Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 5/22/2020 Welcome to Social Media Club. Social Media Club, Inc. (“Social Media Club,” “we,” “us” and/or “our”) provides a community aimed at expanding digital media literacy, promoting standard technologies, and encouraging ethical online behavior, and which brings together social media professionals and businesses across the world. This Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is collected, used, and shared when you visit our website at https://www.socialmediaclub.org (the “Site”), any sub-domains of the Site, and various online tools and services (collectively, the “Service”). BY USING THE SITE OR SERVICES, YOU ARE HEREBY CONSENTING TO OUR COLLECTION, USE, DISCLOSURE, TRANSFER AND STORAGE OF INFORMATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY.

Our Commitment To You

At Social Media Club, we value and respect your privacy.Privacy considerations are at the core of the way we design and build services for you, so that you can fully trust Social Media Club and take advantage of everything the Service offers. We do not compromise when it comes to your privacy, we seek to be transparent with you in the way we process and manage your personal information, and we work hard to protect your information and keep it secure. This Privacy Policy sets forth how we go about accomplishing our privacy initiatives, and provides you with the information you need to be comfortable that your data is being handled with care. We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Social Media Club directly using the contact information provided below.

What personal information do we collect from our users?

Automatically Collected Information

When you visit the Site or Service, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, mobile device, IP address, unique device identifiers, software and hardware attributes (including the type of operating system you use), approximate geographic location, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device (collectively, “Device Information”). Additionally, as you browse the Service, we collect information about how you use the Service, such as the date and time you logged in, the individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Service, and information about how you interact with the Service and other users (collectively, “Usage Information”).

Information You Provide

Additionally, when you visit the Service, we may either require or collect “Personal Information.” Personal Information is information that could personally identify you, for example, your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, birth date, employer, and requested payment information. Personal Information does not include any data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). For purposes of this policy, your Device Information and Usage Information is included within the discussion of “Personal Information” (unless we clearly state otherwise herein). In the following instances, we collect and require you to actively submit Personal Information:

When you sign up for and purchase a paid subscription with Social Media Club (whether you are an individual or an individual acting on behalf of a company), you need to provide your name, email address, phone number, and employer, as well your billing address and payment information (based on the payment method you choose) (collectively, “Payment Information”).
When you set up and use your profile with Social Media Club, you also have the option to provide us with specific profile data, such as your first and last name, username, password, display name, social media pages, websites, employer, and any additional details you decide to share as part of your biography. Only your username, display name, and email are required when you set up your profile (“Required Profile Data”).
When you contact us with a question or concern, you may be required to provide certain personal information like your name, email, mailing address, and/or phone number.
When you sign up to receive marketing communications, such as our newsletter or updates about the Service, you must provide us with your email address.
When you respond to a survey or enter a promotion provided through the Service, you may be required to provide your name, email address, mailing address, and/or phone number.

Information We Receive or Collect from Other Third Parties or Public Sources

We may receive or collect information about you from third parties and store it on our servers with other information we may have already received or collected from you, such as publicly available information you provided third party platforms. Social Media Club is not responsible for, and will assume no liability, if a business partner or other entity whom you have authorized collects, uses or shares any information about you in violation of its own privacy policy or any applicable laws, rules, or regulations.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use Cookies and similar technologies to enable our systems to recognize your browser/device and to provide certain features. We also collect some Device Information and Usage Information using such technologies.

“Cookies” are data files that are placed on your device or computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. A cookie may enable the website owner to track how a visitor navigates through its website and the areas in which they show interest. This is similar to a traffic report: it tracks trends and behaviors, but does not identify individuals. Information gathered may include date and time of visits, pages viewed, time spent at the site, and the website visited just before and just after a visit to our Service. Cookies can be set to expire: (1) on a specified date; (2) after a specific period of time; (3) when a transaction has been completed; or (4) when a user turns off his/her Internet browser. A cookie that is erased from memory when a visitor’s Internet browser closes is called a “session” cookie. Cookies that expire based on a time set by the Web server are called “persistent” cookies.Our Service may use both “session cookies” and “persistent cookies”. Most people do not know that cookies are being placed on their computers when they visit our Service or most websites because browsers are typically set to accept cookies. For more information about cookies, and how to disable cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
Our Service uses anonymous cookies to track information on your browsing history on the Services, and third-party advertising networks, such as Google AdSense and AdRoll, use the information to serve ads to you on Our behalf on other sites throughout the Internet. For more information or to opt-out of this type of advertising, please visit AdRoll’s and Google AdSense’s privacy policies.
“Log files” track actions occurring on the Service, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
“Web beacons,” “tags,” and “pixels” are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Service.

We also collect or receive various Usage Information and Device Information from third party analytics providers, such as Google Analytics, as well as from other advertising networks. You have a variety of tools available to control the data collected by cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies. For example, you can use controls in your Internet browser to limit how the websites you visit are able to use cookies and to withdraw your consent by clearing or blocking certain non-strictly necessary cookies. Note that if you disable cookies, there may be parts of our Service that may not function properly.

How do we use the information we collect?

We use your Device Information and Usage Information to monitor the usage of our Service, assess its performance, ensure technological compatibility with your computer or mobile device, and understand the relative importance of the information provided on our Service. We may also use this data to conduct statistical analyses on visitors’ usage patterns and other aggregated data. We do this to improve and optimize our Service for you. We also use your Device Information and Usage Information to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address). Each of these uses is an essential part of making the website accessible and functioning properly, and therefore serves a legitimate interest of the company. We use the Personal Information you provide us in order to perform basic business functions. This may include communicating with you, processing any requests by you, identifying and fixing any problems with the Service, and otherwise making the Service available to you. Our use of this Personal Information is most commonly based on our legitimate business purposes or other lawful bases set forth below. When we make a decision to use your information for our legitimate interests, we make sure to consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) to ensure that our rights or interests do not override your fundamental rights and interests. We also use your Personal Information in order to perform the contractual relationship with our subscribers (or prospective subscribers), and where we have your specific consent, typically, though not always, for marketing purposes only. See the “Communications” section below for more information. As referenced above, we may use your Personal Information for legitimate business purposes or other lawful bases, including to:

Operate, evaluate and improve our business, our Service, and other products and services we offer
Aggregate certain information that does not include your Personal Information and disclose it for analysis, demographic profiling and/or targeted advertising
Provide you with technical service and support, including updates
Tailor the content we display in our communications with you and/or improve your user experience
Administer surveys and other market research
Provide you with information regarding Social Media Club’s benefits and services
Store, archive, retrieve, and make copies of your user generated content
Process payments
Renew your subscription/membership with Social Media Club
Communicate with you
Comply with legal requirements, judicial process, and our company policies (including to verify users’ identity in connection with access or correction requests)
Protect against, identify, investigate, and respond to fraud, illegal activity (such as incidents of hacking or misuse of our Services), and claims and other liabilities, including by enforcing the terms and conditions that govern the services we provide

Note that we may process your Personal Information for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data.

How do we share the information we collect?

We do not rent or sell your Personal Information without your permission. However, may share your Personal Information with others for the purposes described below:

We may share your Personal Information whenever you specifically consent to us doing so. For instance, you can elect to share your profile data with other members of Social Media Club via the main directory.
We share your Required Profile Data with Social Media Club Chapter Leaders who have signed our required Ethics Form.
We share your name and email address with MailChimp to assist with our email and marketing communications. For more information on how MailChimp uses your Personal Information, see: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.
We use Stripe, Inc. to process credit card transactions for your subscription and for renewals. Although we are able to process refunds or cancel memberships, where appropriate, you share your Payment Information directly with them. For more information on how Stripe uses this Personal Information, see: https://stripe.com/privacy
We also use Eventbrite, Inc. to process credit card transactions and collect event fees for any Social Media Club events you sign up to attend. You share your Payment Information directly with them. For more information on how Eventbrite uses this Personal Information, see: https://www.eventbrite.com/support/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/eventbrite-privacy-policy?lg=en_US
We share your Personal Information, Device Information and Usage Information with WordPress and MemberMouse, LLC (WordPress plug-in) in order to host and manage the Site and improve our Service for you. For more information on how WordPress and MemberMouse use this Personal Information, see: https://automattic.com/privacy/ and https://membermouse.com/privacy-policy/.
In addition to the foregoing, we may share or disclose your Personal Information where necessary to provide you with the Service and/or associated services, including with trusted third-parties, such as consultants, attorneys, marketing agencies, accountants, and others who assist in operating the Service, providing any associated Social Media Club services, and otherwise conducting our business.
We may share your Personal Information, where necessary, with Social Media Club’s parents, subsidiaries, successors, assigns, licensees, affiliates, or business partners.
We may share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.
We may share your Personal Information when doing so is needed to help prevent against fraud or the violation of any applicable law, statute, regulation, ordinance, or treaty.
We may disclose Personal Information you provide us in connection with the sale, assignment, or other transfer of the business or a portion of the business of the Site, including a corporate merger, consolidation, restructuring, sale of assets, or other corporate change of our company.
We use Google mail to communicate with users. The contact form in the website is directly linked to our Google mail service, and Google mail has access to the information supplied through this contact form.

Aggregated Data

We may aggregate and/or de-identify any Personal Information, Usage Information or Device Information that you provide or we collect, such that the information no longer identifies any specific individual. We may use, disclose and otherwise process such information for our own legitimate business purposes – including historical and statistical analysis, marketing, and business planning – without restriction. However, if we combine or connect any aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat this combined data as Personal Information which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

Communications

General

When you provide us consent to do so, we will communicate with you through general marketing communications via email. You must affirmatively opt-in to receive these communications before you receive them.

Third-party Marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your Personal Information with any company outside the Social Media Club group of companies (or other third parties listed herein) for marketing purposes.

Opting Out

Regardless of where you live, you may also opt-out of these marketing communications at any time by following the instructions provided in any marketing communication you receive. Please note that even if you opt-out of receiving marketing communications, you may still receive-business related communications, such as transactional emails.

Do Not Track

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

Access to and Managing Your Information; Opt-Out

We believe it is important for you to be able to: (1) find out what Personal Information you have provided to us through our Services; (2) update your information; or (3) “opt out” of receiving future marketing communications. To inquire about your Personal Information, update your Personal Information, or “opt out” of receiving future marketing communications or any other collection or use practice based on your consent, please send an email with your request and current contact information to admin@socialmediaclub.org or through our Site’s contact form at https://socialmediaclub.org/contact-smc/. We generally respond to email requests within 24 hours of receiving a request, but it may take up to 30 days depending on the volume of requests we receive.

Your Rights to the Personal Information You Provide

Pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) put in place by the European Union, individual users within the EU have greater rights with respect to their personal data. At Social Media Club, we believe all users should be afforded such rights, and we will comply with the GDPR and those rights, except as limited by applicable law. You therefore have the right to access and control the Personal Information you provide us. These rights include the right to:

Access your Personal Information;
Correct, update, or delete your Personal Information;
Withdraw or limit your consent (to Personal Information that was provided based on consent);
Data portability of certain Personal Information;
Object to us processing your Personal Information for reasons such as direct marketing purposes and for scientific or historical research or statistical purposes;
Not be subject to automated decision-making, which includes profiling, where such decision-making could have a legal, or similarly significant, effect on you from being made solely based on automated processes.

If you would like to exercise these rights (which you may do at any time) or inquire as to any additional rights you may have under applicable law, please contact us through the contact information provided below. We will respond to any request as promptly as possible.

Personal Information Transfer and Storage

Please note that your Personal Information will be transferred outside of Europe, including to the United States, where it is stored. When we transfer your information to the U.S., we will protect it as described in this Privacy Policy. Through your use of the Service, you consent to the processing and storage of your Personal Information in this manner. We also are working to incorporate appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses with any third party processors identified herein. We further will make best efforts to protect information from EU residents in accordance with applicable law. When you provide information to us, you understand and agree that Social Media Club will retain your Personal Information as long as is necessary and relevant for our operations, and in accordance with applicable laws. Your Personal Information will be stored for only as long as it is necessary for the purposes described above, or, until you withdraw your consent if the Personal Information was being processed based on your consent. As discussed above, you may also contact us to request that your Personal Information be deleted. Most Personal. If You opt in when signing up for an account, Your Required Profile Data will be retained for a period of up to five (5) years following cancellation of Your account for the purpose of reactivating your account. If You do not opt in, your Required Profile Data will be deleted no more than six (6) months following the cancellation of your account. Failure to pay subscription fees does not result in immediate cancellation of your account. Instead, accounts with unpaid subscription fees are considered overdue, and your access to features of the Service will be limited, but your Personal Information will not be deleted until your account has been cancelled by us for being overdue for five (5) years or until you affirmatively cancel your account.

How We Protect Your Information

We strive to maintain internal controls and procedures to ensure that the information you share with us is handled in a safe, secure and responsible manner. We have security measures, such as SSL encryption throughout the website, to help protect against loss, unauthorized access and alteration of the information in our control. We will only disclose such information to employees and authorized service providers who require such information for the purposes described in this Policy. Our databases are protected by physical, technical, and procedural measures that restrict access to authorized persons in accordance with this Policy. Although no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed 100% secure, and we cannot ensure against any loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or destruction of data, we take reasonable precautions to prevent such unfortunate occurrences. Nevertheless, we cannot and do not guarantee that information you post on or transmit to the Service will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

Third-Party Service Providers and Third-Party Links

Any third parties to whom we may disclose Personal Information (identified herein) have their own privacy policies which describe how they use and disclose your Personal Information. Those policies will govern use, handling and disclosure of your personal information once we have shared it with those third parties as described in this Privacy Policy. Social Media Club has no responsibility or liability for the activities of these third parties. If you want to learn more about their privacy practices, we encourage you to visit the websites of those third parties. When you click on links on our Service that take you to third-party websites, you will be subject to the third parties’ privacy policies. While we support the protection of privacy on the Internet, we cannot be responsible for the actions of any third-party websites. We encourage you to read the posted privacy policies of any and every website you visit, whether you are linking from our Service or browsing on your own.

California Privacy Rights

Under California’s “Shine the Light Law,” California residents have the right to receive information that identifies any third-party companies or individuals that Social Media Club has shared your Personal Information with in the previous calendar year, as well as a description of the categories of Personal Information disclosed to that third party. You may obtain this information once a year and free of charge by contacting Social Media Club at the address below.

Personal Information About Children

Our Service is targeted for use by adults only. Accordingly, we do not knowingly collect age identifying information, nor do we knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of 16 years. However, we hereby advise all visitors to our site under the age of 16 not to disclose or provide any personally identifiable information on our Service. If you are concerned that Personal Information may have been inadvertently provided to or collected by Social Media Club, please contact us immediately so appropriate steps may be taken to remove such information from Social Media Club’s database.

Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. We suggest that you review the current Privacy Policy at the start of each visit to our Service. Unless we clearly express otherwise, we will use Personal Information in accordance with the Privacy Policy then in effect. YOU ARE HEREBY ADVISED THAT YOUR CONTINUED USE OF OUR SERVICE CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF ANY AMENDMENTS TO AND THE MOST RECENT VERSION OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY.

Suspected Violations

If at any time you believe we have not adhered to the policies and principles set forth in this Privacy Policy, please notify us using the contact information provided below. We will make all commercially reasonable efforts to promptly respond to your concerns. If we are unable to resolve your issue, you have the right to bring a complaint to the relevant data protection authority having the power to enforce the GDPR.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments concerning our Privacy Policy, please submit your inquiry along with your current contact information to:

Social Media Club, Inc. Attn: Caroline A. Jones 4470 W Sunset Blvd Suite 107, PMB 93999 Los Angeles, CA 90027-6309 info@socialmediaclub.org;