Privacy
Circle Privacy Policy
Last Updated: October 5, 2024
Welcome to Circle, provided and maintained by Circle Media Labs, Inc., (“Circle,” “Company,” “We,” “Us,” or “Our”), a subsidiary of Aura Sub, LLC (“Aura”). Circle enables Our customers to manage the internet activity on devices connected to their home network (“Network” or “Circle Network”) through Our website located at https://meetcircle.com (“Site”), Our Circle mobile application (“App”), and related devices and products (“Products” or “Device”) (collectively referred to as “Circle Services”). This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) applies to the Circle Services and describes how We collect, use, and disclose your information.
Please read this Policy carefully. If You do not agree with this Policy, do not use any of the Circle Services.
We may modify the terms of this Policy at any time at Our sole discretion and will post the modified Policy to the Site, so You should review the most up-to-date version of the Policy from time to time. Your continued use of the Circle Services thereafter shall constitute Your acceptance of the modified Policy. We will notify You of any material modifications to the Policy. If You do not agree to the modified Policy, stop using the Circle Services and provide Us with written notice.
Nothing in this Policy shall be deemed to confer any third-party rights or benefits. Additional terms may apply to certain Circle Services, and such terms are part of Your agreement with Us if You use those Services. This Policy only applies to Sites and Services that link to this Policy. We are not liable for the practices of any third party or our customers.
This Privacy Statement describes
- The Types of Information Circle collects
- How Circle Uses Collected Information
- Remote Support For Your Circle Account
- How Circle May Share Information
- Information Security and Retention
- Use of Cookies and Tracking Technologies
- Your Data Privacy Choices and Rights
- Information for European Economic Area (EEA) Residents
- Information for California Residents
- Children's Privacy
- Changes to this Policy
- Contact Us
THE TYPE OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT
1. When You register for an account, or contact us, which may include:
- Contact information such as name, email address, and phone number;
- Your Aura account and login information;
- Subscription type;
- Payment information;
- Device types and other information processed during registration.
2. When You use our Services, including by visiting the Site, using the App, or connecting to a Network, we may collect the following information:
- Whether You are on the Circle Network;
- Whether You are a Registered User or Unregistered User;
- Information about You, Your purchased Circle Device, and any of Your device(s) associated and connected to the Network, which may include, without limitation, Navigational Information and Network Preferences (see below). Navigational information refers to information about Your device and operating system and Your interaction with the Services, including but not limited to: Your IP address, device model and version, the date and time of the visit to Our Services and how long You remained on Our Services, the referral URL (the site from which you came), the pages visited on Our Services, browser type and version, operating system, browser history, Your Device ID, and geographical location;
- Information You volunteer such as product feedback or User Content.
3. We collect automatically some information when you interact with the Services, including Navigational Information. Some of this information is collected using cookies and similar technologies (see below for more information and how to opt-out of our use of cookies).
HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT
Circle may use the information Circle collects:
1. To enter into a contract, or to take steps at Your request prior to entering into a contract (such as account registration);
2. To process Your orders and notify You of the status of Your order;
3. To communicate with you via email, SMS, push notifications or other messaging about the Services or relevant updates. See below for your choices with these communications;
4. To respond to Your inquiries and provide You with customer support services, to communicate with third parties in the handling of claims or complaints, and to maintain business administration records and prevent fraud;
5. To keep records and administration on how products and services were provided, claims and complaints were handled, including the documents underlying such services, claims and complaints;
6. To understand how people use the Circle Services, to learn more about Our Users and their preferences, to operate, maintain and improve the Circle Services, to develop new products and services, to send You direct marketing (which You may opt-out of at any time) or product-specific communications;
7. To comply with legal obligations applicable to Circle, such as respond to legal process or requests for information issued by government authorities or other third parties or to protect Your, Our or third parties' rights;
8. For measurement, research, and analytics;
9. For advertising and marketing our Services, including through the use of cookies. Our app is not ad supported, and we do not share personal information from our app with third party advertising services;
10. To inform You of important changes or additions to the Circle Services;
11. To optimize and improve the Circle Services;
12. To enforce this Policy and our terms of use including the End User License Agreement and the Terms of Service, to comply with legal obligations, and otherwise manage Our business;
13. To process payments and refunds, if applicable;
14. To post information you volunteer when you communicate with us to post comments to our Site or App, respond to surveys, fill out an online form, participate in promotions, provide user testimonials or participate in forums, websites and related information services to share your experiences with our Services on Our App or Site or the App or Site of our parent company Aura.
15. For any purpose where the information is aggregated or anonymized so that no individual data is directly, or indirectly, identifiable.
REMOTE SUPPORT FOR YOUR CIRCLE ACCOUNT
Circle’s End User License Agreement, which can be found at https://meetcircle.com/pages/legal-license, for any Circle Device or Circle Account authorizes Circle or its duly authorized support representatives (which may include its parent company, Aura) to access Circle Account information and devices on Circle’s network remotely. Circle and its duly authorized support representatives require such access in order to troubleshoot, debug, and otherwise offer support and solutions to Circle Services users. Remote access is enabled by the User via the Circle App.
Except as described elsewhere in this Policy, Circle does not access a given Circle Device or Account unless a support request has been received, and it becomes apparent to the support representative that there is a problem that can be solved via remote access. If You wish to limit the level of access to Your Circle Device or Account, You must state those limitations at the time of Your support request.
Circle or its duly authorized support representatives will only access Your Circle Device or Account under the conditions that You set. Whether or not You set any limitations on remote access, Circle will discontinue remote access upon resolution of the support request.
HOW WE SHARE INFORMATION
Circle can share your information in the following ways:
1. With Service Providers and Affiliates.
- With the exception of data collected through our Network (e.g., through your use of our virtual private network or mobile device management software) which is not shared with third parties, We may disclose the information We collect to service providers and affiliates who assist Us in performing Our business purposes. Some service providers and contractors used on Our App and Site include, without limitation, processing payment services, analytics services, customer support services, claim handling, billing, internal administrative services, maintenance of the Service, and providing business services to Us or to You. In cases where We may share Your Personal Data with such partners, affiliates, and service providers, we enter into appropriate confidentiality and data processing agreements with these third parties, review their security practices, and limit information sharing to the scope of what they are helping us with. Such third parties are prohibited from using Your personal information except for the stated purposes, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of Your User Information.
- Circle and its affiliated entities may share information with third-party data controllers where such sharing is legally required, such as with the use of certain cookies and related tracking technologies for compliance with specific geographic laws.
2. With our parent company, Aura Sub, LLC and its subsidiaries and affiliates such as Intersections, LLC dba Pango to better market our collective products and services to you.
3. By Law or Protected Right.
- We may disclose information from and about You that We collect (1) if required by law; (2) if We believe that disclosure is necessary to comply with the law; (3) to enforce Our intellectual property rights; (4) to protect the rights, property or safety of Us and Our employees or agents; and (5) if necessary to defend against third-party claims. We may disclose certain information collected on the App when requested to comply with a court order, investigation, subpoena or governmental request. We will make reasonable efforts to notify You of such governmental orders and requests, either by a notification on the App or by email, except where prohibited by law or where We reasonably believe that such notification may threaten the safety of Our Users, Our business, or the public generally.
4. As part of a Business Transfer.
- If We go through a business transfer, such as consolidation, merger, restructuring, acquisition, or sale of part or all of Our assets. In this event, You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on Our App or Site, of any change in ownership, use of information from and about you, and the choices You may have regarding such information.
Circle does not ‘sell’, ‘license’, or otherwise share personal information from and about You except as expressly described in this Policy or with Your prior written consent.
INFORMATION SECURITY AND RETENTION
Security
Circle implements appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect your personal data that we collect against unauthorized access, loss or modification. However, no information system can be 100% secure. This means that Circle cannot guarantee the absolute security of Your information. Moreover, Circle is not responsible for the security of information You transmit to Us over networks that Circle does not control, including the internet and wireless networks, or the data that is stored on Your Circle device.
We endeavor to use reasonably available state-of-the-art network and information security standards, protocols and technologies, including encryption, intrusion detection and data loss prevention, and we monitor our systems to ensure that they comply with our security policies.
We implement physical, technical and organizational safeguards to protect your personal data in our custody, both at rest and in transit, and should these measures fail to prevent a data breach, we will promptly take the necessary remedial measures, and we will provide notices as required by applicable law.
Retention
Unless You request that We delete Your personal information, Circle retains the information collected in an identifiable form as long as reasonably necessary and only for as long as required to fulfill the purposes and on the lawful grounds described above for which Circle collects the information and to comply with Our legal obligations. This means that We will keep Your personal information as long as necessary to be able to provide You with Our products and services and to be able to respond to Your requests.
Without explicitly contacting Circle, We are unable to judge if You have discontinued use of the hardware device. As such, Circle retains the information required to regain access to the device (phone number, Circle ID, and email address) until deletion of that information is requested.
Should Circle become aware of an unauthorized disclosure or security breach concerning any personal information (as defined in applicable law), We shall notify the affected individuals immediately and mitigate the damage of such security breach to the greatest extent possible.
USE OF COOKIES AND TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
Circle collects certain information by automated means when You interact with our Services. Like many companies, Circle uses “cookies” and related technologies such as pixel tags on Our Services. Our Service Providers (such as analytics providers) may also place cookies and similar technologies on the Services.
When You visit Our Site, Circle may view and/or store the IP address of the device You are using. Circle uses this information to determine the general physical location of the device and understand from what regions of the world Our Site’s visitors come from. Circle also may use this information to enhance the Site.
More information about Our use of cookies and other technologies, and your choices with these cookies, is set out in our Cookie Policy.
Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) signal whereby You may indicate Your preference regarding tracking and cross-site tracking. Circle does not currently recognize or respond to DNT signals.
YOUR DATA PRIVACY CHOICES AND RIGHTS
You may have certain rights under applicable data protection laws with respect to your personal information, which means information that relates to an identified or identifiable person. We are open about the personal information We collect and have implemented mechanisms to enable You to exercise any rights You might have under applicable laws with respect to Your personal information, such as:
- The right to request access and obtain copies of the personal information We have collected from You or shared in the past 12 months;
- The right to request We update or correct Your personal information if it changes or if You believe that any information that We have collected about You is inaccurate or out-of-date;
- The right to request We delete or erase Your personal information;
- The Right to object to or restrict Our use or processing of Your personal information;
a. Email marketing - unsubscribe to our email list by clicking the link at the bottom of marketing emails.
b. SMS marketing - you can reply with the word ‘Stop’ to any SMS in order to unsubscribe
c. Tailored advertising using third party cookies - refer to our list of advertising services using cookies here for company-specific choices, or visit http://optout.aboutads.info to exercise an industry-wide opt-out. In addition, you may reject or delete cookies through your browser settings. - If We are relying on Your consent to process Your personal information You have the right to withdraw Your consent at any time. Withdrawing Your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing We conducted prior to Your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of Your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
If You would like to exercise Your rights, please submit your request at https://preferences.aura.com/privacy or dial 1 (844) 914-2991.
If You would at any time like to review or change the information in Your account or terminate Your account, You can:
- Log into Your account settings and update Your user account; or
- Contact Us using the contact information provided.
International Data Transfers
Circle may transfer your personal data to countries other than the one in which You reside. We do this to facilitate our operations, and transferees include our affiliates such as Aura and other companies in the Aura Group, service providers, and partners. Laws in other countries may be different to those that apply where You reside. For example, personal data collected within Switzerland, the United Kingdom, or the European Economic Area (EEA) may be transferred and processed outside Switzerland, the United Kingdom, or the EEA for purposes described in this policy. We put in place appropriate safeguards that help to ensure that such data receives an adequate level of protection. These safeguards include implementing the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers of personal information between Us and our business affiliates and associates to which we choose to transfer the information that requires these companies to safeguard personal information they process from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. You may contact Us if You would like more information about such safeguards. We implement similar appropriate safeguards with our third-party service providers and further details can be provided upon request.
If You change Your country of residence, the Circle affiliate responsible for Your data may change accordingly, and Your data may be transferred to that other company.
INFORMATION FOR EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA) RESIDENTS
Data Subject Rights
In addition to the rights granted above, if You are an EEA resident, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) grants You the right to lodge a complaint against Us with your local data protection authority. You can find your data protection authority at https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.
Legal Basis For Processing Personal Data
Under the GDPR, We may only process personal information where we have a sufficient legal basis.
Circle Processing Activity | Legal Basis under GDPR |
---|---|
Placement of cookies on Our site | Consent |
Collecting, processing, and sharing Your child's persnoal information | Consent* |
Collection and Processing of Your personal data to maintain and fulfill the Services | Contract |
Processing Your personal data to improve our Services | Legitimate Interest |
Using Your personal data to send you email communications and updates | Legitimate Interest |
Processing Your personal data for market research | Legitimate Interest |
*You expressly authorize and consent to the collection, processing, and sharing of Your child’s Personal Data by setting up and by registering their devices with the Circle Services and/or creating their profile with Us under Your account.
If you are a resident of any EU member country, you may also exercise your rights under the GDPR by submitting your request at https://preferences.aura.com/privacy. For other inquiries, you can contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO). Circle has appointed Bird & Bird DPO Services SRL as a DPO, and may be reached:
- by using the following email: DPO.Aura@twobirds.com
- by mail at the following address: Bird & Bird DPO Services SRL, Avenue Louise 235 b 1, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
INFORMATION FOR CERTAIN U.S. STATE RESIDENTS
In addition to the rights granted above, if You are a resident of a U.S. state with certain privacy laws, including those of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and Utah, You have the right to opt out of the “sale” of Your personal information or “sharing” or “processing” of your personal information for targeted advertising purposes, as defined by relevant state laws. Some state laws broadly define “sale” such that it may include allowing third parties to receive certain information, e.g. cookies, to deliver personalized advertising on our services. Circle does not ‘sell’ your personal information, however, some advertising cookies placed on our Site may be considered a sale and we may share your name, email address and other contact information with our affiliates, which may include Aura and Pango to better market our collective products and services to you. You may choose to opt-out of these cookies by following the company-specific links in Our Cookie Policy, by visiting http://optout.aboutads.info to exercise an industry-wide opt-out, or by rejecting or deleting cookies through your browser settings.
CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
Although the Circle Services are designed to support families with children of all ages, the administration, configuration, and management of the Circle Services are intended for use by persons over the age of 16. Circle does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 16 when creating or administering our Services.
Our Services are expressly designed for parents to monitor the Internet and mobile activity of their children. As a result, certain personal information related to children’s devices may be accessible by the parent-administrators of the Services, as well as Circle in our administration of the Services. This data includes Navigation Information, which are the websites visited or apps used, as well as the times and days allocated to such uses. In some jurisdictions, this information may be deemed ‘personal’ and subject to local laws. Circle does not use Navigation Information for any commercial purpose other than to provide the Services.
Some versions of the MyCircle application (“MyCircle”) provide a secure platform for family members to send messages to one another via the Circle Services. Where MyCircle messages include personal information of children under the age of 16, prior consent of the parent or legal guardian of any such children is required. Therefore, when the MyCircle messaging feature is activated by a User, the User shall verify the MyCircle Users under the age of 16, and shall provide consent for Circle’s personal information collection practices for children under the age of 16. Failure to provide the necessary and required consent shall be a material breach of this Agreement, and grounds for termination of this Policy and Your use of Circle Services.
If You become aware that the Services or data associated with the Services is being used in a manner that may be a violation of our End User License Agreement or our Terms of Service, please let Us know by contacting Us at legalnotices@aura.com so Circle can take appropriate action. We strongly encourage the parent or guardian of any child under the age of 16 to actively guide any interactions with and/or use of the Circle Services.
CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
We may revise this policy from time to time. Review it occasionally so that you keep up-to-date on our most current practices. We will put the ‘Last Updated’ date at the top of each policy.
CONTACT US
250 Northern Avenue, 3rd Floor
Boston, MA 02210
To exercise your Data Privacy Rights , please submit your request at https://preferences.aura.com/privacy or dial 1 (844) 914-2991.