Privacy policy Helpster
Helpster Charity US, Inc. registered at 8 The Green, Suite B, Dover, DE 19901 (“HELPSTER”) is a non-profit organization registered in the State of Delaware. It is committed to the privacy of individuals in accordance with its own rules and regulations, including on personal data protection. HELPSTER acts as the controller of all personal data collected in accordance with this Privacy Policy, and can be contacted as set out below.
Scope of Policy
This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, process, and disclose your information, including personal information, in conjunction with your access to and use of the Helpster app (the “User”).
Our app, website and any other tools are referred to as the “Service”. By using this Service, you agree to the privacy policy outlined herein.
Information We Collect
We collect information in order to provide and improve our Service, to administer your use of the Service and to enable you to enjoy and easily navigate our Service.
When you use the Service or engage in certain activities, such as downloading the app, making a donation, requesting services or information, or contacting us directly, we may ask you to provide some or all of the following types of information:
a. Personal Information: "Personal Information" refers to data that can be used to identify you as an individual. When you use our Service, we may collect the following types of personal information:
Name: We collect your name when you create an account or make a donation. This helps us personalize your experience and issue donation receipts with accurate information.
Email Address: We collect your email address to communicate with you about your donations, provide updates on the impact of your contributions, and respond to any inquiries or concerns you may have. We may also use your email address for account-related notifications.
Payment Details: When you make donations through the application, we collect payment information such as credit card details or other payment methods. This information is necessary to process your donations securely and issue donation receipts.
Installing the app: If you use the Service without an Account, you do not enter personal information (please see below for information which is collected automatically). If you create an Account using your login credentials from one of your third-party services accounts such as Facebook, Google, Apple, you share your public profile information (name, profile picture) and optionally your email address and/or a list of your contacts. If you create an email-based Account, we will request your name and email address.
b. Sensitive Data: To provide transparency and enable you to make informed donations, our application may display limited sensitive data about the children receiving help. This sensitive data may include:
Name of Beneficiaries: We may display the first name of the children or their guardians who are beneficiaries of the donations. This is done to humanize the cause and allow you to see the direct impact of your contributions.
Diagnosis, Medical Condition and required Medical Help: In some cases, we may display a brief description of the medical condition or diagnosis of the children receiving assistance as well as specification of required medical help. This information is intended solely to help you understand how your donations are being utilized to support those in need.
Financial requirements of the hospitals: We display a required amount of money estimated by the hospitals to provide medical help to children.
c. Device Information: We collect information about the device you use to access the Helpster application. This includes details such as the type of device (e.g., smartphone, tablet), the operating system version, and unique device identifiers. Device information helps us optimize the application for different platforms and troubleshoot technical issues.
d. Usage Information: We gather data about how you interact with our application and its features. This includes information about which sections of the app you visit, the content you engage with, and the actions you take (e.g., making donations, sharing content). Analyzing usage patterns allows us to improve the user experience and tailor our services to better meet your needs.
e. Communications with us: We may collect personal information from you such as email address, first and last name when you choose to request information about our Service, request to receive customer or technical support, or otherwise communicate with us directly or through Third Parties.
Making a gift donation: If you are making a donation on behalf of another person/legal entity (as a gift), you may be asked for that person’s (legal entity) name and contact details in order to enable us to deliver the gift to the recipient.
User-generated content: You may be able to customize and create certain content such as teams, text and audio-visual materials.
In addition to the information you choose to provide to us, we and our service providers also use standard technologies to automatically collect certain additional information:
We automatically record certain information about how you use our Service. This may include information such as a User’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, cookie identifiers, Advertiser ID and other device identifiers that are automatically assigned to your computer or device when you access the Internet, operating system, country, languages and locales, hardware type, the pages or features of our Service to which you browsed and the time spent on those pages or features, the links on our Services that you clicked on and other statistics. We use such data to administer the Service and we analyze (and may engage third parties to analyze) such data to improve, customize and enhance our Service by expanding features and functionality and tailoring them to individuals’ needs and preferences.
Information from Other Sources
We may receive information about you from third parties. We may have partners that help us to make the Services better, including analytics and advertising services which may process your Personal Data for purposes specified in section “HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA?” respectively.
A list of third-party services used by Services is below.
Analytics services. We may use third-party service providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Services, as follows:
• Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Address: Google, Google Data Protection Office, 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Privacy Policy of Google Inc.
• Google Firebase. Google Firebase is a mobile and web app development platform that offers several integrated features such as a mobile app server, analytics tools, app promotion and monetization tools provided by Google, Inc. Address: Google, Google Data Protection Office, 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Privacy Policy of Firebase.
• Branch Metrics, Inc. Branch is a mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform provided by Branch Metrics, Inc.. Address: to the attention of Legal Team/Data Protection Officer, 195 Page Mill Road, Suite 101 Palo Alto, CA 94306, email: info@branch.io Privacy Policy of Branch
Ads systems. We may use third-party service providers advertising purposes respectively, as follows:
• Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads Manager is a Facebook tool that allows to create and manage ads provided by Meta Platforms, Inc. Address: 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. Terms & policies of Meta.
• Google Ads. Google Ads is a contextual advertising service from Google, Inc. Address: Google, Google Data Protection Office, 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Policy of Google, Inc.
• Apple Search Ads. Apple Search Ads makes us easy to manage our ads campaigns. Service is provided by Apple, Inc. Address: Apple Park Way, Cupertino, CA 95014, United States. Privacy Enquiries, Privacy Policy of Apple, Inc.
• TIK TOK Ads. TIK TOK Ads is an advertising service. Transfer to the USA, the Russian Federation, the UAE, Indonesia, India based on the Jurisdiction Specific Terms and Controller to Controller Data Terms, Request privacy information.
PLEASE NOTE THAT SOME OF THESE COMPANIES MAY BE LOCATED OUTSIDE THE EU (INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS) INCLUDING IN THE COUNTRIES WHICH DO NOT ENSURE AN ADEQUATE LEVEL OF PROTECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA. Where this is the case, we meet the strict conditions of Personal Data transfers from the member states of European Union to other countries by using the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) adopted by the European Commission to ensure that Personal Data are properly protected or relying on other derogations compliant with GDPR.
HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA
Scope of Policy
This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, process, and disclose your information, including personal information, in conjunction with your access to and use of the Helpster app (the “User”).
Our app, website and any other tools are referred to as the “Service”. By using this Service, you agree to the privacy policy outlined herein.
Information We Collect
We collect information in order to provide and improve our Service, to administer your use of the Service and to enable you to enjoy and easily navigate our Service.
When you use the Service or engage in certain activities, such as downloading the app, making a donation, requesting services or information, or contacting us directly, we may ask you to provide some or all of the following types of information:
a. Personal Information: "Personal Information" refers to data that can be used to identify you as an individual. When you use our Service, we may collect the following types of personal information:
Name: We collect your name when you create an account or make a donation. This helps us personalize your experience and issue donation receipts with accurate information.
Email Address: We collect your email address to communicate with you about your donations, provide updates on the impact of your contributions, and respond to any inquiries or concerns you may have. We may also use your email address for account-related notifications.
Payment Details: When you make donations through the application, we collect payment information such as credit card details or other payment methods. This information is necessary to process your donations securely and issue donation receipts.
Installing the app: If you use the Service without an Account, you do not enter personal information (please see below for information which is collected automatically). If you create an Account using your login credentials from one of your third-party services accounts such as Facebook, Google, Apple, you share your public profile information (name, profile picture) and optionally your email address and/or a list of your contacts. If you create an email-based Account, we will request your name and email address.
b. Sensitive Data: To provide transparency and enable you to make informed donations, our application may display limited sensitive data about the children receiving help. This sensitive data may include:
Name of Beneficiaries: We may display the first name of the children or their guardians who are beneficiaries of the donations. This is done to humanize the cause and allow you to see the direct impact of your contributions.
Diagnosis, Medical Condition and required Medical Help: In some cases, we may display a brief description of the medical condition or diagnosis of the children receiving assistance as well as specification of required medical help. This information is intended solely to help you understand how your donations are being utilized to support those in need.
Financial requirements of the hospitals: We display a required amount of money estimated by the hospitals to provide medical help to children.
c. Device Information: We collect information about the device you use to access the Helpster application. This includes details such as the type of device (e.g., smartphone, tablet), the operating system version, and unique device identifiers. Device information helps us optimize the application for different platforms and troubleshoot technical issues.
d. Usage Information: We gather data about how you interact with our application and its features. This includes information about which sections of the app you visit, the content you engage with, and the actions you take (e.g., making donations, sharing content). Analyzing usage patterns allows us to improve the user experience and tailor our services to better meet your needs.
e. Communications with us: We may collect personal information from you such as email address, first and last name when you choose to request information about our Service, request to receive customer or technical support, or otherwise communicate with us directly or through Third Parties.
Making a gift donation: If you are making a donation on behalf of another person/legal entity (as a gift), you may be asked for that person’s (legal entity) name and contact details in order to enable us to deliver the gift to the recipient.
User-generated content: You may be able to customize and create certain content such as teams, text and audio-visual materials.
In addition to the information you choose to provide to us, we and our service providers also use standard technologies to automatically collect certain additional information:
We automatically record certain information about how you use our Service. This may include information such as a User’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, cookie identifiers, Advertiser ID and other device identifiers that are automatically assigned to your computer or device when you access the Internet, operating system, country, languages and locales, hardware type, the pages or features of our Service to which you browsed and the time spent on those pages or features, the links on our Services that you clicked on and other statistics. We use such data to administer the Service and we analyze (and may engage third parties to analyze) such data to improve, customize and enhance our Service by expanding features and functionality and tailoring them to individuals’ needs and preferences.
Information from Other Sources
We may receive information about you from third parties. We may have partners that help us to make the Services better, including analytics and advertising services which may process your Personal Data for purposes specified in section “HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA?” respectively.
A list of third-party services used by Services is below.
Analytics services. We may use third-party service providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Services, as follows:
• Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Address: Google, Google Data Protection Office, 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Privacy Policy of Google Inc.
• Google Firebase. Google Firebase is a mobile and web app development platform that offers several integrated features such as a mobile app server, analytics tools, app promotion and monetization tools provided by Google, Inc. Address: Google, Google Data Protection Office, 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Privacy Policy of Firebase.
• Branch Metrics, Inc. Branch is a mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform provided by Branch Metrics, Inc.. Address: to the attention of Legal Team/Data Protection Officer, 195 Page Mill Road, Suite 101 Palo Alto, CA 94306, email: info@branch.io Privacy Policy of Branch
Ads systems. We may use third-party service providers advertising purposes respectively, as follows:
• Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads Manager is a Facebook tool that allows to create and manage ads provided by Meta Platforms, Inc. Address: 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. Terms & policies of Meta.
• Google Ads. Google Ads is a contextual advertising service from Google, Inc. Address: Google, Google Data Protection Office, 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Policy of Google, Inc.
• Apple Search Ads. Apple Search Ads makes us easy to manage our ads campaigns. Service is provided by Apple, Inc. Address: Apple Park Way, Cupertino, CA 95014, United States. Privacy Enquiries, Privacy Policy of Apple, Inc.
• TIK TOK Ads. TIK TOK Ads is an advertising service. Transfer to the USA, the Russian Federation, the UAE, Indonesia, India based on the Jurisdiction Specific Terms and Controller to Controller Data Terms, Request privacy information.
PLEASE NOTE THAT SOME OF THESE COMPANIES MAY BE LOCATED OUTSIDE THE EU (INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS) INCLUDING IN THE COUNTRIES WHICH DO NOT ENSURE AN ADEQUATE LEVEL OF PROTECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA. Where this is the case, we meet the strict conditions of Personal Data transfers from the member states of European Union to other countries by using the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) adopted by the European Commission to ensure that Personal Data are properly protected or relying on other derogations compliant with GDPR.
HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA
HOW LONG DO WE RETAIN YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
We retain your Personal Data for no longer than it is necessary to fulfill the purposes specified in the section “How do we process your Personal Data”. Except for any legal obligation that sets a longer data retention period, at the end of these periods, the Personal Data processed will be deleted or anonymized.
DO WE USE AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING OR REFER TO THE AUTOMATED PROFILING?
We neither use automated decision-making nor refer to the automated profiling.
WHAT RIGHTS DO YOU HAVE?
Rights of EU residents:
(1) The right of access to your Personal Data meaning that you can receive a copy of the Personal Data that we hold about you, as well as other supplementary information.
(2) The right to rectification of your Personal Data which is incomplete or inaccurate.
(3) The right to erasure of your Personal Data meaning that you can ask us to delete or remove your Personal Data in certain circumstances. Note, that we can retain your Personal Data as necessary to comply with our legal obligations or resolve disputes. If we have no grounds to continue processing your Personal Data, we will delete or remove it and notify you about such deletion or removal.
(4) The right to restrict processing of your Personal Data if (a) the accuracy of the Personal Data is contested by you, (b) the processing is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of the Personal Data, (c) we no longer need the Personal Data for the purposes of the processing, but they are required by you for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, and (d) you have objected to processing pending the verification whether the legitimate grounds override this.
(5) The right to data portability. The right to portability of your Personal Data, which applies only to information we have processed based on your consent or Terms and Conditions.
(6) The right to object to the processing of your Personal Data where we are relying on a legitimate interest and there is something about your particular situation that makes you want to object to the processing on this ground. We will no longer process the Personal Data unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
(7) Right to withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on the consent to process your Personal Data. If we have no other grounds for processing your Personal Data, after you send us a request to withdraw consent, we will stop processing your Personal Data that we were processing under your consent.
We will address your request as early as possible and no longer that within 1 month. Please note that this period may be extended by 2 further months where necessary, taking into account the complexity and number of the requests. In this case, we will inform you of the extension within 1 month of receipt of your request and will explain you the reasons for the delay.
Rights of California residents:
(1) The right to opt out. Under the CCPA each California resident can request business stops selling Personal Data to third parties.
Do we actually “sell” Personal Data? We do not, and will not, provide your Personal Data in direct exchange for money. Therefore, in the literal sense, we do not sell your Personal Data.
(2) Other rights. You also have a right to be informed about what categories of Personal Data we are collecting: you can request us to disclose what Personal Data we have collected in the past 12 months and right to get a free copy of your Personal Data disclosed in a readily usable and readable format. You can also request us to delete the Personal Data we have collected in the past 12 months. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights granted under CCPA.
Mandatory Verification: As required by CCPA we will need to verify your identity before processing your request. In order to verify your identity, you will be asked to log in to your account or (if you do not have an account) we will try to match the information you provided with the information we handle about you. In certain circumstances, we may decline the request, mainly where we are unable to verify your identity, for example, if you have requested us to delete your Personal Data.
As required by CCPA we endeavor to respond to a verifiable request within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. We will deliver our written response by e-mail.
How to exercise any of your rights?
You may exercise your rights by sending a relevant request to the e-mail indicated in the contact details.
If you have any comments about how we process your Personal Data, please let us know and we will consider your claim. If you are not satisfied with our response to the complaint, you have the right to file a complaint with the competent authority.
Information from Communications Between Us
When we communicate with each other, we collect the following information:
- When we communicate with each other via email, text message, chat, form submission, or other form of written communication, we will collect and store any information that is contained in that message, which could include your name, email address, phone number, and address.
- Our third party providers collect and store "metadata" about the written communication depending on the communications medium used. In the case of email, this includes your email address , IP address, and host network.
- If you sign up for recurring reports, email newsletters, or notifications, you will provide your email address or other unique means of contacting you.
- For any phone calls between us, typically for support, we collect your phone number and may link it to other personal information such as name and email address that we either ask for in the course of the call or that already exists in one of our systems. In certain cases our phone service may automatically generate a transcript of the call.
We share your information with our third party communications service providers in order to send email, place a phone call, send a text, chat, send newsletters, or otherwise communicate with you.
Social Media Platforms
From within the Service, users are able to share content on SNS such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp.
Donations via the Service
When you make donations to Helpster, we process these through third-party payment processors such as Braintree, PayPal, Apple pay, Google Pay and Stripe.
User Access and Control of Personally Identifiable Information
If you would like to access, review, correct, update, suppress, transfer (right to data portability), delete or otherwise limit our use of your personal information we have collected, you may contact us using the mechanisms provided below. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable.
You may opt out of having your personal information used or disclosed for certain purposes.
If you no longer want to receive marketing-related emails from us on a going-forward basis, you may opt out of receiving such communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email.
Helpster may send you push notifications with notices that may be of interest to you. You may at any time opt-out from receiving these types of communications by changing the settings within the Service or on your mobile device.
Reviewing, Changing, and Removing Your Information
You can review and/or change certain of your Personal Information by accessing your Account. You may also review, update, correct or delete the Personal Information in your Account by detailing your request using the e-mail addressed to team@helpstercharity.org. Use this same procedure to request that we close your Account.
Even if you request that we delete your Personal Information, certain data is necessary in order for us to provide the Services and maintain the integrity of our records and can not be deleted in its entirety. For instance, we may need to retain certain Personal Information to comply with laws, prevent fraud, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our Terms of Use, and take other actions otherwise permitted by law or for our legitimate business purposes. If for these or other reasons we can not delete all of your Personal Information, we will convert it to Anonymous Information where possible.
If some or all of your Personal Information is deleted, then your account may become deactivated.
If we have already disclosed some of your Personal Information to third parties, we cannot access that Personal Information any longer and cannot force the deletion or modification of any such information by the parties to whom we have made those disclosures, including Charities. See the section "This Policy Doesn't Cover Third Parties" below.
This Policy Doesn't Cover Third Parties
This Privacy Policy addresses only our use and disclosure of information we collect from and/or about you on the Services. If you disclose information to others, or authorize us to do the same under this Privacy Policy, the use and disclosure restrictions contained in this Privacy Policy will not apply to any third party. We do not control the privacy policies of third parties, and you are subject to the privacy policies of those third parties where applicable.
The interfaces to the Services that you see may contain content or links to other websites that are not owned or controlled by us. We have no control over, do not review and are not responsible for the privacy policies of or content displayed on such other websites. When you click on such a link, you will leave our App and go to another site. During this process, another entity may collect Personal Information or Anonymous Information from you. The App may also contain links to other websites controlled by us but which operates under different privacy policies. Please review the privacy policy of any new site you visit.
Children
The Service is not directed to children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18.
If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with information or may be receiving communications from us without consent of a parent or guardian, we ask that this be brought to our immediate attention. We will make it our priority to address this situation and delete information relating to a child as soon as practicable. In such an event, please contact us at team@helpstercharity.org
Security
To protect your personal data from unauthorized access and abuse we have implemented technical and organizational security measures. We check these security measures regularly and adapt them, as necessary, to the state of technological progress. All payment data is processed by our payment processing partners.
We do not collect your financial information. Your financial information is managed securely by our payment processors which are globally trusted payments companies.
Location of Storage
Please note that HELPSTER is an organization operating worldwide so that your personally identifiable information may be processed also outside of the European Economic Area or outside any other area you might be located in when using the Service.
Personal data collected by us may be stored and processed in your region, and in any other country where we or our service providers operate facilities. We take steps to ensure that the data we collect under this privacy statement is processed according to the provisions of this Privacy Policy and the requirements of applicable law wherever the data is located. By providing your information, you consent to such storage and transfer.
We transfer personal data from the European Economic Area and Switzerland to other countries. The European Commission may have not determined that some of these countries provide an adequate level of data protection. For example, their laws may not guarantee you the same rights as residents of the European Union. When we engage in such transfers, we use a variety of legal mechanisms, including contracts, to help ensure your rights and protections travel with your data. To learn more about the European Commission's decisions on the adequacy of the protection of personal data in the countries where we process personal information, please visit this European Commission page.
Notification of Changes
This privacy policy may change from time to time. Changes will be posted within the Service so Users are always aware of what information is collected and how it is used. Please make sure you read any such notice carefully. If you do not wish to continue using the Service under the new version of the Privacy Policy, please contact us through team@helpstercharity.org.
Content Sharing Terms
By submitting user-generated content such as teams, text and audio-visual material to HELPSTER, you:
- represent and warrant that you are of legal age of consent in the jurisdiction of your domicile;
- grant HELPSTER a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub licensable and transferable license to use, display, distribute, reproduce, modify, remix, translate, transcode, excerpt, adapt, prepare derivative works of and compilations, publicly display such content in any format or medium for any purpose in connection with HELPSTER activities;
- represent and warrant that the content is original or that you hold the necessary rights to publish the content you submit and grant HELPSTER the license under (ii); and
- agree to indemnify and hold HELPSTER, its officers, agents and employees harmless from any claim or loss made by any third party due to or arising out of content you submit.
The Service may contain hypertext links to other services. The Helpster assumes no responsibility for those services including the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy, please contact us at:
team@helpstercharity.org
Last update: 15 September 2023