common or personal preferences, experiences and difficulties;

3. To provide our Users with ongoing customer assistance and technical support;

4. To be able to contact our Users with general or personalized service-related notices and promotional messages (as further detailed in Section 8 below);

5. To help us to update, expand and analyze our records to identify new customers;

6. To facilitate, sponsor, and offer certain contests, events, and promotions, determine participants’ eligibility, monitor performance, contact winners, and grant prizes and benefits;

7. To create aggregated statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred information, which we or our business partners may use to provide and improve our respective services;

8. To provide you with professional assistance, only upon your request;

9. To enhance our data security and fraud prevention capabilities; and

10. To comply with any applicable laws and regulations.

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We use your Personal Information for the purposes set out in Section 3 where:

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1. Our use of your Personal Information is necessary to perform a contract or to take steps to enter into a contract with you (e.g. to provide you with our customer assistance and technical support);

2. Our use of your Personal Information is necessary to comply with a relevant legal or regulatory obligation that we have; or

3. Our use of your Personal Information is necessary to support legitimate interests and business purposes (for example, to maintain and improve our Services and the effectiveness of Geekbidz by identifying technical issues), provided it is conducted in a way that is proportionate and that respects your privacy rights.

 

We use the Personal Information we collect about you to provide our services and make them better and safer.

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We also collect and use Personal Information in order to contact Users and to comply with the laws applicable to us.

 

4. How we share your Personal Information

We may share your Personal Information with service providers and others (or otherwise allow them access to it) in the following manners and instances:

Third Party Service Providers: Geekbidz has partnered with a number of selected service providers, whose services and solutions complement, facilitate and enhance our own. These include hosting and server co-location services, communications and content delivery networks (CDNs), data and cyber security services, billing and payment processing services, fraud detection and prevention services, web analytics, e-mail distribution and monitoring services, session recording and remote access services, performance measurement, data optimization and marketing services, content providers, and our legal and financial advisors (collectively, “Third Party Service Provider(s)”).

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Geekbidz may share the following categories of Personal Information with Third Party Service Providers for a business purpose:

• identifiers, including name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, internet protocol address, email address, account name, or other similar identifiers

• commercial information, for example information regarding products or services purchased, obtained, or considered

 

4.1. We may share the Personal Information of our Users and Users-of-Users with various third parties, including certain service providers and law enforcement officials.

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The Personal Information may be shared solely in accordance with this policy.

Law Enforcement, Legal Requests and Duties: Geekbidz may disclose or otherwise allow access to your Personal Information pursuant to a legal request, such as a subpoena, legal proceedings, search warrant or court order, or in compliance with applicable laws, if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so, with or without notice to you.

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4.2. Protecting Rights and Safety: Geekbidz may share your Personal Information if we believe in good faith that this will help protect the rights, property or personal safety of Geekbidz, any of our Users, any Users-of-Users, or any member of the general public, with or without notice to you.

 

4.3. Social Media Features and Framed Pages: Our Services include certain Social Media features, widgets, and single sign on features, such as the “Facebook Connect,” “Google Sign-in,” “Facebook Like”, or “Share this” button or other interactive mini-programs (“Social Media Features”). These Social Media Features may collect certain Personal Information such as your IP address or which page you are visiting on our Website and may set a cookie to enable them to function properly. Social Media Features are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Services. Your interactions with these third parties’ Social Media Features are governed by their policies and not ours.

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In addition, our Services may enable you to share your Personal Information with third parties directly, such as via page framing techniques to serve content to or from Third-Party Service Providers or other parties, while preserving the look and feel of our Website and Services (“Frames”). Please be aware that if you choose to interact or share any Personal Information via such Frames, you are in fact providing it to these third parties and not to us, and such interactions and sharing are governed by those third parties’ policies and not ours.

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You are solely responsible for notifying your Users-of-Users of the collection, processing and use of their Information and informing them that their Information will be transferred to and processed by Geekbidz on your behalf.

 

4.4. Geekbidz Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies: We may share your Personal Information internally within our family of companies, for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. For example, we may share your Personal Information with Geekbidz.com LLC, in the course of facilitating and providing you (and your Users-of-Users) with our Services.

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4.5. Connection with a Change in Corporate Control: In addition, should Geekbidz or any of its affiliates undergo any change in control, including by means of merger, acquisition or purchase of substantially all of its assets, your Personal Information may be shared with the parties involved in such event.

 

4.6. Upon Your Further Direction: Geekbidz may also share your Personal Information with third parties for other purposes upon your further direction or with your explicit approval. 

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5. Where do we store your Personal Information?

Users’ and Users-of-Users’ Personal Information may be stored in data centers located in the United States of America. We may use other jurisdictions as necessary for the proper delivery of our Services and/or as may be required by law (as further explained below).

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We may store and process Personal Information in the USA, or other jurisdictions, whether by ourselves or with the help of our affiliates and service providers.

Geekbidz data storage providers are contractually committed to protect and secure your data.

 

6. Users-of-users’ Personal Information

Geekbidz may collect, store and process certain Personal Information of Users-of-Users (“Users-of-Users Information”), solely on our Users’ behalf and at their direction. For example, each of our Users is able to import their e-mail contacts from third-party services like Gmail, or otherwise collect and manage contacts via their User Website. Such contacts are then stored with Geekbidz, on the User’s behalf​

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The Users controlling and operating such User Websites shall be considered as the “Controllers” of such Users-of-Users Information, and are responsible for complying with all laws and regulations that may apply to the collection and control of such Users-of-Users Information, including all privacy and data protection laws of all relevant jurisdictions.​

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You are responsible for the security, integrity and authorized usage of Personal Information about Users-of-Users’, and for obtaining consents, permissions and providing any required data subject rights and fair processing notices required for the collection and usage of such Personal Information.

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Geekbidz cannot provide legal advice to Users or their Users-of-Users, however we do recommend that all Users publish and maintain clear and comprehensive privacy policies on their User Websites in accordance with any applicable laws and regulations, and that all Users-of-Users carefully read those policies and make sure that they understand and, to the extent required by applicable law, consent to them.

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For more information on how Users-of-Users Personal Information may be handled by Geekbidz (which may be relevant for any specific notice you provide to and/or consent you obtain from your Users-of-Users).

 

If you are a visitor, user or customer of any of our Users, please read the following: Geekbidz has no direct relationship with Users-of-Users whose Personal Information it processes. If you are a visitor, user or customer of any of our Users, and would like to make any requests or queries regarding your Personal Information, please contact such User(s) directly. For example, if you wish to request to access, correct, amend, or delete inaccurate Personal Information processed by Geekbidz on behalf of its Users, please direct your query to the relevant User (who is the “Controller” of such data). If Geekbidz is requested by our Users to remove any Users-of-Users’ Personal Information, we will respond to such requests in a timely manner upon verification and in accordance with applicable law (for example, thirty (30) days under the GDPR). Unless otherwise instructed by our User, we will retain their Users-of-Users’ Personal Information.

 

Geekbidz may collect and process Personal Information regarding the users of our users.

We do this solely on our users’ behalf, and at their direction.

Our users are solely responsible for their users-of-users information, including for its legality, security and integrity. Geekbidz has no direct relationship with any of its users’ users.

 

7. Use of cookies and other third-party technologies

We and our Third-Party Service Providers use cookies and other similar technologies (“Cookies”) in order for us to provide our Service and ensure that it performs properly, to analyze our performance and marketing activities, and to personalize your experience.

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You can learn more about how we use cookies and similar technologies and how you can exercise control over them in our Cookie Policy.

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Please note that we do not change our practices in response to a “Do Not Track” signal in the HTTP header from a browser or mobile application, however, most browsers allow you to control cookies, including whether or not to accept them and how to remove them. You may set most browsers to notify you if you receive a cookie, or you may choose to block cookies with your browser.

 

We and certain third party services may use cookies and similar tracking technologies throughout our services.

These technologies are used mostly for stability, security, functionality, performance and advertising purposes.

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8. Communications from Geekbidz

 

8.1. Promotional Messages

We may use your Personal Information to send you promotional content and messages by e-mail, text messages, notifications within our platform, marketing calls and similar forms of communication from Geekbidz or our partners (acting on Geekbidz behalf) through such means.

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If you do not wish to receive such promotional messages or calls, you may notify Geekbidz at any time or follow the “unsubscribe” or STOP instructions contained in the promotional communications you receive.

 

We may send you promotional messages and content.
You can easily opt-out of receiving promotional messages by contacting us or unsubscribing.

 

8.2. Service and Billing Messages

Geekbidz may also contact you with important information regarding our Services, or your use thereof. For example, we may send you a notice (through any of the means available to us) if a certain Service is temporarily suspended for maintenance; reply to your support ticket or e-mail; send you reminders or warnings regarding upcoming or late payments for your current or upcoming subscriptions; forward abuse complaints regarding your User Website; or notify you of material changes in our Services.

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It is important that you are always able to receive such messages. For this reason, you are not be able to opt-out of receiving such Service and Billing Messages unless you are no longer a Geekbidz User (which can be done by deactivating your account).

 

We may also contact you with service and billing-related messages and content. You will not be able to opt-out of receiving such messages.

 

9. Your rights in relation to your Personal Information

Geekbidz agrees that it is imperative that you have control over your Personal Information. Pursuant to privacy regulations worldwide, Geekbidz is taking steps to enable you to request access to, receive a copy of, update, amend, delete, or limit the use of your Personal Information.

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Before fulfilling your request, we may ask you for additional information in order to confirm your identity and for security purposes. We reserve the right to charge a fee where permitted by law (e.g. if your request is unfounded or excessive).

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You have the right to file a complaint with your local supervisory authority for data protection (but we still recommend that you contact us first).

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If you are a Geekbidz User, and you wish to receive a copy, access and/or request us to make corrections to the Personal Information that you have stored with us (either yours or your Users-of-Users’), or wish to request a list of what Personal Information (if any) pertaining to you we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes, please email ”. You can also mail your request to Geekbidz, PO BOX #1902, Leander, TX 78641. We will make reasonable efforts to honor your request promptly (unless we require further information from you in order to fulfil your request), subject to legal and other permissible considerations.

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Please note that permanently deleting your Geekbidz account erases all of your Personal Information from Geekbidz databases. After completing this process, you can no longer use any of your Geekbidz Services, your account and all its data will be removed permanently, and Geekbidz will not be able to restore your account or retrieve your data in the future. If you contact our support channels in the future, the system will not recognize your account and support agents will not be able to locate the deleted account.

 

You may request to access, receive a copy of, update, amend, delete, or limit the use of your Personal Information you have stored with us. Just send us an e-mail. You may also correct and/or update your Personal Information through your account or website settings.

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You can delete your Personal Information by deleting your entire account. We will respond to your requests within a reasonable timeframe. 

 

10.  Additional Information for California residents

If you are a California resident using the Services, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) may provide you the right to request access to and deletion of your Personal Information.

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In order to exercise the right to request access to and deletion of your Personal Information, please see the information on the section 9, above. We do not discriminate based on the exercise of any privacy rights that you might have under this Section.

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Geekbidz does not sell user Personal Information to third parties for the intents and purposes of the CCPA.  

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As informed in section 6 above, Geekbidz may collect, store and process certain Personal Information of Users-of-Users, solely on our Users’ behalf and at their direction.  For such purposes, Geekbidz serves and shall be considered as a “Service Provider” and not as the “Business” (as both such capitalized terms are defined in the CCPA. Geekbidz does not and will not sell your customers’ (User-of-User) Personal Information.

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Users of the Services who are California residents and under 18 years of age may request and obtain removal of content they posted by emailing us at. All requests must be labeled “California Removal Request” on the email subject line. All requests must provide a description of the content you want removed and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate that content. We do not accept California Removal Requests via postal mail, telephone, or facsimile. We are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, and we may not be able to respond if you do not provide adequate information. Please note that your request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the material. For example, materials that you have posted may be republished or reposted by another user or third party

 

California residents may exercise their right to access and delete their Personal Information. To make a request, (i) visit our webform, (ii) send us an email;

 

11. Questions and Complaints

If you have any questions or concerns about our collection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, or if you believe that we have not complied with this Privacy Policy or applicable data protection laws, please contact us – our details are set out at the end of this Privacy Policy.

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Our Data Protection Officer team will investigate the complaint and determine whether a breach has occurred and what action, if any, to take. We take every privacy complaint seriously and will make all reasonable efforts to resolve your complaint promptly and in accordance with applicable law.  

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You can file a complaint with your local supervisory authority for data protection at any time, however we recommend that you contact us first so we can try to resolve it.

 

You can file a complaint with your local supervisory authority for data protection at any time.  Please contact us first so we can try to resolve your concerns.

 

12. Data Retention

We may retain your Personal Information (as well as your Users-of-Users’ Personal Information) for as long as your User Account is active, as indicated in this Privacy Policy, or as otherwise needed to provide you with our Services.

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We may continue to retain your Personal Information after you deactivate your User Account and/or cease to use any particular Services, as reasonably necessary to comply with our legal obligations, to resolve disputes regarding our Users or their Users-of-Users, prevent fraud and abuse, enforce our agreements and/or protect our legitimate interests.

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We maintain a data retention policy which we apply to Personal Information in our care.

 

We may keep your Personal Information for as long as your account is active, and longer as needed (for example, if we are legally obligated to keep it longer, or need it to protect our interests).

 

13. Security

Geekbidz has implemented security measures designed to protect the Personal Information you share with us, including physical, electronic and procedural measures. Among other things, we offer HTTPS secure access to most areas on our Services; the transmission of sensitive payment information (such as a credit card number) through our designated purchase forms is protected by an industry standard SSL/TLS encrypted connection; and we regularly maintain a PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) certification. We also regularly monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and regularly seek new ways and Third-Party Services for further enhancing the security of our Services and protection of our Visitors’ and Users’ privacy.

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Regardless of the measures and efforts taken by Geekbidz, we cannot and do not guarantee the absolute protection and security of your Personal Information, your Users-of-Users’ Personal Information or any other information you upload, publish or otherwise share with Geekbidz or anyone else. We encourage you to set strong passwords for your User Account and User Website, and avoid providing us or anyone with any sensitive Personal Information of which you believe its disclosure could cause you substantial or irreparable harm.

Furthermore, because certain areas on our Services are less secure than others (for example, if you set your Support forum ticket to be “Public” instead of “Private”, or if you browse to a non-SSL page), and since e-mail and instant messaging are not recognized as secure forms of communications, we request and encourage you not to share any Personal Information on any of these areas or via any of these methods.

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If you have any questions regarding the security of our Services, you are welcome to contact us at .

 

Geekbidz values the security of our customers' Personal Information and we do everything in our power to protect it. 

However, as we can’t guarantee absolute protection – we encourage you to be careful, set a strong password for your account, and avoid submitting any sensitive information which, if exposed, could cause you major harm.

 

14. Third-Party Websites

Our Services may contain links to other websites or services. We are not responsible for such websites’ or services’ privacy practices. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our Services and to read the privacy statements of each and every website and service you visit before providing your Personal Information. This Privacy Policy does not apply to such linked third-party websites and services.

 

Our Services may contain links to other websites or services.

 

15. Public forums and user content

Our Services offer publicly accessible blogs, communities and support forums. Please be aware that any Personal Information you provide in any such areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. To request removal of your Personal Information from our blogs, communities or forums, feel free to contact us at: . In some cases, we may not be able to remove your Personal Information from such areas. For example, if you use a third party application to post a comment (e.g., the Facebook social plugin application) while logged in to your related profile with such third party, you must login into such application or contact its provider if you want to remove the Personal Information you posted on that platform. 

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In any event, we advise against posting any Personal Information (via any means) you don’t wish to publicize.

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If you upload any user content to your User Account or post it on your User Website and provide it in any other way as part of the use of any Service, you do so at your own risk.

We have put adequate security measures in place to protect your Personal Information.  However, we cannot control the actions of other Users or members of the public who may access your User Content, and are not responsible for the circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures you or we may have placed on your User Website (including, for instance, password-protected areas on your User Website). You understand and acknowledge that, even after its removal by you or us, copies of User Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if any third parties (including any of your Users-of-Users) have copied or stored such User Content. 

 

To clarify, we advise against uploading or posting any information you do not wish to be public.

Avoid posting any Personal Information to any of the public areas on our Services, or to your own website, if you don’t want it to become publicly available.

 

 

16. Updates and interpretation

We may update this Privacy Policy as required by applicable law, and to reflect changes to our Personal Information collection, usage and storage practices. If we make any changes that we deem as “material” (in our sole good faith discretion), we will notify you prior to the change becoming effective. In relation to any updated Privacy Policy, we will, as required by applicable law, notify you, seek your consent and/or take any other measures. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest Information on our privacy practices. Unless stated otherwise, our most current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your Users-of-Users, with respect to our Website, Geekbidz Apps, Mobile Apps and other Services. 

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Any heading, caption or section title contained herein, and any explanation or summary, is provided only for convenience, and in no way defines or explains any section or provision hereof, or legally binds any of us in any way.

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