Effective date: July 06, 2022
BeatStars Inc. ("BeatStars", "us", "we", or "our") is 100% committed to our customers and community, which is why we want to take the time to explain exactly what the “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” link on BeatStars webpages and apps means. The purpose of this article is to explain (1) why BeatStars’ webpages and apps contain the “Do Not Sell” link, (2) what it means to “sell” “personal information,” as those terms are defined under California law (3) that BeatStars does not sell personal information that directly identifies you, even under the California definition of “sale,” (4) what happens if you tell BeatStars not to “sell” your personal information, (5) how BeatStars implements your choice to block it from “selling” your personal information, and (6) how BeatStars maintains your “Do Not Sell” Choice.
BeatStars provides the “Do Not Sell” link to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), California Civil Code Section 1798.100 et seq., effective January 1, 2020. The CCPA is a new data protection law that provides California residents with certain choices about their data, including the ability to tell companies not to “sell” their personal information. The link is there to inform you of this choice. Although the CCPA only gives California residents the right to make these requests, we allow non-California residents with the same choices about their personal information. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information.
The CCPA broadens the definition of “sale” and “personal information” beyond how you might commonly interpret those terms.
Under the CCPA, “personal information” includes information that is not necessarily directly tied to an individual’s identity but may be associated with a device. This includes identifiers such as IP addresses, web cookies, web beacons, and mobile AdIDs. In many cases, this type of information is not associated with you, but they are unique identifiers that could be. Similarly, the term “sell” is defined to include not just selling in exchange for money, but also sharing or transferring personal information (including information that does not directly identify an individual as described above) in exchange for anything of value, which is not limited to the exchange of money. Certain things are not considered “sales,” including when (1) personal information is shared with a service provider that is contractually prohibited from using the personal information for any purpose beyond the service specifically requested (“service provider exception”), or (2) when the consumer has directed a company to disclose the personal information (“consumer directed exception”).
BeatStars does not sell information that directly identifies you, like your name, address, social security number, banking information, or phone records. In fact, we do not even share that type of information except with service providers who can use the information solely to provide a service on our behalf, when a consumer directs us to share the information, or in the limited additional circumstances outlined in our Privacy Policy (such as for fraud prevention purposes or where we are legally required to share the information).
However, the CCPA’s broad definitions of “sale” and “personal information” may deem the common flow of information in the digital analytics and advertising ecosystem to be a sale. Like most companies that operate commercial websites and apps, BeatStars utilizes online analytics to measure the ways users engage with our websites and apps. These analytics, in turn, inform how we perform online advertising. In order to provide these analytics and facilitate online advertising, BeatStars uses third-parties that collect device identifiers and place tags, cookies, beacons, and similar tracking mechanisms on our websites/apps and on third-party websites/apps. For instance, we may request that a third-party facilitate the placement of BeatStars ads on a particular website after a consumer has previously visited BeatStars. The third-parties we use for these purposes generally do this by placing a cookie on a user’s browser so it can identify that the same browser visited other websites. Similarly, where our webpages or apps provide space for advertisements, these third-parties may use identifiers such as cookies for websites, or the device’s mobile AdID for apps, to facilitate real-time bidding by advertisers.
Where we can reasonably ensure via contract that the third-parties described above can and will use a device identifier solely to provide the specific service we have requested, and will not use or share the data for other purposes, we will not deem that sharing a “sale.” In most cases, we’ve determined that our data analytics providers that measure the ways users engage with our websites and apps meet this standard and, accordingly, we will not block the sharing of an identifier with those entities even when you choose to opt-out through the “Do Not Sell” link.
In some cases, though, BeatStars does not ultimately control how such identifiers are used by some third-parties (particularly in some cases in the online advertising ecosystem), and so we can’t determine that all sharing with third-parties in these cases fall within the service provider exception under the law.
When a user of our websites/apps makes the “Do Not Sell” choice, we will attempt to block further sharing of the covered identifiers with the third-parties we engage on those digital properties or any other entity that does not fall within the service provider exception or the consumer directed exception.
How Does BeatStars Implement my Choice to Block it from “Selling” my Personal Information?
If you wish to opt-out of our sharing of the limited data that is gathered when you visit our Site for purposes of targeted digital advertising, we encourage you to visit the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Initiative for more information about opting out of seeing targeted digital advertisements. Similarly, you can learn about your options to opt-out of mobile app tracking by certain advertising networks through your device settings. You may also visit these websites for more information on how you can opt back into the sharing of data..
You can also opt out of interest-based advertising with some of the service providers we use, such as Google https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us by emailing us at privacy@beatstars.com.
If you choose to sign in and set a “Do Not Sell” setting tied to your account, we will attempt to identify and honor that setting on the BeatStars app or website. Please note that that setting may not work if your browser does not accept cookies or if you later delete cookies or delete data on your app.
Ad choices settings and options will vary depending on your browser and device settings, and this is not an exhaustive list. Please note that your opt-out choices will only apply to the specific browser or device from which you opt out. Please explore your device and browser settings to better understand your choices.
Connected devices (such as tablets, connected TVs, and other devices) may also use an advertising ID or other methods to identify you or serve you interest-based advertising. In some cases, you can disable tracking by selecting options like “limit ad tracking” or disabling options like “interest-based advertising” in your connected device’s settings. These options will vary by device and we do not control the policies or practices of third parties’ providing these devices. BeatStars is not responsible for tracking on connected devices or our business partners’ services and may not have visibility on choices you may have made with respect to tracking on connected devices or our business partners' services.
For information on how to control your choices on those devices, you should contact those third parties directly to learn more about their privacy practices and any data they may collect and share or sell to third parties.
. For more information about BeatStars’ privacy practices and our approach to the CCPA, please see our Privacy Policy.
