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Privacy Policy

Effective date: May 1, 2024

We at PhotoShelter, Inc. (“PhotoShelter”, “we” “our” or “us”), understand that our users are concerned about how information that can be used to individually identify a person (“Personal Data”) is collected and used. Please be assured that we take privacy very seriously and are committed to safeguarding Personal Data. This notice describes our Privacy Policy, which covers the Personal Data that we collect when you access PhotoShelter’s website (the “Site”) and use our products, services and applications (together with the Site, the “Services”), but does not cover the practices of companies we don’t own or control, or people that we don’t manage. By using or accessing the Services in any manner, you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies described in this Privacy Policy and you agree to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information in the following ways.

Remember that your use of PhotoShelter’s Services is at all times subject to the Terms and Conditions [Terms (“PhotoShelter Terms”)], which incorporates this Privacy Policy. Any capitalized terms that are not defined herein shall have the definitions set forth in the PhotoShelter Terms.

Click on any of the links below to go straight to one of the following sections:

Transfers of Personal Data

The Services are hosted and operated in the United States (“U.S.”) through PhotoShelter and its service providers, and if you do not reside in the U.S., laws in the U.S. may differ from the laws where you are located. By using the Services, you acknowledge that Personal Data about you, regardless of whether provided by you or obtained from a third party, is being provided to PhotoShelter in the U.S. and will be hosted on U.S. servers, and you authorize PhotoShelter to transfer, store and process your information to and in the U.S., and possibly other countries. You hereby consent to the transfer of your data to the U.S. as set forth herein.

EU Personal Data

If you are located in the European Union (“EU”), the United Kingdom, Lichtenstein, Norway, or Iceland, you may have additional rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) with respect to your Personal Data, as further described below.

PhotoShelter is the controller of your Personal Data processed in connection with the Services except when we process the Personal Data of our customers’ end users and employees in connection with our provision of services to those customers, in which case we would be the processor of Personal Data, and those customers would be the controllers of the Personal Data. For more information about your potential rights under the GDPR, and to exercise such rights where applicable, please see the section titled “Your Privacy Rights” or contact us at privacy@photoshelter.com. Please note that in cases where we are the processor of your Personal Data, we may have to refer you to the controller party to inquire about your data rights.

EU-U.S. & Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Protection Framework

PhotoShelter complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Swiss-U.S. DPF) as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce. PhotoShelter has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (EU-U.S. DPF Principles) with regard to the processing of personal data received from the European Union and the United Kingdom in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF.  PhotoShelter has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles) with regard to the processing of personal data received from Switzerland in reliance on the Swiss-U.S. DPF. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the EU-U.S. DPF Principles and/or the Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles, the Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) Program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/

PhotoShelter’s compliance with the Data Privacy Protection Framework Principles is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Pursuant to the Data Privacy Protection Framework Principles, EU individuals have the right to obtain our confirmation of whether we maintain personal information relating to you in the United States. Upon request, we will provide you with access to the personal information that we hold about you. You may also correct, amend, or delete the personal information we hold about you. An individual who seeks access, or who seeks to correct, amend, or delete inaccurate data transferred to the United States under Data Privacy Protection Framework Principles, should direct their query to privacy@photoshelter.com. If requested to remove data, we will respond within a reasonable timeframe.

Please note that in cases where we are the processor of your Personal Data, we may have to refer you to the controller party to inquire about accessing your data.

We will provide an individual opt-out choice, or opt-in for sensitive data, before we share your data with third parties other than our agents, or before we use it for a purpose other than which it was originally collected or subsequently authorized. To request to limit the use and disclosure of your personal information, please submit a written request to privacy@photoshelter.com.

Please note that in cases where we are the processor of your Personal Data, we may have to refer you to the controller party to inquire about your data rights.

In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

PhotoShelter’s accountability for personal data that it receives in the United States under the Data Privacy Protection Framework Principles and subsequently transfers to a third party is described in the Data Privacy Protection Framework Principles. In particular, PhotoShelter remains responsible and liable under the Data Privacy Protection Framework Principles if third-party agents that it engages to process personal data on its behalf do so in a manner inconsistent with the Principles, unless PhotoShelter proves that it is not responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.

In compliance with the Data Privacy Protection Framework Principles, PhotoShelter commits to resolve complaints about your privacy and our collection or use of your personal information transferred to the United States pursuant to Data Privacy Protection Framework Principles. European Union individuals with Data Privacy Protection Framework inquiries or complaints should first contact PhotoShelter by email at privacy@photoshelter.com.

PhotoShelter has further committed to refer unresolved privacy complaints under the Data Privacy Protection Framework Principles to an independent dispute resolution mechanism, the BBB DPF Dispute Resolution Process. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint, or if your complaint is not satisfactorily addressed, please visit https://bbbprograms.org/programs/all-programs/dpf-consumers/ProcessForConsumers for more information and to file a complaint. This service is provided free of charge to you.

If your Data Privacy Protection Framework complaint cannot be resolved through the above channels, under certain conditions, you may invoke binding arbitration for some residual claims not resolved by other redress mechanisms. See Data Privacy Protection Framework Annex 1 at https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/framework-article/ANNEX-I-introduction.

Notice of What Information We Collect and How We Use It

Types of Personal Data We Collect

We collect and maintain Personal Data on our Services when you provide such information directly to us, when third parties such as our business partners or service providers provide us with Personal Data about you, or when Personal Data about you is automatically collected in connection with your use of our Services.

Information We Collect Directly From You

We receive Personal Data directly from you when you provide us with such Personal Data, including without limitation the following:

  • Membership Registration Information: We collect the information you supply when you become a Member of the Services, for example, your name, address, phone, fax or e-mail address, login name, screen name, nickname or handle, and the password you select. This information may be edited at any time by logging into your member page.
  • Preferences and Suggestions: We collect information and suggestions that you give to us, including information about your preferences.
  • User Content: We collect user content that you provide to or through our Services, for example, comments and posts you submit or photographs, videos, or files you upload, and such user content can include Personal Data if you include Personal Data in such content.
  • Publicly Posted Information: We collect information you post on public portions of the Services, and information that would be otherwise accessible by anyone with Internet access.
  • Financial Information: If you become a Content Provider with the Services or purchase certain Services, you are required to provide financial information in the form of a valid credit card number and billing address.

Information We Receive From Third Party Sources

Some third parties such as social media companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and/or Twitter provide us with Personal Data about you, such as the following:

  • Account Information For Third Party Services: If you interact with a third party service when using our Services, such as if you use a third party service to log-in to our Services (e.g., Facebook Connect or Twitter OAuth), or if you share content from our Services through a third party social media service, the third party service will send us information about you, such as information from your public profile, if the third party service and your account settings allow such sharing. The information we receive will depend on the policies and your account settings with the third party service.
  • Information From Our Advertising Partners: We receive information about you from some of our service providers who assist us with marketing or promotional services related to how you interact with our websites, applications, products, services, advertisements or communications.
  • Information From Other Users: We receive information about you when you interact with other PhotoShelter users in certain ways, such as if a user provides us with your email address in order to grant you access to an image gallery.

Information We Automatically Collect When You Use Our Service

Some Personal Data is automatically collected when you use our Services such as the following:

  • IP address
  • PhotoShelter ID
  • Geolocation data
  • Device identification
  • Type of browser and/or device you’re using to access our Services
  • Page or feature you requested
  • Information gathered through cookies and other tracking technologies (e.g. web beacons, pixel tags, SDKs, etc.) — For more information, please review our Cookie Policy.
  • Page view statistics
  • Browsing history
  • Usage information
  • Transaction information (e.g. transaction amount, date and time such transaction occurred)
  • Log data (e.g. access times, hardware and software information)

Cookies

Like many websites and mobile application operators, we collect certain information through the use of “cookies,” which are small text files that are saved by your browser when you access our Service. Cookies can either be “session cookies” or “persistent cookies”. Session cookies are temporary cookies that are stored on your device while you are visiting our Website or using our Service, whereas “persistent cookies” are stored on your device for a period of time after you leave our Website or Service. We use persistent cookies to store your preferences so that they are available for the next visit, and to keep a more accurate account of how often you visit our Service, and how your use of the Service varies over time. We also use persistent cookies to measure the effectiveness of advertising efforts. Through these cookies, we may collect information about your online activity after you leave our Service. For more information on cookies, including how to control your cookie settings and preferences, visit ec.europa.eu/ipg/basics/legal/cookies, ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies and allaboutcookies.org.

Some cookies are placed by a third party on your device and may provide information to us and third parties about your browsing habits (such as your visits to our Services, the pages you have visited and the links and advertisements you have clicked). These cookies can be used to determine whether certain third party services are being used, to identify your interests, to retarget advertisements to you and to serve advertisements to you that we or others believe are relevant to you. We do not control third party cookies.

The Services uses the following cookies:

  • Essential Cookies: Essential cookies are required for providing you features or services that you have requested. For example, certain cookies enable you to log into secure areas of our Site or use a shopping cart feature within our Services. Disabling these cookies may make certain features and services unavailable.
  • Functionality Cookies: Functional cookies are used to record your choices and settings regarding our Services, maintain your preferences over time, and recognize you when you return to our Services. These cookies help us to personalize our content for you, greet you by name, and remember your preferences.
  • Performance/Analytical Cookies: Performance/analytical cookies allow us to understand how visitors use our Site and Services such as by collecting information about the number of visitors to the Site, what pages visitors view on our Site, and how long visitors are viewing pages on the Site. Performance/analytical cookies also help us measure the performance of our advertising campaigns in order to help us improve our campaigns and the Services’ content for those who engage with our advertising.

Do Not Track: Your browser may offer you a “Do Not Track” option, which allows you to signal to operators of websites and web applications and services (including behavioral advertising services) that you do not wish such operators to track certain of your online activities over time and across different websites. Our Services do not support Do Not Track requests at this time, which means that we collect information about your online activity both while you are using the Services and after you leave our Services.

Use of Personal Data

We use Personal Data to operate, improve, understand and personalize our Services. For example, we use Personal Data to:

  • Communicate with you about the Services if you’ve provided us the means to do so. For example, if you’ve given us your email address we may contact you about promotions, products or services that we believe may be of interest to you, or email you about your use of the Services. If you prefer not to be contacted with this information, please send an e-mail to support@PhotoShelter.com.
  • Bill you for future membership fees and/or services in accordance with the Terms and Conditions.
  • Track user activity so that we may better understand your preferences
  • Personalize website content and communications based on your preferences
  • Respond to user inquiries
  • Create and manage user profiles
  • Process and fulfill orders
  • Contact you about Service announcements, updates or offers
  • Provide support and assistance for the Services
  • Meet contract or legal obligations
  • Fulfill user requests
  • Comply with our legal or contractual obligations
  • Resolve disputes
  • Protect against or deter fraudulent, illegal or harmful actions
  • Enforce our Terms and Conditions

Processing Grounds

We will only process your Personal Data if we have a lawful basis for doing so. Lawful bases for processing include consent, contractual necessity and our “legitimate interests” or the legitimate interest of others.

  • Contractual Necessity: We process the following categories of Personal Data as a matter of “contractual necessity”, meaning that we need to process the data to perform under our Terms of Service with you, which enables us to provide you with the Services. When we process data due to contractual necessity, failure to provide such Personal Data will result in your inability to use some or all portions of the Services that require such data:
    Examples of these Contractual Necessity include:

    • Notifications of contract renewals
    • Notifications of scheduled maintenance
    • Notifications surrounding contract billing and renewals
  • Legitimate Interest: We process Personal Data for certain purposes when we believe it furthers the legitimate interest of us or others (e.g. our users).
    Examples of these legitimate interests include:

    • Operation and improvement of our business, products and services
    • Marketing of our products and services
    • Provision of customer support
    • Protection from fraud or security threats
    • Compliance with legal obligations
    • Completion of corporate transactions
  • Consent: In some cases, we process Personal Data based on the consent you expressly grant to us at the time we collect such data. When we process Personal Data based on your consent, it will be expressly indicated to you at the point and time of collection.
  • Other Processing Grounds: From time to time we may also need to process Personal Data to comply with a legal obligation, if it is necessary to protect the vital interests of you or other data subjects, or if it is necessary for a task carried out in the public interest.

How, and with whom, is your information shared?

We share Personal Data with vendors, third party service providers and agents who work on our behalf and provide us with services related to the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Service. These parties include:

  • Credit card payment processing company to bill you for services
  • Fraud prevention service providers
  • Ad networks
  • Analytics service providers
  • Staff augmentation and contract personnel
  • Hosting service providers
  • Co-location service providers
  • Telecommunications service providers

We also share Personal Data when necessary to complete a transaction initiated or authorized by you or provide you with a product or service you have requested. In addition to those set forth above, these parties also include:

  • Other users (where you post information publicly or as otherwise necessary to effect a transaction initiated or authorized by you through the Services)
  • Social media services (if you interact with them through your use of the Services)
  • Third party business partners who you access through the Services
  • Other parties authorized by you

We also share Personal Data when we believe it is necessary to:

  • Comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies
  • Protect us, our business or our users, for example to enforce our Terms and Conditions, prevent spam or other unwanted communications and investigate or protect against fraud, or maintain the security of our products and services.

We also share information with third parties when you give us consent to do so.

Your contact information will be made available to the photographer who controls an image when you 1) add the image to a “lightbox”, 2) download the image either as a “comp” (aka “composite”) or a high-resolution file, 3) add the image to a shopping cart for future purchase, or 4) purchase/license the image.

We will not sell your Personal Data to any third party, provided certain Personal Data may be transferred in connection with business transfers as described below.

Business Transfers

Furthermore, if we choose to buy or sell assets, we may share and/or transfer Personal Data in connection with the evaluation of and entry into such transactions. Moreover, if we, or substantially all of our assets, were acquired, or if we go out of business or enter bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party, and we would share Personal Data with the party that is acquiring our assets. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of us or our assets may continue to use your Personal Data as set forth in this policy.

Aggregate Data

We provide aggregate usage information to our partners (or allow partners to collect that information from you), who may use such information to understand how often and in what ways people use our Services, so that they, too, can provide you with an optimal online experience. However, we never disclose aggregate usage or de-identified information to a partner (or allow a partner to collect such information) in a manner that would identify you as an individual person. We also, from time to time, de-identify your Personal Data so that you are not identified as an individual, and provide that information to our partners.

What Happens if You Disclose Your Personal Data in Public Areas on the Site?

We have no control over and cannot protect Personal Data that users disclose in public areas such as a photographer’s or agency profile. If you disclose your Personal Data in public areas, it may be collected and used by third parties, without our or your knowledge.

Security

We endeavor to protect your account and other Personal Data we hold in our records and take steps to ensure that it is kept private using appropriate technical and organizational measures based on the type of Personal Data and applicable processing activity For example, PhotoShelter is PCI Compliant and submits itself to regular 3rd party approved scanning vendors to achieve PCI-DSS 3.1 compliance. We use a third-party, top-tier datacenter that maintains several industry-recognized certifications, including ISO, SOC2, PCI, and more. All browser connections and communication is transmitted over SSL (TLS), ensuring data privacy and integrity. Our servers only support 128- or 256-bit cipher suites over TLS 1.1 or higher, protecting against unauthorized disclosure, modification, and replay attacks.

Furthermore, your account is protected by a password for your privacy and security. You must prevent unauthorized access to your account and Personal Data by selecting and protecting your password appropriately and limiting access to your computer or device and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your account.

Is Your Personal Data Secure if You Link to Other Web Sites?

The Services contain links to sites operated by third parties that are not under the control or supervision of PhotoShelter. Neither PhotoShelter nor its directors, officers, employees, shareholders, members or representatives are responsible for the privacy policies and practices of these sites. Once you have left our Services, our privacy policy no longer applies. You must read the privacy policy of the other site to see how your Personal Data will be handled on the third party site.

Data Retention

We retain Personal Data about you for as long as it remains relevant. In some cases we retain Personal Data for longer, if doing so is necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes or collect fees owed, or is otherwise permitted or required by applicable law, rule or regulation. Afterwards, we retain some information in a depersonalized or aggregated form but not in a way that would identify you personally.

We reserve the right to access, read, preserve and disclose any information we retain that we reasonably believe is necessary to comply with law or court order, to enforce or apply our Terms and Conditions and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Company, our employees, our users, or others.

Your Privacy Rights

You have certain rights with respect to your Personal Data, including those set forth below. For more information, to exercise these rights, or to request a Data Processing Agreement, please email privacy@photoshelter.com. Please note that in some circumstances, we may not be able to fully comply with your request, such as if it is frivolous or extremely impractical, if it jeopardizes the rights of others, or if it is not required by law, but in those circumstances, we will still respond to notify you of such a decision. In some cases, we may also need you to provide us with additional information, which may include Personal Data, if necessary to verify your identity and the nature of your request.

  • Access: You can request more information about the Personal Data we hold about you and request a copy of such Personal Data. You can also access certain of your Personal Data by logging into your member page.
  • Rectification: If you believe that any Personal Data we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete, you can request that we correct or supplement such data. You can correct some of this information directly by logging into your member page.
  • Erasure: You can request that we erase some or all of your Personal Data from our systems.
  • Withdrawal of Consent: If we are processing your Personal Data based on your consent (as indicated at the time of collection of such data), you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Please note, however, that if you exercise this right, you may have to then provide express consent on a case-by-case basis for the use or disclosure of certain of your Personal Data, if such use or disclosure is necessary to enable you to utilize some or all of our Services.
  • Portability: You can ask for a copy of your Personal Data in a machine-readable format. You can also request that we transmit the data to another controller where technically feasible.
  • Objection: You can contact us to let us know that you object to the further use or disclosure of your Personal Data for certain purposes, such as for direct marketing purposes.
  • Restriction of Processing: You can ask us to restrict further processing of your Personal Data.
  • Right to File Complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint about PhotoShelter’s practices with respect to your Personal Data with the supervisory authority of your country or EU Member State. A list of Supervisory Authorities is available here: edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en.

In compliance with the PriData Privacy Protection Framework Principles, PhotoShelter commits to resolve complaints about our collection or use of your personal information. EU and Swiss individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding our Data Privacy Protection Framework policy should first contact PhotoShelter at support@photoshelter.com.

PhotoShelter has further committed to refer unresolved Data Privacy Protection Framework complaints to the American Arbitration Association, an alternative dispute resolution provider located in the United States. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint from us, or if we have not addressed your complaint to your satisfaction, please visit www.adr.org for more information or to file a complaint. The services of American Arbitration Association are provided at no cost to you.

California

Under California Civil Code Sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to contact us to prevent disclosure of personal information to third parties for such third parties’ direct marketing purposes; in order to submit such a request, please contact us at privacy@photoshelter.com.

California residents are entitled to ask us for a notice identifying the categories of personal information which we share with our affiliates and/or third parties for marketing purposes, and providing contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to: privacy@photoshelter.com or

Photoshelter
Re: Privacy Policy
111 Broadway – 19th Floor
New York, NY 10006

Changes to the Privacy Policy

We may change and modify the Privacy Policy from time to time. We will alert you to changes by placing a notice on the Services, by email to your email address and/or by some other means. Please note that if you’ve opted not to receive legal notice emails from us (or you haven’t provided us with your email address), those legal notices will still govern your use of the Services, and you are still responsible for reading and understanding them. If you continue to use the Services after any changes to the Privacy Policy have been posted, that means you agree to all of the changes.

Children

We do not knowingly collect or solicit Personal Data from anyone under the age of 16. If you are under 16, please do not attempt to register for the Services or send any Personal Data about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected Personal Data from a child under age 16, we will we will take appropriate steps to remove that user’s information and will restrict that individual from future access to the Service. If you believe that a child under 16 may have provided us with Personal Data, please contact us at support@photoshelter.com.

Disclosures

  • PhotoShelter is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
  • Under certain conditions, you may invoke binding arbitration.
  • PhotoShelter may be required to disclose personal information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.
  • PhotoShelter is liable in cases of onward transfers to third parties.

Contact Us

We invite you to contact us with any questions or comments regarding your Personal Data or our data practices generally. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding your privacy.

If you are located in the EU, you can also contact us through our Data Protection Officer:

Data Protection Officer
Kathy Carter
Chief Technology Officer