Privacy Policy

Updated 10/22/23

1. DEFINITIONS

2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

3. HOW WE USE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

4. SHARING & DISCLOSURE

5. OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION

6. YOUR RIGHTS

7. SECURITY

8. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

9. CONTACT INFORMATION AND RESPONSIBLE DECIBEL ENTITIES

10. COOKIE POLICY

Decibel exists to help build connections between people and make the world more open and inclusive. We are a community built on integrity, passion, perseverance, and acceptance. A fundamental part of earning that trust means being clear about how we use your information and protect your human right to privacy.

This Privacy Policy describes how Decibel and its affiliates (“

,” “

,” or “

Decibel

”), process personal information that we collect through Decibel Platform. Depending on where you live and what you are doing on The Decibel Wave Platform, the supplemental privacy pages listed below may apply to you. Please follow the links and review the supplemental information provided there with information about how we process personal information for those regions and services.

1. DEFINITIONS

Undefined terms in this Privacy Policy have the same definition as in our Terms of Service (“

Terms

”).

2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

2.1 Information needed to use Decibel Platform.

We collect personal information about you when you use Decibel Platform. Without it, we may not be able to provide you with all services requested. This information includes:

Contact Information, Account, Profile Information.
Such as your first name, last name, phone number, postal address, email address, date of birth, profile photo, and city, some of which will depend on the features you use.
Identity Verification and Payment Information.
Such as images of your government issued ID (as permitted by applicable laws), your ID number or other verification information, bank account or payment account information.

2.2 Information you choose to give us.

You can choose to provide us with additional personal information. This information may include:

Additional Profile Information.
Such as gender, equipment, press, and personal description. Some of this information as indicated in your account settings is part of your public profile page and will be publicly visible.
Address Book Contact Information.
Address book contacts you import or enter manually.
Other Information.
Such as when you fill in a form, add information to your account, respond to surveys, post to community forums, participate in promotions, communicate with our customer care team and other Members, or share your experience with us. This may include health information if you choose to share it with us.

2.3 Information Automatically Collected by Using the Decibel Platform and our Payment Services.

When you use the Decibel Platform and Payment Services, we automatically collect personal information. This information may include:

Geo-location Information.
Such as precise or approximate location determined from your IP address or mobile device’s GPS depending on your device settings. We may also collect this information when you’re not using the app if you enable this through your settings or device permissions.
Usage Information.
Such as the pages or content you view, searches for Listings, bookings you have made, and other actions on the Decibel Platform.
Log Data and Device Information.
Such as details about how you’ve used the Decibel Platform (including if you clicked on links to third party applications), IP address, access dates and times, hardware and software information, device information, device event information, unique identifiers, crash data, cookie data, and the pages you’ve viewed or engaged with before or after using the Decibel Platform. We may collect this information even if you haven’t created an Decibel account or logged in.
Cookies and Similar Technologies as described in our Cookie Policy.
Payment Transaction Information.
Such as payment instrument used, date and time, payment amount, payment instrument expiration date and billing postcode, PayPal email address, IBAN information, your address and other related transaction details.

2.4 Personal Information We Collect from Third Parties.

We collect personal information from other sources, such as:

Third-Party Services.
If you link, connect, or login to Decibel Platform with a third party service (e.g. Google, Facebook, WeChat), you direct the service to send us information such as your registration, friends list, and profile information as controlled by that service or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service.
Background Information.
For Members in the United States, to the extent permitted by applicable laws, we may obtain reports from public records of criminal convictions or sex offender registrations. For Members outside of the United States, to the extent permitted by applicable laws and with your consent where required, we may obtain the local version of police, background or registered sex offender checks. We may use your information, including your full name and date of birth, to obtain such reports.
Referrals and collaborators.
If you are invited to Decibel Platform such as a collaborator on a project, the person who invited you can submit personal information about you such as your email address or other contact information.
Other Sources.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may receive additional information about you, such as references, demographic data or information to help detect fraud and safety issues from third party service providers and/or partners, and combine it with information we have about you. For example, we may receive background check results or fraud warnings from identity verification service providers for use in our fraud prevention and risk assessment efforts. We may receive information about you and your activities on and off Decibel Platform, or about your experiences and interactions from our partners. We may receive health information, including but not limited to health information related to contagious diseases.

3. HOW WE USE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

3.1 Provide, Improve, and Develop Decibel Platform.

We use personal information to:

enable you to access Decibel Platform and make and receive payments,
enable you to communicate with other Members,
perform analytics, debug and conduct research,
provide customer service,
send you messages, updates, security alerts, and account notifications,
if you provide us with your contacts’ information such as your friends or collaborators, we may process this information: (i) to facilitate your referral invitations, (ii) to share your booking details and facilitate booking planning, (iii) for fraud detection and prevention, and (iv) to facilitate your requests or for any other purpose you authorize,
personalize and customize your experience based on your interactions with Decibel Platform, your search and booking history, your profile information and preferences, and other content you submit, and

3.2 Create and Maintain a Trusted and Safer Environment.

We use personal information to:

detect and prevent fraud, spam, abuse, security and safety incidents, and other harmful activity,
study and combat discrimination,
conduct security investigations and risk assessments,
verify or authenticate information provided by you,
conduct checks against databases and other information sources, including background or police checks,
comply with our legal obligations, protect the health and well-being of our Guests, Hosts, Hosts’ employees and members of the public,
resolve disputes with our Members,
enforce our agreements with third parties,
comply with law, respond to legal requests, prevent harm and protect our rights (see section 4.5)
enforce our Terms and other policies, and
in connection with the activities above, we may conduct profiling based on your interactions with Decibel Platform, your profile information and other content you submit to Decibel, and information obtained from third parties. In limited cases, automated processes could restrict or suspend access to Decibel Platform if such processes detect activity that we think poses a safety or other risk to Decibel, our community, or third parties. If you would like to challenge the decisioning based on the automated process, please contact us via the Contact Information section below.

3.3 Provide, Personalize, Measure, and Improve our Advertising and Marketing.

We may use personal information to:

send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information based on your preferences and social media advertising through social media platforms,
personalize, measure, and improve our advertising,
administer referral programs, rewards, surveys, sweepstakes, contests, or other promotional activities or events sponsored or managed by Decibel or its third-party partners,
analyze characteristics and preferences to send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising and other information that we think might be of interest to you, and
invite you to events and relevant opportunities.

3.4 Provide Payment services.

Personal information is used to enable or authorize third parties to use Payment Services:

Detect and prevent money laundering, fraud, abuse, security incidents.
Conduct security investigations and risk assessments.
Comply with legal obligations (such as anti-money laundering regulations).
Enforce the payment terms and other payment policies.
With your consent, send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information that may be of interest to you based on your preferences.
Provide and improve the payment services.

4. SHARING & DISCLOSURE

4.1 Sharing With Your Consent or at Your Direction.

Where you provide consent, we share your information as described at the time of consent, such as when authorizing a third-party application or website to access your Decibel account or participating in promotional activities by Decibel partners or third parties.

Where permissible with applicable law, we may use certain information about you, such as your email address, de-identify it, and share it with social media platforms, to generate leads, drive traffic to Decibel or otherwise promote our products and services.

4.2 Sharing Between Members.

To help facilitate bookings or other interactions between Members, we may need to share certain information such as:

When a booking request is made or dispute is submitted, certain information may be shared between Guest(s) and Host(s), including profile, name, names of any additional Guests, cancellation history, review information, age of guest (unless prohibited by applicable law), dispute outcome (when applicable) and other information and contact details you choose to share and submit. When you as a Host have a confirmed booking, certain information is shared with the Guest (and the additional Guests they invite, if applicable) to coordinate the booking, such as your profile, full name, phone number, Listing address, and other information and contact details you choose to share and submit.
When you as a Host invite another Member to host with you, you authorize that person to access and update your information and Member Content, including but not limited to certain information like your full name, phone number, Space address, calendar, Listing information, Listing photos, and email address.
When you as a Guest invite additional Guests to a booking, your name, booking dates, Host name, Listing details, the Space address, and other related information will be shared with each additional Guest.

4.3 Information You Publish in Profiles, Listings, and other Public Information.

You can make certain information publicly visible to others, such as:

Your public profile page, which includes your profile photo, stage name, description, city, and more.
Listing pages that include information such as the Space or Experience’s approximate or precise location description, calendar availability, profile photo, aggregated demand information (like page views over a period of time), and additional information you choose to share.
Reviews, ratings and other public feedback.
Content in a community or discussion forum, blog or social media post.

We may display parts of your public profile and other Content you make available to the public like Listing details on third-party sites, platforms and apps.

Information you share publicly on Decibel Platform may be indexed through third-party search engines. In some cases, you may opt-out of this feature in your account settings.

4.4 Host Service Providers.

Hosts may use third-party services to help manage or deliver their services, such as cleaning services or lock providers. Hosts may use features on Decibel Platform to share information about the Guest (like check-in and check-out dates, Guest name, Guest phone number) with such third-party service providers.

4.5 Complying with Law, Responding to Legal Requests, Preventing Harm and Protecting our Rights.

We may disclose your information to courts, law enforcement, governmental or public authorities, tax authorities, or authorized third parties, if and to the extent we are required or permitted to do so by law or where disclosure is reasonably necessary: (i) to comply with our legal obligations, (ii) to comply with a valid legal request or to respond to claims asserted against Decibel, (iii) to respond to a valid legal request relating to a criminal investigation to address alleged or suspected illegal activity, or to respond to or address any other activity that may expose us, you, or any other of our users to legal or regulatory liability, (iv) to enforce and administer our Terms of Service with Members, or (v) to protect the rights, property or personal safety of Decibel, its employees, its Members, or members of the public. For example, if permitted due to the forgoing circumstances, Host tax information may be shared with tax authorities or other governmental agencies.

Where appropriate, we may notify Members about legal requests unless: (i) providing notice is prohibited by the legal process itself, by court order we receive, or by applicable law, or (ii) we believe that providing notice would be futile, ineffective, create a risk of injury or bodily harm to an individual or group, or create or increase a risk of fraud upon or harm to Decibel, our Members, or expose Decibel to a claim of obstruction of justice.

For jurisdictions where Decibel facilitates the collection and remittance of Taxes where legally permissible according to applicable law, we may disclose Hosts’ and Guests’ information about transactions, bookings, Spaces and occupancy Taxes to the applicable tax authority, such as Host and Guest names, Listing addresses, transaction dates and amounts, tax identification number(s), the amount of taxes received (or due) by Hosts from Guests, and contact information.

In jurisdictions where Decibel facilitates or requires a registration, notification, permit, or license application of a Host with a local governmental authority through Decibel in accordance with local law, we may share information of participating Hosts with the relevant authority, both during the application process and, periodically thereafter, such as the Host’s full name and contact details, Space address, tax identification number, Listing details, and number of nights booked.

4.6 Programs with Managers and Owners.

We may share personal information of Hosts and Guests such as booking information, and information related to compliance with applicable laws such as short-term rental laws with landlords, management companies, and/or property owners (the “

Building Management

”), in order to facilitate programs with Building Management. For example, guest booking and personal information, including guest contact information, may be shared with the Building Management of the building, complex, or community where a host lives and/or the listing is located, to facilitate hosting services, compliance with applicable laws, security, billing, and other services.

4.7 Service Providers.

We share personal information with affiliated and unaffiliated service providers to help us run our business, including service providers that help us: (i) verify your identity or authenticate your identification documents, (ii) check information against public databases, (iii) conduct background or police checks, fraud prevention, and risk assessment, (iv) perform product development, maintenance and debugging, (v) allow the provision of Decibel Services through third-party platforms and software tools (e.g. through the integration with our APIs), (vi) provide customer service, advertising, or payments services, (vii) process, handle or assess insurance claims or similar claims, or (viii) facilitate non-profit and charitable activities consistent with Decibel’s mission. These providers are contractually bound to protect your personal information and have access to your personal information to perform these tasks.

4.8 Business Transfers.

If Decibel undertakes or is involved in any merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, bankruptcy, or insolvency event, then we may sell, transfer or share some or all of our assets, including your information in connection with such transaction or in contemplation of such transaction (e.g., due diligence). In this event, we will notify you before your personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

5. OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION

5.1 Analyzing your Communications.

We may review, scan, or analyze your communications on Decibel Platform for reasons, including fraud prevention, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, investigation, product development, research, analytics, enforcing our Terms of Service, and customer support purposes. In some cases, we may also scan, review, or analyze messages to debug, improve, and expand product offerings. We use automated methods where reasonably possible. Occasionally we may need to manually review communications, such as for fraud investigations and customer support, or to assess and improve the functionality of these automated tools. We will not review, scan, or analyze your messaging communications to send third-party marketing messages to you and we will not sell reviews or analyses of these communications.

5.2 Linking Third-Party Accounts.

You can link your Decibel account with certain third-party services like social networks. Your contacts on these third-party services are referred to as “

Friends

.” When you direct the data sharing by creating this link:

some of the information provided to us from linking accounts may be published on your public profile,
your activities on Decibel Platform may be displayed to your Friends on Decibel Platform and/or that third-party service,
a link to your public profile on that third-party service may be included in your Decibel public profile,
other Decibel users may be able to see any Friends that you may have in common with them, or that you are a Friend of their Friend if applicable,
other Decibel users may be able to see any schools, hometowns or other groups you have in common with them as listed on your linked social networking service,
information you provide to us from the linking of your accounts may be stored, processed and transmitted for fraud prevention and risk assessment purposes, and
publication and display of information that you provide to the Decibel Platform through this linkage is subject to your settings and authorizations on Decibel Platform and the third-party service.

5.3 Third-Party Partners & Integrations.

Parts of Decibel may link to third-party services, not owned or controlled by Decibel, such as Google Maps/Earth. Use of these services is subject to the privacy policies of those providers, such as Google Maps/Earth Additional Terms of Use, Google Privacy Policy (see here for more information on how Google uses information). Decibel does not own or control these third parties and when you interact with them you are providing your information to them.

6. YOUR RIGHTS

You can exercise any of the rights described in this section consistent with applicable law.

6.1 Managing Your Information.

You can access and update some of your personal information through your Account settings. If you connected your Decibel Account to a third-party service, like Facebook or Google, you can change your settings and unlink from that service in your Account settings. You are responsible for keeping your personal information up to date.

6.2 Data Access and Portability.

In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to request certain copies of your personal information or information about how we handle your personal information, request copies of personal information that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and/or request that we transmit this information to another service provider (where technically feasible).

6.3 Data Erasure.

In certain jurisdictions, you can request that your personal information be deleted. Please note that if you request the erasure of your personal information:

We may retain your personal information as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as prevention of money laundering, fraud detection and prevention, and enhancing safety. For example, if we suspend an Decibel Account for fraud or safety reasons, we may retain information from that Decibel Account to prevent that Member from opening a new Decibel Account in the future.
We may retain and use your personal information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations. For example, Decibel may keep information for tax, legal reporting and auditing obligations.
Information you have shared with others (e.g., Reviews, forum postings) will continue to be publicly visible on Decibel, even after your Decibel Account is cancelled. However, attribution of such information to you will be removed. Some copies of your information (e.g., log records) will remain in our database, but are disassociated from personal identifiers.
Because we take measures to protect data from accidental or malicious loss and destruction, residual copies of your personal information may not be removed from our backup systems for a limited period of time.

7. SECURITY

While no organization can guarantee perfect security, we are continuously implementing and updating administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your information against unauthorized access, loss, destruction, or alteration.

8. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time in accordance with applicable law. If we do so, we will post the revised Privacy Policy and update the “Last Updated” date at the top. In case of material changes, we will also provide you with notice of the modification by email at least thirty (30) days before the effective date. If you disagree with the revised Privacy Policy, you can cancel your Account. If you do not cancel your Account before the date the revised Privacy Policy becomes effective, your continued access to or use of Decibel Platform will be subject to the revised Privacy Policy.

9. CONTACT INFORMATION AND RESPONSIBLE Decibel ENTITIES

For questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or Decibel’s handling of personal information (i) If you reside in the United States contact Decibel and (ii) for payments related matter please use the contact information provided in the Terms of Service.

10. COOKIE POLICY

Decibel uses cookies, mobile identifiers, tracking URLs, log data and similar technologies to help provide, protect, and improve Decibel Platform. This Cookie Policy (“

Cookie Policy

”) supplements Decibel Privacy Policy and explains how and why we use these technologies and the choices you have.

10.1 Why Decibel Uses These Technologies.

We use these technologies for a number of purposes, such as:

to enable, facilitate and streamline the functioning of and your access to Decibel Platform
to better understand how you navigate through and interact with Decibel Platform and to improve Decibel Platform
to serve you tailored advertising (such as on Decibel Platform, emails and on third-party websites)
to show you content (e.g., advertisements) that is more relevant to you
to monitor and analyze the performance, operation, and effectiveness of Decibel Platform and Decibel advertisements
to enforce legal agreements that govern use of Decibel Platform
for fraud detection and prevention, trust and safety, and investigations
for purposes of our own customer support, analytics, research, product development, and regulatory compliance.

10.2 Cookies.

When you visit Decibel Platform we may place cookies on your device. Cookies are small text files that websites send to your computer or other Internet-connected device to uniquely identify your browser or to store information or settings in your browser. Cookies allow us to recognize you when you return. They also help us provide a customized experience and can enable us to detect certain kinds of fraud. In many cases the information we collect using cookies and other tools is only used in a non-identifiable manner without reference to personal information. For example, we may use information we collect to better understand website traffic patterns and to optimize our website experience. In some cases we associate the information we collect using cookies and other technology with your personal information. Our business partners may also use these tracking technologies on Decibel Platform or engage others to track your behavior on our behalf.

There are two types of cookies used on Decibel Platform: (1) “session cookies” and (2) “persistent cookies.” Session cookies normally expire when you close your browser, while persistent cookies remain on your device after you close your browser, and can be used again the next time you access Decibel Platform.

In many cases you can manage cookie preferences and opt-out of having cookies and other data collection technologies used by adjusting the settings on your browser. All browsers are different so visit the “help” section of your browser when to learn about cookie preferences and other privacy settings that may be available. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies or clear local storage this could affect the features, availability, and functionality of Decibel Platform.

10.3 Flash Cookies.

We may use Flash Cookies, also known as Local Stored Objects, and similar technologies to personalize and enhance your online experience. A Flash cookie is a small data file placed on a computer using Adobe Flash technology. The Adobe Flash Player is an application that allows rapid development of dynamic content, such as video clips and animation.

We use Flash cookies to personalize and enhance your online experience and to deliver content for Flash players. We may also use Flash cookies for security purposes, to gather certain website metrics and to help remember settings and preferences. Flash cookies are managed through a different interface than the one provided by your web browser. To manage Flash cookies, please visit Adobe’s website.

If you disable Flash cookies or other similar technologies, please note that you may not have access to certain content and product features such as your device remembering a Listing that you viewed during a previous visit.

10.4 Pixel Tags, Web Beacons, and Trackers.

Pixel tags, web beacons, and tracking urls are tiny graphic images and/or small blocks of code placed on website pages, ads, or in our emails that allow us to determine whether you performed a specific action. When you access these pages, or when you open an email, let us know you have accessed the web page or opened the email. These tools help us measure response to our communications and improve our web pages and promotions.

10.5 Server Logs and Other Technologies.

We collect many different types of information from server logs and other technologies. For example, we collect information about the device you use to access Decibel Platform, your operating system type, browser type, domain, and other system settings, as well as the language your system uses and the country and time zone where your device is located. Our server logs also record the IP address of the device you use to connect to the Internet. An IP address is a unique identifier that devices require to identify and communicate with each other on the Internet. We may also collect information about the website you were visiting before you came to Decibel Platform and the website you visit after you leave Decibel Platform. These tools help us improve user experience and deliver our services.

10.6 Device Information.

We may use device-related information to authenticate users. For example, we may use your IP address, browser information, or other data provided by your browser or device to identify the device being used to access our platform. We may also use these device-related techniques for associating you with different devices that you may use to access our content including for fraud-protection purposes and to better target advertising.

10.7 Third Parties.

Third parties, including Facebook, place technologies such as pixels and SDKs on Decibel Platform. These technologies (1) help us analyze how you use Decibel Platform, such as by noting the third party services from which you arrived, (2) market and advertise Decibel services to you on Decibel Platform and third party websites, (3) help us detect or prevent fraud or conduct risk assessments, and (4) collect information about your activities on Decibel Platform, other sites, and/or the ads you have clicked on. For example, to help us better understand how people use Decibel Platform, we work with a number of analytics partners, including Google Analytics. To prevent Google Analytics from using your information for analytics, you may install the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser by clicking here.

Third parties, including Facebook, may also use such tracking technologies to collect or receive information from Decibel Platform and elsewhere and use that information to serve ads that they believe are most likely to be of interest to you and measure the effectiveness of their ads both on the Decibel Platform and on other websites and online services. Targeting and advertising cookies we use may include Google, and other advertising networks and services we use from time to time. See here for information on how Google manages data in its ad products. For more information about targeting and advertising cookies and how you can opt out, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or http://youronlinechoices.eu. To opt out of Google Analytics for display advertising or customize Google display network ads, you can visit the Google Ads Settings page. To the extent advertising technology is integrated into Decibel Platform and you opt-out of tailored advertising, you may still receive advertising content. In that case, the advertising content will just not be tailored to your interests. Also, we do not control any of these opt-out links and are not responsible for the availability or accuracy of these mechanisms.

10.8 Third Party Social Plugins.

Decibel Platform may use social plugins provided and operated by third parties, such as Facebook’s Like Button. As a result of this, you may send to the third party the information that you are viewing on a certain part of Decibel Platform. If you are not logged into your account with the third party, then the third party may not know your identity. If you are logged in to your account with the third party, then the third party may be able to link information or actions about your interactions with Decibel Platform to your account with them. Please refer to the third party’s privacy policies to learn more about its data practices.

10.9 Your Choices.

Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser setting to decline cookies by visiting the Help portion of your browser’s toolbar. While you may disable cookies through your browser settings, Decibel Platform currently does not respond to a “Do Not Track” signal in the HTTP header from your browser or mobile application due to lack of standardization regarding how that signal should be interpreted.

Flash cookies operate differently than browser cookies, and cookie management tools available in a web browser will not remove flash cookies. To learn more about how to manage flash cookies, you can visit the Adobe website and make changes at the Global Privacy Settings Panel.

Your mobile device may allow you to control cookies through its settings function. Refer to your device manufacturer’s instructions for more information.

If you choose to decline cookies, some parts of Decibel Platform may not work as intended or may not work at all.to enable you to use and access Decibel Platform and the payment services