Privacy Policy - Earth 9

Earth9 Inc.

About this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) explains [1] the information we collect when you use our websites and desktop software, including when you make purchases, [2] how we use the information we collect from you, and [3] with whom we share it.

This Policy is for everyone around the world who accesses our website and/or uses the Services. We have to follow applicable laws designed to protect Personal Information in the many different countries where our Users live, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) in the US, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) in the EU, the Data Protection Act of 2018 in the UK, and the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (“LGPD”) in Brazil.

Earth9 is especially committed to protecting the privacy of children (i.e., Users under the age of 13 under COPPA). See the “Children’s Privacy and Parental Controls” section below for more information about your rights as a parent or legal guardian. To learn more about COPPA, you can consult the US Federal Trade Commission’s COPPA website at https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/protecting-consumer-privacy-security/kids-privacy-coppa. You can also learn more about COPPA, by looking at this simple guide from the kidSAFE Seal Program: www.kidsafeseal.com/knowaboutcoppa.html.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this Policy and/or our data practices, please email us at privacysecurity@earth9.net and include the following information:

The gamertag/username and/or email address for the Account involved;
Should you be requesting a live conversation with Earth9 privacy, security, or support staff, your telephone number, with country code and area code, and the best day and time to call;
Your city, province, and country of residence; and
Details of your questions, comments, or concerns.

You are under no obligation to provide Personal Information (defined below) to Earth9 when requested. However, if you choose to withhold any requested information, you may not be able to access to certain services or use certain features that would otherwise be available to you.

Definitions

The following definitions apply to these Policies:

“Account” means a User account created in order to access the Earth9 Platform and use the Services.

“Children” or “Child” means any User under the age of 13.

“Personal Information” means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier.

“Platform” means our Earth9 game platform.

“Privacy Policy” or “Policy” means this Earth9 Privacy Policy.

“Processing” means any operation which is performed on Personal Information, such as collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation or any kind of disclosure or other use.

“Service” means any service or software offered by Earth9, such as allowing Users to access and use the Platform features, connect with other Users, and use content created by Users. It includes websites on the Earth9.net domain, our Earth9 desktop software, and our other websites, products, software, content, data feeds, and other services on which an authorized link to this Policy is posted.

Any other capitalized term that is not defined in this Policy is defined and has the meaning set out in our Terms of Use.

Information That We Collect

Everyone who wants to access and use the Platform has to create an Account.

When you create an Account, you will be asked to choose a unique password and username, which will also serve as your public gamertag. We require this information so that you can log into your Account and use the Services. We will not use your gamertag/username to identify you outside of your activities while using the Services.

We will also ask you for your date of birth, and may ask you for other personal information such as your gender, the country you live in and which language you speak so we can customize your experience on Earth9.

You must not create a gamertag/username that includes your real name or other Personal Information. It is also important to create a password that is not easy to guess. You may share your password with your parent(s) or legal guardian, but never share it with anyone else, not even your friends.

You will also use the email address required to create your Account to help you reset your password in the case you have forgotten it.

The email address you provide when creating your Account may serve as added verification and/or to enable certain features. The primary purpose for this email address is to provide Account security, since this is the only way for Earth9 to check the authenticity of an Account owner. In this circumstance, children are asked to provide a parent email address. Users may change the email address associated with their Account at any time; however, a notification will be sent to the previously provided email address upon making that change.

Additional Personal Information We May Collect When You Use Earth9 Features

You do not have to share any additional Personal Information with us (other than the information described above) to use our websites or app.

We may collect other Personal Information when you use our other features and Services. For example, when you make purchases on the Platform, we will collect additional information from the purchaser in order to take the payment such as the purchaser’s name, billing address, email address and payment card details or other payment information.

When you type content on Earth9 in public chat, private chat, forums, group walls, personal posts or portfolios, we will monitor what you write to check that they do not contain swear words, your Personal Information or chat that is not suitable for Users to have on Earth9.

If you contact us, for example, about a problem with our services, we may collect your contact information, such as your email address and other important information about your issue or concern. We will only use this information to address your problem or concerns that you raise, and to be able to reply to you.

When you browse and use our websites and app we might collect information about your actions on the website and app to make your experience better. For example, we might notice that you are interested (or not) in certain topics or communities within Earth9 and fine-tune your Earth9 landing page or search results to suit you better.

We might also collect information from your device when you visit our websites, as outlined in the “Cookies and Similar Technologies” section.

Any information that you share with us or that we collect might be used to:

spot flaws in the software that occur only on a certain device make and model;
keep Earth9’s software running and always improving;
provide you access to the website or app and additional features, or to restrict your access to features that will not work on your device;
make the content on the website or app personalized to you and make it easier for you to use;
help you look after your Account, like changing your Account settings;
detect security incidents and protect against bad or illegal activity, and find those responsible for that activity; and
protect your safety.

In addition to Account setup on Earth9, we may collect and process Personal Information from you directly if you use the following features and activities (as applicable):

When you make purchases – Users can purchase subscriptions and may use a variety of payment methods. When making purchases, Users or their parents will be required to enter billing information, which may include name, billing address, credit card or other payment information, and billing email. Our payment processors will process all purchases, and you will be subject to their terms and conditions and privacy policy. Your billing information, transaction details, and purchase history may be retained and used by our payment processors to resolve subsequent billing disputes and inquiries.
When you post, share, or otherwise transmit comments, messages, or content on the Platform – We may collect these comments, messages, posts, and they may be monitored, filtered and moderated for purposes such as removal of profanity, Personal Information, and other inappropriate content. Where permitted by law, we may use pre-filtered chat, comments and messages for purposes such as training and improving our filter technology to increase the safety on our platform.
When you use or interact with Earth9 for additional features – This may require the use of your camera or upload of files. If you decide to use these features and upload content, we will collect, process, and store that content only for as long as needed to accomplish the purpose of the feature.
When you provide us with your phone number – If you choose to provide a phone number for verification, you may receive a verification SMS after sign-up to confirm your ownership of the number. Your phone number may also be used to recover a lost or forgotten password. Additionally, but only with your explicit and informed consent at the time that it is needed, we may use your phone number to recommend you as a friend to others using the Platform. You will be recommended with your contact name as stored on your friends’ devices, which may include also your real name. If you do not want us to use your phone number to be found by your friends on the Platform, please do not use this feature. Please note that the discoverability feature may not be available in certain locations.
When you provide us with your contacts – If you opt-in to an Earth9 feature that invites or allows you to share information about Earth9 with any of your contacts, you consent to sharing with Earth9 the first and last names and phone numbers of your contacts in your address book on your mobile phone, either at the time you create your Account or otherwise. We do so to help you connect with your friends on our Platform. As part of such feature(s), we may periodically access and collect information in your address book in order to sync your contacts. Such information will only be retained in case of matches with existing Users. Note that such feature(s) may not be available in certain locations.
When you contact or send communications to us – For example, when you contact customer support, report a problem, or submit questions, concerns, or comments regarding our Platform or its content, we may collect contact information such as your email address and other important information relevant to your inquiry or concern. This information is used to respond to your communications, fulfill your requests, or provide other customer support.
When you use or interact with third-party plug-ins that may be available on the Platform for Users other than children – This includes third-party social media widgets, share buttons, and/or login mechanisms. These features may include social plugins from Google, Facebook, Twitter or other platforms, and may be subject to the terms and conditions and/or privacy policies of these other companies as posted on their respective websites. When you use these features, certain information from your social media accounts may be accessed by or shared with Earth9, and likewise, certain information about your use of Earth9 may be posted to your profile on those platforms.
When you participate in contests, competitions, sweepstakes, giveaways, prize draws or other promotions that we may run or sponsor on our Platform – These promotions may involve the collection and use of certain contact information (such as your name, email address, and/or phone number) for prize fulfillment purposes, as well as other information or content needed for the specific promotion. In some jurisdictions, we are required to publicly share information about the winners.
When you respond to or participate in voluntary research or surveys or studies – These surveys may collect information about your likes and dislikes, experience interests and habits, general hobbies and interests, and other lifestyle information or preferences. In rare cases, these surveys may ask for Personal Information depending on their specific purpose.
When you request or agree to voice based services from Earth9 – With your consent, we may collect, process and store your voice recording to provide services and to increase the safety of our voice related services. We may use your voice recording for purposes such as training and improving our filter technology to increase the safety on our platform, except that we will not engage in these activities with private peer-to-peer recordings.
When you subscribe to other features or activities, which may be available to our Users other than children – We may offer other features or activities on our Services from time to time, and you may be able to submit or upload Personal Information in connection with such features. The data being collected for such features and their intended uses will be evident at the time of data collection.
When you browse, navigate, or otherwise interact on the Platform or with our Services – We collect information about your interactions with the Platform and our Services and connect the information collected with your Account to provide you a better User experience. For example, we may collect information from your search history to provide you with similar recommendations. We may also collect information from your device when you visit our websites or use our software for the purposes outlined in the “Cookies and Similar Technologies” section below.
Information processed to enable advertising – To market our Services via social media platforms and other media in order to bring new Users to our websites and to maintain and increase our User base, we may process Personal Information such as IP addresses, information on Users’ browsers or operating systems, including language settings, regional location information and usernames or user IDs.

In addition to the specific uses above, any information that you provide or that we collect on the Platform or through the Services may be generally used for the following purposes:

To operate, maintain, and improve the Platform and/or our Services;
To give you access to the Platform and/or our Services and related features, or restrict your access;
To personalize the Services or content on the Platform, as well as make it more user-friendly;
To allow you to manage your Account or Account information, update your Account settings, and (where applicable) make purchases or subscribe to services;
To communicate with you about our Services (product changes, feature updates, etc.);
To provide technical support or customer service;
To deliver Service content or advertising that may be relevant to your interests;
To detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, and prosecute those responsible for that activity;
To research technological development and demonstration;
To identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
To audit interactions, transactions, and other compliance activities; and
To protect the integrity, safety, or security of the Platform, our Services, or our Users, comply with legal obligations, or enforce compliance with our Terms of Use, or other restrictions placed on your use of the Service.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

Like most websites, we use cookies and other standard internet technologies to help us improve our Services.

Cookies and other identifiers

We use "Cookies" on our websites and software to help us understand and improve our services, as well as to understand your preferences. A Cookie is a small text file placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website that allows us to remember your actions and preferences on the website (such as your login details, your language settings and your font size preference) over a period of time so you do not have to re-enter them whenever you come back to the website or browse from one page to another. We will also remember your favorite games and friends.

A cookie can be classified by its lifespan and the domain to which it belongs. By lifespan, a cookie is either a:

Session cookie which is erased when a User closes the browser; or
Persistent cookie which remains on the User’s computer/device for a pre-defined period of time.

As for the domain to which it belongs, there are either:

First-party cookies which are set by the web server of the visited page and share the same domain (in this case Earth9.net domain); or
Third-party cookies stored by a different domain to the visited page’s domain. This can happen when the webpage references a resource or webpage located outside its own domain.

Pixel Tags/Web Beacons

A pixel tag (also known as a web beacon) is a piece of code embedded in the Services that collects information about visitors’ engagement on that web page. The use of a pixel allows us to record, for example, that a visitor has visited a particular web page or clicked on a particular advertisement.

How we use cookies

When you visit or access the Service, we may – by means of cookies, beacons, tags, scripts, and/or other similar technologies – automatically collect technical information about the devices and software you use to access the Service, such as the type of Internet browser or mobile device you use, the website or source that linked or referred you to the Service, your IP address or device ID (or other persistent identifier that uniquely identifies your computer or mobile device on the Internet), the operating system of your computer or mobile device, and other similar technical information. These same technologies (or a combination of them) may also be used to help us:

Capture and store Users’ preferences, Account settings, and certain login information (for convenience, User verification, and Account security);
Compile statistics and analytics about your use of and interaction with the Service, including details about how and where our Service is downloaded from or accessed, how often a User visits or uses the Service, the date and time of User visits to, and actions on, the Service, which areas of the Service are visited and for how long, information regarding in-game activities, and other similar traffic, usage, and trend data;
Analytics tools to allow us to better understand the functionality of our desktop software on your device and gain insights about how our desktop software is used;
Gather important functionality, testing, and performance data about our Services, including performance data related to our desktop software, such as networking activity, CPU load, and resource usage, among other relevant data;
Moderate User behavior on the Service, such as protecting against payment fraud and other inappropriate activities;
Gather anonymized demographic information about our User base; and;
Perform other similar functions.

We will not use cookies or similar technologies other than for the purposes stated in this Policy.

Third party advertising and ad networks

For our Users that are children, Earth9 partners with third-party advertising companies to serve contextual advertising (i.e., ads that are based on the content of the page the User is looking at rather than personal data about the individual), cap the frequency of advertising, and provide related uses permitted by COPPA. Earth9 does not show behaviorally targeted or retargeted ads to children or track such Users for the purposes of directing targeted advertising.

Earth9 may partner with third-party advertisers, ad server companies, and ad networks (“third-party advertising companies”) from time to time to promote our Service. If you respond to one of our advertisements and visit or register to use one of our Services, we may provide these third-party advertising companies with identifiers from your device or computer, such as an IP address or device ID, to help us analyze our User acquisition efforts.

NOTE: To disable advertising-related tracking at your request, companies may need to set an opt-out cookie on your browser. Sometimes a browser’s configuration may prevent companies from setting such cookies, for example, if your browser is set to block all third-party cookies by default. Therefore, you may need to change your browser settings to accept cookies, in order to fully disable advertising-related tracking.

Your choices:

For all other sites, please clear your cookies and refresh your browser to display the cookie banner to access its settings.

Most web browsers automatically allow websites to create and use cookies, but if you prefer, you can change your browser to prevent that or to notify you each time a cookie is set.

Some browser manufacturers provide comprehensive help relating to cookie management in their products. Please see below for more information:

Google Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9 5647?hl=en-GB;
Microsoft Edge: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/devtools-guide-chromium/storage/cookies;
Mozilla Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cookies-information-websites-store-on-your-computer;
Safari (Desktop): https://support.apple.com/kb/PH5042?local e=en_US;
Safari (Mobile): https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201265;
Android Browser: https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/54068?visit_id=0-636612941590933601-131731679&hl=en&rd=1; and
Opera: https://www.opera.com/help.

You can also learn more about cookies by visiting https://www.allaboutcookies.org, which includes additional useful information on cookies and how to block or delete cookies that are already on your computer.

Please note, however, that by blocking or deleting cookies used on the Service, you may not be able to take full advantage of the Service and you may not be able to log on to the Platform or play the Earth9 game.

Information Sharing

Earth9 does not sell your information to other companies for them to use as they want.

Earth9 does have relationships with some companies that help us provide our services, so we may provide some of your information to them, but only because we need to in order to complete your transaction.

We also hire other people and companies to perform services for us. The other companies are only allowed to use any Personal Information we share with them to complete tasks that we hire them to do. They are not permitted to sell your Personal Information or use it for their own purposes.

Public forums and community areas

There may be areas on the Platform where you can communicate with other Users. These are public places and anything you share in these areas is available to other Users who can access the same places. You should remember this before you post any information in these public areas. Earth9 wants to create a safe space for all Users, so we do not allow you to share any Personal Information about yourself such as your name, where you live, or your email address.

Creators

We share your gamertag/username, game metrics, and regional location with the creators of the experiences you access.

Please note that it is Earth9’s policy no to sell any Personal Information about Users to third-party companies for their independent purposes. However, it may be necessary for Earth9 to disclose User information for a specific business purpose as set forth below.

Service Providers

Earth9 may share Users’ information, including Personal Information which includes but is not limited to billing information or usernames, with our third-party agents, contractors, or service providers who are hired to perform services on Earth9’s behalf. These providers may operate or support certain functions of the Service. Below is an illustrative list of functions for which we may use third-party service providers, and the names of the providers we may use to perform these functions:

Account Integrity and Security;
Analytics services;
User Acquisition services;
Community filtering and moderation services;
Customer support services;
Surveys and promotions;
Social Media Log-in;
Billing services and payment gateway providers; and
Hosting and content delivery network services.

These third party service providers are only allowed to use the Personal Information shared with them for the specific tasks they’ve been hired to do and consistent with this Policy, and for no other purposes.

They are not permitted to sell the Personal Information shared with them. Earth9 takes steps to ensure that all service providers with access to Personal Information are capable of protecting the information we share with them. Personal Information collected through the SMS program will not be shared, sold or rented to third parties.

Public forums and community areas

Any Personal Information you submit to User community engagement features offered by Earth9 will be available to anyone who has access to these features, including other Users. This information can be read, collected, or used by other Users. Earth9 is not responsible for how other individuals use the information posted in this manner.

Creators

The creators of the experiences a User accesses will be provided relevant to their needs.. For example, we offer creators information that allows them to review the demographics and regional location of players to enable them to determine their player base, so they can adjust their experiences to the legal requirements of the respective regional location. For this purpose, we will determine the User’s regional location of access to the Earth9 website based on the IP address. We will not share a User’s IP address with the creators, only the region in which the IP address is located.

Legal disclosures

We may disclose Personal Information about you as required or permitted by law and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Service. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we also may disclose Personal Information about you in response to a request from law enforcement agencies, regulators, or other public agencies (including schools or children services), or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure may prevent a crime, facilitate an investigation related to public safety or protect the safety of a child using our Service, protect the security or integrity of our Service, or enable us to take precautions against liability or to protect our rights.

Business transfers

Information about our Users, including Personal Information, may be disclosed and otherwise transferred to an acquirer, successor, or assignee as part of any merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or similar transaction, or in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which information is transferred to one or more third parties as one of our business assets. Where required by applicable law, you will be informed of such disclosure and your consent obtained.

Anonymized information

Earth9 may share aggregated, automatically-collected, anonymized User information with third parties for various purposes, including (i) compliance with reporting obligations; (ii) for business or marketing purposes; (iii) to assist us and other parties in understanding our Users' interests, habits and usage patterns for certain programs, content, services, advertisements, promotions and/or functionality available through the Services.

Security and Data Retention

The security of your information is important to us. We have measures in place to protect it against loss, misuse, or tampering. However, no security measures are 100% effective, so we cannot guarantee against these risks.

Security

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We have security measures in place to attempt to protect the personal or other sensitive information submitted to us against the loss, misuse and alteration of Personal Information under our control. While we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, we use reasonable efforts to prevent it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you provide to us. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we do not accept liability for unintentional disclosure.

When using the Services or providing Personal Information to us, we may communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of the Services. If we learn of an incident that may qualify as a breach under applicable law, we will notify you consistent with applicable laws.

Retention

We will only keep your information for as long as we need to.

Earth9 may retain Users’ Account data internally for the following purposes:

Billing information and transaction histories are retained to resolve subsequent billing disputes and inquiries;
Publicly shared content and virtual items are retained for use by the community (e.g., a User-created virtual shirt sold to another User is kept in the system because the recipient now “owns” a copy of that item);
User Account history is retained to support subsequent customer service inquiries and to provide, improve and develop the Service;
To promote safety and security on the Service; and
To resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with our legal obligations.

We may retain your information for as long as is necessary for the purposes identified above, which may include retaining your information beyond the end of your use of the Service.

External links

Sometimes you may find a link to another company’s website on our website or app. We are not responsible for that company’s privacy policies or content.

Our Service may, from time to time, contain links to external sites or software applications. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites or software applications. To make clear when you are linking to a third-party site or software application, we may display a warning message informing you when you are leaving our Service.

Children’s Privacy and Parental Controls

As a User you are entitled to additional protections for your information and privacy online. When you create an Account with Earth9, we make sure your Account is set to a restrictive mode, which means that you will not have access to certain features, such as social media links, if you are not 13 or over and your text filtering will be restricted. These additional measures are in place to keep you as safe as possible online.

If your parent or guardian's email address is provided to us when you create an Account on Earth9, we will share information about your Account with them by email. We can also invite your parent or guardian to review or update settings and approve your Account.

If you are a parent and need to make a change to your child’s Account that is not possible from within the Platform, you can request that Earth9 makes the change on your behalf by emailing privacysecurity@earth9.net and providing the following information in your email:.

The gamertag/username and/or email address for the Account involved;
Should you be requesting a live conversation with Earth9 privacy, security, or support staff, your telephone number, with country code and area code, and the best day and time to call;
The city, province, and country of residence of each User involved;
The details of your inquiry or request

Children are entitled to added protections with regard to their Personal Information and privacy online. For this reason, when children register for the Service, their Account is automatically set to a more restrictive mode This means that child Users will not have access to certain features, such as social media plug-ins, some forms of third-party advertising, and certain types of notification alerts.

When a child creates an Account, we may collect a username, password, birthdate, and parent’s email address. This information is used to give the child access to the Service (with certain default settings) and, if a parent’s email is provided, to communicate with the parent about the child’s Account. For example, we may use the parent’s email to send an email notification about the child’s account creation and an invitation for the parent to review, update settings, and approve of their child’s Account. We will use the birthdate the child provides when signing up for the Service to determine which features on Earth9 the child should have access to, and to determine when the child will be given broader access to features on our Service. In general, we will not use or share Account information (including Personal Information) from your child’s Account, except as permitted under the applicable laws.

We may share aggregated or otherwise anonymized information of a child (which is information that cannot be used to identify such child) with third parties for various purposes such as: (i) compliance with reporting obligations; (ii) business or marketing purposes; or (iii) to assist us and other parties in understanding our Users' interests, habits and usage patterns for certain programs, content, services, advertisements, promotions and/or functionality available through the Services.

Earth9 offers all Accounts, including children’s Accounts, the ability to modify privacy-related account settings.. We recommend that parents familiarize themselves with the safety and privacy features available in the Account Profile and Settings area of the Service and to accompany their children when they are playing online.

We proactively filter all public and comment areas of the Service (such as chat, forums, group walls, personal posts, etc.) to remove references to addresses, emails, phone numbers, or other Personal Information regardless of security and privacy settings. All text is also filtered for profanity, phishing, and adult or suggestive content. Our system uses a combination of human and automated processes. However, like all filtering technology, our systems are not 100% effective.

If you are a child, it is a good idea to talk to and ask your parent(s) or guardian(s) for permission before using or playing on the Service. If you do not get such permission, you should not use our Service.

If we become aware that a child has provided us with their own Personal Information, we will delete any Personal Information we have collected, unless we have a legal obligation to keep it, and terminate the child’s Account and/or revert them to the underage experience, as applicable.

Accessing, Updating, and Deleting Your Personal Information

If you want to fix any of your Personal Information, or if you want us to delete your Personal Information, you can contact us by completing by emailing privacysecurity@earth9.net. with the following information:

The gamertag/username and/or email address for the Account involved;
Should you be requesting a live conversation with Earth9 privacy, security, or support staff, your telephone number, with country code and area code, and the best day and time to call;
The city, province, and country of residence of each User involved; and
The details of your inquiry or request.

To protect your privacy, we will take steps to verify your identity before fulfilling your request. We will get back to you within a reasonable time frame.

If Personal Information about you changes, or if you no longer desire to use our Service, you may correct, update, amend, or deactivate your Account under your Account settings or by contacting Earth9 using the Personal Information set out above in Sec. 1. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe. For children under the age of 13, please see the “Children’s Privacy and Parental Controls” section above. See Sections 13, 14 and 15 for additional rights available to California, UK, Swiss and European Economic Area, and Brazil residents.

Storage and International Transfer of Your Personal Information

Earth9 stores your information in the United States.

The privacy laws of the United States may not be as strict as those in your country (especially if you live in the EU or the UK), but we take reasonable steps to protect your information and your privacy rights.

If Personal Information about you changes, or if you no longer desire to use our Service, you may correct, update, amend, or deactivate your Account under your Account settings or by emailing privacysecurity@earth9.net using the Personal Information set out above in Sec. 1. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe. For children under the age of 13, please see the “Children’s Privacy and Parental Controls” section above. See Sections 13, 14 and 15 for additional rights available to California, UK, Swiss and European Economic Area, and Brazil residents.

Your Privacy Rights in California

If you live in California, you may have additional rights when it comes to your information. You can ask us to:

Give you a copy of the Personal Information we have collected about you in the last year;
Fix your Personal Information if it is incorrect;
Delete some of your Personal Information;
Refrain from selling or sharing your Personal Information for cross-context behavioral advertising purposes; and
Request us to stop using your Personal Information in some situations.

In accordance with applicable California state law, you may have the following rights:

Access to/Portability of Personal Information. You can receive a copy of categories of Personal Information and specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected, used, disclosed, sold, or shared about you in the past 12 months, consistent with legal requirements. Residents also have the right to request the categories of Personal Information disclosed for a business purpose, the categories of sources from which their Personal Information was collected, our business or commercial purposes for collecting their Personal Information, and the categories of third parties to whom we disclosed their Personal Information. In addition, you may have the right in some cases to receive or have your electronic Personal Information in a portable format or transferred to another party.
Correction. You can request correction of your Personal Information where it is inaccurate or incomplete. In some cases, we may provide self-service tools that enable you to update your Personal Information or we may refer you to the controller of your Personal Information who is able to make the correction.
Deletion. You can request we delete Personal Information we collect from you, subject to certain exceptions prescribed by law.
Restriction of or Objection to Processing. You can request restriction or object to the processing of your Personal Information, and you have the right to opt in or opt out of the sale or sharing of your Personal Information to third parties, if applicable, where such requests are permitted by law. Please note that, in the case of California residents, we do not currently sell or share Personal Information, as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) at:

https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa,

which is amended and supplemented by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) at:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?division=3.&part=4.&lawCode=CIV&title=1.81.5).

For that reason, we do not currently offer a mechanism for California residents to opt out of the sale or sharing of Personal Information. We have no actual knowledge of selling or sharing the Personal Information of minors under 16 years of age.

Non-Discrimination. You have the right to not receive discriminatory treatment by exercising your privacy rights. We do not discriminate against California residents who exercise their privacy rights.

Please note that some of these rights can be exercised by updating your Account within the Services, or you can contact us as set forth in Section 1 above for other requests. We will process such requests in accordance with applicable laws. To protect your privacy, we will take steps to verify your identity before fulfilling your request so that we can ensure you are the owner of the Account making the request.

Your Privacy Rights if you live in the EEA, UK or Switzerland

If you live in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, you may have additional "rights" when it comes to your Personal Information. You can ask us to:

● Tell you what information we have about you and what we do with it;

● Fix your Personal Information if it is not correct;

● Delete your information.

If you have reason to, you can complain about how we are using your information by emailing us at privacysecurity@earth9.net. You can also complain to a "data protection authority". You can find out about which "data protection authority" to complain to in your country here.

In the course of visiting our websites and desktop software, and/or using our services and products, we may process the following Personal Information:

Information relating to a job application made by you, like your name, email address, employment details, CV, resume or other details of your employment history sent by you. We will process this information to process and respond to your job application. The legal basis for this processing activity is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR (“necessary for entering into an employment contract with us”).

Login information, which may include your IP address, device type, name, date and time of your visit, information on your browser version, information on your operating system, including language settings, MAC addresses, and User ID. We will process this information to provide you with our Service. The legal basis for this processing activity is Article sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b (“performance of a contract”) and lit. f (“legitimate interest”) GDPR. It is in our legitimate interest to guarantee the Services’ stability and security.

Account information, e.g. information such as your name, username, login and password details, regional location information, User-generated content, contact details that you choose to provide to us, and other Personal Information that are used for participating in the Service we are offering. We process this information to provide our Services to you. The legal basis for this processing activity is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR (“performance of a contract”).

Email addresses and other information you provided us with for added verification and/or to enable certain features. The bases for processing this personal data are Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b (“performance of a contract”) and f (“legitimate interest”) GDPR. Earth9 has a legitimate interest in providing a safe and secure Service, especially to protect children.

When you request or agree to voice based services from Earth9. With your consent, we may collect, process and store your voice recording to provide services and to increase the safety of our voice related services. We may use your voice recording for purposes such as training and improving our filter technology to increase the safety on our platform, except that we will not engage in these activities with private server voice chat recordings of EEA Users. The bases for processing this personal data are Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b (“performance of a contract”) and f (“legitimate interest”) GDPR.

Billing and payment information, when you participate in Developer Exchange or purchase virtual currency or premium subscriptions, including your name, billing address, credit card or other payment information and billing information. The legal basis for this processing activity is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR (“performance of a contract”). We may also retain transaction details and purchase and payment history. The legal basis for processing these personal data is our legitimate interest in being able to resolve subsequent billing disputes and inquiries, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR (“legitimate interest”).

Information relating to contacting our customer service (e.g. when you report a problem, submit questions, concerns or comments). We may process your email address, your name and information relating to your inquiry or concern in order to respond to your communications, fulfill your requests, or provide other customer support. This processing activity is based on your consent according to Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR and/or Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR (“performance of a contract”), depending on the initial purpose for contacting our customer support.

Comments or messages you post or transmit on Earth9 via public chats, forums, group walls, personal post, etc. We process this information to monitor, filter and moderate this information for the purposes of being able to remove profanity, Personal Information, and other inappropriate conversations. Additionally, we may use pre-filtered comments and messages for other purposes such as training and improving our filter technology. The legal basis for this processing activity is Earth9’s legitimate interest in being able to defend ourselves from possible liability claims that may arise from unlawful comments posted by you, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR (“legitimate interest”). Please note that any Personal Information submitted by you in forums and similar means offered by us is available to anyone who has access to this forum including other Users. The Personal Information posted by you can be read, collected or used by other Users of these forums and could be used to send unsolicited messages.

Information required for additional features that require the use of your camera or upload of files. If you decide to use these features and upload content, we will collect, process, and store that content only for as long as needed to accomplish the purpose of the feature. The bases for processing this personal data are Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b (“performance of a contract”) and f (“legitimate interest”) GDPR.

Information required for other features or activities, which may be available to Users other than children. We may offer other features or activities on our Services from time to time, and you may be able to submit or upload Personal Information in connection with such features. The data being collected for such features and their intended uses will be evident at the time of data collection. The bases for processing this personal data are Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b (“performance of a contract”) and f (“legitimate interest”) GDPR.

Information required for participating in our Earth9 Developer Exchange Program, like the IRS W-9 form (for U.S. taxpayers) or W-8 form (for non-U.S. taxpayers). The legal basis for this processing is Article 6, Sec. 1. lit. GDPR (“legitimate interest”) with regard to U.S. law requirements. It is our legitimate interest to comply with the legal requirements, especially with regard to U.S. anti-money laundering laws.

Information relating to your use of or interaction with third party plug-ins, e.g. social plugins from Google, Facebook or Twitter. When you use these features, certain information from your social media accounts may be accessed by or shared with Earth9, and likewise, certain information about your use of Earth9 may be posted to your profile on those platforms. The legal bases for this processing activity are Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a (“consent”) and f (“legitimate interest”) GDPR. We have a legitimate interest to improve your website experience and to optimize our service.

Information processed to enable advertising. To market our services, inter alia, via social media platforms in order to bring new Users to our websites and to maintain and increase our User base, we may process Personal Information such as IP addresses, information on Users’ browser or operating system, including language settings, regional location information and usernames or user IDs. The legal basis for the processing of this data is Earth9’s legitimate interest in maintaining our User base, bringing new Users to our websites and informing (potential) Users about interesting events, Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR (“legitimate interest”).

Information relating to your participation in contests, competitions, sweepstakes, giveaways, prize draws or other promotions that we may run on our Service or sponsor from time to time. We may process certain contact information (such as your name, email address, and/or phone number) for prize fulfillment purposes, as well as other information or content needed for the specific promotion. The legal basis for this processing activity is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR (“performance of a contract”).

When you respond to or participate in voluntary research or surveys or studies. These surveys may collect information about your likes and dislikes, experience interests and habits, general hobbies and interests, and other lifestyle information or preferences. These surveys may ask for Personal Information. The legal basis for this processing activity is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR (“performance of a contract”).

Cookies. We will use certain cookies only if you have previously consented to such use. When you visit our website with an EEA IP address, a cookie banner will appear asking you for your consent. You can manage your choice by clicking on “manage cookie preferences” in the cookie banner. We will save your choices in the form of a cookie. This cookie has a limited effective period of one year. The legal basis for this processing activity is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR (“consent”). In addition, you can also manage cookies using your browser settings. For further information on cookies and similar technologies see Section 6 above.

Please note that we do not use your Personal Information for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

Data Sharing.

Earth9 may share Users’ information, including Personal Information like billing information or usernames, with our third-party agents, contractors, or service providers who are hired to perform services on Earth9’s behalf. These providers may operate or support certain functions of the Service. The legal basis for this data transfer and processing activity is Article 28 of GDPR in conjunction with the data processing agreements we concluded with respective third-party agents. These agents and contractors are only allowed to use the information shared with them only for the specific tasks they’ve been hired to do and consistent with this Policy, and for no other purposes. Earth9 takes steps to ensure that all service providers with access to Personal Information are capable of protecting the information we share with them.

Legal Disclosure.

We may disclose Personal Information about you, including the content of your communications on the Service, to comply with legal process, including court orders and subpoenas, served on our Service. In addition, we also may disclose Personal Information about you, including content, in response to a request from law enforcement agencies, regulators, or other public agencies (including schools or children services), or if such disclosure may (i) prevent the instigation of a crime, (ii) facilitate an investigation related to public safety or protect the safety of a child using our Service, (iii) protect the security or integrity of our Service, or (iv) enable us to take precautions against liability or to protect our rights. The legal basis for such disclosure is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. c (“compliance with legal obligation”) in compliance with the respective EEA or Member State law and lit. f (“legitimate interest”) GDPR. It is our legitimate interest to comply with the legal requirements of U.S. law.

Storage and International Transfer of Your Personal Information.

Earth9 is based in the U.S. Your Personal Information that we collect is sent to and stored on secure servers located in the United States of America. Such storage is necessary in order to process the information.

Some of our agents and third-party service providers are located outside the European Economic Area, e.g. the United States. The data protection laws of the United States or other countries may not be as comprehensive or equivalent to those in your country of residence. Wherever we transfer your Personal Information, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected, e.g. conclude the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with third parties.

Your Rights.

If you are a User based in the European Economic Area, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:

Request (i) information whether your Personal Information is retained and (ii) access to or duplicates of your Personal Information retained, including the purposes of the processing, the categories of Personal Information concerned, and the data recipients as well as potential retention periods;

Request rectification, removal or restriction of your Personal Information, e.g. because (i) it is incomplete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has been withdrawn;

Refuse to provide and – without impact to data processing activities that have taken place before such withdrawal – withdraw your consent to processing of your Personal Information at any time;

Object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to processing of your Personal Information, in case such processing is either based on our or a third party’s legitimate interests or on a performance of a task carried out in the public interest. In this case, please provide us with information about your particular situation. After the assessment of the facts presented by you we will either stop processing your Personal Information or present you our compelling legitimate grounds for an ongoing processing;

Object to the use of your Personal Information for direct marketing at any time;

Take legal actions in relation to any potential breach of your rights regarding the processing of your Personal Information, as well as to lodge complaints before the competent data protection regulators; and/or

Request (i) to receive the Personal Information concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and (ii) to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from our side. Where technically feasible you shall have the right to have the Personal Information transmitted directly from us to another controller.

You may (i) exercise the rights referred to above, (ii) pose any questions, or (iii) make any complaints regarding our data processing by contacting us under the contact details set out above in Sec. 1.

Additional Information for Users in Brazil

If you are a resident of Brazil, you may be entitled to additional privacy rights.

If you live in Brazil, you may have additional "rights" when it comes to your Personal Information. You can ask us to:

In the course of visiting our websites or desktop software, and/or using our services and products, we may process the following personal data:

Job Application Information. Information relating to a job application made by you, like your name, email address, employment details, CV, resume or other details of your employment history sent by you. We will use this information to process and respond to your job application.

Login Information. Login information, which may include your IP address, device type, name, date and time of your visit, information on your browser version, information on your operating system, including language settings, MAC addresses, and User ID. We will process this information to provide you with our Service and to guarantee the Services’ stability and security. If you want to understand more it might be useful to ask your parent or guardian to explain this section to you. If you have reason to, you can complain about how we are using your information by emailing us at privacy@Earth9.net. You can also complain to the National Data Protection Authority of Brazil at anpd@anpd.gov.br.

Account Information. Account information, e.g. information such as your name, username, login and password details, location information, UGC, contact details that you choose to provide to us, and other Personal Information that are used for participating in the Service we are offering. We process this information to provide our Services to you.

Email Information. Email addresses you provided us with for added verification and/or to enable certain features. We use that data to provide a safe and secure Service, especially to protect children.

When you request or agree to voice based services from Earth9. With your consent, we may collect, process and store your voice recording to provide services and to increase the safety of our voice related services. We may use your voice recording for purposes such as training and improving our filter technology to increase the safety on our platform.

Billing and payment information, when you participate in Developer Exchange or purchase virtual currency or premium subscriptions, including your name, billing address, credit card or other payment information and billing information. We may also retain transaction details and purchase and payment history.

Customer Service Information. Information relating to contacting our customer service, e.g. when you report a problem, submit questions, concerns or comments. We may process your email address, your name and information relating to your inquiry or concern in order to respond to your communications, fulfill your requests, or provide other customer support.

Public Forum Information. Comments or messages you post or transmit on Earth9 via public chats, forums, group walls, personal post, etc. We process this information to monitor, filter and moderate this information for the purposes of being able to remove profanity, Personal Information, and other inappropriate conversations. Additionally, we may use pre-filtered comments and messages for other purposes such as training and improving our filter technology. Please note that any Personal Information submitted by you in forums and similar means offered by us is available to anyone who has access to this forum, including other Users. The Personal Information posted by you can be read, collected or used by other Users of these forums and could be used to send unsolicited messages.

Feature Add-On Information. Information required for additional features that require the use of your camera or upload of files. If you decide to use these features and upload content, we will collect, process, and store that content only for as long as needed to accomplish the purpose of the feature. Information required for other features or activities, which may be available to our Users other than children. We may offer other features or activities on our Services from time to time, and you may be able to submit or upload Personal Information in connection with such features. The data being collected for such features and their intended uses will be evident at the time of data collection.

Third-Party Plug-In Information. Information relating to your use of or interaction with third party plug-ins, e.g. social plugins from Google, Facebook or Twitter. When you use these features, certain information from your social media accounts may be accessed by or shared with Earth9, and likewise, certain information about your use of Earth9 may be posted to your profile on those platforms. We use that information to improve your website experience and to optimize our service.

Advertising and Marketing Information. Information processed to enable advertising. To market our services, inter alia, via social media platforms in order to bring new Users to our websites and to maintain and increase our User base, we may process Personal Information such as IP addresses, information on Users’ browser or operating system, including language settings, regional location information and User names or IDs.

Contests and Promotion Information. Information relating to your participation in contest, competitions, sweepstakes, giveaways, prize draws or other promotions that we may run on our Service or sponsor from time to time. We may process certain contact information (such as your name, email address, and/or phone number) for prize fulfillment purposes, as well as other information or content needed for the specific promotion.

Research Information. When you respond to or participate in voluntary research or surveys or studies. These surveys may collect information about your likes and dislikes, experience interests and habits, general hobbies and interests, and other lifestyle information or preferences. These surveys may ask for Personal Information.

Cookies. We will use certain cookies only if you have previously consented to such use. When you visit our website with an IP address, a cookie banner will appear asking you for your consent. You can manage your choice by clicking on “manage cookie preferences” in the cookie banner. We will save your choices in the form of a cookie. This cookie has a limited effective period of one year. In addition, you can also manage cookies using your browser settings. For further information on cookies and similar technologies see Section 6 above.

Legal disclosure

Storage and international transfer of your personal data

Some of our agents and third-party service providers are located outside of Brazil, e.g. the United States. The data protection laws of the United States or other countries may not be as comprehensive or equivalent to those in Brazil. Wherever we transfer your Personal Information, we will take reasonable steps to ensure we rely on a legitimate international transfer mechanism, as set out in Brazilian data protection laws.

Your rights as a Data Subject

As a data subject located in Brazil, you have rights regarding your personal data. We provide mechanisms, as detailed below, so that you have clarity and transparency in exercising your rights. Whenever necessary, our team will be ready to meet any requests.

Confirm and access your personal data: You may request details and/or a copy of your personal data that is processed by us.

Update or correct your personal data: If You wish to alter your personal data or if you have any reason to believe or suspect that any data we have about you is wrong or incomplete, you may request us to rectify it.

If you wish, you may withdraw your consent, delete, block, request the anonymization or the portability of your data: You may (i) withdraw your consent, whenever the processing of personal data is based on consent; or (ii) request deletion of your personal data or deactivation of your Account, at any time, in accordance with the law. The withdrawal of consent will prevent you from using the Services, and will result in the interruption of the processing of your data, except (i) the anonymized data; and (ii) data necessary to Earth9 and/or to third parties involved in the provision of the Services for judicial, arbitration or administrative defense purposes, as well as to comply with legal and regulatory obligations.

To exercise your rights or ask questions, you can contact us by completing this Customer Support Form.

State Privacy Rights

If you are a resident in certain states, you may have additional rights. State consumer privacy laws may provide their residents with additional rights regarding our use of their Personal Information. To learn more about California residents' privacy rights, visit CPRA Privacy Policy.

Virginia provides its residents with rights to:

● Confirm whether we process their Personal Information;

● Access and delete certain Personal Information;

● Data portability;

● Opt out of personal data processing for targeted advertising and sales;

● Correct inaccuracies in their Personal Information, taking into account the information's nature and processing purpose; and

● Opt out of profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

To exercise any of these rights please complete the Customer Support Form. To appeal a decision regarding consumer rights, please contact us at [privacysecurity@earth9.net].

Please note that we maintain and use de-identified data, as defined under applicable law, without attempting to re-identify the data.

We update this Policy from time to time, so we recommend that you review this Policy regularly. The date of the latest version of the Policy is provided at the bottom of this page.

If we make any major changes to this Policy, we will provide you with notice by email (if we have your email address) or by showing a prominent notice on this website or when you log into your Account prior to the change becoming effective. If required by law, we will obtain your parent’s consent if any of these changes impact the data we’ve collected from you in a less protective way.

We may update this Policy to reflect changes to our information practices at any time, so please review it frequently. If we update this Policy, changes will be reflected on this page and we will update the “Last Updated” date posted below. If we make any material changes to this Policy, we will attempt to notify you by email (if you have provided us with your email address, by sending an email to the email address specified in your Account) or by means of a prominent notice on this website or in app prior to the change becoming effective. We will obtain prior parental consent if any changes we make to this Policy affect Users under the age of 13 in a way that requires such consent under COPPA or the age of 16 (or as per the age derogation by Member States in their domestic law) or 13 in the UK, under the European and UK General Data Protection Regulation.

Last Update: June 1, 2023

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