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GasBuddy - Privacy Policy
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Your privacy is important to GasBuddy, LLC (“GasBuddy”, “we”, or “us”) and we are committed to protecting the privacy of your information. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, store, share and protect your Personal Information. This Policy applies to all Personal Information collected during any written, electronic, and oral communications, as well as any information collected online, which includes the GasBuddy website located at www.GasBuddy.com and other localized GasBuddy websites, such as www.DenverGasPrices.com, www.ToledoGasPrices.com and www.MichiganGasPrices.com (the “Sites”), and other services and tools (including, but not limited to, mobile applications and other software applications) that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Services”).
1. Acceptance of Privacy Policy
Please read the GasBuddy Terms of Service carefully before you use our Service. This Privacy Policy is part of, and is governed by, the terms and conditions set forth in the GasBuddy Terms of Service.By creating a GasBuddy account, or by otherwise accessing, visiting or using the Service, you expressly consent to the GasBuddy Terms of Service, and the data practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not feel comfortable with any part of this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Service, please discontinue your access or use of the Service immediately.
If you purchase or access the Service through another service that provides a gateway to the Service, such as iTunes or Google Play (a “Gateway Service”), you will have a separate, additional account relationship with that Gateway Service. We have no control over the collection of such information by a Gateway Service, and any such collection or use will be subject to Gateway Service’s applicable privacy policies.
2. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time which will be indicated by changing the date at the beginning of this Policy. If we make any material changes, we will notify you by email (sent to the email address specified in your account), by means of a notice on our Services prior to the change becoming effective, or as otherwise required by law. If you do not agree to the new terms, you may terminate your account by contacting us at gbsupport@gasbuddy.com.3. The Personal Information We Collect
Personal Information is any information that we collect on or in connection with the Services that relates to you, identifies you personally or could be used to identity you, such as your name, email, phone number and address ("Personal Information"). Aggregated or anonymized information does not constitute Personal Information. The types of Personal Information that we may collect about you are:- Account Information. We may collect Personal Information that you provide to us in connection with your use of the Service when you register as a user of the Service, send email messages, forms, or other information to us through the Service, or enter a drawing or giveaway offered through the Service. If you register for a GasBuddy account directly through the Service, you will be required to provide your email address and create a user nickname and password. You can use the Service without registering, however, you may not be able to use certain features of the Service, such as entering drawings or giveaways that are offered through the Service.
- Information You Provide to Us.
- GasBuddy Account. You may also choose to provide additional information in connection with your GasBuddy account, including a profile picture, your birthday, your hobbies, your car make/model/year or VIN, your job, your education and some of your favorite things, such as your favorite movies, food and TV shows. Providing this additional information is optional and you are not required to provide this information in order to use the Service.
- Drawings & Giveaways. If you enter a drawing or giveaway offered through the Service you will be required to provide your postal address, including the street address, city, state and zip code.
- Geolocation Information. If you access the Service through a mobile device, we will automatically collect information about your geolocation, including your geolocation relative to and within third-party merchant locations. We cannot offer you some of the features of the Service, such as the "Find Gas Near Me" feature, if we cannot collect your geolocation information. If you do not want us to collect your geolocation information you may change your preferences through the "Settings" feature of the GasBuddy mobile application. Please see GasBuddy’s Disclosure of Information to Third Parties section of this Policy to see how GasBuddy may share your location data.
- Device Information. In addition, we may collect information such as your mobile device ID, device type, and your use of features, functions, or notifications on the device, as well as signal strength relating to WiFi or Bluetooth functionality, temperature, battery level, and similar technical data. We may collect this information even if you are not logged in to the Service. If you access the Service through a computer, we will automatically collect information such as your browser type and version, computer and connection information, statistics on page views, traffic to and from the Service, Internet Protocol ("IP") address and standard web log information.
- Driving Data. If you access the Service through a mobile device, and you consent to participate in the "Drives" feature of the GasBuddy mobile application, we will collect information about your driving behavior, including, but not limited to, driving distance, the location of each trip, your speed, acceleration and braking habits (collectively, "Driving Data"). Such collection occurs even if you are not logged in to the Service. We will be unable to offer you the “Drives” feature, if we cannot collect your Driving Data. GasBuddy may share your Driving Data as described in the Sharing Your Information With Third Parties section below. If you do not want us to collect your Driving Data, you should not consent to the "Drives" feature. If you consent to participate in the "Drives" feature but later decide you no longer want to participate in this feature, you may change your preferences through the “Settings” feature of the GasBuddy mobile application so the "Allow Location Access" is not set to "always".
- Information Provided to Us by Social Networking Services You Use. By logging into the Service through a third-party social networking service, such as Facebook or Twitter, you give us permission to access, store and use any information that you permit the applicable third-party social networking service to share with us in accordance with the privacy settings that are applicable to your account with that social networking service. We encourage you to review, and if necessary, adjust, your privacy settings on the applicable social networking service before logging in to the Service through a social networking service. Information that we receive from third-party social networking service is stored and used by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
- Transaction Data (applicable only in the United States). If you register a Payment Card in connection with GasBuddy's Card Link Program, we will collect or receive from third parties data relating to transactions with the registered Payment Card. Transaction data may include your first and/or last name, zip code, email address, card number, and city/state of residence. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in other terms or privacy policies, transaction data will be used to monitor transactions on your registered Payment Card(s) to identify qualifying purchases, determine eligibility for the program, operate and analyze the effectiveness of the Card Link Program, send your promotional or advertising materials that may be of interest to you based on your purchases, and shared with our third-party partners including Figg Inc., Rakuten Card Linked Offer Network, Rewards Network Establishment Services, Inc., and Brandmovers, Inc. (collectively, the "Card Link Offer Service Providers"), as described in Section 6 of this Privacy Policy.
4. Information Collected By Cookies And Similar Technologies
In some cases, we may use cookies and similar technologies, such as pixel tags, that automatically collect information. Cookies are small files, typically of letters and numbers, downloaded onto your computer or mobile device when you visit certain websites. When you return to these websites, or visit other websites that use the same cookies, the websites recognize these cookies and your browsing device. A cookie cannot read data off your hard drive or read cookie files created by other websites.Pixel tags are very small images or small pieces of data embedded in images, also known as "web beacons" or "clear GIFs," that can recognize cookies, the time and date a page is viewed, a description of the page where the pixel tag is placed, and similar information from your computer or device.
Information that may be collected by cookies when you use the Service may include, without limitation:
- the pages you visit within the Service;
- the date and time of your visit to the Service;
- the amount of time you spend using the Service;
- the IP address used to connect your computer to the Internet; and/or
- your computer and connection information such as your browser type and version, operating system and platform.
The length of time a cookie will stay on your browsing device depends on whether it is a "persistent" or "session" cookie. Session cookies will only stay on your device until you stop browsing. Persistent cookies stay on your browsing device until they expire or are deleted (i.e. after you have finished browsing).
First and Third-Party Cookies
When you access our Services, we or companies we work with may place cookies on your computer or other device. These technologies help us better understand user behavior, and inform us about which parts of our websites people have visited.We use both first-party and third-party cookies on our Service. First-party cookies are cookies that are placed on your device by us, while third-party cookies are set by parties other than GasBuddy. Third-party cookies are operated by third parties that can recognize your device both when it visits our Service and when it visits other websites or mobile apps. GasBuddy does not control how third-party cookies are used, and we encourage you to check the websites of any third-party cookie providers for more information about how they use cookie information.
Advertising Tracking Technology and Analytics
GasBuddy uses third-party service providers to display advertising on our Services and serve advertising on other third-party sites that are more relevant to you or your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement, as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They remember that you have visited a website and this information may be shared with other organizations, such as advertisers. This means that after you have used our Services, you may see some advertisements about our Services elsewhere on the Internet. The information collected through this process by the third-party service providers does not enable us or them to identify your name, contact details or other Personal Information that directly identifies you unless you choose to provide these. Such advertising will only be delivered where permitted by applicable law.We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. The cookies and other technologies used by Google may collect Personal Information, but GasBuddy does not use Google Analytics to gather information that personally identifies you. The information generated by Google Analytics will be transmitted to and stored by Google and will be subject to Google’s privacy policies. You may exercise choices regarding the use of cookies from Google Analytics by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout or downloading the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
We may also use tracking technologies to collect "clickstream" data, such as the domain name of the service providing you with Internet access, your device type, IP address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your browser type and version, operating system and platform, the average time spent on our Site, webpages viewed, content searched for, access times and other relevant statistics, and assign unique identifiers to the device or other credentials you use to access the Sites for the same purposes.
Pages of our Sites and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).
Pages of our Sites may also use Java scripts, which are code snippets embedded in various parts of websites and applications that facilitate a variety of operations including accelerating the refresh speed of certain functionality or monitoring usage of various online components; entity tags, which are HTTP code mechanisms that allow portions of websites to be stored or "cached" within your browser to accelerate website performance; and HTML5 local storage, which allows data from websites to be stored or "cached" within your browser to store and retrieve data in HTML5 pages when the website is revisited.
Your Choices.
- First-Party Cookies. You can use the browser with which you are viewing this website to enable, disable or delete first-party cookies. To do this, follow the instructions provided by your browser (usually located within the "Help", "Tools" or "Edit" settings). Please note, if you set your browser to disable cookies, you may not be able to access secure areas of the Site. Also, if you disable cookies other parts of the Services may not work properly. You can find more information about how to change your browser cookie settings at https://www.allaboutcookies.org.
- Advertising Cookies. If you do not want us to use information that we collect or that you provide to us to deliver advertisements according to our advertisers’ target-audience preferences, you can opt-out of interest-based targeting provided by participating ad servers through the Digital Advertising Alliance (https://optout.aboutads.info) or the Network Advertising Initiative (https://www.aboutads.info/choices). In addition, on your iPhone, iPad or Android mobile device, you can change your device settings to control whether you see online interest-based ads.
- Mobile Advertising. You can opt out of having your mobile advertising identifiers used for certain types of advertising by accessing the settings in mobile device and following the instructions. If you opt-out, we will remove all data about you and will not collect any further data. The random ID previously assigned to you will be removed. Thus, if at a later stage, you decide to opt-in, we will be unable to continue and track you using the prior ID and you will for all practical purposes be a new user.
- Flash Cookies. If you do not want Flash Cookies stored on your computer, you can adjust the settings of your Flash player to block Flash Cookies storage using the tools contained in the website storage settings panel. You can also control Flash Cookies by going to the global storage settings panel and following the instructions. Setting the Flash Player to restrict or limit acceptance of Flash Cookies may reduce or impede the functionality of some Flash applications, including, potentially, Flash applications used in connection with our services or online content.
- Google Chrome
- Internet Explorer
- Mozilla Firefox
- Safari (Desktop)
- Safari (Mobile)
- Android Browser
- Opera
- Opera Mobile
5. How Your Personal Information Is Used
GasBuddy may use information that we collect about you through the Service in the following ways:- To provide access to the Service and to provide you with requested services and customer support and to process and respond to your inquiries;
- To personalize, customize, measure, and improve our services, content, and advertising and otherwise to enhance your experience of the Service;
- To prevent, detect, and investigate potentially prohibited or illegal activities, and enforce the GasBuddy Terms of Service;
- To analyze the accuracy, effectiveness, usability, or popularity of the Service;
- To generate and review reports and data about our user base and service usage patterns;
- To administer the GasBuddy GasBack Rewards Program;
- If you have registered with the Card Link Program, we will use transaction data to monitor transactions on your registered Payment Card(s) to identify qualifying purchases, determine eligibility for the program, operate and analyze the effectiveness of the Card Link Program, and send you promotional or advertising materials that may be of interest to you based on your purchases;
- To compile aggregate data for internal and external business purposes;
- To resolve disputes and troubleshoot problems;
- To contact you with information, including promotional, marketing and advertising information and recommendations that we believe may be of interest to you, including offers from third parties;
- To provide you with other services requested by you as described when we collect the information;
- To provide you with information we deem relevant when you visit third-party merchant locations;
- To send push notifications to your mobile device to provide updates about the Service and other relevant messages, to the extent you consent to this during registration process; and
- As otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy or the GasBuddy Terms of Service.
6. Sharing of Information with Third Parties
We take care to allow your Personal Information to be accessed only by those who need access to perform their tasks and duties, and to share with other parties who have a legitimate purpose for accessing it. We want you to understand when and with whom we may share the information we collect. We may share information that we collect through the Services with third parties as follows:- Our Service Providers. We may share your Personal Information with contractors or service providers who provide certain services to us or on our behalf, such as operating and supporting the Service or otherwise responding to your customer service requests. These service providers will only have access to the information needed to perform these limited functions on our behalf and are required to provide your information with at least the same level of protection and security as we use for the Service.
- Our Business Customers. GasBuddy’s B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), (collectively, the “Enterprise Services”), is designed to provide gas retailers a platform to maintain their station information, manage their brand, promote to their target consumer audience and measure success of their ads. By using our Enterprise Services, business customers can get access to your location information, ratings, reviews and in-app behavioral information.
- Business Transfers or Bankruptcy. If GasBuddy becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, securities offering, bankruptcy, reorganization, dissolution, or other transaction or if the ownership of all or substantially all of our business otherwise changes, GasBuddy may share or transfer your Personal Information to a third party or parties in connection with the applicable transaction.
- Our Affiliates. We may share some or all of your Personal Information with our parent company, subsidiaries and corporate affiliates, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with us for internal business purposes. We will require these entities to comply with the terms of this Privacy Policy with regard to their use of your information.
- Law Enforcement Authorities. To the extent permitted or required by law, we may share your Personal Information with law enforcement, governmental agencies, or authorized third parties, in response to a verified request relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity or any other activity that may expose us, you, or any other GasBuddy user to legal liability, or to protect our rights or property, or during emergencies when safety is at risk. Law enforcement requests may be sent to legal@gasbuddy.com.
- Business Partners. We share with business partners the following information:
- Mobile Data: If you access the Service through a mobile device, we may share your device ID and geolocation information with a few carefully selected third-party business partners that may use this information on behalf of themselves or their third-party business partners to provide you with marketing information about products or services that may be of interest to you, for purposes related to advertising, analytics, attribution (e.g., measuring ad performance) and research.
- Driving Data: If you consent, GasBuddy may collect and share with Arity 875, LLC ("Arity") your personal information and other data, including precise location, trip location, and driving event data, such as speed, change in speed and other aspects of how, how much, where and when you drive (collectively "Driving Data"). Arity provides GasBuddy with driving analytics, such as driving event history, crash detection and fuel efficiency, which enable us to provide certain functionalities of the GasBuddy service. When you click on "Join Drives" and activate this feature, you hereby acknowledge and consent to GasBuddy sharing such Driving Data with Arity, and to the processing of your personal information by GasBuddy and by Arity as described in this privacy policy and Arity’s Privacy Statement. For more information about how Arity may use your information, please review Arity’s Privacy Statement. If you do not want us to share your Driving Data in this way, or you do not want Arity to process your information, you should not consent to the "Join Drives" feature.
- Location Data: Pursuant to your consent, we may share precise location information (data obtained from a device about the physical location of the device that is sufficiently precise to locate a specific individual or device). We may share your location information with Foursquare Labs, Inc. ("Foursquare") to provide customized engagement features, products, and content (including marketing/advertising content) to GasBuddy’s end users/customers through GasBuddy’s Services, and to conduct internal analytics regarding GasBuddy’s end users/customers. If you have location services enabled on your device for our mobile application, Foursquare may provide your location to us and our service providers so we can provide you tailored offers and ads. Foursquare may also collect and use other information, such as your device type, advertising identifier on your device and device usage information (for example, a date/time stamp and your location when the App communicates with Foursquare). All such information is used by Foursquare for its own purposes in accordance with Foursquare’s privacy policy, as updated from time to time. You can opt-out of having your geo-location data shared with Foursquare through the "Settings" feature of the GasBuddy mobile application or through the settings on your mobile device. For more information about how Foursquare uses your geo-location information, you can visit: Foursquare’s Privacy Policy.
- Transaction Data. If you register a Payment Card in connection with GasBuddy’s Card Link Program, you authorize one or more of our Card Link Offer Service Providers to share necessary information with American Express, Mastercard and/or VISA, as applicable (each a "Payment Card Network") to allow the applicable Payment Card Network to identify transactions that are eligible for the Card Link Program. Some of the information shared between GasBuddy and Card Link Offer Service Providers or Payment Card Networks may be partially redacted or anonymized. By registering a Payment Card, you authorize the applicable Payment Card Network to share such transaction details with the Card Link Offer Service Providers and GasBuddy to enable your card-linked offer(s) and target offers that may be of interest to you. Card Link Service Providers and Payment Card Networks may retrieve and analyze up to 13 months of transaction data history in order to provide you with these targeted offers. You also authorize Card Link Offer Service Providers as well as Upside Services, Inc. to collect transactional data directly from merchants that participate in the program and share that transactional data with GasBuddy and Payment Card Networks. Card Link Offer Service Providers and Payment Card Networks may retain and use transactional data for internal financial reporting and analysis purposes, or as otherwise required by law or contract. You may opt-out of transaction monitoring by removing your linked card(s). To remove your card(s), go to your profile in the GasBuddy app and select the "Membership" link in the menu. In the Linked Cards section, click on the “Remove” button next to your associated card(s).
7. Collection of Information by Third Parties
If you visit the Service from a third-party website the third-party website may give you a unique code, cookie or graphic which will uniquely identify you. This will only happen if you link directly from a third-party website to the Service. Your activities on the Service while this type of code is active may be reported back to the third-party website. The presence of a third-party navigation bar at the top of a webpage is an indication that the third-party website may be able to see your activity on the Service.We may also provide social media features through the Service that enable you to share information with your social networks and to interact with the Service on various social media sites. Your use of these features may result in the collection or sharing of information about you by these sites, depending on the feature. We encourage you to review the privacy policies and settings on the social media sites with which you interact to make sure you understand the information that may be collected, used, and shared by those sites.
If you click on a link to a third-party site, you will be taken to a site we do not control. This includes, for example, links to surveys or reviews offered by Card Link Service Providers or participating merchants. GasBuddy is not responsible for the privacy practices of any third-parties other than as relevant to the Services and as described in this Privacy Policy.
8. Information You Provide About Other Users
The “Tell a Friend” feature on the Sites allows you to send email notifications to your friends inviting them to use the Service. To use the “Tell a Friend” feature you will need to provide your friend’s name and email address. If you provide this information we will automatically send your friend an email asking them to visit the Sites.9. Data Security
GasBuddy takes reasonable measures to protect the information you provide to GasBuddy or submit through the Service against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure, or modification. However, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to GasBuddy or submit through the Service and you do so at your own risk. No internet or email transmission is ever fully secure or error-free. Email sent to or through the Service may not be secure. You should use caution whenever submitting information online and take special care in deciding what information you send to us via email. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site.10. Accessing, Changing and Managing Your Information
You may change and update the information you provide through the Service, or change your preferences concerning how we use your Personal Information, as follows:- Changing, Updating or Deleting Your Information. You may make changes to the user information you provided in connection with your GasBuddy account by logging in to your account and changing the applicable information. If you choose to terminate your account, you may also request that we delete your information by contacting us at contact@gasbuddy.com. Following receipt of a request from you, we will take reasonable steps to update, correct or delete your information as required under the applicable law.
Please note, we are not required to, and may not be able to, erase or otherwise eliminate content or information if (a) other state or federal laws require us or a third party to maintain the content or information; (b) the content or information was posted, stored, or republished by another user; (c) the content or information is anonymized so that you cannot be individually identified; (d) you do not follow the instructions posted in this Privacy Policy on how to request removal of your content or information; or (e) you have received compensation or other consideration for providing the content. Further, nothing in this provision shall be construed to limit the authority of a law enforcement agency to obtain the applicable content or information. - Gateway Services (Third Parties). GasBuddy does not control the information you provide to Gateway Services. If you want to change your preferences with regard to how an applicable Gateway Service collects or uses your Personal Information in connection with the Service, you should review the privacy practices of the applicable Gateway Service and adjust your privacy or other settings directly through the applicable Gateway Service.