Updated and effective as of June 27, 2024

Privacy Policy

Introduction

Impact Creative Systems, Inc.  and/or its affiliates, divisions, or subsidiaries (“Impact,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) operates impactdevelopment.com (the “Site”) and offers various programs designed to assist creators in the development of their talents (“Accelerators”) and services through which creators can apply for projects or other opportunities (“Programs”).  This Privacy Policy applies to the Site, the Accelerators, Programs, and other features, applications, or other services operated by Impact that post a link to this Privacy Policy, all of which are referred to in this Privacy Policy as the “Services.”  This policy does not apply to the Impact Crew Network or Impact Crew Network mobile application; please click here for information on that policy.

As a preliminary matter, it is important to note that if you voluntarily submit an application to an Accelerator or Program, accept our offer to participate in an Accelerator or Program, visit the Site, or otherwise use or interact with the Services, you agree to (a) our collection, use, and disclosure of your information as part of the Services, as set forth in this Privacy Policy and (b) our Terms of Use. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Use, do not access or use the Services.  If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Use, please contact us at privacy@impact.net.

In this Privacy Policy, we tell you what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, under what circumstances we may share it with third parties, how we protect that information, and how you may opt out of the sharing of that information.

1. What Information We Collect

2. Why We Collect Information

3. How We Share and Disclose Information

4. Updating Your Information

5. Your Choices About the Information We Collect

6. Children’s Privacy

7. Do Not Track Disclosures

8. International Data Transfers and Consent to Transfer and Storage in the United States

9. Links and Third Party Resources or Technologies

10. Security

11. Questions/Changes in Privacy Policy

12. Information for European Union, European Economic Area, and United Kingdom Residents

13. Information for Canadian Residents

14. Additional Information if You Are Located in Countries Outside the US, EU/EEA, UK, or Canada

15. Notice to California Residents

16. Your Nevada Privacy Rights

As described more fully below, we collect information from you directly, automatically when you interact with the Services, and from third parties. Some of this information will be shared with other participants and business partners in Accelerators and Programs, as applicable, and as described in the sections below.  We may combine the information we collect in connection with the Services with information we collect through other services we provide, such as our Impact Creative Network service.

Some of the information we collect may be considered “personal information” under various applicable laws.  We consider information that identifies you as a specific, identified individual, such as your name, phone number, and email address, to be personal information. We will also treat other information, including IP addresses and cookie identifiers, as “personal information” where required by applicable law.  We may de-identify your personal information so as to make it non-personally identifiable, either by combining it with information about other individuals and/or by hashing the information or otherwise removing characteristics that make the information personally identifiable to you.  We will treat de-identified information as non-personal to the fullest extent allowed by applicable law.

(a)            Information You Provide to Us

In connection with the Services, you may be required to provide and/or you may elect to provide us with certain information, including your first and last name; contact information, including your email address, and/or phone number; geographic information such as your city, state, and/or country; current and past employment information, educational background, and/or projects you are or have been involved with; demographic information such as your gender, ethnicity, status, identity, affiliation, interests, or preferences; information regarding who your agent or other representatives are; and your picture; scripts, audio-visual content, or other content files.  We may combine information we collect in any offline setting with information we collect online.

(b)            Information That We Gather from Others

During the course of an Accelerator or Program, we may collect information from other participants in the Accelerator or Program or other third parties, such as feedback regarding your creative work. 

We may combine the information we collect from you with the information obtained from third parties, and will apply this Privacy Policy to the combined information.

(c)            Information That Is Automatically Collected

We and/or our service providers may automatically collect and/or store certain information when you visit or interact with the Services (“Usage Information”). This Usage Information may be stored and/or accessed from your personal computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone, or other device (a “Device”) whenever you visit or interact with our Services. Usage Information may include:

• Your IP address or another unique identifier;

• Your Device functionality (including browser, browser language, operating system, hardware, mobile network information);

• Referring and exit web pages and URLs;

• The areas within our Site that you visit and your activities there, including remembering you and your preferences;

• Your Device’s geographic location (inferred from IP address), including the city, region or country from which you accessed the Services;

• Your Device characteristics; and

• Certain other Device data, including the time of day you visit our Site.

(d)            Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We may use various methods and technologies to store or collect Usage Information (“Tracking Technologies”). Tracking Technologies may set, change, alter or modify settings or configurations on your Device. A few of the Tracking Technologies used on the Services, include, but are not limited to, the following (as well as future-developed tracking technology or methods that are not listed here):

Cookies and Local Storage. “Cookies” and local storage are pieces of information (data files) transferred to an individual’s browser on their device when the device is used to access the Site. These technologies are able to store a unique identifier for a device to allow a certain Internet site to recognize the device whenever the device is use to visit the site. These technologies may be used for many purposes by us and our third-party service providers such as automatically collecting Usage Information, enabling features, and remembering your preferences. If you do not want to accept cookies, you may be able to block them by adjusting the settings on your Internet browser. You can find more information about cookies and how they work at www.allaboutcookies.org.

Web Beacons. A web beacon is a small tag (which may be invisible to you) that may be placed on our Site’s pages and messages.  Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count visitors to our Site, to monitor how users navigate the Site, or to count how many particular links were actually viewed.

Embedded Scripts. An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Site, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your device from our server or a third-party service provider or business partner, is active only while you are connected to a Site, and is deactivated or deleted thereafter.

We may use Tracking Technologies for a variety of purposes, including:

• To allow you to use and access the Services, including for the prevention of fraudulent activity and improved security functionality;

• To assess the performance of the Services, including as part of our analytic practices or otherwise to improve the content, products or services offered through the Services;

• To offer you enhanced functionality when accessing the Services, including identifying you when you sign into our Services or keeping track of your specified preferences; and

• To deliver content relevant to your interests on our Services based on how you interact with our content.

We use Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about the use of the Services and report on activities and trends.  This service may also collect information about the use of other websites, apps, and online services.  You can learn about Google’s practices by going to https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We use information collected from or about you, including personal information and Usage Information, for various purposes, including:

• Allowing you to participate in the Services, and any features or activities that we offer;

• Providing the Services to others, including allowing other participants to connect with you;

• Updating and verifying existing personal information we have in our records;

• Identifying your Services elections and preferences, providing personalized content and informing you of new or additional information and content that may be of interest to you;

• Verifying identity;

• Responding to your requests for information;

• Providing updates and information about the Services;

• Improving the effectiveness of our Services, our marketing endeavors, and our product and service offerings;

• Helping us address problems with and improve our Site and Services, including testing and creating new products, features, and services;

• Protecting the security and integrity of the Services, including understanding and resolving any technical and security issues reported on our Services;

• Conducting analysis, research, and reports regarding the use of our Services;

• For internal business purposes;

• Complying with the law and protecting the safety, rights, property or security of Impact, the Services, and the general public; and

• For other purposes disclosed at the time you provide your information or as otherwise set forth in this Privacy Policy.

We may aggregate, de-identify, and/or anonymize any information collected through Services such that such information is no longer linked to your personal information.  We may use and share this aggregated and anonymized information (non-personal information) for any purpose, including without limitation, for research and marketing purposes, and may also share such data with our affiliates and third parties. 

We may share the information we have collected about you as disclosed at the time you provide us with information or your consent, and as described in this Privacy Policy, including:

Other Participants and Business Partners as Part of the Services.  We may disclose your information to other participants in the Services, such as to other creators in the Accelerator and the shaper or other mentors with whom you are matched as part of the Accelerator, or to business partners involved in the Program, and in other ways as disclosed at the time you provide your information and as described in this Privacy Policy.

Unaffiliated Third Parties for Direct Marketing Purposes.  We do not share your personal information with unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes without your consent (which may consist of offering you the opportunity to either opt-in or opt-out of such sharing).  

 Service Providers.  We may use third party service providers to perform certain services on our behalf, or to assist us in providing the Services to you.  Examples of such disclosures include using a payment processor, customer service provider, email marketing provider, data analysis provider, and other administrative services. 

In Connection with Business Transitions.  We may disclose your information in connection with a corporate transition such as a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, including during the course of any due diligence process.  By providing your personal information, you agree that we may transfer such information to the acquiring entity without your further consent.

Administrative and Legal Reasons.  We reserve the right to use or disclose any information as needed to satisfy any law, regulation, or legal request; to protect the integrity of the Site or the Services; to fulfill your requests; to cooperate in a law enforcement investigation, an investigation on a public safety matter, or an investigation into claims of intellectual property infringement; to protect and defend the legal rights and/or property of Impact and any of our corporate subsidiaries, affiliates, and shareholders, or the Site or any of its users, the Accelerators or any of its participants, or any other party; or, in an emergency, to protect the health and safety of Accelerator participants, users of the Site, or the general public.

In the event your personal information changes, such as if you change email addresses after filing your application for an Accelerator or Program, please contact us using the information provided in the “Contact Us” section below.  Note that we may retain information that is deleted, updated, or otherwise changed for internal or administrative purposes. 

You may unsubscribe from any marketing email we may send you through the opt-out mechanism included in each such email.  We reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to your use of our Services, service announcements, notices of changes to this Privacy Policy, or other terms, or similar administrative or transactional messages, and such messages will be unaffected by any choice to opt out of marketing communications.

Our Services are not intended for use by children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 18.

Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals offered by some web browsers are settings that request that a web application disable its tracking of an individual user. When you choose to turn on the DNT setting in your browser, your browser sends a special signal to websites, analytics companies, ad networks, plug in providers, and/or other web services you encounter while browsing to stop tracking your activity. There is no consensus among industry participants as to what “Do Not Track” means in this context.  Like many websites and online services, we may not alter our practices when our systems receive a “Do Not Track” signal from a visitor’s browser, unless specifically required by law. You can learn more about Do Not Track at www.allaboutdnt.com.

Impact is a United States company.  Please be aware that your connection will be through and to servers located in the U.S. and other countries.  By using the Services or providing us with any information, you fully understand and unambiguously consent to this transfer to, and processing, usage, sharing and storage of your information in the United States and in other jurisdictions, for which the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as those in the country where you reside and/or are a citizen.  As a result, this information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in the United States and other countries according to the laws in those jurisdictions.  Your information will also be disclosed to third parties as described in the “How We Share and Disclose Information” section above.

As part of the Services, we may incorporate the use of third party resources and technologies, or provide links to other websites. Impact is not responsible for the privacy practices, advertising, products, services, or the content of such other websites, resources, and technologies. The provision or use of such resources and technologies should not be understood to imply that Impact endorses or has any affiliation with them. Please see our Terms of Use.

We incorporate commercially reasonable safeguards to help protect and secure your personal information.  However, no system can be guaranteed 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to or from our Services, or guarantee that it will be free from unauthorized access by third parties.  You provide us with information at your own initiative and risk.

If you have questions or concerns with respect to our Privacy Policy, you may contact us at privacy@impact.net or at:

Impact Creative Systems, Inc.

150 El Camino Drive, Suite 100

Beverly Hills, CA 90212

To the extent permitted by applicable law, we reserve the right to change or amend our Privacy Policy in our discretion at any time.  We will notify you of material changes by posting the changed or modified Privacy Policy on our Site.  We may also provide notice to you in other ways, such as through the contact information you provided.  Any changes will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Privacy Policy, unless otherwise specified.  Your continued use of our Services after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy (or such other act as specified in the revised Privacy Policy) will, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, constitute your consent to those changes.  However, we will provide notice and/or obtain your consent (opt-in or opt-out) if required by law.  Note that you may need to consent to our new policies in order to continue participating in the Services. 

Legal Basis for Processing

We will collect, store, or otherwise process Personal Data (as that term is defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or UK GDPR, as applicable) collected from you in the EU/EEA or the UK only in the following situations:

• When we have your consent to do so. For example, if you register for an account with us or provide us with information to share with other users of the Services. You can withdraw your consent at any time as described below.

• When we need to use your Personal Data to perform our responsibilities under our contract with you, including to provide the Services you have requested.

• When we or a third party have a legitimate interest in processing your Personal Data. For example, we may process your Personal Data to communicate with you about our Services, to provide, secure, and improve our Services, and, in certain circumstances, to deliver advertising to you. You have the right to object to our processing of your Personal Data that is based on our legitimate interests.

• When we are required by law to process the Personal Data.

EU/UK Data Subject Rights

The GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation) provides certain rights for EU/EEA residents. Residents of the United Kingdom have similar rights under the UK GDPR and Data Privacy Act.  You can access information about you and update or correct it. In some cases, you can also ask us to erase it, restrict or stop processing, or provide data in a “portable” form, if feasible. You may withdraw consent (“opt-out”) if you have previously consented to any particular use of your information, such as receiving emails or text messages. For all requests, contact privacy@impact.net. You may also decline to share certain Personal Data with us, in which case we may not be able to provide some or all of the features and functionality of our Site or Services. 

You may make changes to the Personal Data collected by our account registration pages as described in the “Accessing and Updating Your Personal Information and Your Choices” section, above. We will reply to your data subject requests within 30 days. We will verify your identity and/or requests as described in the “Notice to California Residents” section below. If we cannot fulfill your request within 30 days, we will inform you when we will be able to do so. We will also provide an explanation if we do not fully comply with your request. When technically feasible, at your request, we will provide your Personal Data to you or transmit it directly to another controller.

Retention of Information

We retain your Personal Data while you have an account with us and while you continue to use or visit any of the Services. We will retain your Personal Data for as long as it is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, considering the time period reasonably necessary to: provide the Services to you; exercise the choices and rights you have requested; comply with our contractual obligations; enforce our terms for use of the Services; and comply with legal and regulatory requirements.

Inquiries and Complaints

Please first contact us as set forth below. EU/EEA and UK residents have the right to make a complaint to your national data protection supervisory authority if you do not believe we have resolved your concern.

Contact Us

For all EU/EEA and UK Data Subject Rights requests, please put the statement "Your EU/UK Data Subject Rights" in the subject field of your request. Please provide your contact information in your request and clearly indicate that you are requesting information with respect to an Impact Creative Systems Accelerator, Program, or website, as applicable.

Email Address: privacy@impact.net

Postal Address:

Impact Creative Systems, Inc. 

150 S. El Camino Drive, Suite 100

Beverly Hills, CA 90212

European/UK residents also may learn more about interest-based advertisements from participating third parties at the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance page at www.youronlinechoices.eu.

We make reasonable efforts to notify you of the purposes for which personal information will be used or disclosed and if the initial purpose changes. Please note, you may withdraw consent at any time (subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice). Subject to certain limits set out in the applicable laws, Canadian residents also have the right to request access to the personal information that we collect and to update or correct personal information if it is inaccurate.

If you are a Canadian resident and would like to submit a request to access your personal information or to withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data, you must submit your request by sending an email to privacy@impact.net. You may also use this contact to submit any requests for information on our privacy practices or to submit a complaint regarding our practices.

Your request or complaint must include your full name, street address, city, province, postal code, and an email address so that we are able to contact you if needed regarding this request.

We cannot properly process requests or complaints that do not come through the designated request mechanism or do not contain sufficient information to allow us to process your request. You may also be required to take reasonable steps as we determine from time to time in order to verify your identity and/or the authenticity of the request. Once your request is processed, absent exemptions, we will provide you with details regarding what personal information we have, how it is used, and with which third parties it is shared.

Canadian residents may have additional rights under Canadian law, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and successor legislation. Please see the website of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (www.priv.gc.ca) for further information. 

Canadian residents also may learn more about interest-based advertisements from participating third parties in Canada at the Canadian DAA choice page at http://youradchoices.ca/choices.

 You and we confirm that it is our wish that this Privacy Policy, the Terms of Use, and all other related policies be drawn up in English.  Vous reconnaissent avoir exigé la rédaction en anglais du présent document ainsi que tous les documents qui s'y rattachent.

In certain jurisdictions with relevant data protection laws, including (without limitation) Australia, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, and Mexico, we may require your consent or authorization to use or share your personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. By providing your personal information to us, you expressly provide such consent or authorization to the extent it is required.

In addition, you may have additional privacy rights under the law of your country of residence, typically including the rights to access, correct, delete, or object to further processing of your personal information. We handle requests to exercise such rights similarly to requests from EU residents under the EU GDPR, as described above.

This section of the Privacy Policy applies solely to California residents. We adopt this Policy to conform to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), to the extent that it may apply to us. Any terms defined in the CCPA or its regulations have the same meaning when used in this Section.

We collect certain types of information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or device (“Personal Information”) In particular, we have collected the following categories of Personal Information from the users of our Site and participants in our Accelerators within the last twelve (12) months: 

Under California law, if you are a California resident, you may have the right to (a) request that we disclose to you what Personal Information we collect, use, disclose, and sell, including the right to request that we provide to you the specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you in the prior 12 months (“Right to Know”); (b) request that we delete the Personal Information we collect about you (“Right to Delete”), subject to exceptions set forth in the CCPA; and (c) opt-out from the sale of your Personal Information. These rights are subject to some limitations, such as when we are retaining data to comply with our own legal obligations.

Please note that if we collected information about you for a single one-time transaction and do not keep that information in the ordinary course of business, that information will not be retained for purposes of a request under this section. In addition, if we have de-identified or anonymized data about you, we are not required to re-identify or otherwise link your identity to that data if it is not otherwise maintained that way in our records.

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.

• Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

However, we may offer you certain financial incentives permitted by the CCPA that can result in different prices, rates, or quality levels. Any CCPA-permitted financial incentive we offer will reasonably relate to your personal information’s value. Participation in a financial incentive program requires your prior opt in consent, which you may revoke at any time.

As a California resident, you may also have the right, at any time, to tell us not to sell your Personal Information – this is called the “right to opt-out” of the sale of Personal Information. At this time, we do not sell Personal Information to third parties. 

You may make a request by contacting us by email, postal mail, or telephone as described below. We may require you to confirm your identity and your residency in order to obtain the information, and you are entitled to make this request only twice per year. Please include “California Privacy Rights” as the subject line of your communication. You must include your full name and email address, and attest to the fact that you are a California resident by including a California postal address in your request. Please also include any additional information that may help us verify you as set forth below. We will acknowledge your request within 10 days and respond to your request within 45 days or let you know if we need additional time.

Making such a request does not require you to create an account with us and we will only use the information you provide in a request to verify your identity.

Email Address: privacy@impact.net

Postal Address:

Impact Creative Systems, Inc. 

150 S. El Camino Drive, Suite 100

Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Toll-Free Number: 877-760-0259

 Verifying “Right to Know” and “Right to Delete” Requests

Please note that we will take steps to verify your identity in order to fulfill your request. In order to verify your identity, we will request that you provide: your name and your email address, and we may request additional information, such as your transactions with us (e.g., information from your application to an accelerator program).

In your request, you must provide enough information to allow us to verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information, or their authorized representative. You must also describe your request with enough detail so that we can understand, evaluate and respond to it. We cannot respond to your request if we cannot verify your identity.

If we are unable to verify that the individual submitting the request is the same individual about whom we have collected information (or someone authorized by that individual to act on their behalf), we will not be able to process the request.

OTHER CALIFORNIA RIGHTS/YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1798.83, residents of the State of California have the right to request from companies conducting business in California certain information relating to third parties to which the company has disclosed certain categories of personal information during the preceding year for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. Alternatively, the law provides that a company may comply, as Impact does, by disclosing in its privacy policy that it provides consumers choice (opt-out or opt-in) regarding sharing personal information with third parties for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes, and information on how to exercise that choice. As stated in this Privacy Policy, Impact provides you choice prior to sharing your personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. If you do not opt-in or if you opt-out at the time we offer that choice, we do not share your information with that identified third party for its direct marketing purposes.

If you are a California resident and you have questions about our practices with respect to sharing information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes and your ability to exercise choice, please email us at privacy@impact.net or write to us at the following mailing address: Impact Creative Systems, Inc., 150 S. El Camino Drive, Suite 100, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. You must put the statement “Your California Privacy Rights” in the subject field of your e-mail or include it in your writing if you choose to write to us at the designated mailing address. You must include your name, street address, city, state, and zip code. We are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or do not have complete information.

Pursuant to Nevada law, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of certain covered personally identifiable information we have collected about you through our websites and online services, as those terms are defined under applicable Nevada law.  We not currently sell your covered information as those terms are defined under applicable Nevada law. However, you may still submit an opt-out request and we will honor that request as required by Nevada law if we were to ever engage in such a sale in the future. If you are a Nevada resident and would like to opt-out of future sales of your covered information, please submit your request to privacy@impact.net. Your request must include your full name, street address, city, state, zip code, and an email address so that we can contact if needed regarding this request.   You may also be required to take reasonable steps as we determine from time to time in order to verify your identity and/or the authenticity of the request.