Privacy Policy

Affinity Answers Privacy Policy

Last updated: December 19, 2022

At Affinity Answers, our mission is to improve marketing through brand advertising effectiveness, measurement, and improvement. Consumer privacy is at the heart of this. We are a privacy-first company and – as a rule – all our products are developed with consumer privacy as our number one priority

Affinity Answers Website Privacy Policy

Affinity Answers Services Privacy Policy

EU Data Subjects Disclosures & Rights

U.S. State-Specific Notice

Changes to this policy

Contact Us

By using our website (http://www.www.affinityanswers.com) or by using any of our marketing services (the “Services”), you acknowledge that you understand the practices and policies outlined in these Privacy Policies.

Affinity Answers Website Privacy Policy

  1. Information we collect through this website
  2. How we use collected information
  3. How we disclose collected information
  4. Your privacy rights and how to exercise them
  5. Security & Retention
  6. Children's Information
  7. Third-Party Links
1. Information we collect from our business users or through this website

We collect personal information when you directly give it to us.  We offer various ways in which you may contact us or send us your information, including when you try our audience tools, register for an account, send us emails, fill out forms, and occasionally through surveys. The information we may collect from you through these processes is:

  • Full name
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • Postal address
  • Business information including professional title

On occasion, we may also ask you to provide us with information about another person and their contact information, such as with other potential business users of our Services, billing contacts, or others. In such an instance, we will treat the other person's information the same as yours and in accordance with this policy.

We automatically collect information about you when you interact with our website, emails, or on our social media pages. Like most websites, we use tools to measure your engagement activities, which may include the use of pixel tags and cookies. Finally, we send email updates and offers, and may collect information about your interaction with our emails. Specifically, we collect the following pieces of information through these interactions:

  • Website visit analytics such as referral link clicks, pages viewed, and time spent on site
  • IP addresses and general geographic locations derived from IP addresses
  • Registered Account IDs
  • Cookie IDs
  • Mobile Advertising IDs    
  • Email opens and click-throughs that will be associated with an email address
2. How we use collected information

We use personal information in order to:

  • Provide you with our services and for billing purposes.
  • To improve our products and features.
  • Communicate with you through email, including product and feature promotions.
  • Personalize our website.
  • Incorporate your feedback, testimonials, or reviews into our content, products, or Services. If we are interested in using any content associated with your personal information for publicity purposes, we will request your permission in advance.
3. How we disclose collected information

We disclose personal information in the following ways.

  • We contract with service providers who use your personal information exclusively to support Affinity Answers, and include:
    • Customer communications tools
    • Web and app analytics 
    • App and software hosting  
    • Online advertising 
    • Survey tools
    • Website creation and hosting
  • Through the use of proprietary links, pixel tags, and cookies served by marketing partners, social media, or interest-based advertising services that may use collected information from our Services to assist Affinity Answers but also to improve their products and services. Please see your choices below to opt-out of these potential uses.
  • With any other divisions, subsidiaries, or corporate affiliates of Affinity Answers.
  • If we are compelled by law to do so, such as through a subpoena or court order.
  • If it is required as part of a business transaction where Affinity Answers or any subsidiary is acquired.

In addition, we may share aggregated information that does not identify any personal information, such as the number of website or app visits, referring partner metrics, or number of account registrations.

COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
Functional Cookies
Hubspot: Hubspot Privacy Policy
Analytics Cookies
Google Analytics: Google Analytics Opt Out
Advertising Cookies
Google: Google Advertising Opt Out
LinkedIn: LinkedIn Advertising Preferences
4. Your privacy rights and how to exercise them

You have the right to:

  • Access. We can provide you with the personal information that we maintain about you.
  • Modification. We will correct any mistakes with your personal information.
  • Deletion. You can request that we delete any personal information about you, unless we are required by contract or law to retain it.
  • Opt-Out. You may request that we cease using your information for marketing or other purposes that are not required to provide the services you’ve requested.You may also choose to opt-out through the following mechanisms:
    • If you have received a commercial email from us, you will have the option to opt-out or unsubscribe provided in the email itself.
    • To opt out of cookies or other tracking of visits on our website by:

To exercise your rights, please email us at dataprivacy@affinityanswers.com

If you are a resident of the EU, California, or Virginia, you may have additional privacy rights.

5. Security & Retention

We conduct due diligence on all our personal information service providers and require them to have adequate security protections in place. If Affinity Answers processes your personal information on our own systems or servers, we will also put in place mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access or disclosures. We endeavor to protect the privacy of your account and other personal information we hold in our records, but unfortunately, we cannot guarantee complete security.

We generally retain consumer personal information for as long as necessary to provide our Services. If you subscribe to our newsletter, we will retain your information for as long as you are subscribed plus one (1) year. With regards to information collected from inquiries that do not result in a subscription to our communications or associated Services, we will delete this information after one (1) year. In addition, we retain cookie and other similar tracking data for one (1) year. We may also retain personal information if required by law, or for our legitimate interests, such as abuse detection and prevention, and defending ourselves from legal claims. Residual copies of personal data may be stored in backup systems for a limited period as a security measure to protect against data loss. For more information, please email us at dataprivacy@affinityanswers.com. 

6. Children's Information

Affinity Answers does not intend for this website or any of our business services to collect personal information (or ‘personal data’ for EU visitors) from children under the age of 16.  If you are under 16, please do not attempt to register for the Services or send any personal information about yourself to us. If you believe that a child under 16 may have provided us with personal information, please contact us via email at dataprivacy@affinityanswers.com.

7. Third-Party Links

This website may contain links to other websites or services. We do not exercise control over the information you provide, or is collected by these third party websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit.

Affinity Answers Services Privacy Policy

Affinity Answers collects and processes publicly expressed social engagements to enable brands to plan their marketing. This information is used to build a predictive algorithm.  The predictive algorithm is then applied onto data obtained from advertising technology platforms to create more relevant advertising audiences. 

  1. Information we collect through our Services
  2. How we use collected information
  3. How we disclose collected information through our Services
  4. Your privacy rights and how to exercise them
  5. Security & Retention for our Services
  6. Children's Information
1. Information we collect through our Services

We collect the following information from consumers:

  • Pseudonymized social media identifiers.
  • Public engagements from consumer & media brands on social media platforms.
  • Information from our advertising technology partners, which may include cookie or mobile advertising IDs, pseudonymized identifiers such as hashed emails, demographic information, and other custom attributes.
2. How we use collected information in our Services

We use collected information to provide our social and other marketing services, including: 

  • Create lookalike or ‘act alike’ audiences for display advertising.
  • Provide market research insights.
  • Enhance customer or prospect databases with new attributes. 
  • Assist with media planning.
3. How we  disclose collected information through our Services

We may disclose information in the following ways:

  • With our vendors who use your personal information exclusively to support Affinity Answers.
  • With our business partners.
  • Through the use of proprietary links, pixel tags, and cookies served by marketing partners, social media, or interest-based advertising services that may use collected information from our Services to assist Affinity Answers but also to improve their products and services. Please see your privacy rights and how to exercise them below to opt-out of these potential uses.
  • With any other divisions, subsidiaries, or corporate affiliates of Affinity Answers.
  • If we are compelled by law to do so, such as through a subpoena or court order.
  • If it is required as part of a business transaction where Affinity Answers or any subsidiary is acquired.

In addition, we may share aggregated information that does not identify any personal information, such as the number of website or app visits, referring partner metrics, or number of account registrations.

4. Your privacy rights and how to exercise them

You have the right to:

  • Access. We can provide you with the personal information that we maintain about you.
  • Modification. We will correct any mistakes with your personal information.
  • Deletion. You can request that we delete any personal information about you, unless we are required by contract or law to retain it.
  • Opt-Out. You may request that we cease using your information for marketing or other purposes that are not required to provide the services you’ve requested.You may also choose to opt-out through the following mechanisms:
    • If you have received a commercial email from us, you will have the option to opt-out or unsubscribe provided in the email itself.
    • To opt out of targeted advertising by: 

To exercise your rights, please email us at dataprivacy@affinityanswers.com

Once your information is modeled or matched to other information in our systems, we remove the pseudonymous records that would be considered ‘personal’. The time period from collection to removal of pseudonymous information is approximately thirteen (13) weeks. We may maintain the pseudonymous records and associated signal information for up to eighteen (18) months from the date of collection for purposes of analytics and analyzing trends.  As a result, requests for access, modification or deletion are technically difficult and practically limited.  As an alternative, we can provide a persistent opt-out so that your social identifiers are not ingested into our Services. To opt-out, email us at dataprivacy@affinityanswers.com with your social media handle and a screenshot of your social profile settings page from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit and TikTok

Affinity Answers works with numerous advertising technology providers who offer an opt-out choice. Please visit the following links to learn more about these choices;  Oracle, Eyeota, Liveramp, V12. In addition, you may also choose to opt-out of other potential ad partners through this industry website.  

5. Security & Retention

Affinity Answers takes all reasonable technical and organizational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse, or alteration of any personal information. All information is stored on secure servers.  We endeavor to protect the privacy of our information, but unfortunately, we cannot guarantee complete security.

We generally retain consumer personal information for as long as necessary to provide our Services to our business customers, or for as long as our business customers have an account with us plus one (1) year.  If you subscribe to our newsletter, we will retain your information for as long as you are subscribed plus one (1) year. With regards to information collected from inquiries that do not result in a subscription to our communications or associated Services, we will delete this information after one (1) year. In addition, we retain cookie and other similar tracking data for one (1) year.  We may also retain personal information if required by law, or for our legitimate interests, such as abuse detection and prevention, and defending ourselves from legal claims. Residual copies of personal data may be stored in backup systems for a limited period as a security measure to protect against data loss. For more information, please email us at dataprivacy@affinityanswers.com. 

6. Children's Information

Affinity Answers does not intend for this website or any of our business services to collect personal information (or ‘personal data’ for EU visitors) from children under the age of 16.  If you are under 16, please do not attempt to register for the Services or send any personal information about yourself to us. If you believe that a child under 16 may have provided us with personal information, please contact us via email at dataprivacy@affinityanswers.com.

EU Data Subjects Disclosures

Legal Basis

Affinity Answers processes personal data under the following legal basis: 

AFFINITY ANSWERS PROCESS ACTIVITY LEGAL BASIS UNDER GDPR
Placement of cookies on our website Consent
Collection and processing of personal data received from our business customers in order to provide our Services Contract Fulfillment
Service-related communications Legitimate Interest
Improving our Services Legitimate Interest

Controller/Processor Designation

Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), we are designated as a “Controller” for the collection and use of our business customers’ administrative representatives' personal data to maintain their account and fulfill the Services.  For all other uses of personal data, we are designated as a ‘Processor’acting upon the express instructions of our business customers. 

Cross border data transfers

Affinity Answers is operated in the United States, and will process personal information exclusively in the U.S.  If you are visiting this website from outside the U.S., then by providing us with your personal information you are consenting to the transfer of that information to the U.S. 

For business customers, we may transfer to, and store the data we collect about you, in countries other than the country in which the data was originally collected, including the United States or other destinations outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the United Kingdom. Those countries may not have equivalent data protection laws as the country in which you provided the data. When we transfer your data to other countries, we will protect the data as described in this Privacy Policy and comply with applicable legal requirements providing adequate protection for the transfer of data to countries outside the EEA. We rely on model contracts approved by the European Commission when we transfer personal data to be processed by us or our service providers or partners in the U.S.  

For more information on cross-border transfers of your Personal Data or the appropriate safeguards in place, please contact us at dataprivacy@affinityanswers.com. 

Additional EU Data Subject rights

In addition to the rights granted above, if you are a UK or EEA resident, the GDPR grants you the right to lodge a complaint against us with your local data protection authority. You can find your data protection authority at https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en. 

U.S. State-Specific Notices

Some U.S. states have enacted comprehensive privacy laws. The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act or “CPRA” (collectively, the “CCPA”) and the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”) create additional privacy obligations for businesses and provide Californians and Virginians with additional privacy rights.

Service Provider/Third Party and Processor Designations

  • Under the CCPA, Affinity Answers operates as a (a) Business for all information collected through this Website; (b) Business for the collection and use of our business customers’ administrative representatives personal information to maintain their account and fulfill the Services; and (c) Third Party for the data we match information to via our Services and for all other uses of personal information. 
  • Under the VCDPA, Affinity Answers operates as a (1) Controller for all information collected through this Website; (2) Controller for the collection and use of our business customers’ administrative representatives personal information to maintain their account and fulfill the Services; (3) Controller for the data we source; and (3) Processor for the data we match information to via our Services and for all other uses of personal information.   

 

Additional privacy rights

In addition to the rights granted above, if you are a California or Virginia resident, you have the following rights: 

  • To opt out of the “sale or share” of your personal information for advertising purposes. Affinity Answers does not ‘sell’ your personal information for monetary gain, however, some third party cookies placed on our website may be considered a ‘sale or share’ as used for our ‘targeted’ or ‘cross-contextual’ advertising campaigns under California or Virginia law.  You may opt-out of each vendor’s cookies by visiting their opt out pages provided above.
  • Sensitive personal information.
    • Californians have the right to limit the use and disclosure of your sensitive information and Virginians have the right to opt in to the use of their sensitive personal information. Affinity Answers does not collect, process, or disclose your sensitive information. 
  • Virginians have the right to opt out of profiling based upon personal data. We do not profile as defined by the VCDPA.

Changes to this policy

Changes to this policy shall be announced by posting the updated Affinity Answers Website & Business Privacy Policy on the Affinity Answers website.  Changes to this notice will be reflected in the “Last Updated” date above.

What’s new :

  1. Amended December 19, 2022 to include consumers’ new privacy rights and required disclosures under the California Privacy Act and the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act.
  2. Amended October 13, 2022, to clarify rights available to individuals and to incorporate new requirements under the California Privacy Rights Act and Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act. 
  3. Amended October 18, 2021, to add the Rights Available to individuals in respect of the processing under EU Data Subjects Disclosures & Rights.
  4. Amended September 23, 2020, to clarify the Subject Access Request Process, to add details of other partners not included in the Privacy Notice, and to add a link to the EU Ad Choices website.
  5. Amended Apr 20, 2020, to reflect the changes to this policy procedures and clarifications to retention periods for modeled and unmodeled pseudonymized data in the Services.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or Affinity Answers’ treatment of your personal information, please write:

by email: dataprivacy@affinityanswers.com

by mail to 12708 Riata Vista Cir, Suite A-113, Austin, TX 78727