Terms of Service

Introduction

Connexien’s technology delivers highly skilled business talent and innovative workforce solutions to the world of financial services and its leading companies. While our technology provides unique opportunities to businesses as well as service providers, consultants, experts and specialists, the success of every engagement is predicated on the behavior of the people involved.

Connexien’s Terms of Service specify the baseline legal guidelines of participating in the Connexien platform, and incorporate these Terms of Service by reference, which is a document designed to ensure a shared standard for engagement through the platform and an alignment between Connexien and its users. In accordance with the Terms of Service, users who diverge from these terms may be barred from using Connexien either temporarily or permanently, depending on the seriousness of the breach. Connexien will update this policy regularly, though there may be unforeseen situations leading to account deactivation that are not listed in this policy.

Professionalism and Quality

Service providers, consultants, experts and specialists using Connexien should expect correspondence to be delivered by clients professionally and in good faith. Similarly, Connexien’s clients should expect to engage with experts producing high-quality work. Maintaining a high standard for platform engagement leads to better outcomes and more opportunities for clients and experts to engage. In addition to potential account deactivation causes set forth in the Terms of Service, Connexien reserves the right to deactivate accounts according to the following quality guidelines:

• If a user receives two or more ratings that are below two stars, their account may be temporarily suspended pending further review.

• If Connexien receives one or more complaints about a user, Connexien may temporarily suspend the user’s account pending further review. These complaints need not be limited to the duration of a launched project.

For details on the review process, please see the Mediation Processes and Procedures section at the end of this document.

Fraud and Misrepresentation

Fraudulent activity undermines the trust on which Connexien is built. Connexien expects all users to adhere to the following guidelines and will permanently deactivate any account associated with fraudulent activity. Specifically:

• All information on a user’s profile must be true and accurate. Users agree to provide Connexien with accurate and complete biographical information, including job status and employment history, and to promptly update that information as it changes. Connexien may verify information provided by or about a user. If requested, users must assist Connexien in this process.

• Experts engaging with members must fully disclose the resources responsible for completing project work. Any change in resources must be disclosed to the client as soon as possible, even if there is no change in total project cost.

• Clients posting projects must fully disclose context that is relevant and critical to an expert’s ability to successfully complete a project.

• Project work must not include misrepresentation or fraudulent creation of data. The expert is required to disclose any sources used for project work upon request from the client or Connexien.

Discrimination and Inappropriate Behavior

Connexien maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding all forms of discrimination, harassment, or abuse. In particular, it is unacceptable to refuse to provide or accept services based on a person’s race, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, gender identity, age or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal or state law.

All reports of inappropriate and/or discriminatory behavior are taken very seriously and will result in permanent loss of access to the Connexien platform. If you feel that you have been inappropriately targeted by another user, please reach out to info@connexien.com.

Mediation Processes and Procedures

In the event a complaint or incident arises between users on the platform involving our Contributing Partner Program, Form Builder and Publishing Platform, Connexien will assist in the resolution of these matters in a fair and timely manner. Connexien’s team will address reported complaints and incidents in the following way:

• Initiate investigation, including individual conversations with all users involved in the complaint;

• Review all project-related data and correspondence captured on the platform and gathered through conversations with involved parties;

• Coordinate mediation between the users involved in the complaint or incident;

• Make determination for appropriate mediation outcome(s), which may include user deactivation, partial payment, refund of funds exchanged, and/or project re-staffing;

• Communicate determination to all involved parties via email; and

• Promptly carry out mediation outcome actions.

Connexien expects all users of the platform to cooperate with any investigations or other activities by Connexien in furtherance of the above procedures. As an outcome of mediation, Connexien may terminate or suspend a user’s right to use the Connexien platform. Termination or suspension will be effective immediately.

If Connexien terminates or suspends a user’s Connexien account, the user is prohibited from creating a new account under their name, a fake or borrowed name, or the name of any third party, even if they are acting on behalf of the third party. In addition to terminating or suspending a user’s account, Connexien reserves the right to take appropriate legal action, including without limitation pursuing civil, criminal, and injunctive redress.

If you have any questions about these Terms of Service or Connexien’s user policies, please reach out to info@connexien.com.

Connexien LLC (“Connexien”, “our”, “us” or “we”) provides this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information we receive from users of our website located at www.connexien.com (the “Site”) and related software, services, features and content (collectively, the “Connexien Platform” or the “Platform”). This Privacy Policy applies only to information that you provide to us through the Platform. A user of the Platform or Site, whether as a registered user or a non-registered user just browsing the Site, is hereinafter referred to as a “User,” or collectively, the “Users”.

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on the Site. You are advised to consult this policy regularly for any changes. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Connexien Terms of Service, accessible at: www.connexien.com. Capitalized terms used herein but not otherwise defined will have the definitions provided in the Terms of Service. As used in this policy, the terms “using” and “processing” information include using Cookies (defined below) on a computer, subjecting the information to statistical or other analysis and using or handling information in any way, including, but not limited to collecting, storing, evaluating, modifying, deleting, using, combining, disclosing and transferring information within our organization or among affiliates or partners we establish.

Information Collection and Use

Our primary goals in collecting, using and processing information via the Platform are to provide Users with access to and use of our Platform, to improve and further develop our Platform and to enable users to enjoy and easily navigate the Site.

Personally Identifiable Information

• In the course of using the Platform (whether as a Client or Contractor), we may ask you to provide us with, or grant us access to, or permission to obtain, certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you; personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to, your name, company name, email address, postal address, work experience and interests, and phone number (“Information”).

• If you use the Platform to make or receive payments, we will also collect certain Personal Information such as credit card information, Swipe, PayPal or other financial account information, and billing address.

• We may collect additional Personal Information to validate your identity, such as your date of birth, place of birth or taxpayer identification number. We may request documents to verify this information, such as a copy of your government-issued identification or photo, and we may authenticate it against third party databases or request a credit report.

• As further described in our Terms of Service, you may register or input data onto our Platform directly via the Site or by logging into your account with certain third party social networking services (including, but not limited to, LinkedIn or Facebook) (“SNS”) via our Site. If you choose to input data via an SNS, we will use the Personal Information you have provided to the SNS (such as your ”real” name, email address, gender, prior experience and other information you make publicly available via the SNS) to modify and update your account; the information we extract may depend on the privacy settings you have with the SNS. Other than what we may share with the SNS as described below, the Personal Information an SNS has about you is obtained by the SNS independent of our Platform, and Connexien is not responsible for its accuracy, legality, or non-infringement.

• You may link your Connexien account to your SNS account, in which case the SNS may share certain information about you with other SNS users, as well as sharing certain information about other SNS users with you. You represent that you are authorized to use your SNS account for the purposes described herein without breach by you of any of the terms and conditions that govern the SNS, and without obligating Connexien to pay any fees or making Connexien subject to any usage limitations imposed by such SNS. You can disable the link between your Connexien account and your SNS account at any time. PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ANY SNS IS GOVERNED SOLELY BY YOUR AGREEMENT(S) WITH SUCH SNS. If your SNS account terminates, then functions enabled through the link between your Connexien account and your SNS account will terminate as well.

• We also collect other information that you provide in connection with your use of the Platform (e.g., zip code (on its own) and individual preferences) (“Non-Identifying Information”). We collect additional Non-Identifying Information from Clients in the form of information related to jobs posted via the Platform (e.g., budget, location, history of job listings, timing of job performance and feedback/rating information). We also collect additional Non-Identifying Information from Contractors in connection with Contractor profiles (e.g., information on jobs previously performed, skills, tests taken, hourly pay rates and feedback/rating information). We use your Personal Information (in some cases, in conjunction with your Non-Identifying Information) mainly to provide the Platform, complete your transactions, and administer your inquiries.

Certain Non-Identifying Information would be considered a part of your Personal Information if it were combined with other identifiers (for example, combining your zip code with your street address) in a way that enables you to be identified. But the same pieces of information are considered Non-Identifying Information when they are taken alone or combined only with other non-identifying information (for example, your viewing preferences). We may combine your Personal Information with Non-Identifying Information and aggregate it with information collected from other Connexien Users to attempt to provide you with a better experience, to improve the quality and value of the Platform, and to analyze and understand how our Site and Platform are used, and to generate general industry analysis. We may also use the combined information without aggregating it to serve you specifically, for instance to deliver a product to you according to your preferences or restrictions.

When you register for the Platform, you will be opting-in to receive Connexien emails, newsletters, marketing and/or promotional materials. We will also use your Personal Information to send this content to you. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive such communications from us, you can opt-out or customize the type of messages you receive from Connexien by clicking on the unsubscribe link included at the bottom of Connexien emails, or by emailing us at info@connexien.com. Please note that any such opt-out applies solely to marketing related emails. Connexien will still need to communicate with you via email with regarding non-marketing related matters related to the Platform and you acknowledge and agree that Connexien has the right to do so.

Connexien’s Use of Personal Information

Connexien uses Personal Information for the following general purposes:

• To provide our products and the Platform,

• For billing, identification and authentication, and fraud prevention,

• To analyze Site usage and improve our products and the Platform,

• To contact you and deliver administrative notices and communications relevant to your use our products and services,

• For internal market research, troubleshooting problems, and detecting and protecting against error, fraud or other criminal activity,

• For distribution to third-party contractors that provide services to Connexien and partners of Connexien who are bound by confidentiality obligations with respect to any Personal Information that we share with them,

• To enforce our Terms of Service, and

• As otherwise set forth in the Privacy Policy.

We may employ third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our Platform, to provide the services of the Platform on our behalf, to perform Site-related services (e.g., without limitation, maintenance services, database management, web analytics, payment processing, fraud detection and improvement of the Site’s features) or to assist us in analyzing how our Site and Platform are used. These third parties have access to your Personal Information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose. Although we ensure that our third-party agents (“Agents”) receiving your information are bound by confidentiality obligations. Connexien is not responsible for and shall not be liable for any issues that may arise regarding the Privacy Policies of any of its agents, affiliates, advertiser and/or any other third parties. By using this website, you do hereby agree to hold Connexien indemnify, defend and hold harmless Connexien from any claims and/or damages that may arise from the actions of any of Connexien’s Agents, affiliates and/or advertisers.

Regarding the use of information collected from users, Connexien’s decisions are centered on improving user experience by offering personalized services, content and advertising, and market research.

Ads are a standard part of user experience on the Internet, and Connexien believes that targeted advertising enhances this experience. Connexien may use Cookies (defined below) and other technologies and Personal Information to place ads where they believe interested parties will see them. In addition to banner ads, Connexien may advertise products, companies and events that we think might interest you through the email address you provide.

Connexien may analyze Personal Information and Web Navigational Data based on your interests and may use the analysis from this information in a way that does not contain any Personal Information (“Market Research”) in order to:

• Market the Platform

• Improve the likelihood of a sale to a new Users

• Increase the likelihood that a User's experience with the Platform is relevant to its interests

Connexien uses data at the individual level to sell products and services to Users who express an interest in these products and services, through a poll for example, or to Users who can be presumed to have an interest based on results from our Market Research.

Connexien may use your cell phone number to call or text you in order to provide the Platform. If you would like more information about our policy, or to opt out, please review our Terms of Service and email info@connexien.com; by accepting these Terms of Service you are indicating your consent to be contacted at the phone number you have provided for the purposes described above.

Information Sharing

• When you submit information to Connexien, it is collected, processed and maintained solely by us or by third-party Agents who are bound by confidentiality obligations. We may allow our business partners to collect information about Users that is not extremely sensitive Information. If you would like to opt out from the onward transfer of your information to our non-agent partners, you may send us an email at info@connexien.com. Include the word “privacy” in the subject line of the email and all your registration information in the body of the email.

• We may share or otherwise use aggregated information that does not include Personal Information and we may otherwise disclose Non-Identifying Information and Log Data with third parties for industry analysis, demographic profiling and other purposes. Any aggregated information shared in these contexts will not contain your Personal Information.

• Some Connexien content is “sponsored by” or “presented by” other companies. Connexien shares market research data (how the sponsorship performed, names of contest winners, etc.) collected on this website or via email surveys with these partners. This information is aggregated and not linked to specific Users.

• Partners may sponsor promotions and/or contests that require you to reveal details such as your name, address or phone number. When a Partner-sponsored promotion and/or contest is made available through our Platform, it will contain a link to the Partner’s privacy policy. Always check their privacy policy before revealing information about yourself. If you don't want these sponsors to have your Personal Information, you can choose to not participate in their contests, sweepstakes and other offerings.

• Connexien reserves the right to disclose Personal Information from both private and public areas of this website at our discretion, if required by law or if we are given reason to believe, in our sole discretion, that such disclosure is necessary in order to prevent harm to our Platform or our Users or to protect the rights of our Users, the general public, or Connexien, to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order or legal process.

• Finally, Connexien reserves the right to transfer, sell and/or distribute all information collected through the Platform to an affiliate, subsidiary, or third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or part of our business, assets or stock. We will require that new entity follows this Privacy Policy with respect to your Personal Information, as and to the extent required by applicable law, unless and until you consent to a different privacy policy of the new entity.

Client-Contractor Communication and Work Product

As part of the Platform, we may collect information and communication transferred between Client and Contractor, including without limitation the Work Product. Such data may include information input, sent or delivered by the Contractor or Client such as a memo, project details and timeline and responses to queries. Connexien may use this information for statistical analysis, product development, marketing and research. Except as noted above, we do not treat information contained in these communications as Personal Information, but we may use such information in association with Personal Information, and we may aggregate, analyze and evaluate such information for the same purposes as stated above regarding other Non-Identifying Information.

Log Data

When you visit the Site, whether as a registered user or a non-registered user just browsing the Site (a “User”), our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website (“Log Data”). This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, browser software version or the webpage you were visiting before you came to our Site, pages of our Site that you visit, the time spent on those pages, information you search for on our Site, access times and dates, and other statistics. In addition, we may use third party services such as Google Analytics that collect, monitor and analyze this type of information in order to increase our Site’s functionality and user-friendliness, to better tailor it to our visitors’ needs, and to detect suspicious activity. These third party service providers have their own privacy policies addressing how they use such information. We do not treat Log Data as Personal Information, but we may use it in association with Personal Information, and we may aggregate, analyze and evaluate such Log Data for the same purposes as stated above regarding other Non-Identifying Information.

Cookies

Like many websites, we use “Cookies”, a small data file that we transfer to your computer’s hard disk for record-keeping purposes, to collect information. We use Cookies for two purposes. First, we utilize persistent Cookies to save your registration ID and login password for future logins to the Site and to track your compliance with our marketplace policies. Second, we utilize session ID Cookies to enable certain features of the Site, to better understand how you interact with the Site and to monitor aggregate usage by Connexien Users and web traffic routing on the Site. Unlike persistent Cookies, session Cookies are deleted from your computer when you log off from the Site and Platform and then close your browser. You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting Cookies or to prompt you before accepting a Cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept Cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions of the Site or all functionality of the Platform.

No PHI

While Connexien takes security and privacy very seriously, Connexien is not a HIPAA Business Associate and the Connexien Platform is not HIPAA-compliant and should not be used to store any protected health information (“PHI”). You agree that you will not upload or store any documents containing PHI. To do so would be a violation of our Terms of Service.

Phishing

Identity theft and the practice currently known as “phishing” are of great concern to Connexien. Safeguarding information to help protect you from identity theft is a top priority. We do not and will not, at any time, request your credit card information, your account ID, login password, or national identification numbers in a non-secure or unsolicited e-mail or telephone communication. We suggest advise you not to respond to and to promptly report any email or telephone communication purporting to be from Connexien in which such information is collected. For more information about phishing, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website.

Contractor Profiles

If you choose to use the Platform as a Contractor, you will be able to create a profile, which will be publicly viewable via the Platform. Such profile information may include, but not limited to, profile picture, name, location, information on jobs previously performed via the Platform and outside the Platform, skills, industry designations, tests/licenses and/or exams taken, hourly pay rates and feedback/rating information. You may edit your Contractor profile via your account.

Feedback

We collect feedback from users about their experience with other users of the Platform. Please note that any User feedback provided via the Platform will be publicly viewable via the Platform.

Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement

Connexien cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of Connexien or a third-party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity.

Changing or Deleting Your Information

All registered users may review, update, correct or delete the Personal Information in their registration profile by contacting us or by making edits via their accounts. If you completely delete all such information, then your account may become deactivated. If you would like us to delete your account in our system, please contact us at info@connexien.com. If you have a Contractor or Client profile on the Platform, you may update the information stored in your profile by logging in to your account. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to honor your request; however, your Personal Information may remain in our archives. We may retain an archived copy of your records as required by law or for legitimate business purposes. Please bear in mind that neither you nor Connexien can delete all copies of information that has been previously shared with others on the Site.

Security

Connexien is very concerned with safeguarding your Personal Information. The security of such Personal Information is important to us. But remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number or social security number) on our registration or order forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). In some cases, we also encrypt sensitive information where it is stored on our systems. When you use the Platform to share Work Product and Personal Information, that Work Product and Personal Information will be made available to the Users with whom you agree to share such information. These Users, and not Connexien will be responsible for the privacy and security of your Work Product and Personal Information in accordance with the terms of any arrangement, including, without limitation, any non-disclosure agreement entered into with these other Users.

International Transfer

Your information may be transferred outside of the jurisdiction in which you reside and may be stored or otherwise maintained on — information systems and devices located in jurisdictions where the privacy laws differ from and in some cases may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide information to us, Connexien transfers Personal Information to the United States and processes it there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer and your acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that the treatment of such information will governed by the applicable laws of the United States.

Links to Other Sites

Our Site contains links to other websites. If you choose to click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s website. The fact that we link to a website is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices. We do not exercise control over third-party websites. These other websites may place their own Cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit Personal Information from you. Other sites follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the Personal Information you submit to them. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit.

Children

This Site is not directed to persons under 18. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from persons under 18. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with Personal Information without their consent, he or she should contact us at info@connexien.com. If we become aware that a person under 18 has provided us with Personal Information, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete such information from our files.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at info@connexien.com.

This Fee Policy may be updated from time to time in Connexien’s sole discretion and applies to our Contributing Partner Program, Form Builder and Publishing Platform via the Connexien site.

For each sale under our Contributing Partner Program, Stripe, our payments provider, will automatically take out a fee (generally 20-30 cents, plus a percentage usually under 3%) and a 30% Connexien service fee. The rest of your revenue will be automatically posted into your Stripe account.

Our Form Builder services provide customized form building solutions that are priced based on the complexity and specifications of each form request.  Our fees typically range from $50-$500 per customized form.

Our Publishing Platform allows for experts to publish and maintain a collection of white papers, articles, commentaries, and position statements for a flat $45 fee per post.

Also see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for additional information on our fees related to our Contributing Partner Program, Form Builder and Publishing Platform. We will notify you of any material changes to this Fee Policy by posting an updated version on the Site, but you are nonetheless advised to review this policy regularly.

If you have any questions about this Fee Policy, please contact us at info@connexien.com.

Our community relies on honest, transparent reviews. We will remove or alter a review if we find that it violates our review guidelines.

What are the Connexien Review Guidelines?

Reviews are your opportunity to build a good reputation in the Connexien community, as well as share your experience with the Connexien community. Since you can only write a review after a project is completed on the site, you can trust that any review you see on a profile page is the result of an actual person working with another member of the community.

We believe in free speech, transparency, and clear communication. Our community is built on trust, and trust comes from honest conversation. Therefore, we ask for reviews that are truthful, clear, and helpful to both the review’s recipient and the wider Connexien community.

When creating a review, we ask that you stick to the facts. The best reviews provide constructive information that helps the community make better decisions and is educational for the business or consultant in question. We strongly discourage personal insults, opinion that’s not backed up by examples, or generally unsociable behavior.

Connexien’s default position is not to censor, edit, or delete reviews. However, there are rare cases in which we may take the extraordinary step of disallowing or removing reviews. We reserve the right to remove reviews that violate our review guidelines.

How do Reviews Work?

All the reviews on Connexien are written by clients and consultants from our community, so any review you see is based on a project that was completed on the Connexien platform.

Editing a Review

After writing a review, if the client or consultant hasn’t completed their review yet, you can edit your public review until your client or consultant completes their review, or until the day window for leaving a review has closed (whichever comes first). Your private feedback for the review’s recipient and for Connexien are perpetually editable. You can edit your review on the feedback tab on the project workspace.

Previous Reviews

Past reviews are attached to the project and the public review will be available to anyone viewing your profile or the past project details. You will also see any Private Feedback that people have left you when you’re viewing projects that you have worked on.

Star Ratings

We ask our users to submit star ratings across several different metrics. The number of stars displayed on a user’s profile page is an average of the scores that different users have given for past projects.