Welcome to the Zealous Privacy Policy (“Policy”)!
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Zealous respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This Policy explains how we collect, store, protect, and share your information, and with whom we share it. We suggest you read this in conjunction with our Terms and Conditions of Use (“Terms”). All defined terms used in this Policy shall have the same meaning ascribed to them in the Terms, unless expressly otherwise provided for.​Whilst you’re enjoying the Zealous mobile application (“App”), our website ‘getzealous.com’ (“Website”), or using our digital products and services (such as our competitions or surveys) (together, referred to in this Policy as our “Sites”), We collect some information about you. In addition, you may choose to use the Sites to share information with other users, including your connections and contacts (together, the “Users”). We may also need to share your information on some occasions, so please read through this Policy carefully.​It is important that you read this Policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This Policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to overwrite them. 
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We reserve the right to revise this Policy at any time. If we change the Policy, we will provide notice by posting the new Policy here along with its effective date. This version was last updated on February 28th, 2024. 
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It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. 

Zealous is operated by Zealous - FZE, a company located in Technohub, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. When we mention “we”, “us” or “our” in this Policy, we are referring to Zealous.
To contact us for questions or complaints, please email hello@getzealous.com.

The Sites may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our Sites, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit. 
We may keep track of how you interact with links available on the Sites including third-party services by redirecting clicks or through other means. We may share aggregate click statistics such as how many times a particular link was clicked on with third parties for user research purposes. 

Although we want as many people as possible to enjoy our product, you have to be at least 18 years old to use the App - sorry kids, we know Zealous is cool, but you’ll have to come back when you’re old enough!​Zealous does not knowingly collect any information about or market to children, minors, or anyone below the age of 18. If you are below 18 years old, we request that you do not submit information to us. If we become aware that a child, minor, or anyone under the age of 18 has registered with us and provided us with personal information, we will take steps to terminate that person’s registration.

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
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We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:​
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‍Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, title, date of birth, and gender.
‍Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address, and telephone numbers.
‍Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type, and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access the Site. 
‍Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases or subscriptions activated by you, your interests, goals, preferences, feedback, and survey responses. Usage Data includes information about how you use our Sites, products, and services. 
‍Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third-parties and your communication preferences.​

We also collect, use, and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Site feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.​

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.​

‍If you fail to provide personal data. Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:​
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Direct Interactions ​
You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email, or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:​
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apply for our product;
create an account on our App;
import information or link your accounts from other platforms on our App;
subscribe to our service or publications; 
request marketing to be sent to you;
enter a competition, promotion, or survey;
orgive us feedback or contact us. ​

We’ve further outlined this in the sections below.

When you download the App and create an account (“Account”), we may collect certain information (“Registration Information”) about you, such as:
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Name;
Email address;
Cell number;
Location;
Professional or employment-related information;
Contact Lists and other information about your existing professional connections on other platforms (this can be from LinkedIn where your connections are imported locally and encrypted end-to-end); and
Login information for third-party accounts that you connect to your Zealous Account (this could include, for example, your LinkedIn, Google or Outlook accounts). For more information about this, refer to the section titled ‘Using third-party details to sign in to Zealous’ below.
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Once you register, you will be able to review and change this information at any time through the Zealous App. It is your responsibility to ensure that your account details are kept up to date.
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The information we collect helps to enhance the App and verify our Users (sales robots are not welcome!). Registration Information such as your name and occupation may be visible to other Users who view your profile page.

We recommend and encourage you (and all our members) to think carefully about the information you disclose about yourself. Please be sure to accurately represent yourself, including your experience and intentions on your profile at all times.​

When you post information about yourself or use the messaging function to communicate with other Users, the amount of personal information you share is at your own risk. Please see the section titled ‘Service Providers’ below for more information on who can access what you post on Zealous.

For safety and security and to ensure you have the best possible user experience, we require Users to verify their accounts and might ask for your phone number and, in some instances, we might also ask that you carry out photo verification (we want to make sure you are not a robot! And we also want to avoid fake Zealous  accounts being created which can be used for malicious activities and cybercrime – they threaten the Zealous network and spoil things for everyone). This verification might be required by us for the prevention of fraud. You can also verify your photo on a voluntary basis (to add the blue ‘verified’ badge to your profile).​

If you choose to verify your profile photo, we will scan each photo you submit. The scan may include the use of facial recognition technology so that we can compare the photo you submit to your profile photo, to help ensure that you are effectively whom you say you are. We do not add verification photos to your profile. We retain the scans so that we can verify you in the future and for our record-keeping purposes until the earliest of (i) us no longer needing them for such purposes, or (ii) three years after your last interaction with us, whichever occurs first. After the applicable retention period expires, we take commercially reasonable steps to permanently and securely delete the photo scans from our systems.

If you decide to purchase any of our subscription services, we will process your payment information and retain this securely for the prevention of fraud and for audit/tax purposes.​

Zealous uses automated decisions to prevent fraudulent payment transactions from being processed as part of its anti-fraud procedures. In order to do this, our systems check payment transactions for behavior that indicates breaches of our Terms and Conditions of Use. If a transaction meets certain criteria that demonstrate that the Terms and Conditions of Use are likely to have been breached and the transaction is likely to be fraudulent, the relevant transaction may automatically be blocked. When a transaction is blocked, the user will be notified that their transaction cannot be processed and affected Users can contact Zealous to contest the decision.

Zealous aims to get you from connect to meeting as seamlessly as possible. You can enjoy our hassle-free meeting scheduling experience by integrating your calendar(s) either during App sign-up or through your account settings. Our calendar integration only checks the duration and free/busy status of the events in your calendar so that we can customize our suggested meeting time slots to when you are available. We do not store meeting information from your integrated calendar(s) that is unrelated to Zealous meetings - this includes who you are meeting with, their email address, the meeting title, or any other details about the unrelated events.

We review the content of messages sent in the App to identify topics, sentiments, and trends across our Users. We will take steps to remove personally identifying information from such messages, prior to reviewing them. We will not share the content of User messages or information we derive from them with any third-party.

If you have given Zealous access to your location in your device settings, when you use your mobile phone, we will collect information about WiFi access points as well as other location information about your longitude and latitude and may save your device’s coordinates to offer certain features to you. This information helps us identify your physical location which allows us to personalize the App and make it easier for you to interact with other Users, by enabling the general locality information to be displayed to Users seeing your profile and showing you the profiles of other Users who are near to you.
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Other Users will not have access to your exact location at any point in time throughout the use of the Zealous App or Sites. 
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‍​If you have given Zealous access to your location, but wish to turn this off, you can do so by the following methods:​
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1. iPhone app — settings, privacy & security, location services, Zealous
2. Android — settings, location, Zealous, permissions, location

To enrich the functionality of our App and to provide opportunities to utilize your existing professional network, you have the option to import contacts from LinkedIn. Our app processes personal data such as Contact List and Image information to enhance your personalized experience. This data will not be disseminated within the broader App community without explicit user consent. We are dedicated to protecting your personal data with stringent security protocols and will only share it with third parties as mandated by law or as specified in our detailed policy. Should you have any questions or wish to manage your data, please reach out to us at hello@getzealous.com.

We may collect information about your device when you use the App including the unique device identifier, device model, and operating system, for a number of purposes, as set out in this Policy. In addition, if you permit us to do so, the App may access your device’s address book solely in order to add someone to your contacts or refer a contact through the App.

When you sign in to our App using your LinkedIn, Google or Outlook account, you give permission for your name, email address and profile picture to be shared with Zealous. This email address will be linked to your Zealous account and will be used to retrieve your Zealous account.

From time to time, we run surveys for research purposes and we may contact you to find out if you would like to take part. We may also contact you to find out if you would like to provide feedback, a testimonial or take part in marketing campaigns (for example, if you let us know that you have found a valuable connection on the App, we may contact you to ask if you would be happy to be featured in advertising efforts). Such surveys and marketing campaigns are optional and more information will be provided at the point of contact. If you do not wish to be contacted to take part in a survey or marketing campaign, please contact us via email at hello@getzealous.com.

If you contact our Customer Support team via email at hello@getzealous.com, we will receive your email address, and may track your IP address, as well as the information you send to us to help resolve your query. We will keep records of our communications with you, including any complaints that we receive from you about other Users (and from other Users about you) for 6 years after the deletion or deactivation of your account.

When you visit our Sites or when you use our App, we may automatically collect personal or technical data from you such as information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns. A cookie is a small file that can be placed on your device or browser that allows us to recognize and remember you.

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:​

where we need to perform the contract,
we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third-party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

​Our main goal is to ensure your experience on Zealous is enjoyable and seamless. In order to deliver an enjoyable experience to you, we may use your Registration Information and other information to:​

offer you our services and features;
facilitate meeting scheduling;
contact you with information about the Sites (e.g., updates and new features);identify trends in how our Users use and interact with the App/Sites;
personalize the App/Sites and the content we deliver to you;
help you better utilize your existing professional connections (e.g., by allowing you to import your existing contacts from LinkedIn and engage with them more efficiently)
conduct research and analytics about how you use and interact with the App/Sites;
resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems and enforce our Terms & Conditions of Use;
investigate fraud, protect our legal rights, and enforce our Terms & Conditions of Use.
send you information about the promotions and offers we have available - if you’ve signed up for our communications or otherwise told us it’s OK (you can withdraw from marketing at any time via Settings in the App or by using the opt-out mechanisms and links provided in each message); and
protect our Users and third-parties from harm.

We use the information collected, including Contact Lists and Image data, to personalize and enhance your experience within our App. This includes facilitating referrals or collaboration suggestions, offering personalized assistance, allowing you to search for opportunities within your existing network, and improving App functionalities. The data enables us to tailor our services to meet your professional needs and preferences. We commit to using your information responsibly and solely for the purposes of providing and improving our services.

We may use your information to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services, and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing). You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased goods or services from us and you have not opted-out of receiving that marketing.

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. 
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We partner with providers of marketing services (such as Meta for example) (‘Marketing Services Providers’) to help us market and advertise our App and services on third-party websites and applications and measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. For example:
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to exclude you from advertising campaigns aimed at finding new users, if you already have a Zealous account;
to show Zealous adverts to users who have visited the Zealous App/Sites but haven’t yet created an account;
to create an audience for our advertisements of other potential users who have similar characteristics to you based on the information the Marketing Service Providers holds about you (also known as a Lookalike Audience); or
to include you in a ‘custom audience’ that will receive Zealous advertising content (a custom audience is essentially a list of people who we think are most likely to be interested in a particular advertisement).
We share a limited amount of your personal data with these Marketing Services Providers, such as:

​the advertising identifier associated with your device (this is a random number assigned by your mobile device manufacturer for example Apple or Google to your device) to help advertisers (including the manufacturer) know when an ad has been viewed or clicked in an app, and when an ad causes a ‘conversion’ (for example, downloading the app advertised to you)
your estimated location (based on your IP address)
age and gender
data about your visit to our Sites or App and action taken on those (for example if you downloaded our App or created an account with our App)
a hashed* version of your email address (to create ‘custom audiences’).
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*Hashing is a way of encrypting information by turning it into a combination of random numbers and letters - this code cannot be traced back to the email address. When hashed email addresses are sent to a Marketing Service Provider, they’re then matched against the Provider’s own existing list of their own users’ hashed information and our ads are served to those of our users who have successfully been matched with the Provider’s. Matched and unmatched hashes are then deleted by the Provider.In some cases, these third-parties will also use the data that they collect for their own purposes, for example, they may aggregate your data with other data they hold and use this to inform advertising-related services provided to other clients.

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third-party for marketing purposes. ​

You can ask us or third-parties to stop sending you marketing messages by contacting us at any time. Where you opt-out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product or service purchase, or other transactions.

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our Sites may become inaccessible or not function properly.

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law. 

If you use the App to find potential members of Zealous to connect with, you can populate your profile with certain information (like your experience and goals). Our legal justifications for processing the information you provide during the signup process are listed below:
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The processing of your data is necessary in order to perform our contract with you and deliver certain services and features you’ve requested. For example, in order to offer you certain features, we need to process your location and goals data to show you members of Zealous that are relevant to you.
We also rely on legitimate interests as a lawful basis to collect and process personal data. It is in our legitimate interests to facilitate networking opportunities in the Zealous app.
When you upload and choose to share sensitive information (such as sexuality, beliefs, and political leanings), you are explicitly consenting to sharing that information with other members of Zealous.

We may use your activity, experience, and goals information to recommend relevant events and content.

We use a combination of automated systems and a team of moderators to monitor and review accounts (including photos and any other information uploaded onto user profiles) and messages for content that indicates breaches of our Terms and Conditions of Use. If an account or message meets certain criteria that demonstrate that the Terms and Conditions of Use are likely to have been breached, the relevant account will be subject to a warning and the user’s access restricted and/or blocked. Affected Users can contact Zealous to contest the decision.​

If you post anything that is inconsistent with our Terms and Conditions of Use, we reserve the right to terminate or restrict access to your Account.

We may share your data and information with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in each case:​

‍Service Providers – We engage certain trusted third-parties to perform functions and provide services to us. We may share your Registration Information or personal data with these third-parties, but only for the purposes of performing these functions and providing such services. More information about this is available directly below.
This could potentially include all data.

​Moderators – To monitor activity on the App and approve content.
Name and user registration details, profile information, content of messages and photographs.
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Payment Processing and Telecommunications Companies – To facilitate payments for our subscription services.
Cardholder name, cardholder address, card number, payment amount, transaction date/time.​

‍Law and Harm – As we mentioned in the Terms & Conditions of Use, we think it is very important that all Users behave whilst using the App. We will cooperate as requested by law or any competent legal or judicial authority.​
This could include any personal data that Zealous holds about you, depending on the nature of the request or the issue that we are dealing with.​

‍Marketing Services Providers – To help us serve marketing and advertising on third-party websites and applications and measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. More information on this is available below
Advertising identifier associated with your device (Device ID), estimated location (based on your IP address), age, gender and data about your visit to our Sites or App and action taken on those (for example if you downloaded our App or created an account with our App)​

‍Aggregated Information – We may share aggregated information with third-parties that includes your personal data (but which doesn’t identify you directly) together with other information including log data for industry analysis and demographic profiling.​

‍Zealous does not sell your data.

We engage certain trusted third-parties to perform functions and provide services to us (“Service Providers”). For example, to provide our services to Users, we typically use the following suppliers:​

‍Billing services – to allow customers to purchase paid features of our App (for example, Stripe)
‍Authentication services – to allow customers to authenticate their account
‍Social media providers – to allow customers to create/connect their Zealous account with their account(s) on such platforms (for example LinkedIn, Twitter or Medium)
‍Product improvement and market research – we use third-party platforms and agencies to carry out customer surveys and market research to improve our products and services
‍IT services – some of the third-party software providers used in the operation of our business may process Users’ personal data (for example, if a User contacts us via social media with a support inquiry, their inquiry is processed by our community management software provider Khoros)​

We carry out due diligence on all Service Providers we engage to ensure they have adequate data protection and information security measures in place and only provide them with the personal data necessary to the service they are providing. Measures are taken to ensure that the data shared is non-attributable to the greatest extent possible and our suppliers are also subject to extensive obligations under our contractual arrangements, including strict data retention limits.​

We think our Users are awesome, and we want you to share how awesome you are with the world, so we have built certain features to enable this. Our App is designed to make it easier for you to connect with other Users and to interact with them.​

When using the Zealous App, you should assume that anything you post or submit on the App may be publicly viewable and accessible, both by Users and non-users of the App. We want our Users to be careful about posting information that may eventually be made public.​

Your Zealous profile and other information you make available via the App, including certain information added to your profile through third-party accounts (such as linkedIn or Google – see section 7 of this Privacy Policy for more information about this) may be viewed and shared by Users with individuals who may or may not be users of the App. For example, a User may invite his or her contacts to the App for the purpose of connecting you to them for a meeting via the App referral feature.  

​If you log in to or access the App through your Google account or another third-party account on a device which you share with others, remember to log out of the App and the relevant third-party account when you leave the device in order to prevent other users from accessing your Zealous account.

Here at Zealous, we use reasonable security measures to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information such as secured servers using firewalls. 
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We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third-parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. ​

Unfortunately, no website or Internet transmission is ever completely 100% secure and even we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss or other breaches will never occur, but here are some handy tips to help keep your data secure:

​Please make sure you log out of your Account after use as you never know who may stumble onto your Account!
Please don’t share the password you use to access your Zealous Account with anyone else!
Change your password periodically.​

We cannot guarantee the security of your personal data while it is being transmitted to our Sites and any transmission is at your own risk.

We keep your personal information only as long as we need it for the legal basis relied upon (as set out in section 5) and as permitted by applicable law. 
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​When you delete your Account, or it is deactivated by us, we make sure it is no longer viewable in the App. For up to 28 days after the occurrence of such an event, it is still possible to restore your Account if it was accidentally deleted or wrongfully deactivated. After 28 days, we begin the process of deleting your personal information from our systems, unless:
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we are required to keep it to comply with applicable law (for instance, if you make purchases within the App, some personal data may be kept for tax and accounting purposes);
we are required to keep it to evidence our compliance with applicable law (for example, if an account is blocked, we keep some account information and a record of the behavior that led to the block - this information is retained for evidential purposes in case of queries or legal claims concerning the block);
there is an outstanding issue, claim, or dispute requiring us to keep the relevant information until it is resolved; or
the information must be kept for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud prevention and enhancing Users’ safety and security (for example, information may need to be kept preventing a user who was banned for unsafe behavior or security incidents from opening a new account).
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Disclaimer: Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your Account, copies of that information may still be viewable and/or accessed to the extent such information has been previously shared with others or copied or stored by others. We cannot control this, nor do we accept any liability for this. If you have given third-party applications or websites access to your personal information, they may retain such information to the extent permitted under their terms of service or privacy policies.
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In some cases, you can ask us to delete your data (check section 8 below for further information). In some other circumstances, we may anonymize your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case, we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Privacy laws applicable in your country may give you the following rights:​

Right to be informed: what personal data an organization is processing and why (we provide this information to you in this Privacy Policy).
Right of access: you can request a copy of your data. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge you a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances. 
Right of rectification: if the data held is inaccurate, you have the right to have it corrected.
Right to erasure: you have the right to have your data deleted in certain circumstances.
Right to restrict processing: in limited circumstances, you have the right to request that processing is stopped but the data retained.
Right to data portability: you can request a copy of certain data in a machine-readable form that can be transferred to another provider.
Right to object: in certain circumstances (including where data is processed on the basis of legitimate interests or for the purposes of marketing) you may object to that processing.
Rights related to automated decision-making including profiling: there are several rights in this area where processing carried out on a solely automated basis results in a decision that has legal or significant effects for the individual. In these circumstances, your rights include the right to ensure that there is human intervention in the decision-making process.
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The particular rights which are applicable to you (which might include other rights not listed above) may vary depending on your country. You should make yourself aware of the rights you have under applicable privacy laws in your country.
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If you want to exercise any of your rights listed above please email us at hello@getzealous.com. For your protection and the protection of all of our Users, we may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity before we can answer the above requests. This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up your response. 
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If you have a concern about how we have processed your request or your personal data, you should contact us in first instance via the contact details listed above.
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We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally, it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

As Zealous evolves, we may revise this Policy from time to time. The most current version of the Policy will govern our use of your information. If we make a change to this Policy that, in our sole discretion, is material, we will notify you, for example, via an email to the email associated with your Account or by posting a notice within Zealous.
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Thanks for reading, we hope we addressed your concerns!

This Privacy Policy was last updated on: February 28th, 2024.