1. Accepting These Terms
This document and the other documents that we reference below make up our house rules, or what we officially call our Terms of Use (the “Terms” for short).
The Terms are a legally binding contract between you and Kinky Heroes. Going forward, we’ll just refer to Kinky Heroes as “KH”.
By agreeing to the Terms, you agree to resolve all disputes through binding individual arbitration, which means that you waive any right to have those disputes decided by a judge or jury, and that you waive your right to participate in class actions, class arbitrations, or representative actions.
This contract sets out your rights and responsibilities when you use KinkyHeroes.com, so please read it carefully. By using any of our Services (even just browsing one of our websites), you’re agreeing to the Terms. If you don’t agree with the Terms, you may not use our Services. You with us? Great, read on!
2. Your Privacy
We know your personal information is important to you, so it’s important to us. Our Privacy Policy details how your information is used when you use our services. By using our services, you're also agreeing that we can process your information in the ways set out in the Privacy Policy, so please read it here.
Both Kinky Heroes and sellers process members’ personal information (for example, buyer name, email address, and shipping address) and are therefore considered separate and independent data controllers of buyers’ personal information under EU law. That means that each party is responsible for the personal information it processes in providing the services. For example, if a seller accidentally discloses a buyer’s name and email address when fulfilling another buyer’s order, the seller, not Kinky Heroes, will be responsible for that unauthorized disclosure.
If, however, Kinky Heroes and sellers are found to be joint data controllers of buyers’ personal information, and if Kinky Heroes is sued, fined, or otherwise incurs expenses because of something that you did as a joint data controller of buyer personal information, you agree to indemnify Kinky Heroes for the expenses it occurs in connection with your processing of buyer personal information.
3. Your Account with Kinky Heroes
You’ll need to create an account with Kinky Heroes to use some of our services. Here are a few rules about accounts with Kinky Heroes:
A. You must be 18 years or older to use our services. Individuals under 18 years are not permitted to use Kinky Heroes. You are responsible for any and all account activity conducted by a minor on your account.
B. Be honest with us. Provide accurate information about yourself. It’s prohibited to use false information or impersonate another person or company through your account.
C. Choose an appropriate name. If you decide to not have your full name serve as the name associated with your account, you may not use language that is offensive, vulgar, infringes someone’s intellectual property rights, or otherwise violates the Terms.
D. You're responsible for your account. You’re solely responsible for any activity on your account. If you’re sharing an account with other people, then the person whose financial information is on the account will ultimately be responsible for all activity. If you’re registering as a business entity, you personally guarantee that you have the authority to agree to the Terms on behalf of the business. Also, your accounts are not transferable.
E. Protect your password. As we mentioned above, you’re solely responsible for any activity on your account, so it’s important to keep your account password secure.
F. Let's be clear about our relationship. These Terms don't create any agency, partnership, joint venture, employment, or franchisee relationship between you and Kinky Heroes.
4. Your Content
Content that you post using our services is your content (so let’s refer to it as “Your Content”). We don’t make any claim to it, which includes anything you post using our services (like shop names, profile pictures, listing photos, listing descriptions, reviews, comments, videos, usernames, etc.).
A. Responsibility for Your Content. You understand that you are solely responsible for Your Content. You represent that you have all necessary rights to Your Content and that you’re not infringing or violating any third party’s rights by posting it.
B. Permission to Use Your Content. By posting Your Content through our services, you grant Kinky Heroes a license to use it. We don’t claim any ownership to Your Content, but we have your permission to use it to help Kinky Heroes function and grow. That way, we won’t infringe any rights you have in Your Content and we can help promote your stuff. For example, you acknowledge and agree Kinky Heroes may share your listings to social media.
C. Rights You Grant Kinky Heroes. (Here’s the legalese version of the last section). By posting Your Content, you grant Kinky Heroes a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, sub-licensable, perpetual license to use, display, edit, modify, reproduce, distribute, store, and prepare derivative works of Your Content. This allows us to provide the services and to promote Kinky Heroes, your Kinky Heroes shop, or the services in general, in any formats and through any channels, including across any Kinky Heroes services, our partners, or third-party website or advertising medium. You agree not to assert any moral rights or rights of publicity against us for using Your Content. You also recognize our legitimate interest in using it, in accordance with the scope of this license, to the extent Your Content contains any personal information.
That sounds like a lot, but it’s necessary for us to keep Kinky Heroes going. Consider these examples: if you upload a photo of a listing on your Kinky Heroes shop, we have permission to display it to buyers, and we can resize it so it looks good to a buyer using our mobile app; if you post a description in English, we can translate it into French so a buyer in Paris can learn the story behind your item; and if you post a beautiful photo of your latest handmade necklace, we can feature it on our homepage, in one of our blogs or even on a billboard to help promote your business and Kinky Heroes.
D. Reporting Unauthorized Content. Kinky Heroes has great respect for intellectual property rights and is committed to following appropriate legal procedures to remove infringing content from the services. If content that you own or have rights to has been posted to the services without your permission and you want it removed, please contact us at legal@kinkyheroes.com. If Your Content is alleged to infringe another person’s intellectual property, we will take appropriate action, such as disabling it if we receive proper notice or terminating your account if you are found to be a repeat infringer. We’ll notify you if any of that happens.
E. Inappropriate, False, or Misleading Content. This should be common sense, but there are certain types of content we don’t want posted on Kinky Heroes Services (for legal reasons or otherwise). You agree that you will not post any content that is abusive, threatening, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, or otherwise offensive. You also agree not to post any content that is false and misleading or uses the services in a manner that is fraudulent or deceptive.
5. Your Use of Our Services
License to Use Our Services. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable license to use our services—subject to the Terms and the following restrictions in particular:
A. Don’t Use Our Services to Break the Law. You agree that you will not violate any laws in connection with your use of the Services. This includes any local, state, federal, and international laws that may apply to you. For example, it’s your responsibility to obtain any permits or licenses that your shop requires; you may not sell anything that violates any laws; and you may not engage in fraud (including false claims or infringement notices), theft, anti-competitive conduct, threatening conduct, or any other unlawful acts or crimes against Kinky Heroes, another Kinky Heroes user, or a third party.
B. Pay Your Bills. You are responsible for paying all fees that you owe to Kinky Heroes. Except as set forth below, you are also solely responsible for collecting and/or paying any applicable taxes for any purchases or sales you make through our services.
C. Don’t Steal Our Stuff. You agree not to crawl, scrape, or spider any page of the services or to reverse engineer or attempt to obtain the source code of the services.
D. Don’t Try to Harm Our Systems. You agree not to interfere with or try to disrupt our services, for example by distributing a virus or other harmful computer code.
E. Follow Our Trademark Policy. The name "Kinky Heroes" and the other Kinky Heroes marks, phrases, logos, and designs that we use in connection with our Services, are trademarks, service marks, or trade dress of Kinky Heroes in the US.
F. Share Your Ideas. We love your suggestions and ideas! They can help us improve your experience and our Services. Any unsolicited ideas or other materials you submit to Kinky Heroes (not including Your Content or items you sell through our Services) are considered non-confidential and non-proprietary to you. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, sub-licensable, perpetual license to use and publish those ideas and materials for any purpose, without compensation to you.
G. Talk to Us Online. From time to time, Kinky Heroes will provide you with certain legal information in writing. By using our Services, you’re agreeing that we can send you information electronically (such as by email) instead of mailing you paper copies (it’s better for the environment), and that your electronic agreement is the same as your signature on paper.
6. Termination
Termination By You. We'd hate to see you go, but you may terminate your account with Kinky Heroes at any time from your account settings. Terminating your account will not affect the availability of some of Your Content that you posted through the services prior to termination. Oh, and you’ll still have to pay any outstanding bills.
Termination By Kinky Heroes. We may terminate or suspend your account (and any related accounts) and your access to the services at any time, for any reason, and without advance notice. If we do so, it’s important to understand that you don’t have a contractual or legal right to continue to use our services, for example, to sell or buy on our website. Kinky Heroes may refuse service to anyone, at any time, for any reason.
If you or Kinky Heroes terminate your account, you may lose any information associated with your account, including Your Content.
We May Discontinue the Services. Kinky Heroes reserves the right to change, suspend, or discontinue any of the Services at any time, for any reason. We will not be liable to you for the effect that any changes to the services may have on you, including your income or your ability to generate revenue through the Services.
Survival. The Terms will remain in effect even after your access to the service is terminated, or your use of the Service ends.
7. Warranties and Limitation of Liability (or the Things You Can’t Sue Us For)
Items You Purchase.
You understand that Kinky Heroes does not manufacture, store, or inspect any of the items sold through our service. We provide the venue; the items in our marketplaces are produced, listed, and sold directly by independent sellers, so Kinky Heroes cannot and does not make any warranties about their quality, safety, or even their legality. Any legal claim related to an item you purchase must be brought directly against the seller of the item. You release Kinky Heroes from any claims related to items sold through our services, including for defective items, misrepresentations by sellers, or items that caused physical injury (like product liability claims).
Content You Access.
You may come across materials that you find offensive or inappropriate while using our services. We make no representations concerning any content posted by users through the Services. Kinky Heroes is not responsible for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality, or decency of content posted by users that you accessed through the services. You release us from all liability relating to that content.
People You Interact With.
You can use the Services to interact with other individuals, either online or in person. However, you understand that we do not screen users of our services, and you release us from all liability relating to your interactions with other users. Please be careful and exercise caution and good judgment in all interactions with others, especially if you are meeting someone in person.
Third-Party Services. Our service may contain links to third-party websites or services that we don’t own or control (for example, links to Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest). When you access these third-party services, you do so at your own risk. The third parties may require you to accept their own terms of use. Kinky Heroes is not a party to those agreements; they are solely between you and the third party.
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WARRANTIES. KINKY HEROES IS DEDICATED TO MAKING OUR SERVICES THE BEST THEY CAN BE, BUT WE’RE NOT PERFECT AND SOMETIMES THINGS CAN GO WRONG. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT OUR SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT ANY KIND OF WARRANTY (EXPRESS OR IMPLIED). WE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMING ANY WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AS WELL AS ANY WARRANTIES IMPLIED BY A COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, COURSE OF DEALING, OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT: (I) THE SERVICES WILL BE SECURE OR AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION; (II) ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED; (III) THE SERVICES WILL BE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL MATERIALS; OR (IV) THE RESULTS OF USING THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS. YOU USE THE SERVICES SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. LIABILITY LIMITS. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER KINKY HEROES, NOR OUR EMPLOYEES OR DIRECTORS SHALL BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR REVENUES, OR FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS. IN NO EVENT SHALL KINKY HEROES’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED ($100) US DOLLARS (USD) OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID KINKY HEROES IN THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. |
8. Indemnification (or What Happens If You Get Us Sued)
We hope this never happens, but if Kinky Heroes gets sued because of something that you did, you agree to defend and indemnify us. That means you’ll defend Kinky Heroes (including any of our employees) and hold us harmless from any legal claim or demand (including reasonable attorney’s fees) that arises from your actions, your use (or misuse) of our Services, your breach of the Terms, or your account’s infringement of someone else’s rights.
We reserve the right to handle our legal defense however we see fit, even if you are indemnifying us, in which case you agree to cooperate with us so we can execute our strategy.
9. Disputes with Other Users
If you find yourself in a dispute with another user of Kinky Heroes services, we encourage you to contact the other party and try to resolve the dispute amicably.
Case System. Buyers and sellers who are unable to resolve a dispute related to a transaction on our website may participate in our case system. Kinky Heroes will attempt to help you resolve disputes in good faith and based solely on our interpretation of our policies, in our sole discretion; we will not make judgments regarding legal issues or claims. Kinky Heroes has no obligation to resolve any disputes.
Release of Kinky Heroes. You release Kinky Heroes from any claims, demands, and damages arising out of disputes with other users or parties.
10. Disputes with Kinky Heroes
If you’re upset with us, let us know, and hopefully we can resolve your issue. But if we can’t, then these rules will govern any legal dispute involving our Services:
A. Governing Law.
The Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Pennsylvania, without regard to its conflict of laws rules, and the laws of the United States of America. These laws will apply no matter where in the world you live, but if you live outside of the United States, you may be entitled to the protection of the mandatory consumer protection provisions of your local consumer protection law.
B. Arbitration.
You and Kinky Heroes agree that any dispute or claim arising from or relating to the Terms shall be finally settled by final and binding arbitration, using the English language, administered by the American Arbitration Association (the “AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules (the "AAA Rules") then in effect (those rules are deemed to be incorporated by reference into this section, and as of the date of these Terms, unless otherwise required by law. Arbitration, including threshold questions of arbitrability of the dispute, will be handled by a sole arbitrator in accordance with those rules. Judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court that has jurisdiction. Any arbitration under the Terms will take place on an individual basis — class arbitrations and class actions are not permitted. You understand that by agreeing to the Terms, you and Kinky Heroes are each waiving the right to trial by jury or to participate in a class action or class arbitration. Notwithstanding the foregoing, each party shall have the right to bring an action in a court of proper jurisdiction for injunctive or other equitable or conservatory relief, pending a final decision by the arbitrator. You may instead assert your claim in “small claims” court, but only if your claim qualifies, your claim remains in such court, and your claim remains on an individual, non-representative, and non-class basis.
C. Costs of Arbitration.
Payment for any and all reasonable AAA filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees will be in accordance with the Consumer Arbitration Rules. If the value of your claim does not exceed $10,000 USD, Kinky Heroes will pay for the reasonable filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees associated with the arbitration, unless the arbitrator finds that either the substance of your claim or the relief sought was frivolous or brought for an improper purpose.
D. Forum.
We’re based in Pennsylvania, so any legal action against Kinky Heroes related to our services must be filed and take place in Pennsylvania. For all actions under the AAA Rules, the proceedings may be filed where your residence is, or in Pennsylvania, and any in-person hearings will be conducted at a location which is reasonably convenient to both parties taking into account their ability to travel and other pertinent circumstances. For any actions not subject to arbitration, you and Kinky Heroes agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of a state or federal court located in Pennsylvania if your contract is with Kinky Heroes.
E. Government Exception.
If you are a government agent or entity in the United States using the Services in your official capacity, and you are legally unable to agree to the clauses in this section, then those clauses do not apply to you. In that case, the Terms and any action related to the Terms will be governed by the laws of the United States (without reference to conflict of laws) and, in the absence of federal law and to the extent permitted under federal law, the laws of the State of Pennsylvania.
F. Modifications.
If we make any changes to this “Disputes with Kinky Heroes” section after the date you last accepted the Terms, those changes will not apply to any claims filed in a legal proceeding against Kinky Heroes prior to the date the changes became effective. Kinky Heroes will notify you of substantive changes to the “Disputes with Kinky Heroes” section at least 30 days prior to the date the change will become effective. If you do not agree to the modified terms, you may send Kinky Heroes a written notification (including email) or close your account within those 30 days. By rejecting a modified term or permanently closing your account, you agree to arbitrate any disputes between you and Kinky Heroes in accordance with the provisions of this “Disputes with Kinky Heroes” section as of the date you last accepted the Terms, including any changes made prior to your rejection. If you reopen your closed account or create a new account, you agree to be bound by the current version of the Terms.
11. Changes to the Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. If we believe that the changes are material, we’ll definitely let you know by posting the changes through the services and/or sending you an email or message about the changes. That way you can decide whether you want to continue using the services. Changes will be effective upon the posting of the changes unless otherwise specified. You are responsible for reviewing and becoming familiar with any changes. Your use of the Services following the changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms.
12. Some Finer Legal Points
The Terms, including all of the policies that make up the Terms, supersede any other agreement between you and Kinky Heroes regarding the services. If any part of the Terms is found to be unenforceable, that part will be limited to the minimum extent necessary so that the Terms will otherwise remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any part of the Terms is not a waiver of our right to later enforce that or any other part of the Terms. We may assign any of our rights and obligations under the Terms.
14. Contact Information
If you have any questions about the Terms, please email us at legal@KinkyHeroes.com.
At Kinky Heroes, we care deeply about privacy. We believe in transparency, and we’re committed to being upfront about our privacy practices, including how we treat your personal information. We know you care about your privacy too, so we provide settings that allow you to choose how certain information is used by Kinky Heroes. This policy explains our privacy practices for Kinky Heroes.com (which we’ll refer to as the "Site" together with "we," "us," and "our"). We'll also refer to the Site as the "Services." This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties (including other members who sell using the Services) who may also collect or receive data in connection with your use of the Services.
1. Our Privacy Policy
We need to process your personal information to run our business and provide our users with the Services. By accepting our Terms of Use, you are confirming that you have read and understand this policy, including how and why we use your information. If you don’t want us to collect or process your personal information in the ways described in this policy, you shouldn’t use the Services.
Kinky Heroes’ Terms of Use require all sellers and buyers to be at least 18 years of age. You are responsible for any and all account activity conducted by a minor on your account.
By using the Services, you acknowledge that Kinky Heroes will use your information in the United States and any other country where Kinky Heroes operates. Please be aware that the privacy laws and standards in certain countries, including the rights of authorities to access your personal information, may differ from those that apply in the country in which you reside. We will transfer personal information only to those countries to which we are permitted by law to transfer personal information, and we will take steps to ensure that your personal information continues to enjoy appropriate protections.
2. Information Collected or Received
In the course of providing our Services, we collect or receive your personal information in a few different ways. Often, you choose what information to provide, but sometimes we require certain information for you to use and for us to provide you the Services.
Registration, Account Setup, Service Usage: In order to use the Services, you need to provide us with a valid email address, and for Services that require registration, a name associated with your account that you can choose to represent your identity on Kinky Heroes. You may review, change, or remove that name through your account settings. You need to provide this information to enable us to provide you with the Services. Depending on which services you choose to use, additional information, such as a shop name, billing and payment information (including billing contact name, address, telephone number, credit card information), a telephone number, and/or a physical postal address, may be necessary in order for us to provide a particular service. You are not required to provide us with this information to sign up, but we will need it to provide certain services. For example, we need a physical postal address if you are buying something on the Site for delivery. We may need to store credit card information (or arrange for it to be stored) and use it for both billing and payment purposes. Depending on your local jurisdiction, you can also choose to allow us to save your credit card information to facilitate the checkout process for future purchases. Kinky Heroes may contact individual shop owners confidentially to request more information about their shops or items listed through the Services, or to ensure compliance with our rules and applicable law. In order to use certain products or services on Kinky Heroes, you may be required to complete an application; information that you submit through the application process will not be displayed publicly and will only be used internally by Kinky Heroes, unless otherwise specified.
Profile: You may provide your name and other personal information (such as birthday, gender, location) in connection with your account and activity. You can edit or remove this information through your account settings.
The name associated with your account, which you may review and change in your account settings, is publicly displayed and connected to your Kinky Heroes activity. Other people may see the date you joined; reviews, and related photos for items you purchased or sold; your profile information; items you listed for sale; your shop pages and policies; sold item listings and the number of items sold; comments you post in our community spaces; and information you decide to share via social networks.
Automated Information: Kinky Heroes automatically receives and records information from your browser or your mobile device when you visit the Site, cookies, and data about which pages you visit and how you interact with those pages in order to allow us to operate and provide the Services. This information is stored in log files and is collected automatically. Kinky Heroes may also receive similar information (like, for example, IP addresses and actions taken on the device) provided by a connected Internet of Things device such as a voice-activated assistant or Smart TV. We may combine this information from your browser or your mobile device with other information that we or our partners collect about you, including across devices. This information is used to prevent fraud and to keep the Services secure, to analyze and understand how the Services work for members and visitors, and to provide advertising, including across your devices, and a more personalized experience for members and visitors.
We may also automatically collect device-specific information when you install, access, or use our Services. This information may include information such as the hardware model, operating system information, app version, app usage and debugging information, browser information, IP address, and device identifiers.
Location Information: We may collect information about your use of the Services for advertising, for analytics, to serve content, and to protect the Services. This may include your IP address, browser information (including referrers), device information (such as iOS IDFA, IDFV for limited non-advertising purposes, Android AAID, and, when enabled by you, location information provided by your device). You may choose to publish your location when you sell on Kinky Heroes. We may obtain location information you provide in your profile or your IP address. With your consent, we may also determine location by using other information from your device, such as precise location information from GPS or information about wireless networks or cell towers near your mobile device. We may use and store information about your location to provide features and to improve and customize the Services, for example, for Kinky Heroes’ internal analytics and performance monitoring; localization, regional requirements, and policies for the Services; for local content, search results, and recommendations; for shipping and mapping services; and (using non-precise location information) marketing. If you have consented to share your precise device location details but would no longer like to continue sharing that information with us, you may revoke your consent to the sharing of that information through the settings on your mobile device. Certain non-precise location services, such as for security and localized policies based on your IP address or submitted address, are critical for the site to function. We will only share your geolocation details with third parties (like our mapping, payments, or, to the extent applicable, advertising providers) in order to provide you with the Services.
Analytics Information: We use data analytics to ensure site functionality and improve the Services.
Information from Third Parties: Some members or visitors may choose to connect to Kinky Heroes or register an Kinky Heroes account using an external third-party application, such as Facebook. Kinky Heroes may receive information from those connected third-party applications. Connecting your Kinky Heroes account to third-party applications or services is optional. If you choose to connect your account to a third-party application, Kinky Heroes may receive information from that application. We may also collect public information in order to connect with you. We may use that information as part of providing the Services to you. You can also choose to share some of your activity on Kinky Heroes on certain social media networks which are connected to your Kinky Heroes account, and you can revoke your permission anytime in your account settings.
Non-Member Information: Kinky Heroes may receive or obtain information (for example, an email address or IP address) about a person who is not yet a registered Kinky Heroes member (a “non-member”) in connection with certain Kinky Heroes features, such as when a non-member chooses to subscribe to an Kinky Heroes newsletter, or when a member invites a non-member to visit the Site. Non-member information is used only for the purposes disclosed when it was submitted to Kinky Heroes, for purposes necessary to the functioning of Kinky Heroes' services or where Kinky Heroes has a legitimate interest, as disclosed in Section 7 below, or to facilitate action authorized by a member or the non-member.
3. Choice & Control
We know that members of our community value having control over their own information, so Kinky Heroes gives you the choice of providing, editing, or removing certain information, as well as choices about how we contact you. You may change or correct your Kinky Heroes account information through your account settings. You may also remove certain optional information that you no longer wish to be publicly visible through the Services, such as your name. You can also request the deletion of the personal information in your account.
Depending on your location, you may also have certain additional rights with respect to your information, such as: (i) data access and portability (including the right to obtain a copy of your personal data you provided to Kinky Heroes, via your settings); (ii) data correction (including the ability to update your personal data, in many cases via settings); (iii) data deletion (including the right to have Kinky Heroes delete your personal information, except information we are required to retain by law, regulation, or to protect the safety, security, and integrity of Kinky Heroes, by contacting us); and/or, (iv) withdrawal of consent or objection to processing (including, in limited circumstances, the right to ask Kinky Heroes to stop processing your personal data, with some exceptions, by contacting us).
You may also control the receipt of certain types of communications from Kinky Heroes in your account settings. Kinky Heroes may send you messages about the Services or your activity. Some of these messages are required, service-related messages for members (such as transactional messages or legal notices). Other messages are not required, such as newsletters. You can control which optional messages you choose to receive by changing your account settings, and you can learn more in the “Messages from Kinky Heroes” section of this policy.
If you no longer wish to use the Services or receive service-related messages (except for legally required notices), then you may close your account.
Many changes that you make to your account settings are updated immediately, but some may take a few days to take effect, particularly those that impact email or marketing preferences. Some major requests, such as changes to billing information or account data deletion, may require verification of identity before they can be processed.
4. Messages from Kinky Heroes
On occasion, Kinky Heroes may need to contact you. Primarily, these messages are delivered by email or Kinky Heroes Messages for a variety of reasons, including marketing, transactions, and service update purposes. If you no longer wish to receive push notifications, you can disable them at device level. You can opt out of receiving marketing communications via email or Messages in your account settings or by following the unsubscribe link in any marketing email you receive. To ensure you properly receive notifications, we will need to collect certain information about your device, such as operating system and user identification information. Every account is required to keep a valid email address on file to receive messages. Kinky Heroes may also contact you by telephone to provide member support or for transaction-related purposes if you request that we call you
Some messages from Kinky Heroes are service-related and necessary for members. You agree that Kinky Heroes can send you non-marketing emails, Kinky Heroes Messages, or messages, such as those related to transactions, your account, security, or product changes. Examples of service-related messages include an email address confirmation/welcome email when you register your account, notification of an order, service availability, modification of key features or functions, relaying Messages with buyers, and correspondence with Kinky Heroes’ Support team.
When you register for an account or subscribe to a newsletter, you receive notice of and agree (in some jurisdictions and situations, by an additional unambiguous consent) to receive marketing emails and messages from us. You can unsubscribe at any time from marketing emails or messages through the opt-out link included in marketing emails or messages. Members may also control which marketing emails or messages they receive from Kinky Heroes through their account settings. Please note that some changes to your account settings may take a few days to take effect.
5. Community
Kinky Heroes is a marketplace and a community. We offer several features that allow members to connect and communicate in public or semi-public spaces, such as FB groups and IG pages which are a part of the Kinky Heroes Community space. You don't have to use these features, but if you do, please use common sense and good judgment when posting in these community spaces or sharing your personal information with others through the Services. Be aware that any personal information that you choose to submit there can be read, collected, or used by others, or could be used to send unsolicited messages to you. We may engage certain third parties to assist in providing community services to you and, in the context of that relationship, we need to share some of your information with such third parties in order to provide that service. This may include, for example, information from your Kinky Heroes account that is publicly available, your account’s status, your forum posts and Team memberships, your Kinky Heroes username and/or shop name, the display name you’ve optionally chosen to share publicly in your Kinky Heroes account, avatar image, the date that you registered on Kinky Heroes, as well as your language and regional settings on the site. Kinky Heroes generally does not remove content from community spaces, and your posts may remain public after your account is closed, although your name will no longer be displayed alongside the post. You are responsible for the personal information that you choose to post in community spaces through the Services. You can set your privacy preferences and download your data in your Community Settings, and close or delete your Community account by submitting a request to Kinky Heroes.
Another member may follow your public activity on the Site to receive updates, such as when you add an item to your public Favorites. You may choose to make certain activities private through your account settings. You have the option to block any member with whom you do not wish to share your updates.
6. Information Uses, Sharing, & Disclosure
We respect your privacy. Kinky Heroes will not disclose your name, email address, or other personal information to third parties without your consent, except as specified in this policy.
You may control your privacy settings through the opt-out buttons in your account settings privacy tab. Please note that some changes to your privacy settings may take a few days to take effect. We or our sellers may advertise our Services or our sellers’ products through a variety of different mediums and rely on your consent to do so off-site.
When you access or use the Services, we collect, use, share, and otherwise process your personal information as described in this policy. We rely on a number of legal bases to use your information in these ways. These legal bases include where:
· Necessary to perform the contractual obligations in our Terms of Use and in order to provide the Services to you;
· You have consented to the processing, which you can revoke at any time;
· Necessary to comply with a legal obligation, a court order, or to exercise or defend any impending or asserted legal claims;
· Necessary for the purposes of our or a third party’s legitimate interests, such as those of visitors, members, or partners;
· You have expressly made the information public;
· Necessary in the public interest; and
· Occasionally necessary to protect your vital interests or those of others.
Note that we principally rely on consent (i) to send marketing messages, (ii) for third-party data sharing related to advertising, and, to the extent applicable, (iii) for the use of location data for advertising purposes.
We or our sellers may advertise our Services or our sellers’ products through a variety of different mediums and rely on your consent to do so off-site. As part of this, we may work with advertising partners such as Facebook, Google, and other partners. Where we process your information on the basis of legitimate interests, we do so as follows:
Providing and Improving our Services: We may use your information to improve and customize our Services, including sharing of your information for such purposes, and we do so as it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests of improving our Services for our users. This is also necessary to enable us to pursue our legitimate interests in understanding how our Services are being used, and to explore and unlock ways to develop and grow our business. It is also necessary to allow us to pursue our legitimate interests in improving our Services, efficiency, interest in Services for users, and obtaining insights into usage patterns of our Services. As a core part of our Services, we have a legitimate interest in customizing your on-site experience to help you search for and discover relevant items and recommended purchases, including using this information to help sellers find the best ways to market and sell their products on Kinky Heroes.
Keeping our Services Safe and Secure: We may also use your information for safety and security purposes, including sharing of your information for such purposes, and we do so because it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests in ensuring the security of our Services. This includes enhancing protection of our community against spam, harassment, intellectual property infringement, crime, and security risks of all kind.
We use your information to provide and improve the Services and our products, for billing and payments, for identification and authentication, and for general research and aggregate reporting. For example, in accordance with our existing case resolution process, we may use information you provide to resolve disputes with Kinky Heroes or other members.
Buying and Selling: As part of the buying and selling process, Kinky Heroes will facilitate the sharing of information between the two members involved in the transaction, such as the other Kinky Heroes member's shipping address and payment status. This may also involve us sharing your information with some of our third party partners such as our shipping and payment partners to enable us to provide the service to you. Such partners will process your personal information in accordance with their own privacy policies. These partners, not Kinky Heroes, are responsible for the protection of personal information under their control. By making a sale or a purchase on Kinky Heroes, you are directing us to share your information in this way. Since this is an important part of the Services we provide, we need to do this in order to perform our obligations under our Terms of Use. We expect you to respect the privacy of the member whose information you have received. As described in Kinky Heroes's Terms of Use, you have a limited license to use that information only for Kinky Heroes-related communications or for Kinky Heroes-facilitated transactions. Kinky Heroes has not granted a license to you to use the information for unauthorized transactions or sending unsolicited commercial messages in violation of any applicable laws, including any consent requirements of the jurisdiction of the recipient. You may only add a member to your email or physical mailing list or otherwise use or store a member’s personal information in accordance with applicable laws, including any consent requirements that apply in that member's jurisdiction. We may learn the sorts of products that you’re interested in from your browsing and purchasing behavior on (and off) the Site or Apps and suggest potential purchases as a result. As a core part of our Services, we have a legitimate interest in customizing your on-site experience to help you search for and discover relevant items and recommended purchases, including using this information to help sellers find the best ways to market and sell their products on Kinky Heroes.
Legal and Safety: Kinky Heroes may also retain, preserve, or release your personal information to a third party in the following limited circumstances: in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet legitimate national security or law enforcement requirements; to protect, establish, or exercise our legal rights or defend against impending or asserted legal claims, including to collect a debt, or a material violation of our policies; to comply with a subpoena, court order, legal process, or other legal requirement; or when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with the law, prevent imminent physical harm or financial loss, or investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, threats to our rights or property, or violations of Kinky Heroes Terms of Use. In these cases, our use of your information may be necessary for the purposes of our or a third party’s legitimate interest in keeping our Services secure, preventing harm or crime, enforcing or defending legal rights, or preventing damage. Such use may also be necessary to comply with a legal obligation, a court order, or to exercise or defend legal claims. It may also be necessary in the public interest (such as to prevent crime) or to protect vital interests (in rare cases where we may need to share information to prevent loss of life or personal injury).
If Kinky Heroes receives a lawful, verified request for a member’s records or information in one of the limited circumstances described in the previous paragraph, Kinky Heroes may disclose personal information, which may include, but may not be limited to, a member’s name, address, phone number, email address, and company name.
Affiliated Businesses: Kinky Heroes is affiliated with a variety of businesses and works closely with them for a variety of purposes, including assisting us to perform and improve the Services. These businesses may sell items or services to you through the Services or, with your consent, offer promotions (including email promotions) to you. Kinky Heroes may also provide services or sell products jointly with affiliated businesses, including providing information to such partners to allow them to more effectively market to you. When an affiliated business assists in facilitating your transaction, we may need to share information related to the transaction with that affiliated business in order to facilitate your transaction, and this forms part of the Services we provide in accordance with our Terms of Use. We rely on consent (which can be withdrawn at any time) to send marketing messages and for third-party sharing relating to advertising. As part of this, we may work with advertising partners such as Facebook or Google, and we may use analytics aggregated from usage information including, for example, search keywords, favorites, browsing history, and purchase history. In addition to consent as noted above, we also rely on our legitimate interest to send you marketing messages and for Kinky Heroes advertising programs.
Service Providers: Kinky Heroes also needs to engage third-party companies and individuals (such as research companies, and analytics and security providers) to help us operate, provide, and market the Services. These third parties have only limited access to your information, may use your information only to perform these tasks on our behalf, and are obligated to Kinky Heroes not to disclose or use your information for other purposes. Our engagement of service providers is often necessary for us to provide the Services to you, particularly where such companies play important roles like helping us keep our Service operating and secure. In some other cases, these service providers aren’t strictly necessary for us to provide the Services, but help us make it better, like by helping us conduct research into how we could better serve our users. In these latter cases, we have a legitimate interest in working with service providers to make our Services better.
Third Parties: Third-party plug-ins also may collect information about your use of the Site. For example, when you load a page on Kinky Heroes that has a social plug-in from a third-party site or service, such as a “Like” or “Send” button, you are also loading content from that third-party site. That site may request cookies directly from your browser. These interactions are subject to the privacy policy of the third-party site. In addition, certain cookies and other similar technologies on the Site are used by third parties for targeted online marketing and other purposes. These technologies allow a partner to recognize your computer or mobile device each time you use the Services. Please be aware that when you use third-party sites or services, their own terms and privacy policies will govern your use of those sites or services. Kinky Heroes chooses and manages these third-party technologies placed on its Sites and Apps. However, these are third-party technologies, and they are subject to that third party's privacy policy. We rely on your consent to drop and read these cookies when not technically necessary or when not required based on another purpose such as legitimate interest.This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties (such as other members who sell using the Services, certain third-party providers on whom we rely to provide certain services, or API users) that Kinky Heroes does not own or control or individuals that Kinky Heroes does not employ or manage, except as otherwise provided for in the Terms or as required by law. If you provide your information to such third parties in connection with your use of the Services, different practices may apply to the use or disclosure of the information that you provide to them. To the full extent applicable in your jurisdiction, Kinky Heroes is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of these sellers, API users, or other websites on the internet, even those linked to or from the Services. We encourage you to read the privacy policies and ask questions of third parties before you disclose your personal information to them. For the purposes of European law, these sellers, third party providers, and API users are independent controllers of data, which means that they are responsible for providing and complying with their own policies relating to any personal information they obtain in connection with the Services.
7. Retention
Kinky Heroes will retain your information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this policy, for as long as your account is active (i.e., for the lifetime of your Kinky Heroes member account), as described in this policy, or as needed to provide the Services to you. If you no longer want Kinky Heroes to use your information to provide the Services to you, you may close your account. Kinky Heroes will retain and use your information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your information to comply with applicable tax/revenue laws), resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and as otherwise described in this policy. In addition, Kinky Heroes sellers may also be required to retain and use your information in order to comply with their own legal obligations. Please note that closing your account may not free up your email address, username, or shop name (if any) for reuse on a new account. We also retain log files for internal analysis purposes. These log files are generally retained for a brief period of time, except in cases where they are used for site safety and security, to improve site functionality, or we are legally obligated to retain them for longer time periods.
8. Your Rights
You may benefit from a number of rights in relation to your information that we process. Some rights apply only in certain limited cases, depending on your location. If you would like to manage, change, limit, or delete your personal information, you can do so via your Kinky Heroes account settings or by contacting us. Upon request, Kinky Heroes will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your personal information. By visiting your account settings, you can access, correct, change, and delete certain personal information associated with your account. In certain cases where we process your information, you may also have a right to restrict or limit the ways in which we use your personal information. In certain circumstances, you also have the right to request the deletion of your personal information, and to obtain a copy of your personal information in an easily accessible format.
If we process your information based on our legitimate interests as explained above, or in the public interest, you can object to this processing in certain circumstances. In such cases, we will cease processing your information unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing or where it is needed for legal reasons. Where we use your personal data for direct marketing purposes, you can always object using the unsubscribe link in such communications or changing your account settings. Please note that some changes to your account settings may take a few days to take effect.
9. Your Responsibilities
If you sell using our Services, you may receive and determine what to do with certain personal information. Your privacy responsibilities, including when you act as an independent data controller (someone who decides what personal data to collect and the purpose you use the data for) are laid out in the Kinky Heroes Seller Policy and the Kinky Heroes’ Terms of Use.
10. Withdrawing Consent
You can choose to withdraw your consent to our processing of your information and your use of the Services at any time by permanently closing and deleting your account through the Privacy tab of your account settings, or by using specific features provided to enable you to withdraw consent, like an email unsubscribe link or your account privacy preferences. If your account does not have any open issues such as unpaid bills, unfulfilled orders, unresolved cases, or policy violations, you will receive an email with instructions to confirm your deletion request. This process may take up to approximately two weeks after which your account will be deleted to the extent permitted. Depending on which of our Services you've used (such as whether you've made purchases or sales on Kinky Heroes), we may be required to retain certain information for legal, regulatory, tax, security, or compliance reasons for a limited period of time, after which it will be deleted. This deletion is permanent, and your account cannot be reinstated.
11. Privacy Policy Changes
We may amend or update this policy from time to time. If we believe that the changes are material, we’ll let you know by doing one (or more) of the following: (i) posting the changes on or through the Services, (ii) sending you an email or message about the changes, or (iii) posting an update in the version notes on the Apps’ platform. We encourage you to check back regularly and review any updates.
12. Contact
If you have any questions:
Contact Kinky Heroes’s Support team: info@kinkyheroes.com