Essence is brought to you by the developer Essence Labs, Inc. (“our”, “we” or “us”). This privacy statement explains how we use your personal information to provide you with the Essence mobile application (“Essence”) and other services offered by us (the "Services"). This page is used to inform visitors regarding our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information if anyone decided to use our Service. If you choose to use our Service, then you agree to the collection and use of information in relation to this policy. The Personal Information that we collect is used for providing and improving the Service. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy.
The terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, which are accessible at Essence unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy.
Please note that we may de-identify, aggregate, or anonymize your health information in such a way that it no longer identifies you. We may use this type of information for purposes we think will benefit our users, such as for research, or to understand trends and habits. You can find more detailed information about ways in which we use, collect, and share personal information below.
We believe you should be in control of your personal information. Consistent with this belief
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We will delete your personal information if you ask us to, including if asked when you cancel your membership.
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We will provide you with access to your personal information if you ask us to, including if asked to cancel your membership.
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We will NOT share your identifiable health information with others except to the extent necessary to run and provide our services. Our service providers are contractually bound to only use your health information to provide services to us and are prohibited from sharing your health information with third parties (unless they are required to do so under applicable laws). For example, we may use a cloud service provider to store health information you provide while using our app.
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We do NOT share personal information with employers that provide Essence to their employees as a part of benefits packages.
Our mission at Essence is to support conscious and responsible employers in equipping their employees with the best resources and tools to optimize their health and well-being.
At Essence, we take your privacy seriously. We want to assure you that we will never sell or share your personal information regarding your cycle, symptoms, productivity, or any other sensitive data with employers, neither now nor in the future. We prioritize confidentiality, and you can trust that we will never provide any information that could identify you. Additionally, we do not have any influence over decisions such as promotions or terminations.
Information Collection and Use
For a better experience, while using our Service, we may require you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information, including but not limited to:
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Account information. The information that you provide to us when creating and updating an account on Essence, including your name, username, date of birth, password, and e-mail address.
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Health and well-being information which you submit through the Essence App or when interacting with us and the Essence App. This may include health information relating to your:
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Various symptoms that are related to your menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and mental and physical health;
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The frequency and length of your period;
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Lifestyle and well-being details, such as frequency of exercise, energy levels, sleeping habits, libido, sexual activities skin and hair conditions, habits, and use of drugs;
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Your preferences, such as the place and time you want to commit to the task or you choose to help you succeed in your well-being goals;
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Your lifestyle habits, such as your practice of meditation or your frequency of exercise when you fill out the setup questionnaires.
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Anonymized device information such as the device's identifiers, operating system, browser type, and network information.
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Information relating to your use of the Essence App, including interface interaction information.
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We may collect personal information, such as email address, phone number, or mailing address when you request information about our Services, register for our newsletter or loyalty program, request customer or technical support, apply for a job, or otherwise communicate with us.
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We may contact you to participate in surveys. If you decide to participate, you may be asked to provide certain information which may include personal information.
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We may collect personal information from individuals when interacting during conferences, trade shows, webinars, masterclasses, workshops and other in-person and online events.
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Our Services may contain social media buttons such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter (that might include widgets such as the “share this” button or other interactive mini programs). These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our Services, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Your interactions with these platforms are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
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We may obtain information about you from other sources, including through third-party services and organizations. For example, if you access our Services through a third-party application, such as an app store, a third-party login service, or a social networking site, we may collect information about you from that third-party application that you have made available via your privacy settings.
We do not monetize your identifiable health information or other personal information. As such, we do not sell your health information or other personal information. This is our promise.
We believe we have a responsibility to create an ever-better experience for our members by identifying and sharing cutting-edge insights. We will always look to provide new content and product features, improve and customize our services in the area of mental and hormonal health without identifying you.
Log Data
We want to inform you that whenever you use our Service, in case of an error in the app we collect data and information (through third-party products) on your phone called Log Data. This Log Data may include information such as your device Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, device name, operating system version, the configuration of the app when utilizing our Service, the time and date of your use of the Service, and other statistics.
With Whom We Share Your Data
Essence has taken technical and organizational measures to ensure that your Personal Data is processed securely and protected from loss, abuse and unauthorized access. Organizational security measures are measures that are implemented in work methods and routines within the organization. Technical security measures are measures implemented through technical solutions.
Data Processors. We may share your personal information, including your Health Information, with our third-party Data Processors (e.g. Application Program Interfaces, Software Development Kits) who use that information to help us provide our Services. This includes services that provide us with hosting, payment processing, customer service, prevent or mitigate illegal activity and/or elaborate aggregate statistics, and related services.
Disclosures to protect us or others. We may access, preserve, and disclose any information we store associated with you to external parties if we, in good faith, believe doing so is required or appropriate to: comply with law enforcement or national security requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety; enforce our policies or contracts; collect amounts owed to us; or assist with an investigation or prosecution of suspected or actual illegal activity. We will exhaust all legal remedies available to fight law enforcement requests regarding your personal information before responding to them.
Disclosure in the event of merger, sale, or other asset transfers. If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, purchase or sale of assets, or transition of service to another provider, your information may be transferred as part of such a transaction, as permitted by law and/or contract. In this case, we will attempt to notify you electronically by posting a notice on our Services or by sending an email to you.
Research
We may share anonymized data about users of the Essence App with research or medical institutions. This will help them to carry out research on health and well-being, with the intention of improving women’s health. The type of anonymized data that we might share includes mood, period, or sleep data. As the data is anonymized, it will not identify any individual and therefore will not be personal data.
Cookies
Cookies are files with a small amount of data that are commonly used as anonymous unique identifiers. These are sent to your browser from the websites that you visit and are stored on your device's internal memory.
This Service does not use these “cookies” explicitly. However, the app may use third-party code and libraries that use “cookies” to collect information and improve their services. You have the option to either accept or refuse these cookies and know when a cookie is being sent to your device. If you choose to refuse our cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of this Service.
Security
We value your trust in providing us with your Personal Information, thus we are striving to use commercially acceptable means of protecting it. But remember that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and reliable, and we cannot guarantee its absolute security despite all our effort.
We take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal data is treated securely. In particular, all information you provide to us is stored on our supplier’s secure servers (including within the ‘cloud’) and any information we process relating to your payment transactions will be sent over an encrypted connection or other secure networks. We will also anonymize your personal information before sharing it with third parties for research purposes. Where you have chosen a password that enables you to access the Essence App, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.
By using our Services or providing personal information to us, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of our Services. If we learn of a security system’s breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically by posting a notice on our Services or by sending an email to you.
International data transfers
All information processed by us may be transferred, processed, and stored anywhere in the world, including, but not limited to, the United States or other countries, which may have data protection laws that are different from the laws where you live. We endeavor to safeguard your information consistent with the requirements of applicable laws. This Supplemental California Privacy Notice only applies to our processing of personal information that is subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”). The CCPA provides California residents with the right to know what categories of personal information Essence has collected about them and whether Essence disclosed that personal information for a business purpose (e.g., to a service provider) in the preceding 12 months. California residents can reach out to us at letstalk@theessence.app to get all necessary information.
For purposes of the CCPA, we do not “sell” personal information, nor do we have actual knowledge of any “sale” of personal information of minors under 16 years of age.
California residents have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of their rights conferred by the CCPA.
Notice to European users
The information provided in this “Notice to European users” section applies only to individuals in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland, which we refer to in this notice collectively as “Europe”.
Personal information. References to “personal information” in this Privacy Policy are equivalent to “personal data” governed by European data protection legislation.
Controller. Essence is the controller of your personal information covered by this Privacy Policy for purposes of European data protection legislation.
Legal bases for processing. We use your personal information only as permitted by law. Our legal bases for processing the personal information described in this Privacy Policy are described below.
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Legal basis - Processing purpose. Details regarding each processing purpose listed below are provided in the section above titled “How we use your personal information”.
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To operate our services - Processing is necessary to perform the contract governing our provision of our services or to take steps that you request prior to signing up for the services. If we have not entered into a contract with you, we process your personal information based on our legitimate interest in providing the services you access and request.
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For research and development / For compliance and protection / Sharing your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy - These activities constitute our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal information for these activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).
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To comply with law - Processing is necessary to comply with our legal obligations.
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With your consent - Processing is based on your consent. Where we rely on your consent you have the right to withdraw it any time in the manner indicated when you consent or in the services.
Use for new purposes. We may use your personal information for reasons not described in this Privacy Policy where permitted by law and the reason is compatible with the purpose for which we collected it. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the applicable legal basis.
Sensitive personal information. If you provide us with any sensitive personal information to us when you use the services, you must consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal information, you must not submit such sensitive personal information through our services. Sensitive information includes information related to health, biometrics or genetic characteristics.
Your rights. European data protection laws (e.g. GDPR) give you certain rights regarding your personal information. If you are located in Europe, you may ask us to take the following actions in relation to your personal information that we hold:
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Access. Provide you with information about our processing of your personal information and give you access to your personal information.
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Correct. Update or correct inaccuracies in your personal information.
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Delete. Delete your personal information.
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Transfer. Transfer a machine-readable copy of your personal information to you or a third party of your choice.
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Restrict. Restrict the processing of your personal information.
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Object. Object to our reliance on our legitimate interests as the basis of our processing of your personal information that impacts your rights.
You may submit these requests by email to letstalk@theessence.app. We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and process your request. Applicable law may require or permit us to decline your request. If we decline your request, we will tell you why, subject to legal restrictions. If you would like to submit a complaint about our use of your personal information or our response to your requests regarding your personal information, you may contact us or submit a complaint to the data protection regulator in your jurisdiction. You can find your data protection regulator at https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en
Links to Other Sites
These Services may contain links to other sites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site. Note that these external sites are not operated by us. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of these websites. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
Children’s Privacy
These Services do not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13 years of age. In the case we discover that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we immediately delete this from our servers. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so that we will be able to do the necessary actions.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Thus, you are advised to review this page periodically for any changes. We will notify you of any significant changes via email or notifications in the Essence App. You understand and agree that you will be deemed to have accepted the updated Privacy Policy if you continue to use our Services after the new Privacy Policy takes effect.
This policy is effective as of April 10th, 2024.
Contact Us
Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child. To protect your privacy, we will take the following steps to verify your identity before fulfilling your request. When you make a request, we will ask you to provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative, which may include asking you to answer questions regarding your account and use of our Services.
If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us at letstalk@theessence.app.