Scope of Privacy Policy

The School of Culinary Arts, Inc. (SOCA,” “us,” our” or “we”) is committed to protecting your privacy. Our privacy policy, which applies to all Users of our Website, is designed to explain the information we collect and how we use it to provide our Services and give Users a better experience (“Privacy Policy”). Capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meanings given in our Terms of Use located at www.socaghana.com. This Privacy Policy is part of, and incorporated into, the Terms of Use.

1. Types of Information We Collect

We collect both "Personal Information" and "Anonymous Information" about our users. Personal Information is information that can be used to contact or identify you, such as your full name and email address, as well as information that is linked to such information. "Anonymous Information" is information that cannot be used to contact or identify you and is not linked to information that can be used to do so. It includes passively collected information about your activities on the Website, such as usage data, to the extent that information is not linked to your Personal Information. Website visitors can browse and access a majority of the Website without disclosing Personal Information, although, as noted, we may still passively collect certain information from your devices, such as your IP address, browser information and/or unique device identifier (“UDID”).

a. Voluntarily submitted information: We collect and process information that you provide to us during your use of the Website, including without limitation, when you apply to SOCA or update a previously filed application, Personal Information that you provide, and that we collect, during the course of the above includes without limitation, your name, street address, email address, phone number and payment information.

b. Information collected via technology:

• We collect information from your use of the Website, including without limitation, your hardware model, browser type, operating system, Internet Protocol (IP) address, device settings and the websites you visit both before and after navigating to our Website. If you are using a mobile device, ICE may also receive your UDID, or another unique identifier, and mobile operating system. We may correlate this information with other Personal Information we have about you. We may also use tools such as cookies and pixels n to gather information such as the date and time you used the Website and the information for which you searched and accessed, and may engage third parties to gather this information as well. A “Cookie” is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on your computer while you are browsing such website. We may use both session Cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent Cookies (which stay on your device until you delete them) to provide you with a more personal and interactive experience. Persistent Cookies can be removed by following web browser help file directions. A “Pixel” is a snippet of code that collects information about a visitor’s behavior on a website, and then sends the information back to the originating platform to be processed and reported.
• We use third party services, such as Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Facebook Pixel, DoubleClick and Twitter Conversion Tracking, to track and analyze online behavior of our Users. These services may help inform, optimize, target and serve ads based your visits to our Website. We do this to better understand how you use the Website and Service, with a view to offering improvements for all Users, and to tailor our business and marketing activities accordingly. If you would like to opt out of Google Analytics, please download and install the browser plugin at http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en. Users can also opt out of third party interest based advertising by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative’s deactivation website at www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.
• When you interact with ICE through social media networks, such as when you follow us, share content or contact us through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat or other sites, we may receive information about you, including your profile information, picture, user ID associated with the social media account, friends list, and any other information you permit the social media network to share with third parties. The data we receive is dependent upon your privacy settings with the social network in question.

2. How We Use Your Information

a. Personal Information: We may use your Personal Information for the following representative purposes:

Send communications, including requested information on career training and professional development programs, as well as administrative emails

Process your school application, online tuition payment, special event request and/or enrollment in a recreational cooking class

Review and process your submissions to promotions, scholarship challenges and contests

Communicate with and/or respond to you when you elect to “Chat live” or text with an admissions representative

Personalize and tailor the features, performance and support of the Website Send you promotional/marketing information, newsletters, offers or other information

Analyze, benchmark and conduct research on user data and interactions with the Website

Processing services, maintaining user accounts, resolving disputes, preventing and identifying fraud and verifying your identity

b. Anonymous Information:We may use Anonymous Information for the following representative purposes:

Perform internal operations on the Website

Improve the Website and customize the user experience, such as by providing targeted useful features and promotions based on the type of services you seek

Aggregate information collected via Cookies, Pixels and similar technologies to use in statistical analysis to help us track trends and analyze patterns on the Website

c. Both Personal Information and Anonymous Information

We may use a combination of Personal Information and Anonymous Information that we collect to target and measure the performance of advertisements to Users both on and off of the Website on our own and through different ad networks and exchanges, using the following data, whether separately or combined: (i) data from advertising technologies such as Cookies, Pixels, web beacons, ad tags and device identifiers; (ii) User-provided information; (iii) data from your use of the Website; (iv) information from others (e.g., advertising partners, publishers and data aggregators); and (v) social media platforms.

3. How We Share and Disclose Information

We know how important it is to keep your information confidential. We will not rent, sell or share your Personal Information with third parties except as specifically approved by you at the time of disclosure or under the circumstances described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not want us to use or disclose Personal Information collected about you in the ways identified in this Privacy Policy, please do not provide any Personal Information to us. In addition to using the information collected by us for the purposes described in Section 2 above, we may also share your information as described below. Please review our sharing policy closely, especially with respect to your Personal Information.

a. Service Providers and Contest Partners:We may share Personal Information with vendors, consultants and data processers, among others, who perform services on behalf of SOCA, including without limitation, companies that provide email services and host the Website. SOCA has selected companies who maintain high standards with respect to privacy and agree to use the Personal Information only to perform specific services on behalf of ICE and in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. In addition, if you submit an entry to a scholarship challenge or contest (collectively, “Contests”), SOCA may share your Personal Information with the partners and vendors with whom it is administering, organizing and/or conducting the Contests.

b. Aggregated Anonymous Information:WAggregated anonymous information is the combination of your Anonymous Information with the Anonymous Information of other users (“Aggregated Anonymous Information”). Aggregated Anonymous Information does not allow you to be identified or contacted. We may share such Aggregated Anonymous Information, such as ad impressions and click-through rates, with third parties.

c. Compliance with Laws, Law Enforcement and Safety: We may disclose information we have collected about you if required to do so by law or if we, in our sole discretion, believe that disclosure is reasonable to comply with the law, requests or orders from law enforcement, or any legal process (whether or not such disclosure is required by applicable law), or to protect or defend SOCA's, or a third party’s, rights or property.

d.Business Transactions

We may share all or some of your Personal Information with any of our subsidiaries, joint venturers, or companies under common control, in which case we will require them to honor this Privacy Policy. Additionally, in the event we undergo a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your Personal Information may be among the assets transferred. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur and are permitted by this Privacy Policy, and that any entity that acquires us, is merged with us or that acquires our assets may continue to process your Personal Information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

4. Your Choices

By submitting Personal Information, you consent to receive certain communications from us. You may modify or opt out of receiving messages sent for marketing purposes, or certain other communications, by following the unsubscribe instructions in such messages. Please note that despite any indicated marketing preferences, we may send you administrative emails regarding the Website, including, for example, notices of updates to our Privacy Policy.

5. Updating Your Personal Information

You may revise your Personal Information by contacting us directly at privacy@soca.edu. However, please note that we may be required to maintain certain Personal Information, or to maintain certain Personal Information for a period of time, in which case we will comply with your deletion request only after we have fulfilled such requirements. When we delete any information, it will be deleted from our active database, but may remain in our archives. We may retain your information for fraud detection or similar purposes. Note that if we have already disclosed some of your Personal Information to third parties, we cannot access that Personal Information any longer and cannot compel the deletion or modification of any such information by the parties to whom we have made those disclosures.

6. Children

This Website is not directed or intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly solicit, collect or maintain information from those we actually know are under 13, and no part of our Website is targeted to attract anyone under 13. We also do not send email correspondence to anyone who advises that they are under the age of 13. If we later obtain actual knowledge that a User is under 13 years of age, we will take steps to remove that user’s Personal Information from our systems. If you are the parent or guardian of a child whom you believe has disclosed Personal Information to us, please contact us at privacy@soca.edu so that we may delete and remove such information from our system.

7. Security and Data Retention

We are very concerned with safeguarding your information. We employ all reasonable administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access. We will make any legally required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored Personal Information or "personal data" (as defined in applicable state statutes on security breach notification) to you via email, text or conspicuous posting on the Website in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, insofar as it is consistent with (i) the legitimate needs of law enforcement or (ii) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system. Your consent to such purpose remains valid after termination of our relationship with you. Although guaranteed security does not exist either on or off the Internet, we make commercially reasonable efforts to make the collection and security of such information consistent with this Privacy Policy and all applicable laws and regulations.

8. Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change, modify, add or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time and without prior notice, and any changes will become effective immediately upon being posted unless we advise you otherwise. However, we will not make any adverse, material changes to the way we use your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy without giving you an opportunity to opt out. Your continued use of the Website after this Privacy Policy has been amended shall be deemed to be your continued acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Privacy Policy, as amended. We encourage you to bookmark this webpage and review this Privacy Policy regularly.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding our Privacy Policy, you can contact us via email at privacy@soca.edu or visit us at The School of Culinary Arts, Peter Ala Adjetey Avenue, Opposite Fidelity Bank, Labone, Accra.