TechSmith Corporation Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice is effective as of December 15, 2022

At TechSmith Corporation (“TechSmith”), we recognize the importance of protecting your personal information and are committed to processing it responsibly and in compliance with applicable data protection laws in all countries in which we operate.

SCOPE OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE:

In the normal course of its business activities, TechSmith collects, uses, and sometimes shares personal information of various individuals and organizations in order to run its day-to-day operations and provide products and services for your use. This Privacy Notice applies to all users of TechSmith products and services and to visitors to TechSmith websites and TechSmith operated social media sites (we refer to the TechSmith website, social media sites, and our products and services as “Sites and/or Services” in this Notice). This Notice describes TechSmith’s general privacy practices that apply to such personal information collection and use.

This Notice does not apply to: (1) personal information relating to employees, applicants for employment, or contractors providing services to TechSmith, (2) user generated or created content that is uploaded to TechSmith products and services, (3) circumstances when TechSmith is acting as a processor of personal data on behalf of a data controller or (4) when TechSmith products or services utilize a component of your operating environment and that component collects personal information.

1. TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

In describing our collection, use, and sharing of information in this Notice, we refer to our collection and use of "Personal Information." "Personal Information," as used in this Notice, is any information that identifies, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular individual or household. Examples of Personal Information include identifying information such as an individual’s name, username, email address, phone number, or other similar identifiers, information about products or services purchased or used, browsing and search history, and location data.

2. HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect Personal Information in four ways:

  1. We collect Personal Information you provide to us in optional, voluntary submissions such as registration forms, user profiles, promotional signups, sweepstakes/contest entries, requests for customer service, and software and mobile applications downloads
  2. We may collect some Personal Information automatically to perform a contract with you, where we have legal obligations to do so, or where our legitimate interests permit such collection. This is described below in "Passive Data Collection."
  3. When you register to use a trial version of our products, we agree to provide you with guidance to assist you in using our products.  To fulfill this obligation, we collect information concerning your use of the product.  You have the ability to turn off this information collection.
  4. We may also obtain information, including Personal Information, from third-party sources to perform a contract with you, where we have a legal obligation to do so, or where our legitimate interests permit such collection. If we directly combine information from third parties with Personal Information we have collected, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information and handle it in accordance with this Notice. In addition, please note we may solicit third parties to collect Personal Information on our behalf such as social media platform providers and, in such cases, we instruct those third parties to comply with this Notice and all applicable data protection laws.
  5. On behalf of our customers where we act as a processor of Personal Information through our online services. In this situation, this Notice does not apply.

Passive Data Collection

Location-Based Services

We may collect, use, and share (with TechSmith partners, service providers and licensees) precise location data, including the real-time location of your mobile or fixed location device.

Analytics Tools

We use analytics tools and other third-party technologies to collect information in the form of various usage and user metrics when you interact with, use, or install TechSmith Sites and/or Services. These tools and technologies collect and analyze certain types of information, including cookies, IP addresses, device and software identifiers, referring and exit URLs, onsite behavior and usage information, feature use metrics and statistics, usage and purchase history, MAC Address, mobile unique device ID, and other similar information (referred to as “Collected Data”).  The tools used by TechSmith for our internal analytical purposes anonymize Collected Data.

The third parties that provide these analytics tools may also use the Collected Data with other information they have independently gathered from other websites and/or other online or mobile products and services you have used or interacted with, pursuant to their own policies or privacy notices. In addition to our use of technologies as described herein, we may permit certain third party companies to help us tailor advertising we think may be of interest to you based on your use of our Sites and/or Services and to otherwise collect and use data about your use of our Sites and/or Services. For more information about this practice, please see the "Third-Party Advertising Technologies" section below.

Cookies

We may use a variety of methods, including "cookies" to collect information.

What is a cookie?

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. The contents of these cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognizes that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognize a user’s device and save information between website pages or on-line sessions. You can find more information about cookies at:  All About Cookies.Org.

Cookies do lots of different jobs, such as letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving the user experience. They can also help to ensure advertisements you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

 The cookies used on our Sites and/or Services by category are described below.

  1. Optional Cookies
    1. Targeting Cookies

      These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. They do not directly store Personal Information but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
       
    2. Social Media Cookies

      These cookies are set by a range of social media services we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
       
  2. Strictly Necessary Cookies
    1. Always Active
      These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, or logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will become disabled. These cookies do not store any Personal Information.
       
    2. Functional Cookies
      These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not function properly.
       
    3. Performance Cookies
      These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our websites and social media sites. They help us know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around these sites. If you do not allow these cookies, we may not know when you have visited our site, and we are not able to monitor the sites’ performance.

Third-Party Advertising Technologies

We may permit certain third-party companies to help us tailor advertising we think may be of interest to users and to collect and use other data about user activities on our Sites and/or Services (e.g., to allow them to tailor ads on third party services). We do not sell your information to third parties. These companies may deliver ads that might place cookies and otherwise track user behavior. These companies may use information about user behavior in order to provide customized advertisements across various services and products.

In the course of providing these services, products, or placing advertisements, these third-party companies may place or recognize a unique cookie on your computer and may record information to these cookies based upon your activities on any of our Sites and/or Services and on third party websites. Each of these companies uses this cookie information according to their own privacy and security policies. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt-out as indicated in this Notice. Please note this does not opt you out of being delivered advertising; you will continue to receive generic ads.

Opting Out of Cookies

By using the Sites and/or Services, you consent to the placement of the cookies referenced above. You can, however, set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it. You may also change your cookie settings through preference options in our Sites and/or Services, where applicable. We will indicate that upon selecting your preferences, we will use a cookie to remember your preferences. To modify your cookie preferences, please visit our Privacy Center and scroll to “Take Control of Your Data” and click on “Adjust Cookie Settings”.

Personal Information relating to Children

We do not knowingly seek or collect Personal Information from users under the age of 16 (a “Child” or “Children”), except to the extent that TechSmith may collect limited Personal Information from Children (but not their email addresses) where that Child's school or school district has contracted with TechSmith to collect the Personal Information from the Children for the educational context authorized by the school or school district.

In the event we learn we have collected Personal Information from a Child without parental or guardian consent being obtained by his or her school or school district, or if we learn a Child has provided us Personal Information beyond what we request when he or she signs up for any of our Sites and/or Services, we will delete that Personal Information as quickly as possible. If you believe a Child may have provided us Personal Information beyond what is requested when signing up for any of our Sites and/or Services, or a student's school or school district has not obtained parental or guardian consent for a Child, please contact us at privacy@techsmith.com.

If you are a user under the age of 16 and your parent or guardian signed up for an account for you with TechSmith using a password or access ID provided by your school, your parent or guardian may be able to view all information contained in your account.  This includes information such as messages between you and your teacher, and grades you received on your assignment.

3. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We only use your data as expressly set forth in this Notice.  If a need arises to use your data for a secondary purpose, we will provide you prior notice of such use.

Communication and Responding to Requests

We use your information, including Personal Information, to provide you with different services such as customer support, processing transactions, responding to users' requests, sending newsletters, updates, special offers and advertisements, seeking your opinions and feedback, and connecting you to other users of TechSmith Sites and/or Services as well as to products and services of our partners and licensees.  

You can opt-out of newsletters and updates, special offers and advertisements and offering your opinions and feedback by clicking this link  E-Mail Preferences and providing your e-mail address and content preferences. If you elect to opt-out, we may be unable to provide you with the information contained in those materials.

Optimization & Diagnostics

We use your information, including Personal Information, behavioral metrics, and other non-personally identifiable information to operate, provide, improve, and maintain our Sites and/or Services, to develop new products and services, to personalize other content for you, and for other administrative and internal business purposes. You can opt-out of providing optimization and diagnostic information by following the instructions in the applicable Sites and/or Services.

Third-Party Advertising

We use your information, including Personal Information, behavioral metrics, geo-location data, demographic data, and marketing preferences to personalize and display advertisements and other content for you. You can opt-out of providing these marketing preferences by clicking this link:  E-mail Preferences. If you elect to opt-out, you may not be able to receive advertising content personalized for you, however you still receive non-personalized marketing content.

Sharing Features

We use your information, including Personal Information, and any other information you submit directly or through passive means to provide you with various ways to connect and share content (e.g., web content, user generated videos, text, drawings, and screen and lecture captures, and quizzing features, media, tools, services and other products) with third parties. For example, we may provide you with the opportunity to email a link to certain content to another person. To use this feature, we may require you to provide certain Personal Information including your email address and the email address of each person to whom you send the link.

We also may allow you to share links to content with users of various third-party services (e.g., social networking, search and sharing services). By using any of these third-party services to share links to content, you permit us to access, use and disclose any information relating to your account on each such third-party service (such as your username and profile information) that we make available for your use.  We do not store your user credentials to these third-party services.

Protecting the Rights of TechSmith and others

We use your information, including Personal Information, and any other information you submit directly or through passive means to protect misuse of our and our partners’ intellectual property. 

4. REASONS WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We do not share your Personal Information with third parties except as noted herein.  We may share your Personal Information as necessary to maintain business operations, such as with vendors working on our behalf (for example, delivery of services and digital advertising); as required by law or to respond to legal process; to maintain the security of our products; to monitor and enforce our rights as a licensor; to respond to an inquiry from a licensee concerning information in connection with users registered under their corporate email domain, to protect TechSmith’s customers, employees, rights, or property; as part of a merger or acquisition; or with your expressed consent. If we share your Personal Information with a third party acting on our behalf, we remain liable for any harm that is caused by that third party if they have processed Personal Information in a manner inconsistent with this Privacy Notice or applicable law.

5. WHERE WE STORE AND PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal Information collected by TechSmith may be stored and processed in your region, in the United States, and in any other country where TechSmith, its processors, or its sub-processors operate and/or have facilities.  The storage location(s) are chosen in order to operate efficiently, to improve performance, and to create redundancies in order to protect the data in the event of an outage or other problem. We take steps to ensure that the data we collect under this Notice is processed according to the provisions of this Notice and the requirements of applicable law relating to the Personal Information or you as a data subject. We may transfer Personal Information from the European Union or European Economic Area (“EU”), or the United Kingdom, to other countries, some of which have not been determined by the European Commission to have an adequate level of data protection.

  • TechSmith commits to resolve complaints about your privacy and our collection or use of your Personal Information. EU, UK, and Swiss individuals with questions or concerns about the use of their Personal Information should contact us at  How to Contact Us.                                                                                                                                                                                           
  • If a Customer's question or concern cannot be satisfied through this process, TechSmith commits to  with an independent dispute resolution mechanism operated by the European Union Data Protection Authorities (EU DPA) or the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) and to comply with the advice given by the EU DPA or FDPIC, as applicable.

    If you do not receive timely acknowledgement of your complaint, or if your complaint is not satisfactorily addressed by TechSmith, EU individuals may bring a complaint before an EU Data Protection Authority or Swiss individuals may bring a complaint before the FDPIC.

6. HOW WE SECURE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

TechSmith uses a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. While we implement safeguards designed to protect your Personal Information, no security system is impenetrable and, due to the inherent nature of the internet, we cannot guarantee that data, during transmission through the internet or while stored on our systems or otherwise in our care, is absolutely safe from intrusion by others. You should take steps to protect the security of your user account information, login, and password.

7. HOW LONG WE RETAIN YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We retain Personal Information for as long as necessary to provide the products and fulfill the transactions you have requested, or for other legitimate purposes such as complying with our legal obligations, resolving disputes, enforcing our agreements, and improving our products. Because these needs can vary for different data types, the context of our interactions with you or your use of products, actual data retention periods can vary significantly.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your Personal Information, we will either delete or anonymize the Personal Information or, if this is not possible (for example, because your Personal Information has been stored in backup archives), we then securely store your Personal Information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

When we collect Personal Information as a processor on behalf of the controller, the controller is the party who provides instructions on deleting or anonymizing the Personal Information.

8. HOW TO ACCESS AND CONTROL YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You may access and review the Personal Information TechSmith stores about you and correct any factual errors. Most of your Personal Information may be accessed and corrected by simply logging into your account and accessing your profile. For any other changes, please contact TechSmith Customer Service.

RESIDENTS OF THE EU

Legal basis for processing personal information (EEA and UK visitors only)

If you are a visitor from the European Economic Area or the UK, our legal basis for collecting and using the Personal Information described above depends on the Personal Information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it. 

However, we normally collect Personal Information from you only where we have your consent to do so, where we need the Personal Information to perform a contract with you, or where the processing is in our legitimate interests and not overridden by your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms as described in Section 3.  In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect Personal Information from you or may otherwise need the Personal Information to protect your vital interests or those of another person.

If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your Personal Information, please contact us using the contact details provided under the “How to contact us” heading below.

If you are an EU resident, you have the following data protection rights:

  • You may access, correct, update or request deletion of your Personal Information. 
  • You can object to processing of your Personal Information, ask us to restrict processing of your Personal Information or request portability of your Personal Information.
  • You have the right to opt-out of marketing communications we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by clicking on the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing e-mails we send you. 
  • Similarly, if we have collected and processed your Personal Information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time.  Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your Personal Information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
  • You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your Personal Information.  EU individuals may bring a complaint before an EU Data Protection Authority or Swiss individuals may bring a complaint before the FDPIC.

When TechSmith is the controller of your Personal Information, you can exercise your rights by contacting us using the information provided in the “How to contact us” section heading below.

We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with the requirements of applicable data protection laws.

CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

If you are a California resident as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”), you have the following data protection rights:

  • • The right to know about the Personal Information TechSmith collects about you, how it is used, and to whom it is shared.
  • The right to access the Personal Information collected about you by TechSmith.
  • The right to have your Personal Information corrected or deleted.
  • The right to obtain a portable copy of your Personal Information.
  • The right to object to certain types of processing such as the sale of your information and the use of your information for direct marketing activities.  TechSmith does not sell your Personal Information as described in section 1798.140 of the CPRA where we act as a controller of your Personal Information.
  • The right to request that your activity is not tracked.    Click the following link to stop tracking:
    • Privacy Center and scroll to “Take Control of Your Data” and click on “Adjust Cookie Settings”
  • Please note that we don’t respond to “do not track” signals from web browsers.

You will not be discriminated against or penalized for exercising your CPRA rights.

VIRGINIA CONSUMERS

If you are a Virginia consumer as defined by the Virginia Consumer Data Privacy Act (“VCDPA”), you have the following data protection rights:

  • The right to confirm whether TechSmith is processing your Personal Information.
  • The right to access the Personal Information collected about you by TechSmith.
  • The right to have your Personal Information corrected or deleted.
  • The right to obtain a portable copy of your Personal Information.
  • The right to object to certain types of processing such as profiling, targeted advertising including marketing communications, and the sale of your information. TechSmith does not sell your Personal Information as described in section 59.1-571 of the VCDPA where we act as a controller of your Personal Information.

You will not be discriminated against or penalized for exercising your VCDPA rights.

9. NOTICE REGARDING AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING AND PROFILING

In some instances, our use of your Personal Information may result in automated decisions being taken (including profiling). 

Automated decisions mean a decision concerning you is made automatically on the basis of a computer determination (using software algorithms), without our human review. For example, we use automated decisions to provide targeted advertising on our Services that may be of interest to you. You can opt-out of targeted advertising by contacting us using the information provided in the  “How to contact us” section heading below. 

10.  HOW TO CONTACT US

To exercise your data subject rights, navigate to Data Subject Rights Request to start the request process.

  • If you have a privacy-related concern complaint, or question, please contact us at: privacy@techsmith.com
  •  
  • Or, you may reach us using the following information:
     
  • TechSmith Corporation
  • 14 Crescent Road
  • East Lansing, MI 48823-5708 USA
  • Toll-free: 800.517.3001 (U.S. Only)
  • Voice: +1.517.381.2300
  • Fax: +1.517.913.6121

If you are a resident of the EU, you may contact the designated EU Representative listed below who is responsible for data subject inquiries for EU residents (as required by Article 27, paragraph 1 of the GDPR).

K11 Consulting GmbH

Represented by its managing directors: Heike Stoltz Artavia, Dr. Alexander Deicke

Kaffeeberg 11

71634 Ludwigsburg

Germany

Phone: 0049 7141 947532-1

Fax:  0049 7141 947532-6

Email: info@k11consulting.de

Website: http://www.k11-consulting.de/

Register court: District court Stuttgart

HRB.: 744463

 

Residents of the EU also have the right to file a complaint with the data protection authority listed below or another supervisory authority (“DPA”). 

Dr. Stefan Brink

Königstraße 10a

70173 Stuttgart

Phone number: 0049 711 6155 41-0

Email: poststelle@lfdi.bwl.de

Homepage: http://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de

 

11. CHANGES TO NOTICE

Please note that this Privacy Notice may change from time to time.    If there are material changes to this Privacy Notice or in how we use your personal information, we will post a notice on our home page that this Privacy Notice has changed. You are also encouraged to periodically review this Privacy Notice to stay informed on how we are protecting your personal information.