Privacy Policy
Hikkup* (“we”, ”us”, ”our”) takes your privacy very seriously and we want you to feel confident knowing what information we collect and how it is and is not used. This Privacy Policy sets out the way in which Hikkup treats your personal information and any other information we collect. You should visit this page periodically to review any changes to the Privacy Policy, as they will be posted here.
By using the Hikkup.com website (the "Hikkup Site") or by using any of Hikkup’s SMS and/or email messaging services (the “Services”) including replying to a message sent to you by Hikkup, you permit the collection and use of your personal information as outlined below.
This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and is subject to the Hikkup Terms of Service. Your use of the Hikkup Site and any personal information you provide through the Hikkup Site and that we collect through your use of the Hikkup Site are subject at all times to this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service.
1. Information We Collect
Hikkup collects the following information about its registered members ("Members") and those who use Hikkup’s services through their mobile telephone but have not registered as a Member or those who visit the Hikkup Site (collectively “visitors”) (collectively, Members and visitors are "Users", "users", “you”, “your”, “they” or “their”):
1. Member Information: When you register as a Member of Hikkup, Hikkup collects User submitted account information such as your:
o name;
o telephone number; and
o email address (if provided)
to identify you and send you notifications related to the use of the Hikkup Site and/or Hikkup Services. Registering as a Member is required to use the services available on the Hikkup Site.
2. Visitor Information: When a visitor replies to a text message they have received from a Member using their mobile phone, Hikkup stores the visitor’s telephone number.
3. User Information: The Hikkup Site will collect all information and messages submitted by users, including photos and comments.
4. "Automatically Collected Information": Some information collected is not explicitly submitted by the user and is collected when anybody accesses the Hikkup site, whether they are a user or just visiting. When you access the Hikkup Site or open one of our HTML emails, we may automatically record certain non-personally-identifiable information from your computer or other device you use to access the Hikkup Site by using different types of tracking technology. This Automatically Collected Information may include Internet Protocol address ("IP Address"), requesting URL, referring URL, a unique device or user ID, system type, the content and pages that you access on the Hikkup Site, and the dates and times that you visit the Hikkup Site.
2. How We Use Your Information
Information such as your full name, profile photo and any personally identifiable information you have included in messages may be shown to friends or other users in the course of a conversation in accordance with your stated preferences.
Additionally, we use your email address and/or your telephone number to contact you on behalf of your friends (such as when someone sends you a personal message). Your full name, telephone number and email address may also be used when you send an email notification and/or SMS to a friend (such as a reminder about new comments in a conversation).
Hikkup uses the information that you provide or that we collect to operate, maintain, enhance, and provide all of the features and services found on the Hikkup Site as well as to track user-generated content and users to the extent necessary to comply as an information provider under the Communications Act 2003 and other applicable legislation. We will use your telephone number and/or email address, without further consent, for administrative communications such as notifying you for customer service purposes, or to contact you regarding any aspect of usage of the Hikkup Site and/or Hikkup Services.
We may also use your email address and/or telephone number to send you updates or news regarding the Hikkup Site and/or Hikkup Services, but you may choose not to receive emails and/or SMS messages of this type by accessing the "Account" tab of the Hikkup Site and updating your notification settings.
In some cases, we may like your messages and/or conversations so much that we want to display them amongst the ‘Best Hikkups” on the Hikkup Site or in our promotional materials. We will not do so without your prior permission and any use of your messages will omit any personal information.
Browser-type related information, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, timestamp data and other Automatically Collected Information may be used to help us diagnose problems with our server, administer the Hikkup Site, and otherwise provide service to you. In addition, we use this non-personally identifiable information to perform statistical analyses of user behaviour and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas and features of the Hikkup Site and to inform advertisers of such information as well as the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, their advertising banners.
3. Transfer of Information
Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy, we do not sell, rent, share, trade or give away any of your personal information without your express consent. Please be aware, however, that any personally identifiable information that you voluntarily choose to display on any publicly available portion of the Hikkup Site becomes publicly available and may be collected and used by others without restriction.
We may disclose some limited user information to affiliated companies or other businesses or persons to: (1) provide website hosting, maintenance services, server ads during your visit to the Hikkup Site; (2) to promote security; (3) to conduct data analysis and create reports; (4) to offer certain functionality and (5) to assist Hikkup in improving the Hikkup Site and creating new services features. We require that these parties process such information in compliance with this Privacy Policy, we authorize only a limited use of such information, and we require these parties to use reasonable confidentiality measures.
In addition, Hikkup will disclose information about individual users to governmental or judicial authorities such as PhonePayPlus, or law enforcement agencies or to other individuals or entities in response to court orders, or other legal or regulatory processes. Furthermore, Hikkup may share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities or suspected fraud, or to enforce or apply the Hikkup Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy. We do not disclose such information without sufficient proof that it is required by a legitimate source for such purposes.
We reserve the right to transfer your personal information in the event of a transfer of ownership of Hikkup or the Hikkup Site, such as an acquisition by or merger with another company.
Hikkup will notify you when information about you may be provided to third parties in ways other than explained above, and you will have the option to prevent such information sharing.
4. Links
The Hikkup Site may contain links to third party websites to which we have no affiliation. This Privacy Policy applies to the Hikkup Site and any of its subsidiaries, but not to any other company or website to which the Hikkup Site links. Hikkup does not share your personal information with those websites and is not responsible for their privacy practices. We suggest you read the privacy polices of any third party websites.
5. Use of Cookies
Like most websites, Hikkup requires cookies to function properly. Cookies are small text files that reside on a user's computer and identify you as a unique user and some of your preferences. We use cookies to refine the Hikkup Site and enhance the user’s experience. For example, the use of cookies allows Members to enter the Hikkup Site without explicitly typing in their email address and password every time. You should be aware that Hikkup cannot control the use of cookies by advertisers or any information advertisers may gather from their use of cookies. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the cookie feature; however, you should note that cookies may be necessary to provide you certain features (e.g., customized delivery of information) available on the Hikkup Site.
6. Controlling Your Personal Information
You should be aware that when you voluntarily disclose personally identifiable information (e.g., user name, e-mail address, telephone number) via messages, postings, or in other areas of the Hikkup Site that information, along with any substantive information disclosed in your communication, can be collected and correlated and used by third parties and may result in unsolicited messages from other posters or third parties. Such activities are beyond the control of Hikkup. Please do not post any personal information on the Hikkup Site or in other areas that you expect to keep private. Please be aware that whenever a user opts to allow all or part of a message or ‘hikkup’ (by which we mean a conversation you carry out using Hikkup services) to be published on the Hikkup Site on an anonymous basis, that that message or hikkup can be accessed by the public and can in turn be used by the public.
As a Hikkup Member, you can modify your personal information and other Member information at any time by accessing the "Account" section of the Hikkup Site. Also, upon your request, Hikkup will use commercially reasonable efforts to terminate your membership and remove your personal information from the Hikkup Site. It may however be impossible to remove your information without some residual information being retained within the Hikkup Site or by Hikkup. Members who wish to close their account should contact admin@hikkup.com.
7. Security
Security and anonymity are very important to us. Hikkup uses commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of your personal information. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any information, including personally identifiable information, you transmit to Hikkup and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission of information, Hikkup makes commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems, including using encrypted Secure Sockets Layer technology. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards and we cannot assure you that personally identifiable information that we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy. We limit the access to your information to those employees who need access to perform their job function such as our customer service personnel. If you have any questions about the security at the Hikkup Site, please contact us at privacy@hikkup.com.
A Hikkup Member’s account is password-protected; accordingly Member’s should make their own efforts to keep such password information confidential.
If Hikkup learns of a security systems breach, then we may attempt to notify Members electronically through the contact information you have provided to us so that you can take appropriate protective steps. In addition, Hikkup may post a notice on the Hikkup Site if a security breach occurs. Depending on where you live, certain users may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive a free written notice of a security breach you should notify us at privacy@hikkup.com.
You hereby acknowledge that Hikkup is not responsible for any intercepted information sent via the Internet, and to the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, you agree that Hikkup is not liable for any damages or claims arising out of or related to the unauthorized use of your information by third parties.
8. Opt-out
Whether or not you are a Member, you may receive SMS messages from Hikkup informing you that someone you know has something to say to you, but wishes to remain anonymous or that someone you know wishes to ask you a question and that you can answer anonymously. We call these ‘Teasers’. This is a notification from Hikkup that a Member wishes to send you a message (anonymous or otherwise) and not the message itself. You may opt-out of receiving a specific message from a Member by following the instructions within the Teaser you received notifying you of that message. You will not receive the message from the Member if you do not respond to the Teaser. You can also send an email to info@hikkup.com requesting that any messages not be sent to you. You can opt-out from receiving such notifications as a whole by texting ‘STOP’ to Hikkup’s short code.
From time to time, your Hikkup conversation may be so ingenious or funny that Hikkup may want to display it on the Hikkup Site as one of the ‘Best Hikkups’. We will not do this without your prior permission and, in doing so we will omit the real names of any party to the conversation as well as any other personal information.
When registering as a Member, you have the opportunity to opt-in or out of receiving promotional and/or marketing information from Hikkup with updates of our services and about any of our other products, services and offerings. You can also opt-out of receiving such messages at any time by emailing us at info@hikkup.com.
Notwithstanding any opt-out you choose to make, we reserve the right to contact Members regarding their account status, changes to our Terms of Service or Privacy Policy and other matters relating to your Hikkup account.
In the event that you wish for your personal information to be removed from the Hikkup Site or for your Hikkup account to be closed we will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete you and your personal information from our database. However, it may be impossible to delete an entry without some residual information due to backups and records of deletions. Furthermore, as a company regulated by PhonePayPlus we are required to keep records of all messages and conversations for a reasonable period of time. Hikkup keeps such records for a period of 12 months.
9. Children
IF YOU ARE UNDER 13 YEARS OF AGE, PLEASE DO NOT USE OR ACCESS THE HIKKUP SERVICE AT ANY TIME OR IN ANY MANNER.
The Hikkup Site and services are not directed to children, and Hikkup does not knowingly solicit information from any child under the age of 13. We ask that our users do not send Hikkup related messages to children under the age of 13. In the event that we become aware that personally-identifiable information of persons under the age of 13 has been submitted to, or has been exchanged through, the Hikkup Service, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to disable such usage and delete such information. If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child under 13 who has become a Hikkup Site Member, then please contact Hikkup at privacy@hikkup.com to have that child's account terminated and information deleted.
10. Terms and Modifications to this Privacy Statement
By using the Hikkup Site, you signify your agreement to the terms of our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with these terms, you should not use the Hikkup Site. Hikkup may modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If a material change is made to this Privacy Policy and/or the way we use our users’ personally identifiable information, then we will post a prominent notice of the nature of such change on the first page of this Privacy Policy and also on our home page.
You are responsible for reviewing this Privacy Policy periodically to ensure that you are aware of any changes to it. Your continued use of the Hikkup Site indicates your assent to any changes to this Privacy Policy.
11. Hikkup Contact Information
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the privacy practices of the Hikkup Site, or if you want to exercise any of the rights that you are given under this Privacy Policy, you can contact: privacy@hikkup.com. Hikkup is located at 162-164 Finchley Road, London NW3 5HE.
12. International Visitors
For users visiting the Hikkup Site from the European Economic Area or other non-UK territories, please note that any data you enter into the Hikkup Site will be transferred outside the European Economic Area or such other non-UK territory for use by Hikkup and its affiliates for any of the purposes described herein. In addition, because Hikkup operates globally, we may make information we gather available to worldwide business units and affiliates. By providing any data on the Hikkup Site, you hereby expressly consent to such transfers of your data to the United States and/or other countries.
13. Effective Date; Date Last Modified
Privacy Policy effective as of 12 January 2009.
*Hikkup is the trading name of Hiccup Enterprises Incorporated