Annex A. Data Category Matrix
Annex B. Vendor and Processor Matrix Annex C. Launch Compliance Checklist
This Privacy Policy explains how UMERGE CORP, a civic engagement and community technology company (“UMERGE,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), collects, uses, discloses, retains, protects, and otherwise processes personal information when people access or use UMERGE websites, mobile applications, WordPress-hosted landing pages, waitlists, forms, content, communications, community features, civic action tools, fundraising features, live rooms, direct messages, AI-assisted features, analytics, advertising tools, and related services (collectively, the “Services”).
UMERGE is designed to help people turn attention into action by discovering issues, engaging with communities, viewing civic content, participating in non-binding polls or votes, creating or supporting petitions, campaigns, fundraisers, boycotts, community actions, events, protests, walkouts, discussions, and other civic or community efforts. Because those activities may reveal sensitive interests, beliefs, affiliations, locations, political opinions, community concerns, or donation history, UMERGE intends to treat privacy as a core product and trust requirement, not as a back-office afterthought.
This Policy applies to users, visitors, waitlist members, creators, organizers, donors, organizational account holders, advertisers, business customers, civic partners, nonprofit partners, candidates, public officials, community members, and other individuals who interact with the Services. It does not apply to third-party websites, app stores, social media platforms, payment processors, identity verification vendors, hosting providers, or other services that have their own privacy policies, except as described where UMERGE receives or controls personal information from those parties.
If you do not agree with this Policy, you should not use the Services. Certain features may require additional notices, consents, permissions, terms, or settings. When a supplemental privacy notice conflicts with this Policy for a specific feature, the supplemental notice controls for that feature.
Topic | Summary |
What UMERGE collects | Account details, profile data, content, civic actions, communications, device data, usage activity, approximate or precise location when enabled, verification data when used, payment/donation metadata, ad/analytics data, and information from partners or public sources. |
Why UMERGE uses it | To operate the platform, personalize feeds, recommend content, enable civic actions, calculate and display reputation or Civic Score features, process payments, verify accounts, improve safety, prevent abuse, measure performance, comply with law, and communicate with users. |
What may be public | Public profiles, posts, comments, petitions, campaign pages, organizer pages, public fundraiser pages, public live room activity, public civic actions, badges, follower counts, and other information users choose to make public. |
Sensitive civic data | Civic participation can reveal political opinions, community priorities, religious or social views, affiliations, union-related interests, or other sensitive information. UMERGE will use layered controls, notices, and consent where legally required. |
Ads and analytics | UMERGE may use analytics and advertising technologies. Some sharing with ad partners may be considered “sharing,” “sale,” or “targeted advertising” under certain U.S. privacy laws, even when no money is exchanged. |
Your controls | You may access, correct, delete, download, restrict, opt out, object, appeal, or control certain processing as provided by applicable law and product settings. |
Minors | The Services are not intended for children under 13. Teens may |
receive additional protections, and UMERGE should use ageappropriate design and consent flows before enabling teenfacing features. |
Term | Meaning |
Personal Information / Personal Data | Information that identifies, relates to, describes, can reasonably be linked to, or could reasonably identify an individual or household, depending on applicable law. |
Sensitive Personal Information | Information that may include precise geolocation, government ID, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, union membership, health information, biometric identifiers, sexual orientation, immigration status, financial account credentials, or other data treated as sensitive under law. |
Civic Action | A vote, poll response, petition signature, boycott participation, fundraiser donation, campaign action, protest/walkout/strike RSVP, comment, share, repost, live room participation, civic badge, report, or other engagement with civic or community content. |
Civic Score | A UMERGE reputation or trust signal that may consider participation, verification, community contributions, safety signals, and platform rules. It is not a credit score, employment score, housing score, insurance score, government eligibility score, or official voting record. |
Public Content | Content, profile information, interactions, civic actions, or other information that you choose to make public or that is public by feature design. |
Processor / Service Provider | A vendor or partner that processes personal information for UMERGE under contractual restrictions. |
Controller / Business | An entity that determines the purposes and means of processing personal information. For most UMERGE consumerfacing Services, UMERGE CORP is the controller/business. |
For most Services, the data controller or business responsible for your information is UMERGE CORP. UMERGE may operate some services directly and may use service providers, processors, vendors, hosting providers, infrastructure partners, payment processors, identity verification providers, analytics providers, advertising partners, email/SMS providers, customer support tools, security tools, and professional advisors to support the Services.
For privacy requests, contact UMERGE at admin@umerge.co or through any privacy request form UMERGE makes available. If required by law, UMERGE will provide additional contact methods, including a mailing address and toll-free number or webform if applicable. Business mailing address: [Insert UMERGE CORP mailing address].
When a customer, nonprofit, organization, public entity, employer, school, campaign, or partner uses UMERGE as an administrator of its own community or data set, that entity may be an independent controller for some information. UMERGE will honor applicable contracts and data processing terms for those situations.
UMERGE is not intended for children under 13. UMERGE does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent where required. If we learn that a child under 13 has provided personal information without required consent, we will take appropriate steps to delete or restrict that information.
Users between 13 and 17 may be subject to additional protections, including default privacy settings, limits on targeted advertising, limits on public discoverability, restricted direct messaging, limits on sensitive civic profiling, parental consent where required, and additional safety prompts. UMERGE should not enable teenfacing features until it has implemented appropriate age-screening, safety, and consent controls.
Some features may be limited to adults, including fundraising, donations, paid creator tools, paid ads, organization administration, official candidate/officeholder tools, identity verification, livestream hosting, and certain civic campaign management tools.
We collect information you provide directly or intentionally make available through the Services. The exact information depends on how you use UMERGE.
When you use the Services, we and our service providers may automatically collect information about your device, browser, activity, and interactions. This information helps us operate, secure, personalize, analyze, and improve the Services.
We may receive information from third parties, including:
UMERGE should not enrich user profiles with sensitive third-party data or infer sensitive traits unless it has a valid legal basis, a clear product purpose, and any required notice or consent. Third-party civic or government data should be labeled with source, date, and limitations where appropriate.
UMERGE is a civic engagement platform. Your use of the Services may reveal sensitive information, including political opinions, policy preferences, community concerns, religious or philosophical views, racial or ethnic context, immigration-related issues, labor or union-related interests, health-related advocacy, precise location, identity verification details, donation history, or other sensitive information.
UMERGE will not require you to provide sensitive information unless it is needed for a specific feature, required by law, or voluntarily provided by you. If a feature requires sensitive information, UMERGE will provide additional notice and obtain consent where legally required. For example, location-based civic districts, identity verification, government ID verification, donation compliance, fraud prevention, and certain community safety features may require additional controls.
UMERGE does not intend to use sensitive personal information to discriminate, unlawfully profile, suppress lawful civic participation, or make decisions about credit, employment, housing, insurance, government benefits, education, or other rights unrelated to the Services. UMERGE also does not intend to sell sensitive personal information for money. If applicable law treats certain ad-tech or analytics sharing as a sale, sharing, or targeted advertising, UMERGE will provide opt-out mechanisms and honor legally required signals.
Public civic actions are important but can be sensitive. Some activities may be public by design, such as signing a public petition, appearing on a public organizer page, hosting a public live room, or creating a public campaign. Other activities should have audience controls where feasible. You should review feature settings before participating.
We use information for the following purposes, depending on your settings, permissions, applicable law, and the features you use.
Purpose | Examples |
Provide and operate the Services | Create accounts, authenticate users, display profiles, publish content, enable searches, operate feeds, process civic actions, host live rooms, enable messaging, process donations, send notices, provide support, and maintain the platform. |
Personalize and recommend | Rank feeds, recommend posts, people, organizations, issues, actions, petitions, fundraisers, policies, events, live rooms, and communities based on your activity, settings, location, follows, and interests. |
Civic Score and trust systems | Calculate, display, explain, and update reputation or trust signals based on participation, verification, positive contributions, moderation history, safety reports, and other signals disclosed by product notices. |
Safety, integrity and moderation | Detect spam, bots, manipulation, fake accounts, coordinated inauthentic activity, harassment, threats, fraud, misinformation patterns, platform abuse, payment abuse, and violations of policies. |
Verification and compliance | Verify accounts, organizations, fundraisers, candidates, nonprofits, locations, age, identity, payout eligibility, tax information, and compliance obligations. |
Communications | Send service messages, security alerts, updates, newsletters, marketing communications, campaign notifications, event reminders, push notifications, and support responses. |
Payments and fundraising | Process donations, payments, refunds, chargebacks, payouts, receipts, tax forms, fraud screening, and records required by law or processor rules. |
Advertising and measurement | Show and measure ads, sponsored content, promoted civic campaigns, attribution, conversion tracking, audience analytics, frequency capping, fraud prevention, and ad performance where enabled. |
Research and improvement | Improve product design, accessibility, safety, ranking, |
recommendations, moderation, performance, user experience, market research, surveys, and business strategy. | |
Legal and rights protection | Comply with law, respond to lawful requests, enforce terms, protect rights and safety, investigate misuse, defend claims, preserve evidence, and complete corporate transactions. |
UMERGE may use artificial intelligence, machine learning, ranking systems, recommender systems, search models, moderation tools, fraud prevention tools, and scoring logic to operate the Services. These systems may use information such as your content, interactions, follows, location settings, reports, blocks, verification status, content quality signals, safety signals, and engagement patterns.
UMERGE may recommend or rank content based on relevance, recency, popularity, civic importance, community interest, district relevance, user preferences, trusted sources, engagement quality, safety considerations, and other factors. UMERGE should provide meaningful controls, such as following feeds, location filters, issue filters, content preferences, mute/block tools, and where feasible, options to reduce personalization. 11.2 Civic Score
Civic Score is intended to be a platform reputation and trust signal. It may help users understand participation, verification, constructive engagement, safety, authenticity, and community contribution. It is not an official government score, credit score, employment score, housing score, insurance score, immigration score, or eligibility score. It should not be used outside UMERGE to make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects.
UMERGE should provide users with understandable information about major factors affecting Civic Score, ways to improve it, ways to dispute or appeal material errors, and ways to understand whether verification, moderation decisions, reports, or content removals affected the score. UMERGE should avoid secret or discriminatory sensitive-attribute scoring and should monitor the system for unfair, inaccurate, or disproportionate impacts.
UMERGE does not intend to make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects without appropriate safeguards. Automated systems may assist with feed ranking, recommendations, spam detection, moderation prioritization, identity risk checks, fraud screening, and account security. Where legally required, you may request human review, contest a decision, or obtain additional information about automated processing.
If UMERGE offers AI chat, AI search, AI summaries, AI civic explainers, AI moderation, AI recommendations, AI content drafting, or AI support tools, UMERGE may process prompts, questions, uploaded files, generated outputs, feedback, timestamps, account identifiers, and usage metadata. UMERGE should clearly label AI features, avoid using private messages or sensitive civic data to train generalized models without appropriate consent or contractual safeguards, and provide additional notices for AI features as needed.
UMERGE includes public and semi-public features. Depending on your settings and feature design, the following may be visible to other users, organizations, search engines, civic partners, advertisers, or the public: profile name, username, profile photo, bio, public posts, comments, reposts, petitions, signatures if public, organizer status, fundraiser pages, donation display name if public, badges, Civic Score or tier if enabled, follower/following relationships, event RSVPs if public, live room participation, and public campaign activity.
Public content may be copied, saved, screenshotted, indexed, cached, quoted, embedded, shared, or archived by other users or third parties, even if you later delete it or change settings. UMERGE will honor deletion and privacy controls within its systems where feasible, but it cannot control copies outside its Services.
You should not post sensitive personal information about yourself or others unless you have the right to do so and understand the consequences. Do not post government IDs, financial account numbers, private addresses, private phone numbers, passwords, private medical information, or personal data about others without authorization.
UMERGE may use location information to show district-relevant content, local policies, local representatives, nearby events, community actions, civic trends, public safety information, local news, issue maps, and geographic insights. Location may be based on information you provide, your device settings, IP address, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, SIM card, billing information, content tags, or other signals.
Precise geolocation may be considered sensitive personal information. UMERGE should request explicit permission before collecting precise location from your device and should provide controls to disable precise location, use approximate location, change district or location settings, or remove location tags from content. Some features may not work or may be less accurate without location data.
For civic integrity, UMERGE may use location verification to help confirm district eligibility for certain nonbinding polls, local civic insights, or community features. UMERGE should clearly state when a civic poll is limited to a district, whether the poll is public or anonymous, and whether location verification affects the visibility or weight of participation.
If you choose to upload, sync, or import contacts, UMERGE may process names, phone numbers, email addresses, contact labels, and related metadata to help you find friends, invite contacts, prevent spam, and improve recommendations. UMERGE should request device permission before accessing contacts and should provide an option to stop syncing or delete imported contacts where required.
If another user uploads contact information that includes you, UMERGE may use that information to help connect users, prevent abuse, or send invitations where permitted. UMERGE should honor opt-out requests for invitations and marketing messages.
UMERGE may enable donations, fundraisers, paid campaigns, paid events, subscriptions, creator monetization, tips, purchases, or other commerce features. Payment processing may be handled by third-party payment processors. UMERGE may receive transaction metadata but should not store full card numbers unless it has implemented required PCI DSS controls and has a lawful business need.
where applicable, and display public fundraiser information if the donor chooses or the feature requires public display.
UMERGE may offer direct messages, group messages, comments, live rooms, voice/video features, chat, creator inboxes, organization inboxes, and community forums. We may process message metadata, sender and recipient information, timestamps, attachments, reactions, reports, abuse signals, moderation history, and technical logs. We may access message or room content when needed to deliver the feature, enforce policies, investigate abuse, comply with law, provide support, or protect users.
UMERGE should disclose whether any messaging feature is encrypted, whether end-to-end encryption is available, what metadata remains visible, and whether moderators or administrators can access content. Unless UMERGE has implemented true end-to-end encryption and verified operational controls, it should not advertise messages as end-to-end encrypted.
Live rooms, voice/video streams, and events may be recorded, transcribed, moderated, summarized, captioned, or analyzed for safety, accessibility, quality, or compliance if the feature provides notice or settings. Users should not assume that live room participation is private unless UMERGE expressly states that a room is private and implements appropriate controls.
UMERGE and its partners may use cookies, pixels, SDKs, local storage, tags, device identifiers, advertising identifiers, server logs, and similar technologies. These technologies may help us remember preferences, keep you logged in, secure the Services, detect fraud, measure performance, analyze usage, attribute referrals, improve marketing, and deliver or measure advertising.
For the UMERGE WordPress website, this may include cookies or tags from WordPress plugins, hosting/CDN providers, analytics platforms, email marketing tools, embedded videos, forms, CAPTCHA tools, security plugins, chat widgets, Meta Pixel, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, LinkedIn Insight Tag, TikTok Pixel, or other tools if enabled. UMERGE should maintain a live cookie inventory and cookie banner/consent management platform where legally required.
Type | Examples | Controls |
Strictly necessary | Login, security, load balancing, fraud prevention, form submission, consent storage, payment session management. | Usually required; cannot be disabled without impairing Services. |
Functional | Preferences, language, remembering settings, improved user experience. | May be controlled in settings or browser. |
Analytics/performance | Usage measurement, app performance, crash analytics, heatmaps, conversion analytics. | May require consent or opt-out depending on jurisdiction. |
Advertising/targeting | Personalized ads, retargeting, lookalike audiences, ad measurement, frequency capping. | May require consent or opt-out; may be considered sale/share/targeted advertising. |
You may control cookies through browser settings, device settings, app permissions, platform settings, and UMERGE cookie tools if available. Blocking cookies may affect functionality.
UMERGE may show ads, promoted posts, sponsored civic campaigns, sponsored organizations, creator monetization placements, or other sponsored content. Ads may be based on contextual information, content viewed, general location, device data, engagement, interests, demographic segments, inferred preferences, or information from advertising partners if enabled.
UMERGE should provide transparency for ads and sponsored content, including clear labels, advertiser identity where appropriate, ad libraries where appropriate for political or civic advertising, and controls for ad personalization. For regulated political advertising, UMERGE should seek specialized legal review before launch.
Some U.S. state privacy laws define certain advertising disclosures as “sale,” “sharing,” or “targeted advertising,” even when UMERGE does not sell personal information for money. UMERGE should provide a “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” / “Opt Out of Targeted Advertising” mechanism if ad-tech tools trigger those laws. UMERGE should also honor legally required opt-out preference signals, such as Global Privacy Control, where applicable.
UMERGE should avoid using sensitive personal information, precise geolocation, political opinion inferences, government ID data, children/teen data, or private messages for targeted advertising unless it has a lawful basis, clear notice, and legally required consent. Where feasible, civic and political advertising should be limited to contextual or user-controlled targeting.
We may use information to create analytics, reports, market research, user research, civic trends, district insights, product insights, safety insights, and aggregated or de-identified data. UMERGE may share aggregated or de-identified insights with users, organizations, nonprofits, researchers, advertisers, public-sector customers, or business partners, provided the information is not reasonably linkable to an individual.
UMERGE should not represent data as anonymous if it remains reasonably linkable to a person, device, household, small group, or unique civic action. For small communities, rare causes, sensitive civic issues, or precise districts, UMERGE should use aggregation thresholds, suppression rules, noise, or other privacyprotective techniques to reduce re-identification risk.
We may disclose personal information in the following ways:
Recipient | Examples |
With other users and the public | Public profiles, public content, public civic actions, comments, signatures if public, organizer pages, public fundraiser details, live room activity, badges, and other information you choose to make visible. |
With service providers/processors | Hosting, cloud infrastructure, databases, storage, CDN, analytics, payments, identity verification, communications, moderation, security, customer support, CRM, email, SMS, app analytics, and similar vendors under contractual restrictions. |
With payment and donation partners | Payment processors, banks, payout providers, tax providers, fraud prevention vendors, and fundraising partners as needed to process transactions and comply with obligations. |
With advertising and measurement partners | Ad platforms, analytics partners, attribution partners, and measurement providers if enabled, subject to opt-outs and applicable law. |
With organizations or administrators | If you join an organization, event, private group, managed community, or partner-sponsored feature, administrators may see certain activity, membership, content, analytics, or profile |
information. | |
With legal, safety and compliance recipients | Law enforcement, regulators, courts, government authorities, emergency responders, rights holders, legal advisors, auditors, insurers, and other parties when legally required or necessary to protect rights, safety, and security. |
With corporate transaction parties | Potential or actual investors, acquirers, lenders, merger partners, successors, advisors, or other parties involved in financing, diligence, restructuring, merger, acquisition, sale, bankruptcy, or transfer of assets. |
UMERGE does not sell personal information for money in the ordinary meaning of “sell.” However, certain disclosures to advertising or analytics partners may be considered a sale, sharing, or targeted advertising under some privacy laws. See Sections 18, 25, 26, and 27 for opt-out rights.
The Services may contain links, embeds, APIs, app store integrations, social login, sharing tools, payment links, maps, videos, social media pages, WordPress plugins, analytics tags, and third-party widgets. Third parties may collect information directly from you and may use their own cookies, SDKs, or tracking technologies. Their privacy policies and terms govern their practices.
If you connect UMERGE to another account, such as Google, Apple, LinkedIn, Meta, TikTok, Stripe, PayPal, or a CRM/email tool, UMERGE may receive information according to your permissions and the third party’s rules. You may need to revoke access through both UMERGE settings and the third-party platform settings.
UMERGE may process and store information in the United States and other countries where UMERGE, its service providers, or partners operate. These countries may have data protection laws that differ from those in your location. Where required, UMERGE will use appropriate transfer safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, data processing agreements, adequacy mechanisms, supplementary measures, or other legally recognized mechanisms.
If UMERGE uses offshore development, support, moderation, or operations resources, it should ensure access is limited, logged, contractually controlled, subject to confidentiality obligations, protected by security safeguards, and restricted to the minimum data necessary for the work. Production database access by offshore contractors should be avoided unless absolutely necessary and protected by role-based access, MFA, audit logs, and contractual data protection controls.
UMERGE retains information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including to provide the Services, maintain accounts, preserve public content, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce terms, prevent fraud or abuse, maintain security, and support legitimate business purposes. Retention periods vary based on the type of information, feature, legal obligations, user settings, and operational needs.
Data Type | Retention Criteria |
Account information | While account is active; then for a reasonable period for backup, legal, security, fraud prevention, and compliance purposes. |
Public content | Until deleted by user or removed under policy; copies may persist in backups, caches, quoted content, reposts, or third-party archives. |
Messages | While needed to deliver messaging and maintain safety; deletion may remove visibility but backups and abuse records may remain for limited periods. |
Civic actions | As needed for feature integrity, public display, anti-fraud, analytics, |
legal compliance, and user controls. Some public campaign records may persist after account closure if necessary to preserve public context. | |
Payment/donation records | As required for tax, accounting, financial, fraud, chargeback, campaign compliance, and legal obligations. |
Verification data | Only as long as necessary for verification, fraud prevention, safety, legal compliance, audit, and dispute needs. Government ID images should have strict retention limits. |
Security logs | For a limited period appropriate to detect, investigate, and prevent abuse, unless needed longer for incidents or legal obligations. |
Marketing data | Until you unsubscribe, opt out, or the data is no longer needed, subject to suppression lists for compliance. |
When UMERGE no longer needs information, it will delete, de-identify, aggregate, or archive it according to applicable law and operational constraints. Deletion from active systems may not immediately remove information from backups, logs, legal holds, or third-party systems.
UMERGE intends to use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information. Safeguards may include encryption in transit, encryption at rest where appropriate, access controls, least privilege, multifactor authentication, logging, monitoring, vulnerability management, secure software development, vendor diligence, incident response, backup controls, and employee/contractor confidentiality obligations.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. Users are responsible for maintaining strong passwords, protecting account credentials, avoiding phishing, updating devices, and promptly notifying UMERGE of suspected unauthorized access. UMERGE should provide account security tools such as MFA, session management, login alerts, and device management where feasible.
For high-risk data such as government ID, precise geolocation, payment records, private messages, sensitive civic data, and children/teen data, UMERGE should apply heightened access restrictions, retention limits, encryption, audit logging, and privacy impact review.
Depending on your location and the features you use, you may have the following choices and rights:
To submit a request, contact admin@umerge.co or use any privacy request form UMERGE provides. UMERGE may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request. Verification may require confirming account access, email, phone, transaction details, or other information. Authorized agents may submit requests where permitted by law, but UMERGE may require proof of authorization and identity verification.
UMERGE will not discriminate against you for exercising privacy rights, except that some features may be unavailable if the information is necessary to provide them.
Residents of certain U.S. states may have rights under comprehensive privacy laws, including rights to access, correct, delete, obtain a copy of data, opt out of targeted advertising, opt out of sale, opt out of certain profiling, limit or opt out of sensitive data processing, appeal denials, and use authorized agents. The exact rights and UMERGE obligations depend on the state, thresholds, data types, and whether UMERGE is subject to the law.
UMERGE intends to provide a unified privacy request process where practical. State-specific rights may apply to residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and other states with current or future privacy laws, subject to applicability thresholds and effective dates.
If UMERGE uses targeted advertising, cross-context behavioral advertising, or sells/shares personal information under applicable legal definitions, UMERGE should provide clear opt-out links such as “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” and “Opt Out of Targeted Advertising.” UMERGE should also configure the website to honor legally required opt-out preference signals where applicable. 26.1 Appeals
If UMERGE denies your privacy request and applicable law gives you an appeal right, you may appeal by replying to the denial email or submitting an appeal through UMERGE privacy channels. UMERGE will explain the result of the appeal and, where required, provide information about how to contact the relevant attorney general or privacy regulator.
This section provides a California-specific notice at collection. UMERGE may have collected the following categories of personal information in the preceding 12 months, depending on the Services used. UMERGE should tailor this table to actual data practices before launch.
Category | Examples | Purposes | Disclosures |
Identifiers | Name, username, email, phone, IP address, device IDs, cookies, advertising IDs, account IDs. | Account creation, authentication, security, communications, analytics, ads, support. | Service providers; other users if public; advertising/analytics partners if enabled. |
Customer records | Contact details, billing details, transaction records, support records. | Payments, donations, receipts, support, compliance. | Payment processors, service providers, professional advisors. |
Protected classification characteristics | Age range, gender if provided, veteran/community details if provided, other profile details you choose to share. | Eligibility, personalization, community features, safety, analytics. | Other users if public; service providers; analytics partners in aggregated form. |
Commercial information | Donation history, purchases, subscriptions, event tickets, creator tools, ad purchases. | Transaction processing, fraud prevention, analytics, compliance. | Payment processors, fraud vendors, service providers. |
Internet or network activity | Usage logs, views, clicks, searches, interactions, watch time, app activity. | Operate Services, recommendations, analytics, security, advertising. | Service providers; analytics/ad partners if enabled. |
Geolocation | Approximate location, district, city/state, precise location if enabled. | Local civic content, district tools, safety, analytics. | Service providers; other users if location tags are public. |
Audio, visual or electronic information | Photos, videos, audio, livestreams, voice/video rooms, profile images. | User content, live rooms, accessibility, moderation, safety. | Other users/public if posted; service providers. |
Professional or education information | Employer, school, role, organization, public office/candidate info if provided. | Profiles, organization verification, community discovery. | Other users/public if posted; service providers. |
Inferences | Interests, civic issue preferences, content recommendations, trust/safety signals, Civic Score factors. | Personalization, ranking, safety, Civic Score, analytics. | Service providers; ad partners if enabled and lawful. |
Sensitive personal information | Precise geolocation, government ID, account login credentials, political/civic activity, donation details, identity verification data, sensitive profile/content you provide. | Verification, security, civic features, donations, compliance, safety. | Service providers under restrictions; public if you choose to post sensitive content publicly. |
UMERGE does not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes that would require a California right to limit unless UMERGE provides the required notice and control. UMERGE does not knowingly sell or share personal information of consumers under 16 without required consent.
If you are in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, Switzerland, or another jurisdiction with similar laws, UMERGE will process personal data under applicable legal bases and respect applicable rights. UMERGE should appoint an EU/UK representative or Data Protection Officer if legally required based on scale, monitoring, sensitive data processing, or establishment.
Legal Basis | Examples |
Contract | To create your account, provide the Services, process transactions, display content, provide support, and enforce platform terms. |
Legitimate interests | To secure the Services, prevent fraud, improve products, conduct analytics, moderate content, protect users, and communicate about service matters, balanced against user rights. |
Consent | For optional precise location, contacts upload, certain cookies, marketing emails, sensitive data where required, certain AI/model uses, and ad personalization where required. |
Legal obligation | To comply with tax, accounting, sanctions, law enforcement, consumer protection, payment, privacy, and other legal requirements. |
Public interest / substantial public interest | Only where legally applicable and appropriately safeguarded, such as certain civic integrity or public-interest features. |
Vital interests | In rare cases to protect life, safety, or emergency interests. |
International users may have rights to access, correction, deletion, portability, restriction, objection, withdrawal of consent, and complaint to a supervisory authority. Users may also have rights related to automated decisionmaking. To exercise rights, contact admin@umerge.co.
Special category data, including political opinions or similarly sensitive civic data, requires heightened care under many international laws. UMERGE should minimize collection, provide clear controls, and obtain explicit consent where legally required, especially for sensitive data that is not manifestly made public by the user.
UMERGE does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information to UMERGE, contact admin@umerge.co. UMERGE will review and take appropriate action.
For teen users, UMERGE should apply age-appropriate protections, including default private settings where appropriate, limits on ad targeting, limits on precise geolocation sharing, restrictions on adult-to-teen direct messaging, safety prompts, reporting tools, and parental/guardian controls where legally required. UMERGE should not process teen data for targeted advertising where prohibited by law.
Schools, youth organizations, nonprofits, or community programs that use UMERGE with minors must have appropriate authority, notices, consents, and safeguards before collecting or sharing student or minor information.
You may close your account or request deletion through settings or by contacting UMERGE. Deletion may remove or anonymize account information in active systems, but certain information may be retained for legal, security, fraud prevention, payment, tax, safety, backup, dispute, public-interest, or compliance purposes. Public content that has been shared, reposted, quoted, cached, or indexed by others may remain outside UMERGE control.
If deletion of a public civic action would undermine public integrity, campaign auditability, fraud prevention, legal compliance, or another legitimate purpose, UMERGE may retain limited records or display modified records, such as removing your name while preserving aggregate counts, subject to applicable law.
If you disagree with a moderation, verification, Civic Score, account restriction, privacy request, or deletion decision, UMERGE should provide an appeal process where required or appropriate.
If UMERGE becomes aware of a data security incident involving personal information, it will investigate and take appropriate steps under applicable law. Where legally required, UMERGE will notify affected individuals, regulators, payment processors, app stores, or other parties. The timing and content of notices may depend on law enforcement needs, investigation status, risk of harm, and legal requirements.
UMERGE may update this Policy from time to time. The “Last Updated” date indicates when the Policy was last revised. If UMERGE makes material changes, it will provide notice as required by law, such as through the Services, email, in-app notice, website notice, or consent flow. Continued use of the Services after an updated Policy becomes effective means the updated Policy applies to future processing, except where additional consent is required. 33. Contact Us
For privacy questions, requests, appeals, or concerns, contact UMERGE at:
If you are in the EEA, UK, Switzerland, or another jurisdiction that requires a local representative or regulator contact, UMERGE should insert the applicable representative and supervisory authority details before public launch.
Category | Examples | Sources | Uses | Retention |
Account & profile | Name, username, email, phone, photo, bio, preferences, settings | User; social login; admin | Account, personalization, communications, security | Account life plus retention needs |
Content | Posts, comments, images, videos, audio, live streams, captions, hashtags | User; devices; other users | Publishing, recommendations, moderation, analytics | Until deleted or no longer needed |
Civic actions | Votes/polls, petition signatures, fundraisers, event RSVPs, endorsements, badges | User; platform activity | Civic features, analytics, integrity, public display | Feature-specific; legal/compliance needs |
Messages | Direct/group messages, attachments, metadata, reports | User; recipients | Messaging, safety, support, abuse prevention | Account life or featurespecific limits |
Location | Approximate/precise location, district, region, location tags | Device; user; IP; verification | Local civic content, district insights, safety | As needed; precise location minimized |
Verification | Email/phone verification, ID checks, org docs, business/nonprofit/candidate docs | User; vendors; public records | Authenticity, trust, compliance, anti-fraud | Strict limits; longer for fraud/legal records |
Payments/donations | Transaction amount, processor ID, receipts, refunds, payout/tax records | User; processor; bank | Transactions, compliance, fraud, accounting | Legal/accounting retention periods |
Device & usage | IP, device IDs, logs, app activity, crash data, cookies | Automatic; vendors | Security, analytics, personalization, ads | Limited periods; aggregate where possible |
Inferences & scores | Interests, recommendations, Civic Score factors, safety signals | Platform activity; models | Ranking, trust, safety, personalization | Updated over time; retained as needed |
UMERGE should maintain a live vendor inventory. The table below is a launch template and should be finalized with actual vendors, contracts, data processing terms, security reviews, and international transfer mechanisms.
Vendor Type | Role | Data Processed | Required Controls |
Hosting / Cloud / Database | Website/app hosting, database, storage, CDN, backups, logs | Account, content, usage, device, security data | DPA, access controls, encryption, SOC/security review |
WordPress Hosting & Plugins | Forms, analytics, security, SEO, image optimization, page builder, cookie consent | Visitor data, form entries, cookies, IP addresses | Plugin diligence, cookie inventory, least privilege |
Authentication | Login, MFA, social login, password reset | Identifiers, login data, device data | Security terms, data minimization |
Payments / Donations | Card processing, donations, refunds, payouts, tax | Payment metadata, billing, fraud, tax data | PCI, processor terms, tax compliance |
Identity Verification | ID checks, organization verification, fraud prevention | Government ID, selfie, documents, verification status | Strict retention, encryption, access logging |
Email / SMS / Push | Notifications, marketing, service alerts | Email, phone, device tokens, preferences | Opt-outs, suppression lists |
Analytics / Attribution | Usage metrics, campaign measurement, funnel tracking | Cookies, device IDs, usage data | Consent/opt-out, vendor contracts |
Advertising | Ads, retargeting, sponsored content, measurement | Identifiers, device data, usage, inferences | Opt-out, GPC, restricted sensitive targeting |
Customer Support / CRM | Tickets, support chat, demo forms, waitlist | Contact info, issue content, account metadata | Role-based access, retention limits |
Moderation / Trust & Safety | Content review, abuse detection, appeals | Content, reports, account data, safety signals | Confidentiality, audit logs, quality control |
Website | Mobile App | Civic Engagement Platform | Community Services
IMPORTANT ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION NOTICE
These Terms contain a mandatory arbitration agreement, class action waiver, limitations of liability, content license, community rules, and rules for civic engagement, fundraising, creator monetization, organization accounts, and payments. Users should read the complete document before using UMERGE.
Advertising, Sponsorships, Promotions, and Endorsements
This summary is provided to make the Terms easier to understand. It is not a substitute for the full legal agreement below. If the summary conflicts with the full Terms, the full Terms control.
UMERGE is a civic engagement and social impact platform designed to help users discover issues, discuss ideas, participate in non-binding civic polls, support petitions and causes, attend or organize community actions, interact with public-interest content, and connect with communities, organizations, creators, businesses, candidates, elected officials, government entities, and nonprofits.
Users keep ownership of the content they create, but they grant UMERGE the rights needed to host, display, distribute, moderate, translate, recommend, promote, and improve the Services. UMERGE may remove content or restrict accounts when needed for safety, integrity, legal compliance, platform quality, or to protect the rights of others.
UMERGE is not a government agency, election authority, polling authority, law firm, financial adviser, charity, escrow agent, bank, broker, campaign treasurer, or emergency service. Civic votes and Civic Score signals on UMERGE are informational and community-engagement tools only; they do not create binding legal, election, credit, employment, housing, insurance, or governmental effects.
Users are responsible for complying with all laws that apply to their content and activities, including election, campaign finance, charitable solicitation, labor, tax, consumer protection, intellectual property, privacy, and advertising disclosure laws.
These Terms of Service and Conditions (the “Terms”) are a legally binding agreement between you and UMERGE CORP (“UMERGE,” “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) governing your access to and use of UMERGE websites, mobile applications, web pages, WordPress-powered websites, software, civic engagement tools, profiles, feeds, live rooms, voting features, petitions, fundraising tools, creator tools, organization accounts, business tools, APIs, widgets, notifications, and all related online or offline services that link to these Terms (collectively, the “Services”).
By creating an account, accessing the Services, clicking to accept these Terms, using a UMERGE feature, submitting content, purchasing a paid service, participating in a live room, using organization tools, or continuing to use the Services after an update, you agree to be bound by these Terms, the Privacy Policy, Community Standards, supplemental feature terms, payment terms, and any other policies or notices that are incorporated by reference.
If you use the Services on behalf of a company, nonprofit, political committee, campaign, government entity, school, association, creator collective, agency, or other organization, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to bind that entity and that the entity accepts these Terms. In that case, “you” includes both you and the entity.
You may not use the Services if you are barred under applicable law, subject to sanctions restrictions that prohibit use, previously removed from the Services for serious misconduct, or under the age threshold described below.
No child-directed service. UMERGE is not directed to children under 13, and users under 13 may not create accounts, submit personal information, participate in live rooms, purchase items, donate, fundraise, or use the Services.
UMERGE may require additional information or verification before enabling sensitive features.
You are responsible for the activity that occurs through your account and for maintaining the confidentiality of your username, password, verification credentials, connected accounts, devices, and authentication methods. You must notify UMERGE promptly if you suspect unauthorized access or a security breach.
UMERGE may offer optional or required verification methods, such as email verification, phone verification, location or district verification, organization verification, government ID verification through a third-party provider, professional affiliation verification, nonprofit verification, candidate or campaign verification, public official verification, or other trust signals. Verification does not guarantee identity, truthfulness, legality, endorsement, safety, or quality.
UMERGE may deny, revoke, or limit verification if information is inaccurate, unverifiable, misleading, outdated, obtained through improper means, or used to deceive users. UMERGE may display badges, labels, account type indicators, location or district indicators, sponsorship labels, civic role labels, or other context to help users evaluate content.
UMERGE is a neutral technology platform for civic engagement, community discussion, issue discovery, social connection, education, advocacy coordination, community action, and related digital services. UMERGE may provide tools for users to express opinions, organize communities, support causes, share content, join discussions, view policy or civic information, participate in non-binding votes or polls, and interact with other users and organizations.
UMERGE is not a governmental body, election administrator, public records custodian, polling institution, legal representative, union representative, campaign treasurer, charity, escrow agent, tax adviser, investment adviser, broker-dealer, bank, credit bureau, employment agency, emergency service, healthcare provider, or guarantor of any outcome. UMERGE does not endorse every user, organization, candidate, petition, boycott, fundraiser, event, statement, policy position, civic action, or item of content appearing on the Services.
UMERGE may facilitate access to third-party content, public information, user-generated content, official documents, legislation summaries, agency pages, news, civic data, AI summaries, or external links. Such material may be incomplete, outdated, incorrect, biased, or subject to third-party terms. Users must independently verify information before relying on it.
UMERGE is built for constructive civic engagement. You agree to use the Services in a lawful, respectful, authentic, and safe manner. UMERGE may maintain and update Community Standards, content policies, safety rules, advertising policies, fundraising policies, live room rules, youth safety policies, election integrity policies, and other guidelines that apply to your conduct and content.
The following conduct is prohibited. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive. UMERGE may determine, in its reasonable discretion, whether content or conduct violates these Terms, creates risk, undermines civic integrity, harms users, infringes rights, or is otherwise incompatible with the Services.
Impersonation or deceptive identity use, including fake candidates, fake public officials, fake nonprofits, fake government accounts, fake news accounts, or misleading affiliation claims.
The Services allow users to create, upload, livestream, post, comment, react to, share, repost, vote on, endorse, petition, donate to, promote, sell, display, transmit, or otherwise make available text, images, video, audio, live streams, messages, graphics, logos, profile information, avatars, names, petitions, fundraisers, links, ratings, votes, survey responses, ideas, feedback, metadata, and other materials (collectively, “User Content”). You are solely responsible for your User Content and for the consequences of posting or sharing it.
You retain ownership of rights you hold in your User Content. However, by submitting User Content to the Services, you grant UMERGE a worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free, fully paid license to host, store, cache, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, translate, create derivative works from, publicly perform, publicly display, distribute, transmit, index, analyze, recommend, rank, promote, market, make accessible, and otherwise use your User Content for purposes of operating, providing, improving, securing, moderating, developing, marketing, and making the Services available in any media or distribution method now known or later developed.
This license includes the right to use your username, profile image, voice, likeness, organization name, trademarks or logos you submit, and public account information in connection with displaying, distributing, promoting, or contextualizing your User Content. It also includes technical modifications necessary to adapt User Content to different devices, formats, bandwidth, accessibility features, captioning systems, translation systems, moderation tools, search, recommendations, and platform integrations.
The license ends when your User Content is deleted from the Services, except that copies may remain where the content has been shared by others, included in public civic records or community discussions, cached, backed up, archived for legal, safety, security, fraud-prevention, audit, or compliance reasons, used in aggregated or deidentified insights, or reasonably necessary for UMERGE to defend or exercise legal rights.
You represent and warrant that you own or have all rights, licenses, consents, permissions, releases, and authority needed to submit your User Content and grant the license above; that your User Content does not violate law, these Terms, or the rights of others; and that your User Content is accurate where accuracy is legally required.
UMERGE and its licensors own all rights, title, and interest in and to the Services, including software, source code, object code, designs, interfaces, layouts, algorithms, models, scoring systems, Civic Score logic, feed logic, recommendation systems, moderation tools, databases, trademarks, logos, trade dress, service marks, brand assets, icons, documentation, text, graphics, audiovisual works, and all improvements and derivative works (collectively, “UMERGE IP”).
Subject to your compliance with these Terms, UMERGE grants you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Services for lawful purposes. No rights are granted except as expressly stated. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, reverse engineer, decompile, scrape, frame, mirror, create competing services from, or otherwise exploit UMERGE IP without UMERGE’s written permission.
The UMERGE name, logo, flame mark, product names, slogans, and related brand assets may not be used without written permission, except as expressly permitted by UMERGE brand guidelines or applicable law. Goodwill arising from use of UMERGE marks belongs exclusively to UMERGE.
UMERGE may provide civic engagement features, including policy discovery, issue feeds, real-time sentiment, candidate or policy discussions, petitions, pledges, boycotts, protests, rallies, strikes, walkouts, event RSVPs, fundraising, live civic rooms, civic polls, comments, reposts, verified cause pages, and other action tools. These features are designed to facilitate expression, organization, education, awareness, and community engagement.
You are solely responsible for ensuring that your civic actions, petitions, boycotts, protests, strikes, walkouts, picketing, fundraising, campaigns, advocacy, lobbying, endorsements, public statements, organization activities, and related content comply with all applicable laws, permits, school rules, workplace rules, labor laws, election laws, campaign finance rules, charitable solicitation rules, tax rules, public safety rules, platform rules, court orders, and third-party rights.
UMERGE does not verify the legality, safety, accuracy, fairness, effectiveness, or enforceability of any civic action. UMERGE may label, limit, remove, downrank, restrict, demonetize, or require additional verification for civic actions that involve heightened legal, safety, public-order, reputational, financial, youth-safety, or platformintegrity risk.
Boycotts. Boycott creators must not incite threats, harassment, doxxing, vandalism, discrimination, coercion, unlawful restraint of trade, extortion, deception, or tortious conduct. UMERGE may use neutral labels such as “consumer action,” “public accountability,” or “economic advocacy” where appropriate.
UMERGE may allow campaigns, candidates, political committees, public officials, government entities, agencies, schools, nonprofits, unions, civic groups, businesses, media organizations, creators, coalitions, and other organizations to create accounts or pages. UMERGE may require additional verification, disclosures, account roles, administrator controls, sponsorship labels, fundraising confirmations, or compliance documentation.
Organization account administrators represent that they are authorized to manage the account, publish content, access analytics, receive communications, manage payments, create fundraisers, purchase ads, or bind the organization to applicable terms. Organizations are responsible for administrator actions and for promptly removing access from unauthorized personnel.
Government and public-sector users are responsible for any public-records, open-meetings, procurement, accessibility, archiving, employee-use, ethics, endorsement, or information-security rules that apply to their use of UMERGE. UMERGE is not responsible for preserving government records unless a separate written agreement expressly requires it.
UMERGE may offer or integrate paid features, subscriptions, paid events, ticketing, creator monetization, donations, charitable fundraisers, political fundraisers, cause fundraisers, tips, paid content, premium accounts, token-based features, wallet-like balances, UShop or marketplace tools, commerce features, order processing, and other payment-related services (collectively, “Paid Services”). Paid Services may be provided directly by UMERGE or through third-party processors, app stores, payment networks, banks, payout providers, tax providers, fraud vendors, identity vendors, or commerce platforms.
All Paid Services are subject to these Terms, supplemental payment terms, processor terms, app-store terms, refund policies, tax rules, payout eligibility, identity verification, sanctions screening, fraud screening, chargeback rules, and other requirements. UMERGE may add, remove, suspend, or modify Paid Services at any time.
Unless expressly stated otherwise, UMERGE is not a charity, professional fundraiser, broker, escrow agent, fiduciary, money transmitter, bank, tax adviser, campaign treasurer, or guarantor of the use of funds. Donors and supporters should evaluate causes independently. Fundraiser creators are solely responsible for truthful descriptions, lawful collection and use of funds, donor disclosures, refund obligations, taxes, recordkeeping, and compliance with charitable, political, consumer protection, and financial laws.
UMERGE may offer advertising, sponsored content, boosted posts, paid placements, promoted civic actions, creator sponsorships, branded content, campaign advertising, organization advertising, analytics products, lead generation tools, and related services. Advertising and sponsored activity may be subject to additional review, labeling, disclosure, eligibility, targeting, transparency, payment, and compliance rules.
Advertisers, sponsors, creators, organizations, candidates, campaigns, political committees, nonprofits, businesses, agencies, and endorsers are solely responsible for the accuracy, legality, substantiation, targeting, disclosures, disclaimers, records, permissions, and regulatory compliance of their ads, sponsorships, promotions, endorsements, contests, offers, and claims.
You must clearly and conspicuously disclose material connections, sponsorships, compensation, free products, affiliate relationships, political sponsorship, and other paid or incentivized relationships as required by law and UMERGE policies. UMERGE may label sponsored content, restrict targeting, require disclaimers, preserve ad records, or reject ads that create legal or platform risk.
Political and issue ads may require additional verification, disclaimers, residency or citizenship checks, payment restrictions, public ad library disclosures, targeting limits, and records retention.
Ads may not be deceptive, discriminatory, predatory, manipulative, infringing, unsafe, exploitative of minors, or designed to suppress lawful civic participation.
UMERGE may review, reject, remove, pause, or restrict ads or sponsored content for any lawful reason, including brand safety, regulatory risk, civic integrity, user safety, payment risk, or policy concerns.
UMERGE may offer a Civic Score, account tiers, trust indicators, participation history, verification badges, contribution metrics, community reputation signals, creator metrics, organization credibility indicators, engagement analytics, or other scoring and ranking systems. These tools are intended to encourage constructive civic participation, reduce abuse, contextualize behavior, unlock platform privileges, and improve content quality.
Civic Score and similar signals may be influenced by participation, verification, quality signals, community feedback, reported conduct, moderation outcomes, account age, authenticity indicators, civic activity, trust signals, policy violations, harmful behavior, spam signals, fraud indicators, or other factors. UMERGE may change the logic, weights, tiers, privileges, caps, penalties, or displays at any time.
Civic Score is not a credit score, consumer report, employment score, tenant screening score, insurance score, financial eligibility score, government benefit score, legal status, professional credential, or official measure of civic worth. It must not be used for decisions involving credit, housing, employment, insurance, education, government benefits, immigration, healthcare, or other regulated eligibility decisions.
UMERGE may use artificial intelligence, machine learning, automated systems, ranking systems, recommendation systems, search tools, filters, civic data processing, content classification, safety systems, spam detection, language translation, captioning, summarization, trend analysis, personalization, and generative or assistive AI features.
AI and automated outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, biased, offensive, or inappropriate. You should independently verify important information, especially legal, election, health, financial, safety, public policy, public-record, and emergency information. UMERGE does not guarantee that recommendations, summaries, captions, translations, labels, scores, search results, or AI outputs are accurate or complete.
UMERGE may personalize feeds, search, notifications, ads, recommendations, civic action cards, event suggestions, fundraising suggestions, and organization suggestions based on information such as your activity, settings, location or district signals, interests, follows, engagement, account type, Civic Score, verification level, content interactions, device information, and other signals described in the Privacy Policy.
Synthetic media. You must disclose AI-generated or materially altered media when failure to disclose could mislead users about civic, political, public-safety, identity, newsworthy, or reputational matters.
No misuse. You may not use UMERGE AI tools to deceive voters, impersonate people, generate harassment, create malware, fabricate endorsements, manipulate civic processes, evade moderation, or violate rights. Transparency. UMERGE may provide controls or explanations for certain recommendation systems where required by law or product design, but may withhold details that would compromise safety, privacy, security, or anti-abuse systems.
UMERGE may offer direct messaging, group messaging, chat, voice, video, livestreaming, live civic rooms, virtual protest rooms, event pages, ticketed events, organizer tools, polls, reactions, community rooms, and related interactive features. These features may be recorded, transcribed, moderated, reported, monitored by automated systems, restricted by age or verification status, or subject to additional rules.
Users who create or host live rooms, events, or community spaces are responsible for lawful operation, accurate descriptions, moderation, safety planning, accessibility, participant conduct, permissions, recordings, music or media rights, ticketing, refunds, and compliance with venue, platform, public-safety, school, workplace, labor, or government rules.
UMERGE may remove, end, restrict, age-gate, demonetize, delay, record, review, or report live content where necessary for safety, legal compliance, civic integrity, abuse prevention, technical performance, rights protection, or policy enforcement.
Your use of the Services is also governed by the UMERGE Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and any just-in-time notices or consent flows presented in the Services. Those policies explain how UMERGE collects, uses, shares, protects, stores, and transfers information, including account information, content, device information, usage data, location or district signals, verification data, payment information, communications, cookies, analytics, and advertising data.
By using the Services, you consent to receiving service communications, transactional messages, legal notices, safety notices, verification requests, policy updates, account alerts, moderation notices, and other communications related to the Services. You may also opt in to marketing communications, newsletters, SMS, push notifications, or other optional communications, which may be controlled through settings or unsubscribe mechanisms where available.
UMERGE may use cookies, pixels, local storage, SDKs, analytics tools, app-store tools, fraud-prevention tools, advertising tools, and similar technologies as described in the Privacy Policy or Cookie Policy. Some features may require enabling certain device permissions, such as notifications, camera, microphone, contacts, photos, or location.
Separate policies. Privacy rights, data deletion, access requests, parental requests, and consumer privacy rights should be handled through UMERGE’s Privacy Policy and designated privacy contact.
International transfers. Users outside the United States understand that their information may be processed in the United States or other countries where UMERGE, vendors, or service providers operate, subject to applicable law.
Sensitive information. Do not upload government IDs, financial data, health information, immigration records, legal documents, addresses, minors’ information, or other sensitive data unless a feature specifically requires it and UMERGE provides appropriate instructions.
UMERGE may, but is not obligated to, monitor, review, screen, label, downrank, remove, restrict, disable, suspend, terminate, demonetize, limit distribution of, or preserve User Content, accounts, live rooms, ads, fundraisers, listings, events, messages, transactions, or other activity when UMERGE believes such action is appropriate.
UMERGE may act for reasons including violation of these Terms or policies, legal compliance, safety, civic integrity, fraud prevention, security, user protection, intellectual property protection, reputational risk, payment risk, technical integrity, regulatory risk, or to protect UMERGE, users, partners, or the public.
UMERGE may use automated systems and human review. Enforcement decisions may not be perfect, and UMERGE may correct or reverse decisions. UMERGE may provide appeal mechanisms, but is not required to provide appeals for every decision, disclose confidential detection methods, or restore content or accounts where doing so would create risk.
The Services may contain or integrate third-party websites, APIs, payment processors, app stores, WordPress plugins, hosting providers, analytics tools, social login providers, maps, video services, livestreaming providers, messaging tools, notification services, AI providers, cloud providers, identity vendors, content delivery networks, ad networks, donation processors, shipping providers, or other third-party products and services.
Third-party services are governed by their own terms and policies. UMERGE does not control and is not responsible for third-party services, content, data practices, availability, security, accuracy, fees, disputes, refunds, outages, or damages. Your use of third-party services is at your own risk.
If you download or use a UMERGE mobile application through Apple App Store, Google Play, or another app marketplace, you also agree to the applicable marketplace terms. The app marketplace may be a third-party beneficiary of relevant mobile-app terms and may enforce them where applicable.
UMERGE respects intellectual property rights and expects users to do the same. You may not upload or share content that infringes copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, publicity rights, privacy rights, or other rights. UMERGE may remove content or terminate repeat infringers consistent with applicable law.
If you believe content on UMERGE infringes your copyright, you may submit a notice containing: (1) your physical or electronic signature; (2) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; (3) identification of the material claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to locate it; (4) your contact information; (5) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or law; and (6) a statement under penalty of perjury that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.
If your content was removed under a copyright notice and you believe it was removed by mistake or misidentification, you may submit a counter-notice containing the information required by applicable law. UMERGE may forward notices and counter-notices to the parties and may restore content if permitted by law.
Before public launch, UMERGE should designate a DMCA copyright agent with the U.S. Copyright Office and publish matching agent information on the website. Until finalized, use the following placeholder for internal routing only: Copyright Agent, UMERGE CORP, [INSERT MAILING ADDRESS], Email: [INSERT COPYRIGHT EMAIL], Phone: [INSERT PHONE]. Do not publish incomplete DMCA agent information.
If you submit ideas, suggestions, concepts, designs, feature requests, bug reports, business proposals, product names, workflows, content strategies, algorithms, or other feedback to UMERGE, you grant UMERGE a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free, fully paid license to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, create derivative works from, commercialize, and otherwise exploit the feedback without restriction, compensation, attribution, or obligation to you.
Do not submit confidential information as feedback unless you have a separate written agreement with UMERGE. UMERGE is not obligated to keep feedback confidential or to implement any suggestion.
Unless UMERGE provides written permission or official developer terms, you may not access the Services through automated means, scrape content, harvest data, create unauthorized datasets, crawl profiles, bypass rate limits, reverse engineer APIs, intercept traffic, use bots, emulate users, use unauthorized plugins, or build products that compete with or replicate UMERGE.
You may not test, scan, or probe the vulnerability of the Services; attempt to breach security or authentication; interfere with service operation; introduce malware; exploit bugs; access non-public systems; exfiltrate data; or use the Services to attack others. If UMERGE publishes a security reporting program, you must follow its rules.
UMERGE may throttle, block, revoke, watermark, fingerprint, monitor, or audit access to protect the Services, users, data, partners, and platform integrity.
You agree to comply with all laws, regulations, rules, orders, and policies that apply to your use of the Services, including laws concerning privacy, data protection, consumer protection, advertising, intellectual property, elections, campaign finance, lobbying, charitable solicitation, fundraising, labor, employment, taxation, sanctions, export control, anti-money laundering, anti-bribery, anti-corruption, accessibility, public records, youth safety, and online safety.
You may not use the Services if you are located in, organized under the laws of, ordinarily resident in, or controlled by a country, region, entity, or person subject to sanctions that prohibit the transaction, or if your use would violate export controls or trade restrictions. You may not use the Services for bribery, corruption, illicit payments, money laundering, terrorist financing, or evasion of sanctions or reporting obligations.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS,” “AS AVAILABLE,” AND
“WITH ALL FAULTS.” UMERGE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE,
INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NONINFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, QUIET ENJOYMENT, AVAILABILITY, SECURITY, RELIABILITY, AND COURSE OF DEALING.
UMERGE does not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, accurate, complete, free from harmful content, free from defects, compatible with your systems, or available in any particular location. UMERGE does not warrant that content, Civic Score, recommendations, AI outputs, analytics, fundraising tools, ads, events, or civic data will meet your expectations or achieve any result.
No content on the Services constitutes legal, tax, financial, investment, medical, psychological, public safety, labor, election compliance, campaign finance, lobbying, employment, housing, insurance, or other professional advice. You should consult qualified professionals before making decisions with legal, financial, health, safety, public policy, or other significant consequences.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, UMERGE, ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES,
CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, INVESTORS, LICENSORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, AND PARTNERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE
FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE, OR ENHANCED DAMAGES;
LOST PROFITS; LOST REVENUE; LOST DATA; LOSS OF GOODWILL; BUSINESS INTERRUPTION; PERSONAL INJURY;
PROPERTY DAMAGE; REPUTATIONAL HARM; CIVIC, POLITICAL, OR ORGANIZATIONAL OUTCOMES; DONATION OR FUNDRAISING DISPUTES; OR OTHER LOSSES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, UMERGE’S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT
OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO UMERGE FOR THE SERVICES GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM DURING THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE, OR (B) $100.
Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability. In those jurisdictions, the limitations apply to the maximum extent permitted by law. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless UMERGE, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, investors, licensors, service providers, payment processors, and partners from and against all claims, demands, actions, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or related to: (1) your use of the Services; (2) your User Content; (3) your violation of these Terms or UMERGE policies; (4) your violation of law or third-party rights; (5) your civic actions, petitions, boycotts, protests, strikes, walkouts, events, fundraising, ads, sponsorships, endorsements, marketplace activity, or organization activities; (6) your disputes with other users; or (7) your fraud, negligence, misconduct, or unauthorized access.
UMERGE may control the defense and settlement of any indemnified claim, and you agree to cooperate. You may not settle any claim in a manner that imposes obligations on UMERGE, admits fault by UMERGE, or affects UMERGE’s rights without UMERGE’s written consent.
You may stop using the Services at any time and may delete your account if UMERGE provides that functionality. UMERGE may suspend, restrict, terminate, disable, or delete your account, content, privileges, Civic Score, verification, monetization access, ads, fundraisers, tokens, marketplace features, API access, or other features at any time where permitted by law, including for violation of these Terms, risk, legal compliance, inactivity, nonpayment, fraud, abuse, security concerns, or service discontinuation.
Termination may result in loss of access to content, messages, followers, fundraisers, tokens, account data, analytics, purchases, subscriptions, payouts, and other information. UMERGE may preserve information as needed for legal, safety, security, fraud-prevention, audit, backup, tax, dispute-resolution, or legitimate business purposes.
Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including ownership, licenses, payment obligations, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, dispute resolution, arbitration, class action waiver, governing law, confidentiality obligations if any, and general legal provisions.
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT MAY REQUIRE YOU AND UMERGE TO RESOLVE DISPUTES THROUGH BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND LIMIT THE WAYS YOU CAN SEEK RELIEF.
Informal resolution. Before filing a claim, you agree to send a written notice describing the dispute, the relief requested, and your contact information to UMERGE at [INSERT LEGAL NOTICE EMAIL/ADDRESS]. UMERGE will have 30 days to attempt to resolve the dispute informally. This informal process does not apply where urgent injunctive relief is needed to prevent misuse of intellectual property, data, systems, confidential information, or safety-related harm.
Binding arbitration. Except for excluded claims, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms, the Services, your account, content, payments, civic features, ads, fundraising, or relationship with UMERGE will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its applicable consumer or commercial arbitration rules, or by another arbitration provider if AAA is unavailable or inappropriate. The arbitrator will have authority to resolve disputes about arbitrability except where the law requires a court to decide.
Class action and jury trial waiver. YOU AND UMERGE WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND AGREE THAT
DISPUTES WILL BE BROUGHT ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, NOT AS A PLAINTIFF, CLASS MEMBER, PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL, OR REPRESENTATIVE IN ANY CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION.
Excluded claims. Either party may bring claims in small claims court if eligible. UMERGE may seek injunctive or equitable relief in court to protect intellectual property, confidential information, security, data, platform integrity, or users. Claims that cannot be arbitrated under applicable law are excluded to that extent.
Batch procedures. If 25 or more similar arbitration demands are filed against UMERGE by the same or coordinated counsel or organizations, the parties agree to use a staged or batch process designed by the arbitration provider or arbitrator to promote efficiency and fairness, including selection of bellwether cases, stays of non-bellwether cases, mediation, and coordinated fee allocation, where permitted by law.
Opt-out. You may opt out of arbitration within 30 days after first accepting these Terms by sending a written optout notice to [INSERT ARBITRATION OPT-OUT EMAIL/ADDRESS] with your name, account identifier, email, and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect other parts of these Terms.
These Terms and any dispute will be governed by the laws of the State of [INSERT STATE – commonly Delaware if UMERGE is a Delaware corporation], United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except to the extent federal law or mandatory consumer law requires otherwise.
For claims not subject to arbitration, the parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in [INSERT COUNTY/STATE], except for small claims, injunctive relief, or claims that must be brought elsewhere under applicable law. You and UMERGE consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.
UMERGE is operated from the United States. UMERGE does not represent that the Services are appropriate or available in every jurisdiction. If you access the Services from outside the United States, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local law. UMERGE may limit availability, features, payments, fundraising, ads, monetization, or account types by location.
UMERGE may update these Terms from time to time. If changes are material, UMERGE may provide notice through the Services, email, app notice, website notice, or other reasonable means. The updated Terms will be effective when posted or on the stated effective date. Your continued use of the Services after changes become effective means you accept the updated Terms.
Certain Services may be subject to additional terms, including privacy notices, creator terms, ad terms, payment terms, app-store terms, API terms, beta terms, organization terms, fundraiser terms, event terms, marketplace terms, and promotional terms. If additional terms conflict with these Terms, the additional terms control only for the specific feature or service to which they apply.
Entire agreement. These Terms, together with incorporated policies and supplemental terms, are the entire agreement between you and UMERGE regarding the Services and supersede prior or contemporaneous agreements on the same subject, except for separate written agreements signed by UMERGE.
Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or severed if modification is not possible, and the remaining provisions will remain in effect. If the class action waiver is found unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim must proceed in court and not in arbitration unless the parties agree otherwise.
No waiver. UMERGE’s failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. Any waiver must be in writing and signed by
UMERGE.
Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without UMERGE’s written consent. UMERGE may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, sale of assets, corporate transaction, or by operation of law.
Force majeure. UMERGE is not liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, internet or hosting outages, cyberattacks, government action, platform restrictions, payment network failures, or third-party service failures.
Interpretation. Headings are for convenience only. Examples are illustrative. The words “including” and “such as” mean “including without limitation.” The singular includes the plural and vice versa. Any translated version is provided for convenience, and the English version controls unless required by law.
For general support, legal inquiries, privacy requests, or policy questions, contact UMERGE at admin@umerge.co. Legal notices should also be sent to: UMERGE CORP, [INSERT MAILING ADDRESS], Attention: Legal Department.
UMERGE may send notices to you through the Services, email, account alerts, push notifications, SMS, website postings, or mail. You are responsible for keeping your contact information current.
This Exhibit supplements the Community Standards and applies to all users, creators, organizations, candidates, public officials, businesses, nonprofits, fundraisers, advertisers, and event organizers. UMERGE may update operational standards as the platform grows.
Civic integrity. Do not spread false information about voting procedures, election dates, eligibility, ballot counting, polling places, voter intimidation, census participation, government benefits, emergency procedures, or public-health and safety instructions.
This Exhibit applies when UMERGE offers paid services, creator monetization, subscriptions, tips, tokens, donations, fundraisers, ticketed events, UShop, sponsored placements, product listings, or other commerce features. Additional processor or app-store terms may apply.
UMERGE may require identity verification, tax forms, payout account verification, business verification, nonprofit confirmation, campaign confirmation, sanctions screening, fraud review, age confirmation, or other checks before enabling payments or payouts.
Marketplace safety. Sellers must not list prohibited goods or services, counterfeit items, regulated weapons, illegal drugs, unauthorized pharmaceuticals, stolen goods, personal data, fraudulent services, adult exploitation, or items that violate law or UMERGE policies.
This Exhibit applies to accounts and tools used by businesses, nonprofits, political organizations, campaigns, candidates, public officials, agencies, schools, unions, civic groups, media organizations, community organizations, and similar entities.
