Privacy Policy

Last Updated: December 15, 2021

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. If we do, we’ll let you know about any material changes, either by notifying you on the Site or by sending you an email. New versions of this Policy will never apply retroactively — we’ll tell you the exact date they go into effect. If you keep using Seed&Spark after a change, that means you accept this Policy.

Who We Are

Seed&Spark Inc. provides services that help creators build audiences and raise funds for their projects. Our main services are a funding platform for film and TV projects and a subscription streaming service for independent movies and shows.

How This Policy Applies

This Policy describes the information we collect from you, how we use that information and our legal basis for doing so. It also covers whether and how that information may be shared and your rights and choices regarding the information you provide to us. If you see a capitalized word, it’s defined in our Terms of Service. We use cookies and similar technologies, as described in the Use of Cookies section.
By using the Services offered by Seed&Spark, you’re acknowledging you have agreed to our Terms of Use and that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

What We Collect and Receive

In order for you to create an account on Seed&Spark and use our Services, we need to collect and process certain information. Depending on your use of the Services, that may include:

Information you provide by completing forms on Seed&Spark — your name, email, location, login, and password details. We may ask for this information if you register as a user of the Services, subscribe to our newsletters, upload or submit content through Seed&Spark, or if you contact us;
Information you provide for identity verification purposes when launching a project, including your legal name, business name and Tax ID for business entities, and date of birth. In some cases, our payment processor will request that you provide a secure upload of an identity document (such as your passport, drivers license or other government-issued ID) to Seed&Spark;
Details of any requests or transactions you make through the Services. Seed&Spark partners with other companies (such as Stripe) for payment processing, and the payment information you submit is collected and used by them in accordance with their privacy policies (for Stripe’s, click here). Seed&Spark doesn’t store your payment information apart from the last four digits of your credit card or bank account (as applicable), expiration date, and country, which we require for tax, government regulatory, and security purposes;
Information about your activity on and interaction with Seed&Spark, including use of our mobile apps (such as your IP address, the type of device or browser you use, and your actions on the Site);
Information about the ways people visit and interact with our Site, in the form of traffic analytics. You can opt out of being included in Google Analytics here.
Communications you send to us (for example, when you ask for support, send us questions or comments, or report a problem);
The email address associated with your Facebook account, if you choose to sign up using your Facebook credentials. Seed&Spark will also request permission to access your name, profile picture, and friend list (these permissions are governed by Facebook’s privacy policies and can be managed through your Facebook privacy settings). We never post anything to your Facebook, Twitter, or other third-party accounts without your permission.
Demographic information—such as your age, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity—that you have the option to provide to us after giving your consent to the processing of those personal data in order to help Seed&Spark track equity on our platform, and provide insights on an anonymized basis. This category includes data that may qualify as protected classifications under other California, federal, or other applicable laws.

You may decline to provide us with your information. However, this will limit your ability to register for an account or use our Services. You may pledge to a project as a guest by providing only an email address. However, to adjust your pledge, save payment details for future pledges, make project comments and take most other actions on our Site, you will need to finish creating an account. You may review, change or remove your information by going to ‘Manage Account’ from your profile menu while logged in.

How We Use This Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
To keep your account secure and protect our Services (including to verify the identities of creators and prevent fraud and abuse);
To enable us to provide you with our Services, and to improve and promote our Services;
To create and administer your account, contact you, and customize your experience on Seed&Spark (for example, to show you projects or content that we think may interest you based on your previous use); and
To track and analyze use of the Services so that we can improve how Seed&Spark is performing and provide users with the best experience possible.
To be publicly accountable for our equity data.

European Union Users

Data protection law in Europe requires a “lawful basis” for collecting and retaining personal information from citizens or residents of the European Economic Area. Our lawful bases include:

Performing the contract we have with you: In certain circumstances, we need your personal data to comply with our contractual obligation to deliver the Services, enable creators to establish and display their projects, and enable backers to find and make pledges to them.
Legal compliance: Sometimes the law says we need to collect and use your data. For example, tax laws require us to retain records of pledges and payments made through our Services.
Legitimate interests: This is a technical term in data protection law which essentially means we have a good and fair reason to use your data and we do so in ways which do not hurt your interests and rights. We sometimes require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way that might reasonably be expected as part of running our business and that does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests.
- For example, we use identity, device, and location information to prevent fraud and abuse and to keep the Services secure. We may also send you promotional communications about our Services, subject to your right to control whether we do so.
- We analyze how users interact with our Site so we can understand better what elements of the design are working well and which are not working so well. This allows us to improve and develop the quality of the online experience we offer all our users.
  -related announcements when it’s necessary to do so.

California Users

Seed&Spark does not sell the personal information of California residents users to any third parties.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides California residents with with additional specific rights regarding their personal information:
Right to Access: You have the right to request access to any of your personal information we have collected over the past 12 months. For more information on what we collect and how we use it, see “What we collect”. To opt-in/out of data collection, please go to our Cookies page.
Right to Delete: You have the right to ask us to delete personal information we have collected on you over the past 12 months.
California users may make a request by contacting us at compliance@seedandspark.com. We will need your name and the email address associated with Seed&Spark to verify your request and may also ask for additional information if necessary to verify your identity.
We will confirm receipt of your request and provide a response to you within 45 days of your request, though in some exceptional cases it could take up to 90 days. (If that happens, we’ll let you know.) Please note that these rights are limited (e.g. where fulfilling your request would adversely affect other individuals or where we have a conflicting legal obligation).
You have the right to request this information in an accessible alternative format. If you would like to access this privacy policy in an alternative format, please contact us by email at compliance@seedandspark.com.
Seed&Spark will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

How This Information Is Shared

Information that’s shared publicly

When you create an account, we create a basic profile page for you on Seed&Spark, containing your username, location, a list of projects you have supported or launched and a list of movies and shows that you have liked. By default, your profile is public and you can choose to make it private in your account settings. If you leave your profile public, others will be able to see the following things:

The account username, which is created automatically based on your name
Any information you choose to add to your profile (like a picture, bio, your location or your linked social media pages);
Projects you’ve supported (but not pledge amounts or incentives chosen);
Projects you’ve created;
If you would like to have a public profile, but don’t want others to see your name or profile image on a project’s Community tab, you can explicitly set your privacy preference on each pledge. You can modify or hide certain information associated with your account (such as your profile image, biography and location) from your account settings, and you can change your privacy settings if you want to make your profile private or adjust the default settings.

Information that isn’t shared publicly

The following data will not be publicly displayed or revealed to other users:

Any payment information you provide;
Your password details;
Your IP address;
Your date of birth and other identity verification documentation (for creators);
Private profile information, in accordance with your preferences; and
Communications you send to us (for example, when you ask for support, send us questions or comments, or report a problem).
Demographic information linked to your specific profile that you provide to us as a part of tracking, research or participation in Film Forward

Information that’s shared with trusted third-party services

We may share your information with certain trusted third-party services to help us provide, improve, promote, or protect Seed&Spark’s Services (like when we partner with payment processors, or use services that help us analyze our data). When we share data with third-party services that support our delivery of the Seed&Spark Services, we require that they use your information only for the purposes we’ve authorized, and that they protect your personal information at least to the same standards we do. We may also share information that’s aggregated and anonymized in a way that it doesn’t directly identify you.

Information that’s shared with filmmakers, collaborators, or organizations

When you support a project, the project owner will know your name, email address, the amount you have pledged, your location (if provided) and the incentive you have selected. Creators never receive supporters’ credit card details or other payment information.
If a project you have supported is successfully funded, the filmmaker may send you a survey requesting information needed to provide your incentive. (For instance, they may need your mailing address, or T-shirt size.) Any information you provide in such surveys will be received by the filmmaker.
Creators are required to keep supporter information confidential, except as strictly necessary to communicate with supporters directly and fulfill incentives. Creators should not ask for personal information that isn’t necessary to provide your incentive, and should never request sensitive personal information such as your Social Security number or payment information. Contact us if you receive a request for information that seems inappropriate or excessive.
Collaborators are third parties that creators can appoint to help manage their project. These collaborators may be able to access the information available to creators (including supporters’ names, email addresses, locations, pledge amounts, incentive selections, and survey responses), and are required to treat supporters’ personal information with the same care and respect as creators are.
Creators and their collaborators may also receive routine traffic analytics about their project pages.
If you purchase tickets or passes to a screening event on Seed&Spark, your name and email will be shared with the organization hosting the event, and in some cases with the creators whose work you watch. Event organizers may only share your information with third parties such as sponsors if they indicate in advance of your purchase that they plan to do so.

Information that’s Shared to Protect Seed&Spark and Comply With The Law

We do reserve the right to disclose personal information when we believe that doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with the law or law enforcement, to prevent fraud or abuse, or to protect Seed&Spark’s legal rights, property, or the safety of Seed&Spark, its employees, users, or others.

Links to other websites and services

Our Site may include links to other websites or services whose privacy practices may differ from Seed&Spark’s. When you use a link to an external site or service, the privacy policy and data processing disclosures for that site or service governs.

Retention

We will retain your information as long as your account is active, as necessary to provide you with the Services or as otherwise set forth in this Policy. We will also retain and use this information as necessary for the purposes set out in this Policy and to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements and protect Seed&Spark’s legal rights.
We also collect and maintain aggregated, anonymized or pseudonymized information which we may retain indefinitely to protect the safety and security of our Site, improve our Services or comply with legal obligations.

Data Transfers

Because Seed&Spark is a US-based company, your information will be collected and processed in the United States. The United States has its own laws governing data protection and government access to information. The rules that protect your personal information under United States law may be different than in your home country. If you choose to use the Services, you need to agree to our Terms of Service, which set out the contract between Seed&Spark and its users.

Your Rights

Users residing in certain countries, including the EU, are afforded certain rights regarding their personal information. Except where an exception or exemption applies, these rights include the ability to access, correct, and request deletion of your personal information. While these rights are not applicable globally, all Seed&Spark users can manage their personal information, as further described below, in their account settings.
Contact us to request a downloadable copy of your personal data from Seed&Spark. To modify or delete the personal information you’ve provided to us, please log in and update your profile. You may also delete your account from your account settings page. We may retain certain information as required by law or as necessary for our legitimate business purposes.

Email Notifications

We want to communicate with you only if you want to hear from us. We try to keep emails to a minimum and give you the ability to opt in to any marketing communications we send.
We will send you email relating to your transactions on Seed&Spark. You may also elect to receive certain marketing email communications, in accordance with your preferences, and from which you may opt out at any time by adjusting your notification settings.
We’ll also send you service-related announcements when it’s necessary to do so.

Security

We take security seriously, and the security of your personal data is important to us. We follow industry-standard practices to protect the data we collect and maintain, including using Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt information as it travels over the internet. No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure, so Seed&Spark cannot guarantee its absolute security. Your account information is protected by a password, which you should choose carefully and keep secure.
We have a Security Incident Response Team (SIRT) and protocol in place in the event of a data breach. We encourage the responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities of our Services, which you can do by contacting us.

Representation for Data Subjects in the U.S.

To contact our data protection team, please email us at dpo@seedandspark.com or compliance@seedandspark.com.

Representation for Data Subjects in the EU and the UK

Subject to applicable law, if you are a citizen or resident of the European Economic Area, you have the right to (i) object to Seed&Spark’s use of your personal information and (ii) lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority or with Seed&Spark’s EU representative.
We value your privacy and your rights as a data subject and have therefore appointed Prighter as our privacy representative and your point of contact.
Prighter gives you an easy way to exercise your privacy-related rights (e.g. requests to access or erase personal data). If you want to contact us via our representative Prighter or make use of your data subject rights, please visit: https://prighter.com/q/11367928673

Children

People under 18 (or the legal age in your jurisdiction) are not permitted to use Seed&Spark on their own. Seed&Spark does not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of 13 and children under 13 are not permitted to register for an account or use our Services.
If you believe that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us. If we become aware that a child under age 13 has provided us with personally identifiable information, we’ll delete it.

Use of Cookies

Cookies help us personalize your experience with Seed&Spark. We use cookies to keep track of how customers are navigating the Site and to allow us to provide you with personalized content. Cookies are small pieces of information which are issued to your computer when you visit a website and which store and sometimes track information about your use of the Service. When you enter the Site, our web server sends a cookie to your computer which allows us to recognize your computer but not specifically who is using it. By associating the identification numbers in the cookies with other customer information when, for example, you log-in to the Site or use the Service, we know that the cookie information relates to you. Some of the cookies used by our Service are served by us, and some are served by third parties who are delivering services on our behalf.
Read about how we use cookies, including how to update your cookie settings.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

This Privacy Policy constitutes a contract made under and shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of California, without giving effect to conflicts of laws provisions. Any dispute, action, or proceeding brought pursuant to this Privacy Policy shall be brought in the appropriate State or Federal Courts located in Los Angeles County in the State of California and you hereby consent and submit to the personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purposes of litigating any such action. YOU HEREBY IRREVOCABLY WAIVE ANY RIGHT YOU MAY HAVE TO TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY DISPUTE, ACTION, OR PROCEEDING.

Table of Content

Information that’s shared publicly
Information that isn’t shared publicly
Information that’s shared with trusted third-party services
Information that’s shared with filmmakers, collaborators, or organizations
Information that’s shared to protect Seed&Spark and comply with the law
Links to other websites and services