Privacy Policy
<p>We’ve updated our Privacy Policy to describe the information we collect if you create an account with us using your social media account or other third-party log-in service.
Please see paragraph 4 “Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It” for details.</p> Last modified: October 13, 2021 <p>
This Privacy Policy describes how LitCharts LLC collects and uses Personal Data about you through the use of our website (www.litcharts.com), mobile applications, and through email, text, and other electronic communications between you and LitCharts.
LitCharts LLC respects your privacy and we are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.
We use "LitCharts" or "we" to refer to LitCharts LLC throughout this policy.
</p>
<ul>
<li>
Introduction
</li>
<li>
Data Controller, Data Protection Officer, and Representative
</li>
<li>
Children Under the Age of 16
</li>
<li>
Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It
</li>
<li>
Lawful Basis for Processing Your Personal Data
</li>
<li>
Special Categories of Information
</li>
<li>
Third-party Advertising
</li>
<li>
Automated Decision Making
</li>
<li>
How We Use Your Information
</li>
<li>
Disclosure of Your Information
</li>
<li>
Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information
</li>
<li>
Your Rights Regarding Your Information and Accessing and Correcting Your Information
</li>
<li>
Your California Privacy Rights
</li>
<li>
Data Security
</li>
<li>
Consent to Processing of Personal Data In
</li>
<li>
Data Retention Periods
</li>
<li>
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
</li>
<li>
Contact Information
</li>
</ul> 1.
Introduction <p>
This Privacy Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the LitCharts website or use our mobile application (collectively referred to as our "Online Interfaces") and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.
</p>
<p>
This policy applies to information we collect:
</p>
<ul>
<li>on our website;</li>
<li>through mobile applications you download from application stores, like Google Play<sup>®</sup> and the Apple App Store<sup>®</sup>;</li>
<li>in email, text, and other electronic messages between you and our Online Interfaces.
and</li>
<li>when you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services, if those applications or advertising include links to this policy.</li>
</ul>
<p>
It does not apply to information collected by:
</p>
<ul>
<li>us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by LitCharts or any third party.
or</li>
<li>any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the Online Interfaces.</li>
</ul>
<p>
Please read this 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 Online Interfaces.
By accessing or using our Online Interfaces, 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 our Online Interfaces after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check this Privacy Policy periodically for updates.
</p> 2.
Data Controller, Data Protection Officer, and Representative <p>
Who is responsible for overseeing LitCharts's data and data management practices?
</p>
<p>
LitCharts is the data controller of your Personal Data.
Individuals and data protection supervisory authorities in the EU and the UK may contact our data protection representatives according to Article 27 GDPR:
</p>
<ul>
<li>EU: DP-Dock GmbH, Attn: LitCharts, Ballindamm 39, 20095 Hamburg, Germany</li>
<li>UK: DP Data Protection Services UK Ltd., Attn: LitCharts, 16 Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 5AH, United Kingdom</li>
<li>www.dp-dock.com</li>
<li>litcharts@gdpr-rep.com</li>
</ul>
LitCharts may otherwise be contacted as set forth below in the Contact Information section of this Privacy Policy.
<p>
</p> 3.
Children Under the Age of 16 <p>
We will remove any information about a child under the age of 16 if we become aware of it.
</p>
<p>
No one under age 16 may provide any information to, on, or through the Online Interfaces.
We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under 16.
If you are under 16, do not use or provide any information on our Online Interfaces or on or through any of their features, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use.
If we learn we have collected or received Personal Data from a child under 16 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information.
If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 16, please contact us.
</p> 4.
Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It <p>
We collect different types of information about you, including information that may directly identify you, information that is about you but individually does not personally identify you, and information that we combine with our other users.
This includes information that we collect directly from you or through automated collection technologies.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Generally</strong>
</p>
<p>
We collect several types of information from and about users of our Online Interfaces, specifically information:
</p>
<ul>
<li>by which you may be personally identified.
Specifically, this is your name, e-mail address, telephone number, username, credit card or other payment information (including account number, expiration date, security code, billing address, and payment processor identification code);</li>
<li>that is about you but individually does not identify you.
Specifically, we collect your birthday, customer type (i.e.
teacher, student, general interests, reader, librarian, and or parent), country and state.
and</li>
<li>about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Online Interfaces and usage details.</li>
</ul>
<p>
If you choose to create an account with us using a third-party social network (such as Facebook) or third-party log-in service (such as Google), you will provide us or allow the third-party social network or log-in service to provide us with your email address.
</p>
<p>
We refer to the information above collectively as "Personal Data."
</p>
<p>
We collect Personal Data:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Directly from you when you provide it to us.</li>
<li>Automatically as you navigate through the site.
Information collected automatically is usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies;</li>
<li>From our payment processors, Stripe and Paypal, when you order our products and services;</li>
</ul>
<p>
<strong>Information You Provide to Us</strong>
</p>
<p>
The information we collect on or through our Online Interfaces consists of:
</p>
<ul>
<li>information that you provide by filling in forms on our Online Interfaces.
This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Online Interfaces, subscribing to our service, or requesting further services.
We may also ask you for when you report a problem with our Online Interfaces;</li>
<li>records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us;</li>
<li>your responses to quizzes and surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes or as part of our services to you;</li>
<li>details of transactions you carry out through our Online Interfaces and of the fulfillment of your orders.
You may be required to provide financial information before placing an order through our Online Interfaces.</li>
</ul>
<p>
The Personal Data we collect from you is required to enter into a contract with LitCharts, for LitCharts to perform under the contract, and to provide you with our products and services.
If you refuse to provide such Personal Data or withdraw your consent to our processing of Personal Data, then in some cases we may not be able to enter into the contract or fulfill our obligations to you under it.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies</strong>
</p>
<p>
As you navigate through and interact with our Online Interfaces, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, specifically:
</p>
<ul>
<li>details of your visits to our Online Interfaces, specifically traffic data, logs, referring/exit pages, date and time of your visit to the Online Interfaces and their pages, error information (if any), clickstream data, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Online Interfaces.</li>
<li>information about your computer and internet connection, specifically your IP address, Internet Service Provider, operating system, and browser type.</li>
</ul>
<p>
The information we collect automatically may include Personal Data, or we may maintain it or associate it with Personal Data we collect in other ways or receive from third parties.
It helps us to improve our Online Interfaces and to deliver a better and more personalized service by enabling us to:
</p>
<ul>
<li>estimate our audience size and usage patterns;</li>
<li>store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Online Interfaces according to your individual interests;</li>
<li>speed up your searches.
and</li>
<li>recognize you when you return to our Online Interfaces.</li>
</ul>
<p>
Details about the automated data collection technologies and the specific cookies we use can be found in our Cookie Policy.
</p> 5.
Lawful Basis for Processing Your Personal Data <p>
How the law allows us to process your Personal Data, including processing for our legitimate interests (when balanced against your rights and freedoms), to fulfill our obligations to you under a contract with you, and required by law, and with your consent.
</p>
<p>
If you are in the European Economic Area ("EEA"), the processing of your Personal Data is lawful only if it is permitted under the applicable data protection laws.
We have a lawful basis for each of our processing activities (except when an exception applies as described below):
</p>
<p>
<strong>Consent.</strong> By using our Online Interfaces, you consent to our collection, use, and sharing of your Personal Data as described in this privacy policy.
If you do not consent to this privacy policy, please do not use the Online Interfaces.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Legitimate Interests.</strong> We will process your Personal Data as necessary for our legitimate interests.
Our legitimate interests are balanced against your rights and freedoms and we do not process your Personal Data if your rights and freedoms outweigh our legitimate interests.
Specifically, our legitimate interests are to: facilitate communication between LitCharts and you.
detect and correct bugs and to improve our Online Interfaces.
safeguard our IT infrastructure and intellectual property.
detect and prevent fraud and other crime.
promote and market our business.
check your credit and perform risk assessments.
and enhance and develop our product and services.
</p>
<p>
<strong>To Fulfill Our Obligations to You under our Contract.</strong> We process your Personal Data in order to fulfill our obligations to you pursuant to our Contract with you to deliver our goods and services to you.
Specifically, we use your Personal Data to provide you with access to the features on our Online Interfaces and our subscription service, each in accordance with our Terms of Service .
</p>
<p>
<strong>As Required by Law.</strong> We may also process your Personal Data when we are required or permitted to by law.
to comply with government inspection, audits, and other valid requests from government or other public authorities.
to respond to legal process such as subpoenas.
or as necessary for us to protect our interests or otherwise pursue our legal rights and remedies (for instance, when necessary to prevent or detect fraud, attacks against our network, or other criminal and tortious activities), defend litigation, and manage complaints or claims.
</p> 6.
Special Categories of Information <p>
Do we process special categories of Personal Data, such as health information?
</p>
<p>
LitCharts does not ask you to provide, and we do not knowingly collect, any special categories of Personal Data from you.
</p> 7.
Third-party Advertising <p>
Who is our advertising partner and what tracking technologies do they use?
</p>
<p>
We do not currently show any third-party advertising.
</p> 8.
Automated Decision Making <p>
Do we use your Personal Data with any automated decision making processes, such as using data to figure out your religion or sexual orientation?
</p>
<p>No.
LitCharts does not use your Personal Data with any automated decision making process.</p> 9.
How We Use Your Information <p>
An explanation of what we do with the data we collect from you.
</p>
<p>We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any Personal Data:</p>
<ul>
<li>to present our Online Interfaces and their contents to you;</li>
<li>to provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us;</li>
<li>to fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it;</li>
<li>to provide you with notices about your free registered user account or paid subscription account, including expiration and renewal notices;</li>
<li>to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection;</li>
<li>to notify you about changes to our Online Interfaces or any products or services we offer or provide though them;</li>
<li>in any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
and</li>
<li>for any other purpose with your consent.</li>
</ul>
<p>
With your consent, we may also use your information to contact you about our own goods and services that may be of interest to you.
Users in the EEA can choose to opt in to consent to this use when signing up for a free or paid subscription account on our Online Interfaces.
All users--in the European Union and elsewhere--have the option to opt out of receiving marketing communications from us.
If you wish to change your choice, you may do so at any time by logging into the Online Interface and adjusting your user preferences in your account settings page or by using our GDPR Request Form.
For more information, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.
</p> 10.
Disclosure of Your Information <p>
We do not share, sell, or otherwise disclose your Personal Data for purposes other than those outlined in this Privacy Policy.
However, we may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.
</p>
<p>
We may disclose Personal Data that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:
</p>
<ul>
<li>to our subsidiaries and affiliates;</li>
<li>to contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep Personal Data confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
Specifically, these entities provide IT and infrastructure support services (including analytics service providers), and payment processing services.
Our payment processors' privacy policies may be found here for Stripe and here for PayPal;</li>
<li>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 LitCharts LLC’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by LitCharts LLC about our Online Interfaces’ users is among the assets transferred;</li>
<li>to third parties to market their products or services to you if you have consented to these disclosures.
For more information, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information;</li>
<li>to fulfill the purpose for which you provide it;</li>
<li>for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
and</li>
<li>with your consent.</li>
</ul>
<p>
We may also disclose your Personal Data:
</p>
<ul>
<li>to comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request;</li>
<li>to enforce or apply our Terms of Service and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
and</li>
<li>if we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of LitCharts LLC, our customers, or others.
This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.</li>
</ul> 11.
Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information <p>
Your options for controlling the data we store about you.
</p>
<p>
We offer you choices on how you can opt out of disclosure of your Personal Data for our advertising to you.
We do not control the collection and use of your information collected by third parties described above in Disclosure of Your Information.
When possible, these organizations are under contractual obligations to use this data only for providing the services to us and to maintain this information on a strictly confidential basis.
These third parties may, however, aggregate the information they collect with information from their other customers for their own purposes.
</p>
<p>
In addition, we strive to provide you with choices regarding the Personal Data you provide to us.
We have created mechanisms to provide you with control over your Personal Data:
</p>
<p>
<strong>Promotional Offers from LitCharts.</strong> For users in the EEA, pursuant to the GDPR we will only use your contact information to promote our own or third parties’ products and services with your express consent.
If you wish to consent to such use, you can check the relevant box located on the form on which we collect your Personal Data or otherwise seek such consent.
For users not in the EEA, you consent to receive promotional offers from us or third parties by agreeing to our Terms of Service upon signing up for a free registered user account or paid subscription account.
</p>
<p>
If you wish to change your choice, all users may do so at any time by adjusting your user preferences on your Account Settings page or by using our GDPR Request Form.
If we have sent you a promotional email, all users may unsubscribe from future marketing email communications by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.
This opt out does not apply to information provided to LitCharts as a result of a product purchase, product service experience, or other transactions.
It also does not apply to transactional non-marketing emails required to provide our services or communicate with you about your account.
</p> 12.
Your Rights Regarding Your Information and Accessing and Correcting Your Information <p>
Your options for accessing and updating the data we store about you.
</p>
<p>
You may have certain rights under applicable data protection laws, including the right to access and update your Personal Data, restrict how it is used, transfer certain Personal Data to another controller, withdraw your consent at any time, and the right to have us erase certain Personal Data about you.
You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority about our processing of your Personal Data.
</p>
<p>
Applicable data protection laws may provide you with certain rights with regards to our processing of your Personal Data.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Access and Update.
</strong>You can review and change your Personal Data by logging into the Online Interfaces and visiting your "Account Settings" page.
You may also notify us through the contact information below of any changes or errors in any Personal Data we have about you to ensure that it is complete, accurate, and as current as possible.
We may not be able to accommodate your request if we believe it would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Restrictions.
</strong>You have the right to restrict our processing of your Personal Data under certain circumstances.
In particular, you can request we restrict our use of it if you contest its accuracy, if the processing of your Personal Data is determined to be unlawful, or if we no longer need your Personal Data for processing, but we have retained it as permitted by law.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Portability.</strong>To the extent the Personal Data you provide LitCharts is processed based on your consent, you have the right to request that we provide you a copy of, or access to, all or part of such Personal Data in structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
You also have the right to request that we transmit this Personal Data to another controller, when technically feasible.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Withdrawal of Consent.</strong> To the extent that our processing of your Personal Data is based on your consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time by closing your account.
Withdrawing your consent will not, however, affect the lawfulness of the processing based on your consent before its withdrawal, and will not affect the lawfulness of our continued processing that is based on any other lawful basis for processing your Personal Data.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Right to be Forgotten.
</strong>You have the right to request that we delete all of your Personal Data.
We cannot delete your Personal Data except by also deleting your user account, and we will only delete your account when we no longer have a lawful basis for processing your Personal Data or after a final determination that your Personal Data was unlawfully processed.
We may not accommodate a request to erase information if we believe the deletion would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.
In all other cases, we will retain your Personal Data as set forth in this policy.
In addition, we cannot completely delete your Personal Data as some data may rest in previous backups.
These will be retained for the periods set forth in our disaster recovery policies.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Complaints.</strong> You have the right to lodge a complaint with the applicable supervisory authority in the country you live in, the country you work in, or the country where you believe your rights under applicable data protection laws have been violated.
However, before doing so, we request that you contact us using the Contact Information below directly in order to give us an opportunity to work directly with you to resolve any concerns about your privacy.
</p>
<p>
<strong>How You May Exercise Your Rights.</strong> You may exercise any of the above rights by contacting us.
If you contact us to exercise any of the foregoing rights, we may ask you for additional information to verify your identity.
We reserve the right to limit or deny your request if you have failed to provide sufficient information to verify your identity or to satisfy our legal and business requirements.
</p> 13.
Your California Privacy Rights <p>
Under some circumstances, California law may provide you with the right to obtain a list of third parties (if any) that we provide your Personal Data to for their own direct marketing purposes.
</p>
<p>
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 (California’s "Shine the Light" law) permits users of our Online Interfaces that are California residents and who provide Personal Data in obtaining products and services for personal, family, or household use to request certain information regarding our disclosure of Personal Data to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.
If applicable, this information would include the categories of Personal Data and the names and addresses of those businesses with which we shared your Personal Data with for the immediately prior calendar year (e.g.
requests made in 2018 will receive information regarding such activities in 2017).
You may request this information once per calendar year.
To make such a request, please contact us.
</p> 14.
Data Security <p>
Information transmitted over the Internet is not completely secure, but we do our best to protect your Personal Data.
You can help protect your Personal Data and other information by keeping your password to our websites confidential.
</p>
<p>
We have implemented measures designed to secure your Personal Data from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure.
</p>
<p>
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 Online Interfaces, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.
We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
</p>
<p>
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure.
Although we do our best to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Data transmitted to our Online Interfaces.
Any transmission of Personal Data is at your own risk.
We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Online Interfaces.
</p> 15.
Consent to Processing of Personal Data In Other Countries Outside the European Economic Area (EEA) <p>
We may process your Personal Data outside of your home country, including to the United States.
We only do this when we are legally permitted to do so and when we have appropriate safeguards in place to protect your Personal Data.
</p>
<p>
If you are a resident of the EEA, in order to provide our Online Interfaces, products, and services to you, we may send and store your Personal Data outside of the EEA, including to the United States.
Accordingly, your Personal Data may be transferred outside the country where you reside or are located, including to countries that may not or do not provide an adequate level of protection for your Personal Data.
</p>
<p>
Your Personal Data is transferred by LitCharts to another country only if it is required or permitted under applicable data protection law and provided that there are appropriate safeguards in place to protect your Personal Data.
By using our Online Interfaces, you represent that you have read and understood the above and hereby consent to the storage and processing of Personal Data that you provide directly to us on our Online Interfaces.
To ensure your Personal Data (other than Personal Data you provide directly to us on our Online Interfaces) is treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy, LitCharts uses Data Protection Agreements between LitCharts and all other recipients of your data that include, where applicable, the Standard Contractual Clauses adopted by the European Commission (the "Standard Contractual Clauses").
The European Commission has determined that the transfer of Personal Data pursuant to the Standard Contractual Clauses provides for an adequate level of protection of your Personal Data.
Under these Standard Contractual Clauses, you have the same rights as if your data was not transferred to such third party.
You may request a copy of our Data Protection Agreement(s) by contacting us.
</p> 16.
Data Retention Periods <p>
How long we retain your personal data and why.
</p>
<p>
LitCharts will retain your personal data unless you delete your account via the Account Settings page.
If you do not delete your account, we may retain your Personal Data:
</p>
<ul>
<li>for as long as necessary to comply with any legal requirement;</li>
<li>on our backup and disaster recovery systems in accordance with our backup and disaster recovery policies and procedures;</li>
<li>for as long as necessary to protect our legal interests or otherwise pursue our legal rights and remedies.
and</li>
<li>for data that has been aggregated or otherwise rendered anonymous in such a manner that you are no longer identifiable, indefinitely.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you choose to delete your account entirely, we may retain your data on our backup and disaster recovery systems but never for any period longer than one month following the date on which you deleted your account data.</p> 17.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy <p>
When we post changes to our Privacy Policy and whether you will be notified.
</p>
<p>
We may change this Privacy Policy at any time.
It is our policy to post any changes we make to our Privacy Policy on this page with a notice that the Privacy Policy has been updated on the Online Interfaces’ home page or home screen.
If we make substantial changes to how we treat our users’ Personal Data, we will notify you by email to the email address specified in your account.
The date this Privacy Policy was last revised 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 Online Interfaces and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.
</p> 18.
Contact Information <p>
How to contact us with privacy-related questions or concerns.
</p>
<p>
If you have any questions, concerns, complaints or suggestions regarding our Privacy Policy, have any requests related to your Personal Data pursuant to applicable laws, or otherwise need to contact us, you must contact us by postal mail or email with the contact information we provide below.
</p>
<p>
Contact Information for LitCharts (Data Controller):
</p>
<p>
<strong>By postal mail:</strong>
<br>
LitCharts<br>
P.O.
Box 1162<br>
Madison, NJ 07940<br>
USA<br>
</p>
<p>
<strong>By email:</strong>
<br>
Please use our Contact Page for general privacy-related issues and our GDPR Request Form for GDPR-related issues.
</p>