Privacy Policy

Effective Date: April 2, 2011

The Gust platform is a set of tools for investors and entrepreneurs. It is also a portal where entrepreneurs and investors may exchange information. Gust licenses the Gust Platform to investor groups for the management of the investments of their members.

The Gust Platform

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies only to your relationship with Gust. It does not apply to the interactions that you have with any other individual, investor group, or other group through the Gust platform. For example, the administrator of an investor group has the ability to disclose or share with other members of the investor group any information that you submit to the Gust platform. Gust has no control over this disclosure or sharing, and is not responsible for it. The protection of your personal data when you interact with an investor group through the Gust platform is governed solely by any agreements that you may have with that group and is beyond the scope of this Privacy Policy.

Definitions

This Privacy Policy is a part of the Terms of Service for the Gust platform. The terms 'Gust,' 'Gust Platform,' 'Gust Services' and 'Gust' Website have the same meaning as set forth in the Gust Terms of Service

What is 'personal data'?

" Personal data " is any data that (1) is recorded in any form, (2) is about or pertains to a specific individual and (3) can be linked to that individual. For example, your name, contact information, and the deals in which you have participated are " personal data. "

Personal data does not include website data , aggregated data , or uploaded documents.

What kind of personal data is collected?

We collect personal data at different stages of your use of the Gust site.

When you visit gust.com
If you visit www.gust.com, whether or not you sign-in as a registered user, we collect your IP address, the location of your Internet Service Provider, the type and version of Internet browser that you are using (e.g., Safari v.3.2.3; Internet Explorer v.7.0), and the website from which you came. We also collect information regarding your site usage, such as the time spent on a page, or number of pages viewed.
When you set up an account
When you set up your account, you will be required to provide certain personal data including your name and email address. You may also be invited to provide optional personal data, such as biography, photograph, postal address or phone number.
When you interact with the Gust platform
We also collect personal data that you provide when you interact with the Gust platform, for example, by sending a message or uploading documents, or when exchanging correspondence with us, such as through support emails.
When you use your account
We collect information that you provide or create when you use your account:
- If you are an investor ,
  you may record in your profile within your Investor Group information about yourself, such as your contact information, picture, biography, experience, or other groups to which you belong.
- If you are an entrepreneur ,
  and you represent a company that is seeking investors, you may record information about yourself, your company, and its management team. You may also include a video recording or picture.
- If you are a student entrepreneur ,
  and are using our site as part of our partnership with business schools, you may record in your account information about yourself, your company, and its management team. You may also include a video recording or picture.

If you provide any information about a third party (such as a person's name or photograph), you must make sure that you have the right to do so. By providing the personal data of another individual, you represent that you have all necessary authority and/or have obtained all necessary consents from this individual to enable us to collect, use and disclose his or her personal data as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

How is personal data collected?

We collect personal data directly from you when you provide it through your use of the Gust platform, such as in emails or when you fill out forms that are displayed on our website.

We also use cookies that are sent to your computer, or action tags that are placed on our website. For additional explanation on cookies and action tags, see Cookies and Action Tags.

For what purpose will my personal data be used?

Gust uses your personal data to maintain your account and to provide you with the angel group and deal-flow management services that serve as the core of the Gust platform. We also use your personal data to respond to requests that you make of us, and to contact you and to provide you with information that we believe may be of interest to you.

We may also use your name and contact information to make queries against social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, to show you how you are linked or connected to other individuals who are also Gust users.

Can third parties see my personal data?

If you are an investor
The Gust Platform allows the administrator of an investor group the ability to set certain settings in the profile of the members of the investor group. Thus, for each investor group, the group administrator decides which information is available for access or review by third parties, and which information is not to be disclosed, or is disclosed to selected third parties, according to the policies of the investor group. Please note that (1) the default settings that are set by a group administrator may change from time to time; (2) each investor group may opt for different default settings. We have no control over the choice of a setting or the change in a default setting by a group administrator.
If you are an entrepreneur or a student entrepreneur
If you are an entrepreneur and you have posted or uploaded information about you and/or your team, this information is disclosed to the investor groups to whom you have chosen to disclose the information.

With whom may we share personal data?

Under certain business or legal conditions, Gust may have to disclose your personal data to others as follows:

Service Providers
Gust may engage other companies and individuals to perform necessary business functions on behalf of Gust (e.g. outside contractors or service providers). If it is necessary to perform these functions, these persons may have access to personal data of our users. These service providers have agreed not to use the personal data for any other purpose other than providing the required services.
Legally Required Disclosure
Under certain circumstances, disclosure of your personal data may be required by law. Gust may disclose your personal data (1) if, in its own best judgment, it is required to do so in order to comply with a facially valid judicial or governmental subpoena, warrant, or other order, or (2) to a government institution that has asserted its lawful authority to obtain the information, or (3) in connection with the exercise or defense of its rights.
Change of Ownership
If ownership of Gust changes as a result of a merger, acquisition, or transfer to another company, your personal data may be transferred to the successor entity. If such transfer takes place, you will be notified of any material changes to the Privacy Policy and provided with the ability to opt-out of the transfer of your personal data to the third party.

Can I access or change my personal data?

All registered users of the Gust website can have access to the personal data that Gust holds about them and is listed in their profiles. They can correct, amend, or delete this data at their convenience and on their own time.

For auditing and security purposes, Gust keeps a log of all users' activities, which is retained in its archives as necessary for Gust to fulfill its obligations. Users may be able to have access to the personal data that pertain to them. However, the administrative and technical burden associated with the retrieval of these archived data is substantial. Gust would need to be compensated for this effort in a manner that is consistent with its actual cost. In addition, each user's right of access may be limited to the extent that providing access might infringe on a third party's privacy rights. Requests for access to this archived information are handled on a case-by-case basis, after Gust has verified the identity of the requestor. Inquiries should be made as provided in the section Contacting Gust.

Can I have my personal data deleted?

You can delete any personal data that is recorded in the profile that you create for yourself as an investor or for your company, or as an entrepreneur (or student entrepreneur).

You can request the administrator of your Angel Group to delete any messages that contain personal data and your request will be handled by your Angel Group according to its policies.

What is Aggregated Data, and how is it used?

Data aggregation is a process in which information is gathered and expressed in a summary form for purposes such as statistical analysis, in order to obtain information about a particular group based on specific variables. Data used for aggregation purposes are collected in a form that removes all identifiers, and may be combined with other data for which all identifiers have also been removed. Gust uses aggregated data to generate accurate metrics about the early stage private equity industry.

Aggregated data are packaged and licensed to third parties such as governments, economic development agencies, and financial institutions. Examples of aggregated data may include:

Data about the early equity space, such as number of deals in a month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter basis at various generic stages of the funding process (e.g. New Deals, In Progress Deals, Inactive Deals, and Invested Deals).
Data about industries and geographies related to companies seeking investors and those successfully obtaining investments.

What is Website Data, and how is it used?

Website data is aggregated data about the overall traffic to, and usage of our website. Examples include the number of visitors to the gust.com web site and the number of registered users of the Gust platform. Gust may extract and use website data for internal purposes, in order to analyze the performance of its website and applications. For example, we may use these data for traffic analysis and business decision making, in order to determine how we can improve our site or its functionalities.

The statistics generated in this manner contain no personal data and cannot be used to gather any information about individual visitors to the site.

Cookies and Action Tags

Cookies
Gust uses 'cookies.' A cookie is a small amount of data sent to a user's web browser from a web server, which is then stored on the user's hard drive. Cookies are used to make site navigation easier, and can help recognize a returning visitor. Gust's cookies do not generate any personal data, do not read personal data from your computer, and are not tied to any personal data. Most browsers automatically accept cookies. You can instruct your browser, by editing its options, to stop accepting cookies, or to prompt you before accepting cookies from the sites that you visit. If you decide not to accept our cookies, some or all features of the site may not be available because navigation on the site is facilitated by cookies. You can delete cookies from your computer at any time. You can learn more about cookies by visiting: www.allaboutcookies.org or www.networkadvertising.org.
Action Tags
Gust uses action tags. An action tag is a small piece of code that is placed on a webpage or in an email in order to track the pages viewed or the messages opened, the date and time when someone visited our website, the website from which the visitor came, the type of browser used, and the domain name and address of the user's Internet Service Provider. Action tags allow us to better understand how users and visitors use our site or browse through our pages, so that we can improve access to and navigation through the site, add or modify pages, according to our user's patterns. Action tags cannot be removed or deleted by our users, because they are part of the programming of a webpage.

What security measures are in place to protect my personal data?

Gust uses physical, technical, and administrative procedures in order to safeguard and protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. However, while we do our best to implement reasonable security measures, we do not guarantee that our safeguards will always work.

Gust uses industry-standard technological means to protect your personal data while in transit through the Internet. We use encryption and a comprehensive authentication protocol to provide reasonable security. However, please remember that no security system on the Internet is 'perfect'.

What about Uploaded Documents?

Documents that are uploaded to the Gust platform for sharing are stored at a third-party data-storage service. All uploads and downloads are transmitted through the Internet between users and the data storage service using the same encryption techniques as those that are used with personal data. However, Uploaded Documents are neither stored redundantly, nor backed up. Therefore, we recommend that Gust users keep back-up copies of their documents if they upload them to the gust.com website.

When will Gust contact me?

Gust will communicate with you in response to your requests for service or customer support. We will contact you by phone or by email, according to your preference.

Gust will send you service-related emails if it becomes necessary to do so. Gust may also send you an email in order to notify you of new products, services or features, or updates to our Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, or other agreement that you have with Gust.

Links to other websites

Gust may provide links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these sites. In order to safeguard your privacy, please review the privacy policies of any sites that you may visit before providing any personal data to these third party sites.

Limitation of Liability

Gust exercises reasonable efforts to safeguard the security and confidentiality of your personal data; however, transmissions protected by industry standard technology and administered by humans cannot be guaranteed to be secure. Gust will not be liable for unauthorized disclosure of personal data that occurs through no fault of Gust including, but not limited to, errors in transmission, access to your account by anyone uses your user ID and password, your failure to comply with your security obligations, and the unauthorized acts of Gust's employees.

Minors

Gust does not provide products or services for individuals under the age of 18. We do not intentionally collect nor maintain information from users actually known to be under the age of 18, and we will not use that information if we learn that it has been provided by someone under 18.

Choice

If at any time Gust wishes to disclose, or use your personal data in a way, or for a purpose other than as described in this Privacy Policy, Gust will give you the opportunity to choose (opt out) whether your personal data (1) may be disclosed to a third party and (2) may be used for a purpose other than the purposes that are set forth in this Privacy Policy.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

From time to time, Gust may update this Privacy Policy in order to reflect changes in its practices. Whenever such changes are made, Gust will post an updated Privacy Policy on its website, and may email registered users.

All changes will apply to the personal data that are already collected, and to personal data that are collected after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy.

If any proposed change is unacceptable to you, you will have the right to terminate your account.

If we decide to change this Privacy Policy in a material way, we will obtain the necessary consents required under applicable laws if we seek to collect, use or,disclose personal data for purposes other than those for which consent has been obtained, unless this change is otherwise required or permitted by law.

Dispute Resolution

If you have any concerns or claims with respect to our Privacy Policy, please contact us as indicated in Contacting Gust. We will investigate and attempt to resolve any complaints and disputes regarding our use and disclosure of personal data.

If the complaint or dispute cannot be resolved through our internal process, and Gust does not adequately respond to your question, please contact the New York office of the American Arbitration Association, which will serve as a liaison with Gust to resolve your concerns.

If arbitration is necessary, it will be conducted by telephone and email, and if it must be done in person, it will be conducted in New York, NY. The arbitration will be conducted by one arbitrator member of the American Arbitration Association, and under the rules of commercial arbitration of the American Arbitration Association. Both parties will bear equally the cost of arbitration (exclusive of legal fees and expenses). All decisions of the arbitrator(s) will be final and binding on both parties and enforceable in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Contacting Gust

Gust LLC owns and operates the gust.com web site and the Gust service platform. Our mailing address is 158 West 29th Street, New York, NY 10001 USA.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or believe that its terms have not been complied with, please email Gust at: support@gust.com.

Privacy Policy

Table of Contents

The Gust Platform

Scope of this Privacy Policy

Definitions

What is 'personal data'?

What kind of personal data is collected?

When you visit gust.com

When you set up an account

When you interact with the Gust platform

When you use your account

If you are an investor ,

If you are an entrepreneur ,

If you are a student entrepreneur ,