Data Policy
We always collect as little information as possible and only to the extent that is necessary to the provision of better and more responsible journalism, and to the advance of Beehive’s mission: To rebuild trust in information. Additionally, the sales or sharing of your personally identifiable data is not in any shape or form part of our business.
I. What kinds of information do we collect?
Information you provide
- Information and content you provide. We collect the information you provide when you use our Service. This includes contact information such as your name and e-mail address, pictures you upload, where you live, when you were born, and your political views. We use the latter to make sure we provide a balanced and unbiased environment for our users on Beehive. We only use any information you provide in an aggregated manner and never linking it back to your personally identifiable information, always keeping your anonymity.
- Your usage. We may collect information about how you use our Service, such as the types of content that you view or engage with, the features you use, the actions you take and the time, frequency and duration of your activities (for example, what articles you read and how long you take to read them). Our systems automatically process usage data to analyse the overall context as well as the performance of Beehive and of the content we promote, always keeping your anonimity.
- We DO NOT collect your payment information, such as your credit or debit card number and other card information. We do however monitor whether you pay for your subscription in the terms you agree to, and whether you are an active user.
Information from and to partners
Beehive may choose to partner with Media Outlets, whose articles and other published content you may access through our Service, as well as other businesses and institutions (our “Partners”). As explained in Sections II and III, we may also share information we collect about you and others with our Partners, in an aggregated manner, so they understand what content people prefer to read and in what format, as well as how well they are performing, and can create better content for readers. We will never share information that personally identifies you (information such as your name, email address or anything that by itself could be used to contact you or identify who you are) unless you give us permission.
All information collected from you is confidential and only used for the purposes described here or otherwise authorised by you. Whenever possible, we will anonymise data upon use, to minimise the risk of any incidents.
II. How do we use this information?
Providing measurement, analytics and other services aimed at improving the quality of content
We use your information mainly to pursue our mission of improving the quality of published content and rebuilding trust in information. We use the information we have (including potentially your activity off our Services, such as the websites you visit through our platform) to help us and our Partners measure the success and distribution of their content and services, understand the types of people who enjoy their content and services, and how to create better content and services for their audience. We may for example tell them how many people have read their articles and how they have rated them, allowing them to infer how to publish better articles. We might also tell them how specific demographics interact with their content (for example, age or regional groups), but we will never sell or share your personally identifiable data. We believe this is closely linked to our goal of creating more accountability in the media industry.
Providing, personalising and improving our Service
We may use the information that we have to enhance our Service, including to personalise messages that we send you and to make suggestions for you (such as articles or content that you may be interested in or topics that you may want to follow). We may do that using, for example, your stated preferences and interests, as well as the ones based on the data that we collect and learn from you and others, how you use and interact with our Service, and your location. We may for example show you news related to the location you live in or send you an alert for relevant content in a topic of your interest, but we will not show you content which we believe you are more likely to agree with, or try to influence your opinion.
- Location-related information: We may use location-related informationto provide, personalise and improve our Service. Location-related information can be based on things such as the general information you provide, all the way to precise device location (if we decide to implement it and you allow us to collect it).
- Product research and development: We may use the information we have to develop, test and improve our Service, including by conducting surveys and research, and testing and troubleshooting new products and features.
- Advertising: Our business model is not based on advertising, but we may occasionally choose to use some of the information we have about you to select and show you ads, offers and other sponsored content. This can be third-party advertising, in which case it will be always flagged, or it could be our own advertising, for example by showing you a new type of membership or offer we believe you could be interested in. We will only ever personalise ads with information you choose to provide and your basic usage data. For example, we might choose not to show you an offer from a Media Outlet who only publishes local news in an area where you don’t live and / or have no interest in.
Promoting safety, integrity and security
We may use the information that we have to verify accounts and activity, combat harmful conduct, detect and prevent spam and other bad experiences, maintain the integrity of our Service, and promote safety and security on and off of Beehive. For example, we may use data that we have to investigate suspicious activity or violations of our terms or policies.
Communicating with you
We may use the information that we have to send you marketing communications, communicate with you about our Service and let you know about our terms and policies. We may use our platform, information we collect from you and information you provide, such as your e-mail address, to communicate with you. We also use your information to respond to you when you contact us.
Researching and innovating for social good
III. How is this information shared?
People and accounts that you share and communicate with
When you share any content from Beehive on other social media platforms, you directly or indirectly select an audience for the post. We may include the Beehive name, trademarks, as well as public information about your account with Beehive in that post (for example, your name or username in our platform). When you do that, you might be subject to the data policy, terms of use and other policies of the platforms you are sharing to. Depending on how you engage with Beehive (for example, by commenting on posts), that information may also be shared with other people in the platform.
New owner
Sharing with third-party Partners
Partners who use our analytics services
We may provide aggregated statistics and insights that help Partners understand how people are engaging with their content on and off Beehive. For example, a Media Outlet may receive information about the number of people or accounts who viewed, reacted to or shared their articles, as well as aggregate demographic and other information that helps them understand interactions with them or their content on and off Beehive. We may do so at no cost or at a cost we wish to charge, but you are not entitled to any sort or form of compensation.
Advertisers
We reserve the right to advertise in our platform, and may provide advertisers with reports about the kinds of people seeing their ads and how their ads are performing, but we will never share information that personally identifies you (information such as your name or email address that by itself can be used to contact you or identifies who you are) unless you give us permission. We may provide general demographic and interest information for advertisers (for example, that an ad was seen by a woman between the ages of 25 and 34 who lives in London and likes reading about global affairs) to help them better understand their audience.
Measurement Partners
Vendors and service provider
Researchers and academics
Law enforcement or legal requests
Inherent risks
Whilst we treat your privacy as top priority and apply our best efforts to protect your data, there is no way we could fully guarantee complete safety from cyberattacks and other forms of non-authorised access. By using our platform you declare to be aware of and consenting to this risk.
IV. How can I manage or delete information about me?
When you delete your account, we delete all stored information directly linked to your account, such as your username and preferences. We don’t delete scores that you have given to articles, as they integrate the whole of the article rating, but we delete any information that could allow us to link them with you. Information that you have shared on other platforms through our Services aren’t under our control and may be subject to their own data policy, terms of use and other policies. If you don’t want to delete your account but want to temporarily stop using the Service, you can unsubscribe instead.
V. How do we respond to legal requests or prevent harm?
- In response to a legal request (for example, a search warrant, court order or subpoena) if we have a good-faith belief that the law requires us to do so. This may include responding to legal requests from jurisdictions inside and outside of the United Kingdom when we have a good-faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction and is consistent with internationally recognised standards.
- When we have a good-faith belief that it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud, unauthorised use of the Service, breaches of our Terms or Policies, or other harmful or illegal activity; to protect ourselves (including our rights, property or Service), you or others, including as part of investigations or regulatory enquiries; or to prevent death or imminent bodily harm. For example, if relevant, we provide information to and receive information from third-party Partners about the reliability of your account to prevent fraud, abuse and other harmful activity on and off our Service.
Information that we receive about you may be accessed and preserved for an extended period when it is the subject of a legal request or obligation, governmental investigation or investigations of possible violations of our terms or policies, or otherwise to prevent harm. We may also retain information from accounts disabled for term breaches for at least a year to prevent repeat abuse or other term breaches.
VI. How do we operate and transfer data as part of our global services?
We’ll notify you when we make material changes to this Policy and give you the opportunity to read the revised Policy and decide whether to continue using our Services. If you do not want to agree to these or any updated Terms, you can delete your account.
VII. How will we notify you of material changes to this Policy?
VIII. How to contact us with questions
If you have questions about this policy, you can contact us via e-mail by writing to info@beehive.news. You can also share your feedback to us using the Feedback feature of Beehive.
Thanks for using our Service, and collaborating to a world with better and more trustworthy information!