ShadowInc PRIVACY POLICY

PLEASE READ THE ShadowInc TERMS OF USE BEFORE USING THE SERVICES OFFERED BY ShadowInc, INC. ("ShadowInc")

This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes the types of personal information collected and created in connection with your use of ShadowInc. It explains how this information is used, who it is shared with and your legal rights. Unless indicated otherwise, this Privacy Policy applies to all ShadowInc sites, services, features, content and applications (the “Services”).

For residents of the EU, please note that this Privacy Policy has been updated in accordance with the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For residents of the US and non-EU countries, by visiting, joining, or using ShadowInc, or otherwise indicating that you agree to this Privacy Policy, you consent to, and authorize use of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

When you use ShadowInc, there are expectations for how you must respect and protect the privacy of other members. These expectations are spelled out in the Terms of Use. Please read them. Violating these rules or other aspects of the Terms of Use may lead to a loss of account privileges, potentially including a permanent ban from ShadowInc.

What is ShadowInc?

ShadowInc is an open neighborhood information platform where anyone can share and learn everything they need to know about a town.

We use “ShadowInc” here to refer to our Services and we also use “ShadowInc”, “we”, “us” and “our” to refer to the companies operating our Services.

Information We Collect

When ShadowInc provides Services, ShadowInc collects or receives information in several different ways. In many cases you choose what information to provide. Some information is required in order to use ShadowInc and for the provided Services. ShadowInc uses this information for the purposes described further below.

Note that not all ShadowInc account types and features are available in all locations, so some of the examples below may not apply where you live.

Information We Collect From You

ShadowInc collects a variety of information from you when you provide it directly, when it is requested from you, or when you give permission to get it from a third-party source. Some examples of these instances are as follows:

When you sign up for ShadowInc, you provide your name, address, phone number, profile photo, email address, and similar information.
If you decide to invite new users to join ShadowInc, you can choose to share their residential or email address with us, or share your contacts with us, so ShadowInc can send an invitation and follow-up reminders to potential new users on your behalf.
If you use Facebook to log in to ShadowInc (or later connect your Facebook account to your ShadowInc account) you authorize Facebook to share your personal information with us, including your name and email address.
If you want to support a local business, you can choose to share information about it, in the form of a recommendation or by creating a business page.
If you want to help your users and ShadowInc get to know you better, you may share information about yourself in your profile.
If you want to connect and communicate with users about specific interests, you may share information about your interests.
If you want to communicate with your users and share Content (as defined in the Terms of Use), you might post something on ShadowInc.
If you want to allow ShadowInc to show you where you are on your community map, tag your posts, photos and events by location, or verify your address (where available), you can enable sharing this in your settings.
If you contact support, you are providing ShadowInc with your contact information and a description of the issue.
If you make a payment either to or through ShadowInc, you are providing the third-party payment processors with certain payment information in order to complete the transaction.
If you take part in surveys or other general research, you may provide information in response.

Information We Collect From Your Device

ShadowInc automatically collects technical information when you visit or use ShadowInc or read a message from us. ShadowInc collects information from your browser, computer, or mobile device. This provides ShadowInc with technical information when you use ShadowInc as a visitor or a member, including:

Device data which tells ShadowInc about the device you’re using, what type and model it is, its operating system and version, its unique identifier, crash data (if applicable), and what settings you’ve enabled. Your device and software settings affect what information your device makes available to us.
Log data which is automatically recorded by ShadowInc servers based on data sent by your app or browser. This typically includes the date and time you visited, the browser or app version you used (and its settings), the URLs you come from and go to, your IP address and protocol, and how you used ShadowInc (for example, which links you clicked on).
Cookie data which comes from “cookies” (small data files stored on your computer or mobile device) and similar technologies. Cookie data helps ShadowInc recognize you, remember your preferences, and personalize your experience. ShadowInc third-party advertising partners also use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about users for advertising purposes as described below. Some, but not all cookie data is associated with your ShadowInc account.
Pixels, SDKs and other storage technologies, which operate similar to cookies, are used by us, as well as by certain third parties, such as social media networks and advertiser platforms, to collect or receive information from this and other websites and apps to provide measurement services and target ads. You can opt-out of the third parties’ (such as a social media network or advertiser platform) collection and use of information for ad targeting by updating your account ad settings within the third-party applications.

Information We Collect from Third-Parties

ShadowInc engages third-party service providers and partners to provide ShadowInc with information, and also uses publicly-available sources. For example:

Vendors provide ShadowInc with map information in order to create and define new areas.
Vendors may provide information about users and their homes for advertising analytics, personalization, and measurement.
Advertisers may provide ShadowInc with information about their users or customers to personalize advertising or measure the performance of their advertisements.
Public sources, such as census data, street addresses, property lot maps, and postal address change information, provide information that helps understand users and potential areas for expansion.

How We Use this Information

ShadowInc uses the information to help provide, operate, improve, understand, customize, support, and market the Services.

ShadowInc uses information to identify and invite potential new users to ShadowInc, and to set up new ShadowInc listings. For example, ShadowInc use the information to identify new users and, if you ask to be sent invitations and reminders on your behalf, send direct mail invitations, invite your Facebook friends, or notify you when offering new Services.

In order to enable ShadowInc to operate and provide the Services, ShadowInc uses certain information to get you started:

For residential members, ShadowInc verifies that you live at the address given through a combination of your address and a second factor. The secondary factors used may include a code, the address associated with your credit card, manual verification by the user or Leads (as defined in the Terms of Use) who invited you, or geo-verification, if you are offered and choose that option. ShadowInc also use public registries to block addresses of registered sex offenders in the United States (and other countries where permitted by law).
If you sign up via Facebook or connect your accounts, ShadowInc may use your Facebook information to automatically create your ShadowInc account, populate your profile, and request a password so you can log into ShadowInc in the future without connecting through Facebook.
Once you register, your personal information is used to populate your profile.
ShadowInc uses business information to create Business Pages, which help users learn about the businesses in their communities. To claim your Business Page, click here.
For business or other special accounts, ShadowInc may verify your address using third-party or publicly available sources, such as business listings or your website.
When you sign up for ShadowInc, you have the opportunity to ask ShadowInc to send invitation postcards to nearby households that are not on ShadowInc. These postcards contain your name and street address and are only addressed to nearby households (and do not generally contain recipient householders’ names).

ShadowInc uses both manual and automated systems to analyze and use your Content (as defined in the user Agreement) and other information:

To operate ShadowInc and improve the products and features.
To help you publish Content and view and respond to Content from other members, based on your posting selections you make when you create your post.
To highlight popular community topics or resources.
To select top posts in an area and to deliver and tailor your newsfeed.
To highlight businesses you may wish to recommend based on your activity on ShadowInc.
To help support businesses recommended by ShadowInc members.
To personalize your experience.
To understand the trends, usage statistics, and demographic data of the users and communities served.
To respond to your support requests and comments.
To test and evaluate potential new products and features on ShadowInc.
To diagnose and resolve problems, analyze trends, and monitor usage and resource needs.
For marketing activities, such as carrying out analysis to create statistics on and insights into the use of the Services.
To accept payments, through a third-party payment processors.

ShadowInc uses your information to provide and improve advertisements and other commercial offerings both on and off the Services:

To measure whether an advertisement was interesting to members.
To measure whether an advertisement was effective for the advertiser.
To help personalize advertisements based on what will be of interest to you.
To provide and measure the effectiveness of personalized advertising.
To improve the personalization of advertisements.

ShadowInc may customize advertising offers you see on ShadowInc based on information from advertisers or vendors, on the demographics, or on your actions on ShadowInc. For example, a home services company might provide a list of addresses eligible for a special deal that may be offered to ShadowInc users who live at those addresses. Or, if you search on ShadowInc for a particular product, the Site might show you advertisements for providers of that product or related or similar products. ShadowInc third-party advertising partners also use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about users for advertising purposes as described below.

Your Options

You can read more here about the choices you have regarding the sharing and visibility of your profile information, content and location information; your communications with ShadowInc users and invitations to non-members; and deactivating or deleting your ShadowInc account. You can modify these account settings at any time.

Your Rights

You benefit from a number of rights in relation to your information that are processed. While some of these rights apply generally, certain rights apply only in certain limited cases.

If ShadowInc processes your information based on legitimate interests explained above, or in the public interest, and you have an EU user account, you can object to this processing in certain circumstances. In such cases, ShadowInc will cease processing your information unless there are compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing or where it is needed for legal reasons. Where your data is used for direct marketing, you can always object by using the unsubscribe link in such communications, changing your email account settings or, if you do not have an account, by contacting us.

You can withdraw your consent to email marketing by using the unsubscribe link in such communications or by changing your email account settings. You can also revoke any consent you have provided to ShadowInc for collection of your geolocation information by changing the settings on your mobile device. In addition, if you have an EU user account and you have previously provided your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your information at any time. If you withdraw your consent to the use of your information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, you may not have access to all (or any) of the Services and might not be able to provide you all (or any) of the Services under this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use. In certain cases, ShadowInc may continue to process your information after you have withdrawn consent if there is a legal basis to do so, or if your withdrawal of consent was limited to certain processing activities.

If you have an EU user account and wish to raise a concern about any use of your information (and without prejudice to any other rights you may have), you have the right to do so with your local supervisory authority or ShadowInc’s lead supervisory authority, the Irish Data Protection Commission.

Sharing Information

ShadowInc shares information with service providers, affiliates, partners, and other third parties where it is necessary to perform the user Agreement, to provide the Services, or for any other purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

ShadowInc is a platform for users to share helpful information with each other. To that end, the Content you post on ShadowInc, such as posts, replies, recommendations, messages, and your profile information, visible to other ShadowInc users based on the preferences in your settings, the preferences on the Content you provide, and as described in this Privacy Policy. You can learn more here. By default, your name, address and other information you add to your profile may be visible to users; and your recommendations are shared with all members. You can limit the information visible to other ShadowInc users in the privacy section of your settings.

In limited circumstances (for example, to highlight popular community resources or topics on the community’s home page), short snippets of Content (as defined in the user Agreement) may be made available, without your name or other identifying information, to the public (meaning non-members and search engines).

ShadowInc knows that you do not want spam or marketing calls from third parties, and won’t share your contact information with a third-party other than as described in this Privacy Policy without your authorization.

If you click on or reply to an advertisement or other offer, your reply may be shared with the advertiser, and your interaction may be logged as part of tracking the overall effectiveness of the advertisement. ShadowInc may also pre-populate replies to ads you click on with your contact details, but those details are not shared with the advertiser without your consent.

The Services are supported by third-party advertising networks. ShadowInc advertising partners use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about users and their devices over time across ShadowInc and different websites and services. ShadowInc may also share with advertising partners device identifiers of users to help them personalize the ads they see. Where permissible according to applicable law, certain limited personal information about you may be shared in hashed form, such as a hashed email address, with advertising partners and other third parties that help ShadowInc serve ads. This is done to tailor or target advertising or to identify similar audiences to advertise to. ShadowInc advertising partners may be able to associate this information with you based on your device identifiers or other personal information they have about you. ShadowInc advertising partners use the information they collect to provide users with personalized ads on ShadowInc and on different websites and services, and to measure the effectiveness of the ads.

ShadowInc systems are not currently configured to accept browsers’ “Do Not Track” signals, as no industry-wide standard for handling them has been adopted.

ShadowInc may partner with third-party companies to offer users the ability to book a range of different services, such as home improvement, dog walking, personal training and tutoring. These offers may be integrated into ShadowInc or ShadowInc may contain links to other websites or apps featuring the offers. In order to tailor these offers to you, limited information may be shared with such third parties, such as your community or zip code, the business topic of the content you are viewing, or a business search query (for example, a search for “plumber”). When you engage with one of these offers, you may share additional information directly with the third-party partner. If you engage with third-party partners through ShadowInc, the third parties may share with ShadowInc certain information about you, such as information about a booking you make with the third-party, including type of service, name and address of provider, and the time of booking. These third parties have their own privacy policies, which will apply to your activity if you click on or interact with their offers featured on ShadowInc or other websites or apps.

ShadowInc may share your personal information with certain third-party vendors and service providers to help ShadowInc operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market the Services. These vendors and service providers are contractually required to use it only to provide their service to us, and contractually barred from using it for their own purposes. (For example, a company may help to help test and analyze the performance of the website and mobile applications. ShadowInc may also use trusted third-party payment processors to accept payments for certain services made available on ShadowInc.)

ShadowInc may share your information within the “corporate family”, including between ShadowInc, Inc. and ShadowInc EMEA Limited, to help provide, maintain, and improve ShadowInc.

In instances where the business is subject to a reorganization, such as a merger or acquisition of some or all of its assets, in accordance with legitimate interests, need to share information in the course of the transaction. In such circumstances, your information may be disclosed, where permitted by applicable law, in connection with a corporate restructuring, sale, or assignment of assets, merger, or other changes of control or financial status of ShadowInc.

ShadowInc may retain, preserve, or share your personal information if there is a good-faith belief that it is reasonably necessary to (a) respond, based on applicable law, to a legal request (e.g. a subpoena, a search warrant, court order, or other requests from government or law enforcement); (b) detect, investigate, prevent, and address fraud and other illegal activity, security, or technical issues; (c) protect ShadowInc rights, property, or safety; (d) enforce the Terms of Use or any other agreements that exist with you; (e) prevent physical injury or other harm to any person or entity, including yourself and users of the general public. For example, your personal information may be shared with disaster relief agencies, first responders and other individuals to facilitate disaster or emergency response efforts.

The ShadowInc legal team reviews every request received from law enforcement, and frequently seeks modifications of requests that is believed to be procedurally flawed or too broad.

ShadowInc shares some aggregated information about communities with government agency users and other organizational members, such as statistics about community activity and size. Because of the special role played by government agency accounts, and may provide agency accounts with limited identifying personal information (first name and last initial) for community Leads, so that the agency can communicate directly with them.

ShadowInc may also share aggregated or de-identified information with other companies, including advertisers and partners as well as government agency users or other organizational members.

Data Transfers

If you live outside the United States, personal information is transferred outside the EU in accordance with EU data protection law, including where it is necessary to provide the Services and perform the user Agreement. ShadowInc may transfer your information to affiliates, partners and other third parties.

ShadowInc may also rely on the EU-US Privacy Shield where your information is transferred to the United States, such as to certain third-party service providers, where such recipients are certified to receive your information under the Privacy Shield Program.

By continuing to use ShadowInc, you understand that your data outside may be transferred and stored your home country, including to and in the US, as described in this Privacy Policy. The privacy protections and the rights of authorities to access your personal information in some of these countries may not be the same as in your home country. ShadowInc will only transfer personal data as permitted by law, and will take steps intended to ensure appropriate protection of your personal information. If you have questions, please contact us.

Data Retention

ShadowInc retains your information in server logs, databases, and records for as long as necessary to provide the Services. ShadowInc may need to retain some of your information for a longer period, such as in order to comply with legal or regulatory obligations, to resolve disputes or defend against legal claims, or to enforce the Terms of Use. ShadowInc may retain your verification-related information for a reasonable period of time (even if you do not complete all verification steps) to assist with future verifications and to prevent abuse of the verification processes. If you decide not to verify the account and would like ShadowInc to delete the verification information you provided, contact us.

Additional Information

ShadowInc uses technical and organizational measures intended to keep your data secure, including using https on ShadowInc web pages to reduce the risk of unauthorized interception of your communications during your visits to the website. However, the internet is not a fully secure environment and it cannot be guaranteed that your personal information won’t be intercepted or improperly accessed. Please ensure that you keep your password safe and do not share it with anyone.

In using ShadowInc, you may come across links to websites and services operated by third parties (for example, if a user shares a link to a video on YouTube, or if an advertiser provides a link to a contest or sweepstakes). These third parties have their own privacy policies, which will apply to your activity if you click on the link and access their website or service. ShadowInc does not accept any responsibility or liability for such external sites’ privacy and security practices.

Modification of this Privacy Policy

ShadowInc reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any of this Privacy Policy at any time by posting a notice on the Site or by sending you notice through the Service or via email. ShadowInc may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the Service without notice or liability. It is your responsibility to check these Terms of Use periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Service following the posting of any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes acceptance of those changes.

User Support For all questions, comments, suggestions and any support needs, please contact ShadowInc at
[email protected]