Privacy Policy for HW Price Guide

1. Information We Collect

Depending on how you use the Service, we may collect the following categories of information:

• Account and contact information: Name, username, email address, password (stored in hashed form), membership/subscription status, and related account settings.
• Technical and usage information: IP address, device and browser information, app version, approximate location derived from IP, and logs of how you interact with the Service.
• Payment and subscription information: When you purchase a membership, payment is processed by third-party providers (such as Stripe, Apple, or Google). We receive confirmation of purchase status and related identifiers; we do not store full payment card numbers.
• Collection and catalog data: Items you save to your collection, wish lists, and related preferences you choose to store in your account.
• Photos and images you upload:
  • Identify from photo: If you use our photo identification feature (including beta access), you may take a photo with your device camera or select an image from your photo library. That image is uploaded to our servers, stored in association with your account, and used to suggest matching catalog items.
  • Profile and community images: Profile pictures and other images you upload in connection with your account or community features (for example, collector photos associated with catalog items).
• User-generated and community content: Text and other content you submit through community or interactive features, including comments, replies, likes, reports, reviews, and similar contributions, along with metadata such as timestamps and the username associated with the post.
• Public profile information: If you enable a public profile, information you choose to make visible (such as your username, profile picture, and collection details you elect to share) may be viewable by other users.
• Cookies and similar technologies: We use cookies and similar technologies on the website to operate the Service, remember preferences, and support analytics and advertising where applicable.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, operate, and improve the website and mobile apps (including catalog search, pricing guides, collections, and memberships).
• Process photo identification requests: store your uploaded image, analyze it to suggest catalog matches, and associate results with your account.
• Operate community and interactive features, including displaying, moderating, and enforcing rules around comments, replies, likes, reports, public profiles, and uploaded images.
• Complete transactions, manage subscriptions, and provide customer support.
• Send service-related communications (for example, account, security, or membership notices). Where permitted, we may also use information for marketing, including personalized advertising.
• Detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, spam, and other harmful or unauthorized activity.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms and policies.

3. Photo Identification Feature

When you use Identify from photo (or a similar catalog photo-matching feature):

• You must be signed in. The feature may be limited to eligible or beta accounts and may be subject to daily or other usage limits.
• Photos you submit are uploaded to and stored on our infrastructure (for example, cloud object storage such as Amazon S3) and linked to your user account.
• Image content is sent to a third-party artificial intelligence / vision service (currently OpenAI, or another provider we configure) for automated analysis so we can suggest matching Hot Wheels catalog entries. That processing is for app functionality, not for selling your photos as a product.
• We do not use these uploaded identify photos for advertising tracking. Access to the camera or photo library on your device is requested only so you can capture or choose an image for this feature (and, where applicable, other image-upload features you choose to use).

4. Community Features

HW Price Guide may offer community and social features, such as article comments and replies, likes, content reporting, public collector profiles, profile pictures, and shared collector images. If you use these features:

• Public visibility: Content you post in public areas (for example, comments on articles) and information on a public profile may be visible to other users, along with your username and related metadata (such as when you posted).
• Moderation: We (and tools or staff acting on our behalf) may review, remove, restrict, or otherwise moderate user-generated content and accounts to address spam, abuse, illegal content, or violations of our rules. Reports you submit about others’ content are used for safety and moderation.
• Your responsibility: Do not post personal information about yourself or others that you do not want to be public. Content you make public may be copied, indexed, or shared by others outside our control.
• Optional sharing: Public profiles and similar sharing settings are optional. You can typically disable a public profile in account settings; doing so does not automatically remove content you previously posted in public comment threads unless you delete that content or request account deletion as described below.

5. Sharing of Information

We may share information as follows:

• Service providers: Vendors who help us host, store, analyze, secure, or operate the Service (for example, cloud hosting and storage such as Amazon Web Services, analytics providers, email providers, and customer support tools). They process data on our behalf under appropriate contractual and technical safeguards.
• AI / vision processing: When you use photo identification, image content is shared with our AI provider (such as OpenAI) solely to analyze the image and return catalog-matching suggestions.
• Payment and app store platforms: Stripe, Apple, Google, and similar processors handle payments and subscriptions according to their own policies.
• Advertising and analytics: We may use third-party analytics and advertising services (including mobile advertising SDKs where present in the apps). These services may collect device or usage data as described in their privacy policies.
• Public community content: Comments, public profiles, and other content you choose to make public are visible to other users of the Service.
• Legal and safety: We may disclose information if required by law, or if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect rights, safety, or the integrity of the Service.
• Business transfers: If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections.

We do not sell your personal information in the traditional sense of selling a mailing list. Some advertising or analytics practices may be considered a “sale” or “share” under certain U.S. state privacy laws; where those laws apply, you may have additional rights as described in Section 7.

6. Data Retention

We retain account information and related data for as long as your account remains active, and afterward as needed for legitimate business purposes (such as backups, dispute resolution, security, and legal compliance), unless a shorter period is required by law or you successfully request deletion.

This includes user-generated content (such as comments), collection data, and photos uploaded for identification or community features, unless removed earlier through product features, moderation, or a deletion request.

When you delete your account or we complete a verified deletion request, we take reasonable steps to delete or anonymize personal data associated with the account where feasible, including community content we can reasonably identify as yours and uploaded photos we store for your account, subject to legal, security, backup, and operational limitations. Public replies by other users to your comments may remain, with your identity removed or dissociated where practical.

7. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of certain personal information, or to object to or restrict certain processing. You may also have the right to opt out of certain advertising-related sharing where applicable.

• Account settings: You can update many profile and visibility settings (including public profile preferences) while signed in.
• Community content: Where the product allows, you may delete your own comments or similar posts. You may also report content that violates our rules.
• Camera and photos: You can deny or later revoke camera and photo-library permissions in your device settings. Doing so may limit photo-based features.
• Account deletion: You can request deletion through the mobile app (where available), our account deletion page, or by emailing us. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request.

To exercise these rights, contact us at info@hwpriceguide.com.

8. Third-Party Services

We use third-party services for hosting and storage, analytics, advertising, payment processing, app distribution, and AI-assisted features. Those providers may process data under their own privacy policies. Examples include cloud infrastructure (such as Amazon Web Services), OpenAI (for photo analysis when you use identify-from-photo), Stripe, Apple, Google, and advertising/analytics partners.

Links to third-party sites or services are not covered by this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review the privacy practices of those third parties.

9. Data Security

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your data from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. Children’s Privacy

The Service is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age required in your jurisdiction), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, please contact us so we can take appropriate steps.

11. International Users

HW Price Guide is operated from the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, you understand that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States and other countries where our service providers operate, which may have different data-protection laws than your country of residence.

12. Updates to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Last Updated” date at the top of this page will change when we do. Continued use of the Service after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy, except where applicable law requires additional notice or consent.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or your data, please contact us at:

Email: info@hwpriceguide.com