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Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 15, 2021

Welcome to EKOS! We are a networking and engagement platform for professionals and businesses. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and disclose your personal information when you use our Services (as described below) and how you can exercise your privacy rights. By using the Services, you confirm you have read and understand this Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information, then please contact us using the details provided below.

1.Introduction

EKOS Global, LLC ("EKOS") provides an AI powered networking and engagement platform that enables professionals and businesses to connect, engage and learn from each other (the "Platform"). This Privacy Policy describes how we process information from or about individuals ("you" or your") who interact with us, including visitors to our website (at www.ekos.ai) (the "Website"), recipients of our communications and advertising, registered users of our Platform and related mobile applications and individuals who attend events hosted on our Platform (collectively, our "Services").

Please note that this Privacy Policy applies where we are processing personal information as a data controller. If you have been given access to our Services by another company or organization (such as your employer) ("Organization"), or you link your account to the EKOS account of an Organization, then that Organization will have access to some of your information (such as Attended Events) and we may process some your personal information on their behalf as a processor or service provider in order to perform our contract with the Organization. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the information we collect and process on behalf of Organizations as a processor, and you should contact the relevant Organization if you have any questions about their privacy practices.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to websites, products or services that display or link to different privacy statements or that are operated by companies other than EKOS. 

2.Personal Information We Collect

We need to collect and use information about you in the course of providing our Services. The types of personal information that we receive or collect will depend on how you use the Services. We require certain information to deliver our Services and without we will not be able to provide our Services to you. For example, you must provide your email address to create an account to use our Platform. Our Services have optional features, which, if used by you, may require us to collect additional information to provide such features. You will be notified of such a collection, as appropriate. If you choose not to provide the information needed to use a feature, you will be unable to use the feature.

The personal information we collect about you falls into the following categories:

Information you provide to us: We collect certain information from you when you use our Services, including when you create an account, host or attend events on our Platform, create or share content and interact with and communicate with others using our Services. This includes:

  • Log-in and profile information. We collect certain information when you register an account and create your profile, such as your email address, password, name, job title, company, industry, location, professional interests and photograph. We may also ask you to provide a copy of your ID in order to verify your identity. You have choices about the information on your profile. You don’t have to provide certain information; however, profile information helps get you more from our Services, including helping better identify events or connections that may interest you. Please do not post or add personal information to your profile that you would not want to be publically available.
  • Connections and contact information. We may collect information about the people you connect and interact with when using our Services. We may also collect your list of contacts if you choose to import, upload or sync your device information (such as your address book) or contacts from your other social media networks. We may use this information to recommend content that could be of interest to you or other users that you may wish to follow.
  • Audio and video data. If you host or attend an event using the Platform, we record and process the audio and video data that is streamed live or recorded for that event. We may monitor audio and video data to detect inappropriate behaviour, investigate incidents and to enforce our terms of use.
  • Content, communications and other information. We collect information such as articles, posts, comments and videos that you choose to create, upload or share through our Services and the communications that you send or receive when use our messaging feature. You don’t have to post or upload personal data; but we encourage all users to actively participate in the Platform to improve your overall engagement experience.
  • Payment information: Where we offer our Services for a fee, we will ask you to provide information (such as your credit card information and billing address) to one of our payment providers, such as Stripe, Inc. ("Stripe"), to ensure your payments can be processed. We do not collect or process your payment information and any information you provide to a payment provider will be processed in accordance with their privacy policy. You can find Stripe's privacy policy here.
  • Marketing and social media data. We may collect and use your information for our marketing purposes, including your email address, location and marketing preferences. We also collect your information when you interact with our social media pages on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
  • Support and feedback information. If you contact us regarding a technical issue or to provide us with feedback about our Services, we will process that information to respond to your request and for our legitimate business purposes.

If we ask you to provide any other personal information not described above, then the personal information we will ask you to provide, and the reasons why we ask you to provide it, will be made clear to you at the point we collect the information.

Information we collect automatically: Like most companies that offer online services, we (or the third parties we work with) may collect certain information automatically from your computer or device about your use of our Services. We use this information to provide our Services, ensure the security of our Services and help improve our Services. This typically includes:

  • Device data. When you use our Services, we collect certain information through our plugins, cookies and other similar tracking technologies, such as information about your network and device (e.g., IP address, proxy server, operating system, web browser, add-ons, device identifier and features, cookie IDs and/or ISP, or your mobile carrier). You can learn more about our use of cookies in the section below entitled "Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies".
  • Location data. We may derive your general location based on information such as cookies data so that, for example, we know what time zone you are in.
  • Activity data. We may also collect information about how you use and interact with our Services, such as the events you host or attend, the content you view, click-on or download, the actions you take and the time and duration of your activities, and the people you interact with. We use log-ins, cookies, device information and IP address to identify you and log your use.

Information we obtain from third parties: We may receive personal information about you from third party sources. This typically includes:

  • Sign-in information. If you log in to our Services using a third party sign-in service (such as Twitter or LinkedIn), we will collect information from that sign-in service that you give us permission to receive. This may include information such as your name, social media profile and location. We only collect this information where these third parties have your permission or are otherwise legally permitted or required to disclose your information to us, and we use this information to provide the Services to you. Please refer to the privacy settings of the third party sign-in service you use to manage the information that is shared.
  • Contact information. If one of our registered users imports or syncs their contact with our Services, associates their contacts with their EKOS profile or sends messages using our Services (including invite or connection requests) we may receive personal information (including contact information) about you.

 

3.How We Use Personal Information

How we use your data will depend on what Services you use, how you use those Services and the choices you make in your settings. We use personal information about you for the following purposes:

 

  • Our Services. Our Services help you connect, engage and learn from other professionals through networking and events that take place through our Platform. We use your personal information to provide, support and personalize our Services, including to: 
    • Enable our users to register an account and create and maintain their profile;
    • Authorize access to our Services and honor your settings;
    • Enable users and other individuals to host and attend events using our Platform;
    • Enable users to interact with and communicate with others through our Services, including through our messaging feature;
    • Help users stay informed about events, news and ideas regarding professional topics they care about, and from professionals they match with;
    • Help others users find each, suggest connections and events for users (e.g. events that match your interests and users who share your contacts or job experience);
    • Send technical notices, updates, security alerts, and other support and administrative messages to our users;
    • Personalize and improve our Services (e.g. to personalize content in our users feeds and to suggest events, content or connections we think match a user's profile);
    • Respond to questions, requests and feedback from our users and others that interact with our Services;
    • Provide technical and customer support to users;
  • Communications. We will contact you through email, mobile phone, notices posted on our websites or apps and other ways through our Services, including text messages and push notification in accordance with your communication preferences;
  • Marketing. In addition to advertising our Services, we use our users data and content to send promotional and marketing information to you in accordance with your marketing preferences For example, communications promoting membership and network growth and our Services;
  • Developing Services and Research. We monitor and analyze usage, trends and activities in connection with our Services;
  • We may use your information to serve you tailored ads both on and off our Services;
  • Manage or block inappropriate content. We may need to block or remove content that violations of our terms and conditions, or otherwise use your information to detect, prevent and respond to potential fraud and otherwise take action in response to misuse of our Services;
  • Comply with our legal obligations. We may need to use your information in order to comply with legal obligations that we are subject to.

In general, we will use the personal information we collect only for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or for purposes that we explain to you at the time we collect your personal information.  However, we may also use your personal information for other purposes that are not incompatible with the purposes we have disclosed to you if and where this is permitted by applicable data protection laws.

4.Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information to the following categories of recipients:

  • Vendors, service providers and partners: We may share your information with our third party vendors, service providers and partners who provide data processing services to us (such as our cloud storage providers, analytics providers, marketing and advertising partners, and external consultants and professional advisers). Our vendors, service providers and partners will only process your information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or other purposes that are notified to you when we collect your information.
  • Third party applications. We may share your information or content with third party plug-ins and applications (such as Facebook) that allow you to share information about your activities on our Services and your content through other social media networks. This Privacy Policy does not apply to your use of any such third party plug-ins and applications and we are not responsible for how those third parties collect, use and disclose your information. We encourage you to review the policies of those third parties before connecting to or using their applications or services to learn more about their privacy practices.
  • Your company or organization. If you have been given access to our Services by an Organization (such as your employer), or you link your account to the EKOS account of an Organization, we may share certain information about you (such as information about your use of our Services) with that Organization in order to perform our contract with them and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
  • Other users: Any information that you choose to upload to your profile, share with others while hosting or attending an event on our Platform, or include in messages you send or receive while using our messaging feature, will be visible to other users and individuals using our Services.
  • Legal requirements: We may share your information with any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court or other third party where we believe disclosure is necessary as a matter of applicable law or regulation, to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights, or to protect your vital interests or those of any other person.
  • Business transfers: We may share your information with a potential buyer (and its agents and advisers) in connection with any proposed purchase, merger or acquisition of any part of our business, provided that we inform the buyer it must use your personal information only for the purposes disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
  • Consent: We may share your information with others where you have given your consent to the disclosure.

 

5.Lawful Basis for Processing (European Individuals Only)

If you are located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we need a lawful basis to collect, use and disclose your personal information. Our lawful basis will depend on the information concerned and the context in which it is processed. 

We may process your personal information in order to perform a contract with you (such as to create and maintain your account and process your profile information). In other circumstances, we may process your information where the processing is in our legitimate interests and those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms (such as to communicate with you about information relating to our services, monitor and analyze usage trends, and personalize and improve our Services).

Where required, we may also process your personal information where we have obtained your consent (for example, if we need to collect and process any sensitive information about you or where we obtain your consent to send you promotional or marketing materials). Finally, we may need to process your information to comply with our legal obligations (such as to detect inappropriate behaviour and enforce our terms of use, exercise, establish or defend our legal rights, or share your information with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency where disclosure is required by law).

If you have questions about the lawful basis on which we collect, use and disclose your personal information, please contact us using the contact details below.

6.Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We (or the third parties we work with) use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our Services to collect certain information about how you use our Services and your computer or device. This may include information such as your IP address, browser and device type, referral source, and other technical information. We may also collect information about how you have interacted with our Services, including the events you host or attend, the content you access or download, the links clicked and the people you interact with. This information enables us to better understand how our Services are being used and to improve the quality and relevance of our Services. 

For further information about the types of cookies and other similar tracking technologies we use, why, and how you can control them, please see our Cookie Policy.

Your browser or device may include "Do Not Track" functionality. Because there is not yet a common understanding of how to interpret Do Not Track signals, we do not currently respond to "Do Not Track" signals. However, you can opt out from the use of tracking technologies as explained in our Cookie Notice.

Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google") to help analyze how people use our Services, compile reports and improve the quality and relevance of our Services. The information generated by Google Analytics is transmitted to and stored by Google and is subject to Google’s privacy policies. To learn more about Google’s partner services and how to opt out of analytics tracking by Google, click here.

7.International Data Transfers

EKOS is a US company and our service providers are located in the US and other countries. This means that your personal information may be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than the country in which you are located. These countries may have data protection laws that are different to the laws of your country (and, in some cases, may not be as protective).

However, we take appropriate safeguards to ensure that your information remains protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws. If you are located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom or Switzerland these safeguards include transferring your information to a country that the European Commission or UK authorities (as applicable) have determined provides an adequate level of protection for personal information, or by implementing standard contractual clauses with our customers, third party service providers and partners.

8.Data Retention

We retain personal information so long as we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with the Services or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements). When we no longer have an ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

9.Your Privacy Choices

You can access and control the personal information that we process about you as follows:

  • Profile information. You can access, correct or update your log-in and profile information at any time through your account.

 

  • Direct marketing. You can opt-out from marketing communications that we send at any time. You can do this by clicking on the "unsubscribe" or "opt-out" link in the marketing communications we send or by contacting us using the details provided below. We do not currently share your personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.

 

  • Account closure. You can close your account at any time. We will be sad to see you go but if you choose to close your account, we will generally delete your account information within 60 days of account closure, except where we need to retain your information to comply with our legal obligations and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Any information you have shared with others through our Services will remain visible after you close your account.

 

  • Privacy rights. Depending on your location and applicable data protection laws, you may also have certain rights with regard to the personal information we control about you. For example, under European laws (including the GDPR) you have the right to access, rectify, port and delete your data, restrict certain processing of your data and object to our processing of your data for direct marketing purposes or where we are processing your information based on our legitimate interests. Similarly, where we are processing your information based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Finally, you also have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information. Contact details for European data protection authorities can be found here.

We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their privacy rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. If you would like to exercise any of the rights which are available to you under applicable data protection laws, please contact us using the details provided below. Please note that we may need to verify your identity before we can respond to your request.

10.Children

Our Services are not intended for individuals under the age of 16 and we do not knowingly collect personal information about individuals under the age of 16. If you have reason to believe that an individual under the age of 16 has provided their personal information to us, please contact us and we will endeavor to delete that information.

11.Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our Services, the way we operate or to meet new legal requirements. We will take appropriate steps to notify you of any material changes to this Privacy Policy and obtain your consent if and where this is required by applicable data protection laws. You can see when this Privacy Policy was last updated by checking the "last updated" date above. 

12.Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information, please contact us by email at membership@ekos.ai or by post at EKOS Global LLC 31 St. James Ave STE 600 Boston, MA 02116 USA.

If you are located in the European Union or the United Kingdom, EKOS Global LLC is the data controller responsible for your personal information. As explained above, if you have been given access to our Services on behalf of an Organization (such as your employer) then we may process your information on behalf of that Organization as a processor. In that context, they are the controller responsible for your personal information and you should contact the relevant Organization if you have any questions or concerns about their privacy practices.