Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Thank you for using Hark! We wrote this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to help you understand what information we collect through our Products (defined below), how we protect and use such information once we gather it, whether we disclose it to anyone and what choices you have regarding your information.

The Products are operated by Hark Audio, Inc. (“Hark”, “we”, “us” or “our”). “Products” means, collectively, our website located at www.harkaudio.com (“Website”) and any subsequent URL which may replace the Website, all associated websites, URLs and microsites, and any and all products and services offer by us, including, without limitation, Hark’s mobile application. If you see any undefined term in this Privacy Policy, it has the definition specified in our Terms of Service (“Terms”).

“You/your” means you as a user of the Products. This Privacy Policy applies to you and all users of the Products, and Hark offers the Products, including all information, tools and services available from the Products, to you conditioned upon your acceptance of all the terms, conditions, policies and notices stated herein.

Our Products may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Except where we post, link to or expressly adopt or refer to this Privacy Policy, this Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, any personal information practices of third party websites and online services or the practices of other third parties. To learn about the personal information practices of third parties, please visit their respective privacy notices.

Hark will ensure that all personal information disclosed by you and that is held by us will be: (i) processed lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner; (ii) collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate business purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those legitimate business purposes; (iii) adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary; (iv) kept in a form which permits identification of our users for no longer than is necessary; and (v) processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal information, including protection against unauthorized or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction, or damage.

Hark may, from time to time, make changes to this Privacy Policy. We will alert you that changes have been made by indicating on the Privacy Policy the date it was last updated. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy from time to time to make sure that you understand how any information you provide to us will be used. By visiting or using the Products, you are accepting the practices described in the current version of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, do not use the Products. If we change this Privacy Policy in a material manner, we will let you know via email and/or a conspicuous notice on our Products, prior to those changes taking effect. Hark will not use your Personal Information in a way that is materially different from the uses described in this Privacy Policy without giving you an opportunity to opt-out.

2. What information do we collect?

We collect information in two ways:

a. When you give it to us or give us permission to obtain it.

When you sign up for an Account or use our Products, you voluntarily give us certain information. This can include your name and email address you use to sign up for an Account, and other information you provide to us, including, without limitation, profile photos, clips, clip audio intros, comments, and likes. If you're using the Products on your mobile device, you may also choose to provide us with location data. We use this contact and Account information to create and personalize your Account, communicate with you directly, and send you marketing communications in accordance with your preferences.

b. When you use our Products.

Whenever you use any website, mobile application, or other Internet service, there is certain information that almost always gets created and recorded in an automated way. The same is true when you use our Products. Examples of such automatically collected information include:

Log Data. Our servers automatically record information about your interaction with our Products (such information, "Log Data"). Depending upon how you access the Products, such Log Data may be sent by your browser or by the Hark mobile application. This Log Data may include your Internet Protocol address (or “IP address”), the address of the web page you were visiting before you navigated to the Products, your browser type and settings, the date and time of your request, and how you used the Products.
Cookies. Depending on how you access our Products, we may use Cookies (defined below), or similar technologies to record Log Data. For more information please see our Cookie Policy referenced below.
Device Information. In addition to Log Data, we may also collect information about the device you're using to access our Products, including what type of device it is, what operating system you're using, device settings, unique device identifiers, and crash data. Whether we collect some or all of this information often depends on what type of device you're using and its settings. For example, different types of information are available depending on whether you're using a Mac or a PC, or an iPhone or an Android phone. To learn more about what information your device makes available to us, please also check the policies of your device manufacturer or software provider.

3. How do we use the information we collect?

In addition to the uses described above, we may collect and use your information in the following manners:

a. Provide, maintain, improve and develop the Products. We may use information to provide, maintain, improve and develop the Products. For example, we: (i) enable you to create an Account and otherwise access and use the Products, (ii) fulfill your requests via the Products, (iii) perform analytics, detect activity patterns on our Site, and otherwise research usage (for example, we may log how often our users use two different versions of our Products, which can help us understand which version is better), and (iv) test and develop new features and functionality and otherwise enhance the Products.

b. Offer customized content and personalized and improved marketing. We also use the information we collect to offer you customized content – including helping you discover clips, Harklists, other Hark content you might like, or advertising. For example, if you've indicated that you're interested in music, we may suggest music-related clips, Harklists, or people. Additionally, we may inform you of products, programs, services, and promotions that we believe may be of interest to you, including, without limitation, through emails.

c. Provide you updates and communications. We may send you updates (such as when certain activity happens on the Products related to your use of the Products, like reposts or comments), newsletters, marketing materials and other information that may be of interest to you. For example, depending on your email notification settings, we may send you weekly updates that include clips you may like. You can decide to stop getting these updates by updating your account settings (or through other settings we may provide). We will also use your information to respond to the questions or comments you send to us.

d. Maintain the safety, stability and security of our Products. We may use your information to maintain the safety and security of our Products. For example, we: (i) attempt to detect or prevent fraud, abuse or other harmful activities, (ii) diagnose or fix technology problems, (iii) conduct security investigations and risk assessments, and (iv) improve and enforce our security measures.

e. Aggregated Data. We may use certain Log Data and device information in the aggregate to help us determine how often and for how long our visitors use parts of the Products, and to do internal research on our users’ demographics, interests, and behavior, so as to better understand and serve you. We may share this aggregated information with third parties (provided such aggregated information shall not include personally identifiable information about you).

f. Legal and regulatory requirements and proceedings. We may use your information in connection with legal and regulatory proceedings and requirements, such as to comply with applicable laws.

g. Enforce our rights. When you access or use our Products, you are bound by our Terms and this Privacy Policy. To ensure you comply with them, we may use your information to monitor, investigate, prevent and/or mitigate violations of our Terms as well as enforce our agreements with third parties and business partners.

h. Other purposes disclosed at the time of collection. From time to time, we may use information for a specific purpose not contemplated by this Privacy Policy. In such an event, we will specifically disclose that use to you.

4. What choices do you have about how we handle or use your information?

a. Through your Account. If you have registered for an Account with us, you may review and update certain personal information in your Account profile by logging into the Account and using the available features provided therein. You can close your Account at any time by emailing us at: privacy@harkaudio.com. When you close your Account, we will deactivate it but we will not remove your public clips and Harklists from Hark, unless otherwise stated in our Terms. You may also request at any time to access or update your personal information, or that we delete any of your personal information stored by us, by contacting us at privacy@harkaudio.com. Following any such request, we will take all reasonable steps to provide, modify or delete your personal information as soon as is practicable. We may retain archived copies of your information as required by law or for legitimate business purposes (including to help address fraud and spam).

b. Through your browser. You may have choices available to you through the device or software you use to access Hark. For example, the browser you use may provide you with the ability to control Cookies or other types of local data storage. Your mobile device may provide you with choices around how and whether location or other data is shared with us. To learn more about these choices, please see the information provided by the device or software provider.

c. Marketing emails. You may opt out of marketing-related emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of our emails to you, or by contacting us at privacy@harkaudio.com. You may continue to receive service-related and other non-marketing emails.

d. Required information. Where we are required by law to collect your personal information, or where we need your personal information in order to provide the Products to you, if you do not provide this information when requested (or you later ask to delete it), we may not be able to provide you with our Products. We will tell you what information you must provide to receive the Products by designating it as required at the time of collection or through other appropriate means.

5. How do we share the information we collect?

We will not sell, share or rent information about you in ways different from what is disclosed in this Privacy Policy. In general, we share your information with third parties only in the following circumstances:

a. As necessary to enable your use of the Products. When you create Harklists, clips and comments on the Products, please keep in mind that anyone can view them. When you take actions like reposting and liking and following, anyone can see those actions. You may also provide us with profile page information that anyone can view.

b. Otherwise with your consent. This includes sharing information with other services (like Facebook or Twitter) when you have chosen to link to your Account to those services or publish your activity on the Products to them. For example, you can choose to publish your clips to Facebook or Twitter.

c. Service providers and contractors. We disclose personal information to third parties that provide services for us or on our behalf, based on our instructions and in compliance with this Privacy Policy. For example, we may share data with a security consultant to help us get better at identifying spam or with our accountants to make sure we’re keeping the books properly.

d. Analytics providers.In addition, some of the information we request may be collected by third party providers on our behalf. See the Analytics Tools section for the current list of providers.

e. Legal obligations. If we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation or legal request, to protect the safety, rights, or property of the public, any person, or Hark, or to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues.

f. Business transactions. If we engage in a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, or similar transaction or proceeding that involves the transfer of the information described in this Privacy Policy to another company, then that company may then possess the information collected and stored by us, however, such company will assume the rights and obligations regarding your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

g. Aggregated information. We may also share aggregated or non-personally identifiable information with our business partners, or we may collate, organize and provide information that is publicly visible on the Products. For example, we may tell a business using the Products how many people reposted or liked something they shared, or the percentage of people who visit a podcast after listening to a clip.

6. Security, Transfer and Storage

a. Security. We employ a number of standard organizational, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information we collect. However, security risk is inherent in all internet and information technologies and we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.

b. Transfer. Hark is a United States based company and adheres to the laws of the United States. By providing your information and using the Products, you explicitly consent to the transfer, processing, and storage of your information in the United States. If you do not wish for us to transfer your information to the United States, please get in touch with us by contacting privacy@harkaudio.com.

c. Storage. Hark will retain your information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the legitimate business purpose(s) for which it was collected and to comply with applicable laws and your consent to such purpose remains valid after termination of our relationship with you. The criteria used to determine our retention periods include: (i) the length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide our Products to you (for example, for as long as you keep using the Products), (ii) the length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you as our customer, and (iii) whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject (for example, certain laws require us to keep records of your transactions or communications for a certain period of time before we can delete them). When we no longer need information, we take reasonable steps to destroy or remove the information from our servers.

7. Individual Rights of Users

a. EU/ EEA Citizens. Our Products are operated in the United States. If you are located in the European Union, Canada or elsewhere outside the United States, please be aware that personal information we collect will be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using the Products, you fully understand and consent to this transfer, processing and storage of your Personal Information in the United States. If you are an individual in the European Economic Area (EEA), we collect and process personal information about you only where we have legal bases for doing so under applicable EU laws. The legal basis depends upon the manner in which you use the Products. This means we collect and use your personal information only where:

We need it to provide you the Products, operate the Products, provide customer support and personalized features and to protect the safety and security of the Products;
It satisfies a legitimate interest (which is not overridden by your data protection interests), such as for research and development, to market and promote Hark and to protect our legal rights and interests;
You give us consent to do so for a specific purpose; or
We need to process your personal information to comply with a legal obligation.

If you have consented to our use of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to change your mind at any time, but this will not affect any processing that has already taken place. Where we are using your personal information because we or a third party have a legitimate interest to do so, you have the right to object to that use, though, in some cases, this may mean no longer using the Products.

By using the Products you understand that your personal information may be transferred to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have data protection rules that are different from those of your country. In certain circumstances, courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies or security authorities in those other countries may be entitled to access your personal information.

b. California Residents. California residents are entitled to ask Hark for a notice describing what categories of personal information, if any, are shared with third parties or corporate affiliates for those third parties or corporate affiliates' direct marketing purposes. That notice will identify the categories of information shared and will include a list of the third parties and affiliates with which it was shared, along with their names and addresses. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a request to the following address: Hark Audio, Inc., 244 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1276 New York, N.Y. 10001, Attn: Privacy Officer or by email to privacy@harkaudio.com. Please allow 30 days for a response.

c. Exercising of Individual Rights. If you would like to exercise the above EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rights about your personal information we hold about you, or exercise any other data subject right available to you under applicable California laws, please submit a written request to: privacy@harkaudio.com. Our privacy team will examine your request and respond to you as quickly as possible. Where you have consented to our use of your Personal Information, you may withdraw that consent at any time and opt-out to further use by contacting privacy@harkaudio.com.

d. Aggregate and De-Identified Data. Please note that we may still use any aggregated and de-identified personal information that does not identify any individual and may also retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

8. Do Not Track

Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. DNT is a way for users to inform websites and services that they do not want certain information about their webpage visits collected over time and across websites or online services. Please note that we do not respond to or honor DNT signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers.

9. Children’s Information

Consistent with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, we will never knowingly request personal information from anyone under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with such information without verifiable parental consent, we will use our best efforts to remove such information from our files. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with personal information without verifiable parental consent, he or she should contact us at privacy@harkaudio.com.

10. Analytics Tools

We may use a number of third party analytics providers to assist us in providing the Products.

a. Google Analytics. The Products use a tool called “Google Analytics” to collect information about use of the Products. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit this Products, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other websites they used prior to coming to the Products. We use the information we get from Google Analytics to maintain and improve the Products. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personal information. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the Products is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Service, available at http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html/ , and the Google Privacy Policy, available at http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/. You may learn more about how Google collects and processes data specifically in connection with Google Analytics at http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You may prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics by downloading and installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/ .

b. Mixpanel. We collect personal information such as your email address and your user activity through the use of Mixpanel. Mixpanel’s ability to use and share information is governed by the Mixpanel Terms of Use, available at https://mixpanel.com/terms/ , and the Mixpanel Privacy Policy, available at https://mixpanel.com/privacy/ . You can opt-out of Mixpanel’s services by clicking on the following link: https://mixpanel.com/optout/.

c. Facebook Pixels and SDKs. We use Facebook pixels or SDKs, which are tools that provide help to website owners and publishers, developers, advertisers, business partners (and their customers) and others integrate, use and exchange information with Facebook, as such the collection and use of information for ad targeting. Please note that third parties, including Facebook, use cookies, web beacons, and other storage technologies to collect or receive information from your websites and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads. Facebook’s ability to use and share information is governed by the Facebook Tools Terms, available at: https://www.facebook.com/legal/technology_terms/ . You can prevent your data from being used by Facebook Pixels and SDKs by exercising your choice through these mechanisms: http://www.aboutads.info/ choices or http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/ .

d. Twitter Pixel. Functions of the Twitter service have been integrated into our Products. These features are offered by Twitter. When you use Twitter and the “Retweet” function, the websites you visit are connected to your Twitter account and made known to other users. In doing so, data will also be transferred to Twitter. We would like to point out that, as the provider of these pages, we have no knowledge of the content of the data transmitted or how it will be used by Twitter. We recommend that you read Twitter’s privacy policy available at: https://twitter.com/privacy. Your privacy preferences with Twitter can be modified in your account settings at https://twitter.com/account/settings

e. Customer.io. We collect personal information such as your email address and your user activity through the use of Customer.IO. Customer.IO’s ability to use and share information is governed by the Customer.IO Terms of Service, available at https://customer.io/legal/terms-of-service/ , and the Customer.IO Privacy Policy, available at https://customer.io/legal/privacy-policy/.

f. Google Tag Manager. Google Tag Manager (“GTM”) is a tag management system to manage JavaScript and HTML tags used for tracking and analytics on websites. Tags are small code elements that, among other things, are used to measure traffic and visitor behavior; to understand the effect of online advertising and social channels; to set up remarketing and orientation towards target groups; and to test and optimize websites. GTM makes it easier for us to integrate and manage our tags. For more information about GTM’s privacy practices can be found at https://policies.google.com/privacy and terms of use at https://www.google.com/analytics/tag-manager/use-policy/

g. Segment.com. Segment is a customer data platform that combines data from multiple tools to create a database of Hark's users. More information about Segment’s privacy practices can be found at https://segment.com/legal/privacy/ and terms of use at https://segment.com/legal/terms/.

11. Cookie Policy

This Cookie Policy explains how Hark uses Cookies and similar technologies in connection with the Products. For further information, visit allaboutcookies.org.

a. What are Cookies?. “Cookies” are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies serve different purposes, like helping us understand how our Products are being used, letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences and generally improving your browsing experience. Our Products may use both “session” Cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and “persistent” Cookies (which stay on your computer or mobile device until you delete them). For example, we may use persistent Cookies to store your language preferences or other Products settings so you don't have to set them up each visit.

b. What types of Cookies do we use?. We use two broad categories of Cookies: (i) first party Cookies, served directly by us to your computer or mobile device, which we use to recognize your computer or mobile device when it revisits our Products; and (ii) third party cookies, which are served by service providers or business partners on our Products, and can be used by these parties to recognize your computer or mobile device when it visits other websites. Third party cookies can be used for a variety of purposes, including site analytics, advertising and social media features.

c. How do we use Cookies?. For example, we use Cookies to tell us how and when pages in our Products are visited, what our users’ technology preferences are and whether our Products are functioning properly. In some jurisdictions, we are not permitted to send Cookies to the browser without the prior consent of the affected user. In this case, we will seek such consent. This section assumes that either the use of Cookies is not restricted by applicable law, or, if it is restricted, that you have expressly consented to the use of the Cookies.

d. Your choices regarding Cookies . You can configure your browser to accept all Cookies, reject all Cookies, or notify you when a Cookie is set. (Each browser is different, so check your browser settings to learn how to change your Cookie preferences.) You are always free to decline our Cookies if your browser permits, although in that case you may not be able to interact with certain features on our Products, and you may be required to re-enter your password more frequently during a session. Additionally, you may encounter Cookies or other similar devices on our Products that are placed by third parties. We do not control the use of cookies by third parties.

12. How to contact us

If you have any questions about Hark’s Privacy Policy, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us in the following manners:

Email us at: privacy@harkaudio.com

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