This Privacy Policy describes how Merit Systems, Inc. and our subsidiaries and affiliates (“Merit Systems,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) processes personal information that we collect through our website, Terminal platform, and any other digital or online properties or services that link to this Privacy Policy are described in this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Services”).
We may provide additional or supplemental privacy policies to individuals for specific products or services that we offer at the time we collect personal information.
Index
Personal information we collect
Information you provide to us. Personal information you may provide to us through the Service or otherwise includes:
- Account data, such as your GitHub username, user ID and any other information that you add to your account profile.
- GitHub API data relevant to your profile, including your repositories and activity.
- Communications data based on our exchanges with you, including when you contact us through the Service, social media, or otherwise.
- Payment and tax-related data necessary to facilitate any payments through the Service, including your name, address, taxpayer identification number (such as your social security number), authentication data, and payment amount and description.
- Marketing data, such as your preferences for receiving our marketing communications and details about your engagement with them.
- Other data not specifically listed here, which we will use as described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise disclosed at the time of collection.
Third-party sources. We may combine personal information we receive from you with personal information falling within one of the categories identified above that we obtain from other sources, such as:
Public sources, such as public records, GitHub repositories, and other publicly available sources.
- Third-party services, such as your GitHub account, that you link to the Service. This data may include information associated with your account on that third-party service that is made available to us based on your account settings on that service.
- Service providers that provide services on our behalf or help us operate the Service or our business.
- Business transaction partners. We may receive personal information in connection with an actual or prospective business transaction. For example, we may receive your personal information from an entity we acquire or are acquired by, a successor, or assignee or any party involved in a business transaction such as a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or similar transaction, and/or in the context of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership.
Automatic data collection. We, our service providers, and our business partners may automatically log information about you, your computer or mobile device, and your interaction over time with the Service, our communications and other online services, such as:
- Device data, such as your computer or mobile device’s operating system type and version, manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, RAM and disk size, CPU usage, device type (e.g., phone, tablet), IP address, unique identifiers (including identifiers used for advertising purposes), language settings, mobile device carrier, radio/network information (e.g., Wi-Fi, LTE, 3G), and general location information such as city, state or geographic area.
- Online activity data, such as pages or screens you viewed, how long you spent on a page or screen, the website you visited before browsing to the Service, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about your activity on a page or screen, access times and duration of access, and whether you have opened our emails or clicked links within them.
- Communication interaction data such as your interactions with our email, text or other communications (e.g., whether you open and/or forward emails) -- we may do this through use of pixel tags (which are also known as clear GIFs), which may be embedded invisibly in our emails.
Data about others. We offer features that help users invite their contacts to the Service through GitHub in order to pay them, and we may and we collect and process the information provided by the user about the invitee in order to facilitate the invitation to the Service and provide the Services. Please do not refer someone to us or share their contact details with us unless you have their permission to do so.
For more information concerning our automatic collection of data, please see the Tracking technologies section below.
Tracking Technologies
Cookies and other technologies. Some of the automatic collection described above is facilitated by the following technologies:
- Cookies, which are small text files that websites store on user devices and that allow web servers to record users’ web browsing activities and remember their submissions, preferences, and login status as they navigate a site. Cookies used on our sites include both “session cookies” that are deleted when a session ends, “persistent cookies” that remain longer, “first party” cookies that we place and “third party” cookies that our third-party business partners and service providers place.
- Local storage technologies, like HTML5, that provide cookie-equivalent functionality but can store larger amounts of data on your device outside of your browser in connection with specific applications.
- Web beacons, also known as pixel tags or clear GIFs, which are used to demonstrate that a webpage or email was accessed or opened, or that certain content was viewed or clicked.
- Session-replay technologies, such as those provided by LogRocket that employ software code to record users’ interactions with the Services (such as clicks, mouse movements, and scrolls) in a manner that helps us understand how the Services are being utilized, diagnose usability problems and identify areas for improvement. You can learn more about LogRocket at https://logrocket.com/privacy/.
For information concerning your choices with respect to the use of tracking technologies, see the Your choices section, below.
How we use your personal information
We may use your personal information for the following purposes or as otherwise described at the time of collection:
Service delivery and operations. We may use your personal information to:
- provide the Service;
- enable security features of the Service;
- establish and maintain your user profile on the Service;
- communicate with you about the Service, including by sending Service-related announcements, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages; and
- provide support for the Service, and respond to your requests, questions and feedback.
Service personalization, which may include using your personal information to:
- understand your needs and interests; and
- personalize your experience with the Service.
Service improvement and analytics. We may use your personal information to analyze your usage of the Service, improve the Service, improve the rest of our business, help us understand user activity on the Service, including which how visitors move around the Service, and to develop new products and services.
Direct marketing. We may send you direct marketing communications and may personalize these messages based on your needs and interests. You may opt-out of our marketing communications as described in the Opt-out of communications section below.
Compliance and protection. We may use your personal information to:
- comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas, investigations or requests from government authorities;
- protect our, your or others’ rights, privacy, safety or property (including by making and defending legal claims);
- audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements or our internal policies;
- enforce the terms and conditions that govern the Service; and
- prevent, identify, investigate and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity, including cyberattacks and identity theft.
To create aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized data. We may create aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized data from your personal information and other individuals whose personal information we collect. We make personal information into de-identified and/or anonymized data by removing information that makes the data identifiable to you. We may use this aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized data and share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes, including to analyze and improve the Service and promote our business.
Further uses. In some cases, we may use your personal information for further uses, in which case we will ask for your consent to use of your personal information for those further purposes if they are not compatible with the initial purpose for which information was collected.
Retention
We generally retain personal information to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, to establish or defend legal claims, or for fraud prevention purposes. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we may consider factors such as the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
When we no longer require the personal information we have collected about you, we may either delete it, anonymize it, or isolate it from further processing.
How we share your personal information
We may share your personal information with the following parties and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, in other applicable notices, or at the time of collection.
Service providers. Third parties that provide services on our behalf or help us operate the Service or our business (such as hosting, information technology, artificial intelligence providers, customer support, marketing, and analytics providers).
Third parties designated by you. We may share your personal information with third parties where you have instructed us or provided your consent to do so.
Linked third-party services. If you log into the Service your GitHub account, we may share your personal information with that third-party service. The third party’s use of the shared personal information will be governed by its privacy policy and the settings associated with your account with the third-party service.
Professional advisors. Professional advisors, such as lawyers, auditors, bankers, and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.
Authorities and others. Law enforcement, government authorities, and private parties, as we believe in good faith to be necessary or appropriate for the Compliance and protection purposes described above.
Business transferees. We may disclose personal information in the context of actual or prospective business transactions (e.g., investments in us, financing of us, public stock offerings, or the sale, transfer or merger of all or part of our business, assets or shares). For example, we may need to share certain personal information with prospective counterparties and their advisers. We may also disclose your personal information to an acquirer, successor, or assignee of us as part of any merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or similar transaction, and/or in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which personal information is transferred to one or more third parties as one of our business assets.
Other users and the public. Your Account data that is publicly visible on GitHub may be visible to other users of the Service and the public. This information can be seen, collected, and used by others, including being cached, copied, screen captured or stored elsewhere by others (e.g., search engines), and we are not responsible for any such use of this information.
Your choices
In this section, we describe the rights and choices available to all users.
Access or update your information. If you have registered for an account with us through the Service, you may review and update certain account information by logging into your account.
Opt-out of communications. You may opt-out of marketing-related emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email, or by contacting us. Please note that if you choose to opt-out of marketing-related emails, you may continue to receive service-related and other non-marketing emails.
Cookies and other technologies. Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. Please note that if you set your browser to disable cookies, the Service may not work properly. For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your browser and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. You can also configure your device to prevent images from loading to prevent web beacons from functioning.
Blocking images/clear gifs: Most browsers and devices allow you to configure your device to prevent images from loading. To do this, follow the instructions in your particular browser or device settings.
Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.
Declining to provide information. We need to collect personal information to provide certain services. If you do not provide the information we identify as required or mandatory, we may not be able to provide those services.
Linked third-party platforms. If you choose to connect to the Service GitHub, you may be able to use your settings in your account to limit the information we receive from it. If you revoke our ability to access information from a third-party platform, that choice will not apply to information that we have already received from that third party.
Delete your content or close your account. You can choose to delete certain content through your account. If you wish to request to close your account, please contact us.
Other sites and services
The Service may contain links to websites, mobile applications, and other online services operated by third parties. In addition, our content may be integrated into web pages or other online services that are not associated with us. These links and integrations are not an endorsement of, or representation that we are affiliated with, any third party. We do not control websites, mobile applications, or online services operated by third parties, and we are not responsible for their actions. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of the other websites, mobile applications, and online services you use.
Security
We employ technical, organizational and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information we collect. However, security risk is inherent in all internet and information technologies, and we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.
International data transfer
We are headquartered in the United States and may use service providers that operate in other countries. Your personal information may be transferred to the United States or other locations where privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your state, province, or country.
Users outside the United States
The Service is based in the United States. Your personal information that we collect is sent to and stored on servers located in the United States of America. Such storage is necessary in order to process the information and, to the extent required under applicable law, you consent to the processing of your personal information in the United States and elsewhere. Our agents and third-party service providers may also be located in the United States or elsewhere around the world. The data protection laws of the United States or other countries may not be as comprehensive or equivalent to those in your country of residence. If you are located outside the United States, you may have additional rights to your personal information to the extent that they apply to you or your personal data under applicable laws. Such rights may include the following, as applicable:
- Access. Provide you with information about our processing of your personal information and give you access to your personal information.
- Correct. Update or correct inaccuracies in your personal information.
- Delete. Delete your personal information where there is no lawful reason for us continuing to store or process it, where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal information to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons that will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
- Portability. Port a machine-readable copy of your personal information to you or a third party of your choice, in certain circumstances. Note that this right only applies to automated information for which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
- Restrict. Restrict the processing of your personal information, if, (i) you want us to establish the personal information’s accuracy; (ii) where our use of the personal information is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (iii) where you need us to hold the personal information even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (iv) you have objected to our use of your personal information but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use.
- Object. Object to our processing of your personal information where we are relying on certain legal bases for processing, such as legitimate interests, and there is something about your particular situation that makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedom -- you also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
- Withdraw Consent. When we use your personal information based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent.
If you live outside the United States in a jurisdiction in which one or more of these rights is provided under applicable law and would like to exercise those rights, please contact us. We reserve the right to verify or deny any such requests as permitted under applicable laws. You may also have the right to make a complaint to the data protection regulator in your jurisdiction, if you are not satisfied with our response to a request you make, or how we process your personal information.
Children
The Service is not intended for use by anyone under 16 years of age. If you are a parent or guardian of a child from whom you believe we have collected personal information in a manner prohibited by law, please contact us. If we learn that we have collected personal information through the Service from a child without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian as required by law, we will comply with applicable legal requirements to delete the information.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on the Service or other appropriate means. Any modifications to this Privacy Policy will be effective upon our posting the modified version (or as otherwise indicated at the time of posting). In all cases, your use of the Service after the effective date of any modified Privacy Policy indicates your acknowledging that the modified Privacy Policy applies to your interactions with the Service and our business.
How to contact us
- Email: [email protected]
- Mail: 224 West 35th Street, Ste 500 #2218, New York, NY 10001
Rev. 06/04/2025
GLBA Privacy Notice
| FACTS | WHAT DOES MERIT SYSTEMS DO WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION? |
|---|
| Why? | Financial companies choose how they share your personal information. Federal law gives consumers the right to limit some but not all sharing. Federal law also requires us to tell you how we collect, share, and protect your personal information. Please read this notice carefully to understand what we do. |
| What? | The types of personal information we collect and share depend on the product or service you have with us. This information can include:- Social security number or other taxpayer identification number;
- Account transactions;
- Payment history; and
- Wire transfer instructions.
|
| How? | All financial companies need to share customers’ personal information to run their everyday business. In the section below, we list the reasons financial companies can share their customers’ personal information, the reasons Merit Systems chooses to share, and whether you can limit this sharing. |
| Reasons we can share your personal information | Does Merit Systems share? | Can you limit this sharing? |
|---|
| For our everyday business purposes-- such as to process your payment, maintain your account(s), or respond to court orders and legal investigations | Yes | No |
| For our marketing purposes-- to offer our products and services to you | No | We do not share |
| For joint marketing with other financial companies | No | We do not share |
| For our affiliates’ everyday business purposes-- | No | We do not share |
| For our affiliates’ everyday business purposes-- | No | We do not share |
| For our affiliates to market to you | No | We do not share |
| For nonaffiliates to market to you | No | We do not share |
Who we are
| Who is providing this notice? | Merit Systems, Inc. |
What we do
| How does Merit Systems protect my personal information? | To protect your personal information from unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with federal law. These measures include computer safeguards and secured files. |
| How does Merit Systems collect my personal information? | We collect your personal information, for example, when you:- open an account or connect through GitHub
- give us your contact information
- provide account information
We also collect your personal information from others, such as public sources, GitHub repositories or other third party services, other users who want to pay you, service providers, or other companies. |
| Why can’t I limit all sharing? | Federal law gives you the right to limit only- sharing for affiliates’ everyday business purposes
- affiliates from using your information to market to you
- sharing for nonaffiliates to market to you
State laws and individual companies may give you additional rights to limit sharing. See below for more on your rights under state law. |
Definitions
| Affiliates | Companies related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies.- Merit Systems does not have affiliates.
|
| Nonaffiliates | Companies not related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies.- Nonaffiliates we share with can include our service providers (e.g., third parties that provide hosting, information technology, marketing, and analytics services on our behalf), linked third-party services (like GitHub), professional advisors, authorities and others, and business transferees.
|
| Joint marketing | A formal agreement between nonaffiliated financial companies that together market financial products or services to you.- Merit Systems does not jointly market.
|