Privacy Policy

StoryQuest, Inc. (d.b.a. “Swrl”) (the “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is a technology company whose products and services — including Swrl and others that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Services”) — provide users with the ability to compliment their friends through fun and engaging polls. Because Swrl is designed for teenagers, we care deeply about safety and user privacy. We try to limit the data we collect to what is necessary to use the app and connect with friends.

When you use these Services, you’ll share some information with us. We want to be upfront about the information we collect, how we use it, how it’s shared, and the controls you have.

Data Collection and Use

Account Data

When you sign up for an account on Swrl, you may be asked to enter information such as your name, age, school, grade level, phone number, gender, skin tone, selfie, and preferred username. This data is collected in an effort to keep the app safe and exclusive to students at your school. It is also used to identify you to other users on Swrl, generate images for the polls, and make it easy for your friends to vote for you on the app.

Contacts

On Swrl, we try our best to limit the people you see in polls to your friends so you can enjoy voting for people you know. We do this by using phone numbers to find your friends. To do so, you give us authorization to access and store your contacts information from your address book on your mobile device (“Contacts”). We will use your Contacts in order to identify other users that you may know and to provide you with suggestions for other users with whom you may want to engage on the app. We may also present your Contacts as options in polls if you do not have enough friends in the app.

Separately, you can invite friends to join Swrl by tapping “Invite” beside their name and sending them a text message with a link to install the app. The invitation may include your school name and the names of you and your friends on Swrl. You have control over this message and it is entirely up to you if you’d like to send it.

Selfie

When you sign up for an account, we may ask you to upload a selfie in order to generate your avatars (ie, AI-generated images that you’ll receive after friends vote for you in polls). You can update this at any time in your user settings. We take your privacy very seriously and do not sell your face data to any third parties. You are the only one who can see your AI-generated photos (unless you choose to share them). You can delete all of your data, including face data, at any time by deleting your account through the app’s settings.

Device and App Activity

When you use the app, we automatically collect certain information about your device (such as the type of device, operating system, IP address, and unique identifiers) and how you interact with the app (such as the actions you take and how long you use the app). We use this information to improve the app, create new features, and keep our systems secure.

How We Disclose Data

We do not sell, rent, license, or lease your data to third parties, nor do we share it with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising. However, we may disclose it to the following third parties:

Service Providers – such as hosting services, customer support services, and analytics services.
Professional Advisors – such as lawyers and accountants.
Business Transaction Recipients – including counterparties and others assisting with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, dissolution, asset sale, or similar transaction involving our business.
Legal and Safety – government authorities or regulators or other third parties where required by law or legal process or to protect Swrl, users’, or other third parties’ rights and safety.

How You Share Data

You can use Swrl to answer polls about your friends. When answering a poll, we send your response to your friend via the App and it includes your grade, gender, and other poll options. Your friend may reveal your name if they subscribe to additional services.

Data Retention

We keep your data until we don’t need it for the purposes described in this policy and we have no legal obligation to keep it.

Your Rights

We provide all users with the following rights:

Deactivate – you can deactivate your account so that you will not be able to send or receive new polls;
Delete – you can request that we delete the data we have about you, but this right is not absolute. We may need to keep certain information, for example, to comply with our legal requirements;
Correct – you can ask that we fix any errors or inaccuracies in the data we hold about you;
Stop processing – you can tell us to stop processing your data; and
Object – you can object to how we process your data

You can exercise these rights by emailing us at privacy@swrl.it and providing the name and phone number associated with your account in your message. We will not treat you differently if you exercise any of these rights, but we may need additional information to verify your identity. An agent can also make these requests on your behalf, but we may still ask you to verify your identity and that you have authorized the agent to act on your behalf. Depending on your location, you may have the right to appeal our decision regarding a request related to the above rights, in which case, you may do so by contacting us using the above contact information.

Your browser settings may allow you to transmit a “do not track” signal, “opt-out preference” signal, or other mechanism for exercising your choice regarding the collection of your data when you visit various websites and online services. Our website and app are not designed to respond to such signals, and we do not use or disclose your data in any way that would legally require us to recognize opt-out preference signals.

California Residents

This section applies to California residents only. In the preceding 12 months, we may have collected and disclosed for a business purpose the following categories of personal information:

categories	categories of recipients
Identifiers, such as name and IP address	Service Providers
Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute, such as name and telephone number	Service Providers
Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law, such as gender	Service Providers
Commercial information, such as records of products or services purchased	Service Providers
Internet or other similar network activity, such as information regarding your interaction with the app	Service Providers
Geolocation data, such as approximate location	Service Providers
Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information, such as profile photos	Service Providers

The specific business or commercial purposes for which we collect your personal information and the categories of sources from which we collect your personal information are described in the section above, Data Collection and Use. When determining the length of time to retain your personal information, we consider various criteria, including whether we need the information to continue to provide you the app, resolve a dispute, enforce our contractual agreements, prevent harm, promote safety, security and integrity, or protect ourselves, including our rights.

Children

Children under 13 are prohibited from using Swrl. We do not seek or knowingly collect any data from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected data from children without proper consent, we will delete that data. If you believe we have collected data from a user under 13, or if you are a parent or guardian of a user under 13 who has provided us data, please email us at privacy@swrl.it with information about the account to request that it be deleted.

Changes to this Policy

We may need to update this policy to account for changes in our business and applicable laws. If we change this policy, we will post the new version here. If the changes are significant, we will notify you through the app or via email.

Contact Us

Please email us at privacy@swrl.it with any questions.

Last Updated: December 1, 2023