We want you to understand how and why Verto, Limited. (“Verto,” “we” or “us”) collects, uses, and shares information about you when you use our mobile app and services (collectively, the "Services") or when you otherwise interact with us or receive a communication from us.

Information You Provide to Us

We collect information you provide to us directly when you use the Services. This includes:

Account information. To create an account, you must provide a username and phone number. Your username is public, and it doesn’t have to be related to your real name. We also store your user account preferences and settings.

Content you submit. We collect the content you submit to the Services. This includes messages exchanged on the Services. Your content may include text, links, images, gifs, and videos. We also collect (as derived data from your messages) the topics discussed between you and other users.  

Actions you take. We collect information about the actions you take when using the Services. This includes your interactions with content, like voting and reporting. It also includes your interactions with other users, such as following, friending, and blocking.

Other information. You may choose to provide other information directly to us. For example, we may collect information when you fill out a form, participate in Verto-sponsored activities or promotions, apply for a job, request customer support or otherwise communicate with us.

Information We Collect Automatically

When you access or use our Services, we may also automatically collect information about you. This includes:

Log and usage data. We may log information when you access and use the Services. This may include your IP address, user-agent string, browser type, operating system, referral URLs, device information (e.g., device IDs), pages visited, links clicked, the requested URL, hardware settings, and search terms. 

Location information. We may receive and process information about your location. For example, with your consent, we may collect information about the specific location of your mobile device (for example, by using GPS or Bluetooth). We may also receive location information from you when you choose to share such information on our Services, including by associating your content with a location, or we may derive your approximate location from other information about you, including your IP address.

We use information about you to:

Provide, maintain, and improve the Services;

Research and develop new services;

Help protect the safety of Verto and our users, which includes blocking suspected spammers, addressing abuse, and enforcing the Verto user agreement and our other policies;

Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts, invoices and other support and administrative messages;

Provide customer service;

Communicate with you about products, services, offers, promotions, and events, and provide other news and information we think will be of interest to you (for information about how to opt out of these communications, see “Your Choices” below);

Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Services; and

Personalize the Services and provide advertisements, content and features that match user profiles or interests. (for information about how to manage the types of advertisements you experience on our Services, see “Your Choices” below)

When you use the Services, certain information may be shared with other users and the public. For example:

When you submit content (such as a post or comment or public chat) to the Services, any visitors to and users of our Services will be able to see that content, the username associated with the content, and the date and time you originally submitted the content.

When other users view your profile, they will be able to see information about your activities on the Services, such as your username, profile picture and your interests (derived from messages you send to other users or in public forums)

Please note that, even when you delete your account, the posts, comments and messages you submit through the Services may still be viewable or available on our servers.

Otherwise, we do not share, sell, or give away your personal information to third parties unless one of the following circumstances applies:

With our partners. We may share information with vendors, consultants, and other service providers (but not with advertisers and ad partners) who need access to such information to carry out work for us. The partner’s use of personal data will be subject to appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

To comply with the law. We may share information in response to a request for information if we believe disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, including, but not limited to, meeting national security or law enforcement requirements. To the extent the law allows it, we will attempt to provide you with prior notice before disclosing your information in response to such a request. Our Transparency Report has additional information about how we respond to government requests.

In an emergency. We may share information if we believe it's necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to a person.

To enforce our policies and rights. We may share information if we believe your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements, rules, or other Verto policies, or to protect the rights, property, and safety of ourselves and others.

With our affiliates. We may share information between and among Verto, and any of our parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, and other companies under common control and ownership.

With your consent. We may share information about you with your consent or at your direction.

Aggregated or de-identified information. We may share information about you that has been aggregated or anonymized such that it cannot reasonably be used to identify you. For example, we may show the total number of times a post has been liked without identifying who the visitors were.

Ads and Analytics Partners

We may partner with third-party advertisers, ad networks, and analytics providers to deliver advertising and content targeted to your interests and to better understand your use of the Services. These third parties may collect information sent by your computer, browser, or mobile device in response to a request for content, such as unique identifiers, your IP address, or other information about your computer or device. For example:

Analytics Partners

We use analytics partners (such as Google Analytics) to help analyze usage and traffic for our Services. As an example, we may use analytics partners to analyze and measure, in the aggregate, the number of unique visitors to our Services.

Your Choices

As a Verto user, you have choices about how to protect and limit the collection, use, and disclosure of information about you.

Accessing and Changing Your Information

You can access and change certain information through the Services. See our Support page for more information.

Deleting Your Account

You may delete your account information at any time from the user preferences page. When you delete your account, your profile is no longer visible to other users and disassociated from content you posted under that account. Please note, however, that the posts, comments, and messages you submitted prior to deleting your account will still be visible to others unless you first delete the specific content. We may also retain certain information about you as required by law or for legitimate business purposes after you delete your account.

Controlling Location Information

If you initially consent to our collection of location information, you can subsequently stop the collection of this information at any time by changing the preferences on your mobile device.

Information Security

We take measures to help protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. For example, we use HTTPS while information is being transmitted. We also enforce technical and administrative access controls to limit which of our employees have access to non-public personal information.

Data Retention

We store the information we collect for as long as it is necessary for the purpose(s) for which we originally collected it. We may retain certain information for legitimate business purposes or as required by law.

International Data Transfers

We are based in the UK (United Kingdom). We may store information on servers and equipment in other countries depending on a variety of factors, including the locations of our users and service providers. By accessing or using the Services or otherwise providing information to us, you consent to the processing, transfer and storage of information in and to the U.K. and other countries, where you may not have the same rights as you do under local law.

Additional Information for EEA Users

Users in the European Economic Area have the right to request access to, rectification of, or erasure of their personal data; to data portability in certain circumstances; to request restriction of processing; to object to processing; and to withdraw consent for processing where they have previously provided consent. These rights can be exercised using the information provided under “Your Choices” above or using the contact information provided at the end of this document. EEA users also have the right to lodge a complaint with their local supervisory authority. 

As required by applicable law, we collect and process information about individuals in the EEA only where we have legal bases for doing so. Our legal bases depend on the Services you use and how you use them. We process your information on the following legal bases:

You have consented for us to do so for a specific purpose;

We need to process the information to provide you the Services, including to operate the Services, provide customer support and personalized features and to protect the safety and security of the Services;

It satisfies a legitimate interest (which is not overridden by your data protection interests), such as preventing fraud, ensuring network and information security, enforcing our rules and policies, protecting our legal rights and interests, research and development, and marketing and promoting the Services;

We need to process your information to comply with our legal obligations.

Children

Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to create an account or otherwise use the Services. Additionally, if you are in the EEA, you must be over the age required by the laws of your country to create an account or otherwise use the Services, or we need to have obtained verifiable consent from your parent or legal guardian.

Changes to This Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do, we will let you know by revising the date at the top of the policy. If we make a change to this policy that, in our sole discretion, is material, we will provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to r/announcements, the front page of the Services or sending you a notification). We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy whenever you access or use our Services or otherwise interact with us to stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy. By continuing to use our Services after Privacy Policy changes go into effect, you agree to be bound by the revised policy.

Our services are not intended for – and we don’t direct them to – anyone under 13. And that’s why we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. In addition, we may limit how we collect, use and store some of the information of EU users between 13 and 16. In some cases, this means we will be unable to provide certain functionality to these users. If we need to rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your information and your country requires consent from a parent, we may require your parent’s consent before we collect and use that information.