Privacy Policy

Last Modified: February, 10th 2020

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United States
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Privacy Policy for USA

This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) governs your access to and use of the Howtank website, including any content, functionality and services offered on or through any of our other products or services (collectively referred to as the “Service”), which are owned and operated by Howtank (“Howtank”, “we”, or “us”).

This Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference into our Terms of Service, found at https://www.howtank.com/conditions-generales#usa.

The Service is offered and available to users who are 18 years of age and older. By using the Service, you represent and warrant (i) that you are 18 years of age or older and are otherwise capable of forming a legally binding contract with Howtank and (ii) that your use of the Service is consistent with our Terms of Service, our Privacy Policy, and all applicable law. If you do not meet these requirements, you must not access or use the Service. The Service is not intended for anyone under 18 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 years of age. If you are under 18, you are not permitted to provide any information to or on the Service (including any information about yourself, such as your name or e-mail address). If we learn that we have collected or received personal information from anyone under 18 years of age, we will delete that information.

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 THE SERVICE. THIS POLICY MAY CHANGE FROM TIME TO TIME. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE SERVICE AFTER WE MAKE CHANGES IS DEEMED TO BE ACCEPTANCE OF THOSE CHANGES, SO PLEASE CHECK THE POLICY PERIODICALLY FOR UPDATES.

Definitions

The term Service means the service offered by Howtank, on www.howtank.com or through apps and widgets offered by Howtank based on putting Internet Users, Members in contact via chat, and conversations as well as all products and services directly or indirectly related to this service. Internet Users put in contact with a Member via chat on the Partner Website are not website Members.

The term Platform means the secured portal made accessible to Members and Partner Websites from the link www.howtank.com, which is used to reply to chats, connect with other Members and teams of the Partner Website.

The term Member or You means any person who effectively uses all or part of the Service and who, consequently, has agreed to the Terms of Use of the Service. Members connect to the Service using their user name and password.

The term Partner Website means any website which has entered into a contract with Howtank to have the Service integrated in its platform.

The term Internet Users means people who visit Howtank Partner Websites and communicate with Members via the Service.

Introduction

Howtank ("Company" or "We") is a social network that enables its Members, Partner Websites and Internet Users to exchange, share their experience, and help each other.

In connection with and to further its mission, We collect personal information to ensure our Members' and Internet Users' best possible experience using the Services.

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 access and use the Service and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting and disclosing that information.

This policy applies to information we collect:

On this Service.
In e-mail, text and other electronic messages between you and this Service.

It does not apply to information collected by:

us offline or through any other means, including on any other website or blog operated by Howtank or any third party; or
any third party, including through any application or content that may link to or be accessible from or on the Service.

You agree and acknowledge that Howtank has no duty or responsibility to maintain and safeguard any information you may provide to, or is collected by, any third party whether through or in connection with your use of the Service or otherwise.

Children Under the Age of 13

Our Service is not intended for children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 may provide any personal information to or on the Service. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on this Service or on or through any of its features/register on the Service, use any of the interactive or public comment features of this Service or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us through the Contact Howtank page.

Information We Collect About our Members and How We Collect It

We collect several types of information from and about Members, including information:

by which you may be personally identified, such as last name, first name, e-mail address, city of residence, date of birth, telephone number ("personal information");
about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Service (chats, messages and posts in the community discussion forum), and usage details.

We collect this information:

Directly from you when you provide it to us.
Automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses and information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies.
From third parties, for example, our Partner Websites.

Information You Provide to Us.

The information we collect on or through our Website may include:

Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Service. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Service, posting material or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our Service.
Records and copies of your correspondence (including e-mail addresses), if you contact us.
Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes and product improvements.
Your conversations using the chat, whether with Internet Users or other users of the functionality, or directly with Howtank.

You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, "posted") on public areas of the Service, or transmitted to the Partner Website that manages the community you have chosen to join (collectively, "User Contributions"). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Although you may set certain privacy settings for such information directly from your browser settings, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Service with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies.

As our Members navigate through and interact with our Service, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about their equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including:

Details of your visits to our Service, including traffic data, location data, logs and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Service.
Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system and browser type.

The information we collect automatically is statistical data and does not include personal information, but we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect. It helps us to improve our Service and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Service. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Service.

How We Use Our Members' Information

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

To present our Service 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, including for billing and collection.
To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Service.
To send you our Newsletter.
In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
For any other purpose with your consent.

Disclosure of Members’ Information

We may disclose aggregated information about Internet Users without restriction.

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

To the Partner Website that manages the community you have chosen to join.
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 purposes 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 Howtank's assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by Howtank about our Service users is among the assets transferred.
To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
With your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information:

To comply with any court order, law or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
To enforce or apply our Terms of Use
If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Howtank, our customers or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Choices About How We Use and Disclose our Members’ Information

We strive to provide our Members with choices regarding the personal information they provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

Tracking Technologies and Advertising.
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 this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
Accessing and Correcting Your Information.
You can review and change your personal information by logging into the Service and visiting your account profile page.You may also send us an e-mail at support@howtank.com to request access to, correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We cannot delete your personal information except by also deleting your user account. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.If you delete your User Contributions from the Service, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other Service users. Proper access and use of information provided on the Service, including User Contributions, is governed by our Terms of Use
Your California Privacy Rights
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits users of the Service that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an e-mail to support@howtank.com.

Data Security

We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration and disclosure.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Service, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Service like message boards. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Service.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Service. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Service.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable e-mail address for you, and for periodically visiting our Service and this privacy policy to check for any changes.

Contact Information

To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and our privacy practices, contact us at: support@howtank.com

Privacy Policy for other countries

Updated on June 30th,2020

Howtank is a social network permitting the sharing of experience, mutual assistance and exchanges between its Members, Internet users, and Website Partners.

As part of its ongoing efforts to guarantee you an incredible experience with its Service, Howtank collects your personal data.

This Privacy Policy describes the different types of data collected and their use within our Service.

The terms “us” and “our” refer to Howtank.
The terms “you” and “your” refer to the Member.

The Service refers to the service Howtank provides to establish contact between Internet users and Members via chatroom conversations on www.howtank.com, or through apps or widgets supplied by Howtank, in addition to all other products and services directly or indirectly linked to this service.

The Platform means the secured portal made accessible to Members and Partner Websites from the link www.howtank.com, which is used to reply to chats, connect with other Members and teams of the Partner Website.

The Member refers to any person who uses all or part of the Service and who has consequently accepted the General Terms of Use of the Service.

Partner: refers to the company that operates the Partner Website on which the Service is incorporated.

Partner Website refers to all Internet websites operated by a Partner that has a contract with Howtank in order to incorporate the Service within its platform.

Internet users refers to the people who visit Howtank's Partner Websites and use the Service to communicate with Members.

Our principles concerning personal data collection and protection

Processing Manager's Identity
Howtank SAS
24 rue de Clichy
75009 Paris
France

As the party processing your personal data, we undertake to implement reasonable measures to guarantee a level of optimal security, in compliance with the current French and European regulations and recommendations of the CNIL (French Data Protection Authority). We undertake to collect, process and use data for the sole purpose of performing and improving our Service, and only if you consented or have not objected to this, as the case may be.

As a general rule, the data is collected solely through you, and we will inform you why we are doing this. If we receive personal data concerning you from a third party, we will inform you.

The data we collect

When you register with our Service, once you have submitted the form and accepted the General Terms of Use, we collect and store the following personal data:

Your full name
Your email address
Your city
Your date of birth
Information you provided to create an account on the Partner Site when you access the Service with your Partner Site account.

This information is essential for us to provide the Service.

While you are using our Platform, we collect and process the following data:

Activity data: text messages in the chat room, forum and discussions with Internet users in the chat, your audio and video during video discussions made available in the chat rooms;
Your Internet Protocol (IP) address: we use your IP address to access general information regarding browsing and Service use. These data allow us to improve our Services and offer you an optimal experience.

Certain browsing data, such as your IP address, the Internet browser you use, or the times when you use the Service, may be collected via cookies. You have the option of accepting or refusing these cookies. Please refer to the following web page for any inquiries about our information collection methods and how to block cookies: cookie use policy.

Third parties with whom we share your data

As indicated in our General Terms of Use, we transfer collected data to third parties so that the Service can be carried out and function properly.

Processors

Processors, as defined by European Regulation (UE) 2016/279 in article 4, process personal data on behalf, on instructions from and under the authority of Howtank.

Firstly, the data collected are transferred to and stored by our service provider, Amazon Web Services, based in Paris, FRANCE.

Your name, surname and email address can be transferred to Sendinblue, our emailing marketing plateform based in Paris in France, to send you our information newsletter.

Your IP can be transmitted to Sentry, our service provider for identifying and resolving bugs on our platform. Sentry is based in San Francisco. The data transmitted by Howtank can be stored and processed outside the European Union. We have concluded an agreement with Sentry Inc to ensure that your personal data benefit from the highest level of protection defined by French regulations and in particular Law n ° 78-17 of January 6, 1978 relating to data processing, files and freedoms (the “Data Protection Act”) and European Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016.

Finally, your data are transferred to UseResponse, our forum provider based in Laong Beach in USA. Data transferred by Howtank to UseResponse are processed in UE.

Joint-Controllers

Howtank jointly determines the purposes and means of processing of your data with Joint-Controllers, as defined by European Regulation (UE) 2016/279 in article 26. These purposes and means are those defined in this Charter.

Your data will be handed over to the Partner Site in charge of the website community you have joined. Your personal information will never be transmitted to any Partner Site that you have not formally requested and agreed to join.

Finally, these data will be also transferred to Kawaa, based in Paris in France, our partner that managed the “Meetup” functionality. This functionality, when activated by the Partner enables Members to organize and participate to meet ups in real life with other Members and Internet Users.

The purpose of collection and processing

All the data collected are processed in order to guarantee the proper running of the Service and security on the Platform. Statistical analyses may be carried out in order to guarantee continuous improvement of your Member experience.

Third Parties with whom we share your personal data guarantee to ensure the same level of protection of your data as described in this Privacy Policy. In no way, these data will be sold or transferred to other companies.

Retention period of personal data

All personal data communicated will be destroyed three years after your last connection to the Platform.

Access, rectification, and opposition rights

You have the right to access and rectify your personal information, according to the Data Protection Act, which you may exercise either by making a request through our “Contact Howtank” page on our Platform, or by modifying it yourself on the “My profile” page of your account.

You can also oppose the processing of your personal data for a valid reason. For all inquiries or requests, please visit our “Contact Howtank” Website page, or by post to the following address:

Howtank SAS
Direction des Opérations
24 rue de Clichy
75009 Paris
France

Your request will be taken into account by our team within 48 hours.

If we consider your request valid, we will destroy all your personal data within 30 days of receiving your request.

As a Member, you can receive Newsletters informing you of news about the Service. You can unsubscribe to these newsletters by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the newsletter.

Measures taken to guarantee personal data security

We have set up physical, electronic, and management procedures to secure and protect information against any loss, inappropriate use or non-authorized access, disclosure, modification or destruction.
Amazon Web Services guarantees the same high standards when storing your personal data, and acts as Howtank's subcontractor.

All personal information is treated solely in accordance with the purposes for which it was collected, insofar as it is required, or for which its processing has been authorized by the person concerned. In order to respect these objectives, we will take all reasonable measures to verify that this personal information is accurate, exhaustive, up to date, and reliable in respect of its intended use. In case of a personal data breach, We will notiffy to You and th esupervisiry authority whithout undue delay as defined in article 33 and 34 of Regulation (UE) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regards to the processing of personal data and on the free movement such data.