Welcome to the fuse™ Privacy Policy (“Policy”) This explains how we collect, store, protect, and share your information, and with whom we share it. We suggest you read this in conjunction with our Terms of Use.

Whilst you’re enjoying the fuse™ mobile application (“App”), our websites and microsites found here or using our digital services (such as our surveys) (together, referred to in this Privacy Policy as our “Sites”), we collect some information about you. In addition, you may choose to use the App or Sites to share information with other users, including your friends and contacts (“Users”). The App and Sites are global, and your information will be sent to and used in the United States regardless of the country you reside in. This Policy explains how we protect your data.

Who we are?

The App and Sites are operated by fuse™ APP CORP “fuse™” (also referred to in this policy as “we” or “us”) which controls personal information collected and processed through Fuse App and Sites.

fuse™ has designated a Data Protection Officer, and they can be reached by emailing DPO@fuse.love or by post at the following address: 2nd Floor Blayds House, 21 Blayds Yard, Leeds, United Kingdom, LS1 4AD.

1. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.

Registration Information

When you download the App and create an account (“Account”), we may collect certain information (“Registration Information”) about you, such as:

  • Name;
  • Username;
  • Email address;
  • Cell number;
  • Gender identity;
  • Date, time, and location of birth;
  • Sexual preference;
  • Photographs;
  • Location; and
  • Login information for social media accounts that you connect to your fuse™ Account (this could include, for example, your Facebook and Instagram accounts). For more information about this, see “Linking other Accounts to Fuse” in section 7 below.

Once you register, you will be able to review and change this information at any time just by logging in to fuse™ (other than your date of birth and location (which, if you have given fuse™ access to your location in your device settings, is automatically updated based on the location of your device)). It is your responsibility to ensure that your account details are kept up to date. If your phone number changes, please ensure that you update this in your account.

The information we collect helps to enhance the App and verify our Users. Registration Information such as your sexual preference, name, and username may be visible to other Users who view your profile page.

For Users who are California residents, the data we may collect falls within the following categories of “personal information”, as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

  1. Identifiers, such as name and location;
  2. Personal information, as defined in the California customer records law, such as contact (including email and telephone number) and financial information;
  3. Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law (if you choose to provide them), such as age, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, race, ancestry, national origin, religion, and medical conditions;
  4. Commercial information, such as transaction information and purchase history;
  5. Biometric information;
  6. Internet or network activity information, such as browsing history and interactions with our Sites and App;
  7. Geolocation data, such as mobile device location;
  8. Audio, electronic, visual, and similar information, such as photos and videos;
  9. Professional or employment-related information, such as work history and prior employer;
  10. Non-public education information; and
  11. Inferences are drawn from any of the personal information listed above to create a profile or summary about, for example, an individual’s preferences and characteristics.

Profile Information

We recommend and encourage you to think carefully about the information you disclose about yourself. We also do not recommend that you put email addresses, URLs, instant messaging details, phone numbers, full names or addresses, credit card details, national identity numbers, drivers’ license details, and other sensitive information that is open to abuse and misuse on your profile.

When you post information about yourself or use the messaging function to communicate with other Users, the amount of personal information you share is at your own risk. Please see Section 4 below for more information on who can access what you post on fuse™.

Purchases Information

If you decide to purchase any of our pro services, If you’re an Android user it will be directly processed through Google Play and if You’re an Apple user it will be directly processed through the App Store.

Geolocation Information

If you have given fuse™ access to your location in your device settings, when you use your cell, we will collect information about WiFi access points as well as other location information about your longitude and latitude and may save your device’s coordinates to offer certain features to you. This information helps us identify your physical location and we use it to personalize the App and make it easier for you to interact with other Users, by enabling the general locality information to be displayed to Users seeing your profile and showing you the profiles of other Users who are near you.

If you have given fuse™ access to your location, but wish to turn this off, you can do so by adjusting your phone\device’s settings.

Device and Photos Information

We may collect information about your device when you use the App including the unique device identifier, device model, and operating system, for several purposes, as set out in this policy. In addition, if you permit us to do so, the App may access your device’s address book solely to add someone to your contacts.

fuse™ Surveys

From time to time, we run surveys for research purposes, and we may contact you to find out if you would like to take part. We may also contact you to find out if you would like to provide feedback or a testimonial. Such surveys and marketing campaigns are optional, and more information will be provided at the point of contact.

When you Contact Customer Support

If you contact our Customer Support team via feedback@fuse.love, we will receive your email address and may track your IP address, as well as the information you send to us to help resolve your query. We will keep records of our communications with you, including any complaints that we receive from you about other Users (and from other Users about you) for two years after the deletion of your account.

Cookies and similar technologies

When you visit our Sites or when you use our App, we may collect personal data from you automatically by using cookies or similar technologies. A cookie is a small file that can be placed on your device or browser that allows us to recognize and remember you.

2. USE OF YOUR INFORMATION.

Our main goal is to ensure your experience on fuse™ is an enjoyable one, we may use your registration and other information to:

  • offer you our services and features;
  • contact you with information about the App (e.g., updates and new features);
  • personalize the App/Sites and the content we deliver to you;
  • conduct research and analytics about how you use and interact with the App/Sites;
  • to test new technologies and processes designed to enhance and improve the App/Sites;
  • resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems and enforce our Terms of Use;
  • investigate fraud, protect our legal rights, and enforce our Terms of Use.
  • to send you information about the promotions and offers we have available (e.g., specify the types of goods/services/offers to be provided via direct marketing) by direct marketing or other modes of communication - if you’ve signed up for our communications.
  • protect our Users and third parties from harm.

The legal basis for processing profile and proximity information is that this is necessary for the provision of our contractual services to you under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. Where we process information about your app activity, this is based on our legitimate interests according to Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, and specifically our legitimate interest in generating more personalized and relevant recommendations for who you can match within our App. If you have chosen to include sensitive information in your profile, such as information about your beliefs, the processing of this information is based on your voluntary and explicit consent.

Moderation Practices

We use a combination of automated systems and a team of moderators to monitor and review accounts (including photos and any other information uploaded onto user profiles) and messages for content that indicates breaches of our Terms of Use. If an account or message meets certain criteria that demonstrate that the Terms of Use are likely to have been breached, the relevant account will be subject to a warning, and the user’s access restricted and/or blocked. Affected Users can contact fuse™ to contest the decision.

If you post anything inconsistent with our Terms of Use, we reserve the right to terminate or restrict access to your Account.

Lawful Basis

Under EU and UK data protection laws, we are required to tell you about our lawful basis for using your data and we have set this out in the table below. Where the legal basis is consent, you can withdraw consent at any time. Where the legal basis is legitimate interests, you have a right to object to our use of your data. We explain in the relevant sections of this Policy how you can withdraw consent or opt out of certain data uses (where applicable).

Purpose for which data is used Data Source Legal basis
To provide you with fuse™ social networking service Name, email address, date of birth, location (CCPA Categories A and B) You provide your name, email address and date of birth to us. We obtain location data from the device that you use to access the service Contractual necessity
To facilitate networking opportunities on fuse™ App Optional information that you choose to provide in your profile, including through profile verification, or adding fuse™ badges, which may include information about your sexual preferences, non-binary gender, religion, ethnic background, photos, interests, etc. (CCPA Categories B, C, H, I, J) You provide this information to us Contractual necessity and our legitimate interests – it is in our legitimate interests to facilitate networking opportunities in the fuse™ app. For special category/sensitive personal data, we rely on your explicit consent.
To verify your identity and prevent fraud and to ensure the safety and security of Users Phone number and if requested or permitted, photo provided as part of profile verification and for users based in countries where age verification is required by law: photo of Government ID + geolocation and device information (CCPA Categories A, B, C, E, F, G and H) You provide this information to us, except for the geolocation and device information, which we obtain from the device that you use to access the service Legitimate interests – it is in our legitimate interests to ensure that accounts are not set up fraudulently and to safeguard Users of the site
To send you marketing information about our events, offers and services Name, email address, postal address, Instagram handle and mobile phone number (CCPA Categories A and B) You provide this information to us Consent or legitimate interests and in accordance with the laws applying to our marketing activities. We have a legitimate interest in promoting our business and products
To carry out research and analysis to help us improve the App and to test new technologies and processes designed to enhance and improve the App/Sites Log and usage data, including IP address, browser type, referring domain, pages accessed, mobile carrier and search terms, images and video, registration information, profile information (CCPA Categories A, F and H) You provide photos and videos to us. We obtain the log and usage information from the device that you use to access the service Legitimate interests – it is in our legitimate interests to analyze the way in which Users are accessing and using our services and to test new technologies so that we can further develop the App, implement security measures and improve the service
To respond to correspondence and queries that you submit to us, including social media queries Email address and IP address, social media name, phone number (CCPA Categories B and F) You provide your email address, social media name and phone number to us when you contact us and we obtain your IP address from the device that you use to contact us Legitimate interests – it is in our legitimate interests to respond to your queries to ensure that we provide a good service to Users and troubleshoot problems
To investigate and block Users for reported infringements of our Terms and Conditions of Use Name and user registration details, profile information, content of messages and photographs + usage and device data such as IP address and IP session information (CCPA Categories A, B, C, F, and H) You provide your registration details, profile information, messages and photographs to us. We obtain the other information from the device that you use to access the service. Legitimate interests - it is in our legitimate interests to prevent unauthorized behaviour and to maintain the safety and integrity of our services
To improve your experience on the App Data about profile photos such as whether the first profile photo is scrolled on or not and whether the vote is a yes or a no We obtain this information from the way users interact with the App and the profile photos of other users Legitimate interest - it is in our legitimate interest to improve our users’ experience
To enable Users to create and enhance their fuse™ profile and log into the App via third party accounts Data from Facebook and other third-party accounts (see section 7 of this Privacy Policy for more details) (CCPA Categories A, B, C, and H) We obtain this information from Facebook, or the providers of any other accounts you use to log in or connect with your fuse™ account Legitimate interests – it is in our legitimate interests to facilitate access to our services
To block payment transactions as part of our anti-fraud procedures Name, IP address, email address, mobile number, cardholder name, payments received, type of payment, user ID, country (CCPA Categories, A, B, and D) You provide your name, email address, mobile number and card details to us. We obtain your IP address from the device that you use to contact us. We obtain your payment information from your interactions with our service Legitimate interests – it is in our legitimate interests to prevent fraudulent transactions and to maintain the security of our services
To serve promo cards and advertisements on the App Location, gender, age, and information that you have optionally provided us with via your profile (CCPA Categories A, C and G) We obtain age, gender and profile information from you, and location data from the device that you use to access the service Legitimate interests – it is in our legitimate interests to target advertisements so that Users see relevant advertisements and to allow us to generate income from advertising revenue
To serve advertisements on third party networks and measure the effectiveness of such ads Data about your visit to our Sites or App and action taken on those (for example if you downloaded our App or created an account with fuse™), IP address (and your estimated location based on your IP address), age and gender, device ID (CCPA Categories B, C, G, F and K) We obtain age and gender from you and we obtain other information from the device or browser that you use to access the service Consent – as indicated by you in your Privacy Settings/Cookies Settings preferences and via your browser or device privacy preferences (where required by your device manufacturer, for example Apple devices using iOS 14.5).
To contact you in order to run surveys for research purposes and to obtain feedback, and to find out if you want to take part in marketing campaigns Email address and mobile phone number (CCPA Category B) You provide this information to us Legitimate interests – it is in our legitimate interests to carry out research so that we can further develop the app and improve the service
To enable video and audio call functions, and the sending of images and video Video and audio call usage data, images and video (CCPA Categories F and H) We obtain this information from the device that you use to access the service Legitimate interests – it is in our legitimate interests to provide these functionalities as part of the services
To defend legal claims, protect legal rights and to protect people from harm This could include any information that is relevant to the issue This information may be obtained directly from you, from your device or from third parties, depending on the information involved Legitimate interests – it is in our legitimate interests to protect our legal rights, defend legal claims and to protect our Users and third parties from harm

3. DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION.

Our policy is to not disclose your Registration Information or personal data, except in the limited circumstances described here:

Aggregated Information – We may share aggregated information with third parties that includes your personal data (but which doesn’t identify you directly) together with other information including log data for industry analysis and demographic profiling.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT DISCLOSURES

Service Providers

We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us (“Service Providers”). The suppliers with which fuse™ shares User personal data vary depending on a variety of factors, such as which of our App, Sites and services a User engages with. For example, to provide our services to Users, we typically use the following suppliers:

  • Billing services – to allow customers to purchase paid features of our App (for example, App Store and Google Play)
  • Social media providers – to allow customers to create/connect their fuse™ account with their account(s) on such platforms (for example, Instagram)

Marketing Services Providers

We may partner with providers of marketing services (such as Facebook for example) (‘Marketing Services Providers’) to help us market and advertise our App and services on third party websites and applications and measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. For example:

  • to exclude you from advertising campaigns aimed at finding new users, if you already have a fuse™ account;
  • to show fuse™ adverts to users who have visited the fuse™ App/Sites but haven’t yet created a fuse™ account;
  • to create an audience for our advertisements of other potential users who have similar characteristics to you based on the information the Marketing Service Providers holds about you; or
  • to include you in a ‘custom audience’ that will receive fuse™ advertising content (a custom audience is essentially a list of people who we think are most likely to be interested in a particular advertisement).

We may share a limited amount of your personal data with these Marketing Services Providers, such as:

  • the advertising identifier associated with your device (this is a random number assigned by your mobile device manufacturer (for example Apple or Google) to your device to help advertisers (including the manufacturer) know when an ad has been viewed or clicked in an app, and when an ad causes a ‘conversion’ (for example, downloading the app advertised to you)
  • your estimated location (based on your IP address)
  • age and gender
  • data about your visit to our Sites or App and action taken on those (for example if you downloaded our App, created an account with our App.

In some cases, these third parties will also use the data that they collect for their own purposes, for example, they may aggregate your data with other data they hold and use this to inform advertising-related services provided to other clients.

Facebook

Where we share data with Facebook as our Marketing Service Provider (including via the Facebook “Like” function), we are Joint Data Controllers with Facebook Ireland for this processing. This arrangement means that fuse™ has to provide you with this notice, but you should contact Facebook if you wish to exercise your data protection rights. Further information, including how Facebook enables you to exercise your data protection rights and subsequently processes your information as an independent data controller can be found in Facebook Ireland’s Data Policy.

4. OUR POLICY TOWARDS AGE.

Although we want as many people as possible to enjoy our creation, you have to be at least 18 years old to use fuse™.

fuse™ does not knowingly collect any information about or market to children, minors or anyone under the age of 18. If we become aware that a child, minor or anyone under the age of 18 has registered with us and provided us with personal information, we will take steps to terminate that person’s registration.

5. SECURITY.

Here at fuse™, we pride ourselves on taking all appropriate security measures to help protect your information against loss, misuse unauthorized access, or disclosure. We use reasonable security measures to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information such as secured servers using firewalls.

Unfortunately, no website or Internet transmission is ever completely 100% secure, and even we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss, or other breaches will never occur, but here are some handy tips to help keep your data secure:

  1. Please make sure you log out of your Account after use.
  2. Please don’t share the password you use to access your fuse™ Account with anyone else.
  3. Change your password periodically.

We cannot guarantee the security of your personal data while it is being transmitted to our site and any transmission is at your own risk.

6. LINKING OTHER ACCOUNTS TO fuse™.

Using your social media details to sign in to fuse™

When you sign into our App using your Facebook account, you permit Facebook to share with us your name and profile picture. Unless you opt-out, you also permit Facebook to share with us your email address (if there is one associated with your Facebook account), date of birth, profile photos, gender, Page likes, and current town/city.

If you register or sign in with your Apple ID, you give Apple permission to share your Apple login, a name (that can be edited by you), and an email (you can choose to hide your email and Apple will create a random email address so your personal email can stay private). This email address will be linked to your fuse™ account and will be used to retrieve your fuse™ account.

We will then use this personal data to form your account. If you remove the fuse™ app from your Facebook settings, or from your Apple ID, we will no longer have access to this data. However, we will still have the personal data that we received when you first set up your fuse™ account using your Facebook or Apple ID (you must delete your fuse™ account entirely for us to no longer have access to this data).

Linking social media accounts to your fuse™ account

You may link your fuse™ account with your Instagram, and Facebook accounts. This allows you to share some information from those accounts directly to your fuse™ account (for example, Instagram photos).

We only receive the limited information that Instagram permits to be transferred (as detailed by Instagram/Facebook and agreed by you when you first connect your account from such platforms with your fuse™ account).

If you no longer want to link your fuse™ account to your Instagram, or Facebook account, please visit the settings in your Instagram, or Facebook account and follow the instructions to remove fuse™ app access permissions. Please note that any information already added to your fuse™ account from those platforms will not be deleted unless you delete it within your fuse™ account as well.

7. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS.

For Users who are California residents, you have the following rights (in addition to those listed in section 10 below) under the California Consumer Privacy Act, and you have the right to be free from unlawful discrimination for exercising your rights under the Act:

  1. You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you and explain how we have collected, used, and shared your personal information over the past 12 months.
  2. You have the right to request that we delete your personal information that we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.

California’s “Shine the Light” law, Civil Code section 1798.83, requires certain businesses to respond to requests from California customers asking about the businesses’ practices related to disclosing personal information to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. If you wish to find out about any rights you may have under California Civil Code section 1798.83, you can write to us at feedback@fuse.love.

From time to time, as part of a joint promotion with a third party, we may, if you participate in such promotion, disclose your contact information to the third party to allow them to market their products or services to you. Where this is a condition for participation in a promotion, we will always let you know before you enter the promotion. Please follow the instructions provided to you by third parties to unsubscribe from their messages.

In addition, under California law, operators of online services are required to disclose how they respond to “do not track” signals or other similar mechanisms that provide consumers the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of personal information of a consumer over time and across third-party online services, to the extent the operator engages in that collection. At this time, we do not track our Users’ personal information over time and across third-party online services. This law also requires operators of online services to disclose whether third parties may collect personal information about their users’ online activities over time and across different online services when the users use the operator’s service. We do not knowingly permit third parties to collect personal information about an individual User’s online activities over time and across different online services when using the App.

8. YOUR RIGHTS.

Privacy laws applicable in your country may give you the following rights:

  1. Right to be informed: what personal data an organization is processing and why (we provide this information to you in this Privacy Policy).
  2. Right of access: you can request a copy of your data.
  3. Right of rectification: if the data held is inaccurate, you have the right to have it corrected.
  4. Right to erasure: you have the right to have your data deleted in certain circumstances.
  5. Right to restrict processing: in limited circumstances, you have the right to request that processing is stopped but the data retained.
  6. Right to data portability: you can request a copy of certain data in a machine-readable form that can be transferred to another provider.
  7. Right to object: in certain circumstances (including where data is processed based on legitimate interests or for marketing) you may object to that processing.
  8. Rights related to automated decision-making including profiling: there are several rights in this area where processing carried out on a solely automated basis results in a decision that has legal or significant effects for the individual. In these circumstances, your rights include the right to ensure that there is human intervention in the decision-making process.

The particular rights that apply to you (which might include other rights not listed above) may vary depending on your country. You should make yourself aware of the rights you have under applicable privacy laws in your country.

If you want to exercise any of your rights listed above, please email our feedback inbox feedback@fuse.love or email our Data Protection Officer at DPO@fuse.love. For your protection and the protection of all of our Users, we may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity before we can answer the above requests.

If you have a concern about how we have processed your request or your personal data, you should contact us in the first instance via the contact details listed above.

EU Representative

Pursuant to Article 27 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), fuse™ has appointed Bamboo Orchard as its GDPR representative in the EU. If you usually reside in an EU Member State, you can contact Bamboo Orchard regarding matters pertaining to the GDPR by email at DPO@fuse.love or: 2nd Floor Blayds House, 21 Blayds Yard, Leeds, United Kingdom, LS1 4AD.

9. DATA LOCATIONS.

The hardware is located in third-party data centers but is owned by fuse™. Data collected by Advertising Partners and other Service Providers may also be held outside the UK and the European Economic Area.

10. DATA RETENTION AND DELETION.

We keep your personal information only as long as we need it for the legal basis relied upon (as set out in Section 2 above) and as permitted by applicable law. Please see “Profile Verification Information (Including Biometric Information)” in Section 1, above, to learn about our retention policy for biometric information.

When your Account is deleted, we make sure it is no longer viewable in the App. For up to 5 years, it is still possible to restore your Account if it was accidentally deleted. After 5 years, we begin the process of deleting your personal information from our systems, unless:

  1. we must keep it to comply with applicable law (for instance, if you make purchases within the App, some personal data may be kept for tax and accounting purposes);
  2. we must keep it to evidence our compliance with applicable law (for example, if an account is blocked, we keep some account information and a record of the behavior that led to the block - this information is retained for evidential purposes in case of queries or legal claims concerning the block);
  3. there is an outstanding issue, claim or dispute requiring us to keep the relevant information until it is resolved; or
  4. the information must be kept for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud prevention and enhancing Users’ safety and security (for example, information may need to be kept preventing a user who was banned for unsafe behavior or security incidents from opening a new account).

Warning: Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your Account, copies of that information may still be viewable and/or accessed to the extent such information has been previously shared with others or copied or stored by others. We cannot control this, nor do we accept any liability for this. If you have given third-party applications or websites access to your personal information, they may retain such information to the extent permitted under their terms of service or privacy policies.

Thanks for reading, we hope we didn’t drone on for too long!

11. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY.

As fuse™ evolves, we may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most current version of the policy will govern our use of your information and will always be in our Privacy Policy. If we make a change to this policy that, in our sole discretion, is material, we will notify you, for example, via an email to the email associated with your Account or by posting a notice within fuse™.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on November 6, 2023.