Privacy Policy

Skillful Platform Inc. dba The Commons (“The Commons”, “we”, or “us”) values and respects your privacy. We have prepared this privacy policy to explain the manner in which we collect, use and disclose personal information when you visit our website located at https://www.jointhecommons.co/ (the “Website”), join as a The Commons mentor or student, and otherwise interact with us.

We may collect personal information if you:

Take our Career Quiz or a similar assessment(s): If you take a quiz on our website because you are interested in a particular career path, we will ask you questions about your interests, career goals, experiences, and gaps in skills. We will use the responses you provide to help you understand which business roles will fit you best, what gaps you might have in getting from Point A to Point B, and to help you figure out how to best address those, which may include a recommendation to participate in a The Commons Sprint(s) or other The Commons program(s). We may contact you once we review your answers to provide our assessment, which may include a recommendation to take certain The Commons Sprint(s) or other The Commons program(s) that we deem relevant to you. 

Apply to be a Student: To apply for a The Commons Sprint or The Commons program (or join our waitlist), we ask you to complete an application form by providing responses to questions including but not limited to, your name, your LinkedIn profile, email address, how you found out about The Commons, whether you’re looking to change careers, which tools, programs or workflows you feel confident working in, how you would benefit from The Commons and what you hope to get out of it, what your skills are and what you’d like to learn from your teammates, your ability to commit to the applicable program and your project team, and your willingness to dedicate an indicated hours per week to the program. We use the information you provide on your application form to assess whether you will be a good fit for The Commons, whether The Commons is a good fit for your goals, and (if you are accepted into the program) to determine how to help you achieve your goals.

Payments: Once you have been accepted into the program as a student or to secure a spot in any program that you may be accepted to, we collect your payment information (payment card number, expiry date, CVC) in order to process payment for The Commons program fees and complete your enrollment in the program.

Intake Process: After you are enrolled as a student, we will send you a form to help us assess your skills and goals for the program and decide which other students and mentors we should pair you with (on the basis of time zone, goals/skills they're looking to develop, work experience). On the intake form, we ask you for information such as your name, preferred pronouns, LinkedIn profile, email address (for calendar invites, Slack and Google Drive access), top learning priorities, desired outcomes, comfort levels and use frequency of quantitative tools (e.g. Excel or Google Sheets), competence and desired competence (with skills such as SQL, visualization platforms, and building slide decks), time zone, availability and meeting preferences. We will provide this information to your The Commons mentor so they can know how to help you and may provide a subset of that information to other students in your team, group or cohort so they can help you and you can understand each other’s expectations. We may also use this information to help you achieve your goals outside the formal The Commons program (e.g. to recommend additional resources or programs, to make introductions or referrals to open jobs).

Join a The Commons Sprint(s) or similar The Commons program(s): The Commons Sprints are cohort-based online learning experiences led by The Commons mentors. If you sign up for The Commons Sprints, we will ask you to provide personal information including your name, email address, availability, guests (if applicable), and other information that will help prepare for the program. We use this information to set up and administer the learning groups, and to communicate with you and other participants and the mentor(s). 

Participate in our Program: We collect information about your participation in the program. We also analyze student, mentor and participation data in order to better understand and improve The Commons platform, collect metrics such as drop-out rates and job placement rates, and to help us determine optimal students and mentors. We also collect feedback on (a) students from their mentors, (b) on mentors from their students and (c) on the applicable The Commons program from students and mentors. We use such feedback to help us make improvements to the program, our admissions and application processes and to help us make introductions to potential employers. 

The Commons Community Directory: If you would like to join our database of The Commons mentors and student, we will ask you to create a profile on our The Commons Community Directory by providing your first and last name and email address and other information about you such as previous job positions, your LinkedIn profile URL, the city and country you call home, why you joined The Commons, your professional trajectory, which The Commons sessions you have participated in, what you want to learn about, what you want other The Commons students and mentors to talk to or ask you about. We may also collect additional optional information such as your photo, your current company, your current role, your hobbies, and which program(s) you’re participating. The information you provide will be made available to other The Commons students and mentors so that they can contact you about professional opportunities and to have networking conversations. 

Testimonials: With your permission, we may ask you for feedback regarding your The Commons experience in order to share your story on our Website, social media platforms, or in advertisements with your first name and photo (optional). 

Sign Up for Marketing Communications: If you sign up to receive marketing email communications from The Commons, we will collect your mobile number and/or email address in order to send you email and/or text message newsletters, updates on The Commons community, and notifications about new product launches. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link included at the bottom of each email. Alternatively, you can opt-out of receiving email marketing communications by contacting us at the contact information provided in the “Contact Us” section below. Please note that you may continue to receive informational, transactional or account-related communications from us, such as meeting invitations, meeting confirmations and various reminders relating to meetings and deliverables due as part of the program.

We may use services provided by third-party platforms (such as social media and other websites) to serve targeted advertisements on such platforms to you or others, and we may provide a hashed version of your email address or other information to the platform provider for such purposes. To opt-out of the use of your information for such purposes, please send a request using any of the methods in the Contact Us section below.

Contact Us: If you contact us with a comment, question or complaint (including through an AI-powered chat bot), you may be asked for information that identifies you, such as your name, email address and a telephone number, along with additional information we need to help us promptly answer your question or respond to your comment.  We may retain this information to assist you in the future and to improve our customer service and products. If you choose to set up a Zoom meeting by clicking the ‘Chat With Us’ link, we will ask you for your name, email, guests (optional), and anything else you may wish to share that you think will help prepare for our meeting.

We do not sell or disclose your personal information to third parties without your consent, except as set forth below or as required or permitted by law.

Mentors: If you are a student, we share personal information you provide on your application and intake forms to your mentor so that they can know how to help you meet your goals. 

Employers: With your consent, we will provide your resume to employers who may be interested in meeting with you.

Service Providers: Your personal information will be transferred (or otherwise made available) to certain third parties that provide services on our behalf. We use service providers to provide services such as hosting the Website, processing payments, providing an AI-powered chat functionality, and providing advertising, marketing and analytics services. Our service providers are only provided with the information they need to perform their designated functions and are not authorized to use or disclose personal information for their own marketing or other purposes. Our service providers may be located in the U.S., Canada or other foreign jurisdictions.

Legal and Compliance: We and our Canadian, US and other foreign service providers may provide your personal information in response to a search warrant to other legally valid inquiry or order, or to another organization for the purposes of investigating a breach of an agreement or contravention of law or detecting, suppressing or preventing fraud, or as otherwise may be required or permitted by applicable Canadian, U.S. or other law or legal process, which may include lawful access by US or foreign courts, law enforcement or other government authorities. Your personal information may also be disclosed where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims and to investigate or prevent actual or suspected loss or harm to persons or property.

Sale of Business: We may transfer any information we have about you as an asset in connection with a proposed or completed merger, acquisition or sale (including transfers made as part of insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings) involving all or part of The Commons or as part of a corporate reorganization or other change in corporate control.

Visiting our Website:  In general, you can visit our Website without telling us who you are or submitting any personal information. However, we collect the IP (Internet protocol) addresses of all visitors to our Website and other related information such as page requests, browser type, operating system and average time spent on our Website. We use this information to help us understand our Website activity and to monitor and improve our Website.

Cookies:  Our Website uses a technology called "cookies". A cookie is a tiny element of data that our Website sends to a user’s browser, which may then be stored on the user’s hard drive so that we can recognize the user’s computer or device when they return. You may set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to not accept certain cookies. However, if you decide not to accept cookies from our Website, you may not be able to take advantage of all of the Website features.

Analytics: We may use a third-party such as Google Analytics to help us gather and analyze information about the areas visited on the Website (such as the pages most read, time spent, search terms and other engagement data) in order to evaluate and improve the user experience and the Website. These third parties may use cookies and other tracking technologies. For more information about Google Analytics or to prevent the storage and processing of this data (including your IP address) by Google, you can download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en. You can also obtain additional information on Google Analytics’ data privacy and security at the following links:

Third-Party Links:  Our Website may contain links to other websites that The Commons does not own or operate. We provide links to third-party websites as a convenience to the user. These links are not intended as an endorsement of or referral to the linked websites. The linked websites have separate and independent privacy policies, notices and terms of use. We do not have any control over such websites, and therefore we have no responsibility or liability for the manner in which the organizations that operate such linked websites may collect, use or disclose, secure and otherwise treat personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

We work with third parties such as ad networks and other advertising companies that use their own tracking technologies (including cookies and pixel tags) on our Website in order to provide you with tailored advertisements across the Internet. These companies may collect information about your activity on our Website and third-party websites (such as web pages you visit and your interaction with our advertising and other communications) and use this information to make predictions about your preferences, develop personalized content and deliver ads that are more relevant to you on third-party websites. This information may also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of our online advertising campaigns. 

Opting-out of Interest-Based Advertising: For more information about interest-based advertising and to understand your options, including how you can opt-out of receiving behavioural ads from third-party advertising companies participating in the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada, please visit the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada website at http://youradchoices.ca/choices.

We have implemented reasonable administrative, technical and physical measures in an effort to safeguard the personal information in our custody and control against theft, loss and unauthorized access, use, modification and disclosure. We restrict access to personal information on a need-to-know basis to employees and authorized service providers who require access to fulfil their job requirements.

We have record retention processes designed to retain personal information for no longer than necessary for the purposes set out herein or as otherwise required to meet legal or business requirements.

Subject to applicable law, you have the right to access, update and correct inaccuracies in your personal information in our custody or control. You may request access, updating and corrections of inaccuracies in your personal information in our custody or control by emailing or writing to us at the contact information set out below. We may request certain personal information for the purpose of verifying the identity of the individual seeking access to his or her personal information records.

We may update this privacy policy periodically to reflect changes to our privacy practices. We encourage you to periodically review this page to ensure you are familiar with those changes. We will indicate at the top of this privacy policy when it was most recently updated.

If you have any questions or comments about this privacy policy or the manner in which we or our service providers (including our service providers outside Canada) treat your personal information, or to request access to our collection of your personal information, please contact us at: 

Loren Cohen