Privacy and security policy

Effective Date: 01.03.2024

OUR COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY

EF English Live (in the following: “EF English Live”) is committed to protecting the privacy of our potential and existing customers. This 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 English Live 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 Zürich, Switzerland is the controller for the processing of your personal data as set out in this Privacy Policy. Being the controller means that EF Language Learning Solutions AG 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:

• Student ID

• Country of residence

• Birth date

• Technical information, e.g., screen/username, 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.

• Preferences (e.g., shopping habits, preferred educational courses)

• Occupation

• Gender

  Other information you provide during a phone-or video call or a chat, and recordings and/or transcripts of such calls or chats.

• Video recordings of classes you’ve attended.

• Study results

How do we collect Personal Data?

We collect Personal Data in a variety of ways:

1. Directly from you: Information is collected directly from you, for example:

   • Offline: We collect Personal Data from you offline, for example when you contact customer service, enroll in a product or service, or provide information to us in writing.

   • Online:  We collect your Personal Data through the EF English Live Products, for example when you sign up for a newsletter or a brochure, enroll in a product or service.

2. 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.

   • 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?”

3. From our corporate affiliates or business partners. We may receive Personal Data from other parties in conjunction with your interest in or participation in a course, including:

   • Our corporate affiliates, such as the local EF English Live company that promotes the sales of, or resells, 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 on your order, or the EF English Live company that is responsible for the live teacher services included in your order.

   • Business partners, such as local sales agents that promote the sales of our services in your country of residence.

4. 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, 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. Furthermore, we use cookies to track members of social media networks as further explained in our cookie policy.

5. 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 English Live Product you are using.

6. In addition, an IP address is identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever you visit the EF English Live online school, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that were visited. These data are only stored and used together with other Personal Data that you have submitted if you have given your consent to do so. You can read more about collection of your IP address 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 English Live for the purposes of providing you with the products, information, 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:

• To establish the appropriate language level, analyze your skills and suggest improvements.

• For statistical purposes, system maintenance, backup, calculating usage levels, and helping diagnose server problems with the EF English Live Products, for business development as well as to ensure that the EF English Live Products function properly.

• To allow you to contact and be contacted by other users through the EF English Live Products, as permitted by the applicable product.

• To provide customer service or send service-related information, via various channels such as SMS, messenger services, chat bots or email.

• To demonstrate a live class in the EF English Live online school to potential customers

• 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.

• To allow you to participate on message boards, chat, profile pages and blogs and use other services enabling you to post information and materials.

• If you have given your consent:

  • To analyze and improve our offers by identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and tailoring the EF English Live Products experience and content based on your past activities on the EF English Live Products.

  • 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 English Live website in your language if your device indicates that you are browsing from that country.

  • 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. All such email communication will include a clear unsubscribe link or offer another opt-out function.

• To help the teacher, the customer success team or the teacher may take notes about your personal information in order to prepare for future classes and improve the learning experience.

• To analyze our interactions to improve our sales process and quality control.

How do we share Personal Data?

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

• Corporate affiliates
  Our corporate affiliates are for example a local EF English Live company that promotes the sales of, or resells, our services and offers customer service in your country of residence, or EF English Live affiliates 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 one of EF English Live’s affiliates for their own marketing services.

• 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, providers of IT systems in order to manage customer relations; providers of software and services for digital marketing automation and analytics; advertising platforms; for customer service, business analytics, and fraud prevention and compliance services; to serve you with advertising tailored to your interests.

  The EF English Live mobile application is using a crash reporting tool, Crashlytics, a business division of Google Inc., 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.

  Our teachers may take notes about you and your classroom performance for reference when preparing future classes. These notes may also be shared with your future teachers.

• Business partners
  We may share your Personal Data with business partners, for example if we are promoting a program or offer a service or product in conjunction with a third-party business partner or when we use local sales agents that promote the sales of our services in your country of residence. In most of those 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.

• Corporate transactions
  In the event that our business is sold or integrated with another business, your Personal Data may be disclosed to our advisers, a prospective purchaser and any prospective purchaser’s advisers and will be passed 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 English Live has business activities in several different countries, and your Personal Data may be shared with affiliates of EF English Live 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/UK that do not ensure the same level of protection as the country where you are domiciled, including USA and India. Unless the European Commission has decided that a country ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data, EF English Live 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, or opt-in to receive marketing communications).

Where we do 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 or your employer enters 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 to do this 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. An example is to do marketing of 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 for the legitimate interests as described in this Policy. 

How long do we store personal data?

We will only keep your Personal Data for five (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 defense 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.

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 unauthorized 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 using the contact information listed in the “Contact Us” section or by changing your privacy settings in the EF English Live online school. In your request, please indicate that you wish to stop receiving marketing communications from us.

We will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account.

Please note that changes may not be effective immediately. We will endeavor 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 English Live Product contain a link. The inclusion of a link on EF English Live 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 English Live 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.

AGE REQUIREMENT

If you are under the age of 18, you should review this text together with your parent or guardian to make sure you both understand them. If we learn that you are under the age of 18 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 English Live 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.

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 according 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; and

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.

AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING

If you have given your consent to marketing, EF English Live may collect Personal Data for the purpose of profiling in order to serve promotional information tailored to your interests, for example to analyze or predict aspects concerning that your economic situation, personal preferences, interests, behavior, approximate location or movements. This type of profiling does not produce any legal effects on you.

We also use a machine learning powered tool to record your language during the lessons, in order to analyze your skills and suggest improvements. This type of processing does not produce any legal effects on you.

EF English Live records and analyses sales calls with you with help of machine learning technology, for the purpose of quality control and to improve the sales performance. Information from such calls, for example tone and key words are also combined with other personal data we have collected in connection with our communications with you, such as meeting attendance and meeting notes. This type of processing does not produce any legal effects on you.

CONTACT US

If you would like to have a copy of the information EF English Live 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 Zürich, Switzerland, or click here.

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

Annex 1.