Privacy Policy

Last updated March 10th, 2020

Sharpen is dedicated to democratizing access to design education. We take your privacy very seriously, and we know that you care about how your personal information is used and shared. We endeavor to treat your data how we’d want our own data treated - with integrity, respect, and security.

By visiting the Sharpen.design website, registering with Sharpen, or using any Sharpen services, you are accepting and agree to comply with this policy. The column on the right of this page provides a summarized explanation of the Privacy Policy, and is not legally binding. Do not continue to use Sharpen.design's website if you do not accept all of the terms and conditions stated on this page.

The following discloses the information collection, use, and disclosure practices for this domain. This policy does not address information obtained offline.

Transfer and storage

Information you enter on our website or provide to us in other ways may be transferred, received, and stored by Sharpen. If you choose not to provide us with certain information, you may experience limited functionality of Services. You can, at any time, request we permanently delete your data from storage.

This means...

We store the data necessary to make the site work.

Registration

In order for you to use certain Sharpen services you must complete a registration process, which includes both mandatory and optional steps. Completion of the registration process is required to register for an account. As part of this registration form, we require certain personal information. The purpose for collecting personal information from you is to provide our services, and to communicate with you through your consent during and after the completion of the registration process. We limit our collection of personal information to only that which is required to provide our services to you. You can optionally volunteer additional personal information at your discretion, outside of the registration process..

This basically means...

To use some features on the site, you need to register for an account.

Modification and termination

You have the right to edit, update, access, or transfer your personal information, or to delete your personal information if you are terminating your registration with Sharpen. See our Terms of Service, under the “Account Termination” section, for more information about how you can request your data be deleted.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise.

You can edit or delete your profile if you want to.

Site traffic data

Whenever you interact with us, we receive and store certain types of information. As is common practice with most websites, Sharpen and its authorized agents automatically receive and record certain "site traffic data" on their server logs from your browser and apps including your IP address, Sharpen cookie information, local session data, and the page you requested. Sharpen uses this site traffic data to help diagnose problems with its servers, analyze trends and administer the website. This does not involve collecting any of your personal information, however, when you submit information via this website, that infromaton becomes identifiable and is kept on record as having come from your IP address. This information may be used to identify you on subsequent visits to this site, and other sites associated with it, and to personalize your user experience.

Pretty basic.

We monitor the traffic to the site.

Device information

In addition to the "site traffic data", Sharpen and its authorized agents may collect information about the physical device you're using to access Sharpen, its operating system, device settings such as language or version number, unique device identifier, and crash data. The specifics of which data is collected depends on the type of device and/or system running on that device. Again, this data is used to help us diagnose problems with the site and/or mobile apps, analyze trends, and for in-house research purposes. This does not involve collecting any of your personal information.

This one’s basic too.

To do things like make sure our site is mobile-friendly, we measure what percentage of our traffic happens on different device types.

Geographic location information

Sharpen may collect and use information regarding the geographic location of your devices. If the collected location data contains your personal information, then Sharpen will treat this location data in accordance with this Policy.

Aaaand another basic one.

Similarly, we measure what percentage of traffic is from different locations.

Anonymous browsing

If you utilize a third-party program to visit websites anonymously, Sharpen may not be able to provide you with a personalized experience. We make no promise or guarantee of the performance of the Site in the event that you use a third-party program to access the Site anonymously. However, we want you to be aware that these programs are available, and of your right to use them in a general sense on our Site and others.

Going incognito.

You have a right to use anonymous-browsing tools. Just know that they might mess with how the site works.

E-mail

Sharpen is very concerned about your privacy and we will never provide your email address to a third party without your explicit permission, as detailed in the "Sharing Your Information" section below. Sharpen may send out emails to registered users and unregistered users who are newsletter subscribers with Sharpen-related news, updates, products, offers, surveys or promotions. You may also receive notification emails from Sharpen, which inform you of actions (e.g. “new comments”) that have been performed on the site. As part of account registration, we receive your consent to send these emails.

Basically...

We won’t do shady stuff with your email address. We will send you emails as part of normal operations, like if you forget your password and need to reset it, or if you subscribe to our newsletter.

Opting out of e-mails

If you are a registered user and do not want to receive email from us, please go to the “Notifications” section of the “Settings” page of your User Profile and/or follow the “unsubscribe” instructions contained in each email message. If you are a newsletter subscriber and do not want to receive email from us, please use the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of every newsletter. However, please note that in all cases you will continue to receive all system emails (e.g. those regarding forgotten user passwords) and legal notices (e.g. updates to our terms of service or policies) from us unless you terminate your registration.

In pursuit of inbox-zero.

You’re free to opt out of all our emails, except for system emails, such as when you reset your password.

Sharing information

Sharpen enables individuals to share and discover designs, information, and feedback with one another, and as such, information about the people who use Sharpen is a core part of the Sharpen experience. We will not rent or sell your personal information to anyone, ever. We will only share your personal information in the ways described below:

Don’t worry.

We never share your information for sketchy purposes.

Minimal exposure statement

We will endeavor, at any time necessary or invoked, to share the least personally identifying data possible when exercising any part of this Policy.

Sharpen team members and personnel:

Sharpen team members, including the individuals responsible for designing and developing the Site, Sharpen personnel, and authorized contractors and/or consultants may have access to varying amounts of user information if necessary in the normal course of Sharpen business. We take protecting user information seriously, and do not give team members, personnel, contractors, or consultants access if not necessary in the normal course of Sharpen business.

Protection of Sharpen and others:

If we believe, in good faith, that releasing personal information is necessary to comply with a law; to enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other policies; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Sharpen, our employees, our users, or others, we will accordingly do so. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. We take this responsibility very seriously, and will hold any such exchange to a high degree of scrutiny and security.

User profile information:

Mandatory and optionally volunteered information collected during registration and subsequent visits, such as your full name and location, may be displayed to other Sharpen users in your User Profile. You may control what personal information is displayed in your User Profile by visiting the appropriate sections in Settings. Your User Profile is a unique part of the Site which allows you to represent yourself to other Sharpen users, for the purposes of connecting with them and self expression.

Service providers:

Sharpen may, as necessary, share user information as well as information from tools such as cookies, crash reports, log files, device identifiers and location data, with third-parties that help Sharpen provide services to you (“Service Providers”). As is reasonably necessary for Sharpen to provide our services, our Service Providers will be given access to your information. Sharpen requires Services Providers to protect your data in a manner consistent with this Policy and to limit the use of such information to the performance of services for Sharpen. As part of our Minimal Exposure Statement at the top of this list, Sharpen may also remove parts of data that can identify you and share anonymized data with Service Providers, including combining your information with other information in a way that it is no longer associated with you.

Data storage:

Your encrypted personal information is stored on servers provided by a third-party cloud-based service provider that protects and stores your data in a manner that is consistent with this Policy.

With your consent:

Except as noted above, we will contact you when your personal information is shared with third parties or used for a purpose incompatible with the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, and you will be able to opt out to prevent the sharing of this information.

Can I get a TLDR?

All of these sub-sections define, in a general sense, that we’ll treat your data with the same respect that we treat our own. We’ll make sure any services we use to process site data aren’t sketchy.

Protection

Sharpen takes reasonable steps to protect the Personal Data provided via the Site from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no Internet or email transmission is ever fully secure or error free. You should take special care in deciding what information to share with any website, including Sharpen, as a general practice.

Just be safe out there.

The internet can be sketchy. We’ll do our best to keep things safe.

Passwords

Your Sharpen account information is protected by an encrypted password for your privacy and security. However, protecting against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer is your responsibility. You should always log off once you have finished using a shared computer.

“password123” doesn’t cut it.

Please use common sense to secure your account. Use a unique password, and don’t share it.

Children under 18 years of age

Our policy for user age is outlined in our Terms of Service, under the “User Account Requirements” section, under the subheading “Age”. You must be 14 years and older to register to use the Sharpen website. As a function of that requirement, Sharpen does not specifically collect information about children. If we learn that Sharpen has collected information from a child under the age of 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. We recommend that minors between the ages of 14 and 18 ask and receive permission from a legal guardian before using Sharpen or sending information about themselves or anyone else over the Internet.

Design is addictive.

Use with caution, kids.

Secure employee access

Only employees and authorized individuals who need personal information to perform a specific job (for example, a customer service representative) are granted access to it. All of our employees are kept up to date on our privacy and security practices.

[scans keycard] beep

Unless absolutely necessary, we won’t ever access the personal info you provide.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Sharpen may modify or amend this Privacy Policy from time to time, at its sole discretion. Use of information we collect now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is used. If we make changes to the Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting an announcement on the Sharpen website so you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances if any, it is disclosed. If you do not agree to any changes of this policy, you must, for yourself and on the behalf of any such person(s) that you represent, discontinue the registration process, discontinue your use of the Services, and if you are already registered, delete your account.

So basically...

Just like the rest of this site, we might change parts of this policy as the product evolves. We’ll let you know if we do.

Conditions of use

If you decide to visit Sharpen website, your visit and any possible dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of California law.

This is how laws work.

If need be, the laws of our home state govern this policy.

Official contact

Please contact us at legal@vaultlabs.co to report any violations of these Terms of Use or to pose any questions regarding this Terms of Use or the Site.

It’s like a P.O. box for the internet.

If you want to reach out, you can.

Effective date of this policy.

This policy is effective as of March 10th, 2020.

Want more legal stuff to read?

Might we recommend our Terms of Service?