Last updated: October 5, 2023

This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) governs how VerityGuard, LLC with its product Emblem (“Emblem,” we”, “our” or “us”) uses the Personal Data we collect, receive and store regarding individuals in connection with the use of the Website, mobile applications, software development, or other products or services (our “Service”), as well as your choices regarding use and disclosure of your Personal Data. As used in this Privacy Policy, the term “Personal Data” (“Personal Data”) means information that identifies you or your household directly or indirectly, by reference to identifier(s) such as your name, identification number, location data, online identifier or one or more factors specific to your physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, educational, commercial, professional or social identity.

By accessing our Services, you agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Services. Each time you use our Service, the current version of the Privacy Policy will apply. Accordingly, whenever you use our Service, you should check the date of this Privacy Policy (which appears at the top) and review any changes since the last version. This Privacy Policy is applicable to all Service visitors, registered users, and all other users of our Service.

Further, you acknowledge that this Privacy Policy is part of our Terms and Conditions. This Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference, and by accessing or using our Service, you agree to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to our Terms and Conditions, do not access or use our Service.

1. Collection of Information

We may collect, store and combine information when you interact with Emblem including:

Information You Provide to Us. We may collect the information that you provide to us, such as:

When you create an account with us. (Please note, when you use our Services, we may recognize you or your devices even if you are not signed into our Services.) Emblem may use device IDs, cookies, and other attributes, including information obtained from third parties, to associate accounts and/or devices with you. When you verify yourself with Emblem, you provide us with Personal Information that may include your name, date of birth, social security number and/or other government issued identification numbers, copies of your government issued identification card (e.g., license or passport), email address, phone number, mailing address, and certain photographic images, and biometric data.

All documentation to be collected should be provided either through the Emblem app or website portal where applicable.

Device Information. We collect information from your devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.), including information about device specific identifiers and information such as IP address, cookie information, mobile device and advertising identifiers, browser version, operating system type and version, mobile network information, device settings, and software data.

Location Information. We collect location information from a variety of sources in order make your user experience better. You may visit the location settings tool on your device to make adjustments.

Other information. We also collect information that relates to or is capable of being associated with you, such as age, gender, and any other information you choose to provide.

We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Such information does not reveal your identity and therefore is not considered personal data.

Information from Others

We collect information about you when we receive it from third parties such as:

Information from our partners. We acquire information from other trusted sources. These business partners might include companies, such as your mobile phone carriers, certain government agencies, licensing bodies, etc. We may also collect information about you from other sources, including service providers, data licensors and aggregators, marketing companies, programming distributors, and public databases.

2. Use of Information

Emblem will not sell, rent, or trade your Personal Information. Emblem will only transfer your Personal Information at your request, and with your consent, for use by third parties to verify your identity or group eligibility, or as required for the prevention of fraud or otherwise permitted by law.

We may use information to provide you with our Services. We may use the information collected from or about you to authenticate and manage your identity when you create a Emblem account, including to verify attributes of your identity.

We may use information to improve our Services. We use your information to monitor and improve the operation, delivery, and general accessibility of our Services. This may also include conducting internal research and development of our Services.

We may use information to maintain the safety and security of our Services. We may use your information to protect the rights and property of Emblem and others, and to comply with our legal obligations including to detect, investigate, and prevent fraud and other illegal activities and to enforce our agreements.

We may use information as otherwise permitted by law. We may use your information to resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and as otherwise permitted or required by law.

We may use your Biometric Information. We may use your Biometric Information to verify your identity as well as to detect and help prevent fraud. We also may use the information in other ways with your consent, such as when you choose to use a Service or participate in a program we may offer jointly with another entity. We will never sell, rent, or trade your Biometric Information.

For additional information on how Emblem collects, uses, and protects your Biometric Information, please see our Biometric Disclosure.

For Legal and Other Purposes. We may access, preserve and disclose information to investigate, prevent, or take action in connection with: (i) legal process and legal requests; (ii) enforcement of the Terms; (iii) claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties; (iv) requests for customer service; (v) technical issues;  (vi) establishing or exercising our legal rights or defending against legal claims; or (vii) as otherwise required by law. This may include responding to lawful governmental requests.

‍2. Information Security and Data Retention

Emblem has technical, administrative and physical safeguards in place to help protect against unauthorized access, use or disclosure of customer information we collect or store. To learn more about security, including the steps we have taken and steps you can take, please contact support@emblemapp.com.

3. Protecting Children's Privacy

We do not knowingly collect information from minors. Minors under the age of 18 may not use the Website. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from anyone under the age of 18, and no part of the Website is designed to attract anyone under the age of 18. Because we do not intentionally collect any information from children under the age of 18, we also do not knowingly distribute such information to third parties. If you have reason to believe that a child under 18 years of age has provided us with information, please contact us at support@emblemapp.com and we will immediately delete such information, subject to and in compliance with applicable law.

4. Data Protection

On-Device Verification: All age verifications are processed on the user's device, ensuring utmost privacy.. Security Measures: We deploy state-of-the-art security technologies to safeguard your data from unauthorized access or breaches.

5. Sharing of Information

Third-party Service Providers: We may share limited data with trusted service providers for operational purposes, under strict confidentiality terms. Legal Requirements: In certain situations, we might disclose data if required by law or to protect our legal rights. Emblem may share your data with Google Cloud Platform. Emblem uses Google Cloud Platform to host data.  For additional information on Google Cloud, please review Google Cloud privacy notice.  We may also share your personal data with third parties. We will share personal data related to you with service providers and other third parties, if necessary to fulfill the purposes for collecting the data. We will share personal data with our service providers for the purposes of enriching data for commercial purposes and analytics. Additionally. If we sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or assets, your personal data may be transferred to a third party.

6. Aggregated and Analytical Information

We may use anonymous, statistical and aggregated data that we derive from Personal data to drive insights, statistics, trends and predictions for our internal use, and we may share it with our customers, affiliates and business partners for their lawful business purposes.

7. Cookies and Trackers

Your browser offers so-called "cookies" which – if you allow their use – store small amounts of data on your computer about your visit to our websites. Cookies assist us in tracking which of our features you like best. And when you re-visit our websites, cookies can enable us to customize our content according to your preferences. However, cookies tell us nothing about you personally unless you specifically give us additional information.

Cookies used on our websites by category:

Strictly necessary cookies - These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of our websites.

Performance cookies - These cookies, including Google Analytics cookies, collect anonymous information on the pages visited. Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got there, and what you clicked on. By using our websites, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device. These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance, which pages visitors go to most often. These cookies do not collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works. To find out more about Google Analytics, please review Google's notice on how it uses information from sites that uses Google service and Google's privacy notice.

Functionality cookies - These cookies remember choices you made to improve your experience. By using our websites, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device. These cookies allow the websites to remember choices you make and provide enhanced, more personal features. The information these cookies collect may be anonymized and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

You also have choices with respect to cookies. By modifying your browser preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. However, note that if you reject some or all cookies, your experience at our websites and on other sites throughout the World Wide Web may not be complete. Some sites require cookies to function, such as those with e-commerce features. In addition, if you do not allow cookies, you will not be able to take advantage of personalized content delivery offered by us or other Internet sites.

8. User Rights

You have certain choices about how we use your information, including how your Personal Information is shared.

You may close your Emblem account at any time, by choosing to close your Emblem account you are directing Emblem to deactivate your identity credential and to purge the associated data from active use in our databases.

Deleting your selfie image and Biometric Information. Users who have created an account requiring submission of a selfie image, and who consented to the collection of the associated Biometric Information, may request the deletion of both the selfie image and Biometric Information. Emblem reserves the right to retain this information as needed to comply with our legal obligations or to help prevent fraud.

Opt out from receiving marketing emails. To stop receiving our promotional emails, follow the instructions in any marketing email you get from us. When applicable, you can also change your preferences in your account. Even if you opt out of getting marketing emails, we are permitted to send you transactional messages. For example, we may still contact you about your use of our Services or any changes to our policies or Terms and Conditions.

Change or update the information you have given us. If you have verified yourself and created an Emblem account, then you can correct or delete certain information or update your verification information by logging into your account and following the instructions or by contacting the member support team.

Control cookies and tracking tools. To learn how we‚ and our vendors‚ use cookies and other tracking tools, please visit the Emblem Cookie Policy.

Under certain circumstances, you have the right under data protection laws in relation to your personal data, as described below:

Request access

Request correction

Request erasure

Object to processing

Request restriction of processing

Data portability

Withdraw consent at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at support@emblemapp.com.

9. Updating and Correcting Your Information

You may update your Personal Information by sending us an email at support@emblemapp.com. Please indicate your name, address and email address, and what information you would like to update when you contact us.

We encourage you to promptly update your Personal Information if it changes. You may also ask to have the information on your account deleted or removed from active use in our databases; however, we may retain certain information if required by law, contractual obligation, or for internal use by Emblem in the prevention of fraud.

10. Third-party Links

External Services: Emblem might have links leading to third-party platforms. We're not responsible for how these external entities manage your data.

11. Changes to the Privacy Policy

Updates: We may update this policy occasionally. Significant changes will be communicated to users. However, it's the user's responsibility to review this policy frequently.

12. Governing Law

Jurisdiction: This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of Texas, United States. Engaging with Emblem means consenting to the jurisdiction of courts located within Texas.

13. SMS-based Two-Factor Authentication

When you opt to use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) as an added security measure, we will collect your phone number to send you an SMS with a verification code. We utilize a third-party service, to facilitate this SMS service. By opting for 2FA, you consent to the sharing of your phone number with this third-party service strictly for the purpose of sending the verification SMS.

Data Retention: Your phone number, used exclusively for 2FA purposes, will be stored securely and will only be used for the 2FA service. We do not use this phone number for promotional or any other purposes outside of 2FA unless explicitly agreed by you. Personal Information will be retained until we have fulfilled our legal, contractual and policy obligations. Emblem stores your Personal Information for as long as needed, or permitted, based on the reason why we obtained it (consistent with applicable law and contractual obligations). This means we may retain your Personal Information even after you close your account with us, for up to three (3) years. Users may request that Emblem delete certain Personal Information at any time. We acknowledge all such requests, however we reserve the right to retain data tied to certain high-risk transactions, exclusively for fraud prevention purposes.

Opting Out: At any point, if you wish to deactivate 2FA and stop receiving SMS, you can do so by following the instructions provided in the SMS. Upon deactivation, we will cease to send you 2FA SMS, but your phone number will remain securely stored for any future activations of the 2FA service, unless you explicitly ask for its removal.

Security Measures: While we ensure stringent security measures when it comes to storing and processing your phone number, transmission of information over the internet is not entirely secure. Thus, while we strive to protect your data, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted via our Service.

California Residents

This section applies to solely to users who reside in the State of California.

Starting on January 1, 2020, The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their personal information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.

Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights

You have the right to request that Emblem disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will disclose to you:

- The categories of personal information we collected about you.

- The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.

- Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information.

- The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.

- The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request)If we sold or disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, two separate lists disclosing:

- Sales, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and

- Disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:

- Deny you goods or services.

- Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including thorough granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.

- Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services.

- Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

However, we may offer you certain financial incentives permitted by the CCPA that can result in different prices, rates, or quality levels. Any CCPA-permitted financial incentive we offer will reasonably relate to your personal information’s value and contain written terms that describe the program’s material aspects. Participation in a financial incentive program requires your prior opt-in consent, which you may revoke at any time.

Who can make a rights request, and how?

A rights request can be made by you or your legal representative.

You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:

- Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative.

- Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm that personal information relates to you.

Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. However, we do consider requests made through your password protected account sufficiently verified when the request relates to personal information associated with that specific account.

We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

To exercise the above detailed rights, please submit your request to us by sending an email to support@emblemapp.com.

Arkansas and Louisiana Residents

This section applies to solely to users who reside in the State of Arkansas and Louisiana.

Arkansas and Louisiana law requires age verification for sites hosting adult content. Emblem has partnered with Au10tix to verify age for Arkansas and Louisiana residents to comply with Arkansas and Louisiana requirements. For more information on Au10tix, please visit here.

Colorado, Connecticut and Virginia Residents

This section applies solely to users residing in Colorado, Connecticut and Virginia

As a resident of Colorado, Connecticut or Virginia, you have the right to request:

- To know more about whether we are processing your personal information, access and receive a copy of your personal information.

- That we correct your personal information that is inaccurate.

- That we delete your personal information.

- To opt out of the processing of your personal information for the purposes of providing you with targeted advertising.

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at support@emblemapp.com.