Privacy

Scope

This Privacy Policy explains how MASI, LLC, doing business as Ember (“Ember,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), collects, uses, discloses, and protects personal information when you use the Ember school community marketplace, our websites, and related support services. It also describes choices and rights that may be available to you.

Participating schools and organizations may separately handle information for their own purposes. Their privacy practices govern that separate handling.

Information we collect

Depending on how you use Ember, we may collect:

• Account and profile information, such as your name, email address, phone number, profile image, school community, role, account status, preferences, and acceptance of our policies.
• Listings and content, such as item titles, descriptions, prices, condition, photos, messages, reports, and support communications.
• Transaction information, such as orders, buyers and sellers, transaction amounts, fees and school allocations, payment method category, handoff confirmations, refunds, disputes, and payout status.
• Payment-account information, such as payment-provider account and transaction identifiers and verification status. Our payment provider may collect additional identity, tax, bank, and card information directly from you.
• School-marketplace and support requests, such as contact information, school or organization name and address, student-body-size range, and the contents of your request.
• Device and usage information, such as IP address, approximate location derived from IP address, browser and device type, pages and features used, referring page, timestamps, cookie or similar identifiers, and diagnostic and security logs.

We receive information from you, other marketplace users, participating school or organization administrators, payment and service providers, and automatically from your browser or device when you use Ember.

How we use information

We use personal information to:

• create, authenticate, administer, and secure accounts;
• verify and manage authorized school-community access;
• publish listings and enable marketplace communication;
• process transactions, calculate fees and school allocations, facilitate handoffs, and administer payments, refunds, disputes, and payouts;
• respond to school-marketplace requests, provide support, and send transactional or service-related notices;
• detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, prohibited items, security incidents, abuse, and other harmful or unlawful activity;
• operate, troubleshoot, analyze, and improve Ember; and
• enforce our agreements, keep appropriate records, comply with law, and protect users, schools, Ember, and the public.

We may use information that has been aggregated or deidentified so it cannot reasonably be linked to you. Where required by law, we maintain deidentified information in that form and do not attempt to reidentify it.

Payments and payouts

Stripe processes payments and connected-account payouts. Stripe may collect identity, authority, business, tax, bank-account, eligible debit-card, and payment-card information directly to verify accounts, process transactions, manage fraud and disputes, and meet legal obligations. Stripe handles that information under its Privacy Policy.

Ember receives information needed to administer marketplace transactions, such as payment-provider account and transaction identifiers, verification requirements and status, transaction and fee amounts, refunds, disputes, payout status, and payment method category. Ember does not receive or store full payment-card or bank-account numbers.

How information is disclosed

We may disclose personal information:

• To marketplace participants. Other authorized community members can see your limited display profile—first name, last initial, and profile image—and your listings. Messages and transaction information are disclosed only to the people involved as needed for marketplace interactions and transactions.
• To schools and organizations. Authorized administrators may receive information reasonably needed to administer community access, group or school sales, school allocations, safety reports, and compliance. We do not give administrators unrestricted access to private messages solely because they administer a community.
• To service providers. Vendors process information for services such as payments, hosting, data storage, communications, analytics, security, and customer support under contractual or legal restrictions.
• For safety and legal reasons. We may disclose information to comply with law or legal process; enforce agreements; investigate fraud, safety, security, or rights violations; or protect users, schools, Ember, or the public.
• For a business transaction. Information may be disclosed in connection with a financing, merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, sale of assets, or transfer of the service, subject to appropriate safeguards.
• At your direction. We may disclose information when you ask us to or give consent.

Listing and sharing visibility

Ember marketplaces are intended for authorized communities, but content you choose to list or share is not confidential. Other authorized members can view listing information and your limited display profile. If you use a sharing feature or a listing link is shared outside the community, limited listing information—such as its title, price, and primary image—may be visible outside a signed-in session. Do not put sensitive, confidential, or unnecessary personal information in a listing, profile image, or photo. Someone who obtains a copied image or sharing link may retain or redistribute it beyond Ember's control.

Analytics, cookies, and similar technologies

We and service providers use cookies, local storage, and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember preferences, maintain security, diagnose errors, measure feature usage and transaction journeys, and improve Ember. These technologies may collect device and usage information and associate it with an internal account or school-community identifier when you are signed in.

We do not intentionally place message contents, listing descriptions, support submissions, or full payment credentials in product-analytics events. You can block or clear browser storage through your browser settings, although doing so may affect sign-in, preferences, or other features.

No sale or targeted advertising

Ember does not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not process it for targeted advertising, as those terms are defined by applicable law. We have not done so during the preceding 12 months. We also do not disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct-marketing purposes.

Because there is no generally accepted standard for browser “Do Not Track” signals, Ember does not currently respond to them. We process legally recognized opt-out preference signals when required. Since Ember does not currently sell or share personal information for targeted advertising, such a signal does not otherwise change our current practices.

Service providers may collect activity over time within Ember to provide the services described in this Policy. Ember does not use or authorize third parties to collect your activity across unaffiliated websites or services for targeted advertising on our behalf.

Data retention

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including to operate Ember, maintain transaction and financial records, complete payouts, resolve disputes, prevent fraud, enforce agreements, maintain security, and comply with legal obligations. Retention depends on the information's nature, sensitivity, purpose, legal requirements, and risk. We may retain backups and records of deleted or closed accounts for a limited period or longer where law, safety, fraud prevention, or an unresolved transaction requires it.

Security

We use administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information in light of its nature and the risks involved. No system or transmission method is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Protect your sign-in methods and contact us promptly if you believe your account or information has been compromised. We will provide security-incident notices when required by law.

Your choices and privacy rights

You may update certain account information and communication preferences through Ember. Depending on where you live and subject to applicable law, you may submit a request through our Help page to confirm whether we process your personal information, access it, correct it, delete it, or obtain a portable copy, or to appeal a decision on a request. Rights vary by location and may be subject to exceptions. For example, we may retain transaction, security, fraud-prevention, or legal records where permitted or required.

We may ask for information reasonably necessary to verify your identity, authority, and request. An authorized agent may submit a request where allowed by law, but we may require proof of authorization and direct verification with you. We will not discriminate against you for exercising an applicable privacy right.

California privacy notice

California law may provide rights to know or access, correct, delete, and obtain a portable copy of personal information; to opt out of sale or sharing; to limit certain uses of sensitive personal information; and to receive equal service after exercising a right. These rights apply only in the circumstances and to the extent provided by law.

In the preceding 12 months, the categories of personal information described in “Information we collect” may have included identifiers; account and profile information; commercial and transaction information; internet or electronic network activity; communications; photographs and other visual information; approximate location derived from IP address; role; preferences; and marketplace activity. Account credentials and limited financial or verification information may be considered sensitive personal information.

We collect those categories from the sources and for the purposes described in this Policy. We may disclose them to the recipient categories described in “How information is disclosed.” We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.

Children and student information

Ember accounts are for adults 18 and older, and Ember is not directed to children under 13. People under 18 may not create or operate accounts, access an adult's credentials, list, purchase, sell, message, or conduct a handoff. A parent or guardian may use their own account for household activity. Do not identify a child in listings, photos, messages, or support requests. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13.

Ember is not intended to collect student education records or school rosters. Do not submit student identification numbers, grades, attendance, disability or disciplinary information, or other pupil records. If you believe a child's or student's information has been provided contrary to this Policy, contact us through the Help page so we can investigate and take appropriate steps, including deleting the information when required.

United States service

Ember is operated in the United States and is currently intended for users in the United States. Information may be processed and stored in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in another country.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as Ember evolves. We will post the revised Policy with a new effective date and provide additional notice or request renewed acknowledgment when required. Material changes apply prospectively from their effective date.

Contact us

Questions and privacy requests can be submitted through our Help page or emailed to support@okember.com.