Privacy Policy

1. Controller and Contact Details

Circle Now Collective is operated by About Me Agency, LLC, a California limited liability company with its registered address at 4428 Young Drive, Montrose, CA 91020, United States. About Me Agency, LLC is the controller responsible for the personal information we collect and use through the platform, except where a third-party service provider, facilitator, payment processor, or video platform acts as an independent controller under its own privacy policy.

You can contact us about privacy questions or requests at hello@circlenow.co, or by writing to: About Me Agency, LLC, 4428 Young Drive, Montrose, CA 91020, USA.

2. Information We Collect

Account information. When you create an account, we collect information such as your name, email address, password, city, country, timezone, account role, membership status, and account preferences.

Profile and community information. You may choose to add a bio, profile photo, contact details, circle interests, location, specialties, or visibility settings. Some profile information may be visible to other users if you choose to make it public or if it is necessary to display facilitator profiles.

Booking and membership information. We collect information about circles or coaching sessions you book, attend, cancel, host, or are credited for, including dates, times, facilitator names, attendance status, Zoom link access, payment method, amount paid, membership plan, credits, and related transaction records.

Payment information. Payments are processed by Stripe or another payment processor. We do not store your full card number, expiry date, or CVC. These details are handled directly by Stripe or the applicable payment processor in accordance with their own privacy terms. We may receive limited payment-related information such as transaction ID, amount, currency, billing status, subscription status, invoice status, refund status, and the last four digits or brand of a payment method where provided by the processor.

Facilitator application and facilitator information. If you apply to facilitate or act as a facilitator, we may collect application answers, experience, training, specialties, bio, profile photo, location, availability, session descriptions, circle listings, payout-related information, communications, approval status, and records necessary to manage facilitator access.

Communications. If you contact us, respond to emails, submit forms, request support, send feedback, report a concern, or communicate through platform features, we collect the content of those communications and related metadata.

Circle and coaching participation information. We may collect administrative records showing that you booked, attended, hosted, cancelled, or were removed from a session. We do not intentionally record the private substance of circles. Facilitators and participants may see or hear information you voluntarily share in live sessions, and their use of that information is governed by our Terms and any applicable facilitator obligations.

Consent records. When you create an account or make a payment, we record the version of these Terms and Privacy Policy you agreed to, the moment of agreement, your IP address, and your browser's user-agent string, so that we can demonstrate your consent to a specific version of these documents if required.

Technical and usage information. We may collect IP address, device information, browser type, pages visited, referring pages, timestamps, log data, cookies, approximate location from IP address, security events, and similar usage data to operate, secure, improve, and troubleshoot the platform.

Sensitive or special-category information. We do not require you to provide health information, mental health information, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, political opinions, or other sensitive information to create an account or book a circle. Because circles are relational spaces, you may voluntarily disclose sensitive information in live sessions, messages, applications, support requests, or facilitator communications. Please do not share sensitive information with us or others unless you are comfortable doing so and it is necessary for your participation or request.

3. How We Use Information

We use personal information to:

• create, authenticate, secure, and manage accounts;
• display available circles, coaching sessions, facilitator profiles, and community features;
• process bookings, payments, memberships, cancellations, credits, refunds, invoices, and related records;
• send confirmations, reminders, Zoom links, membership notices, password reset emails, policy notices, support replies, and service-related communications;
• review facilitator applications, manage facilitator onboarding, approve or deny circles, and administer facilitator access;
• moderate the platform, investigate safety concerns, enforce our Terms, prevent misuse, and protect participants, facilitators, the platform, and the public;
• respond to questions, reports, complaints, legal requests, and support needs;
• operate, test, maintain, debug, secure, and improve the website and services;
• comply with legal, tax, accounting, consumer protection, payment, fraud prevention, and regulatory obligations;
• send optional updates or marketing communications where allowed by law and your preferences.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not rent or trade your personal information to advertisers.

4. Legal Bases for Processing

Where EU, UK, or similar data protection laws apply, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

• Contract: to provide accounts, bookings, membership, circles, coaching-session booking features, facilitator tools, payments, and support you request;
• Legitimate interests: to operate, improve, secure, protect, and administer the platform; prevent fraud and abuse; communicate with users; and enforce our Terms;
• Consent: where you choose to make optional profile information public, receive optional marketing, upload optional content, or where consent is otherwise required;
• Legal obligation: to comply with accounting, tax, payment, consumer protection, privacy, safety, or legal process requirements;
• Vital interests or substantial public interest: in rare cases where processing is necessary to protect someone from serious harm or respond to urgent safety concerns.

Where sensitive or special-category information is voluntarily provided, we process it only where a lawful condition applies, such as your explicit consent, substantial public interest, legal claims, or another lawful basis permitted by applicable law.

5. How Information Is Shared

We share personal information only as reasonably necessary to operate the platform, provide services, comply with law, or protect the community. This may include sharing with:

• Facilitators: limited participant information needed to host a circle or coaching session, such as name, booking status, attendance details, and relevant communications;
• Participants: information you choose to share in live sessions or optional community features, and limited facilitator profile information necessary to identify a session host;
• Payment processors: such as Stripe, to process payments, subscriptions, refunds, invoices, and fraud checks;
• Video and meeting providers: such as Zoom, to provide access to online sessions;
• Email and communication providers: to send confirmations, reminders, support messages, password resets, and platform notices;
• Hosting, security, analytics, and technical providers: to host, secure, monitor, troubleshoot, and improve the platform;
• Professional advisers: such as lawyers, accountants, insurers, and auditors where necessary;
• Authorities or legal parties: where required by law, legal process, safety obligations, or to protect rights, safety, users, facilitators, the platform, or the public;
• Business successors: in connection with a merger, sale, reorganization, transfer, or similar transaction involving all or part of the platform.

Service providers are expected to process personal information only for the purposes we authorize and to protect it appropriately.

6. Third-Party Services

Stripe. Payments are handled by Stripe. We do not store your full payment card number, expiry date, or CVC. Stripe may process payment and billing information as an independent controller or processor depending on the context. Stripe's privacy practices are described in Stripe's Privacy Policy.

Zoom. Circles and coaching sessions may be hosted on Zoom. We share your name, email address, booking status, and session access information with Zoom only to the extent reasonably necessary to provide access to a session, manage attendance, or operate the session. When you join a Zoom meeting, Zoom may collect information under Zoom's Privacy Policy and settings. Circle Now does not control all Zoom data practices.

Email delivery. Transactional and notification emails (confirmations, reminders, password resets, and similar service messages) are delivered via Google's Gmail SMTP service. Limited information — your email address, your name, and the message content — is processed by Google to deliver the email.

Newsletter. If you subscribe to our newsletter, your email address and any optional profile information you provide are passed to our newsletter provider (Kit) to deliver the messages you've asked for. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter email.

Other providers. We may use hosting, security, database, customer support, or calendar tools. We will use reasonable care in selecting providers appropriate for the sensitivity of the information processed.

7. Community Profile Visibility

Some profile fields may be optional and visible only if you choose to make them visible, or if you are an approved facilitator whose profile is listed publicly. Participant community profile visibility is off by default unless you affirmatively choose otherwise through the available account settings. Community visibility settings can be changed through your account where available. Non-members may not add a public community bio or make contact information public through member-only community features.

Please do not publish contact details, sensitive personal information, or third-party information in your profile unless you are comfortable with others seeing it and you have the right to share it.

8. Cookies and Analytics

We use a small number of essential cookies and similar technologies to keep you logged in, remember your preferences, process bookings, protect accounts, and prevent abuse. We do not currently use third-party advertising cookies or cross-site tracking cookies.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect account login, checkout, booking, membership, or other platform features.

9. International Transfers

Circle Now is an online platform and may use providers, facilitators, team members, or infrastructure located in different countries. Your information may be processed in countries other than where you live, including countries that may have different data protection laws.

Where required, we use appropriate safeguards for international transfers, such as contractual protections, standard contractual clauses, provider data processing terms, adequacy mechanisms, or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

10. Data Retention

We keep personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law. Retention periods vary depending on the type of information and why we use it.

• Account information is generally kept while your account is active and for a reasonable period after closure for safety, legal, fraud prevention, and recordkeeping purposes.
• Booking, payment, invoice, membership, credit, and tax-related records may be kept for the period required by accounting, tax, and payment laws.
• Consent records (the version of these documents you agreed to, the time, IP address, and user-agent) are retained for as long as necessary to evidence consent under applicable data protection law.
• Support, safety, dispute, and conduct records may be kept as long as necessary to address the issue, protect users, enforce Terms, or establish or defend legal claims.
• Optional public profile information is generally kept while you maintain it or while your facilitator profile remains active, unless we need to retain a record for legitimate safety, legal, or operational reasons.
• Technical logs are usually kept for shorter periods unless needed for security, fraud prevention, troubleshooting, or legal reasons.

When information is no longer needed, we delete, anonymize, or restrict it where reasonably possible.

11. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information, including access controls, password hashing, secure payment processing through Stripe, role-based access where appropriate, and secure hosting practices. Access to personal information is limited to designated team members, facilitators, contractors, and service providers who need it for authorized platform purposes and are expected to keep it confidential.

No online system can be guaranteed completely secure. You are responsible for protecting your login credentials, using a secure device, and telling us promptly if you suspect unauthorized access to your account.

12. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to, or receive a copy of your personal information, and to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. You may also have the right to complain to a data protection authority.

You can update some account and profile information through your dashboard. To make a privacy request, email hello@circlenow.co. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. Where required by applicable law, we aim to respond within one month, unless an extension is permitted or required.

Some information may be retained where necessary for legal obligations, legitimate business purposes, safety, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, accounting, tax, payment records, or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

You may unsubscribe from optional marketing emails using the unsubscribe link where provided or by contacting us. You will still receive service-related messages necessary for your account, bookings, membership, safety, payments, or legal notices.

13. Children

The platform is intended for adults only. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has provided personal information to us, contact us and we will take appropriate steps to delete or restrict it.

14. Facilitators and Participant Information

Facilitators may receive limited participant information to host, manage, or communicate about circles and coaching sessions. Facilitators must use participant information only for the purpose of providing the relevant session or responding to related platform communications, and they must not misuse, sell, publish, or contact participants outside appropriate session-related purposes unless the participant has separately consented.

If a facilitator collects information outside the platform or runs independent services outside Circle Now, that facilitator may be separately responsible for their own privacy practices.

15. Live Sessions, Recordings, and Confidentiality

Circle Now does not intentionally record circles or coaching sessions unless all required consents are obtained and the recording is clearly disclosed. Participants and facilitators are prohibited by our Terms from recording, screenshotting, livestreaming, or otherwise capturing sessions without permission from Circle Now and all affected participants.

Although we ask participants and facilitators to respect confidentiality, live sessions involve other people. We cannot guarantee that another participant or facilitator will keep information confidential. Please use care in deciding what to share.

16. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The effective date above reflects the latest version. If changes are material, we may notify you through the platform, by email, or by requiring renewed acceptance where appropriate. Continued use of the platform after an updated policy becomes effective means the updated policy applies to future use.

17. Contact

Questions, concerns, or privacy requests can be sent to hello@circlenow.co.