PRIVACY POLICY
KnowHere provides this Policy to keep you informed regarding how we collect, use and/or disclose your personal data so that you know and understand the purposes for which we may collect, use and/or disclose your personal data. By accessing the website at https://www.knowhere.io/ and any sub-domains (the site), you agree and consent to KnowHere, its related corporations, business units and affiliates, as well as their respective representatives and/or agents (collectively referred to herein as we, us or our), collecting, using, disclosing and sharing amongst themselves the personal data, and to disclosing such personal data to relevant third party providers. This Policy supplements but does not supersede nor replace any other consent which you may have previously provided to us nor does it affect any rights that we may have at law in connection with the collection, use and/or disclosure of your personal data. We may from time to time update this Policy to ensure that this Policy is consistent with our future developments, industry trends and/or any changes in legal or regulatory requirements. Subject to your rights at law, the prevailing terms of this Policy shall apply. For the avoidance of doubt, this Policy forms part of the terms and conditions governing your relationship with us and should be read in conjunction with such terms and conditions.
If you choose to use our Services, then you agree to the collection and use of information in relation to this Policy. The Personal data that we collect is used for providing and improving the Services. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Policy.
The capitalized terms used in this Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, which is accessible at KnowHere unless otherwise defined in this Policy. “NFT” in this Policy means a non-fungible token or similar digital item implemented on a blockchain (such as the Ethereum blockchain), which uses smart contracts to link to or otherwise be associated with certain content or data.
- social media handles and other social media profile information);
- contact details such as e-mail address;
- information or details regarding digital assets held;
- particulars of digital wallet addresses (including transactions performed by said digital wallet addresses), public cryptographic key relating to digital wallet addresses on distributed ledger networks and/or similar information;
- information about your use of our services and Website, and specific user interactions with the site such as features utilized, areas visited or clicked on, and time spent;
- usernames and password, third party account credentials (such as your Facebook login credentials, Google login credentials), Internet Protocol (IP) address, and geographical location;
- browser type and version, operating system used by the accessing system, internet service provider of the accessing system, the site from which an accessing system reaches our website (i.e. "referrers"), mobile device ID, location of access, or other similar data and information;
- behavior such as pages (and sub-page) visited, time and date of your visit, time spent on each page, and other diagnostic data; and/or
- personal opinions made known to us (e.g. feedback or responses to surveys).
Personal data will be automatically collected when you interact with our services, access the site, interact with other users of our services, open an email from us or fill in any form or survey, register a user account or update a user account that you registered with us, engage with us (whether through live chat, message, phone call, email, social media accounts, attendance at in-person events, opting-in to receive our marketing messages, or subscribing to our mailing lists), or make a purchase from us.
To the extent permitted by law, we may also obtain other information about you such as contact information, change of address or demographic information from commercially available sources.
In the course of using the Services, we collect personal data in connection with your registration, such as your name, email address that you provide to us at the time of registration. We also collect your blockchain address and wallet type, which may become associated with personal data when you use our Service. If we use your personal data for purposes not described in this policy, we will inform you in a reasonable way and obtain your consent before using it.
We may combine the information we receive from you with information we obtain from third parties. For example, third-party wallet providers provide us with your blockchain address and certain other information you choose to share with those wallets providers. And we may combine this information with other personal data we obtain about you. If we do so, this policy also governs the combined information.
Device Information: Includes name of the device, operating system, and browser you are using. Information collected may depend on the type of device you use and its settings.
Log Data: Information that your browser automatically sends whenever you use our website (“log data”). Log data includes your Internet Protocol address, browser type and settings, the date and time of your request, and how you interacted with our website.
Usage Data: We may automatically collect information about your use of the Services, such as the types of content that you view or engage with, the features you use and the actions you take, as well as your time zone, country, the dates and times of access, user agent and version, type of computer or mobile device, computer connection, IP address, and the like.
We collect non-personal data passively using technologies such as standard server logs, cookies, and clear GIFs (also known as “Web beacons”). When you visit our site or use our Services, we may send one or more cookies – a small file containing a string of characters – to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser or recognizes a cookie that is already on your machine. We use cookies to improve the quality of our Services by storing user preferences and tracking user trends and customizing your experience. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some Services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. Also, please be aware that third parties may set cookies on your hard drive or use other means of passively collecting information about your use of their services or content. We do not have access to, or control over, these third-party means of passive data collection.
If we directly combine any non-personal data gathered through passive means with personal data, we treat the combined information as personal data under this policy. Otherwise, we use information collected by passive means in aggregated or other non-personally identifiable forms.
KnowHere is keen to provide better Services. Personal data that we collect is to provide and improve our Services, please see the following section to check how we use personal data:
3.1 To provide Services and help to complete your transactions and delivery, but not limited to, helping you view, explore, and create NFTs using our tools and, at your own discretion, connect directly with others to purchase, sell, or transfer NFTs on public blockchains.
3.2 To inform you of KnowHere newsletters, marketing materials, promotional activities and other information may be in your interest.
3.3 To send you notifications related to actions on the Service, including notifications of offers on your NFTs;
3.4 To display your username next to the NFTs currently or previously accessible in your third-party wallet, and next to NFTs on which you have interacted;
3.5 To comply with law enforcement and keep you safe and satisfying on KnowHere.
3.6 To improve our Services, to develop new products and Services, to tailor your user experience.
We may use your email address to deliver product information and marketing messages. If you do not want to hear from us about the marketing communications, you may opt out of receiving these messages by following the instructions provided in the email.
In addition, we will use AIGC to improve services. We do not use Content that you provide to or receive from our API (“API Content”) to develop or improve our Services. We may use Content from Services other than our API (“Non-API Content”) to help develop and improve our Services.
We may provide personal data to our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company, and its subsidiaries, who support our processing of personal data in order to provide Services to you under this policy, where necessary for our legitimate interests if we have considered these are not overridden by your rights. If any of these parties are using your information for direct marketing purposes, we will only transfer the information to them for that purpose with your prior consent.
We may use the non-personal data we collect, such as public information observed from Blockchains. We collect data from activity that is publicly visible and/or accessible on blockchains. This may include blockchain addresses and information regarding purchases, sales, or transfers of NFTs, which may then be associated with other data you have provided to us. And we use this information to provide, improve, and develop our Services, to make sure you are safe on KnowHere, to prevent inappropriate usage, and for other purposes described in this policy. Please be aware that we may share it with third parties in order to carry out a user’s request.
Our selected third parties may include:
4.1 Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimization of our site and subject to your consent and the cookie section of this policy (this will not identify you as an individual).4.2 Where necessary for a contract, business partners who jointly with us provide Services to you and with whom we have entered into agreements in relation to the processing of your personal data (as detailed under the business partners' privacy policy).
4.3 Payment processing providers who provide secure payment processing Services. Note your payment card details are not shared with us by the provider.
4.4 Other parties in your direction.
4.4.1 Other users (where you post information publicly or as otherwise necessary to affect a transaction initiated or authorized by you through the Services).
4.4.2 Social media Services (if you intentionally interact with them through your use of the Services).
4.4.3 Third-party business partners who you access through the Services.
4.4.4 Other parties authorized by you.
5.2 A note about accuracy: Services like AIbot generate responses by reading a user’s request and then predicting the next most likely words that might appear in response. In some cases, the most likely next words may not be the most factually accurate ones. For this reason, you should not rely on the factual accuracy of output from our models. Given the technical complexity of how models work, we may not be able to correct the inaccuracy.
5.3.1 Secret Chats
Secret chats use end-to-end encryption. This means that all data is encrypted with a key that only you and the recipient know. There is no way for us or anybody else without direct access to your device to learn what content is being sent in those messages. We do not store your secret chats on our servers. We also do not keep any logs for messages in secret chats, so after a short period of time we no longer know who or when you messaged via secret chats. For the same reasons secret chats are not available in the cloud — you can only access those messages from the device they were sent to or from.
5.3.2 Media in Secret Chats
When you send photos, videos or files via secret chats, before being uploaded, each item is encrypted with a separate key, not known to the server. This key and the file’s location are then encrypted again, this time with the secret chat’s key — and sent to your recipient. They can then download and decipher the file. This means that the file is technically on our servers, but it looks like a piece of random indecipherable garbage to everyone except for you and the recipient. We don’t know what this random data stands for and we have no idea which particular chat it belongs to. We periodically purge this random data from our servers to save disk space.
5.3.3 End-to-End Encrypted Data
Your messages, media and files from secret chats are processed only on your device and on the device of your recipient. Before this data reaches our servers, it is encrypted with a key known only to you and the recipient. While our servers will handle this end-to-end encrypted data to deliver it to the recipient, we have no ways of deciphering the actual information. In this case, we neither store nor process your personal data, rather we store and process random sequences of symbols that have no meaning without the keys which we don’t have.
5.3.4 Translation of Chats
Users can choose to translate a specific text message into a different language by tapping “Translate” in the action menu of the message (to enable this option, a user should first turn on Translation services in the Settings > Languages section of the application). Users can also optionally enable automatic live translation on any chat, group or channel.
Since KnowHere may rely on a third-party, Google Translate, for automatic translation of messages, the text of any message or set of messages that users choose to translate may be shared with Google in order to obtain their translated versions. Google will only access the data to provide a translation and will not use it for any other Google products, services, or advertising.
5.3.5 Message Deletion
In a secret chat, deleting a message always instructs the application on the other end to delete it as well. Either party can choose to delete a message sent in a one-to-one chat, for both parties. There is no time limit. In a group channel, deleting a message deletes it for all participants. Note that the original version of a message deleted in a non-secret chat is saved after deletion for display in the administrator log.
5.3.6 Self-Destructing Messages
Messages in Secret Chats can be ordered to self-destruct. As soon as such a message is read, the countdown starts. When the timer expires, both devices participating in a secret chat are instructed to delete the message (photo, video, etc.). Media with short timers (less than a minute) are shown with blurred previews. The timer is triggered when they are viewed.
Blockchain technology, also known as distributed ledger technology (DLT), is at the core of our business. Blockchains are decentralised and made up of digitally recorded data in a chain of packages called "blocks". The manner in which these blocks are linked is chronological, meaning that the data is very difficult to alter once recorded. Since the ledger may be distributed all over the world (across several "nodes" which usually replicate the ledger) this means there is no single person making decisions or otherwise administering the system (such as an operator of a cloud computing system), and that there is no centralised place where it is located either.
Accordingly, by design, a blockchain’s data cannot be changed or deleted and is said to be "immutable". This may affect your ability to exercise your rights such as your right to erasure ("right to be forgotten"), or your rights to object or restrict processing of your personal data. Data on the blockchain cannot be erased and cannot be changed. Although smart contracts may be used to revoke certain access rights, and some content may be made invisible to others, it is not deleted.
In certain circumstances, in order to comply with our contractual obligations to you (such as delivery of tokens or provision of other services) it will be necessary to collect certain personal data, such as your wallet address, onto the blockchain; this is done through a smart contract and requires you to execute such transactions using your wallet’s private key.
The ultimate decision to (a) transact on the blockchain using your wallet address, as well as (b) share the public key relating to your wallet address with anyone (including us) rests with you. IF YOU WANT TO ENSURE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS ARE NOT AFFECTED IN ANY WAY, YOU SHOULD NOT TRANSACT ON BLOCKCHAINS AS CERTAIN RIGHTS MAY NOT BE FULLY AVAILABLE OR EXERCISABLE BY YOU OR US DUE TO THE TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE BLOCKCHAIN. IN PARTICULAR THE BLOCKCHAIN IS AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC AND ANY PERSONAL DATA SHARED ON THE BLOCKCHAIN WILL BECOME PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.
When we no longer need to use personal data, we will remove it from our systems and records and/or take steps to anonymise it so that you can no longer be identified from it.
We are based in the United States, and we process and store information on servers located in the United States. We may also store information on servers and equipment in other countries depending on a variety of factors, including the locations of our users and service providers. These data transfers allow us to provide our services to you. By accessing or using our services or otherwise providing information to us, you understand that your information will be processed, transferred, and stored in the U.S. and other countries, where different data protection standards may apply and/or you may not have the same rights as you do under local law.
When transferring data outside the EEA, we use standard contract clauses, and we rely on the European Commission's adequacy decisions about certain countries, as applicable, or other legally compliant mechanisms or conditions for such data transfer.
We also adhere to the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Program and comply with its framework and principles. Although the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Program is no longer a valid basis for certain international data transfers, we continue to comply with the Privacy Shield framework and principles with respect to personal data received from the EU in addition to all other applicable laws.