PILLOWFORT PRIVACY POLICY

Effective as of: 08/04/2024

Pillowfort Blogging LLC, (“Pillowfort” or “we”) is committed to being transparent about what data we collect from you and how you use it. We also think you should have meaningful control over any data we collect from you and use. That’s why we have this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy Agreement shall apply all of the Pillowfort Services, and thus it shall govern any and all data collection and usage thereof related to your use of the Services.

Pillowfort’s Collection of Information

Pillowfort collects information that you provide when using the Services. This information includes the following:

1. Account information, including your username and password. Although your username is public, you are welcome to use an alias or pseudonym instead of your real name. We also require you to provide an e-mail address when your register for an account, so we can send notifications. Pillowfort stores your user account settings and preferences.


2. User content that you submit to or make available on the Services. This includes, but is not limited to, text, images, gifs, videos, and links.


3. User actions, including interactions with other users, interactions with moderators and admins, interactions with communities, and interactions with content.


4. Login and usage data, which may include your IP address, browser type, operating system, user-agent string, any search engine or referral link information, pages visited, and device information.


5. Transactional information, if you purchase premium features or access for the Services from Pillowfort. Payments are processed by Authorize.Net. Please refer to their privacy policy to learn about payment processing and storage.



6. Cookies. Pillowfort does receive information from “cookies,” which is information your browser stores and sends to Pillowfort when making requests from the Services. Pillowfort uses both first-party and third-party cookies.

   First Party Cookies: Pillowfort uses first-party cookies help us store and retrieve information about your user preferences and settings. We may place these cookies on your device to improve the quality of the Services, improve your experience, and understand user activity. We take care to ensure your privacy and personal data is protected at all times. Our First Party cookies are in compliance with applicable law, including the GDPR.

   Third Party Cookies: In using the Services, you may also receive third-party cookies on your device. These are cookies placed by services, websites, or parties other than Pillowfort.

   Types of Cookies: We use strictly necessary cookies, which are those essential to the operation of the Services, and supporting functions such as logging in, embedding content, and payment transactions.

   Other cookies we may use include:

   • Analytics Cookies: These ensure we understand how the Service work and how You use them. These help us improve the Services and Your experience.
   
   
   • Functionality Cookies: These help us provide functions to you on the Services, like personalization and remembering your saved preferences. Some functionality cookies may also be strictly necessary.
   
   
   • Targeting Cookies: These help us understand when and how often You visit the Services and what aspects of it You used. This information helps us to better understand You and improve the Services and Your experience.
   
   
   • Third party Cookies: As stated above, these are not placed by Pillowfort, but instead by third parties that provide services to the Services and You. For instance, the Embedly service we use may place cookies related to the link preview embedding function Embedly provides.
   
   
   • Persistent Cookies: Any of the above types of cookie may be a persistent cookie, which remain on your computer or device for a predetermined period and are activated each time you visit the Services.
   
   
   • Session Cookies: Any of the above types of cookies may be a session cookie, which are temporary and only remain on your computer or device from the point at which you visit the Services until you close your browser, when they are then deleted.
   
   
   • Consent and Control: Before cookies can be placed your device when using the Services, you will be shown a prompt requesting your consent to set those Cookies. By giving your consent to the placing of cookies you are enabling Pillowfort to provide the best possible experience and service to you. You may, if you wish, deny consent to the placing of cookies except for cookies that are strictly necessary. This may limit the functionality of the Services. You can also choose to enable or disable cookies in your internet browser.

How Pillowfort may use and share your information.

Pillowfort may use information you provide and that we collect for:

1. Research and development related to the services, such as communicating with you about surveys or questionnaires related to improving the Services.
2. Providing you with notifications updates, security alerts, user violations, moderator messages, IP infringement concerns, and other related matters.
3. Protecting the safety of the Services’ users and enforcing the Pillowfort Terms of Service and Content and Conduct Rules.
4. Analyzing and fixing any technical problems with the Services or your Account.
5. Monitoring and analyzing usage of and activities on the Services.
6. Personalizing the Services.
7. Providing customer support.

Pillowfort stores information we collect about you from your use of the Services only to the extent it is used for the purposes for which we collected it. Pillowfort may also retain some information for longer periods of time for legitimate business purposes or if it is required by law, such as your username and IP used when you created your Account.

Pillowfort does not now, nor will it in the future, sell our user information to third-parties. But Pillowfort may share information you provide with others under the following circumstances:

1. Content Sharing: Users of the Services will be able to see Content you post or make available on the Services along with your username associated with the content. Although the Services do allow for private communities and user pages, they may become public at some point, which you should consider when posting Content.
2. Profile Information: Other users will be able to view your public user profile, which may contain your user name, prior posts, the communities to which you belong or follow, and when you created your Account.
3. Analytics: Pillowfort sends anonymized user activity data to Google for the purpose of analytics, which allows us to improve the Services.
4. Content Moderation: Pillowfort sends some user content to Microsoft's PhotoDNA service to proactively prevent the uploading of CSEM content.
5. Legal Obligations: We may share information collection in response to a request for information, if we determine disclosure is required by any applicable law, legal process, court order, or regulation. We will make every attempt to provide you with prior notice before disclosing your information in response to a legal request, if the law allows us to provide such notice.
6. To Enforce Our Terms: We reserve the right to share your information if we believe it is necessary to enforce Pillowfort’s terms based on your use of the Services, or to protect Pillowfort, its property, the Services, or other users.
7. Emergency Circumstances: We may disclose your information to third-parties if we believe it is necessary to prevent serious harm to you or another.
8. Consent: We may share information with your consent.

Accessing and controlling use of your information

Users of the services may elect a number of ways to limit user information collection during use of the Services, and to protect the same. This includes:

1. Changing and Deleting Account Information. Through your Account profile, you may change and/or access certain Account information You provided, including: your e-mail address, account preferences, recently viewed pages or communities. You also may delete your Account at any time. While deleting your Account will make your username available to other users of the Services, please understand that some information related to your Account may still be visible to others unless you deleted the specific content prior to deleting your Account. Pillowfort may also retain some information that you submitted to the Services for legitimate business purposes or if it is required by law, such as your username and IP used when you created your Account.
2. Cookies. Most browsers allow you to change the browser settings to remove and/or reject cookies. Please be aware that your use of the Services may be affected by changing the cookie settings on your browser.
3. Do Not Track. Most browsers also allow you to change the browser settings to send a “Do Not Track” request to websites you visit.
4. Mobile Notifications. If you consent at any time to receive push notifications to your mobile device from the Services, you may revoke that consent at any time by changing the notification settings in your Account settings.
5. E-mail Promotions. Pillowfort occasionally sends communications by e-mail promoting new Services features, promoting premium features, including promotional newsletters, or otherwise promoting the Services. You can opt-out of receiving these promotional e-mails by changing the e-mail options your Account settings, sending an e-mail to info@pillowfort.social, or by following the opt-out instructions in promotional e-mails. Please understand that even if you opt-out of promotional e-mails, we may still send other notifications by e-mail, such as information regarding your use of the Services or your account.

Children under the age of 13

No person under the age of 13 is allowed to create a user Account or otherwise use the Services. Accordingly, Pillowfort does not knowingly collect personal identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If it is determined that such information has been inadvertently collected on anyone under the age of 13, we shall immediately take the necessary steps to ensure that such information is deleted from our system's database. In addition, the laws of your local jurisdiction (including within the European Economic Area) may require you to be over a certain age to use the Services, and/or require you to provide verifiable consent from your parent or legal guardian

Links to Other Web Sites

The Services do contain links to affiliate and other websites. The Pillowfort Privacy Policy applies only to the Services, and does not apply to any other website, webpage, or application. Pillowfort is not responsible for any privacy policies, terms of services, practices and/or procedures of other such websites. We encourage all users and visitors to be aware when they leave our website, and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information.

Security

Pillowfort endeavors to take precaution to maintain adequate physical, procedural and technical security with respect to our physical offices and information storage facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure or modification of the user's personal information under our control.

Pillowfort is based in the United States. We use cloud servers located in the United States to store and process information provided through the Services. Depending on the locations of our users and service providers, we may need to use servers in other countries to process and store user information. By creating an Account or otherwise using the Services, you consent to us processing and storing information in and to the United States and other countries.

Information for Users Located in the European Economic Area

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have to the right to:

1. Request access to, alternation of, or deletion of your personal data provided to and stored by Pillowfort;

2. Request data portability under certain circumstances;

3. Object to any processing of your information, and request restriction of any processing of your information; and

4. Withdraw consent for information processing where you have previously provided consent.

You can exercise the rights as explained above in the “Accessing and controlling use of your information” section, or by contacting Pillowfort at the e-mail, telephone, or mailing address provided below. Any user located in the EEA may also exercise their right to file a complaint with the local supervisory authority.

Pursuant to applicable law, Pillowfort collects and processes information about users located in the EEA only we have proper legal bases. The legal bases for such collection and processing of data depends on the parts of the Services you use and how you use them. Specially, we may collect and process information from EEA users as follows, which we believe are proper legal bases:

1. You have consented to the collection and/or processing of your information for a specific purpose;

2. We need to collect and/or process your information to comply with any legal obligations;

3. Collection and/or processing of your information is necessary to provide you access to and use of the Services, which includes operation of the Services, providing you with support, and ensuring the safety and security of the Services; and

4. The collection and/or processing of your information is for a legitimate interest—which your data protection interests do not override—such as ensuring the safety and security of other users; protecting the integrity, operation, and security of the Services; preventing fraud, harm to others, or other unlawful or violent activity; research and development; and protecting Pillowfort’s legal rights.

Information for California Residents

This California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Notice to California Residents is intended to supplement the information contained in our privacy policy and terms and conditions, and applies only to residents in the State of California. Terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used here.

Information we collect: This is described above. And specific to the categories defined in the CCPA, we collect (i) identifiers; (ii) personal information categories; (iii) internet or similar network activity; (iv) geolocation data; and (v) sensory data. We obtain this information (i) directly from you, from forms you fill out when joining the Services; and (ii) indirectly, such as from cookies or other methods for observing your activity on the Services.

Use of personal information: We may use Your information for the purposes described above.

Sharing personal information: We may share Your personal information for the purposes described above. Pillowfort has not sold and continues not to sell any personal information it collects.

Your rights and choices under the CCPA: The CCPA provides California residents with various rights regarding their personal information. This section describes those rights:

Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights. You have the right under the CCPA to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past twelve (12) months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable request, we will disclose to you:

• The categories of personal information we collected about you.
• The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
• Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or sharing that personal information.
• The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.
• The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).

If we shared your personal information for a business purpose, a list of those disclosures, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained.

Deletion Request Rights: You have the right under the CCPA to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.

We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:

• Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
• Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
• Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
• Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).
• Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
• Comply with a legal obligation.
• Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights: To exercise these access, data portability, and deletion rights under the CCPA, please submit a verifiable request to us by sending a message to info@pillowfort.social. Only you, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable request on behalf of your minor child.

You may only make a verifiable request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable request must:

• Provide enough information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative.
• Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable request to confirm the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

Response Timing and Format: We will try to respond to a verifiable request 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. We will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable request’s receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance, specifically by electronic mail communication.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

Personal Information Sales Opt-Out and Opt-In Rights: Pillowfort does not sell your personal information.

Non-Discrimination We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not (i) deny you services or (ii) provide you a different level of service.

California’s “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83): This law permits employees that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please email info@pillowfort.social.

Changes to Privacy Policy Agreement

Pillowfort reserves the right to update and/or change the terms of our Privacy Policy. We will revise the effective date at the top of this policy to indicate when changes take effect. Pillowfort will alert all account holders by e-mail of any change to this Privacy Policy that we consider to materially effect any provision of the policy. If you continue to use the Services after any change to the Privacy Policy, you agree to be bound by the changed policy.

Acceptance of Terms.

Through the use of the Services, you are hereby accepting the terms and conditions of the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to one or more of the terms and conditions of the Privacy Policy, you must stop using the services immediately.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Privacy Policy, please contact us at the following email, telephone number or mailing address.

Email: info@pillowfort.social

Mailing Address:
Pillowfort Blogging LLC
PO Box 91022
Austin, Texas 78709-1022