TheHoodzPrivacy Policy

1. Information we collect

We may collect, generate, infer, receive, combine and otherwise process information relating to identified or identifiable individuals, including account holders, rappers, creators, challengers, viewers, buyers, attendees, promoters, moderators, support contacts and site visitors.

1.1 Information you provide directly

We may collect information you provide when you register, verify your account, build a profile, claim a hood, upload battle content, subscribe, buy something, message other users, contact support, enter a promotion, participate in a survey, join a waitlist, attend an event, apply for verification, or otherwise use the Services. This may include:

• name, stage name, username, email address, phone number, password, date of birth, billing address, country, login credentials and account identifiers;
• profile information such as biography, artist details, pronouns, social links, genres, location, suburb, postcode, territory, profile image, cover art and linked accounts;
• content you upload or submit, including battle videos, short-form video clips, live streams, audio, voice recordings, instrumentals, captions, text posts, comments, chat messages, challenge submissions, images, thumbnails, artwork, crew information, files, proofs, metadata and any related rights information;
• communications including direct messages, comments, support tickets, reviews, reports, feedback forms, interview submissions, contest entries and correspondence with us or with other users through the Services;
• transaction, billing, payout, tax, identity verification, anti-fraud, sanctions screening or compliance information you provide to us or to payment, verification and security vendors acting for us;
• information about people appearing in your uploads, including names, tags, releases, rights information and any consent records or permissions you provide in connection with that content; and
• any other information you choose to provide in public or private areas of the Services.

1.2 Information collected automatically

When you use the Services, we or our vendors may automatically collect or generate information such as:

• device data, operating system, browser type, device model, language, carrier, timezone, screen size, ad IDs, app version, identifiers, cookies, SDK data and push-token information;
• network and technical data, including IP address, approximate location inferred from IP, timestamps, logs, request headers, referrers, crash information, diagnostics, performance metrics and security signals;
• usage data, such as pages viewed, buttons clicked, watch time, scroll depth, searches, feed interactions, uploads started or abandoned, challenge actions, messages sent, invites, friend actions, reactions, shares, follows, wallet actions, territory views and feature usage;
• content and file metadata, including file type, duration, size, codec, dimensions, device source, timestamps, geotags where present, checksums, thumbnails, subtitles, speech-to-text data, moderation signals and other technical or derived metadata;
• risk and trust signals, such as device reputation, suspicious behaviour patterns, rate-limit events, account linkages, velocity signals, suspected automation indicators, fraud models, dispute history and enforcement history; and
• analytics, attribution and marketing data, including campaign parameters, conversion data, interest signals, remarketing audiences, hashed identifiers, session replay or product-analytics style events where enabled and lawful.

1.3 Information from third parties

We may receive information from third parties including:

• login, authentication and social account providers;
• payment processors, fraud vendors, identity and sanctions screening providers, tax and payout providers, ticketing or wallet vendors, chargeback tools and compliance partners;
• analytics, hosting, infrastructure, support, moderation, trust and safety, ad attribution, anti-abuse and communications providers;
• public sources, rights holders, complainants, law-enforcement or regulatory bodies, or vendors helping us investigate abuse, legal claims or policy violations; and
• other users who tag you, report you, transact with you, invite you, message you, identify you in uploaded content, or otherwise provide information involving you.

2. How we collect information

We collect information directly from you, automatically through the Services and related technologies, from other users, from public sources, and from third-party partners and providers. We may also combine information from different sources to create more complete records, service logs, preferences, predictions, recommendations, moderation signals, fraud indicators or operational profiles about a user, session, device, transaction or account.

This collection may happen when you visit the site, create an account, upload content, watch or stream content, search for a location, claim or challenge a territory, send a message, click a link, open an email, use a payment flow, connect a third-party service, or otherwise interact with the Services.

3. How we use information

We may use information for the following purposes:

• Service delivery: creating and administering accounts, profiles, map activity, territory claims, battle uploads, playback, feeds, messaging, social features, tickets, promotions, events, rankings, rewards and future platform features;
• Hosting and media processing: storing, caching, transcoding, streaming, resizing, clipping, subtitle generation, metadata extraction, file integrity checks, preview generation, distribution and related content operations;
• Payments and business operations: processing purchases, subscriptions, refunds, credits, chargebacks, wallet events, balances, reports, financial controls and customer service;
• Safety, moderation and trust: detecting fraud, impersonation, policy violations, manipulated engagement, abusive conduct, illegal activity, threats, self-harm concerns, spam, account compromise, suspicious devices and other harmful or unlawful behaviour;
• Personalization and ranking: showing suggestions, search results, recommended battles, relevant territories, local content, creator discovery, promotions, notifications and feed ordering;
• Communications: sending transactional messages, login alerts, moderation notices, dispute notices, account updates, verification requests, legal notices, campaign messages, marketing and community updates subject to your settings and applicable law;
• Analytics and improvement: understanding how users behave, testing features, troubleshooting failures, monitoring uptime, measuring engagement, training staff, improving workflows and optimizing conversion or retention;
• AI and automation support: supporting moderation, classification, transcription, tagging, search, safety systems, anti-abuse tools, content ranking, recommendation systems and product-improvement processes; and
• Legal and corporate purposes: complying with law, regulatory requests, rights claims, tax obligations, sanctions screening, contract enforcement, dispute resolution, audits, financing, due diligence, insurance, corporate transactions and record keeping.

Where permitted, we may also create inferred information about your likely interests, fraud risk, device trust, geography, engagement quality, commercial value, content category, or probable preferences in order to operate, secure or improve the Services.

4. Cookies, pixels and similar technologies

We and our partners may use cookies, pixels, tags, local storage, SDKs, web beacons, server-side identifiers, attribution tools and similar technologies to recognize browsers or devices, remember settings, measure performance, support analytics, attribute traffic, prevent fraud, enforce rate limits, personalize content and support advertising or remarketing where enabled and lawful.

These technologies may be used to keep you signed in, remember preferences, measure campaign effectiveness, understand how people navigate the Services, support session continuity, detect abuse, run A/B tests, attribute conversions, build audiences, or link activity across your sessions and devices using identifiers or probabilistic signals where permitted.

You can manage some cookies through browser or device settings and, where provided, through site consent tools. Some technologies are necessary for the Services to function correctly and disabling them may affect core functionality.

5. When we share information

We may disclose or make information available in the following circumstances:

• Service providers: with vendors that provide hosting, storage, CDNs, media processing, moderation, analytics, support, communications, security, compliance, fraud prevention, ticketing, infrastructure, marketing, tax, payout and similar services on our behalf;
• Payment and transaction partners: with processors, banks, wallet providers, payout providers, identity or KYC vendors, tax vendors, fraud vendors and relevant transaction counterparties where needed to complete or administer a purchase, subscription, payout, dispute, refund or fraud check;
• Advertising and analytics partners: with marketing, attribution, conversion, audience or analytics partners, subject to your settings, the feature used, and applicable law;
• Other users and the public: when your profile, territory, activity, uploads, comments, messages, ticket pages, stream information or other content is public or visible to other users through the Services;
• Legal and safety reasons: where necessary to comply with law, respond to process or regulator requests, enforce terms, protect the Services, preserve evidence, investigate abuse or protect rights, property or safety;
• Corporate transactions: in connection with financing, a restructure, investment, acquisition, merger, asset sale, insolvency process or similar event; and
• With your direction or consent: where you ask us to share information or clearly authorize it.

We do not describe ourselves as selling personal data in the ordinary data-broker sense. However, some privacy laws define “sale”, “sharing” or similar concepts more broadly than ordinary language, and certain ad-tech or cross-context marketing uses may fall within those definitions depending on the law that applies.

6. Public content and user-generated material

Certain parts of the Services are public or visible to other users. If you create a profile, claim a hood, publish a battle video, post text, upload audio, add captions, comment, send certain public messages, publish event or promotional pages, or otherwise make content visible through the Services, that information may be viewed, copied, indexed, clipped, quoted, shared, reported, scraped or reused by other users, third-party platforms, search engines or rights holders.

Public content may include associated metadata such as username, profile details, timestamps, territory name, engagement counts, reactions, ranking signals, approximate area labels, captions and technical media information. We cannot promise that public content can be fully retracted once it has been accessed, cached, copied or redistributed by others.

Please think carefully before posting personal information about yourself or anyone else in any public area, file metadata, captions, visible backgrounds, screen recordings or comments.

7. Payments and financial data

Payments on TheHoodz may be processed by third-party payment processors and related vendors. We may receive transaction status, billing metadata, partial payment method details, subscription state, fraud signals, tax information, payout status, chargeback data and related records from those providers. Full payment credentials are generally collected and stored by the processor under its own privacy and security practices, not by us directly.

Where applicable, we may also collect tax, verification, identification and compliance data to process payouts, comply with reporting or sanctions obligations, prevent fraud, reduce platform abuse or meet legal requirements.

8. AI, analytics and product improvement

We may use account data, usage data, prompts, uploads, outputs, content metadata, support records, risk flags, moderation signals and operational logs to operate, secure, analyze and improve the Services, including search, feed ranking, recommendations, moderation tools, quality control, abuse detection, feature testing and workflow optimization.

Where a product-specific setting, consent flow or feature notice limits particular future AI or product-improvement uses, we will honor that setting as described in the relevant workflow. Some AI or automation functions may be performed by third-party vendors acting for us.

9. Data retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including to operate the Services, maintain records, complete transactions, support users, investigate abuse, comply with law, resolve disputes, enforce agreements and preserve evidence.

Retention periods vary depending on the data type, purpose and risk involved. We may keep:

• account and profile data while your account remains active and for a reasonable period afterwards;
• transaction, billing, tax, subscription and payout records for accounting, legal, fraud and compliance periods;
• support, moderation, enforcement, dispute and abuse records for platform integrity, risk, safety and legal purposes;
• logs, telemetry and technical data for diagnostics, security, rate limiting, resilience and incident response; and
• backup copies and archives for disaster recovery, continuity, legal hold, evidence preservation and deletion-cycle purposes.

Deleting content or closing an account does not necessarily remove all copies immediately. Some material may remain in backups, cached systems, completed transactions, legal files, moderation archives or other retained records where required or reasonably necessary.

10. International data transfers

TheHoodz may operate globally. Information may be stored, processed, backed up or accessed in countries other than the country where you live, including countries where our vendors, cloud providers, analytics providers, processors, moderation vendors, support vendors or corporate counterparties operate. Those countries may have privacy or data-protection laws that differ from those in your jurisdiction.

Where required, we use reasonable safeguards for international transfers, which may include contractual protections, vendor due diligence, organizational controls and technical security measures.

11. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability or objection, or to withdraw consent for certain processing. You may also be able to manage marketing preferences, cookies or certain privacy settings through your browser, device, account settings or feature-level controls.

We may need to verify your identity before completing a request. In some cases, we may refuse or limit a request where the law allows us to do so, for example if we cannot verify identity, if another person’s rights would be affected, if a legal or security exception applies, or if the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

12. Region-specific notices

12.1 Australia

If Australian privacy law applies, this policy is intended to describe the kinds of personal information we collect and hold, how we collect and hold it, the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose it, how you may access or correct it, how you may complain about a breach, and whether we are likely to disclose information overseas.

12.2 EEA, UK and similar jurisdictions

If you are in a jurisdiction with GDPR-style rights, we may process personal information on different legal bases depending on the context, including where necessary to provide the Services, comply with law, pursue legitimate interests, protect the platform, or where you consent. Rights may include access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability and certain rights relating to automated decision-making where applicable.

12.3 California and similar U.S. state laws

If a U.S. state privacy law applies to you, you may have rights to know, access, correct, delete, opt out of certain disclosures, or appeal a rights-request decision. We will not unlawfully discriminate against you for exercising applicable rights.

12.4 Advertising choices

You may be able to limit interest-based advertising using browser controls, device settings, consent tools or opt-out mechanisms offered by some advertising partners or recognized privacy controls where applicable.

13. Children’s privacy

The Services are not directed to children below the minimum age permitted under applicable law to use the Services without parent or guardian involvement. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children in violation of applicable law. If you believe a child has provided personal information unlawfully, contact us and we will investigate and take appropriate action.

14. Security

We use reasonable technical, administrative and organizational measures designed to protect information against unauthorized access, misuse, loss, alteration or disclosure. These may include access controls, logging, rate limiting, encryption in transit, vendor controls, monitoring, verification workflows and incident response procedures.

No service, network, storage system or internet transmission is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for safeguarding your own credentials, devices and account access, and for using appropriate caution when posting or sharing content.

15. Third-party links and integrations

The Services may contain links to third-party websites, platforms, processors, embeds, logins and integrations. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies, not this one. We encourage you to review third-party privacy terms before using those services.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date above and may provide additional notice where appropriate, such as by posting a notice on the Services, sending an email, or showing an in-product notification. Your continued use of the Services after the revised policy takes effect means you acknowledge the updated policy.

17. Contact us

If you have questions, requests or complaints about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, contact us using the details below.