Castbox is the best free podcast app with over 259 million volumes of content on Android, Apple iPhone, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Carplay and Android Auto.
Modified date: February 18, 2024
This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) describes how Guru Network Limited (referred to in this Privacy Policy as “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), as the operator of the website https://castbox.fm (the “Site”) and the developer of the associated Castbox mobile application, auto application, and smart home application (the “App”), collects information when you visit the Site or use the App, or any other website, pages, features, or content owned or operated by Company (separately and collectively, the “Service”). This Policy also explains how we use and disclose the information we collect from you, and your rights in relation to that information. Terms not defined in this Policy shall have the meaning given to them in our Terms of Service. This Policy is part of, and is governed by, the terms and conditions set forth in our Terms of Service located at castbox.fm/termsofservice.html.
This Policy is not:
Please read the Terms of Service carefully before you use or access our Services. By accepting the Terms of Service, you agree with our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. Please note that if you disagree with anything in this Privacy Policy, you must not use the Service.
From time to time, we may develop new or offer additional services. They'll also be subject to this Policy, unless stated otherwise when we introduce them. We will notify you of changes to this Privacy Policy by posting the amended terms on the Service or via the email address we have on file. By continuing to use the Service after those changes are posted, you agree to be bound by the revised Policy. To find out when we last updated this Policy, please refer to the date listed after “Last Modified” at the top of this Policy. If you do not agree to the changes, you should discontinue your use of the Service immediately.
In addition, we may provide you with “just-in-time” disclosures or additional information about the data collection, use and sharing practices of specific parts of our Service. These notices may provide additional information about our privacy practices, or additional choices about how we process your information.
A. Account Information. You may use our Service as a guest or you can create an account. When you create an account with us, we will request you to provide certain personal information, which may include: name, e-mail address, and password. We may request additional information necessary to establish and maintain your account.
B. Information You Directly and Voluntarily Provide to Us. If you visit or access our Service, we may collect information that you provide to us when you communicate with any of our departments, such as customer service or technical services. You can also choose to provide us with additional information about yourself in your profile, leave comments on other user’s content, and more.
C. Information Automatically Collected Through the Service. We may automatically collect information about you when you use the Service. For example, we collect information about your listening preferences so that we may suggest other audiobooks or podcasts that we think you might be interested in. We may also track your behavior within our App, including without limitation what you click on in the App, and what podcasts you subscribe to.
D. Transaction Information. When you register an account with us, you may connect your iTunes or Android payment account with our Service or provide us with your digital currency information. If you connect your iTunes or Android payment account with our account, we do not collect your payment information. When you share your digital currency information with us, we collect your cryptocurrency address.
E. Cookies & Similar Tracking Technologies. We use “cookies” and similar tracking technologies to collect information about your use of the Service and to provide you with interest-based advertising. For example, we collect information about the way you interact with features on our Site, how long you spend on certain pages, and whether you received an error message on our Service. Please read our Cookie Policy for more information about the cookie data we collect and how you can manage it.
F. Geolocation Information. We collect your geolocation data when you use our Service. For example, your device may configured such that it shares your real-time location-based information with us. In addition, the content you create or share with us while using our Service may contain recorded geolocation information. Also, some of the information we collect from your device (e.g., IP address) can sometimes be used to approximate your device’s location.
G. Device Information. We collection information about the device you use to access or use our Service. For example, we may collect the following information from your device: the type of device you use (e.g., mobile, auto, a smart home device, etc.); your advertising Identifier (“IDFA” or “AdID”); network connection type (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, 4G, LTE, etc.); operating system and version (e.g., iOS, Android or Windows); language settings in your mobile device; and your mobile service carrier.
In order to ensure the stable operation and function realization of the products or services provided, Software Development Kit (hereinafter referred to as “SDK”) provided by third parties are integrated in Castbox Service. We will conduct security assessment on the third parties and the deployed SDK to protect your personal information, Integrated SDK are listed as following:
Name of the SDK | Provider | Purpose | Collected personal information type | Privacy Policy link of the SDK provider |
Firebase | Analyze usage | unique identifiers, browser type and settings, device type and settings, operating system, mobile network information including carrier name and phone number, and application version number. We also collect information about the interaction of your apps, browsers, and devices with our services, including IP address, crash reports, system activity, and the date, time, and referrer URL of your request. | https://www.adjust.com/terms/privacy-policy/ | |
Max SDK | AppLovin | Ad service | Device make, model, and operating system; Device properties related to screen size, orientation, audio, battery, device memory usage, settings, and boot time; Device settings related to accessibility features, font size, theme; Carrier; Operating system; Name and properties of mobile application through which a consumer interacts with the Services; Country, time zone, and locale settings (country and preferred language); City- and/or country-level or other coarse geolocation data; Network connection type and speed; IP Address; Internet browser user-agent used to access the Services; HTTP header information; Advertising IDs (IDFA/GAID/Amazon FOSAID); Vendor IDs (IDFV); App Set IDs; and Advertising and tracking preferences and restrictions. | https://www.applovin.com/privacy/ |
Facebook SDK | Login; Ad Service; Analyze usage | Device identifiers; Device attributes, such as device model and screen dimensions, CPU core, storage size, SDK version, OS and app versions, and app package name; and Networking information, such as the name of the mobile operator or ISP, language, time zone, and IP address. | https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2022/07/18/resources-for-completing-app-store-data-practice-questionnaires-apps-facebook-or-audience-network-sdk | |
Admob | Ad Service | IP address; User product interactions; Diagnostic information; Device and Account identifiers; Precise location data. | https://developers.google.com/admob/android/privacy/play-data-disclosure | |
Login | Request email address; authentication | https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/security |
In some cases, the information we collect about you comes from third party sources, as described below.
A. Third Party Applications or Services. We may collect information about you or others from third party applications or services available on our Service. For example, when you register for an account with us, you may do so by choosing to connect your already existing social media account with our Service (e.g., Facebook, Google+, etc.). We receive certain information from your social media account depending on your permissions and which information you have made public. We use this information to make an account for you on our Service.
B. Public Databases and Social Media Platforms. For users that upload content to our Service, we may populate your content submissions with publicly available information from other platforms, which may include personal information about you. The purpose of the information collection is to streamline your upload process and make it easier for you to upload content on our platform. For example, we may collect descriptions, social media accounts, or tags you have used for your podcast channel on other platforms so that you can use the same information on our Service.
C. Your Friends and Family. We may receive your personal information from other users, such as your friends and family, when they want to share something with you through or about our Service. When you invite others to join our Service, we will contact them on your behalf.
We use the information we gather through the Service to help us better understand how the Site or Service and our products, apps, and services are being used. We will only use your personal information as described in this Policy or as disclosed to you prior to such processing taking place.
If you believe that we are processing your information for purposes that are incompatible with the purposes for which we originally collected your information or subsequently obtained your consent, you may choose not to allow us to use your personal information for such processing. However, by limiting how we may process your information, some or all of the Service may not be available to you.
We describe how we use your personal information below:
A. To Provide Our Service. In order to provide you with our Service, we need to process certain personal information about you. We also share information about you upon your request, and with third parties performing functions on our behalf. When we share your information with such third parties, we only share the information necessary for the third party to perform their functions and as permitted by applicable law. We cannot provide you with our Service without processing your personal information.
B. To Send You Service-Related Communications. We want to make sure you stay informed about service- or account-related news, updates, or changes by sending you communications via email, in-app notifications and any other methods as permitted by law. For example, we may send you communications about changes to our security policies, your transaction information, or other important transaction information. Unlike marketing communications, service-related communications are not promotional in nature. You are not able to unsubscribe from service-related communications because such communications are part of our Service.
C. To Respond to You. When you contact us with questions, feedback, or any other concerns, we use any information that you provide to us to respond to you. We cannot respond to you without processing your personal information.
D. To Enforce Compliance with Our Terms, Agreements or Policies. When you access or use our Service you are bound to our Terms of Service and policies, including this Privacy Policy. We ensure your compliance with our terms, agreements and policies (the “Terms”) by: monitoring, investigating, preventing and mitigating any alleged or actual prohibited, illicit or illegal activities on our Service or violations of our Terms; enforcing our Terms with third parties and/or partners; and, as applicable, collecting fees based on your use of our Service. We cannot perform our Service in accordance with our Terms without processing your personal information.
E. To Ensure Security on Our Service. Keeping your information secure requires us to process your personal information to improve and enforce our security measures. For example, we may process your personal information to combat spam, malware, security risks or malicious activities, or to monitor and verify your identity to prevent unauthorized access to your information. We cannot ensure the security of your information on our Service without processing your personal information for such purposes.
F. To Comply with Legal and Regulatory Obligations. Our business is subject to certain laws and regulations which may require us to process your personal information. For example, we may process your personal information to pay our taxes, fulfill our business obligations, or as necessary for us to manage our risks as required under applicable law. We cannot perform our Service in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations without processing your personal information for such purposes.
G. To Personalize and Enhance Your Experience on Our Service. We want you to have the best possible experience on our Service, which is why we personalize our Service to your preferences (e.g., language selection, time zone, etc.), allow you to connect to your favorite third-party applications, and more. We cannot ensure your continued enjoyment of our Service without processing your personal information for such purposes.
H. To Conduct Research and Development. We want to continue to provide you with new or expanded services and products that you enjoy. To do so, we analyze how you interact and use our Service and other personal information about you for research and development purposes. We apply technical, administrative, and physical security measures to your personal information when we use it for research and development purposes, such as pseudonymizing or de-identifying your information, where possible, and limiting access to personnel that conducts research and development. We cannot ensure your continued enjoyment of our Services without processing your personal information for such purposes.
I. To Engage in Marketing Activities. We may engage in marketing activities with you to keep you updated about new products and services you may be interested in. We process your personal information, such as your contact information, to send you marketing communications, provide you with information about upcoming events, webinars or other relevant materials, and to deliver targeted marketing to you. We will always let you opt-out of our marketing activities at any time and free of charge.
We also share user information with third parties in some other circumstances as follows:
A. Employees and Third-Party Service Providers. We disclose your information to our employees, contractors, affiliates, distributors, dealers, vendors and suppliers (collectively, the “Service Providers”) who provide certain services to us or on our behalf, such as operating and supporting the Service, analyzing data, or performing marketing or consulting services. These Service Providers will only have access to the information needed to perform these limited functions on our behalf. All our Service Providers are required by contract to handle your personal information in accordance with this Policy.
B. Corporate Organization. As a global company we may share your personal information within the Company’s corporate organization to provide you with the Service or respond to your requests. We have shared business processes, technical systems and management structures between legal entities in our corporate group.
C. Mergers and Acquisitions; Bankruptcy. We may share your personal information in the event we decide to sell, buy, merge or otherwise reorganize our business. We will handle and protect your personal information in accordance with this Policy in the event we share your information for such purposes.
D. Affiliated Businesses. As permitted by law or your consent, we may share your personal information with affiliated businesses. We will identify the affiliated business to you at the time of data collection.
E. Marketing by Third Parties. Our Service allows you to connect with others, including third parties that may want to market to you. For example, you can leave comments on other users’ content or send messages. When you use our Service and share your information with other users, such users may reach out to you for marketing purposes. We cannot control such communications nor the processing of your personal information that you choose to make available to others.
F. Upon Your Request. Our Service allows you to interact with third-party apps and websites, friends and family, other users, and more. For example, you can connect your Facebook account with our Service or share any content you upload on our Service with users on other platforms. We will share your personal information upon your request. Please note, once you decide to share information with others, we no longer control how such information may be used by the third parties in receipt of your personal information. Furthermore, some parts of our Service are publicly available, which means that any information you provide in these parts of our Service may be analyzed, collected, and used by others with access.We will only share the following personal data :
G. To Protect You, Us, or Others. We will share your personal information in the event we believe, in good faith, that such a disclosure would protect your interests or rights, or the interests or rights of others, including the Company and its personnel.
H. Compliance with Legal Obligations and Disclosure to Public Authorities. To the extent permitted by law, we will disclose your information to government authorities or third parties if:
When this sharing occurs, the third party service may store a copy of it to support their features. You should be aware that, following disclosure to any third party, your information may be accessible by others to the extent permitted or required by applicable law, unless specific restrictions have been implemented. As permitted by law, we will try to inform you of a law enforcement request, subpoena, or similar request from judicial or public authority disclosure prior to providing our response.
The Service is not intended for children under age of 16 or the applicable age of majority without consent from a parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect or distribute personal information from or about children under the age of 16, unless permitted to do so by local law as based on the jurisdiction in which the child resides.
If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with personal information without their consent, he or she should contact us at contact@castbox.fm. If we become aware that a child under 16 or the applicable age of majority has provided us with personal information, we will take steps to delete such information from our files.
If we learn that we've collected the personal data of a child under the applicable Age Limit, we'll take reasonable steps to delete the personal data. This may require us to delete the Castbox account for that child.
When using a shared device on the main Castbox Service, be cautious about playing or recommending any inappropriate content to individuals under 16 years old.
Data Protection Officer (DPO): Sarah Sun, has been appointed as the Data Protection Officer. The DPO can be contacted at contact@castbox.fm. The DPO is responsible for overseeing the developer's/company’s data protection strategy and ensuring compliance with relevant data protection laws and regulations. If you have any questions or concerns about how your personal information is being processed, you can contact the DPO using the contact details provided.
You have the right to opt-out of (i) targeted advertising, (ii) the sale of your personal data, and/or (iii) profiling that produces legal or similarly significant consequences for you. If you wish to exercise any of these opt-out rights, please contact us at contact@castbox.fm. We will respond to your request within the timeframes required by law. Please note that we may require additional information from you in order to verify your identity and process your opt-out request.
If you are a California resident, you have certain rights with respect to your personal data under the CPRA. These rights include the right to request access to, rectify or deletion of your personal data, as well as the right to know whether your personal data is being sold or disclosed and to whom. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at contact@castbox.fm. We will respond to your request within the timeframes required by the CPRA. Please note that we may require additional information from you in order to verify your identity and process your request.
If you are a California resident, you have the right to know whether we share your personal data with third parties and, if so, the categories of third parties with whom we share it. To exercise this right, please contact us at contact@castbox.fm. We will respond to your request within the timeframes required by the CPRA. Please note that we may require additional information from you in order to verify your identity and process your request.
California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and Other State Privacy Laws: If you are a resident of a state with a privacy law that requires it, you have the right to know whether we sell your personal data and, if so, the categories of personal data that we sell and the categories of third parties to whom we sell it. To exercise this right, please contact us at contact@castbox.fm. We will respond to your request within the timeframes required by applicable law. Please note that we may require additional information from you in order to verify your identity and process your request.
If you are a resident of a state with a privacy law that requires it, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal data. To exercise this right, please contact us at contact@castbox.fm. We will respond to your request within the timeframes required by applicable law. Please note that we may require additional information from you in order to verify your identity and process your request.
California, Virginia, Connecticut, Colarado and Utah residents have certain rights under state privacy laws with respect to personal data we collect. If you are a resident of such states, this section of the privacy policy contains disclosures required by law and explains rights that may be available to you.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at contact@castbox.fm. We will respond to your request within the timeframes required by the state law. Please note that we may require additional information from you in order to verify your identity and process your request.
In many cases, we act as a service provider or processor to collect personal data from, or on behalf of, customers who use our services. These customers have their own privacy policies that describe how they use information. To the extent that we are processing personal data subject to state privacy laws on behalf of a customer in our role as a service provider or processor, you should reach out to that customer directly to exercise your rights under state privacy laws.
The remainder of this section provides disclosures for users for cases where we are not acting as a service provider or processor to a customer, typically for our Ad Network.
We implement industry standard security measures intended to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Please be aware that no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, the Company cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit on or through the Service and you do so at your own risk.
We have put various safeguards in place to guard against unauthorised access and unnecessary retention of personal data in our systems.
You should keep your account login information confidential, and make sure any wireless connections to our Service is secure. To protect your user account, we encourage you to:
If other individuals have access to your Castbox account, then they can access personal data, controls and the Castbox Service available in your account. For example, you might have allowed someone to use your account on a shared device.
It's your responsibility to only allow individuals to use your account where you're comfortable sharing this personal data with them. Anyone else's use of your Castbox account may impact your personalised recommendations and be included in your data download.
If you believe your account information has been compromised or that you have experienced unauthorized access to your account information, please contact us immediately at contact@castbox.fm.
If you choose to use the Service or provide your information to us, your information may be transferred to, processed and maintained on servers or databases located outside of the country or jurisdiction where you are located, including the United States. Such countries may have laws that are less protective than the country in which you reside. If you do not want your information transferred to or processed or maintained outside of the country or jurisdiction where you are located, you should not use the Site or Service.
If you reside in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), United Kingdom (“UK”) or Switzerland, please see Section 16 below.
Whenever we transfer personal data internationally, we use tools to:
Our Service may include links to third party websites or social media services. We do not control how such third parties collect, use, share or secure your personal information. Please read the privacy policies and settings on the third-party websites and social media services to ensure you are adequately informed how your personal information is handled.
A “Do Not Track” signal is a preference you may set on your browser, but we do not respond to Do Not Track signals.
If you sign up to receive marketing communications from us, we will always allow you to opt-out of such emails. Marketing communications include any communications to you that are only based on advertising or promoting products and services. Transactional communications about your account or our Services are not considered “marketing” communications.
If you reside in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), United Kingdom (“UK”) or Switzerland, please see Section 16 below.
If you have registered for an account with us, you may contact us to review, update, correct or delete the personal information we have on file. For questions about your personal information on our Service, please contact us at contact@castbox.fm. We will respond to reasonable inquiries without undue delay. When seeking to access or update your personal information, we may ask you to verify your identify before we can act on your requests to ensure the security of your account.
If you reside in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), United Kingdom (“UK”) or Switzerland, please see Section 16 below.
While retention requirements can vary by country, we generally apply the retention periods noted below. Please contact us if you have any questions about our retention periods or if you would like to delete your account.
We keep your personal data only as long as necessary to provide you with the Castbox Service and for Castbox's legitimate and essential business purposes, such as:
A. California law allows users of the Site or Service who are California residents to request and receive once a year, free of charge, a notice from us describing what categories of personal information (if any) we shared with third parties, including our corporate affiliates, for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to request a copy of this notice, please contact contacting us as provided in the “How to Contact Us” section. In your request, please specify that you want a “California Privacy Rights Notice.” Please allow at least thirty (30) days for a response.
B. In addition, if you are a California resident under the age of 18 and are a registered user of the Site or Service, you may request that we remove content or information that you posted on Site or Service or stored on our servers by: submitting a request as provided in the “How to Contact Us” section and (ii) clearly identifying the content or information you wish to have removed and providing sufficient information to allow us to locate the content or information to be removed.
However, please note that we are not required to erase or otherwise eliminate content or information if:
Further, nothing in this provision shall be construed to limit the authority of a law enforcement agency to obtain such content or information.
This section only applies to individuals that access or use our Service while located in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and/or United Kingdom (collectively, the “Designated Countries”) at the time of data collection. We may ask you to identify which country you are located in when you use some of the Services, or we may rely on your IP address to identify which country you are located in.
When we rely on your IP address, we cannot apply the terms of this section to any individual that masks or otherwise hides their location information from us so as not to appear located in the Designated Countries. If any terms in this section conflict with other terms contained in this Policy, the terms in this section shall apply to users in the Designated Countries.
A. Our Relationship to You. Guru Network Limited is a data controller with regard to any personal information collected from individuals accessing or using its Service. A “data controller” is an entity that determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal information is processed. Any third parties that act as our service providers or are otherwise acting on our behalf are “data processors” that handle your personal information in accordance with our instructions.
B. Marketing. We will only contact individuals located in the Designated Countries by electronic means (including email or SMS) based on our legitimate interests, as permitted by applicable law, or the individual’s consent. When we rely on legitimate interest, we will only send you information about our Services that are similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale or negotiations of a sale to you.
If you do not want us to use your personal information in this way, or to disclose your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes, please go to your account settings in the App, click an unsubscribe link in your emails, or contact us at contact@castbox.fm. You can object to direct marketing at any time and free of charge.
C. Legal Bases for Processing Your Personal Information. We describe our legal bases for processing throughout this Policy. Below is a list of the purposes described in our policy with the corresponding legal bases for processing. Generally, the legal bases on which we rely on to process your personal information include: your consent to the processing; satisfaction of our legal obligations; necessity to protect your vital interests; necessity to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts we entered with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you; necessity to process in the public interest; or for our legitimate interests as described in those sections.
Section | Purposes of Processing | Legal Basis for Processing |
---|---|---|
4(a) | Third Party Applications or Services | Processing is based on our contract obligations or to take steps at the request of the individual prior to entering into a contract. |
4(b) | Public Databases and Social Media Platforms | |
4(c) | Your Friends and Family | |
5(a) | To Provide our Service | |
5(b) | To Send You Service-Related Communications | |
5(c) | To Respond to You | |
5(d) | To Enforce Compliance with Our Terms, Agreements or Policies | |
5(e) | To Ensure Security on Our Service | |
6(a) | Employees and Third-Party Service Providers | |
6(b) | Corporate Organization | |
6(d) | Affiliated Businesses | |
5(g) | To Personalize and Enhance Your Experience on Our Service | Processing is based on our legitimate interest to better understand you, to maintain and improve the accuracy of the information we store about you, and to better promote or optimize our Services. |
5(h) | To Conduct Research and Development | |
6(c) | Mergers and Acquisitions; Bankruptcy | |
6(g) | To Protect You, Us, or Others | |
5(f) | To Comply with Legal and Regulatory Obligations | Processing is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, the public interest, or in your vital interests. |
6(h) | Compliance with Legal Obligations and Disclosure to Public Authorities |
D. Your Individual Rights. We provide you with the rights described below when you use our Service. If you would like to exercise your rights under applicable law, please contact us at contact@castbox.fm. Please note, we may seek to verify your identity when we receive an individual rights request from you in order to ensure the security of your personal information.
Please also feel free to contact us at contact@castbox.fm if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy.