Last Modified: January 15th, 2023
I. Introduction
Tellus App, Inc. ( “Tellus”, “we”, “us” or “our”) provides a convenient way for you to connect with all parties involved in our information-sharing platform.
Our privacy policy (“Policy”) will help you understand what information we collect at Tellus, how Tellus uses it, and what choices you have. Our Policy explains how we and some of the companies we collaborate with collect, use, share and protect your information in relation to our mobile services, web site, and any software provided on or in connection with Tellus services (collectively, the “Service”), and your choices about the collection and use of your information. Our Policy applies to all visitors, users, and other people who access the Service (“Users”).
By using our Service you understand and agree that we are providing a platform for you to post content, including photos, comments, videos and other materials (“User Content”), to the Service and to share User Content publicly. This means that other Users may search for, see, use, or share any of your User Content that you make publicly available through the Service, consistent with the terms and conditions of this Policy and our Terms of Service.
By using Tellus, you agree that we may collect, use and share your information in accordance with this Policy, as revised from time to time.
Please note that this Policy does not apply to Information collected: through third party services (including any third party websites) that you may access through Tellus; or by other companies and organizations who advertise their services on Tellus.If you wish to contact us regarding this Policy or any privacy-related matters, please contact our Privacy Officer via email at privacy@tellusapp.com.
II. Information We Collect
In providing Tellus Service, and depending on the services you use, and the choices you make, we collect some or all, store and use the following information relating to you:
“Personal Information” is any information or combination of information that relates to you, and can be used to identify you. Personal Information may include the following:
“Location Data” is information that we collect regarding your location (when you use a location-enabled service), including:
“Non-Personal Information” is any information that relates to you but from which it is not practicable to directly or indirectly identify you, including Personal Information in aggregated, anonymized or pseudonymized form.
“Shared Information” is information about you or relating to you that is voluntarily shared on Tellus. Shared Information may include postings that you make on Tellus (including your public profile, the lists you create, and photos, videos and voice recordings as accessed with your prior consent through your device’s camera and/or microphone sensor), any postings from others that you re-post and Location Data and Log Data associated with such postings. Shared Information also includes information about you (including Location Data and Log Data) that others who are using our Service share about you.
“Analytics Information” is information that we use third-party analytics tools to collect in order to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Service. These tools collect information sent by your device or our Service, including the web pages you visit, add-ons, and other information that assists us in improving the Service. We collect and use this analytics information with analytics information from other Users so that it cannot reasonably be used to identify any particular individual User.
III. How We Use Your Information
We will use your information to:
IV. Sharing of Your Information
By agreeing to this Policy, you consent to the third party use, sharing and transfer of your information (both inside and outside of your jurisdiction) as described in this section.
Payments Disclaimer
In order to support advanced, secure integrations with your bank or financial institution, Tellus will use Plaid Technologies, Inc. (“Plaid”). By using our service, you grant Tellus and Plaid the right, power, and authority to act on your behalf to access and transmit your personal and financial information from the relevant financial institution(s). You agree to your personal and financial information being transferred, stored, and processed by Plaid in accordance with the Plaid Privacy Policy.
We will not rent or sell your information to third parties outside Tellus (or the group of companies of which Tellus is a part) without your consent, except as noted in this Policy.
If you believe a payment related transaction was made in error, if you would like to dispute a charge/payment or if you believe your account has been compromised or hacked, you should reach us at payments@tellusapp.com.
Parties with whom we may share your information:
We may share User Content and your information (including but not limited to, information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data) with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Tellus is part of, or that become part of that group (“Affiliates”). Affiliates may use this information to help provide, understand, and improve the Service (including by providing analytics) and Affiliates’ own services (including by providing you with better and more relevant experiences). But these Affiliates will honor the choices you make about who can see your photos and communications.
We also may share your information as well as information from tools like cookies, log files, and device identifiers and location data, with third-party organizations that help us provide the Service to you (“Service Providers”). Our Service Providers will be given access to your information as is reasonably necessary to provide the Service under reasonable confidentiality terms.
We may also share certain information such as cookie data with third-party advertising partners. This information would allow third-party advertisement networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you.
We may remove parts of data that can identify you and share anonymized data with other parties. We may also combine your information with other information in a way that it is no longer associated with you and share that aggregated information.
Parties with whom you may choose to share your User Content:
Any information or content that you voluntarily disclose for posting to the Service, such as User Content, becomes available to the public, as controlled by any applicable privacy settings that you set. To change your privacy settings on the Service, please change your profile setting. Once you have shared User Content or made it public, that User Content may be re-shared by others.
Subject to your profile and privacy settings, any User Content that you make public is searchable by other Users and subject to use under our Tellus Application Programming Interface (“API”). If you remove information that you posted to the Service, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Service, or if other Users or third parties using the Tellus API have copied or saved that information.
What happens in the event of a change of control:
If we sell or otherwise transfer part or the whole of Tellus or our assets to another organization (e.g., in the course of a transaction like a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, liquidation) (“Successor”), your information such as name and email address, User Content and any other information collected through the Service may be among the items sold or transferred. You will continue to own your User Content. The buyer or transferee will have to honor the commitments we have made in this Policy, unless otherwise amended by a Successor in accordance with this Policy.
Responding to legal requests and preventing harm:
We may access, preserve and share your information in response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena) if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. This may include responding to legal requests from jurisdictions outside of your jurisdiction where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction, and is consistent with internationally recognized standards. We may also access, preserve and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity; to protect ourselves, you and others, including as part of investigations; and to prevent death or imminent bodily harm. Information we receive about you may be accessed, processed and retained for an extended period of time when it is the subject of a legal request or obligation, governmental investigation, or investigations concerning possible violations of our terms or policies, or otherwise to prevent harm.
V. Your Choices About Your Information
Your account information and profile/privacy settings:
You may update your account at any time by logging in and changing your profile settings.
You may unsubscribe from email communications from us by clicking on the ”unsubscribe link“ provided in such communications. As noted above, you may not opt out of Service-related communications (e.g., account verification, purchase and billing confirmations and reminders, changes/updates to features of the Service, technical and security notices).
Other Information:
If you have any questions about your information, our use of this information, or your rights when it comes to any of the foregoing, contact us at privacy@tellusapp.com.
Other Choices:
You have the right to be removed and deleted. In addition, the browser you use may provide you with the ability to control cookies or other types of local data storage. Your mobile device may provide you with choices around how and whether location or other data is collected and shared. Tellus does not control these choices, or default settings, which are offered by creators of your browser or mobile device operating system.
How long we keep your User Content:
Following termination or deactivation of your account, Tellus, its Affiliates, or its Service Providers may retain information (including your profile information) and User Content for a commercially reasonable time for backup, archival (including Users’ chat history) and/or audit purposes.
Consumer Choices.
We offer you certain choices in connection with the personal information we collect from you. To update your preferences, limit the communications you receive from us, or submit a request, please contact us at: privacy@tellusapp.com. You may update some of your account details and settings by logging into your account on our Services or by emailing us at support@tellusapp.com.
Communications preferences.
You can choose to not receive certain promotional communications from us by following the “unsubscribe” hyperlink at the bottom of promotional emails or by replying “STOP” to promotional texts. These choices do not apply to certain informational communications, including certain surveys and mandatory service communications. If you decide you do not want to receive push notifications from us, you can use the settings on your mobile device to turn them off. We also offer push notifications on certain web browsers, which can also be turned off on your browser’s settings.
Cookie controls.
Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can go to your browser settings to learn how to delete or reject cookies. If you choose to delete or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our website. If you choose to delete cookies, settings and preferences controlled by those cookies, including advertising preferences, may be deleted and may need to be recreated. Some cookies can be turned off for residents of certain states by following the “Do not sell or share my personal information” link at the bottom of our webpage.
Mobile advertising ID controls.
iOS and Android operating systems provide options to limit tracking and/or reset the advertising IDs. You can change your preferences on your device.
Email web beacons.
Most email clients have settings that allow you to prevent the automatic downloading of images, including web beacons, which prevents the automatic connection to the web servers that host those images.
Advertising controls.
You can also visit DAA (www.aboutads.info/choices), NAI (http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/) and TrustArc (http://preferences-mgr.truste.com/) to learn more about opt-out controls in the U.S.
Do Not Track.
Some browsers have incorporated “Do Not Track” (DNT) features that can send a signal to the websites you visit indicating you do not wish to be tracked. Because there is not a common understanding of how to interpret the DNT signal, our websites do not currently respond to browser DNT signals.
California and Virginia residents have additional rights. Please see our California and Virginia Privacy Rights section for more information.
California Privacy Rights.
Below are rights that are specific to California Residents. California residents also have additional rights as described in the California and Virginia Rights section below.
Right to Opt-Out / “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information”. The CCPA requires us to describe the categories of personal information we sell or share to third parties and how to opt-out of future sales. It is important to know that the definition of “sale” and “share” is very broad and the common flow of information for advertising and analytics may be considered a sale or sharing. We do not share information that you might typically think of as personal information to third parties in exchange for money; however, under the CCPA, personal information includes unique identifiers, including things like IP addresses, cookie IDs, pixel tags, and mobile ad IDs. The law defines a “sale” broadly to include simply making such personal information available to third parties in some cases. “Share” is defined as providing personal information to a third party to target advertising to a consumer based on information about their activity on multiple websites across the internet. In the last 12 months, when you access our online services, we may let advertising and analytics providers collect IP addresses, cookie IDs, advertising IDs, and other unique identifiers, which may be collected along with device and usage data, and information about your interactions with our online services and advertisements.
For California and Virginia Consumers
If you are a California or Virginia resident, you have rights regarding your personal information, as described below (for California residents, these are in addition to the choices described in the California section above).
Access. You have a right to request that we disclose to you, twice in a 12-month period, the personal information we have collected about you. You also have a right to request additional information about our collection, use, disclosure, or sale of such personal information, which is also provided in this privacy statement.
Right to Request Correction or Deletion. You also have rights to request that we correct inaccurate personal information and that we delete personal information under certain circumstances, subject to a number of exceptions imposed by law.
Right to opt-out of targeted advertising (Virginia residents). To opt-out from or otherwise control targeted advertising, you have several options:
Shine the Light Request. You also may have the right to request that we provide you with (a) a list of certain categories of personal information we have disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year and (b) the identity of those third parties.
How to Submit a Request. To submit an access, correction, removal or deletion request, please email privacy@tellusapp.com or if you are in-app, go to Customer Support, submit a request through our webform. To submit a Shine the Light request, email us at privacy@tellusapp.com. If you designate an authorized agent to make an access or deletion request on your behalf using one of the channels described above, we may require you to provide the authorized agent written permission to do so and to verify your own identity directly with us (as described below). For questions or concerns about our privacy policies and practices, please contact us as described in the How to Contact Us section of our Privacy Notice.
How to Submit a Sale or Share Opt-Out Request. If you’d like to tell us not to make your personal information available in ways that we’ve identified may be a sale or sharing under the CCPA, toggle off the setting your App settings. Alternatively, you can click on our “Do Not Sell or Share” link at the bottom of our homepage or use the Global Privacy Control signal described below, but these options will only be saved to your browser for the session which you are currently active in and will not change your account settings. Further, using these choices will not stop all interest-based advertising and will opt you out of sales and sharing only after the point in time at which you make your selection.
Global Privacy Control. You can also use the Global Privacy Control (GPC). Some browsers and browser extensions support the GPC or similar controls that can send a signal to the websites you visit indicating your choice to opt-out from certain types of data processing, including data sales and/or targeted advertising, as specified by applicable law. When we detect this signal, we will make reasonable efforts to respect your choices indicated by the GPC setting or similar control that is recognized by regulation or otherwise widely acknowledged as a valid opt-out preference signal.
Verifying Requests. To help protect your privacy and maintain security, we will take steps to verify your identity before granting you access to your personal information or complying with your request (with the exception of a request to opt-out of sales). We may require you to provide any of the following information: your name, date of birth, the last four digits of your Social Security number, the email and physical addresses associated with your account. If you ask us to provide you with specific pieces of personal information, we may require you to sign a declaration under penalty of perjury that you are the consumer whose personal information is the subject of the request.
Retention of Personal Data. We retain personal data for as long as necessary to provide the services and fulfill the transactions you have requested, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and other legitimate and lawful business purposes. Because these needs can vary for different data types in the context of different services, actual retention periods can vary significantly based on criteria such as user expectations or consent, the sensitivity of the data, the availability of automated controls that enable users to delete data, and our legal or contractual obligations.
Additional Information. If you choose to exercise any of your rights, you have the right to not receive discriminatory treatment by us. Except for the automated controls described above, if you send us a request to exercise your rights or these choices, to the extent permitted by applicable law, we may charge a fee or decline requests in certain cases. For example, we may decline requests where granting the request would be prohibited by law, could adversely affect the privacy or rights of another person, would reveal a trade secret or other confidential information, or would interfere with a legal or business obligation that requires retention or use of the data. Further, we may decline a request where we are unable to authenticate you as the person to whom the data relates, the request is unreasonable or excessive, or where otherwise permitted by applicable law. If you receive a response from us informing you that we have declined your request, in whole or in part, you may appeal that decision by submitting your appeal to privacy@tellusapp.com. Please provide the state that you are writing from and include any documentation you may have regarding the matter that you are appealing.
Zero-tolerance spam policy
Any contacts users have synced to the Tellus app will not be contacted by Tellus without express permission.
VI. Changes to this Privacy Policy
Tellus reserves the right to change this Policy at any time. Please check this page periodically for any changes. Your continued use of the Services following the posting of changes to this Policy will mean you accept those changes. While it is your responsibility to check this page for any changes, if we make any material changes to this Policy, we will post the updated Policy here and may notify you by email or by means of a notice on our website.
VII. Age Restrictions
Individuals under the age of 13 are not allowed to use Tellus. Tellus does not knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register for the Service. The Service and its content are not directed at children under the age of 13. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without parental consent, we will delete that information as soon as practical. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at privacy@tellusapp.com.