Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 1, 2021

To see our California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Privacy Notice, please click on the link, or simply scroll down.

CONTACT US

If you have general questions about your account or how to contact customer service for assistance, please email [email protected].

For questions specifically about this Privacy Statement, or our use of your personal information, cookies or similar technologies, please contact our Privacy Office at [email protected].

THE SCOPE OF THIS POLICY

This policy applies to all Belatone users, including Members and Docents (including Docent applicants), and to all Belatone platforms and services, including our apps, websites, features, and other services (collectively, the "Belatone Platform"). Please remember that your use of the Belatone Platform is also subject to our Terms of Service .

THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect certain data from you directly, like information you enter yourself, data about your consumption of content, and information about your device and what parts of our Platform you interact with or spend time using. Below are some examples to help you better understand the data we collect.

A. Information You Provide to Us

Account Registration. When you create an account with Belatone, we collect the information you provide us, such as your name and email address. You may also choose to share additional information with us for your account profile, such as a photo of yourself.

Student Payment Data. If you make purchases, we collect certain data about your purchase (such as your name and ZIP code) as necessary to process your order. You must provide certain payment and billing data directly to our payment service providers, including your name, credit card information, billing address, and ZIP code.

Docent Payment Data. If you are a Docent and are due earnings, you may provide us with your PayPal account email in order to receive payments.

Ratings and Feedback. When you rate and provide feedback about Members or Docents, we collect the information you provide in your feedback.

Communications. When you contact us or we contact you, we collect any information that you provide, including the contents of the messages or attachments you send us.

B. Information We Collect When You Use the Belatone Platform

Usage Information. We collect information about your use of the Belatone Platform, including the pages and content you view and the dates and times of access.

Device Information. We collect information about the devices you use to access the Belatone Platform, including device model, IP address, type of browser, and version of the operating system.

Communications Between Members and Docents. We facilitate video calls between Members and Docents without sharing either party's actual contact details. We collect information about these communications, including the date, time, and duration.

Cookies and Data Collection Tools. We use cookies, which are small text files stored by your browser, to collect, store, and share data about your activities across websites, including on Belatone. They allow us to remember things about your visits to Belatone, like your preferred language, and to make the site easier to use.

Belatone and service providers acting on our behalf (like Google Analytics and third-party advertisers) use server log files and automated data collection tools like cookies, tags, scripts, customized links, device or browser fingerprints, and web beacons (together, “Data Collection Tools“) when you access and use the Platform. These Data Collection Tools automatically track and collect certain System Data and Usage Data when you use the Platform. In some cases, we tie data gathered through those Data Collection Tools to other data that we collect as described in this Privacy Policy.

Belatone uses the following types of Data Collection Tools for the purposes described:

  • Strictly Necessary: These Data Collection Tools enable you to access the site, provide basic functionality (like logging in or accessing content), secure the site, protect against fraudulent logins, and detect and prevent abuse or unauthorized use of your account. These are required for the Platform to work properly, so if you disable them, parts of the site will break or be unavailable.
  • Functional: These Data Collection Tools remember data about your browser and your preferences, provide additional site functionality, customize content to be more relevant to you, and remember settings affecting the appearance and behavior of the Platform (like your preferred language or volume level for video playback).
  • Performance: These Data Collection Tools help measure and improve the Platform by providing usage and performance data, visit counts, traffic sources, or where an application was downloaded from. These tools can help us test different versions of Belatone to see which features or content users prefer and determine which email messages are opened.
  • Advertising: These Data Collection Tools are used to deliver relevant ads (on the site and/or other sites) based on things we know about you like your Usage and System Data, and things that the ad service providers know about you based on their tracking data. The ads can be based on your recent activity or activity over time and across other sites and services.
  • Social Media: These Data Collection Tools enable social media functionality, like sharing content with friends and networks. These cookies may track a user or device across other sites and build a profile of user interests for targeted advertising purposes.

You can set your web browser to alert you about attempts to place cookies on your computer, modify the types of cookies you allow, or refuse cookies altogether. If you do, you may not be able to use some or all features of the Platform, and your experience may be different or less functional.

C. Information We Collect from Third Parties

Enterprise Programs. If you use Belatone through your employer or other organization that participates in one of our Belatone Business enterprise programs, we will collect information about you from those parties, such as your name and contact information.

Referral Programs. Friends help friends use the Belatone Platform. If someone refers you to Belatone, we will collect information about you from that referral including your name and contact information.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use your personal information to:

  • Provide the Belatone Platform;
  • Maintain the security and safety of the Belatone Platform and its users;
  • Build and maintain the Belatone community;
  • Provide customer support;
  • Improve the Belatone Platform; and
  • Respond to legal proceedings and obligations.

Providing the Belatone Platform. We use your personal information to provide an intuitive, useful, efficient, and worthwhile experience on our platform. To do this, we use your personal information to:

  • Verify your identity and maintain your account, settings, and preferences;
  • Calculate prices and process payments;
  • Allow Members and Docents to connect;
  • Collect feedback regarding your experience; and
  • Operate contests, sweepstakes, and other promotions.

Maintaining the Security and Safety of the Belatone Platform and its Users. We aim to provide you a secure and safe experience using the Belatone Platform. To do this, we use your personal information to:

  • Authenticate users;
  • Find and prevent fraud; and
  • Block and remove unsafe or fraudulent users from the Belatone Platform.

Providing Customer Support. We work hard to provide the best experience possible, including supporting you when you need it. To do this, we use your personal information to:

  • Investigate and assist you in resolving questions or issues you have regarding the Belatone Platform; and
  • Provide you support or respond to you.

Improving the Belatone Platform. We are always working to improve your experience and provide you with new and helpful features. To do this, we use your personal information to:

  • Perform research, testing, and analysis;
  • Develop new products, features, partnerships, and services;
  • Prevent, find, and resolve software or hardware bugs and issues; and
  • Monitor and improve our operations and processes, including security practices, algorithms, and other modeling.

Responding to Legal Proceedings and Requirements. Sometimes the law, government entities, or other regulatory bodies impose demands and obligations on us with respect to the services we seek to provide. In such a circumstance, we may use your personal information to respond to those demands or obligations.

HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION

We do not sell your personal information. To make the Belatone Platform work, we may need to share your personal information with other users, third parties, and service providers. This section explains when and why we share your information.

A. Sharing Between Belatone Users

Members and Docents.

Upon receiving a chat request, we share with the Docent the requesting Member's name, profile photo, rating, and other Member statistics.

Upon a Docent accepting a requested chat, we will share with the Member the Docent's name, profile photo, rating, and other Docent profile statistics.

Referral Programs.

If you refer someone to the Belatone Platform, we will let them know that you generated the referral. If another user referred you, we may share information about your use of the Belatone Platform with that user. For example, a referral source may receive a bonus when you join the Belatone Platform or sign up for a subscription and would receive such information.

B. Sharing With Third-Party Service Providers for Business Purposes

Depending on whether you're a Member or a Docent, Belatone may share the following categories of your personal information for a business purpose to provide you with a variety of the Belatone Platform's features and services:

  • Personal identifiers, such as your name, address, email address.
  • Internet or other electronic network activity information, such as your IP address, type of browser, version of operating system and manufacturer.

We disclose those categories of personal information to service providers to fulfill the following business purposes:

  • Maintaining and servicing your Belatone account;
  • Providing you customer service;
  • Processing Docent applications and payments;
  • Verifying the identity of users;
  • Detecting and preventing fraud;
  • Providing loyalty and promotional programs;
  • Providing marketing and advertising services to Belatone;
  • Providing analytics services to Belatone; and
  • Undertaking internal research to develop the Belatone Platform.
C. For Legal Reasons and to Protect the Belatone Platform

We may share your personal information in response to a legal obligation, or if we have determined that sharing your personal information is reasonably necessary or appropriate to:

  • Comply with any applicable federal, state, or local law or regulation, civil, criminal or regulatory inquiry, investigation or legal process, or enforceable governmental request;
  • Respond to legal process (such as a search warrant, subpoena, summons, or court order);
  • Enforce our Terms of Service;
  • Cooperate with law enforcement agencies concerning conduct or activity that we reasonably and in good faith believe may violate federal, state, or local law; or
  • Exercise or defend legal claims, protect against harm to our rights, property, interests, or safety or the rights, property, interests, or safety of you, third-parties, or the public as required or permitted by law.
D. In Connection with Sale or Merger

We may share your personal information while negotiating or in relation to a change of corporate control such as a restructuring, merger, or sale of our assets.

E. Upon Your Further Direction

With your permission or upon your direction, we may disclose your personal information to interact with a third party or for other purposes.

HOW WE STORE AND PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION

We retain your information for as long as necessary to provide you and our other users the Belatone Platform. This means we keep your profile information for as long as you maintain an account. We retain transactional information such as subscriptions and payments for at least seven years to ensure we can perform legitimate business functions, such as accounting for tax obligations. If you request account deletion, we will delete your information as set forth in the "Deleting Your Account" section below.

We take reasonable and appropriate measures designed to protect your personal information. But no security measures can be 100% effective, and we cannot guarantee the security of your information, including against unauthorized intrusions or acts by third parties.

YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES REGARDING YOUR DATA

Belatone provides ways for you to access and delete your personal information as well as exercise other data rights that give you certain control over your personal information.

A. All Users

Email Subscriptions. You can always unsubscribe from our commercial or promotional emails by clicking unsubscribe in those messages. We will still send you transactional and relational emails about your use of the Belatone Platform.

Push Notifications. You can opt out of receiving push notifications through your device settings. Please note that opting out of receiving push notifications may impact your use of the Belatone Platform (such as receiving a notification that your Docent chat session has connected).

Profile Information. You can review and edit certain account information you have chosen to add to your profile by logging in to your account settings and profile.

Cookie Tracking. You can modify your cookie settings on your browser, but if you delete or choose not to accept our cookies, you may be missing out on certain features of the Belatone Platform.

Do Not Track. When you first visit this website, we will display a cookie notice, which allows the option to modify tracking preferences. You can choose to opt out of all tracking other than the strictly necessary cookies.

Deleting Your Account. If you would like to delete your Belatone account, please email [email protected]. In some cases, we will be unable to delete your account, such as if there is an issue with your account related to trust, safety, or fraud. When we delete your account, we may retain certain information for legitimate business purposes or to comply with legal or regulatory obligations. For example, we may be obligated to retain your information as part of an open legal investigation. When we retain such data, we do so in ways designed to prevent its use for other purposes.

B. California Residents

The California Consumer Privacy Act provides some California residents with the additional rights listed below. To exercise these rights please email [email protected].

Right to Know. You have the right to know and see what data we have collected about you over the past 12 months, including:

  • The categories of personal information we have collected about you;
  • The categories of sources from which the personal information is collected;
  • The business or commercial purpose for collecting your personal information;
  • The categories of third parties with whom we have shared your personal information; and
  • The specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.

Right to Delete. You have the right to request that we delete the personal information we have collected from you (and direct our service providers to do the same). There are a number of exceptions, however, that include, but are not limited to, when the information is necessary for us or a third party to do any of the following:

  • Complete your transaction;
  • Provide you a good or service;
  • Perform a contract between us and you;
  • Protect your security and prosecute those responsible for breaching it;
  • Fix our system in the case of a bug;
  • Protect the free speech rights of you or other users;
  • Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et seq.);
  • Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interests that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws;
  • Comply with a legal obligation; or
  • Make other internal and lawful uses of the information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Other Rights. You can request certain information about our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. This request is free and may be made once a year. You also have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of the rights listed above.

Exercising Your California Privacy Rights. To request access to or deletion of your personal information, or to exercise any other data rights under California law, please contact us using one of the following methods:

Electronic: You may email us to exercise your rights. Please include your full name, email address, and phone number associated with your use of the Belatone Platform, along with why you are writing, so that we can process your request in an efficient manner.

To respond to some rights we will need to verify your request either by asking you to log in and authenticate your account or otherwise verify your identity by providing information about yourself or your account. Authorized agents can make a request on your behalf if you have given them legal power of attorney or you provide signed permission, verification of your identity, and confirmation that you provided the agent permission to submit the request.

Response Timing and Format. We aim to respond to a consumer request for access or deletion within 45 days of receiving that request. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.

CHILDREN'S DATA

Belatone is not directed to children, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If we find out that a child under 13 has given us personal information, we will take steps to delete that information. If you believe that a child under the age of 13 has given us personal information, please contact us at [email protected].

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

The Belatone Platform may contain links to third-party websites. Those websites may have privacy policies that differ from ours. We are not responsible for those websites, and we recommend that you review their policies. Please contact those websites directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may update this policy from time to time as the Belatone Platform changes and privacy law evolves. If we update it, we will do so online, and if we make material changes, we will let you know through the Belatone Platform or by some other method of communication like email. When you use Belatone, you are agreeing to the most recent terms of this policy.