Privacy Policy
Your privacy is very important to us. At The Song Foundry, Inc. we only ask for your information when we truly need it, and we won’t share this information except where we are obligated by law, or where such information is anonymous and can’t be linked to you personally. This is a pretty standard Privacy Policy, comparable to many similar web blogs, but you should definitely check it out if you want to know more about how we collect and use your data.
If you have any questions about this policy, you are welcome to contact us.
Website Visitors
Like most website operators, The Song Foundry collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. This information is processed by Google Analytics, the industry leader in website analytics, whose own privacy policy can be viewed here. The Song Foundry’s purpose in collecting such non-personally identifying information is to better understand how The Song Foundry’s visitors use its website in order to improve the experience of our site visitors. From time to time, The Song Foundry may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.
The Song Foundry also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for logged in users and for users leaving comments on WordPress.com blogs. The Song Foundry only discloses logged in user and commenter IP addresses under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information as described below, except that blog commenter IP addresses and email addresses are visible and disclosed to the administrators of the blog where the comment was left.
Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information
Certain visitors to The Song Foundry’s websites choose to interact with The Song Foundry in ways that require The Song Foundry to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that The Song Foundry gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who wish to leave comments or similar content on our site to provide their real name and email address. Those who engage in transactions with The Song Foundry – for example, by purchasing our products or signing up for coaching services – are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions.
In each case, The Song Foundry collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with The Song Foundry. The Song Foundry does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. Visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.
Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information
The Song Foundry discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on The Song Foundry’s behalf or to provide services available at The Song Foundry’s websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located in countries other than The United States of America; by using The Song Foundry’s websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. The Song Foundry will never rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. Other than to its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations, as described above, The Song Foundry discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only in response to a subpoena, court order or other governmental request, or when The Song Foundry believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of The Song Foundry, third parties or the public at large. Otherwise, The Song Foundry takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.
If you have signed up to one or more of The Song Foundry mailing ling lists by providing your email address or signing up for one or more services, The Song Foundry will send you occasional emails to tell you about new features or content, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on at The Song Foundry. We use MailChimp, a secure and highly-regarded email newsletter platform, to contact you and store your name and email address. Depending on your location and email client settings, once you have subscribed to one of our lists MailChimp may also collect information about you on our behalf such as the country or territory where you are located and how frequently you open or click links within the emails we send you. We use this information to understand our mailing list subscribers better and provide them more interesting and relevant content. Very occasionally, we may share your anonymized data with the Facebook ads platform in order to discover new customers who are similar to our existing ones. Otherwise, we do not share your data with third parties without your explicit permission, except for the reasons outlined in the previous paragraph.
If you work with one or more of coaches employed by or affiliated with The Song Foundry in a personal coaching session (including a consultation), he or she may take notes on matters including what was discussed in your session, what you will work on before your next session, and any necessary information about your background and experience as a songwriter. We do this to provide you the most effective and personalized coaching services we can. When you sign up for your first sessions (or consultation) we will also ask you to complete an induction form to gather key information about you, including your contact details, a brief history of your experiences as a songwriter and a short statement about your songwriting goals.
If you sign up for our digital masterclasses, livestreams or any similar program, we will take your information such as your name, contact email and physical mailing address in order to provide you with this service. The site is encrypted by SSL, the industry standard in secure data transmission, and while we may ask for your payment card details this information is never stored on our servers. We may also collect usage data – such as which pages of our members area you visit – in order to better understand our users and serve them better in future.
You may contact us at any time to (i) request a report containing a complete record of the personally-identifying data The Song Foundry holds on you, and/or (ii) request that such data is amended, corrected or removed from our records. We aim to comply with such requests within seven days, and in all cases will comply within 28 days.
We will generally retain your personally-identifying data as long as you continue to interact with The Song Foundry, such as by visiting our site, receiving one-on-one coaching with us or remaining subscribed to one of our email newsletters. Typically, we retain this information for at least 26 months after your final interaction with us, in case you resume interacting with us within that period. We periodically delete personally-identifying data relating to individuals who haven’t interacted with us in over 26 months but may retain such data at our discretion, where (i) retaining such information aids us in the provision of our services, or (ii) deleting such information on a frequent basis is, in our view, impractical or unduly onerous. If you are concerned about the information we may continue to hold on you, you may contact us at any time to request its removal, as described above.
Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. The Song Foundry uses cookies to help The Song Foundry identify and track visitors, their usage of The Song Foundry website, their website access preferences and their interactions with various promotions or advertising run by The Song Foundry. Site users who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using The Song Foundry’s website, with the drawback that certain features of The Song Foundry ‘s website may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
Business Transfers
If The Song Foundry, or substantially all of its assets, were acquired, or in the unlikely event that The Song Foundry goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of The Song Foundry may continue to use your personal information as set forth in this policy.
Ads
Ads appearing on any of our websites may be delivered to users by advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by The Song Foundry but does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.
Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are expected to be minor, The Song Foundry may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in The Song Foundry’s sole discretion. The Song Foundry encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.
January 2019