Privacy Policy

LAST REVISED: February 13, 2024

1. Introduction

Realtime Data Interfaces LLC (“Realtime”, “we,” us,” or “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy governs how we collect, use, and disclose your personal data.

This Privacy Policy applies to personal data that Realtime may acquire when you use our services, including our website (realtime.org), text and email notifications, newsletters, and any other functionalities or support we offer (collectively, “Services”). As used in this Privacy Policy, "personal data" means any information that relates to you and from which you can be identified. We do not consider “personal data” to include information that has been anonymized so it does not identify a specific person.

Consent. By using our Services, as further described below, you agree to accept the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you disagree with this Privacy Policy at any point or time, you should stop using our services and delete your account. Email us at admin@realtime.org to delete your account and/or personal data.

This Privacy Policy is in addition to any other legally binding agreement between you and Realtime that may govern your privacy or use of any Realtime services. To the extent any such agreement is in writing and conflicts with this Privacy Policy, the terms of such written agreement will govern.

Revisions. We may revise this Privacy Policy at our discretion. When we make changes to it, we will update the “LAST REVISED” date at the top of this page. You should check this page from time to time so you know about any amendments to this Privacy Policy.

2. What Personal Data Do We Collect and How?

Most of the personal data we collect is provided by you voluntarily in the course of using our Services, for example, when you make a user account, opt-in to receive text or email notifications, or opt-in to receive certain non-essential email correspondence from us, such as information on Realtime Services you may be interest in. The remaining personal data is collected so we can effectively deliver the Services you request, and certain legitimate business purposes, such as monitoring and improving the security and quality of our Services.

User accounts. You do not need to create an account to browse our website. However, to access some of the Services we provide—for example, to receive a newsletter from Realtime—you will need to create an account.

If you choose to create an account, you will need to provide us with personal data that may include:

identification information such as your username, first and last name, email address, telephone number, and home address; and/or
your account information with Google.

Service use and public content. You may need to provide us with personal data beyond what is required to make an account to use certain Services. For example, if you elect to receive Realtime notifications over text message, you will need to provide us with your phone number, even if you did not provide it to us when making an account.

You may use and customize certain features to improve your experience using our Services. Concomitant user settings are kept solely for the purpose of customizing the user’s experience when using the Services. We do not share private profile settings with any third parties.

Note that some using certain Services involves sharing content—including, if you choose, personal data—with other Realtime users. These include: the content of public chats that you use to communicate with other users; the data feeds you are tracking and details about the signals you have created to be notified of changes in them; and additional details you include about yourself in a public profile, such as your username and any narrative content. We encourage you to be careful about what you share publicly through your use of such functions, because we cannot be responsible for protecting personal data you may have through them shared voluntarily. We may amplify the information you share publicly (e.g., include a user post from our website in a Realtime newsletter, or share it with a partner organization), and so too may other Realtime users, including on platforms outside our Services. But it will be clear on our Services when you are sharing content publicly; we will not use such content in any way not described in this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Service (https://realtime.org/terms-of-service).

Payments. If you choose to buy any of our paid Services, our third-party payment processor, Stripe, will also need certain personal data to process your payment (e.g., valid credit card number, type, expiration date, postal address).

Contacts. You may choose to give Realtime your personal data when corresponding with us by phone, email, through our Services, or otherwise.

Cookies. Our website uses “cookies,” which are small text files stored on your device that are used to identify the user or device and to collect information. Realtime uses the information collected through cookies only to administer core website functions, including logging in and authenticating users, remembering user settings, and enabling user account management.

You may choose to set your browser to refuse cookies, or to be alerted when cookies are being sent. If you do not accept cookies, however, our Services may not function properly.

Log files. Like most websites, we use web server log files. Records in our log files include IP addresses, browser types, internet service providers, referring pages, exit pages, platform types, and date/time stamps.

Device information. We collect information about the devices you use to interact with our Services, including: device type, unique device identifiers, operating system, and browser version.

Analytics. When you are using our Services, we may collect analytics information automatically. The following may be stored along with data points used for analytics purposes (e.g., pageviews, other website interactions): general device information; browser and version; operating system; and geolocation. We collect pseudonymous data only; this analytic information does not include any personal data. We use this information to analyze and improve the work of our Services, and to develop, test, and improve our Services further. We may use internal analytics as well as third party analytics providers, such as Vercel Web Analytics.

Data from third parties. When you sign in to your account using external credentials (i.e., Google), they send us the username and the email address associated with the credentials you have used. Additionally, we may receive the same information from other third-party platforms you choose to integrate with our Services, such as our signal notifications (e.g., if you want to receive Realtime notifications over Slack). We neither control nor take any responsibility for the way third parties provide information about you and/or process your personal data.

3. How Do We Use Your Personal Data?

We will use your personal data as necessary to deliver the Services you have requested to your satisfaction and effectuate certain legitimate business purposes, including to:

respond to any of your customer service requests, inquiries, or questions;
provide you with the information and Services you request from us;
administer your user account, for example, to verify your email address or maintain your settings;
send you Service announcements and administrative messages;
send you information you opt to receive on Services you may be interested in;
improve the user experience on our Services;
facilitate internal business/technical operations, including as part of our efforts to keep our Services, network, and information systems secure;
to comply with court orders, subpoenas, or other judicial or regulatory processes. As noted below, this means we can store and disclose your information to law enforcement authorities, courts, state, federal, or other government agencies if we establish that such disclosure is necessary to comply with the law.

4. With Whom Do We Share Your Personal Data?

Under no circumstances do we sell your personal data to third parties. We may share it with the following actors solely to provide our Services and comply with the law:

Service provision. Realtime, like many businesses, engages with selected third parties who act on our behalf to support our operations, such as: (a) card processing or payment services; (b) IT suppliers and contractors (e.g., data and website hosting providers, communication tool providers, user authentication services) as necessary to support our Services; and (c) web and mobile analytics providers.

These parties may access, process, or store your personal data in the course of performing their duties to us and solely in order to perform the services we have hired them to provide. In particular, we use: Vercel (hosting and analytics); Planetscale (database-related services); Twilio (text notifications); Stripe (payment processing); and Amazon Web Services (database-related services).

Additionally, we may share your personal data with platforms you elect to integrate or link with Realtime as strictly necessary to make that possible (see also “Data from third parties” above).
Compliance. We may share your personal data with appropriate legal authorities if necessary to comply with the law, including court orders, subpoenas, or other judicial or regulatory processes. This may include, but is not limited to, exchanging information with law enforcement authorities, courts, state, federal, or other government agencies.

5. Security

We—and the third parties with whom we work—use certain technical and organizational safeguards, such as encryption, to protect your personal data. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. We will do our best to protect your personal data, but we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Importantly, if you have chosen to create an account, you are responsible for doing everything you reasonably can to keep your access details secret. You should not share these details with anyone else.

6. Data Retention

We only keep your personal data as long as we need it to accomplish the purpose for which it was collected (e.g., provide you with a Service you have requested) or to comply with our legal and contractual obligations.

7. Children’s Personal Data

Our Services are not directed toward children below the age of 16. We do not knowingly contact or collect personal data from children below the age of 16. We request that all visitors to our website who are under 16 not disclose or provide any personal data to us.

If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please email us admin@realtime.org so that we can delete the information.

8. Third-Party Websites

We may link to other websites through our Services. Conversely, third parties may link to Realtime content on their own websites. These websites are run by third parties with separate and independent privacy policies. We, therefore, have no responsibility nor are we liable for any content, activities, or privacy policies of these linked sites. We suggest you read the privacy policy of each and every site that you visit.

9. User Rights

In certain circumstances, subject to exceptions and applicable law, Realtime provides the following rights to users:

Access. You can ask us for copies of your personal data, for which we may charge a small fee.
Rectification. You can ask that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.
Erasure. You can ask us to delete your personal data.
Restriction. You can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data.
Objection. You can object to our processing of your personal data.
Portability. You can ask that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you.

If you have concerns about our privacy practices, you may—in some jurisdictions—be entitled to lodge a complaint with the appropriate data protection authority. We encourage you to contact us first so we have a chance to address any concerns you may have.

10. International Data Transfers

Realtime is a U.S.-based company that offers its Services to both domestic and international customers. As a result, information that we collect, including personal data, may be transferred outside of the jurisdiction in which it was collected (e.g., to servers in the U.S.). We need to do this so we can effectively provide our Services to users and conduct the other legitimate business activities described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy (see #3, “How do we use your personal data?”).

11. Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at admin@realtime.org.