Privacy Policy

We at KnowEx know you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously. Please read the following to learn more about our Privacy Policy.By using or accessing KnowEx Service (the Services, our Services) in any manner, you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Privacy Policy, and you hereby consent that we will collect, use, and share your information in the following ways.

Remember that your use of KnowEx Services is at all times subject to KnowEx Terms and Conditions, which incorporates this Privacy Policy. Any terms we use in this Policy without defining them have the definitions given to them in the Terms and Conditions.

What does this Privacy Policy cover?

This Privacy Policy covers our treatment of personally identifiable information ("Personal Information") that we gather when you are accessing or using our Services, but not to the practices of companies we don’t own or control, or people that we don’t manage. We gather various types of Personal Information from our users, as explained in more detail below, and we use this Personal Information internally in connection with our Services, including to personalize, provide, and improve our services, to allow you to set up a user account and profile, to contact you and allow other users to contact you, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, and to analyze how you use KnowEx Services. In certain cases, we may also share some Personal Information with third parties, but only as described below.

As noted in the Terms and Conditions, we do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13. If you are under 13, please do not attempt to register for KnowEx Services or send any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that a child under 13 may have provided us personal information, please contact us at the contact info listed at the end of this document.

Will KnowEx ever change this Privacy Policy?

We’re constantly trying to improve our Services, so we may need to change this Privacy Policy from time to time as well, but we will alert you to changes by placing a notice on KnowEx, by sending you an email, and/or by some other means. Please note that if you’ve opted not to receive legal notice emails from us (or you haven’t provided us with your email address), those legal notices will still govern your use of our Services, and you are still responsible for reading and understanding them. If you use KnowEx Services after any changes to the Privacy Policy have been posted, that means you agree to all of the changes.

What Information does KnowEx Collect?

Information You Provide to Us:

We receive and store any information you knowingly provide to us. The following are some examples (not limitation):

1. Registration information

To create an account on KnowEx, you must provide us with at least your name, email address and/or mobile number, and a password and agree to our Terms and Conditions and this Privacy Policy, which governs how we treat your information. You may provide additional information during the registration flow (for example, your postal code, job title, and company) to help you build your profile and to provide you more customized services (for example: language-specific profile pages, updates, content, more relevant ads and career opportunities). You understand that, by creating an account, we and others will be able to identify you by your KnowEx profile. We may also ask for your credit card details if you purchase certain additional services. Your credit card details will not be viewable on our website.

2. Profile Information

After you create an account, you may choose to provide additional information on your KnowEx profile, such as descriptions of your skills, professional experience, and educational background and desired consultation rate. You can list honors, awards, professional affiliations, and affiliated entities or individuals that are allowed to contact you. Providing additional information enables Advisors to derive more benefit from our Services by better informing interested Students of the Advisor’s career track, and enables Students to increase their chances of being selected for an appointment with an Advisor. It also enables us to serve you ads and other relevant content on and off of our Services.

3. Payment Information

If you use our Service to make or receive payments, we will also collect certain payment information, such as payment card, PayPal or other financial account information, and billing address.

4. Identity Verification

We may collect Personal Information, such as your date of birth, or taxpayer identification number, to validate your identity or as may be required by law, such as completion of tax filings. We may request documents to verify this information, such as a copy of your government-issued identification or photo or a billing statement.

5. Address Book and Other Services That Sync with KnowEx

You may use our address book or data importer (or other similar features) to upload your address book into our Services. We store this information (including phone numbers) and use it to help you manage and leverage your contacts in connection with our Services. We also use this information to enhance your experience with our Services by helping you to grow your KnowEx connections by: identifying your contacts that are already Advisors of our Services; providing a template to send invitations on your behalf to your contacts that are not Advisors; and suggesting people you may know (even if not in your contacts) but are not yet connected with you on our Services (as we may infer from your shared connections or shared managers, employers, educational institutions and other such factors).

Please note that when you send a request for an appointment to an Advisor on our Service, that person may in the future have access to your email address or, for SMS invitations, mobile number because it may be displayed in the invitation. However, at this time, it is KnowEx intention to, where possible, keep this contact information hidden. After sending these invitations, we may also remind your invitees of your invitation on your behalf.

We make other tools available to sync information with our Services, and may also develop additional features that allow Advisors and Students to use their account in conjunction with other third party services. For example, our mobile applications may in the future allow you to sync your device’s calendar, email and/or contacts apps with our Services to show you the KnowEx profiles of meeting attendees.

Any information that you upload or sync with our Services is covered by the User Agreement and this Privacy Policy. You can remove your information at your convenience in accordance with our Terms of Service. You can remove your address book and any other synced information at any time.

6. Customer Service

When you contact our customer support services (e.g. on our Help Center), we may have to access your incoming and outgoing messages, profile information and other contributions to our Services and collect the information we need to categorize your question, respond to it, and, if applicable, investigate any breach of our User Agreement or this Privacy Policy. We also use this information to track potential problems and trends and customize our support responses to better serve you. We do not use this information for advertising.

Information Collected Automatically

Whenever you interact with our Services, we automatically receive and record information on our server logs from your browser or device, which may include your IP address, geolocation data, device identification, “cookie” information, the type of browser and/or device you’re using to access our Services, and the page or feature you requested. “Cookies” are identifiers we transfer to your browser or device that allow us to recognize your browser or device and tell us how and when pages and features in our Services are visited and by how many people. You may be able to change the preferences on your browser or device to prevent or limit your device’s acceptance of cookies, but this may prevent you from taking advantage of some of our features. Our advertising partners may also transmit cookies to your browser or device, when you click on ads that appear on our Services. Also, if you click on a link to a third party website or service, such third party may also transmit cookies to you. Again, this Privacy Policy does not cover the use of cookies by any third parties, and we aren’t responsible for their privacy policies and practices. Please be aware that cookies placed by third parties may continue to track your activities online even after you have left our Services, and those third parties may not honor “Do Not Track” requests you have set using your browser or device.

We may use this data to customize content for you that we think you might like, based on your usage patterns. We may also use it to improve our Services - for example, this data can tell us how often users use a particular feature of our Services, and we can use that knowledge to make our Services interesting to as many users as possible.

Information Collected From Other Websites and Do Not Track Policy

Through cookies we place on your browser or device, we may collect information about your online activity after you leave our Services. Just like any other usage information we collect, this information allows us to improve the Services and customize your online experience, and otherwise as described in this Privacy Policy. Your browser may offer you a “Do Not Track” option, which allows you to signal to operators of websites and web applications and services (including behavioral advertising services) that you do not wish such operators to track certain of your online activities over time and across different websites. When you turn on the Do Not Track function in your browser, we [stop collecting the information from your browser that allows us to tailor advertisements and other content specifically to you that is based on your visits to our advertising partners’ websites. Specifically, we stop collecting information from the unique browser cookie that links your browser to visits to third party sites. Do Not Track signals are set on a browser-by-browser basis, so you must set them on every browser you use if you do not wish to be tracked. Remember that this is just our Do Not Track policy, and we can’t and don’t make any promises about how third parties react when you set this signal on your browser.

Will Company Share Any of the Personal Information it Receives?

We may share your Personal Information with third parties as described in this below:

Information that’s been de-identified.We may de-identify your Personal Information so that you are not identified as an individual, and provide that information to our partners. We may also provide aggregate usage information to our partners (or allow partners to collect that information from you), who may use such information to understand how often and in what ways people use our Services, so that they, too, can provide you with an optimal online experience. However, we never disclose aggregate usage or de-identified information to a partner (or allow a partner to collect such information) in a manner that would identify you as an individual.

Advertisers:We allow advertisers and/or merchant partners (“Advertisers”) to choose the demographic information of users who will see their advertisements and/or promotional offers and you agree that we may provide any of the information we have collected from you in non-personally identifiable form to an Advertiser, in order for that Advertiser to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements and/or offers. For example, we might use the fact you are located in San Francisco to show you ads or offers for San Francisco businesses, but we will not tell such businesses who you are. Or, we might allow Advertisers to display their ads to users with similar usage patterns to yours, but we will not disclose usage information to Advertisers except in aggregate form, and not in a manner that would identify you personally. Note that if an advertiser asks us to show an ad to a certain audience or audience segment and you respond to that ad, the advertiser may conclude that you fit the description of the audience they were trying to reach.

We may deliver a file to you through the Services (known as a “web beacon”) from an ad network. Web beacons allow ad networks to provide anonymized, aggregated auditing, research and reporting for us and for advertisers. Web beacons also enable ad networks to serve targeted advertisements to you when you visit other websites. Because your web browser must request these advertisements and web beacons from the ad network’s servers, these companies can view, edit, or set their own cookies, just as if you had requested a web page from their site. You may be able to opt-out of web beacon tracking conducted by third parties through our Services by adjusting the Do Not Track settings on your browser; please note that we don’t control whether or how these third parties comply with Do Not Track requests.

Affiliated Businesses:In certain situations, businesses or third party websites we’re affiliated with may sell or provide products or services to you through or in connection with KnowEx (either alone or jointly with us). You can recognize when an affiliated business is associated with such a transaction or service, and we will share your Personal Information with that affiliated business only to the extent that it is related to such transaction or service. One such service may include the ability for you to automatically transmit Third Party Account Information to your KnowEx profile or to automatically transmit information in your KnowEx profile to your third party account; for example, from your profile at LinkedIn. We have no control over the policies and practices of third party websites or businesses as to privacy or anything else, so if you choose to take part in any transaction or service relating to an affiliated website or business, please review all such business’ or websites’ policies.

Our Agents:We employ other companies and people to perform tasks on our behalf and need to share your information with them to provide products or services to you; for example, we may use a payment processing company, such as Paypal to receive and process your credit card transactions for us. Unless we tell you differently, our agents do not have any right to use the Personal Information we share with them beyond what is necessary to assist us.

User Profiles and Submissions: Certain user profile information, including your name, location, and any video or image content that such user has uploaded to KnowEx, may be displayed to other users to facilitate user interaction within KnowEx Services or address your request for our services. Your account privacy settings may allow you to limit the other users who can see the Personal Information in your user profile and/or what information in your user profile is visible to others. Please remember that any content you upload to your public user profile, along with any Personal Information or content that you voluntarily disclose online in a manner other users can view (on discussion boards, in messages and chat areas, etc.) becomes publicly available, and can be collected and used by anyone. Your user name may also be displayed to other users if and when you send messages or comments or upload images or videos through KnowEx Services and other users can contact you through messages and comments. Additionally, if you sign into the KnowEx through a third party social networking site or service, your list of “friends” from that site or service may be automatically imported to the KnowEx, and such “friends,” if they are also registered users of the KnowEx, may be able to access certain non-public information you have entered in your Services user profile. Again, we do not control the policies and practices of any other third party site or service.

Business Transfers:We may choose to buy or sell assets, and may share and/or transfer customer information in connection with the evaluation of and entry into such transactions. Also, if we (or our assets) are acquired, or if we go out of business, enter bankruptcy, or go through some other change of control, Personal Information could be one of the assets transferred to or acquired by a third party.

Protection of Company and Others: We reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information that we [reasonably] believe is necessary to comply with law or court order; enforce or apply KnowEx Terms and Conditions and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of KnowEx, our employees, our users, or others.

Is Personal Information about me secure?

Your account is protected by a password for your privacy and security. You must prevent unauthorized access to your account and Personal Information by selecting and protecting your password appropriately and limiting access to your computer or device and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your account.

We endeavor to protect the privacy of your account and other Personal Information we hold in our records, but unfortunately, we cannot guarantee complete security. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors, may compromise the security of user information at any time.

What Personal Information can I access?

Through your account settings, you may access, and, in some cases, edit or delete the following information you’ve provided to us:

  • 1. name and password
  • 2. contact information
  • 3. location
  • 4. user profile information, including images, descriptions, videos, and other info you have uploaded to your KnowEx profile

The information you can view, update, and delete may change as our Services change. If you have any questions about viewing or updating information we have on file about you, please contact us at the contact info listed at the end of this document.

Under California Civil Code Sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to contact us to prevent disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for such third parties’ direct marketing purposes; in order to submit such a request, please contact us at the contact info listed at the end of this document. California residents are entitled to ask us for a notice identifying the categories of Personal Information which we share with our affiliates and/or third parties for marketing purposes, and providing contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to the contact info listed at the end of this document.

Data Retention

We retain the personal information you provide while your account is in existence or as needed to provide you services. We may retain your personal information even after you have closed your account if retention is reasonably necessary to comply with our legal obligations, meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes between Advisors and Students, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce this Privacy Policy or our User Agreement. We may retain personal information, for a limited period of time, if requested by law enforcement. Our Customer Service may retain information for as long as is necessary to provide support-related reporting and trend analysis only, but we generally delete or de-personalize closed account data consistent with Section 35, (although we do maintain 30 days worth of webserver logs for security, debugging, and site stability purposes only) by creating aggregate data sets that cannot be traced back to individuals.

What choices do I have?

You can always opt not to disclose information to us, but keep in mind some information may be needed to register with us or to take advantage of some of our features.

You may be able to add, update, or delete information as explained above. When you update information, however, we may maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our records. You may request deletion of your account by contact KnowEx at the contact info listed at the end of this document. Some information may remain in our records after your deletion of such information from your account. We may use any aggregated data derived from or incorporating your Personal Information after you update or delete it, but not in a manner that would identify you personally.

Finally, keep in mind that if you choose to turn on the Do Not Track function on your browser, we may continue to use all information we collected prior to your turning that function on, in the manner described in this Privacy Policy.

What if I have questions about this policy?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our privacy policies, please send us a detailed message to KnowEx by means listed at the end of this document, and we will try to resolve your concerns.

How To Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please contact us online email at support@knowex.com