Effective: January 24th, 2023

Welcome to What’s Trending’s Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and disclose personal data (as defined herein) related to your use of our Services.

United States users you can find out about your privacy rights “Privacy Information for United States Residents” section below.

1. Who We Are:

When we mention “What’s Trending”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Policy, we mean What’s Trending, Inc.

2. About this Privacy Notice

This Privacy Policy explains how We collects, uses, and discloses your personal data. We collect personal data when you use our website(s) and other online and offline products, services and experiences (collectively, the “Services”).

This Privacy Policy does not apply to any third parties you may interact with through our Services. From time to time, we work with third parties to provide you with products, promotions or other experiences. If those third parties will receive your personal data, we will make their privacy policy available to you. We may process your personal data when you act as a business partner such as vendor, supplier, distributor, retailer, or service provider.

3. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We’re likely to update this Privacy Policy in the future and when we make changes, we will revise the date at the top of the policy. When we make significant changes, we will notify you through our newsletter. Please come back and check this page from time to time for the latest information on our privacy practices.

4. How to contact us

If you have questions or concerns about the information in this Privacy Policy, our handling of your personal data more generally, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under law, please do not hesitate to contact us at articles@whatstrending.com

5. What personal data we collect and how

5.1 Personal data you provide to us.

You may provide us with data when you sign up for a newsletter, provide us with feedback, or use other features of the Services.

5.2 Data that we collect automatically about your browser and device.

When you access or use the Services, we use cookies and similar technologies that collect information about your browser and device:

• Log Data. We automatically receive and record information from your device or web browser when you interact with the Services. For example, we may collect your internet protocol (IP) address, mobile device ID, time zone setting, language preference, operating system, platform, internet service provider (ISP), and links you have clicked on or shared with others, including through email and social media.
• Cookie Data. When you visit the Services, we will set certain “cookies” and similar tracking technologies on your device, including cookies and web beacons (“Cookies”). For more information about cookies and how to disable them, please see our “Cookie Policy” section below.

The information we collect automatically may include personal data, or we may maintain it or associate it with personal data we collect in other ways or receive from third parties.

5.3 Location data.

We use your IP address to infer your approximate location. We may also collect the language option or country you choose. When we provide certain services, such as providing you with a version of our Services that is localized to your country, we link location data to other information we have collected about you to provide you with a localized experience.

6. Aggregated data

We analyze and aggregate personal data we collect, such as the number and frequency of your visits to the Services, to produce anonymized metrics and statistical information that does not identify you as an individual.

We combine information about you with information about other users to create audience segments of aggregated data, for example, statistical, demographic and usage data. If we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data, we treat the combined data as personal data and treat it in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

7. How we collect personal data

7.1 From You.

You may give us your personal data directly, for example when you subscribe to our newsletters or contact us for any reason.

7.2 Using Cookies.

We collect information about your devices and browsing actions and interests by using cookies and similar technologies. Our “Cookie Policy” section provides more details on how this works.

7.3 From our Advertising Partners.

Third parties who provide advertising and related services (such as analytics providers and ad networks, our “Advertising Partners” may give us your personal data so that we can compare it to personal data we hold in order to determine if you are the same individual (this is sometimes called “cookie-matching”). We may collect data from unaffiliated third parties so we can better understand you and provide you with information and offers that may be of interest to you. For example, we may receive information about your interests or preferences as well as contact information, such as email address.

7.4 From our Advertisers and Affiliate Partners.

We may receive your personal data from third parties when you buy things through our Services or when you buy things from a third party after clicking on an affiliate link in our content. This information may include your contact details and financial and transaction data (such as items purchased and purchase price) from providers of technical, payment and delivery services.

7.5 How we use your data:

We use the data we collect to provide, maintain, and improve our Services. We also use the data we collect to:

• Communicate with you about products, services, offers, and events offered by Us and others, and provide news and information we think will be of interest to you;
• Provide you with advertisements, content or features that we or our partners think may be of interest to you;
• Customize content that our third-party Advertising Partners deliver on the Services (such as personalized third-party advertising);
• We may use information about you, such as your email address, to identify you across the devices you use to access the Services, as well as offline. This helps us learn more about your interests and preferences, which we use for advertising on the Services and Third Party Sites.
• Monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities in connection with our Services and personalize and improve the Services; and
• Carry out any other purpose described to you at the time the data was collected.

8. Marketing choices

When you sign up for our newsletter, we use your personal data to help us send you news about us and our affiliates and partners. You can opt-out anytime. We will ask for your consent before we share your personal data with any third party for direct marketing purposes.

You may unsubscribe from marketing messages through a link we include on messages we send you. You can also ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at: [EMAIL]

9. Sharing your personal data

In general, your personal data will remain with Us, but we may share personal data about you as follows or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy:

• With vendors, consultants, and other service providers who process your data on our behalf when they provide services to us, for example email newsletter services or web analytics; For more information, please see our “Cookie Policy” section.
• In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company;
• We may be legally required to disclose or share your personal data without your consent in some circumstances, for example to comply with a court order or law enforcement. In such circumstances, we will only disclose your personal data if we have a good-faith belief that such sharing is required under applicable legal obligations.

10. Other Sharing

We may also share aggregated or de-identified information, which cannot reasonably be used to identify you (we do not attempt to re-identify de-identified information, except as permitted or required by law). For example, we may share aggregated or de-identified information with our ad partners and service providers so that we, and they, can understand how people use our Services; this helps us grow our business and improve and develop our products and services.

We may also share information about you along with a hashed version of your email address with our Advertising Partners so that they and we can facilitate customized ad campaigns and other offers on the Services and on other platforms. “Hashing”  transforms your email into an unrecognizable series of numbers and letters (e.g. a “hashed” version of you@email.com would be iaohrg9na8087@email.com).]

11. Retaining your personal data

We keep your personal data for as long as we need it for the purposes for which it was collected.

When we decide how long we will keep your information we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure, why we need it, and any relevant legal requirements (such as legal retention and destruction periods).

We may anonymize your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes.

12. Cookie policy

12.1 What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small data text files that are used to identify your computer or device online. When you visit a website, a cookie is created and stored on your hard drive so that that website can recognize you while you are on that website. Some cookies are “session-based,” which means they disappear once you leave the website. Others are “persistent,” which means they are stored on your device until you delete them and they allow a website to recognize you each time you visit the website. Cookies are just one technology used to collect information online. A “web beacon,” also known as a tag, pixel tag, or clear GIF, is also used to transmit information back to a web server. When you interact with our mobile apps we may use SDKs, which act like cookies, or we may use other identifiers to help us identify your device. When we talk about “Cookies” in this Privacy Policy, we mean not just cookies, but web beacons, SDKs and similar technologies.

12.2 What Types of Cookies are on the Services?

• First Party Cookies. Our Services use our own cookies to recognize you and remember you as a unique user.
• Session Cookies remember you during your session on our Services. They are deleted when you log out of the Services and when you close your web browser. We use session Cookies to ensure content is displayed correctly on the Services, to balance and monitor load on our servers, and for other technical matters essential to the operation of our Services. You can configure your device to reject these cookies, but our Services will probably not work correctly, or at all, if you do.
• Analytics cookies. Analytics cookies are used by us and by third parties who process data for us for data analytics purposes (for example Google Analytics) so that we can manage and improve the performance and design of our Services and for monitoring, auditing, research and reporting. [We have activated Google’s IP anonymization function on our Sites. This will cause your IP address to be cut by Google within Member States of the European Union or in other countries party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area before being transmitted to the USA. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. On our behalf, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the Sites, to compile reports on Site activity and to provide us with other services relating to website and internet use. The IP address transmitted by your browser in the context of Google Analytics is not merged with other Google data. With respect to Google Analytics, you can read about how Google uses data gathered for that purpose
• Third party cookies: advertising and affiliate links. Our Advertising Partners may deliver ads by placing or referencing cookies on your device.
  • Advertising Partners include ad networks such as third party ad servers, ad agencies, ad technology vendors and research firms.
  • Affiliate links partners pay us when you buy things from them or another third party after clicking on an affiliate link in our content.

Our Advertising Partners use third party cookies to serve ads to you and to target you with tailored (or personalized) ads when you are using the Services and when you visit Third-Party Sites. They may also use cookies to measure traffic on the Services (for example to track ad views).

Advertising is provided by the SHE Media Collective (a subsidiary of Penske Media Corporation), and that SHE Media abides by all major privacy laws, as detailed in the ads privacy police: https://www.shemedia.com/ad-services-privacy-policy.

12.3 What Information do Cookies Collect?

Cookies and similar technologies allow us to collect the following types of personal data: a unique ID assigned to your device; IP address; device and browser type; operating system; referring URLs; content viewed or other actions taken through our Services; time and date of those actions; country and language selected.

12.4 What Choices Do you Have?

Browsers and devices have tools that allow you to disable Cookies. If you disable Cookies you may not be able to access all the features of our services. We suggest that you keep our essential cookies active for a better user experience and to help us keep improving and developing our products and services. You can decide who you will allow to set third party cookies on your browser or device. You can change your mind and revisit your consent choices at any time by returning there.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about having your information used in this manner by our partners, email us at articles@whatstrending.com.

12.5 Privacy Information for United States Residents

Residents of certain states have additional rights and choices beyond what is described in Sections 1-13 of this Privacy Policy. This section addresses those additional rights.

13.1 United States Privacy Rights

• Right to Deletion. You have the right to request that we delete certain personal data we have about you.
• Right to Access. You have the right to request that we inform you about the categories of personal data we collect or disclose about you; the categories of sources of such data; the business or commercial purpose for collecting your personal data; and the categories of third parties with whom we share/disclose personal data. Such information is also set forth above in this Privacy Policy. You may also request that we provide you access to and/or a copy of the specific pieces of personal data we collected about you (also called a data portability request).
• Right to Correction. If you feel that any of the records of personal data we have about you are incorrect, you have a right to request that we correct those inaccuracies. This right does not extend to matters of opinion, such as views expressed in editorial content.
• No Discrimination. You have the right to not be discriminated against (as provided for in the applicable US Privacy Law) for exercising your rights.
• Right to Opt-Out. You have the right to opt-out of the “sale” of your personal data, or the “sharing” of your personal data for interest-based or other targeted advertising on third party websites. Note that “sale” is defined broadly and may include allowing third parties to receive certain data, such as cookies, IP address, and/or browsing behavior, to deliver targeted advertising on our Services or other sites and apps. We engage in these activities because advertising, including targeted advertising, enables us to provide you certain content for free and allows us to provide you content relevant to you.

13.2 How to Exercise Your Rights

13.2.a Opt-out of Targeted Advertising.

If you would like to opt out of targeted advertising, email us at articles@whatstrending.com.

Please note that because these activities are based on Cookies, you will need to opt out again if you visit one of our Services from a different device or browser or if you clear your Cookies. Your selections are specific to the device, website, and browser you are using, and are deleted whenever you clear your browser’s cache. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal data of minors under 16 years of age without legally-required affirmative authorization.

13.2.b Exercising Your Other Privacy Rights

You may exercise your rights by reaching us at articles@whatstrending.com.

Please note that the verifiable consumer request must:

• Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal data or an authorized representative.
• Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal data if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal data relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create any account with us. We will only use personal data provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

Only you or a person that you authorize to act on your behalf may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal data. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.

You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or deletion twice within a 12-month period.

Please note that certain data may be exempt from such access, data portability, correction, and deletion requests under US Privacy Law. For example, we need to retain certain data in order to provide the Services to you or to comply with our legal obligations.

If we are unable to honor your request or you are not satisfied with the outcome of your request, you have the right, within a reasonable period of time, to appeal our decision. Please send your appeal by email to  articles@whatstrending.com.

13.3 Notice for California Users

This section provides you with our practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal data in the 12 months prior to our last update to this Policy (see the date at the top). It also explains your rights regarding your personal data that we collect pursuant to applicable U.S. state privacy laws.

13.3.a Categories of Information We Collect:

• Your contact details (e.g. your name, email address).
• Internet activity information (e.g., browsing history, search history, information on a consumer’s interaction with a website, application, or advertisement, or questions and other messages you address to us directly through online forms or by email).
• Online identifiers (e.g., IP address, ADID/IDFA, cookie IDs, internal identification numbers).

13.3.b Categories of Sources:

• You
• Your device

13.3.c Purpose of Collection

• To communicate with you, including to fulfill your request to receive our newsletter.
• To improve our Service, including through analysis of anonymous user behavior and through the delivery of appropriate advertisements
• To enforce our User Agreement, and for the administration and protection of our business.
• To comply with applicable law, regulations, and legal and regulatory processes.
• To advertise and market our Services, and the products and services of our advertisers.

If you opt-in to do so, we may use your name and email address for our marketing purposes and to help our business partners with their marketing.

When Do We Sell or Share Personal Data?

Categories of data sold or shared	Categories of Vendors or Other Entities We sell/Share data With:
Your contact details	Social network partners and our business partners.
Internet activity information, inferences and online identifiers	Advertising networks, data analytics vendors, social networks, and other Advertising Partners.

 

When Do We Disclose Personal Data to Third Parties for Business Purposes

Categories of data Disclosed:	Categories of Vendors or Other Entities We disclose data to?
Your contact details	Our email service vendors, and our business partners.
Internet activity information, inferences and online identifiers	Advertising networks, internet service providers, data analytics vendors, operating systems and platforms.
Location data	Internet service providers, data analytics vendors, operating systems, and platforms.

We may share your personal data with government entities when required to do so by law.

13.5 California Shine the Light Disclosure

Under California Civil Code sections 1798.83- 1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask for a notice identifying the categories of personal customer data which we share with our affiliates and/or third parties for their own direct marketing purposes, and providing contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to the following address: PO Box 549, Culver City, CA 90232