Terms & Privacy

CitizenMe exists to give you control of your personal data and we take your privacy very seriously. We do not lease, sell or share any of your personal information with third parties. All of your personal data stays securely on your own smartphone. Only you can choose to share your data and only with your explicit permission. When you do so, it is anonymised by default. To help run the website and CitizenMe apps, we do use some carefully selected services. Details of these follow…

Cookies & Tracking

We only use cookies to provide you with a better user experience. We do not use third party cookies. We do not automatically keep logs of any personally identifiable information about your visit to this site unless you explicitly choose to leave your e-mail address. Once signed up, the *only* data we store is your email address and password (which we can’t see). All your data stays encrypted in your app.

Our website statistics programme does look at your high level IP address to provide us with an approximate idea of the country and region that you have visited from, your time of visit and if you are visiting the site for the first time (in which case, welcome!) or are a returning visitor (welcome back!). If you visit CitizenMe.com from another site (e.g. Twitter) we don’t identify you as an individual.

The third party services that we use on this site are:

Email

If you submit your e-mail address in order to receive further updates from us, your e-mail address will be stored securely. We use MailChimp to manage e-mail distribution, they are a reputable company with a strong privacy policy and have Trustee certification. If you unsubscribe from our e-mail list we will permanently delete your email address from our e-mail database.

Hosting

We use WordPress as our content management solution, securely installed on Amazon Web Services servers. We also use services provided by GreenNet Hosting, the UK’s largest ethical hosting company. We use secure (HTTPS) connections and practice “Privacy by Design”. However, what makes CitizenMe platform especially secure is that it doesn’t hold any personal data. All data is securely distributed on the mobile phones of Citizens.

Statistics

We use Piwik as it’s hosted on our servers thereby reducing the amount of your info that goes ‘off-site’. We have incorporated “stop sharing anonymised stats” option in the mobile application. We also utilise Google Firebase statistics in mobile applications for performance analytics and crash reporting.

Social sites through which we connect

If you follow, friend or connect with CitizenMe on any social site (e.g. Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, G+) we promise not to share information that you have shared ‘privately’ on those sites (DM or IM) with any other party. Of course, you’ll also need to check the individual Terms Of Service for each of those sites. Any data or other information from a social media site that you pull into your CitizenMe app will remain private to you and only be stored in your app.  If you wish to share this data, even anonymously, you will be asked to provide your explicit permission.

Social media psychographics are provided by the Cambridge University Psychometric Centre who operate under the British Psychological Association’s ethical code of conduct. We partner with them specifically to provide you with insights about your Facebook behaviour. With your permission, they anonymously analyse a selection of roughly 10-20 of your page likes to perform this analysis and provide you with an insight. The insight is only visible to you inside your CitizenMe app. No one else is able to view your insight (including CitizenMe) unless you explicitly choose to share it.

Terms of Service

Not content to just talk the talk, we’ve been busy putting together a brand new version of our Terms of Service.

Our aim is to make our Terms of Service as user-friendly as possible for all our digital citizens. To begin with, we’ve combined our Privacy Policy and Terms into a single document. You’ll also notice we have given our Terms of Service a unique layout. We show you upfront what we’re agreeing to, and what you’re agreeing to, so you can decide if it’s a fair deal. You’ll see a brief summary of the terms and more detailed information below them.

In some cases we’ve also included a ‘coming soon’ section to give you advance notice of what’s ahead. Finally, we’ve made use of some of the same headings as we show you in our app, in the Privacy section. ‘My Data & Content’, ‘My Footprint’ and ‘My Deletion’ are all there to help you understand what happens with your data when you use the CitizenMe service, and what happens if you want to stop using it at any point.

Please read this privacy policy and terms of service carefully before using CitizenMe. This is our mutual agreement. By offering you the CitizenMe service, and you using it as a ‘citizen’, we (you and CitizenMe) all agree to be bound by these pledges to each other (our Terms of Service).

More detail:
  • A Citizen means an individual user of CitizenMe services.
  • “CitizenMe” means CitizenMe Ltd, registered in the United Kingdom with company registration number: 8616830.
  • Where we state that a party (we or you) ‘shall’ do something, this is a legally binding obligation and if we or you don’t do it, this may result in termination of this agreement and our services. Where we state that a party ‘may’ do something, there is some discretion as to whether it is done or not.

Our agreement:

CitizenMe will:

  • Do our best to make these Terms of Service easy to understand and actively seek citizens’ (your) feedback to help improve clarity.
  • Ask citizens for feedback before changing any of these Terms and Conditions.
  • Notify citizens at least one month (28 days) in advance of any planned changes.

More detail:

  • These Terms of Service have been drafted in accordance with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office ‘privacy in mobile apps’ best practice guidance. They also reference Privacy By Design principles. We have layered the Terms of Service so that they are concise and clear, but also enable Citizens to seek further information where required.
  • You will be alerted to any proposed changes to our Terms of Service through a post on the citizenme.com blog and via posts on twitter, Facebook and the CitizenMe newsletter to consider the changes and submit any feedback you may have. Feedback may be submitted by the feedback function on the app, by e-mail to hello@citizenme.com or directly as a comment on the blog post.
  • If, after considering the feedback we receive, we do decide to change the Terms of service we will post the final version with any amendments clearly marked on the CitizenMe blog.

Coming soon:

  • Introduction of the CitizenTrust (citizentrust.org) which will provide guidance and ethical principles regarding sharing and exchanging personal data.
  • It will also provide a forum for feedback and debate on new principles that we sign up to.

citizens may:

  • Share feedback if desired – CitizenMe is always keen to hear about ways that the service can be made better for you, it’s your service.

CitizenMe will:

  • Provide citizens with visibility and control of their online identity.
  • Allow citizens to control any sharing of their data held within the CitizenMe service.
  • Enable citizens to share their CitizenMe data, or ‘MeData’, and insights for reward.

More detail:

  • We allow visibility and control of your online identity by providing user-friendly information on your CitizenMe data (‘MeData’) that is accessible across the social networks, apps and online services that you link with the CitizenMe service, in addition to responses to questions that you may opt to provide.
  • We allow you to control how you share your citizen ‘MeData’ with third parties by configuring our systems to ensure nothing is done without your consent.
  • When we say ‘personal data’ and we mean data that can be used to identify you, either by itself or along with other data that may be held by the CitizenMe service.    You may also choose to transact specific elements of your MeData, including the personal insights that you receive, anonymously, in return for a reward.  
  • Rewards may be: Informational (such as more insights), monetary (such as cash payments), altruistic (gifting a personal insight to a charity) or fun (answers to polls and quizzes). All exchanges of personal data and insight for rewards are anonymous by default.

Coming soon:

  • As the CitizenMe service grows and additional functionality becomes available, we may offer you further services regarding types of data, insights and rewards offered, however our commitment to your privacy will remain as strong as ever.

Citizens will:

  • Only set up a single CitizenMe account. Maintaining multiple personal accounts or the setting up of multiple spoof accounts is not permitted.
  • Not attempt to “bot,” “hack,” “crack,” or otherwise circumvent other citizens’ access to the CitizenMe service.
  • Respect other citizens and not use CitizenMe to upload, post, email or otherwise transmit any content that is invasive of another person’s privacy, is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libellous or hateful.
  • Not seek to participate in the same exchange of personal data more than once.
  • Not impersonate any other living person or legally registered entity (fake identities are just fine as long as you remember that you can only have one CitizenMe account and that personal insights are completely private to you – faking your data will make them less accurate, useful and valuable).

CitizenMe will:

  • Treat all citizens equally.
  • Hold any data you share with us securely.
  • Do all we can to inform you if there is a legal request to access your data.

More detail:

  • We protect your personal data with encryption (for which the encryption key will be held and used on your devices only).
  • If we receive a legal request to access your data (i.e. a court order or warrant or a request from a government department) then we will inform you unless we have a reasonable belief that it would be unlawful for us to do so.
  • If we can tell you about a request, then we will also make clear to you what standards and rules law enforcement must follow if they seek access to your data.

Citizens will:

  • Ensure that your device is secure.
  • Acknowledge that your CitizenMe data is held on your mobile device(s).

More detail:

  • We would suggest that you ensure that your device is protected with a passcode or fingerprint lock.
  • Also, we suggest that, where possible, you turn on device encryption to protect all data on your devices. Please be responsible regarding the security of your personal mobile devices and the personal data that you store on them.

CitizenMe will

  • Not have access to any personal data held on your device without your explicit consent from you to share it with either CitizenMe or a third party.
  • Provide offers to share data with a third party organisations for cash or altruistic reward which you may choose to interact with if you wish.

More detail:

  • The only data on your device that we will access automatically is anonymised usage stats for support purposes. This includes information like the type of device that you use.
  • All other data is shared on an opt-in basis. For example, to receive an insight about their personality, a citizen (that’s you) may choose to connect Facebook or Twitter accounts to CitizenMe to retrieve a some of their Facebook page likes or tweets. The insights may be created by CitizenMe or a carefully selected insight partner such as the University of Cambridge Psychometric Centre.
  • You may also choose to accept offers to anonymously transact data for cash reward (or cash equivalent) or for altruistic reward (for example donating data to a charity).
  • Cash payments will be made to you via a paypal account. If you choose to transact for cash, the Paypal Acceptable Use Policy, Paypal User Agreement and Paypal Privacy Policy will all apply when using your paypal account. Remember though that we have specifically designed CitizenMe to ensure that you only share data that you want to – even with us.
  • Payment platforms may charge a separate transaction fee for cashing out. These fees are outside of the control of CitizenMe. We will notify you about them where we are able to.

Coming soon:

  • Provide you with a copy of your personal data held by CitizenMe in machine-readable format when requested.
  • Provide other cash-out options. CitizenMe has built its own payment exchange platform to better protect your personal data and to enable us to provide you with choice. Citizens initially receive cash using Paypal, however we plan to expand this to include other payment options such as in future. These will be selected according to citizen demand.

CitizenMe will:

  • Not use third party cookies on CitizenMe webpages
  • Never track your behaviour across different websites unless you have opted to do so for your own benefit. We may use statistical tracking in aggregate to identify service issues and enhance service performance.
  • Not retain any personal data if the CitizenMe app is deleted by a citizen before registration.
  • Require registration to unlock more advanced levels of personal data exchange such as advanced insights and payments.

More detail:

  • Where we conduct statistical tracking we do so in aggregate, this will not involve the collection of any personal data beyond the IP address of your device.
  • If an app is deleted without registration being made, all data will be deleted along with the app. No personal data will remain with CitizenMe.
  • If an app is deleted after registration, CitizenMe will store data for a period of 45 days before full deletion, see the My Deletion section below for more details.
  • Registration is required to unlock access to more advanced exchanges of personal data for value. This includes deeper insights, the earning of cash rewards and the ability to anonymously “gift” data and insights to good causes.
  • After registration your email address will be stored by CitizenMe to enable log-in. To ensure that we can properly address you when you are receiving offers that you have requested, some non-personally identifiable information such as the country that you live in, your gender or your phone type may be stored.
  • If a citizen chooses to anonymously exchange personal data for a cash reward, cash out will be made to an external payment provider such as PayPal. The external payment provider will retain a record of cash payments received by a citizen from CitizenMe, but not any details of the exchange that enabled that payment. CitizenMe will also maintain a record of exchanges completed and payments made to a citizen for audit and support purposes. 
  • Citizens may choose to join citizen “communities” to receive exclusive offers to share data anonymously with selected organisations (brands, charities etc), these organisations will not be able to access any personal information without the explicit and informed consent of the Citizen. 
  • CitizenMe provides citizens the option to synchronise CitizenMe personal data (MeData) into a personal cloud. This provides a secure, and private backup of personal data and enables Citizens to synchronise their CitizenMe settings, insights and data across apps on multiple devices.
  • The CitizenMe app enables Citizens to utilise their existing mobile phone cloud storage (from Apple or Google) as their personal cloud. Their MeData is encrypted inside their personal cloud and personal information is not visible to Apple of Google.

CitizenMe will:

  • Not delete your profile unless you breach these Terms of service.
  • Have the right to discontinue the CitizenMe service to all citizens for financial or legal reasons.

More detail:

  • If you breach this agreement, we reserve the right to terminate our services. We consider a breach of or a failure to respect another citizen’s rights to be a serious breach and will lead to the immediate termination of our services.
  • At account closure we will delete all your user data held with our service. We will have no further obligations to you. Therefore a copy of data held by the CitizenMe service will only be available before an account is deleted. 

Citizens may:

  • Delete the service and any data held on the service at any time you choose.

More detail:

  • As CitizenMe data is primarily stored on your device, deletion of the app without registration will lead to deletion of all personal details held within the service. Any metadata held on CitizenMe servers will also be deleted within 45 days of deletion of the app.
  • Once you have registered, CitizenMe will need to store more data (email address and password). If you then unsubscribe from CitizenMe and delete the CitizenMe app(s), data will need to be held by CitizenMe for 45 days before full account deletion. This is for regulatory reasons and also to ensure that you can claim any outstanding cash payments available to you. Records of any payments made will remain on the CitizenMe system for audit, support and regulatory purposes.
  • During this 45 day period after unsubscription, the account may be reactivated by you to retrieve cash or data if you wish.  
  • At the end of the 45 day period after a citizen opts to unsubscribe from CitizenMe, CitizenMe will delete all personal data it holds regarding that citizen.

CitizenMe will:

  • Aim to provide the best service to help all citizens take control of their data online. However, the service has been developed for the CitizenMe community and has not been developed to meet your specific individual needs alone, and we cannot be held liable for various things. We set these out in the More Detail section below and suggest you read them (it’s a bit jargony but is important).  

More detail:

  • To the maximum extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any loss or damage, whether direct or indirect and whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under, or in connection, with (a) use of, or inability to use, the service; or (b) use of or reliance on any content displayed on the service.
  • Will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of the app or to your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it.
  • Has no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.
  • We reserve the right to fix any payment processing errors we discover. We will correct any processing errors by debiting or crediting the payment method used for the original transaction.
  • You accept sole responsibility for the legality of your actions under laws applying to you and the legality of any transactions that you choose to undertake.
  • Although we use techniques that aim to verify the accuracy and truth of the information provided by our users, user verification on the internet is difficult. CitizenMe cannot and does not confirm, and is not responsible for ensuring, the accuracy or truthfulness of users’ purported identities or the validity of the information which they provide to us or post.
  • We do not guarantee that the app will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.
  • Our maximum aggregate liability under or in connection with these Terms of Service (including your use of any services) whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, shall in all circumstances be limited to £100. This does not apply to the types of loss set out.
  • Nothing in this EULA (End User License Agreement) shall limit or exclude our liability for: (a) death or personal injury resulting from our negligence; (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; and (c) any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law.

Citizens will:

  • Acknowledge that any advice we provide as part of our services is indicative only and is not a substitute for professional advice.

More detail:

  • Whilst the CitizenMe team go to great lengths to ensure the information provided about your data and other services is accurate, it can only ever be viewed as indicative. For example, if CitizenMe informs you that your  personality displayed on a social network may be perceived in a way that is disagreeable to you, this should not be considered as expert psychological or legal advice and we cannot be held liable if you were to then decide to, for example, delete your content or to delete your account.

These Terms of Service constitute the entire agreement between you and CitizenMe, which is standard industry practice.

More detail:

  • Nothing provided by CitizenMe should be considered as legal advice. We express our opinion with no guarantee and CitizenMe ratings and reviews are in no way a replacement for reading the full terms to which you are bound. Please refer to a qualified attorney or legal counsel for legal advice.
  • As always, if you have any comments or suggestions regarding these Terms of Service, or wish to report a violation, please email us at hello@citizenme.com.

CitizenMe takes the protection of all of our personal data very seriously – it’s what we do.

More detail:

  • We do not rent, sell or share any of your information with third parties without your explicit consent. We help you do so for your personal gain, but only *if you want to*. We do use some carefully selected third party services to help run the CitizenMe website and applications. These are detailed on this agreement.

We do not use third party cookies.

More detail:

  • We do not automatically keep cookie generated logs of any personally identifiable information about your visit to the CitizenMe website or use of the CitizenMe apps.
  • Our website and app statistics program (Piwik) does retain your IP address to provide us with an approximate idea of the country that you have visited from, your time of visit and if you are visiting the site for the first time (in which case, welcome!) or are a returning visitor (welcome back!).
  • We fully comply with do-not-track browser preferences if you have switched on this functionality.
  • We use Google Firebase tools for support and crash reporting. We also use services provided by both Google and Apple for aggregated statistics covering app store downloads and web interaction.

We only use the following types of third party services: email, support, website hosting, app hosting, payment provider (Paypal) and statistics.

More detail:

  • Email: If you share your email address with us in order to receive updates or to provide feedback, your email address will be stored securely. We use mailchimp to manage email distribution (TRUSTe verified and good Terms of Service). If you unsubscribe from our e-mail list we will permanently delete all of your information from our email database. Our email hosting is provided by GreenNet hosting, a data co-operative and the UK’s largest ethical hosting company.
  • Support: GrooveHQ Support is used for feedback and communication with citizens across email and social media.
  • Website/Server Hosting: We use AWS (Amazon Web Services) servers hosted in the UK & European Union.
  • App Hosting: The iOS application is subject to Apple AppStore Terms & Conditions. The Android application is subject to the Google Play Terms of Service. Server-side functionality is currently hosted on Amazon AWS under European Data Protection Laws. However, the architecture has been designed to be migrated to other service providers should Amazon’s terms of use regarding personal data protection not meet citizen requirements.
  • Statistics: We use Piwik for statistics (web and app) as it can be hosted on our servers, thereby reducing the amount of your info that goes ‘off-site’. We also use services supplied by Google and Apple for aggregated statistics covering CitizenMe app downloads and usage. 
  • Security: We utilise ‘Privacy-By-Design’ architecture. We are working with University of Sheffield to research and apply “Differential Privacy” to thoroughly anonymise aggregated data. Our systems are security audited by a leading UK security testing company.

If you follow, friend or connect with CitizenMe on any social site (e.g. Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, G+) we promise not to share information that you have shared ‘privately’ on those sites with any other party.

More detail:

  • Of course, you’ll also need to check the individual Terms Of Service for each of those sites.
  • The Personality profile insights are provided by our partners, Cambridge University Psychometric Labs, as well as collaborative research that we have undertaken with them. They will receive data (such as 10-20 page likes from your Facebook profile) to enable CitizenMe to provide personality profile insights based on Artificial Intelligence developed with the University of Sheffield data science team. 
  • YouTube’s Terms of Services
  • Google Privacy Policy
  • Google Security

We adhere to the Information Commissioner’s Office (UK data regulator) best practice for compliance with the UK Data Protection Act 1998 and the European Union General Data Protection Regulation which came into force on 25th may 2018.

More detail:

  • If for any reason you feel concerned about the personal data you have provided to us or about our handling of this data, please contact us. You may also lodge complaints with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office quoting our Registration Reference: ZA065600
  • Finally, if you would like more general information or have any queries, questions or comments, please do contact us: hello@citizenme.com. This service is designed and run to give digital citizens, like you, control. We’re always very happy to hear from you.

Competition & Prize Draw Terms

Terms for all current and previous Competitions and Prize Draws can be found here.  If you have any questions please drop us a line at: hello@citizenme.com