Version: 1 July 2023

In this privacy policy, we want to help you understand how and why Topicks Pty Ltd ("Topicks,” "we”, “our” or "us”) collects, uses, and shares information about you when you use our sites, mobile apps, widgets, and other online products and services (collectively, the "Services") or when you otherwise interact with us or receive a communication from us.

Topicks is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our social media mobile application (the "App"). By using the App, you consent to the data practices described in this policy. We recommend that you read this Privacy Notice in full to ensure you are fully informed.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the updated policy on our website or through the App. Please review this policy periodically for any updates. If you continue to use Topicks after those changes are in effect, you agree to the new policy.

Information we collect

When you join Topicks and interact with our services We may collect personal information that you provide directly to us, such as your name, username, email address, and profile information including photos, comments and any other information you give us. We may also collect information about your use of the App, such as your interactions, comments, and content you share.

Topicks will use your IP address, which is used to approximate your location. You have the option to share other information about yourself such as your gender preference, age range, postcode, interests and hobbies which not mandatory information and can be changed at any time. If you connect via Facebook or Google or another third party option we may use this information which is dependent on the privacy policies or settings and identifiers for those accounts.

Technical Information collected when you use our services

Using the mobile application or website will mean certain electronic data will get logged automatically when you are using it. Analytics reports help you understand clearly how your users behave. Example of data includes;

•  Number of users and sessions

• Session duration

• Operating systems

• IP address and language

• Identifiers associated with cookies or other technologies that may identify your device

• Referring pages

• Number of users and sessions

• Operating systems

• Device models

• Geography

• First launches

• App opens

• App updates

• In-app purchases (if applicable)

• Information you provide voluntarily

From time to time, we may receive personal information about you from third party sources. The App does use third party services that declare their Terms and Conditions.

Amazon Web Services - their privacy policy can be viewed at https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/

Google Firebase - their privacy policy can be viewed at www.firebase.google.com

Square (their privacy policy can be viewed at https://squareup.com/au/en/legal/general/privacy).

How We Use Information

We may use the information we collect from you for various purposes, including to provide and improve the App, personalise your experience, communicate with you, and analyze usage patterns. We may also use your information to comply with legal obligations, protect our rights, and enforce our policies. Other uses of information are detailed below;

• Provide, maintain, and improve the Services;

• Help protect the safety of our users, which includes blocking suspected spammers, addressing abuse, and enforcing the Terms of Use and Community guidelines and any our other applicable policies;

• To conduct business planning, reporting, and forecasting.

• Research and develop new services;

• Send you, updates, security alerts, and other support and administrative messages;

• Provide customer service;

• Communicate with you about products, services, offers, promotions, and events, and provide other news and information we think will be of interest to you;

• Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Services

• For the administration of our business including for fulfilling and exercising our obligations and rights

• To verify your identity and to detect fraud and potential fraud

• To detect, prevent and address technical issues.

How We Share Information

Much of the information on the Services is public and accessible to everyone. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect personal information from you, or may otherwise need the personal information to protect your vital interests or those of another person. If we collect and use information it is to provide additional functionality, to ensure appropriate security or to implement content warnings and content moderation.

We may share your information with third parties for specific purposes, such as with service providers who assist us in operating the App or with your consent. We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

Push Notification

With your consent, we may send push notifications or alerts to your mobile device. You can deactivate these messages at any time by changing the notification settings on your mobile device or within the application.

Security of Information

We take reasonable measures to protect your information from unauthorized access or disclosure. However, no data transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. For this reason please be mindful of content shared.

Account Information Rights

You have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal information. If you create a Topicks account, your account will have a username, which you provide or which was randomly generated. Your username is public, and it does not have to be related to your real name.

When you use Topicks, you may provide other optional information. We may ask you to select interests (e.g. history, nature, sports). You may also provide other information, such as a bio, gender, age, location, or profile picture. This information is optional and may be removed at any time through account settings.

Topicks reserves the right to remove/block/deactivate accounts and comments if information if it is in breach of terms and conditions of use or potential breach of laws.

Location Information

We may receive and process information about your location. We may receive location information from you when you choose to share such information on our Services, including by associating your content with a location, or we may derive an approximate location based on your IP address.

Use of Cookies

We use cookies (small files stored on your device) created both by us and third parties. Cookies allow us to:

• Measure traffic and visitor behaviour

• Understand the impact of our online advertising and social channels

• Use remarketing and audience targeting

The cookies identify your browser or device, not you personally.

Examples of the information we might collect when you visit our site includes:

• the operating system and browser you are using

• the address of the referring site (the previous site you visited that linked to ours, typically a search engine)

• your IP address (the network address of your internet connection)

• the date and time of your visit

• how you interacted with our site

• Demographic and interest reports may be generated including characteristics such as your age, gender and location

We may receive information from cookies, which are pieces of data your browser stores and sends back to us when making requests, and similar technologies. We use this information to deliver and maintain our services and our site, improve your experience, understand user activity, personalize content and advertisements, measure the effectiveness of advertising, and improve the quality of our Services.

We partner with service providers that perform audience measurement to learn demographic information about the population that uses Topicks. To provide this demographic information, these companies collect cookie information to recognize your device. If you prefer not to receive cookies, you can adjust your browser settings. However, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the website.   

General Data Protection Regulations

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is a data protection and privacy regulation that came into effect in the European Union (EU) on May 25, 2018. The GDPR applies to all companies, including social media companies, that process personal data of individuals located in the EU, regardless of where the company is based. This covers users in the European Economic Area (EEA). As required by applicable law, we collect and process information about individuals in the EEA only where we have a legal basis for doing so. Our legal bases depend on the Services you use and how you use them.

Topicks collect personal data for legitimate purposes and is provided with your consent. Information means legitimate interest, or contractual necessity for functionality of the platform. Individuals can provide or withdraw consent.  We need to process the information to provide you the Services, including to operate the Services, provide customer support and personalized features and to protect the safety and security of the Services.

Under the GDPR, social media companies are required to adhere to several key principles and fulfill certain obligations.

•  Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency: Topicks process personal data lawfully, fairly, and transparently, and they must provide individuals with clear information about how their data is being processed.

• Purpose limitation: Personal data is only collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes, and it is not be further processed in a manner incompatible with those purposes.

• Data minimization: Topicks only collects and retains personal data that is necessary for the purposes for which it is being processed. They should also ensure that the data collected is accurate and up to date.

• Accuracy: Topicks takes reasonable steps to ensure that the personal data they hold is accurate and kept up to date.

• Storage limitation: Personal data is kept in a form that allows identification of individuals for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data is processed.

• Security: Topicks implements appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data against unauthorized or unlawful processing, as well as accidental loss, destruction, or damage.

• Individual rights: The GDPR grants individuals various rights, including the right to access their personal data, the right to rectify inaccurate data, the right to erasure (also known as the right to be forgotten), the right to restrict processing, and the right to data portability. Topicks allows you to delete and permanently erase data at any time.  

• Data breach notification: Social media companies are required to notify the relevant supervisory authority and, in certain cases, individuals, without undue delay, in the event of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to individuals' rights and freedoms.

International Data Transfers and Storage of Data

Personal information that you provide to Topicks may be stored in cloud storage services operated by third parties, which could be located in Australia or overseas. We may store information on servers and equipment in other countries depending on a variety of factors, including the locations of our users and service providers. By accessing or using the Services or otherwise providing information to us, you consent to the processing, transfer, and storage of information in and to Australia and other countries, where you may not have the same rights as you do under local law.

Public Information that you submit for publication on the Site will be published on the internet any may be available around the world. By using the Site and Topicks services you agree to such cross-border transfers of your Personal Information. We share the information we collect globally, both internally across our offices and data centers, and externally with our Partners, vendors, service providers and third parties. Topicks is global, with users, partners and contractors around the world, transfers are necessary for a variety of reasons.

How long we will keep your Personal Information

We will keep your Personal Information for as long as it is required to provide you with our services according to the Terms and Conditions and to comply with legal requirements. If we no longer require your Personal Information for any purpose, including legal purposes, we will take reasonable steps to securely destroy or permanently de-identify your Personal Information. To protect ourselves, including our rights, property or products, or for an investigation of possible violations of our terms or policies.

Information with special protections

We do not collect or store any special categories of sensitive personal data such as race, ethnicity, religious, sexual, political, trade union membership, criminal convictions or health and biometric data.

You do however have the option to share this in our bio or comments. If you provide information about your religious views, your sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership, these and other types of information could have special protections under the laws of your jurisdiction. If you are not happy for such information to be share publicly you can delete your comment to remove this content.

Age Restrictions

Children under 13 are not allowed to use Topicks Pty Ltd. If you are based in the EEA you may only use Topicks if you are over the age at which you can provide consent to data processing under the laws of your country. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that an individual (of whom you are a parent or guardian) under the Age Limit has provided us with personal information, please contact us. We will, upon notice or discovery, take all reasonable efforts to erase or destroy any personal information that may have been collected or stored by us about that individual.

Deletion of Account

If you delete your account, we delete your information, including the things you’ve posted, such as your username, photos and bio. Once your account is permanently deleted you won’t be able to reactivate it, and you won’t be able to retrieve information, including content you’ve posted. It may take up to 90 days to delete your information after we begin the account deletion process or receive a content deletion request. After the information is deleted, it may take us up to another 90 days to remove it from backups and disaster recovery.

We may need to retain the information to comply with certain legal obligations such as a legal request or obligation, government investigation, a legal claim, complaint or regulatory proceedings. Your information, including financial transaction data related to purchases or money transfers made on our Products, may be preserved and accessed for a longer time period.

In some cases, we may preserve your information based on the above reasons even after you request deletion of your account or some of your content. We may also preserve information from accounts that have been disabled and content that has been removed for violations of our terms and policies.

Links to Other Websites or Services

This Site/App may contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these linked sites and have no knowledge of whether cookies or other tracking devices are used on these linked sites.

What to do if you have a problem, question or complaint

If you have any further queries relating to our Privacy Policy, or you have a concern, please contact us at hello@topicks.au. If Topicks becomes aware of any ongoing concerns or problems with your Personal Information, we will take these issues seriously and work to address those concerns within a reasonable time. By using the App, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.