Privacy notice
Who we are
Overtly is operated by Bynd Ventures OÜ, registry code 16238382, Sepapaja tn 6, 15551 Tallinn, Estonia. Bynd Ventures OÜ is the controller of the personal data described here. Contact: orlando@byndventures.com.
What we collect and why
| What | When | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your name, email and password. The password is stored only as a one-way hash | When you create an account | To give you an account and keep it secure | Performance of our contract with you |
| The courses you enroll in, the modules and lessons you complete, the lesson you last had open, the track you choose, and when you were last active | As you use the site | To show your progress and to decide certificate eligibility | Performance of our contract with you |
| Optional learning preferences: your role, prior knowledge and topics of interest | If you choose to give them | To set a sensible default track | Your consent to personalization. If you withdraw it, we delete them |
| Your email address, for news of new courses and of updates to courses you are enrolled in | Only if you agree | To tell you about them | Your consent |
| Your email address, for an occasional survey or interview about a course | Only if you agree | To hear how a course worked for you | Your consent |
| What you write in the open questions of an exercise | Only if you agree. Otherwise it stays in your browser and never reaches us | So that it is there when you sign in on another device | Your consent. If you withdraw it, we delete our copy |
| The date and the version of the terms of use you agreed to and of this notice you confirmed, and each optional consent you gave or withdrew, with the date | When you create an account, and whenever you change a consent | To have a record of what you agreed to | Our legitimate interest in being able to show the agreement, and our legal duty to be able to show consent |
| Your membership of an organization: that you were invited, when you joined, left or declined, the version of what you were shown, and whether you chose to share learning outside it | When an organization adds your address, and when you act on it | To let you take its courses and show it the progress you agreed it sees | Performance of our contract with you, at your choice to join. Sharing learning outside the organization: your consent |
| Your name, email, organization, proposed topic and any link you send | When you send the creator interest form | To reply to you | Steps taken at your request before a contract |
| Counts of failed sign-in attempts, linked to a scrambled form of your IP address or email | When someone tries to sign in | To stop password guessing | Our legitimate interest in keeping accounts secure |
| Standard server logs, including IP address and browser type | On every visit | To run and secure the service | Our legitimate interest in running a secure service |
We do not collect payment details. Enrollment is currently free. When paid courses are introduced, payments will be handled by a payment provider and this notice will be updated first.
We do not use advertising cookies, we do not build advertising profiles, and we do not sell personal data.
We do not use analytics that follow visitors across pages. If we add audience measurement, it will work without cookies and this notice will be updated first.
We count how many accounts exist and how many were used recently, because we need that to run the service. We count how many people enroll in, start and finish each course only among learners who agreed to it. These are totals. They are not profiles of a person, and where a course has fewer than five learners we do not break the totals down further.
Your consents
To create an account you agree to the terms of use and confirm you have read this notice. Those two are required: we cannot give you an account without them.
Five things are optional. Each is off unless you switch it on, and each can be changed at any time on your account page:
- Emails about courses. News of new courses and of updates to courses you are enrolled in.
- Personalization. Using your role, prior knowledge and topics of interest to set your starting point. Switching it off deletes them.
- Being counted. Counting your progress, as totals only, to improve courses and to report to the course's publisher. Switching it off takes you out of those totals.
- Research and feedback. Contacting you now and then for a short survey or interview about a course.
- Keeping your exercise answers. Some exercises ask you to write about a situation of your own. That text stays in your browser. If you switch this on, a copy is kept with your account so it follows you to another device. We do not read it, count it, share it with the course's publisher or use it to improve courses. It is included if you ask for a copy of your data. Switching it off deletes our copy. Think before writing anything here that is confidential to your employer or that names another person.
Withdrawing a consent does not affect anything done before you withdrew it, and none of the five is needed to take a course.
If you join an organization
An organization, such as an employer, can provide courses for its own people on Overtly. If it adds your email address to its list, you see an invitation when you sign in with that address. Nothing changes until you choose to join, and you are told what it will see before you do.
If you join, the organization sees your name and email address, and, for its own courses, when you enrolled, how far you are, which modules you finished, when you were last active and when you finished. For courses you take outside it, it sees only totals across its members, never your name and never for fewer than five people, unless you choose on your account page to share yours by name.
To join, you must show that the address is yours: if you have not done that before, we email you a link to confirm it. We record when you joined and the version of what you were shown. You can leave at any time from your account page; the organization then stops seeing your progress at once. Your enrollments and progress stay yours.
Some of an organization's courses are for its members only. Their lessons are sent only to someone signed in who may take them.
Who receives your data
- An organization you joined receives what is described under If you join an organization, and nothing else.
- Netlify, Inc. hosts the site and stores account and progress data on our behalf, and exercise answers you chose to keep with your account.
- Resend, with Brevo as a backup, sends the password reset email and the email to confirm joining an organization, and receives your name, email and the link for that purpose.
Netlify and Resend are based in the United States. Both state that they participate in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and use the European Commission's standard contractual clauses for transfers of personal data out of the European Economic Area.
How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Account, enrollments and progress | While your account exists. Deleted within 30 days of a deletion request |
| Exercise answers you chose to keep with your account | Until you clear them on the exercise, switch the consent off or your account is deleted. Removed from the live service at once |
| Inactive accounts | Deleted after 36 months without a sign-in, after a warning by email |
| Creator interest forms | 24 months from the last contact |
| Sign-in attempt counters | Up to 12 months, held only as a scrambled value |
| Password reset links | 30 minutes |
| Your place on an organization's list, and the record of joining or leaving | Until the organization removes you, the organization is deleted or your account is deleted |
| Links to confirm joining an organization | 48 hours |
| Backups | Up to 90 days after the data is deleted from the live service |
Your rights
You can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to its use, and to receive it in a portable format. Write to orlando@byndventures.com and we will answer within one month. You can change your name, password and preferences yourself on your account page.
You can also complain to a data protection authority. Ours is the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (Andmekaitse Inspektsioon, aki.ee). You may instead complain to the authority in the EU country where you live.
Cookies and storage
Overtly uses one cookie, and only when you sign in. We use no advertising or tracking cookies, so we do not show a cookie banner.
| Name | Type | What it does | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
__Host-ovt_learner | Cookie | Keeps you signed in | 30 days, or until you sign out |
overtly_depth_ followed by a course name | Browser storage | Remembers the track you chose for a course | Until you clear your browser data |
overtly_signin_mode | Browser storage | Remembers whether you last used sign in or create account | Until you clear your browser data |
overtly_answers_ followed by a course name | Browser storage | Keeps what you write in an exercise, so it is still there when you come back. A copy goes to your account only if you chose that under Your consents | Until you clear it on the exercise, or clear your browser data |
ovt_visibility_v1 | Browser storage | Keeps a copy of the course list so pages load faster | Until you clear your browser data |
Browser storage stays on your device and is not sent to us, with the one exception named in the table, which is your choice. Overtly staff who sign in to administer the site receive a separate sign-in cookie that lasts eight hours.
Children
Overtly is for adults in professional settings. It is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect their data.
Changes
If we change this notice in a way that matters, we will say so on this page and, where you have an account, by email before the change takes effect.