Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy, we developed this policy as an extension of our commitment to combine quality services with integrity in dealing with our users. The Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect, use and safeguard the personal information you provide to us and to assist you in making informed decisions when using Hornet Applications.
Any personal information processed by Queer Networks, Inc. in connection with this Privacy Policy is controlled by Queer Networks, Inc., which is considered the data controller of your personal information under relevant data protection laws.
You can contact the data controller by writing to:
Data Protection Officer
Queer Networks, Inc.
750 N San Vicente Blvd, Suite 800
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Los Angeles, CA
You may also contact the data controller by email at: feedback@hornet.com
Personal information means details which identify you or could be used to identify you, such as your name and contact details, age, profile, comments, photographs, geographic locations, ethnic background, preference data and more. It may also include information about how you use our websites and mobile applications.
This Privacy Policy applies to personal information about you that we collect, use and otherwise process regarding your relationship with us as a customer or potential customer, including when you engage with us or use our other products or services, use our websites or mobile applications or contact us.
We take great care to protect the personal information you provide to us. Here are some things that you can do to keep your information secure.
To make sure your access to our websites and mobile applications is secure, you should not share your log-in details with anyone else. When you finish using the website or mobile app you should log out if others may be able to access your computer or device. This is especially important if you are using a publicly accessible computer.
There is an internet fraud practice known as phishing which is the illegal gathering of personal information by deception. Unsolicited emails are sent to individuals from lists illegally gathered by a third party, and recipients are asked to enter login, password or other personal details into a cloned or illegal copy website. You should ensure that you always have up-to-date protection software on your devices to minimise the risks of becoming the target of an attack.
We will never ask you to disclose your password to any of our staff. If you receive a suspicious request purporting to be from us, do not take any actions before confirming the authenticity of the request with us directly, using the contact details provided in this policy.
We collect personal information about you whenever you use our products or services (whether these products or services are provided by us or by other companies or agents acting on our behalf), including when you use our website or mobile applications, or interact with us via email or use our contact centres. For additional details see ‘What information do we collect and retain?’ below.
In order to gain use of Hornet Services with your device we generate an ID that is unique to the device or browser on which you install and/or access Hornet Services. Unless legally obliged, we will never disclose or share this identifier to other parties.
When using Hornet Applications, you may provide Queer Networks, Inc. with certain personal information specifically:
Queer Networks, Inc. provide a social network service for connecting queer people to their community. We use your information to help other users find and connect with you.
We may show the personal information listed above as part of our feed, on your profile page, or in suggestion displays.
We provide users the ability to find you based on this information.
Geographic information is made available to our users as a relative distance or on the level of city, region or country.
You may provide us with the following information, which is used by us to identify you for logging in or for contacting you.
This is not shared with other users of Hornet Services.
When using Hornet Applications, you may use our in-app messaging service to communicate with other users either on our web app or in our mobile apps. We store messages, photos, awards and stickers from your chats on our servers, so that you can have seamless access to your messaging history on your device at any time.
When you delete your account, we delete your chat messages as well as your user profile, subject to certain conditions set out below in the section "How long will we keep your personal information?"
We may also collect:
Certain categories of personal information, such as that about race, ethnicity, religion, health, gender, sexuality or biometric information are special categories of data requiring additional protection under European Union and UK data protection law and are referred to here as "sensitive personal data".
You may choose to give us the following specific sensitive personal data, which we show on your profile and provide users the ability to find you based on it:
You may also choose to share your HIV status with us and whether you take pre-exposure prophylaxis ("PrEP").
Your HIV status is only searchable by users who have defined themselves as HIV positive.
You may opt to receive in-app reminders to undergo HIV tests and receive information on the location of nearby testing centers.
We do not share any sensitive personal data information with third parties unless required to do so by law.
You may edit or delete this information any time.
You may be able to access other websites or apps through Hornet Services via links or ads. When you do so, you are subject to their policies regarding privacy and data collection and you should read those policies carefully before using the same. Queer Networks, Inc. does not accept responsibility for their use of your personal information, their privacy and data collection practices.
For users joining our community who are subject to the data protection legislation of the EU, we will specifically ask them whether they wish to receive our newsletters. All other new users will automatically benefit from our newsletters, and all users can unsubscribe from our newsletters at any time. Please be aware that we do sometimes send marketing communications that promote a third party’s products and services (for example, those of our business partners) as well as our own.
We may ask if you consent to receiving marketing communications from other members of our group or from third parties.
We will respect your choice as to what communications you wish to receive and the methods by which you are sent them.
If you decide you would no longer like to be sent marketing communications, you can change your mind at any time.
If you are a registered user of Hornet Services, you can change your marketing preferences at any time by amending your profile on the web site or in the mobile app.
You may also unsubscribe from our newsletter or all email communication by following the unsubscribe link on the bottom of relevant emails received from us.
Please note that if you tell us that you do not wish to be sent further marketing communications, you will still receive service communications which are necessary, such as membership and other important service information. If you ask us to stop sending marketing communications, please note we will retain your personal information for the purposes of indicating that you do not want to receive marketing communications.
Queer Networks, Inc. will only process your personal information where we have a legal basis to do so. The legal basis will depend on the reason or reasons Queer Networks, Inc. collected and needs to use your information. Under most relevant laws (EU, UK and others) in almost all cases the legal basis will be:
Because we need to use your information so that we can provide the products and services to you and otherwise perform the contract we have with you.
Because it is in Queer Networks, Inc.’ legitimate interests to use your personal information to operate and improve our business.
Because Queer Networks, Inc. needs to use your personal information to comply with a legal obligation.
To protect the vital interests of you or another person.
Because you have consented to Hornet Services using your information for a particular purpose.
If you choose to provide us with information that is considered ‘special’ or ‘sensitive’ in certain countries, such as your sexual orientation, you consent to the processing of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. From time to time, we may ask for your consent to collect specific information such as your exact location or to use your data for specific reasons. In some cases, you can withdraw your consent by adjusting your settings (e.g. in relation to the collection of your precise location data) or by deleting your content (e.g. if you have entered data in your profile that may be considered ‘special’ or ‘sensitive’). In any case, you can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at the address at the end of this Privacy Policy.
Legitimate interests. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we rely on our legitimate business interests to process your personal information. The following list contains examples of business purposes for which we have a legitimate interest in processing your data:
If processing of your data is subject to any other laws then the basis of processing your data may be different to that set out above and may in those circumstances be based on your consent in all cases.
Your personal information may be shared with companies within our group to assist us in providing the Hornet Services to you. We may also disclose your personal information to the following third parties for the purposes described here:
If we use contracted service providers for individual functions of our offer or use your data for advertising purposes, we will always carefully select and monitor these service providers and inform you in detail below about the respective processes. We will also state the specified criteria for the storage period.
We will keep your personal information for as long as is necessary to provide you with Hornet Services and as permitted by the relevant legal requirements.
When you delete your account, it will be removed from our active database, but in some circumstances, it may remain in certain archives where it is not practical or possible to delete it.
To protect the security of our users, we have set a period of three months after the closure of an account or one year after an account suspension. During this period, we will retain your data in case it is necessary to investigate unlawful or harmful behaviour. The retention of data during this period is based on our legitimate interest and that of potential third-party victims.
In addition, we may keep your personal data and usage history (which includes a history of text or photos that have been censored, banned) as needed to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and/or enforce any of our agreements:
We retain certain data to fulfil our legal retention requirements. In particular, this includes transaction data, which we retain for 10 years to comply with tax and accounting legislation, credit card data (for as long as the user can dispute the transaction) and ‘traffic data’ / log data (for one year to comply with statutory storage obligations). We also retain records of consents provided by our users for five years to demonstrate our compliance with applicable law.
Based on our legitimate interest, we retain the following specific data: Customer service records and supporting data and approximate location details of downloads/purchases (five years to support our customer service decisions, enforce our rights and defend ourselves in the event of a claim), information about the existence of previous accounts and subscriptions (will be deleted by us three years after your last account is closed, to ensure proper and accurate financial forecasting and reporting), profile data (one year in view of possible litigation as well as for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims) and data necessary to exclude users who have been prohibited from opening a new account (for as long as necessary to ensure the security and essential interests of our users).
Furthermore, we retain data on the basis of our legitimate interest if there is an outstanding or potential issue, claim or dispute that requires the retention of data (in particular, if we receive a valid court subpoena or request relating to the retention of data - in which case we would need to retain the data to comply with our legal obligations - or if the data is otherwise required as part of legal proceedings.
Your personal information may be sent to and stored by us and third parties in countries outside the country in which you are located and outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom (UK), including the USA
The nature of our business means it is often necessary for us to send your personal information outside the EEA or the UK to fulfill your use of our products and services. This occurs because our business and the third parties identified in ’Who do we share your personal information with?’ have operations in countries across the world. For example, you may be based in the European Economic Area or UK, your personal information will be transferred to other users of Hornet Services outside of those territories.
We also use tools on our website from companies based in third countries, including the USA. If these tools are active, there is a possibility that your personal data will be transferred to the US servers of the respective companies. In this respect, we would like to point out that the USA is not a safe third country according to the understanding of EU data protection law. In the USA, companies are obliged to disclose personal data to security authorities without providing sufficient legal means to take action against such disclosure. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that US authorities, such as intelligence agencies, may process, analyse and permanently store your data stored on US servers for surveillance purposes. We have no influence on this processing activity.
Under the relevant data protection laws, you may request a copy of any personal data about you held by Queer Networks, Inc. In most instances, this is provided free of charge.
You can request your personal data from the mobile app or website.
We will need to verify your identity in order to request your data and we prefer to send your data to you by email.
If you no longer can access your account, our support team (feedback@hornet.com) can help you find your account details so you can login again.
If you have deleted your account, we no longer hold your personal information, subject to certain conditions set out above in the section "How long will we keep your personal information?".
Depending on the jurisdiction you are subject to, you may have some additional rights in relation to your personal information. Should you be subject to EU data protection legislation, for instance, you have, under certain circumstances, a right to:
In order to make our services more relevant to you and to improve our overall services, we may use automated processing of some of your personal information. We may use such automated processing in the following instances:
Our services are intended only for users aged 18 or above. We do not knowingly collect, maintain or use any personal information of anyone below the age of 18. Should you become aware of anyone under 18 having submitted personal information to us, please contact us using the contact details contained in this policy and we will address the issue accordingly.
Your use of Hornet Services means that you accept the Policy above. We expressly reserve the right to make changes to the Policy from time to time at our discretion. Your continued use indicates your agreement to those changes.
In addition to the above-mentioned data, we use technical aids for various functions when you use our website, in particular cookies, which can be stored on your device. When you access our website and at any time thereafter, you have the choice of whether you generally allow cookies to be set or which individual additional functions you would like to select. You can make changes in your browser settings or via our Consent Manager.
This website uses the following types of cookies, the functioning of which and legal basis are explained below:
The technical structure of our website requires us to use certain technologies, in particular cookies. Without these technologies, our website cannot be displayed correctly, or the support functions could not be enabled. The cookies affected are basically transient cookies that will be deleted at the end of your visit to the website, at the latest when you close your browser. You cannot deselect these cookies if you wish to use our website. The individual cookies are available in the Consent Manager.
Some of the cookies that we use are optional. We only set those cookies with your consent, The functions are only activated if you give your consent via the cookie consent tool and can be used in particular to enable us to analyse and improve visits to our website, to make it easier for you to use different browsers or end devices, to recognise you when you visit us again or to display advertising. You can withdraw your consent at any time. your withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing your data up to the point of withdrawal.
We use the web analysis service Google Analytics from Google Inc (hereinafter referred to as "Google") on our website. The data processing serves the purpose of analyzing this website and its visitors as well as for marketing and advertising purposes. For this purpose, Google will use the information obtained on behalf of the operator of this website to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website operator. The following information may be collected: IP address, date and time of the page view, click path, information about the browser you are using and the device you are using, pages visited, referrer URL (website from which you accessed our website), location data, purchase activities. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics is not merged with other Google data.
Google Analytics uses technologies such as cookies, web storage in the browser and tracking pixels that enable your use of the website to be analyzed. The information generated about your use of this website is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. The data transfer takes place, among other things, on the basis of the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) as well as standard contractual clauses as suitable guarantees for the protection of personal data, which can be viewed at: https://policies.google.com/privacy/frameworks, https://business.safety.google/adsprocessorterms/.
Both Google and US government authorities have access to your data. Your data may be linked by Google with other data, such as your search history, your personal accounts, your usage data from other devices and all other data that Google collects about you.
IP anonymization is activated on this website. As a result, your IP address will be shortened by Google if you are based in one of the member states of the European Union or in other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and truncated there.
Your personal data is processed on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR due to our overriding legitimate interest in the needs-based and targeted design of the website. You have the right to object to this processing of your personal data at any time for reasons arising from your particular situation.
You can prevent the collection of data generated by Google Analytics and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) to Google and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.
Further information on terms of use and data protection can be accessed at https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html or at https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/ and at https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies?hl=de.
Our EU representative for the purposes of GDPR Article 27 is:
Christof Wittig
c/o Queer Networks, Inc.
750 N San Vicente Blvd, Suite 800
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Los Angeles, CA
Email address: gdpr-eu-representative@hornet.com
For Korea Notice of Overseas Transfer, please see WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND RETAIN? above.
To request expedited removal of the information we retain, please contact customer service from within any of our other services or products. You may request expedited removal if:
This Privacy Notice for California Residents (“Notice”) supplements the information contained in the Privacy Policy of Queer Networks, Inc. (“we,“” “our” or “us”) and applies in certain circumstances solely to all natural persons who are California residents (“consumers” or “you”).
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended (collectively, the “CCPA”) defines “personal information” broadly as information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular individual or household. This Notice also uses that definition for personal information.
State consumer privacy laws may provide their residents with additional rights regarding our use of their personal information.
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia provide their states residents with rights to:
Nevada allows for residents to opt out of the sale of their personal information.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact privacyteam@hornet.com. If you wish to appeal a decision made about a consumer right request, please write to privacyteam@hornet.com.
YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES
You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection, use, disclosure and sale of your personal information in the preceding twelve (12) months. Once we receive and confirm your request to know, we will disclose to you:
You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, in certain circumstances. Once we receive and confirm your request to delete, we will delete from our records, and direct our service providers to delete from their records, your personal information, in certain circumstances.
To exercise the request to know and request to delete rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by emailing us at feedback@hornet.com
Only you, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information.
A verifiable consumer request must:
You may only make a request to know twice within a twelve (12)-month period.
We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you.
We will use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor's identity or authority to make the request.
We endeavor to respond to requests to know and requests to delete within forty-five (45) calendar days. If we require more time (up to an additional forty-five (45) calendar days), we will provide you with notice and an explanation of the reason that we will take more than forty-five (45) calendar days to respond to the request.
We will deliver our written response in writing and delivered through your registered account with us.
The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a verifiable consumer request (including, regarding a request to delete, whether we have complied with that request), if applicable.
Any disclosures we provide will only cover the twelve (12)-month period from the date that we receive the request to know.For request to know data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.
We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded.
You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of the privacy rights conferred by the CCPA.Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:
CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have questions about our privacy policies, notices or practices, please contact us at:
privacyteam@hornet.com
Last updated: 2024
The English text of this policy is the authoritative version.