Privacy Policy

1. About this Policy and how to contact us

InstantWho ("InstantWho", "we", "us" or "our") is responsible for personal information processed for the purposes described in this Policy. Privacy enquiries and privacy-rights requests can be sent to privacy@instantwho.com.

This Policy applies to visitors, account holders, contributors, company representatives, people who contact us, and individuals whose personal information appears in relevant source material or user content.

This Policy explains our processing practices. Where a specific activity requires consent, we request that consent separately rather than treating acceptance of this Policy as blanket consent.

2. Company information and personal information

InstantWho reports primarily concern businesses and organisations. Information solely about a legal entity is not necessarily personal information. However, names of directors, sole traders, employees, reviewers or other identifiable individuals, as well as photographs, voices, handles, contact details and allegations about identifiable people, may be personal information.

Public availability does not automatically remove privacy obligations. Where personal information appears in business research, we consider relevance, context, accuracy, necessity and potential impact.

3. Information you provide directly

We may process information you provide when you create or use an account, including:

• email address and account identifier;
• sign-in and security information;
• display name, username, avatar or profile image and bio;
• account settings and records of accepted terms;
• saved or followed companies and related preferences;
• support, correction, moderation, rights and privacy requests; and
• billing or transaction information where paid features are enabled.

If you publish a Karma post, community experience or other contribution, we may process the content and information you submit, including a title, description, rating, category, date, resolution status, updates, comments, replies, interactions and attachments such as images, documents or audio.

Do not submit unnecessary sensitive information or private information about other people.

4. Information collected when you use the Service

We may process technical and usage information needed to provide, protect and improve the Service, including:

• IP address and approximate country or region derived from it;
• browser, device and operating-system information;
• session and security identifiers;
• requested pages and features;
• timestamps, security events and error information; and
• company-search queries, requested domains and report interactions.

We use this information to return requested results, maintain security, prevent abuse, understand performance and operate the Service. We do not use an IP address as proof that one device or connection always represents one unique person.

Cookies and similar technologies may support secure sessions, account access, security, preferences and other requested functions. See Section 10 and our Cookie Policy.

5. Information from other sources

When you choose an enabled external sign-in service, we receive the information authorised for that login, such as an account identifier, name, email address and, where available, profile image. We do not receive the password you use with that external provider.

For Service research and information features, we may process relevant information from publicly available sources, authorised data services, organisations, and material supplied by users or representatives. The precise mix of sources and internal processing methods may vary by feature and is not described in this Policy beyond what is necessary to explain our privacy practices.

Publicly available or authorised material may contain personal information about individuals connected with businesses, organisations, public proceedings or user contributions. We process such information only where it is relevant to the Service and where there is an appropriate lawful basis. Public availability alone does not make personal information unrestricted. If you believe personal information displayed by InstantWho is materially inaccurate, outdated, excessive, or should be corrected, restricted, anonymised or removed under applicable law, contact privacy@instantwho.com and identify the relevant page or material.

A user or company representative may also mention another person in a post, reply, attachment or request. That information is not treated as unrestricted merely because someone else submitted it.

6. What is public and what is private

Information you choose to publish may be visible to other users, companies and the general public. Depending on the feature, public information may include your display name, username, avatar, bio, contribution statistics, published experiences, ratings, comments, replies, company responses, public attachments and associated dates.

Public content may appear on a company report, public profile or shareable experience page and may be indexed by search engines.

Non-public account information, such as your sign-in email, authentication information, private support correspondence and non-public verification material, is not displayed as a public profile field merely because you use the Service.

Saved-company lists and other account preferences are private unless the product clearly tells you otherwise. If a following feature displays a public count or other public information, the interface will identify that visibility.

Unpublished drafts and material submitted through a clearly identified private verification or support channel are not intended for public display. Files attached to a public post are public unless the interface expressly states otherwise.

Public sharing is not confidential communication. Even where you use a pseudonym, your story, dates, voice, images or attachments may identify you.

7. Why we process personal information

Where applicable law requires a legal basis, we use the basis appropriate to the particular purpose.

Providing the Service. We process information needed to create and secure accounts, maintain settings, save or follow companies, publish content you ask us to publish, provide requested features and send necessary service communications.

Information and publication features. Where Service content contains personal information, we may rely on legitimate interests in providing relevant business information and supporting informed public discussion, subject to the rights and interests of affected individuals.

Security and reliability. We process proportionate technical and activity information to protect accounts and systems, prevent fraud, spam and abuse, investigate errors and maintain continuity.

Moderation, verification and requests. We process relevant content and communications to assess authenticity, representative authority, policy violations, corrections, disputes and rights requests.

Analytics and improvement. We may use proportionate operational measurement to understand performance and improve the Service. Where optional analytics or device access requires consent, we request that consent before activating it.

Marketing. Where we send optional marketing or use tracking that requires consent, we provide an appropriate choice and a way to withdraw it.

Legal obligations and claims. We process information where necessary to comply with applicable law, respond to valid legal process or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

8. Automated processing

InstantWho may use automated systems to provide, protect and improve features of the Service. These systems may assist with organisation, safety, moderation, classification, summarisation or other functions made available through the Service.

Relevant information may be processed by carefully selected service providers where necessary to operate and support the Service. We limit access to what is reasonably necessary and apply appropriate contractual and security safeguards.

Use of automated systems for a Service feature does not authorise unrelated use of private drafts, non-public evidence or account information for unrelated purposes. If we introduce a materially different use that requires additional notice or choice, we will provide it before that use begins.

Automated outputs are not treated as conclusive proof of misconduct. Where applicable, you may challenge relevant personal information or request correction through our privacy or content contact.

9. Who receives information

Personal information may be received by:

Other users and the public, when you publish information or when personal information lawfully appears in a public company report.

Service providers that help us operate, secure, maintain and support the Service. We limit their access to what is reasonably necessary for the services they provide. We do not use this Policy to publish a technical inventory of our infrastructure or proprietary workflow.

Independent third parties, such as external sign-in services, linked publishers or payment services, which may process information under their own privacy policies for their own purposes.

Companies and affected contributors, where relevant portions of a complaint, response or correction request need to be shared so the matter can be assessed fairly, while limiting unnecessary personal information.

Legal and professional recipients, where disclosure is necessary to comply with valid legal process, protect people or systems, obtain professional advice or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

A successor organisation, if the Service is involved in a lawful merger, restructuring, financing or transfer, subject to applicable privacy obligations.

InstantWho does not sell access to your sign-in email or private account contact information. If we introduce processing that legally qualifies as a sale or sharing for targeted advertising, we will provide the disclosures and choices required by applicable law before that processing begins.

10. Cookies and similar technologies

We use necessary technologies to support functions such as secure sessions, abuse prevention and privacy preferences. We may also use optional technologies for analytics, personalisation or marketing where enabled and lawful.

Where consent is required, optional technologies will not be activated until the required choice has been made. You can change applicable optional choices through the cookie settings made available by the Service.

Our Cookie Policy provides more information about the active cookies and similar technologies, their purposes, duration and available controls.

Some externally provided content may cause limited technical information, such as an IP address and request data, to be sent to the relevant third party. We handle optional third-party content in accordance with applicable consent requirements.

11. International processing

Personal information may be processed in countries where InstantWho, its service providers or authorised support personnel operate.

Where applicable law requires safeguards for an international transfer, we use an appropriate transfer mechanism and additional protections where required. You may contact privacy@instantwho.com for more information about relevant safeguards, subject to necessary legal and security limitations.

12. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including providing the Service, maintaining security, resolving disputes, meeting legal obligations and preserving lawful public records.

Retention depends on the category and context. In general:

• account and preference information is kept while needed to provide the account and for a limited period after closure where necessary;
• published Karma posts, comments, replies, updates and attachments are intended to form a lasting public record and may remain published while their continued publication is lawful and relevant; ordinary voluntary deletion after publication is not automatic, while correction, objection, erasure and other rights required by applicable law remain available;
• research-source information may be retained while relevant and lawful for a source-linked report, correction history or justified research record;
• security and request records are kept for a proportionate period needed to investigate abuse, respond to incidents and document outcomes;
• transaction records, where applicable, are retained as required by applicable accounting, tax and claims rules; and
• deleted information may remain temporarily in restricted backups until ordinary backup rotation is completed.

We delete or irreversibly anonymise personal information when it is no longer needed, subject to applicable legal exceptions and technical backup cycles.

13. Account deletion, contribution removal and public reports

You may request account deletion or removal of personal information by using available controls or contacting privacy@instantwho.com.

Deleting an account, removing a published contribution and removing an independent company report are different requests. As an ordinary product rule, publishing a Karma post, comment, reply or update does not give the author an automatic ability to delete that public record later at will. Account deletion therefore does not automatically delete previously published contributions. Where appropriate and lawful, an author identity may be removed or anonymised while the published record remains available.

Authors may request correction of inaccurate personal information and may add dated updates to published Karma posts. Product-level edit limits or administrator review do not restrict any broader correction, restriction, erasure or other right that applicable law requires us to provide.

A company report or community contribution may remain available where continued publication is lawful and justified, but material may also be corrected, restricted, de-indexed, anonymised or removed where appropriate or required by law, including for serious safety, integrity, rights or legal reasons.

Requests concerning correction of public company information or user-submitted content can be sent to reports@instantwho.com.

We cannot control independent copies already made by third parties, but where applicable law requires reasonable steps to notify recipients or search providers of a correction or deletion, we will take those steps.

14. Your rights and choices

Depending on applicable law and the particular processing, you may have rights to:

• access personal information and receive a copy;
• correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• request deletion;
• restrict certain processing;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• receive eligible information in a portable format;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
• object to direct marketing at any time; and
• obtain safeguards concerning qualifying automated decisions where applicable.

To exercise a right, contact privacy@instantwho.com and identify the account, report or material where possible. We may request only the additional information reasonably necessary to verify the request and protect other people’s information.

We respond within the period required by applicable law. You may also complain to the competent data-protection authority or use available judicial remedies.

15. Security

We use technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information and the risks involved, including controls intended to protect accounts, restrict unauthorised access and safeguard the systems used to provide the Service.

No online service can guarantee absolute security. If a personal-data breach requires notice to individuals or an authority, we will provide that notice as required by applicable law.

Report a suspected security issue to security@instantwho.com.

16. Children

InstantWho accounts and community submissions are intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly permit children to register under this policy.

If you believe a child has submitted information or is identified in public material in a way that should be reviewed, contact privacy@instantwho.com.

17. Changes and contact

We may update this Policy when our practices, the Service or applicable requirements change. We will identify the effective date and provide any notice or additional choice required by applicable law before a materially different processing purpose begins.

Questions about this Policy or privacy rights can be sent to privacy@instantwho.com.