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Privacy Terms

Privacy Terms

Last Updated: September 27, 2023

This Privacy Policy describes the policies and procedures of BlockApps, Inc. (“we,” “our,” “us”, or “BlockApps”) on the collection, use, recordation, and disclosure of your information when you (i) sign up to use a BlockApps account or service through https://www.blockapps.net, the services, features, content, applications, and application protocol interfaces (“BlockApps APIs”), or the BlockApps mobile application products and related services we offer (collectively referred to as the “BlockApps Site”); or (ii) record a transaction on the STRATO Mercata blockchain provided by BlockApps in the course of using one of the BlockApps Products referenced herein; or (iii) such other services that may be offered by BlockApps from time to time (collectively (i), (ii) or (iii) shall be referred to as “Services”). This Privacy Policy does not apply to third-party websites, products, or services, even if we provide links to them or them to us.

Your privacy is important to us. When running the Services, we follow a few fundamental principles:

  • We do our best to limit the collection of Personal Information (defined below).
  • We don’t share your information with third parties except as needed to deliver you the Services, comply with the law, make BlockApps better, protect our rights, or effectuate a business transfer.
  • We’re not a huge, faceless corporation. We’re just normal people trying to deliver an incredible experience. If you have any questions or concerns about this policy, please reach out to us at [email protected].

Changes to This Policy

We occasionally review this Privacy Policy to make sure it complies with applicable laws and conforms to changes in our business. We may need to update this Privacy Policy, and we reserve the right to do so at any time. If we do revise this Privacy Policy, we will update the “Last Date Updated” at the top of this page so that you can tell if it has changed since your last visit and will do our best to notify you. Please review this Privacy Policy regularly to ensure that you are aware of its terms. Any use of BlockApps after an amendment to our Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance to the revised or amended agreement.

How You Accept This Policy

By accessing or using the Services, signing up to use a BlockApps account or service through blockapps.net, BlockApps’ APIs, or the BlockApps mobile application, entering into an order form to use a BlockApps Product, requesting to join our mailing list, or signing up for a demo, you agree to the use, disclosure, and procedures outlined in this Privacy Policy.

If you do not agree with or you are not comfortable with our Privacy Policy, you should immediately stop access or use of our Services.

What Information Does BlockApps Collect?

The information we collect from you falls into two categories: (i) personally identifiable information (i.e., data that could potentially identify you as an individual) (“Personal Information”), and (ii) non-personally identifiable information (i.e., information that cannot be used to identify who you are) (“Non-Personal Information”). This Privacy Policy covers both categories and will tell you how we might collect and use each type.

We may collect a variety of Personal Information, including:

  • Your contact information, such as your first name, last name, date of birth, photograph, home address, email address, and telephone number when you sign up for our Services, mailing list, or request a demo;
  • Your identification information such as your social security, financial records, tax records, government issued identification documentation such as a passport, driver’s license, state ID card, national ID card, and/or other information we deem necessary for us to comply with our legal obligations under financial or anti-money laundering laws.
  • Your institute’s information such as an employer identification number, articles of incorporation to prove legal formation, and personal identification information for all beneficial owners holding interest of 10% or more in your institute.
  • Information from Third Party Services (defined below) that you explicitly give us access to and from public databases, credit bureaus, and identity verification partners; and
  • Your banking and accreditation information (although we use a third-party payment processor, as described below) and your billing address.

We may also collect a variety of Non-Personal Information, including analytics data including: (i) the IP address of the computer you use to access the Services; (ii) the type of browser software you are using; (iii) the operating system you are using; (iv) the date and time you access or use the Services; (v) the website address, if any, that linked you to our Services; (vi) the website address, if any, you leave our website and travel to; and (vii) other non-personally identifiable traffic data.

How We Collect Information

When You Create a Sign Up At a BlockApps Site, For Services, For Our Mailing List, or Request a Demo. If you sign up for our Services, we may request certain Personal Information. This may include contact information such as your name, organization, address, email address, social security/employer identification number, proof of legal entity formation, personal information for all material beneficial owners, financial records, banking information, photo, and telephone number.

Information We Automatically Collect

Like most websites, BlockApps may incorporate technology such as “pixel tags,” “web beacons,” and “cookies.” Pixel tags or web beacons are tracking devices on websites or in emails that can monitor the behavior of the user visiting the website or sending the e-mail. Cookies (not to be confused with the sugary treat) are small files that web servers may place on your computer when you visit a website.

Here at BlockApps, we use cookies to help identify and track usage of the Services and to make it easier to deliver a personalized experience. You can easily refuse our cookies by adjusting the preferences in your browser. However, be forewarned that disabling cookies may cause BlockApps to not operate properly.

In order to improve and grow, BlockApps may use your aggregated data to perform its own analytics and to enable analytics provided by third parties. Aggregated data includes user data reflecting or based on the access or use of the BlockApps Products, platform visits, session, impression and clickstream data that is automatically collected, aggregated and anonymized by BlockApps Products. We may use analytical information for business analysis, statistical or other pattern analysis, and operations purposes, business intelligence, product development, responding to users’ support requests, improving products and services, personalizing content, providing advertising, and making recommendations. BlockApps may also use third parties, such as Flurry, in order to develop and analyze use of the Services.

Third Party Services

We haven’t built all of the features offered on our Services from scratch. To run the Services, we often utilize various third-party products (collectively “Third Party Services”), including, but not limited to AWS Cloud to create an instance of our blockchain solution on STRATO Mercata, credit bureaus, ID verification partners, blockchain data providers and analyzers, and advertising networks and analytics providers. Please note that your use of these Third-Party Services is governed by their respective Terms of Service and Privacy Policies. We use and disclose any collected information in accordance with our own Privacy Policy.

Communication You Initiate with Us

We do everything possible to make sure you have an amazing experience when using our Services. If you contact us in person, by phone, email, instant message, live chat, social media, or by some other means (either through our Services or through a Third-Party Service), we may keep a record of your contact information and correspondence for later reference (to help improve our Services!).

How We Use the Information We Gather

We primarily use the information we collect and store (i) to provide you with an efficient, secure, and smooth user experience and to create, develop, deliver, and enhance the Services, content and advertising; (ii) for loss prevention and anti-fraud purposes; (iii) for enforcement of the terms in our user agreement and other agreements; and (iv) to maintain legal and regulatory compliance. Except if we sell all or a portion of our business, or as otherwise described below, we do not rent, trade, or sell your Personal Information.

Use of Information to Provide Services to You

We use Personal and Non-Personal Information to create an awesome experience. Some ways we may internally use your information are to:

  • Maintain legal and regulatory compliance;
  •  Ensure quality control;
  • Enforce the terms in our agreement;
  • Prevent fraud;
  • Provide Services to you;
  • Contact you when necessary;
  • Respond to your comments or questions;
  • Provide you with additional information according to your preferences;
  • Customize and personalize your Services experience;
  • Generate aggregated statistics to help us improve the customer experience;
  • Make the Services easier and more convenient for you (such as by prepopulating forms when you have already provided identical information);
  • Send you information and marketing materials about services and products available on our Services;
  • Train our team members; or
  • Other internal business purposes.

Agents or Third-Party Partners

We may provide your Personal Information to our employees, contractors, agents, service providers, and designees (“Agents”) to enable them to perform certain services for us exclusively, including:

  • Website-related services such as web hosting;
  • Improvement of website-related services and features;
  • Identity verification and credit checks including verification that selfie matches photo on your government issued ID;
  • Verification that you are an accredited investor;
  • Maintenance services;
  • Detect and prevent fraudulent activity;
  • Connecting your BlockApps account with your bank account;
  • Processing of payments you have authorized through financial institutes with whom we transact;
  • Network infrastructure, cloud hosting, cloud storage, payment processing, security, monitoring transactions, internet, data analytics, document service;
  • Distribution of advertisements and other marketing materials on our behalf; or
  • With law enforcement or other third parties to comply with a subpoena, court order, or similar legal procedure, or where we believe in good faith that disclosure of Personal Information is necessary to report suspected illegal activity, investigate violations of our agreement or other policies, or prevent physical harm or financial loss.

ChatGPT and Similar AI Technologies

To enhance your user experience, we may include connectors that leverage so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, such as ChatGPT. To that end, like most website operators, ChatGPT.org collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. According to ChatGPT’s Privacy Policy its purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how ChatGPT.org’s visitors use its website. From time to time, ChatGPT.org may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website. ChatGPT.org also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for logged in users and for users leaving comments on https://chatgpt.org/ blog posts. ChatGPT.org only discloses logged in user and commenter IP addresses under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information as described in its Privacy Policy. Please read the ChatGPT Privacy Policy if you have further questions or concerns about how your data is managed in such a platform.

Furthermore, as with your use of any other website, refrain from entering any sensitive personal information on our website, or if directed to any third-party website, that you would not like to disclose to the universe. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy and terms and conditions of every site you visit. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the accuracy, authenticity, content, privacy policies or practices of any third-party sites, products or services, including that of ChatGPT or other AI technologies.

Business Transfers

We may choose to buy or sell assets. In these types of transactions, customer information is typically one of the business assets that would be transferred. Also, if we (or our assets) are acquired, or if we go out of business, enter bankruptcy, or go through some other change of control, your Personal Information could be one of the assets transferred to or acquired by a third party. By accepting this Privacy Policy, as outlined above, you consent to any such transfer.

Protection of Us and Others

We reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information that we reasonably believe is necessary to: comply with the law or a court order; cooperate with law enforcement; enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of BlockApps, our employees, our users, or others.

What Personal Information Can I Access or Change?

If you decide you don’t want to receive email or other mail from us, you can select the “opt out” provision in our communications to unsubscribe. Unsubscribing will stop you from receiving most types of communication, but it may not apply to emails about orders or transactions you place through the Services or to respond to your specific request.

Presently it is not possible for you to change, alter, or amend Personal Information that you provide to us. If you would like to modify any Personal Information that you provide to us or delete this information, please contact us at any time at [email protected].

User Rights of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia Residents

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”), plus the Colorado Privacy Act (“CPA”), Connecticut Data Privacy Act (“CDPA”), Utah Consumer Privacy Act (“UCPA”) and Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”) allow consumers in these states to opt out of certain sharing of their data.

As such, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia residents may request that BlockApps:

  • Disclose the sources, categories, and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about them, how that information is used, and with whom BlockApps shares it.
  • Disclose the purpose for collecting personal information.
  • Disclose the categories of third parties with whom BlockApps shares personal information.
  • Delete/rectify/restrict their personal information, subject to certain exceptions (right of rectification not applicable to Utah residents).
  • Disclose, for any “sales” of personal information, the categories of personal information collected and sold and to what categories of third parties it was sold.
  • Opt them out of sales of their personal information (if any) or subject certain personal information to automated decision-making algorithms (not applicable to Utah residents).
  • Provide a copy of their personal information in a readily usable format that allows the information to be transmitted to others.
  • Residents in these states may not be discriminated against for exercising any of the rights described above.

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia residents may exercise these rights by contacting BlockApps at [email protected].

We are legally obligated to verify your identity when you submit a request; thus, we may request additional information from you, like your date of birth or a personal identification number, to verify your identity. If we cannot verify your identity, we may deny your request.

Data Retention

If you request that your information be deleted, we still may retain some Personal Information that you have provided to us in order to preserve our legal rights, continue performing our obligations, or comply with relevant laws.

Data Security

We are committed to making sure your information is protected and have selected third-party vendors that help keep your Personal Information safe. Unfortunately, we do not control these third parties and therefore cannot guarantee complete security.

We follow generally accepted industry standards and take reasonable measures to help protect the information we collect from loss, theft, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.

If you log into your account on a shared computer, be sure to sign out of your account when finished. If you believe a third party has access to your account, you must let us know as soon as possible.

Even with all these precautions, we cannot fully guarantee against the access, disclosure, alteration, misuse, or deletion of data through events, including but not limited to hardware or software failure or unauthorized use. Any information that you provide to us is done so entirely at your own risk.

Children

We are especially sensitive about children’s information. We’re not a site targeted towards children, and we don’t knowingly collect information from children under the age of 18. If you are a parent or legal guardian of a minor child, we will treat any information that you provide us while using BlockApps on behalf of your minor child as Personal Information as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy. If we suspect that the user submitting personal information is younger that 18 years of age, we will require that user to close his/her account and will not allow the user to continue using our Services. If you have questions concerning our information practices with respect to children, or if you learn that a child under the age of 18 has used BlockApps, created a user account, or provided us with personal information, please email us at [email protected].

Online Tracking and How We Respond to Do Not Track Signals

Online tracking is the collection of data about an individual’s Internet activity used to deliver targeted advertisements and for other purposes. Some web browsers (including Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome) incorporate a “Do Not Track” (DNT) or similar feature that signals to websites that a visitor does not want to have his/her online activity and behavior tracked. If an online service elects to respond to a particular DNT signal, the service may refrain from collecting certain personal information about the browser’s user. Not all browsers offer a DNT option and there is currently no industry consensus as to what constitutes a DNT signal. For these reasons, many website operators, including BlockApps, do not take action to respond to DNT signals. For more information about DNT signals, visit http://allaboutdnt.com.

International Users and Visitors

BlockApps is hosted in the United States but operates globally. Because the Internet is global, you should note that by providing Personal Information as an international visitor or user, you are: (i) permitting the transfer of your Personal Information to, and storage in, the United States, which may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you reside; and (ii) permitting the use of your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

BlockApps protects your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy wherever it is processed and take appropriate contractual or other steps to protect it under applicable laws. We ensure that the recipient of your personal data offers an adequate level of protection and security, for instance by entering into the appropriate back-to-back agreements. Where personal data of users in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the UK is being transferred to a recipient located in a country outside the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the UK which has not been recognized as having an adequate level of data protection, we ensure that the transfer is governed by the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses as approved by the European Commission (Art. 46 GDPR) (see https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32010D0087). Please contact us if you would like a copy of the standard contract clauses and/or further information in that respect.

For citizens of the European Union, you should know that BlockApps is a controller and a processor of your personal information. The legal basis for which we collect and use the information described above depends on what the information is and why we collected it. The four bases upon which we rely include:

  • Contract. This means we need the information to perform our contract with you. For example, when you want to send a message, we use information to carry out your request to transmit that message to its intended recipient.
  • Legitimate Interests. This means we have a legitimate interest that does not outweigh your privacy rights. When we collect and process information based on our legitimate interests, we consider how we can accomplish what we need to in a way that is the least obtrusive on your privacy. For example, it is in our interest to protect your safety and security in our products, so we collect and use information that has been flagged by users or requested by law enforcement; to make sure you are satisfied with how the Services work, troubleshoot technical problems or develop new features, we collect and use information about how you and others use the Services; and to respond to your service inquiries, we collect and use information in that request and, if relevant to the inquiry, information about how you access and use the Services.
  • Legal Obligations. We may need to use your personal information to comply with a law enforcement preservation request, subpoena, or other legal process or to protect the rights of other users.
  • Consent. If we have no other legal basis for collecting or using your information, we will ask you for consent for a specific purpose. If we do, you have the right to withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not apply to any processing conducted in reliance on lawful processing bases other than consent.

EU Users’ Rights

In addition to other rights detailed in the policy (such as requesting deletion, correction or updating of your personal information), EU citizens have certain rights regarding your personal information, including:

  • Right to Object and Restrict Processing. You have the right to object to or restrict our use of your personal information for direct marketing purposes or under certain circumstances when the legal basis for using your information is based upon our legitimate interest. If you wish to object to our use of your information, you can send us a request to delete your account by emailing us at [email protected].
  • Right to Erasure. You have the right to have your personal data erased and no longer processed. You can send us a request to delete your account by clicking here. Upon receiving the request, we will make a reasonable effort to delete your personal information from the app and from our internal network within a reasonable period of time as long as we are not obligated to preserve your information due to things like law enforcement preservation requests, subpoenas, investigations, litigation, or otherwise meet any of our other legal obligations. We may also retain depersonalized information after deletion.
  • Data Portability. You can exercise your right to export your personal data by emailing [email protected].
  • File a complaint. You have the right to complain to the data protection authority located in your member state.

Questions?

We’d be happy to answer them. Shoot us an email or send us a note:

Email: [email protected]

Mailing Address: BlockApps, Inc., 315 Meserole St., Suite B4, Brooklyn, NY 11206

Thanks for reading our Privacy Policy!