European Innovation Academy Privacy Policy

Effective as of: 01.03.2024

Introduction and Scope

Innovation Academy SA (EIA) is a non-profit organization that offers innovation training for international students to provide them with the resources, connections, and mentoring necessary to build a successful startup.

Innovation Academy knows that your privacy is important. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) is designed to explain how we collect, use, process, and store your personally identifiable information (“Personal Data”) in connection with our services when: 

  • you access and submit your Personal Data directly to us, for example, via our website at https://www.inacademy.eu (“Website”), or
  • we receive your Personal Data from your educational institution/employer. 

Controllership

In the context of the activities described in this Policy, the following legal entity acts as a data controller for your Personal Data:

Innovation Academy SA
Valukoja 8
11415 Tallinn
Estonia

Participant Data

If you are an individual applying to participate in one of our programs, we may process the following categories of Personal Data about you: 

  • biographical information, such as your first and last name, age, nationality, gender, and ID number;
  • contact information, such as email and phone number;
  • employment and/or education data, such as your educational institution, study field, occupation, and place of work; 
  • feedback during and after the program;
  • testimonials (see section “Use of Testimonials”).

If you are an employee of one of our corporate clients or a business owner taking part in our courses, we may collect and process your full name, corporate email address, and place of work. 

Mentor/Expert Data

If you are our mentor/ Expert or an individual applying for a mentor position with us, we may process the following categories of Personal Data about you: 

  • biographical information, such as your first name, last name, and country of residence;
  • contact information, such as your email and LinkedIn profile; 
  • Other information that helps us evaluate your suitability for the position, such as proof of expertise, mentoring field, and experience in giving keynote talks.

Your Personal Data will be processed only by employees who evaluate your application or who have to process the data when performing recruitment activities. These include recruiters, HR managers, other interviewers, and individuals who perform administrative or other recruitment-related activities.

Image Data Usage

During the event, an official photographer, videographer, or other marketing personnel will take photographs or videos for European Innovation Academy marketing purposes. The marketing materials will be displayed on our website and our official social media channels. Please contact a staff member if you wish to be exempt from this activity.

Website Data Usage

When you access our Website, whether by computer, mobile phone, or any other device, we automatically collect certain information about your use of our Website, which may include, among other things, your geographical location and device IDs, bandwidth used, system and connection performance, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views, IP address or other unique identifier of your device.

Use of Testimonials

We may select and post client testimonials on our Website, which may contain personally identifiable information such as your name, job title, and the company you work for. This information may be visible to other Website visitors. We will obtain your consent before posting any testimonial with your name. If you want us to remove your name or testimonial from our Website, you may reach out to us.

How We Receive Personal Data

We may receive Personal Data:

  • directly from you when you access our Website and apply for one of our programs;
  • when you apply for a position with us via our Website or otherwise;  
  • from your educational institution through which you apply to our program;
  • from our partners who provide our training;
  • when you fill out the registration form for participating in our programs;
  • when using the program-related LMS and event management platforms;
  • when you submit your feedback about the program.

Basis of Processing

Within the scope of this Policy, we may rely on one or more of the following legal grounds for processing your Personal Data:

  • the need to perform the contractual duties we have about our clients;
  • the need to pursue our legitimate interests, such as to review your application and provide the educational services to you;
  • your consent;
  • any other ground, as required or law permits in the specific respective context.

Purposes of Processing

We process Personal Data for the purposes of: 

  • providing education services to our clients;
  • evaluating candidates’ suitability for a mentor/expert position;
  • measuring our clients’ motivation and making a decision on their admission;
  • reaching out and following up on the clients regarding the program they applied for;
  • providing third-party accommodation to the participants of the program;
  • providing logistical support to our program participants, such as buying transportation tickets;
  • improving the services and the product;
  • contacting our clients in case of emergency;
  • sending periodic emails regarding our services.

After a participant completes our program, we will keep some Personal Data to: 

  • retain and re-issue the participant’s diplomas and/or certificates; 
  • contact the participant in case there is a possibility for collaboration in the future;
  • Adding them to the alumni community.

Sharing Personal Data with Third Parties

To facilitate the provision of our services, we may share your Personal Data with certain third-party providers, including but not limited to:

  • email marketing services;
  • web form services;
  • business management software services;
  • CRM software services;
  • online scheduling services;
  • cloud storage services;
  • third-party accommodation provider;
  • third-party transportation provider.

When accepting an applicant to our program, we provide him/her/them access to our online platforms, LMS, etc., where the participants can interact with each other, which also means that some of your Personal Data will be visible to others participating, mentoring or organizing the program. 

Your Personal Data may also be shared with some of our partners, who may want to notify you about their career possibilities. 

EIA is committed to upholding the highest standards of data protection and privacy. Therefore, we ensure that all our third-party vendors are subject to rigorous due diligence processes and are contractually obligated to adhere to data protection laws and regulations equivalent to or surpassing those outlined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This includes the requirement for data processing agreements that delineate the scope, nature, and purpose of data processing, ensuring accountability and compliance. EIA’s engagement with third-party processors is founded on the principles of necessity, minimizing data exposure, and safeguarding our participants’ personal data against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

Other Disclosure of Your Personal Data

We may disclose your Personal Data:

  • to the extent required by law or if we have a good-faith belief that such disclosure is necessary to comply with official investigations or legal proceedings initiated by governmental and/or law enforcement officials or private parties, including but not limited to:
    • in response to subpoenas, search warrants, or court orders;
    • in connection with a merger, division, restructuring, or other association change; or
    • to our subsidiaries or affiliates only if necessary for operational purposes.

If we must disclose your Personal Data to comply with official investigations or legal proceedings initiated by governmental and/or law enforcement officials, we may not be able to ensure that such recipients will maintain the privacy or security of your Personal Data.

Data Integrity & Security

We use reasonable and diligent efforts to maintain accurate information on our data subjects and have adopted and implemented reasonable industry standard security procedures to protect any such information collected. Although the Innovation Academy will use reasonable efforts to secure network communications and our Website, we cannot guarantee that the information submitted to, maintained on, or transmitted from our systems will be completely secure.

Data Retention Period

If you participate in our program, we will store your Personal Data for five years after the program ends. After this period lapses, we will ask for your consent to keep your personal data for another twelve months yearly. If you do not consent, we will promptly remove any Personal Data associated with you. 

If you are a candidate and we do not recruit you, your Personal Data will be retained for one year from the end of the recruitment process. 

Access, Review, Objection to Processing & Portability 

If you are a data subject whose Personal Data we store, you may have the right to request access to and the opportunity to update, correct, port, or delete such Personal Data. Under certain circumstances, you may also have the right to restrict or object to processing your Personal Data. To submit such requests, please contact us.

Privacy of Children

Our Website is not directed to collect Personal Data from people under 18. We do not knowingly allow anyone under 16 to submit Personal Data to our Website. If you believe your child may have provided us with their Personal Data, you can contact us using the information in the Contact Us section of this Policy, and we will delete the Personal Data.

Changes to this Policy

If we make any material change to this Policy, we will post the revised Policy to this web page and update the “Effective on” date above to reflect the date the new Policy became effective. 

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Policy or the processing of your Personal Data, please contact us at info@inacademy.eu. 

Please allow us 7 days to reply. 

Supervisory Authority Oversight

If you are a data subject whose Personal Data we process, you may also have the right to complain to a data protection regulator in one or more European Union member states.