This privacy policy (“Policy”) sets out how we, Joya Communications Inc. DBA Marco Polo (“Joya” or “we”), makers of the Marco Polo® video sharing app (the “Marco Polo App” or the “App”) use and protect the personal information of people who use the App or who visit Marco Polo websites such as www.marcopolo.me (the “Marco Polo Website”). We will refer to the Marco Polo App and Marco Polo Website collectively as the “Service” or “Marco Polo.”

Privacy Principles

We have two fundamental principles when it comes to personal information:

1. We don’t sell your personal information or use it to show you third-party ads.
2. We only store the personal information that we need to operate our Service so you can communicate with the people you choose.

This Policy applies to anyone who accesses the Service. By visiting the Website and/or using the App or Service, you acknowledge that the collection, use, and sharing of your information will take place as described in this Policy.

So we are clear about the terminology we are using, when we use the phrase “Personal Information” in this Privacy Policy, we mean information that is capable of being associated with or could reasonably be linked with you, such as your name, email, or mobile number.

What we collect

Marco Polo is a communication service. To operate the Service, we may collect Personal Information you choose to provide us.

Basic Account Data

To create a Marco Polo account (“Account”), you provide your mobile number, your name and your email address, and may choose to provide your photo, birth day and birth month. Only other registered Marco Polo users that:

• already have your phone number in their phone’s address book,
• are in a group with you, or
• you invited to Marco Polo

may see your name, photo, mobile number, email, birth day and/or birth month. Note that users who have you in their contacts will see you by the name they’ve saved and not by the name you provided to Marco Polo. For example, your spouse will still see you as “Love” when they use the App if that’s how you appear in their phone’s address book. If you chose to provide them, we collect your birth day and month so people you know get reminded when it’s your birthday.

Polo Messages and Seconds

Marco Polo is a cloud service. We may collect and store the content you create, including videos (or “Polos”), Photo Polos, short video clips you share with selected contacts (“Seconds” or “Video Reactions”), and text messages. We store this Personal Information on our servers so that you can access your data anytime from any of your devices that have the Marco Polo App without having to rely on third-party backups or use up your phone’s memory. Our servers are located in the United States.

Contacts

You may choose to provide us with your friends’ contact information as stored on your phone. Marco Polo uses mobile phone numbers as unique identifiers so that it is easy for you to find and communicate with other people you know. We ask your permission before syncing your contacts, and you can still use the App without giving it access to your contacts (though you will have a harder time finding people you know who also use Marco Polo).

We do not store this contact information on our server. We only store on our server contact information of people you have invited to join Marco Polo or who you have conversations with on Marco Polo. If you grant us permission to access information about your contacts, which might include their name, phone number(s), email(s), and/or birth day and month, we can notify you if any of your contacts are on Marco Polo and when one of your contacts creates a Marco Polo Account.

We run an automatic algorithm with this contact information to suggest which of your contacts you might like to connect with on Marco Polo. We use this information to suggest people to invite to join Marco Polo, but we do not contact anyone in your phone’s contact list without your permission.

User Support

If you contact Marco Polo support, any Personal Information you may share with us is used only for the purposes of researching the issue and contacting you about your request.

Additional Technical Information

We use third-party analytics Service Providers (as more fully described below, and including Google Analytics and amplitude.com) to automatically log information about you and your computer or mobile device, and how you interact with the Service. For example, when you access the Service, we may log your operating system type, browser type and language, the pages you viewed, how long you spent on a page, access times, Internet protocol (IP) address, your mobile device ID, mobile device serial number, unique user ID, wireless carrier, and information about your use of and actions on the Service. Marco Polo collects this additional technical data to analyze usage trends and give us more information about how people use the Service to personalize and better the user experience.

Cookies

The only cookies we use are those to operate and provide our Service on the web. We do not use cookies for profiling or advertising. The cookies we use are small text files that allow us to provide and customize our Service, and in doing so, provide you with a better user experience. Your browser should allow you to control these cookies, including whether or not to accept them and how to remove them. You may choose to block cookies with your web browser and continue using the Service via the Marco Polo App without interruption, but certain functionality on the Website may be affected because it requires cookies to work.

Web beacons

We may log information using digital images called web beacons on our Service or in our emails. We use web beacons to manage cookies, count visits, and to learn which emails are read and used by our users and which are not. We also use web beacons to tell if you open or act on our emails. Similar to cookies, we use web beacons to improve your experience with our Service.

Tracking Options and California Do Not Track Disclosures. You are welcome to adjust your browser or operating system settings to limit this tracking or to decline cookies. Doing so will not change your experience in the Marco Polo App, but may affect certain functionality on the Website.

Check the “Help” menu of your browser or operating system to learn how to change your tracking settings or cookie preferences. For example:

With Chrome:

1. At the top right, click Settings.
2. At the left, select “Privacy and security.”
3. Then select your desired settings.

With Firefox, follow the instructions here.

Groups

Anyone can create or be added to a Group in the App. The creator of a Group automatically becomes the Group Admin and, by default, anyone in the Group can add or remove anyone else in the Group.

Group Admins have the ability to create a unique group share link (anyone who has the unique group share link can join the Group), make someone a Group Admin, duplicate the group, set the welcome message, and to restrict the Group as described further below. One or more people can be a Group Admin. Group Admins also have the ability to delete content for all members of the Group. The Group Admin can do this by holding down on a thumbnail, selecting remove, and then selecting “remove for me only” or “remove for all group members.” If a Group Admin selects “remove for all members,” this will delete the Polo from our Service.

Within the Group Info Section of the App, we provide group settings to restrict a Group. When the Restrict a Group feature is enabled, only Admins can (members cannot) edit the group name or chat tile, or add or remove members.

If the Group Admin leaves the Group, another Group Admin is not automatically designated. Group Admins must add another Admin before leaving the group in order for there to be an Admin of the Group.

Sharecast

Sharecast is a feature of the App that allows a Sharecast owner to share videos, or Polos, with Sharecast participants. Sharecast participants cannot see who the other Sharecast participants are. Participants can respond to the Sharecast owner through private messages that cannot be seen by other participants.

Sharecast Links and Access

Sharecast participants may join a Sharecast either through a Sharecast link shared by the Sharecast owner or by receiving an invite through the App. Anyone with the unique Sharecast link can join that Sharecast and access Sharecast content in the App (if they have a Marco Polo account) or on our Web platform. Note that if a Sharecast owner shares their link publicly, such as on social media, anyone who has access to the link may join their Sharecast or view their Sharecast videos. A Sharecast owner can stop people from accessing their Sharecast content through the link by selecting “Reset Link” in the Sharecast link section of their Sharecast settings. Sharecast owners can also remove participants from their Sharecast.

Restrictions on Saving Sharecast Polos

A Sharecast owner can restrict others from saving or sharing Polos shared in their Sharecast by adjusting their privacy settings to restrict saving in the App. The privacy settings can be accessed and changed by:

• tapping on the Settings icon,
• selecting Privacy, and
• toggling on “Restrict people from saving Polos I’ve sent them.”

Leaving a Sharecast

A participant may leave a Sharecast from the Marco Polo home screen by tapping the 3 dots to the right of the name of the Sharecast they want to leave and then selecting the Leave Sharecast option. The owner of the Sharecast will not be notified when a participant leaves their Sharecast, however, the owner can see who is in their Sharecast at any time in their Sharecast settings.

Deleting a Sharecast

A Sharecast owner can delete a Sharecast from the Marco Polo home screen by tapping the 3 dots to the right of the name of the Sharecast and then selecting the Delete Sharecast option. This will delete the Sharecast content from our servers.

Managing Your Information

You can manage your Personal Information in the Apps’ Settings.

Use of Personal Information

We use the information that we have about you to operate, provide, support, personalize, and make our Service more relevant and useful to you and others.

No Ads

We don’t use your Personal Information for ad targeting by third parties. We only store the Personal Information we need to operate the Service.

We may use the Personal Information we collect from and about you to:

• Operate, maintain, and improve our Service;
• Allow you to find and connect with your friends (when instructed by you);
• Let your friends know about your activity on the Service;
• Analyze usage and trends and personalize and improve the Service and your experience using the Service;
• Respond to your comments and questions and provide customer service;
• Send information including confirmations, invoices, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
• Send marketing emails that promote the use of Marco Polo from which you can opt-out as described below;
• Protect, investigate, and deter against fraudulent, unauthorized, or illegal activity; and
• Provide and deliver products and services that you request.

Our marketing emails tell you how to opt-out or unsubscribe. If you opt-out of marketing emails, we may still send you non-marketing emails and notifications, which may include information about your account, our business dealings with you, and updates regarding our policies.

Sharing of Personal Information

We may share the Personal Information we collect from and about you (1) with other App users, according to your account preferences and consistent with our Terms of Service; (2) for legal, protection, and safety purposes; (3) to comply with laws and in response to lawful requests and legal processes; (4) to protect the rights and property of Joya Communications Inc., our agents, customers, and others, including by enforcing our agreements, policies, and Terms of Service; and (5) with those who need it to do work for us (our Service Providers, as defined below).

Other Marco Polo Users

Other users of our Service with whom you choose to communicate, either in one-on-one conversations or in Groups, will be given some of your Personal Information. These other users may be located anywhere in the world, including outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). Note that by entering into the Terms of Service and choosing to communicate with such other users of the App, you are instructing us, as part of our contract with you, to transfer your Personal Information, on your behalf, to those users in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You may also choose to invite people to Marco Polo, such as to join your Seconds, a Sharecast, or a Group, by sending them a unique link.

We employ all appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure a level of security for your Personal Information that is appropriate to the risk.

If Marco Polo or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, Personal Information held by us about our users will be one of the transferred assets. Such third party will be required to treat that Personal Information in a manner consistent with this Policy.

Service Providers

We work with third parties to provide some of our Service (“Service Providers”). For example, we use third-party SMS Providers to send a verification code to your phone number when you register on the Marco Polo App. Service Providers will have access to your Personal Information needed to perform their business functions, but may not use or share that Personal Information for purposes outside the scope of their functions related to the Service.

Our Commitment towards Children’s Privacy

We do not direct the Service to, nor do we knowingly collect any Personal Information from children under 13. Children under 13 are not eligible to use the Service. If we learn that a user is under 13 years of age, we will take steps to remove that user’s Personal Information from our databases and to prevent that user from utilizing the Service.

Notification Choices

If you allow, push notifications will be sent to you regarding activities on the Service. You may choose to receive fewer push notifications by going to Settings and selecting the “Send Me Fewer Notifications” option, or to stop receiving such notifications by selecting the “Do Not Disturb” option.

We may also communicate with you via informational, transactional, or marketing emails and/or text messages.

By default, Marco Polo sends you informational, transactional, and marketing emails, including regarding activities on the Service, like when you receive a Polo from one of your contacts. You may choose to unsubscribe from emails by clicking “Unsubscribe” from the email. If you unsubscribe, we may still need to send you non-marketing emails about your account or our business dealings with you (e.g., emails regarding AppStore or Google Play subscriptions you have with us). You may also choose in the Marco Polo App to not receive reminder emails from us, such as a reminder about an unwatched Polo, by going to Settings and selecting the “Send me fewer emails” option.

We may also send you text notifications. You may opt out of receiving text messages by replying “stop” to the last message received or by emailing us at [email protected] with your mobile number and a request to stop sending messages.

You may also send requests to [email protected] about your Personal Information and to update your Personal Information.

Links to Other Sites

The Service may contain links to other third-party websites or applications. Any information you provide on those sites is subject to that third party’s privacy policy. Our Policy does not apply to such sites, and we are not responsible for the privacy and security practices and policies of those third-party sites or applications.

Security of Your Personal Information

We are committed to protecting the security of your Personal Information. We have taken certain physical, administrative, and technical steps to help safeguard the information we collect from and about you. While we take steps to help ensure the integrity and security of our network and systems, we cannot guarantee our security measures.

California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act/Proposition 24 (CCPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The CCPA and GDPR provide rights to certain individuals located in California and the European Union. We apply these rights to all of our users. You can contact us about these rights at [email protected].

CCPA

We do not disclose Personal Information beyond what is described in this Policy. All our users, including those in California, have the following rights.

• Right to access: You have the right to know and see what data we have collected about you over the past 12 months including:

  • categories of personal information we have collected about you;
  • categories of sources from which the personal information is collected;
  • the business or commercial purpose for collecting your personal information;
  • the categories of third parties to whom we have disclosed your personal information; and
  • the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
• Right to deletion: You have the right to request that we delete in certain circumstances the personal information we have collected from you.
• Right to correction: You have the right to request that we correct the personal information we have collected about you if inaccurate.
• Right not to be discriminated against: You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights.

We do not sell your personal information and we do not share your personal information with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising.

To request access to or deletion of your personal information, or to exercise any other data rights under the CCPA, please contact us at [email protected].

We, Joya, are the data controller of your Personal Information. Our contact information can be found at the end of this Policy.

Information according to GDPR Article 27 and UK laws

Joya Communications Inc. is a company located outside of the European Union. In order to comply with GDPR Article 27 and UK laws, Prighter has been engaged as our representative in the European Union and the UK. If you want to contact us via our representative Prighter or make use of your data subject rights (e.g. requests to access or erase personal data), please visit https://prighter.com/q/1421120​2 or simply email us at [email protected].

We also have an appointed Data Protection Officer, who can be contacted at [email protected].

All our users, including those in the European Economic Area (EEA), have the following rights, about which you can contact us at [email protected].

• Right to access: the right to request certain information about, access to and copies of the Personal Information about you that we are holding;
• Right to request that we rectify, limit, cease processing or erase information we hold about you in certain circumstances;
• Right to data portability: the right to request that we return any information you have provided in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, or that we send it directly to another company, where technically feasible;
• Right to object: the right to object to our use of your Personal Information including where we use it for our legitimate interests or, if applicable, for marketing purposes; and
• Right to lodge a complaint about us to a supervisory body in your country of work or residence (for instance, the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK).

Legal Basis for Processing

We process your Personal Information on the ground that such processing is necessary to further our legitimate interests (including: (1) providing an effective and innovative Service to our users; and (2) to detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud or security issues in respect of our provision of the Service), unless those interests are overridden by your interest or fundamental rights and freedoms that require protections of Personal Information.

We also process your Personal Information where it is necessary on the basis of performing under our contract with you in accordance with our Terms of Service, or in order to create a contract with you.

Automated decision making: Our software operates an algorithm to determine which of your contacts may be most relevant to you and who you might wish to connect with and/or invite to the Service.

Recipients of Personal Information and transfers to third countries: as set out in the sections above called Sharing of Personal Information and Service Providers, we share your Personal Information with certain third party providers in the United States, and such transfers are subject to appropriate safeguards.

Retention

We may retain the Personal Information you provide as long as you have an Account.

If you delete your Account, your name, profile picture, email, birth day and birth month, and any Seconds you recorded will be deleted, plus you will be removed from any Marco Polo Groups you were part of and any Sharecasts you were a participant in. Since we do not store your contacts on our server, we do not retain your contacts’ information upon account deletion. However, if you delete your Account and had invited someone to Marco Polo or sent them a Polo, we keep their phone number so that they are able to see when they join the App any invitations or Polos you sent them. Polos, Photo Polos, Video Reactions, Sharecast Private Messages, text messages, and other information you have shared with other users through Marco Polo will remain accessible to them as described in the Terms of Service and will remain on our server.

You may request deletion of the content you have shared with others on the service, such as your Polos, by making a request for deletion/erasure to customer support or by emailing us at [email protected]. Please note that such deletion permanently removes the content from our server and from the Marco Polo accounts of whomever you sent it to, such that it is no longer visible or accessible to others through the Service.

You may also permanently delete any individual Polo or message you create, and that is still available to you in the Marco Polo App, by pressing on the Polo tile, holding down, and then selecting and confirming “Delete.” Doing so will permanently remove it from our servers and the Marco Polo accounts of whomever you sent it to.

Contact Information

We welcome your comments or questions about this Policy. You may contact us at [email protected].

Changes to Privacy Policy

We may modify this Policy from time to time. If we make any changes, we will change the Last Updated date below. We also may provide additional notice, as applicable, depending on the type of change. If you object to any changes, you may stop using the Service. Your continued use of the Service after we publish or otherwise provide notice about our changes to the Policy means that you have read and understood the updated Policy.

Last Updated on December 28, 2022.