1. Consent

If you choose not to register or provide personal information, you can still use most of the DMS Academy website. But you will not be able to access areas that require registration.

If you decide to register, you will be able to select the kinds of information you want to receive from us by subscribing to various services, like our electronic newsletters. If you do not want us to communicate with you about other offers regarding DMS Academy products, programs, events, or services by email, postal mail, or telephone, you may select the option stating that you do not wish to receive marketing messages from DMS Academy.

DMS Academy occasionally allows other companies to offer our registered customers information about their products and services, using postal mail only. If you do not want to receive these offers, you may select the option stating that you do not wish to receive marketing materials from third parties.

2. What Data We Collect

We collect certain data from you directly, like information you enter yourself, data about your consumption of content, and data from third-party platforms you connect with DMS Academy. We also collect some data automatically, like information about your device and what parts of our Services you interact with or spend time using. All data listed in this section is subject to the following processing activities: collecting, recording, structuring, storing, altering, retrieving, encrypting, pseudonymizing, erasing, combining, and transmitting.

Activities not covered by this Privacy Policy are:

• Personal information that may be collected or used by other businesses when you click on third-party links found on our website or use social media widgets that we provide. You can refer to the privacy policy of third-party websites and services for information about their privacy practices.

3. Data You Provide to Us

We will ask you when we need information that personally identifies you (personal information) or allows us to contact you. Generally, this information is requested when you create a Registration ID on the site or when you order email newsletters or join a limited-access premium site. When you create an account and use the Services, including through a third-party platform, we collect any data you provide directly, including:

The data listed above is stored by us and associated with your account.

4. Data We Collect through Automated Means

When you access the Services (including browsing content), we collect certain data by automated means, including:

The data listed above is collected through the use of server log files and tracking technologies, as detailed in the “Cookies and Data Collection Tools” section below. It is stored by us and associated with your account.

5. Cookies and Data Collection Tools

DMS Academy uses the following types of Cookies and Data Collection Tools for the purposes described:

Strictly Necessary: These Data Collection Tools enable you to access the site, provide basic functionality (like logging in or accessing content), secure the site, protect against fraudulent logins, and detect and prevent abuse or unauthorized use of your account. These are required for the Services to work properly, so if you disable them, parts of the site will break or be unavailable.

Functional: These Data Collection Tools remember data about your browser and your preferences, provide additional site functionality, customize content to be more relevant to you, and remember settings affecting the appearance and behavior of the Services (like your preferred language or volume level for video playback).

Performance: These Data Collection Tools help measure and improve the Services by providing usage and performance data, visit counts, traffic sources, or where an application was downloaded from. These tools can help us test different versions of DMS Academy to see which features or content users prefer and determine which email messages are opened.

Advertising: These Data Collection Tools are used to deliver relevant ads (on the site and/or other sites) based on things we know about you like your Usage and System Data (as detailed in Section 1), and things that the ad service providers know about you based on their tracking data. The ads can be based on your recent activity or activity over time and across other sites and services. To help deliver tailored advertising, we may provide these service providers with a hashed, anonymized version of your email address (in a non-human-readable form) and content that you share publicly on the Services.

Social Media: These Data Collection Tools enable social media functionality, like sharing content with friends and networks. These cookies may track a user or device across other sites and build a profile of user interests for targeted advertising purposes.

You can set your web browser to alert you about attempts to place cookies on your computer, limit the types of cookies you allow, or refuse cookies altogether. If you do, you may not be able to use some or all features of the Services, and your experience may be different or less functional. To learn more about managing Data Collection Tools, refer to Section 10 (Your Choices About the Use of Your Data) below.

6. How We Use the Personal Information We Collect

In this section of the Privacy Policy, we explain our commercial and business purposes for collecting information. DMS Academy uses the information that it has collected for the purposes listed below and may combine information that we have collected from multiple sources to fulfill these purposes.

If we decide to use the personal information we have collected for additional purposes that are inconsistent with what is described below, we will let you know of our plans and give you information about your legal rights regarding your personal information.

Providing Products and Services: We use personal information to provide and support our products and services.  Examples of these uses include producing and delivering documents purchased by customers, administering the DMS Academy website, and displaying content based on customer preferences.

Security: We use personal information to ensure we maintain appropriate security over computer networks and our physical facilities, as well as detecting fraud or other suspicious activities.

Marketing and Advertising: We use personal information for marketing to current and prospective customers.

Product Development: We use personal information for product development, including improving our existing products and developing new ones.

Analytics: We use personal information for various types of analytics.  For example, DMS Academy uses personal information to analyze how visitors arrive at and interact with our website, and to gain insight into the types of customers that may be interested in our products and services.  We may also use the information to develop inferences from the information we collect regarding customer preferences, characteristics, predispositions, behaviors, and attitudes.

Operational Purposes: We use personal information for operational purposes, and the operational purposes of our service providers, business partners, affiliates, and subsidiaries.  For instance, DMS Academy may use the information to maintain our website and other infrastructure, training, quality assurance, for conducting surveys or sweepstakes, to promote our brand, and to use in connection with our relationships with service providers and business partners.

Financial Reporting: We use personal information in connection with various types of financial reporting and other similar internal uses.  Examples of the types of financial reporting that DMS Academy may use personal information includes internal budgets and projections, compensation calculations, and public reporting.

Meeting Legal Requirements: We use personal information to meet our legal obligations, such as performing customer due diligence, maintaining records as required in our role as a Registered Agent, or responding to subpoenas for information.

Business Transfers: If DMS Academy undertakes or is involved in any merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, bankruptcy, or insolvency event, then we may sell, transfer, or share some or all of our assets, including information related to customers in connection with the transaction or in contemplation of the transaction (such as conducting due diligence). If such an event occurs, your information may be treated like any other DMS Academy asset and sold, transferred, or shared with third parties, or used in ways not contemplated or permitted under this Privacy Policy.  In this case, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our site of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.

7. Who We Share Your Data With

We share certain data about you with instructors, other students, companies performing services for us, DMS Academy affiliates, our business partners, analytics and data enrichment providers, your social media providers, companies helping us run promotions and surveys, and advertising companies who help us promote our Services. We may also share your data as needed for security, legal compliance, or as part of a corporate restructuring. Lastly, we can share data in other ways if it is aggregated or de-identified or if we get your consent.

We may share your data with third parties under the following circumstances or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy:

With Your Instructors: We share data that we have about you (except your email address) with instructors or teaching assistants for educational content you access or request information about, so they can improve their content for you and other students. This data may include things like your country, browser language, operating system, device settings, the site that brought you to DMS Academy, and certain activities on DMS Academy, like enrolled courses and course review. We will not share your email address with instructors or teaching assistants. (Account Data; System Data; Usage Data; Approximate Geographic Data)

With Other Students and Instructors: Depending on your settings, your shared content and profile data may be publicly viewable, including to other students and instructors. If you ask a question to an instructor or teaching assistant, your information (including your name) may also be publicly viewable. Note that all chat rooms, message boards, news groups, or other public forums available to participants are publicly visible to other participants, so you should not post any confidential or proprietary information through those features. (Account Data; Profile Data; Shared Content)

With Service Providers, Contractors, and Agents: We share your data with third-party companies who perform services on our behalf, like payment processing, fraud and abuse prevention, data analysis, marketing and advertising services (including retargeted advertising), email and hosting services, and customer services and support. These service providers may access your personal data and are required to use it solely as we direct, to provide our requested service. (All data categories)

With DMS Academy Affiliates: We may share your data within our corporate family of companies that are related by common ownership or control to enable or support us in providing the Services. (All data categories)

To Power Social Media Features: Social media features may allow the third-party social media provider to collect things like your IP address and which page of the Services you are visiting, and to set a cookie to enable the feature. Your interactions with these features are governed by the third-party company’s privacy policy. (System Data; Usage Data; Cookie Data)

To Administer Promotions and Surveys: We may share your data as necessary to administer, market, or sponsor promotions and surveys you choose to participate in, as required by applicable law (like to provide a winners list or make required filings), or in accordance with the rules of the promotion or survey (Account Data; Sweepstakes, Promotions, and Surveys).

For Advertising: If we decide to use an advertising-supported revenue model in the future, we may use and share certain System Data and Usage Data with third-party advertisers and networks to show general demographic and preference information among our users. We may also allow advertisers to collect System Data through Data Collection Tools to use this data to offer you targeted ad delivery to personalize your user experience (through behavioral advertising) and to undertake web analytics. Advertisers may also share with us the data they collect about you. To learn more or opt out from participating ad networks’ behavioral advertising, click the following link: Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

For Security and Legal Compliance: We may disclose your data (all data categories) to third parties if we (in our sole discretion) have a good faith belief that the disclosure is:

• Requested as part of a judicial, governmental, or legal inquiry, order, or proceeding.
• Reasonably necessary as part of a valid subpoena, warrant, or other legally valid request;
• Reasonably necessary to enforce our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and other legal agreements.
• Required to detect, prevent, or address fraud, abuse, misuse, potential violations of law (or rule or regulation), or security or technical issues.
• Reasonably necessary in our discretion to protect against imminent harm to the rights, property, or safety of DMS Academy, our users, employees, members of the public, or our Services.

We may also disclose data about you to our auditors and legal advisors in order to assess our disclosure obligations and rights under this Privacy Policy; or required or permitted by law.

During a Change in Control: If DMS Academy undergoes a business transaction like a merger, acquisition, corporate divestiture, or dissolution (including bankruptcy), or a sale of all or some of its assets, we may share, disclose, or transfer all of your data to the successor organization during such transition or in contemplation of a transition (including during due diligence) for all data categories.

8. Security

We use appropriate security based on the type and sensitivity of data being stored. As with any internet-enabled system, there is always a risk of unauthorized access, so it is important to protect your password and to contact us if you suspect any unauthorized access to your account.

DMS Academy takes appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction of your personal data that we collect and store. These measures vary based on the type and sensitivity of the data. Unfortunately, however, no system can be 100% secured, so we cannot guarantee that communications between you and DMS Academy, the Services, or any information provided to us in connection with the data we collect through the Services will be free from unauthorized access by third parties. Your password is an important part of our security system, and it is your responsibility to protect it. You should not share your password with any third party, and if you believe your password or account has been compromised, you should change it immediately and contact our Support Team with any concerns.

9. Your Rights

You have certain rights around the use of your data under this Privacy Policy, and under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) if you are located in the European Union.

• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
• Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
• Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
  • If you want us to establish the data’s accuracy.
  • Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
  • Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
  • You have objected to our use of your data, but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

You can update or terminate your account from within our Services, and can also contact us for individual rights requests about your personal data using the processes set forth in Section 11.

10. Your Choices About the Use of Your Data

You can choose not to provide certain data to us, but you may not be able to use certain features of the Services.

To stop receiving promotional communications from us, you can opt out by using the unsubscribe mechanism in the promotional communication you receive or by changing the email preferences in your account. Note that regardless of your email preference settings, we will send you transactional and relationship messages regarding the Services, including administrative confirmations, order confirmations, important updates about the Services, and notices about our policies.

The browser or device you use may allow you to control cookies and other types of local data storage. To learn more about managing cookies, visit https://cookiepedia.co.uk/how-to-manage-cookies. Your wireless device may also allow you to control whether location or other data is collected and shared.

To get information and control cookies used for tailored advertising from participating companies, see the consumer opt-out pages for the Network Advertising Initiative and Digital Advertising Alliance, or if you are located in the European Economic Area, visit the Your Online Choices site. If you are located in Japan, visit the Digital Advertising Consortium. To opt out of Google’s display advertising or customize Google Display Network ads, visit the Google Ads Settings page. To opt out of Taboola’s targeted ads, see the Opt-out Link in their Cookie Policy.

To opt out of allowing Google Analytics, Mixpanel, ZoomInfo, or Clearbit to use your data for analytics or enrichment, see the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, Mixpanel Opt-Out Cookie, ZoomInfo’s policy, and Clearbit data claiming mechanism.

Apple iOS, Android OS, and Microsoft Windows each provide their own instructions on how to control in-app tailored advertising. For other devices and operating systems, you should review your privacy settings on that platform.

If you have any questions about your data, our use of it, or your rights, contact us at academy@dmsinetwork.com.

11. Accessing, Updating, and Deleting Your Personal Data

You can access and update your personal data that DMS Academy collects and maintains as follows:

To update data you provide directly, log into your account and update your account at any time.

To terminate your account:

• If you are a student, visit your profile settings page and follow the steps detailed here.
• If you are an instructor, follow the steps detailed here.
• If you have any issues terminating your account, please contact our Support Team.

Please note: even after your account is terminated, some or all of your data may still be visible to others, including without limitation any data that has been (a) copied, stored, or disseminated by other users (including comments on content); (b) shared or disseminated by you or others (including in your shared content); or (c) posted to a third-party platform. Even after your account is terminated, we retain your data for as long as we have a legitimate purpose to do so (and in accordance with applicable law), including to assist with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. We may retain and disclose such data pursuant to this Privacy Policy after your account has been terminated.

To request to access, correct, or delete your personal data, please use our online form here. You can also submit these requests by emailing academy@dmsinetwork.com. Please allow up to 30 days for a response. For your protection, we may require that the request be sent through the email address associated with your account, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request, such as providing certain data elements so that we can confirm they match the personal data already maintained by us. We will not use this additional information for anything other than handling your request. Please note that we retain certain data where we have a lawful basis to do so, including for mandatory record-keeping and to complete transactions.

12. Our Policy Concerning Children

We recognize the privacy interests of children and encourage parents and guardians to take an active role in their children’s online activities and interests. Individuals younger than 18 years of age, but of the required age for consent to use online services where they live (for example, 13 in the US or 16 in Ireland), may not set up an account, but may have a parent or guardian open an account and help them access appropriate content. Individuals younger than the required age for consent to use online services may not use the Services. If we learn that we have collected personal data from a child under those ages, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

In accordance with the provisions of the Children’s Online Privacy Act, in the event that we do begin collecting any personal data or data from children under the age of 13 (or 16 where applicable), we will notify parents first, and will seek parental or guardian consent to collect, use and/or disclose certain personal data from children under the age of 13, or 16 where applicable. A parent may review and have deleted their child’s personal data, and may refuse to permit further collection or use of their child’s information by contacting us. Parents may consent to our collection and use of their child’s personal data without consenting to the disclosure of that information to others.

Parents who believe that DMS Academy may have collected personal data from a child under the age of 13 (or 16) can submit a request that it be deleted to academy@dmsinetwork.com.

13. Jurisdiction-Specific Rules

If you live in California, you have certain rights related to accessing and deleting your data, as well as learning who we share your data with. If you live in Australia, you have the right to make a formal complaint with the appropriate government agency. Users outside of the United States should note that we transfer data to the US and other areas outside of the European Economic Area.

Users in California

Users who are California residents have certain rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, (“CCPA”) and the California Consumer Privacy Act 2020 (“CPRA”). If you are an eligible California user, included in these rights are:

• “Right to Know” — You have the right to request to know more about the categories and specific pieces of personal information that we have collected about you and access a copy of your personal information.
• “Right to Correction” — You have the right to have inaccurate personal information about you corrected.
• “Right to Deletion” — You have the right to request deletion of personal information that we have collected about you.
• “Right to Non-Discrimination” — If you choose to exercise any of your rights under CCPA, DMS Academy will treat you like all other users. In other words, there is no penalty for exercising your rights under CCPA.
• “Right to Opt-Out” – You have the right to opt out of the sale of your personal information. You also have the right to opt out of sharing your personal information for cross-contextual behavioral advertising.
• “Right to Limit” – You have the right to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information.

Under California law, a “sale” includes disclosing or making available personal information to a third party (other than a service provider or contractor) in exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration, and “sharing” includes disclosing or making available personal information to a third party for cross-context behavioral advertising. DMS Academy does notsell or share your personal information or the personal information of any of our users, other than the use of cookies as disclosed in Sections 4, 5, 6 and 7.

We have listed the categories of personal information we have shared with our third parties in a way that may be considered a “sale” under the CCPA and CPRA:

• Personal identifiers
• Internet or other network activity
• Geolocation data
• Inferences drawn from other personal information

To opt out,click on the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link at the bottom of this page. DMS Academy does not sell or share the personal information of minors it knows are under 16 years of age.

We do not collect or process sensitive personal information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about consumers. We also do not disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than those specified in section 7027(m) of the CPRA regulations promulgated by the California Privacy Protection Agency. Therefore, we do not offer consumers the option to limit the use of their sensitive personal information.

To exercise any of these rights under CCPA, please email academy@dmsinetwork.com. CCPA allows you to designate an authorized agent to make these requests on your behalf. For your protection, we may require that the request be sent through the email address associated with your account, and we may need to verify you and/or your agent’s identity before fulfilling your request.

Additionally, for more information about the personal information we collect and how we collect it, please see the sections above entitled “What Data We Get” and “How We Get Data About You.”

To learn about the business and commercial purposes for which your personal information is collected and the categories of service providers who have access to your personal information, please see the sections above entitled “What We Use Your Data For” and “Who We Share Your Data With.”

As a California resident, you also have the right to request certain details about what personal information we share with third parties for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes. To submit your request, send an email to academy@dmsinetwork.com with the phrase “California Shine the Light” and include your mailing address, state of residence, and email address.

Since there is no widely accepted standard for the browser-initiated Do Not Track signal, we do not currently recognize or respond to Do Not Track signals.

Users in Nevada

DMS Academy does not sell its users’ personal information or personal data. Nonetheless, Nevada residents have the right to submit a request that we do not sell your covered personal information, which you can do by emailing academy@dmsinetwork.com.

Users in Australia

If you are an Australia resident and you have a complaint, you may refer it to the office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“OAIC”). You can contact OAIC by visiting www.oaic.gov.au; forwarding an email to enquiries@oaic.gov.au; telephoning 1300 363 992; or writing to OAIC at GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001. You may contact our privacy team at academy@dmsinetwork.com to make a complaint about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles which will be responded to within 30 days.

Users in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and United Kingdom (“UK”)

DMS Academy is the controller (as defined under the GDPR) for processing personal data of individuals within the EEA, Switzerland or the UK that is collected through the Services.

If you are located in the EEA or UK, you have the right to request access to your data in a portable format and to request the rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, or objection to processing of your personal data. You also have the right to obtain a free copy of the Standard Contractual Clauses. Additionally, if you are located in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority.

Personal data is also processed outside of the UK, Switzerland, and the EEA by our DMS Academy group companies, or our service providers, including to process transactions, facilitate payments, and provide support services. We use the Controller-to-Processor Standard Contractual Clauses adopted by the European Commission to facilitate transfers of personal data from the EEA to third countries and have entered into data processing agreements with our service providers and DMS Academy group companies to restrict and regulate their processing of your data. By submitting your data or using our Services, you consent to this transfer, storage, and processing by DMS Academy and its processors.

Users Outside of the U.S.

In order to provide the Services to you, we must transfer your data to the United States and process it there. If you are using the Services from outside the United States, you consent to the transfer, storage, and processing of your data in and to the United States or other countries.

14. Modifications to This Privacy Policy

From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy. If we make any material change to it, we will notify you via email, through a notification posted on the Services, or as required by applicable law. We will also include a summary of the key changes. Unless stated otherwise, modifications will become effective on the day they are posted.

As permitted by applicable law, if you continue to use the Services after the effective date of any change, then your access and/or use will be deemed an acceptance of (and agreement to follow and be bound by) the revised Privacy Policy. The revised Privacy Policy supersedes all previous Privacy Policies.

Please contact us via email or postal mail with any questions, concerns, or disputes.

Email: academy@dmsinetwork.com

Mailing Address: 804 Pershing Drive, Suite 204, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Pursuant to Article 27 of the GDPR, DMS Academy has appointed [POC] as its GDPR representative in the EEA. If you are an individual based in the EEA, Switzerland and/or UK, in addition to or alternatively to contacting us, you can also contact the representative regarding matters pertaining to processing of your personal data under the GDPR.

Email: victor.motti@dmsinetwork.com

Mailing Address: 804 Pershing Drive, Suite 204, Silver Spring, MD 20910