For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Fongo” means Fongo Inc. and its affiliates and subsidiaries.

Purpose

Fongo recognizes that its customers value the privacy of their personal information. This Policy is intended to provide information to our customers when making decisions to provide personal information to us.

Personal Information and Our Commitment

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual that may include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, financial information and birthday. Fongo fully supports and follows the federal government’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, and any substantially similar provincial legislation, which governs commercial organizations dealing with personal information. Fongo is pleased to provide information about its practices in respect of personal information consistent with the Ten Principles of Privacy Protection upon which the federal legislation is based.

Principle 1 – Accountability

Fongo will be responsible for personal information under its control including personal information that has been transferred to a third party for processing.

Fongo has designated a Privacy Officer who is accountable for Fongo’s compliance with the Policy’s principles. The Privacy Officer may be contacted at: privacyofficer@fongo.com

Principle 2 – Identifying Purposes

Fongo collects personal information for one or more of the following purposes:

• to provide service(s) and/or products to customers;
• to provide a positive customer experience, to communicate with customers and manage customer accounts (which will include, but not be limited to: billing, collection, advertising, promotion, account verification and which may be facilitated through a Fongo affiliated company);
• to evaluate customers’ financial status and eligibility for credit;
• to identify customer needs and/or preferences;
• to meet legal and regulatory requirements;
• to administer and manage its business operations; and
• as otherwise required or permitted by law

Fongo will identify the purposes for which personal information is collected at the time the information is collected. Some Fongo products may be co-branded and offered together with or via a partner company. If you register for or use such products, you consent to both Fongo and the partner company’s collection, use and disclosure of personal information collected in connection with the co-branded product.

Fongo may also share personal information with other Fongo affiliated companies or their agents or authorized dealers in order to offer you products or services that you may find attractive and also to provide ancillary or back-end services (such as network services, billing and collection) that will complete the service offering to the customer.

Principle 3 – Consent

Fongo will obtain your consent for the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information, except in certain circumstances, as permitted by the law. The form of consent may vary and may include, but is not limited to, oral consent when collected over the telephone or online consent via check-off boxes at the time of registration or when an individual uses a product or service. To make the consent meaningful, the purposes will be stated in such a manner that the individual can reasonably understand how the information will be used or disclosed.

In certain circumstances, personal information may be collected, used, or disclosed without consent of the individual. For example, where collection of personal information is clearly in the interests of the individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way; where personal information is used in the case of an emergency that threatens the life, health or security of an individual; where the collection of personal information with that person’s knowledge or consent might compromise the availability or accuracy of the information and the collection relates to the investigation of a breach of an agreement or contravention of law; and where personal information is disclosed for debt collection purposes or to comply with a subpoena, warrant or court order.

You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. Please contact privacyofficer@fongo.com for information on how you may withdraw your consent.

Principle 4 – Limiting Collection

Fongo will limit the collection of your personal information to that which is necessary for the purposes identified by Fongo at the time we ask you for your information and as identified in this Privacy Policy. Fongo will collect personal information by fair and lawful means.

Website – Cookies

The Site uses a feature of the Internet web browsers called a cookie, which is a file that is sent to your browser from the Site’s computers and stored on your computer’s hard drive. A cookie assigns a unique identification code to your computer in order to collect anonymous information. On this Site, cookies are used to help us track visitors, conduct research and improve our content and services. Fongo cookies do not collect personal information. Fongo only collects personal information if you knowingly and willingly provide such information.
You may set your Internet web browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to prevent cookies from being sent. If you prevent a cookie from being sent, you may limit the functionality of the Site.

Apps – Permissions

Fongo’s Mobile apps may ask for the following permissions, which allows the app to provide an optimal user-experience.

Contacts

Fongo’s apps use your contacts to display a list of contacts within the app which makes it easier for you to call and text them. The apps will send the phone numbers of your contacts to our servers when trying to connect calls or route texts. The apps will periodically send your contacts’ phone numbers to our servers to facilitate displaying call rates within the app. These numbers are solely utilized for rate-lookup purposes; we neither retain a list of your contacts’ phone numbers nor use them for any other intent.

Location

Fongo’s apps use your location for 9-1-1 calls. Your location will be sent to our server when an emergency call is made. This can help facilitate finding you in an emergency situation. The app also uses location, if you choose, during signup to help select a new phone number.

Microphone

Fongo’s apps use the microphone on your device so that the other party on a call can hear you.

Camera

Fongo’s apps use the camera on your device to allow you to send picture messages or update your contact photos. Only the selected photos are sent to our server and only the receiving party will have access to them.

Photo Library

Fongo’s apps use the photo library on your device to allow you to send picture messages or update your contact photos. For picture messaging, only the selected photos are sent to our server and only the receiving party will have access to them.

Bluetooth

Fongo’s apps use bluetooth on your device to allow you to have your call audio go through your connected bluetooth device.

Ad Tracking

Fongo’s apps use the ad tracking identifier to deliver more relevant, personalized ads to you.

Apps – Blocked Numbers

Any numbers that you choose to block from calling/texting you are stored in our server to facilitate blocking functionality on our server side. These numbers are used solely for blocking purposes and nothing else.
Note: The above process regarding blocked phone numbers only applies to Fongo Mobile and Fongo Works app users

Principle 5 – Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention

Fongo will not use or disclose your personal information for purposes other than which is was collected, except in cases such as those that fall under the circumstances described above where consent may be inappropriate. Personal information will be retained only as long as necessary for the fulfillment of those purposes or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

Principle 6 – Accuracy

Fongo will take steps to help ensure that your personal information will remain as accurate, complete and up-to-date as is reasonably necessary for the intended purposes.

The extent to which personal information will be updated will depend upon the use of the information, taking into account the interests of the individual. Information will be sufficiently accurate, complete and up-to-date to minimize the possibility that inappropriate information may be used to make a decision about the individual.

Principle 7 – Safeguards

Fongo shall protect your personal information with security safeguards reasonably appropriate to the sensitivity of the information in order to protect against loss or theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. These safeguards are physical (for example, locked filing cabinets and restricted access to offices); organizational (for example, security clearances and limiting access on a “need to know” basis); and technological (for example, passwords).

Fongo makes their employees aware of the importance of maintaining confidentiality of personal information. Fongo employees are governed by non-disclosure obligations. These obligations prohibit disclosure or use of any confidential or personal information except in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Principle 8 – Openness

Through this publicly available document, Fongo has made readily available specific information about its privacy policies and practices and about the type of personal information Fongo collects. Please feel free to download or print this Policy from www.fongo.com

Principle 9 – Individual Access

Upon written request, Fongo will inform you of the existence, use and disclosure of your personal information and provide access to that information. You will be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate. For your protection, the federal legislation requires that any request for access or request to amend personal information be made in writing.

In certain circumstances, Fongo may not be able to provide you access to your personal information. Where permitted, the reasons for denying access will be provided to you. Exceptions to the grant of an access request may include: information that contains references to other individuals or contains confidential information, where such information cannot be severed from the record; information protected by solicitor-client privilege; information properly collected without the knowledge or consent of the individual for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of law; information generated in the course of a formal dispute resolution process; and as required or permitted by law.

Principle 10 – Challenging Compliance

Please contact the Fongo Privacy Officer at privacyofficer@fongo.com for information on how you may address concerns, questions or a complaint about our compliance with the above principles. The person or persons accountable for compliance with this Privacy Policy may seek external advice where appropriate before providing a final response to individual complaints. Fongo shall investigate all complaints.

Effective Date

This Privacy Policy may be modified from time to time without notice. This policy was last updated on December 1, 2011.