An Open Letter to Our Customers
Tomorrow – May 25, 2018 – is a big day in the lives of technology Operations and Data Security professionals all over the world. If you haven’t been particularly focused on this date, then you may not have heard much about the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation law which is about to go into effect… or as it is now well known simply as “GDPR”. Whether you are already well-versed in GDPR and its many new data privacy and protection provisions for those in the EU, or you are just noticing the proliferation of Privacy Policy Updates rushing into your email inbox this week (including ours), we wanted to provide you with a brief update on what it means for us and you in practical terms.
First, we made only small updates to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use recently. These updates were designed to either add clarity or specificity to certain provisions about how the Ripl software and Service works and what exact personal information items Ripl collects and why. While the GDPR rules technically only apply to the personal data of EU residents, we believe everyone deserves the same level of transparency and control over their personal data. As a result, the updates to our Privacy Policy apply globally. We set out to improve our Privacy Policy mainly around the following areas: user-friendly language; transparency; and, information about the process you can follow to exercise your privacy rights. We can assure you that we’ve always taken the utmost care with the protection and security of your personal data, and our new Privacy Policy only improves and re-affirms our commitment to continue to do so.
Second, we want you to know that the Ripl has always been built to collect the minimum necessary personal information required to deliver a great experience for you. Because we have two and half years under our belt with user data privacy and protection at the forefront of how we operate Ripl, we did not need to make big changes or correct glaring data security issues to meet the standard for data privacy protection outlined in the GDPR provisions (unlike some others out there…). After conducting a thorough review and audit of our user data collection, storage and usage over the past several months, we are glad to share with you that we already had a very strong data security foundation here at Ripl. With the added specificity now defined within our Privacy Policy, and building upon this foundation by establishing a new User Data Retention Policy, we have ensured that we will now only keep inactive user data in our systems for a finite period of time as well.
Third, it’s important for you to know that Ripl has not ever, and will not ever, sell your data to any 3rd party and that Ripl only collects a minimum set of personal information items for which we have a legal business basis and which are needed for us to deliver the Ripl Service to you. Some other mobile application and web software companies have taken certain liberties with the collection and/or sale of data collected from their users. These companies are feeling the pain of required compliance with the comprehensive new GDPR rules enforcement rolling out now. Here at Ripl, we are pleased to let you know that the modest updates we have made to our policies and procedures are simply to add clarity to you and us and to further bolster what was already a solid data protection environment.
Fourth, we have established new procedures here at Ripl which will ensure that we can effectively and securely respond to new requests we may receive for User Data Deletion, Portability, and Correction as mandated by the GDPR. While using the latest versions of the Ripl app on iOS and Android, you can now easily review your communications settings in the “Account Settings” area under the app’s main Menu. You can also issue a request to have your data deleted, sent to you, or corrected, as per our Privacy Policy, via the “Contact Us” option under the app’s main Menu as well.
Should you have any further questions about these recent updates, please feel free to contact us and we’ll do our best to explain things in more detail. We appreciate, respect, and honor your willingness to use Ripl for your social media and marketing programs. Thank you – from the entire team here at Ripl.
Sincerely, Clay McDaniel
CEO at Ripl
