Privacy Policy

1. Scope of This Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to:

• Creators
• Agencies and Agency Admins
• Brands and their representatives
• Visitors to hoo.be pages
• End users interacting with creator pages, including people who send tips or submit their contact information to a creator
• Individuals who contact us directly, including through support

This Policy works together with our Terms of Service. In the event of a conflict, the Terms of Service govern.

2. Information We Collect

A. Information You Provide to Us

Account Information

• Name
• Username / handle
• Email address
• Password (stored in encrypted/hashed form)
• Profile information, images, and page content
• Agency or brand details (if applicable)

Optional Identity and Contact Details

• Phone number (including for verification codes)
• Birthday
• Mailing or shipping address
• Contact email
• Social media handles

Some of these details are required only if you use specific features — for example, applying to certain brand opportunities may require a contact email, phone number, birthday, or address.

Payment & Payout Information

• Payment and payout details processed by our payment processor, Stripe (we do not store full card numbers)
• Transaction records related to subscriptions, tips, commissions, and payouts
• Identity verification and tax information collected by or through Stripe when required for payouts

Communications

• Emails sent to contact@hoo.be
• Support tickets and messages, including attachments you upload (guests submitting support requests provide a name and email)
• Responses to surveys
• Notification preferences (email and SMS)

B. Information Collected Automatically

When you use the Service, we collect:

• IP address
• Device type, operating system, and browser information
• Language settings
• Referring URLs and campaign (UTM) parameters
• Pages viewed, clicks, and interaction data
• Session identifiers and persistent cookie-based identifiers
• Approximate (city-level) location derived from your IP address
• Email open and click events (see Section 10)
• Error and diagnostic logs

We use cookies and similar technologies for authentication, analytics, fraud prevention, and performance monitoring (see Section 3).

C. Visitors to Creator Pages

When you visit a hoo.be page, we collect analytics data about the visit: pages viewed, links clicked, device and browser metadata, IP address, approximate (city-level) location derived from IP, referrer information, and cookie-based visitor and session identifiers. This data is pseudonymous — it is not associated with your name or an account identity unless you provide one — and is used to operate the Service, prevent fraud and abuse, and provide creators with analytics. Creators see aggregated statistics (such as views, clicks, and top locations); they do not see your IP address.

If you choose to submit your contact information to a creator through their page (see Section 9) or send a tip, you provide that information directly. Tip payments are processed by Stripe; we do not collect your full card details.

D. Information From Third Parties and Public Sources

• Connected accounts: if you connect a third-party account (see Section 8), we receive profile information, content, and metrics from that platform as permitted by its API and your authorization.
• Publicly available information: we may collect publicly available information about creators and their linked accounts — such as public usernames, bios, profile images, follower counts, and verification status — directly from public pages or through third-party data providers, including to power onboarding imports, profile enrichment, and creator search and discovery.
• Imported content: if you import an existing link-in-bio page or social content during onboarding, we collect the content you direct us to import.

3. Cookies, Analytics & Tracking Technologies

We use the following categories of tools:

• First-party analytics: our own analytics system, which uses first-party cookies to assign visitor and session identifiers on hoo.be pages.
• Third-party analytics: we may use Google Analytics on public pages and Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights in our dashboard to understand aggregate usage and performance. These providers may set their own cookies or collect device information subject to their privacy policies.
• Error monitoring: we use Sentry to collect error and diagnostic reports so we can fix problems.
• Creator-enabled pixels: creators may install their own tracking pixels on their pages (see Section 9).
• Bot protection: we use tools such as Cloudflare Turnstile to distinguish humans from bots on payment and other sensitive flows.

You can disable cookies via your browser settings, though this may impact functionality. Our Service does not currently respond to "Do Not Track" browser signals.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use collected data to:

• Provide and operate the Service
• Authenticate users and secure accounts
• Process payments, tips, commissions, and payouts
• Prevent, detect, and investigate fraud and abuse
• Moderate content and enforce our Terms of Service (see Section 5)
• Provide analytics dashboards to creators and agencies
• Power search and discovery features, including creator search (see Section 6)
• Improve, develop, and test platform features
• Run experiments (for example, testing different features, interfaces, or offers with different users)
• Send transactional emails and SMS
• Send marketing communications, which you can opt out of at any time
• Provide customer support
• Comply with legal obligations

We may use aggregated or de-identified data — data that no longer identifies you — for platform insights, marketing materials, product improvement, and industry benchmarking.

5. Automated Content Moderation & Safety

To keep the Service safe, we scan certain content using automated systems, including third-party services:

• Images: images uploaded to pages (such as profile images, backgrounds, and link thumbnails) may be submitted to content-safety classification services, including OpenAI's moderation API and Google Cloud Vision, which analyze the image and return safety classifications. These services receive the image (via its URL) for this purpose.
• Links: the URLs of links placed on pages may be submitted to malicious-URL detection services, including Google Web Risk, to detect malware, phishing, and other threats.

We store the resulting classifications and use them, together with human review by authorized personnel, to take enforcement actions such as removing content, hiding unsafe links, or applying age-restriction and warning screens. Moderation records are retained for safety, audit, and legal purposes.

6. AI and Machine Learning Features

Some features of the Service use artificial intelligence or machine learning:

• Search and discovery: creator profile information — such as public bios, page content, link titles, and social statistics — may be processed into search indexes and vector embeddings (using embedding services integrated with our database provider) to power search and discovery features used by our team and by brands looking for creators.
• Content tools: we may use AI services (including OpenAI) to help generate or improve page content, drawing on prompts and publicly available information.
• Moderation: as described in Section 5.

AI service providers process this data under their API terms to provide these features to us; we do not sell your personal information to train third-party foundation models.

7. Payments, Tips & Payout Data

• Subscriptions, tips, and creator payments are processed by Stripe. hoo.be does not store full credit card information.
• Earnings become eligible for payout no earlier than 30 days after the underlying transaction, for fraud protection; payout timing may vary based on processing and verification.
• We may delay, hold, or cancel payouts for fraud, compliance, or security reasons.
• Identity verification and tax information required for payouts is collected by or through Stripe.
• We use fraud-prevention measures on payment flows, including velocity limits and human-verification challenges.

8. Connected Accounts

Creators may optionally connect third-party accounts, including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, as well as certain commerce, content, and music platforms where supported.

If you connect an account:

• We access profile information, content (such as posts and videos), and metrics (such as follower counts and engagement) as permitted by the platform's API and your authorization, and we store access tokens needed to maintain the connection.
• We do not post on your behalf unless explicitly authorized.
• We do not collect or store your social media passwords.
• You can disconnect a connected account at any time in your settings.

Use of connected accounts is subject to the third-party platform's terms and privacy policies, and we comply with applicable API terms, including those of Meta (Facebook/Instagram), TikTok, and Google/YouTube.

9. Creator Tools That Collect Visitor Data

Contact Collection

Creators may enable features that let visitors submit contact information (such as name, email address, and/or phone number) to that creator. If you submit your information through such a feature, it is collected for and belongs to that creator, who can view and export it; we also record technical metadata (such as IP address and browser information) with the submission for fraud prevention. The creator is responsible for using your information lawfully. To have your information removed, you can contact the creator directly or email us at contact@hoo.be.

Creator Pixels

Creators may optionally install tracking pixels (currently Meta Pixel and TikTok Pixel) on their pages. If enabled, tracking data is transmitted directly from the creator's page to the respective platform. hoo.be does not control how Meta or TikTok process this data, and the creator is responsible for ensuring compliance with applicable advertising and privacy laws when using pixels.

10. Email & SMS Communications

Email

We send transactional emails (such as verification, receipts, subscription and support notifications) and, with your consent or as permitted by law, marketing and lifecycle emails. Our emails may include open and click tracking so we can measure delivery and engagement. You can opt out of marketing emails at any time via the unsubscribe link in any marketing email or your notification settings; transactional emails are part of the Service.

SMS

If you provide your phone number, we may send:

• Verification codes (one-time passcodes)
• Account and security notifications
• Invitations related to your account (for example, a link to claim a page created for you)

You can opt out of non-essential SMS at any time via your notification settings or by replying STOP. Standard message and data rates may apply. We keep records of communications sent to you.

11. How We Share Information

We do not sell your Personal Information.

We share information with service providers that process it on our behalf to run the Service, including:

• Payments: Stripe (payment and payout processing, identity verification)
• Infrastructure and hosting: Google Firebase (authentication), MongoDB Atlas (database and search), Vercel and Render (hosting), Cloudflare (media storage, delivery, and bot protection), ClickHouse (analytics storage), Upstash (caching), Inngest (background job processing)
• Safety and moderation: OpenAI and Google (content classification and malicious-URL detection), as described in Section 5
• Communications: Mailgun (email), Twilio (SMS)
• Analytics and monitoring: Google Analytics, Vercel Analytics, Sentry (error monitoring)
• Data providers: services that supply publicly available social profile information

We also share information:

• With agencies: if your account is managed by an agency (see Section 12)
• With brands: if you apply to a brand opportunity, your application, profile information, and connected-account metrics are shared with that brand
• Publicly: content you place on your page is public, and creator directory or roster features may publicly display profile information and public social statistics
• For legal reasons: with authorities when required by law, or to protect the rights, safety, and property of hoo.be, our users, or others
• In a business transfer: with successors in the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets

We may share aggregated or de-identified data that does not identify you with partners.

12. Agency-Managed Accounts

If your account is managed by an agency:

• The agency and its authorized members can access and manage your creator dashboard, including your page content, links, handle, analytics, and settings.
• Agencies are responsible for ensuring they have proper authorization to manage creator accounts.
• hoo.be is not responsible for agency misuse of access.

13. Our Access to Your Account

Authorized hoo.be personnel may access user accounts and data — including by signing into an account through administrative support tools — to provide customer support, investigate fraud, abuse, or violations of our Terms, maintain the Service, and comply with legal obligations. Administrative access is attributable to the staff member who performed it.

14. Data Retention

We retain data:

• For as long as your account is active
• As needed to comply with legal obligations
• For fraud prevention, security, dispute resolution, and enforcement of our Terms

Analytics events, communication logs, transaction records, and moderation records may be retained after the underlying content or account is removed, where needed for the purposes above. Deleted or deactivated data may persist in backups for a reasonable period.

15. Your Rights & Choices

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have rights to:

• Access your data
• Correct inaccurate data
• Delete your data
• Restrict or object to processing
• Data portability
• Withdraw consent
• Appeal a decision we make about a rights request

To exercise these rights, email contact@hoo.be. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request, and we will respond within the time required by applicable law. Note that some data may be retained as described in Section 14, and content that was public may persist in caches, search engines, or copies made by others.

16. Account Deletion & Deactivation

You can reset your account from your account settings, which cancels any active subscription, deactivates your pages, and releases your handle. Residual records (such as transaction history, analytics events, communication logs, and moderation records) may be retained as described in Section 14. If you want your personal information deleted beyond the account reset, contact contact@hoo.be and we will honor applicable legal requirements.

17. Children's Privacy

The Service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected such information, we will delete it. Users between 13 and 17 may use the Service only with verified parental or guardian consent, as described in our Terms of Service.

18. International Users

We are based in the United States, and your data is transferred to and processed in the United States and other locations where our service providers operate. Where required by applicable law, we rely on appropriate safeguards for international transfers. By using the Service, you acknowledge this transfer and processing.

19. Security

We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect your information, including encryption in transit, access controls, and monitoring. However, no system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of your information. If you believe you have found a security vulnerability, please report it to contact@hoo.be.

20. U.S. State Privacy Rights

Residents of certain states (including California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and others with comprehensive privacy laws) may have specific rights, including the rights described in Section 15 and the right to opt out of "sales," "sharing," or targeted advertising as those terms are defined by state law.

We do not sell personal information. Certain third-party analytics cookies used on our pages may constitute "sharing" under some state laws; you can opt out by disabling cookies in your browser or by contacting us. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of users under 16. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights. You may use an authorized agent to submit requests where permitted by law.

Requests may be submitted to: contact@hoo.be

21. Mobile Application

If you use our mobile application, we may request device permissions — such as camera, microphone, and photo library access — solely to power features you invoke (for example, setting a profile image or saving a QR code). You can manage permissions in your device settings. The app collects crash and diagnostic reports so we can fix problems, and does not include third-party advertising.

22. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. We will update the effective date at the top of this page and, for material changes, provide additional notice by reasonable means. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

23. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy:

FNL Technologies, Inc.

Email: contact@hoo.be

Address: 5 Sanger Circle, Dover, MA 02030