Privacy Policy

Last Modified: June 5, 2023

This Statement describes SkillBars, LLC's information gathering and dissemination practices for our web services at skillbars.com and linked pages (including but not limited to app.skillbars.com) hereinafter collectively, "the Website." By visiting our Website, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Statement.

You should read this policy in full; here is a brief summary with the key points:

  • We don't sell your personal data to anyone.
  • When you use our website, even if you aren't logged in, we receive some personal information from you, like the type of device you're using and your IP address. You can choose to share additional information with us by creating an account. We use this information to improve our services and to keep our website functional and secure.
  • You are free to update your account details. You can also ask us to give you a copy of the information you've submitted.
  • We use your self-reported answers to self-assessments to correlate your answers to your understanding of a specific topic. You're completely free to decide whether or not to take the self-assessment and/or listen to the associated podcasts.

Please feel free to contact support@skillbars.com with any questions or comments regarding this privacy policy.

1. How Do We Collect Information?

First, we collect, store, and use the information you share with us on our website. This includes your e-mail address, first name, last name, title, profile photo, and any other information you choose to enter on the website. There is some relevant information that we require from you to enable us to communicate with you and to provide the services available on our website (i.e., creating an account and updating user settings). We'll inform you at the point of collecting information from you (including via this Privacy Policy) whether you're required to provide the information to us. If you don't provide the information requested, we may not be able to provide the services which require the use of this information (e.g., certain features such as the SkillBars self-assessment results).

Second, if you purchase something for yourself or for anyone else on our website, we'll collect details of what you have purchased.

Finally, we record certain technical information whenever you use our website. This includes information about your device and about your visits to and use of our website, such as your IP address, browser type, and version, page views, etc.

Most browsers allow you to reject all cookies, while some browsers allow you to reject just third-party cookies. Blocking all cookies will, however, have a negative impact on the usability of many websites, including ours.

2. How Do We Use the Information We Collect?

We use the information we collect to provide you with our services as well as content that's relevant and personal to you. Consequently, it's necessary for us to use your information to:

  • display your self-assessment results, skill bars, skill cards, and skill badges;
  • send you account-related messages, such as authentication access codes and invite links;
  • identify you and ensure the security of your account - e.g., by verifying that you own the e-mail address linked to your account;
  • collect payments from you and send you e-mails with your order details if you decide to purchase something from us;
  • respond to your questions or feedback related to your use of the website.

We have a legitimate interest in using your information in these ways. It's necessary for us to do that to make our services and content as relevant to you as possible, and that's in both of our interests.

In addition, we have a legitimate interest in maintaining our relationship with you, improving our website and services, and protecting both you and other users.

Consequently, we use your information to:

  • conduct analytics on how you use our website to understand your needs better and optimize our service and experience. For instance, by measuring the time you spend on a certain page before and after a design change, we can understand whether there's anything we need to tweak. In order to do that, we use Google Analytics to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behavior patterns. We've already mentioned these services above.
  • improve our website and develop new functionality;
  • keep the website secure and prevent fraud - e.g., by logging authentication attempts or activities related to your account;

Here's a list of third-party providers we'll share your information with, if necessary:

  • SendGrid, to deliver our e-mails, e.g., when we respond to your messages. We also collect information regarding e-mail delivery and opening rates to improve deliverability and help with troubleshooting. You can find SendGrid's privacy policy here.
  • Stripe, to process payments and conduct anti-fraud checks. You can find Stripe’s privacy policy here.

We've listed all our third-party providers here to be as transparent as possible. In practice, "sharing" is a very generous term when it comes to us transferring your information outside our company. We always transfer as little data as we can, also encrypting it where possible.

We use all reasonable security and access control measures to secure our accounts on third-party websites and the data stored therein.

Keep in mind that information you publish on our website (such as your profile name) may be available around the world. We can't prevent the use or misuse of such information by others.

We won't provide your personal information to any third parties for the purpose of direct marketing by those parties.

3. How Can You Manage Your Information?

If you have an account on our website, you can use the “Edit Profile" section to change most of your personal details. For instance, it allows you to:

  • add/edit your first name
  • add/edit your last name
  • add/edit your title
  • add/edit your profile photo

If you would like to delete your profile, please contact the Admin of your SkillBars training program. If you are a SkillBars Admin, please contact support@skillbars.com.

We'll need to verify the authenticity of any data correction or removal request - so please make sure your account is always linked to an active e-mail address. We don't ask you for data such as your full name, address, or date of birth. We use email-based 2-factor authentication, so your e-mail address is the only real identifier. If you lose access to the address linked to your account, we'll have no way of verifying that you own the account.

If you need to update your email address, please contact support@skillbars.com.

4. How and When Do We Share Your Information?

Our staff may also need to have access to your information where that's necessary, such as deleting your account. However, access to your personal data is strictly limited and monitored.

There are also certain other circumstances where we may disclose your personal information:

  • where we're required to do so by law or in connection with any ongoing, prospective, or reasonably likely (in our opinion) legal proceedings;
  • where we need to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights (e.g., providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention);
  • if we're engaged in a merger, reorganization, or any similar proceeding requiring the transfer of your information - we'd then share your information with a party involved in such a process (for example, a potential purchaser);
  • if we have strong reason to believe that you or someone else is in immediate physical danger (e.g., there's a reasonably credible threat of self-harm written on a playlist name or description), we'll try to get in touch with local authorities and provide them with information that may help them prevent that.

We don't serve ads on our website, and we don't share your data with online advertisers. As a general rule, except as discussed above, we don't share your personal information with any third parties.

5. How Long Do We Keep Your Information?

We keep your information only for as long as we need it to provide services to you and to fulfil the purposes described in this policy or as otherwise described in our Terms and Conditions. This also applies to any other parties that we share your information with.

Here are some examples of categories of data along with their periods of retention:

  • payment and order data, including relevant access logs - 10 years;
  • activity logs, minus the above - 10 years;
  • transient activity records, such as e-mail invites or access code requests - 1 year;
  • account details - unlimited;
  • content submitted to our website, such as comments- unlimited.

We'll regularly delete accounts that aren't linked to any meaningful activity and have been inactive for more than two years.

We'll depersonalize your information or remove it entirely from our systems once we no longer need it to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations or for other purposes described in this policy.

8. How Do We Handle Children's Information?

You may only use our website if you're over the age at which you can provide consent to data processing under the laws of your country. Regardless of local laws, children under 18 aren't allowed to use our website. If you're a parent and you learn that your child is using our website and you don't want them to, please get in touch with us.

As a small company, we don't have the resources to verify and track parental consent - so unfortunately, if you're below the age at which you can provide consent in your country, you aren't entitled to use our website.

9. How Do We Secure Your Information?

We take reasonable technical and organizational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse, or alteration of your personal information. For instance, we store this information on our secure (password and firewall-protected) servers, encrypt traffic to and from the website, and anonymize or pseudonymize personal information where possible.

Still, we can't guarantee the complete security of data sent over the internet - for example, someone may discover a vulnerability in the encryption protocol that we use, your internet service provider may record the data you send, and so on. Please take care when posting sensitive data.

10. How Can You Get in Touch with Us?

The best way to get in touch with us is via e-mail (support@skillbars.com).

11. Additional Information

We may update this privacy policy from time to time by posting a new version on our website. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you're willing to comply with the changes.