1. Introduction

• 1.1 This privacy notice (Privacy Notice) sets out the ways in which we, Fourth Street Connections, Inc. (we, us, our), collect and use your personal data (your personal information) in connection with our business, including your use of the Blind'a app (the “app”) and https://www.blindaapp.com/ (the “website”). It also explains what rights you have to access or change your personal data.

• 1.2 Our website and app are not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect or maintain the personal information of children under the age of 17. If you are under the age of 17, please do not access our website or app at any time or in any manner. We will take appropriate steps to delete the personal information of persons under the age of 17.

2. About Us

• 2.1 We are a company registered in Delaware, USA under file number 7913292, with our registered address at 919 North Market Street, Suite 950, Wilmington, DE 19801.

• 2.2 You can contact us as follows:
  FAO: Steven Irvin, CEO
  Address: Steven Irvin, 404 San Vicente Blvd, 303, Santa Monica, CA 90402
  Email: support@blindaapp.com

3. Information We May Collect About You

• 3.1 Information that you provide to us.

  • 3.1.1 We will collect any information that you provide to us when you:
    (a) make an enquiry, provide feedback, make a complaint or submit correspondence by post, over the phone, by email, through the app or on our website;
    (b) create an account to be a blind’a and/or seeker and then use the app and update your and your blindas’ profiles and other account details;
    (c) fill in a form, conduct a search, respond to surveys, participate in promotions or use any other features of the app;
    (d) ask us to contact your potential seeker or blind’a in order to get them to sign up for the app;
    (e) contact other users on the app;
    (f) register to and/or attend our events;
    (g) attend a meeting with us;
    (h) submit a CV, an application to a job vacancy or attend an interview or assessment; and
    (i) ‘follow’, ‘like’, post to or interact with our social media accounts, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

  • 3.1.2 The information you provide to us will include (depending on the circumstances):
    (a) Identity and contact data: title, names, and phone numbers.
    (b) Account profile data: if you’re registering for a Blind'a account, you will be asked to either create a seeker profile so that you can search on behalf of friends and family, or add at least a name and photo so that friends and family can be your seekers, or both. You may provide us with information about your date of birth, your occupation, whether you are single or if you are signing up on behalf of a friend, your location, your relationship with your single friend, your sexual orientation, your dating preferences, a photograph of yourself and any other information submitted to your bio.
    (c) Financial Data: if you transact with us, you will also provide payment details, which may include billing addresses, credit/debit card details and bank account details;
    (d) Employment and background data: if you apply for a job, you may provide additional information about your academic and work history, qualifications, skills, projects and research that you are involved in, references, proof of your entitlement to work in the US, your national security number, your passport or other identity document details, your current level of remuneration (including benefits), and any other such similar information that you may provide to us;
    (e) Survey data: from time to time we might ask if you would be willing to participate in our surveys, if you agree, we will also collect any information that you provide as part of that survey; and
    (f) Promos, events and contests: from time to time, we might ask if you would like to participate in our promotions, events and contests; if you agree we will also collect any information that you provide to participate.

• 3.2 Information we collect about you:
  (a) Information contained in correspondence: we will collect any information contained in any correspondence between us, like any chats or emails with our customer service team. For example, if you contact us using a contact support button on our app or website, or by email, or telephone, we may keep a record of that correspondence;
  (b) Information transmitted on the app: we will collect information that you upload or post to your account and/or any correspondence or interactions that you may have with other app users;
  (c) Your location data: when you access the app or the website, we will collect information about your location from your device, when we have your permission;
  (d) Your phone number: when you access the app, we will collect information about the your device’s telephone number in order to help you complete your account application more quickly;
  (e) Your contacts: when you access the app, we will collect information about the contacts saved on your device so that you can select either a blind’a or seeker from this list; with your permission
  (f) Your messages: when you invite your seeker or blind’a to use the app, we will access your messages with your prior permission to enable you to send a SMS to send the invite;
  (g) Your photo gallery or camera: when you upload a photo to the app for your seeker photo, Blind’a Basics Photos, or one of your blindas’ profiles, we will access your photo gallery or camera on your device with your permission to enable you to choose and use a photo;
  (h) Transactional data: we will collect information related to your financial transactions with us, including the date and time, the amounts charged and other related transaction details;
  (i) App usage data: we will collect information about your interactions with the app, including information such as login data, IP address, page views, searches, requests, approvals, interactions between you and other app users and other actions on the app or website. We embed pixel tags (also called web beacons or clear GIFs) on web pages, ads, and emails. These tiny, invisible graphics are used to access cookies and track user activities (such as how many times a page is viewed);
  (j) Technical data: we will also collect certain information about how you use our app and the device that you use to access our app, even where you have not created an account or logged in; and
  (k) Mobile device IDs: if you’re using our app, we use mobile device IDs (the unique identifier assigned to a device by the manufacturer), or Advertising IDs (for iOS 6 and later), instead of cookies, to recognize you. We do this to store your preferences and track your use of our app. Unlike cookies, device IDs cannot be deleted, but Advertising IDs can be reset in “Settings” on your iPhone.

• 3.3 Information we receive from third parties

  • 3.3.1 In certain circumstances, we will receive information about you from third parties. For example:
    (a) Your seeker: when your seeker creates a profile for you, we will receive information about your name, your gender, your phone number, your sexual orientation, your relationship with your seeker, and anything else that your Blind'a includes in your bio. You will have the opportunity to approve or reject this information before it is made public on the app. Your seeker may be based inside or outside the available zones for matching;
    (b) Other app users: we may receive personal information from other app users, for instance information that is contained in chats between you and other app users, any complaints or other correspondence we receive about you directly from other app users.
    (c) Facebook: When we eventually add Facebook login, if you use your Facebook profile to log into your Blind'a account, we may receive information about your Facebook public profile (in line with your Facebook privacy settings) including your email address, interests, likes, gender, birthday, education history, relationship interests, current city, photos, personal description, friend list, and information about and photos of your Facebook friends who might be common Facebook friends with other Blind'a users;
    (d) Employers, recruitment agencies and referees: if you are a job applicant we may contact your recruiter, current and former employers and/or references, to provide information about you and your application;
    (e) Service providers: we may collect personal information from our website and app developer, customer support service provider, IT support provider and payment services provider (who may be based outside the US); and
    (f) Website and app security: we will collect information from our website and app security service partners who are based outside the US, about any misuse, for instance, the introduction of viruses, Trojans, worms, logic bombs, attacks or any other material or action that is malicious or harmful.

  • 3.3.2 We might also receive information about you from third parties if you have indicated to such third party that you would like to hear from us.

• 3.4 Special categories of data

  • 3.4.1 “Special categories” of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. Special categories of data include details about your or your blindas’ race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. Depending on the circumstances we will also collect information about criminal convictions and offences as described in more detail below.

  • 3.4.2 We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:
    (a) in limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent;
    (b) where we need to carry out our legal obligations or exercise rights in connection with employment;
    (c) where it is needed for reasons of substantial public interest, such as for equal opportunities monitoring;
    (d) where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else's interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent; or
    (e) where you have already made the information public.

  • 3.4.3 When you sign up to the app, or approve information submitted by your seeker, we may process special categories of information about your race, ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation, trade union membership, your genetic data and your health data for the purpose of completing your profile, on the basis that you have made this personal information manifestly public by posting it on your profile.

  • 3.4.4 If you are an applicant or an employee, we will collect special categories of information about:
    (a) your race, ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs and sexual orientation for the purpose of our diversity and equal opportunities records (on the basis that it is needed for reasons of substantial public interest, for equal opportunities monitoring);
    (b) your health as necessary for the purpose of arranging your interview if you are an applicant or supporting your needs and access to our workplace if you are an employee (on the basis of your explicit consent if you are an applicant and for compliance with our legal obligations or exercise of employment rights if you are an employee); and
    (c) your criminal record for the purposes of completing background checks necessary for you to be able to work with us (on the basis such processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest under applicable laws).

4. How We Use Information About You and Recipients of Your Information

• 4.1 We will use your information for the purposes listed below either on the basis of:

  • 4.1.1 performance of your contract with us and the provision of our services to you;

  • 4.1.2 your consent (where we request it);

  • 4.1.3 where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation; or

  • 4.1.4 our legitimate interests or those of a third party (see section 4.3 below).

• 4.2 We use your information for the following purposes:

  • 4.2.1 To provide access to the Blind'a website and app in a manner convenient and optimal and with personalised content relevant to you, including enabling you to create a seeker profile, create blind’a profiles for friends and family, view other people’s profiles, and accept or reject suggested profiles (on the basis of our contract with you and our legitimate interest to ensure our app and website are presented in an effective and optimal manner);

  • 4.2.2 To register and manage your account: when you sign up to use our app, we will use the details provided on your account registration form to create and administer your account (on the basis of performing our contract with you);

  • 4.2.3 To enable you to interact and communicate with other app users: certain parts of the app enable you to interact and communicate with each other, like sending a message to your seekers/blindas, swiping profiles and having conversations in the chat feature as a seeker to seeker or a blind’a to blind’a. We will use the information you have provided (such as your name and contact details) to enable you to interact and communicate with each other, and also to suggest meaningful connections between you and other app users (on the basis of our contract with you);

  • 4.2.4 To process and facilitate transactions with us: we will use your information to process transactions and payments, and to collect and recover money owed to us (on the basis of performing our contract with you and on the basis of our legitimate interest to recover debts due);

  • 4.2.5 Relationship management: to manage our relationship with you, which will include notifying you about changes to our terms of use or privacy notice, and asking you to leave a review or take a survey (on the basis of performing our contract with you, to comply with our legal obligations and on the basis of our legitimate interests to keep our records updated and study how our app, website and services are used);

  • 4.2.6 User and customer support: to provide customer service and support (on the basis of our contract with you or on the basis of our legitimate interests to provide you with customer service), deal with enquiries or complaints about our app or website and share your information with our app developer, website developer, IT support provider, payment services provider as necessary to provide customer support (on the basis of our legitimate interest in providing the correct products and services to our app users and to comply with our legal obligations);

  • 4.2.7 Recruitment: to process any job applications you submit to us, whether directly or via an agent or recruiter including sharing this with our third party recruitment agencies (on the basis of our legitimate interest to recruit new employees or contractors);

  • 4.2.8 Marketing: to keep in contact with you about our news, events, new app features products or services that we believe may interest you, to send you free swag, provided that we have the requisite permission to do so, and sharing your information with our marketing services provider (either on the basis of your consent where we have requested it, or our legitimate interests to provide you with marketing communications where we may lawfully do so);

  • 4.2.9 Advertising: to deliver relevant content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you (on the basis of our legitimate interests in studying how our app, website and services are used, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy);

  • 4.2.10 Social media interactions: to interact with users on social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, for example, responding to comments and messages, posting, ‘retweeting’ and ‘liking’ posts (on the basis of our legitimate interest in promoting our brand and communicating with interested individuals);

  • 4.2.11 Analytics: to use data analytics to improve our app, website, products and services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences. We use pixel tags to measure the popularity of our features and services. Ad companies also use pixel tags to measure the number of ads displayed and their performance (such as how many people clicked on an ad) (on the basis of our legitimate interests in defining types of customers for our website, app, products and services, to keep our app and website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy);

  • 4.2.12 Suggestions and recommendations: to share your information with selected third parties such as suppliers and partners, to enable them to contact you with information about things that may interest you (where we have your consent to do so);

  • 4.2.13 Research: to carry out aggregated and anonymised research about general engagement with our app and website (on the basis of our legitimate interest in providing the right kinds of products and services to our app users);

  • 4.2.14 Fraud and unlawful activity detection: to protect, investigate, and deter against fraudulent, unauthorised, or illegal activity, including alleged inappropriate or illegal conduct on or off the app and identity fraud (on the basis of our legitimate interests to operate a safe and lawful business or where we have a legal obligation to do so); and

  • 4.2.15 Compliance with policies, procedures and laws: to enable us to comply with our policies and procedures and enforce our legal rights, or to protect the rights, property or safety of other app users and our employees, and to share your information with our technical and legal advisors (on the basis of our legitimate interests to operate a safe and lawful business or where we have a legal obligation to do so).

• 4.3 As outlined above, in certain circumstances we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties. Where we refer to using your information on the basis of our “legitimate interests”, we mean our legitimate business interests in conducting and managing our business and our relationship with you, including the legitimate interest we have identified in section 4.2 above.

• 4.4 Where we use your information for our legitimate interests, we make sure that we take into account any potential impact that such use may have on you. Our legitimate interests don’t automatically override yours and we won’t use your information if we believe your interests should override ours unless we have other grounds to do so (such as your consent or a legal obligation). If you have any concerns about our processing please refer to details of “Your Rights” in section 9 below.

5. Who We Might Share Your Information With

• 5.1 In connection with the purposes and on the lawful grounds described above and in addition to the recipients of your information as described above, we will share your personal information when relevant with third parties such as:

  • 5.1.1 Your seeker or blind’a: we will share your profile information with your seeker or blind’a to enable you both to use the app. Your seeker may be based inside or outside any available operating areas;

  • 5.1.2 Other app users: when you use Blind'a, your seeker bubble derived from your seeker profile will be viewable by other app users.  Any profile you approve for your seekers to use for you will also be viewable by other app users.  Other users (and in the case of any sharing features available on Blind'a, the individuals or apps with whom you choose to share with) will be able to view information you have provided to us directly or through your seekers, such as any additional photos you upload, your first name, your age, approximate number of miles away, your personal description, and information you have in common with the person viewing your profile, and likes. If you swipe right or use voting buttons to say “yes” to a person, you will be able to chat with that person’s seeker if their seeker swipes right or uses voting buttons to say “yes” to you, e.g., when you have a “match.”  If you chat with that seeker, they will be able to see your seeker bubble and the profiles of the matched blindas.  If you are connected to another blind’a by one of your seekers, the other blind’a will be able to see all of your information from the profile that seeker made you, as soon as a minimum number of messages has been sent.  Other app users may be based inside or outside the currently available operating zones, you may be able to see their location details on their profile;

  • 5.1.3 Our service providers: service providers we work with to deliver our business, who are acting as processors and provide us with:
    (a) website and app development and hosting services based in EU and USA;
    (b) IT, system administration and security services based in EU and USA;
    (c) customer support services, based in the USA.
    (d) marketing services (including Mailchimp), based the USA;
    (e) social media services including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter based in the USA;
    (f) identity verification, fraud prevention and detection services based in the USA;
    (g) legal, accountancy, auditing and insurance services and other professional advisers based in the USA.

  • 5.1.4 Regulators and governmental bodies: the IRS, regulators, governmental bodies and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the USA, who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances;

  • 5.1.5 Marketing parties: any selected third party that you consent to our sharing your information with for marketing purposes;

  • 5.1.6 Prospective sellers and buyers of our business: any prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets, only in the event that we decide to sell or buy any business or assets; and

  • 5.1.7 Other third parties (including professional advisers): any other third parties (including legal or other advisors, regulatory authorities, courts, law enforcement agencies and government agencies) based in the USA where necessary to enable us to enforce our legal rights, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our employees or where such disclosure may be permitted or required by law.

• 5.2 We require third parties to maintain appropriate security to protect your information from unauthorised access or processing.

6. How We Look After Your Information and How Long We Keep It For

• 6.1 We operate a policy of “privacy by design” by looking for opportunities to minimise the amount of personal information we hold about you. We use appropriate technological and operational security measures to protect your information against any unauthorised access or unlawful use, such as:

  • 6.1.1 ensuring the physical security of our offices, warehouses or other sites;

  • 6.1.2 ensuring the physical and digital security of our equipment and devices by using appropriate password protection and encryption;

  • 6.1.3 ensuring the security of our databases by using suppliers who use industry-standard encryption and physical security measures;

  • 6.1.4 conducting ID verification and fraud detection;

  • 6.1.5 conducting daily security and bug testing;

  • 6.1.6 maintaining a data protection policy for, and delivering data protection training to, our employees; and

  • 6.1.7 limiting access to your personal information to those in our company who need to use it in the course of their work.

• 6.2 We will retain your information for as long as is necessary to provide you with the services that you have requested from us or for as long as we reasonably require to retain the information for our lawful business purposes, such as for the purposes of exercising our legal rights or where we are permitted to do. We operate a data retention policy and look to find ways to reduce the amount of information we hold about you and the length of time that we need to keep it. For example, if you ask us to delete your account, we immediately remove all public information and then permanently erase your account information from our servers after you request deletion.

7. Help Keep Your Information Safe

• 7.1 You can also play a part in keeping your information safe by:

  • 7.1.1 letting us know if you know or suspect that your account has been compromised, or if someone has accessed your account without your permission;

  • 7.1.2 keeping your devices protected by using the latest version of your operating system and maintaining any necessary anti-virus software; and

  • 7.1.3 being vigilant to any fraudulent emails that may appear to be from us. Any emails that we send will come from an email address ending in ‘@blindaapp.com’.

8. International Transfers of Your Information

• 8.1 Our company is located in the USA.

• 8.2 Many of our external third parties are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.

• 8.3 Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA to the USA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following transfer solutions are implemented:

  • 8.3.1 Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the Europe and the US. For further details, see European Commission: EU-US Privacy Shield.

• 8.4 Please contact us using the contact details at the top of this Privacy Notice if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.

9. Your Rights to the Information We Hold About You

• 9.1 You have certain rights in respect of the information that we hold about you, including:

  • 9.1.1 the right to be informed of the ways in which we use your information, as we seek to do in this Privacy Notice;

  • 9.1.2 the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes;

  • 9.1.3 the right to request access to the information that we hold about you;

  • 9.1.4 the right to request that we correct or rectify any information that we hold about you which is out of date or incorrect;

  • 9.1.5 the right to withdraw your consent for our use of your information in reliance of your consent (refer to section 2 above to see when we are relying on your consent), which you can do by contacting us using any of the details at the top of this Privacy Notice;

  • 9.1.6 the right to object to our using your information on the basis of our legitimate interests (refer to section 2 above to see when we are relying on our legitimate interests) (or those of a third party)) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground;

  • 9.1.7 the right to receive a copy of any information we hold about you (or request that we transfer this to another service provider) in a structured, commonly-used, machine readable format, in certain circumstances;

  • 9.1.8 in certain circumstances, the right to ask us to limit or cease processing or erase information we hold about you. You can request the deletion of your account by going to ‘settings’ in the app, scrolling to the bottom and clicking on ‘delete account’; and

  • 9.1.9 the right to lodge a complaint about us to the Better Business Bureau as well as a right to lodge a complaint with the relevant authority in your country of work or residence.

• 9.2 Please note that we may need to retain certain information for our own record-keeping and research purposes. We may also need to send you service-related communications relating to your App user account even when you have requested not to receive marketing communications.

• 9.3 How to exercise your rights

  • 9.3.1 You may exercise your rights above by contacting us using the details in section 2 of this Privacy Notice, or in the case of preventing processing for marketing activities also by checking certain boxes on forms that we use to collect your data to tell us that you don’t want to be involved in marketing.

  • 9.3.2 You may contact us via the details at the top of this Privacy Notice if you wish to action any of these additional rights and we will comply with your requests unless we have a lawful reason not to do so.

• 9.4 What we need from you to process your requests

  • 9.4.1 We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and to enable you to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

  • 9.4.2 You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances. We will try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

10. Do Not Track Disclosure

• 10.1 Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in their web browsers. DNT is a way for users to inform websites and services that they do not want certain information about their webpage visits collected over time and across websites or online services. We are committed to providing you with meaningful choices about the information we collect and that is why we provide opt-out links. However, we do not recognize or respond to any DNT signals, as the internet industry works toward defining exactly what DNT means, what it means to comply with DNT, and a common approach to responding to DNT.

11. Sharing Data Directly With Third Parties

• 11.1 You might end up providing personal information directly to third parties as a consequence of your interactions on our app and other services offered by us. For example, you may disclose your personal data to app users when you chat with them on the app, or you may attend an event hosted by us where you communicate personal information directly with other attendees. We are not responsible for how such third parties use personal data provided by you.

• 11.2 Please be responsible with personal information of others when using our app and the services available on it. We are not responsible for your misuse of personal information, or for the direct relationship between you and others when it takes place outside of the app, the website or our services.

12. Third-Party Links

• The website and app may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party apps or websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every app or website you visit.

13. Changes to this Privacy Notice and Your Duty to Inform Us of Changes

• 13.1 We may make changes to this Privacy Notice from time to time. We will post any changes to our site, or notify you of any material changes by sms or push notification.

• 13.2 It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us by updating your profile account information or contacting us via the contact details at the top of this Privacy Notice. This Privacy Notice was updated on 9 December 2020.

©2020 Blind'a. All Rights Reserved.