Privacy Policy

Welcome to ChannelTech Inc.'s Privacy Policy for Channels. This Policy explains how we collect and use your data and how you can control your information.

This Policy covers our Channels app, our products, services, and features, and any advertising and commerce initiatives. When you read "Services" in this Policy, we are talking about all of them. Also, if you see us refer to our "Terms", we mean the Terms of Service that you agree to when you sign up for our Services. Finally, if you see the term "User" we are often using it as shorthand for any user of our Services.

Control Over Your Information

Control over your information and settings is a core part of the Channels experience. We want you to be in control of your information, so we provide you with certain tools, including:

• Access and update your information. You can access and edit most of your basic account information right in our Services. Just navigate to your settings and you will see the options available to you;
• Delete your information. You can delete your account. You can also delete some information within our Services;
• Control who can see your content. We have built certain tools that help you choose who you share your content with. In some cases, you may want to share content only with Channel Leaders and Companies, and in other instances, you may also want to share it with other Channel Members or more generally with the public at large;
• Control who can contact you. Channels is intended for professional use by Members, Channel Leaders, and Companies; that's why we've built certain controls that help you decide who can contact you. If you receive unwanted communications, you can always block and report that person;
• Change your permissions. In most cases, you can change your permissions at any time. For example, if you provided access to your phone contacts, you can change that later on in your settings. Of course, if you do that, certain features and Services may not work;
• Opt out of promotional messages. You have the option to opt out or unsubscribe from promotional emails and messages sent by SMS or other messaging platforms. To do so, just follow the instructions in the message like an unsubscribe link or similar functionality.

Information We Collect

When you use our Services, we collect information you provide to us, generate information when you use our Services, and in some cases receive data from others.

Information You Provide

Many of our Services require you to set up an account. To do this, we ask you to provide us with account details (information about you, like your name, username, email address, and phone number). When you set up your profile, you will also allow us to access details from your LinkedIn Profile and you may provide us with additional profile details (like your profile picture) and information. You also provide us with information through the video or videos included in your profile.

If you make a transaction with us for certain Services, we may ask you for payment and related information (like your physical address, payment information, so we can process the payment, and transaction history).

Of course, you'll also provide us with the information you send through or save within our Services. We consider some of this information to be private content and communications. On the other end of the spectrum, some of the information you send through or save within our Services may be public content that is accessible to everyone. Keep in mind that Users who view the content you provide can always screenshot that content, save it, or copy it outside the Channels app. So please do not send messages or share content that you would not want someone to save or share.

Lastly, when you contact Support (content and communications shared with Support), or communicate with us in any other way, including through our research efforts (like responses to surveys, consumer panels, or other research questions) we will collect whatever information you provide or that we need to resolve your question.

Information We Generate When You Use Our Services

When you use our Services, we collect information about which of the Services you HAVE used and how you have used them. This helps us better understand the way our community uses our Services so that we can optimize our offering.

This includes usage information (information about how you interact with our Services) and content information (information about content you create or provide, your engagement with content, your interactions with AI, and metadata — for example, information about the content itself like the date and time it was posted and who viewed it). Content information includes information based on the content of the image, video, or audio.

This also includes device information (such as your hardware or software, operating system, device memory, advertising identifiers, apps installed, browser type, information from device sensors that measure the motion of your device or compasses and microphones, including whether you have headphones connected, and information about your wireless and mobile connections), location information (IP address), information collected by cookies and similar technologies, depending on your settings, (cookies, web beacons (small graphic data that recognize user activity, such as if and how often a user has visited a website), web storage, unique advertising identifiers), and log information (such as details about how you've used our Services, access times, pages viewed, IP address, and unique identifiers like cookies).

If you've explicitly granted device-level permissions, device information may also include information about your device phonebook (contacts and related information), images and other information from your device's camera, photos, and microphone (like the ability to take photos, videos, view stored photos and videos, and access the microphone to record audio while recording video), and location information (precise location through methods like GPS signals).

Data We Receive From Others

The last category of data we collect is information about you that we may receive from others, such as other Users, affiliates, and third parties. This includes linked third-party service data (information we get when you link your Channels account to another service), data from advertisers, app developers, publishers, and other third parties, contact info from other Users or third parties (if another User uploads their contact list which includes your information, we may combine that with other information we have about you to better understand who you may want to communicate with). Or, if you provide us with your contact information, we may use that to determine whether we can communicate with you in other ways, like SMS, email, or other messaging services), and data relating to potential violations of our Terms (we may receive information from third parties, including website publishers, social network providers, law enforcement, and others, about potential violators of our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines).

Other Information, With Your Permission

Additionally, there may be instances when you interact with our Services where we will ask your permission to collect additional information; for example, before accessing your device's contacts or camera roll.

How We Use Information

Among other things, we use the information we collect to provide you with personalized products and Services that we work hard to build and improve.

Operate, Deliver, and Maintain our Services

We use the information we collect in order to operate, deliver, and maintain our Services. We also use some of your information to help keep our products up to date, for example to make sure that our Services work with the latest operating systems and devices.

Personalize Your Experience & Provide Context

We offer personalized Services to Users. One of the ways we do this is by showing you content that is relevant to you or we think you may benefit from based on the information you share with us. To do so, we use information about you across different areas of the Services in order to add context to your Channels experience. For example, we may automatically tag content with labels based on the content, your location, or the time of day.

Information Collected by Cookies and Other Technologies

We may use these technologies to collect information when you interact with Services we offer through one of our partners. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually remove or reject browser cookies through the settings on your browser or device. Keep in mind, though, that removing or rejecting cookies could affect the availability and functionality of the Services.

Develop & Improve Features, Algorithms & Machine Learning Models

We are continually developing new ideas for features and ways to improve our Services. In order to do this, we also develop and improve the algorithms and machine learning models that make our features and Services work, including through generative AI features. We may use algorithms and machine learning models for personalization, safety and security, fairness and inclusivity, advertising, augmented reality, and/or to prevent abuse or other Terms of Service violations.

Analytics

In order to understand what to build or how to improve our Services, we need to understand trends and demand for our features. For example, we monitor metadata and trends about use of Channels to help decide whether we should change parts of features. Studying data from Users can help us see trends in the ways that people use the Services. This helps us to improve Channels on a larger scale. We perform analytics in order to identify, monitor, and analyze trends and usage. Based on this information, we will, among other things, create and develop information about our users to help us understand demand.

Research

We conduct research to better understand general User interests, trends, and how our Services are used by you and others in our community. This information, along with analytics (as described above), helps us understand more about our community and about how our Services fit into the lives of those in our community. We also engage in research and development to develop new techniques and technologies. The results of our research are sometimes used in features on Channels, and we may publish information, articles or papers regarding things like overall behaviors and user trends (which will only have aggregated data across our user base, and not contain any private information about you specifically).

Enhance the Safety & Security of Our Services

We use your information to enhance the safety and security of our Services, verify User identity, and prevent fraud or other unauthorized or illegal activity. For example, we provide two-factor authentication to help protect your account and can send you email or text messages if we notice any suspicious activity. We may also scan URLs sent on Channels to see if that webpage is potentially harmful, and can give you a warning about it.

Contacting You

Sometimes we will get in touch with you for promotional purposes. This includes sending User communications through Channels, email, SMS, or other messaging platforms, where permitted. For example, we may use the Channels app, email, SMS, or other messaging platforms to share information about our Services.

At other times, we need to communicate with you to provide information, alerts, or to send messages our users ask us to deliver at their request. This may include sending communications through the Channels app, email, SMS, or other messaging platforms, where permitted, to deliver account status updates, security alerts, and Chat or reminders; it may also include fulfilling our User's request to send invitations or Channel's content to non-Users.

Support

In order to provide you, the Channels community, and our business partners with the help needed to resolve issues with our Services, we often need to use the information we have collected to respond.

Enforce Our Terms & Policies

We use the data we collect to enforce our Terms and the law. This includes enforcing, investigating, and reporting conduct that violates our Terms, policies, or the law, responding to requests from law enforcement, and complying with legal requirements. In some cases, we may also use or share your information to cooperate with law enforcement requests, escalate safety issues to law enforcement, industry partners, or others, or comply with our legal obligations.

How We Share Information

This section explains who we share information with, what that information may include, and the reasons for sharing that information, including when we need to transfer it outside of the country it was collected from.

Recipients & Reasons for Sharing

To provide our Services to you and our community, we may share information with other Users. See the Control Over Your Information section and your Settings for the controls you have over who sees what and when:

• Public. Many of the features on Channels are private and for Users only. However, we also offer public features. For public features, your content may be discoverable outside of Channels, for example on the web;
• Third-Party Apps. Sometimes we provide features that allow you to connect with third-party apps. If you decide to connect your Channels account with a third-party app, we will share any additional information you direct us to;
• Service Providers. We share information about your activity with our service providers, who process that information on our behalf. For example, we rely on such Service Providers to facilitate payments or measure and optimize the performance of certain aspects of the Services;
• Business and Integrated Partners. We share information about your activity with business and integrated partners in order to provide the Services;
• Anti-Fraud Partners. We may share information about your activity, such as device and usage information, with industry partners working to prevent fraud;
• Legal, Safety, and Security Partners. We share information about your activity as necessary for the following legal, safety, and security reasons:
  • Comply with any valid legal process, governmental request, or applicable law, rule, or regulation;
  • Investigate, remedy, or enforce potential Terms of Service and Community Guidelines violations;
  • Protect the rights, property, or safety of us, our users, or others;
  • Detect and resolve any fraud or security concerns.
• Affiliates. ChannelTech Inc. includes any subsidiaries owned by us. We may share your information within those subsidiaries as needed to carry out our Services;
• For the purposes of a Merger or Acquisition. If we were to sell or negotiate to sell our business to a buyer or possible buyer, we may transfer your personal information to a successor or affiliate as part of that transaction;
• Integrated Partners. Our Services may contain content and integrations offered by integrated partners, such as third-party developer integrations. Through these integrations, you may be providing information to the integrated partner as well as to Channels. We are not responsible for how those partners collect or use your information. As always, we encourage you to review the privacy policies of every third-party service that you visit or use, including those third parties you interact with through our Services.

International Data Transfers

Our Services connect you with Users around the world. To make that possible, we may collect your personal information from, transfer it to, and store and process it in the United States or other countries outside of where you live.

How Long We Keep Your Information

As a general rule, we keep information as long as you tell us to, and otherwise as long as we need it to provide our Services, or as required by law. Whether we retain your data depends on the specific feature, your settings, and how you are using the Services.

Here are some additional factors we consider when we decide how long to keep your information:

• If we need the information to operate or provide our Services. For example, we store your basic account details — like your name, phone number, and email address — to maintain your account;
• To do the things you expect from our Services and as we have described within this Privacy Policy;
• The information itself. For example, we store location information for different lengths of time based on how precise it is and which Services you use;
• How long we need to retain the information to comply with certain legal obligations;
• If we need it for other legitimate purposes, such as to prevent harm, investigate possible violations of our Terms of Service or other policies, investigate reports of abuse, or protect ourselves or others.

In some cases we need to comply with legal requirements to store your data which stops us from deleting your information. For example, if we receive a notice from a court asking us to keep a copy of your content. Other reasons we may be required to keep a copy of your data are if we get reports of abuse or other Terms or policy violations, or if your account, content created by you, or content created with other Users is flagged by others or our systems for abuse or other Terms or policy violations. Finally, we may also keep certain information in backup for a period of time or as required by law.

Our Audience

Our Services are directed at adults, and you must confirm that you are 18 years or older in order to create an account and use our Services. If we have actual knowledge that you are under the age of 18 (or the minimum age at which a person may use the Services in your state, province, or country without parental consent, if greater), we will stop providing Services to you and delete your account and data.

Updates to the Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time, and will notify you if we make any changes we think you should know about.

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will let you know in some way. For example, we may let you know by revising the date at the top of the Privacy Policy that is available on our website and mobile application. Alternatively, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our website's homepages or providing you with an in-app notification). Or we may provide notification in some other way.

Contact Us

Have any questions about the information here?

You can contact us here.