Introduction

At SMALK! (“Company” or “We”) we respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.

This policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the website https://www.smalk.me (our “Website”) and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information. This policy should be read in conjunction with the terms of service on the Website.

This policy applies to the information we collect:

• On this Website
• In email, text, videos and other electronic messages between you and the Website
• When you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services if those applications or advertising include links to this policy.
• Via other services, applications, or interactions, now or in the future, between the Company and you.

This policy does not apply to information collected by any other websites, products, or services of any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the Website. By accessing or using this Website, you agree to this privacy policy and such other policies as they may be updated from time to time.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Website. This policy may change from time to time. In some cases, a statement may be placed on the home page of the Website. Your continued use of this Website after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates. Your use of the Website and other offerings and tools of the Company remains subject to the terms of this privacy policy, the terms of service of the Website, and other policies on the Website.

If, after reading this Privacy Policy, you still have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us using the contact details below:

Web: https://smalk.me

E-Mail: hey@smalk.xyz

What is Personal Data?

Personal Data is any information that relates to personal or material circumstances connected to an identified or identifiable individual. This includes, for example, your name, date of birth, e-mail address, postal address, or telephone number as well as online identifiers such as your IP address. In contrast, information of a general nature that cannot be used to determine your identity is not Personal Data. This includes, for example, the number of users of a website.

What is Processing?

“Processing” means any operation or set of operations which is performed upon Personal Data, whether or not by automatic means. The term is broad and covers virtually any handling of data.

Information we collect about you and how we collect It

We may collect several types of information from and about users of our Website, including the following information:

• Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
• Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.
• Network information regarding transactions, including, among other things, the type of device you use, access times, hardware model, operating system and version, and other unique device identifiers.
• Information about plugins you might be using, including but not limited to those related to the management of cryptocurrency assets and any information provided by them.
• The Company’s client requires a high level of browser permissions that could potentially lead to the procurement of more personal information.
• Your interactions with the Site and on the Site may be documented via third parties and/or third-party service providers.
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How do we use your Personal Data

In principle, we will only use your Personal Data in accordance with applicable data protection laws, and only as described in this Privacy Policy.

All Personal Data that we obtain from you via our platform will only be processed for the purposes described in more detail below. This is done within the framework of the respective legal regulations mentioned or only with your consent. In particular, we only process and collect Personal Data if:

• you have given your consent,
• the data is necessary for the fulfillment of a contract / pre-contractual measures,
• the data is necessary for the fulfillment of a legal obligation, or
• the data is necessary to protect the legitimate interests of our company, provided that your interests are not overridden.

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

• To present our Website and its contents to you.
• To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
• To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
• To notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide through it.
• To analyze trends for how the Website and associated products are being used;
• To improve the Website and associated products;
• To help personalize your experience of the Website and associated products;
• If you provide your contact information, you may receive technical notices, updates, confirmed actions, and security alerts, to provide support to you, to tell you about other products and services that might interest you, or to respond to your comments or questions.
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
• For other purposes as we may post on this policy from time to time.

We process and store your Personal Data only for the period of time required to achieve the respective processing purpose or for as long as a legal retention period (in particular commercial and tax law) exists. Once the purpose has been achieved or the retention period has expired, the corresponding data is routinely deleted.

Processing of Automatically Collected Data

a) Collection of access data and log files

We also collect data on every access to our platform. The access data includes the name of the website accessed, file, date and time of access, amount of data transferred, notification of successful access, browser type and version, the user’s operating system, referrer URL (the previously visited page), IP address and the requesting provider.

Log file information is stored for security reasons (e.g., for the clarification of abuse or fraud) for a maximum of 7 days and then deleted. Data whose further storage is necessary for evidentiary purposes is exempt from deletion until the respective incident is finally clarified. The legal basis for the data processing is our legitimate interest in providing an appealing platform.

c) Use of cookies

We use cookies on our website. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your respective device (PC, smartphone, tablet, etc.) and saved by your browser. For further information please refer to our Cookie Policy. The legal basis for the use of cookies is your consent as well as our legitimate interest.

Data processing when you submit it to our platform and when you use our services

a) Contacting us

If you contact us, we process the following data from you for the purpose of processing and handling your request: first name, last name, e-mail address, and, if applicable, other information if you have provided it, and your message. The legal basis for the data processing is our obligation to fulfil the contract and/or to fulfil our pre-contractual obligations and/or our legitimate interest in processing your request.

b) Data processing in the context of providing our services

The protection of your data is particularly important to us in the performance of our services. We therefore only want to process as much Personal Data (for example, your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number) as is absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, we rely on the processing of certain Personal Data, to fulfil our contractual obligations to you or to carry out pre-contractual measures.

c) Account Registration

If you register on our platform, we will request mandatory and, where applicable, non-mandatory data in accordance with our registration form from both generalists and companies. The entry of your data is encrypted so that third parties cannot read your data when it is entered. The basis for this storage is our legitimate interest in communicating with registered users and, in the case of contracts, also the storage of contract data.

d) Using our Platform

We need to process certain information about you in order to provide you with optimal, tailored services and opportunities. When using our services, you can submit, share, and publish Personal Data. Some of the Personal Data you provide may be considered “special” or “sensitive”. This includes Personal Data concerning for example your health, racial or ethnic origins, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs. By choosing to provide this data, you consent to our processing of that data.

You have choices about the Personal Data you upload and share. You don’t have to provide Personal Data; however, Personal Data helps you to get more from our Services. It’s your choice whether to include special category data and to make that special category data public. Please do not upload or add data that you would not want to be available.

The legal basis for the processing of your personal and special category data is the establishment and implementation of the user contract for the use of the service as well as your consent. We store the data until you delete your user account. Insofar as legal retention periods are to be observed, storage also takes place beyond the time of deletion of a user account.

You may withdraw your consent and request us to stop using and/or disclosing your personal and special category data by submitting your request to us in writing to hey@smalk.xyz

e) Administration, financial accounting, office organization, contact management

We process data in the context of administrative tasks as well as organization of our business, and compliance with legal obligations, such as archiving. In this regard, we process the same data that we process in the course of providing our contractual services. The processing bases are our legal obligations and our legitimate interest.

f*) Other Users*

When you voluntarily share information on our Services (including your public profile), you disclose that information to other users. Of course, we also process your chats with other users as well as the content you publish, as part of the operation of the services. Other users may also provide us with information about you while using our Services. Please be careful with your information and make sure that you only share content that you truly agree to publish, as neither you nor we can control what others do with your information once you share it. The legal bases are to provide you with our services and your consent as well as our legitimate interest.

g*) Service Notifications*

By using our services, you are giving your consent to receiving notifications and messages per email. Those typically include general, profile and content information in relation to your use of our platform. Our system notifications are sent using Mailerlite and are designed to enhance your experience. You can of course opt out from receiving notifications by following the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of every notification e-mail sent by us. The legal bases are to provide you with our services and your consent as well as our legitimate interest.

Data processing through integration of third-party services and content

We use content or service offers of third-party providers on the basis of our legitimate interests in order to integrate their content and services (“content”).

This always requires that the third-party providers of this content are aware of the IP address of the user, as without the IP address they would not be able to send the content to their browser. The IP address is therefore necessary for the display of this content.

The following provides an overview of third-party providers and their content, together with links to their privacy policies, which contain further information on the processing of data and so-called opt-out measures, if any:

• Generative AI: ChatGPT by OpenAI
• Analytics and Tracking: Google Analytics by Google LLC.
• Fonts: Google Font API by Google LLC.
• Tag Management: Google Tag Manager and Google Site Tag by Google LLC.
• Community platform: Discord
• Email: Mailerlite and Mailchimp
• Data management: Segment

Disclosure of Your Information

We will not disclose or otherwise distribute your Personal Data to third parties unless this:

• is necessary for the performance of our services,
• you have consented to the disclosure,
• or the disclosure of data is permitted by relevant legal provisions.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

• To our subsidiaries and affiliates.
• To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purpose for which we disclose it to them.
• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of SMALK! assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by SMALK!, about our Website users is among the assets transferred.
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us at any time.
• With your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information:

• To investigate and respond to third-party claims or allegations, to respond to court orders or official requests, to protect the security or integrity of the Website and associated products, and to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, the SMALK! community and owners, or others.
• To enforce or apply our terms of service or content policy as set forth and updated on the Website from time to time, and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our customers, or others.
• To third parties who need to access it in order to do work related to the Website and associated products, including doing things like helping make the Website available, or providing analytics services.
• Aggregations and anonymizations that contain your information may be created in a way that does not directly identify you. Those aggregations and anonymizations may be used or shared for a variety of purposes related to the Website and associated products.
• Your personal information may be disclosed to agents, businesses, or service providers who process your personal information for providing the Website and associated products to you. The agreements with these service providers may limit the kinds of information they can use or process and ensure they use reasonable efforts to keep your personal information secure.
• In the event that the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition, sale, bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, receivership, assignment for the benefit of creditors, or the application of laws or equitable principles affecting creditors’ rights generally, or other change of control, there may be a disclosure of your information to another entity related to such event.

Your personal information will be processed in accordance with this privacy policy, and as part of that you will have limited or no opportunity to otherwise modify how your information is used.

Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the Website or our services may then be inaccessible or not function properly.

We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) on the NAI’s website.

California residents may have additional personal information rights and choices. Please see ‘Your California Privacy Rights’ below for more information.

Any other personally-identifiable information about you shall not be collected, unless you give it to the Company directly: by filling out a form, giving written feedback, communicating via third-party social media sites, or otherwise communicating via the Site or any other means.

Automated decision-making

Automated decision-making including profiling does not take place at SMALK!

Your data subject rights

You are entitled to the following rights:

• the right to information,
• the right to rectification,
• the right to erasure,
• the right to restriction of data processing,
• the right to data portability,
• the right to object to data processing,
• the right to revoke any consent you have given, and
• the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority.

Please contact us at any time with questions and suggestions regarding data protection and to enforce your rights as a data subject.

Data retention

We will only retain your Personal Data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, the data processed by us will be deleted or restricted in their processing in accordance with the GDPR. If the data is not deleted because they are required for other and legally permissible purposes, their processing is restricted. This means that the data is blocked and not processed for other purposes. This applies, for example, to data that must be retained for commercial or tax law reasons.

Data Security

Our data processing is subject to the principle that we only process the Personal Data that is necessary for the use of our services. In doing so, we take great care to ensure that your privacy and the confidentiality of all Personal Data are always guaranteed.

All transmitted data is protected by TLS encryption. Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol used to ensure secure data transmission on the Internet. The public-private key procedure is used here. This means that data encrypted with a publicly accessible key can only be decrypted again with a separate private key.

We also use technical and organizational security measures (TOMs) throughout the company to protect the data we manage from you against accidental or intentional manipulation, loss, destruction or against access by unauthorized persons.

Social Media

We are present on social media on the basis of our legitimate interests. If you contact us via those social media platforms, you should note that the chat history can neither be deleted by us nor by you. And that, in accordance with the GDPR, the relevant social media platform and we are jointly responsible for the processing of your data and enter into a so-called ‘joint controller agreement’. A ‘Joint Controller Agreement’ itself is very legalistic and lengthy, but in a nutshell, it clarifies how the jointly responsible parties will fulfill the obligations arising from data protection laws that are applicable to them. The legal basis for the use of the relevant social media platform is our legitimate interest, your consent or, in the case of a (pre) contractual relationship with us, the initiation of a contractual service.

Updating your information

If you believe that the information, we hold about you is inaccurate or that we are no longer entitled to use it and want to request its rectification, deletion, or object to its processing, please do so by contacting us.

For your protection and the protection of all of our users, we may ask you to provide proof of identity before we can answer the above requests. Please keep in mind, we may reject requests for certain reasons, including if the request is unlawful or if it may infringe on trade secrets or intellectual property or the privacy of another person.

Also, we may not be able to accommodate certain requests to object to the processing of Personal Data, notably where such requests would not allow us to provide our service to you anymore.

Withdrawal of your consent

You may withdraw your consent and request us to stop using and/or disclosing your Personal Data for any or all of the Purposes by submitting your request to us. Should you withdraw your consent to the collection, use or disclosure of your Personal Data, it may impact our ability to proceed with your transactions, agreements, or interactions with us. Please note that your withdrawal of consent will not prevent us from exercising our legal rights (including any remedies) or undertaking any steps as we may be entitled to at law.

Personal Data and Children

The Company understands the importance of safeguarding the personal data of children, which we consider to be an individual under the age of 16 or equivalent age as specified by law in your jurisdiction.

Our website is not intended for children. No child may provide any personal information to or on the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are a child, do not use or provide any information on this Website or on or through any of its features/register on the Website, make any purchases through the Website, use any of the interactive or public comment features of this Website or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name you may use. If we find out we have collected or received personal information from a child without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as soon as possible. If you believe we might have information from or about a child, please contact us at hey@smalk.me

California residents under 16 years of age may have additional rights regarding the collection and sale of their personal information. Please see ’Your California Privacy Rights’, below, for more information.

Changes and Updates to the Privacy Policy

We kindly ask you to regularly inform yourself about the content of our privacy policy. We will amend the privacy policy as soon as changes to the information processing activities we carry out make this necessary.

Privacy Rights

Subject to applicable law, you may have some or all of the following rights in respect of your personal information: (i) to obtain a copy of your personal information together with information about how and on what basis that personal information is processed; (ii) to rectify inaccurate personal information (including the right to have incomplete personal information completed); (iii) to erase your personal information (in limited circumstances, where it is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or processed); (iv) to restrict processing of your personal information where: a. the accuracy of the personal information is contested; b. the processing is unlawful but you object to the erasure of the personal information; or c. we no longer require the personal information but it is still required for the establishment, exercise or defense of a legal claim; (v) to challenge processing which we have justified on the basis of a legitimate interest (as opposed to your consent, or to perform a contract with you); (vi) to prevent us from sending you direct marketing; (vii) to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information (where that processing is based on your consent); (viii) to object to decisions which are based solely on automated processing or profiling; (ix) in addition to the above, you have the right to file a complaint with the supervisory authority.

Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, California law may provide you with additional rights regarding our use of your personal information. To learn more about your California privacy rights, visit https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you if we request it, and for periodically visiting our Website and this privacy policy to check for any changes.

Concerns and Contact

If you have any concerns about a possible compromise of your privacy or misuse of your personal information on our part, or any other questions or comments, or wish to exercise your rights under applicable laws, please contact us.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on the 04th May 2023.

Cookie Policy

In the below Cookie Policy, we, inform you about the use of cookies on our platform.

Why do we have a Cookie Policy?

The provision of information about our use of cookies is required and set out in the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive (“PECD”) and in parts in General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). However, before we can go into more detail, we first need to understand what cookies are.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small files that are stored on your device when you visit a website. If you then return to the same website, the website recognises the cookie and remembers your device, the choices you have made, and acts in accordance with the specific objective a cookie has. As such cookies have a name and value and one or more defined characteristics, which are returned to the website as “user-related” information. So, thanks to cookies, a website knows who you are and offers you your usual default settings.

Origins and Lifespans of Cookies

There are however classes of cookies, namely first-party cookies which are placed directly by the website. As well as third-party cookies which are created by a partner website or server. And since it would not be very beneficial if all cookies would save the same information for the same period of time, each cookie stores different data and has a lifespan (that can vary from a few minutes to a few years).

In this sense, we now understand that cookies are automatically placed in the cookie folder, effectively the “brain” of your browser, that each can have a different origin, holds different information, and can have a different lifespan depending on its objective. Because of that there are several types of cookies*.*

Types of Cookies

The least privacy invasive type of cookies are Essential or Necessary cookies. These cookies are essential or necessary to ensure that a website works properly and is secure so that you can navigate a website and use its features. Without these cookies, certain features of a website would not function, and thus you would not be able to use certain services.

There are also Functional cookies or sometimes called convenience cookies. These cookies allow a website to remember the options a user has made (including user ID`s stored, consents given, or languages selected) and other personalisation options you have selected when browsing.

Further there are also Analysis and performance cookies, which are used to monitor and improve the function and service of a website. Those can track down problems when using a website, facilitate online surveys, record visitor numbers, and provide analytics metrics.

Lastly, advertising cookies or targeting cookies. They are used to deliver customised advertising to the user. This can be very convenient, but also very annoying.

The Cookies used on our platform

The PECD requires us to ask for your consent when using specific cookies (in particular any cookie that is not strictly necessary for the operation of the website, for example, Functional cookies, Analysis and performance cookies and Advertising cookies or targeting cookies).

Below you can find the cookies we use listed in accordance with their Name, Description, Lifespan, and Type. Please keep in mind that this list may be updated from time to time.

• Google Analytics
  • The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site’s analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors.
  • 2 years
  • Analytics
• Google Analytics
  • This cookie is installed by Google Analytics.
  • 2 years

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics from Google LLC to evaluate your use of our platform, to compile reports on the activities and to provide other services related to the use of our platform in order to improve the user experience. When Google Analytics is used, interactions of website visitors are primarily recorded and systematically evaluated with the help of cookies. The following data is processed through the use of Google Analytics:

• 3 bytes of the IP address of the called system of the website visitor (anonymised IP address),
• the website called up,
• the website from which the user reached the accessed page of our platform (referrer),
• the subpages accessed from the website,
• the time spent on the website
• the frequency with which the website is accessed.

Google states that it will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You can prevent the storage of cookies by setting your browser accordingly. You can also prevent the collection of the data generated by Google as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available under the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

How can I delete cookies?

Regardless of which service or website the cookies come from, you always have the option to delete, only partially allow or disable cookies. To do so follow the link to your browser Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Flash cookies, Microsoft Internet Explorer/ Edge,  Opera, Safari.

Validity and questions

 

This Cookie Policy was last updated on the 04th May 2023 and is the current and valid version. However, we want to point out that from time to time due to actual or legal changes a revision to this policy may be necessary. If you have any data protection questions, please feel free to contact us.