Privacy Policy.
In this privacy policy (this “Policy”):-
(1) “We” or “us” refers to LINGUABOX GROUP LIMITED, a limited company incorporated under the laws of Hong Kong whose registered office is at Suite A, 12/F., Ritz Plaza, 122 Austin Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Unless otherwise defined, capitalized terms have the same meanings as defined in the terms and conditions regarding your use of the Site which can be accessed at T&C (the “T&C”);
(2) “You” and “your” includes any person who accesses the Site or uses the Services; and
(3) “Personal Information” refers to any data, information, or combination of data and information that is provided to us by you, provided by others or through your use of the Services, that relates to an identified or identifiable natural person, where an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly.
We are committed to protecting and respecting your personal data privacy and complying with data protection principles and provisions under the Applicable Laws.
We may collect, process, use and disclose your Personal Information when you use the Site and the Services offered by us through Site as described in this Policy.
This Policy sets out:-
(1) the Personal Information we collect about you when you visit the Site operated and maintained by us or other websites or apps maintained by us relating to the Site, or use any of the Services offered on the Site;
(2) how we use, share, store, process, secure and safeguard the Personal Information provided by you to us; and
(3) how you may access and control the Personal Information provided to us and the other rights you have with respect to the Personal Information provided to us.
By accessing, visiting or using the Site or any part thereof, you are consenting to the collection, processing, usage and disclosure of your Personal Information as set out in this Policy.
If you have any questions about this Policy, or require further information before agreeing to them, you should contact our data protection officer through the contact information as set out under Clause 10.
1 What information we collect about you
1.1 We collect the following types of Personal Information about you that you provide to us while using the Site and information about how you use the Site, including instances when you visit the Site, use the Services, make booking for language tuitions, purchase language tuitions or the Services, or use any other function available on the Site. Providing your Personal Information to us is always on a voluntary basis, but we might not be able to provide you with certain Services if you choose not to provide us with your Personal Information as requested. For example, we are unable to process your booking for language tuitions if you refuse to provide us with your name and contact information:-
(a) account and profile information provided by you when you register by submitting the Online Registration Form to us, including your name, your email address(es) and your telephone number(s), and the provision of the same is compulsory and necessary for us to (i) manage your booking for the language tuitions; and (ii) identify and contact you, without which we are unable to provide you with the Services;
(b) information provided by you through support channels when you report a problem to us or interact with our technology or service support teams, including any description of problem, contact information (including email address(es) and telephone number(s)), and any supporting documentation of the reported problems (including any screenshot of the Site), which are only compulsory and necessary when you choose to report a problem to us, without which we may not be able to process the reported problem;
(c) user content provided by you through your use of the Site (excluding the video recording of language tuitions), including any blog post, comment, discussion on forums, chat records, reviews posted or uploaded by you to the Site, and the provision of the same is optional;
(d) video recording of the language tuitions attended by you, and the provision of the same is compulsory and necessary for us to (i) monitor the quality of the Tutors and the tuitions provided; and (ii) providing the Services. The same may be shared with your parents or guardians upon their request for understanding the progress and quality of the language tuitions and be used by us for promotional purposes;
(e) communication, marketing, and other preferences chosen by you when you set up your profile, or when you participate in a survey or a questionnaire that we may send you (collectively, “Preference Data”). The provision of the same is optional but without providing us with the Preference Data when you set up your profile, or when you participate in a survey or questionnaire that we send you, the default setting of the Site will apply;
(f) feedback on and responses to surveys conducted by us (if any) relating to the Services and newsletters which may be published, circulated or distributed us. The provision of the same is optional for us to provide you with better customer experience;
(g) details of any transaction, purchase, or order that you have made with us (including the date and time of the transaction, the subject matter and quantity so transacted, the consideration involved in the transaction, the payment information, and the billing information), and the provision of the same is compulsory and necessary for us to (i) process any transaction, purchase or order placed by you and provide you with the Services (including arranging booking for the language tuitions purchased); (ii) study the usage of the Services; and (iii) compile accounts and comply with any financial keeping and reporting requirement and obligation;
(h) payment information, including your payment card information (namely, type of payment card, name of cardholder, card number, expiry date and security code) and bank account information (namely, name of the bank, name of the account holder and bank account number), and the provision of the same is compulsory and necessary for us to (i) process any transaction, purchase or order placed by you and provide you with the Services; (ii) record the relevant transaction; and (iii) collect any amount due from you in relation to your use of the Site and the Services;
(i) certain information (which may contain your Personal Information or may contain non-personally identifiable information yet linked to your Personal Information) generated when you visit the Site, including information automatically collected and stored in our server or the server of our third party services providers by using or accessing to the Site, including your device’s internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version or other browser information, device information (including unique device identifier), pages visited, previous or subsequent sites visited, time-zone setting, operating system and platform, advertising identifier and mobile application identifier, other technology on the devices you use to access the Services and information we collect through cookies and other data collection technologies, (collectively, “Technical Data”). The collection of the Technical Data is compulsory and necessary for us to (i) detect and deter unauthorized or fraudulent use of, or abuse of the Services; and (ii) provide you with customized options, and to optimize the Services for your device;
(j) information about your use of or visit to the Site when you visit the Site, including details of your usage of the Site (including traffic data, location data and length of user sessions), your clickstream to, through, and from the Site, page response times, download errors, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), or methods to browse away from the pages (collectively, “Usage Data”). The collection of the Usage Data is compulsory and necessary for us to detect and deter unauthorized or fraudulent use of, or abuse of the Services, to provide you with customized options, and to optimize the Service for your device and for the improvement of the Services; and
(k) we may collect information about you and your mobile device as stated in Clauses 1.1(i) and (j) above when you use your mobile devices to visit the Site. This can include location information if you have consented and configured your mobile device to send us such information or upload photos with location information to the Site. Such location information will be used in the ways and for the purposes as stated in this Policy. For example, we may need your location to assess whether our provision of the Services to you is in compliance with the local laws in the country in which you are located. You can change your mobile device’s privacy settings at any time to deactivate the function of sharing location information. Please note that some features of the Site may be affected if you turn off such location sharing function. If you have any enquiry about your mobile devices’ privacy settings, we recommend you to contact the manufacturer of your device.
1.2 If you make booking for language tuitions for other individuals (only if applicable, subject to Clause 3.3 of the T&C), we may request Personal Information about such individual as stated in Clause 1.1 above. You must obtain all requisite consent of such individuals and ensure they are aware of, understand and accept this Policy prior to providing their Personal Information to us.
1.3 We collect the information under Clause 1.1 when you provide it to us or when you use or visit the Site. We may also receive information about you from other third party sources, including but not limited to:-
(a) our employees, agents, advisors, consultants and contractors, in connection with our operations or provision of the Services, including circumstances where our employees process your order and payment, and provision of any supporting service or language tuition;
(b) other Users, including reviews posted by the Users;
(c) our Affiliates or overseas offices that provide information technology services, system administrative services, and marketing service; and
(d) our business partners and service providers, who provide technical, payment services, advertising networks, analytics, market research, and search information services.
We do not collect sensitive data or special category data about you, which includes Personal Information about your race, ethnic origin, politics, religion, trade union membership, genetics, biometrics, health, sex life or sexual orientation.
2 How we use information we collect
2.1 We process the Personal Information collected as far as necessary for performance of the T&C and providing the Services to you. Besides, we process the other Personal Information collected on the basis of our legitimate interests, which are for the further improvement of the Services and for direct marketing purposes subject to any necessary consent from you under the Applicable Laws. Further, we only use your Personal Information where the Applicable Laws allow us to do so. We, as a data controller of your Personal Information, use your Personal Information for the following purposes in accordance with this Policy:-
(a) to perform the obligation under the T&C which we have entered into (or are about to enter into) with you, including operating the Site, providing the Services to you in accordance with the T&C;
(b) to provide you with the Services, to continually improve the Site and the Services, and to contact you in relation to the Services, by using your Personal Information or such other data to achieve faster purchase requests and better customer support;
(c) to enable us to provide you with our customer support, and to respond to your inquiries, complaints and claims effectively;
(d) to notify you of any other important information regarding the Services (including any change to the T&C);
(e) to verify your identity, protect the safety and security of the Site, detect and deter unauthorized or fraudulent use of, or abuse of the Services and to notify you in case any unauthorized use occurred in order to maintain the security or prevent unauthorized use of the Site and the Services;
(f) to publish your User Submissions to promote our Services;
(g) to contact you for feedback on your use of the Site, in order to assist us in improving the Site;
(h) to aggregate anonymized statistical data regarding the Services;
(i) to measure the effectiveness of advertisements that we place on the Site or the other media;
(j) subject strictly to your express and specific consent in writing, for direct marketing purposes; and
(k) to comply with the Applicable Laws.
2.2 Notwithstanding Clause 2.1, if we provide you with more specific purpose(s) of use of your Personal Information either at the time we ask you to provide your Personal Information or through other means, then such notice shall prevail over the general purposes of use as stated in Clause 2.1.
2.3 We may handle your Personal Information when any of the following applies if permitted under the Applicable Laws:-
(a) processing is necessary for our compliance with the legal obligations to which we are subject to (including but not limited to following any information disclosure orders imposed by any government body or competent Court);
(b) processing is necessary in order to protect vital interests of yours or of another individual;
(c) processing is necessary to investigate, prevent and take measures against illegal or suspected illegal acts; or
(d) processing is necessary for the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by your privacy related rights, interests, and freedom (including improvement of operations or systems, prevention of fraud, maintenance of security and research performed by us).
2.4 If you have given us consent to use your Personal Information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent any time by contacting our data protection officer through contact information as set out under Clause 10. We will stop using your Personal Information for the specific purpose in respect of which the consent is withdrawn. Please however note that we are unable to undo any use of your Personal Information that has already taken place and may be unable to carry out some of the Services or obligations under the T&C without your consent to use your Personal Information for certain purposes.
2.5 We do not share your Personal Information with any company other than our Affiliates for direct marketing purpose, unless with your express and specific consent to do so in writing.
3 How we share information we collect
3.1 We share your Personal Information with third parties (including the service provider of ClassIn) that help us operate, provide, support, improve, and market our products and services to the Users, including but not limited to third-party service providers who provide website and application development, data storage and backup service, infrastructure maintenance and improvement, billing service, payment processing service, customer support and business analytics. These third-party service providers may store your Personal Information in countries or regions which do not have the data protection laws which are substantially similar to, or serve the same purposes as the data protection laws in your country or region or at the level that is required in your country or region. Accordingly, we will use reasonable endeavours to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such safeguards include but are not limited to (i) standard contractual clauses of the European Commission; (ii) any other appropriate cross-border transfer mechanisms or corporate rules; and / or (iii) other appropriate mechanisms to safeguard the transfer of information. We will require them to notify us immediately and we will take reasonable steps to prevent or stop non-compliant processing.
3.2 The circumstances under which such sharing and disclosure will take place may include but not limited to the following:-
(a) to successfully complete your booking or otherwise implement the T&C. We may share your Personal Information with the Tutors or third parties otherwise act on our behalf;
(b) to our third party service providers (including the service provider of ClassIn), which we engage amongst others for the performance of certain services on our behalf, such as web hosting services, data analysis, marketing, market research, and to otherwise provide you with customer service. We require these third-party service providers to maintain confidentiality and security of all Personal Information that they process on our behalf and to implement and maintain reasonable security measures to protect the privacy, confidentiality and security of your Personal Information;
(c) if and to the extent required by any Applicable Law, order of court or requests by any governmental authority or law enforcement agencies to make such disclosure, including but not limited to circumstances when we respond to claims, legal processes, law enforcement, or national security requests;
(d) to our advisors, agencies or other parties concerned in order to protect our rights and properties;
(e) in case of a corporate transaction, in connection with the sale, merger, acquisition, business transfer, or other corporate reorganization or restructuring of our corporation, your Personal Information may be disclosed, shared or transferred to the new controlling entity or its authorised third party for carrying on our business, or a third party in connection with such transaction. We will notify you if such transaction takes place and inform you of any choice you may have regarding your Personal Information; or
(f) in any other case, to any third parties with your prior written consent and in compliance with the Applicable Laws (and in which case we will make it possible for you to withdraw your consent as easily as it was to provide consent).
3.3 We may share Personal Information on aggregated or anonymized basis with third parties for research and analysis, profiling, and similar purposes to help us improve our products and services to the Users. We will endeavor to anonymise or aggregate your Personal Information if we intend to use it for analytical purposes or trend analysis.
3.4 We may also share aggregate or anonymous information with relevant third parties, including our advertisers. Such information does not contain any Personal Information and will not identify you personally. However, in some occasions, these third parties may possess Personal Information about you or obtain your Personal Information from other sources. When they combine such Personal Information with our aggregate information, they may be able to identify you personally.
3.5 If you use any third-party software in connection with the Services (including ClassIn), for example any third-party software that the Site integrate with, you might give such third-party software provider access to your Personal Information. Policies and procedures of third-party software providers are not controlled by us, and this Policy does not cover how your Personal Information is collected or used by such third-party software provider. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of the third-party software providers before you use any third-party software in connection with the Site or the Services.
3.6 There may be links present on the Site which could result in you leaving the Site and / or being taken to other third party websites over which we have no control. You should note that any Personal Information that you provide to these third party websites is not subject to this Policy but will be governed by their policies, and we are not liable for any Loss, damage, cost or expense which you may suffer or incur in connection with you providing or making available Personal Information or other data to such third party websites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third-party websites before you submit any Personal Information to them.
4 How we store and secure information we collect
4.1 We will use reasonable endeavours to maintain appropriate physical, electronic and organisational procedures to ensure that your Personal Information and other data is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy, and to protect such data against unauthorized access or unauthorized alteration, misuse, disclosure or destruction of data. In order to protect the privacy and the confidentiality of your Personal Information, access to your Personal Information is restricted to personnel or service providers on a strictly need-to-know basis, who will only process your Personal Information on our instructions and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
4.2 We will notify you and any applicable governmental body or regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so under the Applicable Laws.
4.3 Once we have received your Personal Information, we will try to prevent unauthorized access. While we implement safeguards designed to protect your Personal Information, please note that no transmission of information or method of data storage on the internet is completely secured or impenetrable. We cannot guarantee that your Personal Information, during transmission through the internet or while being stored on our systems or processed by us, is absolutely safe and secured. We do not give any representation, warranty or undertaking that the Personal Information you provide to us will be secured at all times, and to the extent we have fulfilled our obligations under the Applicable Laws under no circumstances shall we be responsible for any Loss, damage, cost and expense which you may suffer or incur arising from unauthorised access to or use of your Personal Information. To protect the privacy and confidentiality of your Personal Information, you are responsible to notify our data protection officer in the event you suspect any unauthorized use of your Account or any other breach of security through the contact information as set out under Clause 10.
4.4 We retain your Personal Information:-
(a) while your Account remains open; and
(b) for so long as it is necessary to fulfil any of the purposes described in this Policy, or to comply with any (i) contractual requirement that is necessary for the provision of the Services, and (ii) legal, tax or accounting requirement,
and when it is no longer necessary for us to process your Personal Information, we will either delete or anonymise the data 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 further use, provided however that we may retain your Personal Information following the closure or termination of your Account if retention is reasonably necessary:-
(a) to comply with any Applicable Law, regulation or legal obligation;
(b) to provide and process customer support service;
(c) to resolve disputes between or with any User or Tutor of the Site, or with any other third party in relation to the provision of the Services, for the duration of the applicable limitation period; or
(d) to detect and deter unauthorized or fraudulent use of, or abuse of, our Services.
5 How we transfer information internationally
5.1 The Personal Information and other data we collect from you may be transferred to, processed, and stored in our servers or the servers of our third party services providers which may be outside your country of residence where we or our service providers (including but not limited to the Tutors) operate for the purpose of providing the Services to you.
5.2 Some of the countries in which our Affiliates or service providers (including but not limited to the Tutors) are located may not have the privacy and data protection laws which are substantially similar to, or serve the same purposes as the data protection laws in your country of residence or at the level that is required in your country of residence. Accordingly, when we share information with these Affiliates or service providers, we will use reasonable endeavours to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such safeguards include but are not limited to (i) standard contractual clauses of the European Commission; (ii) any other appropriate cross-border transfer mechanisms or corporate rules; and/or (iii) other appropriate mechanisms to safeguard the transfer of information.
6 Your rights
6.1 Subject to the Applicable Laws (including any exemptions or derogations under such law), you have the right to:-
(a) be informed of what we do with your Personal Information;
(b) verify whether we or any of our Affiliates holds any Personal Information of yours and to access any such information;
(c) request a copy of Personal Information of yours we hold;
(d) require us to correct any inaccuracy or error in any Personal Information of yours we hold;
(e) request erasure of your Personal Information (note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for record keeping purposes, to complete transactions, to comply with our legal obligations or in the event where the retention of the same is necessary to fulfil the purposes of use described in this Policy);
(f) object to or restrict the processing by us of your Personal Information (including for marketing purposes), but by doing so we may be unable to carry out some of the Services or obligations under the T&C;
(g) request to receive some of your Personal Information in a structured, commonly used, and machine readable format, and request that we transfer such information to another party;
(h) withdraw your consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your Personal Information, but this shall not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent and by doing so we may be unable to carry out some of the Services or obligations under the T&C; and
(i) ascertain our or any of our Affiliates’ policies and practices in relation to your Personal Information.
6.2 Any request under Clause 6.1 may be made by sending your request via Contact us by clicking here or submit any written request to our registered address.
6.3 In the event where you have given us your consent to use your Personal Information for direct marketing purposes, you may opt out from receiving marketing materials from us by using the unsubscribe link in our communications (if provided), or by contacting our data protection officer through the contact information under Clause 10. Please note, however, that even if you opt out from receiving any marketing material from us, you will continue to receive notifications or information from us that are necessary for your use of the Services.
6.4 As a security measure, we may, from time to time, require you to provide specific information of yours to help us to verify your identity when processing your privacy requests or when you exercise your rights under this Policy.
6.5 Any request under Clause 6.1 will normally be processed free of charge. However, we may charge a reasonable administration fee if your request is unfounded, repetitive, or excessive.
6.6 Please contact us via the contact information under Clause 10 if you have a complaint regarding the processing of your Personal Information.
6.7 We will do our best to respond promptly to any legitimate request and in any event within one (1) month of the later of the following:-
(a) our receipt of your written request; or
(b) our receipt of any further information which we may ask you to provide to enable us to comply with your request.
6.8 When handling any of these requests described above, we have the right to check the identity of the requester to ensure that he / she is the person entitled to make the request.
7 Changes to this policy
7.1 We reserve the right to update, amend or modify the terms of this Policy or any part of it without prior notice, and your continued access of the Site or use of the Services signifies your acceptance of the updated, amended or modified Policy. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions in this Policy and / or any subsequent updates, amendments or modifications thereto, you must stop accessing or otherwise using the Site and the Services.
7.2 Please review this Policy on a regular basis to ascertain if there is any change to this Policy and to review such change.
8 Cookies
8.1 Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device by our web server when you access the Site. Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently. When you visit the Site, we collect some of your Personal Information transmitted to us by your browser via cookies. We use cookies to identify your access and monitor usage and web traffic on the Site and this enables you to access the Site and helps us to create better user experience for you.
8.2 We use both persistent cookies and session cookies. A persistent cookie stays in your browser and will be read by us when you return to the Site or a partner site that uses our services. Session cookies only last for as long as the session lasts (usually the current visit to a website or a browser session).
8.3 We use the following types of cookies:-
(a) Strictly necessary cookies - these are cookies that are required for the operation of the Site. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secured areas of the Site and to maintain your session;
(b) Analytical or performance cookies - these allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the Site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way the Site works, for example, by ensuring that users are easily finding what they are looking for; and
(c) Other cookies – these are for the convenience of the Users by remembering, for example, their usernames in a secured way as well as their preference setting.
8.4 By continuing to use Services, you consent to our use of cookies and similar technologies in accordance with this Policy. You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the use of all or some cookies. However, if you do so, you may not be able to access all or parts of the Site.
9 Contact us
9.1 Please contact us by clicking here or submit any written request to our registered address.
9.2 Please contact our data protection officer in the first instance if you have any questions or concerns regarding our use of your Personal Information collected. If you have unresolved concerns, you have the right to file a complaint with a data protection authority in the country where you live or work or where you feel your rights have been infringed.