Terms & Privacy
Welcome
We would like to thank you for your choice to use Vexl. We know that you are eager to go ahead and start using it right away, but we kindly ask you to spare a few minutes to read through the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy first. We value your time, so we promise that we will keep it as brief as possible. If you agree with everything that you read here, you may then go ahead and start using Vexl.
Vexl Terms of Service
1. PARTIES
Let's start with introductions, so you know, who hides under the terms “we” and “you” frequently used throughout this document.
We are a commercial company Vexl s.r.o. with a registered office at Kundratka 2359/17a, Libeň, 180 00 Prague 8, Czech Republic. While this is probably sufficient information for you, law dictates that we must also mention that our Id. No. is 172 70 642 and we are registered in the commercial register kept by the Commercial court in Prague under file No. 369216.
By “you” we mean anybody, whether you are an individual or legal person, who uses Vexl in any way.
It probably goes without saying, but your legal capacity must not be limited to the extent that it could prevent you from accepting these Terms of Service and using Vexl. To make things simpler, let's just agree that you must be at least 18 years old to use Vexl.
2. ABOUT VEXL
To put it simply, Vexl is a service (which includes an application) that allows users interested in buying or selling Bitcoin to connect with each other to discuss their offers and agree upon trades. What is more, Vexl accomplishes that while collecting and storing almost no information about the users. Once the users are connected they may discuss the potential trade via private and secure (end-to-end encrypted) chat.
Important notice: Vexl itself does not offer any instruments to facilitate Bitcoin transactions between the users. We do not monitor whether any trades took place between any of our users. The only objective of Vexl is to provide the users a safe and simple to use platform for finding and contacting each other and for discussing the terms of the trade.
For the reasons above we also cannot issue any confirmation of the transactions between the users and we most definitely cannot issue any invoice on behalf of the users. If you need any such confirmation, you must communicate such a request to the other party of your trade.
3. USER ACCOUNT
To keep your user account secure and private, we decided on a new approach. Instead of creating a conventional user account and storing all the related data on our servers, we decided that most sensitive data will be stored locally on your device and that your user account will be only accessible with a so-called private key generated and stored by Vexl locally on your device as part of the onboarding procedure. This is very important, because it means that your account can only be accessed from your device and once the private key is deleted, no one can access the user account.
Important notice: Your private key is essential to access your user account and related data. If you lose your phone, format your phone's hard drive, uninstall Vexl, or even just decide to logout from Vexl, your private key will be lost, and your original user account including any related data cannot be recovered.
To create your user account, we verify your phone number by sending you a verification code. You agree to receive text messages (from us or our third-party providers) with verification codes to complete the onboarding procedure and you agree that you are authorized to use the phone number for such purpose.
Although you do not have to set up a password to access Vexl, we strongly recommend doing so. When choosing your password, we also recommend not to reuse passwords used in third-party applications. Changing the password frequently to keep your user account secure may also be a good idea. Alternatively, you can also set up FaceID to access Vexl.
The user account is dedicated to you, and you are responsible for all activities that occur on or through the user account, so it is important that you keep your password and devices used to access the user account secure. This does not only protect you, but also any other users of Vexl that have no way of knowing who is actually logged into your Vexl account.
4. USER CONTACTS
Vexl only allows you to connect with your friends (1st degree contacts) or with people that you have a common friend with (2nd degree contacts). Therefore, as a part of the onboarding procedure, you will be asked to import the contact details of your friends either from your phone address book, or from your Facebook user account, so that Vexl can cross check your contact database against the contact information of our current users. This does not allow Vexl to make any changes to the contact list on your phone or to your Facebook account. The contact details will then remain stored encrypted in a separate microservice dedicated only for handling contact lists and inaccessible by us.
Important notice: As with other data, the contact information will be encrypted by Vexl locally on your device, so we cannot read it, when it is transmitted into our microservice. We look for your 1st and 2nd degree contacts solely by comparing the encrypted data (hashes) with each other without having to know the actual underlying contact information.
5. OFFERS AND CHAT
Publishing offers to buy or sell Bitcoin and facilitating the connection with the users interested in such offers is the main functionality of Vexl. Depending on the parameters of the offer, it is visible either only to your 1 degree contacts, or also to the 2degree contacts. The offer is encrypted for respective users using their public keys, so that no other user can see it.
Important notice: The users do not know the identity of the offering user until the offering user actively reveals it. However, they do see anonymous information about the link between the users (such as how many common friends there are etc.).
The user may request to be connected with the user making the offer. If a connection is accepted by the user making the offer, a chat is started between the users. Within the chat, the users may require each other to reveal their identity. This is absolutely voluntary and you can always decline. Once you reveal your identity, it can't be taken back.
The messages within the chat are transmitted in encrypted form using the public keys of both users participating in the chat. The messages are stored locally on the phones of both users, where they may be decrypted using their respective private keys. We solely transmit the messages between the users and do not permanently store them on our servers (and even if we did, we could not read them anyway as they are encrypted).
Important notice: The chat messages are not backed up by us. Once the chat is closed the messages cannot be recovered. If you agree on any important details with the other user regarding your trade, we recommend not to close the chat until the trade is successfully settled.
6. PERSONAL DATA
Let us assure you that the collection of your personal data (e.g. the data submitted when creating your user account) in connection to using Vexl will be as limited as possible. Most information is stored locally and transmitted to other users in an encrypted form, so we cannot read it even if we wanted to.
If any collection, storage and handling of your personal data actually happens, it will be always transparently described in a separate set of terms on handling the personal data of Vexl users (Vexl Privacy Policy) that you will be asked to agree with in the next step of the onboarding procedure.
7. APPLICATION AND LICENSES
Vexl application represents the only way to access Vexl services, so it is an integral part of Vexl. From time to time, our Vexl application may be updated. In such cases, we will usually let you know via a pop up window in the application that a new update is available. You agree to always update the application before any further use thereof to ensure a correct functionality.
The use of Vexl application is governed by the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3). Please, keep in mind that we may also license Vexl application or any part thereof under a proprietary license.
Notwithstanding anything in these Terms of Service, we retain ownership of all copyrights, trademarks, logos, patents, and other intellectual property rights associated with Vexl.
8. CODE OF CONDUCT
Conduct towards other users
As you know by now, Vexl allows you to communicate with other users. Even though we solely transmit the encrypted communication between the users and have no way of reviewing it, we still ask you to maintain a proper standard of conduct. We believe our users understand what we mean when we say a proper standard of conduct and while we would like to leave it at that, law dictates that we must be more precise, so let's get it over with:
You must not(i) misappropriate or infringe the rights of other users, including privacy, publicity, intellectual property, or other proprietary rights; (ii) send to other users any content that is illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, intimidating, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourage a conduct that would be illegal or otherwise inappropriate; (iii) send to other users any false or misleading information; (iv) impersonate others when communicating with other users; or (v) send to other users viruses or other harmful computer code.
Conduct towards us
Also, we ask you to be respectful to us and do not use Vexl for any unlawful activities or in any way that could harm us. Again, we would like to leave it at that, but law dictates us to be more precise, so let's again list the sufficient detail:
You must not (i) use Vexl other than for legal, authorized, and acceptable purposes in accordance with these Terms of Service, (ii) access, use, modify, distribute, or exploit Vexl in ways that could harm us (introduction of viruses or other malicious or harmful material, attempting to gain unauthorized access to our systems, disrupt integrity of Vexl etc.), (iii) misappropriate or infringe the rights of our company, including intellectual property or other proprietary rights.
Breach of representations
If you represent or agree with something in these Terms of Service, we take your word for it, so if we later learn that any of your representations hereunder were false, it is considered as a breach of these Terms of Service.
9. REPORTING VIOLATIONS
If you find that any content within Vexl violates your intellectual property rights, moral rights (including rights to privacy and portrait) or can be considered as any other violation of any applicable law or these Terms of Service, please, report the violation via the email address: support@vexl.it.
We may request additional information and/or materials (such as your personal information and evidence of the violation) necessary to assess your report and in such case, you agree to fully cooperate with our additional requests. It goes without saying that the report can only be assessed by us, if you fully cooperate and provide any requested materials and/or information.
Please note, that even if the violation occurs and is reported, we have only very limited tools to take down any of the content within Vexl, since the content is stored locally on users´ devices (and we absolutely cannot browse them in search of any harmful content; moreover the content is encrypted) and is only transmitted between users in encrypted form (and can be decrypted only by the users, to which it is addressed, not by us).
10. AVAILABILITY
We always attempt to provide continuous uninterrupted operation of our services, so you can access and use Vexl at any time. However, due to maintenance, repairs, exceptional outages or for other reasons, there may be occasions when Vexl will not be available. Therefore, we cannot always guarantee completely uninterrupted availability.
11. LIABILITY AND WARRANTY LIMITATION
To summarize:
- Vexl is provided to you on as is and where available basis without any warranties.
- We are not liable for any damages in relation to your use or inability to use Vexl.
- We are not responsible for any breach of terms agreed between the users via Vexl.
In more detail:
We have created Vexl and we operate it using a reasonable level of skill and care and we hope that you will enjoy using it; however, be aware that it is still offered to you on an as is and where-available basis and, therefore, we expressly disclaim any warranties, express or implied, relating thereto.
We are not under any circumstances to be held liable for any direct, indirect, special, consequential, punitive or any other damages and costs including, but not limited to, loss of profit, loss of revenue or loss of a business opportunity arising out of or in connection with your access and use or inability to access and use Vexl.
Furthermore, you hereby waive to the fullest extent permitted under any applicable law any claims for damages that you may have against us in relation to your use of Vexl or inability to use it.
You specifically waive the damages incurred in relation to any trades agreed upon with other users of Vexl. You are solely responsible for data and mobile carrier fees and taxes associated with the devices on which you use Vexl.
If the warranties and liabilities disclaimers above are found void or invalid or otherwise unenforceable, you agree that our total liability for any claims arising out of these Terms of Service or in relation thereto are limited to the fullest extent permitted by the applicable law.
12. FINANCIAL RISKS
Even though trades between our users are none of our business, as we have repeatedly stated, we still feel obliged to provide you with advice about potential cryptocurrency related risks (well it is more that law dictates us to do so).
First things first: Under no circumstances can any information within Vexl constitute financial, investment or professional advice, unless explicitly stated so. You are solely responsible for your decisions regarding storing, buying, selling, exchanging, sending and receiving Bitcoin and you must always consider your financial circumstances and associated risks before obtaining Bitcoin.
You represent that you understand all the risks involved in purchasing, selling and exchanging Bitcoin including the fact that Bitcoin transactions are irreversible. You represent that you understand that the value of Bitcoin may be extremely volatile and that its exchange rate in respect to other cryptocurrencies or to fiat currencies may fluctuate significantly, which could lead to significant and sudden decreases in the value of your assets.
You hereby acknowledge, that you are solely responsible for obtaining the necessary information about tax or similar obligations arising in relation to any submitted transactions and for withholding, collecting, reporting and remitting the correct amounts of tax to the appropriate tax authorities.
You acknowledge that not all the associated risks of using cryptocurrencies are identified in these Terms of Service.
Important notice: Vexl displays the current price of Bitcoin for users´ convenience. However, there is no universally accepted price of Bitcoin and prices usually differ across various cryptocurrency exchanges. In Vexl we show you the average price of Bitcoin provided by CoinGecko (https://coingecko.com).
13. TERMINATION
We will always be sorry to see you go, but if you decide not to use Vexl anymore we will respect your decision. Your user account can be deleted quite easily, by tapping on the “logout” button under the user account interface. After logging out no data related to the original user account can be recovered.
Important notice: If you decide to log out, please be careful, as logging out will effectively delete your user account. Such action is irreversible, so if you decide to use Vexl again in the future, you will not be able to recover any data linked to your original user account and you will have to go through the same onboarding procedure as any new user.
We also specifically reserve a right to suspend or permanently deny an access to Vexl for users located in certain countries or for nationals of certain countries mainly for regulatory reasons (we can identify your location or nationality also indirectly for example from a country code, app store, or your phone number).
Finally, we also reserve a right to discontinue Vexl completely. In that event, we will give you at least thirty (30) days prior notice. After that we will be free to discontinue Vexl and you will not be able to access your user account anymore.
14. NOTICES
Your messages to us: You can contact us electronically via tools available on our website or via the email address support@vexl.it Your message is considered as delivered when we confirm its delivery to you, which we always attempt to do promptly.
Our messages to you: We will not bother you too much, but occasionally we may have to contact you. In that event we will use a push notification available to you upon logging into your user account.
15. APPLICABLE LAW
Your use of Vexl as well as these Terms of Service and any issues related thereto including any disputes between you and us are governed by the laws of the Czech Republic, without regard to conflict of laws principles.
For consumers only: We are obliged to inform you that this choice of law clause does not deprive you, if you're a consumer of your rights under mandatory provisions of the law of your country of habitual residence in the event that such law would otherwise be applicable pursuant to the Article 6 (1) Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I).
16. DISPUTE RESOLUTION
We always try to solve any issues peacefully and ask you to do the same. Therefore, you agree to notify us of any disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms of Service and you agree that you will always attempt an out-of-court dispute resolution before you bring the dispute before the courts.
However, sometimes out-of-court dispute resolution is just not possible. In that event, any dispute relating in any way to these Terms of Services shall be decided with final effect before the courts of the Czech Republic exercising jurisdiction over the place of registered business of our company.
For consumers only: We are obliged to inform you that in the event of any disputes, you have the right to seek an out-of-court settlement through the Czech Telecommunication Office with its registered office at Sokolovská 219, Prague 9, Id. No. 701 06 975, web address (https://www.ctu.eu/out-court-dispute-resolution) for disputes regarding electronic communications, and through the Czech Trade Inspection Authority with its registered office at Štěpánská 567/15, 120 00 Prague 2, Id. No. 000 20 869, web address https://adr.coi.cz/cs for any other disputes. You may also use a platform for out-of-court dispute settlement located on the website http://ec.europa.eu/consumer/odr.
17. CHANGES
Operator: You agree to any future change of the operator of Vexl services under these Terms of Service (assignment of the contract established by these Terms of Service). In case of such change, we will always notify you.
Terms of Service: We may change or amend these Terms of Services or an additional term that apply to Vexl (such as Privacy Policy) from time to time, and if we do so, we will have to ask you to read through them and agree to them again. We realize it's inconvenient for you, so we promise not to do it too often. Your continued use of Vexl confirms your acceptance of our updated Terms of Service.
Vexl Privacy Policy
How we treat your personal data…
1. Who collects my personal data?
We are a commercial company called Vexl s.r.o., with its registered office at Kundratka 2359/17a, Libeň, 180 00 Prague 8, Czech Republic, Id. No. 172 70 642, and we are registered in the commercial register kept by the Commercial court in Prague under file No. 369216.
We are the company responsible for operation and development of Vexl – a service (including the application) that allows users looking to buy or sell Bitcoin to connect with each other to discuss their offers and agree upon trades (“Vexl”).
2. Why should I read this document?
You may have heard about Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 (”Regulation”) more commonly known as GDPR.
Under the Article 13 and 14 of the Regulation, we must provide our users and other data subjects with information on the collection, handling, protection and processing of their personal data.
Therefore, in this Privacy Policy you may learn more about these topics regarding the personal data that we collect when you use Vexl.
3. What personal data is processed?
Onboarding and using Vexl
We may process the following categories of personal data provided during the onboarding procedure and subsequent use of Vexl:
- your name (as provided by you);
- your phone number (as provided by you);
- your avatar (either uploaded picture or picture taken by a built-in camera of your device);
- your public key linked to your user account;
- contact details of your friends imported from your phone (in a form of phone number)
- your contact details (provided by other users of Vexl as part of their onboarding procedure) in a form of your phone number
- graph of your 1st and 2nd degree contacts (as explained in Vexl Terms of Service);
- certain information about offers to purchase or sale Bitcoin published via Vexl;
- any communication with other users of Vexl.
Please note, that (except for your public key) we cannot actually access any of the above data as it is always encrypted by you using public keys of specific users of Vexl (recipients of your offers, the users you are talking to via chat function etc.). Such data may only be decrypted using associated private keys stored locally on devices of respective users.
Also note, that some of the above data are stored locally on the devices of the respective users and are stored on our servers only for a limited period of time necessary to transmit it to other users of Vexl (etc. communication via chat function). So even if we could decrypt such data in theory, which we actually cannot, the data are still out of our reach.
In any case, if any such information is actually considered personal data, we may, as a data controller, from time to time process such personal data (even if in an encrypted form unreadable to us).
Support and reporting procedures
We may provide our users support services regarding Vexl. To be able to provide you with any support services we may have to use data obtained from you during the course of support procedure (such as your contact information etc.).
We allow users to report unlawful content. To be able to assess any reports we may have to use any data obtained from you during the course of the reporting procedure (such as your contact information etc.).
If any of such information is considered as personal data, we will, as a data controller, collect, store and/or process such personal data.
4. Why is my personal data processed?
We process your personal data only so we can provide you Vexl services including any support services and reporting procedures regarding Vexl.
We will also process your personal data to perform any of our obligations under the Vexl Terms of Service and any applicable law and to protect our own rights thereunder.
It is also in our legitimate interest to process such personal data to establish, exercise or defend any related legal claims, since otherwise we could not exercise our legal rights and such use of personal data is foreseeable by data subjects and represents little to no restriction of data subject interests, rights and freedoms.
5. For how long is my personal data processed?
We process your personal data only for the time necessary to meet the purposes of its processing specified above, or for the time consented by you, or for the time that is either necessary to comply with our obligations under the applicable law or set forth by the applicable law or in accordance therewith. We comply with the mandatory rules for data archiving.
To be specific:
We process your name, your avatar, your phone number, your public key and a graph of your 1st and 2nd degree contacts for as long as your user account exists. Please note, that except for your public key, we cannot actually access any of the above data as it is always encrypted with public keys of the specific users of Vexl.
Information about your offers is stored and processed only for the duration of the offer (set by you when placing the offer). Please note, that this information is also encrypted with specific public keys of the users that are allowed to see the offer and cannot be decrypted by us, even if transmitted via our servers.
Information provided when chatting with other users via chat function are processed only for the duration of the chat. Please note, that this information is also encrypted with specific public keys of the other party to the chat and cannot be decrypted by us, even if transmitted via our servers.
The data obtained during the support and reporting procedures will be processed until the procedure is completed and for a period of time when you are allowed under the statute of limitations to initiate any court proceedings in relation to the above procedures.
6. Who will have access to my personal data?
We take care of your personal data security and so we choose the partners to whom we entrust your personal data very carefully.
All our partners must be able to provide sufficient security of your personal data to prevent unauthorized or accidental access thereto or other abuse thereof and all our partners must undertake a confidentiality obligation and must not use your personal data for any purpose other than the purpose for which the data were made available to them.
The recipients that may have access to your personal data are:
- technological services providers including providers of data storage solutions;
- persons who provide our services with security and integrity and who regularly test such security and integrity;
- providers of accounting, legal and administrative services;
- our staff.
Our aim is and always will be to ensure your personal data is as anonymous as possible and unavailable to all third parties. However, under certain specifically defined conditions we will be under some circumstances required, in accordance with the applicable law, to transfer certain personal data to public authorities.
7. Do you transfer the personal data outside the EU/EEA?
When collecting, storing and processing personal data we sometimes may use personal data processors such as Twilio, which under some circumstances transmit your personal data to third countries. In such an event we always make sure such transmission is compliant with the Regulation.
In particular, we specify that the personal data may be transmitted to the United States of America and in such event the transmission is compliant with the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) mechanism.
For an in-depth overview, you can find Twilio's guidelines here.
8. How is my personal data protected?
All your personal data is secured by standard procedures and technologies. We provide data protection against unauthorized or accidental access, alteration, destruction, loss, unauthorized transmission or any other unauthorized processing, as well as against any other abuse of records containing the personal data.
The standard procedures and technologies may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- education and training of relevant staff to ensure they are aware of our privacy obligations when handling personal data;
- administrative and technical rules to restrict access to personal data on a ‘need to know’ basis;
- technological security measures, including firewalls, encryption and anti-virus software;
- physical security measures, such as staff security passes to access our premises.
We are not able to guarantee the security of your personal data without your help and responsible behavior. Therefore, we ask you to help us ensure the security of your data by keeping your PIN private (if set up), and your device secure by following common security standards.
9. What are my rights in relation to personal data protection?
In relation to the personal data you shall have in particular the following rights:
- a right to withdraw your consent at any time;
- a right to correct or make additions to the personal data;
- a right to request restrictions to processing of your personal data ;
- a right to object or complain against processing of your personal data under certain circumstances;
- a right to request transfer of your personal data ;
- a right to access your personal data;
- a right to be informed of the personal data security breach under certain circumstances;
- a right to request deletion of your personal data (a right to be „forgotten“) under certain circumstances; and
- other rights set forth in Act of the Czech republic No. 110/2019 Coll., on personal data processing (Personal Data Protection Act) and the Regulation.
You have a right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to processing your personal data which is based on Article 6(1)(f) of Regulation (it means that we have legitimate interest to process such personal data). You have also a right to object to processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
Additionally, you have a right to contact the Office for Personal Data Protection with a request for remedial measures in case of any violation of the obligations set forth in the Regulation at the following address: Office for Personal Data Protection, Pplk. Sochorova 27, 170 00 Prague 7, Czech Republic, phone number +420 234 665 111 (central telephone exchange).
10. How can I contact you?
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please do not hesitate to contact us using the contact details below:
Address: Vexl s.r.o, Kundratka 2359/17a, Prague, Czech republic
Email address: support@vexl.it
11. When is this Privacy Policy effective?
This Privacy Policy comes into effect on 11. 7. 2022.
We reserve the right to amend and update this Privacy Policy at any time. In the event of any changes or amendments, we will ask you to agree with this Privacy Policy again before further use of Vexl.