Last updated: November 12, 2023
Summary
This privacy policy describes the information Privacy Connection Inc. (dba Privacy Society Inc.) collects and how we use it within our phones, applications, services, and websites.
We uphold the principle that privacy should be the norm on the Internet. We are dedicated to ensuring your personal information remains private and under your control.
We build our phones and apps for two reasons: to keep the conversations with your circle of trust private and to help reduce your digital footprint when consuming information online.
We will only ask for your personal information when absolutely necessary for the use of certain services. We expect you will use our applications and services in a lawful and respectful way. We refer to this as “responsible anonymity”. You are the good guys. We do not sell, trade, or exchange personal information, or location data with third parties, and never will, period.
User Consent
If required, when submitting personal information through our websites, applications, or services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and you expressly consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, you can choose to stop using our websites, phones, applications, and services.
The Information We Collect
Privacy Society Substack
We collect an email address when signing up for our Substack and masked emails are welcome. We will never sell your email address and only use this email address to send newly published Substacks. We do not use the optional Google Analytics or Facebook Analytics on our Substack.
Privacy Society Online Store
Our online store is powered by Shopify.
Privacy Society and Shopify need to collect personal information when buying our phones or services. We do not sell any information we collect during the purchasing process. When you purchase products from us, we require personal information to fulfill the order including billing and shipping information.
For payments, we use Stripe and other payment processors supported by Shopify. We share necessary payment information with these processors but do not retain credit card details on our systems. The transactions are between you and Shopify and we do not have any credit card information.
Privacy Society Applications and Services
To use a Privacy Society phone, the Privacy Society App Store, or Inner Circle we do not require personal information or a user account of any kind.
If you use the Shadow Suite we require your real phone number which we shield with the service. Please read our Shadow Suite Transparency statement.
Third party apps may request personal information but those terms of service are between the third party app and you.
Our Websites
There is no user account needed to use our main website.
We store and process certain information that is provided automatically as part of your Web browser accessing our websites. This information includes data/time, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, browser type and browser language/locale. We use this information to analyze trends, administer the websites and to better tailor our websites to our users’ needs.
The usage data from our web server is summarized weekly just to count the number of visitors and the raw logs are purged.
Inner Circle, Privacy Phones, and Privacy Society App Store
We do not require or collect personal information to use these services. A user account with personal identifiable information is not required. This way we do not track anything you do with Inner Circle, a Privacy Society phone, or the Privacy Society App Store. We do not collect any location-based information or track usage data.
Third Party Data Collection
Third Party Apps
We showcase third party apps on our Substack, website, and app store. The terms of use and privacy policy is between you and each individual application. Third party applications are in the app store for your convenience and are provided as is. Apps may be free, request donations, or have paid features. Those transactions are between you and the app provider.
Unless specified, we do not collect a commission from the sale of any app except for the Proton Suite. The Proton Suite also has a free version.
Third Party Websites
Our website may contain links to third party websites. When you click on a link to any other website or location, you will leave our website and go to another site, and another entity may collect personal information or anonymous data from you. We have no control over, do not review, and cannot be responsible for these third party websites or their content.
Cloud Providers and Hosting Services
To deliver our services efficiently we require various cloud providers which are utilized for specific functions and do not store data beyond what is necessary for their designated purposes.
No data when using Privacy OS or Inner Circle is ever sent or stored on our cloud providers. This insures up most privacy during your sensitive communications.
Our data processors include:
- Microsoft Azure:
- Purpose: Host our public website, Shadow Suite app, and Privacy Society App Store
- Hosted in the United States
-
Twilio
- Purpose: To enable Shadow Suite shields
- Hosted: United States and Canada
- Shopify:
- Purpose: Online Store and process credit card payments
- Data Processing Location: United States and Canada
-
Substack
- Purpose: Hosts our blog
- Data Processing Location: United States
- Freshdesk:
- Purpose: Host our customer support portal
- Data Processing Location: United States
- Proton Suite:
- Purpose: Manage internal encrypted email, private calendar, and encrypted cloud storage.
- Data Processing Location: Switzerland.
These cloud providers are carefully chosen to ensure they align with our privacy and security standards, and we review and update our cloud provider list regularly to maintain the highest levels of data protection and privacy for our users.
Data Disclosure
We prioritize the privacy and security of our users. We only collect an email address if you use our Substack, payment details if you purchase a phone, and the phone number if you use Shadow Suite. The limited user data we collect is disclosed only if we are legally compelled to do so by a valid and binding request from competent authorities. Our policy is to critically assess such requests to ensure they comply fully with law. No warrant, no disclosure.
As we do not collect any information about the location or use of the phone, we do not backup your phone, or store Inner Circle messages, we have very limited information useful to authorities, if any.
We do not know where the phone is or what you are doing with the phone.
We do not collect or store information about your activity on a Privacy Society phone thus nothing to disclose.
A Note to Users Outside of the United States
If you are a non-U.S. user of our websites, by visiting the websites and providing us with data, you acknowledge and agree that your personal information may be processed for the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy. In addition, your personal information may be processed in the country in which it was collected and in other countries, including the United States, where laws regarding processing of personal information may be less stringent than the laws in your country. By providing your data, you consent to such transfer.
Modifications to Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy within the boundaries of applicable laws. We encourage our users to regularly review this policy to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. By continuing to use our phones and services, you acknowledge and agree to any changes made to this policy. Your continued use of our phones or services following the implementation of these changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.
Contact Us
If you have any comments, complaints, concerns, questions, requests, or suggestions, about our data collection or processing practices, or about this Privacy Policy please email us at support@privacysociety.freshdesk.com.
Thanks to Standard Notes for the inspiration of this privacy policy.