Privacy Policy

User Privacy Statement Effective Date: January 1st 2023

Waves Rescue respects your privacy. Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc, and its affiliates (“Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc” or the “Company”) offer a maritime rescue service, (the “Website”) and/or users of Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc mobile applications (the “Application”) (collectively referred to as the “Services”). When you use our services, you’re trusting us with your information. We understand this is a big responsibility and work hard to protect your information.

This Privacy Policy is meant to help you understand what information we collect, why we collect it, and how you can update, manage, and delete your information. This Privacy Policy covers: 

To use our Services you must be 18 years of age or older. If you are under 18, you may not download or use the Services.

In this Privacy Policy, the term “personal information” means information which you provide to us which personally identifies you, such as your name, email address or billing information, and, in certain circumstances, your location and route (float plan) information or other data which can be reasonably linked to such information by Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc dba Waves Rescue.

Contact Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc — Privacy concerns

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or if you believe that your privacy has been compromised in the course of using the Services, please contact Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc at: privacy@wavesrescue.com

You may send Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc other requests, responses, questions, and complaints by email at: support@wavesrescue.com

User Accounts & Accessing the Services

Please note that when you use our Services, Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc will set up an account (the “Account” or “Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc Account”). Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc will collect and use your information, including meta-data (as described below), per this Privacy Policy. This is the case whether or not you choose to actively register your Account, for example, by adding your email address or logging in with your Google Account. Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc may allow you to use the Services whether or not you choose to register your Account. If you choose to use the Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc Services without registering your account you may do so by skipping the registration process. If you do so:

 

  • Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc will still link all of your information with the non-registered Account and a unique identifier generated by Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc per this Privacy Policy.

  • Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc may allow you to connect your non-registered account with other devices and browsers and, if you choose to do so, information collected from these devices and browsers will be linked to your non-registered account.

  • With the exception described in the bullet below, your Account and the information associated with your Account (including your unique identifier) will be visible only to Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc; and

  • When using the Services, the information you may choose to contribute will be visible to other users associated with the general username “Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc”.

  • Note that to access certain features of the Services you will need to register your account.

If you do register your Account:

  • Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc will link all of your information with your registered account. This includes information received from all devices and browsers which you have chosen to sign in;

  • Your Account and information associated with your account will be visible only to Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc; and

  • When using the Services, the information you may choose to contribute will be visible to other users associated with this Account.    

  • Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc may also establish and require from time to time additional or different means of identification and authentication for logging in and accessing the Services or for accessing certain features or designated sections of the Services.  

  • Your login details are your responsibility. You are fully accountable for any use or misuse of your account and personal details as a result of conveying your login details to someone else. You must maintain your log-in details in absolute confidentiality and avoid disclosing them to others. If you set a password, it is advised that you change your password frequently and at least once every six months.

Information that is being collected

Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc collects information to provide better services to all its users. The information Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc collects, and how that information is used, depends on how you choose to use our services.

Information you create or provide to us:

  • Account Information: information required when setting up an Account, such as your name, email address, and other information required to create a profile. Bear in mind that false, incorrect, or outdated information may impair Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc’s ability to provide you with the Services and to contact you when necessary. Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc will explicitly indicate the fields for mandatory completion. If you do not enter the requisite data in these fields, you may not be able to register your Account or be provided with certain features.

  • Information that you choose to share with Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc: information that you choose to share with Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc, including a username you have chosen, home/work phone number, personal details, routes you may travel to, etc. You can also choose to add payment information to your Account, if applicable, specifically for paid services (such as dba Waves Rescue service). Even if you aren’t registered to an Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc Account, you might choose to provide us with information.    

  • Communication which you choose to conduct through the Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc Services: if you choose to use Waves Rescue Air Rescue, Inc to communicate with other Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC users or third parties through the Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC Services, such as chat messages or sending vessel locations on the WAVES platform. We may also collect information when you exchange communication with Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC, for example, if you submit a request, contact Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC’s support team, or report a violation to the abuse team.   

  • Information from your social networks which you choose to connect to your Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC Account: you may choose to connect your Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC Account to your social network account(s). If you choose to do so, you may choose to share with Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC and/or other users information from your social network accounts, such as your Facebook profile photo or other personal information shared by you.

   

You may also provide additional information that will be used to personalize the Services and enhance your experience with the Services.

Information we collect as you use our services

We collect information about your activity in the Services, which we use to provide you with the Services of Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC, including features that are meant to personalize your experience. The activity information we collect may include:

  • Detailed location, travel, and route (float plan) information. Location and route information is collected for example in the form of GPS signals (combined with a time-stamp), IP address, and other information from sensors and receivers on or around your device, on which the Application is installed and activated. This location and route information is saved to a route history of all of the journeys you have made while using the Application. The types of location data we collect depend in part on your device and account settings.          

  • Communication or other content you chose to share with any third party, including Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC users through the Services

Meta-data (information about your device, browser, and app use):

Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC collects information about the use of the Services and information from the device you have Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC installed on or the browser from which you use our Services. For example:

  • Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC may collect and record how often you use our Services and for how long, your device type, unique identifiers, operating system type & version, information that you viewed on our Services, advertisements that are shown to you or that you view or click on, the fact that you used the Services to communicate with other users and the fact that you used third parties application/services via Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC to communicate with third parties.

Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC may use information collected from or provided by you for the following purposes:

Provide our services

We use your information to deliver our services. For example:

  • To provide advertising services, including personalized ads.

Maintain & improve our services

  • We also use your information to ensure our services are working as intended, such as tracking outages or troubleshooting issues you report to us. And we use your information to improve the service or to develop new features or services. For example, Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC may use your route information to improve the accuracy of its mapping, nautical charts, and navigation data.

Provide personalized services, including content and ads

  • We use the information we collect to operate the Services and to customize your experience with the Services. For example, Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC may use your home, work, and other personal information (if you choose to provide such information) or route history.

  • We may also use the information to support you and handle requests and complaints.

  • Depending on your settings, we may also show you personalized ads based on your interests and past activity.

Measure performance

  • We use data for analytics and measurement to understand how our services are used. We may use the data collected about the ads you view or interact with (click on) to help advertisers understand the performance of their ad campaigns and to provide them with aggregated reports. We may also use data to measure the usability and effectiveness of Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC’s own marketing efforts on third-party sites or platforms.

Communicate with you

  • We also use your information to send you updates, notices, announcements, users’ requests, and additional information related to the Services (including through push notifications, email address, and SMS);

  • We may also use your information to conduct surveys and questionnaires; And if you contact Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC we may keep a record of your request to help solve any issues you might be facing.   

  • Subject to your prior indication of consent (to the extent required under applicable law), we may also use the email address that you provided to send you promotional and/or marketing materials. At any time you may choose not to receive such materials by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link in the email messages that we may send to you. In any case, Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC will not share your contact details with any advertiser, unless explicitly permitted/required by law.

To protect Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC, our users, and the public

We may also use and process your information and content, using different technologies for the following purposes:

  • To enforce the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy;     

  • To contact you when Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC believes it to be necessary;     

  • To comply with any applicable law and assist law enforcement agencies under any applicable law, when Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC has a good faith belief that Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC’s cooperation with the law enforcement agencies is legally mandated or meets the applicable legal standards and procedures
  • To detect abuse and illegal activity; to detect and prevent fraud, misappropriation, infringements, identity theft, and other illegal activities and misuse of the Services;     

  • To handle breakdowns and malfunctions;   

  • To take any action in any case of dispute, or legal proceeding of any kind between you and the Services, or between you and other users or third parties concerning, or in relation with the Services;    

  • For purposes provided under this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use;    

  • To help improve the safety and reliability of our Services. This includes detecting, preventing, and responding to security risks, and technical issues that could harm Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC, our users, or the public

  • To create aggregated and/or anonymous data (where such data does not enable the identification of a specific user). See “How does Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC use aggregated information”, below;

We’ll ask for your consent before using your information for a purpose that isn’t covered in this Privacy Policy.

When Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC shares your information

Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC does not sell, rent or lease your personal information to third parties. Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC will not share your personal information with others, without your permission, except for the following purposes and to the extent necessary in Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC’s good-faith discretion

  • As necessary for the facilitation and operation of the Services.     

  • If Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC reasonably believes that you have breached the Terms of Use or is investigating potential breach of the Terms of Use, or believes that you abused your rights to use the Services, or performed any act or omission that Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC reasonably believes to be violating any applicable law, rules, or regulations. Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC may share your information in these cases, with law enforcement agencies and other competent authorities and with any third party as may be required to handle any result of your wrongdoing;     

  • If Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC is required or reasonably believes that it is required by law to share or disclose your information;   

  • In any case of dispute, or legal proceeding of any kind between you and Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC, or between you and other users concerning, or in relation with the Services;   

  • In any case where Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC reasonably believes that sharing information is necessary to protect against harm to the rights, property, or safety of Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC, our users, or the public as required or permitted by law, including to prevent imminent physical damage or damage to property;   

  • To detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues;    

  • If Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC organizes the operation of the Services within a different framework, or through another legal structure or entity, or if Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC is acquired by, or merged into or with another entity, or if Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC enters bankruptcy, provided, however, that those entities agree to be bound by the provisions of this Privacy Policy, with respective changes taken into consideration;   

  • To collect, store, hold and manage your personal information through cloud-based or hosting services or a third party or a party affiliated or connected to Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC, as reasonable for business purposes, which may be located in the United States and potentially countries outside of your jurisdiction;     

  • Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC may also share personal information with companies or organizations connected or affiliated with Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC, such as subsidiaries, sister-companies and parent companies (i.e. entities that belong to the Google group of companies);   

 

  • We also work with selected advertising and measurement services which help us understand how our users interact with ads served in our platform and to provide marketing, advertising, and measurement services for Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC concerning Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC’s marketing efforts.     

  • Personal information may also be shared with Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC’s trusted partners and service providers to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with this policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. For example, we use service providers to help us with customer services.

How Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC retains data we collect

Some data you can delete whenever you like, some data is deleted automatically, and some data we retain for longer periods when necessary. This section describes why we hold onto different types of data for different periods.

  • Information retained until you remove it — such as your home/work contact information, email address, and other account-related information. We’ll keep this data in your Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC Account until you choose to remove it or update it.    

 

  • Collecting imagesWe may collect images that are submitted by users through our website or app, or that are otherwise publicly available. We may use these images for a variety of purposes, including for the operation and improvement of our services, for marketing and promotional purposes, and to create personalized content and recommendations for users. We may also share these images with third parties, such as service providers and partners, for these same purposes.


We take steps to protect the privacy of individuals depicted in images that we collect and use, and we will not use such images in a way that would be reasonably expected to cause embarrassment or distress to the individuals depicted. If you believe that we have collected or used an image of you in a way that violates your privacy rights, please contact us.

  • Data that expires after a specific period — in some cases we set retention timeframes based on the reason for the data’s collection. We may also take steps to anonymize certain data within set periods.     

  • Information retained until your Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC Account is deleted — we may keep some data for the life of your Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC Account if it’s useful for helping us understand how users interact with our features and how we can improve our services. For example, if you made a distress call, we will keep information about how many distress calls you have submitted, even after the incident report is removed. When you delete your Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC Account, the information about how many incidents/reports you have submitted is also removed.     

  • Information retained for extended periods for limited purposes — sometimes business and legal requirements oblige us to retain certain information, for specific purposes, for an extended period. For example, when Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC processes a payment for you, we’ll retain this data for longer periods as required for tax or accounting purposes. Reasons we might retain some data for extended periods include:      

  • Security, fraud & abuse prevention         
  • Financial record-keeping         
  • Complying with legal or regulatory requirements         
  • Ensuring the continuity of our services         
  • Direct communications with Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC

     

How does Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC use aggregated information?

Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC may use anonymous, statistical, or aggregated information (including anonymous information), in a form that does not enable the identification of a specific user, to properly operate the Services, to improve the quality of the Services, to enhance your experience, to create new services and features, including customized services, to change or cancel existing content or service, and for further internal, commercial and statistical purposes (including advertising).

Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC may also use anonymous, statistical, or aggregated information collected on the Services, in a form that does not enable the identification of a specific user, by posting, disseminating, transmitting, or otherwise communicating or making available such information to users of the Services, to the Services’ providers, partners, and any other third party. For example, GPS information that we receive from your mobile device may be provided to map/chart editors in an aggregated and/or anonymous form to help improve the map/chart and solve map/chart problems.

Cookies

Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC may use cookies and similar technologies on the Services. Cookies are packets of information sent by the Website’s servers to your web browser and then sent back by the browser each time it accesses the Website’s servers.

Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC may use cookies for various purposes, such as to save you the need to re-enter your username and password each time you log in, to facilitate the use of the Website, to collect statistical information, to verify information, and to customize the Website to your personal preferences and for information security purposes.

Some of the cookies may expire when the session ends and you exit your browser. Other cookies are saved on your computer’s hard drive. If you wish to block the Website’s cookies, then please use the help button in your browser and follow the necessary instructions. However, bear in mind that disabling cookies may complicate or even prevent your use of the Website, or certain features thereof.

The Services include an internal messaging system that provides you the ability to send and receive messages to and from other users, and to receive marketing messages from us. You hereby agree that we may use the internal messaging system to inform you regarding products or services, which may interest you.

Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC users are not allowed to use your contact details or our internal messaging account for commercial advertising purposes. If you have encountered any user-generated advertising material, please inform us through the “Contact Us” page on the Site: wavesrescue.com/contact/

It is clarified that we are not responsible for the content of said advertisements and the products delivered or services rendered thereby by third parties and you irrevocably and unconditionally agree that we shall not be held responsible or liable for any loss, damage, cost, or expense that you may suffer or incur as a result or in connection thereof.

Information security

Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC considers information security to be a top priority. Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC services are designed around strong security features that continuously protect your information. Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC implements systems, applications, and procedures to secure your personal information, to minimize the risk of theft, damage, loss of information, or unauthorized access or use of information. For example, we review our information collection, storage, and processing practices, including physical security measures, to prevent unauthorized access to our systems. In addition, we restrict access to personal information to Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC employees, contractors, and agents who need that information to process it. Anyone with this access is subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.

The insights we gain from maintaining our services help us detect and automatically block security threats from ever reaching you.

However, these measures are unable to provide absolute assurance. Therefore, although Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC takes great efforts to protect your personal information, Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC cannot guarantee and you cannot reasonably expect that Waves Rescue Air Rescue, LLC’s databases will be immune from any wrongdoings, malfunctions, unlawful interceptions or access, or other kinds of abuse and misuse.

Compliance & cooperation with regulators

We periodically review this Privacy Policy and make sure that we process your information in ways that comply with it.

Data transfers

We store data on servers located around the world and your information may be processed on servers located outside of the country where you live. Data protection laws vary among countries, with some providing more protection than others. Regardless of where your information is processed, we apply the same protections described in this policy.

When we receive formal written complaints, we respond by contacting the person who made the complaint. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of your data.

Your privacy is very important to Waves Rescue. User Information is information that, either alone or in combination with other information collected, identifies an individual. When we combine other information (i.e., information that does not, on its own, identify an individual) with User Information, we refer to the combined information as “User Information”. Ways Waves Rescue Collects User Information When you Create a Waves Rescue Account When you create an account on the Waves Rescue mobile app, we ask you to provide User Information, including your name and email address. You do not need to provide your full name, but you may if you wish. You will use your email address and your password to login to your account.

Your Waves Rescue account will be password-protected. When You Login to Your Waves Rescue Account with Social Media Credentials You may choose to login to your Waves Rescue account using your social media login credentials (e.g., your Facebook login credentials). If you choose to do this, when you login to your Waves Rescue account using social media login credentials for the first time, you will be asked whether you agree that the social media provider may provide certain information to Waves Rescue such as your name, email address and possible other information associated with your social media account. All of this information is made available to Waves Rescue by the social media provider due to the way the social sign-on configuration works, but of this information, Waves Rescue only retains and uses your email address. Waves Rescue uses the email address provided by the social media provider to associate it with your Waves Rescue account so that you can use your email address to login to your Waves Rescue account in the future if you no longer wish to login using your social media login credentials. If you do not want your information to be shared with Waves Rescue by the social media provider, then you can simply login to your Waves Rescue account using your Waves Rescue account login credentials without using your social media login credentials. When You Use Location Features on Waves Rescue If you elect to use location-based services, then the physical location of your device will be collected in order for Waves Rescue to provide you with such location-based services. Any content that you submit for posting, may be viewed by all users of and by Waves Rescue. Other Uses of User Information by Waves Rescue Waves Rescue may use User Information for internal statistical, marketing or operational purposes, including generating reports and measuring and understanding demographic, user interest, purchasing and other trends among our users. Ad Event Logs Waves Rescue may collect information such as which advertisements were viewed, how often they were clicked and how often certain actions to an advertisement were performed so that the advertising providers can provide you with content and advertising that might be of particular interest to you. Other Disclosures We may also transfer User Information to an affiliate, a subsidiary or a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of Waves Rescue’s business, assets, including, without limitation, in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceeding. Security Waves Rescue takes reasonable security measures to help protect against loss, misuse, unauthorized access and unauthorized disclosure or alteration of the User Information under its control. Privacy Statement Updates We may change this Privacy Statement from time to time as technologies and laws change. You can determine when this Privacy Statement was last revised by referring to the “EFFECTIVE DATE” legend at the top of this page. Any changes will become effective upon our posting of the revised Privacy Statement. We will provide notice to you if these changes are material and, where required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent. This notice will be provided by email or by posting notice of the changes on Waves Rescue, consistent with applicable laws.