Privacy Policy
Banyan Way, Inc. ("us," "we," "our," or "Hum") operates the Hum mobile application, the thehumapp.com website, and related services (collectively, the "Services"). This Privacy Policy describes our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information when you use the Services.
BY USING THE SERVICES, YOU EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO THE PROCESSING OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION ACCORDING TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH OUR POLICIES AND PRACTICES, YOUR CHOICE IS NOT TO USE THE SERVICES. YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY BE PROCESSED IN THE COUNTRY WHERE IT WAS COLLECTED, AS WELL AS OTHER COUNTRIES (INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES) WHERE LAWS REGARDING THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY BE LESS STRINGENT THAN THE LAWS IN YOUR COUNTRY. BY UPLOADING PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THE SERVICES, YOU WARRANT THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO TRANSFER SUCH INFORMATION OUTSIDE YOUR COUNTRY AND INTO THE UNITED STATES.
1. Children's Privacy
People under 18 years of age are not permitted to use the Services for any purpose, and Hum does not knowingly collect information from or about anyone under the age of 18. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from or about a person under 18, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have information from a person under 18, please contact us at support@thehumapp.com.
2. The Information We Collect
Creating a Profile
If you register to use the Services and create a profile, you will voluntarily provide certain information about yourself, such as your name, email address, phone number, date of birth, photographs, and matchmaking or dating preferences. You may also voluntarily provide information that is considered sensitive personal information under applicable law, such as gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, caste or community, political affiliation, or other similar information you choose to share. By creating a profile and uploading information and photographs, you expressly represent that you have the full right and permission to upload that information in accordance with this policy.
Location Information
Hum uses your location to power core features of the Services, such as showing you potential matches near you and displaying approximate distance between you and other users. If you use the Services on a mobile device, you may choose to share precise or approximate location data with us through your device's location services. You can control location sharing through your device settings at any time; however, disabling location sharing may limit or disable certain features of the Services, such as distance-based matching.
Match and Activity Information
We collect information about how you use the Services, including the profiles you view, the users you express interest in or match with, the messages you send and receive (including their content, for safety and Service-functioning purposes described below), and other activity within the app. We use this activity and the preferences you provide to generate match suggestions, rank profiles, and personalize your experience, including through automated processes.
Visiting the Services
If you contact us or register to join a mailing list, you may voluntarily provide information that can be used to contact or identify you, such as your email address, name, and phone number. We collect this information to provide the Services, identify and communicate with you, respond to your requests, and improve the Services. You may opt out of marketing communications by following the unsubscribe link or instructions in any email.
When using the Services, you may choose to provide information on publicly accessible portions of the Services, such as your profile, or share information with other registered users through private messages. Any information you publicly post on the Services may be viewable by other Hum members. We recommend using caution when posting or sharing information on the Services, and that you do not post information you are not comfortable sharing with other members.
Financial Information
If Hum introduces paid Premium Features, Hum will use a third-party payment processor (such as Stripe) to process payments. Your payment information will be subject to the privacy policy and terms of use of that payment processor. Hum does not have access to, and does not store, your full credit card information on its own servers.
Website Access and Log Data
Like most app and website operators, Hum collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that browsers, mobile operating systems, and servers typically make available, such as device type, operating system, language preference, referring source, and the date and time of each request. We use this information to better understand how our users use the Services. From time to time, we may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, such as a report on usage trends.
We also collect potentially personally-identifying information, such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and may use this information to help identify spam, fraud, or abusive behavior. We may also collect information about the device you use to access the Services, including device type, operating system, device settings, device identifiers, and crash data. We may use third-party services, such as analytics providers, that collect, monitor, and analyze this type of information to help us improve the functionality of the Services. These third-party providers have their own privacy policies addressing how they use such information.
Cookies and Similar Technologies
Cookies are small files, which may include an anonymous unique identifier, that are sent to your browser or device from our Services. We use cookies and similar technologies (such as SDKs on mobile) to collect information to improve the Services for you. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to notify you when a cookie is sent. If you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some features of the Services.
Remarketing
We may use remarketing cookies and similar technologies to advertise the Services on third-party platforms after you use the Services.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect to provide you full access to and functionality of the Services. Your information may be used to:
- Provide and improve the Services, features, and content;
- Administer your account;
- Enable you to navigate and use the Services, including generating match suggestions;
- Better understand your needs and interests;
- Respond to your requests or questions;
- Personalize your experience;
- Provide announcements, notifications, and promotional communications related to your interests and use of the Services;
- Send service announcements;
- Detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent, harmful, or unauthorized activity and protect the safety of our users;
- Assess the general level of interest in the Services; and
- For any other purpose with your consent.
4. How We Disclose Your Information
Profile Information
Information in the publicly accessible portion of your profile will be available to other registered users of the Services. This may include your first name, profile pictures, approximate age, approximate distance, and other information you voluntarily provide. The information you use to create an account, such as your full legal name, email address, and phone number, will not be made accessible to other registered users or otherwise made publicly available, except as you choose to share it directly with another user.
Chat and Messaging Information
You may choose to use private messaging functions on the Services. Be aware that any information or images you disclose to another registered user through private messaging could become publicly available if that user chooses to share it outside the Services. Although it is unlikely, Hum may review the content of private messages where we reasonably believe it is necessary to protect the safety of Hum, our users, or the general public, or to investigate suspected violations of these Terms or applicable law. By accessing the Services, you expressly agree not to use any images or information you learn about another Hum member except as expressly provided for on the Services. Upon a member's request, you agree to delete and not further use their information or images.
Service Providers
We disclose the personally identifying information you provide to Hum to those of our employees, contractors, and affiliated organizations who need to know that information to process it on our behalf or to provide the Services, and who have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of these parties may be located outside of your home country, and by using the Services, you consent to the transfer of your information to them.
Legal Disclosures
We disclose personally identifying information when required to do so by law, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the rights or property of Hum, our users, or the public. If you send us a request, such as a support email, we reserve the right to publish it to help us clarify or respond to your request, or to support other users.
Business Transfers
In some cases, we may buy or sell assets. In these transactions, user information is typically one of the business assets transferred. If Hum, or substantially all of its assets, were acquired, or in the unlikely event that Hum goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of Hum may continue to use your information only as set forth in this Privacy Policy.
With Your Consent
We may also disclose your personally identifying information if you expressly consent to the disclosure.
Aggregated Information
We may disclose non-personally identifiable, aggregated information about our users without restriction. Other than as described above, we will not rent or sell your personally identifying information to anyone.
5. Sensitive Personal Information
Some of the information you may choose to provide on your profile, such as religion, caste or community, sexual orientation, gender identity, or political affiliation, may be considered "sensitive personal information" under certain U.S. state privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CCPA"). We collect and use this information only as necessary to provide and improve core features of the Services, such as profile display and match suggestions, and as you direct us to by choosing to include it on your profile. We do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you beyond what you have voluntarily disclosed, and we do not sell sensitive personal information. Where required by applicable law, you have the right to limit our use of your sensitive personal information to these purposes. See Section 10 (Your Privacy Rights) below.
Several U.S. state privacy laws, including those of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Delaware, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, require your affirmative opt-in consent before a company may process sensitive personal information. Hum therefore does not collect any of the sensitive profile fields described above unless you affirmatively opt in to providing them. Consent to share sensitive information is requested separately from your acceptance of our Terms of Use and is never a condition of creating an account or using the Services. You may withdraw that consent at any time by removing the information from your profile in the app's settings or by contacting us at support@thehumapp.com, and we will stop processing it and delete it in accordance with Section 9 (Data Retention and Deletion).
6. Consumer Health Data
Some U.S. state laws define "consumer health data" broadly enough to include information that most people would not think of as health information. Washington's My Health My Data Act, Nevada Senate Bill 370, and the consumer health data provisions of the Connecticut Data Privacy Act each treat information about sexual orientation, gender identity, gender-affirming care, and reproductive or sexual health, as well as precise location data that could reasonably indicate an attempt to obtain health services, as regulated health data.
Because Hum lets you voluntarily share information such as sexual orientation and gender identity on your profile, and because Hum uses location data to suggest nearby matches, some of the information you choose to provide may be treated as consumer health data under these laws.
Hum will maintain a separate Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy that describes, in the detail these laws require, the categories of consumer health data we collect, why we collect it, where it comes from, who we share it with, and how you can exercise your rights over it. Where these laws apply to you:
- We collect and share consumer health data only with your separate, affirmative opt-in consent, or where collection is strictly necessary to provide a feature you have requested;
- We do not sell consumer health data, and we would not do so without the separate signed authorization these laws require;
- We do not use geofencing to identify, track, collect data from, or send messages or advertisements to consumers based on their proximity to any health care facility; and
- You may withdraw your consent and request deletion of your consumer health data at any time by contacting us at support@thehumapp.com.
7. Biometric Data: Face Verification
Hum offers a face verification feature to help confirm that your profile photos reasonably match the person using the account. To use this feature, you will be asked to take a short video or photo of yourself (a "Verification Scan"). We use Amazon Rekognition, a facial analysis and recognition service provided by Amazon Web Services, Inc. ("AWS"), to perform face verification. When you complete a Verification Scan, Hum submits the Verification Scan and your existing profile photos to Amazon Rekognition, which extracts mathematical representations of facial features ("Face Vectors") and compares them to assess whether the images reasonably depict the same person. Hum maintains a Rekognition Collection, which is a persistent, indexed store of Face Vectors hosted within our AWS environment, to enable this comparison each time you or Hum needs to re-verify your profile.
Your Face Vectors and Verification Scan are considered biometric information or biometric identifiers under certain state laws, including the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, and Washington's biometric privacy law.
Face verification is optional unless we notify you that it is required to access certain features of the Services. By choosing to complete a Verification Scan, you consent to our collection, use, and storage of your biometric information, including its storage in our Rekognition Collection, as described in this section.
We use your Face Vectors and Verification Scan solely to perform identity-consistency verification, to maintain the integrity and safety of the Services (including detecting fraudulent or duplicate accounts), and to comply with legal obligations. We do not sell, lease, trade, or otherwise profit from your biometric information. We do not disclose your biometric information to any third party except: (i) to AWS, which processes and stores Face Vectors in our Rekognition Collection solely to provide the face verification service to us and is contractually restricted from using your biometric information for AWS's own purposes; (ii) with your consent; (iii) as required by law, warrant, or subpoena; or (iv) in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, consistent with Section 4 (Business Transfers) above.
We retain your Face Vectors in our Rekognition Collection, and your Verification Scan, for as long as your account remains active and the face verification feature remains enabled on your account, or as otherwise required by law. We will permanently delete your Face Vectors from our Rekognition Collection, and delete your Verification Scan, within a reasonable time, and no later than 30 days, after the earliest of: (i) you delete your account; (ii) you withdraw your consent to face verification and request deletion, as described below; or (iii) three years after your last authenticated use of the Services, whichever occurs first.
You may withdraw your consent to face verification and request deletion of your biometric information at any time by contacting us at support@thehumapp.com, though doing so will remove any "verified" status from your profile and may limit or disable certain features of the Services.
8. Security
Hum is committed to protecting your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures designed to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
9. Data Retention and Deletion
We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you the Services. You may delete your account and request deletion of your personal information at any time through the app's settings, or by contacting us at support@thehumapp.com. We will delete or de-identify your personal information within a reasonable time after your request, except where we are required or permitted to retain it, such as to comply with a legal obligation, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, or for safety and fraud-prevention purposes.
10. Your Privacy Rights
Depending on your state of residence, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, which may include the right to:
- Know and access the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you;
- Delete personal information we have collected from you;
- Correct inaccurate personal information;
- Obtain a copy of your personal information in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit it to another company without hindrance (data portability);
- Opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information, and of processing for purposes of targeted advertising or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects;
- Limit the use of your sensitive personal information to the purposes described in Section 5 above;
- Withdraw consent to the processing of sensitive personal information or consumer health data, as described in Sections 5 and 6 above; and
- Not be discriminated against or receive a different level of service for exercising any of these rights.
Sale, Sharing, and Targeted Advertising
Hum does not sell your personal information for money, and we have not sold personal information in the preceding twelve months. As described in Section 2 (Remarketing), we may use cookies and similar technologies that share limited identifiers with third-party advertising platforms so that we can show you ads for Hum on other services. Under the CCPA and several other state privacy laws, this activity may be considered "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising or "processing for targeted advertising," even though no money changes hands. You may opt out of this activity at any time by contacting us at support@thehumapp.com.
Authorized Agents
You may use an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf. We may ask the agent for proof of your written permission and may ask you to verify your own identity directly with us before we act on the request, to the extent applicable law permits.
How We Respond
We will acknowledge receipt of your request within ten business days and will respond substantively within forty-five calendar days. Where applicable law permits and the request is complex, we may extend that period by up to an additional forty-five days and will notify you of the extension and the reason for it within the initial response period.
Appeals
If we decline to act on your request, we will tell you why. You have the right to appeal that decision by replying to our response or by writing to us at support@thehumapp.com with the subject line "Privacy Request Appeal." We will review the appeal and inform you in writing of the outcome, and of the reasons for it, within forty-five days of receiving the appeal. If your appeal is denied, you may submit a complaint to the attorney general of your state. On request, we will provide you with a link or contact information for doing so.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at support@thehumapp.com or write to us at the address below. We will acknowledge your request and respond within the timeframe required by applicable law. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling your request.
ATTN: Customer Support
Hum / Banyan Way Inc.
12460 Crabapple Road, Suite 202-530
Alpharetta, GA 30004
11. Links to Other Sites
The Services may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the privacy policy of every site you visit. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
12. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. Please review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of the Services after any posted changes means you accept those changes. We will provide notice if changes are material and, where required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent.
13. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at support@thehumapp.com.