Privacy Policy

Here at Biome.io (“Biome.io”, “we” or “us” and, where the context so requires, “Biome.io” also meaning the website www.biome.io and references to “our site” and “our website” are references to www.biome.io), we take your privacy seriously. We’re committed to protecting the privacy of any personal data you give us, and we will comply with all relevant data protection legislation.

For the purposes of relevant data protection legislation, Biome.io is the data controller of personal data we hold and process about you. See the “Talk to us” section at the end of this Privacy Policy for details of how to contact us.

We have a philosophy here about the way we use your data you share with us and the way that we communicate with you. If you hear from us, we will always aim to be respectful, relevant and appropriate. If at any time you don’t feel we’ve lived up to our philosophy, please let us know straight away by getting in touch with us through the Contact Us page of Biome.io or by contacting us using the details set out in the “Talk to us” section below.

Please take the time to read this Privacy Policy as it is important for you to understand how we collect and use your data when you use Biome.io. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and store the personal data you provide to us. ‘Personal data’ is data that relates to you and that identifies or can be used to identify you – this might be your name, email address, or other digital identifiers relating to you, such as cookies, IP addresses or logs.

This Privacy Policy may change from time to time and, if it does, the most up-to-date version will always be available on www.biome.io.

We are proud to give you access to Biome.io and, in return, we may collect, use and share your personal data. We will only use your personal data for our purposes in a manner permitted by relevant data protection legislation, which may include:

• where necessary to provide the website and its features available and in order to give you the best user experience;
• where we are under a contractual or legal obligation to do so;
• for our legitimate interests; or
• where you have explicitly consented (for example, by actively signing up to receive our newsletter).

By “legitimate interests”, we mean our interests in managing the www.biome.io website and our relationship with you. We will make sure that we take into account any potential impact that such use may have on you. Our legitimate interests will not automatically override your interests and we won’t use your information if we feel that your interests override ours (unless, of course, you provide your consent, or we have a contractual or legal obligation to use your information in that way). If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us using the details set out in the “Talk to us” section below.

Cookie Policy

We use cookies to improve your experience on our site, Biome.io, and to recommend content that may be of interest to you. You can find out more below about what cookies are, the cookies we use and how to switch them off.

You can indicate your acceptance to our use of cookies in accordance with this policy by clicking “Submit Buttons” in the appropriate places on the Biome.io website. However, please note that if you do not click “Submit Buttons” but continue to browse the site, you will be deemed to have accepted our use of cookies (and what we use them for) in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a text file containing small amounts of information which is downloaded to your device when you access a website. The text file is then sent back to our server each time your browser requests a page from the server. This enables us to operate the site more effectively and load the site so that it reflects your personal preferences, based on your previous browsing on Biome.io as well as keywords we may be able to gather from URLs of other webpages from which you accessed Biome.io. Cookies can also allow us to do various other things, as explained below.

What cookies do we use?

When you visit Biome.io, the following types of cookies may be downloaded to your device:

Analytical and Performance Cookies

We may use analytics service providers for website traffic analysis and reporting. Analytics service providers generate statistical and other information about the use of Biome.io by using cookies. They allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors and to see how often visitors return to our site, how long they stay and how visitors move around our site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our site works, for example, it helps users to find what they are looking for easily. The information generated relating to the site may be used to create reports about the use of the site and the analytics service provider will store this information.

Advertising and Targeting Cookies

These cookies record your visit to Biome.io, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed to other sites. We will use this information to try and make our site (and other sites) that you visit more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with others, such as other Biome entities and carefully selected third parties, for this purpose.

We work with technology partners to support our website and to provide you with relevant information about the products and services of other Biome entities both on the Biome.io website and on affiliated sites or sites within the advertising networks we work with. We may use cookies on our site to help us to place relevant Biome entity advertising on third party websites when you visit those sites. If you are not happy for us to do this, please see the section of this policy titled “How do I turn cookies off?” below.

Functionality Cookies

We may use functional cookies that allow us to remember choices you have made on the site so as to provide you with a more enhanced user experience by delivering content specific to your interests.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These are cookies that are required for the administration and operation of our site. Some cookies that we use are necessary for our site to function properly and to enable you to move around the site and use its features.

Third Party Cookies

At Biome Analytics, we try to make it as easy as possible to share content and to see what content is popular on those networks. We add buttons to allow people to easily follow Biome and also to share to those networks. When we include these social ‘plugins’, it gives those sites the flexibility to use their own cookies. They can’t read any cookies we set from Biome.io, and we can’t read any cookies they set, but it lets them do the same kind of traffic measuring that we do on the rest of Biome.io (and it also lets them know whether you’re logged into their site). For example, if you’re logged in to LinkedIn or Twitter and want to make a comment, you can do that straight away without having to log in again – we never know whether you’re logged in or not, as you communicate directly with the sites individually through their plugins on our site.

Other sites and services (including, for example, advertising networks, providers of external services like web traffic analysis services and content recommendation engines) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies and we use these to try and improve your experience on Biome.io.

As at September 2019, we use the following third party cookies:

• Act-On – Email distribution
• Act-On – Social Sharing tools
• Google Analytics – Web Analytics
• Google Doubleclick – Biome Advertising Performance
• Google Tag Manager – Tag Manger
• Twitter – Advertising Targeting
• YouTube.com – Video Player
• Linked-In – Advertising Targeting

Further information on the general use and function of the third party cookies listed above can be found in a common internet search.

How do I turn cookies off?

If you do not wish us to install cookies or you don’t agree with how we use these cookies, you can change the settings on your internet browser to reject them. For more information please consult the “Help” section of your browser or visit  www.aboutcookies.org,   www.allaboutcookies.org  or  http://optout.aboutads.info/#/. Please note that if you do set your browser to reject cookies, you may not be able to use all of the features on our site.

What information do we collect if you sign up for our newsletter?

If you want to sign up to receive our newsletter, we will collect personal data from you as is necessary for the newsletter service, namely your email address, name and what you are interested in hearing more about. We aim to send our newsletter on a monthly basis.

Will we use your information for marketing?

Once you have given your consent to marketing, we may display offers, promotions, products or services on the site which we think will interest you based upon the information we collect from your cookies. You may withdraw your consent to direct marketing at any time by writing to [email protected] with the subject line ‘Withdraw consent request from direct marketing’.

How else will we use your information?

We may also use your information (including personal data) for the following purposes:

• to help us make the website and other related content available to you (please see the “Will we share your information with anyone else?” section below for more information);
• to make the website more relevant for you and our other visitors. This includes sometimes requesting personal data from you to help us run and develop our website and associated functions;
• to send you our newsletter if you have signed up to receive it;
• to carry out occasional surveys to analyze our user base — ultimately, we want to ensure that Biome.io provides everything that you — our audience — is looking for;
• to comply with the law; or
• for HIPAA privacy and security related questions, please contact Polly Washabaugh at [email protected],  
• as we feel is necessary to prevent illegal activity or to protect our interests.

How long do we keep hold of the information?

There are certain reasons that we have to keep hold of some of your information (including personal data). Naturally, we keep your information while you are registered with us so that we are able to provide the service to you, but we also keep it after you’ve left us, though only for as long as we need it. How long we keep it depends very much on the type of information we are holding and the purpose for which we need it (as well as complying with our legal obligations).

You can request that we delete your personal data at any time.

Will we share your information with anyone else?

We may share your information only if:

• you specifically request this, such as when you submit information to enquire about jobs or submit a job application through www.biome.io;
• we are required to do so to comply with a contractual obligation or legal requirement or with the directions of the courts or other authorities;
• we feel it is reasonably necessary to prevent illegal activity or to protect our interests;
• we feel that other Biome entities’ products and services may interest you; or
• it helps our trusted third-party service providers to provide and improve our service to you or to carry out surveys and user analysis to understand your needs and preferences. We will also share your information with Act-On, who securely host emails and act as a supplier to distribute our newsletter. We contractually require these service providers to keep your personal data safe and secure. These trusted third parties would only be permitted to use your personal data for the purposes we specify.

As of September 1^st, 2019, we don’t share any info with third parties that is not anonymized. However, if we do in the future, we will list them in this Privacy Policy and we will notify you of this change to our privacy terms.

We may share some broader statistics and customer profiling information with third parties and other Biome entities – but we’ll keep it anonymous, so you won’t be identifiable from that data.

We will never rent or sell our user’s details to any other organization or individual.

What if you post information on our site?

This site contains an opportunity for users to comment (“User Content”) on content displayed on the site. This information is in the public domain, so it may be accessed by any person using the web in any part of the world and can be found using independent search engines. So, if you choose to post information to the interactive parts of our site, we have to state that you do so at your own risk. This is the case whether the User Content is uploaded directly onto www.biome.io or through a connected site.

This means your User Content:

• won’t have its usage and circulation as described in the sections of this policy above entitled ‘Will we use your information for marketing?’, ‘How else will we use your information?’ and ‘Will we share your information with anyone else?’;
• won’t be protected as described in the section of this Privacy Policy below headed ‘Will we be transferring any personal data outside the US?’; and
• won’t be held securely as described in the section of this Privacy Policy below headed ‘Keeping your information safe’.

We are obliged by our legal eagles to state that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, neither Biome.io nor any other Biome entity will be liable to you or to any third party for any loss or damage resulting from any User Content posted on www.biome.io.

Please read our Terms and Conditions for more information about posting User Content. If you register on our site, you’ll need to comply with our Terms and Conditions.

If you have any concerns about User Content appearing on this site, please contact us using the Contact Us page on www.biome.io.

How will we make sure our site is secure?

We follow strict security procedures to manage how your personal data is stored, used, who sees it and to help stop any unauthorized person getting hold of it. All personal data you register with Biome.io will be located behind a firewall. We take security extremely seriously but as no system is 100% secure, we can’t completely guarantee the protection of your personal data, any more than any other organization can. So, we can’t accept any liability for the loss, theft or misuse of the personal data which you’ve registered on our website if there is a security breach.

Will we transfer any personal data outside the US?

Countries outside the United States may have a lower standard of protection for personal data than that required by US data protection laws. The information we collect from you will not be transferred to, or stored, outside the US but may be processed by people operating outside the US who work for us or one of our suppliers. If we need to transfer your data to a company based outside the US (e.g. if our hosting company is based in another country), we’ll take steps to make sure your personal data is handled in line with US law. If you would like any more details on this, please get in contact with us (using the details set out in the “Talk to us” section below).

What are my rights?

You have the right to stop using the website at any time. Please note that, in these circumstances, we may still keep your data for the reasons set out in the “How long do we keep hold of information?” section.

You also have the following rights when it comes to our handling of your personal data:

• Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the personal data we have about you and to request supporting information explaining how the personal data is used. Please note that sometimes we may ask you to provide proof of identity before we show you your personal data – so we can prevent unauthorized access.
• Right of rectification – you have the right to request that we rectify inaccurate personal data about you that we have.
• Right of erasure – you have the right to request that we erase all personal data about you that we have (please note that we may be able to reject or restrict the request in some circumstances, depending on the information we hold and our lawful reason to keep it).
• Right to restrict processing – in some situations, you have the right to request that we do not use the personal data you have provided (e.g. if you believe it to be inaccurate).
• Right to object, including to direct marketing – you have the right to object to certain processing by us of your personal data (unless we have overriding compelling grounds to continue processing) and the right to object to direct marketing by us.
• Right to data portability – you may have the right to request that we provide you with certain information that you have provided to us in electronic format or to provide that information to a third party.

Please get in touch with us at the address below if you would like to exercise any of these rights (including having access to your data):

Biome Analytics
c/o Biome Management
1160 Battery Street East #100
San Francisco, CA 94111
United States

Email: [email protected]

What about personal data relating to minors?

Protecting the online privacy of children is especially important to us. If you are under 18 years old, please do not provide us with your name, contact details or any other information about yourself. To find out more, please read our Terms and Conditions.

Are you protected by this Privacy Policy outside www.biome.io?

www.biome.io contains links to other websites. Obviously, we don’t have any control over those websites, and we cannot take any responsibility for any information you give them. Other sites have different privacy and security policies and terms and conditions, so we advise you to read these before using them.

Talk to us

If you have any queries, comments or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy, just get in touch. You can contact us: (i) through the Contact Us section of www.biome.io; or (ii) using the details set out in the “What are my rights?” section above.