Ripple Interactive, Inc. is a social discovery company. Our products and services provide fast and fun ways to express yourself and connect with others. When you use these services, you’ll share some information with us. So we want to be upfront about the information we collect and how we use it, as well as the controls we give you to access, update, and delete your information.
That’s why we’ve written this Privacy Policy. And it’s why we’ve tried to write it in a way that’s easy to understand for all our users and blissfully free of the legalese that often clouds these documents. Of course, if you still have questions about anything in our Privacy Policy, just contact us.
Information We Collect
There are two basic categories of information we collect:
- Information you provide.
- Information we get when you use our services.
Here’s a little more detail on each of these categories.
Information You Provide
When you interact with our services, we collect information that you provide to us. For example, many of our services require you to set up an account, so we may need to collect a few important details about you, such as your name, email address, phone number, and date of birth. We may also ask you to provide us with some additional information that will be publicly visible on our services, such as a profile picture.
Of course, you’ll also provide us with whatever information you send through our services, such as Chats. Keep in mind that the users who view your Chats, and any other content can always save that content or copy it outside the app. So, the same common sense that applies to the internet at large applies to our services as well: do not send messages or share content that you wouldn’t want someone to save or share.
When you contact customer support or communicate with us in any other way, we’ll collect whatever information you volunteer or that we need to resolve your question.
Information We Get When You Use Our Services
When you use our services, we collect information about which of those services you’ve used and how you’ve used them. We might know, for instance, which features you use the most, and which you use the least. This helps us improve our app through updates. Here’s a fuller explanation of the types of information we collect when you use our services:
- Usage Information. We collect information about your activity through our services. For example, we may collect information about:
- how you interact with our services, and how much you use each feature.
- Device Information. We collect information from and about the devices you use. For example, we collect:
- information about your hardware and software, such as the hardware model, operating system version, device memory, advertising identifiers, unique application identifiers, apps installed, unique device identifiers, browser type, keyboards installed, language, battery level, and time zone;
- information about your wireless and mobile network connections, such as mobile phone number, service provider, IP address, and signal strength.
- Information about your device, such as the operating system and device type, to help you receive Chats, and other content in the optimal viewing format.
- Device Phonebook. Because our services are all about communicating with friends, we may — with your permission — collect information from your device’s phonebook.
- Camera and Photos. Many of our services require us to collect images and other information from your device’s camera and photos. For example, you won’t be able to send photos via chat, add a profile picture, or upload photos from your camera roll unless we can access your camera or photos.
- Location Information. When you use our services we may collect information about your location. With your permission, we may also collect information about your precise location using methods that include GPS, wireless networks, cell towers, Wi-Fi access points, and other sensors, such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, and compasses.
- Information Collected by Cookies and Other Technologies. Like most online services and mobile applications, we may use cookies and other technologies, such as web beacons, web storage, and unique advertising identifiers, to collect information about your activity, browser, and device. We may also use these technologies to collect information when you interact with services we offer through one of our partners, such as advertising and commerce features. For example, we may use information collected on other websites to show you more relevant ads. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually remove or reject browser cookies through the settings on your browser or device. Keep in mind, though, that removing or rejecting cookies could affect the availability and functionality of our services. To learn more about how we and our partners use cookies on our services and your choices, please check out our Cookie Policy.
- How you communicate with other Ripple users, such as their names, the time and date of your communications, the number of messages you exchange with your friends, which friends you exchange messages with the most, and your interactions with messages (such as when you open a message or capture a screenshot).
- Log Information. We also collect log information when you use our website, such as:
- details about how you’ve used our services;
- device information, such as your web browser type and language;
- access times;
- pages viewed;
- IP address;
- identifiers associated with cookies or other technologies that may uniquely identify your device or browser; and
- pages you visited before or after navigating to our website.
How We Use Information
What do we do with the information we collect? The answer is: Provide you with an amazing set of products and services that we relentlessly improve. Here are the ways we do that:
- develop, operate, improve, deliver, maintain, and protect our products and services.
- send you communications, including by email. For example, we may use email to respond to support inquiries or to share information about our products, services, and promotional offers that we think may interest you.
- monitor and analyze trends and usage.
- enhance the safety and security of our products and services.
- verify your identity and prevent fraud or other unauthorized or illegal activity.
- use information we’ve collected from cookies and other technology to enhance our services and your experience with them.
- enforce, investigate, and report conduct violating our Terms of Service and other usage policies, respond to requests from law enforcement, and comply with legal requirements.
How We Share Information
With all Ripple users, our business partners, and the general public. We may share the following information with all Ripple users as well as with our business partners and the general public:
- We may share information about you, such as device and usage information, to help us and others prevent fraud.
- public information like your name, username, profile pictures, and Public Profile.
- We may share information about you for legal, safety, and security reasons. We may share information about you if we reasonably believe that disclosing the information is needed to:
- comply with any valid legal process, governmental request, or applicable law, rule, or regulation.
- investigate, remedy, or enforce potential Terms of Service and Community Guidelines violations.
- protect the rights, property, or safety of us, our users, or others.
- detect and resolve any fraud or security concerns.
- We may share information about you as part of a merger or acquisition. If Ripple Interactive, Inc. gets involved in a merger, asset sale, financing, liquidation or bankruptcy, or acquisition of all or some portion of our business to another company, we may share your information with that company before and after the transaction closes.
- Non-personal information. We may also share with third parties that provide services to us or perform business purposes for us aggregated, non-personally identifiable, or de-identified information.
Third-Party Content and Integrations
Our services may contain third-party content and integrations. Examples include third-party integrations in the Camera. Through these integrations, you may be providing information to the third party as well as to Ripple. We are not responsible for how those third parties collect or use your information. As always, we encourage you to review the privacy policies of every third-party service that you visit or use, including those third parties you interact with through our services.
How Long We Keep Your Information
Ripple lets you communicate with the world around you. We keep your information as long as you are willing. You can always contact our support team to request that we delete all of your data if you’re no longer interested in being part of the Ripple community.
Keep in mind that, while our systems are designed to carry out our deletion practices automatically, we cannot promise that deletion will occur within a specific timeframe. There may be legal requirements to store your data and we may need to suspend those deletion practices if we receive valid legal process asking us to preserve content, if we receive reports of abuse or other Terms of Service violations, or if your account or content created by you is flagged by others or our systems for abuse or other Terms of Service violations. Finally, we may also retain certain information in backup for a limited period of time or as required by law.
Control Over Your Information
You can always contact our support team to request that we delete all of your data if you’re no longer interested in being part of the Ripple community. Additionally, you can contact support at any time and request to view all the information we have stored in regards to your Ripple account.
Revisions to the Privacy Policy
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. But when we do, we’ll let you know one way or another. Sometimes, we’ll let you know by revising the date at the top of the Privacy Policy that’s available on our website and mobile application. Other times, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our websites’ homepages or providing you with an in-app notification).