Our privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) explains the information we collect, how we use and share it, how to manage your privacy controls and your rights in connection with our websites and the related mobile applications and services (collectively, the “Services”). Please also read our Terms of Service which sets out the terms governing the Services.
Bindo is headquartered in Cape Town and our Services are provided to you by Bindo (Bindo Group (PTY) LTD). If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (“EEA”), Bindo (Bindo Group (PTY) LTD). is the controller of your personal data for the purposes of EEA data protection law.
This policy was written in English. To the extent a translated version conflicts with the English version, the English version controls. Unless indicated otherwise, this Privacy Policy does not apply to third party products or services or the practices of companies that we do not own or control, including other companies you might interact with on or through the Services.
Questions or comments about this Privacy Policy may be submitted by mail to support@bindo.app.
Bindo (Bindo Group (PTY) LTD).
105 La Montagne
35b Marmion Road
Oranjezicht
8001
Cape Town
South Africa
Attn: Legal
support@bindo.app
Bindo collects information about you, including information that directly or indirectly identifies you, if you or your other members choose to share it with Bindo. We receive information in a few different ways, including when you track, complete or upload activities using the Services. Bindo also collects information about how you use the Services. There are also several opportunities for you to share information about yourself, your friends, and your activities with Bindo. For example:
We collect basic account information such as your name, email address, username and password that helps secure and provide you with access to our Services.
Profile, activity and use information is collected about you when you choose to upload a picture, activity (including date, time and geo-location information) or posta sighting, join a challenge, start a list, view others’ activities, or otherwise use the Services.
We use your contact information so we can respond to your support requests and comments.
We collect and process location information when you sign up for and use the Services. We do not track your device location while you are not using Bindo, but in order to provide Bindo’s core Services, it is necessary for us to track your device location while you use Bindo. If you would like to stop the device location tracking, you may do so at any time by adjusting your device settings.
We gather information from the photos, sightings, comments, likes and other content you share on the Services, including when you participate in partner events or create challenges or lists.
You can choose to add your contacts’ information by connecting your contacts from your mobile device or social networking accounts to Bindo. If you choose to share your contacts with Bindo, Bindo will, in accordance with your instructions, access and store your contacts’ information in order to identify connections and help you connect with them. Learn more about how we collect information about your contacts, how we use that information, and the controls available to you.
When you make a payment on Bindo, you may provide payment information such as your payment card or other payment details. We use Payment Card Industry compliant third-party payment services and we do not store your credit card information.
Bindo allows you to sign up and log in to the Services using accounts you create with third-party products and services, such as Facebook, Google, or Apple (collectively, “Third-Party Accounts”). If you access the Services with Third-Party Accounts we will collect information that you have agreed to make available such as your name, email address, profile information and preferences. This information is collected by the Third-Party Account provider and is provided to Bindo under their privacy policies. You can generally control the information that we receive from these sources using the privacy controls in your Third-Party Account.
We collect information from your browser, computer, or mobile device, which provide us with technical information when you access or use the Services. This technical information includes device and network information, cookies, log files and analytics information. Learn more about how we use cookies and manage your preferences by visiting our Cookies Policy.
The Services use log files. The information stored in those files includes IP addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks. This information is used to analyse trends, administer, protect and secure the Services, track member movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses may be linked to session IDs, birder IDs and device identifiers.
We may collect information from you through third parties, such as when we collect your feedback through surveys.
We may also collect information about you from other members such as when they give you likes or comment on your activities.
Bindo uses the information we collect and receive as described below.
We use the information we collect and receive to provide the Services, including providing you with the ability to:
Your information, including parts of your profile, username, photos, members you follow and who follow you, challenges you belong to, your activities, the devices you use, and likes and comments you give and receive will be shared on Bindo so that you may be able to participate in the Services, for example to show your place on a leaderboard. Certain information (e.g., your name, and some profile information) is also available to non-members on the web. Your precise location information, such as where you bird, may also be shared on Bindo or to non-members, in accordance with your privacy controls.
We use the information we collect about you, your followers, your sightings, and your activities to customise your experience. For example, we may suggest challenges, sightings, checklists, lists, people or birds that may interest you or new features that you may want to try.
We use the information we collect to protect members, enforce our Terms of Service and Community Standards, and promote safety. For example, we find and remove content that violates our terms, such as hate speech or spam, as well as suspend or terminate accounts that share such content.
We also use the information we collect to analyse, develop and improve the Services. To do this, Bindo may use third-party analytics providers to gain insights into how our Services are used and to help us improve the Services.
We use the information we collect to provide support in response to your requests and comments.
We may also use the information we collect to market and promote the Services, activities and events on Bindo, and other commercial products or services. This includes marketing and push communications, where you have not opted out of receiving such messages and notifications.
We use the information we collect to process your subscription.
We do not sell your personal information. Bindo may aggregate the information you and others make available in connection with the Services and post it publicly or share it with third parties. Examples of the type of information we may aggregate include information about sightings, usage, activities, hotspots, bird populations, etc. Bindo may use, sell, license, and share this aggregated information with third parties for research, business or other purposes such as to improve conservation efforts or to help our partners understand more about birders, including the people who use their products and services.
In addition to sharing aggregated data about our members as described above, we also share personal information in accordance with your preferences, as needed to run our business and provide the Services, and where required for legal purposes, as set forth below.
We may share your information with third parties who provide services to Bindo such as supporting, improving, promoting and securing the Services, processing payments, or fulfilling orders. These service providers only have access to the information necessary to perform these limited functions on our behalf and are required to protect and secure your information. We may also engage service providers to collect information about your use of the Services over time on our behalf, so that we or they may promote Bindo or display information that may be relevant to your interests on the Services or other websites or services.
When you join the Bindo community, your profile and your activities are set to be viewable by everyone by default. Your name and other profile information is viewable by other Bindo members and the public and, subject to your privacy controls, additional information and content you share may also be viewable. For example, your photos and sightings may be accessed by other Bindo members and non-members or viewable on publicly accessible Bindo pages or in search engine results.
As a social network, we share your information with other Bindo members and the public. You can change the visibility of the activities you upload to Bindo. You can also share your activities with your contacts via text, email, or on social media applications like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If you link your Bindo account to other social networks and share your activities, they will be viewable on such third-party platforms, including your location information. You should use caution when sharing information via third parties and you should carefully review the privacy practices of such third parties.
We enable you to share your information and content with third party apps, plugins, or websites that integrate with the Services, as well as with third parties who work with Bindo to offer an integrated feature, such as a challenge sponsor or tracking watch. You can choose to share your profile data and activity data (including private activities). Information collected by these third parties is subject to their terms and policies. Bindo is not responsible for the terms or policies of third parties.
We may share your information with affiliates under common control with us, who are required to comply with the terms of this Privacy Policy with regard to your information. If Bindo becomes involved in a business combination, securities offering, bankruptcy, reorganisation, dissolution or other similar transaction, we may share or transfer your information in connection with such transaction.
We may preserve and share your information with third parties, including law enforcement, public or governmental agencies, or private litigants, within or outside your country of residence, if we determine that such disclosure is allowed by the law or reasonably necessary to comply with the law, including to respond to court orders, warrants, subpoenas, or other legal or regulatory process. We may also retain, preserve or disclose your information if we determine that this is reasonably necessary or appropriate to prevent any person from death or serious bodily injury, to address issues of national security or other issues of public importance, to prevent or detect violations of our Terms of Service or fraud or abuse of Bindo or its members, or to protect our operations or our property or other legal rights, including by disclosure to our legal counsel and other consultants and third parties in connection with actual or potential litigation.
We may share your information with third parties when we forward Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notifications, which will be forwarded as submitted to us without any deletions.
We take several measures to safeguard the collection, transmission and storage of the data we collect. We employ reasonable protections for your information that are appropriate to its sensitivity. The Services use industry standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to allow for the encryption of personal information and credit card numbers. Bindo engages providers that are industry leaders in online security, including Services verification, to strengthen the security of our Services. The Services are registered with site identification authorities so that your browser can confirm Bindo’s identity before any personal information is sent. In addition, Bindo’s secure servers protect this information using advanced firewall technology.
Bindo offers various ways to manage the notifications you receive. You can choose to stop receiving certain emails and notifications by indicating your preference. You may also unsubscribe by following the instructions contained at the bottom of marketing or promotional emails. Any administrative or service-related emails (to confirm a purchase, or an update to this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Service, etc.) generally do not offer an option to unsubscribe as they are necessary to provide the Services you requested.
You may correct, amend or update profile or account information at any time by adjusting that information in your account settings. If you need further assistance correcting inaccurate information, please contact Bindo at support@bindo.app.
You can delete your account or download your data using our support email address (support@bindo.app) or account management tools.
After you make a deletion request, we permanently and irreversibly delete your personal data from our systems, including backups. Once deleted, your data, including your account, activities and place on leaderboards cannot be reinstated. Following your deletion of your account, it may take up to 90 days to delete your personal information and system logs from our systems. Additionally, we may retain information where deletion requests are made to comply with the law and take other actions permitted by law.
Note that content you have shared with others, such as photos, or that others have copied may also remain visible after you have deleted your account or deleted specific information from your own profile. Your public profile may be displayed in search engine results until the search engine refreshes its cache.
Bindo also provides you the option to remove individual activities you have posted without deleting your account. Once removed,the activities may remain on Bindo’s systems until you delete your account.
We provide the same suite of privacy tools and controls to all of our members worldwide. Particular rights may be available to you if you reside in certain locations, such as the EEA, Brazil or California. Learn more about your rights and how to exercise them.
If you are habitually located in the EEA, you have the right to access, rectify, download or erase your information, as well as the right to restrict and object to certain processing of your information. Bindo’s lead supervisory authority in the EEA is the Data Protection Commission of Ireland.
Bindo relies on a number of legal bases to collect, use, share, and otherwise process the information we have about you for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including:
The Services are operated from South Africa. If you are located outside of South Africa and choose to use the Services or provide information to us, you acknowledge and understand that your information will be transferred, processed and stored in South Africa (or in Ireland), as it is necessary to provide the Services and perform the Terms of Service. South African privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction.
We retain information as long as it is necessary to provide the Services to you and others, subject to any legal obligations to further retain such information. Information associated with your account will generally be kept until it is no longer necessary to provide the Services or until your account is deleted. In addition, you can delete some items of information (e.g., profile information) and you can remove individual activities from view on the Services without deleting your account. Following your deletion of your account, it may take up to 90 days to fully delete your personal information and system logs from our systems. Additionally, we may retain information to comply with the law, prevent fraud, collect fees, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with investigations, enforce the Terms of Service and take other actions permitted by law. The information we retain will be handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Information connected to you that is no longer necessary and relevant to provide our Services may be de-identified or aggregated with other non-personal data to provide insights which are commercially valuable to Bindo, such as statistics of the use of the Services. For example, we may retain publicly available photos, challenges or checklists and other depersonalized geolocation information to continue to improve the Services and we use aggregated information in Bindo. This information will be de-associated with your name and other identifiers.
Bindo maintains certain websites that can be accessed outside of https://bindo.app, such as https://blog.bindo.app (the “Other Sites”). The Other Sites maintain the look and feel of the Services, but are hosted by outside service providers with their own terms and privacy policies. If you interact with the Other Sites, your information may be stored, processed, or shared outside of the Services. If you interact with the Other Sites, you acknowledge that you may be subject to the terms and conditions and policies applicable to such Other Sites. Please be aware that any personal information you submit to the Other Sites may be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums indefinitely, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. Bindo is not responsible for the personal information you choose to submit via the Other Sites.
Bindo reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. Please review it occasionally. If Bindo makes changes to this Privacy Policy, the updated Privacy Policy will be posted on the Services in a timely manner and, if we make material changes, we will provide a prominent notice. If you object to any of the changes to this Privacy Policy, you should stop using the Services and delete your account.