Carefuge - Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 22, 2025

Please read this Global Privacy Policy (“ Privacy Policy ”) carefully to clearly understand how Carefuge.net (“ Carefuge ”, “ we ”, or “ our ”) collects, uses, discloses, protects and otherwise handles information about you. Our privacy practices may vary between the countries in which we operate to reflect local practices and legal requirements.

About Carefuge.net

Carefuge is a collaborative social enterprise that provides a platform where its members, invited by like-minded communities, can exchange houses, organize stays, trips, community meals, walks, and promote their products or services. Carefuge connects communities so that they can save on their travels, establish shared experiences and is fundamentally based on trust and mutual support.

This Privacy Policy describes:

The information we collect about you,
How we use and share that information, and
The privacy options available to you.

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 interact with we.

We can only change the provisions of this Privacy Policy if required by law, but always taking individual protection into account, especially in the case of human rights activists or animal rights activists residing in countries in conflict.

What information do we collect when you use our services?

Information you provide to us

We collect information you provide to us, such as when you create an account, verify your identity, update your profile, use the interactive features of our Services, enter contests, promotions or surveys, request customer support, or otherwise communicate with us. .

The types of information we may collect include:

Account information, such as your name, username, gender, date of birth, email address, postal address, city, country, postal code, phone number, and profile photo;
The communications we exchange with users when they contact us with questions or comments, including comments about interaction with other users and interactive forum messages and information, such as discussion group postings, messages to other users of Carefuge and information it provides in connection with activities and events;
Other background, contact, and demographic information, such as your occupation, personal URL, IM username, emergency contact, house descriptions, travel history, and plans and other interests and self-descriptions you choose to provide;
Payment and transaction data when you pay for our Services, including name, payment card information, bank account number, billing information, and your transaction history. This information is collected and processed by our payment providers Stripe, Open Collective and we do not have access to payment card numbers. In addition to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, information related to your payments or purchases is also processed in accordance with the service agreements and privacy policies of Stripe. In the case of payments in cryptocurrencies, it is done under the security of blockchain systems. We eventually use platform services such as Open Collective as intermediaries for administrative and fiscal management.
If you choose to verify your identity when using the Services, we will ask you to provide a photo of your government-issued ID as well as a selfie to our biometric verification service provider. Carefuge does not retain facial geometry derived from your ID image and selfie.

Information We Collect Automatically

When you access or use our Services, we may also automatically collect information about you, including:

Log Information: We collect log information about how you access or use our Services, including access times, browser type and language, Internet service provider, and Internet Protocol ("IP") address.

Information we collect from other sources

Information Collected from Third Party Services . We may obtain information from other sources and combine it with information we collect through our Services. For example, if you link to, connect to, or sign in to the Services through a third-party social networking site, you instruct 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 authorization procedures determined by such third party social networking site or as authorized by you through your privacy settings on that service.

Information Collected from Other Users of the Services . We may receive information about you from other Carefuge users, such as trust ratings, comments, friend connections, public referrals, and other interconnections and interactions between you and other Carefuge users.

How do we use this information?

We use information about you to:

Provide our services , including for :

Operate the Services and our business;
Create and maintain your account;
Allow you to communicate and connect with other members,
Maintain and improve our Services and their features;
Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts, and administrative and support messages, including by sending push notifications;
Respond to your comments, questions and requests and provide customer service;
Process and deliver contest entries and rewards; and
Link or combine with other information we obtain from third parties to help understand your needs and provide you with better service.

Direct marketing . We may send you direct marketing communications as permitted by law, including, without limitation, notifying you about products, services, offers, promotions, rewards, and events, and providing you with other news and information about Carefuge and other third parties.

Research and development . We may create and use aggregated user information to analyze the effectiveness of our Services, improve and add features to our Services, and analyze the general behavior and characteristics of users of our Services.

Compliance with Laws, and Creating and Maintaining a Trusted and Safer Environment.

We may use personal information to:

Protect the security of Carefuge users and provide our verification service;
Enforce our Terms of Use;
Investigate possible breaches of Trust and Security;
Audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements and internal policies;
Prevent, identify, investigate, and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical, or illegal activity, including cyber-attacks and identity theft; and
Comply with applicable laws, legal requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities.

Processing of your personal information abroad

Carefuge has users located all over the world. We may store and process personal information, 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 disclosed to you.

In accordance with the Privacy Shield Principles, we are committed to resolving complaints about our collection or use of your personal information. Persons with inquiries or complaints regarding our Privacy Shield policy should first contact us at privacy@carefuge.net . Carefuge is liable if third party agents it uses to process personal data on your behalf do so in a manner inconsistent with the Privacy Shield Principles, unless Carefuge demonstrates that it is not responsible for the event that allowed the damage to occur.

Share information

We share personal information as follows:

With your consent;
With third-party vendors, consultants, and other service providers who need access to such information to perform their work for us (such as hosting, analytics, customer support, sending email and SMS, identity verification, and fraud prevention and detection); .
If we believe disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements; and
To enforce our agreements, policies, and Terms of Use to protect the security or integrity of our Services; or to protect Carefuge, our users, or the public from harm or illegal activity.

How you share personal information:

Other users. When you establish an account with Carefuge, you share certain information from your profile with the Carefuge community. This information includes your profile photo, name, username, and other information that you may choose to share in accordance with the privacy settings you establish on the Service.

Third party links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third-party products or services as part of our Services. We promise not to share your information with third parties. Any promotional actions, events, products and services of third parties will be offered directly by Carefuge to its members and each one will have the freedom to establish contact or not with third parties.

How do we protect your information?

We take the security of your data very seriously and take reasonable steps to protect your information from loss, theft, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. However, no transmission over the Internet or e-mail is completely secure or error-free. In addition, we are not responsible for the 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 applications or devices to record, store or share content or communication without the prior consent of other users. Please keep this in mind when using the Services.

Children

The Services are not intended for use by children under the age of 18. If we learn that we have collected personal information through the Services from a child under the age of 18 without the consent of the child's parent or guardian as required by law, we will delete it.

Your information choices

Privacy Settings You have many choices about your data.

You can update and correct most of your personal data through your account. If this is not possible, you can ask us to update your data, particularly in cases of inaccuracy, by contacting Customer Service ( privacy@carefuge.net)
You can request a portable copy of your data in the Privacy section of your Account & Settings (desktop only).
You can determine whether certain information about you will be visible to others by navigating to "Account & Settings" on our website and editing your options under "Privacy".

Account information

You can deactivate your account at any time by contacting privacy@carefuge.net . Even after you deactivate your account, we may retain certain information as required by law to protect member security. If your account is deactivated, Carefuge will provide access to data associated with the deactivated account upon receipt of required legal documentation.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@carefuge.net .

Notice to European data subjects

We are providing this supplemental privacy notice to European data subjects, in compliance with European data protection laws (" GDPR ").

Carefuge is responsible for how your personal data is handled. This means that we are the controller of your personal data under the GDPR. You can find our contact information in the Contact Us section above.

Please refer clearly to Carefuge in your correspondence. Upon receipt of your correspondence, Carefuge is likely to request proof of your identity, to ensure that your personal data and related information 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 What information do we collect when you use our services? above, and how we use it in the section How do we use this information? previous section.

Justification of Data Processing . European data protection law sets out a list of justifications that companies can rely on for processing 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 for processing personal data:

Contractual Necessity , to provide you with the Services in accordance with our Terms of Use.
Legitimate interests , where necessary for our legitimate business purposes, your interest, or the interests of a third party.
Consent , when required by law. Where we are relying on your consent to process personal data about you, you have the right to later withdraw your consent in the manner indicated when you consent or by contacting us as described in this Privacy Policy.

Providing some of this information is necessary to establish an account with Carefuge.

Types of personal data	Aim	Justification for the processing of personal data
Account information	To create and maintain your account	contractual necessity
Account information	To answer your questions To send you notifications or emails of feature releases or provide content that we think may be of interest to you	contractual necessity Legitimate interests: Provide you with the support you request and improve our Services and related services Send you information about our own products and services that may be of interest to you
communications	To answer user queries For trust and security purposes, in connection with information (such as feedback) that users of the Services may provide about their interactions with You To improve the Services in connection with information (such as feedback) about your experience with the Service	Legitimate interests: Provide user support Allowing us to prevent and detect harmful or unauthorized conduct Improve and develop the Services and develop new features and services. For example, we may decide to create a new feature in response to feedback received from users.
Information stored on the user's device, such as photos, calendar information, and contacts	To allow you to send your contacts to join the Services and for those contacts to receive invitations Showing which of your contacts joins or is already on the Services To enhance your experience using the Services if you choose to share travel photos or schedule availability	Consent (consent of the users through the device settings to authorize access to the user's personal data) Legitimate interests: Allow users to find and connect with people they know Improved user experience
Messages you send and receive from other users of the Services	To allow you to easily communicate with other users while using the Services	Legitimate interests: Help you connect with other users of Services
Other background, contact and demographic information	To improve your experience using the Services if you choose to provide this information, including recommendations from users to follow and topics that may be of interest to you	Legitimate interests: Personalization of your user experience by providing recommendations for the content and features of the Services
Payment and transactional data	To authorize our payment processors to process your transactions	contractual necessity
Information collected from other service users	To enhance your experience using the Services and to promote trust and safety while using the Services	Legitimate interests: Improvement and development of Services
Information collected from third party services	To allow you to easily communicate and connect with other users while using the Services	Legitimate interests: Improvement and development of Services
Identity verification and biometric information	To verify your identity when using the Services	Consent
Information collected automatically	To provide functionality, security, and for marketing and analytics purposes	Legitimate interests: Improvement and development of Services

Data Recipients . We may disclose your personal data to the recipients described in the Sharing Information section above.

Data Retention . We retain your personal data for as long as you have a Carefuge account. To protect the security of our users, your personal data will be retained for a reasonable period of time after 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 applicable legal requirements. We may delete data by anonymizing it so that it can no longer be associated with a user.

storage . We are located in Finland and we rely on cloud storage providers who store user data on our behalf in Finland. We have taken steps 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:

access . You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. If you need additional copies, we may be required to charge a reasonable fee.
Deletion and Correction . You can ask us to delete or correct the personal data we hold about you. We may retain your personal data as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud detection and prevention and improving trust and security. For example, if we suspend a Carefuge account for fraud or security reasons, we may retain information from that account to prevent that member from opening a new account in the future.
objection . You may have the right to object to how we use your personal data.
Restrict processing . You can ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for the processing.
Data portability . If necessary, we will provide you with your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

To exercise these rights, please send an email to privacy@carefuge.co . You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority in your country about our processing of your personal data.

Information about Carefuge.net