Privacy Policy

 

Privacy Policy for Sophia Mela, LLC

Updated: May 16, 2022

Sophia Mela, LLC (“the Company”, “we,” “our”), is registered under the laws of the State of Texas, USA respects the privacy of visitors to the website, and clients of the Company (“user, “you”, or “your”) and is committed to protecting it through our compliance with this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us (“Personal Information”), will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By using the website, available at https://www.sophiamela.com (“the Site”), or explicitly agreeing to this Privacy Policy, when prompted on the Site, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. Your use of the Site is subject to the Terms of Service which incorporates this Privacy Policy.

EU Compliance

The Company qualifies as a Data Controller under the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of The European Parliament and of The Council of 27 April 2016 (General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”)).  As such, we aim to comply with all legal obligations which the GDPR implies on Data Controllers.

Introduction

Purpose of Policy. The Company is committed to respecting the privacy rights of its customers, visitors, and other users of the Website. We created this Website Privacy Policy (this “Policy”) to give you confidence as you visit and use the Site and to demonstrate our commitment to fair information practices and the protection of privacy. This Policy is only applicable to the Site, and not to any other websites that you may be able to access from the Site, each of which may have data collection and use practices and policies that differ materially from this Policy.

What is Personal Information? Personally Identifiable Information, or PII, shall mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“data subject”) including personal data as defined under applicable local law. An identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier, or to one or more factors specific to the physical, psychological genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

Information Collection Practices

What Basic Information Do We Collect? 

We or our Service Providers may collect PII and other information when you access and use Site and Services. You are not required to provide PII when accessing the Site, however, it is required when accessing or using certain Services. Depending on the Service, the PII we collect may include:

  1. Name, initials, or white page information: including your name, initials or email address when you create an Account or purchase a subscription;

  2. Payment card industry data such as your credit card number, billing address, etc. 

  3. Communications: if you choose to communicate with or receive communications from the Company via phone, text, chat, email, or any other information provided when contacting our technical support or customer service, may be recorded or monitored.

  4. User Activity: the pages you view, your browser type, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, and timestamp information. This information is used to ensure the security of the platform and other users

What Additional Information Does Company Collect? 

(a) AUTOMATIC COLLECTION. Our servers automatically recognize visitors’ domain names and IP addresses (the number assigned to computers on the Internet). No Personal Information about you is revealed in this process. The Website may also gather anonymous “traffic data” that does not personally identify you, but that may be helpful for marketing purposes or for improving the services we offer.

(b) COOKIES. From time to time, we may use the standard “cookies” feature of major browser applications that allows us to store a small piece of data on your computer about your visit to the Site. Cookies help us learn which areas of our site are useful and which areas need improvement. You can choose whether to accept cookies by changing the settings on your browser. However, if you choose to disable this function, your experience on the Site may be diminished and some features may not work as they were intended.

Use and Sharing of Information

How Do We Use Personally Identifiable Information?

We will use Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) to provide the Services or to process transactions such as information requests or purchasing sessions or consultation services.

We will also process your PII to meet our legitimate interests; to maintain and improve the Services; to generate and analyze statistics about your use of the Services and to detect, prevent or respond to fraud, intellectual property infringements, violations of law, violations of the Terms, or other misuses of the Site or Services.

Except as described in this notice, we limit the use, collection, and disclosure of your PII to deliver the Service or information requested by you. We do not collect use or disclose PII that is not reasonably related to the purposes described within this notice without prior notification. Your information may be combined in an aggregate and de-identified manner in order to maintain or improve our services.

When Do We Share Personal Information?

Information Sharing, Disclosure, and Third Parties

In order to support our operations, we rely on several third-party service providers, to help us with various services such as payment processing, web audience analysis, cloud hosting, marketing, and communication, etc.

The following table indicates which third-party service providers are being used and for what purpose. 

  • Service Provider - Purpose - Personal Data Shared

  • Square.com - E-commerce support and payment processing - IP Address, Name and Surname and payment information.

  • Acuity - Scheduling Software - IP Address, Name and Surname.

  • PayPal - Payment Processor - Name, Surname and payment information.

  • Google LLC - Data Storage - Name, Surname and Account Information Excluding Payment Details

How We Share Your Personal Data?

Save for providing the Services, and in the manner described above the Company does not share any PII. 

Do not track

Please note that we do not alter our Website’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.

Do We Use Personal Information to Market to You?

We will only use your personal information if permitted by law to do so or where you choose to be notified of services and products sold by the Company from time to time.

What Rights Do You Have Around Your Personal Information?

1. You have the right to withdraw your consent by contacting us at sophiamela@gmail.com. Our use of PII is integral to some or all of the Services, and by opting out it may result in the cancelation of any pending transaction or ongoing service.

2. If you would like to review, change or delete personal data we have collected from you or you had submitted or permanently deleted same, please contact us.

3. You may be informed of (a) the source of the PII; (b) the purposes and methods of the processing (c) the logic applied to the processing if the processing is carried out with the help of electronic means; (d) of the identity of the data controller and data processors; and e) of the entities or categories of entities to whom the PII may be communicated and who may access to such PII in their capacity as data processor(s) or person(s) in charge of the processing.

How Do We Protect Personal Information?

The Company takes reasonable precautions and uses reasonable security measures to protect your information. When you submit personal information via the Site your information is protected both offline and online. 

For How Long Do We Retain Personal Information?

We will retain your data only for as long as is required to provide the Services, comply with our obligations in the Terms, resolve disputes, and, thereafter for no longer than is permitted by law.

Cookie Policy

What are cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer, smartphone, or other devices when you visit the Site. A cookie file is stored on your device and allows us, or our third-party partners, to recognize you and make your visit easier and more useful to you when you revisit the Site. 

How does The Company use cookies?

Cookies allow us to recognize users (where appropriate), tailor the content on the Site to fit the needs of our visitors, and helps us improve the user experience. Without certain types of cookies enabled, we cannot guarantee that the Site and your experience of it are as we intended it to be. 

We use cookies to obtain information about your visits and about the device you use to access our website. 

This includes where available, your IP address and pseudonymous identifiers, operating system and browser type, and, depending on the cookie, also includes the reporting of statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns.  

Below we provide a description of each of the cookies we may use on this page with an indication as to what the purpose of each cookie is. 

Types of cookies

The length of time a cookie stays on your device depends on its type.  The following are types of cookies used on our website:

  • Session cookies are temporary cookies that only exist during the time you use the Site (or more strictly, until you close the browser after using the Site). Session cookies help our Site remember what you chose on the previous page, avoiding the need to re-enter information and improve your experience whilst using the Site.

  • Persistent cookies stay on your device after you’ve visited our Site. For example, if you tick the 'Remember me” box after you log into the Site a persistent cookie will be used so that the Site remembers you the next time you use it. Persistent cookies help us identify you as a unique visitor. 

  • Third-party cookies, also referred to as tracking cookies, collect data based on your online behavior.  When you visit the Site, third-party cookies collect various types of data that are then passed on or sold to advertisers by the Site that created the cookie.  Tracking your interests, location, age, and search trends, these cookies collect information so that marketers can provide you with custom advertisements.  These are the ads that appear on the Site you visit and display content relevant to your interests.

Purpose of Cookies

Cookies on the Site may be used for the following purposes:

  • Strictly necessary: These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around a website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the webite. Without these cookies, services you have asked for, such as obtaining a quote or logging into your account, cannot be provided. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you have been on the internet.

  • Performance: These cookies collect information about how visitors use a site, for instance, which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. They also allow us to record and count the number of visitors to the site, all of which enable us to see how visitors use the site in order to improve the way that our site works. These cookies do not collect information that identifies a person, as all information these cookies collect is anonymous and is used to improve how our site works.

  • Functionality: These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language, or the region you are in) and provide enhanced features. For instance, the website may be able to remember your log-in details, so that you do not have to repeatedly sign in to your account when using a particular device to access our site. The information these cookies collect is usually anonymized. They do not gather any information about you that could be used for advertising or remember where you have been on the internet.

How to control and delete cookies through your browser

The browser you are using to view the Site can enable, disable or delete cookies. To do this, follow the instructions provided by your browser (usually located within the “Help,” “Tools” or “Edit” facility). Please note that if you set your browser to disable cookies, you may not be able to access certain parts of the Site. Other parts of the Site may also not work properly. You can find out more information about how to change your browser cookie settings at www.allaboutcookies.org.


Other State Law Privacy Rights

California Resident Rights

Under California Civil Code Sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to contact us to prevent disclosure of PII to third parties for such third parties direct marketing purposes; in order to submit such request, please contact us at sophiamela@gmail.com.

Nevada Resident Rights

If you are a resident of Nevada, you have the right to opt out of the sale of certain PII to third parties who intend to license or sell that PII. For clarification, we do not engage in such activities of “sale” of your PII to third parties defined under Nevada law.


Special Information for Users in the EU

We act as our own data processor as defined under the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of The European Parliament and of The Council of 27 April 2016 (General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”)).  As such, we aim to comply with all legal obligations which the GDPR implies on Data Processors.

Grounds for Data Processing

We only collect and use personal data where we have lawful grounds to do so. These include processing user personal data to provide the Services, for purposes of our legitimate interests or those of other parties, to fulfill our legal obligations, or based on consent.

We collect and use personal data only where we have one or more lawful grounds for doing so. Such grounds may vary depending on where our users are located, but generally include processing personal data:

To provide the Services

In order to provide the Services, we must collect and use certain personal data. This includes:

  • User profile data, which we use to establish and maintain our subscriber database; verify the user identity and communicate with Users

  • Usage data, which is necessary to maintain, optimize, and enhance the Services

  • Information relating to customer support

For purposes of our legitimate interests or of other parties

This includes using personal data to maintain and enhance our users’ safety and security. For example, we use personal data to prevent the use of the Services by users who have engaged in inappropriate behavior such as uploading inappropriate content which can negatively affect student users. 

This also includes purposes such as combating fraud or detecting cyberattacks or unlawful attempts to extract personal information from our website.

With consent

The Company may collect and use personal data based on your consent. For example, we may collect personal data such as your email address when you subscribe to our newsletter or opt-in to receive marketing communications from the Company

A User who has provided consent to a collection or use of their personal data can revoke it at any time, however, by revoking such consent your access to the Services may be terminated.

Other Provisions

Changes to This Policy

The Company reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. Please check this page periodically for changes. Your use of the Services after any such amendment or change in the Privacy Policy shall be deemed as your express acceptance to such amended/changed Privacy Policy and an assent to be bound by such changed/amended Privacy Policy. Information collected prior to the time any change is posted will be processed according to the rules and laws that applied at the time the information was collected.

Governing Law

This Privacy Policy and the use of the Website are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, USA.  The parties undertake to first try to resolve the dispute concerning this Privacy Policy by negotiation, and, only where such negotiation fails may the matter be referred to a court of competent jurisdiction.

Miscellaneous

The Company is controlled, operated, and administered entirely within the State of Texas, USA.

If you are accessing the Site from another jurisdiction you consent to that transfer and to abide by the applicable laws concerning your use of the Website and your agreements with us.

This statement and the policies outlined in this Privacy Policy are not intended to and do not create any contractual or other legal rights in or on behalf of any party.

Contact

If you believe the Company does not adhere to this Privacy Policy, in order to address a question, to resolve a complaint regarding the Site or Services, or to receive further information regarding the Services, please contact the Company at sophiamela@gmail.com.