Privacy
Who is responsible
The controller is Simmonds Language Services, owner: James Simmonds, Schaufelder Str. 11, 30167 Hannover, Germany. Contact for data protection questions: [email protected], +49 511 9573 3819.
Visiting the website
simmonds.online is hosted by Vercel. When you open a page, the server processes your IP address, the page, the time and your browser details to deliver the page and keep it secure (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). We load fonts from our own server. We use no tracking and no advertising cookies, and the marketing pages store nothing in your browser. Signing in uses the cookies that the login needs.
Contact form
When you send us a message, we store your name, e-mail address, message, the page you sent it from and, if present, the website you came from and the campaign tags in the link. We use this to answer you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). The message is e-mailed to us through Resend.
Account and login
For your account we store your e-mail address, name, time zone, first language, language level (CEFR) and notification settings. Login runs through Clerk. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. We delete or anonymise your account 12 months after your last activity, unless you have an active or paused membership, or earlier on request.
Payment
You pay for the membership through Stripe. We do not see card data. We keep your customer and subscription ids and the status. We keep invoices for as long as tax and commercial law require (Art. 6(1)(b) and (c) GDPR).
Booking and reminders
When you book a seat, we store your booking and your attendance. We send a confirmation with a calendar file and, unless you turn it off, a reminder 30 minutes before the class, through Resend. We delete booking data 24 months after the class, and cancelled bookings 30 days after the cancellation.
Live classes
The audio and video of your class run in real time through LiveKit. We do not record classes. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Your teacher can switch on an AI assistant; it listens only to the teacher's microphone, never to yours, and is labelled as an AI in the room. For the assistant we use Google Gemini.
Speaking assessment (only with your consent)
If you have consented and your teacher switches the assessment on for a class, only your microphone is turned into text during that class. An AI estimates your English against five criteria (range, accuracy, fluency, coherence, interaction), and your teacher writes your report from it.
Audio is never stored.
The transcript is deleted once the reports are written, after 30 days at the latest. Scores are deleted 12 months after your last class, reports 12 months after release.
Your teacher decides on every level. Nothing becomes a grade or a decision about your participation automatically.
Without consent you take part as usual and are not assessed. You can withdraw consent at any time in your account (Art. 7(3) GDPR).
Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). We use no voice recognition and no biometric identification.
Appointments with James
When you book a conversation with James we store your name, e-mail address, optionally company, phone number and message, and the appointment (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). We delete cancelled appointments after 30 days and past ones 12 months after the appointment, unless a customer relationship follows.
Waiting list
While the conversation classes are not open, you can join a waiting list. We store your e-mail address and, if you give them, your name and level, together with the time and wording of your consent, a hashed form of your IP address (to limit abuse) and the language of the page. You join in two steps: we send one e-mail through Resend with a link, and you only stay on the list once you confirm. Unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted after seven days. When a place is ready we send you one invitation e-mail with a personal link. We use your details for nothing else. We only add you to the newsletter if you tick the separate box for it (see “Newsletter”). You can unsubscribe with the link in every e-mail; we then delete your details at the next daily clean-up. The legal basis is your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can withdraw at any time.
Newsletter
On the waiting-list form you can also order our newsletter with a separate box that is not pre-ticked. Joining the waiting list does not depend on it. The newsletter only starts once you click the link in a separate confirmation e-mail (double opt-in). Resend sends the e-mails (USA, on the basis of the EU standard contractual clauses).
For this we store in our database (Convex) your e-mail address, the language, your level if you gave it, that you signed up through the waiting list, the wording and version of your consent, the times of sign-up and confirmation, and a hashed form of your IP address. Unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted after 30 days. You can unsubscribe at any time with the link in every newsletter; your waiting-list place is not affected. The legal basis is your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can withdraw at any time. We keep the evidence of your consent while you receive the newsletter.
Processors and transfers outside the EU
Clerk (login, USA), Stripe (payment, USA/EU), Convex (database), Vercel (hosting), LiveKit (live audio and video), Resend (e-mail, USA), Google (Gemini: assistant, speech-to-text and reports, USA), TypeSafe (scoring for the speaking assessment, USA), Cerebras (teaching material for the teacher, USA). We have data processing agreements with these providers. Where data goes to the USA we rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or on EU standard contractual clauses.
Your rights
You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability and objection, and you can withdraw a consent at any time. Write to [email protected]. You can also complain to a data protection authority; in Lower Saxony this is the Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz Niedersachsen.