Phlog Privacy Policy

In our Privacy Policy, we provide you with an overview of how we process your personal data when you use our services, in accordance with our information requirements.

1. What is personal data?

“Personal data” is: “... any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter the “data subject”); a natural person is considered as being identifiable, directly or indirectly, in particular by means of an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or one or more special characteristics expressing the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of this natural person.”

2. The purposes for which we process your personal data

We collect and process your personal data for the purpose of providing you with our services and their advanced features, continuously improving and developing them, ensuring their technical functionality and ensuring the security of our services.

3. What personal information we collect from you and how we use it

3.1 Data you submit to us

(a) When you register as a Phlogger

You are a Phlogger if you want to share your photos with us or if you also want to offer them for sale.

To set up a Phlog account, we need:

• Your email address
• Your name, which also corresponds to your user ID and which will be linked to your email address
• A password to protect your user account.
If you register with us via a social network like Facebook, Inc. or Google, Inc., we do not collect your data directly from you, but from a third party – namely the respective social network.
• Your phone number

We use this data:

• To create your user account as a Phlogger.
• To contact you in the event of alleged copyright infringement and to clarify any other issues with your photos.
• To inform you about a sale.
• To inform you about Unpaid Earnings.

(b) When you register as a buyer to purchase Photos (Phlog Business Account) we request you to provide the following information to create your user account and to carry out the requested transactions:

• Your name
• Your phone number
• Your email address
• The name of your company, as well as legal documents e.g. Tax Card if you wish to run Campaigns
• Payment information if you wish to purchase photos

We use this data

• To create a user account and identify you.
• To handle transactions.
• To send you notifications concerning transactions made.

(c) When you provide additional, voluntary information in your profile

You can voluntarily provide additional profile information in your profile to make it more meaningful. For example, you can upload a picture of you as profile picture.

We use this data to make it visible in your profile to other users.

(d) When you upload photos

When you have registered as a Phlogger, you can upload photos to Phlog via our app.

When you would like to upload photos to Phlog via the app, you must first give Phlog access to your media library (i.e. Camera Roll or Photo Albums) on your mobile device. With this permission, we will display the folders and photos available in your media library from which you can select photos and upload them to your profile.

We do not process or store your photos or any other data that may be contained in your photos or media library before you select a photo and start to upload it. You can revoke your consent to access your media library at any time in the privacy settings of your mobile device. Without this consent you cannot upload pictures to the app, but you can still use other functions of the app (e.g. discover photos)

When you upload photos, we also process the information contained in the metadata of such photos (so- called exif data) as well as any additional information you provide about the photos (e.g. tags, captions). We only collect and process information about the location of the photograph if you add the location yourself when uploading.

We use this data to provide our services, in particular to optimize the quality and sales opportunities of your photos.

(e) When you contact our support team

When you contact our support team, we will save your email address and any other information that you provide in the context of your request.

The data will be stored and used exclusively for the processing of your respective request and any subsequent correspondence.

(f) When you contact us for business purposes

When you send us inquiries via email, we will save:

• Your email address
• All other information provided by you voluntarily.
We use this data to answer your inquiries and to contact you regarding possible cooperations or information of events.

3.2 Data that we automatically collect when you use our app

(a) Log data

Log data is data that is automatically recorded when you use our app. Specifically, this is the following data:

• IP address
• Name of your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• Device data
• Start and end page you visited
• Other activities within the app (so-called “events”), etc.

We use this data solely for troubleshooting and quality-assurance purposes, for statistical and analytical purposes, and for monitoring system security.

4. Whom do we share your personal data with?

We will only disclose your personal information to third parties if the transfer is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you, if we are otherwise legally entitled or obliged to disclose it, or if you have given us consent to do so. In order to provide our services, selected personal information may be shared with certain departments within our company. This includes employees from the accounting, legal, product management, marketing and IT departments. In certain cases, we also use external service providers who are commissioned by us to process data for us in accordance with instructions (see below).

4.1 Other users

Other users of our services, whether registered or not, or those accessing the photos uploaded to Phlog through a so-called API (Application Programming Interface), may be shown any information displayed on your public Phlog profile

4.2 Buyers

We will share your information for the purpose of naming and identifying the copyright owner to all those who purchase your photos.

4.3 Service providers

We also share your information with companies whose services we use to provide our services and manage our business affairs e.g. payment services, hosting services, maintenance and support, app analysis, marketing services, CRM services, customer service management services, etc.

4.4 Government agencies, authorities & courts, legal representatives

Insofar as we are legally obliged to do so or this is permitted under data protection law, we transmit personal data to authorities such as the police or the public prosecutor's office. This data is disclosed on the basis of our legitimate interest in combating misuse, prosecuting criminal offences (e.g. credit card fraud) and securing, asserting and enforcing claims, provided that your rights and interests in the protection of your personal data do not predominate.

5. Changes & updates to our Privacy Policy

We occasionally change and update our Privacy Policy to adapt it to changing requirements. Accordingly, you should periodically visit our Privacy Policy to ensure that you know the current regulations. If you do not agree with the changes, you should not use our services and delete your account if you have one. If you use our services after the effective date of our amended or updated Privacy Policy, the processing of your personal data is automatically subject to our updated Privacy Policy.