PRIVACY POLICY

Fluent Essays’ Privacy Policy

Last update: Aug 26, 2020

Please read this privacy policy (the “Policy”) carefully to understand how we use personal information. If you do not agree with this Policy, your choice is not to use Fluent.com site and mobile applications and its related sites, applications, services and goods or any other website operated by Fluent that links to this Policy (the “Site”). By accessing or using this Site, you agree to this Policy. This Policy may change from time to time; any changes we make to this Policy will be posted on this Site, we will also take any other steps, to the extent required by applicable law, including notifying you and/or seeking your explicit consent to material changes. Changes to this Policy are effective as of the stated "Last Updated" date. Other than where we have sought such explicit consent from you, your continued use of the Site after we make changes will constitute acceptance of, and agreement to be bound by, those changes, so please check the Policy periodically for any updates or changes.

The short version

Information We Collect – When you register to the Site, use it, complete forms, or register to our affiliate or influencer or similar program, we collect the personal information provided by you. We also collect information about your communications with Fluent as well as communication with other users of Fluent. In addition, we collect information while you access, browse, view or otherwise use the Site.

How Do We Collect Information? - You directly provide us with most of the information we collect. We also collect technical information indirectly and automatically through our systems. We also collect information from third party vendors and/or other commercially available sources. 

How Do We Use the Information Collected? – We use personal information to provide you with quality service and security, to operate the Site and to perform our obligations to you; to ensure marketplace integrity and security; to prevent fraud; to contact you and send you direct marketing communications; to promote and advertise the Site and Fluent marketplace; to comply with lawful requests by public authorities and to comply with applicable laws and regulations. 

How Long Do We Keep Personal Information – We will keep personal information only for as long as is required to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected. However, in some cases we will retain personal information for longer periods of time. 

Children Under the Age of 13 - Our Site is not intended for children under 13 years of age and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. 

Sharing Personal Information with Third Parties – We share personal information with third parties in order to operate the Site, provide our services to you, fulfil obligations imposed on us by applicable laws and regulations, and prevent fraud, infringements and illegal activities. 

Where We Store Personal Information - Some of the personal information you provide to us will be stored or processed on our behalf by third party suppliers and data processors and may be located in other jurisdictions, such as the United States and Israel.

Cookies - We use cookies and similar technologies (such as web beacons, pixels, tags, and scripts) to improve and personalize your experience, provide our services, analyze website performance and for marketing purposes.

Do Not Track (DNT) – Our Site does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals. 

External Links - the Site contains links to third party sites and if you link to a third party site from the Site, any data you provide to that site and any use of that data by the third party are not under the control of Fluent and are not subject to this Policy. 

Security – We take great care in maintaining the security of the Site and your information and in preventing unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, destruction or damage to it through industry standard technologies and internal procedures.

Rights of EU Users – Where we process personal data related to you when you are in the EU, further terms apply to our processing in relation to your rights as a data subject under EU data protection laws, as detailed below. 

Specific Provisions for California Residents- If you are a California resident, you are entitled to specific privacy rights as detailed below.

Updating Personal Information – We take steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate and up to date, and we provide you with the opportunity to update your information through your account profile settings. In the event that you believe your information is in any way incorrect or inaccurate, please let us know immediately. 

Contact Us - You can exercise your rights over your personal information, by opening a Customer Relations ticket. If you do not have an active Fluent account, please contact us at privacy@FluentEssays.com. More details about the rights applicable to you are in the long version of the Policy.

The above are just the highlights. We encourage you to read more about the information we collect, how we use it, understand the meaning of cookies (no, you can’t eat it) and more in the long version of our Policy below.

The longer version

Fluent (including Fluent Inc., Fluent International Ltd., Fluent Limited and its affiliates) respects your privacy and is committed to protect the personal information of its users - buyers, sellers, collaborators and other visitors browsing the Site (“Users”) as well as affiliates, influencers and other collaborators interacting with Fluent. We believe that you have a right to know our practices regarding the information we collect when you visit and/or use the Site. This Policy explains our privacy practices for the Site and services provided by Fluent as well as privacy practices that apply to affiliates, influencers and other collaborators who are individuals. By accessing and/or using the Site and its related sites, applications, services, goods and/or registering for a Fluent account and/or using it as a collaborator to share comments on a specific project and/or registering to our affiliate or influencer or similar program, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Policy, including to our collection, use, disclosure, processing and retention of personal information. You can also learn how to limit sharing of information in this Policy.

Information We Collect

When you register to the Site, use it, complete forms, or use it as collaborator, and/or and/or register to our affiliate or influencer or similar program, we ask you to provide certain personal information, including a valid email address, Facebook or Google account login details and username. We will also ask you to provide or otherwise collect additional information that you provide us, such as, your profile details, physical address or billing information, telephone number or other contact details, financial information (such as payment method and credit card number), taxpayer information and forms, details about other social networks linked accounts, details about your listed gigs, purchases, education, profession and expertise, and additional authentication information (such as your government issued ID, passport, or driving license, as permitted by applicable laws and as detailed in our Seller Help Center at “Verifying Your Identity”). We also collect information about your communications with Fluent as well as communication with other users of Fluent.

We also collect information while you access, browse, view or otherwise use the Site. In other words, when you access the Site we are aware of your usage of the Site, and gather, collect and record the information relating to such usage, including geo-location information, IP address, device and connection information, browser information and web-log information, and all communications recorded by Users through the Site. We use that information to enhance user experience, personalize your browsing experience as well as monitor the Site for preventing fraud and inappropriate content or behaviour. We also collect supplemental information obtained from third parties such as demographic and navigation data, if applicable. We combine your personal information with information we collect automatically or obtain from other companies and use it to improve and personalize our services, content and advertising and/or to prevent fraud.

Additionally, in order to improve your online experience at Fluent, we have implemented impression reporting. While you view our ads, we gather user Global Unique Identifier, HTTP request data like, user agent, IP, host, URL, country/continent from which request made, browser info, device/operating system/operating system version.

Once you register, your username, country, and additional information regarding your activity is made public and is visible to all Users of the Site. This information includes photos you upload, your published portfolio, Gig information, ratings, and additional information you may choose to add to your profile. We also offer you the opportunity to participate and post content publicly in forums, blogs and on other similar features. Please be aware that certain information, such as your user name and profile, together with the content uploaded by you, will be publicly displayed when you use such features.

How Do We Collect Information?

Information provided by you - You directly provide us with most of the information we collect. You do this by filling out the registration details on the Site, linking to your Fluent account accounts of other social networks (please also see the External Links section below), completing application forms, skill tests and customer surveys (if any) as well as by posting and sharing additional information voluntarily. This can include information about sellers and their Gigs, education and profession, sharing of portfolio, ratings and feedbacks by buyers and anything you choose to add to your user profile.

Information we collect when you use the Site - We collect technical information indirectly and automatically through our systems. This information includes logging your Internet Protocol (IP) address, software configuration, operating system and use of cookies (cookies are small files sent from us to your computer and sometimes back). Cookies ultimately help us improve your navigation and ease of use of our Site. You can find further information about Cookies in our Cookie Policy.

Information we collect from other sources - We receive information from third party vendors and/or other commercially available sources, such as:

  • Third party vendors who provide us data to supplement the information we collect about you, in accordance with applicable laws. For example, we receive fraud warnings from service providers for our fraud prevention and risk assessment efforts. We also receive information from enrichment service providers to enhance and personalize your experience as well as from advertising and marketing partners in order to manage and measure our campaigns.
  • If you link, connect, or login to your Fluent Account with a third-party service (e.g. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn), we receive certain information, such as your registration and profile information from that service. This information varies and is controlled by that service or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service.
  • Advertising and marketing partners in order to monitor, manage and measure our campaigns.
  • We also receive certain information about you, if you are invited to Fluent by another user (for example, as part of our collaboration tools and referral program), in such case we will receive limited information, such as your email address or other contact information, and we will use it for the same purpose it was provided and in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.

How Do We Use The Information Collected?

Where relevant under applicable laws, all processing of your personal information will be justified by a "lawful ground" for processing. In the majority of cases, processing will be justified on the basis that:

  • you have provided your consent for us to use your personal information for a specific purpose;
  • our use of your personal information is necessary to perform a contract or take steps to enter into a contract with you (e.g. to provide you with services which you have purchased);
  • the processing is necessary to comply with a relevant legal obligation or regulatory obligation that we have (e.g. fraud prevention); or
  • the processing is necessary to support our legitimate interests as a business (e.g. to improve our services to you), subject to your interests and fundamental rights and provided it is conducted at all times in a way that is proportionate.

We will use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • to provide you with quality service and security, to operate the Site, to perform our obligations to you and to develop and improve our service. For example, we use the information collected from you to verify your identity. We also use this information to establish and set up your account, verify or re-issue a password, log your activity, enable your communications with other members, provide customer support and contact you from time to time. The information helps us to develop and improve our services to you, to understand and analyse your preferences and performance and to customize and personalize your experience (including by making gig suggestions, ranking search results, etc.).
  • to ensure marketplace integrity, prevent fraud and maintain a safe and secure marketplace. For example, we use your information to track and prevent fraudulent activities and other inappropriate activities and, monitor content integrity, conduct security investigations and risk assessments, verify or authenticate information provided by you, enforce our Terms of Service and comply with applicable laws. We conduct certain behavioural analytics to achieve the above objectives and in limited cases, if we detect activity that we think poses a risk to the Fluent marketplace, other users, our community, or third parties, automated processes may restrict or limit your ability to use Fluent. If you would like to challenge any such decision, please contact us at privacy@FluentEssays.com.
  • to contact you, as requested by you or as otherwise approved by you or permitted according to this Policy.
  • to promote and advertise the Site and the Fluent marketplace. For example, we use the information collected from you for the purpose of sending direct marketing messages (as detailed below), to show you information that may be of interest to you, to organize and facilitate referral programs, contests or other promotional activities or events.
  • to maintain appropriate business records, to comply with lawful requests by public authorities and to comply with applicable laws and regulations or as otherwise required by law.

We will ask for your consent before using information for a purpose other than those set out in this Policy.

Direct marketing:

  • We use your personal information to send you direct marketing communications about our products, services or promotions from Fluent that may be of interest to you or our related services. This may be via email, post, SMS, telephone or targeted online advertisements.
  • Our processing of your personal information for marketing purposes is based on our legitimate interest, or on your consent, or as otherwise permitted according to applicable laws. You have a right to prevent direct marketing of any form at any time - this can be exercised by following the opt-out link attached to each communication or by sending an email to optout@FluentEssays.com.
  • We take steps to limit direct marketing to a reasonable and proportionate level, and to send you communications which we believe may be of interest or relevance to you, based on the information we have about you.

How Long Do We Keep Personal Information?

We apply a general rule of keeping personal information only for as long as is required to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected. However, in some circumstances, we will retain your personal information for longer periods of time. We will retain personal information for the following purposes:

  • as long as it is necessary and relevant for our operations, e.g. so that we have an accurate record of your dealings with us in the event of any complaints or challenge; and
  • in relation to personal information from closed accounts to comply with applicable laws, prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigation, enforce our Site terms and take other actions as permitted by law.

Children Under the Age of 13

Our Site is not intended for children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 should provide any personal information to or on the Site. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Parents and guardians should at all times supervise their children's activities. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13, we will delete that personal information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at legal@FluentEssays.com

Sharing Personal Information with Third Parties

We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

We share your personal information with third parties as detailed below:

  • We share personal information with service providers that provide us with services for the purpose of operating the Site, opening and operating your account as well as providing ancillary services and solutions. These include, among other, hosting services, billing and payment vendors, CRM systems, forum hosting, community management services, data and cybersecurity services, web analytics and performance tools, translation tools, IT SaaS services, session recording, communication systems, mailing systems, data optimization and marketing services, data enrichment services, legal and financial advisors or technical consultants). Consistent with applicable legal requirements, we take commercially reasonable steps to require third parties to adequately safeguard your personal information and only process it in accordance with our instructions;
  • We share personal information to law enforcement agencies, public authorities or other parties in order to respond to a subpoena or court order, judicial process or to regulatory authorities, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or that doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with legal processes; when we believe it necessary or appropriate to disclose personal information to law enforcement authorities, such as to investigate actual or suspected fraud or violations of law, breaches of security, or breaches of this Policy; to respond to claims against us; and to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Fluent, our customers, or the public;
  • We share personal information with payment processors, fraud detection agencies and similar third parties for the purpose of facilitating payments done via the Site and securing the Site and protecting it against fraud, unauthorized transactions (such as money laundering), claims or other liabilities;
  • Our Site includes certain social media features, including single sign on features. We also share limited personal information with such social media platforms and marketing partners, such as Facebook and Google, to promote our services or the Fluent marketplace. Such features and third party services collect certain information about you and may set a cookie to enable their functionality. Such third parties’ features are governed by their policies.
  • We share personal information to help facilitate interactions between Users. For example, if you are a Buyer we may share certain limited information about you (such as the fact it is your first purchase on Fluent) with the Seller to ensure the services you receive from the Seller will fit your needs; such sharing of information is limited in scope, will not include personal identifying information (PII) which is not already available to the Seller via the marketplace, and is only intended to improve the services provided by the Seller and your user experience;
  • We share personal information with Fluent Essays’ corporate affiliates (Fluent Inc., Fluent Germany GmbH, Fluent Limited) that are related by common control for the purpose of operating the Site, providing our services to you and for other purposes listed herein; and
  • Personal information will also be disclosed if we go through a business transition such as a merger, sale, transfer of all or a portion of Fluent Essays’ assets, acquisition, bankruptcy or similar event. In the event that we sell any business or assets, we will disclose your data to the prospective buyer. If we or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, information held by us about our users will be one of the transferred assets.

Please note, your profile information and additional information regarding your activity (including Gigs, reviews, posts on our forum, etc.) is made public and is visible to all Users of the Site. When you publish your information and/or share your data with other Fluent Users, you do so at your own risk.

If you choose to share personal information with other users, including Sellers providing you a service via Fluent, such personal information is shared with other users as separate controllers. While Fluent strives to protect your privacy and our Terms of Service require our Users to keep the information shared with them confidential, Fluent cannot ensure that all Users will do so and it is your responsibility to ensure that other users will comply with your standards.

This Site is also protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply with respect to data collected by reCAPTCHA. The use of Google reCAPTCHA is required in order to prevent fraud and misuse of the Site by use of automated machines. To learn more, please see Google's privacy policy.

Where We Store Your Personal Information

Some of the personal information you provide to us will be stored or processed on our behalf by third party suppliers and data processors and may be located in other jurisdictions, such as the United States and Israel, whose laws may differ from the jurisdiction in which you live. Whether to third parties or internally, any transfers of personal information from the European Economic Area (“EEA”) to countries not deemed to provide an adequate level of data protection are governed by European Union (EU) standard contractual clauses and/or equivalent data transfer regulations to protect the security and confidentiality of personal information. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy.

Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies (such as web beacons, pixels, tags, and scripts) to improve and personalize your experience, provide our services, analyze website performance and for marketing purposes. To learn more about how we and out third party service providers use cookies and your control over these Cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.

Do Not Track

Do Not Track (DNT) is a privacy preference that users can set in some web browsers, allowing users to opt out of tracking by websites and online services. We do not honor browser requests not to be tracked online (known as “Do Not Track”), but our Cookie Policy describes how you can opt out of receiving cookies.

External Links

Please note that the Site contains links to third party sites and if you link to a third party site from the Site, any data you provide to that site and any use of that data by the third party are not under the control of Fluent and are not subject to this Policy. You should consult the privacy policies of each site you visit. This Policy applies solely to personal information collected by our Site. If you upload content, including personal information, to a social network and then tag the Site, your submission will be subject to that social network's terms of use and privacy policy, even where you post on an official Fiver page on the social network. We do not have control over these terms of use and privacy policies and have not reviewed their adequacy. You should therefore review these before submitting any personal information.

Security

We take great care in maintaining the security of the Site and your information and in preventing unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, destruction or damage to it through industry standard technologies and internal procedures. Among other things, we regularly maintain a PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) certification (with respect to payment by credit cards). In addition, we contractually ensure that any third party processing your personal information equally provides for confidentiality and integrity of your data in a secure way. However, the transmission of data via the internet is not completely secure, and although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to the Site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your data, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorized access.

Users who have registered to the Site agree to keep their password in strict confidence and not disclose such password to any third party.

Further information about our data security practices can be provided on request.

Rights of EU Users

Under applicable EU regulation, you have the following rights in respect of your personal information:

  • to obtain a copy of your personal information together with information about how and on what basis that personal information is processed;
  • to rectify inaccurate personal information;
  • to erase your personal information in limited circumstances where (a) you believe that it is no longer necessary for us to hold your personal information; (b) we are processing your personal information on the basis of legitimate interests and you object to such processing, and we cannot demonstrate an overriding legitimate ground for the processing; (c) where you have provided your personal information to us with your consent and you wish to withdraw your consent and there is no other ground under which we can process your personal information; and (d) where you believe the personal information we hold about you is being unlawfully processed by us;
  • to restrict processing of your personal information where: (a) the accuracy of the personal information is contested; (b) the processing is unlawful but you object to the erasure of the personal information; (c) we no longer require the personal information for the purposes for which it was collected, but it is required for the establishment, exercise or defense of a legal claim or (d) you have objected to us processing your personal information based on our legitimate interests and we are considering your objection;
  • to object to decisions which are based solely on automated processing or profiling;
  • where you have provided your personal information to us with your consent, to ask us for a copy of this data in a structured, machine-readable format and to ask us to share (port) this data to another data controller; or
  • to obtain a copy of or access to safeguards under which your personal information is transferred outside of the EEA.

In addition to the above, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority for data protection.

We will ask you for additional data to confirm your identity and for security purposes, before disclosing data requested to you. We reserve the right to charge a fee where permitted by law. We will decline to process requests that jeopardize the privacy of others, are extremely impractical, or would cause us to take any action that is not permissible under applicable laws. Additionally, as permitted by applicable laws, we will retain where necessary certain personal information for a limited period of time for record-keeping, accounting and fraud prevention purposes.

Specific Provisions for California Residents

This section of the Policy applies to you, if you are a California resident.

During the last twelve (12) months we have collected the following categories of personal information from Users:

  • Information that you chose to upload or otherwise provided by you to Fluent, which may include: (i) Identifiers and personal information, such as name, postal addresses, online identifiers, email addresses, passport number or driving license number, social security number; (ii) characteristics of protected classifications, such as gender; facial image; audio, electronic or similar information; professional or employment-related information; and education information.
  • Information אwe collect when you use Fluent, including (i) Identifiers and personal information, such as online identifiers, internet protocol (IP) addresses, access device and connection information such as browser type, version, and time zone setting and browser plug-in types and versions; (ii) commercial information, including products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies; (iii) Internet or other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to log-in and log-out time, the duration of sessions, the content uploaded and downloaded, viewed web-pages or specific content on web-pages, activity measures; (iv) Location information, based on your IP address. 
  • Inferences drawn from any of the information identified above to create a profile about you.
  • We obtain personal information listed above from third party sources, as detailed in the section titled “How Do We Collect Information” above. 

We use the personal information that we collect or receive for the business purposes as described above under the Section titled “How Do We Use the Information Collected?”.

We disclose personal information to third parties for business purposes as described above under the Section titled “Sharing Personal Information with Third Parties” in the Privacy Policy. In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have disclosed all the categories of personal information detailed above for business purposes. 

As previously mentioned in this Policy, we do not sell (as such term is defined in the CCPA) personal information and will not sell it without providing Users with a right to opt out. 

You are entitled to the following specific rights under the CCPA in relation to personal information related to you:

  • you have a right to request that we will disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of personal information related to you over the past 12 months. After verifying your request, we will disclose to you: (i) The categories of personal information that we collect about you; (ii)The categories of sources from which the personal information is collected; (iii) The purposes for collecting, using, or selling that personal information. (iv) The categories of personal information that we disclosed for a business purpose or sold, and the categories of third parties to whom we disclosed or sold that particular category of personal information. (v) The specific pieces of personal information that we have collected about you. (vi) If we disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, the categories of personal information we have disclosed. (vii) If we sold your personal information, the categories of personal information we have sold.
  • You have a right to request that we delete personal information related to you that we collected from you under certain circumstances and exceptions. 
  • You also have a right not to be discriminated against for exercising your rights under the CCPA.

To make such requests, we kindly ask that you open a Customer Relations ticket here: http://support.FluentEssays.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. If you do not have an active Fluent account, please contact us at privacy@FluentEssays.com.

We will verify your request using the information associated with your account, including email address. Government identification may also be required. 

A request for access can be made by you only twice within a 12-months period. Any disclosures that we provide will only cover the 12-months period preceding receipt of your request. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable User request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will inform you of the reasons for such decision and provide you with a cost estimate before processing further your request.

Updating Personal Information

We take steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate and up to date, and we provide you with the opportunity to update your information through your account profile settings. In the event that you believe your information is in any way incorrect or inaccurate, please let us know immediately. We will make sure we investigate the matter and correct any inaccuracies as quickly as possible where necessary or give you ways to update it quickly or to delete it - unless we have to keep that information for legitimate business or legal purposes. When updating your personal information, we will ask you to verify your identity before we can act on your request. If for any reason you have a problem with deleting your personal information, please contact Fluent Essays’ Customer Support and we will make reasonable efforts to delete any such information pursuant to any applicable privacy laws.

You can review and change your personal information by logging into the Site and visiting your account profile page.

If you delete your User Generated Content (“UGC”), as defined in the Fluent Terms of Service, from the Site, copies of your UGC may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other Site users. Proper access and use of information provided on the Site, including UGC, is governed by our Terms of Service.

Contact Us

To exercise any of your rights in connection with your personal information, we kindly ask that you open a Customer Relations ticket. Please include all the relevant details, so your ticket can be handled correctly. We will process any requests in line with any local laws and our policies and procedures. If you do not have an active Fluent account, please contact us at privacy@FluentEssays.com.

If you have any questions (or comments) concerning this Policy, please email our team at privacy@FluentEssays.com, and we will make an effort to reply within a reasonable timeframe.

For the purposes of GDPR (Article 27), you may contact our EU representative: Fluent Germany GmbH, Westendstrasse 28, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany