Privacy Policy

Kooabo's Privacy Policy describes your rights to privacy protection, the type of personal information collected, and how we use and disclose it. Kooabo aims to create connections between people for a more open and inclusive world. In other words, we aim to create a world where everyone can feel at home everywhere. We are a community based on trust. To build trust, it is essential to be transparent about how we use your information and protect your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes how Kooabo, (« we, » or « Kooabo ») processes personal information related to your use of the Kooabo platform. Depending on where you live and what you do on the Kooabo platform, additional privacy pages listed below may apply to you. Please click on the links and review the additional information describing how we process personal information for those regions and services.

1. Definition

Terms not defined in this Privacy Policy have the same meaning as in our terms and conditions of sale.

2. Personal information we collect

2.1 Information required to use the Kooabo platform

We collect personal information about you when you use the Kooabo platform. Without it, we would not be able to provide you with the requested services. This information includes:

• Contact information, account information, and profile informationYour first name, last name, phone number, postal address, email address, date of birth, and profile picture, depending on the features you use
• Identity verification and payment informationImages of your official identification document (in accordance with applicable law), your identification number or other verification information, your banking information or payment account. If you are not a Kooabo user, we may receive payment information about you, for example, when a Kooabo user provides your payment card for a booking. If a copy of your identification document is provided to us, we may scan, use, and store the information contained in your identification document to verify your identity.

2.2 Information you choose to provide to us

You may choose to provide us with additional personal information. This information may include:

• Additional profile informationFor example, gender, preferred language(s), city, and personal description. Some of this information, as indicated in your account settings, is part of your public profile page and will therefore be publicly visible.
• Information about other individuals. For example, a payment instrument belonging to another person or information about a co-traveler. By providing us with personal information about other individuals, you certify that you have permission to provide this information to Kooabo for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, that you have shared Kooabo's Privacy Policy with them and that they have read and understood that this policy applies to them.
• Information in the address book. Address book contacts that you import or enter manually.
• Other information. For example, information provided when you post a review or comment, add information to your account, respond to surveys, participate in promotions, communicate with our user support team and other members, or discuss your experience with us. 

2.3 Information collected automatically when using the Kooabo platform and our payment services

When you use the Kooabo platform and payment services, we automatically collect personal information. This information may include:

• Geolocation information. An accurate or approximate location determined from your IP address or mobile device GPS based on your device settings. We may also collect this information when you are not using the app, if you enable this option in your device settings or permissions.
• Usage information. The pages or content you view, ad searches, bookings you have made, and other actions taken on the Kooabo platform.
• Connection data and device information. Information about how you have used the Kooabo platform (including if you have clicked on links to third-party applications), IP address, access dates and times, hardware and software information, information about the device used, information about device events, unique identifiers, crash data, and the pages you have viewed or visited before or after using the Kooabo platform. We may collect this information even if you have not created a Kooabo account or logged in.
• Cookies and similar technologies as described in our Cookie Policy.
• Information about payment transactions. The payment method used, date and time, payment amount, payment method expiration date, and billing zip code, PayPal email address, your Mobile Money or KKiapay IBAN information, your address, and other associated transaction information.

2.4 Personal information collected from third parties.

We collect personal information from other sources, including:

• Third-party services If you link, connect, or access the Kooabo platform through a third-party service (e.g. Google, Facebook, or WhatsApp), you are requesting that service to send us information such as your registration, friend list, and profile, in accordance with that service's control terms or the authorization you have granted in your privacy settings for that service.
• Information and history For members located in the United States, to the extent permitted by applicable law, we may obtain, for example, criminal background checks, sex offender registry checks, and other information about you and/or your history. For members located outside of the United States, to the extent permitted by applicable law and with your consent if required, we may obtain the local equivalent of a criminal background check or sex offender registry check. We may use your information, including your full name and date of birth, in order to obtain these documents.
• Sponsorships and Co-travelers. If you are invited to the Kooabo platform as a co-traveler during an experience, the person who invited you may send personal information about you, such as your email address or other contact information.
• Other SourcesTo the extent permitted by applicable law, we may receive additional information about you, such as recommendations, demographic data, or information that contributes to fraud and security risk detection, from third-party service providers and/or partners, and combine it with information we already have about you. For example, we may receive background check results or fraud alerts from identity verification service providers as part of our fraud prevention efforts and risk assessment. We may receive information about you and your activities on and off the Kooabo platform, or about your experiences and interactions with our partners. We may receive health information, including but not limited to information about contagious diseases.

3. How we use the information we collect

We use personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

3.1 Providing, Improving, and Developing the Kooabo Platform,

including to:

• Allow you to access the Kooabo platform and make and receive payments
• Enable you to communicate with other members
• Process your request
• Conduct analysis, debugging, and research
• Provide customer service, training
• Send you messages, updates, security alerts, and account notifications
• Process, if provided, information about your contacts such as friends or co-travelers: (i) to facilitate your referral invitations, (ii) to share your travel information and facilitate trip planning, (iii) for fraud detection and prevention, and (iv) to facilitate your requests or for any other purpose authorized by you
• Personalize your experience based on your interactions with the Kooabo platform, your search and booking history, your profile information and preferences, and other content submitted by you
• Allow you to use our Enterprise products.

3.2 Creating and Maintaining a Secure Trustworthy Environment,

including to:

• Detect and prevent fraud, spam, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activities
• Study and combat discrimination 
• Conduct security investigations and risk assessments
• Verify or authenticate the information you have provided
• Conduct database and other information source checks, including background or police checks
• Respect our legal obligations, protect the health and well-being of our travelers, Kooabos hosts, Kooabos host employees, and members of the public.
• Resolve disputes with our members, including sharing information with your Kooabo co-host or additional travelers regarding disputes related to your role as a Kooabo co-host or additional traveler.
• Enforce our agreements with third parties.
• Comply with the law, respond to legal requests, prevent harm, and protect our rights (see section 4.5).
• Enforce our Terms of Service and other policies.
• In connection with the activities above, perform profiling based on your interactions with the Kooabo platform, information in your profile, and other content submitted by you to the Kooabo platform, as well as based on information obtained from third parties. In a limited number of cases, automated processes that analyze your account and activities on the Kooabo platform, as well as information related to activities on and off the Kooabo platform that may be associated with you, may restrict or suspend access to the Kooabo platform if such processes detect activity that may present a security risk or other type of risk to Kooabo, our community, or any third party. If you wish to contest decisions based on automated processes, please contact us at the contact information listed in the Contact section below.

3.3 Provide, personalize, evaluate, and improve our advertising and marketing activities.,

Including:

• Sending you promotional and marketing messages, advertising, and other information based on your preferences, and advertising on social media through social media platforms.
• Personalizing, evaluating, and improving our advertising.
• Managing rewards, referral programs, surveys, lotteries, contests, or other promotional activities or events organized or managed by Kooabo or its business partners.
• Analyzing characteristics and preferences in order to send you promotional and marketing messages, advertising, and other information that may be of interest to you.
• Inviting you to events or other opportunities.

3.4 Provide payment services..

Personal information is used to enable or authorize third parties to use payment services, including:

• Detecting and preventing money laundering, fraud, abuse, and security incidents.
• Conducting security investigations and risk assessments.
• Complying with legal obligations (such as anti-money laundering regulations).
• Enforcing Payment Terms and other payment policies.
• With your consent, sending you promotional messages, commercial information, advertising, and other information that may be of interest to you, based on your preferences.
• Providing and improving payment services.

4. Sharing and Disclosure

4.1 Sharing with your consent or at your direction.

When you give your consent, we share your information as described at the time of consent, for example, when you authorize a third-party application or website to access your Kooabo account or participate in promotional activities offered by Kooabo partners or third parties. When allowed by law, we may use certain information about you, such as your email address, anonymize it, and share it with social media platforms in order to generate leads, drive traffic to Kooabo, or promote our products and services in any other way.

4.2 Sharing between Members

In order to facilitate bookings or other interactions between members, we may need to share certain information, such as:

• In the case of a booking request, the presence of a Kooabo co-host or a dispute, certain information may be shared between traveler(s) and Kooabo host(s), including their profile, their name, the name of additional travelers, cancellation history, published comments, traveler's age (unless legally prohibited), the outcome of the dispute (if any), and other information you choose to share and send. When a booking is confirmed, additional information is shared to facilitate trip coordination, such as profile picture and phone number. When you confirm a booking as a Kooabo host, certain information is shared with the traveler (and any invited additional traveler, if applicable) to coordinate the booking, such as your profile, full name, phone number, and the address of your accommodation.
• When you invite another member to become a Kooabo co-host, you authorize that person to access and modify your information and content, including, but not limited to, certain information such as your full name, phone number, address of your accommodation, calendar, information and photos of listings, and your email address.
• When you invite other travelers as a Kooabo traveler on a booking, your name, travel dates, the name of the Kooabo host, listing details, accommodation address, and other associated information will be shared with each additional traveler..

4.3 Information You Publish in Profiles and Listings, and Other Public Information

You may make certain information publicly visible to other users, such as:

• Your public profile page, including your profile picture, first name (or initials, if any), description, and city.
• Listing pages containing information such as the approximate or precise description of the accommodation or experience, availability, profile picture, aggregated information related to demand (such as the number of page views over a certain period), and any additional information you choose to share.
• Public comments, ratings, and feedback.
• Content in a discussion or community forum, blog, or article on social media.

We may display certain parts of your public profile and other content you make publicly available, such as listing details, on third-party applications, platforms, and websites. Information you publicly share on the Kooabo platform may be indexed through third-party search engines. In some cases, you may be able to disable this feature in your account settings.

4.4 Kooabo Host Service Providers

Kooabo hosts may rely on third-party services to manage or provide their services, such as cleaning or locksmith services. Kooabo hosts may use Kooabo's platform features to share information about the traveler (including their arrival and departure dates, name, and phone number) with these third-party service providers.

4.5 Compliance with the Law, Responding to Legal Requests, Preventing Harm and Protecting Our Rights

We may disclose your information to courts, law enforcement authorities, government or public authorities, tax authorities, or authorized third parties, if and to the extent we are required or authorized by law, or when disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (i) comply with our legal obligations; (ii) comply with a valid judicial requirement (such as a court order or decision) or to respond to claims against Kooabo; (iii) respond to a valid legal request in connection with a criminal investigation involving illegal or suspected activity, or to respond to any other activity that may expose Kooabo, you or any other user, to legal or regulatory liability (more information on Kooabo's law enforcement guidelines can be found here); (iv) enforce and administer our Member Agreement, including our Legal Disclaimers, and our Policies; or (v) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Kooabo, its employees, members, or members of the public. For example, if permissible under any of the foregoing circumstances, tax information about a Kooabo host may be shared with tax authorities or other government agencies. here) , (iv) enforcing and administering our contrats with members, including our terms, our additional legal terms, and our policies ; or (v) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Kooabo, its employees, members, or the public. For example, if possible under one of the previous circumstances, tax information about a Kooabo host may be disclosed to tax authorities or other public authorities. Where applicable, we may inform members of the existence of legal requests, unless: (i) prohibited by the legal process itself, a court order we receive, or applicable law; or (ii) we believe that the notice is futile, ineffective, would create a risk of injury or bodily harm to an individual or group, or would create or increase a risk of fraud or harm to Kooabo or our members, or expose Kooabo to a claim of obstructing justice. When required or permitted by applicable law, we may disclose information about Kooabo hosts and/or travelers to tax authorities so that they can determine compliance with applicable tax obligations. Applicable tax obligations include Kooabo's tax obligations on its service fees, its facilitation role for accommodations taxes and withholding taxes, as well as individual tax obligations of Kooabo hosts. Information that may be disclosed includes, but is not limited to, the names of Kooabo hosts and travelers, property addresses, Kooabo host addresses, tax/business identification number(s), date of birth and/or contact information, plot identification numbers, payment information, transaction dates and amounts, number of nights booked and number of guests, gross and net booking values and payment amounts, taxes collected by Kooabo on behalf of travelers and Kooabo hosts, to the extent known by Kooabo. In jurisdictions where Kooabo encourages or requires a registration, notification, authorization, licensing or Kooabo host identification number with a government authority, we may disclose information about participating Kooabo hosts to the relevant authority, both during the application process and upon publication of the listing, and where applicable, periodically thereafter, such as the full name and contact information of the Kooabo host, the property address, tax identification number, registration, permit or license number, listing details, booking information and number of nights booked, subject to applicable law.

4.6 Programs with Property Managers and Owners

We may share personal information about Kooabo hosts and travelers with landlords, management companies (such as condominium associations), and/or owners of places (the “Building Owner”), such as booking information and information related to compliance with applicable laws, to facilitate programs with the Building Owner. For example, traveler booking and personal information, including traveler contact information, may be shared with the Building Owner, complex or community where a Kooabo host lives and/or where the accommodation is located, to facilitate accommodation services, compliance with applicable laws, safety, billing and other services. « the Building Owner » ),such as reservation information and information relating to compliance with applicable laws, in order to facilitate programs with the Building Manager. For example, traveler reservation and personal information, including traveler contact information, may be shared with the building manager, complex or community where a Kooabo host resides and/or where the accommodation is located, in order to facilitate accommodation services, compliance with applicable laws, safety, billing, and other services.

4.7 Information about Kooabo hosts provided to Kooabo for Work customers

If a booking is made for business purposes and (1) by a traveler affiliated with a company and (2) the company is enrolled in Kooabo for Work, we may disclose information about that booking to the company (such as the name of the Kooabo host, the address of the accommodation, the booking dates, the listing details, etc.) to the extent necessary for the proper performance of Kooabo's contract with the company and the provision of services. Upon request by the company or the traveler, we may also share this information with third parties engaged by the company to provide assistance services.

4.8 Service providers

We share personal information with affiliated and non-affiliated service providers to help us manage our business and for their own compliance requirements, including service providers assisting us with: (i) verifying your identity or authenticating your identity documents; (ii) comparing information with public databases; (iii) performing background or police checks, for fraud prevention and risk assessment; (iv) developing, maintaining, and debugging products; (v) enabling the provision of Kooabo services through third-party platforms and software tools (e.g., by integration with our APIs); (vi) providing user support, advertising, or payment services; or (vii) processing, managing, or assessing damage claims or similar. These providers are contractually required to protect your personal data and only have access to it to perform the tasks mentioned above.

4.9 Business Transfer

If Kooabo undertakes or participates in a merger, acquisition, restructuring, sale of assets, or bankruptcy or insolvency proceeding, it may sell, transfer, or share all or part of its assets, including your information in connection with such transaction or in anticipation of such transaction (e.g., due diligence). In this case, we will inform you before your personal information is transferred and will be governed by another Privacy Policy.

4.10 Affiliated Companies

To help us provide, integrate, promote, and improve the Kooabo platform, payment services, and the services of our affiliates, we may share personal information within our family of companies linked by common ownership or control. Here are some examples:

• Sharing with Kooabo:Even if you do not reside in the United States, your information may be shared with Kooabo, which provides the technical infrastructure for the Kooabo platform.
• Sharing with Kooabo Payments/b>In order to facilitate payments on or through the Kooabo platform, certain information described in section « Outside the United States » will be shared with the relevant Kooabo Payments entity.
• Sharing with Kooabo IrelandEven if you reside outside the EEA (for example, in the United States, Japan, or China), your information may be shared with Kooabo Ireland, which provides user support and other operational services to other Kooabo entities, and may be disclosed in accordance with section 4.5 above.
• Sharing with Kooabo GSL. Even if you do not reside in Japan, your information may be shared with Kooabo GSL, which provides user support and other operational services to other Kooabo entities.
• Sharing with Kooabo ChinaEven if you do not reside in China, some of your information will be disclosed to Kooabo China under the following circumstances:
  • Public dataInformation that you publicly share on the Kooabo platform.
  • Creating a listing . If you create a listing in China, the shared information will include: (i) your name, phone number, email address, nationality, and passport/ID details; (ii) (if using a Chinese company for hosting) the entity name, company address, phone number, unified social credit code (or business registration number), legal representative and person in charge name, business scope, registered capital, expiration date, other business permit information and permit) ; (iii) the operational data of the Kooabo host (such as e-commerce business type, permit provided, Kooabo host/listing type, entity registration obligation, account/operation active status) ; (iv) listing information (such as address, descriptions, photos); (v) booking and registration information related to the listing, such as traveler information as described below in Kooabo host services, dates, time, and amounts paid; and (vi) messages exchanged between you and potential and confirmed travelers in the listing. Learn more
  • Kooabo host services . If you request or book a Kooabo host service located in China, the shared information will include: (i) your name, phone number, and email address; (ii) booking and registration information, including city, dates, times, payment amount, accommodation address, and publicly accessible data about your accommodation; (iii) messages exchanged between the Kooabo host and you or other travelers regarding the same booking; and (iv) the name, nationality, gender, date of birth, and passport/national ID information (including ID type, ID number, and expiration date) of any traveler. Learn more.
  • Sending messages s If you send a message to a Kooabo host about that host's listing in China, the shared information will include: your first name, profile picture, and the contents of the message. Learn more.

The data sharing described above is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us, to allow you to publish or book the services of a Kooabo host in China and to contact members in China, and vice versa. Chinese authorities require Kooabo China to disclose any information about Kooabo listings and hosts in China, as well as any information about bookings and registrations in China. Like other short-term rental or hosting companies operating in China, Kooabo China will disclose your information to Chinese authorities without notice. Your information may also be transmitted to service providers (including in China) for the management of our business. These service providers may be required to disclose your information when the law requires it.

5. Other important information

5.1 Analysis of your communications

We may consult, review, or analyze your communications on the Kooabo platform for the reasons set forth in the section “Our Use of Information We Collect” of this policy, including for fraud prevention, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, investigation, product development, research, analysis, enforcement of our Terms of Service and user support. For example, as part of our fraud prevention efforts, we review and analyze messages to mask contact information and references to other websites. In some cases, we may also review, scan, or analyze messages for debugging, improvement, and expansion of our product offerings. We use automated methods whenever possible. We may need to review communications manually at times, such as to investigate fraud and assist users or to evaluate and improve the functionality of these automated tools. We will not review, control, or analyze your communications to send you marketing messages from third parties, and we will not sell reviews or analyses of these communications.

5.2 Link to third-party accounts

You may link your Kooabo account to certain third-party services such as social networks. Your contacts on these third-party services are referred to as “friends.” When you authorize and direct the sharing of data by creating this link:

• Some of the information that we are provided with from linked accounts may be published on your public profile.
• Your activities on the Kooabo platform may be displayed to your friends on the Kooabo platform and/or said third-party service.
• A link to your public profile on that third-party service may be included in your Kooabo public profile.
• Other Kooabo users may see any common friends you have with them or that you are a friend of their friend, if applicable.
• Kooabo users may see schools, hometowns or other groups you have in common with them as they appear on your linked social media services.
• The information you disclose to us by linking your accounts may be retained, processed, and transmitted for fraud prevention and risk assessment purposes.
• The publication and display of the information you provide to the Kooabo platform through these links depends on the settings and permissions set by you on the Kooabo platform and the third-party service.

5.3. Third-Party Partners and Integrations

Certain parts of Kooabo may be linked to third-party services that are neither owned nor controlled by Kooabo, such as Google Maps/Google Earth. The use of these services is subject to the privacy policies of these providers, such as the Additional Terms of Use for Google Maps/Google Earth, the Google Privacy Policies de Google (see here for more information on how Google uses information) and theCiti Privacy Policy. Kooabo does not own or control these third parties and when you interact with them, you provide them with your information.

6. Your Rights

You may exercise any of the rights described in this section in accordance with applicable law. See here Requests related to your rights as a data subject can be submitted through the contact details provided in the 'text185' section. We may ask you to verify your identity before processing your request. To learn more about your rights under GDPR, click here. If you reside in China, click here to learn more about your rights.

6.1 Managing your information

You can view and update certain information by accessing your account settings. If you have connected your Kooabo account to a third-party service, such as Facebook or Google, you can modify your settings and disconnect from that service by accessing your account settings. You are responsible for keeping your personal information up to date. In certain jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to request copies of your personal information or information about how we process your personal information, or request copies of personal information that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and/or request that we transmit such information to another service provider (where technically feasible).

6.3 Deletion of data

In certain jurisdictions, you may request deletion of your personal information. Please note that if you request the deletion of your personal information, or if your account is suspended, terminated or voluntarily closed:

• We may retain the personal information necessary for our legitimate interests, such as fraud detection and prevention and enhancing safety. For example, if we suspend a Kooabo account for fraud or security reasons, we may retain certain information related to that Kooabo account to prevent that member from opening a new Kooabo account in the future.
• We may retain and use your personal information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations. For example, Kooabo and Kooabo Payments may retain some of your information for tax obligations, legal reporting, and auditing.
• Information that you have shared with others (e.g., comments, posts on a forum) may continue to be published on the Kooabo platform even after you delete your Kooabo account. However, this information will no longer be attributed to you. Copies of your information (e.g., log records) will remain in our database but will be dissociated from your personal identifiers.
• To the extent that we protect information against accidental or malicious loss and against destruction, residual copies of your personal information may not be deleted from our backup systems for a limited period of time.

7. Security

While no organization can guarantee perfect security, we continuously implement and evolve administrative, technical, and physical security measures to protect your information against unauthorized access, loss, destruction, or alteration.

8. Changes to this privacy policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time in accordance with applicable law. If we do, we will publish the revised version of the Privacy Policy and update the 'Last Updated' date at the beginning of it. In the event of a significant modification, we will also inform you by email at least thirty (30) days before the effective date of the new version. If you do not agree to the new terms of the Privacy Policy, we invite you to delete your account. If you do not delete your account before the effective date of the new Privacy Policy, your continued access to and use of the Kooabo platform will be subject to the new Privacy Policy.

9. Contact Information and Responsible Kooabo Entities

For any questions or claims regarding this Privacy Policy or the processing of personal information by Kooabo: (i) if you reside in the United States, contact Kooabo, Inc., Legal Privacy, 888 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, United States; (ii) for payment-related questions, please use the contact information provided on the Payment Terms of Service ; and (iii) if you reside outside of the United States, please use the contact information provided by your Data Controller in the Outside of the United States. Read the previous version of this page .

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