Privacy Policy

January, 10th, 2024

1. INTRODUCTION

This Privacy Policy explains how we and some of the companies we work with collect, use, share and protect information in relation to our mobile services, web site, and any software provided on or in connection with SoftShield VPN services (collectively, the "Service"), and your choices about the collection and use of your information.

By using our Service you understand and agree that we are providing a platform for you to post content, including photos, comments and other materials ("User Content"), to the Service and to share User Content publicly. This means that other Users may search for, see, use, or share any of your User Content that you make publicly available through the Service, consistent with the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use.

Our Policy applies to all visitors, users, and others who access the Service (“Users").

2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect the following types of information:

Information you provide us directly:

• The Application obtains the information you provide when you download and register the Application. Registration with us is optional. However, please keep in mind that you may not be able to use some of the features offered by the Application unless you register with us.

Analytics information:

• We use third-party analytics tools to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Service. These tools collect information sent by your device or our Service, including the web pages you visit, add-ons, and other information that assists us in improving the Service. We collect and use this analytics information with analytics information from other Users so that it cannot reasonably be used to identify any particular individual User.

Cookies and similar technologies:

• When you visit the Service, we may use cookies and similar technologies like pixels, web beacons, and local storage to collect information about how you use SoftShield VPN and provide features to you.

• We may ask advertisers or other partners to serve ads or services to your devices, which may use cookies or similar technologies placed by us or the third party.

Log file information:

Device identifiers:

Metadata:

3. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
In addition to some of the specific uses of information we describe in this Privacy Policy, we may use information that we receive to:

4. SHARING OF YOUR INFORMATION

We will not rent or sell your information to third parties outside SoftShield VPN (or the group of companies of which SoftShield VPN is a part) without your consent, except as noted in this Policy.

Parties with whom we may share your information:

Parties with whom you may choose to share your User Content:

• 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 that you set. To change your privacy settings on the Service, please change your profile setting. Once you have shared User Content or made it public, that User Content may be re-shared by others.

What happens in the event of a change of control:

• If we sell or otherwise transfer part or the whole of SoftShield VPN or our assets to another organization (eg, in the course of a transaction like a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, liquidation), your information such as name and email address, User Content and any other information collected through the Service may be among the items sold or transferred. You will continue to own your User Content. The buyer or transferee will have to honor the commitments we have made in this Privacy Policy.

Responding to legal requests and preventing harm:

• We may access, preserve and share your information in response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena) if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. This may include responding to legal requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction, and is consistent with internationally recognised standards. We may also access, preserve and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity; to protect ourselves, you and others, including as part of investigations; and to prevent death or imminent bodily harm. Information we receive about you may be accessed, processed and retained for an extended period of time when it is the subject of a legal request or obligation, governmental investigation, or investigations concerning possible violations of our terms or policies, or otherwise to prevent harm.

5. HOW LONG WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We generally retain your personal information for as long as is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us and to comply with our legal obligations. If you no longer want us to use your information that we physically access and store, you can request that we erase your personal information and close your account. However, some data may still be stored for a certain time period if information is necessary to comply with legal obligation (taxation, accounting, audit) or in order to maintain safety and data backup settings, prevent fraud or other malicious acts.

6. EXERCISING YOUR RIGHTS

For the data we store and access you are entitled to address us regarding the following issues:

Please bear in mind that we ensure the above mentioned rights only with respect to the information that you submit.

When your personal information that is processed automatically you may object to such processing in some circumstances. Where your personal information is processed for direct marketing purposes, you may ask to cease processing your data for these direct marketing purposes. In order to exercise your right please contact the third party services listed in the “How to contact us” section of this Privacy Policy to learn how you can object to processing your data. Most of them have clear instructions on their privacy pages, functional API or other options.

Please note that you can opt-out of marketing tracking by moving the "Limit Ad Tracking" in the settings on your mobile phone to “on”.

US regional patterns:

Residents of the State of California (USA) have the right to request a list of all third parties to whom our App disclosed certain personal information (in accordance with the laws of the State of California) in the previous year for the purposes of direct marketing of such third parties. If you are a resident of the State of California and want to receive such a list, please contact us through the email displayed below. When submitting such a request, please include in the text of your appeal the wording "Your rights to maintain confidentiality in the state of California", as well as your name, address, city, state, and zip code. In the text of your request, please provide us with sufficient information so that we can determine if the above requirements of the law apply to your situation. You must confirm that you are a resident of the State of California (USA) and provide the current address in the state of California for our response. Please note that we do not accept calls by phone, mail or facsimile, nor are we responsible for calls that are flagged or misdelivered or that do not contain exhaustive information.

7. HOW WE STORE YOUR INFORMATION

Storage and Processing:

8. CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
SoftShield VPN does not knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register for the Service. 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 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.

9. OTHER WEB SITES AND SERVICES

We are not responsible for the practices employed by any websites or services linked to or from our Service, including the information or content contained within them. Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Service to another website or service, our Privacy Policy does not apply to those third-party websites or services. Your browsing and interaction on any third-party website or service, including those that have a link on our website, are subject to that third party's own rules and policies. In addition, you agree that we are not responsible and do not have control over any third-parties that you authorize to access your User Content. If you are using a third-party website or service and you allow them to access your User Content you do so at your own risk.

10. HOW TO EXERCISE MY RIGHTS

If you wish to use any of the rights described below, you may contact us at any time by emailing us at support@softshield.app.

Mandatory verification: We will need to verify your identity before processing your request. However, because you cannot create an account with the App, and you do not provide us with any information directly, we only collect information automatically, we may use limited verification methods. To verify your identity, we will generally require the matching data in our systems to the information we can process when you are making a request. In certain circumstances, we may decline the request, mainly where we are unable to verify your identity, for example, if you disable cookies, changed the device you used to access the App or you already requested us to delete your personal data.

11. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

SoftShield VPN may modify or update this Privacy Policy from time to time, so please review it periodically. We may provide you additional forms of notice of modifications or updates as appropriate under the circumstances. Your continued use of SoftShield VPN or the Service after any modification to this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such modification.

12. HOW TO CONTACT US

If you have any questions or suggestions about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us at support@softshield.app.