Privacy Policy

Updated as of August 13 2023

We believe you should always know what data we collect from you and how we use it and that you should have meaningful control over both. We want to empower you to make the best decisions about the information that you share with us. That is the basic purpose of this Privacy Policy

Who we are?

Caribsocial focuses on facilitating connections within the business community - allowing professionals from the Caribbean and the rest of the world to establish and expand their professional networks. Unlike popular social media platforms such as LinkedIn – Facebook -and Twitter which are more general in nature and cater to personal connections Caribsocial is tailored to meet the needs of professionals seeking business-related connections and opportunities.

Additionally Caribsocial offers features and resources specifically geared towards professionals. These include job listings - company profiles and industry news which can be valuable for individuals looking for career advancement or seeking to stay updated in their respective fields. The platform also utilizes data from Caribsocial profiles to generate insights on workforce trends such as career progression patterns - geographical work migration - skills gaps - and areas with high employee retention rates. 

The goal of Caribsocial is to create a community where Caribbean people and their allies can meet - exchange stories and enjoy the rich diversity of Caribbean culture. We are always trying to make our platform better and introduce new features that will make it even simpler for you to interact with other Caribbean people and stay up to date on events and news from the entire region.

You can also use Caribsocial to organize offline events - create or join groups - create pages -play online games - search for jobs or post jobs - create online contest - post news - create online courses - post advertisements - write articles - post photos – videos and more.

1. GENERAL

Caribsocial ("Caribsocial" or "we" or "us" or "our") respects the privacy of everyone ("Sites' visitor" "user" or "you") who uses our website at https:// Caribsocial.net as well as other devices or online applications related or connected thereto (collectively the "Sites").

 The following Caribsocial Privacy Notice ("Privacy Notice") is designed to inform you - as a user of the Sites - about the types of personal information that Caribsocial may gather about or collect from you in connection with your use of the Sites. It also is intended to explain the conditions under which Caribsocial uses and discloses that personal information and your rights to that personal information.

The Sites are hosted in the United States and are subject to U.S. state and federal law. If you are accessing our Sites from other jurisdictions, please be advised that you are transferring your personal information to us in the United States, and by using our Sites, you are agreeing to that transfer and use of your personal information by this Privacy Notice. You also agree to abide by the applicable laws of the U.S.A law concerning your use of the Sites and your agreements with us. If your use of the Sites would be unlawful in your jurisdiction, please do not use the Sites.`????

1. HOW WE COLLECT AND USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Caribsocial gathers personal information from users of the Sites. When you browse our Sites, subscribe to our services, or contact us through various social or web forms you are voluntarily sharing personal information with us. This personal information also includes various data that we collect automatically. This may be the user’s Internet Protocol (IP) address - operating system - browser type and the locations of the Sites the user views right before arriving while navigating and immediately after leaving the Sites. It may also include various technical aspects of the user’s computer or browser and users’ browsing habits that are collected through cookies. Caribsocial may analyze various mentioned personal information gathered from or about users to help Caribsocial better understand how the Sites are used and how to make them better. By identifying patterns and trends in usage Caribsocial can better design the Sites to improve users’ experiences both in terms of content and ease of use. From time to time Caribsocial may also release the anonymized information gathered from the users in the aggregate such as by publishing a report on trends in the usage of the Sites. 

When we believe disclosure is appropriate we may disclose your information to help investigate - prevent or take other action regarding illegal activity - suspected fraud or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights - property or safety of Caribsocial - our users -our employees or others; to comply with applicable law or cooperate with law enforcement; to enforce our Terms of Use or other agreements or policies in response to a subpoena or similar investigative demand a court order or a request for cooperation from law enforcement or other government agency; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases we may raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us. We will notify you if permitted before undertaking such disclosures.

Caribsocial reserves the right to transfer all information in its possession to a successor organization in the event of a merger – acquisition - bankruptcy or another sale of all or a portion of Caribsocial’s assets. Other than to the extent ordered by a bankruptcy or other court the use and disclosure of all transferred information will be subject to this Privacy Notice or a new privacy notice if you are given notice of that new privacy notice and are given an opportunity to affirmatively opt-out of it.

1. DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

General Provisions

Caribsocial contractually prohibits its contractors – affiliates – vendors and suppliers from disclosing any personal information received from Caribsocial other than by this Privacy Notice. These third parties may include advertisers - providers of games – utilities – widgets - and a variety of other third-party applications accessible through the Sites. Caribsocial neither owns nor controls the third-party websites and applications accessible through the Sites. Thus this Privacy Notice does not apply to personal information provided to or gathered by the third parties that operate them. Before visiting a third party or using a third-party application - whether using a link on the Sites - directly through the Sites or otherwise and before providing any personal information to any such third party - users should inform themselves of the privacy policies and practices (if any) of the third-party responsible for those sites or applications and should take those steps necessary to - in those users’ discretion - protect their privacy.

Analytics

We may partner with selected third parties to allow tracking technology on the Sites which will enable them to collect data about how you interact with the Sites and our services over time. This personal information may be used to - among other things - analyze and track data - determine the popularity of certain content and better understand online activity.

What information do we collect?

When you create an account on Caribsocial if you are just looking at a post - we receive some personal information from you like the type of device you are using and your IP address. You can choose to share additional information with us like your email address - phone number – address – photo - username and a public profile. We use this information for keeping your account secure and showing you more relevant people to follow – events - groups and ads.

 You have full control through your settings to limit the data we collect from you and how we use it and to control things like account security - marketing preferences and apps that can access your account. You can also download the information you have shared on Caribsocial. 

When you create your profile you can provide additional data such as information about your personality - lifestyle and interests or other information about yourself as well.

 To add certain content - such as photos or videos - you can allow us to access your camera and photo album. Some of the data you voluntarily provide is so-called "sensitive data" under data protection laws such as data about your racial or ethnic origin - sexual orientation or religious beliefs. By providing this information you consent to the processing of this data by us.

If you contact our customer service department we collect the data you provide in the process. For training and quality assurance purposes we may review or record these communications.

If you ask us to communicate with or otherwise process the data of others (for example if you ask us to send an email to one of your friends on your behalf) we will collect the data you provide about others to honor your request.

Of course - as part of our services - we also process the chats you have with others and the content you post.

How do we use personal information?

The main reason we process your information is to provide and improve our services. In addition we process your information to ensure your safety and to send you advertisements that may be of interest to you. If you would like a more detailed explanation of the various reasons why we process your data and are interested in some practical examples please read on.

• To manage your account and provide you with our services.
• To create and manage your account
• To serve you as a customer and respond to your inquiries
• To fulfill your requests
• To communicate with you about our services including order management and invoicing
• To help you contact other users
• To analyze your profile and those of other users and suggest appropriate contacts
• To communicate with you by email and phone or via social media or mobile devices about our products and services that we think may be of interest to you
• To improve our services and develop new ones
• To manage audiences and surveys
• To research and analyze user behavior to improve our Services and content (e.g. - we may decide to change the look and feel of the Service or even make a material change to a particular feature based on user behavior)
• To develop new features and services (for example we may decide to develop a new interest-based feature from on user requests).
• To prevent detect and take action against fraud or other illegal or unauthorized activity
• To respond to actual or alleged misconduct on and off the Platform
• To perform data analysis to better understand and develop countermeasures against such activity
• To prevent recurrences of fraudulent activity
• To ensure legal compliance
• To comply with legal requirements
• To support law enforcement activities
• To enforce our rights such as our terms of use

What legal basis do we have for processing your data?

We process users' data only in compliance with the relevant data protection regulations. User data is only processed if the following legal permissions exist:

• to provide our contractual services and online services
• processing is required by law
• with your consent
• based on our legitimate interests (i.e.- interest in the analysis – optimization and economic operation and security of our online offer within the meaning of Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f. GDPR in particular in measuring reach - creating profiles for advertising and marketing purposes - collecting access data and using third-party services).

The above legal bases are set out in the GDPR as follows:

• Consent Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a. and Art. 7 GDPR

Where do we store and process personal data?

We adhere to the principles of data economy and data avoidance. This means that we only store the data you make available to us for as long as is necessary to fulfill the aforementioned purposes or as stipulated by the various storage periods provided for by law. If the respective purpose ceases to apply or after the expiry of the corresponding periods your data will be routinely blocked or deleted by the statutory provisions. We have created an internal concept to ensure this procedure.

How do we secure personal data?

We use industry-standard security measures to prevent the loss - misuse and alteration of the information under our control. However we cannot guarantee that our security measures will prevent “hackers” from illegally obtaining this information. We will store and maintain your personal information for as long as necessary

(1) for the purposes for which it was collected

(2) to meet our current and future legal obligations, including compliance with our records retention practices and

(3) as permitted to meet our legitimate interests. Our Services are hosted in the United States and we maintain your information in the United States and elsewhere on the cloud. If you are outside the United States you agree to have your data transferred to and processed in the United States and elsewhere. When we transfer personal data outside of the European Economic Area we ensure an adequate level of protection for the rights of data subjects based on the adequacy of the receiving country’s data protection laws and contractual obligations placed on the recipient of the data. A copy of these safeguards may be made available by writing to us at the address provided in the Contact Information section below.

How long do we keep your data?

We keep your data only as long as we need it for legitimate business purposes and as permitted by applicable law. To protect the safety and security of our users on and off our services we implement a safety retention window of three months following account deletion. During this period account information will be retained although the account will of course not be visible on the services anymore.

In practice we delete or anonymize your information upon deletion of your account (following the safety retention window) or after two years of continuous inactivity unless:

• we must keep it to comply with applicable law (for instance some “traffic data” is kept for one year to comply with statutory data retention obligations)
• we must keep it to evidence our compliance with applicable law (for instance records of consents to our Terms - Privacy Policy and other similar consents are kept for six years)

• there is an outstanding issue - claim or dispute requiring us to keep the relevant information until it is resolved; or
• the information must be kept for our legitimate business interests such as fraud prevention and enhancing users’ safety and security. For example information may need to be kept to prevent a user who was banned for unsafe behavior or security incidents from opening a new account.

Keep in mind that even though our systems are designed to carry out data deletion processes according to the above guidelines we cannot promise that all data will be deleted within a specific time frame due to technical constraints.

You should also outline how you securely dispose of data after you no longer need it.

Payment Information

You may provide us with payment information including your credit or debit card number - card expiration date - CVV code and billing address or use PayPal to purchase advertising or other offerings provided as part of our services. If you make a payment or send money using Caribsocial features or services - including through an intermediary - we may receive information about your transaction such as when it was made or when a subscription is set to expire or auto-renew.

Your rights to personal data

Under the GDPR you must respect the right of data subjects to access and control their data. In your privacy notice, you must outline their rights in respect of:
access to personal information
correction and deletion
withdrawal of consent (if processing data on the condition of consent)
data portability
restriction of processing and objection
lodging a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office

You should explain how individuals can exercise their rights, and how you plan to respond to subject data requests. State if any relevant exemptions may apply and set out any identity verification procedures you may rely on.

Include details of the circumstances where data subject rights may be limited, eg if fulfilling the data subject request may expose personal data about another person, or if you’re asked to delete data that you are required to keep by law.

Use of automated decision-making and profiling

If we use personal data for automated decision-making and those decisions have a legal (or similarly significant effect) on you, you have the right to challenge such decisions under the GDPR, requesting human intervention, expressing your point of view, and obtaining an explanation of the decision from us.

External links

Our website contains links to the online offers of other providers. We hereby point out that we do not influence the content of the linked online offers and the compliance with data protection regulations by their providers.

Your Rights

You can exercise the following rights at any time by contacting us:

• Right to information about your data stored by us and its processing (Art. 15 GDPR),
• Right to rectification of incorrect personal data (Art. 16 GDPR),
• Right to have your data stored by us deleted (Art. 17 GDPR),
• Right to restriction of data processing if we are not yet allowed to delete your data due to legal obligations (Art. 18 GDPR),
• Right to object to the processing of your data by us (Art. 21 GDPR),
• Right to data portability, provided you have consented to the data processing or have concluded a contract with us (Art. 20 GDPR),

If you have given us consent (Art. 6 (1) lit. a GDPR or Art. 9 (2) lit. a GDPR), you may revoke this consent at any time with future effect. We encourage you to get in touch if you have any concerns with how we collect or use your personal information.

Legal defense and enforcement of our rights

The legal basis for the processing of your data in the context of legal defense and enforcement of our rights is our legitimate interest. The purpose of processing your data in the context of legal defense and enforcement of our rights is the defense against unjustified claims and the legal enforcement and assertion of claims and rights.

Your data will be deleted as soon as they are no longer necessary to achieve the purpose for which they were collected. The processing of your data in the context of legal defense and enforcement is mandatory for legal defense and enforcement of our rights. Consequently, you cannot object.

When you send a data subject access request

The legal basis for the processing of your data in the context of handling your data subject access request is our legal obligation and the legal basis for the subsequent documentation of the data subject access request is both our legitimate interest and our legal obligation.

The purpose of processing your data in the context of processing data when you send a data subject access request is to respond to your request. The subsequent documentation of the data subject access request serves to fulfill the legally required accountability.

Your data will be deleted as soon as they are no longer required to achieve the purpose for which they were collected. In the case of the processing of a data subject access request, this is three years after the end of the respective process.

You have the possibility at any time to object to the processing of your data in the context of the processing of a data subject access request for the future. In this case, however, we will not be able to further process your request. The documentation of the legally compliant processing of the respective data subject access request is mandatory. Consequently, you cannot object.

Changes and updates to the privacy policy

We kindly ask you to regularly inform yourself about the content of our privacy policy. We will amend the privacy policy as soon as changes to the data processing activities we carry out make this necessary. We will inform you as soon as the changes require an act of cooperation on your part (e.g., consent) or other individual notification.

Concerns and contact

If you have any concerns about a possible compromise of your privacy or misuse of your data on our part, or any other questions or comments, you can contact us.

Exercising your rights

If you would like to exercise any of your rights as set out above in the “What rights do you have?” section or have a complaint, please contact us. Any such request will be responded to within one month and we might require proof of identity to verify and process your request. For more information about these rights, please contact us.

Children and another service

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") protects the online privacy of children under 16 years of age. We do not knowingly collect or maintain personal information from anyone under the age of 16 because our website and services are not directed to children unless or except as permitted by law. Any person who provides personal information through the Sites represents to us that he or she is 16 years of age or older. If we learn that personal information has been collected from a user under 16 years of age on or through the Sites, then we will take the appropriate steps to cause this personal information to be deleted. If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child under 16 who has become a member of the Sites or has otherwise transferred personal information to the Sites, please contact Caribsocial using our contact personal information below to have that child's account terminated and personal information deleted.

You must also be old enough to consent to the processing of your data in your country (in some countries we may allow your parent or guardian to do so on your behalf). You must be at least 16 years of age to use Caribsocial.

Use of cookies and other technologies

During the use of our website, so-called "cookies", small text files, are stored on your computer. Such cookies register information about your computer's navigation on our website (pages selected, day, time and duration of use, etc.). A cookie is downloaded via a browser the first time you visit a website. The next time you visit this website with the same device, the browser checks whether a corresponding cookie is present (i.e., contains the website name). It sends the data stored in the cookie back to the website. Some cookies are important for the website functionality and are automatically activated by us when a user visits. Our website also uses cookies to make it easier to use and to provide you with content tailored to your information needs.

You cannot be personally identified from any of the information we collect. The use of the cookies we use is necessary to be able to provide the online offer of Caribsocial at all and to be able to optimize it on an ongoing basis. The data processing in this context is therefore based on our legitimate interests. Our legitimate interest is to provide visitors to our website with a functioning online service and to make visiting and using the website as pleasant and efficient as possible.

For further information on cookies in general, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org

PRIVACY NOTICE CHANGES

Caribsocial may - in its sole discretion - change this Privacy Notice from time to time. Any changes to Caribsocial’s Privacy Notice will be reflected on this page and the date of the new version will be stated at the top of this Privacy Notice. Unless stated otherwise our current Privacy Notice applies to all personal information that we have about you and your account. Users should regularly check this page for any changes to this Privacy Notice. Caribsocial will always post new versions of the Privacy Notice on the Sites. However - Caribsocial may - as determined at its discretion - decide to notify users of changes

How to contact us?

If you contact us by e-mail - or via the contact form - etc. - you agree to electronic communication. Personal data is collected when you contact us. Data is collected in the case of a contact form can be seen from the respective contact form. Your data will be transmitted SSL-encrypted. The information you provide will be stored exclusively to process the inquiry and for possible follow-up questions.

The legal basis for this is the fulfillment of our services and the implementation of contractual measures and our legitimate interests. We also use software to maintain customer data based on our legitimate interests (efficient and fast processing of user requests).

We would like to point out that e-mails can be read or changed unauthorized and unnoticed during transmission. Furthermore we would like to point out that we use software to filter unwanted e-mails (spam filter). The spam filter can reject e-mails if they have been falsely identified as spam by certain characteristics.

If you have questions about this policy - how we collect or process your data - or anything else related to our privacy practices - we want to hear from you. You can contact us at privacy@caribsocial.net