Effective Date: November 26, 2022
Please read this Global Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) carefully to get a clear understanding of how Couchsurfing International, Inc. (“Couchsurfing,” “we,” “us” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, protects and otherwise handles information about you. Our privacy practices may vary among the countries in which we operate to reflect local practices and legal requirements. In this Privacy Policy, we also provide a supplementary privacy notice for California residents and a supplementary privacy notice for data subjects in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK (collectively, “Europe”).
Couchsurfing provides a platform for members to learn about one another, arrange stays and travel, engage in activities and communicate with one another. Couchsurfing connects travelers with a global network of people willing to share in profound and meaningful ways, making travel a truly social experience. We are a community built on trust. A fundamental part of earning that trust means being clear about how we use your information and protect your right to privacy.
This Privacy Policy describes:
This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect when you use our websites (“Site”), mobile application (“App”) and other online products and services (collectively, the “Services”), or when you otherwise interact with us.
From time to time, we may change the provisions of this Privacy Policy. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on the App and the Site. If required by law, we will also provide notification of changes in another way that we believe is reasonably likely to reach you, such as via email or another manner through the App or the Site. We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy regularly to stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy.
We collect information you provide to us, such as when you create an account, update your profile, use the interactive features of our Services, participate in contests, promotions or surveys, request customer support or otherwise communicate with us.
The types of information we may collect include:
When you access or use our Services, we may also automatically collect information about you, including:
Information collected from third party services. We may obtain information from other sources and combine that with information we collect through our Services. For example, if you link, connect, or login to the Services through a third-party social networking site, you direct that third-party service to send us information such as your name, connections, email address, birthday, gender, location and other account information in accordance with the authorization procedures determined by such third-party social networking site or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service.
Information collected from other Services Users. We may receive information about you from other Couchsurfing users, such as trust ratings, feedback, friend connections, public references, and other interconnections and interactions between you and other Couchsurfing users.
We use information about you to:
Provide our services, including to:
Direct marketing. We may send you direct marketing communications as permitted by law, including, but not limited to, notifying you of products, services, offers, promotions, rewards and events and provide other news and information about Couchsurfing and other third parties.
Research and development. We may create and use aggregate user information to analyze the effectiveness of our Services, to improve and add features to our Services, and to analyze the general behavior and characteristics of users of our Services.
Support and Maintenance. We use third party analytics services to automatically log certain information about your computer or mobile device and how you interact with the Services. The information collected is used to troubleshoot and prevent errors, perform data analysis, and develop new features.
Compliance with Laws, and Creating and Maintaining a Trusted and Safer Environment. We may use personal information to:
Couchsurfing has users located across the globe. We may store and process personal information in the United States and other countries, which may not have the same data protection laws as your home country or territory. However, wherever we store your information we will treat it in accordance with this Privacy Policy or as otherwise disclosed to you. Please note, while Couchsurfing is certified under the EU.-U.S. and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks, following the invalidation of such frameworks we no longer rely on Privacy Shield for our cross-border data transfers. However, we continue to comply with the frameworks. Please read the information below, which we provide in accordance with the Privacy Shield Notice Principle.
Couchsurfing International Inc. complies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss - U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union, United Kingdom and Switzerland to the United States, respectively. Couchsurfing International Inc. has certified to the Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/.
To the extent required by the Privacy Shield principles or applicable law, you have the opportunity to choose (opt out) whether your personal information is (i) to be disclosed to a third party or (ii) to be used for a purpose that is materially different from the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected or subsequently authorized by you. For more information about the choices you have in relation to your personal information, visit the “Your Information Choices”, and to exercise your rights please email [email protected].
In compliance with the Privacy Shield Principles, we commit to resolve complaints about our collection or use of your personal information. Individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding our Privacy Shield policy should first contact us at [email protected]. If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request. Note, you may have the possibility, under certain conditions, to invoke binding arbitration for complaints regarding Privacy Shield compliance not resolved by any of the other Privacy Shield mechanisms. For more information about invoking binding arbitration, please review additional information here. Couchsurfing is responsible and liable if third-party agents that it uses to process the personal data on its behalf do so in a manner inconsistent with the Privacy Shield Principles, unless Couchsurfing proves that it is not responsible for the event that allowed the damage to occur.
We are subject to investigatory and enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission with respect to personal information received or transferred pursuant to the Privacy Shield Framework
We share personal information as follows:
Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services as part of our Services. These third parties may have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the activities of these third parties and how they collect, use or share information about you. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our Services and welcome any feedback about these third parties.
We may allow third parties to serve advertisements on our behalf across the Internet and to provide analytics services in relation to the use of our Services. These entities may use cookies, web beacons and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Services and other websites, including your IP address and information about your web browser and operating system, pages viewed, time spent on pages, links clicked and conversion information. This information may be used by Couchsurfing and others to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver advertising and content targeted to your interests on our Services and other websites and better understand your online activity. Please note that we may share aggregated or de-identified data with these third parties. For example, we may engage a third party data provider who may collect web log data from you or place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser to enable you to receive customized ads or content. These cookies may reflect de-identified demographic or other data linked to information you voluntarily provide to us (e.g., an email address) in a hashed, non-human readable form.
In particular, we use:
For more information about interest-based ads, or to opt out of having your web browsing information used for behavioral advertising purposes, please visit www.aboutads.info/choices.
We take security of your data seriously and take reasonable measures to protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. However, no Internet or e-mail transmission is ever fully secure or error free. In particular, e-mail sent to or from us may not be secure. Therefore, you should take special care in deciding what information you send to us via the Internet. Please keep this in mind when disclosing any personal information to us via the Internet. In addition, we are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Services, or third party websites. Finally, we cannot control the actions of users on the platform, who may seek to use third party apps or devices to record, store, or share content or communication without other users' prior consent. Please keep this in mind when using the Services.
The Services are not intended for use by children under 18 years of age. If we learn that we have collected personal information through the Services from a child under 18 without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian as required by law, we will delete it.
Privacy Settings You have many choices about your data.
Account Information
You may deactivate your account at any time by contacting [email protected]. Even after you deactivate your account, we may retain certain information as required by law, for legitimate business purposes or to protect member safety. If your account is deactivated, Couchsurfing will provide access to the data associated with the deactivated account upon receipt of the required legal documentation.
Location Information via Mobile Device
You have the ability to turn location-based services on and off by adjusting the settings of your Internet browser or mobile device and by following the standard uninstall process and removing Couchsurfing’s application from your device. Doing so, however, may mean that you cannot use all or a portion of our Services.
Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. However, you can choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser's help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies, or visit www.allaboutcookies.org. Please note, however, that our Services may not function properly if your browser does not accept cookies.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us here, or via mail at Couchsurfing International, Inc. Attention: Legal Department, PO Box 7775 ECM 86600, San Francisco, CA 94120, United States, or email at [email protected].
We are providing this supplemental privacy notice to Consumers in California, pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”).
The CCPA grants California residents the following rights:
a) The sources through which we collect California residents’ personal information and the types of personal information collected in the What Information Do We Collect When You Use Our Services? section above.
b) The purposes for which we use and share this information in the How Do We Use this Information? section above and the Sharing of Information section above.
The CCPA limits these rights. For example, companies may not provide users in response to access requests certain sensitive information and other consumers’ personal information, and may exclude information that would compromise the confidentiality of trade secrets. The CCPA also places limits on when companies must comply with a deletion request.
You are entitled to exercise the rights described above free from discrimination.
Here is how you can submit requests:
We are providing this supplemental privacy notice to European data subjects, pursuant to European data protection laws (“GDPR”).
Couchsurfing is responsible for how your personal data is handled. This means we are the controller of your personal data under the GDPR. You can find our contact information in the Contact Us section above.
Couchsurfing has appointed DataRep as its Data Protection Representative in the EEA and the UK.
DataRep has locations in each of the 27 EU countries, the UK, and Norway & Iceland in the European Economic Area (EEA), so that Couchsurfing's users can always raise the questions they want with them.
If you want to raise a question to Couchsurfing, or otherwise exercise your rights in respect of your personal data, you may do so by:
Please note: When mailing your data protection inquiries, it is essential that you mark your letters for "DataRep" and not "Couchsurfing", or your inquiry may not reach DataRep. Please refer clearly to Couchsurfing in your correspondence. On receiving your correspondence, Couchsurfing is likely to request evidence of your identity, to ensure your personal data and information connected with it is not provided to anyone other than you.
Personal Data We Collect From You and How We Use It. You can read about the personal data we collect from you in the What Information Do We Collect When You Use Our Services? section above, and how we use it in the How Do We Use this Information? section above.
Justification for Data Processing. European data protection law sets out a list of justifications on which companies may rely to process personal data, and requires companies to explain to consumers the specific justifications for the company’s data processing activities. We generally rely on one of the following justifications to process personal data:
Provision of some of this data is necessary to establish an account on Couchsurfing.
|
Types of Personal Data |
Purpose |
Justification for Processing Personal Data |
|---|---|---|
|
Account Information |
To create and maintain your account |
Contractual Necessity |
|
Account Information |
To respond to your inquiries To send you notification or emails of feature releases or provide content that we think may be of interest to you |
Contractual Necessity Legitimate Interests: Providing you with the support that you request, and improving our Services and related services Sending you information on our own products and services that may be of interest to you |
|
Communications |
To address users’ inquiries For Trust and Safety purposes, in relation to information (such as feedback) Services users may provide about their interactions with you To improve the Services in relation to information (such as feedback) about your experience with the Service |
Legitimate Interests: Providing user support Enabling us to prevent and detect harmful or unauthorized conduct Improving and developing the Services and developing new features and services. For example, we may decide to build a new feature in response to feedback received from users |
|
Information stored on the user device such as photos, calendar information, and contacts. |
To enable you to invite your contacts to join the Services and for those contacts to receive invitations Showing you which of your contacts joins or is already on the Services To improve your experience when using the Services if you choose to share travel photos or schedule availability |
Consent (users consent via device settings to authorize access to the user personal data) Legitimate Interests: Enabling users to find and connect with people they know Enhancing user experience |
|
Messages you send to and receive from other Services users |
To enable you to easily communicate with other users while on the Services |
Legitimate Interests: Helping you connect with other Services users |
|
Other background, contact and demographic information |
To improve your experience when using the Services if you choose to provide this information, including recommending users to follow, and topics that might be of interest to you |
Legitimate Interests: Personalizing your user experience by providing recommendations for content and Services features |
|
Payment and transactional data |
To authorize our payment processors to process your transactions |
Contractual Necessity |
|
Information collected from other Services Users |
To improve your experience when using the Services and promote trust and safety while using the Services. |
Legitimate Interests: Improving and developing the Services |
|
Information collected from third party services |
To enable you to easily communicate and connect with other users while on the Services |
Legitimate Interests: Improving and developing the Services |
|
Verification Data |
To verify your identity |
Legitimate Interests: To help confirm your identity and enhance the chances of finding an host |
|
Information Collected Automatically |
To provide functionality, security, and for analytics and marketing purposes |
Legitimate Interests: Developing and improving the Services |
Recipients of Data. We may disclose your personal data to the recipients described in the Sharing of Information section above.
Retention of Data. We keep your personal data for as long as you have a Couchsurfing account. To protect the safety and security of our users, your personal data will be retained for a reasonable period of time following account deletion or deactivation. To determine the appropriate retention period for your personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. We may delete the data by anonymizing it so it can no longer be associated with a user.
Storage. We are based in the United States and rely on cloud storage providers that store user data on our behalf in the United States. The United States may have data protection laws less stringent than or otherwise different from the laws in effect in Europe. We have taken measures to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal data, and your rights as a data subject.
Your Rights. The GDPR grants European data subjects the following rights:
To exercise these rights, please email [email protected]. You may also contact our representative using the contact information referenced in the Controller and Representative section above. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority in your country about our processing of your personal data.