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Last Updated Dec 16th, 2024

Entity: Welp, owned by Rate Island Inc., a California Corporation. Headquarter in Covina, California, USA.

Introduction

We value your privacy. With this policy, we are committed to safeguarding your personal data and ensuring its secure and transparent use.
We set out your privacy rights and how we collect, use, disclose, transfer, and store your personal data. By using our app, you consent to the practices described herein.

Terms Used in This Policy

"Welp", "we", "our", or "us" refers to Welp.
"Website" or "platform" refers to all of Welp’s websites and applications.

If you have questions or concerns, contact us at Info@welpstar.com.

Types of Data We Collect

Personal data is any information that relates to an identifiable individual. When you create a Welp user account, write a review, create a post, create a business account, or otherwise use our platform, we may collect and process the following personal data about you:

1.  Contact Information:
		o Name, email address, phone number, or any other contact details you may
		  provide to us from time to time.
2.  Device Information:  
		o Device type, operating system, IP address, browser or device settings (the type
		  of browser you use, browser language, time zone), mobile phone ID, and
		  location.
3.  User Account Information:  
		o Name, email address, phone number, or any other contact details you may
		  provide to us from time to time.
4.  Business Account Information:  
		o Your company name and domain, and certain other information you choose to
		  add to your business profile, such as details about the type of services your
		  company offers.
5.  Usage Data:  
		o Interaction data, preferences, and analytics about app usage to improve user
		  experience.
6.  Location Data:  
		o Geolocation information when users enable location services for app
		  functionality.
7.  Uploaded Content:  
		o Files such as photos, videos, or documents submitted via the app after granting
		  permission from the user.
8.  Review and Rating Information:  
		o Which business you reviewed.
		o Which product you reviewed.
		o Your review content and star rating.
		o Your product photos or videos.
		o The name and location of the business you reviewed.
		o The dates you wrote your review, made any edits, or deleted the review.
		o If we ask you to provide information or documentation to verify your experience,
		  and you send us such documentation, we will collect and process the
		  documentation for the purpose/s stated in the request.
		o Information about views, likes and how useful your review is for others: How
		  many people read your review.

Links to Other Websites

Our platform contains links to other websites for listed businesses or service providers.
However, these external websites have separate privacy policies, and we encourage you to review them independently.

Your verification data:

- Information about whether your user account or your business domain is verified (your
  verification badge).
- Data provided during the verification process for consumers and verification process for
  businesses:
	o Your first and last name.
	o Your first and last name.
	o Images of the documents you submitted.
	o Number and date of expiry of the documents you submitted.

Information from other services:

including social networks: You can connect your Welp profile with your social media profiles, for example, Facebook (“social network”). When you do this, we automatically collect selected information about you from your social network, depending on what information you have made available on that social network and your privacy settings for sharing such information on that social network. We may collect the following information:

	o Your first and last name.
	o Your first and last name.
	o Images of the documents you submitted.

We ask you not to share any sensitive personal documents or personal data with us, such as information revealing ethnic origin, religious beliefs, or health information.

How We Collect Personal Data

The personal data that we process is primarily collected directly from you when you provide your details to create an account with us or interact with or your usage and profiling information, such as your interaction with our platform or leaving reviews or posting replies to reviews.

Information from other services:

If you’ve been sent invitations to write reviews on Welp from businesses that use our services, or from us on their behalf, those businesses will be the data controllers responsible for those invitations and for any personal data associated with them. If you have any questions about such invitations or want to exercise your rights with regards to any data used in that context, please contact the relevant businesses directly, as we’re unable to help.

All other personal data associated with our platform, such as information you provide when you create an account, leave a review, or submit a reply, Welp is the data controller.

Data retention, Why and how we use your personal data?

We may use your personal data to:

	o Provide our services to you, including displaying your reviews and giving you access to
	  your user account and our platform, or providing you with access to your company’s
	  business account and our website.

	o Identify you as a registered user when you log into our platform and revisit our platform.
	o Improve our platform and services.
	o Respond to your questions and provide customer service.
	o Train our staff and for quality control purposes, helping us improve the quality of our
	   services.
	o Exercise or comply with our own legal rights or obligations in connection with legal
	  claims, or for compliance, regulatory and auditing purposes, where necessary. For
	  example, we may retain information where we are required by law, or if we are
	  compelled to do so by a court order or regulatory body.

If you have a Welp user account, we may also use your personal data to:

	o Verify the authenticity of your reviews.
	o Invite you to leave more reviews.
	o Pass on a message from the business you reviewed or the business that invited you to
	  review a service experience or a product via our platform.
	o Contact you if your review is flagged by businesses or other users and, if necessary, ask
	  you to provide documentation to verify your review or experience.
	o Contact you by email to tell you how many times your review was read and whether
	  other users find your review useful, or otherwise provide feedback concerning your user
	  account or your review.
	o Enforce our Terms & Conditions.

Who may access your personal data?

Welp does not sell your personal data to third parties. We may share personal data with third parties for a specific reason mentioned below.

Because we’re an open platform, when you write a review, the review and your Welp profile will be public to anyone who visits our platform. By clicking on your profile, such visitors can see your profile photo and all the reviews you’ve written, including the places and products you’ve reviewed, and your product photos or videos. Similarly, if you’re a business user and reply to a review about your company, this will also be visible on our platform.

We share your reviews on our platform so that others can read about your experience with a specific business. When you write a review, other users of our platform will be able to see your username, name, all reviews you’ve written (including the locations and products you’ve reviewed, and your product photos or videos), and other information you have chosen to connect with your public profile.

Remember that if you’ve selected to use your real name, this could reveal your identity. We recommend you exercise care in deciding which information to make available on our platform.

If you’ve chosen to preserve anonymity by not using your name for your Welp username, be aware that information from social networks can reveal your identity in part or in full and make it possible to identify which reviews you have written.

Your personal data on Welp when you create a business account on behalf of your company When you create a business account on behalf of your company, we will disclose your company name, company address, domain, country and other information you have chosen to connect with your company’s public profile.

We won’t share documentation you send us to verify your experience with the reviewed business.

Other disclosures.

In addition to the above, we share your personal data with the following parties and in the following circumstances:

	o Third-party vendors supporting app functionality (e.g., hosting services, analytics
	  providers).
	o To comply with laws or to respond to claims, legal process (including but not limited to
	  subpoenas and court orders) and requests from public and government authorities.
	o To third parties in connection with the enforcement of our User Terms &amp; Conditions,
	  Guidelines for Reviewers, Business Terms &amp; Conditions, and Guidelines for Businesses.
	o To third parties in order for us to investigate, prevent or take action regarding suspected
	  or actual prohibited activities, including but not limited to fraud and misuse of our
	  platform.
	o To third parties in the event of any reorganization, merger, acquisition, sale, joint
	  venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business or
	  assets (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

How long do we store your personal data?

We only keep your data for as long as we need it, or are required to for legal reasons. This depends on why it was collected, perform a service you requested, meet legal requirements, When we no longer have a valid reason to keep your data, we'll either delete it or anonymize it so that it doesn't identify you. You can delete your personal data or ask us to do that for you at any time (see ‘Your rights’ below).

Personal data you provide, is kept for as long as you have a Welp account, or as needed to provide you with our services. If you choose to delete your user account, we will save a log with the following information: your name, email address and the date of the deletion of your account. We will keep the log for five years. In some cases, even if you delete your Welp account, we retain certain information we are required by law or have compelling legitimate interests to keep. Reasons we might retain some data for longer periods of time include (but are not limited to) security, fraud and platform abuse prevention, complying with legal or regulatory requirements, and defending our legitimate business interests.

How do we keep your personal data secure?

Keeping your personal data secure is our highest priority. We use various technical and administrative measures to protect your personal data within our platform and we regularly audit our system for vulnerabilities. However, since the internet is not a completely secure environment, we can’t ensure or warrant the security of the information you transmit to us. Emails sent via the platform may not be encrypted, and we therefore advise you not to include any confidential information in your emails to us. If any sensitive date were sent by mistake will be deleted.

Some of the measures we use to protect your information:

	o Secure data transmission (e.g., HTTPS encryption).
	o Access restrictions, limiting sensitive data to authorized personnel only.
	o Continuous monitoring for unauthorized access or data breaches.

Do we use cookies?

We use cookies and similar technologies such as pixels to help deliver, optimize, personalize and analyze our services.

What’s a cookie?

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on your computer or device, via your web browser, at the request of the websites you visit or applications you use. Cookies record things like your preferences and settings, which help give us the information we need to provide you with the most consistent and relevant experience.

What are pixels?

Pixels are small, transparent image files inside a web page or email. We use them to understand how you interact with our services.

Your rights.

If you've got a Welp user account, you can:

	o Access, review, edit, download or delete the key personal data associated with your
	  profile at any time by logging into your account.
	o You can also manage your email subscription preferences.
	o Request data deletion.

If you have a business account on Welp, you can email info@welpstar.com and request information about your personal data.

Our rights

U.S. privacy rights.
This section provides additional details about the personal data we collect about consumers in the U.S. which have rights afforded to them under U.S. State data protection and privacy laws, including, but not limited to the California Consumer Privacy Act, California Privacy Rights Act and the Virginia Consumer Data Privacy Act (the “U.S. Privacy Laws”).

When we say personal data in this section, we mean “personal data” or “personal information”, as defined in the applicable U.S. Privacy Laws.

For more details about the personal data we collect, please see ‘Personal data we collect’ above. We collect this data for the purposes described in ‘Why and how we use your personal data’ above. We share this data with the categories of third parties described in ‘Who may access your personal data’ above.

In accordance with the U.S Privacy Laws’ requirements, we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights. You may make a request pursuant to your rights by contacting us via email info@welpstar.com or by mail using contact us form. We will verify your request using the information associated with your account, including the email address. You may designate an authorized agent to exercise these rights on your behalf.

Under U.S Privacy Laws you may request to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal data to third parties. Welp will never sell your data for profit, however, to comply with the U.S. Privacy Laws where we transfer it to our partners for things like displaying personalized ads to you or to deliver improvements to our service, we allow you to opt out. We only engage in this kind of data transfer where we believe it benefits you by providing you with a better experience, quality of service or to deliver content that you may be interested in.

To manage your privacy preferences. You can also contact us via email (info@welpstar.com) or by contacting us.

Children’s information

Our platform is not directed to children under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from such children. If you become aware that a child under the age of 16 has provided us with their personal data, please contact us using the contact information provided below.

Correction and deletion of your personal data.

If any of the personal data we have about you is incorrect or misleading, if your personal data changes or if you no longer wish to appear on the platform, you can correct, edit or delete the information yourself via your Welp user account. More > Settings > Delete My account.

If you request that we delete your account or content, it may take up to 30 days to delete your information.

If you have any questions regarding correcting or deleting your data you can contact us.

Policy updates.

We may change this policy from time to time. Laws, regulations, and industry standards evolve, which may make those changes necessary, or we may make changes to our services or business. We will post the changes to this page and encourage you to review our Privacy Policy to stay informed.

You will be notified of significant updates through the app notification or via the registered email. We encourage you to review this policy regularly. Your continued use of our platform or services after we publish or send a notice about the changes to the policy will mean that you accept and agree to the updated policy.

Contact Us.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us.