1. Hi there!
At Return we believe that protecting the privacy and security of your personal data is very important. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how and why we collect it, what we do with the information, and how you can manage, update, export, and delete it.
Your data controller is Timo Boyer Webdesign und -entwicklung. This Privacy Policy applies when you use one of our Services (as defined in our Terms of Service), contact our customer service, engage with us on social media, or otherwise interact with us.
It's important that you read this entire policy, but here's a summary to get you started:
We care about your privacy
We want to create a space in the internet that provides a valueable service that helps people. This includes respecting the privacy of each user.
We don't sell your data
We use the data you submit to us to provide and improve our services, not to sell it to others. We aim for full transparency on how we gather, use, and share your personal information.
We enable you to share only what's required
We have created Return in such a way that data is only requested from you once it is required. We also only keep it as long as is required.
We give you control
We aim to give you full control over which data is shared with us and others.
2. The information we collect
Our goal with Return is to provide a service to enable you to host or participate in giveaways. To do this we collect certain information from you. We only do this if we have a reason to do so so - for example, to provide our Services, to communicate with you, or to make our Services better.
We collect this information from three sources.
- Information you provide to us
- Information we collect automatically
- Information we access through the YouTube Data API
2.1. Information you provide to us
This section describes information we collect that you provide to us directly.
YouTube channel data
In Return you log into your account via YouTube. When creating your account we will store which YouTube channel to associate with your account. When logging in we will also ask you for permission to retrieve certain data about your YouTube account, you can find details about that in the Information we receive from other sources section.
Address data
When you have won a giveaway we need to know where you are so we can tell the host of the giveaway where to send the prize. We have taken extra care to only collect that information which is necessarry. If the prize is a virtual object we will only ask for your email address. Otherwise we will ask you for your physical address so the prize can be shipped to you.
Hosted giveaways
When you create a giveaway we will store the data contained in that giveaway so we can show it to you and other users. If you store a draft of a giveaway to publish it at a later point, we will also store that information.
Participations
When you join a giveaway we will store that data so we can include you as one of the potential winners. We will also store information about the prizes you've won.
Account information
This data is about the settings of your account. This can include data such as your timezone, social media accounts (to display on your Return profile), or your address data in case you want to be able to auto-fill it.
Purchase information
If you choose to buy paid services or donate to Return, you may need to submit a valid payment method and the corresponding billing information, including your full name and billing address. This information will be received and processed by our payment processors, such as Paypal or Stripe. We may also receive and store certain billing information, including the last four digits of the credit card number associated with the transaction.
Feedback and Support
If you communicate with us via a contact form, email or otherwise you may provide us with personal information. We will store a copy of our communications and your contact data so we can respond to your requests and ideas.
2.2. Information we collect automatically
This section explains data we collect automatically.
Device information
Like most online service providers, we collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, including the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information. We collect log information when you use our Services — for example, when you open the feed or create a giveaway.
Log information
We create logfiles to monitor the health of our system, understand issues, and protect the safety of our servers.
Usage information
We collect information about your usage of our Services. For example, we collect information about the actions that users perform while using our Services — in other words, who did what and when (e.g., [returnapp.io username] created “[title of giveaway]” at [time/date]). We use this information to, for example, provide our Services to you and get insights on how people use our Services so we can make our Services better.
Information from cookies & other technologies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and emails. Return uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help us identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for our Services. For more information about our use of cookies, including how you can control the use of cookies, please see the following section.
2.2.1. Cookies
Our Site uses both first and third party cookies. Cookies are small pieces of data, stored in text files, that are stored on your computer or other device when websites are loaded in a browser. They are widely used to “remember” you and your preferences, either for a single visit (through a “session cookie”) or for multiple repeat visits (using a “persistent cookie”). They ensure a consistent and efficient experience for visitors, and perform essential functions such as allowing users to register and remain logged in. Cookies may be set by the site that you are visiting (known as “first party cookies”), or by third parties, such as those who serve content or provide advertising or analytics services on the website (“third party cookies”).
We use cookies for a number of different purposes. Some cookies are necessary for technical reasons; some enable a personalized experience for users; and others are used to help us analyze and improve your experience and the services.
Many of the cookies we use are only set if you are a registered returnapp.io user (so you don’t have to log in every time, for example), while others are set whenever you visit one of our websites, irrespective of whether you have an account.
Visitors may wish to restrict the use of cookies or completely prevent them from being set. Most browsers provide for ways to control cookie behavior such as the length of time they are stored – either through built-in functionality or by utilizing third party plugins. If you disable cookies, please be aware that some of the features of our service may not function correctly.
To find out more on how to manage and delete cookies, visit aboutcookies.org.
For more details on your choices regarding use of your web browsing activity for interest-based
advertising you may visit the following sites:
- networkadvertising.org
- optout.aboutads.info
- youradchoices.com
- youronlinechoices.eu
On a mobile device, you may also be able to adjust your settings to limit tracking.
Some analytics services we use, which place their own cookies or web tags on your browser, offer their own opt out choices. For example, you can opt out of Google Analytics by installing Google’s opt-out browser add-on.
The following cookies are used by our services:
Strictly necessary
These cookies are required to make our services function. Without these cookies our services might not function properly.
Statistics
These cookies are used to by us or third-party providers to learn how you and others use our services. This allows us to better understand how users interact with our website and helps us improve.
External media
These cookies are placed by providers of external media when we embed their services on our website.
You can find a list of all cookies and update your cookie choices in the following configurator.
Cookies and services which are required to provide the basic functions of our website. Without them it will either not work properly or not work at all. They include ones that enable users to log into secure pages or our system to store technical information.
Cookies and services directly provided by our systems.
Provider: return GbR (Privacy Policy)
Sentry is an application monitoring and error tracking service which helps us maintain a healthy state of our systems. It reports detected issues and monitors the performance of our services.
Provider: Functional Software, Inc (Privacy Policy)
Statistical cookies and services help us to understand how visitors interact with our page by observing their use of our system. None of this information can be used to identify individual users. It is all aggregated and, therefore, anonymized.
Google Tag Manager is a tag management system, that allows us to easily react to events on the page. We use the Tag Manager to manage events used for statistical purposes.
Provider: Google LLC. (Privacy Policy)
Google Analytics is a web analytics tools which helps us visualize and understand our website traffic and user behaviour. We use statistics to better understand which features users like the most and which users might have trouble with.
Provider: Google LLC. (Privacy Policy)
Some content is hosted on other platforms and is blocked by default. If you users give their consent to external media, access to this content no longer requires manual confirmation.
YouTube is an online video sharing and social media platform. We use YouTube to display video content created by us and other YouTube creators. These cookies are set via embedded Youtube videos. They register anonymous statistical data, such as how often the video is viewed and what settings are used for playback. No sensitive data is collected unless you log in to your Google account. In that case, your choices are linked to your account, for example, when you click "Like" on a video.
Provider: Youtube, LLC (Privacy Policy)
2.3. Information we access through YouTube
To truthfully and securely display information about YouTube channels on our page, we automatically access and collect them through the YouTube Data API or via the YouTube webpage. The data we collect is broken down in the following section.
2.3.1. Information we access through public APIs
A part of the information we use on our page is publicly accessible via the YouTube Data API or the YouTube webpage. This data (such as channel title, avatar, banner) is publicly accessible via the regular YouTube pages and applications and is used on our page to truthfully represent YouTube creators and other users on our platform.
2.3.1.1. Channel
We access and store data about YouTube channels (model: youtube#channel) to reference them on our page. The channel data is collected through the public YouTube Data API or the YouTube webpage. Channel information is collected on demand, after a user profile is requested, a users synchronizes their subscriptions or on user registrations.
ID
We use the channel ID as a unique identifier of a channel.
We use this ID to identify users on a technical level. Additionally, we provide a public channel profile for each channel (e.g. returnapp.io/channel/profile/UCZwKHC0kNKF6Ob4krJwfyhQ).
Example: UCZwKHC0kNKF6Ob4krJwfyhQ
Title
The channel title is used everywhere where a channel is referenced.
Examples are:
Example: return
Handle
Similar to the channel title the handle is used to allow users to clearly identify channels wherever they are referenced.
Currently, it's used on the profile page as well as in the user profiles url (e.g. returnapp.io/channel/profile/@returnapp).
In the future we might reference it in additional places, which are currently only displaying the channel title.
Example: @returnapp
Description
We display the channel description on its corresponding profile page in the 'about' tab. This helps users to identify channels and allows them to access further information about a channel.
Example: Welcome to the YouTube channel of return
Avatar
Similar to the channel title the avatar is used to allow users to easily identify channels wherever they are referenced.
The avatar is displayed almost everywhere where the title is displayed as well. Additionally, it is displayed in the navigation to
help users to easily verify the account they are currently logged into.
Example: yt3.ggpht.com/GAIhr1j[...]
Banner
The channel banner is displayed on the users profile page. It is used to personalise the page, integrate the channels brand into it, and it is part of our effort to provide clarity about channels.
Example: yt3.ggpht.com/bceq-LQRhW[...]
Creation date
The creation date of the channel. We display this date on the profile in the 'about' tab.
But it's also used to determine if the channel fulfills the minimum account age to join giveaways (more at FAQ > Viewers > Participation).
Example: 2022-07-04 20:30:44
Is artist
Some YouTube channels are marked as Official Artist Channels (more info at artists.youtube). If a channel is marked as such, we display this on the users profile page (e.g. artist return profile).
Example: false
Subscription count
The subscription count is displayed on the profile page ('about' tab) to provide further information and help the user verify which account they are viewing.Example: 5.1M
Video count
The video count is displayed on the profile page ('about' tab) to provide further information and help the user verify which account they are viewing.Example: 421
View count
The view count is displayed on the profile page ('about' tab) to provide further information and help the user verify which account they are viewing.Example: 24.8M
2.3.2. Information we access with user granted YouTube Data API access
By signing up to our service you grant us read-only access to scopes of your YouTube account data. What data we collect is described in the following section.
2.3.2.1. Channel
Additionally to the data we access through public APIs about a users YouTube channels, we also access a subset of data through the granted account access.
ID
After you register to our service, we use your granted access to
request the YouTube channel ID connected to the account you have signed up with.
This is done to create your account and verify your ownership of the given YouTube account.
Example: UCZwKHC0kNKF6Ob4krJwfyhQ
2.3.2.2. Subscriptions
Some of the features we provide (e.g. subscription details, loyalty bonus, giveaway participations insights, ...) require access to our users YouTube subscriptions (model: youtube#subscription). If a user chooses to use one of these features, they have the option to synchronize their subscriptions at any time. After a user chooses to synchronizes their subscriptions we access some or all of them via the granted account access.
Subscribed channel ID
The ID of the channels a user has subscribed to. We use this to connect them and the subscribed channel.
We use this connection to ...
Example: UCkoAZbgSdkQHYgU697TwIEA
Creation date
The date at which the subscription was created.
We use this date to ...
Example: 2019-08-03 15:54:09
3. How and Why we use your information
We may collect and use your information for the following purposes:
To provide our Services
For example, to set up and maintain your account, create giveaways, track participations and prizes you've won, supply data for the shipping process, and provide customer service.
To ensure quality, maintain safety, and improve our Services
For example, by monitoring and analyzing how users interact with our Service so we can create new features that we think our users will enjoy or make our Services easier to use.
To protect our Services, our users, and the public
For example, by detecting security incidents; detecting and protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; fighting spam; complying with our legal obligations; and protecting the rights and property of Return and others, which may result in us, for example, terminating Services.
To fix problems with our Services
For example, by monitoring, debugging, repairing, and preventing issues.
To communicate with you
We use your information to respond to your questions about our products and services, and to investigate bugs or other issues.
3.1. Legal Bases for collecting and using information
A note here for those in the European Union about our legal grounds for processing information about you under EU data protection laws, which is that our use of your information is based on the grounds that:
(1) The use is necessary in order to fulfill our commitments to you under the applicable terms of service or other agreements with you or is necessary to administer your account — for example, in order to enable access to our website on your device; or
(2) The use is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation; or
(3) The use is necessary in order to protect your vital interests or those of another person; or
(4) We have a legitimate interest in using your information — for example, to provide and update our Services; to improve our Services so that we can offer you an even better user experience; to safeguard our Services; to communicate with you; to monitor and prevent any problems with our Services; and to personalize your experience; or
(5) You have given us your consent — for example before we place certain cookies on your device and access and analyze them later on, as described in the Cookies section.
4. How we share your information
This section explains how we share your data with others.
We do not sell our users’ data. We aren’t a data broker, we don’t sell your personal information to data brokers, and we don’t sell your information to other companies that want to spam you with marketing emails.
We share information about you in limited circumstances, and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy. These are spelled out below, as well as in the section called Ads and Analytics Services Provided by Others:
Giveaway hosts
If you win a prize we will ask you for your email or address data. This data will be shared with the host of the giveaway to enable shipping. If you have pre-filled your address when joining the giveaway, your address data will be automatically shared with the host if you win. Be aware that Return is not responsible or liable for the use or distribution of information you provide to the giveaway host. Please see the promotion rules, terms and privacy policy of each giveaway host for details on how they use your personal information.
Third-party vendors
We may share information about you with third-party vendors who need the information in order to provide their services to us, or to provide their services to you. This includes vendors that help us provide our Services to you (like cloud storage services that host our data and our services); and those that help us understand and enhance our Services (like analytics providers);
To comply with the law
We retain and use your information in connection with potential legal claims when necessary and for compliance, regulatory, and auditing purposes. For example, we retain information where we are required by law or if we are compelled to do so by a court order or regulatory body.
To protect rights, property, and others
We may disclose information about you when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Return, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
Business transfers
In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that Return goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information may continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy.
With your consent
We may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction. For example, we may share your information with third parties when you authorize us to do so.
Aggregated or de-identified information
We may share information that has been aggregated or de-identified, so that it can no longer reasonably be used to identify you. For instance, we may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our Services in order to describe our business to partners or the public.
Published support requests
If you send us a request for assistance (for example, via a support email or one of our other feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish that request in order to clarify or respond to your request, or to help us support other users.
4.1. Information shared publicly
As you might have guessed, information you choose to make public, is disclosed publicly.
This means information like giveaways you publish or social media accounts you want to display in your Return profile, and other content that you make public, are available to others. For example, the image you use for your giveaway will be displayed publicly for everyone to see. Public information may also be indexed by search engines or used by third parties.
Please keep all of this in mind when deciding what you would like to share publicly.
4.2. Compliance with the Google API Services User Data Policy
Return's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
5. How long we keep your information
We generally discard information about you when it’s no longer needed for the purposes for which we collect and use it — described in the section above on How and Why We Use your information — and we’re not legally required to keep it.
For example, personal data that is provided to a giveaway host to enable transfer of a prize will be deleted 3 months after the host has marked the prizes as sent. This waiting period is there to give the host a chance to communicate with the winner if the prize comes retour.
If your account is inactive for more than two years, we may delete it, and we may delete or anonymize any personal information associated with your account.
5.1. What happens if you delete your account?
When you request deletion of your account, it will be marked for deletion and permanently removed from our servers soon after. In the deletion process all your personal information and account data will be deleted. This also includes giveaways you have created, participations in giveaways, and prizes you've won. Any private YouTube information such as your subscriptions will also be deleted from our servers and the access token with which we were able to query the data will be revoked. The deleted content may remain on our backups and caches until purged.
If your account has been suspended for a Terms of Service violation, we will retain the information necessary to continue to enforce this suspension.
6. Security
While no online service is 100% secure, we work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so. We monitor our Services for potential vulnerabilities and attacks.
7. Choices
You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:
Limit the information that you provide
If you have an account with us, you can choose not to provide the optional account information. Please keep in mind that if you do not provide this information, certain features of our Services may not be accessible.
Revoke access to your YouTube data
You can choose to revoke our access to your YouTube data via your Google security settings page. Please keep in mind that if you do not provide this information, certain features of our Services may not be accessible.
Set your browser to reject cookies
You can usually set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies. You can do this before using Return’s websites, with the drawback that certain features of Return’s websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
Disable optional cookies
You can control which cookies you want to enable. By disabling certain cookies you can e.g. opt out of our analytics tools. Be aware that disabling cookies may cause certain features of Return’s websites to not function properly.
Close your account
While we’d be very sad to see you go, you can close your account if you no longer want to use our Services. Please keep in mind that we may continue to retain your information after closing your account, as described in How Long We Keep Information above — for example, when that information is reasonably needed to comply with (or demonstrate our compliance with) legal obligations such as law enforcement requests, or reasonably needed for our legitimate business interests.
8. Your rights
If you are located in certain parts of the world, including California and countries that fall under the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (aka the “GDPR”), you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, like the right to request access to or deletion of your data.
8.1. European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
If you are located in a country that falls under the scope of the GDPR, data protection laws give you certain rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:
- Request access to your personal data (Article 15 GDPR);
- Request correction of your personal data (Article 16 GDPR);
- Request deletion of your personal data (Article 17 GDPR);
- Restrict our processing of your personal data (Article 18 GDPR);
- Withdraw consent to process your data (Article 7 GDPR);
- Object to our data processing (Article 21 GDPR); and
- Request portability of your personal data (Article 20 GDPR).
You also have the right to make a complaint to a government supervisory authority.
8.2. California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) requires us to provide California residents with some additional information about the categories of personal information we collect and share, where we get that personal information, and how and why we use it.
The CCPA also requires us to provide a list of the “categories” of personal information we collect, as that term is defined in the law, so, here it is. In the last 12 months, we collected the following categories of personal information from California residents, depending on the Services used:
Identifiers
Information like your name, contact information, and device and online identifiers
Commercial information
Information like the prizes you've won
Internet or other electronic network activity information
Information such as your usage of our Services, like the actions you take as a user
Audio, electronic, visual or similar information
Information such as your YouTube profile picture
Professional or employment-related information
For example, your company information if you create a competition for your business, or information you provide in a job application
You can find more information about what we collect and sources of that information in the Information We Collect section above.
We collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in the How and Why We Use Information section. And we share this information with the categories of third parties described in the section about How we share your information.
If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the CCPA, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the right to:
- Request to know the categories of personal information we collect, the categories of business or commercial
purpose for collecting and using it, the categories of sources from which the information came,
the categories of third parties we share it with, and the specific pieces of information we collect about you;
- Request deletion of personal information we collect or maintain;
- Opt out of any sale of personal information; and
- Not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your rights under the CCPA.
8.3. Contacting us about these rights
You can usually access, correct, or delete your personal data using your account settings and tools that we offer, but if you aren’t able to or you’d like to contact us about one of the other rights, scroll down to "Contact Us” to find out how to reach us.
When you contact us about one of your rights under this section, we’ll need to verify that you are the right person before we disclose or delete anything. You can also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf by giving us written authorization. We may still require you to verify your identity with us.
9. Analytics Services provided by Others
Third parties may provide analytics services via our Services. These analytics providers may set tracking technologies (like cookies) to collect information about your use of our Services and across other websites and online services. These technologies allow these third parties to recognize your device to compile information about you or others who use your device. This information allows us and other companies to, among other things, analyze and track usage, and determine the popularity of certain content. Please note this Privacy Policy only covers the collection of information by Return and does not cover the collection of information by any third-party analytics providers.
9.1. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google Inc., Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA ("Google") who reports on user interactions on this website.
We use a process referred to as server-side tagging. When a user performs certain actions, an event will be fired. This event will initially be sent to Return's servers, processed and will then be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Any user-identifiers stored by Google Analytics will automatically be deleted from Google's servers after 14 months.
For further information please refer to Googles Analytics security and privacy principles: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.
You can prevent the processing of your data by opting out out of Google Analytics. You can do so by installing Google’s opt-out browser add-on.
10. Third-Party Software and Services
If you'd like to use third-party software or services, please keep in mind that interacting with them may mean providing information about yourself to those third parties. For example, some third-party services may request or require access to your data via a pixel or cookie. Please note that if you use the third-party service or grant access, your data will be handled in accordance with the third party’s privacy policy and practices. We don’t own or control these third parties, and they have their own rules about information collection, use, and sharing, which you should review before using the software or services.
11. Server location
Our servers are hosted in Germany. Your data is stored exclusively in a German data center, which is certified according to ISO 27001 and complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our hosting provider who receives data as a data processing contractor is also subject to contractual confidentiality obligations.
12. Protection of Children's Personally Identifiable Information
We do not intend to collect personal data from anyone under age 13 and will not knowingly collect, maintain, or disclose such information. We do not intentionally process any information, including personal data, from children or other individuals who are not legally able to use our Services. If you are under age 13, do not enter any personal data about yourself on our Services.
If you are a parent or legal guardian of a child under 13 and have noticed that your child has submitted his or her personal data to us without your permission or consent, we will make reasonable efforts to remove the information from our database, at your written request. To request the removal of your child's information, please send us an email at privacy@returnapp.io.
13. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the date at the top of this policy and, in some cases, we may provide additional notice (such as adding a statement to our website or providing you with a notification). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy regularly to stay informed about our information practices. Your further use of the Services after a change to our Privacy Policy will be subject to the updated policy.
14. Contact us
If you have a question about this Privacy Policy or how we process your information, you can contact us at privacy@returnapp.io.
15. Creative Commons Sharealike License and Thanks
This Privacy Policy is based on the policy from Automaticc and was adjusted to our use case. They have made their policy available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license, thanks a lot! To comply with the license and also to stay within the same spirit of sharing and helping each other, this privacy policy is made available under the same license. This means that you're free to copy, adapt, and repurpose it for your own use. Just make sure to revise them so that they fit your own use case and practices and give appropriate attribution.