Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Connect is a community discussion platform operated by Beezifi Inc. ("Beezifi," "we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Policy applies to all products and services offered under the Connect brand, including the web application at connect.beezifi.com, mobile applications, APIs, and related services (collectively, the "Service").

Beezifi Inc. is the data controller for personal information processed under this Policy.

2. Information We Collect

Information You Provide Directly

• Account information — username, email address, password (hashed), display name, and optional profile details (bio, avatar, banner);
• Content — posts, comments, messages, community descriptions, and other content you submit;
• Communications — messages you send through the platform's direct messaging system;
• Support requests — information you provide when contacting our support team;
• Advertiser information — business name, website, billing details, and campaign content submitted through the Advertiser Portal.

Information Collected Automatically

• Log data — IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring URLs, and pages visited;
• Usage data — actions taken on the platform (posts created, votes cast, communities joined, search queries);
• Device information — device type, screen resolution, and timezone;
• Interaction data — ad impressions and click events associated with your account or anonymous session;
• Cookies and local storage — session tokens, preferences, and analytics identifiers (see Section 5).

Information from Third Parties

We may receive information about you from Stripe (our payment processor) when you make deposits through the Advertiser Portal, including payment status and limited card metadata. We do not store full card numbers.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

We do not use your personal data for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects without human review.

4. How We Share Your Information

We never sell your personal data. We share information only in the following circumstances:

Publicly Visible Content

Posts, comments, community memberships, and your public profile (username, display name, avatar, karma) are visible to all users and may be indexed by search engines. Direct messages and content in private communities are not public.

Service Providers

We share data with vendors who help us operate the Service, including:

• Stripe — payment processing for advertiser deposits;
• Cloud infrastructure providers — hosting and database services;
• Email delivery providers — transactional email delivery.

All service providers are bound by data processing agreements and may only use your data to perform services on our behalf.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Beezifi, our users, or the public.

Business Transfers

In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of Beezifi's assets, your information may be transferred to the acquiring entity. We will notify you via email or prominent notice on the platform before your data is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

With Your Consent

We may share your information for purposes not listed here with your explicit consent.

5. Cookies & Tracking

What We Use

• Session cookies — store your authentication token to keep you logged in;
• Preference cookies — remember your theme (dark/light mode) and display settings;
• Analytics — we use privacy-respecting, self-hosted analytics to understand how features are used. We do not use Google Analytics or Meta Pixel.

What We Don't Do

We do not use third-party advertising cookies, cross-site tracking pixels, or behavioral profiling technologies. Advertising on Connect is targeted by the community or category context of your browsing — not by a profile built from your behavior across the web.

Managing Cookies

You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. Disabling session cookies will prevent you from logging in. Disabling preference cookies means your settings won't persist between visits.

6. Advertiser Data

If you use the Connect Advertiser Portal, we collect and process additional data to operate ad campaigns:

• Campaign targeting parameters — communities, categories, and bid settings you configure;
• Impression and click data — aggregated delivery metrics for your campaigns;
• Payment data — transaction history, wallet balance, and Stripe payment metadata.

Ad impressions shown to logged-in users are associated with their account for frequency capping and reporting purposes. Impressions shown to anonymous visitors are associated only with an IP address. We do not share individual user identity with advertisers — only aggregated metrics are available in the Advertiser Portal.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service. Specifically:

• Account data — retained until you delete your account, then purged within 30 days;
• Public posts and comments — remain on the platform unless you explicitly delete them; deleted content is purged within 7 days;
• Direct messages — retained while your account is active; deleted within 30 days of account deletion;
• Ad impression and click logs — retained for 13 months for billing and reporting purposes, then aggregated and anonymized;
• Transaction records — retained for 7 years to comply with financial record-keeping regulations;
• Server logs — retained for 90 days.

We may retain anonymized or aggregated data indefinitely for analytical purposes.

8. Security

We implement industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect your data, including:

• Passwords stored using bcrypt with a strong work factor;
• All data transmitted over TLS (HTTPS);
• Database access restricted by role-based access controls;
• Optional two-factor authentication (TOTP) for user accounts;
• Rate limiting and brute-force protection on authentication endpoints.

No system is perfectly secure. In the event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify you and applicable regulatory authorities as required by applicable law, without undue delay.

9. Children's Privacy

Connect is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 without parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information promptly.

If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at privacy@beezifi.com.

10. Your Rights & Choices

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

For All Users

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• Correction — update or correct inaccurate information through your account settings;
• Deletion — delete your account and associated personal data;
• Portability — request an export of your data in a machine-readable format;
• Opt-out of marketing — unsubscribe from any promotional emails via the link in each email.

For Users in the European Economic Area (GDPR)

You additionally have the right to: object to processing based on legitimate interests; restrict processing while a dispute is resolved; and lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

For California Residents (CCPA)

California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect, request deletion of personal information, and opt out of the sale of personal information. We do not sell personal information. To exercise your rights, contact us at privacy@beezifi.com. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights.

How to Exercise Your Rights

You can exercise most rights directly through your account settings. For requests you cannot complete yourself, email privacy@beezifi.com. We will respond within 30 days.

11. International Transfers

Beezifi Inc. is based in the United States. If you are located outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction.

Where required, we rely on standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission, or other legally recognized transfer mechanisms, to transfer data from the EEA, UK, or Switzerland to the United States.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by posting a notice on the platform or sending an email to your registered address at least 7 days before the changes take effect.

The "Last updated" date at the top of this page indicates when the Policy was most recently revised. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests related to this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact our Privacy team:

Beezifi Inc. — Privacy
Email: privacy@beezifi.com
General: support@beezifi.com

We aim to respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 30 days.