Privacy Policy

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

EF Hello is committed to protecting the privacy of our potential and existing customers. The EF Hello privacy policy (the "Privacy Policy") applies to all Personal Data (as defined below) processed by us, including Personal Data collected or submitted through our websites, mobile applications or through our official social media pages or through other channels online and offline as further described below (collectively the "EF Products").

If you cannot, or will not, provide us with the personal information we reasonably require, we may be unable to provide you with the information, goods or services you have requested.

EF Language Learning Solutions AG, Selnaustrasse 30, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland ("EF") is the controller for the processing of your Personal Data as set out in this Privacy Policy. Being the controller means that EF is responsible for ensuring that your Personal Data is processed in compliance with applicable privacy and data protection legislation.

Personal Data

"Personal Data" is information or pieces of information that could allow you to be identified. We may collect, store and use the following information about you:

• Name and contact details (e.g. postal and email address, telephone number)
• Account information or user ID (e.g. user name, profile picture or social media account ID)
• Country of residence or citizenship
• Birth date
• Gender
• Technical information, e.g. screen/user name, IP address, browser and device data, information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies, server log file data, app usage data and location data, page views and website navigation
• Preferences (e.g. shopping habits, preferred educational courses)
• Credit and debit card number, payment data or bank account details

How do we collect Personal Data?

We collect Personal Data in a variety of ways:

Directly from you: Information is collected directly from you, either by you providing the information directly to us or you acting in a manner that provides us with the information, for example:

• Offline: We collect Personal Data from you offline, for example when you contact customer service, enrol in a product or service or provide information to us in writing.
• Online: We collect your Personal Data through the EF Products, for example when you sign up for a newsletter or a brochure, enrol in a product or service. We also collect Personal Data:
  • Through cookies. Cookies allow a web server to transfer data to a computer or device for recordkeeping and other purposes. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to decline the use of cookies. To learn more about cookies, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/. For detailed information about the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, please see our cookie policy.
  • Through your use of a mobile application. When you download and use one of our mobile applications, and to the extent allowed by your privacy settings in the application, we track and collect mobile application usage data, such as the date and time the mobile application on your device accessing our servers and what information and files have been downloaded to the mobile application based on your device number as well as statistics on malfunctions and crashes that the users experience. The EF Hello mobile application is using a crash reporting tool, Instabug, to send us information about bugs and crashes that users experience. The application automatically collects certain information that does not personally identify users of it. This information includes, but is not limited to, information on the device such as device ID, device mode, time of failure and the physical location of a device at the time of a crash.
  • Through your device. Provided that you have enabled that function on your device, we collect the physical location of it to provide you with personalized location-based services and content. Read more about such services under "How do we use Personal Data?"

From our corporate affiliates, business partners, assistance providers or claim handlers. We may receive Personal Data from other parties in conjunction with your course/program, including:

• Our corporate affiliates, such as the local EF company that promotes the sales of our services and offers customer service in your country of residence and provides us with the Personal Data that is needed to come to an agreement with you.

From other sources. We may receive your Personal Data from other sources, such as public databases; joint marketing partners such as marketing agencies or providers of software and services for digital marketing automation and analytics; social media platforms, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Musically, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and messenger services such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger; from people with whom you are friends or otherwise connected with on social media platforms, as well as from other third parties. For example, if you elect to connect your social media account to your EF Products account, such Personal Data that you have registered in your profile, such as your email address, phone number, postal address, date of birth, name and user name will be shared with us. Furthermore, we use cookies to track members of social media networks as further explained in our cookie policy.

If you browse our sites: We may also collect information about your use of our services through your browser to trace activity on our sites, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, Internet browser type and version, service provider, and the name and version of the EF Product you are using. In addition, an IP Address is identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever you visit the EF Products, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that were visited. You can read more about collection of your online identifiers and other browsing data in our cookie policy.

How do we use Personal Data?

We will use your Personal Data for the following purposes:

• Your Personal Data will be processed by EF for the purposes of providing you with the products and services that you have ordered, for customer service, administrative services or as otherwise necessary to perform the contract between you and us or as further described in this policy.

• We may also use Personal Data:

  • For statistical purposes, system maintenance, backup, calculating usage levels, and helping diagnose server problems with the EF Products, for business development as well as to ensure that the EF Products function properly.
  • To allow you to contact and be contacted by other users through the EF Products, as permitted by the applicable product.
  • To provide customer service or send service related information, via various channels such as SMS, messenger services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, chat bots or email.
  • To allow you to participate on message boards, chat, profile pages and blogs and use other services enabling you to post information and materials.
  • Where relevant, to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
  • To detect, investigate or prevent information security incidents, fraud, misrepresentation, security incidents or crime.
  • To meet applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements.
  • If you have given your consent:
    • To analyse and improve our offers by identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and tailoring the EF Products experience and content based on your past activities on the EF Products. For example, depending on what EF Product you have searched for on our website, or in previous browsing, the offer presented to you on the EF Products may be limited to a specific language, course length or budget.
    • To provide you with personalized location-based services and content through the use of your device's physical location. For example, you will be redirected to the local EF website in your language if your device indicates that you are browsing from that country, or you may be suggested the nearest EF office to your location for visits or information.
    • To market our products and services, including special promotions based on your interests, for example through email marketing solutions such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud's management software which maintains mailing lists and schedules and modifies email messages based on what recipients read, click-on or forward, or through other channels such as SMS, other instant messenger services or chat bots, telephone calls with operator (so-called telemarketing) or traditional mail. All such communication will include a clear unsubscribe link or offer another opt-out function.
    • For the transmission and communication to third-party companies or other EF companies for their marketing purposes, including direct marketing activities and telemarketing.

How do we share Personal Data?

We share your Personal Data as described below and in this Privacy Policy, and as permitted by applicable law:

Corporate affiliates

Our corporate affiliates include, for example, a local EF company that promotes the sales of our services and offers customer service in your country of residence, or EF companies that provide internal service functions such as IT, legal or other shared services. If we have obtained your consent, we may also share your Personal Data with our EF corporate affiliates for their own marketing purposes. These are [name, address of those affiliates].

Third party service providers

We share Personal Data with third parties in connection with the delivery of services to you and the operation of our business. For example, we may share Personal Data to providers of IT systems in order to manage customer relations, process credit cards or other payment solutions, schedule classes or store learning results; or to providers of software and services for digital marketing automation and analytics; to advertising platforms; and to other third parties to provide customer service, business analytics, and fraud prevention and compliance services to serve you with advertising tailored to your interests [and to visa processing agencies].

Business partners

We may share your Personal Data with business partners. This may happen, for example, when we promote a program or offer a service or product in conjunction with a third-party business partner or when we use local sales agents to promote our services in your country of residence. In most cases, the program or offer will include the name of the third-party business partner, either alone or with ours, or you will be redirected to the website of that business with notice.

Other third parties

If you log in to an EF product/service by using a single sign-on through a third party app or platform, you will share certain information with that social media platform, such as the fact that you have visited or interacted with us.

Corporate transactions

In the event that our business is directly or indirectly sold or combined with another business, your Personal Data may be disclosed to our advisers, a prospective purchaser and any prospective purchaser's advisers and may be transferred to the new owners of the business.

Legal rights and obligations

We also share Personal Data as we believe to be necessary: (a) under applicable law; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions or a contract; (e) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; and (g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

International Data Transfers

EF has business activities in several different countries, and your Personal Data may be shared with affiliates of EF or other recipients as described above that have a need to receive such data for the purpose of performing the services you have requested, or according to this policy. Such recipients may be located outside your own country, including countries outside the EEA/Switzerland that do not ensure the same level of protection as the country where you are domiciled. Unless the European Commission has decided that a country ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data, EF will use contracts based on the European Commission's standard data protection clauses for international transfers of personal data to ensure compliance with applicable law. You have a right to ask us for a copy of the standard data protection clauses (by contacting us as set out in the Contact Us section below).

On what do we base our right to collect and use Personal Data?

We have documented the lawful bases for our processing activities in Annex 1.

On some occasions, we process your Personal Data on the basis of your consent (for example, when you agree that we may set cookies other than those that are strictly necessary). To the extent we use sensitive Personal Data, we base this on your explicit consent. Sensitive data can for example be information about health, ethnicity or religious beliefs - read more under "Sensitive data". Where we process data based on consent, your consent is revocable at any time.

The processing of some of your Personal Data is necessary in order to provide services to you pursuant to the agreement that you enter into with us. Without this information, we would not be able to provide certain services to you.

On other occasions, we process your data when we are required by law (for example, if we are required by court order or any applicable law to process data).

We also process your Personal Data when it is in our, or a third party's, legitimate interests to do so, provided that your data protection rights do not override these interests. This may be to market products or services similar to the one(s) you have already purchased from that same legal entity. Where we are not relying on consent, legal requirements or contractual necessity, we process your Personal Data based on legitimate interests as described in this Policy.

Security

We use appropriate organizational, technical and administrative measures to keep the Personal Data under our control accurate and up-to-date, as well as to protect the Personal Data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and the accidental loss, destruction or damage of the Personal Data.

Unsubscribe

If at any time you wish to stop receiving marketing communications from us you can use the unsubscribe feature in the marketing communication you received or let us know by contacting us at [email protected]. In your request, please indicate that you wish to stop receiving marketing communications from us.

Please note that changes may not be effective immediately. We will endeavour to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable.

Third Party Sites

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site to which the EF Product contain a link. The inclusion of a link on EF Products does not imply endorsement of the linked site by us or by our affiliates.

Additionally, we may provide you with access to third-party functionality that permits you to share your activities on EF Products to your social media account(s), for example Facebook or LinkedIn. Please note that any information that you provide through the use of this functionality is governed by the applicable third party's privacy policy, and not by this Privacy Policy. We have no control over, and shall not be responsible for, any third party's use of information that you provide through use of this functionality.

How long do we store personal data?

We will only keep your Personal Data for 2-5 years after the expiry of your account, in order to be able to provide you the possibility to re-activate your account, should you decide to purchase additional courses from us; or otherwise for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it has been collected or in accordance with time limits stipulated by law and market practice, unless further retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or unless a specific time period has been communicated.

We will keep limited parts of your Personal Data which are necessary for marketing purposes until you withdraw your consent, but in no event for longer than 5 years after your last completed service or delivery of product.

If you are under the age of 16

To use EF Products, you must be at least 16 years old. We are not responsible for checking your age but sometimes we still do verification checks. If we learn that you are under the age of 16 and that we have collected information about you without consent from your parent or guardian, we will delete the information as soon as possible and you will not be able to use EF Products.

Sensitive Data

We do not generally seek to collect any sensitive Personal Data. Sensitive Personal Data is data related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, health or medical condition, criminal background or trade union membership. In certain situations, this might however be necessary (for example in order to provide you with the services and products you have ordered). We will make sure that we receive your explicit consent to such processing and treat this information securely.

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Special Notice to California Residents

Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83, California residents have the right to request and receive from us, once per year and free of charge, information about the personal information we have disclosed (if any) to third parties for their marketing purposes during the previous calendar year, and a description of the categories of personal information shared. To make such a request, please send an email to [email protected] including the phrase "California Privacy Request" in the subject line, and provide us with your name, postal address and email address.

If you are a California resident under the age of 18, and a registered user of any site where this policy is posted, California Business and Professions Code Section 22581 permits you to request and obtain removal of content or information you have publicly posted. To make such a request, please send an email with a detailed description of the specific content or information to the email address listed below including the phrase "California Privacy Request" in the subject line. Please be aware that such a request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information you have posted and that there may be circumstances in which the law does not require or allow removal even if requested.

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Protection Act ("CCPA") provides you with the following specific rights regarding your personal information that is subject to this Privacy Policy and this section explains how to exercise those rights. Please note that EF does not sell your personal information to third parties as defined under the CCPA.

Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights

California residents have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verified consumer request, we will disclose to you: (i) the categories of personal information we collected about you; (ii) the categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you; (iii) our business or commercial purpose for collecting that personal information; (iv) the categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information; (v) the specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request); (vi) if we sold or disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, two separate lists disclosing any sales (identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient purchased) and disclosures for a business purpose (identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained).

Deletion Request Rights

You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verified consumer request, we will delete (and direct any service providers to delete) your personal information from our records unless an exception applies, which may include but is not limited to information needed: (i) to complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you; (ii) detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities; (iii) enable solely internal uses that are reasonable aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us; (iv) comply with a legal obligation; and (v) make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights

To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by emailing us at [email protected].

Only you or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verified consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.

You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must: (i) provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative; and (ii) describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us properly to understand, evaluate, and respond to it. We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor's identity or authority to make a request.

Response Timing and Format

We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request's receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without issue. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights under the CCPA.

Updates To This Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not significantly reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without informing you. We will post any Privacy Policy changes on this page and, prior to implementing such changes, we will provide a more prominent notice. Where required by law, we will seek your prior consent to any change.

Your Rights

We respect your rights to access and control your information and will respond to requests in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection legislation. We may ask you to verify your identity and to provide other details to help us to respond to your request.

Depending on the lawful basis for processing upon which we rely, you have a right to:

1. request access to your Personal Data;
2. request that we correct or complete Personal Data that is inaccurate or incomplete;
3. request that we erase your Personal Data, which we will do where required by applicable privacy and data protection legislation;
4. restrict our processing of your Personal Data, in certain circumstances;
5. request that we provide you with copies of your Personal Data in a machine-readable format or transfer it across different services;
6. object to certain types of processing, including where we process your Personal Data on the basis of our legitimate interests and for direct marketing purposes;
7. where we have asked for your consent to process your data, to withdraw this consent.

These rights are limited in some situations under applicable privacy and data protection legislation – for example, where we can demonstrate that we are under a legal obligation or have other legitimate grounds to process your data.

If you wish to exercise these rights, please contact us using the contact details below. We hope that we can satisfy any queries you may have about the way we process your data. However, if you have unresolved concerns you also have the right to complain to data protection authorities.

Contact Us

If you would like to have a copy of the information EF holds about you; a copy of the standard data protection clauses or would like to exercise any of your rights, please contact us at the address EF Language Learning Solutions AG, Selnaustrasse 30, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland or [email protected].

If you have complaints about our handling of your Personal Data, you have a right to contact the supervisory authority in the country where you live.