Privacy Policy

EF Education First Ltd. (“EF”), Haldenstrasse 4, 6006 Lucerne, Switzerland is the controller of the personal data you disclose to us and therefore responsible for your personal data under applicable laws.

EF is committed to protecting the privacy of our customers. The EF privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) applies to all personal information collected by us, or submitted to us, whether offline or online, including personal information collected or submitted through our websites (our “Websites”) and any mobile sites, applications, widgets, and other mobile interactive features (collectively, our “Apps”), through our official social media pages that we control (our “Social Media Pages”) as well as through HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you (collectively, including the Social Media Pages, Apps and Websites, the “Sites”). By visiting the Sites, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any of the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the website or submit any personal information.

What personal information do we collect?

“Personal Information” is information or pieces of information that could allow you to be personally identified such as:

• Name
• User name
• Postal address (including billing and shipping addresses)
• Telephone number (including home and mobile phone numbers)
• Email address
• Credit and debit card number
• Profile picture
• Social media account ID
• Screen name
• Shopping habits
• Preferences
• Country of residence
• IP Address
• School name and address
• Company name and address
• Preferred educational courses
• Preferences
• Browser and device information
• Server log file information
• Information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies
• App usage data
• Demographic information and other information provided by you
• Location information
• Aggregated information

How do we collect personal information?

We and our service providers may collect Personal Information in a variety of ways, including:

• Through the Sites: We may collect Personal Information through the Sites, e.g., when you sign up for a newsletter or make a purchase.
• Offline: We may collect Personal Information from you offline, such as when you contact customer service.
• From Other Sources: We may receive your Personal Information from other sources, such as public databases; joint marketing partners; social media platforms; from people with whom you are friends or otherwise connected on social media platforms, as well as from other third parties. For example, if you elect to connect your social media account to your Website account, certain Personal Information from your social media account will be shared with us, which may include Personal Information that is part of your profile or your friends’ profiles.
• Through your browser or device: Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device. We use this information for statistical purposes as well as to ensure that the Sites function properly.
• Through server log files: Your “IP Address” is a number that is automatically assigned to the computer or device that you are using by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). An IP Address is identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever a user visits the Sites, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that were visited.
• Using cookies: Cookies allow a web server to transfer data to a computer or device for recordkeeping and other purposes. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to decline the use of cookies. To learn more about cookies, please visit the Cookies Information page provided by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). For detailed information about the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, please see our cookies policy.
• Through your use of an App. When you download and use an App, we and our service providers may track and collect App usage data, such as the date and time the App on your device accesses our servers and what information and files have been downloaded to the App based on your device number.
• From you: Information such as date of birth, gender and zip code, as well as other information, such as your preferred means of communication, may be collected when you voluntarily provide this information.
• Physical Location: We may collect the physical location of your device.

In some cases, we may use a third party payment service to process purchases and/or collect donations made through the Sites. In these cases, your Personal Information may be collected by this third party and not by us, and will be subject to the third party’s privacy policy, rather than this Privacy Policy. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, this third party’s use or disclosure of your Personal Information.

How do we use personal information?

We may use Personal Information:

• To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, such as to send you newsletters or to respond to your questions and comments.
• To send administrative information to you, for example, information regarding the Sites and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies. Because this information may be important to your use of the Sites, you may not opt-out of receiving these communications.
• To complete and fulfill your purchase and/or your donation, for example, to process your payments, have your order delivered to you, communicate with you regarding your purchase and provide you with related customer service.
• To provide you with updates and announcements concerning our products, promotions and programs and to send you invitations to participate in special programs.
• To allow you to contact and be contacted by other users through the Sites, as permitted by the applicable Site.
• To permit you to participate on message boards, chat, profile pages and blogs and other services to which you are able to post information and materials (including our Social Media Pages).
• For our business purposes, such as analysing and managing our businesses, market research, audits, developing new products, enhancing our Sites, improving our services and products, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, tailoring the Sites experience and content based on your past activities on the Sites, and gauging customer satisfaction and providing customer service (including troubleshooting in connection with customer issues).
• We use information collected by browsers or your device for statistical purposes as well as to ensure that the Sites function properly.
• For detailed information about the purposes for which we use cookies, please see our cookies policy.
• We may use your device’s physical location to provide you with personalized location-based services and content. We may also share your device’s physical location, combined with information about what advertisements you viewed and other information we collect, with our marketing partners to enable them to provide you with more personalized content and to study the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
• As we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions; (e) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; and (g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
• Your personal data will be processed by EF both within and outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland, primarily for the purpose of completing your booking, providing you with the products and services that you have ordered (including travel insurance coverage), and for customer service and marketing activities. Because our servers are located in the US, our sales teams are based in local offices globally, our head office is in Switzerland, and the schools where the students chooses to take the classes are in local offices globally, we may share your personal data with our corporate affiliates, claims handlers and business partners both within and outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland. The business partners that we share information with are only such that need access to the Personal Information to process the order that you have placed on the Sites, such as transportation assistance, accommodation, or schools, and they will only receive the information necessary for that purpose. No business partner will receive your Personal Information for their own marketing purposes. Please note that the claims handlers and business partners may change from time to time. EF processes your personal data in compliance with applicable privacy and data protection legislation. By using our Sites, you acknowledge and consent to these potential transfers. You should be aware that many countries outside the EEA do not afford the same legal protections to personal information as countries within the EEA. Transfers will be made in accordance with the applicable legislation and we will take all necessary measures to ensure that third parties involved will provide an adequate level of protection. Any future hosting/processing organisation that we use in relation to the Sites will be required to do the same.

We use reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect Personal Information under our control. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or data storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of any account you might have with us has been compromised), please immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us in accordance with the “Contact Us” section form.

If at any time you wish to stop receiving marketing communications from us you can use the unsubscribe feature in the marketing communication you received or let us know by using the contact information listed in the “Contact Us” section. In your request, please indicate that you wish to stop receiving marketing communications from us.

Please note that changes may not be effective immediately. We will endeavour to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable.

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site to which EF Sites contain a link. The inclusion of a link on EF Sites does not imply endorsement of the linked site by us or by our affiliates.

Additionally, we may provide you with access to third-party functionality that permits you to post content to your social media account(s). Please note that any information that you provide through use of this functionality is governed by the applicable third party’s privacy policy, and not by this Privacy Policy. We have no control over, and shall not be responsible for, any third party’s use of information that you provide through use of this functionality.

We are also not responsible for the collection, usage and disclosure policies and practices (including the data security practices) of other organizations, such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM or any other app developer, app provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider or device manufacturer, including any Personal Information you disclose to other organizations through or in connection with the Apps or our Social Media Pages.

We will retain your Personal Information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy.

If you are over the age of 16 but under the age of 18, you should review the terms of this Privacy Policy with your parent or guardian to make sure you both understand them. Although we are not responsible for determining the age of our users, we may carry out verification checks. If we learn that we have collected information from an individual under the age of 16 without parental consent, then we will delete that information as soon as possible and may disable that individual’s access to the applicable website.

We offer programs for children for purchase by adults. For the protection of children’s privacy, we require parental consent from users who wish to make a reservation or order a brochure for one of these programs for any users under the age of 18.

We generally ask that you do not send us, and you do not disclose, any sensitive Personal Information (e.g., information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health or medical condition, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through the Sites or otherwise to us. In specific exceptions, such as insurance requests, we will make clear how you can do this securely.

We may change this Privacy Policy. Please take a look at the “Last Updated” legend at the top of this page to see when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on a Site. Your use of the Sites following these changes means that you accept the revised Privacy Policy.

You have a right to, once per calendar year, contact us and without cost find out which information about you that is being used. You have a right to receive your Personal Data in a machine readable format and you have a right to transfer your personal to another data controller.

You have the right to, at any time, withdraw your consent or object to us using your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes and you may at any time request that the use of your Personal Data is restricted or that we shall delete your Personal Data. Note however that a restriction or deletion could mean that we are not able to provide you with information, services or products as you have requested. Upon your request, we are also obliged to correct Personal Data about you that is incorrect, incomplete or misleading.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, comments or concerns about this Privacy Policy. You have the right to tell us if you:

• don't want to be contacted in the future by us;
• would like to find out what information we have about you, would like a copy of the personal information which we hold about you (You may be charged an administration fee when we provide you with the requested information to cover our time and postage and handling or retrieval costs)
• if you think that any personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date or irrelevant;
• wish to report any breaches of the Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by clicking here. We will investigate any complaint, and notify you of our decision in relation to the complaint, as soon as practicable after it is received.