Privacy matters but it can be confusing. This page explains our approach to privacy on all our Sostene websites and how it affects you.
These are just the key points. If you need detail, keep reading.
We measure visitors to our websites and products using Google Analytics. This service records what pages you view within our site, how you arrived at our site and some basic information about your computer.
We anonymise the data in Google Analytics – so we don’t know who you are; just that somebody visited our site.
The information we collect helps us understand what parts of our sites are doing well, how people arrive at our site and so on. Like most websites, we use this information to make our website better.
You can learn more about Google Analytics or opt out if you wish. Google Analytics data is automatically deleted 26 months after your last visit.
Our websites and products include videos hosted by Wistia. They record anonymous, aggregated statistics that help us optimise our video content (e.g. at which points in the video are people most likely to stop watching).
We allow visitors to discuss articles on our blog via third party discussion apps. Before you can leave a comment, you must first press a button which loads the discussion plugin. Depending on the date they were published, some articles use Disqus and others use the Facebook comments plugin.
Once you have opted in to leaving comments, these plugins may track your visit to our site. Disqus and/or Facebook will know what pages you viewed and what you write in any comments you leave. Of course all comments you leave are also publicly visible on the Internet alongside your name, so we do not imagine this is a concern for many people.
If you login via social network, the providers of these plugins will be able to link your activity to that network. In this way, your activity may be personally identifiable.
We use Intercom so you can talk to us while browsing our website or using our products. Much like an analytics service, Intercom records the pages you view within our site and some basic information about your computer. This information helps our sales and support staff provide you with the best help possible.
While browsing our websites, your information is anonymised – Intercom only knows your email address and name if you choose to share it as part of a live chat. However, when you log into one of our tools, we share basic information with Intercom such as your name and email address so that we can better provide you with support should you contact us.
We also use Intercom to send you relevant messages (by email or pop-up) based on your current activity, e.g. a welcome message with links to our help documentation when you log into one of our products for the first time.
Intercom data is deleted 9 months after your last visit.
If you email our technical support, we store this communication in Zendesk. Your email address, name and any other information contained in your message to us will be stored by them.
When you sign up for or use any of our services – paid or otherwise – we will record specific personal information about you, such as your name and email address.
We will also collect and store information about your use of our services so as to improve them. For example, we keep a log of what features are being used at any time.
We also log account and transaction history for accounting purposes, and to monitor our business activities.
Any data you provide us with is securely stored in databases managed by us, and hosted by Amazon AWS. Amazon does not have access to your data.
We delete your data from our servers 12 months after you terminate your service with us. We may retain some information where it is legally necessary (e.g. for accounting reasons). If you wish for us to delete your personal data sooner, please email us at support@sostene.com.
Once logged in to one of our products, we may also track your visit using Hotjar or Fullstory.
These services record your activity while using our products so that we can analyse the experience of our users and diagnose problems. Sensitive data, such as passwords and payment details, are obscured from the recordings.
You can opt-out to the use of these services across all apps (not just Sostene products) using the following links: Hotjar opt out and FullStory opt out.
We may send you email notifications regarding your service (such as invoices) or which you have specifically requested (such as newsletters or notifications when a report is completed). You have the ability to opt out of any of this communication at any time.
We will never provide your personal information or email address to any third parties except where they are specifically employed to help deliver our own services, as detailed above.
We use Stripe to bill for all our products online except Sitebeam, where we use a combination of SagePay, PayPal and Recurly. When paying by credit card, Sostene themselves do not ever have any access to your credit card details. We share information with our payment providers only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments you make via our website.
If you pay for our services via invoice, the information required to raise the invoice will be stored in Xero.
However you pay, details of your financial transactions with us are stored in ChartMogul for the purposes of internal reporting.
We use Slack, Dropbox, G Suite and ProsperWorks for internal communication relating to sales and support of our products. In order to fulfil their duties, our staff may use these services to share basic contact details with colleagues, such as your name and email address. In all cases, our staff treat your data with care and abide by our data protection policies.
Sostene take many precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information. These precautions include:
Whilst we take great care to ensure any confidential information remains protected we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the Internet.
Of course you are responsible for keeping your password and user details confidential. Nobody at Sostene will ever ask you for your password, so please don’t trust anybody asking you for it.
We may update this privacy policy from time-to-time, particularly as technology changes. You can always check this page for the latest version. We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or your personal data, please write to us by email to support@sostene.uk or by post to Sostene, 803 Fulham Road, London, SW6 5HE, United Kingdom.