Privacy, Nondiscrimination, and Reviews Policies
Privacy Policy
Last Updated: January 28th, 2022
Soundspace exists to help lower the barriers to music careers so you can chase your dreams. In short—to build a world where anyone can afford to become a musician. We are a community built on trust. A fundamental part of earning that trust means being clear about how we use your information and protect your human right to privacy.
This Privacy Policy describes how Soundspace, Inc. and its affiliates (“we,” “us,” or “Soundspace”), process personal information that we collect through the Soundspace Platform. Depending on where you live and what you are doing on the Soundspace Platform, the supplemental privacy pages listed below may apply to you. Please follow the links and review the supplemental information provided there with information about how we process personal information for those regions and services.
1. DEFINITIONS
Undefined terms in this Privacy Policy have the same definition as in our Terms of Service (“Terms”).
2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
2.1 Information needed to use the Soundspace Platform.
We collect personal information about you when you use the Soundspace Platform. Without it, we may not be able to provide you with all services requested. This information includes:
Contact Information, Account, Profile Information. Such as your first name, last name, phone number, postal address, email address, date of birth, and profile photo, some of which will depend on the features you use.
Identity Verification and Payment Information. Such as images of your government-issued ID (as permitted by applicable laws), your ID number or other verification information, bank account or payment account information.
2.2 Information you choose to give us.
You can choose to provide us with additional personal information. This information may include:
Additional Profile Information. Such as gender, preferred language(s), city, and personal description. Some of this information as indicated in your account settings is part of your public profile page and will be publicly visible.
Address Book Contact Information. Address book contacts you import or enter manually.
Other Information. Such as when you fill in a form, add information to your account, respond to surveys, post to community forums, participate in promotions, communicate with our customer care team and other Clients, or share your experience with us. This may include health information if you choose to share it with us.
2.3 Information Automatically Collected by Using the Soundspace Platform and our Payment Services.
When you use the Soundspace Platform and Payment Services, we automatically collect personal information. This information may include:
Geo-location Information. Such as precise or approximate location determined from your IP address or mobile device’s GPS depending on your device settings. We may also collect this information when you’re not using the app if you enable this through your settings or device permissions.
Usage Information. Such as the pages or content you view, searches for Listings, bookings you have made, and other actions on the Soundspace Platform.
Log Data and Device Information. Such as details about how you’ve used the Soundspace Platform (including if you clicked on links to third-party applications), IP address, access dates and times, hardware and software information, device information, device event information, unique identifiers, crash data, cookie data, and the pages you’ve viewed or engaged with before or after using the Soundspace Platform. We may collect this information even if you haven’t created a Soundspace account or logged in.
Cookies and Similar Technologies
Payment Transaction Information. Such as payment instrument used, date and time, payment amount, payment instrument expiration date and billing postcode, PayPal email address, IBAN information, your address, and other related transaction details.
2.4 Personal Information We Collect from Third Parties.
We collect personal information from other sources, such as:
Third-Party Services. If you link, connect, or login to the Soundspace Platform with a third party service (e.g. Google, Facebook, WeChat), you direct the service to send us information such as your registration, friends list, and profile information as controlled by that service or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service.
Background Information. For Clients in the United States, to the extent permitted by applicable laws, we may obtain reports from public records of criminal convictions or sex offender registrations. For Clients outside of the United States, to the extent permitted by applicable laws and with your consent where required, we may obtain the local version of police, background, or registered sex offender checks. We may use your information, including your full name and date of birth, to obtain such reports.
Enterprise Product Invitations and Account Management. Organizations that use our Enterprise products may submit personal information to facilitate account management and invitations to use enterprise products.
Referrals and co-member. If you are invited to the Soundspace Platform such as a co-member on a booking, the person who invited you can submit personal information about you such as your email address or other contact information.
Other Sources. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may receive additional information about you, such as references, demographic data, or information to help detect fraud and safety issues from third-party service providers and/or partners and combine it with information we have about you. For example, we may receive background check results or fraud warnings from identity verification service providers for use in our fraud prevention and risk assessment efforts. We may receive information about you and your activities on and off the Soundspace Platform, or about your experiences and interactions from our partners. We may receive health information, including but not limited to health information related to contagious diseases.
3. HOW WE USE INFORMATION WE COLLECT
3.1 Provide, Improve, and Develop the Soundspace Platform. We use personal information to:
enable you to access the Soundspace Platform and make and receive payments,
enable you to communicate with other Clients,
perform analytics, debug and conduct research,
provide customer service,
send you messages, updates, security alerts, and account notifications,
if you provide us with your contacts’ information such as your friends or co-members, we may process this information: (i) to facilitate your referral invitations, (ii) to share your trip details and facilitate trip planning, (iii) for fraud detection and prevention, and (iv) to facilitate your requests or for any other purpose you authorize,
personalize and customize your experience based on your interactions with the Soundspace Platform, your search and booking history, your profile information and preferences, and other content you submit, and
enable your use of our enterprise products.
3.2 Create and Maintain a Trusted and Safer Environment. We use personal information to:
detect and prevent fraud, spam, abuse, security and safety incidents, and other harmful activity,
study and combat discrimination consistent with our Nondiscrimination Policy,
conduct security investigations and risk assessments,
verify or authenticate information provided by you,
conduct checks against databases and other information sources, including background or police checks,
comply with our legal obligations, protect the health and well-being of our Members, Operators, Operators’ employees, and Clients of the public,
resolve disputes with our Clients,
enforce our agreements with third parties,
comply with the law, respond to legal requests, prevent harm and protect our rights (see section 4.5)
enforce our Terms and other policies (e.g. Nondiscrimination Policy), and
in connection with the activities above, we may conduct profiling based on your interactions with the Soundspace Platform, your profile information and other content you submit to Soundspace, and information obtained from third parties. In limited cases, automated processes could restrict or suspend access to the Soundspace Platform if such processes detect activity that we think poses a safety or other risk to Soundspace, our community, or third parties. If you would like to challenge the decisioning based on the automated process, please contact us via the Contact Information section below.
3.3 Provide, Personalize, Measure, and Improve our Advertising and Marketing. We may use personal information to:
send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information based on your preferences and social media advertising through social media platforms,
personalize, measure, and improve our advertising,
administer referral programs, rewards, surveys, sweepstakes, contests, or other promotional activities or events sponsored or managed by Soundspace or its third-party partners,
analyze characteristics and preferences to send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information that we think might be of interest to you, and
invite you to events and relevant opportunities.
3.4 Provide Payment services. Personal information is used to enable or authorize third parties to use Payment Services:
Detect and prevent money laundering, fraud, abuse, security incidents.
Conduct security investigations and risk assessments.
Comply with legal obligations (such as anti-money laundering regulations).
Enforce the Payment Terms and other payment policies.
With your consent, send you promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information that may be of interest to you based on your preferences.
Provide and improve the Payment Services.
4. SHARING & DISCLOSURE
4.1 Sharing With Your Consent or at Your Direction.
Where you provide consent, we share your information as described at the time of consent, such as when authorizing a third-party application or website to access your Soundspace account or participating in promotional activities by Soundspace partners or third parties.
Where permissible with applicable law, we may use certain information about you, such as your email address, de-identify it, and share it with social media platforms, to generate leads, drive traffic to Soundspace or otherwise promote our products and services.
4.2 Sharing Between Clients.
To help facilitate bookings or other interactions between Clients, we may need to share certain information such as:
When a booking request is made or dispute is submitted, certain information may be shared between Member(s) and Operator(s), including profile, name, names of any additional Members, cancellation history, review information, age of Member (unless prohibited by applicable law), dispute outcome (when applicable) and other information you choose to share and submit. When a booking is confirmed, additional information is shared to assist with coordinating the trip, like profile photo and phone number. When you as an Operator have a confirmed booking, certain information is shared with the Member (and the additional Members they invite, if applicable) to coordinate the booking, such as your profile, full name, phone number, and Listing address.
When you as an Operator invite another Client to Operate with you, you authorize that person to access and update your information and Client Content, including but not limited to certain information like your full name, phone number, Accommodation address, calendar, Listing information, Listing photos, and email address.
When you as a Member invite additional Members to a booking, your full name, travel dates, Operator name, Listing details, the Accommodation address, and other related information will be shared with each additional Member.
4.3 Information You Publish in Profiles, Listings, and Other Public Information.
You can make certain information publicly visible to others, such as:
Your public profile page, which includes your profile photo, first name, description, and city.
Listing pages that include information such as the Accommodation or Experience’s approximate or precise location description, calendar availability, profile photo, aggregated demand information (like page views over a period of time), and additional information you choose to share.
Reviews, ratings, and other public feedback.
Content in a community or discussion forum, blog, or social media post.
We may display parts of your public profile and other Content you make available to the public like Listing details on third-party sites, platforms, and apps.
Information you share publicly on the Soundspace Platform may be indexed through third-party search engines. In some cases, you may opt out of this feature in your account settings.
4.4 Operator Service Providers.
Operators may use third-party services to help manage or deliver their services, such as cleaning services or lock providers. Operators may use features on the Soundspace Platform to share information about the Member (like booking dates, Member name, Member phone number) with such third-party service providers.
4.5 Complying with Law, Responding to Legal Requests, Preventing Harm and Protecting our Rights.
We may disclose your information to courts, law enforcement, governmental or public authorities, tax authorities, or authorized third parties, if and to the extent we are required or permitted to do so by law or where disclosure is reasonably necessary: (i) to comply with our legal obligations, (ii) to comply with a valid legal request or to respond to claims asserted against Soundspace, (iii) to respond to a valid legal request relating to a criminal investigation to address alleged or suspected illegal activity, or to respond to or address any other activity that may expose us, you, or any other of our users to legal or regulatory liability, (iv) to enforce and administer our agreements with Clients, or (v) to protect the rights, property or personal safety of Soundspace, its employees, its Clients, or Clients of the public. For example, if permitted due to the foregoing circumstances, Operator tax information may be shared with tax authorities or other governmental agencies.
Where appropriate, we may notify Clients about legal requests unless: (i) providing notice is prohibited by the legal process itself, by court order we receive, or by applicable law, or (ii) we believe that providing notice would be futile, ineffective, create a risk of injury or bodily harm to an individual or group, or create or increase a risk of fraud upon or harm to Soundspace, our Clients, or expose Soundspace to a claim of obstruction of justice.
For jurisdictions where Soundspace facilitates the collection and remittance of Taxes where legally permissible according to applicable law, we may disclose Operators’ and Members’ information about transactions, bookings, Accommodations and occupancy Taxes to the applicable tax authority, such as Operator and Member names, Listing addresses, transaction dates and amounts, tax identification number(s), the amount of taxes received (or due) by Operators from Members, and contact information.
In jurisdictions where Soundspace facilitates or requires a registration, notification, permit, or license application of an Operator with a local governmental authority through Soundspace in accordance with local law, we may share information of participating Operators with the relevant authority, both during the application process and, periodically thereafter, such as the Operator’s full name and contact details, Accommodation address, tax identification number, Listing details, and the number of hours booked.
4.6 Programs with Managers and Owners.
We may share personal information of Operators and Members such as booking information, and information related to compliance with applicable laws such as short-term rental laws with landlords, management companies, and/or property owners (the “Building Management”), in order to facilitate programs with Building Management. For example, Member booking and personal information, including Member contact information, may be shared with the Building Management of the building, complex, or community where an Operator lives and/or the listing is located, to facilitate Operatoring services, compliance with applicable laws, security, billing, and other services.
4.7 Operator Information Provided to Soundspace for Work Customers.
If a booking is designated as being for business or work purpose and (1) is made by a Member affiliated with an Enterprise, (2) the Enterprise is enrolled in Soundspace for Work, we may disclose information related to the booking to the Enterprise (e.g., name of the Operator, Accommodation address, booking dates, Listing details, etc.) to the extent necessary for the adequate performance of Soundspace’s contract with the Enterprise and to provide the services. At the request of the Enterprise or the Member, we may also share this information with third parties engaged by the Enterprise to provide support services.
4.8 Service Providers.
We share personal information with affiliated and unaffiliated service providers to help us run our business, including service providers that help us: (i) verify your identity or authenticate your identification documents, (ii) check information against public databases, (iii) conduct background or police checks, fraud prevention, and risk assessment, (iv) perform product development, maintenance and debugging, (v) allow the provision of the Soundspace Services through third-party platforms and software tools (e.g. through the integration with our APIs), (vi) provide customer service, advertising, or payments services, (vii) process, handle or assess insurance claims or similar claims, or (viii) facilitate non-profit and charitable activities consistent with Soundspace’s mission. These providers are contractually bound to protect your personal information and have access to your personal information to perform these tasks.
4.9 Business Transfers.
If Soundspace undertakes or is involved in any merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, bankruptcy, or insolvency event, then we may sell, transfer or share some or all of our assets, including your information in connection with such transaction or in contemplation of such transaction (e.g., due diligence). In this event, we will notify you before your personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
4.10 Corporate Affiliates.
To support us in providing, integrating, promoting, and improving the Soundspace Platform, Payment Services, and our affiliates’ services, we may share personal information within our corporate family of companies that are related by common ownership or control. Some examples are:
Sharing with Soundspace, Inc. Even if your country of residence is not the United States, your information will be shared with Soundspace Technology, LLC. which provides the technical infrastructure for the Soundspace Platform.
Sharing with Soundspace Payments. In order to facilitate payments on or through the Soundspace Platform, certain information will be shared with the relevant Soundspace Payments entity.
5. OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION
5.1 Analyzing your Communications.
We may review, scan, or analyze your communications on the Soundspace Platform for reasons outlined in the “How We Use Information We Collect” section of this policy, including fraud prevention, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, investigation, product development, research, analytics, enforcing our Terms of Service, and customer support purposes. For example, as part of our fraud prevention efforts, we scan and analyze messages to mask contact information and references to other sites. In some cases, we may also scan, review, or analyze messages to debug, improve, and expand product offerings. We use automated methods where reasonably possible. Occasionally we may need to manually review communications, such as for fraud investigations and customer support, or to assess and improve the functionality of these automated tools. We will not review, scan, or analyze your messaging communications to send third party marketing messages to you and we will not sell reviews or analyses of these communications.
5.2 Linking Third-Party Accounts.
You can link your Soundspace account with certain third-party services like social networks. Your contacts on these third-party services are referred to as “Friends.” When you direct the data sharing by creating this link:
some of the information provided to us from linking accounts may be published on your public profile,
your activities on the Soundspace Platform may be displayed to your Friends on the Soundspace Platform and/or that third-party service,
a link to your public profile on that third-party service may be included in your Soundspace public profile,
other Soundspace users may be able to see any Friends that you may have in common with them, or that you are a Friend of their Friend if applicable,
other Soundspace users may be able to see any schools, hometowns, or other groups you have in common with them as listed on your linked social networking service,
information you provide to us from the linking of your accounts may be stored, processed, and transmitted for fraud prevention and risk assessment purposes, and
publication and display of information that you provide to the Soundspace Platform through this linkage is subject to your settings and authorizations on the Soundspace Platform and the third-party service.
5.3 Third-Party Partners & Integrations.
Parts of Soundspace may link to third-party services, not owned or controlled by Soundspace, such as Google Maps/Earth. Use of these services is subject to the privacy policies of those providers, such as Google Maps/Earth Additional Terms of Use, Google Privacy Policy (see here for more information on how Google uses information), and Citi Privacy Policy. Soundspace does not own or control these third parties and when you interact with them you are providing your information to them.
6. YOUR RIGHTS
You can exercise any of the rights described in this section consistent with applicable law. Please send us an email on data subject rights requests and ask how to submit a request. Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity and request before taking further action on your request.
Learn more about rights under GDPR here.
If your country of residence is China, learn more about your rights here.
6.1 Managing Your Information.
You can access and update some of your personal information through your Account settings. If you connected your Soundspace Account to a third-party service, like Facebook or Google, you can change your settings and unlink from that service in your Account Settings. You are responsible for keeping your personal information up to date.
6.2 Data Access and Portability.
In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to request certain copies of your personal information or information about how we handle your personal information, request copies of personal information that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and/or request that we transmit this information to another service provider (where technically feasible).
6.3 Data Erasure.
In certain jurisdictions, you can request that your personal information be deleted. Please note that if you request the erasure of your personal information:
We may retain your personal information as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as prevention of money laundering, fraud detection and prevention, and enhancing safety. For example, if we suspend a Soundspace Account for fraud or safety reasons, we may retain information from that Soundspace Account to prevent that Client from opening a new Soundspace Account in the future.
We may retain and use your personal information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations. For example, Soundspace and Soundspace Payments may keep information for tax, legal reporting, and auditing obligations.
Information you have shared with others (e.g., Reviews, forum postings) will continue to be publicly visible on Soundspace, even after your Soundspace Account is canceled. However, attribution of such information to you will be removed. Some copies of your information (e.g., log records) will remain in our database but are disassociated from personal identifiers.
Because we take measures to protect data from accidental or malicious loss and destruction, residual copies of your personal information may not be removed from our backup systems for a limited period of time.
7. SECURITY
While no organization can guarantee perfect security, we are continuously implementing and updating administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your information against unauthorized access, loss, destruction, or alteration.
8. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time in accordance with applicable law. If we do so, we will post the revised Privacy Policy and update the “Last Updated” date at the top. In case of material changes, we will also provide you with notice of the modification by email at least thirty (30) days before the effective date. If you disagree with the revised Privacy Policy, you can cancel your Account. If you do not cancel your Account before the date the revised Privacy Policy becomes effective, your continued access to or use of the Soundspace Platform will be subject to the revised Privacy Policy.
9. CONTACT INFORMATION AND RESPONSIBLE SOUNDSPACE ENTITIES
For questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or Soundspace’s handling of personal information (i) If you reside in the United States contact Soundspace, LLC., Legal Privacy, 1125 E Brookside Ave Suite B3, Indianapolis, IN 46202 USA; (ii) for payments related matter please use the contact information provided in the Payments Terms of Service page.
Operator Privacy Standards
Handling Member Personal Information
As an Operator, you will receive and use Members’ personal information to manage your bookings and deliver your Operator Service. Please remember that you are responsible for complying with applicable privacy laws when you handle and process personal information. You should only use personal information you receive through the Soundspace Platform as necessary to manage your bookings and deliver your Operator Service. You may not encourage or require Members to: open an account, leave a review, or otherwise interact, with a third-party website, application, or service before, during, or after a booking, unless authorized by Soundspace.
Cross-Border Transfers
If in the course of providing Operator Services, (i) personal information is transferred to you from the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the UK (within the meaning of Article 44 of the General Data Protection Regulation “GDPR”) and (ii) the transfer does not benefit from an adequacy decision under Article 45 of the GDPR, then you agree to process the personal information you receive in accordance with the principles set out on Annex A of the standard contractual clauses (“Clauses”) contained in European Commission Decision 2004/915/EC. The Clauses are hereby incorporated into your agreement with us.
Standard Contractual Clauses
The information to complete the Clauses is as follows:
You are the “data importer.”
If you are Operating or booking a Listing in Japan, the “data exporter” is Soundspac, LLC.
If you are Operating somewhere other than Japan, the “data exporter” is Soundspace, LLC.
For Annex B of the Clauses:
(i) the data subjects are Members;
(ii) the purpose of the transfer is to enable you to provide the Operator Service;
(iii) the categories of data may include the Member’s profile and full name, the full name of any additional Members (if entered), the Member’s cancellation history, Member’s phone number, any other information the Member chooses to share, and additional information to assist with coordinating the trip including messages exchanged with the Member;
(iv) the recipients of the data are any service providers you may choose to retain to assist you in providing the Operator Services;
(v) no sensitive data is being transferred;
(vi) there is no relevant data protection registration information unless you advise otherwise.
Soundspace's Review Policy
In order to build a platform of trust, we ask our community to help ensure that reviews on Soundspace are useful, informative, and don’t expose our community to harm. Therefore, we expect that all reviews adhere to the following:
1. Reviews should not violate our content policy
Some content is never allowed on Soundspace. You can review Soundspace’s Content Policy to find out more.
2. Reviews should be unbiased
Reviews are most helpful when they provide unbiased and objective information. Therefore, we don't allow individuals or entities who own or are affiliated with a listing or experience to post reviews of their business. We also don’t allow individuals who are confirmed to offer competing listings or experiences to post reviews of their direct competitors.
You’re not allowed to incentivize positive reviews, to use the threat of a negative review to manipulate a desired outcome, or to influence another’s review with the promise of compensation.
You’re also not allowed to accept fake bookings in exchange for a positive review, use a second account to leave yourself a review, or coordinate with business partners to get positive reviews.
Additionally, reviews may be removed from the platform for stays where a significant violation of the Party and Events Policy has taken place. This is to help Operators feel more comfortable intervening when a disruptive party takes place, without having to fear a biased review as a result.
3.Reviews should be relevant
Keep your reviews relevant to Soundspace and your stay or experience, since Members are reading your reviews to learn about the Operator and their listing. Reviews that are off-topic can be distracting and don’t help other Members make informed booking decisions. For this reason, reviews should focus on your interactions with other community Clients and your time during the stay or experience.
To keep reviews relevant, we recommend avoiding the following:
Commentary about a person’s social, political, or religious views
Profanity, name-calling, and assumptions about a person’s character or personality
Content that refers to circumstances entirely outside of another’s control
Content about services not related to Soundspace (for example, an airline, rideshare, restaurant, etc.)
Commentary about past Soundspace bookings, Operators, or Members, or about the Soundspace product where it does not relate to the listing, Operator or Member you are rating
When we receive a report of a review that violates this policy, we may remove the review from our platform. Repeated violations may lead to suspension or permanent deactivation of the account(s) responsible for the reviews.
Reporting a review that violates our policy
To report a review for violating Soundspace’s review policy, contact us.
If you feel a review is untrue
While we encourage and expect all community Clients to post reviews that contain objective and accurate information, Soundspace doesn’t mediate disputes concerning the truth of reviews. We expect the author of the review to stand behind the content of their review.
You can post a public response to a review that someone has left for you within 30 days of its posting. While you can’t remove it, you can report it if you think it violates our Review Policy.
Otherwise, feel free to respond with more context or to provide your own perspective, so long as you, too, follow the policy.
For more information on how we investigate and moderate review disputes, read about Soundspace's Dispute Moderation for Reviews.
Nondiscrimination Policy
Last updated: January 28th, 2022
Soundspace is, at its core, dedicated to lowering the barriers to entry for careers in music. Our community includes millions of people from virtually every country on the globe. It is an incredibly diverse community, drawing together individuals of different cultures, values, and norms.
The Soundspace community is committed to building a world where people from every background feel welcome and respected, no matter how far they have traveled from home. This commitment rests on two foundational principles that apply both to Soundspace’s Operators and Members: inclusion and respect. Our shared commitment to these principles enables all Clients of our community to feel welcome on the Soundspace platform no matter who they are, where they come from, how they worship, or whom they love. Soundspace recognizes that some jurisdictions permit or require distinctions among individuals based on factors such as national origin, gender, marital status, or sexual orientation, and it does not require Operators to violate local laws or take actions that may subject them to legal liability. Soundspace will provide additional guidance and adjust this nondiscrimination policy to reflect such permissions and requirements in the jurisdictions where they exist.
While we do not believe that one company can mandate harmony among all people, we do believe that the Soundspace community can promote empathy and understanding across all cultures. We are all committed to doing everything we can to help eliminate all forms of unlawful bias, discrimination, and intolerance from our platform. We want to promote a culture within the Soundspace community—Operators, Members, and people just considering whether to use our platform—that goes above and beyond mere compliance. To that end, all of us, Soundspace employees, Operators, and Members alike, agree to read and act in accordance with the following policy to strengthen our community and realize our mission of ensuring that everyone can belong, and feels welcome, anywhere.
Inclusion – We welcome people of all backgrounds with authentic hospitality and open minds. Joining Soundspace, as an Operator or Member, means becoming part of a community of inclusion. Bias, prejudice, racism, and hatred have no place on our platform or in our community. While Operators are required to follow all applicable laws that prohibit discrimination based on such factors as race, religion, national origin, and others listed below, we commit to do more than comply with the minimum requirements established by law.
Respect – We are respectful of each other in our interactions and encounters. Soundspace appreciates that local laws and cultural norms vary around the world and expects Operators and Members to abide by local laws, and to engage with each other respectfully, even when views may not reflect their beliefs or upbringings. Soundspace’s Clients bring to our community an incredible diversity of background experiences, beliefs, and customs. By connecting people from different backgrounds, Soundspace fosters greater understanding and appreciation for the common characteristics shared by all human beings and undermines prejudice rooted in misconception, misinformation, or misunderstanding.
Specific guidance for operators in the United States, European Union, and Canada
As a general matter, we will familiarize ourselves with all applicable federal, state, and local laws that apply to housing and places of public accommodation. Some jurisdictions may have additional legal requirements that expand or limit the civil rights protections of the user community. Operators are required to comply with such legal requirements. Operators should contact Soundspace customer service if they have any questions about their obligations to comply with this Soundspace Nondiscrimination Policy. Soundspace will release further discrimination policy guidance for jurisdictions outside the United States in the near future. Guided by these principles, our U.S., EU, and Canadian Operator community will follow these rules when considering potential Members and Operating Members:
Race, Color, Ethnicity, National Origin, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, or Marital Status
Soundspace Operators may not:
Decline a booking based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
Impose any different terms or conditions based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
Post any listing or make any statement that discourages or indicates a preference for or against any Member on account of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
Gender Identity
Soundspace does not assign a gender identity to our users. We consider the gender of individuals to be what they identify and/or designate on their user profiles, and we expect our Soundspace community to do the same. This includes respecting the pronouns (he/him, she/her, they/them, etc.) any users within the community identify themselves with.
Soundspace Operators may not:
Decline a booking from a Member based on gender identity unless the Operator shares living spaces (for example, bathroom, kitchen, or common areas) with the Member.
Impose any different terms or conditions based on gender unless the Operator shares living spaces with the Member.
Post any listing or make any statement that discourages or indicates a preference for or against any Member on account of gender, unless the Operator shares living spaces with the Member.
Age and Familial Status
Soundspace Operators may not:
Impose any different terms or conditions or decline a booking based on the Member’s age or familial status, where prohibited by law.
Soundspace Operators may:
Provide factually accurate information about their listing’s features (or lack of them) that could make the listing unsafe or unsuitable for Members of a certain age or families with children or infants.
Note in their listings applicable community restrictions (e.g., senior housing), regulations, or laws that prohibit Members under a particular age or families with children or infants.
Disability
Soundspace Operators may not:
Decline a Member based on any actual or perceived disability.
Impose any different terms or conditions based on the fact that the Member has a disability.
Substitute their own judgment about whether a unit meets the needs of a Member with a disability for that of the prospective Member.
Inquire about the existence or severity of a Member’s disability, or the means used to accommodate any disability. If, however, a potential Member raises his or her disability, an Operator may, and should, discuss with the potential Member whether the listing meets the potential Member’s needs.
Prohibit or limit the use of mobility devices.
Charge more in fees for Members with disabilities, including pet fees when the Member has an assistance animal (such as a service or emotional support animal) because of the disability.
Post any listing or make any statement that discourages or indicates a preference for or against any Member on account of the fact that the Member has a disability.
Refuse to communicate with Members through accessible means that are available, including relay operators (for people with hearing impairments) and e-mail (for people with vision impairments using screen readers).
Refuse to provide reasonable accommodations, including flexibility when Members with disabilities request modest changes in your house rules, such as bringing an assistance animal that is necessary because of the disability or using an available parking space near the unit. When a Member requests such an accommodation, the Operator and the Member should engage in a dialogue to explore mutually agreeable ways to ensure the unit meets the Member’s needs.
Soundspace Operators may:
Provide factually accurate information about the space’s accessibility features (or lack of them), allowing for Members with disabilities to assess for themselves whether the space is appropriate to their individual needs.
Personal Preferences
Soundspace Operators may:
Except as noted above, Soundspace Operators may decline a booking based on factors that are not prohibited by law. For example, except where prohibited by law, Soundspace Operators may decline a booking with pets, or to Members who smoke.
When Members are turned down. Operators should keep in mind that no one likes to be turned down. While an Operator may have, and articulate, lawful, and legitimate reasons for turning down a potential Member, it may cause that Client of our community to feel unwelcome or excluded. Operators should make every effort to be welcoming to Members of all backgrounds. Operators who demonstrate a pattern of rejecting Members from a protected class (even while articulating legitimate reasons) undermine the strength of our community by making potential Members feel unwelcome, and Soundspace may suspend Operators who have demonstrated such a pattern from the Soundspace platform.
Specific guidance for operators outside the United States, European Union, and Canada
Outside of the United States, the European Union, and Canada, some countries or communities may allow or even require people to make accommodation distinctions based on, for example, marital status, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation, in violation of our general nondiscrimination philosophy. In these cases, we do not require Operators to violate local laws, nor to accept Members that could expose the Operators to a real and demonstrable risk of arrest, or physical harm to their persons or property. Operators who live in such areas should set out any such restriction on their ability to Operate with particular Members in their listing, so that prospective Members are aware of the issue and Soundspace can confirm the necessity for such an action. In communicating any such restrictions, we expect Operators to use clear, factual, non-derogatory terms. Slurs and insults have no place on our platform or in our community.
What happens when an operator does not comply with our policies in this area?
If a particular listing contains language contrary to this nondiscrimination policy, the Operator will be asked to remove the language and affirm his or her understanding and intent to comply with this policy and its underlying principles. Soundspace may also, at its discretion, take steps up to and including suspending the Operator from the Soundspace platform.
If the Operator improperly rejects Members on the basis of a protected class or uses language demonstrating that his or her actions were motivated by factors prohibited by this policy, Soundspace will take steps to enforce this policy, up to and including suspending the Operator from the platform.
As the Soundspace community grows, we will continue to ensure that Soundspace’s policies and practices align with our most important goal: To ensure that Members and Operators feel welcome and respected in all of their interactions using the Soundspace platform. The public, our community, and we ourselves expect no less than this.
Additional Considerations
The Nondiscrimination Policy applies to all parts of the Soundspace business. We recognize there are additional considerations that need to be made for varied offerings in the Soundspace Community. Here, we have included a few considerations that speak to those instances:
Experiences
Gender Exemption:
Soundspace Experience Operators may offer a single-gender experience if it is necessary to create a safe space (one that does not incite harm or danger and one that is not illegal), protect the safety and privacy of participants, and/or comply with legal or cultural requirements.
Accessibility / Disability / Reasonable Accommodations:
Due to the broad range of Experience offerings, Soundspace Experience Operators may need to inquire about Members’ abilities to participate in certain physical activities or inquire about Members’ accommodation needs to best prepare their Experiences. Additionally, we encourage Experience Operators to:
Provide factually accurate information about the physical nature of an Experience to allow Members to assess for themselves whether the Experience is appropriate given their individual needs.
Actively engage with Members who have disclosed disabilities and/or have questions regarding the accessibility of an experience, and consider reasonable accommodation requests.
Seek opportunities to provide reasonable accommodations where accommodating a request would not substantively change the nature of the activity.
SMS Terms for the United States
For text messaging in the United States, by requesting, joining, agreeing to, enrolling in, signing up for, acknowledging, or otherwise consenting to receive one or more text messages (“Opt-In”) or using a Soundspace arrangement in which Soundspace sends (or indicates that it may send, or receives a request that it send) one or more text messages (“Text Message Service”), you accept these SMS Terms for the U.S. (“SMS Terms”), consent to the handling of your personal information as described in the Soundspace Privacy Policy, and agree to resolve disputes with Soundspace as described in our Terms of Service. Message and data rates may apply.
Soundspace will use reasonable commercial efforts to deliver automated text messages to the mobile number you provide. Soundspace is not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
By Opting In to a Text Message Service:
You expressly authorize Soundspace to use autodialer or non-autodialer technology to send text messages to the mobile phone number associated with your Opt-In. You also authorize Soundspace to include marketing content in any such messages. You do not have to Opt-In or agree to Opt-In as a condition of purchase.
You consent to the use of an electronic record to document your Opt-In. To withdraw that consent, reply STOP, contact us via the methods described in the Contact Us section of the Terms of Service or visit the Notification page in your account settings. If you withdraw your consent, certain features of our service may not be available to you.
You confirm that you are the current subscriber to the Opted In mobile phone number or that you are the customary user of that number on a family or business plan and that you are authorized to Opt In.
For additional help, contact customer service.
Soundspace's Dispute Moderation for Reviews
As the Soundspace community and product continue to grow, we remain committed to updating this policy when necessary to help ensure that reviews reflect the honest, first-hand experiences of our Operators and Members.
We believe that a healthy review system is one that respects and protects our community’s genuine feedback. For that reason, we take the removal of any review very seriously. You can read Soundspace’s Review Policy in full, but in short, this means a review may be removed if:
The review is in violation of Soundspace’s Content Policy,
The review is biased, or
The review is irrelevant to the author’s experience on Soundspace
Moderating for Bias
Our community benefits most when reviews present an unbiased picture of the Client’s experience. Soundspace removes reviews when they exhibit inappropriate bias - for example, because the reviewer is attempting to extort the person being reviewed, has a conflict of interest, or competes with the person being reviewed.
Extortion or Incentivisation
Any attempt to use reviews or review responses to force a person to do something they aren’t obligated to do is a misuse of reviews, and we don’t allow it.
People who use Soundspace aren’t allowed to tie positive reviews to promises of compensation or to threaten negative reviews if a desired outcome is not met. Violations may result in the restriction, suspension, or termination of your Soundspace account.
This policy prohibits:
Members threatening to use reviews or ratings in an attempt to force an Operator to provide refunds, additional compensation, or a reciprocal positive review.
Operators requiring a Member to leave a positive review or rating, or to revise a review in exchange for a partial or full refund, or a reciprocal review. Operators also cannot offer a free or discounted stay in exchange for a Member revising an existing review.
Operators or Members asking someone to take specific actions related to a review in exchange for the resolution of a dispute.
This policy does not prohibit:
A Member from contacting an Operator with a problem prior to leaving a review.
An Operator or Member seeking refunds or additional payment and leaving a review - where that review is not used as a threat to sway the outcome of a resolution.
An Operator from asking a Member to leave an honest positive review or rating reflecting a positive experience.
An Operator or Member from revising a review within the time constraints for revision.
Conflict of interest
We will remove reviews where there are signals that the booking was made for the sole purpose of inflating a person’s overall rating, or where we suspect that the stay never occurred.
Accepting fake bookings in exchange for a positive review, using a second account to review yourself or your own listing, or providing something of value in exchange for positive reviews, are not allowed. Violations may result in the restriction, suspension, or termination of your Soundspace account.
Competitor reviews
Reviews written by competitors (for example, competing businesses, listings, or experiences) for the purpose of dissuading others from booking those listings or experiences or driving business to other listings or experiences, are not allowed. Violations may result in the restriction, suspension, or termination of your Soundspace account.
Party ban violations
We may remove reviews in certain situations where the Member has not met the expectations outlined in our Party and Events Policy during their stay. We count on our Operators to take measures to try and stop a party before it becomes a safety issue or nuisance for the surrounding community. However, we recognize that breaking up a party could result in an unfairly negative review for the Operator. In order to encourage intervention and minimize the impact of biased reviews, a Member’s review may be removed when the Operator has provided sufficient documentation that a significant violation of the Party and Events Policy has taken place. However, these reviews will not be removed if they contain critical information that would be highly relevant for a future Member.
Moderating for relevance
Reviews provide community Clients with information and insights that help them make better booking decisions. Reviews are most helpful when reviewers accurately recount their experience and provide their honest opinions.
Where a review contains information that is unrelated to an experience as an Operator or Member, or is focused on something beyond the control of the person being reviewed, our moderation team will weigh the relevance of the review by assessing:
Does the review recount the reviewer's experience and provide their personal perspective?
Is the review helpful to other Clients of the Soundspace community? Does it provide essential information about an Operator or Member, listing, or experience that would help others make more informed booking decisions?
If Soundspace determines that the review contains no relevant information about an Operator or Member, listing, or experience, the review may be removed. Reviews that contain mostly irrelevant information are also subject to removal, but only where the otherwise relevant information would not be expected to meaningfully inform the booking decisions of other community Clients.
Examples of relevance violations and non-violations
Irrelevant: "Don’t trust the taxi drivers in this city, they take the worst routes!"
Relevant: "Don’t trust the taxi drivers in this city, they take the worst routes! On top of that, I arrived at this listing and it was in complete disrepair and the Operator never responded to my concerns."
Irrelevant: "This Member was such a liar. There was no way she is a real doctor."
Relevant: "The Member showed up late to the booking and then yelled at me for not waking up fast enough to let her in. She was rude and easily annoyed about the entire booking. I would hate to experience her bedside manner."
Moderating for canceled bookings
Soundspace allows you to post reviews for any booking canceled after 12:00 AM on the day of your booking. We do this to collect feedback on the most crucial moments of a travel experience, whether that means feedback about communication, studio rule violations, issues with listing at the time of the booking, etc.
If you decide to leave a review for a canceled booking, we do ask that you keep your feedback relevant to what you have personally experienced. In cases where Soundspace can confirm that a review was left for a canceled booking, and the review contains information irrelevant to our community (for example, frustrations about a flight cancellation, etc.), the review may be removed.
Canceled bookings
In some cases, Members may be given the option to post reviews for certain bookings canceled after 12:00 AM on the day of the booking.
If you decide to leave a review for a canceled booking, we do ask that you keep your feedback relevant to what you've personally experienced, whether that means feedback about communication, studio rule violations, issues with listing at the time of the booking, etc. A review left for a canceled booking may be removed if the information provided is irrelevant to our community (for example, frustrations about a flight cancellation, etc.) or if a Member canceled the booking due to circumstances unrelated to their experience on Soundspace.