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FAQ

What is the gift economy?Compared to a market economy where goods and services are traded, the gift economy relies on giving freely and without expectation of getting anything in return. This ignites a virtuous cycle of gratitude and generosity, whereby generosity of the receiver, and joy experienced by the giver, inspires more generosity. So, rather than seeking the accumulation of wealth, like capitalism, participants in the gift economy actively invest in social capital–the care and wellbeing of the community. According to Charles Eisenstein, “in the gift economy, the more you give, the richer you are.” The beauty of an active gift economy is that there is a generative flow of abundance perpetuates, where diverse gifts flow and gain momentum in all directions across communities.


How is this different from a barter system or time banking?Barter and time banking are both quid pro quo, ledger-based systems of trading goods and services. In barter systems, a good or service is traded for another good or service without the exchange of currency. In a time banking system, an hour of your service is traded for an hour of another’s service.The gift economy has no ledger and is not quid pro quo. No one is keeping score, no one demands remuneration. Gifts are given and received freely. So if you want some Spanish lessons and I joyfully offer them to you, I don’t expect you to give me something in return. And, when I have a need–let’s say help to change the oil in my car–I don’t expect you to specifically fill that need for me because I gave you Spanish lessons, but am open to anyone in the community who is willing and able to support my need.


What are the benefits of a gift economy?Here are two incredibly compelling facts from two completely distinct pieces of research:• In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam looked at several, seemingly similar towns in Italy and asked why is it that some of these towns are very successful and others are not? He found the answer: the towns that had the highest rates of wellbeing and economic success all shared something in common that the less successful towns did not: the quality of connection, reciprocity, and trust between people. This is the social capital that made these towns thrive.• The longest running study out of Harvard recently released its findings to the question what makes for a happy, healthy life? After studying the same people, their partners, and their children for over 80 years, they found that–more than income, health, or IQ–the leading indicator to a happy healthy life was supportive and meaningful relationships. In other words, the quality of connection, reciprocity, and trust between people.From our perspective, the answer is clear: meaningful and supportive relationships–the kind that generate gratitude and generosity that is perpetuated by the gift economy–has significant and pretty darn cool micro and macro implications on humanity.Plus, giving to one another is fun, reduces stress and depression, increases happiness and a sense of purpose, and saves us some money, too.


Do I need to record gifts in my taxes?One of many great things about the gift economy–unlike bartering, time banking, or currency exchanges–is that you do not need to report gifts on your taxes.


Is Engather free?Our intention is for Engather to be free for all individuals. So, the way we have structured our business model is to pass on our modest operating and overhead costs to the community at large, such as a local municipality or an institution. We are also looking to fill our funding gaps through grant funding, crowdfunding, and donations.One thing we want to be firm on is we do not want to take money from any person or institution who demands a return on their investment. We do not want a debt or a pressure to grow rapidly + return shareholder value to get in the way of our purpose and the communities we serve.


Engather is only accessible on computers and phones with access to internet, what about for people who cannot access these things?We are thinking the same things, my friend. From the start (which hasn’t been that long ago) we have thought about how to ensure Engather can be accessible to every single person. It will require deep community engagement, collaboration, and likely funding. We imagine each local community may have a slightly different approach, but we are already considering possibilities, from phone capabilities to community kiosks. We welcome any and all ideas you have on the matter.


How can I bring Engather into my community?Great question! Engather works best if it is adopted by a community–whether that is a town, an organization, or a group of people. If you are in a position to bring us on and roll us out in your community, please reach out to us and we can discuss the details of your community and how we can best support it. If you are a dedicated community member and want to advocate to bring us into your community, let’s connect so we can figure out how we can best show up and advocate with you.

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Support Engather

We are a bootstrapped team of two who are committed to building Engather in an intentional way. That means we are building and co-creating an offering that is community minded, culture driven, and technologically intuitive. It also means that we need to work regular jobs that pay our bills. As we straddle between these two worlds, we recognize more than ever that it takes a village, and have been deeply humbled by the support our community has offered us to get Engather off the ground and in motion.If you are interested in supporting us, there are a few ways you can help:

If you want to support us in any of these ways, or want to offer another form of support, we would love to hear from you – please contact us.

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About Engather

Engather was born out of a commitment to bring people together, cultivate meaningful connections, and make life a little less hard and a lot more enjoyable.Our belief system guides everything we do:Supporting one another isn’t just helpful, it’s fun. Whether we’re helping someone move or building garden beds for each other, doing it together makes any task more enjoyable. We actually underestimate how much people enjoy helping one another.Communities that have each others’ backs provide far more reward than financial gain. When we create a social fabric that people can lean on, we alleviate the burden of having to do and pay for everything ourselves; we feel more personally invested in the well-being of our community; we are more resilient during local and global hardships; and we improve the quality of life for ourselves and our community members.There’s no better feeling than belonging in your community. To be accepted, supported, and valued for who you are within your community doesn’t just feel tremendously fulfilling, it is literally the leading indicator to living a happy and healthy life.Engather is not just tech. Engather is a culture and an economy that is facilitated by tech. We don’t believe that tech can single handedly solve our problems. As a matter of fact, tech can never replace the heart and humanity that we are capable of. That is why culture building is the most important part to nurturing our inherently generous and heartfelt human condition and unlocking a community-driven gift economy. Our tech is simply a tool to better enable this culture. And so, we strive to easily, safely, and joyfully get people off their phones and in community with one another.We are committed to building thriving, supportive communities that are accessible to all. Every decision we make must support this commitment. For us, this means making Engather as accessible as possible to everyone and letting the people we serve be our guide–not investors and banks. We aim to build a transparent and financially sustainable business model that supports us to do this work, while only generating revenue in ways that create value for all.

Last updated July 10, 2024

Terms of Service

By using our Platform, you are agreeing to our Terms of Service. The Terms of Service are a legally binding agreement between you and Engather LLC.To the full extent permitted by applicable law, you agree not to hold us responsible for anything that happens related to transactions with third parties, member interactions, or in connection with an Engather group or Engather event. You also agree not to hold organizers responsible for their negligence in connection with their Content, a Engather group, or Engather event.To the full extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to release us and our officers, directors, agents, employees, consultants, affiliates, subsidiaries, sponsors, and other third-party partners ( “Engather Parties”) from claims, demands, and damages (direct and consequential) (“Claims”), arising out of or in any way connected with any transaction with a third party, your interactions with other members, or in connection with an Engather group or an Engather event. You also agree, to the full extent permitted by applicable law, to release organizers from Claims based on an organizer’s negligence arising out of or in any way connected with their Content, an Engather group, or an Engather event. The law in some countries and states do not allow the release, so these limits may not apply to you. You waive and relinquish all rights and benefits that you have or may have under Section 1542 of the California Civil Code or any similar provision of statutory or non-statutory law of any other jurisdiction to the fullest extent permitted by law.You acknowledge that some Engather events carry inherent dangers, such as the risk of illness, bodily injury, disability, or death. By participating in these events, you understand and agree that you have freely chosen to assume these risks.

Privacy Policy

This privacy notice for Engather LLC ("we," "us," or "our"), describes how and why we might collect, store, use, and/or share ("process") your information when you use our services ("Services"), such as when you:* Download and use our mobile application (Engather), or any other application of ours that links to this privacy notice* Engage with us in other related ways, including any sales, marketing, or eventsQuestions or concerns? Reading this privacy notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at hello@engather.co.SUMMARY OF KEY POINTSThis summary provides key points from our privacy notice, but you can find out more details about any of these topics by using our table of contents below to find the section you are looking for.What personal information do we process? When you visit, use, or navigate our Services, we may process personal information depending on how you interact with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use.Do we process any sensitive personal information? We do not process sensitive personal information.Do we collect any information from third parties? We do not collect any information from third parties.How do we process your information? We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent. We process your information only when we have a valid legal reason to do so.In what situations and with which parties do we share personal information? We may share information in specific situations and with specific third parties.How do we keep your information safe? We have organizational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information.What are your rights? Depending on where you are located geographically, the applicable privacy law may mean you have certain rights regarding your personal information.How do you exercise your rights? The easiest way to exercise your rights is by submitting a data subject access request, or by contacting us. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.TABLE OF CONTENTS1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
3. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
4. HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?
5. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
6. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?
7. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?
8. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?
9. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES
10. DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
11. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?
12. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?
13. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?Personal information you disclose to usIn Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us.We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register on the Services, express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when you participate in activities on the Services, or otherwise when you contact us.Personal Information Provided by You. The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect may include the following:• names• phone numbers• email addresses• city, stateSensitive Information. We do not process sensitive information.Social Media Login Data. We may provide you with the option to register with us using your existing social media account details, like your Facebook, X, or other social media account. If you choose to register in this way, we will collect certain profile information about you from the social media provider, as described in the section called "HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?" below.Application Data. If you use our application(s), we also may collect the following information if you choose to provide us with access or permission:• Push Notifications. We may request to send you push notifications regarding your account or certain features of the application(s). If you wish to opt out from receiving these types of communications, you may turn them off in your device's settings.
This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our application(s), for troubleshooting, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?In Short: We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent.We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our Services, including:• To facilitate account creation and authentication and otherwise manage user accounts. We may process your information so you can create and log in to your account, as well as keep your account in working order.• To deliver and facilitate delivery of services to the user. We may process your information to provide you with the requested service.• To respond to user inquiries/offer support to users. We may process your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the requested service.• To send administrative information to you. We may process your information to send you details about our products and services, changes to our terms and policies, and other similar information.• To enable user-to-user communications. We may process your information if you choose to use any of our offerings that allow for communication with another user.• To request feedback. We may process your information when necessary to request feedback and to contact you about your use of our Services.• To send you marketing and promotional communications. We may process the personal information you send to us for our marketing purposes, if this is in accordance with your marketing preferences. You can opt out of our marketing emails at any time. For more information, see "WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?" below.• To comply with our legal obligations. We may process your information to comply with our legal obligations, respond to legal requests, and exercise, establish, or defend our legal rights.3. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?In Short: We may share information in specific situations described in this section and/or with the following third parties.We may need to share your personal information in the following situations:• Business Transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.• Business Partners. We may share your information with our business partners to offer you certain products, services, or promotions.• Other Users. When you share personal information (for example, by posting comments, contributions, or other content to the Services) or otherwise interact with public areas of the Services, such personal information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly made available outside the Services in perpetuity. If you interact with other users of our Services and register for our Services through a social network (such as Facebook), your contacts on the social network will see your name, profile photo, and descriptions of your activity. Similarly, other users will be able to view descriptions of your activity, communicate with you within our Services, and view your profile.4. HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?In Short: If you choose to register or log in to our Services using a social media account, we may have access to certain information about you.Our Services offer you the ability to register and log in using your third-party social media account details (like your Facebook or X logins). Where you choose to do this, we will receive certain profile information about you from your social media provider. The profile information we receive may vary depending on the social media provider concerned, but will often include your name, email address, friends list, and profile picture, as well as other information you choose to make public on such a social media platform.We will use the information we receive only for the purposes that are described in this privacy notice or that are otherwise made clear to you on the relevant Services. Please note that we do not control, and are not responsible for, other uses of your personal information by your third-party social media provider. We recommend that you review their privacy notice to understand how they collect, use, and share your personal information, and how you can set your privacy preferences on their sites and apps.5. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless otherwise required by law.We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements). No purpose in this notice will require us keeping your personal information for longer than the period of time in which users have an account with us.When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.6. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?In Short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.7. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?In Short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.We do not knowingly collect, solicit data from, or market to children under 18 years of age, nor do we knowingly sell such personal information. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at hello@engather.co.8. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?In Short: You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time, depending on your country, province, or state of residence.Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, which may be express and/or implied consent depending on the applicable law, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?" below.However, please note that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal nor, when applicable law allows, will it affect the processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.Opting out of marketing and promotional communications: You can unsubscribe from our marketing and promotional communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the emails that we send, replying "STOP" or "UNSUBSCRIBE" to the SMS messages that we send, or by contacting us using the details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?" below. You will then be removed from the marketing lists. However, we may still communicate with you — for example, to send you service-related messages that are necessary for the administration and use of your account, to respond to service requests, or for other non-marketing purposes.Account InformationIf you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account or terminate your account, you can:• Log in to your account settings and update your user account.Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, we may retain some information in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our legal terms and/or comply with applicable legal requirements.If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at hello@engather.co.9. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURESMost web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. At this stage, no uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this privacy notice.California law requires us to let you know how we respond to web browser DNT signals. Because there currently is not an industry or legal standard for recognizing or honoring DNT signals, we do not respond to them at this time.

10. DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?In Short: If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, or Virginia, you may have the right to request access to and receive details about the personal information we maintain about you and how we have processed it, correct inaccuracies, get a copy of, or delete your personal information. You may also have the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information. These rights may be limited in some circumstances by applicable law. More information is provided below.Categories of Personal Information We CollectWe have collected the following categories of personal information in the past twelve (12) months:A. Identifiers
Contact details, such as real name, alias, postal address, telephone or mobile contact number, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, and account nameB. Personal information as defined in the California Customer Records statute
Name, contact information, education, employment, employment history, and financial informationWe have NOT collected the following categories of personal information in the past twelve (12) months:C. Protected classification characteristics under state or federal law
Gender, age, date of birth, race and ethnicity, national origin, marital status, and other demographic data**D. Commercial information
Transaction information, purchase history, financial details, and payment informationE. Biometric information
Fingerprints and voiceprintsF. Internet or other similar network activity
Browsing history, search history, online behavior, interest data, and interactions with our and other websites, applications, systems, and advertisementsG. Geolocation data
Device locationH. Audio, electronic, sensory, or similar information
Images and audio, video or call recordings created in connection with our business activities\I. Professional or employment-related information
Business contact details in order to provide you our Services at a business level or job title, work history, and professional qualifications if you apply for a job with usJ. Education Information
Student records and directory informationK. Inferences drawn from collected personal information
Inferences drawn from any of the collected personal information listed above to create a profile or summary about, for example, an individual’s preferences and characteristicsL. Sensitive personal InformationWe may also collect other personal information outside of these categories through instances where you interact with us in person, online, or by phone or mail in the context of:• Receiving help through our customer support channels;• Participation in customer surveys or contests; and• Facilitation in the delivery of our Services and to respond to your inquiries.We will use and retain the collected personal information as needed to provide the Services for:• Category A - As long as the user has an account with us• Category B - As long as the user has an account with usSources of Personal InformationLearn more about the sources of personal information we collect in "WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?"How We Use and Share Personal InformationLearn about how we use your personal information in the section, "HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?"Will your information be shared with anyone else?We may disclose your personal information with our service providers pursuant to a written contract between us and each service provider. Learn more about how we disclose personal information to in the section, "WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?"We may use your personal information for our own business purposes, such as for undertaking internal research for technological development and demonstration. This is not considered to be "selling" of your personal information.We have not disclosed, sold, or shared any personal information to third parties for a business or commercial purpose in the preceding twelve (12) months. We will not sell or share personal information in the future belonging to website visitors, users, and other consumers.Your RightsYou have rights under certain US state data protection laws. However, these rights are not absolute, and in certain cases, we may decline your request as permitted by law. These rights include:• Right to know whether or not we are processing your personal data• Right to access your personal data• Right to correct inaccuracies in your personal data• Right to request the deletion of your personal data• Right to obtain a copy of the personal data you previously shared with us• Right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights• Right to opt out of the processing of your personal data if it is used for targeted advertising (or sharing as defined under California’s privacy law), the sale of personal data, or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects ("profiling")Depending upon the state where you live, you may also have the following rights:• Right to obtain a list of the categories of third parties to which we have disclosed personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including California's and Delaware's privacy law)• Right to obtain a list of specific third parties to which we have disclosed personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including Oregon’s privacy law)• Right to limit use and disclosure of sensitive personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including California’s privacy law)• Right to opt out of the collection of sensitive data and personal data collected through the operation of a voice or facial recognition feature (as permitted by applicable law, including Florida’s privacy law)How to Exercise Your RightsTo exercise these rights, you can contact us by submitting a data subject access request, by emailing us at hello@engather.co, or by referring to the contact details at the bottom of this document.Under certain US state data protection laws, you can designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We may deny a request from an authorized agent that does not submit proof that they have been validly authorized to act on your behalf in accordance with applicable laws.Request VerificationUpon receiving your request, we will need to verify your identity to determine you are the same person about whom we have the information in our system. We will only use personal information provided in your request to verify your identity or authority to make the request. However, if we cannot verify your identity from the information already maintained by us, we may request that you provide additional information for the purposes of verifying your identity and for security or fraud-prevention purposes.If you submit the request through an authorized agent, we may need to collect additional information to verify your identity before processing your request and the agent will need to provide a written and signed permission from you to submit such request on your behalf.AppealsUnder certain US state data protection laws, if we decline to take action regarding your request, you may appeal our decision by emailing us at hello@engather.co. We will inform you in writing of any action taken or not taken in response to the appeal, including a written explanation of the reasons for the decisions. If your appeal is denied, you may submit a complaint to your state attorney general.California "Shine The Light" LawCalifornia Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the "Shine The Light" law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared personal information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us by using the contact details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?"11. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.We may update this privacy notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Revised" date at the top of this privacy notice. If we make material changes to this privacy notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this privacy notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.12. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may email us at hello@engather.co or contact us by post at:Engather LLC
90 State Street, Suite 700, Office 40
Albany, NY 12207
United States13. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?Based on the applicable laws of your country or state of residence in the US, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, details about how we have processed it, correct inaccuracies, or delete your personal information. You may also have the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information. These rights may be limited in some circumstances by applicable law. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please contact us at hello@engather.co

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