Hero Traveler Privacy Policy

Your Privacy Matters

Last modified: July 31, 2020

Please check back regularly for updates. We will also provide you with an email notification of any changes if you have a user account with us.

This Privacy Policy explains how Hero Traveler, Inc. (“Hero Traveler”, “Company”, “us’, “our”, or “we”) collects, uses and discloses personal data collected from and about you when you visit https://www.herotraveler.com/ or any related sub-domains that belong to or are otherwise operated by Hero Traveler (“Website”), or utilize any other services offered or made available by Hero Traveler, including but not limited to, the Hero Traveler mobile application (“Services”). Any reference herein to the “Services” will also mean to include the Website, and vice versa.

When you use our Services, you trust us with your information. Hero Traveler is committed to keeping that trust and believes the commitment starts with being very transparent and up-front about how we collect, use and disclose your personal data. This Privacy Policy also describes the rights and controls you have over your personal data and how to contact us with any questions, comments, concerns and requests you may have relating to your personal data.

This Privacy Policy is broken down into the following Sections for your convenience:

1. Data Controller
2. The Data We Collect From You
3. How We Use Your Data
4. Who We Share Your Data With
5. How Long We Retain Your Data
6. Your Rights Relating to the Use of Your Data
7. How We Secure Your Data
8. Special Information for Individuals Located in the European Economic Area
9. International Data Transfers
10. Links to Third Party Sites
11. Age Restrictions
12. Changes to this Privacy Policy
13. How to Contact Us

Please review this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Services. By accessing or using our Services, you agree to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of our Services after we make changes will be deemed to be acceptance of those changes by you, so please check this page periodically for updates.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about any aspect of this Policy, please do not hesitate to contact us by using the details set forth below in the “How To Contact Us” Section.

1. DATA CONTROLLER

Hero Traveler provides services to users throughout the world. However, Hero Traveler processes personal data inside of the United States only. Hero Traveler does not transfer information of its users outside of the United States.

Hero Traveler’s data controller is:

Joseph Anthony
145 President Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Questions, comments and complaints about Hero Traveler’s data practices can be submitted to Hero Traveler at support@herotraveler.com.

In Summary…

Regardless of your location, Hero Traveler is the only controller of your personal data. All your data is located within the United States, and none of it is transferred outside of the United States.

2. THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU

In order for you to utilize our Services, including but not limited to, creating a user account and signing up for a subscription service, we collect the following data from you:

Data You Provide

When you access or use our Services, you may be asked to provide certain personal data, including:

• Account Creation: Hero Traveler collects certain personal data from you when you create or update your account and/or sign-up for the Services. This may include contact information (such as your full legal name, physical address, email address, phone number), birth date, and gender. The exact personal data we collect from you will depend on the specific type of Service plan you sign up for.
• Sharing of Content: Hero Traveler may collect certain personal data from you when you upload and/or share content through our Services, including but not limited to, information in or about the content you provide (like metadata), such as the location of a photo or the date a file was created. It can also include what you see through features we provide, such as if you allow us access to your camera on your devices.
• Correspondence with Hero Traveler: Hero Traveler may collect personal data from you if you contact us. The purpose of collecting this data is to better help us assist you in resolving any issues or answering any questions you may have. This may include information such as your email address or contact number for follow-up conversations.

Data We Automatically Collect When You Use the Services

When you access or use our Services, we automatically collect data about your use of the Services, including:

• Log Data: We want to inform you that whenever you user our Services, we automatically collect data that your browser sends to us and stored on our server logs that is commonly referred to as “Log Data.” This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address, browser version, pages of our Website that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, media you have consumed (e.g., views, played, downloaded, uploaded and shared) and other statistics.
• Usage Data: Generally, we automatically collect data regarding the usage rates of our Services, this includes, but is not limited to, the number and frequency of visitors to our Website(s) and users of our Services. This may also include information about how you use our Services, such as the types of content you view or engage with, the features you use, the actions you take, the people or accounts you interact with, and the frequency of your activities. For example, we log what content you view on our Services.
• Device Data: We collect and store data about the computer or mobile device you use to access our Services, including the hardware model, operating system and version, software versions, battery level, signal strength, available storage space, browser type, app and file names and types, and plugins, Bluetooth signals, Wi-Fi access points, and the name of your mobile operator or ISP, language, time zone, mobile phone number, IP address, connection speed.
• Interactive Data: We collect information about the people, pages, accounts, hashtags and groups you are connected to and how you interact with them across our Products, such as people you communicate with the most or groups you are part of.

In order to collect this data automatically, we use certain analytic tools incorporating tracking technologies that recognize your device and compiles data about you. One example includes the use of cookies. For more information, please see our Policy on Cookies.

In Summary…

We collect personal data from you when you use our Services, create a user account or engage in any communications with us. We also automatically collect certain data when you visit or otherwise use our Services through the use of cookies or other similar tracking technologies. Part of the data automatically collected includes data from your device and network.

3. HOW WE USE YOUR DATA

We collect, store and use the data you provide to us for the following purposes:

• To create and update your user account;
• To verify your identity;
• To enter into any contractual agreement with you for the Services;
• To facilitate the Services, including but not limited to, personalizing features for you and content (such as your feed and guide, and customizing your interests), to populate search requests for places and people, and to make suggestions to you (such as which contributors to follow and what should appear on your explore page);
• To notify you about changes to our Services;
• To provide customer service, including responding to emails, questions, comments, requests and/or complaints;
• To perform internal operations necessary to provide our services, including to troubleshoot software bugs and operational problems, to notify us of new customers; and
• To investigate or address claims or disputes relating to your use of the Services, or as otherwise allowed by applicable law, or as requested by regulators, government entities, and official inquiries.
• To estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
• To store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Services according to your individual interests.
• To speed up your searches.
• To recognize you when you return to our Services.

Please be aware that you cannot opt-out of receiving service messages from us, including service announcements, security alerts, update notices, or other administrative messages.

In Summary…

We use your data to help provide the Services to you, to further develop and personalize the Services, and to be able to communicate with you.

4. WHO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH

We may share your personal information in the following instances with the following individuals:

4.1 With Third Party Service Providers

We share the data we collect from you with third party service providers. This may include:

• Sww – Currently, we use Amazon Webservices, Cloudinary and Algolia for all of our computing needs. Each of the foregoing services have their own separate privacy policy that can be found at https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/, https://cloudinary.com/privacy, https://www.algolia.com/policies/privacy/, respectively. ;
• Consultants, lawyers, accountants and other professional service providers; and
• Data analytics providers.

4.2 With Investigators, Governmental Bodies, Authorities or Law Enforcement Agencies

We may share your data if required by applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, or where the disclosure is otherwise appropriate due to a safety or similar concern. This includes sharing your data with law enforcement officials, government authorities, or other third parties as necessary to enforce our Terms of Use or other policies, as well as to investigate and protect Hero Traveler or its users from fraudulent, abusive, inappropriate, or unlawful acts.

4.3 With Potential Buyers or Investors

We may share your data with others in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, consolidation or restricting, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by or into any another company, or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal data held by Hero Traveler about its users is among the assets transferred.

4.4 With Other Parties You Consent To

We may share your data with any other third parties other than as described in this policy if we notify you and you consent to the sharing.

4.5 With Marketers and Advertisers

Hero Traveler does not sell or share your data with third parties for marketing or advertisement purposes. If this changes in the future, you will be immediately notified and this policy will be revised accordingly to provide you with the right to opt-out of any such marketing and/or advertisement.

4.6 With Your Consent

If we ever are in a situation where we may share your data with third parties for purpose other than set forth above, we will notify you and provide you the right to opt-out of having your information shared.

In Summary…

We may share your data with any third parties who help us provide our Services. We may also share your data when we believe it is required by law or to help protect the rights and safety of you, us or others. We may also share your data when our business is sold to others or subject to any change in ownership. We may also share your services to any other third parties to whom you expressly consent to sharing such data with. We do not share your data with any marketers or advertisers.

5. HOW LONG WE RETAIN YOUR DATA

Hero Traveler only retains user profile and other data as long as you have a user account and utilize the Services, or as may be necessary for legitimate and essential business purposes, such as maintaining the performance of the Services, making data-driven business decisions about new features, and complying with our legal obligations and for dispute resolution. You may request deletion of your account at any time by calling Hero Traveler at the phone number provided in Section 1 above or by emailing us directly at support@herotraveler.com. Upon receipt of a request to delete your account and information, Hero Traveler will delete your account within thirty (30) days.

However, since we are subject to compliance with different laws in place around the world relating to regulatory, tax, insurance or other requirements in the field in which it operates, Hero Traveler will maintain information related to the foregoing, which may include transaction history, for seven (7) years. Thereafter, Hero Traveler will delete or anonymize such information in accordance with applicable laws.

In Summary…

We maintain your personal data as long as you have an active user account. We can delete your user account upon request, but will still be required to maintain certain personal data to comply with legal obligations for a period of seven (7) years after removal of your account.

6. YOUR RIGHTS RELATING TO THE USE OF YOUR DATA

We at Hero Traveler want you to have complete control of your data, and therefore, you always have the right to:

• Access any of your personal data we hold about you;
• Ask us to erase any personal data we hold about you;
• Ask us to not use your personal data for direct-marketing purposes;
• Restrict the way we process your personal data;
• Have your personal data provided to a third-party provider of services;
• Have a copy of any personal data we hold about you; and
• Object to our processing of your personal data.

You may access, correct, change or delete certain personal data through your online account. If you need help or wish to exercise any of the above rights, have questions about them or wish to request a copy of your personal data, please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing support@herotraveler.com.

If you would like us to delete your account in our system, you can do so through your account by going to “Settings” and then accessing the “Delete Account” option under the “Account” area, or by emailing us directly at support@herotraveler.com.

If your account is deactivated or you ask to close your account, you will no longer be able to use the Services. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to honor your request; however, certain data may persist internally or for our administrative purposes subject to the records retention policy discussed in Section 5.

In Summary…

You can access, update and/or delete your personal data by vising your Profile, emailing us or even calling us by phone. You have many choices about how your data is collected, used and shared and we will help facilitate any of those choices you wish to pursue. Even if you delete your account, however, certain personal data may be kept for record retention purposes as previously discussed in Section 5.

7. HOW WE SECURE YOUR DATA

We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software to encrypt the information you enter on our Services in order to protect its security during the transmission of data. When storing data, we protect its security by encryption and pseudonymization of critical data. When our payment processor process credit card information and payments, the credit card is subject to tokenization and strong security measures.

We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in connection with the collection, storage and disclosure of personally identifiable customer data. Our security procedures require us in some cases to request proof of identity before disclosing personal information to you.

To protect against unauthorized access to your account and information, we implement session management and login expiration mechanisms. As an additional safety measure, be sure to sign off when you finish using your account and your computer.

Although we use reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect your personal data, it is unfortunately true that no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, please note that while we do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot fully guarantee the security of any personal data you transfer over the Internet. Any transmission of personal data is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained in our Services.

If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of your account has been compromised), please contact us immediately at support@herotraveler.com.

In Summary…

Our data transmissions are secured through encryption, and we also monitor for and try to prevent security breaches. However, no data transmissions over the Internet can ever be guaranteed to be 100% secured. Please use the security features available through our Services and do not hesitate to email us at support@herotraveler.com if you believe your account security has been compromised.

8. SPECIAL INFORMATION FOR INDIVIDUALS LOCATED IN THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA

Beginning May 25, 2018, the processing of personal data of users within the European Economic Area (EEA) is subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). This section summarizes Hero Traveler’s grounds for processing personal data under the GDPR, and the rights of such users as it relates to Hero Traveler’s handling of personal data.

A. EU User Rights

If you are located within the EEA, you have the following rights with respect to how Hero Traveler handles your data:

• Requesting Explanations of What Data of Yours Hero Traveler Stores and How It Is Used - You have the right to request an explanation of the data that Hero Traveler has about you and how Hero Traveler uses that data.
• Requesting Copies of Your Data - You have the right to receive a copy of the information that Hero Traveler collects about you if collected on the basis of consent or because Hero Traveler requires the information to provide the services that you request.
• Requesting Correction to Your Data - If Hero Traveler has information about you that you believe is inaccurate, you have the right to request correction of your information.
• Requesting Your Data to be Deleted - You may request deletion of your user account at any time in your account settings to by emailing us directly at support@herotraveler.com. We may retain certain information about you as required by law and for legitimate business purposes permitted by law, which is further discussed in Section 5.
• Filing an Objection or Complaint – Users in the EAA have the right to object to Hero Traveler’s processing of personal data, including for marketing purposes based on profiling and/or automated decision making. Hero Traveler may continue to process your information notwithstanding the objection to the extent permitted under GDPR. Users in the EAA also have the right to file a complaint relating to Hero Traveler’s handling of your personal information with their local Data Protection Authority (“DPA”). To find the best DPA to contact and lodge your complaint, please visit http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm. You may also submit complaints or objections directly to Hero Traveler by emailing support@herotraveler.com.

B. Legal Basis for Processing Your Data

The GDPR requires that companies processing the personal data of EEA users do so on the basis of specific legal grounds. As such, Hero Traveler will only process your personal data in the following situations:

• The Processing Is Necessary to Perform Our Contract With You. Hero Traveler must collect and use certain data in order to provide its services that you have contracted with Hero Traveler for. This includes user data that is necessary to establish and maintain your account, facilitate your subscription and process payments. Collection and use of this data is a requirement for using Hero Traveler’s services.
• The Processing is Necessary for Hero Traveler’s Legitimate Interests. Hero Traveler collects and uses personal data to the extent necessary for its legitimate interests, which includes: (i) to provide customer support; (ii) to optimize our service and develop new services; (iii) for research and analytical purposes; (iv) to enforce Hero Traveler’s Terms of Use; and (v) to provide you notices about changes to our services.
• Your Explicit Consent Is Given. Hero Traveler may collect and use your data on the basis of your consent. For example, we rely on your consent for us to use your personal information to send you marketing information (such as our newsletters and promotional offers) by email, SMS, or telephone. You may revoke your consent at any time. If you revoke your consent, you will not be able to use any part of our Services that requires collection or use of the data we collected or used on the basis of your consent.

In Summary…

You have a right to: (i) requesting explanations of what data of yours Hero Traveler stores and how it is used; (ii) request copies of your personal data; (iii) request your data to be deleted; or (iv) file a complaint about the use of your data. Our legal basis for collecting, using and sharing your data include consent, contract and legitimate interest. If the legal basis is consent, then you may withdraw your consent at any time.

9. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS

The personal data we collect may be transferred to, and processed and stored in, countries outside of the jurisdiction you are located in. For example, if you are located in a country with the EEA, your personal data may be processed in the United States. All international transfers of your personal data are made:

• To a country or territory ensuring an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data as determined by the European Commission;
• To a the third party that is a member of a compliance scheme recognized as offering adequate protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects as determined by the European Commission; or
• Pursuant to appropriate safeguards, such as the Standard Contractual Clauses (processors) approved by European Commission Decision C(2010)593 or any subsequent version thereof released by the European Commission or the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.

If you wish to enquire further about these safeguards used, please send us an email at support@herotraveler.com.

In Summary…

All of our data is processed in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, then your data is safely transferred to our processors located within the United States in accordance with all applicable laws.

10. LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES

Our Services may contain links to other sites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site. We do not operate these external sites. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the privacy policy and any terms of use for any such websites, as those websites may collect personal data from you or have their own policies regarding the use of tracking cookies and related technology. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.

In Summary…

We may have links that take you to sites other than ours. If you click on one of those links, you will be bound by that website’s privacy policies.

11. AGE RESTRICTIONS

Our Website and Services are not intended for children under 13 years of age in the United States and 16 years of age if you are accessing our Services from the European Union or the European Economic Area (“Minimum Age”). No one under the Minimum Age may provide any data to or on the Services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under the Minimum Age. If you are under the Minimum Age, do not use or provide any data on our Website or on or through any of Services or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal data from a child under the Minimum Age without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under the Minimum Age, please contact us at support@herotraveler.com.

In Summary…

Our Services are not for children under 13 years of age in the United States and 16 years of age if you are accessing our Services from the European Union or the European Economic Area.

12. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

The date this Privacy Policy was last revised is identified at the top of this policy. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy about how we treat our users' personal data, we will notify you by email to the primary email address specified in your account. We will also post the updated privacy policy on our Website in the same location as the previous version. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date, active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by email at least fifteen (15) days prior to the date on which such changes take effect.

In Summary…

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. You will be notified of any updates by email, and copies of the updated Privacy Policy will be located on our Website.

13. HOW TO CONTACT US

We are here to help and be as transparent as possible regarding how we use, store and transfer your data. If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data, or if you want to object to the collection or processing of your data by Hero Traveler, whether entirely or partially, please contact us at support@herotraveler.com. You can also mail us at:

Hero Traveler, Inc.
Attention: Sofia Mogliazzi
44 West 28th Street
New York, NY 10010

In Summary…

Please contact us with any questions, comments or concerns you may have at support@herotraveler.com.