Our Commitment to Privacy
Academy Hosting respects your privacy and is committed to safeguarding your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, store, and protect your information when you visit our website or use our services.
Introduction
Academy Hosting is a registered Doing Business As (DBA) name for Academy Gaming LLC ("we," "us," or "our"). We operate www.academy-hosting.com, its subdomains, associated client portals, and related hosting services (collectively, the "Site" and "Services"). This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect through the Site, through our billing and support systems, and in connection with the Services we provide.
By accessing or using our Site or Services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Site or Services.
Information We Collect
We may collect the following categories of information:
- Personal Information: Name, email address, billing address, phone number, company name, and other account registration details.
- Billing and Transaction Information: Order details, invoices, payment status, transaction identifiers, payer details, and limited billing-related information necessary to process purchases and manage accounts. Payment card and financial account information is generally processed by third-party payment processors such as Stripe and/or PayPal and is not stored in full on our systems unless explicitly stated.
- Usage Data: IP address, browser type, operating system, device identifiers, referral source, pages viewed, date/time of visits, and interaction data regarding the Site and Services.
- Support and Communications Data: Information you provide in support tickets, email communications, live chat, abuse reports, and related correspondence.
- Service Data: Technical information related to your hosting service, including server configurations, diagnostic logs, incident reports, and service-related metadata necessary to operate, secure, and support the Services.
- Cookies and Similar Technologies: We may use cookies, local storage, pixels, tags, and similar technologies to operate the Site, remember preferences, analyze traffic, and improve performance.
How We Collect Information
- Directly from You: When you create an account, place an order, open a support ticket, subscribe to communications, complete forms, or otherwise contact us.
- Automatically: Through server logs, analytics tools, cookies, and similar technologies when you browse or interact with the Site.
- From Third Parties: From payment processors, fraud prevention providers, analytics services, marketing providers, business partners, and service providers that help us operate the Site and Services.
How We Use Information
We may use your information for the following purposes:
- To create and manage customer accounts.
- To process transactions, invoices, renewals, refunds, and account-related payments.
- To provide, maintain, deliver, and improve the Site and Services.
- To provide customer support, troubleshooting, and technical assistance.
- To monitor performance, security, abuse, fraud, and policy compliance.
- To send service-related notices, billing notices, updates, maintenance alerts, and security communications.
- To send promotional or marketing messages where permitted by law or where you have not opted out.
- To analyze usage trends, improve performance, and understand how users interact with the Site and Services.
- To comply with legal obligations, enforce our agreements, resolve disputes, and protect our rights, users, systems, and business operations.
Legal Bases for Processing
Where applicable under data protection law, we process personal information under one or more of the following legal bases:
- Performance of a Contract: To provide the Services you request, process payments, deliver support, and administer your account.
- Legitimate Interests: To secure our systems, prevent fraud and abuse, improve our services, maintain business records, and communicate with customers regarding service operations.
- Consent: Where required, including for certain marketing communications or non-essential cookies and tracking technologies.
- Legal Obligation: To comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, accounting obligations, tax requirements, and enforcement requests.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies and similar technologies for several purposes, including:
- Strictly Necessary Cookies: Required for site functionality, account login, security, fraud prevention, and session management.
- Preference Cookies: Used to remember settings and improve convenience.
- Analytics Cookies: Used to understand traffic, engagement, and site performance.
- Marketing Cookies: May be used to support advertising, remarketing, or campaign measurement where enabled.
You may be able to control cookies through your browser settings and, where applicable, through any cookie preferences tools we make available. Disabling certain cookies may impact Site functionality.
Analytics and Similar Tools
Our Site may use analytics tools, including Google Analytics, to help us understand traffic patterns, visitor interactions, and site performance. These tools may collect information such as IP address, browser information, approximate geolocation, device information, and on-site activity.
We use this information to improve the Site, understand user behavior, and optimize the Services. We do not intend to send personally identifiable information to analytics platforms in violation of their policies. Google provides privacy and retention controls for Analytics properties, including configurable retention periods for certain data.
You may be able to opt out of certain analytics processing through browser settings, consent tools where available, or by using Google's available opt-out tools.
Disclosure of Information
We may disclose your information in the following circumstances:
- Service Providers and Vendors: To third parties that assist with payment processing and billing, including Stripe and/or PayPal, as well as vendors that support analytics, customer support, infrastructure, communications, fraud detection, data storage, and other business operations.
- Business Transfers: In connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, corporate reorganization, sale of assets, or similar transaction.
- Legal Compliance and Protection: Where required by law, subpoena, court order, regulatory process, or other lawful governmental request, or where necessary to protect rights, property, systems, users, or the public.
- With Your Direction or Consent: Where you authorize us to disclose information.
We do not sell personal information in the ordinary sense of exchanging it for money. However, some privacy laws define "sale" or "sharing" broadly, and certain analytics or advertising activities may fall within those definitions depending on your jurisdiction.
Payment Processing
Payments made through our Site may be processed by third-party payment processors, including Stripe and/or PayPal. These providers process payment information in accordance with their own privacy policies, terms, and security practices. We may receive limited information from these processors, such as billing status, partial payment details, transaction identifiers, payer details, and fraud or verification signals, but we generally do not store full payment card numbers or complete financial account credentials on our systems unless expressly stated.
By submitting payment information through our Site, you acknowledge that your payment information may be collected and processed directly by Stripe, PayPal, or other payment providers we use from time to time to complete transactions, prevent fraud, and comply with legal or financial obligations.
Data Retention
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including to provide Services, maintain business and billing records, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce agreements.
Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data. For example:
- Account and Billing Records: May be retained for as long as needed for tax, accounting, and compliance purposes.
- Support Communications: May be retained for operational history, training, quality assurance, and dispute resolution.
- Technical Logs and Security Data: May be retained for troubleshooting, abuse prevention, and security investigations.
- Analytics Data: May be retained in accordance with analytics platform settings and our internal configuration choices.
Data Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards intended to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. However, no method of storage, transmission, or security is completely foolproof, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
You are responsible for protecting your account credentials, using strong passwords, and maintaining the security of systems and devices you use to access our Site or Services.
International Data Transfers
We may process or store information in the United States and other countries where we or our service providers operate. If you access the Site or Services from outside the United States, your information may be transferred to, processed in, or stored in jurisdictions that may have data protection laws different from those in your country.
Where applicable, we take reasonable steps to use appropriate safeguards for cross-border data transfers as required by law.
Your Privacy Rights and Choices
Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have rights regarding your personal information, including the right to:
- Request access to personal information we hold about you;
- Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
- Request deletion of certain personal information;
- Request restriction of or object to certain processing;
- Request a portable copy of certain information;
- Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
- Opt out of certain marketing communications; and
- Lodge a complaint with a relevant supervisory or regulatory authority where permitted by law.
To exercise these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests.
Marketing Communications
We may send you service-related messages and, where permitted, marketing or promotional communications. You may opt out of non-essential marketing emails by using the unsubscribe link in the email or by contacting us. Even if you opt out of marketing communications, we may still send transactional or service-related messages regarding your account or Services.
Third-Party Links and Services
Our Site and Services may contain links to third-party websites, services, widgets, or integrations. We are not responsible for the privacy, content, or security practices of third parties. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing information to them.
Children's Privacy
Our Site and Services are not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without any legally required parental consent. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 in a manner inconsistent with applicable law, we will take reasonable steps to delete that information.
If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at [email protected].
Do Not Track
Some browsers offer a "Do Not Track" signal. Because there is no universally accepted standard for responding to such signals, our Site may not respond to them uniformly unless otherwise required by applicable law.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. Material changes may also be communicated by additional means where appropriate. Your continued use of the Site or Services after an updated Privacy Policy becomes effective constitutes your acknowledgment of the revised policy, to the extent permitted by law.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, requests, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:
Email: [email protected]
