Connect Circus Privacy Policy

Effective Date: January 15, 2025


Please read this Global Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) carefully to get a clear understanding of how Buehl & Pferdmenges LLC. (“Connect Circus,” “we,” “us” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, protects and otherwise handles information about you. Our privacy practices may vary among the countries in which we operate to reflect local practices and legal requirements.

About Connect Circus

Connect Circus provides a platform for members to learn about one another, arrange stays and travel, engage in activities and leave feedback for one another. Connect Circus connects circus artists, enthusiats and travelers with a global network of people willing to share in profound and meaningful ways, making the circus community a truly social experience. We are a community built on trust. A fundamental part of earning that trust means being clear about how we use your information and protect your right to privacy.

This Privacy Policy describes:

  • the information we collect about you,
  • how we use and share that information, and
  • the privacy choices available to you.

This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect when you use our websites (“Site”) and other online products and services (collectively, the “Services”), or when you otherwise interact with us.

From time to time, we may change the provisions of this Privacy Policy. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on the website. If required by law, we will also provide notification of changes in another way that we believe is reasonably likely to reach you, such as via email or another manner. We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy regularly to stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy.

What Information Do We Collect When You Use Our Services?

Information You Provide to Us

We collect information you provide to us, such as when you create an account, update your profile, use the interactive features of our Services, promotions or surveys, request customer support or otherwise communicate with us.

The types of information we may collect include:

  • Account information, such as your name, username, gender, birth date, email address, mailing address, social media handles, city, country, postal code, billing address, phone number and profile picture;
  • Communications that we exchange with users when they contact us with questions or feedback, including feedback about interacting with other users, and messages and interactive forum information, such as information you provide in connection with activities and events;
  • Other background, contact and demographic information, such as your occupation, personal URL, username, emergency contact, home descriptions, travel history and plans and other interests and self-descriptions you choose to provide;
  • Payment and transactional data when you donate to our Services, including name, payment card information, bank account number, billing information, and your transaction history. This information is collected and processed by our payment providers, Stripe, PayPal, Google and Apple, and we do not have access to payment card numbers. In addition to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, information related to your payments or purchases is also processed according to Stripe’s, PayPal’s, Google’s, and Apple’s service agreements and privacy policies.
  • Information stored on your mobile device (if you have given us permission to access this information), such as your photos, calendar information and your contacts’ name, phone numbers and image thumbnail (if available). Information We Collect Automatically

When you access or use our Services, we may also automatically collect information about you, including:

  • Location Information: We may collect information about your location when you access our website, or otherwise consent to the collection of this information through your device settings.
  • Device Information: We collect device-specific information when you access our Services, including your hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers, mobile network information and information about the device’s interaction with our Services.
  • Log Information: We collect log information about how you access or use our Services, including your access times, browser type and language, Internet Service Provider and Internet Protocol (“IP”) address.
  • Information Collected by Cookies and other Tracking Technologies: We may automatically collect information using cookies, web beacons (also known as “tracking gifs,” “pixel tags” and “tracking pixels”) and other tracking technologies to, among other things, operate the Services, improve our Services and your experience, monitor user activity, count visits, understand usage and campaign effectiveness, and tell if an email has been opened and acted upon.

Information We Collect from Other Sources

Information collected from third party services. We may obtain information from other sources and combine that with information we collect through our Services. For example, if you link or connect to the Services through a third-party social networking site, you direct that third-party service to send us information such as your name, connections, email address, birthday, gender, location and other account information in accordance with the authorization procedures determined by such third-party social networking site or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service.

Information collected from other Services Users. We may receive information about you from other Connect Circus users, such as trust ratings, feedback, friend connections, public references, and other interconnections and interactions between you and other Connect Circus users.

How Do We Use this Information?

We use information about you to:

Provide our services, including to:

  • Operate the Services and our business;
  • Create and maintain your account;
  • Enable you to communicate and connect with other members,
  • Maintain and improve our Services and their features;
  • Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support and administrative messages
  • Respond to your comments, questions and requests and provide customer service;
  • Personalize the Services, which may include providing content or features that match user profiles or interests;
  • Link or combine with other information we get from third parties to help understand your needs and provide you with better service.

Direct marketing. We may send you direct marketing communications as permitted by law, including, but not limited to, notifying you of products, services, offers, promotions, rewards and events and provide other news and information about Connect Circus and other third parties.

Research and development. We may create and use aggregate user information to analyze the effectiveness of our Services, to improve and add features to our Services, and to analyze the general behavior and characteristics of users of our Services.

Support and Maintenance. We use third party analytics services to automatically log certain information about your computer or mobile device and how you interact with the Services. The information collected is used to troubleshoot and prevent errors, perform data analysis, and develop new features.

Compliance with Laws, and Creating and Maintaining a Trusted and Safer Environment. We may use personal information to:

  • Protect the safety of Connect Circus users and provide our verification service;
  • Enforce our Terms of Use;
  • Investigate potential Trust and Safety violations;
  • Audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements and internal policies;
  • Prevent, identify, investigate and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity, including cyberattacks and identity theft; and
  • Comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities.

Processing of Your Personal Information Abroad

Connect Circus has users located across the globe. We may store and process personal information in the UAE, United States and other countries, which may not have the same data protection laws as your home country or territory. However, wherever we store your information we will treat it in accordance with this Privacy Policy or as otherwise disclosed to you.

Sharing of Information

We share personal information as follows:

  • With your consent;
  • With third party vendors, consultants and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out their work for us (such as hosting, analytics, customer support, email and SMS delivery, and fraud prevention and detection);.
  • With search engines in order to index the content you provide as part of a discussion forum or public profile;
  • With partners who run special offers or other events or activities in connection with our Services;
  • In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company;
  • If we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements; and
  • To enforce our agreements, policies, and Terms of Use to protect the security or integrity of our Services; or to protect Connect Circus, our users or the public from harm or illegal activities.

How You Share Personal Information:

  • Other Users. When you establish an account on Connect Circus, you share certain of your profile information with the Connect Circus community. This information includes your profile picture, name and other information you may elect to share in accordance with the privacy settings you establish on the Service.
  • Social Media Tools. Connect Circus may offer social sharing features or other integrated tools which let you share actions you take on our Services with other media, and vice versa. The use of such features enables the sharing of certain information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you establish with the third party that provides the social sharing feature. For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with social sharing features, please visit the privacy policies of the third parties that provide these social sharing features. Connect Circus may also allow you to access Mapbox Maps. Please note that when you use Mapbox Maps, you are subject to Mapbox’s Privacy Policy (https://www.mapbox.com/legal/privacy), as amended by Mapbox from time to time.

Third Party Links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services as part of our Services. These third parties may have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the activities of these third parties and how they collect, use or share information about you. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our Services and welcome any feedback about these third parties.

Advertising and Analytics Services Provided by Others

We may allow third parties to serve advertisements on our behalf across the Internet and to provide analytics services in relation to the use of our Services. These entities may use cookies, web beacons and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Services and other websites, including your IP address and information about your web browser and operating system, pages viewed, time spent on pages, links clicked and conversion information. This information may be used by Connect Circus and others to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver advertising and content targeted to your interests on our Services and other websites and better understand your online activity. Please note that we may share aggregated or de-identified data with these third parties. For example, we may engage a third party data provider who may collect web log data from you or place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser to enable you to receive customized ads or content. These cookies may reflect de-identified demographic or other data linked to information you voluntarily provide to us e.g., an email address.

 

How Do We Protect Your Information?

We take security of your data seriously and take reasonable measures to protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. However, no Internet or e-mail transmission is ever fully secure or error free. In particular, e-mail sent to or from us may not be secure. Therefore, you should take special care in deciding what information you send to us via the Internet. Please keep this in mind when disclosing any personal information to us via the Internet. In addition, we are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Services, or third party websites. Finally, we cannot control the actions of users on the platform, who may seek to use third party apps or devices to record, store, or share content or communication without other users' prior consent. Please keep this in mind when using the Services.

Children

The Services are not intended for use by children under 14 years of age. If we learn that we have collected personal information through the Services from a child under 14 without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian as required by law, we will delete it.

Your Information Choices

Privacy Settings You have many choices about your data.

  • You can update and correct most of your personal data through your account. If this is not possible, you can ask us to update your data, particularly in cases of inaccuracy, by contacting Connect Circus
  • You can opt-out of email marketing and push notifications. You may also opt out of marketing-related emails by following the opt out or unsubscribe instructions contained in the communications we send you. If you opt out, we may still send you transactional or relationship messages, such as emails about your account.
  • You may determine whether certain information about you will be visible to others by navigating to your account on our website and editing your options.

Account Information

You may delete your account at any time by going into the “Settings” section of your Connect Circus profile. Even after you delete your account, we may retain certain information as required by law, for legitimate business purposes or to protect member safety.

Location Information via Mobile Device

You have the ability to turn location-based services on and off by adjusting the settings of your Internet browser or mobile device. Doing so, however, may mean that you cannot use all or a portion of our Services.

Online Tracking Opt-Out

Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. However, you can choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser's help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies, or visit www.allaboutcookies.org. Please note, however, that our Services may not function properly if your browser does not accept cookies.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us via mail at Buehl & Pferdmenges LLC Attention: Buehl & Pferdmenges LLC., Shams Business Center, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, or email at info (at) connect-circus.com .

Data deletion

You can ask us to delete or correct the personal data that we hold about you. We may retain your personal data as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud detection and prevention, and enhancing trust and safety. For example, if we suspend a Connect Circus account for fraud or safety reasons, we may retain information from that account to prevent that member from opening a new account in the future.

  • To request deletion of personal information collected, please email us at at info (at) connect-circus.com or by mail at Buehl & Pferdmenges LLC., Shams Business Center, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates