Privacy Policy

Last updated: 15 October 2023

Thank you for using Otter!

Your privacy is important to us. It is Otter's policy to respect your privacy and comply with any applicable law and regulation regarding any personal information we may collect about you, including via our Otter App (Otter) and its associated services.

When you use our Products, you provide personal information to us. We wrote this privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy” or “Policy”) to help you understand what personal information we collect, how we use it and disclose it, how long we retain it, and what choices you have about it. This Policy does not cover information that does not identify you.

Information You Provide

When you use Otter, we collect personal information that you provide to us. This includes:

Account data

When you set up an account, we may ask you to provide information about yourself, including your name, kid’s name, phone number, profile pictures, user name and date of birth.

Biographical Information

We may also ask you to provide us with some additional personal information about you that will be visible in our Products, such as a profile picture, and a bio in your profile to tell other Otter users more about you. When you change your profile picture we store a copy of the new picture you upload and retain all profile pictures you uploaded previously for trust and safety purposes and in accordance with our data retention policies.

Social Media And Contact Information

You may choose to connect your other social media accounts, or sync your contacts..

Information We Get When You Use Our Products

When you use our Products, we collect additional personal information based on your activity and other personal information you might choose to provide. This includes:

Usage And Activity Information

We collect information about when and how you use our Products. This includes information about chats and groups you create, join and chatting. It also includes who your friends.

Messages

We store the messages you send to and receive from other users and information about those messages through our partner Stream Chat. We review the contents of these messages if a user reports, or we otherwise detect, a potential trust and safety violation or potentially illegal or illicit activity.

Other Communications

We collect information about the messages you send us when you contact us with questions or feedback, including the contents of those messages.

Contacts

If you give us permission to sync your contacts, we will store identifiers known as hash values derived from the phone numbers of your contacts, and we will update your contacts periodically. Similarly, if you invite somebody to join Otter, we will store a hash value derived from the phone number you provide. We do not collect names, email addresses, or any other information associated with your contacts.

Log Data And Device Information

We may collect information from and about the devices you use. In particular, we may collect information about your hardware and software, such as the hardware model, operating system version, device memory, unique application identifiers, apps installed, unique device identifiers, browser type, and information about your wireless and mobile network connections, such as mobile phone number, service provider, IP address, and signal strength.

Cookie Information

We use cookies (small text files sent by your computer each time you visit our website, unique to your Otter account or your browser) to get log data. Some of these cookies are used to help us understand how many people use our service, and how they use it. Other cookies are used to help us track the efficiency of our advertising campaigns on other platforms. For more detailed information about cookies, please refer to our Cookie Policy .

Information About Non-Users

Otter users may sync their contact lists to Otter in order to help Otter connect them to existing users, invite new users, and to connect users and their contacts with one another on Otter. Similarly, users may send people invitations by manually entering a telephone number. In either case, the only information Otter stores is a hash value derived from the phone number. Otter does not collect names or any other information associated with your contacts, and we do not share the hash values we collect or make them available to others.

How We Use The Information We Collect

We use the personal information we collect to provide our Products to you and to improve them. Specifically, we use the data we collect to:

• 1. Register your account, verify your identity, and verify the accuracy of your information.
• 2. Develop, operate, improve, maintain, and protect our Products.
• 3. Personalize our Products by showing you relevant content, connecting you to users, clubs, rooms, and other content we think you might like, and to help you and your friends connect with one another on Otter.
• 4. Send you communications. For example, we may use email, text messages, or app-based notifications to respond to support inquiries, share information about our Products, and tell you what’s happening on Otter.
• 5. Monitor and enhance the safety and security of our Products.
• 6. Monitor and analyze user engagement, trends, and usage.
• 7. Assess the efficiency of our advertising campaigns on other platforms.
• 8. Handle and record user rights requests, including opt-ins and opt-outs.
• 9. Prevent fraud or other unauthorized or illegal activity.
• 10. Enforce, investigate, and report conduct violating our Terms of Service or other policies.
• 11. Respond to requests from law enforcement agencies or other government agencies, and comply with legal or regulatory requirements.

How We Disclose The Information We Collect

We do not sell personal information about our users. We may, however, disclose that information to:

Other online services you connect to your Otter account

If you choose to link your Otter account to Twitter, Instagram, or any other services, we may disclose information to those other services at your direction when using our Products.

Services we use to market Otter

When we market our Products we may disclose information to the websites and apps we use to market our Products, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, or others.

Service providers and other third parties

We employ third parties to process information on our behalf based on our instructions and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including providers of services relating to cloud computing, analytics, security, enforcement of content policies, and user support.

Law enforcement or governmental or non-governmental organizations

If we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation or legal request; to protect the safety, rights or property of the public, any person or Otter; or to detect, prevent or otherwise address illegal conduct, fraud, security or technical issues, we may disclose information to law enforcement agencies, other governmental agencies, or private parties as needed.

Our wholly owned subsidiaries and affiliates

If we were to engage in a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, or similar transaction or proceeding that involves the transfer of the information described in this Policy, we would disclose your information to a party involved in such a process (for example, a purchaser).

Managing Your Information

There are a variety of ways you can manage the personal information we have about you. Specifically, you can:

• 1. Request access to the information we collect and hold about you. We'll aim to provide this to you within 30 days after you submit your request.
• 2. Have your information corrected or deleted. You can update your information on your profile or delete your data by closing your account.
• 3. Opt out of push notifications. If you opt in to receive push notifications within the Products, we may send push notifications or alerts to your mobile device from time to time. You can deactivate push notifications and alerts at any time by changing your device settings, changing the push notification settings within the Products, or deleting the Otter app from your iOS or Android device.
• 4. Revoke consent you have given or object to us processing your information. You can revoke any consent you have given us by adjusting your settings, or object to processing personal information in certain circumstances.

To use these tools please visit your account settings, our Help Center, or your device settings.

Security

When we collect and process personal information, and while we retain this information, we will protect it within commercially acceptable means to prevent loss and theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification.

Although we will do our best to protect the personal information you provide to us, we advise that no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and no one can guarantee absolute data security.

You are responsible for selecting any password and its overall security strength, ensuring the security of your own information within the bounds of our services. For example, ensuring any passwords associated with accessing your personal information and accounts are secure and confidential.

Transferring Information

While our Products are offered worldwide, we are based in Australia and rely on cloud storage providers that store user data on our behalf. When you use our Products, your personal information may be transferred and stored outside your home country, including in the Australia, for the purposes described in this Policy. The privacy protections and the rights of authorities to access your personal information in such countries may not be equivalent to those of your home country.

If we or our assets are acquired, or in the unlikely event that we go out of business or enter bankruptcy, we would include data, including your personal information, among the assets transferred to any parties who acquire us. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any parties who acquire us may, to the extent permitted by applicable law, continue to use your personal information according to this policy, which they will be required to assume as it is the basis for any ownership or use rights we have over such information.

Revisions

We may change this Policy from time to time. If we do, we’ll post any changes on this page. We will provide a more prominent notice or get your consent where required by law.

Limits of Our Policy

Our app may link to external sites that are not operated by us. Please be aware that we have no control over the content and policies of those sites, and cannot accept responsibility or liability for their respective privacy practices.

After following a link to any third-party content, you should read their posted privacy policy information about how they collect and use personal information. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any of your activities after you leave our app.