Privacy Policy

Last revised on February 18, 2017

Bubbla is a great way to keep in touch with your friends and others via Bubbles you and your contacts can create using the bubbla App ('App').

By using the App, you share with us information about yourself. In this Privacy Policy, we summarise how we collect information about you, how we use it and whom we share it with, and how you can control our access to and use of your personal data.

1. How does bubbla collect information?

   There are three basic ways we collect information:

   1. Information you give us.
   2. Information we collect when you use our App.
   3. Information from third parties.
   1. Information you give us

      If you would like to use the App, we require that you set-up a bubbla user account, during which we collect the following information about you:

      • a first and last name and password;
      • an e-mail address;
      • a phone number;
      • your date of birth;
      • a profile picture;
      • gender
      • password
      • biography (short text about yourself)
      • other relevant information that will help the App function.

      When you create or participate in Bubbles, other users can save some of your content or copy it outside the app. You therefore should not send messages or share content that you wouldn’t want someone else to save, copy or share.

   2. Information we collect when you use our App

      We collect information about which of our digital services you’ve used and how you’ve used them. We might know, for instance, that you joined a Bubble on a particular day, or created a Bubble at a particular time and location.

      The following is a summary of the types of information we collect:

      1. Information about your use of the App

         For example, we may collect information about:

         1. how you interact with the App, such as through what device you use the App, and which Bubbles you create or join; how long you stay active in the app; how long you stay active on an individual view
         2. the users you communicate with, including 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).
      2. Content information

         We may collect information about the content you provide, such as if the recipient has viewed the content, replayed the content and the metadata that is provided with the content.

      3. Device information

         We may collect device-specific information such as the hardware model, operating system version, advertising identifier, unique application identifiers, unique device identifiers, browser type, language, wireless network and mobile network information (including the mobile phone number).

      4. Device contact list

         Bubbla is all about communicating with friends, so we may – with your consent – collect information from your device’s phonebook and contact lists, when the user allows Bubbla to access these data. Bubbla also creates friendships automatically between users, when the phone numbers match in the contact list of both devices.

      5. Location information

         When you use our services we may collect information about your location. With your consent, 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.

      6. 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 commerce features. 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.

      7. Login information

         We also collect login information when you use our website. That information includes, among other things:

         1. details about how you’ve used our services;
         2. device information, such as your web browser type and language access times;
         3. pages viewed;
         4. IP address;
         5. identifiers associated with cookies or other technologies that may uniquely identify your device or browser;
         6. pages you visited before or after navigating to our website.
   3. Information from third parties

      We may collect information that other users provide about you when they use our services. For example, if another user allows us to collect information from their device contact list — and you’re one of that user’s contacts — we may combine the information we collect from that user’s contact list with other information we have collected about you. We may also obtain information from other companies that are owned or operated by us, or any other third-party sources, and combine that with the information we collect through our services.

2. How we use information

   1. With the information we collect, we:
      1. develop, operate, improve, deliver, maintain and protect our products and services;
      2. communicate with you;
      3. monitor and analyse trends and usage;
      4. personalise the services by, among other things, suggesting friends or profile;
      5. information or customising the content we show you, including ads;
      6. enhance the safety and security of our products and services;
      7. verify your identity and prevent fraud or other unauthorised or illegal activity;
      8. use information we’ve collected from cookies and other technology to enhance the services and your experience with them;
      9. enforce our Terms of Service and other usage polices.
   2. We may also store some information locally on your device. For example, we may store information as local cache so that you can open the App and view content faster.

3. How we share information

   1. We may share information about you with other users as follows:
      1. information about you, such as your name, age, gender, biography, profile images;
      2. information about how you have interacted with the services, such as the names of Bubbles you are friends with and other information that will help Bubbles understand your connections with others using the services. For example, because it may not be clear whether a new friend request comes from someone you actually know, we may share whether you and the requestor have bubbla friends in common;
      3. any additional information you have consented for us to share. For example, when you let us access your device contact book, we may share information about you with other users who have your phone numbers in their device contact book; Bubbla will also create automatically a friendship with another user who has your phone number in his or her contacts;
      4. content you post or send will be shared with other users within the same Bubbles; how widely your content is shared depends on your personal settings and the type of Bubbles you are participating in. For instance, both Public and Private Bubbles and the users participating in them can be seen by other bubbla users whether or not they are your friends or contacts, whereas Invisible Bubbles cannot be generally seen by other users at all, and unless they are invited to such a Bubble, they will not be aware of it.
   2. We may share information with affiliates and with other entities associated with bubbla.
   3. We may share your information with the following third parties:
      1. with service providers, sellers and partners. We may share information about you with service providers who perform services on our behalf, sellers that provide goods through our services and business partners that provide services and functionality.
      2. with third parties for legal reasons. We may share information about you if we reasonably believe that disclosing the information is needed to:
         1. comply with any valid legal process, government request or applicable law, rule or regulation;
         2. investigate, remedy or enforce potential breaches of the bubbla Terms of Use;
         3. protect our, our users' or others' rights, property and safety; or,
         4. detect and resolve any fraud or security concerns.
      3. with third parties as part of a merger or acquisition. If bubbla 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; and,
      4. in the aggregate or after de-identification. We may also share with third parties, such as advertisers, aggregated or de-identified information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you.

4. Information you choose to share with third parties

   The App may also contain third-party links and search results, include third-party integrations, or be a co-branded or third-party-branded service that’s being provided jointly with or by another company. By going to those links, using the third-party integration, or using a co-branded or third-party-branded service, you may be providing information (including personal information) directly to the third party, us, or both. You acknowledge and agree that 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 website or service that you visit or use, including those third parties you interact with through our services.

5. How long we keep your content

   1. We may automatically delete the content of your Bubbles (the photo and text messages that you send your contacts) from our servers after we detect that a Bubble has expired. However, there are various ways other users can save your content and also upload it to bubbla (such as by an attachment in a message).
   2. You should also understand that users who see the content you provide can always save it using any number of techniques: screenshots, in-app functionality or any other image-capture technology. It’s also possible, as with any digital information, that someone might be able to access messages forensically or find them in a device’s temporary storage. 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 time frame. We may also retain certain information in backup for a limited period of time or as required by law.

6. Control over your information

   1. We want you to be in control of your information, so we provide you with the following tools:
      1. Anonymisation

         Although we prefer that you use your real name and a real likeness in your profile photo, anonymised usage is condoned by bubbla provided you do not exploit this privilege as a means for abusing or harassing other users or committing any other acts that are contrary to or in breach of the bubbla Terms of Use.

      2. Access and updates

         You can access and update most of your basic account information directly in the App by visiting the App’s Settings page. If you need to access, update or delete any other personal information that we may have, you can put in a request by contacting us via the Contact Us link. We may charge a fee before we comply with your request.

      3. Revoking permissions

         If you change your mind about disclosing information to us, you can revoke your consent by changing the settings on your device if your device offers those options. Of course, if you do that, certain services in the App may lose full functionality.

      4. Account deletion

         Although we hope you’ll remain a lifelong user of bubbla, if you ever want to delete your account, you may do so. If you do delete your account, you will have up to thirty (30) days to restore your account before we delete your information from our servers. During this period of time, your account will not be visible to other bubbla users.

      5. Communicating with other bubbla users

         Your Settings contain a number of tools that let you indicate, among other things, who you want to see your Bubbles, whether you’d like to receive invitations to join Bubbles from just your friends or all bubbla users, and whether you’d like to block another bubbla user from contacting you again.

      6. Analytics and advertising services provided by others

         We may let other companies use cookies, web beacons and similar tracking technologies on the services. These companies may collect information about how you use the services and other websites and online services over time and across different services. This information may be used to, among other things, analyse and track data, determine the popularity of certain content and better understand your online activity.

   2. Some companies may use the information they collect on our services to deliver targeted advertisements on behalf of us or other companies, including on third-party websites and apps. bubbla does not currently respond to do-not-track signals that may be sent from your device. If we do so in the future, we will provide information about that practice in an updated version of this Privacy Policy.

7. Children

   Our services are not intended for — and we don’t direct them to — anyone under 18. And that’s why we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.

8. Revisions to this Privacy Policy

   We may change this Privacy Policy from time-to-time, and when that happens, we will notify you and others by revising the date at the top of the Privacy Policy that’s available on our website and the App. At other times, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our websites’ home pages or providing you with an in-app notification).