Here's what you need to know when you join the ePatron community!
Welcome to ePatron!
ePatron is a platform and marketplace built for creators to inspire and unlock creativity while fostering connection to fans and patrons. “ePatron,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to ePatron Media, Inc., this platform, and the services offered by ePatron, including our mobile apps, APIs, embeds, www.epatron.com, and ePatron’s other websites. This Privacy Policy is part of our Terms of Use, and describes how we collect, use, and share information.
Information You Provide ePatron
This is information that you provide to us through text fields, such as your name, payment information, and benefits. The information of this type that we require you to provide differs depending on whether you create an account, become a patron, purchase a subscription or other offering, otherwise engage with a creator, or become a creator, and typically includes at least:
You may also have the option to sign up for ePatron using a Facebook, Google, or Apple account. We will ask for permission to access basic information from your Facebook, Google, or Apple account, such as your userID, full name, email address, and profile picture. You can choose to stop sharing that information with us at any time by going to Facebook, Google, or Apple to remove ePatron’s access to that account and your ability to use it to log in to ePatron. In order to use an account with one of these companies to sign up for ePatron, these companies may require you to share personal data with them, including information about your usage of ePatron. As applicable to you, please consult the Facebook, Google, and Apple privacy policies to learn more about that.
You may also have the option to add more information to your public profile, such as a location, social media links, and an about section, which we store along with the other information that we collect.
Patrons
A patron is someone who subscribes and/or makes a purchase on ePatron, which may come with special benefits from creators. As a patron, you must provide your payment information to our payment partners. You can see the Privacy Policy for these payment partners on the Stripe website. ePatron stores the expiry and postal code associated with your payment card, but does not store your full payment card number. Instead, ePatron uses a service provider to create a token that represents your card’s primary account number, which ePatron then stores. If you choose to pay using a payment partner that requires you to provide to them your personal data like name and email address, such as PayPal, then that payment partner may provide that information to ePatron.
We collect and process information about the creators you subscribe to and/or support, the memberships and other offerings you purchase, and what benefits you receive. As a patron, if you select a membership or offering with a physical benefit then you will be asked to optionally provide your shipping information, including phone number. We may also derive your location from your self-disclosed country, your IP address, and/or your payment card.
Creators
A creator is someone who creates a page on ePatron to engage with patrons who purchase memberships or offerings on ePatron to support the creator’s creations. To become a creator, you must create a page that describes what you are creating and any benefits you are offering. To receive payouts, you have to create an account with our payment partner Stripe. If you choose to receive payouts using a payment partner that requires you to provide to them your personal data like name and email address, such as PayPal, then that payment partner may provide that information to ePatron. You may also be required to provide your bank account information to process payouts. You must also provide us with additional information for tax purposes. Depending on your location and the type of creations that you create, you may have to provide ePatron some combination of the following:
Automatically Collected Information
We automatically receive information when you view creations on or otherwise interact with ePatron, even if you have not created an account. For example, when you visit www.epatron.com, view or interact with an ePatron embed on another website or mobile app, use ePatron’s mobile apps, sign into ePatron’s services, or view or interact with an email from ePatron, we may automatically receive information about you, including:
When you send or receive messages or when you post or are mentioned in comments or messages on ePatron, we collect the contents of those messages and comments as well as information about related activity, including the timestamp of those messages and comments and who has viewed those messages or comments.
Event Information & Surveys
From time to time, we may solicit your participation in surveys related to ePatron and our events. In order to better understand and serve creators and patrons, we may ask you for demographic information, including information related to your gender identity, ethnicity, race, age, sexual orientation, earnings, and accessibility, which you may optionally choose to provide. We collect such information to help us better understand the overall population of creators and patrons that make up our community, to develop and market events for creators and patrons, and to showcase creators for greater discoverability, including at such events. When you complete these surveys, we store your survey responses, including any such demographic information you choose to provide.
We may also request information from you at in-person and online events. This information may include your name, email address, mobile phone number, details about the types of creations you create, and survey or feedback responses.
Blog & Creator Education Sites
We may collect and store your email address, your comments, and your profile information from our blog and creator education sites.
Information from Third-Party Accounts
After creating an ePatron account, you may be able to connect your social media account(s) (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch) with ePatron and we may collect and store some information related to those accounts, including:
ePatron uses YouTube API services. By using ePatron in connection with YouTube API Services, you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service.
Promotions
ePatron may operate certain promotions from ePatron-operated accounts on third party platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Personal data collected by ePatron as part of such promotions will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
You may also grant ePatron access to these third-party accounts in order for some ePatron features to operate. When you connect such a third-party account to your ePatron account, that third-party service will typically present a page that describes the information that ePatron can access and/or permissions you are granting to ePatron to take actions on your behalf. At any time, you may be able to revoke ePatron’s access to those accounts using the respective third party’s settings page.
Information Collected By Third Parties
Third parties may use cookies on our website. A cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site.
We may use social media and related products and features, including a Discord server, the Facebook Like button, and widgets, such as the Share button or similar interactive mini-programs that run on ePatron. These features may collect your IP address and other personal data, including which page you are visiting on our site, and may set and/or read cookies. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or directly on ePatron. For more information on the technologies used by these third parties, the information they collect, and how that information is used, please refer to their respective privacy policies.
How We Use Information
As applicable, we use the information we collect to:
Information Shared with Creators
By subscribing, purchasing a membership or offering on ePatron that is offered by a creator, or otherwise engaging with or becoming a patron of a creator, you agree to share personal data with that creator that may include:
We may solicit your participation in surveys related to particular creators on ePatron. For example, when you subscribe and/or make a purchase on ePatron or when you cancel a subscription, you may be asked to optionally take a survey about that choice. If you choose to participate in that survey, then you agree that your responses, which may include your personal data like full name and email address, will be shared with the associated creator.
When you use ePatron to send a message to another user, including a creator, the contents of that message will be shared with the recipients you select.
ePatron maintains a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) governing how creators are permitted to process the information that is shared with them. We refer to this as the Creator Confidentiality Commitment, which details a creator’s promise to protect the privacy of their patrons during and beyond their ePatron relationship. You can view the Creator Confidentiality Commitment here.
As part of offering and operating a creator page and/or membership on ePatron, a creator may use one or more third-party services. These third parties may, for example, host creations or help deliver benefits, including shipping packages to patrons. Accordingly, creators may share patron personal data with such third-party services and/or enable patrons to elect to share personal data with such third-party services in order to receive offerings or membership benefits or otherwise participate in a membership or related event. ePatron’s app directory provides information about many of these third-party services, though it is not exhaustive as creators may also use other services. You should review the privacy policies of these third-party services in order to understand how they collect, use, and share personal data.
Information Shared with Communities (Channels) on ePatron
By subscribing, purchasing a membership or offering on ePatron that is offered by a creator, otherwise engaging with or becoming a patron of a creator, or by creating a creator page yourself, you are joining an ePatron community associated with that creator. This community is comprised of the creator and people who have subscribed to, purchased a membership or offering on ePatron that is offered by, or otherwise engaged with or become a patron of that creator, including those who subscribed to that creator for free. You agree to share personal data with that community that may include:
This personal data may be displayed in your community profile, which may have more information than your public profile and is visible to fellow community members. If you disable your community profile in your settings, then your public profile, which is described below, may be displayed to fellow community members.
When you comment on a post, like a post or message, react to a post or message, join a chat room, send a chat message, express interest in an event, join an event experience, and take other community actions you are visible to the associated sections of those ePatron communities. When you are typing a message in a chat room or other community space, this may be displayed to the other people in that chat room or community space. Comments, messages, likes, and reactions in community spaces are visible to the associated ePatron community and community members who later join the associated community space may be able to see the full history of comments, messages, likes, and reactions.
For example, chat messages sent to a community chat room or community event experience are visible to the sections of that community associated with the chat room or event. Similarly, comments, likes, and reactions related to a post visible to a community are visible to the sections of that associated community that can see that post. If the visibility of a post or community space later changes, then the visibility of the associated comments, messages, likes, and reactions may also change along with it.
For example, if a post is later made available to a larger section of a ePatron community, then the comments, likes, and reactions on that post may also become available to that section of that ePatron community.
Information Shared with the Public
The following information may be publicly accessible or otherwise shared with members of the public:
Aggregated and otherwise non-personal data, including aggregated usage data in blog posts, press releases, or other ways to share information about ePatron’s usage and business. Comments, likes, and other reactions inherit the visibility of the associated post or message. Accordingly, comments, likes, and reactions on public posts or messages are public and comments, likes, and reactions on posts or messages with limited visibility are visible to the audience of users to whom the author has made the post or message available. If a non-public post or message is later made public, then the comments, likes, and reactions on that post or message may also become public.
For Patrons
Your public ePatron profile, including your user name, avatar image, and the date you created your ePatron account; social media accounts you’ve connected to your ePatron account; your public biographical description if you’ve added one to your ePatron account; and if your full public profile setting is enabled; the creators you support and the date you started supporting them; the subscription, membership tier, or other recurring payment for each creator you support; the posts you’ve liked; andthe comments you’ve made.
For Creators
Your public ePatron profile, including your user name, avatar image, the date you created your ePatron account, and location information you’ve added; social media accounts you’ve connected to your ePatron account; your public biographical description if you’ve added one to your ePatron account; if your full public profile setting is enabled, the creators you support and the date you started supporting them; the subscription, membership tier, or other recurring payment for each creator you support; the posts you’ve liked; and the comments you’ve made; the contents of your creator page, including a description of your creator page, descriptions of your membership tiers, the titles of all of your posts, goals you’ve set for your creator page, whether your creator page has a shop, and information about any offerings you’ve added to that shop, including the title, description, and characteristics of those offerings; if your patronage visibility setting is enabled, the number of patrons who have subscribed to your creator page; if your earnings visibility setting is enabled, the amount of money earned on ePatron from your creator page; the contents of your posts are made available to the audience you’ve selected – for example, public posts are public and posts limited to a selected membership tier are visible to anyone who subscribes to that tier; patrons of your creator page may be notified when you become a patron for another creator page on ePatron if your full public profile setting is enabled; and when you like or react to a comment on one of the posts on your creator page this fact may be displayed to the audience that can view the post based on the post’s visibility setting.
Information Shared with Third Parties
We never sell your information to third parties. Other than information that is shared with creators, shared with communities on ePatron, or shared with members of the public, we will only share data with third parties under the following circumstances:
-ePatron’s service providers: these are companies that are contractually engaged with us to provide us with services, including cloud hosting, content distribution, security, order fulfillment, email and document management, internal communication/chat, analytics, credit card processing, multi-currency settlement solutions, and fraud detection and prevention. We may share your personal data with such service providers subject to obligations consistent with this Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures, and on the condition that these third parties use your personal data only on ePatron’s behalf and pursuant to our instructions (service providers may use other non-personal data for their own benefit).
-Government and law enforcement agenciesTax reporting: to satisfy obligations to report information to tax authorities, including reporting information about creators’ earnings on ePatron, tax identification information, and information related to transactional taxes such as Valued Added Tax, Goods and Services Tax, other local service or sales taxes in non-US locations, and provincial sales tax in Canada.
-Legal process and law enforcement: to protect the security or integrity of ePatron, as well as to protect the rights, property, and safety of ePatron, its employees, patrons, creators, or others, or if we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, or other valid legal process (e.g. subpoenas or warrants served on ePatron). When legally permitted to do so, and under appropriate circumstances, ePatron will endeavour to notify you (typically by email) when we intend to release your data pursuant to a valid government request, law-enforcement request, or other legal process.
-Any third parties connected with the sale, merger, bankruptcy, sale of assets, or reorganization of our company: in such a circumstance the promises in this Privacy Policy apply to any data transferred to a new entity.
-Individuals to whom you’ve granted teammate permissions: team accounts is a feature that ePatron makes available to some creators to help them use a team of people to manage their creator page. Team accounts consist of a single team lead role and a number of teammate roles. The team lead is the primary owner of the account and can add and remove teammates who have access to perform a subset of actions with respect to the applicable creator page and manage a subset of the information about that creator page. If you choose to grant anyone teammate access to a creator page, then ePatron will follow your instructions and grant the access or permission that you’ve selected.
-Third-party services to which you’ve connected your ePatron account: when you connect your ePatron account to other websites, apps, or services, you may be asked to give those websites, apps, or services access to information about your ePatron account and/or permission to perform actions within your ePatron account on your behalf. If you choose to take such an authorization action, then ePatron will follow your instructions and grant the access or permission that you’ve selected.
Your Preferences and Control over Your Data
On the main user dashboard you may find your settings in the left navigation panel after you log in to your ePatron account. On ePatron’s mobile apps, you may find your settings by clicking on your avatar or profile. Settings let you see and adjust your account preferences, including privacy preferences.
You may opt out of marketing at any time in every marketing communication as applicable. You may also adjust your preferences in your settings.
Opting out will stop marketing emails and SMS/MMS as applicable. Please allow up to 30 days for your opt-out request to be processed. If you have an account with ePatron, you will continue to receive service-related emails and texts if you have opted into receiving texts. You will also continue to receive service-related shipments of benefits to the designated delivery address.
We may work with third-party advertising partners to market our services. You can opt your current browser out of interest-based advertising from partners that adhere to the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising at https://optout.aboutads.info. On Android, depending on your version of Android, you can delete the advertising ID for your current device in your Android phone’s settings or you can opt your current device out of interest-based advertising by enabling “Opt out of Ads Personalization” in your Android phone’s settings (precise directions and setting name may be different on different Android versions). On iOS 13 and previous versions only, you can opt your current device out of interest-based advertising by enabling the “Limit Ad Tracking” setting in your iOS phone’s settings (precise directions may be different on different iOS versions). On iOS 14 and later versions only, if you don't want to allow apps to access your current device’s iOS Identifier for Advertising, you can disable the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” setting in your iOS settings (precise directions may be different on different iOS versions).
Turning Off Email NotificationsYou can change your email notifications in your email settings. While this allows you to stop many notification emails, we will still send other service-related emails.
Controlling Your Data
We enable individuals to: access their personal data that ePatron has collected; correct or rectify any such personal data that they believe is inaccurate; restrict or oppose the processing of their personal data; delete their personal data; and transport their personal data.
You can do this on ePatron in the following ways:access, review, modify, and update your data by logging in to your account and going to your account settings; access your personal data, port it, or delete it data by sending an email to support@epatron.com with the subject "Privacy Request" and provide your username; delete a previously-disabled account by emailing ePatron at support@epatron.com; and exercising preferences as described above.
If you are unable to log in to your account, and are unable to recover your account with a password reset in order to lodge your privacy request, then you may reach out to support@epatron.com. We reserve the right to refuse access to or recovery of an account, at our sole discretion, in order to prevent an unauthorized takeover of your account or unauthorized access to your personal data.
Verification of Requests
Users must maintain password-protected accounts with ePatron. If you submit a request to exercise your privacy rights, you will be asked to verify the request by logging in to your ePatron account, or to verify your identity in another manner.
If we are unable to adequately verify your request at our sole discretion then, in order to protect against unauthorized access to personal data, we reserve the right to deny the request.
Do Not Track Signals
Your browser may be configured to transmit a “Do Not Track” signal to websites that you visit. There is no industry-standard approach to what this signal means. Accordingly, ePatron does not monitor or otherwise respond to these “Do Not Track” signals.
California Privacy Laws
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) allows California residents to request access to the specific pieces and categories of personal information that the business has collected about the consumer, the categories of sources for that information, the business or commercial purposes for collecting the information, and the categories of third parties with which the information was shared.
ePatron provides California residents and all users with the right to view, access, or transport their information. All users also have the right to submit a request to delete information by requesting ePatron do so through emailing support@epatron.com and requesting "Erase." We do not discriminate against users who exercise their privacy rights.
EU Privacy Laws and Data Transfers
ePatron is a global company. By using ePatron, you agree that your personal data may be transferred to and stored in the United States, Canada, and handled as described in this Policy. ePatron acts as a data controller, as defined under applicable law. ePatron Media, Inc. acts as a controller of your personal data.
ePatron processes personal data based on different legal grounds depending on the circumstances. This includes performance of a contract, legitimate interest, legal obligation, and consent where appropriate. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw such consent at any time.
Contractual Protections Covering Transfers
Where appropriate, ePatron transfers of personal data of individuals in the European Union (including EFTA States) and the United Kingdom outside of those locations are performed based on contractual obligations placed on the recipient of the personal data.
Data Privacy Framework and Principles
ePatron Media, Inc. adheres to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles and complies with the associated EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, sharing, and retention of personal data transferred from the European Union (including EFTA States), the United Kingdom, and Switzerland to the United States.
As applicable, we do not, however, rely solely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, or the Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework as our lawful basis to transfer personal data from the European Union, EFTA States, or the United Kingdom.
With respect to the personal data received or transferred pursuant to the Data Privacy Frameworks, ePatron, Inc. is subject to the regulatory enforcement powers of the Canadian Federal Government. Under certain circumstances, Data Privacy Framework participants may be liable for the transfer of personal data from the EU, EFTA States, or the United Kingdom to third parties outside the EU, EFTA States, and the United Kingdom. If you have a dispute with us about our Data Privacy Framework compliance, we ask that you first submit any such complaints directly to us at support@epatron.com.
Contacting our Data Protection Officer
If you have privacy concerns or questions, you can contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO) via email at support@epatron.com with “FAO DPO” in the subject title.
We take your privacy queries seriously, and are committed to resolving any complaints that may arise about our collection or use of your data. If you believe your privacy rights have been infringed, we encourage you to contact our DPO at the aforementioned email address. You may also have the right to complain to the appropriate data protection supervisory authority.
Establishing an Authorized Agent
You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. In order to designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf, you must provide a valid power of attorney, the requester’s valid government ID, and the authorized agent’s valid government ID. Please contact support@epatron.com with your request. In order to prevent an unauthorized takeover of your account or unauthorized access to your personal data, we may decline access to or recovery of your account at our sole discretion.
Our Data Retention Period
ePatron stores your personal data until it is no longer necessary to provide our services, or until you ask us to delete it. We may continue to retain some information even after you delete your account if we are required to do so in order to comply with applicable laws.
Security
The security of your personal data is important to us and we follow industry standards to protect it.
Children
ePatron is not directed to children, and you may not use ePatron if you are under the age of 13. You must also be old enough to consent to the processing of your personal data in your country (in some countries we may allow your parent or legal guardian to do so on your behalf). You must be at least 18 years old or have your parent’s or legal guardian’s permission to have a creator page on ePatron or to purchase an offering or subscription on ePatron.
Changes
We may sometimes make changes to this Privacy Policy.Continuing to use ePatron after a change to this policy means you accept the new policy. If you have any questions, please email support@epatron.com with “privacy” in the subject line.
