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Introduction

Welcome to VIPKID, a web-based service that instructs the English language to young learners ("Service"). VIPTEACHER PTE. LTD. ("VIPKID", "Company", "we" or "us") respects your privacy and have created this Privacy Policy to explain what information about you we collect through our Service and how we use and disclose such information. This Privacy Policy applies to all information we collect or receive from you.

You should read this policy in conjunction with our Cookie Policy and ensure that you understand how we collect and use your information.

How to reach us

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, or if you would like to contact VIPKID for any other reason, please email privacy@vipkid-intl.com

Special note to international users

If you are a user accessing the Service from outside of the United States, such as the European Union (EU) or any other country or region, please note that you are transferring your Personal Information to the United States, which may not have the same data protection laws as the laws governing personal data collection, use, and disclosure in the EU and other countries or regions. By providing your Personal Information (defined below) to us through our Service, you consent to:

  • Collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information in accordance with the Privacy Policy; and
  • The transfer of your Personal Information to and storage of such information in the United States or abroad, and process of such information globally.


You further agree that any dispute over privacy or the terms contained in this Privacy Policy will be governed by the laws of the State of California, and the adjudication of any disputes arising in connection with this Privacy Policy will be submitted and resolved through final and binding arbitration, as described more thoroughly in our Terms of Use.

Information we collect

"Personal Information" means information that alone or when in combination with other information may be used to readily identify, contact, or locate you, or issue payment or tax information to you, such as your name, address, email address, phone number, social security number or bank account information.

We do not consider Personal Information to include information that has been aggregated and/or de-identified so that it does not allow a third party to easily identify a specific individual.

  • Registration information

When you create your VIPKID Applicant Account (for prospective teachers) or Teacher Account (for teachers), you will be required to provide certain personal information, which may include your first and last name, a user name (which can be your email address), a password, the country in which you reside, your gender, your time zone, your current job, educational degrees and related work background (including but not limited to whether you ever taught in a U.S. elementary school and information about that elementary school) or other information. If you are a teacher, we also collect and store any additional information that you provide to us in your profile, which may include: your time availability, your location and address, pictures and videos you choose to post, your phone number, and your Skype account, etc.

  • Interview Recording

For prospective teachers, we may conduct telephone and video interviews, including mock classes, and we may record such interviews and mock classes. The purpose of the recording is to expedite the interview and facilitate the evaluation processes. The recorded audios and videos will be kept strictly confidential in our server in the United States or abroad for a commercially reasonable period of time, and will be for our internal use only. We will not disclose the recorded audios and videos to the public or share the recorded videos with any third parties without your express consent unless only for internal use. BY CREATING AN APPLICANT ACCOUNT AND AGREEING TO INTERVIEW WITH US, YOU CONSENT TO OUR RECORDING THE TELEPHONE AND VIDEO INTERVIEW AND STORING THE RECORDINGS IN THE UNITED STATES AND ABROAD.

  • Testimonials

VIPKID may post customers’ testimonials on our site or Service, which may contain Personal Information from our customers. Once you accept the VIPKID contract, you give your consent to VIPKID to publish any testimonial, post, comments, and any other representations you have made through our Service, along with your name if provided.

Automatic Collection of Data

Cookies

When you visit our site, either directly or by clicking through hyperlinks appearing on third party websites, or use one or more of our Services, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your device, browsing actions, and patterns, which may include:

Details of your visits to our website, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the website. Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

The information we collect automatically helps us to improve our Service and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

  • Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
  • Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our site or Service according to your individual interests.
  • Speed up your searches.
  • Recognize you when you return to our website.
  • Customize your experience to better match your interests and preferences or simply facilitate your signing-in to use the Service.

Some of the industry-wide technologies include cookies, flash cookie, or beacons. A cookie stores certain information on your computer. Most browsers will allow you to erase cookies from your computer hard drive, block acceptance of cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions. By allowing your browser settings to accept cookies from Service, you consent to our placement of cookies on your personal computer and/or mobile device. However, users of our Service can set their browsers to accept or reject all, or certain, cookies. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still communicate with us by e-mail at privacy@vipkid-intl.com. If you do not wish to share such automatically collected information with VIPKID, then you should take steps to limit the passive collection of data about your activities on our site or Service, for example, by changing your browser settings to disable cookies. We reserve the right to use and disclose any non-Personal Information, as well as any other non-Personal Information we collect, with our advertisers and other third parties at our discretion.

Social media features and widgets

Our site or Service includes social media features and widgets, such as the Facebook "Like" and "Share" buttons. These features may collect your IP address, the URL of the page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our site or Service. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policies of their providers. You should review the privacy policies or terms of these providers.

What we do with your information

In general, the Personal Information we collect is used to (1) improve our services and enhance your experience with VIPKID, (2) enable us to provide a safer community for all of our Registered Users, and (3) communicate with us. We may use your Personal Information to register and service your account, update your teacher profile, contact you for questions and feedback, enable students to search for you, verify information you provide us, help protect the safety and integrity of the site, Service, and VIPKID users, and provide targeted promotional messages or content on the site or Service, via email (for which you have an option to opt-out) or other advertisements on VIPKID or third party websites.

  • Background Check

In order to promote the safety and integrity of the site and Service, when you create your Applicant Account or Teacher Account, you authorize VIPKID to utilize third party service providers to use your Personal Information to scan on an ongoing basis a variety of sources, which may include, but are not limited to, national criminal databases, sex offender registries, certain media streams, terrorist watch lists, criminal and fugitive watch lists, fraud watch lists, law enforcement reports, and other data to assist us in verifying the information you provide us (such as your name, address, email address, etc.) (the "Verification Check"). The results of any Verification Checks will be made available to VIPKID. For the legitimate business purpose of protecting the safety and integrity of the website and VIPKID users, you also authorize VIPKID to utilize a third party consumer reporting agency to use your Personal Information to run periodic background checks on you when you register with VIPKID.

  • Sharing with Affiliates

Your information collected through the VIPKID main website, its affiliate website, or any of its Services will be stored in VIPKID's database, which is only accessible through the use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or similar means with access restricted to only key members in the Company. Following termination or deactivation of your account, VIPKID, its affiliated companies, or its service providers may retain information associated with your profile for a commercially reasonable period of time for backup, archival, audit, or other business purposes permitted by laws.

  • Sharing with third parties

We may share your information with third parties who provide services on our behalf, which may include website hosting, bank payment, advertising (including but not limited to retargeted advertising), referral (including but not limited to providing information to referring parties) and other services of an administrative nature (including but not limited to the coordination of events). We may also share your information with third party companies and/or contractors that we partner or contract with to provide certain services or reach-outs to you in connection with the Service (or signing up to use the Service). These partners’ collection and use of information is subject to their privacy policies and other terms. You should review such privacy policies and terms.

  • Sharing with registered students and parents

If you are a teacher, in order to increase your class booking rate, we share with registered users (e.g., students and their parents) certain information that is included in your profile, which may include your contact information, your name (first name and first letter of last name), your location (city, state/province, country), your profile picture, your gender, your age, or other information. The more information you share, the more likely you will find students. We may also include in your profile any Company reviews you have posted on our site and share such information. If you post information in a VIPKID online forum, that information may be viewed by any site Visitor or Registered User who accesses the forum.

  • Links to other sites

Our site contains links to third party websites (any URLs that do not end in vipkid.com.cn) that are not owned or controlled by us, including the websites of our content providers or affiliates. These third party websites may send their own cookies to you, and collect data or solicit personal information from you. VIPKID is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of these third party websites. VIPKID encourages you to review the privacy practices of those websites before providing any personal data to them. While VIPKID strives to protect our users' Personal Information and privacy, we cannot guarantee the security and privacy of any information you disclose at these third party websites. and you do so at your own risk. Please learn about the privacy and security practices and policies of the third party websites before providing them with your Personal Information.

  • Not to use for profit (rent or sell)

Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, VIPKID will not disclose, share, sell or rent Personal Information collected on our site or Service to third-party organizations for their direct marketing or promotional use without your consent, except that it may do so as part of a specific program or feature for which you will be notified and have the ability to opt-out. Specifically, we do not share your bank account information with Affiliate Sites or any other third parties, except for the purpose of making salary payments for teachers.

  • As required by law

We may access, preserve, and disclose your Personal Information or other account information if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to (a) comply with law enforcement requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; (b) respond to your requests; (c) protect your, our or others’ rights, property, or safety; or (d) as otherwise required by law.

  • Merger and acquisition

If we sell or otherwise transfer part or the whole of VIPKID business and/or our assets to another organization in a merger, acquisition, or other corporate restructuring transaction, or we are involved in a bankruptcy, dissolution or liquidation, your information such as name and email address and any other information collected through our site or Service may be among the items sold or transferred. You will be notified of any such change in corporate ownership or use of your Personal Information, and your choices regarding the information.

Updating or deleting your registration information

As part of the requirements for your use of our site or Service, you are responsible for updating your submitted registration information so that it is current, complete and accurate. You can update this information by logging into your account and accessing your account settings. If you would like to remove some of the Personal Information you have posted on the site, such as information you posted in profiles, you may do so by editing or deleting that item. To request removal of other Personal Information you have voluntarily posted on our site, such as information you may have posted in online group forums, you can VIPKID at privacy@vipkid-intl.com. We strive to accommodate your request, though we cannot guarantee that the information can be successfully removed in all cases.

California Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance/Your California Privacy Rights

California residents who use this site may request that we provide certain information regarding our disclosure of the user’s personal complete and accurate. You can update this information by logging into your account and accessing information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. You can make such a request by e-mail at privacy@vipkid-intl.com.

Do Not Track

  • Your “Do Not Track” Browser Setting

Some web browsers incorporate a “Do Not Track” feature (DNT) that signals to the websites that you visit that you do not want to have your online activity tracked. Many websites and applications, including our site, do not currently respond to web browser DNT signals because such signals are not yet uniform. For more information about DNT signals, please visit http://allaboutdnt.com.

Amendments

By using our site or Service, you agree to the terms in this Privacy Policy, which may be amended from time to time. We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy. We will provide notice to you of any material changes by any reasonable means including sending an email to the most recently updated address in your account and/or posting such notice and the amended policy on the site. Your continued use of our site or Service following the changes to this Privacy Policy will mean that you accept and agree to the changes and that any information collected or provided after such change will be governed by the updated Privacy Policy.

Invitations - Refer a Friend

If you refer a friend to our site or Service, your friend will be required to provide his or her information for registration. Your friend will be subject to this Privacy Policy and the terms of service of VIPKID.

Security

VIPKID is dedicated to protecting your Personal Information and take reasonable security measures to ensure that your information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Unfortunately, the Internet cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you provide to us. We do not accept liability for unintentional access, use or disclosure of your information.
As a user of our Service, please remember to sign out of your VIPKID Account, and close your browser window whenever you leave your computer. This is to ensure that others cannot access your account or Personal Information. To help protect your VIPKID Account information, please keep your password secure and do not divulge your password to anyone. We suggest that you pick a non-obvious password that mixes numbers and letters. Ultimately, you are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and any VIPKID Account information, and we are not responsible for the unauthorized use by third parties of information you post or otherwise make available publicly.

We welcome your comments and questions on this Privacy Policy. You may reach out to our team by sending us an email to privacy@vipkid-intl.com.