Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to BootStepper. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable data protection laws. This privacy policy will inform you about how we collect, use, and protect your personal data when you visit our website, and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

This website is intended for users aged 16 and over. If you are under 16, please do not use this service or provide any personal information.

2. The Data We Collect

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

• Identity Data includes first name, last name, username or similar identifier
• Contact Data includes email address
• Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our website and services
• Advertising Data includes information collected through cookies and similar technologies for advertising purposes

3. Legal Basis for Processing

Under GDPR, we are required to inform you of the legal basis for processing your personal data. We process your data under the following legal grounds:

• Consent: You have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for specific purposes (e.g., marketing communications, personalized advertising)
• Contract: Processing is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because we have asked you to take specific steps before entering into a contract
• Legal obligation: Processing is necessary for us to comply with the law
• Legitimate interests: Processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, unless there is a good reason to protect your personal data which overrides those legitimate interests

4. How We Use Your Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• To provide and maintain our service
• To notify you about changes to our service
• To provide customer support
• To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our service
• To monitor the usage of our service
• To detect, prevent and address technical issues
• To display personalized advertisements (only with your explicit consent)

We do not use automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects you.

5. Cookies and Advertising

In accordance with GDPR requirements, we obtain your explicit consent before using cookies for advertising purposes. Our website uses third-party advertising services, including Google AdSense, to display advertisements only after you have provided your consent.

Cookie Consent

When you first visit our website, you will be presented with a cookie consent banner. You have the right to accept or reject non-essential cookies, including advertising cookies. You can change your cookie preferences at any time through your browser settings or by managing your consent preferences on our website.

Google Advertising Cookies

With your consent, third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to our website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visit to our sites and/or other sites on the Internet.

Managing Your Cookie Preferences

You can manage your cookie preferences through:

• Your browser settings - most browsers allow you to refuse or accept cookies
• Google Ads Settings for Google advertising cookies
• Your Online Choices for EU users to opt out of behavioral advertising

Please note that rejecting advertising cookies does not mean you will no longer see advertisements. You will continue to see advertisements, but they will not be personalized based on your browsing behavior.

6. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

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 unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

When you request deletion of your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal data within 30 days, unless we are required by law to retain certain information.

7. International Data Transfers

Your personal data may be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than the country in which you are resident. These countries may have data protection laws that are different from the laws of your country.

When we transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by implementing appropriate safeguards, such as:

• Transferring data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection by the European Commission
• Using specific contracts approved by the European Commission (Standard Contractual Clauses)
• Transferring data to organizations that are part of Privacy Shield framework (where applicable)

8. Data Security

We have put in place appropriate technical and organizational security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know.

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, within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach.

9. Your Legal Rights Under GDPR

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), if you are in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Right of access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
• Right to rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or complete information you believe is incomplete.
• Right to erasure: You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions. See our Data Deletion Request page for more information.
• Right to restrict processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• Right to data portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
• Right to object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
• Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the email address provided below. We will respond to your request within one month.

Right to lodge a complaint: You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe that we have not complied with applicable data protection laws. For EU residents, you can find your data protection authority at https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, our data protection practices, or wish to exercise your rights, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@bootstepper.com

For GDPR-related inquiries, you can also contact our Data Protection Officer at the same email address.