Privacy Policy

Last revised: Oct 25, 2018

This Privacy Policy describes the policies and procedures of CivikOwl (“CivikOwl”, “we”, “our” or “us”) on the collection, use and disclosure of your information as we gather it via our Service (defined below).

The Factual, a product of CivikOwl Inc., helps people find high quality news and weed out poor quality news. CivikOwl Inc is an independent company incorporated in Delaware. More details about our company, including sources of funding, are disclosed in our About Us page.

This Privacy Policy may be revised from time to time. Please see revision date at the top to note changes. Use of information we collect now is subject to then current policy.

CivikOwl Services

Our platform consists of our Site (thefactual.com), a web browser extension, and a mobile app. Together they are referred to as the “Service” or “Services” here.

Please note that by using our Services you accept the terms and details outlined in this Privacy Policy. By interacting with our Service you are also accepting our Terms of Service.

Our Services are not directed towards individuals under the age of 13. If you believe we might have any information about an individual under the age of 13, please contact us at legal@civikowl.com.

Information We Collect

Personally Identifiable Information:

When you use our Services you may be asked to provide an email address. Outside of this no other personally identifiable information is requested.

You acknowledge that by providing Personally Identifiable Information (“Personal Information”) to us, you allow others, including us, to identify you and therefore may not be anonymous. We may use your contact information to send you information about our Services, but only when we feel such information is important. You may unsubscribe from these messages by emailing us at team@civikowl.com, although we, regardless, reserve the right to contact you when we believe it is necessary.

Feedback:

Some features of the Services allow you to provide content to the Services, such as written feedback. All feedback submitted by you to the Services may be retained by us indefinitely.

Location Information:

Some of our Services may include features based on users’ actual locations and may report on users’ current locations (“Location-Based Services”). To the extent you voluntarily opt to use any Location-Based Services, we may collect and store information about your location at the time you use those Location-Based Services. This information can come from a variety of sources depending on the device you use to access the Services; for example, a mobile phone may report its GPS location at the time Location-Based Services are used.

IP Address Information and Other Information Collected Automatically:

We automatically receive and record information from your web browser when you interact with the Services, including your IP address and cookie information. This information is used to facilitate collection of data concerning your interaction with the Services
Generally, the Services automatically collect usage information. We may use this data in aggregate form, that is, as a statistical measure, but not in a manner that would identify you personally. This type of aggregate data enables us and third parties authorized by us to figure out how often individuals use or interact with the Services so that we can analyze and improve them.
We may collect some device-specific information if you access the Services using a mobile device. Device information may include but is not limited to unique device identifiers, network information, and hardware model, as well as information about how the device interacts with our Services.

Information Collected Using Cookies:

Cookies are pieces of text that may be provided to your device through your web browser when you access a website. Your browser stores cookies in a manner associated with each website you visit. We use cookies to enable our servers to recognize your web browser and tell us how and when you visit the Site and otherwise use the Services through the Internet.
Our cookies do not, by themselves, contain Personal Information, and we do not combine the general information collected through cookies with other Personal Information to tell us who you are. As noted, however, we do use cookies to identify that your web browser has accessed aspects of the Services.
Most browsers have an option for turning off the cookie feature, which will prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, as well as (depending on the sophistication of your browser software) allowing you to decide on acceptance of each new cookie in a variety of ways. We strongly recommend that you leave cookies active, because they enable you to take advantage the most attractive features of the Services.
This Privacy Policy covers our use of cookies only and does not cover the use of cookies by third parties. We do not control when or how third parties place cookies on your computer. For example, third party websites to which a link points may set cookies on your computer.

Aggregate Information:

We collect statistical information about how users, collectively, use the Services (“Aggregate Information”). Some of this information is derived from Personal Information. This statistical information is not Personal Information and cannot be tied back to you or your web browser.

Information Regarding Your Social Networks:

Occasionally, you can use our Services to interact with your accounts on other services, such as Facebook or Twitter. In addition to using your third party account credentials to sign in to the Services, you can access posting and sharing tools on the Services, including a “share” button that allows you to post information to your social networks outside of the Services (“Share”). Please note that these tools may be operated by Third Party Services.

By using these tools, you acknowledge that some Third Party Account Information may be transmitted into your use of the Services with us, and that Third Party Account Information transmitted to our Services is covered by this Privacy Policy. Additionally, when you use one of these sharing tools, the Third Party Service that operates the tool may be collecting information about your browser or online activity through its own tracking technologies and subject to its own privacy policy. Lastly, when you use these tools, some of your information from the Services may be shared with the Third Party Service and others. Therefore, we encourage you to read the privacy policies and other policies of the social networks you use in connection with the Services.

Personally Identifiable Information:

The only instance when we share Personally Identifiable Information with a third party is when required by law.

We also reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information as we reasonably believe is necessary to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, (ii) enforce this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations hereof, (iii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (iv) respond to user support requests, or (v) protect our rights, property or safety, our users and the public. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and spam/malware prevention.

Outside of such instances we do not share your Personal Identifiable Information with any third parties. Your information will never be used for marketing purposes.

Aggregate Information:

We plan to make available on our website Aggregate Information. We hope that such statistical information (as a reminder, this is anonymized data), can aid the public, governments and non-profits to better serve their communities.

Security

We seek to protect Personal Information to ensure that it is kept private; however, we cannot guarantee the security of any Personal Information. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors, may compromise the security of user information at any time. We store all of our information, including your IP address information, using industry-standard techniques. We do not guarantee or warrant that such techniques will prevent unauthorized access to information about you that we store, Personal Information or otherwise.

Managing, Updating or Cancelling Your Account

You can access and delete cookies through your web browser settings. You can also change and update account information, including communication preferences, by signing in and accessing Account Settings within your User Profile (This feature may be in development). You can also close your account through this page.

California Privacy Rights

Under California Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask us for a notice identifying the categories of personal customer information which we share with our affiliates and/or third parties for marketing purposes, and providing contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to the contact address listed below.

Contact Information

CivikOwl 55 E 3rd Ave San Mateo, CA. 94401 legal@civikowl.com