Abode Privacy Policy

Last modified: September 3, 2024

Scholars, Inc. DBA Abode (“Abode”, “Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through our compliance with this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the website https://Abodehr.com/ (our “Website”), through the software applications made available by us for use on or through computers and mobile devices (our “Applications”), through HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you that link to this Privacy Policy, and through interactions with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services, if those applications or advertising include links to this Privacy Policy (collectively, including the Website and the Applications, the “Services”). “You” or “your” refers to our customers or other visitors to or users of our Services, job applicants and others who contact us about employment opportunities, and our suppliers and business partners who utilize the Services. By providing personal information to us, you acknowledge that you understand and agree to this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by:

• us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by Company or any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries); or
• any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries), including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible through the Services.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Services. By accessing or using our Services, you agree to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time (see Changes to Our Privacy Policy). Your continued use of the Services after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.

Abode is responsible for the processing of your personal information under this Privacy Policy. Please direct questions regarding the processing of your personal information as indicated below under “Contact Information”.

Children Under the Age of 18

In accordance with our Terms of Service, you must be 18 years old or older to use our Services. No one under age 18 may provide any information on or through any of the Services. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we have mistakenly or unintentionally collected the personal information of a minor through our Services without the appropriate consent, please use the contact information below so we may immediately delete the information and make other necessary corrections.

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We collect several types of information from and about users of our Services, including information:

• By which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, e-mail address, profile picture, telephone number, gender, sex, race, date of birth, education history, location, job application history, job title and work history (“personal information”);
• That is about you but individually does not identify you; and/or
• About your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Services, and usage details.
• Collected from public sources, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Personal information we collect may include photos, posts, likes, and your engagement with our content. For instance, we may repost on LinkedIn a post you make on LinkedIn in relation to Abode in our own LinkedIn feed.      

We collect this information:

• Directly from you when you provide it to us.
• Automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies and web beacons.
• From third-party Applicant Tracking Systems when you provide it to such third parties pursuant to the privacy policies of the respective third parties.
• From third-party social media and other service providers when you connect to our Services using such third-party service (e.g. LinkedIn, Gmail, Outlook).
• From your social media profiles, should you voluntarily provide your social media URL, alias, or other social media profile information to us.

Information You Provide to Us  

The information we collect on or through our Services may include:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms through our Services. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Services, subscribing to our service, posting material, or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with our Services.
• Information from any third-party service you use to connect to our Services (including log-in credentials for that service), as permitted by that service.
• Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.
• Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
• Details of transactions you carry out through our Services. You may be required to provide financial information before subscribing to or registering for our Services.
• Your search queries on the Website and/or Applications.
• Social media information, including social media URL, social media alias, and other social media profile data.

We may use a third-party payment service to process payments made through the Services. If you wish to make a payment through the Services, your personal information, including payment details, may additionally be collected by the third party, and not by us, and will be subject to such third party’s privacy policy and other terms, rather than this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Service. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, such third party’s collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information. 

If you submit any personal information relating to other people to us or to our service providers, you are responsible for providing any notices and obtaining any consents that may be necessary for us or our service providers to process such information, and you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us and our service providers to use such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted”) on public areas of our Services, or transmitted to other users of our Services or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Although we limit access to certain pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Services with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies.

As you navigate through and interact with our Services, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

• Details of your visits to our Website and/or Applications, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website and/or Applications.
• Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, browser type, pages you viewed, how much time you spent on each page, and location data.

The information we collect automatically does include personal information. It helps us to improve our Services and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

• Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
• Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Services according to your individual interests.
• Speed up your searches.
• Recognize you when you return to our Services.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

• Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Services. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Services.
• Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Services may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Services. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies. For information about managing your privacy and security settings for Flash cookies, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.
• Web Beacons. Pages of our Services and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

Third-Party Use of Cookies

Some content or applications, including advertisements, on our Services are served by third parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies to collect information about you when you use our Services. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content.

We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly. For information about how you can opt out of receiving targeted advertising from many providers, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.

How We Use Your Information

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

• To present our Services and its contents to you, as well as to operate, maintain and improve our Services.
• To aggregate and display survey data and responses.
• To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
• To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
• To provide you with notices about your account, including expiration and renewal notices.
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
• To notify you about changes to our Services or any products or services we offer or provide though it, including confirmations, invoices, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages.
• To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Services.
• To process and deliver contest entries and rewards.
• To respond to comments and questions and provide customer service.
• To communicate about promotions, upcoming events, and other news about products and services offered by us and our selected partners.
• For direct marketing of our goods and services, including SMS text messages to the mobile phone number you provided (with your consent where required by applicable law).
• For online behavioral advertising.
• To protect, investigate, and deter against fraudulent, unauthorized, or illegal activity.
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
• For any other legitimate purpose with your consent.
• To comply with applicable laws and regulations.

We may also use your information to contact you about goods and services that may be of interest to you. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, please contact us in writing or via email as set forth in Contact Information below. For more information, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information. 

We may use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers’ target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your personal information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria.

Disclosure of Your Information

We may disclose aggregated information about our users without restriction.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this Privacy Policy:

• To our subsidiaries and affiliates for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
• To contractors, service providers, customers and other third parties we use or partner with to support our business and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of the Company’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by Company about the users of our Services is among the assets transferred.
• To identify you to anyone to whom you send messages through the Services.
• To identify you as the provider of your User Contributions.
• To third parties as required to provide the Services or to market third-party products or services to you if you have consented to these disclosures. We contractually require these third parties to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them. For more information, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, if you give us an email address to use the “email a friend” feature of our Website, we will transmit the contents of that email and your email address to the recipients.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
• With your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information:

• To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
•  To enforce our Terms of Service and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our customers, or others.
• To protect the rights, property, or safety of our business, our employees, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of cybersecurity, fraud protection, and credit risk reduction.

Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information: 

• Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe’s website. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our Services may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
• Disclosure of Your Information for Third-Party Advertising. If you do not want us to share your personal information with unaffiliated or non-agent third parties for promotional purposes, you can opt out by sending us an email stating your request to info@Abodehr.com.
• Promotional Offers from the Company. If you do not wish to have your email address used by the Company to promote our own or third parties’ products or services, you can opt out by sending us an email stating your request to info@Abodehr.com. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions or unsubscribe using the link in the footer of the email.
• Targeted Advertising. If you do not want us to use information that we collect or that you provide to us to deliver advertisements according to our advertisers’ target-audience preferences, you can opt out by sending us an email stating your request to info@Abodehr.com.

Delete Your Account. While we’d be sad to see you go, if you no longer want to use our Services, you can delete your account. Please keep in mind that we may continue to retain your information after closing your account, as described in “Retention of Personal Information” below, for example, when that information is reasonably needed to comply with (or demonstrate our compliance with) legal obligations such as law enforcement requests, or reasonably needed for our legitimate business interests. You may delete your account by emailing us at info@Abodehr.com.  Once requested, we will delete your account and will process your erasure request. We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) on the NAI’s website.

Accessing and Correcting Your Information

You can review and change your personal information by logging into the Website or Applications and visiting your account profile page located at: https://my.Abodehr.com/login. If you delete your User Contributions from the Services, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other users of the Services. Proper access and use of information provided on the Services, including User Contributions, is governed by our Terms of Service.

If you no longer wish to receive marketing related SMS text messages, you may opt-out of SMS text messages as described in the text message (which may be by replying with STOP to the message you received). 

We will try to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable and in accordance with applicable law.

Data Security

We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Services like message boards. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Services.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Services. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Services. 

Retention Period

We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by applicable law. If you request that we close your account, we will close your account and delete some of your personal information within 45 days.

Consent to Data Transfer

We are based in the United States of America (“USA”). We may process, store, and transfer the personal information we collect, in and to a country outside your own, with different privacy laws that may or may not be as comprehensive as your own. By submitting your personal information or engaging with our Websites, you consent to this transfer, storing, or processing.

If you are located outside of the USA and provide information to us, please note that such information, including personal information, may be sent to, and processed in, the USA and/or other countries. By providing us with your personal information, you consent to such transfers to and subsequent processing in such countries (including the USA), which your country may not consider to provide for adequate privacy protections. You may withdraw your consent at any time. The withdrawal of consent shall not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our Privacy Policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you by email to the primary email address specified in your account and/or through a notice on the Website and Applications home page. The date the Privacy Policy was last modified is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and/or Applications and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.

Privacy Notice for Residents of Certain States in the USA

The laws of certain states in the USA provide state residents with additional privacy rights. This Privacy Policy meets current U.S. state privacy and data protection law and will be updated as these laws evolve. We do not sell your personal information as defined by any applicable US law, including the California Consumer Protection Act (2018) (the “CCPA“).

Information for California Residents: Additional Disclosures Related to Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Personal Information

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA“) requires us to disclose the following information with respect to our collection, use and disclosure of personal information.

• Categories of Personal Information Collected: In the preceding 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information: identifiers, personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statutes, protected classification characteristics under California or federal law, internet or other similar network activity, geolocation data, professional or employment-related information, non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)), and inferences drawn about your preferences. For examples of the personal information we collect, please see Information We Collect About You and How We Use It and Information You Provide To Us above.
• Business or Commercial Purpose for Collecting and Using Personal Information: We collect personal information for the business purposes described in How We Use Your Information above.
• Categories of Sources of Personal Information: We collect personal information directly from you, automatically, and from other sources, each of which is more particularly described in Information You Provide To Us and Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies above.
• Categories of Personal Information Disclosed: In the preceding 12 months, we have disclosed the following categories of personal information for business or commercial purposes: identifiers, personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statutes, protected classification characteristics under California or federal law, internet or other similar network activity, geolocation data, professional or employment-related information, non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)), and inferences drawn about your preferences.
• Categories of Third Parties with whom We Share Personal Information: We may share your personal information with the third parties as described in Disclosure of Your Information above.
• Sale of Personal Information: Abode does not sell your personal information.

Your Consumer Rights

California consumers have the right to request access to their personal information, additional details about our information practices and deletion of their personal information (subject to certain exceptions). We describe how California consumers can exercise their rights under the CCPA below. Please note that you may designate an authorized agent to exercise these rights on your behalf by providing written materials demonstrating that you have granted the authorized agent power of attorney. Please note that if an authorized agent submits a request on your behalf, we may need to contact you to verify your identity and protect the security of your personal information.

• Right to Know: You may request access to the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you in the prior 12 months. You may also request additional details about our information practices, including the categories of personal information we have collected about you, the sources of such collection, the categories of personal information we share for a business or commercial purpose, the categories of third parties with whom we share your personal information, and the specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request). We are required by law to verify your identity prior to granting access to your data in order to protect your privacy and security.
• Deletion: You may request that we delete the personal information we have collected about you. Please note that we may retain certain information as required or permitted by applicable law, and we may deny your deletion request if retaining the personal information is necessary for us or our service providers under one of the nine statutory exceptions listed in Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.105, as amended by AB 1146. We are required by law to verify your identity prior to deleting your information in order to protect your privacy and security. If you request to delete your personal information, certain of our products and services may no longer be available to you.
• To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us in writing or via email as set forth in Contact Information below. Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child. You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must (i) provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative, and (ii) describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it. We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.
• “Shine the Light” Disclosure: In accordance with the California Shine the Light law, California residents may request certain information regarding our disclosure (if any) of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Other than to third party recipients as set forth in Disclosure of Your Information above, or unless you request us to or consent to it, we do not share your personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. For any questions on these practices, please contact us as set forth in Contact Information below. 

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not deny you goods or services; charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties; provide you a different level or quality of goods or services; and/or suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

Information for European Union Residents: Your EU Privacy Rights

If you are located in certain countries, including Switzerland or those countries that fall under the scope of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), data protection laws give you rights with respect to your personal information, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:

• Request access to your personal information;
• Request correction or deletion of your personal information;
• Object to our use and processing of your personal information;
• Request that we limit our use and processing of your personal information; and
• Request portability of your personal information.

You can access, correct, or delete your personal information using your account profile, but if you aren’t able to do so, or you would like to contact us about one of the other rights, please refer to Contact Information below. European Union and Swiss individuals also have the right to make a complaint to a government supervisory authority.

Personal information collected on or about users located in the European Union is collected on the following legal bases of processing:

• Necessary for Performance of a Contract: Where use of your information is necessary in order to fulfill our commitments to you under our Terms of Service and/or other agreements with you or is necessary to administer your account (for example, in order to enable access to our Website or charge you for products or services you purchase).
• Consent: Where you have provided your consent for us to engage in marketing activities with you or otherwise process your data, we may need to process your personal information.
• Legitimate Interest: We may need to process your personal information where we have a legitimate interest in doing so, such as (1) to communicate with you in response to your requests, questions, inquiries and submissions; (2) to conduct advertising, marketing and promotional activities in connection with operating our business; (3) for research and development, security and optimization of our Services; and (4) preventing fraud.
• Comply with Legal Obligations: Where we are required to comply with laws or legal obligations, such as to comply with a subpoena or other legal process, or to process an opt-out request.

Data Processors

We rely on the following third-party services to provide our Applications: