Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last updated on April 19, 2021.

We collect certain data from you directly, like information you enter yourself, data about your consumption of content, and data from third-party platforms you connect with Sofia.

You can also choose to provide profile information like a photo, headline, biography, language, website link, social media profiles, country, or other data. Your Profile Data will be publicly viewable by others.

Parts of the Services let you interact with other users or share content publicly, including by posting reviews about content, asking or answering questions, sending messages to students or instructors, or posting photos or other work you upload. Such shared content may be publicly viewable by others depending on where it is posted.

When you access content, we collect certain data including which courses, assignments, labs, workspaces, and quizzes you’ve started and completed; content purchases and credits; subscriptions; completion certificates; your exchanges with instructors, teaching assistants, and other students; and essays, answers to questions, and other items submitted to satisfy course and related content requirements. If you are an instructor, we store your educational content which may contain data about you.

If you make purchases, we collect certain data about your purchase (such as your name, ZIP code and Country) as necessary to process your order. You must provide certain payment and billing data directly to our payment service providers, including your name, Pagadera information, credit card information, billing address, and ZIP code if applicable. We may also receive limited information, like the fact that you have a new card and the last four digits of that card, from payment service providers to facilitate payments. For security, Sofia does not collect or store sensitive cardholder data, such as full credit card numbers or card authentication data.

If you are an instructor, you can link your Pagadera or other payment account to the Services to receive payments. When you link a payment account, we collect and use certain information, including your payment account email address, account ID, physical address, or other data necessary for us to send payments to your account. In some instances, we may collect ACH or wire information to send payments to your account. In order to comply with applicable laws, we also work with trusted third parties who collect tax information as legally required. This tax information may include residency information, tax identification numbers, and other personal information necessary for taxation purposes. For security, Sofia does not collect or store sensitive bank account information. The collection, use, and disclosure of your payment, billing, and taxation data is subject to the privacy policy and other terms of your payment account provider.

We may obtain certain information through your social media or other online accounts if they are connected to your Sofia account. If you login to Sofia via Facebook or another third-party platform or service, we ask for your permission to access certain information about that other account. For example, depending on the platform or service we may collect your name, profile picture, account ID number, login email address, location, physical location of your access devices, gender, birthday, and list of friends or contacts. Those platforms and services make information available to us through their APIs. The information we receive depends on what information you (via your privacy settings) or the platform or service decide to give us. If you access or use our Services through a third-party platform or service, or click on any third-party links, the collection, use, and sharing of your data will also be subject to the privacy policies and other agreements of that third party.

We may invite you to complete a survey or participate in a promotion (like a contest, sweepstakes, or challenge), either through the Services or a third-party platform. If you participate, we will collect and store the data you provide as part of participating, such as your name, email address, postal address, date of birth, or phone number. That data is subject to this Privacy Policy unless otherwise stated in the official rules of the promotion or in another privacy policy. The data collected will be used to administer the promotion or survey, including for notifying winners and distributing rewards. To receive a reward, you may be required to allow us to post some of your information publicly (like on a winner’s page). Where we use a third-party platform to administer a survey or promotion, the third party’s privacy policy will apply.

If you contact us for support or to report a problem or concern (regardless of whether you have created an account), we collect and store your contact information, messages, and other data about you like your name, email address, messages, location, Sofia user ID, refund transaction IDs, and any other data you provide or that we collect through automated means (which we cover below). We use this data to respond to you and research your question or concern, in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We share certain data about you with instructors, other students, companies performing services for us, Sofia affiliates, our business partners, analytics and data enrichment providers, your social media providers, companies helping us run promotions and surveys, and advertising companies who help us promote our Services. We may also share your data as needed for security, legal compliance, or as part of a corporate restructuring. Lastly, we can share data in other ways if it is aggregated or de-identified or if we get your consent.

We may share your data with third parties under the following circumstances or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy:

• With Your Instructors: We share data that we have about you (except your email address) with instructors or teaching assistants for educational content you access or request information about, so they can improve their content for you and other students. This data may include things like your city, country, browser language, operating system, device settings, the site that brought you to Sofia, and your activities on Sofia. If we collect additional data about you (like age or gender), we may share that too. We will not share your email address with instructors or teaching assistants.
• With Other Students and Instructors: Depending on your settings, your shared content and profile data may be publicly viewable, including to other students and instructors. If you ask a question to an instructor or teaching assistant, your information (including your name) may also be publicly viewable.
• With Service Providers, Contractors, and Agents: We share your data with third-party companies who perform services on our behalf, like payment processing, fraud and abuse prevention, data analysis, marketing and advertising services (including retargeted advertising), email and hosting services, and customer services and support. These service providers may access your personal data and are required to use it solely as we direct, to provide our requested service.
• With Sofia Affiliates: We may share your data within our corporate family of companies that are related by common ownership or control to enable or support us in providing the Services.
• With Business Partners: We have agreements with other websites and platforms to distribute our Services and drive traffic to Sofia.
• With Analytics and Data Enrichment Services: As part of our use of third-party analytics tools like Google Analytics and data enrichment services like Zoom Info, we share certain contact information, Account Data, System Data, Usage Data (as detailed in Section 1), or de-identified data as needed. De-identified data means data where we’ve removed things like your name and email address and replaced it with a token ID. This allows these providers to provide analytics services or match your data with publicly-available database information (including contact and social information from other sources). We do this to communicate with you in a more effective and customized manner.
• To Power Social Media Features: The social media features in the Services (like the Facebook Like button) may allow the third-party social media provider to collect things like your IP address and which page of the Services you’re visiting, and to set a cookie to enable the feature. Your interactions with these features are governed by the third-party company’s privacy policy.
• To Administer Promotions and Surveys: We may share your data as necessary to administer, market, or sponsor promotions and surveys you choose to participate in, as required by applicable law (like to provide a winners list or make required filings), or in accordance with the rules of the promotion or survey.
• For Advertising: If we decide to use an advertising-supported revenue model in the future, we may use and share certain System Data and Usage Data with third-party advertisers and networks to show general demographic and preference information among our users. Advertisers may also share with us the data they collect about you. To learn more or opt out from participating ad networks’ behavioral advertising, see Section 5.1 (Your Choices About the Use of Your Data) below. Note that if you opt out, you’ll continue to be served generic ads.
• For Security and Legal Compliance: We may disclose your data to third parties if we (in our sole discretion) have a good faith belief that the disclosure is:
  • Permitted or required by law;
  • Requested as part of a judicial, governmental, or legal inquiry, order, or proceeding;
  • Reasonably necessary as part of a valid subpoena, warrant, or other legally-valid request;
  • Reasonably necessary to enforce our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and other legal agreements;
  • Required to detect, prevent, or address fraud, abuse, misuse, potential violations of law (or rule or regulation), or security or technical issues; or
  • Reasonably necessary in our discretion to protect against imminent harm to the rights, property, or safety of Sofia, our users, employees, members of the public, or our Services.
  • We may also disclose data about you to our auditors and legal advisors in order to assess our disclosure obligations and rights under this Privacy Policy.
• During a Change in Control: If Sofia undergoes a business transaction like a merger, acquisition, corporate divestiture, or dissolution (including bankruptcy), or a sale of all or some of its assets, we may share, disclose, or transfer all of your data to the successor organization during such transition or in contemplation of a transition (including during due diligence).
• After Aggregation/De-identification: We may disclose or use aggregated or de-identified data for any purpose.
• With Your Permission: With your consent, we may share data to third parties outside the scope of this Privacy Policy.

We use appropriate security based on the type and sensitivity of data being stored. As with any internet-enabled system, there is always a risk of unauthorized access, so it’s important to protect your password and to contact us if you suspect any unauthorized access to your account.

Sofia takes appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction of your personal data that we collect and store. These measures vary based on the type and sensitivity of the data. Unfortunately, however, no system can be 100% secured, so we cannot guarantee that communications between you and Sofia, the Services, or any information provided to us in connection with the data we collect through the Services will be free from unauthorized access by third parties. Your password is an important part of our security system, and it is your responsibility to protect it. You should not share your password with any third party, and if you believe your password or account has been compromised, you should change it immediately and contact our Support Team with any concerns.

You have certain rights around the use of your data, including the ability to opt out of promotional emails, cookies, and collection of your data by certain third parties. You can update or terminate your account from within our Services, and can also contact us for individual rights requests about your personal data. Parents who believe we’ve unintentionally collected personal data about their underage child should contact us for help deleting that information.

You can choose not to provide certain data to us, but then you may not be able to use certain features of our services.

• To stop receiving promotional communications from us, you can opt out by using the unsubscribe mechanism in the promotional communication you receive. Note that regardless of your email preference settings, we will send you transactional and relationship messages regarding the Services, including administrative confirmations, order confirmations, important updates about the Services, and notices about our policies.
• If you’re located in the European Economic Area, you may opt out of certain Data Collection Tools by clicking the “Cookie settings“ link at the bottom of any page.
• The browser or device you use may allow you to control cookies and other types of local data storage. To learn more about managing cookies, visit https://cookiepedia.co.uk/how-to-manage-cookies. Your wireless device may also allow you to control whether location or other data is collected and shared.
• To get information and control cookies used for tailored advertising from participating companies, see the consumer opt-out pages for the Network Advertising Initiative and Digital Advertising Alliance, or if you’re located in the European Economic Area, visit the Your Online Choices site. To opt out of Google’s display advertising or customize Google Display Network ads, visit the Google Ads Settings page. To opt out of Taboola’s targeted ads, see the Opt-out Link in their Cookie Policy.
• To opt out of allowing Google Analytics, Mixpanel, ZoomInfo, or Clearbit to use your data for analytics or enrichment, see the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, Mixpanel Opt-Out Cookie, ZoomInfo’s policy, and Clearbit data claiming mechanism.
• Apple iOS, Android OS, and Microsoft Windows each provide their own instructions on how to control in-app tailored advertising. For other devices and operating systems, you should review your privacy settings on that platform.

In case you have any questions about your data, our use of it, or your rights, contact us at support@gotosofia.com.

You can access and update your personal data that Sofia collects and maintains as follows:

• To update data you provide directly, log into your account and update your account at any time.
• To terminate your account:
  • If you are a student, send an email to students@gotosofia.com and then follow the specific instructions indicated to you in Sofia’s response.
  • If you are an instructor, send an email to instructors@gotosofia.com and then follow the specific instructions indicated to you in Sofia’s response.
  • If you have any issues terminating your account, please contact our Support Team.
  • Please note: even after your account is terminated, some or all of your data may still be visible to others, including without limitation any data that has been (a) copied, stored, or disseminated by other users (including comments on content); (b) shared or disseminated by you or others (including in your shared content); or (c) posted to a third-party platform. Even after your account is terminated, we retain your data for as long as we have a legitimate purpose to do so (and in accordance with applicable law), including to assist with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. We may retain and disclose such data pursuant to this Privacy Policy after your account has been terminated.
• To request to access, correct, or delete your personal data, please submit these requests by emailing support@gotosofia.com or writing to us at Sofia, Attn: Privacy/Legal Team, Jongbloedweg 20, Willemstad, Curacao. Please allow up to 30 days for a response. For your protection, we may require that the request be sent through the email address associated with your account, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request. Please note that we retain certain data where we have a lawful basis to do so, including for mandatory record-keeping and to complete transactions.

We recognize the privacy interests of children and encourage parents and guardians to take an active role in their children’s online activities and interests. Individuals younger than 18 years of age, but of the required age for consent to use online services where they live (for example, 13 in the US or 16 in Ireland), may not set up an account, but may have a parent or guardian open an account and help them access appropriate content. Individuals younger than the required age for consent to use online services may not use the Services. If we learn that we’ve collected personal data from a child under those ages, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

Parents who believe that Sofia may have collected personal data from a child under those ages can submit a request that it be removed to support@gotosofia.com.

When we make a material change to this policy, we’ll notify users via email or another mechanism required by law. Changes become effective the day they’re posted. Please contact us via email or postal mail with any questions, concerns, or disputes.

From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy. If we make any material change to it, we will notify you via email, through a notification posted on the Services, or as required by applicable law. We will also include a summary of the key changes. Unless stated otherwise, modifications will become effective on the day they are posted.

As permitted by applicable law, if you continue to use the Services after the effective date of any change, then your access and/or use will be deemed an acceptance of (and agreement to follow and be bound by) the revised Privacy Policy. The revised Privacy Policy supersedes all previous Privacy Policies.

Any capitalized terms not defined in this policy are defined as specified in Sofia’s Terms of Use. Any version of this Privacy Policy in a language other than English is provided for convenience. If there is any conflict with a non-English version, you agree that the English language version will control.

If you have any questions, concerns, or disputes regarding our Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact our support team at support@gotosofia.com with the subject line: "Privacy Policy".

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