Cut Short Privacy Policy
Effective Date: September 22, 2022
Welcome to Cut Short. This Privacy Policy describes the policies and procedures of Cut Short, Inc. (“Cut Short”, “we” or “us”) for the collection, use, security and disclosure of personal information about you. It also describes your choices regarding use, access, deletion, and correction of your personal information.
Scope
This Privacy Policy explains how Cut Short treats the personal information it gathers when you use or access https://cut.fyi (the “Site”) or the services, features, content or applications offered by Cut Short (collectively with the Site, the “Services”), or when you view or interact with a Cut Short link (either our bit.ly links or one of our branded domains). This Privacy Policy also covers Cut Short’s treatment of any information about you that Cut Short’s customers share with Cut Short.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of other businesses that Cut Short does not own or control, including other companies’ websites, services and applications (“Third Party Services”) that you can access through the Services or to individuals that Cut Short does not manage or employ. We cannot take responsibility for the content or privacy policies of Third Party Services. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any Third Party Services you access or use.
Information We Collect
Cut Short may collect personal information about you from the following sources, as described in this Privacy Policy, when you (i) register for the Site and the Services, through your user account with Cut Short, including registering through a third-party social networking service (your “Account”); (ii) use the Services; or (iii) view or interact with a Cut Short link (either our bit.ly links or one of our branded domains) on a third-party website. We collect the following types of information from you, some of which might be considered personal information under applicable law.
When You Register for a Cut Short Account
When you create an Account, we may collect personal information from you, such as your name, phone number, company name, industry, job title, company size, email address, and sign-in information. If you create an Account using your login information from a third-party account, such as Google, Facebook, Apple, or Twitter, we will access and collect the personal information about you that the third-party account provides (which is based on your privacy settings with the third-party account), so that you can log into your Account with us. We use your contact information to send you information about our Services and communicate with you about your Account, your activities on our Site and Services and policy changes. You may unsubscribe from receiving certain types of these messages through your Account settings, although Cut Short reserves the right to contact you when we believe it is necessary, such as for administrative and account management purposes.
Some features of the Services allow registered users to provide their own content to the Services, such as written descriptions of URLs, comments, images and video. Unless you request deletion of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy, all content submitted by you to the Services may be retained by Cut Short, even after you terminate your Account and may continue to be shared by third parties, as described in this Privacy Policy.
When You Create a Cut Short Link
One feature of the Services is the ability to create shortened uniform resource locators (URLs) of websites (“Cut Short Links” or “Bitlinks”). Users can create Cut Short Links without registering for an account. When you create a Cut Short Link, Cut Short collects and stores both the original URL and the shortened URL and, if you are logged in to your Account, we will associate that information with your Account. Cut Short also collects and stores your IP address, your geolocation data (which we derive from your IP address), the time and date on which you shortened the original URL, and if you share a Cut Short Link on a social networking platform, the name of the platform and your username on that platform.
When You Interact With a Cut Short Link
Cut Short automatically collects personal information about the interaction (such as clicks or views) with every Cut Short Link created through the Services (either our bit.ly links or one of our branded domains) on a third-party website. This information includes, but is not limited to: (i) the IP address and location derived from the IP address; (ii) internet or other electronic network activity information like the referring websites or services; (iii) the time and date of each access; (iv) device settings, such as browser type, operating system, and language; (v) cookies, as described below, and mobile advertising identifiers and (v) information about sharing of the Cut Short Link on Third Party Services (collectively, “Cut Short Link Metrics”). As described in this policy, we use Cut Short Link Metrics to provide the Services, to understand and analyze how our Services are used and to identify trends, and to detect, deter and prevent malicious, fraudulent or unlawful activity. Please see the “Information We May Share” section of this Privacy Policy for a description of how we may share information we collect when you create, view or interact with Cut Short Links.
Other Information We Automatically Collect
When you visit the Site, we automatically collect (i) your IP address and location derived from the IP address; (ii) internet or other electronic network activity information, like the referring websites or services; (iii) the time and date of each access; (iv) device settings, such as browser type, operating system, and language; and (v) cookie information. This type of data enables us and third parties authorized by us to figure out how often individuals use parts of the Site so that we can analyze and improve them.
We may receive a confirmation when you open an email from us. We use this confirmation to improve our customer service.
Cut Short may use third-party APIs and software development kits (“SDKs”) to provide certain functions in our Services.
Third Party Services
Some features of the Services allow you to share your content and Cut Short Links through your accounts with Third Party Services such as Twitter. If you choose to connect Cut Short to such Third Party Services, we may collect information related to your use of those Third Party Services, such as authentication tokens that allow us to connect to your Third Party Service accounts. We will ask you for permission before you authorize our collection of this information. We will only use that information for the specific reason for which it was provided to us. We may also collect information about how you are using the Services to interact with those connected Third Party Services. Note that Third Party Services may have the ability to restrict the information that is provided to us based on your privacy settings of that account.
To enable us to infer the location from the IP addresses of computers or devices that visit our website or click, view or interact with Cut Short links as described in this policy, we receive IP-derived location information from our third-party service provider. We also receive business contact information of our business customer contacts and prospects from our third party service provider.
Cookies and Other Similar Technologies
Cut Short and its partners use cookies or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.
Cookies are pieces of text that may be provided to your computer through your web browser when you access a website. Your browser stores cookies in a manner associated with each website you visit. We use cookies to enable our servers to recognize your web browser and tell us how and when you visit our Site and use the Services through the web.
Cut Short cookies also allow Cut Short to track when you have clicked on a Cut Short Link. Each click of a Cut Short Link is tracked using a unique identifier assigned to you in one or more cookies stored by your web browser and associated with Cut Short. We may associate the unique identifier in our cookies with the other information we automatically collect when you use the Services, as described above, including your IP address, Cut Short Links you click, Cut Short Links you create, and information with your Account if you have one.
Most browsers have an option for turning off the cookie feature, which will prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, as well as (depending on the sophistication of your browser software) allowing you to decide on acceptance of each new cookie in a variety of ways. If you disable cookies, you will not be able to use some features of the Services. We do not currently recognize do-not-track signals.
We partner with third parties to track utilization and behavior on the Site, and to manage our advertising on other websites. Our third-party partners may use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags or similar technologies in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to opt out of interest-based advertising click here (https://preferences-mgr.trustarc.com/) or if located in the European Union click here (https://www.youronlinechoices.eu/).
This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by Cut Short only and does not cover the use of cookies by any Third Party Services. Cut Short does not control when or how third parties place cookies on your computer, such as when you visit a website through a Cut Short Link. You can manage other companies’ cookies used for online advertising by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Consumer Choice Page (http://www.aboutads.info/choices/).
Opt-Out Mechanisms
You may ask Cut Short not to associate your web browser or IP address with visits to the cut.fyi website or Cut Short Links that you create or click by clicking on the appropriate links below. If you would like to opt-out of the Cut Short Links, please click on the opt-out choice for Cut Short Links below. This will install a cookie on your browser that instructs our servers not to associate your IP address and browser with Cut Short Links you create, click, or view. If you clear your cookies in your browser, you will need to click on the opt- out choice again after each time you clear your cookies. To be clear, these cookie-based opt-outs must be performed on each device and browser that you wish to have opted-out. Cookie-based opt-outs are not effective on mobile applications. However, on many mobile devices, application users may limit tracking via their device settings. Please note that if you use these opt-out mechanisms, we will still automatically collect the IP addresses of computers or mobile devices that click on or create Cut Short Links; we just won’t associate them with your browser or Cut Short account.
Cookies on Cut Short Links: Click Here (https://bit.ly/a/optout)
Cookies on cut.fyi: Click Here (https://cut.fyi/a/optout)
Note Regarding Children
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we learn that we have collected personal information of a child under 13 (or older as required by applicable law), we will take steps to delete such information from our files as soon as possible.
How We Use Information
We use the personal information we collect for a variety of administrative and business purposes to:
- operate our Site and provide the Services, process and complete any transactions, verify individual identity,
- respond to inquiries, questions and comments and provide customer and technical support, provide access to certain functionalities of our Services,
- personalize and improve the Services and develop new products and services,
- communicate with our current and prospective customers concerning our services, measure interest and engagement in our Site and Services,
- monitor and analyze usage and trends of the Site and Services,
- provide services to our customers to allow them to understand how you interact with our Services and to help detect, deter and prevent malicious, fraudulent or unlawful activity,
- comply with any legal obligations, and
- enforce our terms and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy.
Usage Across Devices
We may use the information we collect to make inferences that a unique individual has created or interacted with Cut Short links on different devices so that we can detect, deter and prevent malicious, fraudulent or unlawful activity and analyze how users use our Services. For example, if you created a Cut Short link on a computer connected to your residential WiFi network, and you soon thereafter clicked on a Cut Short link on a mobile device connected to the same WiFi network, we may infer that a single individual created and clicked on the Cut Short links because both events were associated with the same IP address in the same time period.
Other Legitimate Interests
We also may use personal information to pursue legitimate interests, such as direct marketing, research (including marketing research), network and information security, prevention of fraudulent, malicious and unlawful activities, or any other purpose disclosed to you at the time you provide personal information or allowed by law.
Information We Share
The Services are designed to help you share information with others. In addition, we provide Services to our Customers that use Cut Short Link Metrics. As a result, the following categories of personal information generated through your use of the Services are shared publicly or with the following categories of third parties for the business purposes described below.
Cut Short Links You Create
Much of your activity on and through the Services is public by default. For example, when you create a Cut Short Link, the original URLs you have shortened and the corresponding Cut Short Links are publicly available.
Account Information
Where permitted by law, if you register a Cut Short Account with an email address on a domain owned by an organization, (for example, an employer or educational institution where you have an email account), we may share your email address and information about your Account, such as the number of links you have created, with that organization to explore the organization’s interest in creating or managing an enterprise account or for related purposes.
Information We Share With Customers
We may share the personal information we collect as described in this Privacy Policy with our customers. When you create a Cut Short Link of one of our customer’s sites, the customer may be able to view the unshortened original URL, the date and time the Cut Short Link was created, the location where it was created as derived from your IP address, and aggregated information about clicks and views of the Cut Short Links, including the number of times the Cut Short Link was shared, whether or not it was viewed, comparison of that Cut Short Link’s performance to that of all Cut Short Links pointing to the same content, whether others are sharing a Cut Short Link to the same content, geographic regions where the content is being viewed, and identification of social networks on which the Cut Short Links appear. In addition, we may share Cut Short Link Metrics with customers to help them detect, deter and prevent malicious, fraudulent or unlawful activity.
Information You Elect to Share
When creating a Cut Short Link, you can share that Cut Short Link through Third Party Services. Any information that you elect to distribute through Third Party Services, such as a social network post you create, may then become accessible to users of those services. You can also access other Third Party Services through the Services, for example by clicking on links in the Statistics page for a Cut Short Link. We recommend that you review the terms of services and privacy policies of such Third Party Services that you access through the Services since Cut Short does not control and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these Third Party Services.
Information Shared with Service Providers
We may employ and contract with third parties to perform certain tasks on our behalf and under our direction (our “Service Providers”). We may need to share information about you with our Service Providers in order to fulfill certain business purposes, like providing our product with research and analytics on user behavior and providing advertising products and services to users, processing payments, and providing email marketing and support services. Our agreements with these Service Providers authorize them to use your information only as necessary to provide services to us. Transfers to subsequent third parties are covered by our agreements with our service providers.
Information Disclosed Pursuant to Business Transfers
We may transfer and/or provide information about our users in connection with an acquisition, sale of company assets, or other situation where user information would be transferred as one of our business assets. You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our website.
In such a case, the acquirer of Cut Short may continue to use your information as set forth in this policy or as otherwise allowed by law.
Information Disclosed for the Protection of Cut Short and Others
Cut Short may access, read, preserve, and disclose any information it collects when it has a good faith belief that doing so is reasonably necessary to (i) comply with a law, regulation, or compulsory legal request, including process from a governmental law enforcement or national security agency, (ii) enforce the Privacy Policy or Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations hereof, (iii) detect, deter, prevent or otherwise address malicious, fraudulent or unlawful activity, (iv) respond to user support requests, or (v) protect the rights, property or safety of Cut Short, its users and the public. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for protection from malicious, fraudulent or unlawful activity.
Information We Share With Your Consent
We will share information about you when you direct or otherwise instruct us to do so, such as when you share Cut Short Links or content with others through the Services, if you intentionally use or direct us or the Services to interact with third parties, or if we notify you that the information you provide will be shared in a particular manner and you provide such information (like sharing/posting it with a third-party Service).
INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
Depending on your location, information about you may be transferred to the United States or other countries outside the EU or European Economic Area (EEA) or may be processed there. These data transfers are necessary to provide you with the services outlined in this policy.
To protect your personal data, we rely on appropriate legal basis for each data transfer. In particular, we use contractual safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission. Where applicable, we base data transfers also on adequacy decisions issued by the European Commission.
Please feel free to contact us for further information about international data transfers.
Retention
We retain the personal information we receive as described in this Privacy Policy for as long as you use our Services or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our Services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable legal obligations.
Information Security
Your Account information is protected by a password for your privacy and security. You can help prevent unauthorized access to your Account by selecting and protecting your password appropriately, making use of two-factor authentication, and limiting access to your computer and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your Account.
Cut Short endeavors to protect the information it collects about its users using reasonable security processes and controls, however, despite these efforts, no security measure is perfect or impenetrable and Cut Short does not guarantee or warrant that such measures will prevent unauthorized access to the information about you that is stored by Cut Short. In the event we experience a breach of security, we will promptly notify you if your personal information has been compromised, in accordance with applicable law. If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us at privacy@cut.fyi.
Choice and Access
You don’t need an Account to create Cut Short Links, and you can use many of the features of the Services without registering, thereby limiting the type of information that is collected about you individually. If you have a Cut Short Account, you may access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information by logging into your Account. Once logged in to your account, you will be able to view a history of the URLs you have shortened and the metrics pages for those URLs. You can request a complete copy of the personal information we store about your account by clicking the button to request a report in your Account Settings. For more information on how to request access to your information, please see our help article.
You can delete your Account at any time through your Account settings page. If you delete your Account, you will no longer be able to access or use the Services. If you have an Account but are unable to access it, you can contact us at privacy@cut.fyi. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe. If you are a resident of the EEA or Switzerland, you have the right to ask that your personal data be corrected, updated, or erased. Additionally, you may have the right to access your personal data and receive a copy of your personal data undergoing processing. You may also have the right to object to, or request that we restrict, certain processing.
For all other requests to exercise any of your rights, you may contact us as indicated in the “Questions” section below. Once we receive your request, we will ask that you verify your identity such as by authenticating through your account. If you do not have a Cut Short account, Cut Short has no way of identifying you or verifying that you created or clicked on a Cut Short link.
You may be entitled, in accordance with applicable law, to submit a request through an authorized agent. To designate an authorized agent to exercise your rights and choices on your behalf, please provide a written attestation, declaration, or permission that has either been physically signed or provided electronically per applicable law. In certain circumstances, we may be required by law to retain your personal information.
Please note that in the interest of ensuring that existing Cut Short Links continue to function for all of our users, the Cut Short Links that you have created and shared cannot be deleted or disabled (even if your Account is deleted), and any shortening and sharing activity that has already occurred on your Account also cannot be deleted. If you have concerns about any unauthorized use of your Account, you can delete your account within your Account settings.
Please see the Cookies section above for additional choices you may have.
California Residents
If you are a California Resident, you may request, subject to any applicable exceptions, access to and deletion of your information or more information about how we collect, use, and disclose personal information. You may submit a verifiable request to know and exercise any of your other rights as described in the “Choice and Access” section above. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights and choices.
The categories of personal information that we have collected in the preceding 12 months and their sources are provided in the “Information We Collect” section above. Our business purposes for collecting personal information are described in the “How We Use Information” section above.
Cut Short does not sell your personal information to third parties for money or other valuable consideration. Cut Short does permit third parties to collect the information described above through our Service and discloses such information with third parties for business purposes as described in this Privacy Policy, including but not limited to providing advertising on our Service and elsewhere based on users’ online activities over time and across different sites, services, and devices. The categories of third parties to whom we disclose personal information are provided in the “Information We Share” section above.
Supervisory Authority
If you are located in the European Economic Area, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you believe our Processing of your Personal Information violates applicable law.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
Cut Short may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes in the way we collect or use information, we will notify you by posting an announcement on the Services or sending you an email, and we will indicate when those changes will become effective. You are agreeing to be bound by any changes to the Privacy Policy when you use the Services after those changes become effective.
Questions?
If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy using the Services, please send us a detailed message to: privacy@cut.fyi. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns.
You may also contact us in Montreal, Canada.