Privacy Policy

  • Last Updated: August 19, 2022

This is the Privacy Policy of the BuzzStream website (the “Site”), operated by Rel Equals Inc. (together with our affiliates and subsidiaries, “BuzzStream”, “we”, “us”, “our” and terms of similar meaning) and our related products and services. It describes the information that we collect from you as part of the normal operation of our Site, and how we use and disclose this information.

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to our Terms of Use.

In this Privacy Policy, we use the following terms to describe different types of visitors to our Site. Our customers are called “Subscribers” and our Subscribers’ contacts are called “Contacts”. We use the word “staff” to describe persons to whom Subscribers give “staff” access on the Site. Together with registered users of our forum or other interactive areas of the Site, these people are collectively described in this Privacy Policy as “Users” of our Site.

How We Use Your Information

We use personal information in the file we maintain about you, and other information we obtain  from your current and past activities on the Site, to provide to you the services offered by the Site; resolve service and billing disputes; troubleshoot problems; bill any amounts due from you; measure consumer interest in our products and services, inform you about online and offline offers, products, services, events and updates; deliver information to you that, in some cases, is relevant to your interests, such as product news; customize your experience; detect and protect us against error, fraud and other criminal activity; enforce our Terms of Use; provide you with system or administrative messages, and as otherwise described to you at the time of collection.

On occasion we use email address or other contact information to contact our Users to ask them for their input on our services, to forward to them media opportunities, and even to invite them to events.

We may also use personal information about you to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, to analyze Site usage, to improve our content and product offerings, and to customize the Site’s content, layout, and services. These uses improve the Site and better tailor it to meet your needs, so as to provide you with a smooth, efficient, safe and customized experience while using the Site.

At times we may access Your Content (as defined in the Terms of Use) as needed to conduct normal business operations, such as providing technical support, investigated suspected violations of our Terms of Use and adhering to legal requirements.

What Information Do We Collect?

Our primary purpose in collecting personal information from you is to provide you with a safe, smooth, efficient, and customized experience. This allows us to provide services and features that most likely meet your needs, and to customize our service to make your experience safer and easier. We only collect personal information about you that we consider necessary for achieving this purpose.

In general, you can browse the Site without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. Once you become a User, we require you to provide various contact and identity information, billing information, and other personal information as indicated on the relevant forms on the Site (which vary, depending on what kind of User you are), and you are no longer anonymous to us, this extends to areas of the site where you may have formerly been anonymous prior to registration. Where possible, on these forms we indicate which fields are required and which fields are optional.

In addition, as you use the Site, you can from time to time enter or send to us personal information. For example, if you are a Subscriber, you can store notes, statistics, and various other information related to your activities with Contacts, and if you are a Contact you may also submit information about your profile, “beat” preferences, and alternative contact methods. As you use the Site you can also from time to time enter personal information about third parties. For example, if you are a Subscriber, you can enter personal information about your Contacts or your staff.

You always have the option to not provide information by choosing not to become a User or by not using the particular feature of the Site for which the information is being collected.

If you are a Subscriber, we collect your credit card information for billing purposes. And if you are a Contact who wishes to pay amounts to a Subscriber on a recurring basis, we collect and store your credit card information for payment purposes.

We also automatically track certain information about you based upon your behavior on our Site and our extensions. We use this information to do internal research on our users’ demographics, interests, and behavior to better understand, protect and serve you and our community. This information may include the URL that you just came from (whether this URL is on our Site or not), which URL you next go to (whether this URL is on our Site or not), your computer browser information, and your IP address.

“Cookies” are small files placed on your hard drive that assist us in providing our services. We use cookies to allow you to enter your password less frequently during a session, and we use data collection devices (such as Google Analytics and Hubspot), including cookies, on certain pages of the Site to help analyze our web page flow, measure promotional effectiveness, and promote trust and safety, to offer certain features that are only available through the use of a cookie and to allow us to provide information that is targeted to your interests.

DoubleClick: We use Google Analytics remarketing codes to log when users view specific pages or take specific actions on a website. This allows us to provide targeted advertising in the future. If you do not wish to receive this type of advertising from us in the future you can opt out using the DoubleClick opt-out page or the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.

Following your registration on the Site, you can review and change your information in your account area. If you disclose personal information in any posting in our forum or blog and wish to have it removed, please contact us at the support contact information posted on the Site.

We will occasionally use supplementary data to build an accurate profile for sales and marketing purposes, as well as identify signifiers that will help us build a better product for you. All data gathered in this manner comes from publicly available third party sources.

If you so choose, BuzzStream will connect to your email through the IMAP protocol and will index your email messages.  These email messages will only be readable only by your team and  used to generate reports available only to your team.  BuzzStream will also connect to your mail account via SMTP which will allow you to send  and schedule email from the BuzzStream interface.  If you connect through Googles OAuth service we will additionally consult the Google API to determine the email address used to send emails from your email account. Our use and transfer to any other application of information received from Google APIs will adhere to Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

If you choose to leverage our BuzzMarker Chrome extension, we will also collect some information about sites you visit when you explicitly choose to use our Chrome extension while visiting those sites. That information is user-facing and includes the specific URLs visited, discovered publicly listed social profiles associated with those URLs, as well as public-facing contact information for those URLs. We will also gather information about associated URLs, including backlinks included on the URLs you visit. 

Purposes for Using Information

In addition to any uses specified above, we may use the information we handle in the following ways:

  • To communicate with you about the BuzzStream products and services, changes to your account, changes to our privacy policy, changes to our Terms of Service, or other such important information
  • To let you know about product updates, special offers related to our product, and other information that you may find pertinent as a BuzzStream subscriber
  • To request feedback on our products or services
  • To help you configure and perform maintenance on your account
  • To monitor our products and services for potential issues so we can address them proactively and to get a better understanding of product usage
  • To provide support for our products and services
  • To detect and prevent fraud, spam, and other illegal activities
  • To identify potential new customers and new opportunities for expanding our products and services
  • To analyze and track visitor navigation on our websites to provide more relevant information to those visitors
  • To manage and improve marketing communications
  • To organize and provide insight into communications between you, your team, and contacts that you choose to include in your communications
  • To aggregate relevant information to assist you in your communications

Our Disclosure of Your Information

We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your explicit consent. The following describes some of the ways that your information may be disclosed in the normal scope of business to provide our services:

●      SUBSCRIBERS AND CONTACTS, ETC.

  • In general, information you enter on the Site is available to the other persons – whether they are Contacts, Subscribers, staff members or others – to whom you give access to your account or to whom you give access to the information through the normal operation of the Site.

●      PAYMENT INFORMATION.

  • We use credit card and other payment information (such as PayPal email addresses) you submit to us on the Site to process payments you make through the Site. We do not store credit card or other payment method information that you provide to us for recurring payment of your account; financial institutions (like PayPal and Authorize.net) have the sole and complete responsibility for the storage of credit card and payment information.

●      FORUM.

  • If you post on our forum or blog your username and other information you include is displayed in your postings or comments, and is therefore available to the public. All of your activities in the public areas of the forum will be identifiable to your User ID, and other people can see your published content.

●      SERVICE PROVIDERS.

  • We use the services of unrelated service providers in the operation of the Site, and may disclose personal information to them in the course of our use of their services. For example, we may use the services of third-party hosting companies to host the operation of the Site. This may involve the hosting of data, including personal information, on servers operated by those hosting companies. We take care to use only service providers that we believe are reputable and able to live up to our and your expectations, including about the handling of confidential information.

●      LEGAL REQUESTS; EMERGENCIES.

  • We cooperate with law enforcement inquiries and demands for information that are made under force of law. Therefore, we may provide personal information to law enforcement agencies in what we believe to be emergency situations, we may provide personal information where required by statute, court order, legal process or lawful authority, and we may provide it to our legal counsel in connection with the foregoing. In some cases, personal information that we collect may be stored or processed outside of the United States of America, and may therefore be subject to the legal jurisdiction of those countries.

Limited Use

We limit the use of data to provide or improve user-facing features that are prominent in our user interface.

We only transfer the data to others if necessary to provide or improve user-facing features that are prominent in our user interface. We may also transfer data as necessary to comply with applicable law or as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets with notice to users.

We won’t use or transfer your data for serving ads, including retargeting, personalized, or interest-based advertising.

We won’t allow humans to read the data, unless:

  • – We first obtained the user’s affirmative agreement for specific messages;
  • – It is necessary for security purposes (such as investigating a bug or abuse);
  • – It is necessary to comply with applicable law; or
  • – Our use is limited to internal operations and the data (including derivations) have been aggregated and anonymized.

Accessing, Modifying, or Deleting Your Information

At your request, BuzzStream will provide you with information on your personal data that we manage. As a BuzzStream User, you will also have the ability to review, update, delete or correct any information related to your account profile through your account settings. You may also contact us to review, update, delete or correct information on your behalf, though we may retain some information as required by law or if it is not technically feasible and/or the burden/expense of doing so would be significantly disproportionate to the risk to your individual privacy.

Choice

Upon request BuzzStream will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your personal information. To keep your personal data accurate, current, and complete, please contact us at privacy@buzzstream.com. We will take reasonable steps to update or correct and delete personal data in our possession that you have previously submitted. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

We will retain personal data we process on behalf of our Subscribers for as long as needed to provide services to our Subscribers or for other necessary business functions as required for reporting or retention. Subscribers may request access or deletion of their data at any time. BuzzStream will retain this personal information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

If you wish to subscribe to our marketing communications, we will use your name and email address to send communications to you. You may elect to stop receiving our marketing emails by following the unsubscribe instructions included in such emails, or you may contact us at privacy@buzzstream.com.

If you are a contact/customer of one of our Subscribers, please contact that Subscriber directly to handle any disputes.

Choices For Limiting The Use And Disclosure Of Personal Data

For those customers of BuzzStream located in the EU, the UK, or Switzerland, BuzzStream will provide the opportunity to opt out from: (a) the disclosure of their Personal Data to a non-agent third party; and (b) the use of their Personal Data for purpose(s) that are materially different from the purpose(s) for which the Personal Data was originally collected or subsequently authorized by the individual. BuzzStream will provide individuals with clear, conspicuous and readily available mechanisms to exercise their choices should such circumstances arise. Individuals who otherwise wish to limit the use or disclosure of their Personal Data should submit their request to privacy@buzzstream.com.

Data Controlled by BuzzStream Subscribers

BuzzStream does not have a relationship with individuals for whom a BuzzStream Subscribers uses our service to gather data on their behalf. Any individuals wishing to amend, correct, delete, or access said data must reach out to the BuzzStream Subscriber (in this case the “data controller”) directly. BuzzStream serves only as the “data processor” in this case, meaning we are unable to modify such data without the express request by a BuzzStream Subscriber. If a Subscriber contacts BuzzStream to remove any such data on their behalf we will do so within 30 business days, subject to all necessary provisions mentioned in this privacy policy.

Your Use of Other Persons’ Information

In order to facilitate the services provided by the Site, the Site allows you in certain circumstances to give other Users limited access to the personal information of other persons. For example, if you are a Subscriber, you may use the Site to give access to a staff member to the personal information of your Contacts. By entering into our Terms of Use, you agree that, with respect to the personal information of other persons that you collect, use and disclose on the Site, you have all necessary consents and rights to collect, use and disclose that information as described in this Privacy Policy from time to time, and you agree that the indemnity you give to us in the Terms of Use applies to any non-compliance by you with the foregoing.

Security

BuzzStream strives to protect your personal information. For security of transactions, we use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, which encrypts any information, such as credit card number and billing information, you send to us electronically. The encryption process protects your information, by scrambling it before it is sent to us from your computer. Once BuzzStream receives your transmission, we make commercially reasonable efforts to ensure its security on our system. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. More information about security is available on the Site and in our Terms of Use.

Other Information Collectors

Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy Policy, this document only addresses the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. To the extent that you disclose your information to other parties through the Site, whether they are Subscribers or Contacts or otherwise, different rules may apply to their use, collection and disclosure of the personal information you disclose to them. Since we do not control the information use, collection or disclosure policies of third parties, you are subject to their privacy policies. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.

Third Party Service Providers

We use legitimate, trusted third-party companies/individuals to help us provide service, analyze business activities, and improve the quality of our service and performance. We may also use third party services for the purposes of advertising or managing advertising done on our behalf, processing payment information, or sending communication to BuzzStream clients or prospects. These third party services may occasionally access your data for the purposes of assisting us, and are subject to precisely the same obligations as those listed in this privacy policy.

Onward Transfer

We may transfer some personal data to companies that we use to help provide our service. Transfers to those third parties are covered by all provisions in this policy, including those regarding notice and choice, as well as all service agreements between BuzzStream and it’s Subscribers.

In the context of an onward transfer, BuzzStream has responsibility for the processing of personal information it receives under the Standard Contractual Clauses for data transfers between EU and Non-EU countries and subsequently transfers to a third party acting as an agent on its behalf. BuzzStream shall remain liable under the Principles if its agent processes such personal information in a manner inconsistent with the Principles, unless the organization proves that it is not responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.

Questions?

It is our goal to make our privacy practices easy to understand. If you have questions, concerns or if you would like more detailed information, please email our privacy officer at privacy@BuzzStream.com