Bardsy is a friendly, supportive community of readers and writers. Members (and guests) must abide by these policies and rules. By accessing Bardsy.com, you agree to the following; further, this Content Policy & Community Rules may be amended as needed without notice.

1. Respect people's time and work.

Comment in a kind, constructive manner. Try to use Bardsy's PUBLISHABILITY INDEX ™ insofar as possible. You'll find many members are well versed in this "grammar," which makes feedback and discussion far more effective.

In so doing, respect people's opinions. Stories are always filtered and interpreted by readers. When discussing your work listen first; this means pausing before you react defensively or attempt to explain. Your instructor / coach is there to help. Asking clarifying questions and engaging in meaningful dialogue is always welcome when time allows.

Any solicitations, including advertisements, proselytizing and links to other sites are not allowed. Bardsy is an ad-free, spamless haven for members. This prohibition includes any unauthorized requests for members time, effort or money.

Please report any suspected infringement immediately. Call us at (213) 465-0885 or email joinus@bardsy.com. Those who don't abide by these rules may lose privileges, up to an immediate and permanent ban and potentially other legal sanctions, if justified.

2. More Specific Content Guidelines

To create an inclusive and respectful space, we try to set reasonable expectations regarding the types of content members will find on our site, and types of content they can or cannot post. If you have concerns about your particular items, paid staff may be willing to examine it on a case by case basis.

“Content” includes, but is not limited to, stories, discussion contributions, private messages, and any form of media, such as images, videos and gifs.

The following content is not appropriate in any circumstances:

a. Content of a gratuitous sexual or violent nature

b. Content that encourages or incites violence

c. Content that reveals anyone’s personal or confidential information

d. Content that impersonates someone in a misleading or deceptive manner

e. Content to solicit or facilitate any transaction or gift involving any goods and services

f. Content that violates a copyright or any intellectual property right

g. Spam

h. Content that glorifies self-harm of any kind

i. Content that threatens, harasses or bullies, or encourages others to bully threaten or harass

j. Media containing exposed genitalia

k. Sexual or suggestive content involving any minor(s)

l. Content that encourages sexual roleplay, messaging or solicitation on or off Bardsy

m. Content that encourages non-consensual sex acts

n. Content that encourages illegal sex acts.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REMOVE ANY CONTENT AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON WITHOUT NOTICE.

Please report any inappropriate content at joinus@bardsy.com

Thank you for your cooperation in making Bardsy a safe, supportive and respectful environment. Please also read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which also govern your use of the service.

The three legs of a Bardsy Elite membership center on getting you to write better; specifically: your writing, your process and your development as an author.

1. Writing Group:

Every meeting is instructed by paid Bardsy staff. Generally speaking, they'll set the agenda. This author/educator will strictly enforce Bardsy's rules concerning kindness and constructivity found above. Otherwise, the group's personality and benefits depend on your and other members' contributions.

Groups meet at the same time every other week for around 90 minutes, barring some holidays. Please let the facilitator know if you can't make it.

At least two days before each meeting, you should upload around 2500 words to your group's page, which you can reach from your HOME DESK and also directly. Of course, you're expected to read all submitted work before the session. This page also has a chat section for intragroup communication. When you enter a message, it automatically sends to all members via email.

Prior to the first meeting, please make sure you are using Google's Chrome browser, test the link and make sure your audio is clear with no feedback.

2. One-on-One Coaching:

Generally, you can meet with your author/educator monthly for roughly 30 minutes. By mutual agreement you can meet more or less often, depending. You're responsible for initiating meetings with your coach; in return, they'll be responsive to your schedule and needs.

Together you'll develop a long-term plan that will guide subsequent conversations, including your writing, your process and your development as an author. When you're ready, they'll be your prime contact for the marking and publication support we offer. The only thing Bardsy explicitly rules out is line editing.

3. Author’s Site:

As an elite member, you have a publicly accessible URL, for example: bardsy.com/PamelaRaleigh, tied directly to your author site. The url is not active until you check the appropriate box in the page's SETTINGS.

You can use the site to promote yourself and your work, given Bardsy's content policies! Among other things, it can include biographical info, photos, Amazon links and excerpts from your work.

Your site is designed to be easy for you to set up and customize with extensive instructions and suggestions, However, we strongly suggest you reach out to your coach for help and advice. You can get started or modify your site anytime by clicking the AUTHOR SITE card on your home-desk.

1. Introduction

Welcome to Bardsy.com (the “Site”), owned and operated by Bardsy, Inc. (“Bardsy” “we” or “us”). Our mission is to create community and understanding through storytelling. Because Bardsy is dedicated to maintaining a safe, supportive place for storytellers and story lovers, we ask you to follow some basic rules.

2. You Agree to These Terms

These terms, which also include our Content Policy and our Privacy Policy, (collectively, the “Terms”) are a contract between you and Bardsy. By accessing or using the Site, creating your Bardsy account, posting content, such as any story you create, comment or message, or accessing Bardsy content or other user content (all of these being “Services”), you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, if there is anything in these Terms you do not agree to, or if anything is not in these terms that you consider an essential term, then you may not and must not access or use our Services.

These Terms were originally effective at December 1, 2021 (the “Effective Date”) and were last modified on December ____, 2021.

3. Need an Account

You can access and use only a small portion of our Site and Services without registering for an account. To get the most out of the Bardsy platform, you’ll need to register an account, choose an account name, and set a password.

You are responsible for all activity on your account, and for keeping your password confidential. If you share your account information with anyone, that other person may be able to control the account, and we may not be able to determine who the proper account holder is. You agree that we are not liable to you (or anyone you share your account information with) as a result of your actions under the circumstances described herein. If you find out someone used your account without your permission, you should report it at info@bardsy.com.

4. Contents of the Services

The Services may contain information, text, links, graphics, photos, videos, or other materials (“Content”), including Content created with or submitted to the Services by you or through your Account (“Your Content”). We take no responsibility for and we do not expressly or implicitly endorse any of Your Content.

5. Grant of Limited License

Bardsy grants you a personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive, revocable, limited license to use and access the Services solely as permitted by these Terms. We reserve all rights not expressly granted to you by these Terms.

By submitting Your Content to the Services, you represent and warrant that you have all rights, power, and authority necessary to grant the rights to Your Content contained in these Terms. Because you alone are responsible for Your Content, you may expose yourself to liability if you post or share Content without all necessary rights.

6. Your Rights and Responsibilities

You retain any ownership rights you have in Your Content. You grant Bardsy the following license to use Your Content:

Author keeps ownership of your work. If published, you grant Bardsy unlimited, non-exclusive, royalty free, publication, research and promotion rights to that portion of your story and use of your name and likeness, in any and all present and future media and forms of communication of Bardsy’s choice. Bardsy will have the rights, even if we do not exercise them, at any time(s) to make edits, publish and/or promote portions or abridged versions of that portion. Bardsy may also use Your Content for research or other activities related to our mission.

You grant us the right to edit or alter Your Content as we deem appropriate for the Site, to display Your Work in the manner and in the location in our Site we deem appropriate and to identify you as author in any manner we deem appropriate.

In your use of the Services, possibly you will enter into additional terms and conditions with us that add to these Terms, such as when you enter a contest or enroll in a special program like our Bardsy Ambassadors. Terms that do not conflict will all apply. In an irreconcilable conflict or irreconcilable inconsistency, the terms and conditions most protective of and/or most favorable to Bardsy take precedence.

You are responsible for all content you post and all content posted by way of your account. You assume all risks related to its publication and display, including but not limited to anyone’s reliance on its accuracy and claims relating to privacy, intellectual property and other rights.

In posting content, you must comply with our Content Policy, accessible by clicking here. We have no obligation to screen, edit or monitor Your Content. We may, in our discretion, delete or remove Your Content at any time for any reason, including violation of these Terms, or our Content Policy, or if we are concerned it could create liability for us, harm our reputation, or involve us in controversy we prefer to avoid.

7. Things You Can Not Do

In accessing or using the Services, you must respect others and their rights, including by following these Terms and the Content Policy. We support responsible reporting of security issues. To report a security issue, please email us at info@bardsy.com.

When accessing or using our Services, you must not:

a. Create or submit Content that violates our Content Policy or try to circumvent any content-filtering techniques we use;

b. Use the Services to violate law or infringe intellectual property or other proprietary rights;

c. Try to gain unauthorized access to any user’s Account or to the Services, or other computer systems or networks connected to or used with the Services;

d. Upload, transmit, or distribute to or through the Services any computer virus, worm, or other software intended to interfere with the intended operation of a computer system or data;

e. Use the Services to harvest, collect, gather or assemble information or data regarding the Services or users of the Services, except as permitted by these Terms or in a separate agreement with Bardsy;

f. Use the Services in any way that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect, or inhibit other users from fully enjoying the Services or could damage, disable, overburden or impair functioning of the Services in any way;

g. Intentionally negate any user's actions to delete or edit their Content on the Services; or

h. Access, query, or search the Services with any automated system, other than through our published interfaces and pursuant to their applicable terms. However, we do not object to you crawling the Services only to create publicly available searchable indices of materials, subject to the parameters in our robots.txt file.

i. Alter, stretch, condense, embellish, or otherwise change our logo, Content, software code or other user’s Content in any way without our or the other user’s prior written consent.

j. license, sell, transfer, assign, distribute, host, or otherwise commercially exploit the Services or Content;

k. copy, modify, prepare derivative works of, publicly present or perform, disassemble, decompile, or reverse engineer any part of the Services or Content; or

l. access or use the Services or Content to build a similar or competitive website, product, or service, except as permitted under United States Copyright Laws.

8. Our Rights

Unless otherwise stated, the text, software, images, graphics, logos, icons, photos, images, illustrations, audio clips, video clips, design elements, product names, company names, copyrights and copyrightable materials, trademarks, trade dress, service marks and other Site content ("Site Content") are the property exclusively of Bardsy or its licensors. Except where permission is specifically granted, you may not modify, publish, publicly display or perform, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit, any Site Content, in whole or in part.

You are granted permission to display, copy and download Site Content only for personal, non-commercial use, provided you make no modification to the Site Content and all copyright and other proprietary notices in the Site Content are retained. Any permission to you ends automatically without further notice if you breach any of the Terms. On termination, you agree to immediately destroy any downloaded and/or printed materials. Any unauthorized use of any material on this Site may violate domestic and/or international copyright laws, laws of privacy and publicity, and communications regulations and statutes. Use of Site Content not specifically permitted under these Terms is prohibited.

Nothing in these Terms grants, transfers or conveys, nor may be construed or operate as a grant, transfer or conveyance to you or any other person of any right, title or interest in or to any Site Content or Bardsy intellectual property, including but not limited to any trademark, trade name, service mark or other proprietary identifying symbols used by us or any feature or functionality of the Site.

We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Services in whole or in part at any time, with or without notice to you. You agree that we will not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension, or discontinuation of the Services or any part thereof.

Bardsy may change, terminate, or restrict access to any aspect of the Services, at any time, without notice. We can remove any content you post or submit for any reason. Bardsy may access, read, preserve and disclose any information as we believe is necessary or appropriate to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or government request, (ii) cooperate voluntarily with a request from any law enforcement, investigative, media or other government or non-government entity, (iii) enforce the Terms, including investigation of potential violations, (iv) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (v) respond to user support requests, or (vi) protect rights, property or safety of the Services, Site users and the public.

9. Copyright, The DMCA and Takedowns

Bardsy seeks to respect and requires users of our Services to respect intellectual property of others. We have a policy that includes removal of infringing materials and termination of users of our Services who are repeat infringers.

If you believe something on our Services infringes a copyright you own or control, you may notify Bardsy’s Designated Agent by filling out our DMCA Report Form or contacting: joinus@bardsy.com If you misrepresent that any activity or material on our Service is infringing, you may in addition to other remedies be liable to Bardsy for costs and damages.

If we remove Your Content in response to a copyright or trademark notice, we will try to notify you via Bardsy’s private messaging system or the email address on record with our Service. If you believe Your Content was wrongly removed, you can send a counter notification to our Designated Agent (joinus@bardsy.com). Please see 17 U.S.C. §512(g)(3) for requirements of a counter notification. We sometimes come across websites that illegally scraped content from Bardsy. We try to have them shut down. To act on behalf of our users we need legal permission. You authorize us to act as your agent to issue take down notices under the DMCA and/or similar legislation that allows requests to Internet service providers and others involved in illegal posting, for removal of infringing or allegedly infringing content contained in or displayed on such service providers’ platforms and/or services.

10. Premium Service, Virtual Goods and Payment Information

A subscription fee may apply to use of our Services; other services are available a la carte. No refunds on a la crate services will be issued after 24 hours. A la carte services are also subject to the contest entry terms where applicable. Bardsy may change fees or benefits associated with these features from time to time with or without advance notice.

Bardsy account holders may access the Platform via "Guest", "Standard" or "Elite" membership, the last two are subscription fee programs, which gives access to a range of Products and Services on the Bardsy platform, depending on level of membership. These Products and Services are described on the Pricing Page of the site. You will only have access to these Products and Services while your paid subscription is active and subsisting. You may have access to a Special Offer, which automatically converts to a paid annual or monthly subscription term after a certain period of time.

For the purposes of our monthly and yearly subscriptions, a month constitutes 30 calendar days and a year constitutes 365 calendar days.

Our "Monthly" subscription is paid in monthly installments. For each month that your monthly subscription is active, you acknowledge and agree that Bardsy is authorized to charge the same credit card as was used for the initial subscription fee. The monthly renewal subscription fees will continue to be billed to the Payment Method you provided until canceled. You must cancel your subscription before it renews in order to avoid billing next month’s subscription fee to the Payment Method you provided. Refunds cannot be claimed for any partial-month subscription period.

You may submit your debit card, credit card, or other payment information ("Payment Information") via our Services to purchase subscriptions or other paid products or services. We use third-party service providers to process your Payment Information. If you submit Payment Information, you agree to pay all costs that you incur. You give us permission to charge you when payment is due for an amount that includes these costs and applicable taxes and fees. Bardsy has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party websites or services.

11. Site Operations

Our Services are provided from our offices in Calabasas, CA, USA and hosted on the web by Digital Ocean, LLC. Third-party service providers may process or store your personal information on servers outside your country.

Bardsy makes no representation that use or content of the Site is appropriate or lawful in any particular jurisdiction or that products are available. Use or access of this Site from a jurisdiction where use of the Site or its content is illegal, unlawful, or violates obscenity, privacy or other law is prohibited. You, not we, are solely responsible to comply with laws and regulations in your jurisdiction and you are responsible to not visit this Site if doing so is unlawful in your jurisdiction. This includes but is not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for users in the European Economic Area.

12. Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us, our licensors, our third party service providers and our officers, employees, licensors, and agents (the “Bardsy Entities”) harmless, including costs and attorneys’ fees, from and against any claim, demand, action or cause of action made by any third party due to or arising out of (a) your use of the Services, (b) your violation of these Terms, (c) your violation of laws or regulations, or (d) Your Content. We reserve the right to control the defense of any matter for which you are required to indemnify us, and you agree to cooperate with our defense of these claims.

13. No Warranty

Your use of our Services and any content is solely at your own risk. They are provided to you “as is,” “where is,” “with all faults,” and “as available.” This also means they do not come with any warranty of any kind, express or implied. Bardsy disclaims any implied warranty of merchantability, merchantable quality, fitness for a particular purpose, availability, title or non-infringement, and any warranties implied by any course of dealing or performance.

14. Limitation of Liability

IN NO EVENT AND UNDER NO THEORY OF LIABILITY, INCLUDING CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, WARRANTY, OR OTHERWISE, WILL THE BARDSY ENTITIES BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR LOST PROFITS ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS, OR CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON THE SERVICES, WHETHER ALLEGED TO BE DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE, ILLEGAL OR OTHERWISE. ACCESS TO, AND USE OF, THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR DEVICE OR COMPUTER SYSTEM, OR LOSS OF DATA . IN NO EVENT WILL THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE BARDSY ENTITIES EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU PAID BARDSY IN THE PREVIOUS SIX MONTHS FOR THE SERVICES GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS SECTION WILL APPLY TO ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, INCLUDING THOSE BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, STATUTE, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR OTHERWISE, AND EVEN IF THE BARDSY ENTITIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH DAMAGE, AND EVEN IF ANY REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. THE FOREGOING LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY WILL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW IN THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION.

15. Links to Other Websites and Services

To the extent this Site contains links to outside services and resources, any concerns regarding such service or resource, or any link on this Site, should be directed to the particular outside service or resource. Bardsy has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party website or service.

You acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible or liable for availability, accuracy, content, products, or services on or available from such websites or resources. Links to such websites or resources do not imply endorsement by us, whether of the website or resource or content, products, or services available from the websites or resources. You acknowledge sole responsibility for and assume all risk arising from your use of such websites or resources or the content, products or services on or available from such websites or resources.

16. Governing Law and Venue

We want you to enjoy Bardsy. If you have an issue or dispute, you agree to inform us first and try to resolve it with us informally. You can contact us with feedback and concerns here or by emailing us at info@bardsy.com.

Except for the government entities listed below: any claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will be governed by the internal laws of California, without reference to conflict of laws rules. All disputes related to these Terms or the Services will be brought solely and exclusively in the federal or state courts located in Los Angeles County, California. You consent to and waive objection to personal jurisdiction and venue in these courts.

17. Government Entities

If you are a U.S. city, county, or state government entity, this Section 17 does not apply to you. If you are a U.S. federal government entity: any claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will be governed by the laws of the United States of America without reference to conflict of laws. To the extent permitted by federal law, the laws of California (other than its conflict of law rules) will apply in the absence of applicable federal law. All disputes related to these Terms or the Services will be brought solely in the federal or state courts located in Los Angeles, California.

18. Time Limitation On Claims

You agree that any claim you may have against any Bardsy Entities, whether arising out of or related to your relationship with Bardsy, the Site or Services or other basis, must be filed within one (1) year after such claim arose; otherwise, your claim shall be deemed permanently waived and barred.

19. Changes to Terms

We may make changes to these Terms from time to time. If we make changes, we will post the amended Terms to our Services and update the Effective Date above. We are not required to give you separate notice. By accessing or using the Services you agree to be bound by the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you must stop accessing and using our Services.

20. Additional Terms

Please read the Bardsy Privacy Policy, which explains how we collect, use, and share information about you when you access or use our Services, and our Content Policy. You can access these by clicking here for the Content Policy and here for the Privacy Policy. You agree to comply with our Content Policy and you accept our Privacy Policy.

Because we offer a variety of Services, you may be asked to agree to additional terms before using a specific product or service offered by Bardsy (“Additional Terms”).

If you use Bardsy premium features or enter Bardsy writing contests, you must also agree to our Terms for Bardsy Premium Features or Current Contest Terms and Conditions, respectively.

21. Termination

You may delete your Account and discontinue your use of all Services. If you stop using the Services without deactivating your Accounts, your Accounts may be deactivated due to prolonged inactivity.

We may suspend or terminate your Accounts, status as a moderator, or ability to access or use the Services at any time for any or no reason, including for violation of these Terms or our Content Policy.

The following sections and provisions will survive any termination of these Terms or of your Accounts: 6 (Your Rights and Responsibilities), 7 (Things You Cannot Do), 12 (Indemnity), 13 (No Warranty), 14 (Limitation of Liability), 16 (Governing Law and Venue), 18 (Time Limitation on Claims), 21 (Termination), 22 (Miscellaneous) and any other provisions which expressly or by nature continue in effect after termination.

22. Miscellaneous

a. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding your access to and use of the Services and shall not be modified except by Bardsy in accordance with these Terms.

b. No employee, agent or other representative of Bardsy has authority to bind Bardsy with respect to any statement, representation, warranty or other expression not specifically set forth in these Terms.

c. Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not operate as a waiver of such right or provision.

d. If any provision of these Terms is, for any reason, held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable, the rest of the Terms will remain in effect.

e. You may not assign or transfer any of your rights or obligations under these Terms without our consent. We may freely assign these Terms.

f. No agency, partnership, joint venture, or employee-employer relationship between Bardsy and you or any other person is intended or created by these Terms.

g. All references in these Terms of Use to Sections and other subdivisions refer to the Sections and other subdivisions of these Terms unless expressly provided otherwise. The word “including” shall not be restrictive. The word “or” has the inclusive meaning represented by the phrase “and/or.” The words “this Agreement,” “herein,” “hereof,” “hereby,” “hereunder” and words of similar import refer to these Terms as a whole and not to any particular subdivision unless expressly so limited. All headings and captions in these Terms are for convenience of reference only and are not intended to and shall not define or limit the scope or intent of any provision of these Terms. These Terms shall be interpreted and construed according to their fair meanings and not strictly for or against any party.

At Bardsy, Inc. (“Bardsy” “we” or “us”), we are committed to protecting your privacy and keeping your information safe. This Privacy Policy applies to all of our Services. We hope you will take the time to look at this Privacy Policy, as you should when you engage with any online service.

Bardsy processes information about you in a few different ways. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and keep information that can identify you (“Personal Information”) when you create a Bardsy account and use Bardsy.com (the “Site”), to post content, including stories you create, comments and messages (together with the Site, the “Services”). By accessing and using the Services, you agree to this Privacy Policy, as it may be amended from time to time. This Privacy Policy is updated as of November 16, 2018.

1. What is Personal Information?

"Personal Information" is any information that can identify you. This may include, but is not limited to, account information, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, credit card information, and other identifying details of a personal nature.

2. What We Collect:

Information You Provide to Us

We collect information you provide to us directly when you use the Services. This includes: a. Account information. To create an account, you must provide a username and password. Your username is public, and it does not have to be related to your real name. You must also provide an email address. We also store your user account preferences and settings.

b. Content you submit. We collect the content you submit to the Services. This includes your written content, including saved drafts, Better Storytelling templates, exercises, brainstorms and reflections, photos, posts and comments, your messages with other users (e.g., private messages, chats), and your reports and other communications with us. Your content may include text, links, images, gifs, and videos.

c. Actions you take. We collect information about the actions you take when using the Services. This includes your interactions with content, like voting, saving, hiding, and reporting . It also includes your interactions with other users, such as following, friending, and blocking. We collect your interactions with communities, like your subscriptions or moderator status.

d. Transactional information. If you purchase products or services from us (e.g., Bardsy publications, Bardsy Premium Services) we will collect certain information from you, including your name, address, email address, and information about the product or service you are purchasing. Payments are processed by third-party payment processors (e.g., Stripe and PayPal), so please refer to the applicable processor’s terms and privacy policy for more information about how payment information is processed and stored.

e. Other information. You may choose to provide other information directly to us. For example, we may collect information when you fill out a form, participate in Bardsy-sponsored activities or promotions, apply for a job, request customer support or otherwise communicate with us.

Information We Collect Automatically

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

a. Log and usage data. We may log information when you access and use the Services. This may include your IP address, user-agent string, browser type, operating system, referral URLs, device information (e.g., device IDs), pages visited, links clicked, the requested URL, hardware settings, and search terms.

b. Information collected from cookies and similar technologies. We may receive information from cookies, which are pieces of data your browser stores and sends back to us when making requests, and similar technologies. We use this information to improve your experience, understand user activity, personalize content and advertisements, and improve the quality of our Services. For example, we may store and retrieve information about your preferred language and other settings.

c. Location information. We may receive and process information about your location, when you choose to share such information on our Services, including by associating your content with a location, or we may derive your approximate location from other information about you, including your IP address.

Information Collected from Other Sources

We may receive information about you from other sources, including from other users and third parties, and combine that information with other information we have about you. For example, we may receive demographic or interest information about you from third parties, including advertisers, and combine it with our own data using a common account identifier such as a hash of an email address or a mobile-device ID.

Linked services. If you authorize or link other services (e.g., third-party apps or websites) to access your Bardsy account, Bardsy receives information about your use of that service when it uses that authorization. Linking services may also cause the other service to send us information about your account with that service. Bardsy has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party website or service. To learn how information is shared with linked services, see “How do we share your personal information”

3. Why We Use Information About You

We use information about you to:

a. Provide, maintain, and improve the Services;

b. Research and develop new services;

c. Help protect the safety of Bardsy and our users, which includes blocking suspected spammers, addressing abuse, and enforcing the Bardsy Terms of Use, this Privacy Policy, the Content Policy and our other policies;

d. Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts, invoices and other support and administrative messages;

e. Provide customer service;

f. Communicate with you about products, services, offers, promotions, and events, and provide other news and information we think will be of interest to you ;

g. Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Services;

h. Personalize the Services and provide content and features that match user profiles or interests.

i. Respond to legal/regulatory inquiries as we believe to be required by applicable laws or regulatory or administrative authorities.

4. What Can Bardsy Members, and Others, See?

When you use the Services, certain information may be shared with other users and the public. For example:

a. When you submit content such as written or photographic content to the Bardsy story library, a discussion, or a public chat, any visitors to and users of our Services will be able to see that content, the username associated with the content, and the date and time you originally submitted the content. When you send private messages, or private chats, the recipients of those messages will be able to see the content of your message, your username, and the date and time the message was sent. Additional users may be invited to join a private chat after you send a message.

b. When other users view your profile, they may be able to see information about your activities on the Services, such as your username, prior posts and comments, trophies, Ambassador status and how long you have been a member of the Services. If you choose to make the information public, your profile may also include your voting history.

c. We offer social sharing features that let you share content or actions you take on our Services with other media. Your use of these features enables the sharing of certain information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you establish with the third party that provides the social sharing feature. For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with social sharing features, please visit the privacy policies of the third parties that provide these social sharing features (e.g., Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter). Please note that, even when you delete your account, the posts, comments and messages you submit through the Services may still be viewable or available on our servers. .

5. How Do We Share Your Personal Information?

We do not share, sell, or give away your personal information to third parties unless one of the following circumstances applies:

a. With linked services. If you link your Bardsy account with a third-party service, Bardsy will share the information you authorize with that third-party service.

b. With our partners. We may share information with vendors, consultants, and other service providers (but not with advertisers and ad partners) who need access to such information to carry out work for us. The partner’s use of personal data will be subject to appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

c. To comply with the law. We may share information in response to a request for information if we believe disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, including, but not limited to, meeting national security or law enforcement requirements. To the extent the law allows it, we will attempt to provide you with prior notice before disclosing your information in response to such a request.

d. In an emergency. We may share information if we believe it's necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to a person.

e. To enforce our policies and rights. We may share information if we believe your actions are inconsistent with our Terms of Use, this Privacy Policy, the Content Policy, or other Bardsy policies, or to protect the rights, property, and safety of ourselves and others.

f. With our affiliates. We may share information between and among Bardsy, and any of our parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, and other companies under common control and ownership.

g. With your consent. We may share information about you with your consent or at your direction. h. Aggregated or de-identified information. We may share information about you that has been aggregated or anonymized such that it cannot reasonably be used to identify you. For example, we may show the total number of times a post has been upvoted without identifying who the visitors were.

6. Ads and Analytics Partners

We may partner with third-party advertisers, ad networks, and analytics providers to deliver advertising and content targeted to your interests and to better understand your use of the Services. These third parties may collect information sent by your computer, browser, or mobile device in response to a request for content, such as unique identifiers, your IP address, or other information about your computer or device. For example:

Advertisers and Ad Networks

Our ad partners and ad networks may use cookies and related technologies to collect information when ads are delivered to you on our Services, but Bardsy does not link to or provide them with your Bardsy account details. This means that Bardsy does not share your individual account browsing habits with advertisers. Bardsy cannot see advertisers’ cookies and advertisers will not see Bardsy cookies.

Analytics Partners

We use analytics partners (such as Google Analytics ) to help analyze usage and traffic for our Services. As an example, we may use analytics partners to analyze and measure, in the aggregate, the number of unique visitors to our Services.

7. Where Do You Store My Information?

Our Services are provided from our offices in the United States, presently located in Calabasas, CA and hosted on the web by Digital Ocean, LLC. In addition, our third-party service providers may process or store your personal information on servers outside your country.

Bardsy makes no representations that the use or the content of the Site is appropriate or lawful in territories or jurisdictions outside of the United States or that any products are available outside of the United States. Use or access of this Site from countries or territories where the use of the Site or any of its content is illegal, unlawful, or violative of obscenity, privacy or other laws is strictly prohibited. Those who choose to access this Site from other countries or territories do so at their own risk and such users are solely responsible for compliance with applicable local laws and regulations, including but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for users from the European Economic Area.

8. How does Bardsy protect my Personal Information?

We are continuously implementing and updating physical, organizational, contractual and technological security measures to protect your Personal Information from loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. For example, we use HTTPS encryption while information is being transmitted to protect Personal Information submitted on our Site. We also enforce technical and administrative access controls to limit which of our employees have access to non-public personal information.

Accessing and Changing Your Information

You can access and change certain information through the Services. See our Help Center page for more information.

Deleting Your Account

You may delete your account information at any time. When you delete your account, your profile is no longer visible to other users and disassociated from content you posted under that account. Please note, however, that the posts, comments, and messages you submitted prior to deleting your account will still be visible to others unless you first delete the specific content. We may also retain certain information about you as required by law or for legitimate business purposes after you delete your account.

Controlling the Use of Cookies

Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject first- and third-party cookies. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of our Services.

Controlling Advertising and Analytics

Some analytics providers we partner with may provide specific opt-out mechanisms and we may provide, as needed and as available, additional tools and third-party services that allow you to better understand cookies and how you can opt-out. For example, you may manage the use and collection of certain information by Google Analytics here.

Do Not Track

Most modern web browsers give you the option to send a Do Not Track signal to the websites you visit, indicating that you do not wish to be tracked. However, there is no accepted standard for how a website should respond to this signal, and we do not take any action in response to this signal. Instead, in addition to publicly available third-party tools, we offer you the choices described in this Privacy Policy to manage the collection and use of information about you.

Controlling Promotional Communications

You may opt out of receiving some or all categories of promotional communications from us by following the instructions in those communications. If you opt out of promotional communications, we may still send you non-promotional communications, such as information about your account or your use of the Services.

Controlling Mobile Notifications

With your consent, we may send promotional and non-promotional push notifications or alerts to your mobile device. You can deactivate these messages at any time by changing the notification settings on your mobile device.

Controlling Location Information

If you initially consent to our collection of location information, you can subsequently stop the collection of this information at any time by changing the preferences on your mobile device.

10. Information Security

Data Retention

We store the information we collect for as long as it is necessary for the purpose(s) for which we originally collected it. We may retain certain information for legitimate business purposes or as required by law.

International Data Transfers

By using our Services, you understand that we may transfer some of the information we gather to the United States for storage purposes. The United States, European Economic Area (“EEA”) Member States, and other countries all have different laws. When your information is moved from your home country to another country, the laws and rules that protect your personal information in the country to which your information is transferred may be different from those in the country in which you live. For example, the circumstances in which law enforcement can access personal information may vary from country to country. In particular, if your information is in the US, it may be accessed by government authorities in accordance with US law. To the extent that Bardsy is deemed to transfer personal information outside of the EEA, we rely separately, alternatively, and independently on the following legal basis to transfer your information:

a. You have consented for us to do so for a specific purpose;

b. We need to process the information to provide you the Services, including to operate the Services, provide customer support and personalized features and to protect the safety and security of the Services;

c. It satisfies a legitimate interest (which is not overridden by your data protection interests), such as preventing fraud, ensuring network and information security, enforcing our rules and policies, protecting our legal rights and interests, research and development, and marketing and promoting the Services;

d. We need to process your information to comply with our legal obligations; and

e. Necessary for the performance of the contract between Bardsy and its Site users. As we operate in countries worldwide (including in the US) and use technical infrastructure in the US to deliver services to you, in accordance with the contract between us, we need to transfer your personal information to the US. We cannot provide you with our services and perform our obligations to you without moving your personal information to the US. By providing us with information, you consent to your information being transferred to and processed in the United States.

Children

Children under the age of 18 are not allowed to create an account, without permission from a verifiable parent or legal guardian. Additionally, if you are in the EEA, you must be over the age required by the laws of your country to create an account or otherwise use the Services, or we need to have obtained verifiable consent from your parent or legal guardian.

Changes to This Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do, we will let you know by revising the date at the top of the Privacy Policy. If we make a change to this Privacy Policy that, in our sole discretion, is material, we will provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to r/announcements, the front page of the Services or sending you a notification). We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy whenever you access or use our Services or otherwise interact with us to stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy. By continuing to use our Services after Privacy Policy changes go into effect, you agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Policy.

11. California Residents

If you are a California resident and have an established business relationship with us, you can request a notice disclosing the categories of personal information we have shared with third parties, for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes, during the preceding calendar year. To request a notice, please submit your request to: legal@Bardsy.com If you are a California resident under 18 years old and a registered user, you can request that we remove content or information that you have posted to our Site or online services. Note that fulfilment of the request may not ensure complete or comprehensive removal (e.g., if the content or information has been reposted by another user). To request removal of content or information, please email: info@bardsy.com

California Do Not Track Disclosure

Some browsers have a do not track feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. At this time, we do not respond to browser do not track signals, but we do provide you the option to opt out of interest-based advertising (IBA). To learn more about IBA or to opt-out of this type of advertising, visit the Network Advertising Initiative website and the Digital Advertising Alliance website. Options you select are browser- and device-specific.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: info@bardsy.com

Bardsy, Inc.