Mento Design Academy is a brand of Mento LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company, United States (“Mento,” “Mento Design Academy,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information when you visit https://mentodesign.academy, interact with our landing pages, submit forms, book calls, apply for our programs, join our community, participate in our educational services, communicate with us, or otherwise use our websites, products, services, content, events, and related offerings together, the “Services.”
By using the Services, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Services.
This Privacy Policy is intended to comply with applicable privacy laws, including, where applicable, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (“CCPA/CPRA”), and other applicable privacy and data protection laws.
1. Who We Are
The controller or business responsible for the personal information described in this Privacy Policy is:
Mento LLC
Doing business as Mento Design Academy
Wyoming, United States
Postal Address: 447 Broadway, 2nd Floor Suite #1238, New York, NY 10013
Email: support@mento.design
2. Adults Only
Our Services are intended for adults who are at least 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe that a person under 18 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at support@mento.design, and we will take appropriate steps to delete the information.
3. Personal Information We Collect
We may collect personal information directly from you, automatically through your use of the Services, from third-party platforms, and from service providers we use to operate our business.
3.1 Information You Provide to Us
Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:
Name, email address, phone number, country, city, and other contact details.
LinkedIn profile, portfolio URL, website, resume/CV, or professional background.
Education, employment status, role, career goals, prior design experience, salary or compensation expectations, learning goals, and application responses.
Information submitted through application forms, lead magnets, newsletters, surveys, waitlists, contact forms, quizzes, referrals, or similar forms.
Payment-related information, such as billing name, billing address, invoice details, payment status, and purchase amount.
Communications with us, including emails, call notes, chat messages, support requests, feedback, and survey responses.
Student work, portfolio projects, assignments, design critiques, learning submissions, comments, testimonials, case studies, and related educational materials.
Community participation, including messages, posts, profile information, or other content you provide in Slack or other community spaces.
Any other information you choose to provide.
We do not intentionally request or collect sensitive personal information such as government identification numbers, health information, biometric data, precise geolocation, religious beliefs, union membership, or similar sensitive categories. Please do not submit sensitive personal information unless we specifically request it and provide appropriate notice.
3.2 Information Collected Automatically
When you visit our website or interact with our Services, we and our service providers may automatically collect:
IP address.
Device type, browser type, operating system, and device identifiers.
Pages viewed, links clicked, referral URLs, session duration, and interaction data.
Approximate location derived from IP address.
Cookies, pixels, tags, local storage, and similar tracking technologies.
Analytics, attribution, and advertising data.
We use tools such as Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Microsoft Clarity, Framer analytics, and similar technologies to understand how visitors use our Services, improve our website, measure marketing performance, and deliver or measure advertising.
3.3 Calls, Sessions, Recordings, and Transcripts
Mentor calls, student sessions, interviews, workshops, critiques, and other educational sessions may be recorded in audio and video and may be transcribed, including through tools such as Google Meet and AI-enabled transcription services.
We may use recordings, transcripts, session materials, student work, critiques, and related educational content to:
provide the Services;
support students and mentors;
review and improve our curriculum;
train future designers;
train or support our team and mentors;
create educational resources;
develop articles, lessons, guides, social content, case studies, or marketing materials;
improve our products, programs, operations, and quality assurance.
Where we use your name, photo, face, voice, testimonial, identifiable project, or other identifying content in public marketing or promotional materials, we will handle this in accordance with applicable law and any consent, release, authorization, or agreement that applies to you. We recommend that students review any enrollment agreement, media release, community guidelines, or terms that apply to their participation.
4. How We Use Personal Information
We may use personal information for the following purposes:
4.1 To Provide and Operate the Services
We use personal information to:
operate our website and landing pages;
process applications;
evaluate whether our programs are a good fit;
schedule calls and consultations;
provide educational programs, mentorship, workshops, feedback, and community access;
administer student participation;
provide support;
process payments and enrollment;
communicate with you about your account, application, program, or inquiry;
manage student progress, assignments, portfolio work, and critiques.
4.2 To Communicate With You
We may use your information to send:
application updates;
booking confirmations and reminders;
program information;
transactional messages;
administrative messages;
support responses;
policy updates;
educational content;
newsletters and marketing emails.
You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link in the email or contacting us at support@mento.design. We may still send non-marketing messages where necessary, such as program, billing, legal, or security communications.
4.3 To Improve and Develop Our Services
We may use information to:
analyze website and program performance;
improve curriculum and student experience;
develop new programs, resources, and features;
evaluate mentor and student outcomes;
troubleshoot technical issues;
conduct research, analytics, and reporting;
improve marketing, content, and conversion performance.
4.4 For Advertising and Retargeting
We may use advertising and analytics technologies to:
measure ad performance;
understand which campaigns drive visits, applications, bookings, or purchases;
show relevant ads on platforms such as Meta, LinkedIn, Google, and similar services;
retarget visitors who have interacted with our website or content;
build audiences or lookalike audiences, where permitted by law.
Where required, we will obtain consent before using non-essential cookies or similar technologies.
4.5 For Safety, Legal, and Business Purposes
We may use information to:
protect the security and integrity of the Services;
prevent fraud, abuse, spam, and unauthorized access;
enforce our terms, agreements, and policies;
comply with legal obligations;
respond to lawful requests from public authorities;
establish, exercise, or defend legal claims;
maintain business records;
audit compliance and internal processes.
5. Legal Bases for Processing
If you are located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, Switzerland, or another jurisdiction that requires a legal basis for processing, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases:
Contract: to provide the Services, process enrollment, administer student participation, provide support, and manage payments.
Consent: where you opt in to marketing, accept non-essential cookies, agree to recordings where required, or provide consent for specific uses of your likeness, voice, testimonial, or content.
Legitimate interests: to operate and improve our Services, respond to inquiries, analyze performance, prevent fraud, secure our Services, conduct limited marketing, and develop educational content, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms.
Legal obligation: to comply with tax, accounting, consumer protection, privacy, and other legal obligations.
Legal claims: where processing is necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
6. Cookies and Similar Technologies
We use cookies, pixels, tags, scripts, local storage, and similar technologies to operate our website, remember preferences, analyze usage, improve performance, measure campaigns, and support advertising.
These technologies may be set by us or by third parties, including Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Microsoft Clarity, Framer, and similar providers.
Cookies and similar technologies may be used for:
essential website functionality;
analytics and performance measurement;
marketing attribution;
ad personalization and retargeting;
fraud prevention and security;
user experience improvements.
Where legally required, we will ask for your consent before placing non-essential cookies or similar technologies. You may also manage cookies through your browser settings. Blocking cookies may affect some website functionality.
We intend to maintain a separate Cookie Policy that provides additional details about the cookies and tracking technologies we use.
7. AI and Automated Processing
We may use artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, transcription, summarization, analytics, and similar technologies to process personal information. This may include using AI-enabled tools to:
transcribe mentor calls or student sessions;
summarize conversations;
review applications or lead information;
organize student feedback;
improve educational materials;
assist with support or internal operations;
analyze trends and program performance;
create drafts, notes, articles, or training materials.
We do not intend to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about individuals solely by automated means without appropriate safeguards where required by law.
8. How We Share Personal Information
We may share personal information with the following categories of recipients:
8.1 Service Providers and Vendors
We share information with vendors that help us operate the Services, such as:
website hosting and design platforms;
form and survey providers;
scheduling tools;
payment processors;
financing providers;
analytics providers;
advertising and retargeting platforms;
email marketing providers;
CRM and database tools;
communication and community platforms;
cloud storage providers;
video conferencing and recording tools;
AI, transcription, and automation providers;
customer support and operations tools.
Examples of tools we may use include Cal.com, Stripe, Climb Credit, Slack, Notion, Google Workspace, Google Meet, Loom, Airtable, Typeform, Brevo, Framer, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Microsoft Clarity, and similar providers.
8.2 Payment and Financing Providers
Payments are processed by Stripe or another third-party payment provider. For eligible U.S.-based students, financing may be offered through Climb Credit or another financing provider.
We do not store full credit card numbers or complete payment credentials. Payment and financing providers process payment information according to their own privacy policies and terms. We may receive limited payment-related information such as your name, billing address, payment status, invoice details, and amount paid.
8.3 Mentors, Team Members, Contractors, and Community Participants
We may share information with mentors, instructors, advisors, contractors, team members, and other personnel who need access to provide the Services, review student work, deliver feedback, support students, or operate the program.
If you participate in a community space such as Slack, other students, mentors, and community members may see the information and content you post.
8.4 Advertising and Analytics Partners
We may share or make available certain information, such as cookie identifiers, device information, hashed contact information, browsing activity, or event data, with analytics and advertising partners. This helps us measure campaigns, understand website performance, and deliver relevant ads.
Depending on your location, this activity may be considered “sharing” personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising under California privacy law. See the “California Privacy Rights” section below for more information.
8.5 Legal, Compliance, and Protection Purposes
We may disclose information when we believe it is necessary to:
comply with applicable law;
respond to lawful requests, subpoenas, court orders, or legal process;
protect the rights, property, and safety of Mento, our users, students, mentors, or others;
enforce our agreements and policies;
detect, prevent, or investigate fraud, abuse, security incidents, or technical issues;
establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
9. Student Content, Testimonials, Portfolio Work, and Public Materials
As part of the Services, students may submit or create content such as portfolio projects, design work, assignments, critiques, testimonials, feedback, case studies, comments, messages, recordings, transcripts, and other educational materials.
We may use student content and related materials to provide and improve the Services, support learning, develop curriculum, create educational resources, train future designers, and market or promote Mento Design Academy.
Where student content includes personal information or identifiable elements, we will handle that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable law. Where required, we will obtain consent or rely on another lawful basis before using identifiable names, photos, faces, voices, testimonials, case studies, portfolio work, or other identifiable materials in public-facing promotional content.
You should not submit confidential, proprietary, sensitive, or third-party content unless you have the right to do so and are comfortable with how it may be used in connection with the Services.
10. International Data Transfers
Mento LLC is based in the United States, and we use service providers located in the United States and other countries. If you access the Services from outside the United States, your personal information may be transferred to, stored in, or processed in countries that may not provide the same level of data protection as your home jurisdiction.
Where required by law, we use appropriate safeguards for international transfers, such as standard contractual clauses, data processing agreements, adequacy mechanisms, or other lawful transfer mechanisms. The European Commission recognizes several mechanisms for transferring personal data outside the EU, including adequacy decisions and standard contractual clauses.
11. Data Retention
We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, provide the Services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, maintain business records, and protect our legitimate interests.
Because our Services include education, student records, business operations, legal compliance, and marketing, retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the context in which it was collected.
We may retain lead, applicant, student, alumni, payment, support, communication, recording, transcript, educational, and business records to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, unless deletion is required by law or we determine that retention is no longer necessary.
When we no longer need personal information, we may delete it, anonymize it, aggregate it, or retain it in a legally permissible archived form.
12. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.
You are responsible for using secure networks, safeguarding your accounts with third-party platforms, and being careful about the information you choose to share in public or community spaces.
13. Your Choices
Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have choices regarding your personal information.
You may:
unsubscribe from marketing emails;
adjust browser cookie settings;
use cookie consent tools where available;
request access to personal information;
request correction of inaccurate information;
request deletion of personal information;
object to or restrict certain processing;
request portability of certain information;
withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
opt out of certain advertising or sharing activities where applicable.
To make a privacy request, contact us at support@mento.design.
We may need to verify your identity before responding to a request. We may also deny or limit requests where permitted by law, such as where we need to retain information for legal, security, contractual, accounting, educational, or legitimate business purposes.
14. EEA, UK, and Swiss Privacy Rights
If you are located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you may have the right to:
be informed about how your personal information is processed;
access your personal information;
correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
request deletion of your information;
restrict processing;
object to processing based on legitimate interests;
object to direct marketing;
request data portability;
withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
These rights may be subject to limitations and exceptions under applicable law. The European Commission and the UK Information Commissioner’s Office describe these rights as including access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability, and related transparency rights.
To exercise these rights, contact us at support@mento.design.
15. California Privacy Rights
This section applies to California residents to the extent the CCPA/CPRA applies to us.
15.1 Categories of Personal Information We Collect
In the past 12 months, we may have collected the following categories of personal information:
Identifiers: name, email address, phone number, billing address, IP address, online identifiers.
Customer records information: contact details, billing details, application information.
Commercial information: purchases, payment status, enrollment information, program participation.
Internet or network activity: browsing activity, website interactions, referral URLs, cookie data, analytics data.
Geolocation data: approximate location based on IP address or information you provide.
Audio, electronic, visual, or similar information: recorded calls, video sessions, transcripts, voice recordings, images, testimonials, and submitted content.
Professional or employment-related information: job title, employment status, career goals, LinkedIn profile, resume/CV, portfolio, work history.
Education information: educational background, training history, learning goals, student work.
Inferences: interests, preferences, program fit, marketing segments, learning needs, or similar insights.
Sensitive personal information: we do not intentionally collect sensitive personal information as defined by California law.
15.2 Sources of Personal Information
We collect personal information from:
you directly;
your use of our website and Services;
application forms and lead magnets;
calls, emails, and communications;
payment and financing providers;
analytics and advertising partners;
community and educational tools;
publicly available sources, such as LinkedIn or portfolio websites, where relevant.
15.3 Purposes for Collection, Use, and Disclosure
We collect, use, and disclose personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including providing the Services, processing applications, communicating with you, marketing, analytics, advertising, payment processing, program administration, student support, security, legal compliance, and business operations.
15.4 Sale and Sharing of Personal Information
We do not sell personal information for money.
However, because we use advertising and retargeting technologies such as Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Google advertising or analytics tools, and similar technologies, some disclosures of identifiers, internet activity, or device information may be considered “sharing” personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising under California law.
California residents may have the right to opt out of such sharing. Once we implement a cookie consent or privacy preference tool, you may use it to manage applicable choices. You may also contact us at support@mento.design.
15.5 Your California Rights
Subject to applicable law, California residents may have the right to:
know what personal information we collect, use, disclose, sell, or share;
access personal information;
correct inaccurate personal information;
delete personal information;
opt out of sale or sharing;
limit use of sensitive personal information, if applicable;
not be discriminated against for exercising privacy rights.
To exercise your rights, contact us at support@mento.design.
We may verify your request before responding. You may also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf where permitted by law.
16. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Controls
Some browsers or devices may offer “Do Not Track” or similar signals. Because there is no uniform industry standard for responding to all such signals, we may not respond to every “Do Not Track” signal.
Where required by applicable law, we will honor legally recognized opt-out preference signals, such as Global Privacy Control, after appropriate implementation.
17. Third-Party Links and Platforms
Our Services may link to third-party websites, platforms, tools, communities, payment pages, financing providers, scheduling pages, social media platforms, or other services that we do not control.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to third-party services. Their privacy practices are governed by their own privacy policies and terms. We encourage you to review them carefully.
18. Community Spaces
If you participate in our Slack community or other community spaces, information you post may be visible to other students, alumni, mentors, instructors, team members, or community participants.
Please use discretion when sharing information in community spaces. Do not share sensitive, confidential, proprietary, or third-party information unless you have the right to do so.
19. Educational and Marketing Communications
We may send you educational content, newsletters, product updates, event invitations, program information, and promotional communications. You can opt out of marketing emails at any time.
We may still send transactional, administrative, legal, or service-related messages even if you opt out of marketing.
20. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Last Updated” date above indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised.
If we make material changes, we may provide additional notice where required by law, such as by posting a notice on our website or sending an email.
Your continued use of the Services after an updated Privacy Policy becomes effective means you acknowledge the updated Privacy Policy.
21. Contact Us
If you have questions, requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, contact us at:
Mento LLC
Doing business as Mento Design Academy
Postal Address: 447 Broadway, 2nd Floor Suite #1238, New York, NY 10013
Email: support@mento.design