Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 17 2021

Welcome to Visible Hands! Visible Hands [Visible Hands, PBC] (“we” and “us”) cares about your privacy.  We have developed this Privacy Policy (this “Policy”) to describe the personal information we collect, how that information may be used, with whom it may be shared, and your choices, in connection with your use of our website, including the website hosted at www.visiblehands.vc, and all services provided by us that link to this Policy (collectively, our “Services”).   


This Policy does not cover or apply to other investor or investor-related services that we may offer or provide, including investor information that we collect.  We may provide additional or supplemental privacy notices to individuals for specific services that we offer at the time we collect personal information.  These supplemental privacy policies govern how we may process your information in the context of the specific relationship that you have with us. 


Please read this Policy carefully before using our Services.


Personal Information We Collect

We collect two types of information from visitors of our website and users of our Services: “personal information,” which is information that you provide that can be used to identify you; and “aggregate information,” which is information that cannot be used to identify you (such as data about which parts of our Services are most or least frequently viewed and changes in the volume of traffic to our website over time).


Information You Provide to Us.  We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you use our Services. 

  • Your Contact Information: You may provide us with contact information such as your email address, first and last name, social media account links, and phone number when you choose to submit such information to us, such as when you sign up for updates on our website.
  • Your Communication with Us:  We collect personal information when you communicate with us. The specific types of personal information we collect will depend on the forum in which you communicate with us.  For example, if you send us an email, we will collect your email address and the content of your email.  
  • Marketing information, such as your preferences for receiving communications about our activities, events, and publications as well as details about how you engage with our communications.
  • Additional information: If we collect additional personal information not described above, we will use such information as described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise disclosed at the time of collection.


Information We Collect Through our Fellowship Program.  When you apply to or participate in our fellowship program, we collect certain personal information from you.


In connection with your application to our fellowship program and our evaluation of your candidacy, we collect the following personal information:  

  • Contact information such as your name, email address, and phone number;
  • Demographic information such as your gender, race/ethnicity, age, language fluency, and place of residence;
  • Professional and education information such as your LinkedIn/personal website address and information, work authorization requirements, employment or education status, resume information, skills and experience, and interests;
  • Your responses to questions that we ask you;
  • Recorded video interviews including your recorded responses to interview questions; and
  • Live videos of your participation in a virtual skills review.


Through your participation in our fellowship program, we may also collect financial account information as necessary to facilitate funding and payments to your organization’s financial institution, where applicable. 


Information We Automatically Collect.  When you use our Services such as our website, we automatically receive and collect information about you and your device.  This information includes the following:

  • Information about your device, such as the operating system, hardware, system version, Internet Protocol (IP) address, device ID, and device language;
  • The specific actions that you take when you use our website, including but not limited to the pages and screens that you view or visit and how you interact with our website;
  • The time, frequency, connection type, and duration of your use of our website;
  • Location information, such as GPS information;
  • Information regarding your interaction with email messages, for example, whether you opened, clicked on, or forwarded the email message;
  • Identifiers associated with cookies or other technologies that may uniquely identify your device or browser (as further described below); and
  • Pages you visited before or after navigating to our website.

Cookies.  Like most websites, our website uses “cookies.” Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser to help us identify you when you come to our website for the purpose of helping you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, enabling functionality, and helping us understand user activity and patterns.


Analytics.  We use third party providers, such as Google Analytics, to analyze traffic to our website. Google Analytics does not create individual profiles of visitors and only collects aggregate information. To disable Google Analytics, please download the browser add-on for the deactivation of Google Analytics provided by Google here.  You may find additional information about Google Analytics at http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You have the option to opt out of Google’s use of cookies by changing your settings through Google Ad Settings via the Google advertising opt-out page at http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/.


How We Use Your Personal Information 

In general, we collect personal information from you so that we can provide our Services, operate our organization, and provide information that you request from us. This includes the following uses and purposes: 

  • Provide, operate, improve, maintain, and protect our Services, including our fellowship program.
  • Evaluate candidates for our fellowship program.
  • Provide technical and other support.
  • Send updates about our organization and our Services, marketing communication, and other information about Visible Hands and our Services, and products and services of third parties.
  • Provide introductions to individuals and opportunities.
  • Conduct research and analysis, and monitor and analyze trends and usage.
  • Enhance or improve user experience, our organization, and our Services, including the safety and security thereof.  
  • Personalize our Services. 
  • Communicate and respond to inquiries.
  • Operate our organization and perform any other function that we believe in good faith is necessary to protect the security or proper functioning of our Services.
  • As necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, subpoena, legal process, or governmental request.
  • Enforce contracts that we are a party to, including investigation of potential violations thereof.
  • Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues.
  • Protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Visible Hands, our personnel, affiliates, fellows, or the public as required or permitted by law.


How We Share Your Information

We do not rent or sell your personal information.   

Like most companies, we share your personal information in certain circumstances with third parties through operation of our Services and our organization.  Below we explain when that happens. 


Service Providers.  We use third parties to assist us with operating our organization and providing our Services, such as our technology vendors that help us maintain our Services and providers that assist us with our fellowship program application and evaluation process.  These service providers will have access to your personal information in order to provide services to us.


Fellowship Program.  If you are a candidate for our fellowship program, your personal information may be shared with other candidates through your participation in the application process, such as, for example, during the group workshop sessions. 


If you participate in one of our fellowship program, your personal information may be shared with other fellows in your cohort, fellowship alumni, and individuals and organizations in our “ecosystem” such as advisors, mentors, and potential investors. 


As Directed By You and With Your Consent.  Except as otherwise provided in this Policy, we share personal information with entities, organizations or individuals outside of Visible Hands only at your direction or when we have your consent to do so.  For example, we may ask to share your personal information with other organizations similar to ours that we think you may be interested in learning about. 


Legal Proceedings.  We may share personal information with third party entities, organizations, governmental authorities, or individuals outside of Visible Hands if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:

  • Meet any applicable law, regulation, subpoena, legal process or governmental request;
  • Enforce a contract we are a party to, including investigation of potential violations thereof;
  • Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; or
  • Protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Visible Hands, our personnel, affiliates, fellows, or the public as required or permitted by law.


Sale or Merger.  We may share personal information about you as part of a merger or acquisition, asset sale, financing, liquidation or bankruptcy, or acquisition of all or some portion of our organization to another organization, before and after the transaction closes. In such a case, unless otherwise directed by applicable law, your personal information would remain subject to the terms of the applicable privacy policy in effect at the time of such transfer. 


Aggregate Information.  We may de-identify or aggregate personal information so that you are not identified as an individual, and use and disclose that information without restriction. 


Choices about Your Personal Information

Access and Deletion.  If you would like access to personal information that we have about you, or would like to request that we delete personal information that we have about you, please contact us at contact@visiblehands.vc.  Please note that we may not be able to provide access to some or all personal information, and may not be able to delete some or all personal information, such as for example, when providing access would be overly burdensome, or where we need to retain your personal information for legal compliance or record-keeping purposes.  We may require you to provide certain information to verify that it is you making a request. 


Cookies.  By modifying your browser preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. If you choose to reject all cookies you may be unable to use some features of our website. You can learn more about cookies and how they work at www.allaboutcookies.org. You can always disable cookies through your browser settings. You can opt-out from third party cookies that are used for advertising purposes on the NAI website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.


Declining to provide information.   To provide certain Services, such as our fellowship program, we need to collect personal information.  If you do not provide required information or later request that we delete it, we may not be able to provide those Services to you. 


Marketing.  You may unsubscribe from Visible Hands marketing communications at any time by following the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any such communication. Most promotional communications will also offer recipients choices about receiving additional messages. 


At the present time our Services do not respond to “Do Not Track” signals or similar mechanisms.


International Transfer

We are based in the United States, and our Services are hosted there.  If you are using our Services from another country, the laws governing our collection and use of  personal information may be different from the laws of your country.  If you decide to use our Services, or share your personal information with us, you are agreeing to be governed by the laws of the United States, and agree to the transfer of your personal information to the United States.


Children

Our Services are not intended for use by children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are under 18, please do not attempt to use our Services or send any personal information about yourself to us.  If you are the parent of a child under the age of 18, and you believe he or she has shared personal information with us, please contact us at contact@visiblehands.vc so that we can remove such information from our systems.  


Security of Your Personal Information  

We use reasonable security measures, including measures designed to protect against unauthorized or accidental loss, destruction or damage to your personal information.  We also take certain measures to enhance the security of our Services, however, since the Internet is not a 100% secure environment, we cannot guarantee, ensure, or warrant the security of any personal information you transmit to us. There is no guarantee that personal information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our security safeguards. 


Retention

We retain personal information in accordance with applicable law. The length of time we keep personal information depends on the type of information and whether we have an on-going business or legal need to retain it.


Third Party Websites and Services

Our Services may contain links to other websites and services operated by third parties. These third-party websites and services may collect personal information about you if you click on a link or visit those websites or services. Your interactions with these features and third parties are governed by the privacy policy of the third party, not by this Policy.  


Changes to this Policy

We may make changes to this Policy from time to time. When we do, we will post the updated version on this page. We encourage you to read this page each time that you use our Services so that you will be aware of any changes, and your continued use of our Services shall constitute your acceptance of any such changes. Changes to this Policy take effect from the date of publication, unless stated otherwise. 


How to Contact Us

If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, or about this Policy, or about our privacy practices in general, please contact us at contact@visiblehands.vc.

Visible Hands

25 Dorchester Avenue, #52002 

Boston, MA, 02205 

United States