Effective as of 8 November 2024
Thank you for using our mobile application Buz, visiting our website at https://www.buz.ai and/or communicating with us via email or text or Buz social media accounts (collectively, the "Services").
For the purposes of data protection and privacy laws, Tiya Pte Ltd and Buz Technology Pte Ltd ("we" or "us") are joint controllers in the processing of your personal information. We are committed to protecting your privacy through our data practices described in this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy describes:
- The ways we collect personal information about you and why we do so;
- How we or our Authorised Partners use your personal information;
- The choices you have about your personal information; and
- How we protect your personal information.
For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, the terms "personal information" and "personal data" are used synonymously. This Privacy Policy does not apply to our data collection activities offline or otherwise outside of the Services (unless otherwise stated below or at the time of collection).
Residents of certain U.S. states have privacy rights detailed in our Privacy Notice to US Residents. To the extent that there is a conflict between this Privacy Policy and the Privacy Notice to US Residents, the latter will control.
We reserve the right to change and may periodically update this Privacy Policy prospectively effective upon the posting of the revised Privacy Policy on https://www.buz.ai/privacy-policy/ Where required, we endeavour to notify you of material changes to this Privacy Policy by posting a notice on Buz. Your continued use of our Services following the posting of changes to the Privacy Policy or any notification to you shall mean you accept those changes. To the extent any provision of this Privacy Policy is found by a competent tribunal to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be severed to the extent necessary for the remainder to be valid and enforceable.
1. Contact Us
The designated joint controller representative is Buz Technology Pte Ltd which is entitled to act on behalf of Tiya Pte Ltd and is responsible for processing and responding to data requests made by you or any government authority.
If you have questions about how we collect, use, process or protect your personal information, or if you have any requests in respect of your personal information, we encourage you to contact us through the support features within the Buz app so we can respond more quickly. Alternatively, you may contact:
Name of the joint controller representative: Buz Technology Pte Ltd
Address: 6 Shenton Way, #37-03, OUE Downtown, Singapore 068809
Attn: Data Protection Officer
Email: [email protected]
We will respond to your requests in accordance with applicable laws and may take additional steps to verify your identity before fulfilling your request. These steps may include verifying your account details. You may also designate an authorized agent to act on your behalf but we reserve the right to verify the agent's identity and authority, and may deny any requests in appropriate circumstances.
We endeavour to respond to all requests in a timely manner. For more complex requests, we may charge a fee for processing your request. We will inform you of such fees before proceeding with your request. If you have any unresolved concerns about your privacy rights or personal data protection that we could not address adequately, you may contact your local privacy and personal data protection authority for further assistance.
2. Collection of Personal Information
Please see below for various categories of personal information we collect from you.
(I) Information you provide when you create or update your account
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| User Data | Personal information that we need to create your Buz
account and to enable you to use the Services. The type of data collected and used depends on how you create your account, the country you are in, and if you use third party services to sign in. This may include your:
We collect some of this data from your device e.g. country or region. For more information about how we collect and use this data, see "Your general (non-precise) location" in the Usage Data category. |
(II) Information We Get When You Use Our Services
When you use our Services, we may automatically collect information about you and how you use our Services. We only use pseudonymized or anonymised data that have gone through a privacy-enhancement process to protect and improve the functionalities of the Services.
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| User Content | When you send us feedback or request, the contents of those feedback or requests. When you send messages (audio, text or pictures) to other users, the contents of those messages will be uploaded to Buz app. We do not read your messages unless there is a user complaint report made against you or there is evidence of possible contravention of our Terms of Use or to satisfy our legal obligations. When you interact with our AI services, we collect your user content as well. |
| Usage Data | Personal information collected and processed about you when you're
accessing or using the Services.
They include: Information about how you use Buz. For example: Your activities using the Services (including date and time), such as:
Your technical data. For example:
Your general (non-precise) location Your general location includes country, region or state. We may learn this from technical data (e.g. network type, language setting of your device). We need this for:
|
| Optional data you may choose to share with us | |
| Category | Description |
| Device Address Book | If you choose to share with us your device address book, we can provide you with suggestions or recommendations based on your existing contacts, making it easier for you to connect and engage with others. |
| Static Precise Location | When you use location-related features, like when you choose to share your location with your contacts, your static precise location is being stored on your device. If and when you wish to turn off location sharing, you can do so via your phone settings. We do not collect location search queries, and we do not retain or store your location data on our servers. |
| Survey and User Research Data | When you respond to a survey or take part in user research, we collect and use the personal data you provide. |
(III) Information We Collect from Third Parties
| Categories of Third Parties | Description | Data Categories |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication Partners | If you register for or log into Buz, authentication partners will send your authentication information to us. This information helps create your account with us or helps you log in. | Usage Data |
| Third-party applications, services and devices you connect to your account | If you sign-in/log-in using third party platform (such as Google, Facebook or Apple sign in) or connect your Buz account to a third-party application (other social media apps), service or device (smart watches, mobile phones and tablets), we receive information from them which may include your username, email address, and profile picture. This collection is to make the integration possible. | User Data Usage Data |
| Technical Service Partners | We work with technical service partners that give us certain data. This includes mapping IP addresses to non-precise location data (e.g. country or region, city, state). This makes it possible for Buz to provide the Buz Service, content, and features. We also work with security service providers who help us protect user accounts. | User Data Usage Data |
| Marketing partners | When you download Buz through our marketing partners, they provide information about their channel. | Usage Data |
| Other Buz Users | If another user shares their device address book with us, we may
combine information about you from that user's address book with
other information we have collected from and about you. If another user feedbacks about potential violations of our Terms of Use, we would collect information about you from such users. | Device Address Book User Data User Content |
| Law Enforcement Agencies | We may receive information from law enforcement about potential violations of our Terms of Use. | User Data User Content |
3. How Do We Use Your Information
We use information about you for the following purposes in accordance with applicable laws:
The table below sets out:
- our purpose for processing each category of data; and
- our legal justifications (each called a 'legal basis') under data protection laws for each purpose.
| Purpose | Legal basis | Categories of Data |
|---|---|---|
| To create your account. | They are necessary to provide you the Services. | User Data Usage Data |
| To enable you to send content to interact with your Buz contacts within the service | They are necessary to provide you the Services. | User Data User Content Device Address Book |
| To enable you to share a link to Buz content with someone else outside the service | Legitimate Interest such as allowing users to share Buz content | User Data User Content |
| To provide you certain additional optional features of the Buz service. We will clearly ask for your consent | Consent | User Data Usage Data User Content Device Address Book Survey and User Research Data |
| To better understand how Buz users use
and interact with the Services. To identify areas for improvement. To optimize the user experience. | We have legitimate interests to develop and improve our products and features for our users. | User Data Usage Data User Content Device Address Book Survey and User Research Data |
| We may synthesize user content to train & improve our AI services. Synthetic Data being artificially generated and not linked to personally identifiable information (PII), does not contain any identifiable or sensitive personal information. | We have legitimate interests to develop and improve our products and features for our users. | Synthetic User Content |
| To identify and prevent fraudulent activities, software and tools
within the Services and/or employed by end users. To identify a banned account or a device. | It is in our legitimate interests to ensure the security of the environment of our Services and safety of our users. | User Data Usage Data User Content |
| To comply with legal obligations and law enforcement requests | Compliance with legal obligations | User Data Usage Data User Content Device Address Book Survey and User Research Data |
| To diagnose, troubleshoot and fix issues with the service To discover error frequency and trends to ensure a high level of functionality for the Services. | They are necessary to provide you the Services. | User Data Usage Data |
| To provide you with customer and technical support when you have enquiries, when you need troubleshooting, to fix bugs and to assist with any issues you might experience using the Services. | With your consent to resolve your questions. | User Data Usage Data User Content |
| When Buz users respond to a survey or take part in user research, we collect and use the personal information as described in the survey or user research. | You provide consent for processing personal information. | User Data Usage Data User Content Survey and User Research Data |
| To conduct business planning, reporting, and forecasting. For example, when we look at aggregated user data like the number of new sign ups in a country in order to plan new locations to launch our products and features in. | Legitimate Interest Our legitimate interests here include researching and planning so that we can keep running our business successfully. | Aggregated usage data |
4. Who Else Can Use Your Information
We may share your information with other entities in the following situations.
A) Our Related Entities: We might share your personal information within our corporate group to assist us in technical processing operations (such as data hosting, analytics or maintenance), finance, legal, HR or accounting assistance, enhancing security against spam, abuse, fraud, infringement or other wrongdoings, and improve the Services; for corporate audit, analysis, strategic planning, research and development, corporate transactions (for example merger and acquisition, sale of company assets, financing etc); or compliance with applicable law. Each entity within the group may only use your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
B) Our Authorised Partners: We work with third party vendors to provide the Buz app ("Authorised Partners" or "Vendors"). We seek to update our list of Authorised Partners below as soon as practicable. These Authorised Partners process your information only at and according to our instructions. They perform tasks such as hosting, user support, analytics and fraud detection and prevention. For more information, please read the privacy policies of our Vendors.
| Vendor | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Agora | Real-Time Voice Communication |
| AWS | Server Hosting |
| Tencent Bugly Firebase | Crash Analytics |
| OpenAI | Artificial Intelligence Products (ChatGPT, Whisper) |
| iShumei | Fraud Detection and Prevention |
| Appflyer | Mobile Attribution and Marketing Analytics |
| Instagram Tiktok Messenger Snapchat Telegram | Link & Content Saharing |
| Telesign Vonage Tencent Cloud | SMS Authentication |
| FourSquare | Location sharing |
| Single Sign On |
C) Government Agencies: In order to combat fraud and illegal activity, we may process and disclose information to other organizations or provide information to government agencies in response to any lawful request. If required by any government authority or courts for any purposes such as the enforcement of any laws or to prevent their contravention, we may release your personal information as is legally required or permitted.
D) Other Users. When you share personal information (for example, by sending messages, creating profile information or uploading any other content onto Buz), such personal information may be viewed by some or all Buz users on Buz. Please refer to our Terms of Use on the best practices to use Buz in a safe and responsible manner.
5. Cross Border Data Transfers
In order to provide you with the full range of Services efficiently, we are working with authorised third party partners as well as related member entities within our corporate group around the world. Accordingly, your personal information may be accessed by our authorised personnel around the world and/or your personal information may be lawfully transferred at our instructions for limited access, use or processing by our authorised personnel around the world. Because the data protection and privacy laws in other countries may be different from those of your home country, we will take steps to ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to protect your personal information as explained in this Privacy Policy. Adequate safeguards that we may use include relying on approved standard contractual clauses and implementing other lawful safeguards.
6. Your Rights and Choices
A) Contacts, Camera, Photos, Microphone
We will ask for your permission to access your contacts, camera, photos and microphone so that you can send messages (audio, text, pictures) to your contacts. You may opt-out at any time by changing the settings on your mobile device.
B) Access the personal information we hold about you
Upon your written request and successful verification of your identity, we will provide you with a copy of your personal information in an electronic format.
C) Personal information rights
You may, at any time, withdraw your consent for us to collect, use, disclose or transfer your personal information to third parties. You also have the right to rectify or delete your personal information, or limit the porcessing of your personal information. Upon receipt of your written request, we require reasonable time (depending on the complexity of the request and its impact on our relationship with you) for your request to be processed and for us to notify you of the consequences regarding the same. In general, we shall seek to process your request within thirty (30) calendar days of receiving it. Depending on the nature and scope of your request, you may not be able to access some or all features on Buz, and we may have to terminate the End-User License Agreement we have with you. We will notify you before completing the processing of your request. Should you decide to cancel your request, please inform us immediately.
Please note that
- If you choose not to provide us with all the personal information as required to (i) register a Buz account, (ii) use the Services, (iii) process your personal information requests or (iv) assist you on other feedback, queries or requests, we may (x) be unable to, or refuse to, process your personal information for any of the purposes stated herein, (y) be unable to (or continue to) perform our contractual obligations owed to you (if any), and/or (z) have to terminate the End User Licensing Agreement, without any liability on our part.
- You may withdraw your consent to using or disclosing your personal information at any time by adjusting the relevant settings on the App or by contacting us, but withdrawing does not affect the lawfulness of the processing before the withdrawal nor our rights to collect such information where (i) such use or disclosure is required by law, (ii) the personal data in question was collected from publicly available sources or (iii) such use or disclosure is necessary in an emergency where the life or health of a person is at risk.
- You may, by providing us with a notice in writing, limit the processing of your personal information (including to request us to cease or not begin processing your personal information for purposes of direct marketing). If you limit the processing of your personal information, we may not be in a position to continue to administer any arrangement or contractual relationship in place, which in turn may result in: (i) us being unable to (or continue to) process your personal information for any of the purposes stipulated in this Privacy Policy; (ii) unable to (or continue to) perform our contractual obligations owed to you (if any); and/or (iii) the termination of any arrangements/agreements/contracts you have with us, without any liability on our part.
- Even if you ask us to delete all or some of your personal information, we may still retain some of your data to the extent necessary to serve our legitimate business interests, such as to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Where required under applicable laws or if you reside in Japan, we will explain to you in greater detail about why we cannot delete your personal data when we receive such requests.
- We may send you push notifications regarding your account or certain features of Buz through the app. If you wish to opt out from receiving these types of communications, you may change your settings.
Under applicable laws, you may have the right to obtain a transferable version of your personal information or ask for it to be transferred to another provider (where technically feasible).
To exercise your personal information rights, please contact us according to Section 1 "Contact Us" above. You will not be subject to discriminatory treatment for exercising your rights.
D) Reviewing or amending your account information, or deleting your account
You may review or amend your account information, or delete your Buz account at any time by logging to your account settings on Buz app.
If you decide to delete your Buz account, we will deactivate your account and your information from our active databases. You may lose your personal information or other related information associated with the account. You will be informed and required to acknowledge the consequences of deleting your account. However, we may retain some information to the extent necessary to serve our legitimate business interests such as to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our Terms of Use and/or comply with applicable legal requirements.
7. How Do We Protect Your Personal Information
DO NOT SELL. We do not sell your personal information. We also do not transfer, disclose or share your personal information with third parties, except where the information is necessarily transferred, disclosed and shared with our authorised third-party partners who must use and process your information solely to provide you with the Services on our behalf.
A) Security
In order to help ensure a secure environment for the Services and safe experience for our users, we are continuously developing and implementing reasonable administrative, technical and physical security measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized use or access and against loss, misuse or alteration.
While we try our best, we cannot warrant the security of any information transmitted to us through or in connection with the Services, that we store on our or our Authorised Partners' systems.
Any improper collection or misuse of personal information is a violation of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use and should be reported to [email protected]
B) Pseudonymisation, anonymisation and aggregation techniques
These privacy-enhancing techniques involve modifying or removing certain identifying information from your personal data and information to make it more difficult to link the data or information to you. We only use information that has gone through this privacy-enhancement process if we are using them to improve functionalities of the Services.
C) Personal information retention
Generally, we will store your personal information only for the time period necessary:
- to fulfil the purposes for which such personal information was collected;
- for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you the Services (You may delete your account any time and if your account is inactive for two years, we may delete it for you); or
- as required or permitted by applicable laws (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements).
Once we determine that the retention of your personal information is no longer necessary for the intended purposes, or that retention is no longer necessary for any legal or business purpose, we will cease to retain your personal information, or anonymise the personal information so that it can no longer be used to identify any particular individual.
Logs are pseudonymized and retained for a year, after which we may delete or anonymize it.
8. Protecting Children's Privacy
We take our responsibilities to the Buz community very seriously. We also believe in protecting children's privacy online. Buz app is not meant for use by persons under the age of 13 years old. If you are under the age of 13, please do not use our Buz app in any manner.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13 and Buz is not directed at children less than 13 years of age. Any person who provides their personal information to us through our Services explicitly represents that they are 13 years of age or older. If we become aware that someone under 13 years of age provided us with their personal information, we will close the account of that person and promptly delete or remove their information to the extent required by law, save when we are under a legal obligation to keep certain information.
If you are a parent or legal guardian of a minor, and wish to review any personal data that may have been collected by us from your child or ward for security reasons, or request that their Buz account or personal information be modified or deleted for security or accuracy reasons, you may contact us at [email protected] We will respond to your requests after verifying the identities of the relevant users and their parents or legal guardians, and obtaining consent (if required under the laws) from the relevant users.
You are responsible for any and all account activity conducted by a minor on your Buz account.
9. Notice to US Residents
Residents of certain U.S. states have privacy rights detailed in our Privacy Notice to US Residents. To the extent that there is a conflict between this Privacy Policy and the Privacy Notice to US Residents, the latter will control.
10. Notice to EU or UK Residents
Pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act, we now explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your personal information.
- Consent. We may process your information if you have given us permission to use your personal information for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
- Performance of a contract. It is necessary for us to process your information in order to allow you to register a Buz account and grant you a license to access, use or navigate our Services (or continue to do so at your choice).
- Compliance with Legal Obligations. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
- Legitimate Interests. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.
11. Notice to Canadian Residents
We may process your information if you have given us specific permission to use your personal information for a specific purpose, or in situations where your permission can be inferred. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
In some exceptional cases, we may be legally permitted under applicable law to process your information without your consent, including, for example:
- If collection is clearly in the interests of an individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way.
- For investigations and fraud detection and prevention.
- For business transactions provided certain conditions are met.
- If it is contained in a witness statement and the collection is necessary to assess, process, or settle an insurance claim.
- For identifying injured, ill, or deceased persons and communicating with next of kin.
- If we have reasonable grounds to believe an individual has been, is, or may be victim of financial abuse.
- If it is reasonable to expect collection and use with consent would compromise the availability or the accuracy of the information and the collection is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province.
- If disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, warrant, court order, or rules of the court relating to the production of records.
- If it was produced by an individual in the course of their employment, business, or profession and the collection is consistent with the purposes for which the information was produced.
- If the collection is solely for journalistic, artistic, or literary purposes.
- If the information is publicly available and is specified by the regulations.
12. Notice to Malaysian Residents
This section applies to you if you reside in Malaysia. In this section, the term "processing" shall have the same meaning as prescribed in the Malaysian Personal Data Protection Act 2010.
Personal Information of Minors – In respect of personal information relating to a minor (i.e. individuals under the age of 18), you confirm that you are the parent or legal guardian or person who has the parental responsibility for the said minor to consent on his/her behalf to the processing of his/her personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Obligatory Personal Information – It is obligatory that you supply us your details for fields marked as compulsory (where applicable) when you register an account or use our Services (collectively, "Compulsory Personal Information"). If you fail to supply us with any of the Compulsory Personal Information, we may refuse to, or may be unable to, process your personal information for any of the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy.
Language – In the event of any inconsistency between the English version and the Bahasa Malaysia version of this Privacy Policy, the English version shall prevail over the Bahasa Malaysia version.