Privacy Policy

The Switchboard Network Privacy Policy Last updated 2022

  1. Information needed to use The Switchboard Network Platform. We collect personal information about you when you use The Switchboard Network Platform. Without it, we may not be able to provide 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, and profile photo, 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. If you are not a user, we may receive payment information relating to you, such as when a user provides your payment card to complete a booking. If a copy of your ID is provided to us, we may scan, use, and store information contained in your ID to verify your identity.
  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, preferred language(s), city, 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.
  3. Information Automatically Collected by Using The Switchboard Network Platform and our Payment Services. When you use The Switchboard Network 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 Platform.
    • Log Data and Device Information. Such as details about how you’ve used The Switchboard Network 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.
    • 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.
  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 The Switchboard Network 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 authorised by you via your privacy settings at that service.
    • 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 The Switchboard Network 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.
  5. Provide, Improve, and Develop The Switchboard Network Platform Such as to:
    • enable you to access The Switchboard Network Platform and make and receive payments,
    • enable you to communicate with other users,
    • process your request,
    • perform analytics, debug and conduct research,
    • provide customer service, training,
    • send you messages, updates, security alerts, and account notifications,
    • if you provide us with your contacts’ information, such as your friends, we may process this information: (i) to facilitate your referral invitations, (ii) to share your trip details and facilitate trip planning, (iii) for fraud detection and prevention, and (iv) to facilitate your requests or for any other purpose you authorise,
    • personalise and customise your experience based on your interactions with The Switchboard Network Platform, your search and booking history, your profile information and preferences, and other content you submit, and
  6. Create and Maintain a Trusted and Safer Environment. Including 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 users, Hosts, Hosts’ employees, and members of the public,
    • resolve disputes with our users, including sharing information with your co-Host or additional users about disputes related to your role as a co-Host or additional user,  enforce our agreements with third parties,
    • comply with law, respond to legal requests, prevent harm
  7. Provide, Personalise, Measure, and Improve our Advertising and Marketing.For example to:
    • send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information based on your preferences and social media advertising through social media platforms,
    • personalise, measure, and improve our advertising,
    • administer referral programs, rewards, surveys, sweepstakes, contests, or other promotional activities or events sponsored or managed by The Switchboard Network Platform or its third-party partners,
    • analyse 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.
  8. Provide Payment services. Personal information is used to enable, or authorise third parties to use, Payment Services such as to:
    • detect and prevent money laundering, fraud, abuse, and security incidents,
    • conduct security investigations and risk assessments,
    • comply with legal obligations (such as anti-money laundering regulations),
    • with your consent, send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information that may be of interest to you based on your preferences, and
    • provide and improve Payment Services.
  9. 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 yourThe Switchboard Network account or participating in promotional activities by the partners or third parties. Where permissible under 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 The Switchboard Network platform, or otherwise promote our products and services.
  10. Sharing Between Members. To help facilitate bookings or other interactions between users, we may need to share certain information such as:
    • When a booking request is made, when there is a co-host, or a dispute is submitted, certain information may be shared between Guest(s) and Host(s), including profile, name, names of any additional users/guests, cancellation history, review information, age of user(unless prohibited by applicable law), dispute outcome (when applicable), and other information you choose to share and submit.When you as a Host have a confirmed booking, certain information is shared with the user (and any additional guests they invite, if applicable) to coordinate the booking, such as your profile, full name, phone number, and Listing address.
  11. 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, first name (or initials where applicable), description, and city.
    • Listing pages that include information such as the Accommodation 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.
  12. Programs with Managers and Owners. We may share personal information of Hosts and Guests with landlords, management companies, and/or property owners (“Building Management”), such as booking information and information related to compliance with applicable laws, 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.
  13. Service Providers. We share personal information with affiliated and unaffiliated service providers to help us run our business and for their compliance purposes, 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 The Switchboard Network Services through third-party platforms and software tools (e.g. through the integration with our APIs), (vi) provide customer service, advertising, or payments services, or (vii) process, handle or assess insurance claims or similar claims. These providers are contractually bound to protect your personal information and have access to your personal information to perform these tasks.
  14. Analysing your Communications. We may review, scan, or analyse your communications on the Platform for reasons outlined in the “How We Use Information We Collect” section of this policy, including fraud prevention, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, investigation, product development, research, analytics, enforcing our Terms of Service, and customer support purposes. For example, as part of our fraud prevention efforts, we scan and analyze messages to mask contact information and references to other sites. 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.
  15. Third-Party Partners & Integrations. Parts of The Switchboard Network may link to third-party services, not owned or controlled by The Switchboard Network, 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). The Switchboard Network does not own or control these third parties and when you interact with them you are providing your information to them.
  16. Your rights You can exercise any of the rights described in this section consistent with applicable law. We may ask you to verify your identity and request before taking further action on your request.
  17. Managing Your Information. You can access and update some of your personal information through your Account settings. You are responsible for keeping your personal information up to date.
  18. 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 unauthorised access, loss, destruction, or alteration.
  19. 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 the The Switchboard Network Platform will be subject to the revised Privacy Policy
© Switchboard Network. All Rights Reserved. | Terms of service | Privacy policy