Last updated: September 18th, 2024
This is the privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) that governs how Graphite Solutions, Inc. and our affiliated companies ("Graphite", "we", "our" or "us"), use Personal Data (defined below) that we collect, receive and store about you in connection with your use of our website: https://www.graphite.com and any other website that we operate (each, together with its sub-domains, content and services, a "Site").
You may choose whether or not to provide or disclose Personal Data in connection with your use of our Site. If you choose not to provide the Personal Data we request, you may still visit and use parts of our Site, but may be unable to access or use certain features, options, programs, and services. Our Site may contain links to third-party websites and services that are not owned or controlled by Graphite. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of third party websites, services and advertisements, and you visit them at your own risk.
1. INTRODUCTION.
We are committed to respecting privacy and recognize the need for appropriate protection and management of any Personal Data that is shared with us as part of using our Site. As used in this Privacy Policy, "Personal Data" means any information that may be used, either alone or in combination with other information, to personally identify an individual.
2. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY.
We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change the terms of this Privacy Policy at any time. You can see when this Privacy Policy was last updated by reviewing the “Last Updated” legend on the top of this page. We may provide you with notice of material changes to the Privacy Policy as appropriate under the circumstances. UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED, ANY CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY WILL APPLY IMMEDIATELY UPON POSTING TO OUR SITE.
3. PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED.
3.1. Personal Data You Provide To Us On Our Site.
Types of Personal Data. We and our service providers collect the Personal Data set forth below in order to provide our Site to you, or because we are legally required to do so. If you do not provide the Personal Data we request, we may not be able to provide you with our Site. The Personal Data we and our service providers collect includes but is not limited to:
When Personal Data is Collected. You may be required to provide us with certain information that may constitute Personal Data in the following ways:
CONTACT INFORMATION
In various areas of our Site and in printed materials, we provide you the opportunity to submit a form with basic contact information, such as your name, email, or mailing address. With your permission, Graphite uses such information to inform you of Graphite newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, the opt-out process is described in Section 7.2 of this Privacy Policy.
In addition, we may also use your Personal Data to send you email notifications in connection with specific projects you have applied for. The sole purpose of these notifications is to enhance your experience by keeping you apprised of developments when you are applying for projects (as an Expert) or posting projects (as a Client) and ensuring that the matching process is smooth and timely. You may opt out of certain of these email notifications, but others are necessary and integral to the proper functioning of our Site. You may unsubscribe from optional email notifications by following the unsubscribe instructions found within the list email.
MEMBER LOGIN INFORMATION
We process your username and password to enable you to securely log into our Site, and we process information regarding your role with Graphite to appropriately control access to restricted content. We process this Personal Data only as necessary to provide you services on our Site under our Terms of Use and to further our legitimate interests in protecting our Site and content.
IDENTITY VERIFICATION
We may collect additional Personal Data to validate your identity, such as your date of birth, social security number or taxpayer identification number. We may request documents to verify this information, such as a copy of your government-issued identification or photo, and we may authenticate it against third party databases or request a credit report.
PAYMENT INFORMATION
When you use our Site to make or receive, third-party service providers acting on our behalf process payment information, including payment card details and billing addresses. Any Personal Data collected by such third party will be subject to the third party’s privacy policy, rather than this Privacy Policy.
INFORMATION COLLECTED THROUGH VARIOUS FORMS
We and our service providers may collect Personal Data in a variety of ways, including: (i) through use of our Site, e.g., when you sign up for a newsletter, submit a registration form as an Expert (“Expert Registration”) or as a Client (“Client Registration”), or make a purchase; (ii) offline, such as when you attend one of our events or contact customer service; or (iii) from other sources, such as public databases, joint marketing partners, social media platforms, and from other third parties.
PERSONAL DATA YOU DISCLOSE RELATING TO OTHERS
If you disclose any Personal Data relating to other people to us or to our service providers in connection with our Site, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
SOCIAL MEDIA
We have worked with certain third-party social media providers to offer you their social networking services through our Site. For example, you can use third-party social networking services, including but not limited to Facebook and others to share information about your experience on our Site with your friends and followers on those social networking services. These social networking services may be able to collect information about you, including your activity on our Site. These third-party social networking services also may notify your friends, both on our Site and on the social networking services themselves, that you are a user of our Site or about your use of our Site, in accordance with applicable law and their own privacy policies. If you choose to access or make use of third-party social networking services, we may receive information about you that you have made available to those social networking services, including information about your contacts on those social networking services.
Our Site provides Social Media widgets such as the “Share” button or interactive mini-programs that run on our site (“Widgets”). These Widgets may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our Site, and may set a cookie to enable the Widget to function properly. Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site. Your interactions with these Widgets are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
3.2. Personal Data You Provide To Third Parties On Our Site. Please note that we use certain third party service providers on our Site to enhance your experience or deliver certain services. These providers may collect Personal Data about you in performing their services and/or functions on our Site. For more information on our third party service providers, and their privacy practices, please see Appendix 1, Exhibit A of this policy.
3.3. Information Collected Automatically. Certain information on our Site is collected automatically by means of various software tools. We have a legitimate interest in using such information to assist in log-in, systems administration purposes, information security and abuse prevention, to track user trends, and to analyze the effectiveness of our Site. Alone or in combination with other information, such automatically collected information may constitute Personal Data. Some of our service providers (described in Section 5, below) may use cookies or other methods to gather information regarding your use of our Site. Such third parties may use these cookies or other tracking methods for their own purposes by relating information about your use of our Site with any Personal Data about you that they may have. The use of such information by a third party depends on the privacy policy of that third party.
LOG FILES ON OUR SITE
The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (“IP”) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider (“ISP”), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, clicked pages and any other information your browser may send to us.
COOKIES
We use cookies to make interactions with our Site easy and meaningful. When you visit our Site, our servers may send a cookie to your computer. Standing alone, cookies do not personally identify you; they merely recognize your web browser. Unless you choose to identify yourself to us, either by responding to a promotional offer, opening an account, or filling out a web form, you remain anonymous to us.
We may use cookies that are session-based and persistent-based. Session cookies exist only during one session. They disappear from your computer when you close your browser software or turn off your computer. Persistent cookies remain on your computer after you close your browser or turn off your computer. Please note that if you disable your web browser’s ability to accept cookies, you will be able to navigate certain parts of our Site, but you may not be able to successfully use all of the features of our Site.
The following sets out how we may use different categories of cookies and your options for managing cookie settings:
Required Cookies
Required cookies enable you to navigate our Site and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of our Site and using our services.
If you have chosen to identify yourself to us, we use cookies containing encrypted information to allow us to uniquely identify you. Each time you log into our Site, a cookie containing an encrypted, unique identifier that is tied to your account is placed on your browser. These cookies allow us to uniquely identify you when you are logged into our Site and to process your online transactions and requests.
Because required cookies are essential to operate our Site, there is no option to opt out of these cookies.
Performance cookies
These cookies collect information about how you use our Site, including which pages you go to most often and if they receive error messages from certain pages. These cookies do not collect information that individually identifies you. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and anonymous. It is only used to improve how our Site functions and performs.
From time-to-time, we may engage third parties to track and analyze usage and volume statistical information from individuals who visit our Site. We may also utilize Flash cookies for these purposes.
To learn how to opt out of performance cookies using your browser settings click here.
To learn how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies click here.
Functionality cookies
Functionality cookies allow our Site to remember information you have entered or choices you make (such as your username, language, or your region) and provide enhanced, more personal features. These cookies also enable you to optimize your use of our Site after logging in. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customize.
We may use local shared objects, also known as Flash cookies, to store your preferences or display content based upon what you view on our Site to personalize your visit.
To learn how to opt out of functionality cookies using your browser settings click here.
To learn how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies click here.
Targeting or Advertising cookies
From time-to-time, we may engage third parties to track and analyze usage and volume statistical information from individuals who visit our Site. We sometimes use cookies delivered by third parties to track the performance of our advertisements. For example, these cookies remember which browsers have visited our Site. The information provided to third parties does not include Personal Data, but this information may be re-associated with Personal Data after we receive it.
By way of example, as you browse our Site, advertising cookies may be placed on your computer so that we can understand what you are interested in. Our advertising partners then enable us to present you with retargeted advertising on other sites based on your previous interaction with our Site.
We also contract with third-party advertising networks and similar partners that collect IP addresses and other information from web beacons (see below) on our Site, from emails, and on third-party sites. Ad networks follow your online activities over time by collecting Site Navigational Information through automated means, including through the use of cookies. They use this information to provide advertisements about products and services tailored to your interests. You may see these advertisements on other websites. This process also helps us manage and track the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.
Third parties, with whom we partner to provide certain features on our Site or to display advertising based upon your web browsing activity, use Flash cookies to collect and store information. Flash cookies are different from browser cookies because of the amount of, type of, and how data is stored.
To learn more about these and other advertising networks and their opt-out instructions, click here.
To learn how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies click here.
OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
When you visit our Site, we may collect your IP address for certain purposes such as, for example, to monitor the regions from which you navigate our Site. We may also use web beacons alone or in conjunction with cookies to compile information about your usage of our Site and interaction with emails from us. Web beacons are clear electronic images that can recognize certain types of information on your computer, such as cookies, when you viewed a particular site tied to the web beacon. For example, we may place web beacons in marketing emails that notify us when you click on a link in the email that directs you to our Site. We may use web beacons to operate and improve our Site and email communications.
ANALYTICS SOFTWARE TOOLS
We use Google Analytics on our Site to help us analyze the traffic on our Site. For more information on Google Analytics’ processing of Personal Data, please see http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. By using a browser plugin provided by Google, you can opt out of Google Analytics.
4. THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE USE PERSONAL DATA.
If you submit or we collect Personal Data through our Site, then such Personal Data may be used in the following ways:
5. HOW WE DISCLOSE PERSONAL DATA.
We do not sell, lease, rent or otherwise disclose the Personal Data collected from our Site to third parties unless otherwise stated below or with your consent.
5.1. Our Third Party Providers. We transfer Personal Data to our third party service providers to perform tasks on our behalf and to assist us in providing our Site, as more fully described in Section 3.2. We use commercially reasonable efforts to only engage or interact with third party service providers and partners that post a privacy policy governing their processing of Personal Data. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we will comply with applicable laws regarding Personal Data transfers as well as any transfer restriction that is specified in an agreement between Graphite and a customer.
5.2. Expert Profiles. If your Expert Registration form is approved and you choose to use the Site as an Expert, your Expert profile will be created. This profile will not be publicly viewable via our Site unless you opt to have a public profile. Such profile may include information including, but not limited to, name, location, skills, desired hourly pay rates, educational information, work experience, certifications/licenses and feedback/rating information. You may edit your Expert profile via the Edit Profile features when logged in and viewing your profile. You have the option to make your profile Public, which will allow other Graphite users to find and view a limited, publicly-viewable version of your profile. This limited, public profile will not include your personally-identifying contact information (such as last name, email address, phone number, and resume). Your full, unredacted Expert profile will not be shared with any Graphite user (other than employees and internal affiliates of Graphite) unless you apply for a project. If you apply for a project, the Client whose project you applied for will have access to your full profile.
5.3. Client Profiles. If your Client Registration form is approved and you choose to use the Site as a Client, your Client profile will be created. This profile will not be publicly viewable via the Site. Such profile may include information including, but not limited to name, location, Client name or job title. You may edit your Client profile via the Edit Profile features when logged in and viewing your profile. Your Client profile will not be shared with any Graphite user (other than employees and internal affiliates of Graphite) unless you post a project. When you post a project, all registered Graphite users will be able to view your Client's description, since your Client's description will appear in the Project Listing.
5.4. Advertising. We engage advertising services to assist us in advertising our brand and Site. From time to time, those services target advertisements on third-party websites based on cookies or other information indicating previous interaction with our Site.
5.5. Social Media Services. Third-party social networks that provide interactive plug-ins or social networking features (for example, to allow you to "share" a page on our Site), may use cookies or other methods (for example, web beacons) to gather information regarding your use of our Site. The use of such information by a third party depends on the privacy policy available on that social network’s website, which we encourage you to carefully review. Such third parties may use these cookies or other tracking methods for their own purposes by relating information about your use of our Site with any of your Personal Data that they may have.
5.6. In the Event of Merger, Sale, or Change of Control. We may transfer or assign this Privacy Policy and any Personal Data to a third party entity that acquires or is merged with us as part of a merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control.
5.7. Other Disclosures. We may disclose Personal Data about you if we have a good faith belief that disclosure of such information is helpful or reasonably necessary to:
6. RETENTION OF PERSONAL DATA.
7. YOUR RIGHTS.
7.1 Personal Data. If you have an account on our Site, you may be able to access, edit, or delete your Personal Data through your account at any time. Additionally, depending on your residency, you may have some or all of the following rights with respect to your Personal Data: access, amend, erase, export (i.e., data portability), delete, or object to or restrict the processing of Personal Data collected via our Site or shared with third parties. Moreover, if you are a resident of the EU, UK, and/or Switzerland, you have the right to (i) opt out of the disclosure of Personal Data about you to third parties; and (ii) opt out of the processing of Personal Data about you for purposes that are materially different from the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected or subsequently authorized by you. If you would like to request to exercise any of these rights, you may submit a request to team@graphite.com or write to us at:
Graphite Solutions, Inc.
95 3rd St., 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
We reserve the right to review and respond to all such requests in accordance with applicable laws.
Depending on where you live, you may have a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority or other regulatory agency if you believe that we have violated any of the rights concerning Personal Data about you. We encourage you to first reach out to us at team@graphite.com so we have an opportunity to address your concerns directly before you do so.
7.2. Opting-Out of Promotional Emails. You may choose not to receive future promotional or advertising emails from us by selecting an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email that you receive from us, or by responding to the emails directly and requesting removal if such a link is not available. Additionally, you may send a request specifying your communications preferences to team@graphite.com. Customers cannot opt out of receiving necessary transactional emails related to their account with us or our services. Please note that even if you opt out of receiving the foregoing emails, we may still send you a response to any "Contact Us" request as well as administrative, maintenance and operational emails (for example, in connection with a password reset request)
8. PERSONAL DATA TRANSFERRED FROM THE EU, THE UK, OR SWITZERLAND TO THE UNITED STATES.
Graphite complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Swiss-U.S. DPF) as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Graphite has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (EU-U.S. DPF Principles) with regard to the processing of Personal Data received from the European Union and the United Kingdom in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF. Graphite has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles) with regard to the processing of Personal Data received from Switzerland in reliance on the Swiss-U.S. DPF. If there is any conflict between the terms in this Privacy Policy and the EU-U.S. DPF Principles and/or the Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles, the Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/. The Federal Trade Commission has jurisdiction over Graphite’s compliance with the DPF.
In compliance with the DPF, Graphite commits to refer unresolved complaints concerning our handling of personal data received in reliance on the DPF to JAMS, an alternative dispute resolution provider based in the United States. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your DPF Principles-related complaint from us, or if we have not addressed your DPF Principles-related complaint to your satisfaction, please visit https://www.jamsadr.com/DPF-Dispute-Resolution for more information or to file a complaint. The services of JAMS are provided at no cost to you. Additionally, under certain conditions, you may invoke binding arbitration for complaints regarding DPF compliance not resolved by any of the other DPF mechanisms. For more information regarding this, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/s/article/ANNEX-I-introduction-dpf?tabset-35584=2.
In cases of onward transfer to third parties of data of EU, UK, or Swiss individuals received pursuant to the DPF, Graphite is potentially liable.
9. DATA SECURITY.
The security of Personal Data is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the Personal Data submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
10. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY.
Our Site is not intended for children under the age of 18. Accordingly, we do not intend to collect Personal Data from anyone we know to be under 18 years of age.
11. HOW WE RESPOND TO DO NOT TRACK SIGNALS.
Graphite does not track Site users over time and across third party websites to provide targeted advertising. Accordingly, we do not currently respond or take any action with respect to web browser "do not track" signals or other mechanisms that provide consumers the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of Personal Data about an individual consumer's online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services.
12. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS.
If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits you to request information regarding the disclosure of Personal Data about you by Graphite to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to team@graphite.com or write to us:
Graphite Solutions, Inc.
95 3rd St., 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
13. CONTACTING US.
Any comments, concerns, complaints, or questions regarding our Privacy Policy may be addressed to team@graphite.com.
14. DEFINED TERMS.
Expert - An Expert is any person or entity who has logged onto https://www.graphite.com, filled out and submitted our Expert Registration form, and had his or her account approved by Graphite. Experts on our Site typically use Graphite to search for project listings, apply to projects, execute projects and receive payment for their services.
Client - A Client is any person or entity who has logged onto https://www.graphite.com, filled out and submitted our Client Registration form. Clients on our Site typically use Graphite to post projects, review the credentials of Experts who have applied to these projects, select and engage Experts found through Graphite and pay for services they have received from Experts found through Graphite.
APPENDIX 1
Exhibit A. Third Party Service Providers
APPENDIX 2
Cookie Banner
This site uses technologies such as cookies to provide you a better user experience by personalizing content and ads, analyzing web traffic and trends, and improving site operations. We may share your information about your use of the site with third parties in accordance with our Privacy Policy. By continuing to use this site you agree that we can save cookies on your device, unless you have disabled them. You can change your Cookie Settings at any time, but parts of our site may not function correctly without them.
APPENDIX 3
Cookie Settings
A cookie is a small amount of data that stores information about a user on web browsers or mobile devices.
How do I turn cookies off?
It is usually possible to stop your browser from accepting cookies, or to stop it accepting cookies from a particular site. However, if your device does not have cookies enabled, your experience on our site may be limited, thereby impeding the navigation and use of our services.
All modern browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. To understand these settings, the following links may be helpful, or you can use the Help option in your browser for more details.
Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in Safari web and iOS
If you are primarily concerned about third party cookies generated by advertisers, you can turn these off by going to the Your Online Choices site or by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative’s Opt-out page, where you can control third-party online advertising. Please note that there are many more networks listed on this site than those that we use on our site.
Useful links:
If you would like to find out more about cookies and their use on the Internet, you may find the following links useful:
For further legal information about privacy issues, you may find these links useful:
If you would like to contact us about cookies please email us at team@graphite.com Please review our Privacy Policy for more information on our use of cookies and other software tools.
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