Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 1, 2024

1. About Us

This extension is owned and operated by alwayssecured.net team. We respect the privacy of users of our extension products and have developed this privacy policy (the "Privacy Policy") to demonstrate our commitment to protecting your privacy.

2. Scope

This Privacy Policy applies to information collected through Always Secured powered by Yahoo (“we”, “us” or “our”), whether accessed via computer, mobile device or other technology (collectively, the “Service”).

This Privacy Policy explains what information we may collect through the Service, how such information may be used and/or shared with others, how we safeguard it and your choices about such uses and disclosures.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully, prior to using the Service. By using the Service, you are acknowledging that you understand and agree to the terms hereof as well as the terms & conditions set forth on the Site.

3. What Information We Collect

Information collected directly from your usage and interaction of our Service, is as follows:

Category	Examples
Online Identifiers	User Agent, IP address, Device, Browser, User ID, Operating System
Usage Information	Page served, time, Referring URLs
Geolocation	Geographic location associated with your IP address
Others	Search queries

4. How We Collect Your Information

The data detailed in the table above is collected Automatically, mainly through the use of cookies.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files placed on a Device when the Device is used to visit the Service or the Site. The extension collects your information with cookies on the search domain level.

Managing Cookies/Opt-Out

We do not utilize cookies other than necessary, strictly functional cookies for the sole purpose of either operating the website of the extension or operating and enabling the functionality of the extensions you installed.

For example, cookies of our hosting service for functional, operational purposes.

While we cannot provide you or encourage you to opt-out of necessary, strictly functional cookies as they are necessary for us to be able to provide our Service, you can disable them (though not recommended as it may impact upon the usability of our Service) by following your browser’s instructions.

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via this link.

In addition, we may offer Yahoo search feed as part of our Extension and thus it may include cookies on its behalf - more information is available here. In addition, opt out information which will enable you to limit the data collection by Yahoo is available here.

5. How We Use Your Information

We use information that we collect about you for:

Operating and maintaining the extension
Providing customized Service
Internal operation of debugging, support, fraud detection and security
Understand how users interact with the extension
Develop new products, services, features, and functionality.
Monetization with third party search partners

6. How We Share Your Information

We do not disclose information collected from you with any third party, other than with the service providers we use solely for the purposes detailed in Section 5. Below is a detailed list of our third-party service providers that we share information with:

Cloudflare (name server, DNS, caching)
Google Cloud (web hosting)
Zoho Forms (administrative)
FreshDesk (administrative)
Yahoo search feed (third party search monetization)

We also reserve the right to disclose your information with third parties if we are legally required to do so, to cooperate with law enforcement investigations or other legal proceedings, or to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of the Service, solely to the extent needed to enforce our policies and agreements and to investigate potential violations thereof.

7. How We Protect Your Information

Please rest assured that we take precautions to protect your personal information. We maintain tight controls over all the data we collect, retaining it in secured databases with limited and controlled access rights, encrypt you personal information using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and/or Transport Layer Security technology (TLS) upon transmission, and masking the unique identifiers in your IP address. We maintain tight controls over all the data we collect, retaining it in secured databases with limited and controlled access rights. Please remember that unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure, so although we will do our best to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted via the Service; any transmission is at your own risk.

8. How Long We Keep Your Information

We only keep your personal information as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy including for legitimate business purposes and as permitted by applicable law. We will only use your information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve any legal issues, enforce our agreements, and as otherwise described in this policy.
In order to protect our users, we opted to use one-way encryption of IP addresses in a way that does not allow for it to be associated with any person nor linked to the other information we may have, which we store in a non-identifiable way.
Please note, that once the Extension has been removed from your browser by you, we can no longer trace any user activity nor can we link you with any unidentifiable information we may have in our database.

9. Notice to EU Residents under the ”GDPR”

This section applies to you if you are a national of a European Economic Area (“EEA”) member state. This section describes our good faith effort to meet our obligations under the GDPR.

9.1. Personal Data

The GDPR, defines “personal data” as “…any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person”

For the purposes of our Privacy Policy, the “data subject” is “you” (“your”, “user”). The personal data we collect may include:inter alia, the unique User ID we assign to you, as described in this privacy policy.

The personal data we collect will only be used and disclosed for the purposes detailed in sections 3 and 4 to this Privacy Policy.

Our legal basis for processing personal data: GDPR Article 6.1(a): “the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes”; GDPR Article 6.1(b): “processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract”; GDPR Article 6(1)(f): “processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party…”

9.2. Your Rights

Your rights as a GDPR data subject, includes the following:

a. Access and request a copy of information, if any, stored about you.
b. Correct information, if any, stored about you.
c. Erase information, if any, stored about you.
d. Restrict how information, if any, about you is used.
e. Transfer the information, if any, about you.
f. Object to how your information, if any, is used in certain cases.
g. Request why we are unable to fulfill your request, if applicable.
h. Lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority

You can contact us to submit any GDPR related inquiry or request by submitting an inquiry to [email protected]

Please note that we can only meet sufficiently verifiable user requests. Sufficiently verifiable user requests refer to requests that allow us to reasonably match the information provided by the user making the request with the information already available with us, insofar non-pseudonymous Personal Data is available.

In view of the above, and due to opting to use one-way encryption for IPs, in pseudonymous manner, we may not have any personal information of you on record we can provide you with.

10. Notice to U.S. Residents Under Applicable Privacy Laws

This Section applies to you if you are a natural person/consumer who is a resident of one of the states mentioned in this section, inter alia, California resident as defined in the applicable laws and regulations.

10.1. Notice to California Residents Under CCPA/CPRA

We adopted this section to meet our obligations to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”) and the California Privacy Right Act (the “CPRA”). Certain terms used in this section have the meanings given to them in the CCPA and the CPRA.

10.2. Personal Information We Collect

We collect “Personal Information” which is defined under the CCPA as: “…information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.” For the purposes of our Privacy Policy, the “person” is “you” (“your”, “user”).|

10.3. Collection and Disclosure

During the 12-month period prior to the effective date of this Policy, we may have:

10.3.1.

Identifiers (personal) (including, for example, name, online and device identifier, IP address, email address, account name and number).
UsageInformation (including, for example, online browsing and website interaction histories; and direct marketing histories).
Computing or mobile-device information and internet or other electronic- network-activity information (including, for example, login credentials; online advertisement engagements; and cookies, tags).
Geolocation information.

10.3.2.

You (for example, through your use of our Site).
Your computing or mobile devices.
Our technology (for example, through observed consumer interactions with
Our Services and systems.
Our vendors.
Public records.
Unaffiliated third parties.

10.3.3.

Operating our Site and services.
Auditing related to a current interaction with you and concurrent transactions, including, but not limited to, counting ad impressions to unique visitors, verifying positioning and quality of ad impressions, and auditing compliance.
Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity.
Undertaking internal research for technological development and optimization.
Facilitating accounting, auditing, and reporting.
Administering technology and ensure technology integrity (including, for example, by maintaining and improving networks; and identifying and fixing problems).
To fulfill or meet the reason for which you provided the Personal Information (respond to a query, provide you with access to certain functions and features of the Site, for support).

10.3.4.

Vendors who provide services on our behalf, including:
1. Data center/host/cloud-service provider.
2. Vendor (miscellaneous) services.

10.3.5.

Identifiers (personal) (including, for example, name, alias, postal address,, online and device identifier, IP address, email address, account name and number,).
Commercial Information (including, for example, online browsing and website interaction histories; and direct marketing histories).
Internet or other electronic-network-activity information (including, for example, online advertisement engagements; cookies, tags, and similar device or user identifying information).
Geolocation information.

10.3.6.

Internet Service Providers.
Data Analytics Providers.
Operating Systems and Platforms.

In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have not sold personal information.
We also do not use or disclose any sensitive Personal Information for purposes other than those authorized by you or as permitted by law.

10.4. Your Rights

You may be entitled to the following specific rights under the CCPA and the CPRA regarding your Personal Information:
You have the right to opt out of the “selling” or “sharing” of your Personal Information.
You have the right to opt out of “targeted ads” or “profiling,” as these terms are defined under the privacy laws.

You may have the right to request, twice in a 12-month period (depending on the law in your state), the following information about the Personal Information we have collected about you during the past 12 months:

The categories and specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you;
The categories of sources from which we collected the Personal Information;
The business or commercial purpose for which we collected the Personal Information;
The categories of third parties with whom we shared the Personal Information; and
The categories of Personal Information about you that we disclosed for a business purpose, and the categories of third parties to whom we disclosed that information for a business purpose.

In addition, you have the right to request that we delete or correct the Personal Information we have collected from you.

To help protect your privacy and maintain security, we take steps to verify your identity before granting access to information or complying with a request. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may charge a reasonable fee to comply with your request.

Right to Non-Discrimination or Retaliatory Treatment for Exercise of Privacy Rights: You have the right to exercise your privacy rights without receiving discriminatory or retaliatory treatment. If you exercise any of your privacy rights, including the right to restrict the selling or sharing of your Personal Information, you will not be treated differently from those who do not exercise their privacy rights.

10.5. Additional Rights and Provisions for Colorado, Connecticut and Virginia Residents This section applies to Colorado, Connecticut, , Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Utah Residents as defined by the Colorado Privacy Act (“CPA”), Connecticut Data Privacy Act (“CTDPA”), Oregon Consumer Privacy Act (“OCPA”), Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (“TDPS”), Utah Consumer Privacy Act ("UCPA") and Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”). Capitalized terms defined in the CPA, CTDPA, OCPA, TDPS, UCPA and VCDPA that are used in this section shall have the same meaning as in the CPA, CTDPA, OCPA, TDPS, UCPA and VCDPA.

This section describes our collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. You can learn more about the personal information we process, how we process the personal information, the purpose for processing such personal information and the categories of third parties with whom we share such data, in sections 10.2 and 10.3 above.

We do not sell personal information for monetary consideration.

If you are a Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, Texas, Utah, or Virginia Consumer, subject to certain conditions and restrictions set out in the CPA, CTDPA, OCPA, TDPS, UCPA, VCDPA and other applicable laws, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information (as applicable, depending on where you reside), as described below:

Access the personal information that we may hold about you.
Request that we correct inaccuracies in your personal information.
Request that we delete personal information that we have collected from or obtained about you.
Opt-out of the processing of your personal information for purposes of, targeted advertising or the sale of your personal information.
You may have the right to opt-out of the processing of personal information for the purposes of profiling.
Right to appeal if we refuse to take action on your rights request. Instructions on how to appeal will be provided to you upon such a denial. The appeal should be submitted in accordance with section 5.3 below.

Please note that, depending on the nature of your request, you may be asked to provide information to verify your identity before your request can be processed.

You may exercise your privacy rights under the CPA, CTDPA, OCPA, TDPS, UCPA, VCDPA no more than twice in a 12-month period.

10.6. Exercising Your Rights

To exercise the rights described above, please submit your inquiry or request via the following two methods:

Submitting an inquiry to [email protected]
Sending a physical inquiry to 4 World Trade Center, Suite 2983, New York, New York 10007, United States

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights.

Please note, we do not explicitly sell your personal information, therefore, there is no need for you to opt-out of the potential sale of your personal information.

Only you or a person authorized to act on your behalf, may make a request related to your Information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child. If you submit your request through an authorized agent, we may request that the agent provide proof of your prior authorization, as well as information necessary to verify your identity.

We can meet sufficiently verifiable user requests. Sufficiently verifiable user requests refer to requests that allow us to reasonably match the information provided by the user making the request with the information already available with us.

Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding receipt of your request.

Personal Information

The CCPA, defines “personal information” as including “…information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.”

For the purposes of our Privacy Policy, the “person” is “you” (“your”, “user”). The personal information we may collect includes: IP Address; the unique User ID we assign you; the User Agent and version of your web browser; and the Operating System and version used by your hardware.

The personal information we collect will only be used and disclosed for the business purposes detailed in sections 5 and 6 to this Privacy Policy, which are necessary for us in order to provide you with the Service.

Your Rights / Opt-Out for “Sale of Personal Information”

You can contact us to submit any CCPA related inquiry or request via the following 2 methods:

Submitting an inquiry to admin@alwayssecured.net
Sending a physical inquiry to 4 World Trade Center, Suite 2983, New York, New York 10007, United States

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.

Please be advised that we do not explicitly sell your personal information (nor do we use non-pseudonymous Personal Data) therefore, there is no need for you to opt-out of the potential sale of your personal information.

In view of the above, and due to opting to use one-way encryption for IPs, in pseudonymous manner, we may not have any personal information of you on record we can provide you with.

11. Children

The Service is not directed to children, as defined under applicable laws and specifically under 16 in the EEA or 13 in the U.S.A (“Child”).. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from anyone that is considered to be a child. If we determine upon collection that a user is a child , we will not use or maintain his/her Personal Information without the parent/guardian’s consent. If we become aware that we have unknowingly collected Personal Information from a child under the age of 13, we will make reasonable efforts to delete such information from our records. We encourage parents and legal guardians to be familiar with the Internet activity of their children.

12. How to remove extension

As a user of our extension, you can remove the extension from your browser at any time. For simple steps to remove our extension, please click uninstall.

13. Updates to Privacy Policy

Please note, we may modify information presented via the extension and/or this Privacy Policy from time to time. You should check back here periodically to see if the Privacy Policy has been updated. We will always show the date of the latest modification of the Privacy Policy at the top of the page so you can tell when it was last revised.

14. Contact us

We regularly review our compliance with this Privacy Policy. Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Policy are welcomed and should be addressed to admin@alwayssecured.net.

You may also submit inquiries to our appointed Data Protection Officer by the above email address or deliver a physical inquiry to 4 World Trade Center, Suite 2983, New York, New York 10007, United States.