Genius Referrals
Referral Software Solutions
Our platform can help any industry boost sales and unprecedented levels of brand awareness.
Referral Program Templates
Explore our referral program templates that can be customized to mesh seamlessly with your brand.
 

Genius Referrals Privacy Notice

Last Updated: December 22, 2022
How Genius Referrals Processes Your Personal Information

When we talk about "personal information" or "personal data," we're talking about a broad range of information. Data protection laws around the world define this concept in different ways, but in general, we mean any information that relates to an identifiable, living individual person. In other words, a person's phone number is personal information, while a business's phone number is not.

In addition, some data protection laws and privacy laws in certain jurisdictions differentiate between "controllers" and "processors" of personal information. A controller decides why and how to process personal information. A processor does not make decisions about personal information; it only processes personal information on behalf of a controller based on the controller's instructions.

With this background, let's take a high-level look at the personal information Genius Referrals collects and how we process it.

If you are a customer of ours, Genius Referrals processes personal information in different ways when you use our services.

  • We process your personal information as a customer (or potential customer) of Genius Referrals' services — information that we refer to as Customer Account Data (e.g., your contact information) — when you visit a Genius Referrals public-facing website like GeniusReferrals.com; reach out to our Sales team; or sign up for a Genius Referrals account and use services.
  • We process the personal information of your end users who use or interact with the referral program that you've built on Genius Referrals platform. This includes statistics or data we use to track referrals — we refer to this information as Customer Usage Data — and it also includes the contents of communications, which we refer to as your Customer Content. You can see a more detailed definition of "Customer Content" in our Data Protection Addendum, which is part of our agreement with you.
Genius Referrals processes these categories of personal information differently because the direct relationship we have with you, our customer, is different from the indirect relationship we have with your end users.

When Genius Referrals processes your Customer Account Data and your Customer Usage Data, Genius Referrals is acting as a controller. When Genius Referrals processes your Customer Content, we are acting as a processor.

If you are a visitor to our website (by which we mean any website that links back to this Privacy Notice in its footer, such as to geniusreferrals.com or es.geniusreferrals.com), we collect a minimal amount of data about you (depending on how much you’ve chosen to share with us). This might be as little as an IP address or a cookie, and it might be your contact information. We also consider this Customer Account Data. You can read below about how we process visitors' Customer Account Data.

If you are an end user of a Genius Referrals customer, this Privacy Notice does not apply to the services that our customers provide to their end users. Our customers have their own policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of the personal information of their end users. If you are an end user of one of our customers and want to learn about how that customer handles your personal information, we encourage you to read the customer's privacy policy. Only the customer can assist you with requests for access or deletion.
Data about our customers

In short, Genius Referrals requires the minimal amount of data necessary to provide services to you, and the amount or type of data we collect depends on the service you choose or how you use it. If you choose to share additional information with us so that we can better customize your account and our services, we'll process that with the same care and respect. We do not sell your personal information and we do not share your information with third parties for those third parties’ own business interests. This Privacy Notice describes the data we collect from our customers at a high level.

We use the information we collect and share it with our service providers primarily to provide the services you've requested from us, and as needed for our operational purposes (e.g., to do the things we need to do to function as a business, such as to collect payment). In addition, we may use data about our customers to detect, prevent, or investigate security incidents, fraud, or abuse and misuse of our platform and services.

Data we process during account creation and account usage

When you sign up for an account with us, we ask for certain information like your contact details and billing information to facilitate payment and communication. We also collect some information automatically, like your IP address, when you log in to your account or when the referral program built on Genius Referrals makes requests to our APIs or referral program websites. We use this to understand who is using our services and how, and to detect, prevent and investigate fraud, abuse, or security incidents.

Information You Share Directly:

Name and contact information. When you sign up for a Genius Referrals account with us, we will ask you to give us your name, email address, and optionally, your company name, and to create a password. We collect this information so we know who you are — this helps us communicate with you about your account, recognize you when you communicate with us through the account portal or otherwise, bill you correctly, and provide other services.

Telephone number. When you access your account profile page, you can provide a telephone number so a Genius Referrals team member may contact you at this number to help you with onboarding.

Payment information. When you first sign up for an account, we'll ask you to provide our payment processor with your payment method information like a credit card or your Paypal account, and your billing address. Our payment processor, acting on our behalf, gathers this so we can bill you for your use of our services.

Subscriber records. For some services, we may also obtain proof of identity from you that includes a proof of address, name, physical address, or other identification information. For example, to use Gift Cards Payouts. We may also need proof of identity and physical service address. We call these "subscriber records".

Information We Generate or Collect Automatically:

SIDs. When you sign up for an account with Genius Referrals, we'll automatically assign you and your account a unique ID — a SID — and we'll automatically generate an API token for your account. These are used like a username and password to make API requests. We keep a record of these credentials so we know it is you making the requests when your application makes requests to our API using these credentials.

Device information and IP addresses. When you use our account portal, we collect your IP address and other data through tracking technologies like cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies. We also collect IP addresses when you make requests to our APIs and in our server logs. We use this information to understand how customers are using our platform, who those customers are (if they are a company and the IP address is associated with that company), what country they are logging in from (for analytics and export control purposes), and to help improve the navigation experience. You can learn more about cookies in the section titled "Cookies and Tracking Technologies" below.

When you use our account portal, we also collect information about your device, such as your computer or mobile device operating system type and version number, manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, unique identifiers, and general location information such as city or town. We do not collect precise geographical information.

Data we process from our website, events, and interactions:

When you visit our website, sign up for a Genius Referrals event or request more information about Genius Referrals, we collect information automatically using tracking technologies, like cookies, and through web forms where you type in your information. We collect this information to provide you with what you request through the web form, to learn more about who is interested in our services, and to improve navigation experience on our pages. You can learn more about cookies in the section titled "Cookies and Tracking Technologies" below.

Information You Share Directly:

In some places on Genius Referrals' public-facing websites, you can fill out web forms to ask to be contacted by our Sales Team, sign up for a newsletter, register for a Genius Referrals event, or take a survey. The specific personal information requested on these forms will vary based on the purpose of the form. We will ask you for information necessary for us to provide you with what you request through the form (for example, we will ask you for your email address if you want to sign up for an email newsletter and for your phone number if you want a member of our Sales Team to call you). We may also ask you for additional information to help us understand you better as a customer, such as your Genius Referrals use case, your company name, or your role at your company. If you sign up to receive ongoing marketing communications from Genius Referrals, like a newsletter, you can always choose to opt out of further communications through a preferences page which will be linked from any marketing email you receive from Genius Referrals. You can also contact our Customer Support Team to communicate your choice to opt-out.

If you contact our Sales or Customer Support Teams, those teams keep a record of that communication, including your contact details and other information you share during the course of the communication. We store this information to help us keep track of the inquiries we receive from you and from customers generally so we can improve our products and services and provide training to team members. This information also helps our teams manage our ongoing relationships with our customers. Because we store a record of these communications, please be thoughtful about what information you share with our Sales and Customer Support Teams. While we will take appropriate measures to protect any sensitive information you share with us, it is best to avoid sharing any personal or other sensitive information in these communications not necessary for these teams to assist you.

Information We Collect Automatically:

When you visit Genius Referrals websites, including our web forms, we and our service providers acting on our behalf automatically collect certain information using tracking technologies like cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies. We use this information to understand how visitors to our websites are using them and which pages and features of the websites are most popular. This helps us understand how we can improve our websites and track performance of our advertisements. In addition, we use tracking technologies to help improve the navigation experience on Genius Referrals websites. We don't sell this information to third parties. For more details on our use of cookies and other tracking technologies, please read the below section titled "Cookies and Tracking Technologies".

Marketing information

We use your email address to send you information about other Genius Referrals services in which we think you may be interested. You can opt out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time through your marketing preferences page by clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any marketing email you receive from Genius Referrals. You can also contact our Customer Support Team to communicate your choice to opt-out. Please note that it may take up to three days to remove your contact information from our marketing communications lists, so you may receive correspondence from us for a short time after you make your request. You will not be able to opt out of service emails from us, such as password reset emails, billing emails, or notifications of updates to our terms, unless you deactivate your account.

We may also use publicly-available information about you that we have gathered through services like LinkedIn, or we may obtain information about you or your company from third party providers. We use this information to help us understand our customer base better, such as your industry, the size of your company, and your company’s website URL. We also use this information to reach out to potential candidates for roles at Genius Referrals.

How Long We Store Your Customer Account Data

Genius Referrals will store your Customer Account Data as long as needed to provide you with our services and to operate our business. If you ask Genius Referrals to delete specific personal information from your Customer Account Data (see "Choices About Your Customer Account Data" below), we will honor this request unless deleting that information prevents us from carrying out necessary business functions, such as billing for our services, calculating taxes, or conducting required audits.
More specifically, within 60 days following closure of your account, we will either delete other Customer Account Data or transform it such that it can no longer be used to identify you, with the following exceptions, depending on and in accordance with applicable law:
  • Customer Account Data is stored for up to seven years following closure of your account. However, we may retain invoice records, including their digital equivalent, for longer periods for accounting, tax, and audit purposes.
  • Where we collect subscriber records, we will retain this data for such time as needed for legal, security and anti-fraud purposes.
  • We may retain your communications with Genius Referrals' Customer Support Teams for up to three years after your account is closed.
  • We may need to retain data due to special circumstances (such as due to an open investigation, audit, or other legal matter).
Data about our customers' end users

What Customer Usage Data and Customer Content Genius Referrals Processes and Why

We use Customer Usage Data and Customer Content to provide services to you and to carry out the necessary functions of our business as a referral marketing platform. We do not sell your end users' personal information, and we do not share your end users' information with third parties for those third parties' own business interests or cross-context behavioral advertising.

The particular end user personal information Genius Referrals processes when you, our customer, use our services, and the reasons Genius Referrals processes end user personal information, depends on how you use our services and which Genius Referrals services you use.

For that reason, our Help Center is the best place to find information about our processing of personal information when you use our services. In many cases, you can opt to store records of your activities in your Genius Referrals account, and these records may include your end users' personal information.

For Genius Referrals' customers, our Data Protection Addendum describes more about how we process Customer Content in accordance with your instructions. That Data Protection Addendum is a part of your agreement with us by default.

How Long We Store Customer Usage Data and Customer Content

Details regarding how long your end user personal information may be stored on Genius Referrals systems will depend on which Genius Referrals services you are using and how you are using them. For that reason, our Help Center is the best place to find more detailed information about managing end user data collected and stored in connection with your use of our services.

As a Genius Referrals customer, if the Genius Referrals service you use enables you to store records of your usage on Genius Referrals, including personal information contained within those records, and you choose to do so, then Genius Referrals will retain these records for as long as you instruct, up until termination of your account. If you later instruct us to delete those records (please see below for information on how to delete your records), we will do so. Please note that it may take up to 30 days for the data to be completely removed from all systems.

How Genius Referrals shares personal information

We do not sell your personal information or the personal information of your end users. We also do not allow any personal information to be used by third parties for their own marketing purposes (except in cases where you explicitly request or provide consent for us to do so, such as at a conference when you direct us to share your information with a sponsor) or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. However, we do need to share personal data in order to provide our services to you, such as to send emails to you or your end users or fulfilling payout requests. Below are the different scenarios under which we may share your data with third parties.

How to make choices about your data

Choices About Your Customer Account Data

Accessing and Controlling Account Data. As part of the services we provide to our customers, we provide you with a number of self-service features at no additional cost within the Genius Referrals portal itself, including the ability to access your data, update any incorrect data, download a copy of your data, delete your data, or restrict the use of your data. You can make various choices about your Customer Account Data through the account portal when you log into your Genius Referrals account or through the API. For any other requests about your data you cannot make through these self-service tools, you can request by emailing support@geniusreferrals.com or contacting Customer Support.

Closing Your Account and Deletion. As part of the services we provide to our customers, we provide you with a number of self-service features at no additional cost within the Genius Referrals portal itself, including the ability to access your data, update any incorrect data, download a copy of your data, delete your data, or restrict the use of your data.

To request closure or deletion of your Genius Referrals account, you can cancel your account directly within the Genius Referrals portal, email us at support@geniusreferrals.com, or contact Customer Support. Please be aware that the closure or deletion of your Genius Referrals account will result in you permanently losing access to your account and the data in the account. After the closure of your account, certain information associated with your account may remain on Genius Referrals servers in an aggregated form that does not identify you or your end users. Similarly, after you close your account, we will retain data — including personal information — associated with your account that we are required to maintain for legal purposes or for necessary business operations (see "How Long We Store Your Customer Account Data" section above) until it's no longer needed.

Other Choices About Your Customer Account Data. In addition, you can express other choices about your Customer Account Data (e.g., accessing it, deleting it, restricting its use, or withdrawing consent for its use) by contacting Customer Support.

Choices About Your End Users' Data

We also offer you the ability to delete, access, or exercise other choices about end user data, namely Customer Usage Data and Customer Content. Your ability to make choices about this data depends on how you use the services. For that reason, our Help Center is the best place to find more detailed information about managing end user data collected and stored in connection with your use of our services.

In some cases, we may retain a copy of your usage records, including the personal information contained in them, to carry out necessary functions like billing, invoice reconciliation, troubleshooting, along with detecting, preventing, and investigating spam, fraudulent activity, and network exploits and abuse. Sometimes legal matters arise that also require us to preserve records, including those containing personal information. These matters include litigation, law enforcement requests, or government investigations. If we have to do this, we will delete the impacted records when we are no longer legally obligated to retain them. We may, however, retain or use records after they have been anonymized, if the law allows.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our websites and when providing our services. For more information about how we use these technologies, including a list of other companies that place cookies on our sites, a list of cookies that we place when we power a merchant’s store, and an explanation of how you can opt out of certain types of cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.
International data transfers

As a global organization, we may need to transfer your personal information to Genius Referrals affiliates, contractors, service providers, and to third parties in various countries and jurisdictions around the world. In each case, we take care to use appropriate safeguards to ensure your personal information remains protected.

Data transfers to the United States and elsewhere. When you use our account portal or other services, personal information of you and your end users processed by Genius Referrals may be transferred to the United States, where our primary processing facilities are located, and possibly to other countries where we or our service providers operate.

Transfers from other countries. When we transfer personal information outside countries other than those in the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, we strive to comply with the cross-border data transfer rules of those countries, such as by cooperating with that country's data protection authority or providing a written agreement to each customer that meets the data protection requirements of the country.

Security Information

How We Secure Personal Information

Our security measures. We use appropriate security measures to protect the security of your personal information both online and offline. These measures vary based on the sensitivity of the personal information we collect, process and store and the current state of technology. We also take measures to ensure service providers that process personal data on our behalf also have appropriate security controls in place. When we transfer data across borders, we also take supplementary measures to ensure that data is protected. You may read more about our security measures in our Security Overview.

Please note that no service is completely secure. While we strive to protect your data, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss or a data breach will never occur.

Security measures you can take. To protect the confidentiality of your account and protect against unauthorized use of your account, we recommend setting up a strong password. Additionally, you must keep your account password and Auth Token confidential and not disclose them publicly or to unauthorized individuals — this includes accidentally distributing them in a binary or checking them into source control. Please let us know right away if you think your password or Auth Token was compromised or misused. For instructions on changing your password, click here. For instructions on changing your Auth Token, click here.

How we use personal information for security purposes

We may collect and use Customer Account Data or Customer Usage Data to detect, prevent, or investigate security incidents, fraud, or abuse and misuse of our platform and services. In addition, we also use records containing end user personal information to debug, troubleshoot, or investigate security incidents; to detect and prevent spam or fraudulent activity; and to detect and prevent network exploits and abuse. Specifically, we monitor referrals to detect fraudulent referrals and advocates. We may anonymize personal information and use it for our legitimate business needs, and, where allowed by law, this may include records containing end user personal information.
Other information you may find useful

Changes to our Privacy Notice

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time, and if we do, the most current version will be available at https://geniusreferrals.com/legal/privacy with the date indicating when it was last updated. These changes might be minor, such as updating an address or fixing a typo, or they might be material, such as making a change that affects your rights. If we make changes that affect your rights, we will provide advance notice to you, such as by posting a message in the Genius Referrals portal, or we'll send an email via the address we have on file for you. We will comply with applicable law with respect to any changes we make to this notice and seek your consent to any material changes if this is required by applicable law.

LANGUAGE