Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 2/15/24

At Nerd Culture, we value your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and share your data, including details about how we may sell and share your information to third parties. By using our platform, you agree to the terms outlined in this policy.

Information We Collect

Provided Information

You provide information directly when you create an account, select interests or groups, fill out forms, or contact us. This may include:

Identifiers: Name, username, password, email, postal address, and phone number.

Payment & Commercial Data: Payment details and purchase history (if applicable).

Demographic & Personal Data: Optional details like photos, interests, gender, birthdate, group affiliations, and professional information (e.g., job title, company, years of experience).

While some details, such as gender, birthdate and location, are optional, your group choices are necessary for account management.

Some group affiliations may indicate sensitive personal details, such as political beliefs or health conditions. Such data is handled in accordance with applicable laws. Posting others’ personal or sensitive information without consent violates community guidelines.

Information Collected Automatically

When you use the platform, certain data is collected automatically, including:

Log Data: Browser type, access time, session duration, viewed pages, IP address, and referral page.
Device Data: Hardware model, operating system, unique device identifiers, and mobile network details.
Geolocation Data: With your consent, location information may be collected when you enable location services. Approximate location may also be determined based on IP address.
Cookies & Tracking Technologies: Cookies and pixel tags are used to enhance user experience and track engagement. See the Cookie Policy for more details.
Other Data: With permission, additional device information may be accessed, such as photos or calendar data.

How We Use Your Data

Operations

We use the data we collect for the following purposes:

To provide, maintain, and improve our platform’s features and services
To personalize your experience and show relevant content
To display display information about you, for instance, your list of interests, which will be visible on your profile
To communicate with you, including sending notifications and updates
To improve our platform and user experience through analytics
To detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, and illegal activities; protect rights, property, and safety; enforce policies; comply with laws and government requests; and handle accounting, administration, and legal claims.

Communications

We may use your information for business purposes, including:

Communication: Responding to inquiries, providing customer support, and notifying you about updates, security alerts, and administrative messages
Engagement: Sending you relevant news, surveys, and event notifications based on your preferences and location
Marketing & Advertising: Providing personalized content, promotions, and advertising on and off the platform
Operations & Compliance: Managing accounts, enforcing policies, preventing fraud, and complying with legal obligations

Legal Basis for Processing

Our processing of personal data will depend on the context and respective legal requirements:

Service Delivery: To fulfill our Terms of Service, such as enabling group participation and sending critical updates
Legitimate Interests: For direct marketing, fraud prevention, security, customer communication, and platform improvements
Consent & Sensitive Data: If you voluntarily share sensitive information (e.g., health, religion, political views), we process it based on your explicit consent or public disclosure
Legal & Safety Obligations: When required by law, legal processes, or to protect vital interests

Platform

We display certain information on the platform based on your profile and account settings. Some details, like your username, are always public. Others, such as interests, are public by default but can be hidden. Group memberships are visible to fellow members and may be public, depending on group settings. Before joining a group, review its visibility settings to understand what information will be shared. Public information on the platform may also be visible outside of it.

Groups

Groups may become part of larger networks managed by administrators. These administrators can access group content, including participant information, to facilitate communication and management.

Service Providers

We use service providers to support platform operations, such as payment processing, email distribution, surveys, advertising, and customer support. These providers may process and store data on our behalf under confidentiality agreements.

We may share usage data with partners who provide analytics and advertising services, using tools like cookies and pixels. This helps deliver relevant ads and insights. Users in certain regions may have the right to opt out of targeted advertising.

Legal Compliance and Protection

We may disclose your information to government authorities or third parties if required by law, regulation, legal process, or audits. We may also share data if necessary to enforce our policies, prevent fraud, or protect the rights, property, or safety of our platform and users.

Our platform may integrate with social media and other third-party services, allowing you to share activities. Your settings on those services determine what is shared. Third-party privacy policies govern their handling of shared data.

Business Transfers and Affiliates

In the event of a merger, acquisition, restructuring, bankruptcy, or asset sale, your information may be shared or transferred. We may also share data with current or future affiliates.

Data Security

Nerd Culture is based in the U.S., and your information may be transferred to and processed in the U.S. or other countries with different data protection laws than your own. Some of these laws may offer less protection. We implement safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, to ensure your information remains protected in line with this Privacy Policy.

Security Measures

We use technical and organizational safeguards to protect your information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, modification, or loss. This includes:

Secure servers with access controls.
Employee training on data privacy policies.
Firewalls and network vulnerability testing.

However, no online transmission or storage method is completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your account password complex, secure, and confidential. To reset your password, use the “Forgot your password?” link on the login page.

Data Retention

We may temporarily deactivate accounts inactive for three months or more. You can contact us to see if your account is eligible for reactivation.

We retain certain data, even after account deletion, for purposes such as:

Allowing continued use of our Platform.
Honoring communication opt-out requests.
Processing refunds if applicable.
Providing accounting details to group organizers.
Analyzing Platform traffic for user experience improvements.
Preventing fraud, abuse, and policy violations.
Meeting legal, tax, and compliance obligations.

When data is no longer needed, we delete, de-identify, or anonymize it per applicable laws.

Policy Scope

This Privacy Policy does not cover information shared with third parties, such as other members, group organizers, or network administrators. Our Platform may link to or integrate third-party services (e.g., social media platforms), which have their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party data handling.

Members, including group organizers and network administrators, must comply with applicable privacy laws when collecting and processing data for group or network management.

Policy Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. The latest version will always be available, with the date of revision clearly indicated. If significant changes occur, we may notify you via email or a prominent notice on our Platform.

Selling Your Data

To keep our platform free of charge, we may sell your personal data to third-party advertisers, marketing firms, or data brokers to monetize our platform. This may include sharing data such as your browsing behavior, preferences, and demographic information within our platform.

We will notify users if any additional data-sharing purposes arise and obtain consent where applicable.

Your Rights and Choices

Opt-Out of Data Sales: If you wish to delete your personal data, you can opt-out by contacting support@nerdculture.com. By creating an account, you are consenting to your data potentially being sold to third party services.
Access and Correction: You have the right to access, update, or correct your personal information by logging into your account.
Data Deletion: You can request the deletion of your personal data by contacting us at support@nerdculture.com.
Withdraw Consent: You can withdraw your consent to our data processing at any time. However, please note that withdrawing consent may limit your ability to fully use our platform.

Organizers and Nerd Culture employees have the ability to delete groups. Organizers should confer with members of the group before it is deleted. Once a group is deleted, all associated content and data is permanently removed.

Your Rights Depending on Your Jurisdiction

Access, correction, or deletion of your personal information
Appeal a decision regarding an access, correction, or deletion request
Opt-out of targeted advertising as described in our Cookie Policy
Object to processing, request restrictions, or request data portability
Opt-out of marketing emails by clicking “unsubscribe” or updating your account settings
Withdraw consent where applicable (does not affect prior lawful processing)
File a complaint with a data protection authority

Exercising your rights will not result in discrimination, but some platform features may become unavailable.

California Disclosures

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) requires us to provide additional privacy-related information and rights to residents of California.

The “Information We Collect” section lists the categories of personal information we have collected and used from and about California residents in the preceding 12 months.

The section “How we use your data?” lists who we have shared personal information within the preceding 12 months for the following purposes:

to provide and improve the Nerd Culture site and products;
to communicate with you for Nerd Culture support, including with helpdesk tickets;
for payment processing;
to support the marketing and operations of Nerd Culture
for security and compliance reasons, including monitoring forum posts, in-game chat logs, private messages, and wish lists; and
to meet our legal requirements.

The personal information we collect, use, and share corresponds with the following categories of personal information provided under the CCPA:

Identifiers including name, username, IP address, email address, and account number;
Information that identifies or is capable of being associated with under the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e));
Internet and network activity information; and
Inferences drawn from any of your personal information collected reflecting your preferences and profile.

Subject to certain exceptions, California residents have the right to: (i) request access to your personal information; and (ii) request deletion of your personal information. If you want to exercise your CCPA rights, please visit our web form or contact us and include “CCPA Request” in the subject line of your email at:

Attn: Data Protection Officer [Data Protection Officer Name] team@[platformname].net

We try to respond to all requests within 10 days. To protect your privacy, we may need additional information so we can verify your identity before fulfilling your request. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. More information on “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” can be found on our data privacy page.

We value your privacy and your rights as a data subject and have therefore appointed Prighter Group with its local partners as our privacy representative and your point of contact for the following regions:

European Union (EU) Prighter gives you an easy way to exercise your privacy-related rights (e.g., requests to access or erase personal data). If you want to contact us via our representative, Prighter, or make use of your data subject rights, please visit the following website: https://prighter.com/q/11872087840

International Users

If you reside in the European Union, you have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), including:

The right to be informed about the personal information we collect and how we use it;
The right to access your personal information;
The right to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information;
The right to request deletion of your personal information;
The right to restrict or object to our processing of your personal information;
The right to data portability;
The right to withdraw consent at any time;
The right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

To exercise your GDPR rights, please visit our web form or contact us by email, including “GDPR Request” in the subject line, at:

Attn: Data Protection Officer dpo@nerdculture.com

We strive to respond within 10 days. To protect your privacy, we may request additional information to verify your identity before processing your request.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies to collect information about your usage of our platform and to provide targeted advertising. You can manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings. You can learn more about the types of cookies we and our service providers use by reading our Cookie Policy.

Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your data, but no system can be completely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted to or from our platform.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated “Effective Date.” We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Nerd Culture
Email: support@nerdculture.com