Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Xcape Academy handles your personal data. Xcape Academy is run by Xcape Tax Academy, 249 Oxley Ave, Margate QLD 4019, Australia, which decides how your data is used (the “controller”). For anything about your data, email privacy@xcapetaxacademy.com.

1. What we collect

What you give us

• Account: your name, email address, password (stored only as a secure hash), time zone and language.
• Applications: for a pathway, the ambassador programme or teaching: phone number, country, region and city, LinkedIn profile, experience, motivation and the agreement you accepted. Ambassadors may add a date of birth, occupation, social links and audience; instructors add a headline, bio, credentials, expertise and a sample of their work.
• Enquiries, waitlist and brochure requests: your name, email, the details you fill in, and whether you agreed to hear from us.
• Learning: your progress through lessons, live class attendance, assessment answers and uploaded work, and certificates.
• Community and support: your posts, comments, likes and reports, and support messages and attachments.
• Ambassadors and instructors: payout details (bank, PayPal or Wise) and tax forms (W-9 or W-8BEN, which include your tax ID and address). We encrypt both, and only our team can see them.

What we collect automatically

• The IP address and browser details of your signed-in sessions, and the IP address and browser used when you sign a tax form.
• When you arrive through an ambassador’s link, which link and pathway it was. We don’t record your IP address for this.
• A record of the emails we send you, and a log of actions taken by our team.
• The cookies described in our Cookie Policy. We don’t use analytics or advertising trackers.

Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.

2. How we use it

• To provide Xcape Academy (performing our contract with you): run your account, review applications, take payments, deliver courses and live classes, issue certificates, pay ambassadors and instructors, and answer support requests.
• To keep Xcape Academy safe and working (our legitimate interests): prevent fraud and abuse, moderate the community, fix problems and improve the platform.
• To meet legal duties: keep payment and tax records, and collect tax forms from people we pay.
• To send you news (only with your consent): when you tick the box on a form. You can withdraw consent at any time with the unsubscribe link in our emails, or by emailing privacy@xcapetaxacademy.com.

We don’t sell your personal data, and we don’t share it for advertising.

3. What other people can see

• Your certificate’s public verification page shows your name, the pathway, the items you completed and the date it was issued.
• In the community, other members see your first name, last initial and role. If we make the community public, visitors can read published posts too.
• Instructors see the students in their classes, and ambassadors see the name, pathway and enrollment status of students who applied with their code.

4. Who we share it with

We use these service providers, who handle your data on our behalf and only for the purposes below:

We may also share data when the law requires it, or to protect our rights or someone’s safety.

5. Where your data is stored

We store your data in the United States. If you live elsewhere, including Australia, the European Union, the United Kingdom or the Philippines, your data is transferred there. Where the law requires it, we rely on safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses offered by our providers.

6. How long we keep it

• Enrollment and learning records: while you’re enrolled and for 3 years after.
• Payment, payout and tax records: 7 years, for tax and accounting law.
• Support messages: 2 years.
• Marketing contacts: until you withdraw consent or ask us to delete them.

Library uploads are removed from our storage within days of reaching the library, and files no longer linked to anything are deleted automatically.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you can ask to see the data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, get a copy to take elsewhere, restrict or object to how we use it, and withdraw consent. Email privacy@xcapetaxacademy.com from the address on your account. We’ll answer within one month, and we may need to confirm it’s you first.

• Australia: you have the rights in the Privacy Act 1988, and can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
• European Union and United Kingdom: you can also complain to your local data protection authority.
• California: you can ask what we collect and delete or correct it. We don’t sell or share personal information, and we won’t treat you differently for using your rights.
• Philippines: you have the rights in the Data Privacy Act of 2012, and can complain to the National Privacy Commission.

We may keep data we’re required to keep by law, such as payment and tax records, after you ask us to delete your account.

8. Security

All traffic to Xcape Academy is encrypted. Payout details and tax forms are also encrypted in our database, and access to personal data is limited to the team members who need it. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your data, we’ll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

9. Children

Xcape Academy is for adults aged 18 and over. If we learn we hold data about someone younger, we’ll delete it.

10. Changes

We’ll post any update here and change the date at the top. If a change is important, we’ll email account holders first.

11. Contact

Email privacy@xcapetaxacademy.com, or write to Xcape Tax Academy, 249 Oxley Ave, Margate QLD 4019, Australia.