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.
If you have any further questions please get in touch with us by writing to:
Data Protection OfficerYou may also contact us by email at: feedback@hornet.com
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.
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:
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:
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.
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.
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).
The nature of our business means it is often necessary for us to send your personal information outside the EEA or the UK to fulfil 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.
In addition, we may transfer your data to parties in countries outside the country in which you are located to provide services to us.
This may involve sending your data to countries where under their local laws you may have fewer legal rights.
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.
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.
Please see WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND RETAIN? in our Privacy Policy to understand the categories of personal information we collect from or about you and the categories of sources from which we obtain personal information.
We disclose personal information from or about you with our service providers, third parties and/or other parties for business purposes, such as operational purposes and other purposes related to providing you with the services and products you seek from us. We provide more information about the business purposes or commercial purposes for which we disclose personal information in WHEN AND WHY DO WE COLLECT ‘SENSITIVE PERSONAL DATA‘?, and WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH? in our Privacy Policy.
We may disclose personal information from or about you with the categories of third parties as described in HOW IS YOUR INFORMATION USED BY OTHERS THAT HAVE LINKS ON HORNET SERVICES? in our Privacy Policy.
We do not knowingly sell the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.
YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICESYou 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 using the contact information noted in Contact Information in our Privacy Policy.
Last updated: 2023
The English text of this policy is the authoritative version.