Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Light Sword Training Academy ("LSTA," "we," "us"), 4701 Shore Dr., Ste. #103-440, Virginia Beach, VA 23455, collects, uses, shares and protects personal information when you visit lightswordtrainingacademy.com or sifuarmstrong.com (the "Sites"), submit a form, book a call, buy a program, take a course, attend an event, or otherwise interact with our programs. Our online community and course platform, Club Sabernet, and the software platforms provided by Holistically Simple have their own privacy policies for the data those platforms hold; this policy tells you where they apply.
1. Information we collect
Information you give us
- Forms, quizzes and applications: your name, email address, phone number, organization, location, role, your answers and your message when you request a kit or resource, take a quiz, apply for a program or license, or contact us.
- Call bookings: the name, email, phone and notes you enter when you book a call, and the time you choose.
- Purchases: what you bought, the price, your name and email, and your billing country. Card details go directly to our payment processor, Stripe; we never receive or store your full card number.
- Course and community activity: your member account on Club Sabernet, the lessons you open and complete, and anything you post there. Club Sabernet's own privacy policy governs that platform.
- Coaching submissions: form videos you submit for instructor review, and the feedback returned to you.
- Events: registration and waiver information, and photographs, video and audio recorded at our events (see the event terms in our Terms of Use).
- Testimonials and reviews: words, images or video you give us permission to share.
- License and certification applications: the business, financial-readiness and background information you provide when you apply, under the application's own terms.
Information we collect automatically
- Site analytics: pages visited, referring site, approximate location from your IP address, device and browser type, and how you interact with pages. lightswordtrainingacademy.com uses SiteBehaviour analytics and Umami. sifuarmstrong.com uses Umami. Umami is a privacy-focused analytics tool that we host ourselves. sifuarmstrong.news uses Google Analytics.
- Server and security logs: our hosting providers and Cloudflare record IP addresses and request details to keep the Sites running and secure.
- Email delivery: our email systems record whether a message was delivered, and may record whether it was opened or clicked.
- Cookies and similar technologies: used for analytics, to remember your choices, and to keep you logged in on our platforms (Section 6).
Information from other sources
- Business contact information: for business-to-business outreach we may collect publicly available professional contact details, for example a school's published business email address.
- Platforms we operate: when you buy through Club Sabernet or use a Holistically Simple platform under an LSTA program, we receive the order, enrollment and program-progress information we need to deliver the program.
2. How we use information
- To respond to your inquiry, send the resource you asked for, review your application, and schedule and hold calls you book.
- To process orders, create your member account, deliver programs, courses, software access and coaching, and provide customer support.
- To route your inquiry to the licensed academy or Shadow Circle nearest you when you ask about training in person (Section 3).
- To run events: registration, waivers, safety, results, and, with your permission or under the event terms, photography and video.
- To send emails about our programs and services, and text messages if you have opted in (Section 4).
- To administer guarantees, credits, refunds and the credit-forward ladder between our programs.
- To operate, secure, measure and improve the Sites and our programs, including understanding which pages and lessons people use.
- To comply with law, enforce our terms, and protect our rights and the safety of participants.
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, our legal bases are: performance of a contract (delivering what you bought or asked for), your consent (marketing texts, event photography where consent is required, cookies where required), our legitimate interests (running and securing the Sites, business-to-business outreach, improving our programs), and legal obligation (tax and accounting records).
3. How we share information
We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share it only as follows.
| Who | What and why |
|---|---|
| Service providers | Stripe (payments), Holistically Simple and its Scale platform at scale.holisticallysimple.com (the Sites themselves, our forms, our automated follow-up, our customer-service messaging and our order records), Club Sabernet (our member and course platform, which we operate on our own servers), AcadevoFit and Acadevo Martial Arts Pro (software provided by Holistically Simple under our programs), SiteGround and Google Workspace (our mailboxes and the mail servers our email is sent through), SalesBlink (business-to-business outreach email), Bunny Stream (video delivery), SiteBehaviour and Umami (analytics), and Cloudflare and our hosting providers (delivery and security). Each receives only what it needs to perform its function. |
| Licensed academies and Shadow Circle hosts | When you ask about training in person, we may pass your name, contact details and message to the licensed academy or Shadow Circle nearest you so it can reach you. Each academy is an independent business that then handles your information under its own practices. |
| The Light Sword Martial Arts Federation (LSMAF) | If you register for sanctioned competition or hold a federation rank, your name, academy, rank and results are shared with LSMAF and its competition system so they can be recorded, ranked and published. |
| Instructors and coaches | Certified instructors see the form videos you submit and the account details needed to return feedback. |
| Legal and safety | Where required by law, court order or government request, to enforce our terms, or to protect the rights, safety and property of LSTA, participants or others. |
| Business transfers | If LSTA is reorganized, merged or sold, your information may transfer to the successor, which will be bound by this policy until it is updated. |
4. Email and text messages
Email. When you submit a form, book a call, download a resource or buy a program, we may email you about your request, your order and our programs. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link and we honor it promptly. Transactional messages about your account, orders and events continue while you hold an account or a registration.
Text messages (SMS). If you give us a mobile number and opt in, we may text you about your request, your appointments, your orders and our programs. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any message to opt out and HELP for help, or email us. Consent to receive texts is not a condition of any purchase. Mobile carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. We do not share your mobile number or your opt-in with third parties for their own marketing.
5. How long we keep information
- Inquiries and marketing contacts: while you remain subscribed, and for up to three years after your last interaction with us, unless you ask us to delete sooner.
- Accounts and purchases: while your account or program access is active. Order and payment records are kept for seven years for tax and accounting purposes.
- Applications, license and certification records: for the life of the relationship and the period afterward that the agreement or the law requires.
- Event waivers and incident records: for the period required to defend legal claims under Virginia law.
- Analytics and logs: in aggregate, or for the retention period of the provider (typically 13 months or less for identifiable data).
6. Cookies and your choices
The Sites use cookies and similar technologies for analytics, basic functionality, and to keep you logged in on our platforms. You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings; the Sites will still work with cookies disabled, though some features may work less smoothly. Umami does not use cookies and does not track you across sites. To opt out of Google Analytics on sifuarmstrong.news you can use Google's browser add-on. We do not respond to "Do Not Track" signals because there is no common standard for them; we do honor Global Privacy Control signals for opting out of sale or sharing, which we do not do in any case.
7. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, correct it, delete it, receive a copy in a portable format, restrict or object to certain processing, withdraw consent where consent is the basis, and opt out of marketing. To exercise a right, email [email protected] from the address we hold for you or with enough detail for us to verify you. We respond within 30 days, or within the shorter period the law requires, and we will not treat you differently for exercising a right.
California residents. You have the rights to know, delete, correct and to limit use of sensitive information under the California Consumer Privacy Act. We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of on that point. An authorized agent may make a request on your behalf with your written permission.
EEA, UK and Swiss residents. You may also lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. Our legal bases are listed in Section 2. Where we transfer your information to the United States we rely on standard contractual clauses or an equivalent safeguard.
8. Children
The Sites are directed at adults: operators, instructors, and parents and guardians. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13, and we delete it if we learn we have. Our academies serve participants ages 13 and up; a participant under 18 is enrolled by a parent or guardian, who signs the waiver and provides the information the academy needs. Where a licensed academy enrolls a minor, that academy is responsible for the information it collects.
9. Security
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information, including encrypted connections, access controls, and platforms we operate on servers we control. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential.
10. International visitors
LSTA is based in the United States and our providers process information there and in other countries. By using the Sites you understand that your information may be transferred to, stored and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those of your home country.
11. Other sites and platforms
The Sites link to Club Sabernet, Holistically Simple, the Light Sword Trading Post, LSMAF, licensed academies, and other third-party sites. Each has its own privacy policy, and we are not responsible for their practices. Review them before you provide information.
12. Changes
We may update this policy from time to time. The effective date above shows the latest revision. For material changes we will post a notice on the Sites or email account holders.
13. Contact
Light Sword Training Academy
4701 Shore Dr., Ste. #103-440, Virginia Beach, VA 23455
[email protected]