Welcome to stck.me!

A creator is everyone who creates content (text, images, audio, video, or other forms) on stck.me and offers it to users for free, by registration, or for a fee.

Simply Put

Welcome, here is our policy on privacy. Our privacy policy, if you will.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect information that applies to our Service, and your choices about the collection and use of your information. Capitalized terms that are not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meaning given to them in our Terms of Use. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy in general or any part of it, you should not use services.

Summary

This policy sets out how stck.me collects and uses the information that we collect about you when you use the stck.me services. This policy also explains the choices that you can make about the way that we use your information.

1. Information we collect and its use

We collect the following types of information about you:

(a) Information you provide us directly

Simply Put

If you give us info about you, we will keep it and use it to provide our Service and make our service better.

We may ask for certain information such as a username, your first and last names, birthdate, phone number, profession and e-mail address when you register for a stck.me account, or if you correspond with us. We also collect any messages you send us through the Service, and may collect information you provide in Content you post to the Service (such as text and photos you upload to use in your stories or comments). We use this information to operate, maintain, and provide the features and functionality of the Service to you, to correspond with you, and to address any issues you raise about the Service.

(b) Information we receive from third parties

Simply Put

When you use our Service, third parties might give us some info about you, especially if you are signed into a third party account while using our Service. When you choose to link your social media account with our Service such as by logging in through Facebook or Gmail, your social media account provider (such as Google and Facebook) will give us some info about you such as your Facebook user identification number.

We may receive information about you from third parties. For example, if you access our websites or Service through a third-party connection or log-in, for example, through Facebook Connect, by “following,” “liking,” linking your account to the stck.me Service, etc., that third party may pass certain information about your use of its service to stck.me. This information could include, but is not limited to, the user ID associated with your account (for example, your Facebook UID), an access token necessary to access that service, any information that you have permitted the third party to share with us, and any information you have made public in connection with that service. You should always review, and if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third-party websites and services before linking or connecting them to the stck.me Service. You may also unlink your third party account from the Service by adjusting your settings on the third party service. If you unlink your third party account, we will no longer receive information collected about you in connection with that service.

(c) Information we collect from you automatically

Simply Put

To help us improve our service we keep info about how you use our service.

We will directly collect analytics data, or use third-party analytics tools, to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Service. These tools collect information sent by your browser or mobile device, including the pages you visit and other information (in respect of which, please see the paragraph on log file information below) that assists us in improving the Service. For more information on the analytics cookies we use and how to opt out of third parties collecting this information, please see our Cookies Policy.

(d) Cookies information and information taken from similar technologies

Simply Put

We will send cookies (not the yummy kind) to your web browser to help you use stck.me. If you would like to adjust your cookie settings, please consult your browser instructions. For more information on how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.

When you visit the Service, we will send cookies — small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters — to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser and lets stck.me help you log in faster and enhance your navigation through the site. A cookie may also convey information to us about how you use the Service (e.g., the pages you view, the links you click and other actions you take on the Service), and allow us or our business partners to track your usage of the Service over time.

You can control or reset your cookies and similar technologies through your web browser, which will allow you to customise your cookie preferences and to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features of the Service may not function properly if the ability to accept cookies is disabled. For more information on how we use cookies and other technologies and how you can control them, please read our Cookies Policy.

(e) Log file information

Simply Put

Whenever you load a page from stck.me, your browser sends us info about itself and your interactions with our Service. That info gets stored on our servers.

Log file information is automatically reported by your browser or mobile device each time you access the Service. When you use our Service, our servers automatically record certain log file information. These server logs may include anonymous information such as your web request, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks and how you interact with links on the Service, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, and other such information.

(f) Clear gifs/web beacons information

Simply Put

We might do clever stuff with images in order to check how many people open our emails and visit our site.

When you use the Service, we may employ clear GIFs (also known as web beacons) which are used to anonymously track the online usage patterns of our Users. In addition, we may also use clear GIFs in HTML-based emails sent to our users to track which emails are opened and which links are clicked by recipients. This information allows for more accurate reporting and improvement of the Service.

(g) Device identifiers

Simply Put

In order to track how different people are using our Service we might store a unique ID on your mobile that helps us do that.

When you access the Service by or through a mobile device (including but not limited to smart-phones or tablets), we may access, collect, monitor and/or remotely store one or more “device identifiers,” such as a universally unique identifier (“UUID”). Device identifiers are small data files or similar data structures stored on or associated with your mobile device, which uniquely identify your mobile device. A device identifier may be data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device’s operating system or other software, or data sent to the device by stck.me. A device identifier may convey information to us about how you browse and use the Service. A device identifier may remain persistently on your device, to help you log in faster and enhance your navigation through the Service. Some features of the Service may not function properly if use or availability of device identifiers is impaired or disabled. Device Identifiers used by stck.me include the Android Advertising ID and iOS Advertising Identifier.

(g) Partners and advertisers share information with us

Simply Put

Our partners and advertisers also share information with us to make your experience better, and provide you with useful, targeted advertising.

We also get information about you and your activity outside stck.me from our affiliates, advertisers, partners and other third parties we work with. For example:

  • Some websites or apps use stck.me features such as our “XYZ” button, or you may install our “XYZ” button for your browser. If so, we collect log data from those sites or apps. You can learn more about these features at our Help Center.

  • Online advertisers or third parties share information with us to measure, report on or improve the performance of ads on stck.me, or to figure out what kinds of ads to show you on or off of stck.me. This includes information about your visits to an advertiser's site or purchases you made from them, or information about your interests from a third-party service, which we might use to help show you ads. Learn more about the types of information advertisers or other third parties share with us.

(h) Location data

Simply Put

We’ll use your location to offer you a personalised service.

You may enter your location in your profile when you sign up for a stck.me account. Location data will convey to us information about how you browse and use the Service and enable us to offer you localised content.

(i) Clickstream data

Simply Put

We’ll infer about your interests and passion based on your activity.

When you’re on stck.me, we use your activity—such as which stories you click on, collections you create, and any text that you add in a comment or description—along with information you provided when you first signed up and information from our partners and advertisers to make inferences about you and your preferences. For example, if you create a collection about bitcoin, we may infer you are a crypto currency enthusiast. We may also infer information about your education or professional experience based on your activity when you link your account to accounts you have with third parties like Facebook or Google.

2. How we use your information

Simply Put

These are the reasons that stck.me needs to use information about you.

We use the information we collect about you for the purposes set out above which we have described in more detail below:

  • Providing you with the Service: We use the information that you provide us to provide the Service to you. This includes allowing you to log in to stck.me, operating and maintaining the Service, giving you access to your designs and billing you for transactions that you make via the Service. We also use information we collect about you automatically to remember information about you so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site.

  • For data analytics: We use information about you to help us improve the stck.me Service and our users’ experience, including by monitoring aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns.

  • Customising the Service for you: We use information you provide us and information about you to make sure that your use of the Service is customised to your needs. For example, if you tell us your profession to recommend stories that are likely to be relevant to you.

  • To communicate with you about the Service: We use your contact information to get in touch with you and to send communications about critical elements of the Service. For example, we may send you emails about technical issues, security alerts or administrative matters.

  • To promote and drive engagement with the stck.me Service: We use your contact information to get in touch with you about features and offers relating to the Service that we think you would be interested in. We also use information we collect about you to make sure that you get the most relevant offers and promotions based on your use of the Service, and your preferences. You can opt-out of getting these communications as described below.

  • Customer happiness: We use information about you, information that you provide to our customer happiness team, and information about your interactions with the Service to resolve technical issues you experience with the Service, and to ensure that we can repair and improve the Service for all stck.me users.

  • For security measures: We use information about you to monitor activity that we think is suspicious or potentially fraudulent, and to identify violations or this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Service.

  • For matters that you have specifically consent to: From time to time stck.me may seek your consent to use your information for a particular purpose. Where you consent to our doing so, we will use it for that purpose. Where you no longer want us to use your information for that purpose you may withdraw your consent to this use.

  • For matters that we are required to use your information by law: stck.me will use or disclose your information where we reasonably believe that such action is necessary to (a) comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement; (b) to enforce our Terms of Use or to protect the security or integrity of our Service; and/or (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of stck.me, our Users or others.

We have a legitimate interest in delivering ads that are relevant, interesting and personal to you in order to generate revenue. To further these interests we use the information we collect to:

  • Decide which ads to show you. For example, if you show an interest in rustic travel stories on stck.me, we may show you ads for other outdoor products. We customize the ad content we show you by identifying your interests based on your onsite and offsite activities, as well as by using information we receive from ad partners or other third parties. Where we use cookies to identify your offsite interests, we’ll get your consent where we need to. Where ad partners or other third parties share information with us about you, we rely on the consent they already obtained.

  • Tell our ad partners how their stck.me ads are doing, and how to make them better. Some of this information is aggregated. For example, we would report to an advertiser that a certain percentage of people who viewed a promoted story went on to visit that advertiser's site. In other instances, this information isn’t aggregated. For example, we would let an advertiser know that a particular promoted story has been saved by certain people. To find out more about reporting on ads please visit the Help Center.

We have a legitimate interest in using information we collect to customize your stck.me experience based on your offsite behavior. For example, if you visit websites that specializes in kids clothing, we may suggest parenting stories to you. When we identify your interests based on your offsite behavior with cookies, we will obtain any consent that we may need. To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.

Legal bases for processing information under the GDPR (for users in the EEA)

Simply Put

GDPR, you may have heard of it? It’s kind of a big deal. If you are accessing our Service from the EEA, we process your personal data:

(i) where this is necessary to provide the Service to you

(ii) where it is in our legitimate interests

(iii) where you consent

(iv) where it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations.

For stck.me users in the European Economic Area (EEA) stck.me processes your information in accordance with European laws and regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR governs how stck.me may process your information, and the rights that EEA users have in relation to it.

This means that stck.me will collect and use your information only where:

  • We need it to provide you the Service and fulfil our obligations to you under our Terms of Service. This includes providing you with access to the information that you create across any content on stck.me.

  • It is in our legitimate interests to provide a useful Service, to send you marketing and to enhance our Service via research and development (but only where our legitimate interest isn’t overridden by your interest in protecting your data).

  • You consent to us using your information in a certain way – for example, to hear about new features or offers.

  • It is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations.

If you have consented to our use of your information you can withdraw that consent at any time. Depending on the situation you can either withdraw your consent by emailing community@stck.me, or through your account settings page. Where we are using your information because of a legitimate interest to do so, you have the right to object to that use. However, if you do so it may mean that it is not possible for you to continue using the Services.

For the purposes of the GDPR, stck.me Pvt Ltd is the data controller with registered address at XYZ and our local representative is European Data Protection Office (EDPO) with registered address at XYZ. If you have any queries about our Privacy Policy, please contact community@stck.me

3. Sharing your information

We will not rent or sell your information to third parties outside stck.me and its group companies (including any parent, subsidiaries and affiliates) without your consent, except as noted in this section:

Simply Put

We won’t share your personal information without your permission except in a few cases mentioned below. We might share some information on you with our business partners and third party service providers, but only as necessary to provide the service to you or to fulfil stck.me’s legitimate business interests.

(a) Who we share your information with

We share your information with third-party service providers for the purpose of providing the Service to you and to facilitate stck.me’s legitimate interests in providing a service which is useful to you. Those service providers will only be provided with access to your information as is reasonably necessary for the purpose that stck.me has engaged the service provider, and we will require that such third parties comply with this Privacy Policy, appropriate data processing terms and any applicable laws.

Some of the third parties that stck.me may share your personal information with include providers who assist stck.me with functions such as:

  • Billing;

  • Customer support and customer management;

  • Email services;

  • Hosting and storage;

  • Analytics; and

  • Delivery of physical products;

(b) Who you can choose to share your content with

Summary

By default all stories you post on stck.me is private. If you do choose to publish your stories, that information may remain visible even after you remove it via cached and archived pages, or if other users have made copies.

Any information or content that you voluntarily disclose for posting to the Service, such as User Content, becomes available to the public, as controlled by any applicable privacy settings. Subject to your profile and privacy settings, any User Content that you make public is searchable by other Users. If you remove information that you posted to the Service, copies remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Service, or if other Users have copied or saved that information.

You may share your stck.me stories to your social media accounts, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr. You should ensure that you familiarise yourself with the privacy policies of each of these services and any privacy settings that may apply to the designs you choose to share on those accounts.

(c) Sharing with other third parties

Simply Put

These ones speak for themselves.

stck.me will also share your information with third parties in certain circumstances, such as where:

  • we are required to do so as a result of a court order, subpoena or other legal requirement;

  • we believe that it is necessary to protect you or stck.me, such as where we consider that there is a need to investigate potentially fraudulent or criminal activity;

  • you have consented to our sharing it with a third party for a particular purpose;

  • you or your account administrator elects to install third party apps that interact with our Service. For example, you may install a third-party document sharing app in order to store, share and edit content through our Service. These third-party apps are not controlled by us, and this privacy policy does not cover how third-party apps use your information. You should review the terms and conditions of any third party apps before connecting them to the Service. If you object to information about you being shared with these third parties, do not install the app.

Simply Put

If we sell our business, any of the info which we’ve acquired about you may be part of the sale.

stck.me will also share your information with a third party in circumstances where we sell, divest or transfer stck.me (including any shares in stck.me), or any combination of its products, services, assets and/or businesses to a third party. Information such as customer names and email addresses, User Content and other user information related to the Service may be among the items sold or otherwise transferred in these types of transactions. We will also sell, assign or otherwise transfer such information in the event of corporate divestitures, mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies, dissolutions, reorganisations, liquidations, similar transactions or proceedings involving all or a portion of stck.me. You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on the Service if such a transaction takes place and be given notice of any material changes to the way we handle your data under this policy.

We may also aggregate or otherwise strip data of all personally identifying characteristics and may share that aggregated, anonymized data with third parties.

4. Ads on stck.me

Simply Put

For ads on our site, we might use some of your info to show you appropriate ads. We may also use some of that info to send you relevant ads on other sites, like Facebook or Google.

We may share certain information such as your location, browser and cookie data and other data relating to your use of our Service with our business partners to deliver personalized advertisements (“ads”) that may be of interest to you. Please see our Cookies Policy for more information. stck.me may allow third-party ad servers or ad networks to serve personalized advertisements either on the Service or on third party websites, including Facebook and Google. These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to send, directly to your browser or mobile device, these personalized ads and ad links, and will automatically receive your IP address when they do so. They may also use other technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, device identifiers, location data, and clear gifs, see above) to compile information about your browser’s or device’s visits and usage patterns on the Service, and to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize the advertising content. stck.me does not sell, rent, or share the information we collect directly from you or about you from third parties with these third-party ad servers or ad networks for such parties’ own marketing purposes.

Please note that an advertiser may ask stck.me to show an ad to a certain audience of Users (e.g., based on demographics or other interests). In that situation, stck.me determines the target audience and stck.me serves the advertising to that audience and only provides anonymous aggregated data to the advertiser. If you respond to such an ad, the advertiser or ad server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience they are trying to reach.

The stck.me Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, third-party advertisers. Please consult the respective privacy policies of such advertisers or contact such advertisers for more information.

5. How we transfer, store and protect your data

Summary

To run our service we’ll have to use computers all over the world. This means your information might be transferred to the US, India, Europe and anywhere else the service is operated.

Your information collected through the Service will be stored and processed in the United States, India and any other country in which stck.me or its subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities. stck.me transfers information that we collect about you, including personal information, to affiliated entities, and to other third parties across borders and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world. As a result, we may transfer information, including personal information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, and you consent to the transfer of information to the U.S. or any other country in which stck.me or its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities and the use and disclosure of information about you as described in this Privacy Policy.

6. Cross-border transfers of information (for users in the EEA)

Simply Put

We transfer your information outside the EEA subject to appropriate safeguards.

For Users in the EEA, where we transfer your information to a third party provider that is not located in the EEA, and is not subject to an adequacy decision by the EU Commission, we will require those third party providers to enter into an agreement that provides appropriate safeguards for your information, including by using the EU Model Clauses.

7. Keeping your information safe

Simply Put

We care about the safety of your data and, have implemented industry recognized measures to protect it, but unfortunately we can’t guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen to it.

stck.me cares about the security of your information, and uses appropriate safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of all information collected through the Service. To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you access to your account. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information, and for controlling access to your email communications from stck.me, at all times. However, stck.me cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to stck.me or guarantee that information on the Service may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed. Your privacy settings may also be affected by changes to the functionality of third party sites and services that you add to the stck.me Service, such as social networks. stck.me is not responsible for the functionality or security measures of any third party.

For more information about stck.me security, please visit Security at stck.me.

8. Compromise of information

Simply Put

If there is a breach of our security we will investigate it and let any affected users know.

In the event that any information under our control is compromised as a result of a breach of security, stck.me will take reasonable steps to investigate the situation and where appropriate, notify those individuals whose information may have been compromised and take other steps, in accordance with any applicable laws and regulations.

9. Your choices about your information

Summary

You have control over your account settings, such as your account information and email notifications, but there’s some important stuff we’ll always send you. If you have any questions about reviewing or modifying your account information, you can contact us directly at community@stck.me.

(a) You control your account information and settings

You may update your account information by logging into your account and changing your profile settings. You can also stop receiving promotional email communications from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe link” provided in such communications. We make every effort to promptly process all unsubscribe requests.

You may not opt out of Service-related communications (e.g., account verification, purchase and billing confirmations and reminders, changes/updates to features of the Service, technical and security notices) although you can object to us providing these emails by emailing community@stck.me.

If you have any questions about reviewing or modifying your account information, you can contact us directly at community@stck.me.

(b) Opting out of collection of your information

Simply Put

If you want us to stop collecting information about you, there may be some settings you can adjust in your browser or device. Be aware though, stck.me might not be very exciting without it.

Please refer to your mobile device or browser’s technical information for instructions on how to delete and disable cookies, and other tracking/recording tools. Depending on your type of device, it may not be possible to delete or disable tracking mechanisms on your mobile device. Note that disabling cookies and/or other tracking tools prevents stck.me or its business partners from tracking your browser’s activities in relation to the Service, and for use in targeted advertising activities by stck.me, including via third parties’ websites. However, doing so may disable many of the features available through the Service. If you have any questions about opting out of the collection of cookies and other tracking/recording tools, please read our Cookies Policy or you can contact us directly at community@stck.me.

(c) Rights in respect of your Information

Simply Put

You may have specific rights in relation to your information depending on where you live. In particular, if you are located in the EEA, in certain circumstances you have a right to request a copy of your information, object to your use of information and a right to request that your information be deleted or that we restrict access to it.

The laws of some countries grant particular rights in respect of personal information. In certain circumstances, users in the EEA have the right to:

  • Request a copy of your information;

  • Request that we correct inaccuracies relating to your information;

  • Request that your information be deleted or that we restrict access to it;

  • Request a structured electronic version of your information; and

  • Object to our use of your information.

Should you wish to make a request in respect of your personal information please contact us at community@stck.me. You also have the right to object to our processing of personal data about you in order to send you marketing and we will stop processing data for that purpose.

In some circumstances stck.me will not be able to comply with a request that you make in respect of your personal data. For example, we may not be able to provide a copy of your information where it infringes on the rights of another User. We may also be required to retain certain information that you ask us to delete for various reasons, such as where there is a legal requirement to do so. In some cases, you may have shared your information with third parties, such as by publishing a design on a third party’s website. In that case stck.me will not be able to delete the information, and you will need to contact that third party directly.

If we are unable to resolve your request, or if you are concerned about a potential violation, you also have the option to report the issue or make a complaint to the data protection authority in your jurisdiction. Where you have provided your consent to certain processing and no longer want us to use your information for that purpose, you may withdraw your consent to this use, although this will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. Please see paragraph “You control your account information and settings” for more options on how to opt-out of marketing communications.

10. How long we keep your information

Simply Put

We retain your profile information and user content for the purpose of providing our Service to you and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Following termination or deactivation of your stck.me account, stck.me will retain your profile information and User Content for a commercially reasonable time, and for as long as we have a valid purpose to do so. In particular, stck.me will retain your information for the purpose of complying with its legal and audit obligations, and for backup and archival purposes.

11. Children’s privacy

Simply Put

What we say below is already simple enough.

stck.me does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from children under the age of 13 and the Service and its content are not directed at children under the age of 13. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at community@stck.me.

12. Links to other websites and services

Simply Put

The Internet is full of links of all kinds. If we post a link to a third party website on stck.me, we can’t control what happens on the other end. The same goes if you let another site use your data on stck.me; the use of your information will be governed by the Privacy Policy of the third party.

We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites or services linked to or from the Service, including the information or content contained therein. Please remember that when you use a link to go from the Service to another website, our Privacy Policy does not apply to third-party websites or services. Your browsing and interaction on any third-party website or service, including those that have a link or advertisement on our website, are subject to that third party’s own rules and policies. In addition, you agree that we are not responsible for and we do not exercise control over any third-parties that you authorize to access your User Content. If you are using a third-party website or service (like Facebook) and you allow such a third-party access to your User Content you do so at your own risk. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information we collect by other means (including offline) or from other sources other than through the Service.

13. California users’ Privacy Rights

Simply Put

The CCPA creates new consumer rights for Californian users as of 1 January 2020.

Californian users of stck.me have additional rights afforded to them under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Categories of personal information collected by stck.me

For more details about the personal information stck.me has collected in the past year, please see section 1 “Information we collect and its use”. For details on how we use that information, and who we share it with, please see section 2 “How we use your information” and section 3 “Sharing your information”.

stck.me does not “sell” (as defined in the CCPA) the personal information of stck.me users.

Making a request in relation to your personal information

The CCPA gives California consumers various rights with respect to the personal information we collect, including the right to (subject to certain limitations):

  • Request to access the personal information stck.me has about you; and

  • Request that stck.me delete all of your personal information.

California users may make a request by contacting us at community@stck.me. We will authenticate your request using the email address associated with your stck.me account and if necessary, proof of residency.

14. Changes to this Policy

Simply Put

We won’t make any major changes to our Privacy Policy without giving you the heads up – but it’s still a good idea to visit this page every now and then.

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect our current practice and ensure compliance with applicable laws. When we post changes to this policy, we will revise the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy. If we make any material changes to the way we collect, use, store and/or share your personal information, we will notify you by prominently posting notice of the changes on our website and/or sending an email to the email address associated with your stck.me account. We recommend that you check this page from time to time to inform yourself of any changes.

(Last Updated on March 11th, 2020)