Privacy Policy

Baotree Ltd. (reg: 12539971) (“Baotree”) adheres to the highest standards of protecting your personal information when we process it by virtue of your use of our Services, your use of our website https://baotree.io/ or any of its related blogs, websites, applications or platforms (collectively, “the Website”), or by providing us with your personal information in any other way. As such, we have created this specific and detailed Privacy Policy for you to read and appreciate exactly how we safeguard your personal information and respect your privacy (“Policy”).

  • Please note that Baotree is a private limited liability company duly registered and operating in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom.
  • For more information regarding your personal information lawfully stored or used by Baotree, please contact support@baotree.io who will gladly assist.
  • This Policy was last updated on 15 October 2020.
  • Not all terms are necessarily defined in order, or may be defined in our General Website Terms.
  • Please ensure that you read all the provisions below, and our other Baotree rules and policies which may apply from time to time and made available to you, to understand all of your, and our, rights and duties. Some terms referred to below are not defined in order, or may be defined in our other applicable rules and policies.
  • Please use the following links to jump to the relevant sections described in this Privacy Policy:
  1. Important information and who we are
  2. The data we collect about you
  3. How is your personal data collected
  4. How we use your personal data
  5. Disclosures of your personal data
  6. International transfers
  7. Data security
  8. Data retention
  9. Your legal rights
  10. Glossary
Important information and who we are  

1. Purpose of this Privacy Policy

  1. This Privacy Policy aims to give you information on how Baotree collects and processes your personal data through any form of your engagement with Baotree such as your engagement with us when contracting or corresponding with us, when using our Services, join as a Community Member on a Project, accessing or using the Website, or providing us with your personal information in any other way (such as when participating in surveys, participating in events or signing up for newsletters).
  2. This Privacy Policy complies with, and facilitates the obligations required from, the European Commission’s General Data Protection Regulation, 2016/679 (“GDPR”), the UK Data Protection Act (“DPA”), as well as the South African Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 4 of 2013 (“POPI”), as amended.
  3. It is important that you read this Privacy Policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This Privacy Policy supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
  4. We do not process special categories of personal data nor the data of minors. Do not provide us with any such personal data, where the provision of same will constitute an immediate and automatic material breach of these terms.

2. Controller and Processor

  1. Baotree is the “Data Controller” and is responsible for your personal data in instances where we decide the processing operations concerning your personal data. Sometimes we also operate as a “Processor” of personal data on behalf of a third-party Data Controller, where that Data Controller’s privacy terms will apply, but we will draw your attention to them, when applicable.
  2. We have appointed a data representative at Baotree who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the representative using the details set out below.

3. Our Contact Details

  1. Our full details are:
  • Full name of legal entity: Baotree Ltd
  • Name or title of data representative: Skye Aspden
  • Email address: support@baotree.io
  • Postal address: 29 Munster Road, London, United

Kingdom SW6 4ER

  1. 1. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to your territories’ specific information regulator’s office. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach any such regulator, so please contact us in the first instance.

The data we collect about you  

  • 6. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to your territories’ specific information regulator’s office. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach any such regulator, so please contact us in the first instance.
  • 7. We may collect, use, store and transfer (“process”) different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
  1. Identity Data including first name, maiden name, last name, country of residence, username or similar identifier, title, date of birth and gender;
  2. Contact Data including email address, physical/registered addresses, social media contact details and telephone numbers;
  3. Financial Data including bank account details, third-party payment provider information and payment card details (which we do not store but only provide to our authorised third-party payment service provider under contract with us);
  4. Social Media Data including all information accessible on your publicly available profile such as images, photos, photo tags, likes, followers, comments, posts and stories;
  5. Transaction Data including details about payments to and from you, contracts, contractual terms, contract fees, signups, subscriptions, invoices and other details of products and services you have obtained from us, or provide to us;
  6. Technical Data including internet protocol address/es, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, geo-locationary data, GPS pings and calculations, cookies, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access the Website;
  7. Profile Data including your Website/Profile username and password, preferences, feedback, ratings and reviews, and survey responses;
  8. Usage Data including information about how you use our company, Website, surveys, events and Services; and
  9. Marketing and Communications Data including your preferences in receiving notices and marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
  • 8. We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
  • 9. Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with services or allow you to provide us with your services). In this case, we may have to cancel Website-access or Services you have with us, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

How is your personal data collected?  

  • 10. We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including through:
  • 1. We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including through:
  1. use our Services;
  2. use our Website;
  3. contract with us;
  4. join a Project as a Community Member via a BaoRider;
  5. sign-up as a BaoRider;
  6. consult with us;
  7. complete forms;
  8. sign-up for newsletters;
  9. receive a referral from a friend, organisation or email;
  10. interact with us via webinar or social platform group, such as a Facebook group
  11. subscribe to any of our publications;
  12. provide any services to us as a service provider or independent contractor on contract with us;
  13. request information to be sent to you;
  14. attend any Baotree event whether online or in person; or
  15. give us some feedback.
  • 2. Automated technologies or interactions: As you interact with our Website, we may automatically collect Technical Data, Profile and Usage Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We may collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies.
  • 3. Third parties or publicly available sources: We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:

1. Technical Data and Social Data from the following parties:

  1. analytics providers Google Analytics – San Francisco, USA; Mixpanel – San Francisco, USA;
  2. social networks Instagram, Menlo Park, USA;
  3. Facebook, Menlo Park, USA;
  4. Twitter Inc., San Francisco, CA; and
  5. Linkedin, Sunnyvale, CA, US;

2. Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical and/or payment services being Mailchimp, Hubspot, Twilio, Chargebee, Stripe, Amazon Web Services based in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle, Michigan, London; and

3.Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources being Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom based in San Francisco & Nairobi.

How we use your personal data  

  • 11. We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to and for legitimate reasons, which you hereby expressly understand and consent to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
  1. where we have your express consent to do so;
  2. where we need to consult with you or perform on the Services contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you;
  3. where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests; and/or
  4. where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
  • 12. Purposes for which we will use your personal data:
  1. We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are, where appropriate, and which exact External Third Parties your personal data is handed to for same reasons.
  2. Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.
PURPOSE / ACTIVITY TYPE OF DATA LAWFUL BASIS FOR PROCESSING INCLUDING BASIS OF LEGITIMATE INTEREST SPECIFIC EXTERNAL THIRD PARTY TO WHOM THE INFORMATION IS PROVIDED (IF ANY)
To engage with you after you have contacted us requesting an engagement via the Website or otherwise IdentityContactMarketing and Communications Express consentPerformance of a contract with youNecessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how engagees use our services, as well as to develop our services and grow our organisation) Hubspot – Cambridge, Massachusetts, United StatesMailchimp – Atlanta, Georgia, United StatesMixpanel – San Francisco, California, United States
To provide you with our Services as contracted IdentityContactFinancialTransactionProfile  Performance of a contract with youExpress consentNecessary to comply with a legal obligationNecessary for our legitimate interests (to provide you with the Services you contracted to acquire from us, and to keep our records updated and to study how engagees use our Services)  Chargebee – San Francisco, CA Google Maps – Mountain View, California, United States Zendesk – San Francisco, California, United States  Stripe – San Francisco, California, United States HotJar – San Giljan, Malta Google Analytics – San Francisco, California, United States  AWS – Seattle, Washington, United States
To contract with you as a service provider to Baotree IdentityContactFinancialTransaction Performance of a contract with youExpress consentNecessary to comply with a legal obligationNecessary for our legitimate interests (to allow you to provide us with your services, and to keep our records updated and to study how we may use third-party services) N/A
To allow you to use the Website or participate in any Baotree Project or event IdentityContactUsageTechnical Performance of a contract with youExpress consent Chargebee – San Francisco, CA
To provide it to our authorised third-party service providers who need your personal data to provide their private services to you (such as payment gateway providers) IdentityContactFinancialTransaction Performance of a contract with youNecessary for our legitimate interests (to provide you with the Services you have contracted from the authorised third-party, and to develop our services and grow our organisation)Express consent Stripe – San Francisco, California, United States  
To process and service your payment for any services rendered by Baotree or its service providersTo manage payments, fees and charges IdentityContactFinancialTransaction Performance of a contract with youNecessary for our legitimate interests (to make or receive necessary organisation payments)Express consent Stripe – San Francisco, California, United States Chargebee – San Francisco, CA
To manage our relationship with you which may include notifying you about changes to our terms or Privacy Policy or Services IdentityContactMarketing and Communications Performance of a contract with youNecessary to comply with a legal obligationNecessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how engagees use our Services)Express consent Mailchimp – Atlanta, Georgia, United States Zendesk – San Francisco, California, United States 
To administer and protect our organisation and our Website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) IdentityContactTechnicalUsage Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our organisation, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of an organisation restructuring exercise)Necessary to comply with a legal obligationExpress consent AWS – Seattle, Washington, United States
To deliver relevant Website content and services to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the information we serve to you IdentityContactUsageMarketing and CommunicationsTechnicalProfile Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how engagees use our services, to develop them, to grow our organisation and to inform our marketing strategy)Express consent AWS – Seattle, Washington, United States
To use data analytics to improve our Website, Services, engagee relationships and experiences TechnicalUsageIdentity Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of engagees for our services, to keep our Website updated and relevant, to develop our organisation and to inform our marketing strategy)Express consent Chargebee – San Francisco, CA Google Maps – Mountain View, California, United States Zendesk – San Francisco, California, United States  Stripe – San Francisco, California, United States HotJar – San Giljan, Malta Google Analytics – San Francisco, California, United States  AWS – Seattle, Washington, United States
To provide you with direct and user-specific marketing, make suggestions and recommendations to you about events or services that may be of interest to you IdentityContactTechnicalUsageProfile Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our services and grow our organisation)Express consent Chargebee – San Francisco, CA

3. Marketing

  1. We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. To manifest your rights attached to any marketing sent to you as an existing customer, please use the in-built prompts provided on those communications, or contact us.
  2. You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us, have participated in any Baotree service or event, or if you provided us with your details when registering for a promotion or event and, in each case, you have not opted-out of receiving that marketing.

4. Third-Party Marketing

  1. Whilst we may use your personal data within our Baotree organisation group, we will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data publicly with any entity outside the Baotree group of organisations for public purposes. Notwithstanding this, by accepting this Policy, your explicitly consent to Google and MailChimp specifically marketing to you, where you can easily demand that they cease such marketing to you by contacting them directly.

5. Opting-Out

  1. You can ask us or authorised third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us or the relevant third party at any time and requesting us to cease or change your marketing preferences.
  2. Where you opt-out of receiving these marketing messages, this opt-out will not apply to other personal data of yours which we process for another lawful basis.

6. Change of Purpose

  1. We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
  2. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
  3. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Disclosures of your personal data  

  1. We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table above.
  2. Internal Third Parties as set out in the Glossary;
  3. External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary;
  4. Specific third parties listed in the table above; and/or
  5. Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our organisation or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other organisations or merge with them. If a change happens to our organisation, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this Privacy Policy.
  6. We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions and standards.

Express Cookies provision

  1. The Website may make use of “cookies” to automatically collect information and data through the standard operation of the Internet servers. “Cookies” are small text files a website can use (and which we may use) to recognise repeat users, facilitate the user’s on-going access to and use of a website and allow a website to track usage behaviour and compile aggregate data that will allow the Website operator to improve the functionality of the Website and its content, and to display more focused advertising to a user by way of third party tools.
  2. The type of information collected by cookies is not used to personally identify you. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the cookie feature. Please note that cookies may be necessary to provide you with certain features available on our Website, and thus if you disable the cookies on your browser you may not be able to use those features, and your access to our Website will therefore be limited. If you do not disable “cookies”, you are deemed to consent to our use of any personal information collected using those cookies, subject to the provisions of this Policy and our other policies or terms.

International transfers  

  1. We share your personal data within the Baotree group of organisations and affiliates, and this may involve transferring and processing your data outside of the United Kingdom.
  2. Whenever we transfer your personal data out of either territory, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
  3. We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission.
  4. Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts/clauses approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe.
  5. Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of South Africa.

Data security  

  1. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed by using HIPAA best practices for software development. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a legitimate need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
  2. Using only HIPAA eligible services in the Cloud (AWS), Amazon Web Services – Because we use the services provided by AWS for our production environment with contains electronic protected health information (ePHI), AWS is a “business associate” of ours. It is required by HIPAA for SovTech and AWS to enter into a “business associate agreement” (BAA).
  3. Our fully executed BAA with AWS can be found on the internal document repository.
    We must only used HIPAA-eligible services covered under the BAA to process and store ePHI. Non-eligible services may be used in support of our cloud infrastructure as long as it does not have access to ePHI.
  4. A list of HIPAA eligible services can be found here. AWS regularly updates its services to meet HIPAA compliance requirements. Check the page once in a while to find out if new services have been added.
  5. Additional References:
  6. Architecting for HIPAA in the Cloud
  7. AWS Shared Responsibility Model
  8. AWS HIPAA Compliance
  9. AWS HIPAA Compliance Whitepaper.
  10. Separate access and data between prod and non-prod accounts:
    It is a compliance requirement of multiple regulations to ensure separation of duties between production and non-production environments, including both access and data. Additionally, we should not use production data for dev or test, unless the data has been properly sanitized/masked.
  11. Examples of regulations and certifications that have this explicit requirement include HIPAA, SAS70/SSAE-17, SOC, PCI, and ISO 27001/27002, many of which are on our target list to be compliant with or certified to.
  12. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data retention  

  1. We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
  2. Our developers store data in a secure production account in AWS, using a combination of S3, DynamoDB, and Aurora SQL databases, all of which are HIPAA compliant. By default, Amazon S3 provides durable infrastructure to store important data and is designed for durability of 99.999999999% of objects.
  3. Our engineers perform automatic backup of all customer and system data to protect against catastrophic loss due to unforeseen events that impact the entire system. An automated process will back up all data to a separate AWS region in the same country (e.g. US East to US West). By default, data will be backed up daily. The backups are encrypted in the same way as live production data.
  4. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data, any other United Kingdom applicable law requiring us to retain the data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
  5. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available from us by contacting us.
  6. In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data; see below for further information.
  7. In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Your legal rights  

  1. Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data where we are the relevant “Data Controller” over such personal data. Please contact us to find out more about, or manifest, these rights:
  2. request access to your personal data;
  3. request correction of your personal data;
  4. request erasure of your personal data;
  5. object to the processing of your personal data;
  6. request a restriction of processing your personal data;
  7. request transfer of your personal data; and/or
  8. right to withdraw consent.
  9. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
  10. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
  11. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Glossary  

  1. Lawful Basis  
  2. Legitimate Interest means the interest of our organisation in conducting and managing our organisation to enable us to give you the best service and the most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
  3. Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
  4. Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.
  5. Express consent means the confirmed express consent you have provided to our processing of your personal data by actively accepting this Privacy Policy.
  6. Third Parties  
  7. Internal Third Parties means other entities or parties in the Baotree group acting as joint controllers or processors and who are based in South Africa and provide IT and system administration services and undertake reporting.
  8. External Third Parties means:
  9. Authorised third-party service providers under contract with Baotree who need your personal information in order to contact and transact with you pursuant to your use of the Services;
  10. specific third parties who have been identified in the table above;
  11. service providers acting as processors based in South Africa who provide IT and system administration services;
  12. South African or other national governments and/or their respective authorities pursuant to our adherence with anti-corruption and crime-fighting legislation;
  13. professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in South Africa who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services as required; and/or
  14. European Union regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom or European Union who may require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

Your legal rights  

  1. You have the right to:
  2. Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  3. Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
  4. Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no valid reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be communicated to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
  5. Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
  6. Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
  7. if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy;
  8. where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
  9. where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
  10. you have objected to our use of your data, but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
  11. Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform on a contract with you.
  12. Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain Website access or Services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent. Please take note that regardless of your right to withdraw consent under the GDPR, DPA and POPI, other South African/UK legislation applies and may require that we continue to process your data in order to comply with anti-corruption, crime-fighting and/or other national legislation, which you expressly understand and agree to.

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