Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is collected, used, and shared when you visit www.sponge.co.nz (the “Site”).

• PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

• When you visit the Site, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the Site, we collect information about the individual web pages that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site, and information about how you interact with the Site. We refer to this automatically-collected information as “Device Information.” We collect Device Information using the following technologies:

  • “Cookies” are data files that are placed on your device or computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. For more information about cookies, and how to disable cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
  • “Log files” track actions occurring on the Site, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
  • “Web beacons,” “tags,” and “pixels” are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Site.

  When we talk about “Personal Information” in this Privacy Policy, we are talking both about Device Information.

• HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

• We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).

• SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

• We share your Personal Information with third parties to help us use your Personal Information, as described above. We also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site--you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptouthere. Finally, we may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.

• BEHAVIOURAL ADVERTISING

• As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page at http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work. You can opt out of targeted advertising by:

  • Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads
  • Google - https://www.google.com/settings/ads/anonymous
  • Bing- https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/policies/personalized-ads

  Additionally, you can opt out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out portal at: http://optout.aboutads.info/.

• DO NOT TRACK

• Please note that we do not alter our Site’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.

• CHANGES

• We may update this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.

• CONTACT US

• For more information about our privacy practices, if you have questions, or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us by email.

Terms of Use

By using the Sponge Learning Management System website ("Service"), you are agreeing to be bound by the following terms:

• “The Agreement” means this Terms of Engagement/ Terms of Service constitute the Agreement between Sponge Limited (“We”, “Supplier”, "Our" or “Sponge”), and “You” (“Customer”) ordering the “Services”.
• “Sponge” means Sponge Limited, a New Zealand based company having its registered office in Auckland 0620 New Zealand. “Sponge” means Sponge Limited, a New Zealand based company having its registered office in Auckland 0620 New Zealand.
• “Services” means Supplier’s hosted internet accessible learning management solution service, under the name Sponge, made available to you on a subscription term basis under the Agreement at a website address provided to you (“Portal”).
• “An Authorised User” means any Customer employee, contractor, agent or any other individual authorised by a Customer to access and use the Services, via the Customer’s purchased subscriptions, for the purpose specified herein. You are responsible for an Authorised Users’ compliance with this Agreement.

Sponge reserves the right to update and change the Terms of Service from time to time without notice. Any new features that enhances the current Service, including the release of new tools and resources, shall be subject to the Terms of Service. Continued use of the Service after any such changes shall constitute your consent to such changes. You can review the most current version of the Terms of Service at any time at Terms of Service.

• Violation of any of the terms below will result in the termination of your account/s and the attached services

• You must be a human to have a login.

  You must provide your legal full name, a valid email address, and any other information requested in order to complete the signup process.

  Your login may only be used by one person - a single login shared by multiple people is not permitted. You may create separate logins for as many people as you require provided such is agreed to by Sponge. In the event that multiple users are found using the same login, a warning will be issued and upon further transgression the login and associated account will be terminated.

  Your login may only be used by one person and may not be used for a group/multiple persons training session/s.

  You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password. Sponge cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage from your failure to comply with this security obligation.

  You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.

  You may not use the Service for any illegal or unauthorised purpose. You must not, in the use of the Service, violate any laws in your jurisdiction (including but not limited to copyright laws), nor violate any laws of New Zealand.

• Payment, Refunds, Upgrading and Downgrading Terms

• Payments can be made upfront via credit/debit card unless prior arrangement is made with Sponge in writing.

  The Service is billed in advance on an annual basis and is non-refundable. There will be no refunds or credits for partial period/s of service, upgrade/downgrade refunds and or refunds for unused period/s with an open account.

  The subscription will be automatically renewed at the annual renewal date.

  New users will be charged on a prorated basis for the first year and then be billed at the business engagement date in years after.

  For any upgrade or downgrade in plan level, your credit card that you provided will automatically be charged the new rate on your next billing cycle.

  In the event that the Customer is part of a ‘group’, some flexibility and potential exception may be granted in terms of billing cycles and potential upgrading/downgrading. This will be decided on an ad hoc basis and Sponge will be under no obligation to grant the aforementioned leniency.

  You are responsible for keeping your credit card valid and while you will be sent a reminder of any impending valid date expiration on your credit card, any loss of content, features, or capacity of your account that occurs as a result of your credit card becoming invalid will be your responsibility.

  Downgrading your service may cause the loss of content, features, or capacity of your account. Sponge does not accept any liability for such loss.

• Cancellation and Termination

• You are solely responsible for cancelling your account.

  In the event that you wish to cancel the service, you are required to give Sponge written notice of your intentions to cancel following which you will still have access to your account for the remaining year.

  The cancellation will take effect at the end of the current paid year and the User will have until the end of this period to extract the necessary participation data to evidence their collection of CPD points.

  Sponge, at its sole discretion, has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the service at any time and without prior notice in case of (a) fraudulent, criminal, grossly negligent, wilful, or otherwise intentional misconduct, or violation of any law or regulation, in connection with the performance of your obligations hereunder and/or (b) demonstrated usage negatively impacting the performance of the service and/or (c) breach of the herein service terms and conditions. Such termination of the service will result in the deactivation or deletion of your account or your access to your account.

• Amendment to the service and prices

• Prices of all services, including but not limited to annual subscription plan fees to the service, are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice from us. Such notice may be provided at any time by posting the changes to the service itself.

  Sponge shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, price change, suspension or discontinuance of the service.

• Transferring the course to someone else

• Completed courses and the attached components are not transferable to any other person however, if you have purchased a Course on behalf of your company, and provided that company’s details to us, we may, at our sole discretion, transfer your enrolment/s to other people within your company only.

  We may at any time assign, transfer or deal in any other manner with all or any rights under this agreement and may subcontract or delegate in any manner any or all of our obligations to any third party or agent.

• Content and Personal Data

• Where Sponge provides any materials to You and/or Authorised Users in the form of templates or other material, this material is understood to be used by You and/or your Authorised Users with any adjustments made to meet the needs of your business and/or the local jurisdictions that your organisation works within. For clarity, Sponge takes no responsibility for materials provided by Sponge used by the Customer.

  You hereby also acknowledge and agree that we process data related to your employees, Financial advice provider or representatives that is collected and used by us, as well as connection data created through the use and operation of the services, in order to administer or manage our delivery of services.

  Such data may include personal data and information about the contractual commitments between us and you, whether collected at the time of the initial registration or thereafter in connection with the delivery, management or administration of services, including billing and collecting of payments.

  You hereby acknowledge and agree that we also process personal data that we collect, when you submit a request for support services or other troubleshooting, including information about the service, your portal and other details related to the support incident, such as authentication information, information about the condition of the services, and error-tracking files. We process such personal data in order to respond to the request and solve the problem reported.

  We shall process the aforementioned data for our own business purposes for as long as it is necessary in relation to the purposes stated above, namely for the duration of the agreement and until collection of the payments, unless processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation by mandatory statutory law or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

  You hereby acknowledge and agree that we shall process your name and email address to communicate with You for the presentation and promotion of the services or of new services. You may at any time, free of charge, unsubscribe from such electronic communication, easily by clicking the button “unsubscribe” contained in the electronic communication.

• Copyright and Content Ownership

• Sponge has the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse or remove any content that is available or proposed to be made available via the service.

  The ‘look and feel’ of the service is copyrighted. You may not duplicate, copy, or reuse any portion of the HTML/CSS, JavaScript, or visual design elements or concepts without express written permission from Sponge.

  Using our services does not give you ownership of or any intellectual property rights in our services or the content you access.

  Unauthorised sharing, copying and reproduction of the Sponge Online Learning Management System and the attached content is strictly prohibited. Sponge reserves the right to recover; loss of revenue, loss of profits and all other costs related (including legal costs) incurred in the enforcement of this clause.

  Sponge reserves the right to use investigative techniques to identify login sharing.

  In addition to the above clause 4 the customer acknowledges that, in addition to seeking the relevant relief, Sponge may bring a cause of action for any and all losses, liabilities, damages, deficiencies, costs (including, without limitation, court and arbitration costs), and expenses (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees), incurred by Sponge and arising out of or due to any breach of this terms of service.

  Sponge contains copyrighted material, trademarks and other proprietary information, including, but not limited to, text, software, photos, video, graphics, music and sound, and the entire contents are copyrighted under copyright laws. Sponge owns copyright in the selection, coordination, arrangement and enhancement of such content, as well as in the content original to it. You may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit, any of the content, in whole or in part.

  Except as otherwise expressly permitted under copyright law, no copying, redistribution, retransmission, publication or commercial exploitation of downloaded material will be permitted without the express permission of Sponge.

  If you behave in a way that gets us in legal trouble, we may exercise legal recourse against you. You agree to indemnify, defend (if we so request), and hold harmless Sponge, our group companies, and their officers, directors, suppliers, partners, and agents from an against any third-party claims, demands, losses, damages, or expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising from (a) the content you post or submit, (b) your use of the Services (c) your violation of these Terms, or (d) your violation of any rights of a third party. Your indemnification obligation will survive the termination of these Terms and your use of the Services.

• General Conditions

• Online learning courses are available for 12 (TWELVE) consecutive months only.

  Users may only use the components within a course during the current billing period which is between the agreement start date and its anniversary.

  Any components within a course that remain unused on the anniversary date of this Agreement start date will expire and shall be deemed used.

  Sponge offers standard online learning courses which are not presently customisable. If the User wishes to obtain a customised course, this may be completed on an ad hoc basis subject to prior consultation and quoting. Sponge is under no obligation to create any customisation for the User.

  Your use of the service is at your sole risk. The service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis.

  Technical support is only provided to paying account holders and is only available via email or telephone at Sponge’s sole discretion.

  Sponge will respond to queries within 3 business days, unless the issue requires Platform support from a third party and / or the master platform. In the event that Sponge requires assistance and or support/rectification in the form of customer service or technical support, you understand and agree that Sponge shall not be held liable for any delay or inconvenience experienced by the Customer and or the Customers Users as a result of the actions of the Master Platform.

  You understand that Sponge uses third party vendors and hosting partners to provide the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and related technology required to run the Service.

  You must not modify, adapt or hack the service or modify another website so as to falsely imply that it is associated with the service.

  To the maximum extent permitted by law, Sponge contracts out of all provisions of any Consumer Law.

  We retain the right to contact you from time-to-time via email and telephone. You can remove yourself easily from the newsletter lists. You can also request to be removed from all communication emails by unsubscribing or by contacting Sponge directly.

  Sponge does not warrant that (i) the service will meet your specific requirements, (ii) the service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, and (iii) the quality of any products, services, information, or other material purchased or obtained by you through the service will meet your expectations.

  You expressly understand and agree that Sponge shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses resulting from: (i) the use or the inability to use the service; (ii) the cost of procurement of substitute goods and services resulting from any goods, data, information or services purchased or obtained or messages received or transactions entered into through or from the service; (iii) unauthorised access to or alteration of your transmissions or data; (iv) or any other matter relating to the service.

  You expressly understand and agree that Sponge will not liable for unforeseen outages nor will Sponge be obligated to refund or reimburse users for direct or indirect loss of temporary access to the systems.

  The failure of Sponge to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of service shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. The Terms of Service constitutes the entire agreement between you and Sponge and governs your use of the service, superseding any prior agreements between You and Sponge.

  Sponge will, in its sole discretion determine if a user has violated these Terms of service.

  Sponge does not warrant or guarantee that your participation in, or completion of, any course will result in, or improve the likelihood of, you meeting regulatory or licensing requirements and or any obligations you may have under regulation and or legislation.

  Except as otherwise agreed upon Sponge disclaims all warranties relating to any third party systems or platforms accessible through the services either express or implied including but not limited to, any warranties relating to merchantability, accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement or availability.

  If any provision or part provision of this agreement becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it shall be deemed modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid, legal and enforceable. If such modification is not possible, the relevant provision or part provision shall be deemed deleted. Any modification to or deletion of a provision or part provision under this clause shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the rest of the Terms.

  If we invite you to post content the following will apply:

  As a student, you are responsible for all activity posted by yourself on the Sponge platform. This includes the content that you post or otherwise create on the Sponge platform, such as reviews, questions, posts, messages, and any other content you share.

  In addition to any restrictions above you agree that you will not:

  • post or provide any content or information that is inappropriate, offensive, racist, hateful, sexist, racially or ethnically objectionable, pornographic, false, misleading, incorrect, infringing, defamatory, libellous, invasive of another’s privacy, relating to or encouraging money laundering or gambling, or otherwise unlawful in any manner;
  • post or transmit any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, spam, or any other form of solicitation through the Services or to any user;
  • engage in any activity that would require Sponge to obtain licenses from or pay royalties to any third party, including the need to pay royalties for the public performance of a musical work or sound recording;
  • impersonate another person, gain unauthorized access to another person's account, or otherwise deceive or mislead others about the origin of the content or information;
  • frame or embed the Services (such as to embed a free version of a course) or otherwise circumvent the Services; or
  • abuse our resources, including support services.

  In the event that the above is not adhered to, Sponge reserves the right to limit, suspend, terminate the account/s associated, and/or limit, suspend, ban the User/s and claim the necessary remedies available at law.