Privacy Policy
Last updated: April 5, 2024
SmartDraw Software, LLC and SmartDraw, LLC (collectively the "Company") has updated this Privacy Policy (the "Privacy Policy") to reflect changes in data protection law.
It applies to the Company's online application SmartDraw as well as all of the Company's legacy desktop diagramming applications including SmartDraw for Windows Desktop (collectively, "SmartDraw"),
the Company's website
www.smartdraw.com, its various smartdraw.com application and services sites and to other interactions (e.g., customer service inquiries, user conferences, etc.) you may have with the Company (all of which in this Privacy Policy will collectively be referred to as the "Services").
If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, do not access or use any of the Services or any other aspect of the Company's business.
Separate agreements govern delivery, access and use of SmartDraw and the Services including the SmartDraw Terms of Service (the "Terms of Service") and SmartDraw for Windows Desktop License Agreement (the "Windows License").
This Privacy Policy does not apply to Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft One Drive, Box, or any third-party document storage service that integrates with SmartDraw. Further, this Privacy Policy does not apply to any third-party apps, add-ons and extensions you may choose to use with SmartDraw. Any use of third-party apps, add-ons and extensions will be subject to the privacy policy of those apps, add-ons and extensions.
The person or organization that purchased and entered into the Terms of Service and/or Windows License
(the "Customer") controls access, rights and privileges for SmartDraw along with the disposition of all
associated information, files or other content created and entered into SmartDraw and the services (the "Customer Information").
In some cases, the Customer may not be the individual actually using the Services.
If you were granted access or otherwise authorized to use a license to SmartDraw not purchased and owned
by you (e.g., by your employer or another entity or person) then you are not a Customer, but are an End User ("End User") of SmartDraw.
The term "you" as used in this Privacy Policy includes the Customer and each End User as applicable.
The Company is sometimes referred to in this Privacy Policy as "we" or "us."
End Users of SmartDraw should direct their data privacy questions to the Customer as the
End User's use of SmartDraw is subject to that Customer's privacy policies. The Company is not
responsible for the privacy or security practices of a particular Customer which may differ
from this Privacy Policy. If you as an End User have any questions about privacy practices,
please contact the Customer whose license of SmartDraw you use. You may also contact the
Company by submitting a request and the
Company will help you identify a contact for the Customer to whom to direct your privacy concerns.
What Information the Company Collects About You
The Company collects information about you when you provide it to us,
when you use the Services, and when other sources provide it to us, as further described below.
Information You Provide To Us Directly
We collect identifiers or other personal information categories, including the customer's email address when it registers for a trial license and/or purchases a license for SmartDraw. At the time a license to SmartDraw is purchased, we may also collect employment-related information, including the Customer's name, job title, phone number, fax number, your billing and shipping address, a VAT or GST tax exemption ID number (if applicable) and payment card information it provides. We will also collect commercial information directly from the Customer, including the details about the license purchased such as the type and term of license, number of End Users, etc., along with any comments made in conjunction with your order. Similar information may be collected from each End User as they are authorized to use SmartDraw by the Customer.
We may also collect other commercial and summary information from customer support chat, support forum, phone, and email interactions you may have with our support and sales representatives, including additional information you may have provided during those interactions. In the online edition of SmartDraw, we also collect internet or other similar network activities and keep track of any preferences you set.
From time-to-time we may also collect information via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary and you may choose whether or not to participate and disclose any information about you. Information requested on such surveys may include contact information (such as name and address), and demographic information (such as education level, and job function). Survey information will be used only for purposes of improving the use and customer satisfaction of the Company's products and website. As a condition to participating in a survey, you will be asked to consent to our collection and use of survey information you provide.
Information You Provide To Us Indirectly
If you use our website, we collect internet or other similar network activity, which is the same basic information that most websites collect. We use common internet technologies such as cookies, pixel tracking and web server log data. The information we collect about all visitors to our website may include the browser type, IP address, referring site, additional websites requested, and the date and time of each visitor request. We collect this information from all website visitors, whether they have an account or not. A cookie is a piece of data that our server sends to your browser. Your browser may then store the cookie on your computer and read it back to our server if you visit our site again. These cookies allow us to create a more personalized experience for you while visiting our website and using SmartDraw. If you’re concerned about cookies, you can have your browser notify you when it receives a cookie, giving you the choice to accept or decline it. Without cookies, however, you will not be able to log into your SmartDraw account or use the online edition of SmartDraw. Use of certain cookies is necessary to the performance of SmartDraw. You may opt out of unnecessary cookies.
The Company uses third-party tracking tools to improve the performance and features of the Services, and to provide a more customized and relevant experience as you use the Services. These third-party tracking tools are designed to collect information about your use of the Services.
The Company uses Enhanced Google Analytics Tools (the "Google Analytics Tools")
including Google AdSense, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, Google Analytics Demographics
and Interest Reporting and YouTube embedded videos as well as integrated services that require
Google Analytics to collect data via advertising cookies and identifiers. You can learn more about the Google Analytics Tools at:
https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/types/.
Should you choose to no longer share your information with Google and no
longer have your information collected by the Google Analytics Tools,
you may opt-out by following the procedure outlined at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.
The Company uses Bing analytics.
Should you choose to no longer share your information with Bing,
you may opt-out from Bing ad tracking by following the procedure outlined here:
https://account.microsoft.com/privacy.
When you communicate with the Company through social media, or provide a comment directed at us through social media,
we may use social media and other communication mechanisms available to us to communicate with you.
We may also promote content of interest to you through social media.
You may opt out or configure your social media account settings to limit promotion of such content.
When you use the online edition of SmartDraw, in addition to the website information outlined above, we will also collect information about your activity when you use SmartDraw such as date and time of access, number of log-ins, UI elements clicked on, actions taken, data displayed, number of documents you created. We also store all the documents you create using the online edition of SmartDraw on our servers, unless you choose to use a third-party document storage service such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive or Box. Should you choose to use our integration with a third-party document storage service to store your SmartDraw documents, the user information provided to the Company from the third-party document storage service is your first name, last name, and email address. This will allow us to communicate with you (subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy). The documents you create and edit using SmartDraw and which are stored on one of the third-party document storage services will be uploaded to SmartDraw’s servers during the time they are being edited, and the changes you make will be downloaded back to the third-party document storage service. A temporary copy of the SmartDraw document will remain on SmartDraw's servers until such time as the editing session has been completed and browser closed.
If you use the online edition of SmartDraw with third-party apps and add-ons information from your documents will be shared with those apps.
If you use the SmartDraw for Windows Desktop Edition, a validation feature from time-to-time
verifies that SmartDraw has been activated and is properly licensed. During such a validation check,
the validation feature will send the version number and the unique License number to our servers to
verify that the license remains valid. In previous editions of SmartDraw, when installing the SmartDraw for
Windows Desktop Edition, a messaging system was installed to provide you with periodic licensing and updating reminders.
You can disable the messaging system at any time by following this procedure:
https://smartdraw.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052000312-How-do-I-remove-pop-up-messages-from-Windows.
The documents you create with the SmartDraw for Windows Desktop Edition are typically stored on your own computers and /or servers
(or your own third-party storage services). In some legacy editions of SmartDraw, you may, however,
choose to access and use the storage capability of the online edition of SmartDraw (if you have a valid license)
to store and interact with your documents using the SmartDraw for Windows Desktop Edition.
We do not knowingly collect information on children under the age of 18.
How We Use Information We Collect About You
The Company uses the information we collect to provide you
with the Services, which includes using information to improve and
personalize your experiences. We also use the information to
communicate with you, for example, informing you about your account,
new products or services available, security and other types of updates.
Providing the Services to You
We use information we collect about you to provide, operate, support and improve the Services we offer to ensure our customers can use SmartDraw as effortlessly as possible. For example, information may be used to: (a) authenticate your identity when you register and each time you sign in; (b) notify you when subscriptions are due to expire, (c) to pre-populate forms, (d) integrate with third-party storage services, apps and add-ons that you use; and (e) otherwise as required by law. This processing is necessary for the performance of the agreements we have with you that permit you to use the Services.
Customer Support
We use information we collect about you to respond to customer inquiries, diagnose problems with SmartDraw, assist customers with their diagramming questions, and to provide other customer care and support services. This processing is necessary for the performance of the agreements we have with you that permit you to use the Services, as well as to serve our legitimate interest.
Product Improvement
We use information we collect about you for research purposes and to develop and improve our Services, including maintaining and improving the performance of SmartDraw, developing and adding new features or capabilities, such as using error reports to improve security features, and using search queries and clicks to improve the relevance of search results. This processing is necessary to serve our legitimate interest.
Security, Safety and Dispute Resolution
We use information we collect about you to protect the security and safety of our Services and our customers, to detect and prevent fraud, to resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. This processing is necessary to serve our legitimate interest.
Communication, Marketing and Advertising
We use the information we collect about you to deliver and personalize our communications with you. For example, we may contact you by email or other means of electronic communication (including Single Sign-On) to inform you about available updates to SmartDraw including security or software upgrades. This processing is necessary to serve our legitimate interest.
The Legal Bases for Using Personal Information
There are different legal bases that we rely on to use your personal information.
First, we use information we collect about you to enable us to perform the agreements we have with you that permit you to use the Services. For example, to complete your purchase of a license to SmartDraw, to register and maintain your account, to provide support, to handle refunds, to ensure that SmartDraw performs its basic functions in a secure way, or to respond to your requests. Without the use of this information, it would be difficult and in some cases impossible to make the Services available to you in a functional manner.
Next, we may use your information for our legitimate interests. For example, we rely on our legitimate interest to analyze and improve the Services and our content on the Services, to send you notifications about software updates or information about SmartDraw or to use your personal information for administrative, fraud detection or legal purposes.
How To Access and Control Information We Collect About You
You can request that the Company update your information, request a copy of your information or request the deletion of your information. You can exercise some of your choices by logging into SmartDraw, going to "Account" and using the settings available there. If you are an End User, you may need to contact the Customer to assist with your requests first.
Your requests and choices may be limited in certain cases. For example, if fulfilling your request would reveal information about another person, or if you ask to delete information which the Company or the Customer are permitted by law or have compelling legitimate interests to keep, your choices may be constrained. Where you have asked us to share data with third parties, for example, by using a third-party document storage service or by using third-party apps and extensions that work with SmartDraw, you may need to contact those third-party service providers directly to have your information deleted or otherwise restricted.
The Company maintains archives to back-up its data. We will delete backup copies of that personal data from our archives as soon as is practically possible, to the extent allowed by our other data retention obligations (e.g., to protect other data stored in the same backup archives, or meet other regulatory or legal requirements). As soon as those obligations have been fulfilled, we will permanently delete those archives as quickly as possible.
You may opt out of receiving marketing communications from us by using the
unsubscribe link within each email or by submitting a request
to have your contact information
removed from our marketing email list. Even after you opt out from receiving
marketing messages from us, you will continue to receive transactional
messages from us regarding SmartDraw.
Even if SmartDraw is not currently provided to you by an organization,
if you use an email address provided to you by an organization
(such as your work email address) to access SmartDraw, then the
owner of the domain associated with your email address (e.g. your employer)
may assert administrative control over your account and use of SmartDraw
at a later date. If you do not want an administrator to be able to
assert control over your account or use of the SmartDraw, use a
personal email address to register for a trial and/or to purchase SmartDraw.
Please contact your organization or refer to your administrator's
organizational policies for more information.
If you are a California resident, please refer to the section below Additional Information for California Consumers for additional information on how to exercise your privacy rights.
How We Store and Secure Information We Collect About You