waku.org/privacy-policy.md

Waku's website Privacy Policy

The goal of Waku is widespread adoption of the decentralized web. Our challenge is achieving mass adoption while staying true to our principles, which include privacy and transparency.

We believe privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world. For us, it’s essential to protect privacy in communications.

Guided by our principles, Waku is designed to be a tool that allows you to protect your privacy and to process as little personal data as possible for the network to thrive.

In this Privacy Policy, we explain how Waku strives to only request data that’s useful and required, not to hold that data longer than necessary, and to give you as much control as possible over your data.

1

Who we are

Whenever “Waku” or “we” is used in this Privacy Policy, we’re referring to Status Research & Development GmbH, a Swiss company. Our contact information can be found on our website and at the end of this Privacy Policy.

2

Our role in your privacy

Waku is the communication layer for Web3. Decentralized communication that scales. Private, secure, and it runs anywhere. Waku is being used by (i) Waku Connect: The communication layer for Ethereum. A tech stack enabling decentralized communication between DApps and people; (ii) Status: Status is a secure messaging app, crypto wallet, and Web3 browser built with state of the art technology; and (iii) WalletConnect: WalletConnect v2 is using Waku v2 for decentralized messaging infrastructure.

If you decide to run a node or implement Waku, or submitting any questions or comments through e-mail or on our social networks, or just visiting our website, this Privacy Policy applies to you.

When Waku collects and processes personal data for our own purposes (which we don’t do often), such as Community support or to process your input and/or feedback left on our (social media) pages, Waku acts as the ‘data controller’ of information. This means we determine how and why your data are processed.

This means we process these data strictly on your behalf, and we will never process the data for our own purposes.

Personal data means all information by which a person can be directly or indirectly identified, in line with the definitions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection of June 19, 1992 (DPA) and its ordinances, and other relevant legislation on the protection of personal data. When we refer to privacy legislation in this Privacy Policy, we mean GDPR and all such relevant legislation.

3

How and why we use your data

Under relevant privacy legislation, Waku can only use your data for certain reasons and where we have a legal basis to do so. Beyond the law, it’s our policy to store and process only those data that are essential for community support and to respond to your input on our social media pages and if necessary. Waku won’t process or store any data that we don’t need, and in such case, we only store personal data for the least amount of time needed for these purposes.

Here are the reasons why we process your data:

• Ethereum is a public blockchain

Ethereum is the community-run technology powering the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of decentralized applications (DApps). Waku is the communication layer for Web3. Decentralized communication that scales. Private, secure, and it runs anywhere.

The Ethereum public network is accessible to anyone in the world with an internet connection. Anyone can read or create transactions on a public blockchain and validate the transactions being executed. Therefore, information you share on the Ethereum blockchain is public.

Please be aware that when sharing information on the ETH network it is stored publicly and immutably.

• When you you decide to run a node or implement Waku, you are the sole owner and possessor of your private keys and therefore responsible for their storage or loss. This means that Waku doesn’t know which keys belong to you and doesn’t process any personal data in this respect.

This means, that your private keys are stored by you in the way you decide, and Waku has no access to such private keys and doesn’t process any personal data in this respect.

• Data processed through external (social media) pages:

  • Personal Data: Information you make public when you leave a comment or otherwise post something on our external (social media) pages- For example, Waku has pages on the following (social media) platforms:Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube,Reddit, GitHub, Discuss and Discord.

  • Purpose(s): We may use these data to:- Contact you via our (social media) pages- Process your input and/or feedback left on our (social media) pagesWe will explicitly not gather any more information about you or link your social media account to your chat name, ENS name, or IP-address.

  • Legal basis: Legitimate Interest:- Necessary to get in touch with you regarding your message- Process your input, respond to feedbackOur external (social media) pages are also controlled by the platform itself.Please check the social media privacy policies,to see how each platform handles your personal data.

  • Stored: As long as your message is available on the pages concerned,in accordance with the page’s privacy policy,or until you delete the message.

• Community support

Waku is an open-source project made by people all over the world. We have many ways to stay in touch, including via email and social media platforms.

Data processed when you contact us:

• Personal Data: Your chat name or ENS name and all (personal) data you share with using your message on social media platforms.- Your email address when you send us an emailPlease note: as a rule, your chat name is generated by you or on your own devices.Your chat name will only beKnown by us if you decide to contact us.
• Purpose(s): We use these data to:Contact you about your messageProvide you information and/or support.
• Legal basis: Consent and Legitimate Interest :- Necessary to contact you about your message to provide you the support you requested- You give your consent to being contacted by reaching out to us.
• Stored: As long as needed to resolve your concern.

4

How we work with third party processors

Waku won’t share your personal data with third parties.

However, Waku may engage (sub) processors that we trust to carry out the processing of personal data on our behalf. We only provide personal data to (sub) processors when necessary for them to execute the services they provide to us. We’ve established contractual agreements with all our (sub) processors ensuring that they may only process the personal data collected and processed by us within the scope of the contractual agreement and under no circumstances for other purposes.

As Data Controller: Waku may use (sub) processors to assist us in our services provided as data controller. Our use of processors is under contractual agreement and in accordance with privacy legislation.

As Data Processor: Waku may also use sub-processors to assist us in our services. Our use of sub-processors is under contractual agreement and in accordance with privacy legislation.

5

Exporting data outside the European Union

Waku may transmit personal data to parties outside the European Union, if one of our (sub) processors is established outside the European Union. Personal data will only be processed in countries or by parties that provide an adequate level of protection in accordance with European standards. The transmission of data outside the European Union will always happen in conformity with privacy legislation.

6

We’re serious about data security

Waku protects the personal data we process from unauthorized and unlawful access, change, disclosure, use, and destruction. For example, we take the following technical and organizational security:

We encrypt many of our services using SSL and other security measures.

We review our information collection, storage, and processing practices and handbooks, from time to time, to guard our systems against unauthorized access.

We restrict access to personal data to our contributors and all other parties we work with on a need-to-know basis, subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations.

We perform periodic internal security audits.

7

A quick bite on cookies

Cookies are necessary for the technical operation of our website. When we have to use cookies, we choose cookies that don’t hold any user-specific information and are essential for the operation of the website.

8

This Privacy Policy might change

We might modify or replace any part of this Privacy Policy. Please check our website periodically for any changes. The new Privacy Policy will be effective immediately upon posting to our website.

Your choices and rights

As explained throughout this Privacy Policy, Waku collects very little information about our users. As a result, it might be difficult to verify whether a request regarding privacy rights has actually been submitted by the person concerned.

As laid out in relevant privacy legislation, you have the right to:

• Ask us to correct or update your personal data (where possible);

• Ask us to remove your personal data from our systems;

• Ask us for a copy of your Data processed, which may also be transferred to another data controller at your request;

• Withdraw your consent to process your personal data (only if consent was asked for a processing activity), which only affects processing activities that are based on your consent and doesn’t affect the validity of such processing activities before you have withdrawn your consent;

• Object to the processing of your personal data;

• File a complaint with the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), if you believe that your personal data has been processed unlawfully.

Status Research & Development GmbH

Baarerstrasse 10

6302 Zug

Switzerland

You can message us directly in any of our social media platforms. Keep in mind, any information shared in the public channels or as a comment or post in any of our social networks won’t be private. When personal data is shared in this way, it will not be protected by Waku or covered by this Privacy Policy. To contact us privately, please email us at legal@status.im.

This document is: Waku_PP_June2022.