Effective Date: August 25, 2024
1. Your Privacy Matters
BaseLine Polls LLC’s (BaseLine) mission is to deliver insightful polling data that empowers individuals, organizations, and communities to make informed decisions. We are a nonpartisan organization that conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis, and other data-driven social science research. BaseLine also provides social networking capabilities. We are dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of transparency and inclusivity in our methodologies and leverage advanced technology and innovative techniques to provide a clear understanding of public opinion and trends. Central to this mission is our commitment to be transparent about the data we collect about you, how it is used, and with whom it is shared. This Privacy Policy applies when you use our “Services” as described below.
You (a “Member”) will share certain demographic information and may post comments. Demographic data and comments provided by any Member may be provided, shared or sold with Members and non-members.
2. Services
This Privacy Policy applies to your use of our Services.
This Privacy Policy applies to BaseLine branded apps, communications, and services (“Services”), including off-site Services such as our ad services but excluding services that state that they are offered under a different privacy policy.
3. Changes to the Privacy Policy
Changes to the Privacy Policy apply to your use of our Services after the “effective date.”
BaseLine (“we” or “us”) can modify this Privacy Policy, and if we make material changes to it, we will provide notice through our Services or by other means to provide you the opportunity to review the changes. If you object to any changes, you may close your account.
You acknowledge that your continued use of our Services after we publish or send a notice about our changes to this Privacy Policy means that the collection, use, and sharing of your personal data are subject to the updated Privacy Policy as of its effective date.
4. Data We Collect
4.1 Data You Provide to Us
Registration: To create an account, you need to provide data including your name, email address, mobile number, general location (e.g., country, state/region, zip code), ethnicity, date of birth, gender, educational level, and a password.
Profile: You have choices about the information on your public-facing profile, such as your profile picture. Please do not post or add personal data to your profile that you would not want to be publicly available.
Posting and Uploading: We collect data from you when you provide, post, or upload it to our Services, such as when you respond to a poll or add a comment on our Services. You do not have to post or upload any data.
4.2 Data From Others
Content and News: You and others may post content that includes information about you on our Services.
Contact Information: We receive personal data (including contact information) about you when others import or sync their contacts with our Services, associate their contacts with Member profiles, or leave comments. If you or others opt-in to sync email accounts with our Services, we will collect “email header” information that can associate with Member profiles.
4.3 Service Use
We log your visits and use of our Services. We log usage data when you visit or otherwise use our Services, including our sites, app, and platform technology, such as when you view or click on content (e.g., poll related data and comments) or ads (on or off our sites and apps), perform a search, or install or update one of our mobile apps. We use logins, cookies, device information, and internet protocol (“IP”) addresses to identify you and log your use.
4.4 Cookies and Similar Technology
As further described in our Cookie Policy, we use cookies and similar technologies (e.g., pixels and ad tags) to collect data (e.g., device IDs) to recognize you and your device(s) on, off, and across different services and devices where you have engaged with our Services. We also allow some others to use cookies as described in our Cookie Policy. If you are outside the Designated Countries, we also collect (or rely on others who collect) information about your device where you have not engaged with our Services (e.g., ad ID, IP address, operating system, and browser information) so we can provide our Members with relevant ads and better understand their effectiveness. You can opt out from our use of data from cookies and similar technologies that track your behavior on the sites of others for ad targeting and other ad-related purposes.
4.5 Your Device and Location
When you visit or leave our Services (including some plugins and our cookies or similar technology on the sites of others), we receive the URL of both the site you came from and the one you go to and the time of your visit. We also get information about your network and device (e.g., IP address, proxy server, operating system, web browser and add-ons, device identifier and features, cookie IDs, and/or ISP or your mobile carrier). If you use our Services from a mobile device, that device will send us data about your location based on your phone settings. We will ask you to opt-in before we use GPS or other tools to identify your precise location.
4.6 Messages
We collect information about you when you send, receive, or engage with comments in connection with our Services. If you communicate through our Services, we learn about that. We also may use automatic scanning technology on messages to support and protect our site. For example, we may use this technology to manage or block content that violates our User Agreement from our Services.
4.7 Other
We are improving our Services, which means we get new data and create new ways to use data. Our Services are dynamic and we often introduce new features which may require the collection of new information. If we collect materially different personal data or materially change how we collect, use, or share your data, we will notify you and may also modify this Privacy Policy.
5. How We Use Your Data
We use your data to provide, support, personalize, and develop our Services.
How we use your personal data will depend on which Services you use, how you use those Services, and the choices you make in your settings. We use the data that we have about you to provide and personalize our Services, including with the help of automated systems and inferences we make so that our Services (including ads) can be more relevant and useful to you and others.
5.1 Services
We use your data to authorize access to our Services and honor your settings.
Stay Connected: Our Services allow you to stay in touch and up to date with others. To do so, you can “follow” the Members who you choose and who also wish to “follow” you. When you follow other Members, you will be able to search each other’s followers.
It is your choice whether to invite someone to our Services.
Stay Informed: Our Services allow you to stay informed about news, events, and ideas regarding topics you care about. We use the data we have about you (e.g., data you provide, data we collect from your engagement with our Services, and inferences we make from the data we have about you) to personalize our Services for you, such as by recommending or ranking relevant content and conversations on our Services.
5.2 Communications
We will contact you through email, mobile phone, notices posted on our websites or apps, messages to your BaseLine inbox, and other ways through our Services, including text messages and push notifications. We will send you messages about the availability of our Services, security, or other service-related issues. We also send messages about how to use our Services, network updates, reminders, and promotional messages from us and our partners. You may change your communication preferences at any time. Please be aware that you cannot opt out of receiving service messages from us, including security and legal notices. We also enable communications between you and others through our Services, including for example invitations, groups, and messages between connections.
5.3 Marketing
In addition to advertising our Services, we use Members’ data and content for invitations and communications promoting membership and network growth, engagement, and our Services, such as by showing your connections that you have used a feature on our Services.
5.4 Developing Services and Research
Service Development: We use data, including public feedback, to conduct research and development for our Services in order to provide you and others with a better, more intuitive, and personalized experience, drive membership growth and engagement on our Services, and help connect Members to each.
Other Research: We seek to create engagement opportunity for Members. We may use the personal data available to us to research social, economic, and other trends. In some cases, we work with trusted third parties to perform this research under controls that are designed to protect your privacy. We publish or allow others to publish insights presented as aggregated data rather than personal data.
Surveys: Polls and surveys are conducted by us and others through our Services. You are not obligated to respond to polls or surveys, and you have choices about the information you provide.
5.5 Customer Support
We use data (which can include your communications) to investigate, respond to, and resolve complaints and for Service issues (e.g., bugs).
5.6 Insights That Do Not Identify You
We use your data to produce and share insights that do not identify you. For example, we may use your data to generate statistics about our members, or to publish visitor demographics for a Service.
5.7 Security and Investigations
We use your data (including your communications) for security purposes or to prevent or investigate possible fraud or other violations of our User Agreement and/or attempts to harm our Members, Visitors, or others.
6. How We Share Information
6.1 Our Services
Any data that you include on your profile and any content you post or social action (e.g., likes, follows, comments, shares) you take on our Services will be seen by others consistent with your settings.
Profile: Your profile is fully visible to all Members and customers of our Services. Subject to your settings, it can also be visible to others on or off of our Services (e.g., Visitors to our Services or users of third-party search engines). As detailed in our Help Center, your settings, degree of connection with the viewing Member, their usage of our Services, and search types (e.g., by name or by keyword) impact the availability of your profile and whether they can view your profile.
Likes, Follows, Comments, Messages: Our Services allow viewing and sharing information, including through likes, follows, and comments. When you share a comment publicly, it can be viewed by everyone and re-shared anywhere. Members, Visitors, and others will be able to find and see your publicly shared content, including your name (and photo if you have provided one).
When you follow a person, you are visible to others and that “page owner” as a follower. We let senders know when you act on their message, subject to your settings where applicable. When you like or re-share or comment on another’s content (including ads), others will be able to view these “social actions” and associate it with you (e.g., your name, profile, and photo if you provided it).
6.2 Others’ Services
You may link your account with others’ services so that they can look up your contacts’ profiles, post your shares on such platforms, or enable you to start conversations with your connections on such platforms. Excerpts from your profile will also appear on the services of others. Third-party services have their own privacy policies, and you may be giving them permission to use your data in ways we would not. You may revoke the link with such accounts. Excerpts from your profile will appear on the services of others (e.g., search engine results, mail and calendar applications that show a user limited profile data of the person they are meeting or messaging, social media aggregators, talent, and lead managers). “Old” profile information remains on these services until they update their data cache with changes you made to your profile.
6.3 Related Services
We share your data across our different Services and BaseLine affiliated entities. We will share your personal data with our affiliates to provide and develop our Services. We may combine information internally across the different Services covered by this Privacy Policy to help our Services be more relevant and useful to you and others.
6.4 Service Providers
We may use others to help us with our Services. We use others to help us provide our Services (e.g., maintenance, analysis, audit, payments, fraud detection, marketing, and development). They will have access to your information as reasonably necessary to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for other purposes.
6.5 Legal Disclosures
We may need to share your data when we believe it’s required by law or to help protect the rights and safety of you, us, or others. It is possible that we will need to disclose information about you when required by law, subpoena, or other legal process, or if we have a good faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary to:
We attempt to notify Members about legal demands for their personal data when appropriate in our judgment unless prohibited by law or court order or when the request is an emergency. We may dispute such demands when we believe, in our discretion, that the requests are overbroad, vague, or lack proper authority, but we do not promise to challenge every demand.
6.6 Change in Control or Sale
We may share your data when our business is sold to others, but it must continue to be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We can also share your personal data as part of a sale, merger, or change in control, or in preparation for any of these events. Any other entity which buys us or part of our business will have the right to continue to use your data but only in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy unless you agree otherwise.
We generally retain your personal data as long as you keep your account open or as needed to provide the Services. This includes data you or others provided to us and data generated or inferred from your use of our Services. Even if you only use our Services when looking at our Services, we will retain your information and keep your profile open unless you close your account. In some cases, we choose to retain certain information (e.g., insights about Services use) in a depersonalized or aggregated form.
7.2 Rights to Access and Control Your Personal Data
You can access your personal data. You have many choices about how your data is collected, used, and shared. We provide many choices about the collection, use, and sharing of your data, from deleting or correcting data you include in your profile and controlling the visibility of your posts to advertising opt-outs and communication controls. We offer you settings to control and manage personal data we have about you.
For personal data that we have about you, you can:
You may contact us at support@baselinepolls.com and we will consider your request in accordance with applicable laws. Residents in the Designated Countries and other regions may have additional rights under their laws.
We keep some of your data even after you close your account. If you choose to close your BaseLine account, your personal data will generally stop being visible to others on our Services.
We retain your personal data even after you have closed your account if reasonably necessary to comply with our legal obligations (including law enforcement requests), meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, maintain security, prevent fraud and abuse, enforce our User Agreement, or fulfill your request to "unsubscribe" from further messages from us. We will retain de-personalized information after your account has been closed.
Information you have shared with others (e.g., through updates, comments, or posts) will remain visible after you close your account or delete the information from your own profile or mailbox, and we do not control data that other Members have copied out of our Services. Groups, content, and ratings or review content associated with closed accounts will show an unknown user as the source. Your profile may continue to be displayed in the services of others (e.g., search engine results).
8. Other Important Information
8.1 Security
We monitor for and try to prevent security breaches. Please use the security features available through our Services.. We cannot warrant the security of any information that you send us. There is no guarantee that data may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.
8.2 Cross-Border Data Transfers
We store and use your data outside your country. We process data both inside and outside of the United States and rely on legally-provided mechanisms to lawfully transfer data across borders. Countries where we process data may have laws which are different from and potentially not as protective as the laws of your own country.
8.3 Lawful Bases for Processing
We have lawful bases to collect, use, and share data about you. You have choices about our use of your data. We will only collect and process personal data about you where we have lawful bases. Lawful bases include consent (where you have given consent), contract (where processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with you (e.g., to deliver the BaseLine Services you have requested), and “legitimate interests.” Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw or decline your consent at any time, and where we rely on legitimate interests, you have the right to object. If you have any questions about the lawful bases upon which we collect and use your personal data, contact support@baselinepolls.com.
8.4 Direct Marketing and Do Not Track Signals
We currently do not share personal data with third parties for their direct marketing purposes without your permission.
8.5 Children’s Safety Standards
BaseLine Polls LLC is committed to ensuring a safe and age-appropriate experience for all users, especially minors. To this end, we have implemented the following measures: 1. Age Restriction: Users must be at least 17 years old to create an account and access our Services. We do not knowingly collect or process data from users under this age; 2. Parental Guidance: For users under the age of 18, we encourage parents and guardians to actively monitor their activity and help manage their privacy settings.
8.5. Contact Information
You can contact us or use other options to resolve any complaints. If you have questions or complaints regarding this Policy, please contact us at support@baselinepolls.com.