Privacy Policy

Modified: January 2023

This website is owned and operated by Tophatmonocle Corp. d/b/a Aktiv Learning. Throughout the site, the terms “Aktiv Learning”,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Tophatmonocle Corp.

Aktiv Learning (referred to herein as “we” “us” or “our”) respects your concerns about security and privacy and values the relationship we have with you. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) applies to any online interface (e.g., website, mobile application or other interactive service) that contains a link authorized by Aktiv Learning to this Policy (each, a “Site”, and, collectively, the “Sites”).

These Site(s) are intended for people 13 years of age and older. If you are under 13, please do not submit any personal information to us through the Sites. If you are under the age of 18, please review this Policy with your parent or guardian before submitting any information to us.

By using or accessing any Site, you confirm your agreement to the terms of this Policy that are in effect at that time. Your use of these Site(s) are further governed by the Terms of Use posted on the respective Site(s).

This Policy does not apply to any offline collection of information.

This Policy describes the types of information we collect on the Sites, how we may use the information, with whom we may share it, and the choices available to you regarding our use of the information. We also describe the measures we take to safeguard the information and tell you how to contact us about our privacy practices.

The Sites may include or provide links to applications or websites that are provided by third parties (“Third Party Apps”). Aktiv Learning does not maintain or host the Third Party Apps. This Policy does not apply to information that you may provide to any Third Party Apps. Instead, the privacy policy that the Third Party App presents to you will govern all use of that information.

Information We Collect

We may collect both Personally Identifiable Information and Non-Personally Identifiable Information by and through our Sites. For purposes of this Policy, “Personally Identifiable Information” means any information or combination of information that we collect or use by or through a Site that identifies you personally or from which you can be identified. “Non-Personally Identifiable Information” means information that we collect or use by or through a Site that does not identify you personally or contain direct personal identifiers about you.

We use your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our Privacy Policy and in accordance with applicable data protection laws ( (the “Data Privacy Laws”).

Personally Identifiable Information that we may collect includes:

  • contact information, such as your first and last name, and for visitors to our catalog Sites, e-mail address, and telephone number;
  • registration information such as a username, password, user ID;
  • payment-related information (including debit or credit card-related information);
  • information that personally identifies you in any content that you voluntarily provide on or through our Sites (such as through blogs, forums and discussion groups);
  • instructor educational information, such as your school name and location, course information, when combined with information that personally identifies you;
  • information concerning your interests and product preferences when combined with information that personally identifies you;
  • transaction information associated with any purchases made on our Sites;
  • student ID, polling responses, attendance data, participation and performance points, analytics and usage data, location and subscription information, and remote ID; and
  • Student Data (defined below)

“Student Data” is information that we maintain on behalf of an educational agency or institution and that is directly related to or contains personally identifiable information about a “Student.” A “Student” is a person using our learning platform at the direction of an educational agency or institution. For example, Student Data includes, without limitation, a Student’s first name, last name, email address or other online contact information, a Student number assigned by the educational agency or institution or that is otherwise part of the educational record, and school test results, as well as any content that a Student may provide or usage data that we may generate as a result of a Student’s use of the Sites.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information that we may collect includes information about your device or internet browser, information obtained from cookies that have been placed on your device or internet browser at our Site, demographic information, aggregated information, anonymous or de-identified information about how you use our Sites, including the transactions you perform using our Sites, and other information obtained through your access to or use of a Site that does not identify you personally. We may supplement the information we collect from you with information we receive about you from other sources.

In addition, when you visit our Sites, we may collect certain information by automated means, such as cookies and web beacons. The information we collect in this manner includes IP address, browser characteristics, device characteristics, operating system, language preference, referring URLs, information on actions taken on our Sites, and dates and times of website visits.

A “cookie” is a text file that websites send to a visitor’s computer or other Internet-connected device to uniquely identify the visitor’s browser or to store information or settings in the browser. Your browser may tell you how to be notified when you receive certain types of cookies or how to restrict or disable certain types of cookies. For more information on cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information provided by the Interactive Advertising Bureau at www.allaboutcookies.org. Please note, however, that without cookies you may not be able to use all of the features of our Sites. For more information on how we use cookies and other tracking technologies, see the “Online Tracking” section below.

We receive Personally Identifiable Information from you directly and also from the applicable educational agency or institution.

How We Use The Information We Collect

We collect both Personally Identifiable Information and Non-Personally Identifiable Information when you use our Sites to apply for, obtain, or use our products and services, to make inquiries about our products and services, or to provide information and feedback about our products and services.

Except as noted below in this section under NOTE FOR STUDENT DATA, we may use the information we collect to:

  • create and manage your account;
  • communicate with you about your account, including your subscription status;
  • to process and administer your payments;
  • deliver products and services you have purchased;
  • offer and provide products, services and information to you, including newsletters;
  • permit you to participate in, and to communicate with you regarding, blogs, forums, and discussion groups;
  • interact with you or to permit you to interact with our social media accounts
  • communicate with you about, and administer your participation in, special events, programs, surveys, contests, sweepstakes, and other offers or promotions, to the extent permitted by law;
  • display content on our Sites, such as stories, product reviews and photos;
  • respond to and communicate with you about your requests, questions and comments;
  • process claims we receive in connection with our products and services;
  • operate, evaluate and improve our business (including developing new products and services; managing our communications; determining the effectiveness of our sales, marketing and advertising; analyzing and enhancing our products, services and Sites; and performing accounting, auditing, billing, reconciliation and collection activities);
  • perform data analyses and other processing (including market and consumer research, trend analysis and anonymization);
  • protect against, identify and prevent fraud and other criminal activity, claims and other liabilities; and
  • comply with and enforce applicable legal requirements, relevant industry standards and our policies, including the provisions of this Policy and any applicable Terms.

We use information collected online through cookies, web beacons and other automated means for purposes such as (i) recognizing your computer when you visit the Sites, (ii) tracking you as you navigate the Sites, and enabling the use of e-commerce capabilities, (iii) improving the Sites’ usability, (iv) analyzing use of the Sites, (v) managing the Sites, and (vi) personalizing the Sites. We also use this information to help diagnose technical and service problems, administer our Sites, and gather demographic information about our users.

We also may from time to time acquire from third parties information on individuals who may be interested in our products. We may use this information for marketing and advertising. However, we do not combine that information with Student Data.

We also may use the information we obtain about you in other ways for which we provide specific notice at the time of collection.

NOTES FOR STUDENT DATA:

(1) We may share Student Data with the educational agency or institution that the Student attends or to which the Student Data pertains.

(2)  WE DO NOT USE STUDENT DATA FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING, EXCEPT AS PERMITTED BY DATA PRIVACY LAWS, E.G., WITH THE OPT-IN CONSENT OF THE STUDENT OR GUARDIAN, AS APPLICABLE. HOWEVER, AKTIV LEARNING MAY PLACE CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING ON PAGES USED BY STUDENTS THAT ARE NOT BASED ON THE USE OF STUDENT DATA AND DO NOT TARGET STUDENTS IN VIOLATION OF ANY APPLICABLE DATA PRIVACY LAWS.

Online Tracking

Our Sites use two kinds of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies exist only for as long as your browser remains open. Once you close your browser, they are deleted. Persistent cookies, in contrast, last beyond each visit to the Sites and remain on your hard drive after you close your browser. The cookies used on the Sites include those that are strictly necessary cookies for access and navigation, cookies that track usage (performance cookies) and remember your choices (functionality cookies), and for visitors to our catalog Sites, cookies that provide you with targeted content or advertising (described more below). You can modify your browser settings to decline cookies or notify you when a cookie is set. However, if you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to use certain interactive features of our Site. Note that you can always go back and delete cookies from your browser; however, that means that any settings or preferences controlled by those cookies will also be deleted and you may need to recreate them. If you access our Site through a mobile device, we might also collect additional information such as a unique device identifier and location information. When you use our Site, other parties such as third-party advertising partners and analytics providers may also collect information about your online activity. We do not track members in order to serve targeted advertising and therefore do not respond to “do-not-track” technology. If you are concerned about having cookies on your computer, you can set your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being set, allowing you to decide whether to accept it. You can also delete cookies from your computer. However, if you choose to block or delete cookies, certain features of our Site may not operate correctly. For more information, see www.allaboutcookies.org.

We may use the information we obtain from cookies for the following purposes:

  • to recognize your computer when you visit the Sites
  • to track you as you navigate the Sites, and to enable the use of e-commerce capabilities
  • to improve the Sites’ usability
  • to analyze use of the Sites
  • to manage the Sites
  • to personalize the Sites, including for visitors to our catalog Sites
  • to enable targeted advertisements that may be of particular interest to you (excluding Students)
  • to recognize you when you move between devices so that your work can be synchronized

We use your Personally Identifiable Information for the following additional purposes:

  • for legal purposes: we may use and share Personally Identifiable Information for legal purposes, including financial, regulatory, tax and other legal obligations and to respond to governmental or regulatory requests or subpoenas or for litigation purposes;
  • for our legitimate business interests and those of a third party: we may use your Personally Identifiable Information to manage our legal, regulatory, financial and business requirements, including obtaining legal advice, in the course of disputes and litigation, internal and/or regulatory investigations;
  • for our business purposes: we may use your Personally Identifiable Information to help us efficiently operate the Site and provide our products and services, to count and recognize visitors to the Site, to enable certain features on the Site and for other purposes related to managing our business;
  • for other purposes: subject to applicable law, we may use your Personally Identifiable Information for additional purposes in connection with the Site and our products and services, where you have provided your prior consent, to the extent required under Data Privacy Laws, or as notified to you from time to time.

We also may use “web beacons” on some of our Sites. A web beacon, also known as a pixel tag or clear GIF, may be used to transmit information collected through cookies to our service providers’ servers. These web beacons enable our service providers to compile information about your browsing activity on the Sites. We do not share with third parties (other than our service providers), Personally Identifiable Information we may collect through such web beacons, such as names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers without your express permission.

NOTE FOR STUDENT DATA: While some of our Sites collect information for third party advertising purposes as described above, we do not collect or use Student Data for these purposes, nor do we deliver targeted advertising to Students. We may, however, display to Students contextual advertisements on our Sites and engage in other advertising activities, as permitted by law, e.g., with the appropriate opt-in from the Student or parent/guardian, as applicable.

We also use third-party web analytics services on our Sites, such as Mixpanel. These service providers help us analyze how users use our Sites. The information collected for this purpose (including your IP address and other information collected by automated means) will be disclosed to or collected directly by these service providers. These service providers may retain and use Non-Personally Identifiable collected from users of our Sites in connection with their own businesses, including in order to improve their products and services.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your Personal Identifiable Information being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed.

Information We Share

NOTE FOR STUDENT DATA: We do not share Student Data that we collect on the Sites with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

Except for Student Data we may, from time to time, acquire and share with third parties information on individuals who may be interested in our products or third party products for their own marketing purposes.

Related Companies. We may share the information you provide with companies that are related to Aktiv Learning through common ownership (“related companies”). Related companies are required to maintain Personally Identifiable Information in compliance with all applicable laws as well as this Policy.

Service Providers. We share Personally Identifiable Information with other parties who perform services on our behalf and need Personally Identifiable Information to perform those services. For example, we may retain service providers to manage our customer databases or provide customer or technical support. These service providers will be required to maintain the confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information and to use it in compliance with this Policy and any applicable service agreements.

Third Party Learning Management System (“LMS”). If you are using our products or services as integrated with a third party’s LMS, depending on the level of integration, we may receive your information through such third party and/or provide your information to such third party. We will maintain any information we receive through such third party in accordance with this Policy. However, we are not responsible for the actions of such third party as it pertains to information that is shared with or by such third party which shall be governed by such third party’s own privacy policies.

Third Party Applications. You may be able to purchase third party applications (through our Sites or otherwise) which are compatible and/or packaged with our products or services. Information may be shared between us and the provider of such third party application in order to enable certain functionalities or depending on the settings you choose. We will maintain any information we receive through such third party in accordance with this Policy. However, we are not responsible for the actions of such third party as it pertains to information that is shared with or by such third party which shall be governed by such third party’s own privacy policies.

Social Media Other Sites. When you interact with our Sites on a social media platform, we may collect certain information, including your account ID or username, that you make available to us on that page. If you choose to access the Sites through a social networking service, we may share certain information about you and your activities, including Personally Identifiable Information, with that social networking service. With your permission, we also may share information about your activities, including what you view on the Sites, with that social network’s users.

Credit Card Payment Processor. When you make an online purchase from our websites, your payment information will be processed by a third party payment processor. We require our third party payment processors to comply with the PCI Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and they (and not us) will have access to your complete credit card information.

Blogs, forums, discussion groups. Our Sites may feature blogs, forums and discussion groups. Please be aware that some or all of the information you provide (including Personally Identifiable Information) in connection with these activities may be made publicly available.

Student Data: Instructor and Other Students. Each Student generally may access his or her own work and, if applicable, scores. Instructors may access work (including time spent) and scores of Students enrolled in their course. In instances in which instructors require or permit Students to work collaboratively, Students may be able to view and comment upon the work of others.

Student Data: School Administrators. If we are a service provider to your school or you are utilizing our products or services as part of a course adoption, we may share your Student Data with authorized administrators, instructors and other school officials in connection with the provision of such products or services. If you have any questions about their use of your Student Data, you should contact your school directly.

Other. We also may disclose information about you, including Personally Identifiable Information (i) if we are required to do so by law, regulation or legal process (such as a court order or subpoena), (ii) in response to requests by government agencies, such as law enforcement authorities, (iii) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity; (iv) to protect or defend our rights, the Sites, or our users, and (v) to protect the personal safety of us, our users, or the public. We reserve the right to transfer any information we have about you, including Personally Identifiable Information, in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a reorganization, dissolution or liquidation). We cannot guarantee such entity will have the same privacy practices or follow the practices described in this Notice.

How long your personal information is kept for

We will only retain your Personally Identifiable Information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for Personally Identifiable Information, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the Personally Identifiable Information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personally Identifiable Information, the purposes for which we process it and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and applicable legal requirements.

Links To Other Websites

Our Sites may contain links to other websites for your convenience and information. These may include, for example, some of the blogs and forums you may access through our Sites. These websites may be operated by companies not affiliated with us. Information you submit through these third party websites will be subject to their privacy policies. We suggest you review their privacy policies to understand how they may collect, use, and share your information. We are not responsible for the content of any websites that are not affiliated with Aktiv Learning, any use of those websites, or their privacy practices.

Children’s Privacy

Our Sites are not directed to children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 on our Sites.

How We Protect Personal Information

To protect Personally Identifiable Information, we apply administrative, technical, and physical security measures. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be absolutely secure, and we disclaim any representation or warranty that our information security systems or those of our service providers and joint marketers are absolutely invulnerable to breach or compromise.

Marketing/Your Choices

NOTE FOR STUDENT DATA: We do not use Student Data to market to you except that we may display to Students contextual advertisements on our Sites and engage in other advertising activities, as permitted by law, e.g., with the appropriate opt-in from the Student or parent/guardian, as applicable. When we have the appropriate consent to market to you (directly or through your parent/guardian/authorized legal representative, if applicable, you may subsequently withdraw your consent by contacting us through one of the means listed under “How to Contact Us” and specifying that you wish to withdraw your prior consent for use of Student Data for marketing purposes.

With respect to non-Student Data, we give you the option of requesting that we not use your information for marketing purposes, or share your information with related companies for their own marketing purposes. Click here to send us an email with your name and email address(es), if you do not want us to use your information for marketing purposes, or share your information with related companies for their own marketing purposes.

Please be aware that we are able to process an opt-out request only for a specific email address. So, if you have more than one email address or if you have changed your email address, your opt-out request may not be processed properly. If you believe you have opted out, but continue to receive emails from us, please contact us by one of the means listed under “How to Contact Us” below, and we will endeavor to resolve the issue. Please note that the foregoing opt-out covers marketing communications only and you may continue to receive transactional email as it pertains to your purchase of products or services from us and support issues related thereto.

In some instances, you will be required to opt-in to receiving marketing email communications in order to receive such emails, in which case you consent to receiving such communications from us. You may withdraw your consent to receiving communications from us at any time by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of the e-mail communications, or sending us an email with your name and email address at hello@aktiv.com.

Notice to California Residents

California’s “Shine the Light” law, Civil Code Section 1798.83, requires certain businesses to respond to requests from California customers asking about the business’ practices related to disclosing personal information to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes or to provide an opt-out for such sharing of information to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. Please see our opt-out mechanism above under MARKETING/YOUR CHOICES that will enable you to notify us if you would like to opt-out of such sharing of your information with third parties.

Data Privacy Rights

Subject to applicable Data Privacy Laws, you may (i) have the right to access Personally Identifiable Information we maintain about you and obtain a copy of that information, (ii) update or correct inaccuracies in your Personally Identifiable Information, (iii) object to our use of your Personally Identifiable Information, (iv) request deletion your Personally Identifiable information from our database; and (v) request that a copy of it is provided to a third-party. There are certain exemptions and restrictions of these rights under the Data Privacy Laws that enable Personally Identifiable Information to be retained, processed or withheld from access and we will inform you of these if applicable. To exercise these rights, please contact us as indicated in the How To Contact Us section of this Policy. To help protect your privacy and maintain security, we may take steps to verify your identity before granting you access to the information, which may require you to provide us with Personally Identifiable Information.

NOTE FOR STUDENT DATA: To request access to and correct Student Data, we may refer such request to your respective Institution or University for it to address such request.

International Data Transfers

The Sites are designed for and targeted to U.S. and Canadian audiences and governed by and operated in accordance with the laws of the U.S. and Canada. If you are resident outside the U.S. or Canada, your Personally Identifiable Information is processed by us in the US and Canada. The US has a lower standard of data privacy laws compared to the European Data Privacy Laws. Canada is, however, deemed to have “adequate” data privacy laws compared to the European Data Privacy Laws. While there may be users of the Sites from other countries, we do not represent or warrant that the Sites comply with any rules, laws or regulations of other countries.

Please note that any information that you provide to us while using these Sites is being transferred to or collected in the US and US law governs.

BY CONTINUING TO USE THESE SITES AND/OR SUBMITTING YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION, YOU CERTIFY THAT YOU MEET AGE AND OTHER ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SITE AS SET FORTH IN THIS POLICY AS WELL AS THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, AND CONSENT TO COLLECTION, USE, DISCLOSURE, STORAGE AND TRANSFER OF YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION OUTSIDE THE EEA, SWITZERLAND, CANADA, OR ANY OTHER NON U.S. JURISDICTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS POLICY.

Anonymous Registration

If you are a Student using our Sites as part of a required course adoption and you do not want to provide us with your name, you may register under an alias. You will need to create an alias and create and open an email account under that alias with a third-party email service. Next, when you register on our Sites, you will do so by providing your alias and the email address you’ve opened under that alias. You will be required to accept this Policy and the applicable Terms of Use as part of the registration process, which you will complete under your alias. IT IS CRITICAL THAT YOU MAKE SURE YOU INFORM YOUR INSTRUCTOR OF YOUR ALIAS SO THAT HE/SHE HAS ACCESS TO YOUR WORK. Do NOT provide Aktiv Learning with any information that would enable us to link your alias to your real name.

Business Transactions

We may transfer any information we have about you as an asset in connection with a proposed or completed merger or sale (including transfers made as part of insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings) involving all or part of us or as part of a corporate reorganization or other change in corporate control.

Email and Other Marketing Communications

With respect to non-Student Data, if you sign-up to receive marketing communications from us, you may withdraw your consent at any time by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of the e-mail communications, or sending us an email with your name and email address at hello@aktiv.com. Please note that you may continue to receive transactional or account-related electronic messages. From time to time, we may also obtain your consent to share Personally Identifiable Information with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

Updates To Our Online Privacy Policy

Changes to this Policy will become effective when those changes are posted to the Sites. Your continued use of the Sites subsequent to any change to this Policy constitutes your acceptance of the change. Please review this statement periodically to ensure you are aware of any changes or updates to this Policy.

How To Contact Us

If You have any questions about this Privacy Policy, concerns about how we manage Your Personal Information, or if you would like to make a complaint about how we manage Your Personal Information, please contact us by mail or email at:

Tophatmonocle (US) Corp
151 Bloor Street West, Suite 200
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5S 1S4
legal@tophat.com

We will endeavor to answer Your questions within a reasonable period of time and advise You of any steps taken to address the issues raised by You.

Canadian Residents

If you are a resident of Canada, the following Canadian-specific provisions apply to our processing of your personal information in lieu of and in addition to the relevant sections of the Privacy Policy. In the event of any inconsistency, this Section applies.

References to “we”, “us”, “our” in the Privacy Policy are references to the Aktiv Learning entity responsible for the processing of your personal information.

Personally Identifiable Information means all information about an identifiable individual. Non-Personally Identifiable Information means information that is non-identifiable. To the extent Non-Personally Identifiable Information can be used, alone or in combination with other information, to identify an individual, we treat it as Personal Information.

We collect and use Student Data for the purposes of providing services to Students on behalf of our educational institution clients. We may also contact Students by email to obtain feedback on our products and services. We may use non-Personally Identifiable Information to improve our Sites and product and service offerings.

Legal Requirements: We and our Canadian, US and other service providers may provide your personal information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order (which may include lawful access by Canadian, US or other foreign governmental authorities, courts or law enforcement agencies), to other organizations in the case of investigating a breach of an agreement or contravention of law or detecting, suppressing or preventing fraud, or as otherwise required or permitted by applicable Canadian, US or other law.

Notice to New Zealand and Australian Residents

  • No Exclusion

None of the provisions of this Policy are to be read as excluding any applicable mandatory or non-excludable law.

  • Personal Information

“Personally Identifiable Information” means information about an individual who is identified or reasonably identifiable.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information means any information about an individual where that individual is not identified or reasonably identifiable.

  • Information We Share

You also consent to us providing your personal information to authorized third parties, who may use that information to market products and services to you.

  • International Data Transfers

We will take all reasonable steps, using such security safeguards as it is reasonable to take in the circumstances, to ensure that your personal information is held securely and protected (including against unauthorized access, loss and misuse).

If it is necessary for the information to be given to a third party (as permitted under this policy) we will take reasonable steps to minimize the risk of unauthorized use or disclosure.

  • Failure to Provide Personally Identifiable Information

In some cases, you may wish not to provide us with Personally Identifiable Information. If however, you fail to do so, in some cases we may not be able to provide you with products, services or assistance, or to respond adequately to you.