Privacy policy

Updated: 23 June 2023

Introduction

This is the privacy policy of Eslbase. In this policy, “we”, “our” and “us” refer to Eslbase.

This privacy policy sets out how, why and for how long we process information that we collect from our users (“you”), or that you provide to us. It covers information that could identify you (“personal information”) and information that could not. In the context of the law and this notice, “process” means collect, store, transfer, use or otherwise act on.

We take seriously the protection of your privacy and maintaining the security of any personal information received from you. We understand that you are entitled to know that your personal data will not be used for any purpose unintended by you.

We strictly adhere to the requirements of data protection legislation in the UK, including that required by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The law requires us to tell you about your rights and our obligations to you in regards to the processing and control of your personal data. We do this now, by requesting that you read the information provided at www.knowyourprivacyrights.org or at ico.org.uk/for-the-public/is-my-information-being-handled-correctly.

By using our website you acknowledge that you have read and agree to the terms and conditions of this privacy policy. If you do not agree to all of the terms of this privacy policy, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue use of the website.

How, why and for how long we process your personal data

Except as set out below, we do not share, sell or disclose to a third party any information collected through our website, unless disclosure is necessary to (1) conform to legal requirements, (2) enforce the Eslbase Terms of Use or protect our rights, or (3) protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another person.

The law requires us to determine under which of six defined bases we process different categories of your personal information, and to notify you of the basis for each category. If a basis on which we process your personal information is no longer relevant then we shall immediately stop processing your data. If the basis changes then if required by law we shall notify you of the change and of any new basis under which we have determined that we can continue to process your information.

Usage data

When you browse our website, we process data about your use of the website. This may include your approximate geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your website visits. This data is non-personally identifiable and so you are anonymous to us. The legal basis for processing this data is our legitimate interests, namely monitoring, analysing and improving our website usage and the services we provide. This data is stored in our Analytics service, Google Analytics, for an indefinite period of time, or until we decide we no longer need it for the purposes outlined above.

You can prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

When you register an account with us

When you register an account on our website we process your name and email address. We may use this data to:

  • verify your identity for security purposes
  • provide you with our services
  • sell services to you
  • communicate with you

We process this information on the basis that there is a contract between us, or that you have requested we use the information before we enter into a legal contract. We shall continue to process this information until the contract between us ends or is terminated by either party under the terms of the contract.

When you make an enquiry through our contact form or by sending us an email

When you submit an enquiry, we process the information contained in your enquiry, including your name and email address. We believe that you would reasonably expect us to process this data for the purposes of responding to your enquiry, and so we process it on the basis that there is a legitimate interest to you and to us in doing so.

We process this data and any data in subsequent email communication between you and us for as long as is necessary to adequately deal with your enquiry and track our communications with you.

When you make an enquiry through a Live Chat box

When you engage in a Live Chat we process your name and email address, and the information you submit during the chat. We believe that you would reasonably expect us to process this data for the purposes of responding to your enquiry, and so we process it on the basis that there is a legitimate interest to you and to us in doing so.

We process this data and any data in subsequent email communication between you and us for as long as is necessary to adequately deal with your enquiry and track our communications with you.

When you subscribe to job alerts

When you sign up to receive job alerts by email, we process your email address. We believe that you would reasonably expect us to process this data for the purposes of sending you the information you have requested, and so we process it on the basis that there is a legitimate interest to you and to us in doing so. We continue to process your information on this basis until you withdraw your consent or it can be reasonably assumed that your consent no longer exists. You can withdraw your consent at any time by instructing us by email at privacy@eslbase.com or by clicking the Unsubscribe link in the job alert you receive.

When you subscribe to newsletters or other marketing communications

When you sign up to receive a newsletter or other marketing communications, we ask for your consent to process your personal information. We process this information in order to send you the information you have subscribed to. We continue to process your information on this basis until you withdraw your consent or it can be reasonably assumed that your consent no longer exists. You can withdraw your consent at any time by instructing us by email at privacy@eslbase.com or by clicking the Unsubscribe link in the job alert or newsletter you receive.

When you sign up for a newsletter or other marketing communications, we may store your personal information in the Lemon Squeezy or Mailerlite marketing platforms instead of in our own database. You can read Lemon Squeezy’s privacy policy here and Mailerlite’s privacy policy here.

Information provided by you on the understanding that it will be shared with a third party

Our website allows you to post information with a view to that information being read, copied, downloaded or used by other people. Once your information enters the public domain, we have no control over what any individual third party may do with it. We accept no responsibility for their actions at any time.

Here are the individual cases where you may post information with a view to that information being read, copied, downloaded or used by other people:

  • When you make a post in the TEFL Q&A
    Your TEFL Q&A posts do not include any personally identifiable information unless you decide to include such information in your post. We believe that in creating a TEFL Q&A post, you would reasonably expect us to process the data in order for other people to use it. As a result, we process it on the basis that there is a legitimate interest to us in doing so, namely the proper administration of our website. We do not specifically use the information you provide except to allow it to be displayed or shared.
  • When you post a job, TEFL course or language school advert
    Your job adverts, TEFL course adverts or language school adverts do not include any personally-identifiable information unless you decide to include such information in your advert. We believe that in creating an advert, you would reasonably expect us to process the data in order for other people to use it. As a result, we process it on the basis that there is a legitimate interest to us in doing so, namely the proper administration of our website. We do not specifically use the information you provide except to allow it to be displayed or shared.
  • When you submit a TEFL course review
    When you submit a TEFL course review, we store your name, email address and location in addition to the content of your review. By checking the Consent checkbox on the Review form, you agree to your first name and location being published along with your review on the TEFL course provider’s page on our website. We process your last name and email address for the legitimate interest of verifying that the review is genuine, and so preventing fraud and damage to the reputation of Eslbase and/or the course provider being reviewed. Apart from this, we do not specifically use any of the information you provide except to allow it to be displayed or shared.
  • When you post a comment on an article
    When you post a comment on an article, we process the information you submit in the form. By checking the Consent checkbox on the comment form, you agree to the name you provide being published along with your comment on our website. We process your email address for the legitimate interest of preventing spam and therefore damage to the reputation of Eslbase. An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. You can read the Gravatar service privacy policy here. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. Apart from this, we do not specifically use any of the information you provide except to allow it to be displayed or shared.

    As well as being stored in our database, your name, email address, the content of your comment and your IP address may be processed on Automattic’s servers for the legitimate interest of preventing comment spam and therefore damage to the reputation of Eslbase. You can read Automattic’s privacy policy here.

We store the information you provide until such time as it is no longer relevant to be displayed on the website or, in the case of personal information in TEFL course reviews or article comments, until you withdraw your consent. You can withdraw this consent at any time by instructing us by email at privacy@eslbase.com. For all other information submitted, provided your request is reasonable and there is no legal basis for us to retain it, then at our discretion we may agree to your request to delete information that you have posted or to make it anonymous. You can make a request by contacting us at privacy@eslbase.com.

When you make a payment for a product or service

Payment information is never taken by us either through our website or otherwise.

At the point of payment, you are transferred to

  1. a secure page on the website of either PayPal or Stripe, our payment service providers
  2. or to a secure page on our website which operates the Stripe payment gateway through a pop-up window
  3. or to a secure page on the Paythen website, which operates the Stripe payment gateway
  4. or to a secure page on, or pop-up window from, the Lemon Squeezy website, which operates the Stripe and Paypal payment gateways

Paythen and Lemon Squeezy are payment software providers who enable us to take payments by Paypal and Stripe. When you make a payment through a secure page on the Paythen website, Paythen may store your name and email address, and the last 4 digits of the payment method you used. You can read Paythen’s privacy policy here. When you make a payment through a secure page on, or pop-up window from, the Lemon Squeezy website, Lemon Squeezy may store your name, email address, IP address, country and postal code on the Lemon Squeezy servers. You can also choose to store your payment details with Lemon Squeezy for future purchases, by giving your consent to this during the payment process. You can read Lemon Squeezy’s privacy policy here.

In all cases though, your payment is controlled by either Paypal or Stripe, not by us. You can find information about Paypal’s privacy policies and practices here, and about Stripe’s privacy policies and practices here.

When you purchase the Grammar for English Teachers course or Interactive Videos through a secure page on, or pop-up window from, the Lemon Squeezy website, we process the email address you provide during the payment process and use it to create an account for you on Eslbase, to enable you to access the product(s) that you have purchased. We process this information on the basis that there is a contract between us. We shall continue to process this information until the contract between us ends or is terminated by either party under the terms of the contract.

Information we process because we have a legal obligation

We may process, including disclosing to third parties, any of your data identified in this policy, if we are under a duty to do so in order to comply with a legal obligation, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person. This may include your personal information.

Other information we may process

We may process any of your data identified in this policy where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of our legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.

We may process any of your data identified in this policy where necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks or obtaining professional advice. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper protection of our business against risks.

Accessing, updating and removing your personal information

You can at any time request a copy of your personal data processed by us, or request to have it updated if it is incorrect. You can do both these things by sending an email to privacy@eslbase.com. After receiving your request, we will tell you when we expect to provide you with the information requested or correct the incorrect information.

If you wish to remove your personal information from our website, you can make a request by sending an email to privacy@eslbase.com. You can also remove your account data by signing into your account and clicking the “Delete account” link on your Account page.

Verification of your information

When we receive any request to access, edit or delete personal identifiable information we shall first take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access or otherwise taking any action. This is important to safeguard your information.

Complaints regarding content on our website

We moderate user-generated content when necessary, but we are not always able to do so as soon as that content is published.

If you complain about any of the content on our website, we shall investigate your complaint. If we feel it is justified or if we believe the law requires us to do so, we shall remove the content while we investigate.

Free speech is a fundamental right, so we have to make a judgement as to whose right will be obstructed: yours, or that of the person who posted the content that offends you.

If we think your complaint is vexatious or without any basis, we may not correspond with you about it.

Processing of your data outside the United Kingdom

We use outsourced services in countries outside the United Kingdom in certain aspects of our business. Accordingly, data obtained within the United Kingdom could be processed outside the United Kingdom.

We use Automattic and Lemon Squeezy for the purposes as outlined in this policy. Automattic and Lemon Squeezy are situated in the USA. The European Commission has made an “adequacy decision” with respect to the data protection laws of the USA, by means of the Privacy Shield Framework. Transfers to the USA from the EU and the United Kingdom will therefore be protected by appropriate safeguards adopted or approved by the European Commission. You can obtain a copy of the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework here.

Our use of cookies

About cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device by your web browser when you visit any website. They allow information gathered on one web page to be stored until it is needed for use on another. Cookies allow us to distinguish you from other visitors to the website, helping us to provide you with a good user experience and allowing us to improve the site.

Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date. A session cookie will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

You can choose to disallow cookies by changing your browser settings. However, by doing so, you may hinder your user experience on this and other websites. You can read more about cookies and how to disallow them at www.allaboutcookies.org.

Our website uses cookies. They are placed by software that operates on our servers, and by software operated by third parties whose services we use.

Cookies that we use

Necessary cookies
These cookies help make our website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to pages which require visitors to create an account and login. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
Cookie Name Set by Expiry Purpose
phpsessid eslbase.com Session Preserves users states across page requests.
wordpress_test_cookie eslbase.com Session Used to check if the user’s browser supports cookies.
wordpress_sec eslbase.com 2 days Used to save login information if you have an Eslbase account
wordpress_logged_in eslbase.com 2 days Used to save login information if you have an Eslbase account
wpjb_transient_id eslbase.com Session Used for functionality of the jobs board.
cookieconsent_dismissed eslbase.com 1 year Used to help us remember that you have seen the cookie message
Analytics cookies
We use Google Analytics to help us understand how you interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously. You can find more information about Google Analytics cookies and privacy here. We use Mailerlite to show you pop-up forms and other forms that you can fill in to receive content from us by email.
Cookie Name Set by Expiry Purpose
_ga eslbase.com 2 years Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
_gid eslbase.com 24 hours Used to distinguish visitors.
_gat eslbase.com Session Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate.
mailerlite:webform:shown mailerlite.com Used by Mailerlite to determine if you have seen a pop-up or not.
Social sharing cookies

We sometimes use sharing buttons and tools so you can easily like or share our content on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Some of these social networks set their own cookies for statistical and/or marketing purposes.

Here’s a list of the social sharing cookies that we use:

Cookie Name Set by Expiry Purpose
_pinterest_cm pinterest.com 1 year Ensures that you can share our website pages via Pinterest by means of the ‘share’ button.
Cookies used for processing payments
We may use these cookies when you make a payment on our website.
Cookie Name Set by Expiry Purpose
pypf paypalobjects.com 27 days Used by Paypal for the checkout process when making a Paypal payment
simpay_wp_session eslbase.com Session Used for payment processing
cid checkout.stripe.com Session Used by Stripe for the checkout process when making a Stripe payment
__stripe_mid checkout.stripe.com Session Used by Stripe for the checkout process when making a Stripe payment
__stripe_sid checkout.stripe.com Session Used by Stripe for the checkout process when making a Stripe payment
checkout-live-session checkout.stripe.com Session Used by Stripe for the checkout process when making a Stripe payment
m m.stripe.com Persistent Used by Stripe for the checkout process when making a Stripe payment
nsr m.stripe.network Used by Stripe for the checkout process when making a Stripe payment
Unclassified cookies
Other cookies sometimes used on our site.
Cookie Name Set by Expiry Purpose
comment_author and comment_author_email eslbase.com 1 year You can opt-in to these cookies when posting a comment on an article. They save you from having to fill in your details again when you leave another comment.

Encryption of data sent between us

We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to verify our identity to your browser and to encrypt any data you give us. Whenever information is transferred between us, you can check that it is done so using SSL by looking for a closed padlock symbol or other trust mark in your browser’s URL bar or toolbar.

How you can complain

If you are not happy with our privacy policy or if have any complaint then you can tell us by sending an email to privacy@eslbase.com.

If you are in any way dissatisfied about how we process your personal information, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. This can be done at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

Retention period for personal data

Except as otherwise mentioned in this privacy policy, we keep your personal information only for as long as required by us:

  • to provide you with the services you have requested
  • to comply with other law, including for the period demanded by our tax authorities
  • to support a claim or defence in court

Third party websites

We may include links to third party websites that are controlled and maintained by others. It is your responsibility to review the privacy and cookie policies of these sites. We are not responsible for the policies and practices of third party sites.

Affiliate links

Our website may contain affiliate links, which means that we may earn a commission if you make a purchase or take any action through those links. We only recommend products or services that we believe will provide value to our users. Please note that clicking on affiliate links does not result in any additional cost to you. Any personal information and data collected by the affiliate websites or third parties through these links is subject to their respective privacy policies, and we encourage you to review those policies before providing any personal information.

More information and review of this privacy policy

You can find more information about UK data protection legislation at the Information Commissioner’s website.

We may update this privacy policy from time to time as necessary. The terms that apply to you are those posted here on our website on the day you use our website.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy please contact us by email at privacy@eslbase.com or through our contact form.