July 2022
At Samahra, we built our system to support our users and their families. Ultimately, we exist to support healthy, positive, vibrant, and celebrated multiracial identity development for youth around the world.
We know that when you use our services that you are trusting us with your information. We feel the weight of this responsibility and we have created our system with the promise that we will never sell your data, and we will always protect your information in compliance with legal standards. Our privacy policy, described below, is intended to inform you of what information we collect, why it is collected, and what you can do to impact your privacy controls.
Information that Samahra Collects
Our team is committed to continuous quality improvement, such that we learn what is working for our users and what is not working, and we advance our system to optimize the user experience. In order to do this, we collect information in our app including what device and operating system you are using, how long you engage with the app on a daily basis, what pages tend to be of most interest, and how you navigate through the system. We also collect unique identifiers, which is a unique string of characters assigned to you when you subscribe to the app. This identifier allows us to connect your data on the backend and improve security and fraud detection. All of this information allows us to improve the app environment based on user feedback and experiences.
In addition to how you use the app, we collect information regarding your personal information that includes your name and password. We strongly recommend that you use a password that is unique to the Samahra app, and always sign out if using a shared device when you are finished. You also provide us with information in your bio, reflections, and the group chat, which we will call your general activity in the app. We also collect information such as your location information, which is determined by things like GPS and IP address from your device. Location information will be helpful for us to assign you to a location-specific group chat (if you elect to do this), in the future.
Why Samahra Collects Information
As noted above, the data that we collect allows us to optimize our experience for our users. We utilize a continuous quality improvement cycle that allows us to maintain and improve existing services, design and develop new services and features, and measure how we are performing as an app. We also use your data, such as your email address, to communicate with you if the need arises. Further, we use collected data to improve the safety and reliability of our services, this includes issues of fraud, abuse, security risks, and other issues that could harm Samahra or our users.
We will also require consent if we want to use your information in a way that isn’t covered in this Privacy Policy.
If you seek to impact your privacy controls, you can remove your information from our system by editing your bio, and requesting that your information be removed from our files. This is based on applicable law and we will do all we can to ensure your concerns are addressed. Users can always reach out by emailing us at lynn@samahra.app.
Sharing your Information
While you are subscribed to our app, you are able to share information with other people in the system. This includes our group chat feature. Our group chat is derived from Stream Maker, and their privacy policy also applies as related to our group chat.
We do not share your information with entities outside of Samahra. We do not sell your information. We will never sell your information.
We will comply with legal requirements if we have a good-faith belief that information is necessary to meet any applicable laws, legal processes, regulations, or enforceable governmental requests. We will publically share information about the types and quality of requests from government entities on our webpage. We will also comply to protect against harm to the rights, property, and safety of Samahra, our users, and our staff as required and/or permitted by law.
If Samahra is ever involved in an acquisition, merger, or sale of assets, we will continue to protect your confidentiality and will provide you with notice before information is transferred or is subject to a different entity’s privacy policy.
How we keep your Information Secure
We are dedicated to protecting your information and limiting unauthorized access, deletions, disclosures, or changes. To do this we restrict access to personal information collected to Samahra employees and contractors. Our staff and contractors are held to strict confidentiality obligations, as outlined in our contracts, and if violated, our employees and contractors will be disciplined or terminated.
Unless requested otherwise, we will retain your information for different periods of time depending on the information such that we can continue to optimize the user experience. We also maintain our records for financial record-keeping purposes.
Compliance and Cooperation with Regulators
We review this policy regularly from time to time to ensure that it reflects our policies, practices, and products.
Our data is stored on servers around the world, and your information may be processed and stored outside of the country where you live. Of course, laws and regulations vary throughout the world, but we apply the same protections in our policy regardless of location. We will also comply with relevant legal frameworks around data transfers.
If and when we receive formal written complaints, we will communicate directly with the concerned individual. We will work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, to resolve complaints.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requires specific disclosures for residents of California. Our privacy policy is written to align with this act such that we describe the categories of information that we collect, provide information on why this information is collected, and how we may share your information. We will never sell your personal information. This act also elevates the right for users to request information about how Samahra collects, uses, and discloses personal information, and the right to request that we delete your information. The CCPA also provides the right to not be discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights. We will never discriminate against you for this reason or any other reason. The CCPA requires a description of data practices using categories -
Categories of Personal Information we Collect:
Identifiers including your name, email address, and unique identifiers regarding your device
Demographic information including your language
Commercial Information including your payment information
Geolocation information as determined by GPS or IP address
Professional, employment, and education information if you provide this in your bio or within the group chat
Other information that you provide such as content (chat information) or content that you like
Inferences drawn from the information above to improve the app experience.
Business Purposes for Which Information may be Used or Disclosed:
Auditing and measurement such that Samahra uses collected information to understand the user experience and improve our products for our users.
Protecting against security threats, abuse, and illegal activity to detect, prevent, and respond to security incidents. We will protect against fraudulent, illegal, malicious, and deceptive information.
Maintaining our services such that the system is working properly and can be improved.
Research and development including our ability to create new products and services, such as new features. We will not engage with researchers or external interests who seek access to our data for academic or other research purposes.
Use of service providers including Stream, which is the source code we utilize for our group chat feature.
Legal reasons such that we are able to comply with applicable laws and regulations, and disclose information in response to good-faith legal processes or enforceable governmental requests. We will provide information about the quantity and type of requests we receive on our website.
Parties with whom the information may be shared:
Other people with whom you choose to share your information, such as in your bio and group chat.
Service providers, which are trusted businesses that process information on our behalf, such as Stream, that is used for our group chat feature.
Law enforcement or other third particles for legal reasons described above.
When this Policy Applies
This policy applies to all services offered by Samahra, LLC. This privacy policy doesn’t apply to services that have separate privacy policies that do not incorporate this privacy policy.
This policy doesn’t apply to the other entities that advertise our services.
We review this policy from time to time, and we will not reduce your rights under this policy without your explicit consent. We will always indicate the date the changes were made and archive versions for your review. If we have significant changes to our privacy policy we will provide a more prominent notice (through email, within the app, etc).