Privacy Policy
This is the Privacy Policy for the hosting and space sharing mobile application (the “App”) offered by Host, Inc. (“Host,” “us,” or “we”). Host understands that your privacy is important to you. As a valued member of the Host community, we offer this Privacy Policy so you can understand how and why we collect your information and your options to control your privacy when using the App. This Privacy Policy is governed by and is part of our Terms and Conditions.
If you have questions, please contact Host at support@hosttravel.org
1. Your Personal Information on Host
As used in this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. Personal Information falls within certain categories, for example identifiers (e.g., your contact information or username), employment or non-public education information, legally protected information (e.g., citizenship, marital status, sex); “sensitive” information (e.g., payment information, race, religion, health data), biometrics (e.g., fingerprints, face or voice print); commercial information like your purchasing history, your online activities, or inferences drawn from this Personal Information and used to create a profile about your preferences, characteristics, trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, or aptitudes. Note, however, that information about you that is publicly available, anonymized, or aggregated (meaning data summaries or reports with Personal Information removed) is generally not considered Personal Information or protected by privacy laws.
a) Information We Collect and How We Use It
listing. We collect identifiers, commercial information, and internet activity either with your consent (as informed by this Privacy Policy and freely given at the time you provide the information), to fulfill a legitimate interest, or as authorized or required by law. We only collect, use, retain, and disclose Personal Information as is adequate and relevant to the specific, express purposes described below or as reasonably necessary and proportionate to allow you to use the App. More specifically, Host collects:
i) Profile Information
when you signup and create your profile on the App. We collect your username, first and last name, email address, and a password to secure your account. You consent to Host collecting this information about you, and we use it to facilitate your use of the App and to communicate with you about the App and your reservations or listings.
ii) Reservation Details
Cincluding the dates, location, guest list, and reservation type. Host also keeps a record of your commercial information on the App like listings you have saved to view later, your reservation history, and search history. We collect this information with your consent, and we use it to facilitate your use of the App
iii) Chats
in which you participate using our chat feature on the App. If you use the chat feature, we will receive any Personal Information that you include in your messages. Your use of the chat feature is optional, and any Personal Information you include in a chat is collected and used with your consent.
iv) User Messages
for example if you request information about the App or to discuss your options to work with Host. If you contact us for any reason, we will collect your contact information and any other Personal Information that you include in your message. You provide this Personal Information with your consent and we only use it to respond to your message.
v) App Activities
such as your device information (e.g., device ID, IP address, operating system, browser type, mobile network information), content interactions and other use details, metadata, and data collected via cookies and related technologies we use to support the App’s features. Host may collect this information to achieve our legitimate interest in providing and improving the App.
b) 18+ Only
Host provides the App for adults, not children. No individual under the age of 18 should attempt to use the App or provide any Personal Information to Host. Adults using the App to book reservations with children in their party may only submit a child’s Personal Information with parent or legal guardian consent. If we learn we have collected or received Personal Information from a child under 18 without parent or legal guardian consent, we will delete that information.
c) Retaining Personal Information
Host only retains Personal Information for the minimum period necessary to provide our Services or achieve our business goals. For example, profile and account information is retained while your account is active and deleted when you delete your account. However, Host will retain the Personal Information necessary to comply with our IRS reporting requirements for 7 years. Cookie data is retained for as little as a few minutes or as long as 24 months, depending on the cookie’s purpose and function. Host reserves the right to retain data for longer periods as required by law or court order or if doing so is critical to our business. Personal Data is securely deleted at the end of its retention period.
d) Disclosures
Host only discloses Personal Information to the third parties as described below or if you give us permission to disclose it or if we are required by law to do so. In the preceding 12 months, we have disclosed Personal Information to:
i) To Listing Hosts
about you as a guest reserving their listing. If you make a reservation, the listing host will receive your name, a method to contact you, your party size, and other general information to facilitate your use of the listing.
ii) To Service Providers
like data hosting providers, payment processors, and email hosting services. We prohibit our service providers from selling or disclosing the Personal Information we provide, and we require all service providers to maintain confidentiality standards and appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure the security of your Personal Information.
iii) To Legal Authorities
and other government agencies as permitted or required by law.
iv)
IIn some cases, other third parties for example: if we go through a merger, acquisition, or other business transition, to comply with a legal requirement or a court order, if we believe it is appropriate in response to illegal activities or to prevent fraud or harm, to exercise or defend our legal claims, or for any other reason with your consent.
v)
We reserve the right to share aggregated, anonymized, or deidentified information about any individuals with nonaffiliated entities for marketing, advertising, research or other purposes, without restriction.
2. Your Controls and Options
The App allows you certain options to directly control the Personal Information we collect and hold about you. You can:
a) Update Your Profile:
Through your App login you can access, correct/update, or delete certain Personal Information.
b) Change Your Email Preferences:
By clicking to unsubscribe or change your preferences via the links provided in the emails. Note that if you opt out of marketing communications, we may still send you non-promotional communications, such as those about your listing or reservation.
c) Adjust Your Device Settings:
Or browser settings to control the data we collect through cookies and related technologies.
d) Block Location Tracking:
You can stop all collection of information by an app by uninstalling it. You can also reset your device Ad Id at any time through your device settings, which is designed to allow you to limit the use of information collected about you. You can stop all collection of precise location data through an app by uninstalling the app or withdrawing your consent through your device settings. However, key features of the App will not function if you block location tracking.
e) Do Not Track:
Do Not Track signals are signals sent through a browser informing us that you do not want to be tracked. Currently, our systems do not recognize browser “do-not-track” requests.
f) Privacy Requests:
If you have questions, concerns, wish to revoke your consent, or want to exercise your rights under privacy laws (see Section 3), you can submit a privacy request to Host at support@hosttravel.org. We can only assist with or fulfill a privacy request when we have sufficient information to verify that the requester is the person or an authorized representative of the person about whom we have collected Personal Information, and to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to the request. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to a verifiable request unless we have legal grounds to do so. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request. We endeavor to respond to privacy requests in accordance with the requirements of the law applicable to your jurisdiction. If we do not fulfill your request within the legally required timeline, you can appeal our response by contacting support@hosttravel.org.
3. Privacy Rights
You may be entitled to additional controls over your Personal Information depending on your citizenship or residency. Please note that the privacy law applicable to your jurisdiction may not apply to our company or our business practices.
a) U.S. Privacy Rights:
U.S. law governs consumer privacy at the federal level related to specific industries or data uses while some individual states offer consumer privacy protections that may apply more generally. This section provides informational notices for state privacy laws like those governing consumer privacy in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Nevada, Utah, Virginia, and other states require companies to inform consumers about their privacy rights and provide a method to exercise those rights. Residents of states offering privacy protections (each a “Consumer”) can exercise their privacy rights as applicable to our Services by submitting a Privacy Request. Host will respond to privacy requests to the extent required by law.
i) Right to Correct.
In most cases, you can correct your Personal Information by updating your App profile. If you become aware that the Personal Information that we hold about you is incorrect and you need help updating it, please inform us and we will update our records.
ii) Right to Deletion.
You may have the right to request that we delete your Personal Information that we collected and retained, with certain exceptions. If you request deletion, we may permanently delete, deidentify, or aggregate the Personal Information in response.
iii) No Selling or Sharing.
Host does not sell your Personal Information or share your Personal Information with third parties for cross-contextual behavioral advertising purposes.
iv) No Sensitive Personal Information.
Host does not seek to collect sensitive Personal Information about any individual, and in no case do we disclose any sensitive Personal Information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about you or otherwise use your sensitive Personal Information without your consent.
v) No Profiling.
Host does not process your Personal Information to evaluate, analyze, or predict your interests and preferences or otherwise use automated profiling to produce significant effects that concern you.
vi) Right to Access.
You can request confirmation that we have collected Personal Information about you and that we provide you with access to that Personal Information. If you submit an access request, we will provide you with copies of the requested pieces of Personal Information in a portable and readily usable format. Please note that we may be prohibited by law from disclosing certain pieces of Personal Information, and we may be limited in the number or frequency of requests we must fulfill.
vii) Right to Disclosure.
You may have the right to request that we disclose information to you about our collection and use of your Personal Information, such as: (A) the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you; (B) the categories of sources for the Personal Information we have collected about you; (C) our business purpose for collecting, using, processing, sharing or selling that Personal Information, as applicable; (D) the categories of third parties with whom we share that Personal Information; and (E) if we sold or shared your Personal Information under the applicable privacy laws, two separate lists stating: (1) sales or sharing, identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and (2) disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient obtained. Some laws may limit the number or frequency of requests we must fulfill.
viii) Right to Nondiscrimination.
We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights. For example, if you exercise your privacy rights, unless permitted by law we will not deny you goods or services, charge you different prices, provide you a different level of service, suggest that you will receive a different price or quality of service, or retaliate against you as an employee, applicant for employment, or independent contractor for exercising your privacy rights.
ix) California Right to Disclosure of Marketing Information.
California’s Shine the Light Act (Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84) entitles California residents to request certain disclosures regarding Personal Information sharing with affiliates and/or third parties for marketing purposes.
b) Canadian Privacy Rights:
This section provides the disclosures and notices required under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) and solely to residents of Canada where PIPEDA applies (“Canadian Consumers”). PIPEDA gives Canadian Consumers specific rights regarding Personal Information offering details on an identifiable person without the inclusion of name, title, telephone number, and business address of an employee of a business or organization. The rights afforded under PIPEDA are described below.
i) Right to Know Purpose.
You have the right to know why we collect, use, and distribute the Personal Information we process. We have set the required notices in this Privacy Policy. We may provide you with additional notices about other ways we process your Personal Information, such as by sending you a notice via email or by other means of communication.
ii) Right to Responsible Processing and Consent.
You have the right to expect us to collect, use, or disclose Personal Information responsibly and not for any other purpose other than which you consented. We set your expectations in this Privacy Policy and collect express or implied consent at various stages of collection or processing. If we collect or use your Personal Information based on your consent, we will also notify you of any changes and will request your further consent as needed. You may withdraw your consent at any time with reasonable notice by submitting a privacy request.
iii) Right to Accuracy.
We take steps to reasonably ensure that your Personal Information we are using is accurate. If you become aware that the Personal Information that we hold about you is incorrect, or if your information changes, please inform us and we will update our records.
iv) Right to Access.
Upon written request and identity authentication, we will provide you with your Personal Information under our control, information about the ways in which that information is being used and a description of the individuals and organizations to whom that information has been disclosed. We will make the information available within 30 days or provide written notice where additional time is required to fulfill the request. If we must refuse an access request, we will notify you in writing, document the reasons for refusal, and outline further steps that are available to you.
c) EEA Privacy Rights:
This section provides a courtesy list of disclosures and notices relating to the General Data Protection Regulation and its counterpart regulation applicable to residents of the United Kingdom (“GDPR”). We currently offer the App for use in the United States and Canada only. Users from other jurisdictions that may incidentally access the App do so at their own risk and expressly consent to the privacy practices as described in this Privacy Policy, within the App, and through our Terms and Conditions. Host does not represent that the App is configured to comply with GDPR requirements or that it is appropriate for use by anyone outside of the U.S. or Canada. For informational purposes only, the GDPR provides data subjects with the following privacy rights:
i) Right to Know Processing.
We have set the required notices in this Privacy Policy. We may provide you with additional notices about other ways we process your Personal Information by sending you a notice via email or by another method.
ii) Right to Access.
You have the right to access your Personal Information by receiving a copy of the Personal Information you request and details about the types of Personal Information processed, purpose for processing it, and any third parties used to collect Personal Information on our behalf.
iii) Right to Restrict Processing.
You have the right to restrict processing of your Personal Information if: (A) the data is inaccurate; (B) the processing is unlawful; (C) the information is no longer needed; or (E) you exercise your right to object.
iv) Right to Rectify.
You have the right to rectify or correct incorrect Personal Information.
v) Right to Data Portability.
In some circumstances, a business is required to provide your Personal Information to another organization at your request and in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
vi) Right to Erasure.
You have the right to request deletion of your Personal Information in certain circumstances and where required by law, with exceptions.
vii) Right to Object.
You can request that a business limit its processing of your Personal Information in certain circumstances and where we are required to do so by law.
viii) Right Not to Be Subject to Automated Decision-Making.
Host does not use automated decision-making (“ADM”) related to the App. If a business uses ADM in certain ways, it must provide a method for data subjects to opt-out of this processing. A data subject may opt-out of this processing.
ix) Right to Lodge a Complaint.
Data subjects can submit requests, questions, or complaints by submitting a privacy request to the business. After doing so, if the privacy issue is unresolved, the data subject may file a complaint with a supervisory authority, for example the Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland.
4. Owned and Operated in the U.S.
Host, Inc. is a United States company using technical infrastructure in the United States and other countries. Host does not warrant that the App is appropriate or authorized for use in any other jurisdictions. You are solely responsible for determining whether their use of the Services complies with applicable laws. If you use the App from outside the United States, please be aware that your Personal Information may be transferred to, processed, stored, and used in the United States or other jurisdictions. If your Personal Information is transferred to the United States, it may be accessed by government authorities under United States law. By allowing us to collect Personal Information about you, you consent to the transfer and processing of your Personal Information as described in this section.
5. App Security
Our data security measures are appropriate to the volume, scope, and nature of the Personal Information processed and designed to meet our duty of care with respect to your Personal Information. We also limit personnel access to Personal Information on an as needed basis. We have implemented and maintain reasonable security measures to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure.
You are responsible for keeping your device access and login information confidential. You are also encouraged to install anti-virus and anti-malware software on your devices and keep all software updated to avoid security risks. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our Services while it is in transit over the Internet, and any such submission is at your own risk.
6. Scope of Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy applies only to your use of the App and your communications with Host. It does not apply to any applications, websites, or other online services or products offered by a third party, even if accessible from the App or through Host.
7. Updates to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. You can see when this Privacy Policy was last updated by checking the “last updated” date displayed at the top of this page. We will collect your renewed consent to updates to the extent required by applicable law.