Privacy Policy

Last revised: 11/24/2024

The Empathy Project Inc. and its affiliates (“Empathy”, “we,” “our” or “us”) respects the privacy of Visitors to our website www.empathy.com (the “Site”) as well as the privacy of Users of our mobile application (the “App”), the services provided by Empathy, and any other or subsequent product, process, development, tangible embodiment, or service provided by Empathy (collectively, the “Empathy Solution”).

We are committed to protecting the personal data (as defined below) that is made available to us.

This Privacy Policy describes how Empathy collects, stores, uses and discloses the following categories of personal data as a “Controller” or “Business” to the extent applicable under data protection laws:

  • Partner Data: personal data relating to current and prospective business customers who are life insurance carriers, employers, care facilities, health plans, etc. (“Partner”) as a part of the delivery of the Empathy Solution or any other service, product or solution described in one or more applicable order forms or commercial agreements with the Partner.

  • User Data: personal data relating to individuals who have engaged the Empathy Solution to support them as they navigate the challenges following the loss of a loved one (collectively, “Users”).

  • Loved Ones Data: personal data relating to a loved one who has passed and on whose behalf a User has engaged the Empathy Solution or an individual who has engaged the Empathy Solution for the purposes of pre-planning.

  • Visitors’ Data: personal data relating to visitors of our Site, participants at our events, prospective customers, users or partners (collectively, “Visitors”) who visit or otherwise interact with our Site, online ads and content, emails or communications under our control (collectively with the Empathy Solution, the “Services”).

Specifically, this Policy describes our practices regarding:

  1. Data Collection & Processing

  2. Data Uses

  3. Data Location

  4. Data Retention

  5. Data Disclosure

  6. Cookies and Data Collection Technologies

  7. Communications

  8. Data Security

  9. Data Subject Rights

  10. Opt-Out of Sale/Sharing/Targeted Advertising

  11. Additional Notices and Contact Details

If you are a Partner, User, or Visitor, please read this Privacy Policy carefully and make sure that you fully understand it.

You are not legally required to provide us with any personal data. If you do not wish to provide us with your personal data, or to have it processed by us or any of our Service Providers (as defined below), please do not provide it to us - avoid interaction with us and our Site, and do not use our Services.

1. Data Collection & Processing

When we use the terms “personal data” or “personal information” in this Privacy Policy, we mean information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, to an individual. It does not include aggregated or anonymized information that is maintained in a form that is not reasonably capable of being associated with or linked to an individual.

Types of personal data collected. We may collect or generate the following types of personal data about individuals through the Services:

  • Usage, login credentials, and device information concerning Partners, Users, Visitors and Loved Ones

Connectivity, technical and aggregated usage data, such as user agent, IP addresses and approximate location based upon such IP addresses, digital identifiers, device data (like type, OS, device id, browser version, locale and language settings used), activity logs, session recordings, log-in credentials to the Services, the cookies and pixels installed or utilized on their device (which collect data such as how often Visitors visit or use the Sites, which pages they visit and when, and which website ad or email message brought them there), and inferred or presumed data on or generated from their use of the Services.

  • Information concerning our Partners and Visitors

Contact details such as name, email address,phone number, position, workplace, contractual and financial documents, and billing details, as well as any expressed, presumed or identified needs, preferences, attributes and insights relevant to our potential or existing engagement.

  • Information concerning Users of the Empathy Solution

Contact details such as name, email address, and phone number; relationship to a Loved One; address or geolocation; any expressed, presumed, or identified needs, preferences, attributes, and insights relevant to Users.

  • Information concerning Loved Ones

Details such as name, email address, phone number, address , state of residence, date of birth, date of death, drivers’ license number(s) or national ID number; documentation uploaded through use of the Vault feature, including, but not limited to, personal photos, content of personal communications, and legal, financial, and health documents, which may include, at your discretion, certain sensitive information; additional background including gender, age, religion, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin, professional experience, as well as any expressed, presumed, or identified needs, preferences, attributes, and insights relevant to Loved Ones.

For the purposes of the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"), in the last 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information, as defined in the CCPA: Identifiers; Geolocation data; Customer records information; Characteristics of protected classifications; Commercial information; Internet or other electronic network activity information; Audio, electronic, visual, or similar information; Professional or employment related information; Inferences; and Sensitive Personal Information (as described above).

Categories of sources from which personal data is collected. We obtain personal data from the following categories of sources:

  • Data collected directly from you. You may voluntarily provide us with your personal data, e.g., when you use the Empathy Solution through our App; submit a form on our website; communicate with our dedicated team of experienced professionals with backgrounds in a variety of fields, including social workers, funeral directors, hospice nurses, psychologists, chaplains, and more (“Care Team”) or other customer or support services; during an event, conference, or webinar you have participated in; register to our mailing list, or communicate with us in any other manner during our engagement with you. You may also provide us with your personal data when you upload, post, generate or publish on our Site or through the Empathy Solution or use the Vault feature.

  • Data collected from third parties. We obtain personal data from third parties, such as our Partners or Service Providers. For example, we may obtain your details from your insurance carrier (our Partner) as a part of our commercial engagement with them if you request use of our Services. In addition, upon your request and to the extent that you provide us with applicable power of attorney and/or consent (as the case may be) we may also approach third parties (such as government agencies) on your behalf and collect personal data that is held by them, all in order to provide you with the Services. We may also obtain personal data from our Service Providers or Vendors e.g., payment processors (for in-app purchases), marketing and sales tools, data enrichment services, our sales and marketing partners, or distributors.

  • Data collected from publicly available sources. To the extent permitted by law, we may obtain personal data from publicly available sources in order to provide you with our Services (such as published obituaries in local newspapers, social media accounts, etc.).

  • Data that is automatically generated. Some personal data is automatically generated when you visit our website and engage its features (such as your online activity, clicks, web-pages visits, etc.) by using Cookies and the data collection technologies described in Section 6 below. We may also collect aggregated or technical data generated when you use our Services, relating to how you use them, so we can learn how Users use our Services and improve them and our Users’ experience.

2. Data Uses

We use personal data for the following business and commercial purposes (and in reliance on the legal bases for processing noted next to them, as appropriate):

Partner, User and Loved One personal data

  • To facilitate, operate, enhance, and provide our Services, and process new product and service orders (Performance of Contract, to the extent applicable; Legitimate Interests to provide and improve our Services);

  • To provide assistance and support (including crisis or emergency assistance), to test and monitor the Services, or diagnose or fix technology problems (Performance of Contract, to the extent applicable; Legitimate Interests to ensure the ongoing availability of our Services);

  • To personalize our Services, including by recognizing an individual and remembering their information when they return to our Services, and to provide further localization and personalization capabilities, (Performance of Contract, to the extent applicable; Legitimate Interests to provide a better user experience).

User, Partner, Visitor and Loved One personal data

  • To gain a better understanding of how individuals use and interact with our Services (including through online, in-app and personal surveys), which content and data they have processed through our Services, and how we may improve their and others’ user experience and the value they can generate from using the Services, so we can continue improving our products, offerings and the overall performance of our Services (Legitimate Interests to improve the user experience and performance of our Services; Consent to provide survey responses);

  • To contact our Partners, Users and Visitors with general or personalized service-related messages, as well as promotional messages that may be of specific interest to them (Performance of Contract, to the extent applicable; Legitimate Interests to send service-related messages; Consent to receive marketing messages);

  • To support and enhance our data security measures, including for the purposes of preventing and mitigating the risks of fraud, error or any illegal, criminal or prohibited activity (Performance of Contract, to the extent applicable; Legitimate Interests to secure our services; Legal Obligation to implement appropriate security measures);

  • To create aggregated statistical data, inferred non-personal data, or anonymized or pseudonymized data (rendered non-personal and non-identifiable), which we or our business partners may use to provide and improve our respective services, or for any other purpose (Legitimate Interests to improve and enhance our Services);

  • To facilitate and optimize our marketing campaigns, ad management and sales operations, and to manage and deliver advertisements for our products and services more effectively, including to provide personalized ads and share data with our authorized service providers to support such activity. (Legitimate Interests to enhance engagement with our Services and promote them; Consent (including by using Cookies) to use and share personal data with specific third-party service providers to provide personalization of ads);

  • To facilitate, sponsor and offer certain events, contests and promotions (Legitimate Interests to enhance engagement with our Services);

  • To enforce our commercial agreements, to resolve disputes, to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights, and to protect our business interests and the interests and rights of third parties (Legitimate Interests to resolve disputes);

  • To comply with our contractual and legal obligations and requirements, and maintain our compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards (Performance of Contract, to the extent applicable; Legitimate Interests to maintain and improve our compliance; Legal Obligation, to the extent applicable).

If you reside or are using the Services in a territory governed by privacy laws under which “consent” is the only or most appropriate legal basis for the processing of personal data as described herein (in general, or specifically with respect to the types of personal data you expect or elect to be processed by or via the Services, or due to nature of such processing), your acceptance of our Terms of Use (available at www.empathy.com/legal/terms ) (and/or the terms that govern your use of the Empathy Solution) (collectively, the “Terms”) and this Privacy Policy will be deemed as your consent to the processing of your personal data for all purposes detailed herein. If you wish to revoke such consent, please contact us at [email protected].

3. Data Location and Transfers

We and our authorized Service Providers maintain and store personal data in the United States, and process personal data in the United States, Israel and in other locations as reasonably necessary for the proper delivery and performance of our Services, or as may be required by law.

Since we operate globally and may use service providers worldwide, including in the United States, Israel and other locations as reasonably necessary for the proper performance of our Services, or as may be required by law, we may transfer your personal data outside your country of residence. While outside of your jurisdiction of residence, your personal data will be subject to applicable foreign laws, which may permit government and national security agencies to access your information in certain circumstances. If you have questions about where your Personal Data is located, please email us at [email protected].

While privacy laws may vary between jurisdictions, Empathy is committed to protecting personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy and customary industry standards, and such appropriate lawful mechanisms and contractual terms requiring adequate data protection, regardless of any lesser legal requirements that may apply in the jurisdiction to which such personal data is transferred.

For data transfers from the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, we will transfer your personal data only to such countries approved by the European Commission, FDPIC and UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) respectively, as providing adequate level of data protection, or implement appropriate safeguards in accordance with applicable data protection laws (for example, by entering into Standard Contractual Clauses as approved by the relevant data protection authority). Upon request, we can provide further information about the appropriate safeguards used for your data transfers.

4. Data Retention

We retain personal data for as long as we deem it as reasonably necessary to maintain and expand our relationship and provide you with our Services and offerings; to comply with our contractual obligations; or to protect ourselves from any potential disputes (i.e., as required by laws applicable to log-keeping, records and bookkeeping, and in order to have proof and evidence concerning our relationship, should any legal issues arise following your discontinuance of use), all in accordance with our data retention policy.

To determine the appropriate period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and the applicable legal requirements. When personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete or anonymize it in accordance with our data retention policy and applicable laws.

If you have any questions regarding our data retention practices, please contact us by email at [email protected].

5. Data Disclosure

We disclose personal data in the following ways:

  • Service Providers: We engage selected third-party companies and individuals to perform services on our behalf or complementary to our own (“Service Providers”). Such Service Providers may include commercial software providers, hosting and server co-location services, communications and content delivery networks (CDNs), data security services, billing and payment processing services, fraud detection and prevention services, web and product analytics, e-mail distribution and monitoring services, session or activity recording services, remote access services, content transcription and analysis services, performance measurement, data optimization and marketing services, social and advertising networks, content and data enrichment providers, event production and hosting services, e-mail, voicemails, support, enablement and customer relation management systems, and our legal, financial and compliance advisors. Service Providers may have access to personal data, depending on each of their specific roles and purposes in facilitating and enhancing our Services, and may only use the data as determined in our agreements with them.

  • Vendors: Empathy engages with providers of professional services related to our Services, in order to enable them to contact you for the purpose of providing their services. Examples of such services may be assistance with memorial arrangements (including planning a funeral), arranging for house cleaning, handling your loved one’s personal belongings, finding an estate attorney, etc. In such instances, we may share relevant contact details with the respective Vendor. If you directly engage with any such Vendors, please note that any aspect of that engagement which is not directly related to the Services and directed by Empathy is beyond the scope of our Terms and Privacy Policy and may therefore be covered by the Vendor’s terms and privacy policy.

  • Sharing Personal Data with our Partners: We may disclose information about our Users' usage of our Services to our Partners, including for the purpose of learning and improving our services. We may also, at the request of the User or Loved One, disclose personal data to Partners in order to facilitate additional support for that User or Loved One. We will not share the contents of any communications nor any documents uploaded to our Vault feature with Partners.

  • Legal Compliance: We may disclose or allow government and law enforcement officials access to your personal data in response to a legal request, such as a subpoena, search warrant or court order (or similar requirement), or in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, with or without notice to you. Such disclosure or access may occur if we believe in good faith that: (a) we are legally compelled to do so; (b) disclosure is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding actual or suspected illegal activity, fraud, or other wrongdoing; or (c) such disclosure is required to protect our legitimate business interest, including the security or integrity of our products and Services.

  • Protecting Rights and Safety: We may share your personal data with others, if we believe in good faith that this will help protect the rights, property or personal safety of Empathy, any of our Visitors, Partners, Users, or any members of the general public.

  • Empathy Affiliated Companies: We may share personal data internally with our affiliated companies, for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. In addition, should Empathy or any of its affiliates undergo any change in control, including by means of merger, acquisition or purchase of substantially all of its assets, your personal data may be shared with the parties involved in such event.

  • Additional Sharing: Empathy may share your personal data in additional manners, pursuant to your explicit approval, or if we are legally obligated to do so, or if we have successfully rendered such data non-personal and anonymous. Additionally, we may transfer, share or otherwise use non-personal data at our sole discretion and without the need for further approval.

For the purposes of the CCPA, in the past 12 months, we may have disclosed: Identifiers; Geolocation data; Customer records information; Characteristics of protected classifications; Commercial information; Internet or other electronic network activity information; Audio, electronic, visual, or similar information; Professional or employment related information; Inferences; and Sensitive Personal Information to Service Providers and to Empathy Affiliated Companies or for Legal Compliance or to Protect Rights and Safety. We may have disclosed Identifiers and identified needs to Vendors or to Partners. We did so in pursuit of the business and commercial purposes described in Section 2 above. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information outside of purposes permitted under the CCPA.

6. Cookies and Data Collection Technologies

We and our Service Providers use cookies and other similar technologies to enable and improve the Services we provide, to track the performance of our Sites, perform analytics and gain insights on the use of our Services and the performance of our activities, and for personalization purposes including personalization of ads if we have obtained your consent. For more information on our cookie and data collection technologies practices, please visit our Cookie Policy.

Cookies are packets of information sent to your web browser and then sent back by the browser each time it accesses the server that sent the cookie. Some cookies are removed when you close your browser session. These are the “Session Cookies”. Some last for longer periods and are called “Persistent Cookies”. We use both types.

Some cookies are necessary for the Services to function properly, and cannot be declined or disabled unless you delete and block them through your web browser settings. Other cookies, which are used for functional, performance, analytics and marketing purposes, are optional. You may opt-in to or opt-out from the use of optional cookies through the “Your Privacy Choices” feature available on our website, which will open our cookie banner to allow you to change your preference, depending on your location and activity on our Services, as applicable. If you choose to opt-out of certain cookies, this will typically generate a new cookie which will preserve your choice, and indicate it to our Services in your next visits so that the cookies you opted-out of will not be utilized. You can also manage your cookies preferences, and accept, remove or entirely block cookies, through your browser settings.

Please note that certain web browsers may transmit “Do Not Track” signals to websites with which the browser communicates, telling the website not to follow its online movements. Because of differences in how web browsers interpret this feature and send those signals, and lack of standardization, we currently do not respond to such “Do Not Track” signals.

We also use the web analytics tool Google Analytics. This tool helps us understand users’ behavior on our Services, including by tracking page content, and click/touch, movements, scrolls and keystroke activities. Further information about the privacy practices of our analytics service provider is available at: www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. Further information about your option to opt-out of this analytics service is available at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Please note that if you get a new device, install a new browser, erase or otherwise alter your browser’s cookie file (including upgrading certain browsers), you may also clear the opt-out cookies installed once you opt-out, so an additional opt-out will be necessary to prevent additional tracking.

7. Communications

Service Communications: Empathy may contact you with important information regarding our Services. For example, we may notify you (through any of the means available to us) of changes or updates to our Services, service maintenance or changes, or password retrieval notices. You will not be able to optout of receiving such service communications while using our Services, as they are integral to such use.

Notifications and Promotional Communications: We may send you notifications concerning new features, offerings, events, and special opportunities or any other information we think you will find valuable. We may provide such notices through any of the contact means available to us (e.g., phone, mobile or email), through the Services, or through our marketing campaigns on any other websites or platforms.

If you do not wish to receive such promotional communications, you may notify us at any time by sending an email to [email protected] or by following the "unsubscribe", "stop" or "change email preferences" instructions contained in the promotional communications you receive.

8. Data Security

Empathy and its Service Providers implement systems, applications, and procedures that are appropriate to the sensitivity of the information to secure your personal data, to minimize the risks of theft, damage, loss of information, alteration, or unauthorized access or use of information (including limiting access to personal data to those of our personnel who require access for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy). These measures provide sound industry-standard security. However, please be aware that regardless of any security measures used or implemented, we cannot and do not guarantee the absolute protection and security of any personal data stored with us or with any third parties.

9. Data Subject Rights

Individuals have rights concerning their personal data. Please contact us by e-mail at: [email protected] if you wish to exercise your privacy rights under any applicable law, including the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), US State Privacy laws, including the CCPA, of Canadian personal information protection legislation, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and substantially similar provincial legislation, as amended from time to time. Such rights may include, to the extent applicable, the right to know/request access to (specific pieces of personal data collected; categories of personal data collected; categories of sources from whom the personal data was collected; purpose of collecting personal data; categories of third parties with whom we have shared personal data), to request rectification or erasure of your personal data held with Empathy, or to restrict or object to such personal data’s processing (including the right to direct us not to sell or share your personal data to third parties now or in the future, or the right to opt-out of processing personal data for the purposes of targeted advertising, as described below), or to port such personal data, the right to the de-indexing of your personal data, or the right to equal services and prices (e.g., freedom from discrimination) (each to the extent available to you under the laws which apply to you). If you are a GDPR-protected individual, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority in the EU or the UK, as applicable.

To the extent applicable to you, you may also designate an authorized agent, in writing or through a power of attorney, to request to exercise your privacy rights on your behalf. The authorized agent may submit a request to exercise these rights by emailing us.

When you or an authorized agent ask us to exercise any of your rights, we may need to ask you to provide us certain credentials to make sure that you are who you claim you are, to avoid disclosure to you of personal data related to others and to ask you to provide further information to better understand the nature and scope of data that you request to access. We may not be able to fulfil your request unless you have provided sufficient information that enables us to reasonably verify that you are the individual about whom we collected the personal data. We may then request additional information for legal purposes (e.g., as proof of the identity of the person submitting the request, or proof of request fulfillment).

We may redact from the data which we will make available to you, any personal data or confidential information related to others.

If you are a resident of Virginia, Colorado or Connecticut, or other relevant jurisdictions as applicable, you may also have the right to appeal if we decline to take action regarding your request. We will notify you providing our reasons and instructions for how you can appeal the decision. If you are a Colorado resident, or of any other state where similar rights are applicable. you may also have the right to contact the state’s Attorney General if you have concerns about the result of the appeal.

10. Opt-Out of Sale/Sharing/Targeted Advertising

Under some US and other data protection laws such as the CCPA, our disclosure of certain internet activity and device information to third parties through cookies may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information or processing for purposes of “targeted advertising” as such terms are defined under US data protection laws. We do so in pursuit of the business and commercial purposes described in Section 2 above.

In the last 12 months we have "sold" or "shared" Internet or other electronic network activity information, Geolocation data, and Commercial information with our analytics and advertising partners and service providers. Empathy has not knowingly sold or shared the personal information of individuals under the age of 18.

You may opt out of all cookies that may result in a “sale” and/or “sharing” of your personal information or processing for purposes of targeted advertising in the following ways:

  • Click the “Your Privacy Choices” button (available in our website’s footer), which will open our cookie banner, allowing you to change your preference.

Please note: If you visit us from a different device or browser, or clear cookies, then you need to re-select your preferences.

  • Set the Global Privacy Control (GPC) for each participating browser system that you use to opt out of the use of third-party Advertising cookies (instructions on how to download and use GPC are available here).

11. Additional Notices and Contact Details

Updates and Amendments: We may update and amend this Privacy Policy from time to time by posting an amended version on our Services. We will make reasonable efforts to post a clear notice on our Services and/or we send you an email (to the extent that you provided us with your email address) regarding the change if we believe any substantial changes are involved. Such changes will take effect four (4) days after the notice is posted on the Services or sent via email, whichever is earlier. After such notice period, all amendments to this Privacy Policy shall be deemed accepted by you.

External Links: While our Services may contain links or integrations to other websites, social networks or services, we are not responsible for their privacy practices, and encourage you to pay attention when you leave our Services for the website or services of such third parties, or interact with social network integrations. We recommend you read the privacy policies of each and every website and service you visit. This Privacy Policy only applies to our Services.

Children’s Privacy: Our Services are not intended for use by children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors under the age of 18 and do not wish to do so. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at [email protected].

EU Representative: Empathy has designated Prighter Group as its representative in the European Union, for data protection matters pursuant to Article 27 of the GDPR. Prighter Group may be contacted only on matters related to the processing of personal data. To make such an inquiry, please visit Prighter | Compliance Landing Page of The Empathy Project Inc.

UK Representative: Empathy has designated Prighter Group as its representative in the United Kingdom for data protection matters pursuant to Article 27 of the UK GDPR. For all inquiries regarding our UK privacy practices, please visit Prighter | Compliance Landing Page of The Empathy Project Inc.

Contacting Us: If you have any comments or questions about this Privacy Policy or if you have any concerns regarding your personal data held with us, please contact our Privacy Officer at [email protected] or by mail to Empathy, 56 W 22nd Street, New York, NY 10010.