Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

At Community Grocery Store (“CGS,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), we value and protect your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and disclose your personal information when you use our website, mobile application, and related services (collectively, the “Services”), including when you participate in our CGS token presale or interact with our governance platform (DAO). It also describes your rights and choices regarding your personal data and how you can contact us with questions or concerns. We are committed to handling your personal information in accordance with applicable privacy laws and industry best practices. CGS is a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands; while the BVI may not have comprehensive data protection laws, we strive to adhere to internationally recognized standards such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) where applicable. By using the Services, you consent to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy forms part of the CGS Terms & Conditions, and by using our Services you also agree to be bound by our Terms.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect various categories of information from and about you, some of which may be considered “personal data” under relevant laws (meaning information that identifies you or is linked to you). The types of information we collect include:

Personal Identifiers: When you register an account or fill out forms on the Platform, we collect information such as your name, email address, phone number, and account login credentials. If you participate as a grower or in the token presale, we may also collect your blockchain wallet address or other blockchain identifiers (e.g., an Ethereum address) as part of account setup or transaction records. Our Services are intended for adults; we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16, and if you are under 16 you should not use the Services.
KYC Data (Identity Verification Information): If you engage in activities that require identity verification – for example, if you become a seller (grower) on our marketplace or if we implement KYC for token sale participants – you may need to provide additional personal data. This could include your date of birth, government-issued identification numbers (such as passport or driver’s license number), a copy of your government-issued ID, a selfie or photograph for identity confirmation, and proof of address (such as a utility bill). This information is collected for compliance purposes (e.g., to meet AML and CTF regulations) and will typically be processed by our third-party KYC/AML provider on our behalf (see Section 5 below). CGS itself does not permanently store sensitive KYC documents on our servers; instead, the third-party service securely processes and stores this data and provides us with verification results (e.g., a pass/fail or risk assessment).
Transactional Data: We collect information about transactions you make through the Platform. For consumers and growers using the marketplace, this includes purchase and sale records (for example, what products were bought or sold, transaction amounts, timestamps) and payment or payout details in connection with those transactions. If transactions are conducted in stablecoin (USDC) or via other payment methods, we record the relevant payment confirmations and wallet addresses or account details involved. For CGS token holders or participants in the governance platform, we may record information related to your token transactions or participation in governance votes (such as the fact that you voted or the proposals you engage with), where such information is linked to your user account.
Device and Usage Data: When you interact with our website or app, we automatically collect technical information about your device and usage of the Services. This can include your IP address, device type, operating system version, browser type, referring website, pages or screens you view on our Service, the dates/times of access, and other usage statistics. We use cookies, mobile SDKs, and similar tracking technologies to collect some of this usage data (see Section 4 below for more on cookies and tracking). For example, we may use cookies to remember your login session, and analytics tools to collect data on user traffic and behavior. We may also collect device identifiers or mobile IDs if you use our app, and approximate location information (such as city or country) inferred from your IP address. This device and usage data helps us secure the Platform and improve our Services (for instance, by analyzing which features are most popular among users).
User Communications and Support Inquiries: If you contact us with questions, feedback, or for support (whether via email, contact form, or chat), we will collect the information you choose to provide in those communications. This may include your contact details, the content of your message, and any attachments or screenshots you send. We use this information to respond to you and improve our Services and support processes.
Cookies and Similar Technologies Data: When you use our website, we (and authorized third parties) use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about your browsing activities. This may include data on how you found our site (e.g., via a search engine or marketing email), how you navigate and interact with pages, and your preferences. Section 4 of this Policy provides more details on our use of cookies, analytics, and tracking for advertising.

We do not collect any sensitive categories of personal data about you unless necessary (for example, we do not seek to collect information about your health, biometrics, or precise geolocation, except as part of optional features or regulatory compliance like ID verification). Any collection of sensitive data would either be with your explicit consent or as required by applicable law.

3. How We Use Your Data

CGS uses the information we collect for various purposes consistent with operating, maintaining, and improving our Platform, as well as to fulfill legal obligations. Specifically, we use your information for:

Providing and Improving the Service: We process your personal data to create and manage your account, to provide the features of our marketplace and governance platform, and to facilitate transactions you initiate. For example, we use your information to enable you to list or purchase products, to load and use USDC in the app, and to receive payouts if you are a seller. We also use data to display relevant information (such as showing consumers the profiles of growers and vice versa), to match buyers with local growers, and to operate the DAO voting system (recording votes, determining results, etc.). Additionally, we analyze usage data and user feedback to understand how users interact with our Services. This helps us improve the functionality, user interface, and overall user experience. (For instance, knowing which pages or features are most frequently used can guide us in optimizing the platform.)
Transaction Processing: We use transactional and financial information to execute and record the transactions you make on the Platform. If you’re a consumer buying produce, we use your order information to process the purchase and notify the grower of the new order. If you’re a grower cashing out earnings, we use your provided wallet address or payment details to transfer your USDC or other payout. We maintain records of transactions for accounting purposes, to calculate any applicable fees, and to assist with customer support or dispute resolution (e.g., handling a refund or investigating a missing payout).
Identity Verification and Security: For growers (sellers) on the platform, and potentially for token sale participants or other users as needed, we use KYC data to verify your identity and perform compliance checks. This helps us ensure the integrity of the platform (for example, preventing duplicate or fraudulent accounts) and comply with legal obligations (such as AML laws). We also use personal and device data to monitor and protect against fraudulent, suspicious, or illegal activities on the Platform. For example, we might analyze device and usage data to detect patterns of misuse or multiple accounts controlled by the same individual (which could indicate referral abuse or fraud). We use services like Cloudflare or similar security tools which process IP addresses and device information to help filter malicious traffic and defend against attacks. All these security-related processing activities are aimed at protecting the security and availability of our Services and users.
Communications: We use your contact information (email address, phone number) to communicate with you about the Services. This includes transactional or service-related communications for instance, confirming your token purchase or marketplace order, sending updates on delivery or order status, notifying you of changes to our Terms or Privacy Policy, or alerting you to important account or security information (like a login attempt or password change). If you opt-in to marketing communications, we will send you promotional materials such as newsletters, updates about new features or products, token holder benefits, or upcoming events related to CGS. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time (each marketing email will include an “unsubscribe” link, and you can also manage your preferences in your account settings). If you use our mobile app, we may send push notifications for similar purposes (only if you have enabled push notifications on your device; you can disable these via your device settings). We may also use in-app messaging to communicate certain offers or information while you use the app. All communications will be conducted in accordance with applicable communication and anti-spam laws, and you can inform us at any time if you prefer to limit or cease marketing communications.
Marketing and Personalization: Where permitted by law (and with your consent where required), we may use some of your information to personalize and improve our marketing efforts. For example, if you’re a token holder, we might send you information about governance proposals or new DAO features. If you are a frequent buyer, we might inform you of new growers or products in your area. We might also use cookies or similar technologies to understand whether you’ve visited our site before or engaged with our ads, in order to tailor advertising on third-party platforms (more details in Section 4). We will obtain any necessary consent for using your data in targeted marketing or advertising profiles. You have the right to opt out of marketing and certain personalization as described in Section 7 (Your Rights and Choices).
Compliance and Legal Obligations: We process personal data as required to comply with various legal obligations. For example, we may use and retain transaction records to satisfy accounting and tax requirements, or to comply with AML record-keeping rules. If regulators or law enforcement authorities require us to maintain and report certain transaction data, we will do so in compliance with the law. We also may use personal data to enforce our Terms & Conditions or other agreements, to investigate potential violations (such as fraud, hacking attempts, or policy breaches), and to cooperate with lawful requests by public authorities (more on disclosures in Section 5).

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for a related purpose that is compatible with the original purpose and permitted by law. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the legal basis that allows us to do so (or seek your consent where required).

4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to operate and enhance our website and Services. This section explains how we use these technologies and your choices regarding them.

4.1 Cookies: Cookies are small text files that websites store on your device to capture information about your preferences and usage. We use both first-party cookies (set by us) and third-party cookies (set by service providers) for various purposes:

Essential Cookies: These are necessary for the website to function properly. For example, they enable you to stay logged in as you navigate the site and help us secure the platform. Without these cookies, certain features (like account login or transaction processing) would not work.
Analytics Cookies: We use cookies to understand how users interact with our site so we can improve it. For instance, we utilize third-party analytics tools like Google Analytics to collect information about usage of our website and app. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar identifiers to track user interactions (such as which pages you visit, how long you stay, how you arrived at our site, and what buttons you click). The data shared with Google (e.g., your IP address and usage events) helps us analyze overall user behavior. We have configured Google Analytics to anonymize IP addresses where possible. The analytics data we collect is used in aggregate form to improve the Service and is not used to personally identify individual users. (Google may also use the data it collects for its own purposes under its privacy policy, but we do not provide Google with your name or contact information through Analytics cookies.)
Advertising and Social Media Cookies: We may enable certain third-party cookies or pixels (such as those from Facebook/Meta, Twitter, or other advertising networks) to assist with marketing our project. For example, a Facebook Pixel on our site can help us measure ad campaign effectiveness or reach users who have visited our site with relevant ads on Facebook. Similarly, if we show CGS ads on other platforms, cookies might help ensure that, for instance, people who have already signed up aren’t shown signup ads again. We might also use cookies to build custom audience lists (for example, using hashed email addresses to show ads to existing users on other platforms, as described in Section 5). These advertising cookies will only be set with your consent where required by law, and you can opt out as described below.
Functionality Cookies: These cookies remember choices you make to personalize our site (such as language or region, if applicable) and provide enhanced features. They are not strictly necessary but improve your user experience.

We will display a cookie notice or banner where required when you first visit our website, explaining our use of cookies and how you can manage your preferences. You have the option to accept or reject non-essential cookies. Even after accepting, you can typically adjust your browser settings to refuse or delete cookies (though doing so may affect the availability and functionality of our Services).

4.2 Web Beacons and SDKs: In addition to cookies, we may use other tracking technologies. Web beacons (also known as clear GIFs or pixel tags) are tiny graphics embedded in emails or web pages that can track when those emails/pages are opened or accessed. For example, we might include a web beacon in our newsletter emails to count how many people open the email. Our mobile application may include third-party SDKs (software development kits) that function similarly to cookies by collecting mobile app usage data (e.g., for analytics or crash reporting). These technologies help us gather usage statistics and gauge the effectiveness of our communications.

4.3 Do-Not-Track Signals: Some web browsers offer a “Do Not Track” (DNT) feature that signals to websites that you do not want to have certain information collected. The web industry is currently still working on DNT standards, and as such, our site does not respond to DNT signals. We instead provide you with the choice to manage cookies as described above.

For more detailed information about the cookies and tracking technologies we use, and to update your preferences, you can refer to our Cookie notice on the website (if provided) or contact us as outlined in Section 10.

5. How We Share Your Information

We understand the importance of keeping your personal information private. We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties for their own marketing purposes. However, we do share information with certain trusted third parties in the following circumstances – always under appropriate safeguards and only to the extent necessary for the purposes described below:

Service Providers and Partners: We share data with third-party companies that perform services on our behalf to help operate and support the CGS Platform. These include:
- Website Hosting (Webflow): Our website is built and hosted on the Webflow platform. This means Webflow, Inc. processes content and data that appears on our site. If you submit a form on our website (for example, a Contact Us inquiry or newsletter sign-up), the form data is stored on Webflow’s servers and then made available to us. Webflow may also collect technical data like your IP address and browser information as part of providing hosting and content delivery. Webflow is contractually obligated to protect your data and only use it to provide services to CGS.
- Payment and Stablecoin Processors: If you engage in payment transactions on the Platform, we may use third-party payment gateways or processors to handle those transactions. For example, we might partner with a payment processor to allow you to convert fiat currency into USDC (“on-ramp” services) or to process credit/debit card payments. These processors will receive your transaction data and potentially some personal info (such as your name, email, and payment details) as needed to process the payment. They are responsible for securely handling your payment information. Similarly, if we facilitate conversion of tokens or crypto (e.g., allowing you to connect a wallet or use an exchange API for buying/selling), we will share necessary data (like your blockchain address and transaction details) with those services to execute the transactions. All such third-party processors are contractually required to protect your data and use it only for the purposes of the transaction.
- KYC/AML Providers: As noted in our Terms, we rely on a third-party identity verification provider to conduct KYC/AML checks when required. When you provide personal data for verification, that data (such as your ID documents and personal details) is transmitted directly to the third-party KYC provider. They verify your information against their databases and public records and return to us a verification result (e.g., “verified” or any flags). Typically, the provider will not share your raw documents with CGS, only the outcome of the verification. These providers are bound by contract to keep your data confidential, to use it only for the verification services, and to meet high standards of data protection.
- Cloud Services and IT Infrastructure: We use reputable cloud hosting and IT service providers to store and process data. For example, we may host data on Amazon Web Services (AWS) or other cloud infrastructure. We also use standard business software (such as email service providers, customer relationship management systems, etc.) which might incidentally process your data (for instance, storing email communications or support tickets). All such service providers act under our instructions and are chosen for their commitments to security and privacy. They are bound by data processing agreements to protect your information and are not allowed to use it for their own purposes.
- Analytics and Advertising Partners: We use third-party analytics providers (like Google Analytics) to collect usage data, as described in Section 4. These analytics providers may receive information such as your IP address, device identifiers, and browsing activity via cookies or similar technologies on our site. We have configured Google Analytics to anonymize IP addresses and we do not send Google any directly identifying personal data. Google may use the collected data to improve their services and provide us with aggregated insights. We may also partner with advertising platforms (such as Facebook/Meta or Twitter) to help us reach people interested in CGS. For example, we might provide a list of hashed email addresses to a platform to create a “custom audience” for CGS ads (meaning the platform can match the hashes to its users and show our ads to those users, without revealing their identities to us). Any such sharing with advertising partners is done only with proper consent and in compliance with law. These partners are only allowed to use the data to perform services for us or as required by law.
- Security and Networking: As described earlier, we use services like Cloudflare to secure our website (protecting against DDoS attacks, providing a content delivery network, etc.). In providing these services, Cloudflare may process certain technical data like IP addresses and device info of users visiting our site. Cloudflare acts as our service provider to keep our site secure and fast; they are bound to use data only for providing their contracted service.
Business Transfers: If CGS is involved in a corporate transaction such as a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy or insolvency, user information (including personal data) may be among the assets transferred or disclosed to the acquiring or succeeding entity. In such an event, we will ensure that the new owner is bound by terms that are at least as protective of your privacy as this Policy. We will also provide notice to users (for example, via email or prominent notice on our site) if your personal data becomes subject to a different privacy policy due to a business transfer. Additionally, if we seek investments or partnerships that require due diligence, we might share necessary information (perhaps aggregated user statistics or anonymized data sets) under strict confidentiality terms for the limited purpose of evaluating the business opportunity.
Legal and Regulatory Disclosures: We may disclose your personal information to third parties such as government authorities, law enforcement officials, regulators, or courts when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is required by law or legal process, or when we believe it is necessary to prevent or address illegal activities, suspected fraud, or to enforce our Terms & Conditions. Examples include: responding to a subpoena or court order; providing information to regulators if they lawfully demand records (for instance, providing token sale records to a securities regulator if required); or sharing information with law enforcement agencies investigating illicit activity involving our Platform. We will only disclose what we believe is reasonably necessary for compliance or protection purposes and will object to overbroad requests if appropriate. Where permitted, we may notify you of such legal requests.

In all cases where we share your information with service providers or partners, we do so under contractual terms that protect your data. These third parties are given only the information they need to perform the specific services we have requested, and they are prohibited from using your information for any other purpose. Some of our service providers may be located outside of your home country (which could mean your information is transferred to or accessed from other jurisdictions see “International Data Transfers” below if applicable), but we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place in such cases.

We will not share your personal information with any third party for purposes other than those described in this Policy without obtaining your consent, unless we are legally required or allowed to do so.

6. Data Security and Retention

6.1 Security Measures: CGS implements a variety of technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures include, but are not limited to: encryption of data in transit (we use HTTPS/TLS protocols on our website and app to secure data exchange), firewalls and network security controls to prevent unauthorized access, regular security testing and audits of our systems, and strict internal access controls so that only employees or contractors with a need-to-know can access personal data. We also vet our service providers for strong security practices (for example, our third-party KYC provider and payment processors adhere to industry security standards like PCI-DSS for payment data or ISO 27001 for information security management). Internally, we train our team on data protection best practices and have procedures in place to handle data securely. Despite all these efforts, please note that no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your data, we cannot guarantee absolute security. You also play a crucial role in keeping your data safe – we urge you to keep your account credentials confidential and use unique, strong passwords. If you believe your account or data may have been compromised, please contact us immediately (see Section 10).

6.2 Blockchain Data: It’s important to understand that some aspects of the CGS Platform rely on public blockchains (for instance, CGS governance tokens may operate on Ethereum or another blockchain, and transactions in USDC occur on blockchain). Transactions that you perform on a blockchain are, by their nature, public and immutable. This means that CGS cannot edit or delete data that is recorded on a blockchain ledger. If you engage in on-chain transactions (such as sending funds, voting on DAO proposals, etc.), the associated information (your blockchain addresses, transaction amounts, timestamps, and any metadata included on-chain) will be permanently recorded on the blockchain. While these records typically do not include personal names or direct identifiers, they may be linked to you through other data (for example, if you publicly associate your name with your blockchain address or if an observer knows an address belongs to you). CGS has no control over, and is not responsible for, the persistence of blockchain transaction data. By participating in blockchain-based activities on CGS, you acknowledge that your on-chain actions are transparent and irrevocable. We recommend that you take steps to protect your blockchain privacy (such as using fresh addresses where appropriate and safeguarding your private keys). Any personal data that we do control (e.g., an off-chain mapping of your account to a wallet address) will be handled according to this Privacy Policy, but on-chain data itself is outside the scope of what we can erase or modify.

6.3 Data Retention: We will retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting obligations, and for enforcing our agreements. Generally:

Account Data: We keep your account information and profile data for as long as you maintain an account with us. If you deactivate or delete your account (or if your account is terminated by us in accordance with our Terms), we will either delete or anonymize your personal information within a reasonable period after the account closure. In some cases, we may retain certain information even after account deletion if required for legal obligations or legitimate interests (see below).
Transaction Records: We retain transactional records, communications, and usage data for a period after your account is closed, typically for five to seven years (or as required by law). This retention is to comply with laws (e.g., anti-money laundering laws may require us to keep KYC and transaction records for a minimum number of years), to have evidence in case of any dispute, and for legitimate business record-keeping. For example, financial and KYC records are often legally required to be kept for a minimum of 5 years in many jurisdictions. Even if you request deletion, we might not remove certain data if we are legally obligated to keep it (we will inform you of that if applicable).
Backup and Residual Copies: Even after we delete data from our active databases, it may persist in backup or archival media for a period of time until those backups are overwritten or destroyed. We have retention schedules for backups and will ensure old backups are deleted or securely stored after they are no longer needed.
Anonymized Data: In some cases, rather than deleting data, we may anonymize it so it can no longer be associated with you. For instance, we might convert historical transaction records into an aggregate statistical form for analysis. Anonymized data is not considered personal information and we may retain it indefinitely.

When we have no ongoing legitimate need or legal obligation to process your personal information, we will either delete it or anonymize it. If deletion is not immediately feasible (for example, if your data is stored in archives), we will securely store your data and isolate it from further processing until deletion is possible.

7. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on your jurisdiction and subject to applicable law, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information. CGS is committed to honoring these rights and has processes in place for you to exercise them. These rights may include:

Access and Portability: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to obtain information about how we process it. This is often referred to as a “data subject access request.” We will provide you with a copy of your data in a commonly used, machine-readable format. If you are an EU/EEA or UK resident, you also have the right (where applicable) to request that we transfer your data to another service provider (data portability). We will accommodate portability requests to the extent required by law (which typically covers data you provided to us directly).
Correction (Rectification): You have the right to request that we correct or update any of your personal information that is inaccurate or incomplete. We encourage you to keep your account information up-to-date. Many profile fields (such as your contact information) can be edited by logging into your account and making changes directly. For any information you cannot change yourself via the Platform, you can contact us with the details of the correction needed, and we will correct it where feasible. We may need to verify the accuracy of the new information you provide, and note that certain historical data (like past transaction records) generally cannot be altered.
Deletion (Erasure): You can request that we delete your personal information. This is sometimes called the “right to be forgotten.” We will delete (or anonymize) your personal data upon request provided that we do not have a valid legal reason or compelling legitimate interest to retain it. For example, if you ask us to delete your account, we will remove or anonymize personal data associated with your account. However, we may retain data that we are required to keep for legal obligations (see Section 6.3 on data retention). This means, for instance, we might not be able to delete KYC records that we must keep by law, or we cannot delete blockchain transaction data stored on a public ledger as it’s not within our control. We will also retain a minimal record that we fulfilled your deletion request (for compliance and so we don’t inadvertently re-contact you in the future if you had opted out of communications). Important: As explained, data recorded on public blockchains (such as your CGS token transactions or governance votes) cannot be deleted or altered by us, since we do not control those networks.
Restriction of Processing: You have the right to ask us to suspend or restrict the processing of your personal information in certain scenarios. For example, if you contest the accuracy of your personal data, you can request we restrict processing while we verify the accuracy; or if you have objected to our processing (see below) and we are considering whether our legitimate grounds override yours. When processing is restricted, we will still store your information, but will not use it for the purpose in question until the matter is resolved.
Objection to Processing: You may have the right to object to our processing of your personal information when that processing is based on our legitimate interests (or those of a third party), and you feel it impacts your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the unconditional right to object at any time to your personal data being used for direct marketing purposes. For instance, if you no longer wish to receive certain marketing emails, you can opt out and we will stop sending them. If you object to processing based on legitimate interest, we will evaluate whether we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing that override your interests, or if the processing is necessary for legal claims; if not, we will stop the processing in question.
Withdrawal of Consent: Where we rely on your consent to process personal data (for example, if you gave consent for receiving our newsletter or for enabling non-essential cookies), you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. You can do so by, for example, clicking the “unsubscribe” link in a marketing email, adjusting your cookie preferences on our site, or contacting us. Please note, withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal. It also won’t affect processing of your personal data under other legal bases (for instance, if we need certain data to provide you with the service or to comply with law).
Automated Decision-Making: CGS does not currently use automated decision-making processes that produce legal or similarly significant effects on individuals (such as decisions without human involvement that could affect your access to a service). In the event that we implement such processes (for example, an automated creditworthiness check, purely hypothetically), individuals in some jurisdictions have rights to request human intervention or to contest such decisions. This is not applicable as of the Effective Date because our decisions involve human review.

To exercise any of your rights, please contact us using the contact details provided in Section 10 (Contact Us). We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests – for example, if you request access to your data, we might ask you to confirm ownership of the email associated with your account or provide additional verification information to ensure we don’t give data to the wrong person. We will respond to your request within the timeframes required by applicable law (typically within 45 days with the possibility of extension if necessary). There is usually no fee to exercise your rights. However, if a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive (for instance, repetitive requests), we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act on the request, as allowed by law.

Please note that these rights are not absolute and may be subject to conditions or limitations under applicable law. In some cases, we may legally or legitimately be unable to fulfill a request in full – if so, we will inform you of the reasons, provided we are permitted to do so.

8. Third-Party Links and Features

Our Platform may contain links to websites or services operated by third parties. For example, our blog might link to an external news article, or we might provide a link to our official social media pages (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), or to an external exchange or wallet provider for convenience. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site or service. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any third-party websites or services, even if they are linked to from our Platform. Each third-party site will have its own privacy policy and practices, and if you visit those sites or services, your information will be governed by their policies. We are not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or security of any websites or services that we do not own or control.

We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any third-party website or service that you visit before providing any personal information to them.

Additionally, if we offer any third-party integrations on our Platform – for example, a feature that allows you to sign in using a third-party wallet like MetaMask, or share content to a social network – then your interactions with those features are governed by the privacy policies of the respective third parties. For instance, if you use a third-party crypto wallet to connect to CGS, that wallet provider may collect certain data (like your account address or info about the transaction) under its own terms. We are not responsible for how those third parties handle the data they collect from you.

In summary, this Privacy Policy applies solely to personal information processed by CGS in connection with our Services. It does not cover third-party sites or services. We provide these links or integrations for your convenience and the inclusion of a link or integration does not imply endorsement of the third-party’s data handling practices. Please exercise caution and due diligence when visiting external sites or using third-party services.

9. Changes to this Privacy Policy

CGS may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. If we make material changes to the way we collect, use, or share your personal information, we will notify you by updating the Effective Date at the top of this Policy and providing a prominent notice (e.g., via our website homepage or within the app). In some cases, where required by law or where we believe it’s appropriate, we may also notify you of significant changes via email or other direct communication to give you an opportunity to review the changes.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. Your continued use of the Services after any updates to this Privacy Policy become effective will constitute your acknowledgment of the changes and your agreement to be bound by the revised Policy (to the extent permitted by law). If you do not agree with any changes to the Privacy Policy, you should stop using the Services and you may request that we delete your personal data (as explained in Section 7).

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or how your personal information is handled by CGS, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to help and will do our best to address your inquiry promptly and thoroughly. You can reach the CGS team in the following ways:

Online Contact Form: Fill out the contact form on our website’s “Contact Us” page for any privacy-related inquiries. This form will route your message to the appropriate personnel on our team. (Website: communitygrocerystore.com/contact)
Email: If an email address is provided on our website for privacy or support inquiries, you may send us an email. (As of now, please use the online contact form or official support channels provided.)

We will endeavor to respond to your questions or requests within a reasonable timeframe and in accordance with applicable law. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data unlawfully, you may have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority in your jurisdiction (for example, an EU resident can contact their national Data Protection Authority, a UK resident can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), etc.). We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns directly before you approach a regulator, so please consider reaching out to us first.

Thank you for trusting Community Grocery Store (CGS) with your personal information. We are committed to safeguarding your data and enabling you to participate in our innovative platform with confidence.