Privacy Policy

Good for you for taking your privacy seriously.
If you visited this page out of habit and have little intention to read it through (although we advise you do), don’t leave without a few important notes:    

• We do not follow your data, sell your data, look at your data, manipulate your data etc. It’s not how we do things! 

• We do not upload any of your contacts to our server or to any server.

• The app is free, not today, not tomorrow, it’s free. Later on, we hope to sell added value services but what we truly don’t want is to run ads. 

Privacy Notice

Groupee Inc. (“Groupee”) recognizes that its customers, visitors and users, want to know what’s up with privacy. Groupee provides this Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) to help you make an informed decision about whether to use or continue using the Groupee Site, Groupee Software and/or the Groupee Service. If you do not agree to our practices, please do not use the Groupee Site, Groupee Software, or Groupee Service.

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and is subject to the Groupee Terms of Service. Your use of the Groupee Site, Groupee Software and the Groupee Service and any personal information you provide on the Groupee Site or Groupee Service remains subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.

Please note that any Status Submissions or other content posted at the direction or discretion of users of the Groupee Service becomes published content and is not considered personally identifiable information subject to this Privacy Policy.

What Does This Privacy Policy Cover?

This Privacy Policy is part of Groupee’s Terms of Service and covers the treatment of user information, including personally identifying information, obtained by Groupee, including information obtained when you access the Groupee’s Site, use the Groupee Service or any other software provided by Groupee.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of companies that Groupee does not own or control, or to individuals whom Groupee does not employ or manage, including any of the third parties to which Groupee may disclose user information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

The Information Groupee Collects

Groupee may obtain the following types of information from or concerning you or your mobile phone device, which may include information that can be used to identify you as specified below (“Personally Identifying Information”):

User Provided Information: You provide certain Personally Identifiable Information, such as your mobile phone number, push notification name (if applicable), billing information (if applicable) and mobile device information to Groupee when choosing to participate in various uses of the Groupee Service, such as registering as a user, updating your status or requesting status for your contacts. In order to provide the Groupee Service, Groupee will periodically access your address book or contact list on your mobile phone to locate the mobile phone numbers of other Groupee users (“in-network” numbers), or otherwise categorize other mobile phone numbers as “out-network” numbers, which are stored as one-way irreversibly hashed values.

Cookies Information: When you visit the Groupee Site, we may send one or more cookies – a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters – to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. Groupee uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser. Persistent cookies may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser help file directions. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after you close your browser. You can reset your web browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, the Groupee Site may not function properly if the ability to accept cookies is disabled.

Log File Information: When you use the Groupee Site, our servers automatically record certain information that your web browser sends whenever you visit any website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, browser language, referring / exit pages and URLs, platform type, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages, the date and time of your request, one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser, your phone number, phone number you are requesting the status of and various status information. When you use the Groupee Service, our servers log certain general information that our application sends whenever a message is sent or received, or if you update or request any status information, including time and date stamps and the mobile phone numbers the messages were sent from and to.

The Information Groupee Does Not Collect

Groupee does not collect names, emails, addresses or other contact information from its users’ mobile address book or contact lists other than mobile phone numbers — the Groupee mobile application will associate whatever name the Groupee user has assigned to the mobile telephone number in his/her mobile address book or contact list — and this occurs dynamically on the mobile device itself and not on Groupee’s servers and is not transmitted to Groupee. This means that if you have your friend’s mobile phone number associated with the name “Shakespeare” in your mobile address book, that’s the name that will appear for that mobile phone number in your Groupee contact list. We do not collect location data, but users may voluntarily share their location with other users via the Groupee Service.

The contents of messages that have been delivered by the Groupee Service are not copied, kept or archived by Groupee in the normal course of business. The Groupee Service is meant to be an SMS replacement, using data service through a user’s phone (either via cell network or WiFi). Users type their messages, which are sent via data service to our servers, and routed to the intended recipient (who must also be a Groupee user), if that recipient is online. If the recipient is not online, the undelivered message is held in Groupee’s server until it can be delivered. If the message is undelivered for thirty (30) days, the undelivered message is deleted from our servers. Once a message has been delivered, it no longer resides on our servers. The contents of any delivered messages are not kept or retained by Groupee — the only records of the content of any delivered messages reside directly on the sender’s and recipient’s mobile devices (and which may be deleted at the user’s option). Notwithstanding the above, Groupee may retain date and time stamp information associated with successfully delivered messages and the mobile phone numbers involved in the messages, as well as any other information which Groupee is legally compelled to collect. Files that are sent through the Groupee Service will reside on our servers after delivery for a short period of time, but are deleted and stripped of any identifiable information within a short period of time in accordance with our general retention policies.

The Way Groupee Uses Information

If you submit Personally Identifiable Information to us through the Groupee Site, or Groupee Service, then we use your personal information to operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the Groupee Site and GroupeeApp Service. In particular, your mobile phone number is essential to your use of the Groupee Service and will be retained. Any billing information that may be collected from you will be deleted thirty (30) days after the termination of your account with Groupee. Any Personally Identifiable Information or status content that you voluntarily disclose on the Groupee Service becomes publicly available and may be collected and used by other users of the Groupee Service (unless such user is blocked by you). Your name (as it is saved in other user’s mobile phone address book or contact list) may be displayed to other users when you update your status messages through the Groupee Service and other users may contact you through the Groupee Service. We do not use your mobile phone number or other Personally Identifiable Information to send commercial or marketing messages without your consent or except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in or opt-out. We may, however, use your mobile phone number (or email address, if provided) without further consent for non-marketing or administrative purposes (such as notifying you of major Groupee Site or Groupee Service changes or for customer service purposes). We may use both your Personally Identifiable Information and certain non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous user usage data, cookies, IP addresses, browser type, clickstream data, etc.) to improve the quality and design of the Groupee Site and Groupee Service and to create new features, promotions, functionality, and services by storing, tracking, and analyzing user preferences and trends. Hopefully we improve the Groupee Site and Service and don’t make it suck worse. We may use cookies and log file information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you use the Groupee Service or Groupee Site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) monitor individual and aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, pages viewed, etc.; and (d) track your entries, submissions, views and such.

When Groupee Discloses Information

Other users of the Groupee Service may see your Status Submissions in a way that is consistent with the use of the Groupee Service. For example, a status of “Can’t talk, please SMS instead” set by phone number +1 (408) 555-1212 will be available to every user of the Groupee Service who has that mobile phone number in their mobile phone’s address book or contact list. In other words: if another user has your mobile phone number stored in their mobile phone address book or contact list, they will be able see your status information unless you have chosen to block such user. “Last Seen” information is available and displayed to each user who has your mobile phone number in their mobile phone address book or contact book (and which you have not blocked), and reflects the last approximate time the Groupee mobile application has been used or brought to the foreground on your mobile phone. “Last Seen” information is reported to Groupee when a user brings the mobile application to the foreground.

We do not sell or share your Personally Identifiable Information (such as mobile phone number) with other third-party companies for their commercial or marketing use without your consent or except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in or opt-out. We may share your Personally Identifiable Information with third party service providers to the extent that it is reasonably necessary to perform, improve or maintain the Groupee Service. We may share non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous User usage data, referring / exit pages and URLs, platform types, asset views, number of clicks, etc.) with interested third-parties to assist them in understanding the usage patterns for certain content, services, advertisements, promotions, and/or functionality on the Groupee Site. We may collect and release Personally Identifiable Information and/or non-personally-identifiable information if required to do so by law, or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with State and Federal Laws (such as U.S. Copyright Law), International Law or respond to a court order, subpoena, or search warrant or equivalent, or where in our reasonable belief an individual’s physical safety may be at risk or threatened. Groupee also reserves the right to disclose Personally Identifiable Information and/or non-personally-identifiable information that Groupee believes, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to enforce our Terms of Service, take precautions against liability, to investigate and defend itself against any third-party claims or allegations, to assist government enforcement agencies, to protect the security or integrity of the Groupee Site or our servers, and to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Groupee, our users or others.

Your Choices

You may, of course, decline to submit Personally Identifiable Information through the Groupee Site or the Groupee Service, in which case Groupee may not be able to provide certain services to you. If you do not agree with our Privacy Policy or Terms of Service, please delete your account, uninstall the Groupee mobile application and discontinue use of the Groupee Service; your continued usage of the Groupee Service will signify your assent to and acceptance of our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps (such as SMS authentication in certain cases) to verify your identity before registering your mobile phone number and granting you access to the Groupee Service. Please contact Groupee via email to [email protected] or available web forms with any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, your personal information, your consent, or your opt-in or opt-out choices.

Third-party Advertisers, Links to Other Sites

We are not fans of advertising. Groupee is currently ad-free and we hope to keep it that way forever. We have no intention to introduce advertisement into the product, but if we ever do, we will update this section.

Our Commitment To Data Security

Groupee uses commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of your personal information. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to Groupee and you do so at your own risk. Using unsecured WiFi or other unprotected networks to submit messages through the Groupee Service is never recommended. Once we receive your transmission of information, Groupee makes commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards. If Groupee learns of a security systems breach, then we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. Groupee may post a notice on the Groupee Site or through the Groupee Service if a security breach occurs.

Our Commitment To Child Privacy

Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. For that reason, Groupee does not knowingly collect or maintain Personally Identifiable Information or non-personally-identifiable information on the Groupee Site or Groupee Service from persons under 16 years of age, and no part of the Groupee Service is directed to or intended to be used by persons under 16. If you are under 16 years of age, then please do not use the Groupee Service or access the Groupee Site at any time or in any manner. If Groupee learns that Personally Identifiable Information of persons under 16 years of age has been collected on the Groupee Site or Groupee Service, then Groupee may deactivate the account and/or make the status submissions inaccessible. And always, think of the children!

Special Note to International Users

The Groupee Site and Service are hosted in Israel and are intended for and directed to users in Israel. If you are a user accessing the Groupee Site and Service from the European Union, Asia, or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use, and disclosure, that differ from Israeli laws, please be advised that through your continued use of the Groupee Site and Service, which are governed by Israeli law, this Privacy Policy, and our Terms of Service, you are transferring your personal information to Israel and you expressly consent to that transfer and consent to be governed by Israeli law for these purposes.

In the Event of Merger, Sale, or Bankruptcy

In the event that Groupee is acquired by or merged with a third party entity, we reserve the right to transfer or assign the information we have collected from our users as part of such merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control. In the (hopefully) unlikely event of our bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, receivership, or assignment for the benefit of creditors, or the application of laws or equitable principles affecting creditors’ rights generally, we may not be able to control how your personal information is treated, transferred, or used.

Changes and updates to this Privacy Notice

This Privacy Policy may be revised periodically and this will be reflected by the “effective date” below. Please revisit this page to stay aware of any changes. Your continued use of the Groupee Site and Groupee Service constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Policy and any amendments.

This Privacy Notice was last modified on 25 July 2019