Privacy

[last modified: September 2023]

Introduction
1. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) sets out how hashgraph.name (defined hereinafter as ”HNS”, “we”, or “us”) and any of our other subdomains and affiliates may collect, use, disclose or otherwise process your Personal Data through our website and our services. This Policy applies to Personal Data in our possession or under our control, including Personal Data in the possession of organizations or persons that we have engaged to collect, use, disclose or process personal data of the Users for our purposes. BY CONTINUING TO BROWSE OUR WEBSITE AND USE OUR SERVICES, YOU CONSENT TO OUR COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS LISTED IN THIS POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, THEN YOU MUST NOT ACCESS OUR SERVICES. PLEASE THEREFORE READ THIS POLICY CAREFULLY TO UNDERSTAND HOW WE WILL TREAT YOUR PERSONAL DATA.
2. In this Policy, “Personal Data” means any information we collect or have in our possession about an individual from which that person can be identified, whether collected directly by us, from a third party, or from a publicly available source. It does not include data where the identity of the data subject has been removed.
3. This Policy applies in conjunction with any other notices, contractual clauses and consent clauses that apply in relation to the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Data by us. If you have any comments on, or questions about this Policy, please contact us at hello@hashgraph.name.
4. For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR“), HNS is the data controller (i.e. the entity responsible for, and controls the processing of, your Personal Data).
What categories of Personal Data will be collected?
1. Depending on the nature of your interaction with us, different kinds of Personal Data (that we have grouped together below) which we may collect from you include:
  1. Contact Data: e.g. email addresses, telephone numbers, first and last name, user name(s), user identifiers, and other information you voluntarily provide to us in order to be contacted on our forum, communication channels or when update your user account data;
  2. Technical Data: e.g. internet protocol (IP) address, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access our website;
  3. Usage Data: e.g. details of transactions that you carry out through our website, details of your visits to our website and the resources you use there, search history, information that you put into forms, chatbots or fields on our website, chat rooms or communication channels at any time, as well as Inferences drawn from the Personal Data identified above to create a profile about a user reflecting the user’s preferences and behaviour;
  4. Profile Data: e.g. your username and password, email address, first and last name, wallet address, tokens or smart contracts related to the protocol(s) in use, preferences (such as how your content is displayed and your favourites) and any other information that you provide whether on our website, through the chatrooms, communication channels or otherwise;
  5. Marketing and Communications Data: e.g. your preferences in receiving marketing from us and third parties, your communication preferences and subscriptions for our marketing materials; and
  6. Public Network Data: e.g. data from activity that is publicly visible and/or accessible on different networks.
2. Where you do not provide us with Personal Data when requested, we may not be able to perform or conclude the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you or provide you with functions on our website or any service that requires such Personal Data.
Cookies and third-party websites
1. HNS and the parties with whom we work in the provision of our services (e.g. service providers, business partners, advertisers, ad technology providers and advertising servers) may place, view, and/or use cookies, web server logs, web beacons, pixels or other electronic technologies to collect statistical and other information about you and your use of our services.
2. Cookies are small text files placed in visitors’ computer browsers to store their preferences and record certain information. They may have unique identifiers, and reside, among other places, on your computer or mobile device, in emails and on our web pages. Most browsers allow you to block and delete cookies. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them) to analyze how you interact with our website and use our services, make improvements to our service quality, and provide users with a more personalized experience. Through the use of cookies, we provide users of our website and/or services with more user-friendly services that would not be possible without the cookie setting.
3. We may engage third party service providers to assist in recording your usage patterns, trends and customize your experience, or use cookies on our website and/or services to collect the same type of Personal Data for the same purposes we do for ourselves. We do not have access to or control over the cookies these third parties use but they may not disclose personal data obtained in the course of their engagement to any other parties. Additionally, we may share non-personally identifiable personal data with third parties.
4. For the avoidance of doubt, we shall not be responsible for the collection, use, disclosure and care of Personal Data by any third party websites (including third party operated communication channels such as Discord) linked to our website and/or services.
5. We may use the following cookies:
  1. Strictly necessary cookies: These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website and/or services. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website and/or services.
  2. Analytical / performance cookies: They allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website and/or services when they are using it. This may help us to improve the way our website and/or services work, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
  3. Functional cookies: These cookies are used to recognize you when you return to our website and/or services. They may enable us to personalize our content for you or remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
  4. Analysis cookies: These cookies collect information on how visitors use our website, the content and products that users view most frequently, and the effectiveness of our third-party advertising.
6. You may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies through our website and/or services by means of a corresponding setting of the browser used, and may thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Furthermore, previously set cookies may be deleted at any time via an Internet browser or other software programmes. This is possible in all popular internet browsers.
7. If you deactivate the setting of cookies in the internet browser used, it may not be possible to use all the functions of our website and/or services. Some cookies are necessary for using our services, and without such cookies, we would not be able to provide proper use of our services. These cookies, for example, allow us to operate our services so you may access it as you have requested and let us recognize that you have created an account and have logged into that account to access content on our website and or services.
8. By continuing to browse or use our website and/or services, you are agreeing to our use of cookies as set out in this Clause.
Under what circumstances do we collect, use, and disclose your Personal Data?
1. We collect, use, and disclose your Personal Data to:
  1. allow you use or access to our services and applications, and provide you with the services, support or information requested;
  2. identify and display the domain name(s) representing your wallet address;
  3. send you administrative notifications, such as those relating to the security, support, and maintenance advisories of our website and/or services;
  4. provide customer support and respond to your requests and inquiries;
  5. provide information about services that you request, or which we think may interest you;
  6. perform obligations in the course of or in connection with our contract(s) with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with us;
  7. comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject;
  8. perform sanctions monitoring and detect against money laundering, terrorism financing, and fraud;
  9. detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activities or misuse, and prosecute those responsible for such activities;
  10. authenticate and verify individual identities (for instance, when handling your requests to exercise your rights under this Policy);
  11. operate, maintain and add to the features and functionality of our services;
  12. send you our publications and marketing materials in accordance with the subscription details and preferences that you have submitted to us;
  13. send you messages related to our services such as technical notices, updates, security alerts and support/administrative notices;
  14. run or operate competitions, prize draws, promotions, or sweepstakes that you choose to participate in;
  15. communicate with you about promotions, upcoming events, and other news about products and services offered by us and our selected partners;
  16. process and complete transactions, and send you related information, including purchase confirmations and invoices;
  17. monitor aggregate metrics;
  18. improve the user experience and communicate better to engage our users;
  19. comply with requests from courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies, and other public and government authorities, including where they are outside your country of residence;
  20. exercise our rights, and defend ourselves from claims and to comply with laws and regulations that apply to us or third parties with whom we work;
  21. analyze, diagnose and fix issues in our services offerings;
  22. process your job application for an open position; and
  23. convey to third party service providers, subcontractors, agents and other organizations we have engaged (e.g. search engine facilities) to perform any of the functions with reference to the above mentioned purposes.
2. In addition to the above purposes:
  1. we may at our discretion collect, use or disclose your Personal Data without your consent for our legitimate interests pursuant to the GDPR;
  2. if you provide information to us for a specific purpose (whether or not such purpose falls under one or more purposes enumerated above), we may also collect, use, or disclose your Personal Data in a manner that relates to such purpose. You can ask us to stop sending emails about services we think may interest you or our newsletters at any time by clicking the unsubscribe button in the email sent to you; and
  3. we may use your Personal Data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
3. The purposes listed in the above Clauses may continue to apply even in situations where your relationship with us (for example, pursuant to a contract) has been terminated or altered in any way, for a reasonable period thereafter (including, where applicable, a period to enable us to enforce our rights under a contract with you).
Withdrawal of consent
1. The consent that you provide for the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Data will remain valid until such time it is being withdrawn by you in writing. You may withdraw consent and request us to stop collecting, using and/or disclosing your Personal Data for any or all of the purposes listed above by submitting your request via email to our Data Protection Officer at the contact details provided above.
2. Upon receipt of your written request to withdraw your consent, we may require reasonable time for your request to be processed and for us to notify you of the consequences of us acceding to the same, including any legal consequences which may affect your rights and liabilities to us.
3. Whilst we respect your decision to withdraw your consent, please note that depending on the nature and scope of your request, we may not be in a position to fulfill our contractual obligations to you or provide you with functions on our website and/or any services that require such Personal Data. We shall, in such circumstances, notify you before completing the processing of your request. Should you decide to cancel your withdrawal of consent, please inform us via the contact details provided above.
4. Please note that withdrawing consent does not affect our right to continue to collect, use and disclose Personal Data where such collection, use and disclosure without consent is permitted or required under applicable laws.
Your right to access and correct your Personal Data
1. If you wish to make (a) an access request for access to a copy of the Personal Data which we hold about you or information about the ways in which we use or disclose your Personal Data, or (b) a correction request to correct or update any of your Personal Data which we hold about you, you may submit your request via email at hello@hashgraph.name.
2. Please note that a reasonable fee may be charged for an access request. If so, we will inform you of the fee before processing your request.
Third-party website and services
1. Our services may contain links to third-party websites and services that are not owned or controlled by us. As we do not have the power to control these third parties, we do not endorse or assume responsibility for their privacy statements or their practice for handling Personal Data in general. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of the third parties that you will engage with or interact with when using our services.
2. By using our services, you acknowledge that this Policy and our Terms of Use do not apply to your use of such third-party services.
How do we store and protect your Personal Data?
1. If you are located in the European Union (“EU”) or other regions with laws governing data collection, please note that we may transfer information, including Personal Data, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, and we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that any personal data are treated securely and in accordance with this Policy. When we transfer Personal Data internationally, we put in place safeguards for such transfer in accordance with the applicable law (for instance, Articles 44 to 50 of the GDPR, if applicable). For individuals based in the EU, we store Personal Data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collect the same and in accordance with our legal obligations and legitimate business interest, except if required otherwise by law.
2. To safeguard your Personal Data from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal or similar risks, and against the accidental loss of, or damage to, Personal Data, we have put in place appropriate administrative, physical, security and technical measures from the point of collection to the point of destruction. Some of the measures we have put in place are set out as follows:
  1. We ensure that all our employees, contractors, agents, and subcontractors comply with this Policy, and that they only have access to your Personal Data on a need-to-know basis.
  2. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator(s) of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
  3. Personal Data will only be transferred to a third-party data intermediary if there is agreement by them to comply with our practice and procedures.
3. You should be aware, however, that no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. While security cannot be guaranteed, we strive to protect the security of your information and are constantly reviewing and enhancing our information security measures.
4. You are responsible for maintaining the security of any password, private keys, recovery phrases, biometrics, user ID or other form of authentication involved in obtaining access to password protected or secure areas of any of our services. In order to protect you and your Personal Data, we may suspend your use of any of the services, without notice, pending an investigation, if any breach of security is suspected.
How do we keep your Personal Data accurate?
1. We generally rely on Personal Data provided by you (or your authorized representative). In order to ensure that your Personal Data is current, complete and accurate, please update us if there are changes to your Personal Data by informing us in writing or via email at the contact details provided below.
2. If we receive Personal Data relating to you from another source, we will check your Personal Data regularly and keep it accurate and up-to-date to the best of our knowledge. If we identify inaccurate or out-of-date Personal Data, we will take reasonable steps to amend or to erase that data.
How do we retain your Personal Data?
1. We retain your Personal Data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Data, the purposes for which we process your Personal Data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
2. We will cease to retain your Personal Data, or remove the means by which the data can be associated with you, as soon as it is reasonable to assume that such retention no longer serves the purpose for which the Personal Data was collected, and is no longer necessary for legal or business purposes.
3. It may sometimes be necessary to retain Personal Data if, for example, we are contractually bound to do so or if we have become involved in litigation or business disaster recovery in respect of which your Personal Data is relevant.
Changes
1. We may modify or update this Policy from time to time to reflect the changes in our business and practices, and so you should review this page periodically. When we change this Policy in a material manner, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page and notify you that material changes have been made to this Policy.
2. By continuing to use our services after the changes made to this Policy are effective, you agree to be bound by the updated Policy. If you do not agree, then you must stop using our services.