Overview
This Privacy Policy describes the privacy practices of Software Engineering Concepts, Inc. in connection with the set of cloud services (the “Services”), the merchant dashboard for service providers (the “Dashboard”), and the website (the “Website”, i.e. https://softwareengineeringconcepts.com) (collectively, the “Services”), and the rights and choices available to users with respect to their information.
Your privacy is very important to us. Accordingly, we have developed this Privacy Policy in order for you to understand how we collect, use, communicate, disclose, and make use of Personal Information. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, do not use our Services, Dashboard, or Website. Your continued use of our Services, Dashboard, or Website constitutes your express informed consent and agreement to your personal data being processed pursuant to this Privacy Policy. Capitalized terms in this Privacy Policy have the meaning given, unless they are not defined, in which case they have the meaning given in the Terms and Conditions of Use.
Types of Information Collected
• Before or at the time of collecting Personal Information, we will identify the purposes for which information is being collected.
• We will collect Personal information by lawful and fair means and, where appropriate, with the knowledge or consent of the individual concerned. The Personal Information collected is stored and managed on servers and third-party hosting services, including without limitation, Stripe, Inc., Microsoft Azure, SendGrid, WordPress.
• By navigating the Dashboard or the Website, certain non-personally identifiable information such as your IP address will be collected by our servers. We will use industry standard practices in collecting this non-personal information and this Privacy Policy discloses our practices with regards to cookies.
Navigational Information. If you are visiting or using the Dashboard or the Website, we may automatically collect “Navigational Information”, such as your IP address, the date and time of the visit and how long you remained on our Dashboard or the Website, the referral URL, the pages visited on our Dashboard or the Website and information about the device and browser (such as, browser type and version and operating system). We may also collect visitor data through third party services in order to better understand visitor behavior, demographics, locations, page views, time spent on the Dashboard or the Website, and other metrics and analytics used to provide and improve the our services. In addition to the information we collect on our Dashboard or the Website, we may also collect your city location, device model and version, and OS version. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services, and for Our internal analytics and reporting purposes. We do not sell this information to any third-parties, vendors, partners or affiliates.
• There are areas on our Services or Dashboard where you can share information that is unique to an individual, such as your name, email address, country or region, and credit card information (“Personal Information”). We ask for this information in order to deliver requested services and products to you, respond to your questions, or deliver a product. If you communicate with us by email or complete online forms, we may require Personal Information that personally identifies you.
Payment Information. When you sign up to use the Services, we may collect data necessary to process payments associated with a purchase or order. Payment information may include your payment instrument number (such as a credit card number), and the security code associated with Your payment instrument. All payment data is stored by a secure third-party payment gateway, such as Stripe. You may find Stripe’s privacy policy link(s) here https://stripe.com/privacy.
Online Identifiers. Like many businesses, we may also collect information through cookies and similar technologies. We may collect devices, cookie identifiers, or others such as the ones used for analytics and marketing, and other similar data. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies. If you choose to remove cookies or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services. We may automatically collect device information (such as your mobile device ID, model and manufacturer), operating system, version information and IP address. We do not sell this data with any third party or affiliate, and will only use this information according to this Privacy Policy.
Push Notifications. We may request to send you push notifications regarding your account or the Services. If you wish to opt-out from receiving these types of communications, You may turn them off (where applicable, in Your device’s settings) or by emailing us at support@softwareengineeringconcepts.com.
All of the above information is considered Personal Information.
• We do not knowingly solicit or collection information (including Personal Information) from anyone under 13 years of age. The use of our Services, merchant dashboard, or website by anyone under 13 years of age is prohibited. We ask that anyone under 13 years of age not submit information to us. Parents can contact us to access, change, or delete the Personal Information that has been submitted by a child.
Use of Personal Information Collected
• We will collect and use Personal Information solely with the objective of fulfilling those purposes specified by us and for other compatible purposes, unless we obtain your consent or as otherwise required by law.
• We may use Personal Information you provide to customize your experience on our Services.
• We will only retain Personal Information as long as necessary for the fulfillment of those purposes.
• We will protect Personal Information by taking reasonable security safeguards against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification.
• We may share your information if we sell or buy subsidiaries or business units. In such transactions, customer information may be one of the transferred business assets. However, all Personal Information will remain subject to the obligations made under any pre-existing Privacy Policy unless you are notified otherwise.
• We may share your Personal Information if we have a good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (i) comply with legal process or other legal requirements of any governmental authority; (ii) protect and defend the rights or property of Software Engineering Concepts, Inc.; (iii) enforce this Privacy Policy or our Term and Conditions of Use policy; (iv) protect the interests of other users of our Services, Dashboard, or Website or any other person; or (v) operate or conduct maintenance and repair of our Services, Dashboard, or Website.
• We may share your Personal Information to affiliates and trusted business partners with which we partner.
• In the event of a business transfer such as a sale of Software Engineering Concepts, Inc. or its assets, your Personal Information can be transferred only to a successor who agrees to abide by policies not less protective of your Personal Information than this Privacy Policy.
• We will readily make available to customers information about our policies and practices relating to the management of Personal Information.
Use and Handling of Speech and Language Data Collected
The Services use speech-based natural language dialogue with users in order to meet the objectives of the users. During the course of these dialogues we collect and subsequently store some of this information. We do not store audio or speech data. We do store language input from users, referred to as “Language Data”. In addition to using this data as stated to meet the user’s objectives, we may also use Language Data solely for analytical purposes that are intended to improve the user experience. If you object to this use of your data do not use the Services.
When will information be shared?
• We Never Sell Your Data. Most importantly, we do not sell, share, license, or otherwise share your Personal Information or any personally identifiable information with any entity or person, except as expressly described in this Privacy Policy or when we have a legal basis to do so, for instance with your prior written consent or a court order.
• Service Providers and Affiliates.
i. We reserve the right to disclose parts or all of the Personal Information that we collect about you to service providers and affiliates who assist us in our business purpose either through partnerships, affiliations, contractors, and/or licensors. Some service providers and contractors used on our Services include, without limitation, processing payment services, analytics services, customer support services, internal administrative services, marketing, CRM, communications, maintenance of the Services, and providing business services to us or to you. In all cases where we share Data with such partners, affiliates, and service providers, we explicitly require them to acknowledge and adhere to our Privacy Policy and customer data handling policies. Such third parties are prohibited from using any Personal Information except for these stated purposes, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your data.
ii. We and our affiliated entities may share information with third-party data controllers, law enforcement agencies and potential transaction partners where we and our affiliated entities have a legal basis to do so.
• By Law or Protected Right.
i. We may disclose part or all Personal Information collected through the Services, if (1) required by law; (2) if we believe that disclosure is necessary to comply with the law; (3) to enforce our intellectual property rights; (4) to protect the rights, property or safety of us and our employees or agents; and (5) if necessary to defend against third-party claims. We may also disclose Personal Information collected on the Services when requested to comply with a court order, investigation, subpoena or governmental request. We will notify you of such use, either by a notification on the Services or by email to you.
• Business Transfers.
i. If we go through a business transfer, such as consolidation, merger, restructuring, acquisition, or sale of part or all of our assets, you acknowledge and consent to the transfer of your Personal Information. You further acknowledge and consent to the continued use of your Personal Information by the recipient, so long as they comply with this Privacy Policy or a similar policy. In this event, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Services, of any change in ownership or business transfer, use of your Personal Information, and the choices you may have regarding your Personal Information.
• Vendors, Consultants and Third-Party Service Providers.
We may share your Personal Information with third party vendors, service providers, contractors or agents who perform services for us or on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. Examples include: payment processing, data analysis, email delivery, hosting services, customer service and marketing efforts, and communications. We may allow selected third parties to use tracking technology on the Services, which will enable them to collect data about how you interact with the Services over time. This information may be used to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content and better understand online activity. Unless described in this Privacy Policy, we do not share, sell, rent or trade any of your Personal Information with third parties for their promotional or commercial purposes. We have contracts in place with our data processors that ensure they safeguard your Personal Information. This means that they cannot do anything with your Personal Information unless we have instructed them to do it or if they have a legal basis. They will not share your Personal Information with any organization apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct or required by law. However, we are not responsible for the privacy practices other content and/or services operated by third parties that are linked to or integrated with the Services, or for the privacy practices of any third party. Our provision of such third-party links, content and/or services does not constitute our endorsement of these third parties, their content, their owners, or their practices. Once you leave the Services via such a link, access a third party application, or click on a third party offer, you should check the applicable privacy policy of the third party or advertiser website to determine, among other things, how they will handle any Personal Information they collect from you.
Who will your information be shared with?
We may share and disclose your Personal Information with the following third parties, vendors, contractors and affiliates solely for the purposes of providing and improving the Services.
a. Payment Processing: Stripe. We use this service to process payments and refunds associated with your account. We use a secure third-party payment gateway. Further we do not store your payment information.
b. Communication and Marketing: SendGrid. We use these services to communicate with you directly regarding your account, our services, promotions, offers and marketing material. You have the right to unsubscribe from marketing and advertising emails and communications from us.
c. Hosting and Servers: Microsoft Azure
d. Data Backup and Security: Microsoft Azure
e. Analytics: Google Analytics. We use (these) affiliates to better understand how users interact with our Services, in order to improve our business and services to you.
Cookies
Software Engineering Concepts, Inc. may use a standard technology called a “cookie” to collect information about how you use our Services, remember your identity and user information while providing services to you, and understand user traffic patterns and usage of the Services. A cookie is a small data file that certain web sites write to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain information such as a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you’ve visited, but the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can’t read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Some of the features and functions of our Services may require the use of cookies in order to work properly. If you prefer not to receive cookies while browsing our Services, you can set your browser to reject all cookies, or to prompt you to accept or reject individual cookies. However, as described above, the Services may not function without cookies enabled.
Third-party Privacy Policies
Our Services may contain links to other websites or mobile applications. We do not have control over the use of such other websites or mobile applications, and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose Personal Information on these other websites or mobile applications. We are not responsible for the privacy policies, practices, or other content of other websites or mobile applications.
Changes to Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the revised Privacy Policy on our Services, Dashboard, or Website. Changes to our Terms and Conditions of Use policy and Privacy Policy are effective immediately upon posting. Changes to our Terms and Conditions of Use policy and Privacy Policy will govern your use of our Services, Dashboard, or Website, even if you do not receive notice of changes. We recommend you check this Privacy Policy frequently to stay abreast of any changes.
Transactions
By placing and receiving orders on our Services, you also agree to be bound by Stripe’s Terms and Conditions, available at: https://stripe.com/us/connect-account/legal. If you want your credit card information to be deleted from Stripe, please contact us.
We are committed to conducting our business in accordance with these principles in order to ensure that confidentiality of Personal Information is protected and maintained. If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy, please send us an email at: support@softwareengineeringconcepts.com.
How do we keep your information safe?
a. We are committed to protecting your Personal Information and we implement appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to safeguard the information that we collect. For instance, we encrypt all data when in transit. However, no information system can be 100% secure. This means that we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your Personal Information. Moreover, we are not responsible for the security of information you transmit to us over networks that we do not control, including the internet and wireless networks, or the data that is stored on your device. Although we will do our best to protect your Personal Information, transmission of Personal Information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the services within a secure environment.
b. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology protects data on our Services using both server authentication and data encryption, ensuring that user data is safe, secure, and available only to authorized persons.
c. Our computer systems are hosted in a secure data center environment that uses a firewall, intrusion detection systems, and other advanced technology to prevent interference or access from outside intruders.
d. Technical Safeguards:
i. Unique password requirements and limited employee access;
ii. Destruction, deletion or de-identification of personal data;
iii. Industry standard security protocols;
iv. Employee training on how to handle sensitive data, breach notice and procedures;
v. Secure Technology (SSL), server authentication and data encryption and use of firewall to host data;
vi. Designated security coordinator on the team;
vii. Sub-processors and third-parties are bound to same security practice obligations;
viii. Backups; and
ix. Periodic audits.
Data Breach
We will comply with all applicable federal and state laws that require notification to individuals, entities, state agencies, or federal agencies in the event of a data breach. When we reasonably suspect and/or become aware of a disclosure or security breach concerning any Personal Information, we will notify the affected individual immediately and mitigate the damage of such security breach to the greatest extent possible. We further agree that we will fully cooperate, and assist as specifically requested. In the event of an actual data breach or the unauthorized access or disclosure of any sensitive or personal data, we will notify you in writing as soon as possible outlining the following information:
i. What happened (date of breach is possible, or estimated date of incident, or the date range within which the breached occurred);
ii. What information was involved (list the type of Personal Information);
iii. What we are doing to help resolve or mitigate the issue (and if there was any delay in providing this notice due to law enforcement investigation);
iv. What you can do to help us;
v. How you can get more information or contact us;
vi. Information about what we have done to protect individuals whose information has been breached;
vii. Advice on steps that the person whose information has been breached may take to protect himself or herself; and
viii. Information about the steps we have taken to cure the breach and the estimated timeframe for such cure.